There's still time to register for the online crime fiction conference, Mystery in the Midlands. For a very reasonable price of only $8, you can watch the keynote as David Heska Wanbli Weiden is interviewed by Hank Phillippi Ryan, and also view panels on short stories, cozies, suspenseful settings, and more. Other authors scheduled to take part include Dana Kaye, Lynn C. Willis, Carla Damron, Alan Orloff, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Joseph S. Walker, Daryl Wood Gerber, Raquel V. Reyes, Abby L. Vandiver, Hallie Ephron, and John Hart.
Noir at the Bar Hillsborough is coming up on July 15 at Yonder: Southern Cocktails and Brew in Hillsborough, NC. Hosted by Tracey Reynolds, there will be readings from Todd Robinson, Rob Hart, SA Cosby, Jamie Mason, William Davis Jr, Colin Cutler, Natania Barron, and Josh Getzler.
On July 21, Potter Auctions will hold their first online-only book sale of the year featuring an array of titles and authors spanning several centuries and categories, including large libraries of hard–boiled fiction. Here's your chance to pick up some collections of works by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ian Fleming, Cornell Woolrich, Robert B. Parker and many, many more.
The New York Times reported that "Bookstores Are Booming and Becoming More Diverse," which, as they noted, includes more than 300 bookstores that have opened in the past couple of years, a revival that's meeting a demand for "real recommendations from real people."
Strychnine has long been a favorite poison of mystery authors dating back to Agatha Christie, and now a research team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena have discovered the complete biosynthetic pathway for the formation of strychnine in the plant species Strychnos nux-vomica (poison nut).
We've seen so-called "reality" competition TV shows for just about everything, from sword-making to baking to music performance, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before the trend found its way to books. Kwame Alexander will host America’s Next Great Author, where contestants will enter a writers’ retreat and be given 30 days to write a novel while completing "live-wire" challenges. It is not yet clear what the ultimate prize will be, although Alexander seemed to hint on the promotional video that it may include a publishing deal.
This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Bad Habits" by Peter M. Gordon.
In the Q&A roundup, the New York Times spoke with Alex Michaelides about how his failed screenwriting career was responsible for him penning the bestselling crime novel, The Silent Patient; CrimeReads chatted with Scottish crime author Denise Mina about Glasgow, podcasters as new generation PIs, and the Florentine "trial by fire" that's never far from mind; and The Guardian interviewed Mick Herron about his Jackson Lamb series, which centers on a group of demoted MI5 agents.
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