Mystery Melange

The Romantic Times Book Reviews announced the finalists for its 2013 Reviewers’ Choice Awards, including five categories of mystery and thriller works (contemporary, historical, suspense/thriller/first mystery, and amateur detective). For all the nominees, check out the RT website link above.

Thanks to Pulp Curry for pointing out that Contrappasso, an Australian magazine of international writing and poetry, has a noir issue out. Focusing on both noir fiction and film, there are essays on The Maltese Falcon, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Dashiell Hammett, Charles Willeford and Walter Mosley.

Lee Lofland, author, former law officer, and the driving force behind the Writers' Police Academy, annnouced that the 2014 WPA guest of honor will be Michael Connelly. More information about the conference and registration will be posted on the website soon, including the Saturday night banquet, "An Evening With Michael Connelly."

The next issue of Mystery Readers Journal (Volume 29:4) will focus on Medical Mysteries. Editor Janet Rudolph is looking for articles, reviews and "author! author!" essays between 500 and 1,500 words. The deadline is January 5.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Above Suspicion" by Ken Tufford. Editor Gerald So also put out a call for love-themed crime poems to be published in February 2014.

Chris Rhatigan, Editor of All Due Respect, took the "Six Question" quiz and revealed some changes to the magazine, including a new featured author section in each issue, where an elite crime fiction author will contribute a short story and an interview. There will also be reviews, editors' choices for new and classic books, and other non-fiction.

The University of Gdansk and the State School of Higher Professional Education in Elblag are presenting their 2nd International Postgraduate Conference September 11-13, 2014. The topic: Crime Fiction: Here and There and Again. The aim of the conference is to discuss crime fiction across national borders, across cultures, across languages, across genres, across arts and across different media. They are currenty accepting papers that deal with one or more points related to the theme, which Ayo Onatade has listed on the Shots Magazine blog.

The new specialty publisher 221B Baker Street Press LLC is soliciting submissions. The company publishes only Sherlock Holmes pastiches in both digital and paperback formats, whether it's novels, novellas, short story collections, oranthologies. For more information and guidelines, check out the link here.

For your next vacation: the New York Times featured literary-minded hotels, adding that "many new hotels aim to distinguish themselves with old-fashioned pages that guests can actually turn, housing libraries that range from historic collections to trendy ones."