Next week at Maine Crime Writers we’ll be featuring posts from Vicki Doudera (Monday) Dorothy Cannell (Tuesday), Special Guest Jenny Milchman (Wednesday) Jim Hayman (Thursday), and Susan Vaughan (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

Lea Wait and Dorothy Cannell will be at a writers’ retreat in North Carolina. Quiet, breakfast and box lunches provided … and other writers to compare notes with. Plus as added attraction for Maine writers: chances are temperatures will be above normal and there won’t be a blizzard! Counting on connecting with writer friends from all over the US … and watching those word counts climb.

Barb: The next Level Best anthology has a name–Best New England Crime Stories 2015: Rogue Wave. Submissions are open. See our submission guidelines here. Would love to have some great Maine authors (and other New Englanders as well). And don’t forget our cover photo contest.

Kaitlyn: Although we don’t think first of Stephen King as a Maine crime writer, he does write mysteries as well as horror fiction and this year he’s up for mystery’s major award, the Edgar, for 2013’s Joyland. And among the nominees for the Mary Higgins Clark award, also given out as part of the Edgars festivities, is fellow New Englander, Hallie Ephron, for There Was an Old Woman. Congrats to both.

Kate Flora: I hope that our many librarian readers will take note of the Level Best opportunity and share the submission information with their readers. For more than a decade, LBB anthologies have been an important part of the New England literary scene and a wonderful opportunity for new writers to be discovered. I wish Barb could tell us how many writers (herself included) have debuted their fiction in one of these wonderful collections and gone on to publish full-length novels.

And now that the Edgar nominations are out…will our own handicapper, John Clark, be making his yearly predictions? Stay tuned….

John Clark: Already borrowing the YA and juvenile Edgar nominees to read and handicap. In the meantime, I posted a six-pack of new book reviews on the Hartland Library blog, including what I think will be an Edgar nominee next year.  http://hartlandpublic.livejournal.com/17387.html

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? Do you know of writers we should be sharing with our readers? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business. Contact Kate Flora: kateflora@gmail.com