Mysterious Melange

Elizabeth Foxwell posted a Call for Papers for an upcoming themed issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection on paranormal mysteries. You've got awhile: the submission deadline is December 29, 2011.

The crime fiction blog All Due Respect is folding, unless Alec Cizak can find another editor willing to take over. In its brief life, the blog featured stories by 12 different authors, and we'll certainly be sorry to see it go. But fear not for Alec and pulp fiction: he's still shepherding Pulp Modern, which is looking for stories between 2,000 and 5,000 words.

Over at the Women of Mystery blog, Terrie Moran notes that Sleuthfest 2012 will be held in Orlando, so it's a great chance to attend a mystery conference and take the family to Disney World. Sleuthfest special guests will include Charlaine Harris, Jeffery Deaver and Chris Grabenstein.

The Ripster, a/k/a Mike Ripley of Shots E-zine and the Getting Away With Murder column, announced the a Ostara Publishing imprint's Top Notch Thrillers reissues for July. They include two British thrillers from the early 1980s, which Ripley adds are fine examples of "flight and pursuit" novels in the John Buchan tradition.

The Drowning Machine handed out its Watery Grave Invitational short story challenge winners, six in all:  Chris La Tray, Eric Beetner, Chad Eagleton, Ian Ayris, Patricia Abbott and Nigel Bird.

Steve Weddle and Do Some Damage got several entries in the Beach House Noir contest, in which writers were challenged to create a short story by giving the summer vacation the crime fiction treatment. You can read entries via the links posted on the blog.

The first issue of Shelf Awareness: Enlightenment for Readers debuted this past Friday. It's a free twice-weekly e-mail newsletter with "a dozen or so book reviews, some content from the daily version of Shelf Awareness that will boost your reading IQ, new consumer-focused content like "Book Candy" and more readerly goodies." Each week, the editors will also share the 25 best books available to you right now, chosen by industry insiders, and all you have to do is sign up on the SA web site.

If you are writer and/or read crime fiction and haven't visited D.P. Lyle's writers forensics blog, you should. As a physician, author and consultant, he has lots of helpful insights into the medical side of crime. Kings River Life magazine has a Q&A with Lyle and is also giving away copy of his new book Royal Pains: First Do No Harm, a tie-in with the TV series.

David Cranmer has a review of a couple of books by Robert J. Randisi, as well as a giveaway of copies of two of Randisi's Rat Pack mystery series, I'm a Fool to Kill You and Fly Me to the Morgue.