Staffers at Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama, San Francisco’s City Lights Books, and The Nook in Cedar Falls, Iowa, are among 600 booksellers receiving $500 holiday bonuses from author James Patterson, who has been awarding independent store employees since 2015. "Booksellers save lives. Period," Patterson said in a statement released through his publisher, Little, Brown and Company. "I’m happy to be able to acknowledge them and all their hard work this holiday season." Along with his gifts to booksellers, Patterson has given millions of dollars to schools, libraries, and literacy programs. In 2015, the National Book Foundation presented him an honorary National Book Award — the Literarian Award — for outstanding service to the American literary community.
Maureen Jennings received an unusual but well-timed Christmas gift: the mystery author has been appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada. Maureen is a prolific author of non-fiction, short stories, and book series featuring Christine Morris, Detective Murdoch, and D.I. Tom Tyler. The Detective William Murdoch series, set in Victorian era Toronto, was optioned in 2003 by Shaftesbury Films, and the resulting TV series, Murdoch Mysteries, is shown in over 120 countries. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)
Janet Rudolph posted an updated listing of Crime for the Holidays - mysteries set during Christmas. It's such an extensive list, that she now has to divide it into multiple parts, including Authors A-E; Authors F-L; and Authors M-Z, as well as Christmas shorts—mystery stories, novellas, and anthologies.
I really do wish we could start this tradition everywhere, but in Iceland, the most popular Christmas gifts aren’t gadgets, but books. Each year, Iceland celebrates what’s known as Jólabókaflóðið (pronounced "YO-la-bok-a-flothe"), or the annual Yule Book Flood. In November, each household in Iceland gets a copy of the Iceland Publishers Association’s catalog of all the books published that year, giving residents a chance to pick out holiday books for friends and family. It's probably not too surprising, considering the country reads and publishes more books per capita than any other nation in the world,
The authors at Mystery Lover's Kitchen have several tips for holiday reads and recipes, including Gluten Free Christmas Stollen via Libby Klein; Spicy Holiday Cranberry Relish from Deborah Crombie; Christmas Morning Breakfast Cake from Vicki Delany; and much more. You can search them all via this link.
The latest Mysteryrat's Maze Christmas podcast is up, featuring the Christmas short story, "Some Things Don't Change at Christmas," by KM Rockwood, as read by actor Parker Forrest Lewis. It's not quite a mystery but with a mysterious and heartwarming story for the holidays.
An unpublished manuscript by crime writer John D. MacDonald, a short story narrative of lust, betrayal and dangerous choices, was found in the archives at the University of Florida and published this month in The Strand. MacDonald was still a few years away from his Travis McGee books when he wrote the story, although MacDonald scholar Calvin Branche said that "The Accomplice" did anticipate the moral struggles of McGee and other MacDonald protagonists.
Most people have heard of Charles Dickens's beloved "A Christmas Carol," but as Olivia Rutgliano reminds us over at CrimeReads, we shouldn't forget Dickens wrote other holiday stories of mayhem including "The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton," published in The Pickwick Papers (1836); "The Mother’s Eyes," published in Master Humphrey’s Clock (1840) and more.
In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Hasleton interviewed Penelope Holt about her new spiritual romantic thriller, The Angel Scroll, and also thriller author Michael Nelson (aka Michael Deeze) about the first in his new Thomas Quinn psychological thriller series, The Deathbed Confessions.
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