Mystery Melange

Quebec is hosting its first (but hopefully annual) crime fiction festival this week. The event, called QuebeCrime, features a workshop on "CSI: Wrong Watson! Chemistry for Justice," as well as various panels with authors Lawrence Block, John Brady, Hilary Davidson, Anne Emery, Trevor Ferguson, Tom Henighan, Ian Hamilton, Craig McDonald, Denisa Mina, Louise Penny, Andrew Pyper, Ian Rankin, Simon Toyle and Daniel Woodrell.

Several authors gathered together to write short stories featuring a Navy SEAL hero. It all started with a photo in the New York Times of U.S. Navy SEALs as they prepared for a night mission to capture Iraqi insurgent leaders near Fallujah, Iraq. The result is SEAL of My Dreams, to be released in paperback and eBook formats on 11/11/11 (Veteran's Day) with proceeds from sales of the anthology pledged to the Veterans Research Corporation, a non-profit foundation supporting veterans medical research

Attorney Leslie Budewitz has been assisting authors for years with getting legal details in fiction just right, primarily through her website. But now she's added to that pedigree with her new Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately about Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure. The Five Scribes blog has a Q&A with Leslie, where she says the book will help writers use the law accurately while telling a good story and learn how to use legal issues to develop plots, character and setting.

Issue #8 of Crimefactory has new stories and features from Julia Madeleine, Seth Harwood, Heath Lowrence, Matthew C. Funk, and many more. And in case you missed it, issue #45 of Noir Journal is featuring its No Frills Book Review Marathon, Part 1.

The Wolfe Pack is holding its 34th annual Black Orchid Banquet and Weekend December 2-4. The event has an added significance this year, since December 1, 2011 marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Rex Stout, and several members of the author's family will attend the banquet. The finalists for this year's Nero Award for best novel of the year, to be presented at the banquet, are Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen; The Book of Spies by Gayle Lynds; Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny; The Midnight Show Murders by Al Roker & Dick Lochte; and Think of a Number by John Verdon. For more information about how to register visit The Wolfe Pack's web site.

As blogger Nathanael Booth notes, if you're an Ellery Queen fan, Otto Penzler's Mysterious Press acquired the rights to issue Calamity Town and The Roman Hat Mystery in e-book format, and they're available for pre-order now on Amazon.