In Reference to Murder

An Old Peculier List

The 2011 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year longlists were announced today. Simon Theakston, T&R Theakston executive director, said: "I'm delighted to see such a wide range of authors on this year's longlist. It's particularly exciting to see many new names emerging who will hopefully continue to fly the flag for British and Irish crime writing for many years to come." The longlisted and shortlisted titles will also be featured in a UK-wide library campaign.

The public (this means you) can vote for your favorite novel through June 5th. The top six votegetters become the shortlist, to be announced June 27th, and the winner from that group will be chosen by a panel of judges including this year's Festival chair Dreda Say Mitchell; the journalist and novelist Henry Sutton; the winner of a Daily Mirror reader competition; and Simon Theakston, Executive Director of T&R Theakston Ltd. 

Here's the longlist, in alphabetical order by author's last name:

Blacklands by Belinda Bauer (Corgi)
From the Dead by Mark Billingham (Sphere)
Blood Harvest by S J Bolton (Corgi Books)
61 Hours by Lee Child (Bantam Books)
Winterland by Alan Glynn (Faber)
A Room Swept White by Sophie Hannah (Hodder)
The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill (Harper Fiction)
Rupture by Simon Lelic (Picador)
Sister by Rosamund Lupton (Piatkus)
Dark Blood by Stuart MacBride (Harper Fiction)
Fever of the Bone by Val McDermid (Sphere)
Fifty Grand by Adrian McKinty (Serpent's Tail)
Still Bleeding Steve Mosby (Orion)
The Twelve by Stuart Neville (Vintage)
Random by Craig Robertson (Simon & Schuster)
The Holy Thief by William Ryan (Pan Books)
The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor (Michael Joseph)
A Capital Crime by Laura Wilson, (Quercus)

Drowning in Contests

Well, maybe not drowning per se, but I always like to point out noteworthy story contests, especially those that don't require a fee to enter. Naomi Johnson has announced that the Drowning Machine blog is once again holding its Watery Grave Invitational contest. It's a different type of competition in three phases:  (1) If you have a story published online in the past year (4/10 - 4/11) you can enter; (2) If your story is picked in the second round, you and some pre-invited writers will have your names tossed into a hat and 10 chosen at random; (3) The final round is when those lucky 10 have two weeks to write a brand new story on a given theme.

Midwestern Gothic is sponsoring its first-ever short fiction contest. The catch is, you must use their photo prompt and you must have a connection to the Midwest in some fashion (school, work, born/raised/died here/etc.). If you qualify, you can read all the rules via the link above. (Hat tip to Sandra Seamans.)

Canadians have an opportunity just for them: unpublished authors can enter the 2011 Scene of the Crime Short Mystery Story Contest, held in conjunction with that annual conference. Read the submission guidlines then hurry your entry, because they're due June 1st.

Another opportunity for an unpublished writer comes via the Love is Murder mystery conference, already taking entries for their 2012 competition. You have a little bit more time to hone your submission for this one, since stories aren't due until October 15th. The winner will be published in "a major (unnamed) crime fiction magazine."

Mystery Week!

Mayor Bloomberg is declaring the week of April 25th as Mystery Week in New York City, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Edgar Awards presented by the Mystery Writers of America. Some of the events already scheduled include:

Monday, April 25th
8–10pm - FREE - Bar 82 at 149 2nd Avenue
Bar 82 Literary Series presents writers from Mystery Writers of America's NY Chapter who will read from new books. Featured authors include Megan Abbott, Peter Blauner, Jane Cleland, Stefanie Pintoff, Charles Salzberg, Persia Walker

Tuesday, April 26th
6-8pm - FREE - The Mysterious Bookshop, 58 Warren St.
Mystery Writers of America launch party for their newest anthology, The Rich and the Dead, edited by Nelson DeMille. 

Wednesday, April 27
All day - Lighthouse International, 111 E 59th St, advance registration required
2011 Edgar Week Symposium: "65 Years of Edgar: The Past, Present and Future of Mystery Writing"

Thursday, April 28
Reception: 6:30 -7:30 pm • Dinner & Awards 7:30-11:00pm
The Edgar Awards - 65th Gala Banquet at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, East 42nd at Lexington Ave.
The annual black tie gala celebrating the best and brightest in crime fiction, non-fiction, plays and television.

Contest the New Year

The Strand Magazine has announced a contest to determine who will complete the unfinished Graham Greene novella "The Empty Chair," which for the past year has been serialized in the magazine. According to Andrew F. Gulli of the Strand,  "The Empty Chair" was discovered in a library by French scholar François Gallix while he was going over Graham Greene’s papers for a research project. Here are the rules to submitting your work for the Graham Greene novella writing contest:

1. Do not call their offices.
2. Do not submit any material via regular post. If they receive submissions via regular post, they will be returned back to you.
3. They are looking for something that is 4,000-5,000 words in length. The winner of the contest will receive $500.
4. Submit a Microsoft word file as an attachment to the following email address:greene@strandmag.com 5. If you're interested in finding out what happened in previous chapters, please email them and they'll send you an ms word file with the previous chapters.
5. The deadline for entering your work is Jan 25.

The CWA announced the second Young Crime Writers' Competition to find the UK's Best Young Crime Writer in time for the Crimefest Convention. The competition is open to writers up to 18 years of age, and the deadline is February 18. The word limit for stories is 1,000.

National Public Radio is sponoring its sixth "Three Minute Fiction" contest, with this go 'round's premise "laughter and crying." In other word, write a story in which one character tells a joke, and one character cries. Entries must be no longer than 600 words and be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on January 23, 2011.

 

Noteworthy

An organization called Awarding the Web has included this blog in a listing of its 2010 Top 45 Mystery Book Blogs. As you can see from the awardees on the previous link, it's a fine blog-roll-call indeed, and I am humbly grateful to be included in such esteemed company. Candidates are selected using audience nominations and Awarding the Web's own research associates, after which a list of candidates is compiled and scored by a panel of 5 judges.

Do visit the other blogs, too, as there are some fine folks out there working hard to promote mysteries and crime fiction, and quite an eclectic and interesting bunch it is.

Murderous Deadlines

Mark your calendars for some upcoming deadlines for contests and awards: 

• The application deadline for the William F. Deeck Malice Grants is November 15th. These grants are offered by the Malice Domestic conference for unpublished authors to offset travel, registration or other expenses related to attendance at a writers' conference or workshop within a year of the date of the award (no later than May 2010). In the case of nonfiction, the grant may be used to offset research expenses. The deadline for early registration for the conference is December 31, which will also entitle you to participate in nominations for the Malice Domestic Awards.

• Submissions for the annual Edgar Awards are due November 30th. All books, short stories, television shows, and films in the mystery, crime, suspense, and intrigue fields are eligible for awards in their respective category if they were published or produced for the first time in the U.S. during 2009 (books with a December publication date may be submitted in galleys).

• The deadline for submissions to the CWA Debut Dagger Award is February 6, 2010. The competition is open to anyone who has not had a novel published, commercially, in any genre. Published non-fiction or short-story writers are eligible to enter.

• The Wolfe Pack announced they'll be sponsoring the fourth annual Black Orchid Novella Award, with a deadline of May 31, 2010. Winners receive $1,000 from Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and publication. The 2009 winner will be announced December 5 at the Black Orchid Banquet. Tickets are still available for the 32nd Annual Black Orchid Weekend, December 4-6, which includes the banquet, discussions, and brunch. There's a small discount if you register by November 15th.

And the Winner Is...

The annual Boucheron conference is always a veritable feast of crime fiction awards, including announcements and presentations of (in alphabetical order) the Anthony, Barry, Crimespree, Derringer, Macavity and Shamus awards. For all the updates, check out Mystery Fanfare, the Rap Sheet, the Gumshoe Site, and the Recent Mystery Awards link on the upper right-hand side of this blog. And congrats to all!

Awardsville

A roundup of some of the latest crime fiction awards news:

Ken Bruen has won the Le Grand Prix de la Littérature Policière 2009 for his novel La Main Droite du Diable (Priest, in its original English).

The Turnaround by George Pelecanos was named winner of the North American Hammett Prize for 2009.

You can join in the interactive portion of the CWA Dagger Awards by viewing a video from last year's show and voting for one of 5 shortlisted authors for the Bestseller Dagger.

And there's still time to reserve tickets for the Nero Wolfe Literary Society's Thirty Second Annual Black Orchid Banquet, Saturday evening on December 6th, when the Nero Award for best American mystery will be announced. There are additional events the Society has planned for that weekend; check out the details on their web site.

PWA Shamus Awards Banquet Update

I received a note from Robert Randisi that there was a little bit of confusion about the upcoming Shamus Awards Banquet as to (a) whether tickets are still available and (b) whether you can attend if you're not a writer. The answer to both questions is:  Yes! Seating has been increased at the banquet site, so tickets will still be on sale until October 1st. And ANYONE can come--writers, agents, editors and fans--all are welcome. The event takes place at the Slippery Noodle blues bar in Indianapolis, Friday, October 16, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. To whet your appetite, here is a recap by Ali Karim of last year's event, and here are your nominees for this year's awards. Tickets are $50, and to reserve a banquet spot, contact Robert Randisi via the following: RRandisi@aol.com

Shamus Nominees

The Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) yesterday announced the nominees for the 28th annual Shamus Awards, given annually to recognize outstanding achievement in private eye fiction. Previous winners include Harlan Coben, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Sue Grafton, Laura Lippman, Bill Pronzini and many more acclaimed authors. Here's your list of 2009 nominees:

Best Hardcover

• Salvation Boulevard by Larry Beinhart (Nation Books), featuring Carl Vanderveer
• Empty Ever After by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House Books), featuring Moe Prager
• The Blue Door by David Fulmer (Harcourt), featuring Eddie Cero
• The Price of Blood by Declan Hughes (Wm. Morrow), featuring Ed Loy
• The Ancient Rain by Domenic Stansberry (St. Martins Minotaur) featuring Dante Mancuso

Best First PI Novel

• Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer (Doubleday), featuring Riley Spartz
• Swann’s Last Song by Charles Salzberg (Five Star), featuring Henry Swann
• The Eye of Jade by Diane Wei Liang (Simon & Schuster), featuring Mei Wang
• In the Heat by Ian Vasquez (St. Martins Minotaur), featuring Miles Young
• Veil of Lies by Jeri Westerson (St Martins Minotaur), featuring Crispin Guest

Best Paperback Original

• Snow Blind by Lori Armstrong (Medallion) featuring Julie Collins
• Shot Girl by Karen Olson (Obsidian) featuring Annie Seymour
• The Stolen by Jason Pinter (MIRA) featuring Henry Parker
• The Black Hand by Will Thomas (Touchstone/Simon &Schuster) featuring Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn.
• The Evil That Men Do by Dave White (Crown/Three Rivers Press) featuring Jackson Donne

Best Short Story

• “Family Values” by Mitch Alderman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 2008), featuring Bubba Simms
• “Last Island South” by John C. Boland. (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Sep/Oct 2008), featuring Meggie Trevor
• “The Blonde Tigress” by Max Allan Collins (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, June 2008), featuring Nate Heller
• “Discovery” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Nov 2008), featuring Pita Cárdenas
• “Panic on Portage Path” by Dick Stodghill (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2008), featuring Jack Eddy and Bram Geary.

The awards will be presented at the PWA banquet on October 16 during the Bouchercon Convention. For tickets, contact PWA founder, Robert J. Randisi, rrandisi@aol.com.

Congrats, all!