The 'Zine Scene

The upcoming March/April issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine will include short stories by award-winning novelists S. J. Rozan, Perri O'Shaughnessy, and Janwillem van de Wetering, and the late Edward D. Hoch's unbroken 36-year run of stories closes this month with a selection about treachery in a German university's dueling clubs.

CrimeSpree is still going strong and getting ready to release their March/April issue featuring a cover story with CJ Box and other interviews with Linda Fairstein, Barry Eisler and Andrew Grant; articles from Ayo Onatade, Alan Salter (Sam Reaves). Reed Coleman, Craig McDonald, Declan Burke, Michael Lister, Sandra Ruttan and Shirley Kennett; and three short stories including one from Kat Richardson. You can follow the magazine via their site and blog.

Randy Okane of 5MinuteMystery.com announced recently that the site NEEDS WRITERS (for guidelines, check out their site--and they are a paying market):

"[We are} cutting back our mysteries from 5 per week to 2 per week starting tomorrow. This is being done not for lack of money or lack of readers. The web site has gotten great press over the first 5 months, including being a featured story nationwide on ABC News' TechBytes. Our readers are extremely happy with the site. In fact, we are in the process of expanding the site to add some significant new features that will be ready in a few months including iphone apps, educational uses and other really exciting ways to use mysteries. So, why are we cutting back the number of stories that we publish? We are cutting back because we do not have enough stories to keep publishing one a day."

Although Blazing Adventures magazine is no more, publisher Robert S.P. Lee, a/k/a Dash Courageous "and his fateful companion The Granite Man, Dr.Shadows", will be appearing with copies of their award-winning issue 9 on Saturday, February 28th from 10am to 3:30pm (with a minimal admission fee) at:

Vintage Mania, The Show for Lovers of Vintage Pop Culture
Holy Cross School
332 W 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

The only U.S. academic journal on mystery and detective fiction, Clues, has an open Call for Papers on "Chester Himes and His Legacy."

Janet Rudolph of Mystery Readers International has a blog associated with the magazine. She uses it to supplement the zine with topical reading lists and other crime fiction tidbits. On the magazine site, you can get the themes for the upcoming issues (Africa, Los Angeles, Sports), if you're interested in submitting an article or author essay.

Twist of Noir has a short story contest on the theme of "alienation" (one entry per person, up to 5,000 words).

Strand Managing Editor Andrew F. Gulli will be visiting the Editor Unleashed blog on Wednesday, February 18, 1:00 EST for a live interview. You can post your questions in advance via the forum link on the blog.

And if you're in a hurry and need some recommendation for mystery/crime short stories, check out the reviews on the Nasty, Brutish, and Short blog.