Next week at Maine Crime Writers we’ll be featuring posts from Lea Wait (Monday), James Hayman (Tuesday), Barbara Ross (Wednesday), John Clark (Thursday), Kate Flora (Friday) and Dorothy Cannell (Saturday), with Jayne Hitchcock, our cyber expert, blogging next Sunday.

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

From Kaitlyn Dunnett: The ebook of Kilt Dead, the first installment of the Liss MacCrimmon Scottish-American Heritage Mysteries, will be part of a special promotion from Kensington Books running from September 10 until September 24. In all the usual ebook formats, the price will be reduced from $5.99 to $1.99. Not as good as free, I admit, but still a bargain. I’m told that readers are more likely to go back and buy more of a series if they pay under three dollars. Fingers crossed that it’s true. The seventh entry just came out last month (Vampires, Bones, and Treacle Scones, a Halloween mystery) and the eighth (tentatively titled Auld Lang Crime and set at Christmas), which will be my fiftieth published book when it comes out next year, has just gone in to my editor.

From Barbara Ross: As a part of the promotion for Clammed Up, I’m being a bit of a blog slut–posting around. On Monday, I was at Dru’s Book Musings, where I wrote about a day in the life of my amateur sleuth, Julia Snowden. http://notesfromme.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/julia-snowden/. On Thursday, I was at Jungle Red Writers, where Hallie Ephron asked some terrific questions about the book–and especially about my Maine island wedding. The name of another Maine Crime Writer comes up. http://www.jungleredwriters.com/2013/09/clammed-up-barbara-ross-is-anything-but.html

Kate Flora: While I’m waiting for confirmation of some exciting news (fingers crossed, everyone, please) I’ve been cleaning out the garage and have found an amazing store of hardcovers of some of my early Thea Kozak mysteries. So if you’re a Thea fan, or a library with an incomplete collection, I might just have the book you want want. Just leave a comment here and I’ll be in touch. Reasonable prices set by the man who would really like some space back for his tools.

And while I’m on the subject, MCWers…what do the rest of you do with those precious copies of your back list that you can hardly bear to be parted from?

Lea Wait: And, Kate didn’t mention it, but she and I will be speaking Tuesday night, September 10, at 7 p.m. at the Thomaston Library in Thomaston, Maine. We’ll be talking mysteries — what else? — and we’ll each be bringing copies of our books for purchase and signing. (One thing to do with those copies of early books, Kate!)

Later in the week, Friday, the 13th (a lucky day, I’m sure!) I’ll be at the last opening of the season for the Stable Gallery on Water Street in Damariscotta, where my husband Bob’s work is shown. Come one, come all! Libations, food (not just cheese!) and live music, along with lots of artists and great craftspeople. Bob was just invited to show his work at a gallery in New Hope, Pennsylvania, in November, so we’ll be heading there in about six weeks, too! More details later.

In the meantime, I’m working on final edits for my young people’s historical, UNCERTAIN GLORY, which will be published next spring. (Pre-order on Amazon now!) It’s about two young men who published a town newspaper in Wiscasset in 1861 – just when the Civil War began. This week I’ll be writing some of the articles “they” wrote  … as additions to the book. Fun! And local artist Brenda Erickson has done a great map of 1861 Wiscasset which will be used as endpapers.

In case you missed it, we had a wonderful guest blog this past week from Earl Smith, author of The Dam Committee. Just scroll down to read it or click here for the blog with comments: http://mainecrimewriters.com/uncategorized/reflections-on-writing-or-what-ive-learned#comments

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? 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.