Mystery Melange

Two new (well, new-ish) anthologies to tell you about: the first was actually published in April and is titled Crimespotting. The stories include offerings from various bestselling crime writers including Kate Atkinson, Margaret Atwood, Denise Mina and Ian Rankin, all featuring a crime and set in Edinburgh. The other anthology was just released this week and is titled D*cked. Why the title, you ask? Because all the stories are inspired "by the most vexing juggernaut of modern American politics — Dick Cheney." Authors include Patti Abbott, Jedidiah Ayres, Greg Bardsley and Kieran Shea.

In case you missed it: the nominations for the annual Shamus Awards were announced. The awards are given by the private eye writers association, PWA, for excellence in that genre, and winners will be announced at the banquet during Bouchercon. The Crime Writers Association in the UK also announced the shortlists for the Gold Dagger top novel award, the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller and also the John Creasey New Blood Dagger.

Ayo Onatade recapped the recent St Hilda's Crime & Mystery Weekend, which is more academic than most conferences, with each weekend based around a theme and participants staying together on the College grounds, "very reminiscent of being back in boarding school." Various papers and talks were given, including one by PD James who commented on the difficulties surrounding assisted dying. You can read about all the other interesting fodder in Ayo's detailed and entertaining blog post at Shotsmag.

New Zealand writer/blogger Craig Sisterson also reported on the recent "Setting the Stage for Murder" event in New Zealand and a panel (consisting of the four 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award finalists) that raised the question of whether to incorporate last year's devastating earthquake in an author's novels.

If you haven't been following Patti Abbott's regular feature "How I Came to Write This Book (or Story)," you can start with her latest, Glenn Gray talking about his short story "Bigorexia."

Elizabeth Foxwell pays tribute to "Five female mystery authors who left us too soon," all of whom died of tragic circumstances before reaching their full potential.

The Sisters in Crime organization is celebrating its 25th anniversary as "a non-profit organization to promote the professional development and advancement of women crime writers to achieve equality in the industry." As part of the commemoration, Barbara Fister issued a blog challenge for participants to write blog posts about works of crime fiction by women authors. Be on the lookout for those around the blogosphere heading into the fall.

Libby Fischer Hellman is holding crime writing workshops titled "Anatomy of a Crime Novel: The Craft of Crime Fiction" in Chicago during September and October. For more information, check out her web site link above. (Hat tip to the Rap Sheet.)