Next week at Maine Crime Writers we’ll be featuring posts from John Clark (Monday), Kate Flora (Tuesday), Gerry Boyle (Wednesday), Kaitlyn Dunnett, in her Kate Emerson persona (Thursday), Vicki Doudera (Friday) and Susan Vaughan (Saturday).

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

From Kaitlyn Dunnett: A bunch of stuff. Vampires, Bones, and Treacle Scones, #7 in the Liss MacCrimmon Scottish-American Heritage Mystery series, was one of five cozy mysteries featured in an article on the book page of Washington Post.

Until Tuesday, September 24, Kilt Dead, the first installment, is part of a special promotion from Kensington Books running. In all ebook formats except Kindle, the price is reduced from $5.99 to $1.99. Last time I checked, the Kindle edition is still priced at $4.99 on Amazon.

And finally, the reason “Kate Emerson” will be blogging Thursday instead of “Kaitlyn Dunnett” is that Kate’s Royal Inheritance will be in stores on Tuesday. It’s a non-mystery historical set in 16th century England, but it is about a young woman’s search for answers about her mysterious past and writing it did involve trying to solve a couple of real-life mysteries.

I’ve also just blogged about the book at the Simon&Schuster site at http://xoxoafterdark.com/2013/09/18/kate-emerson-philippa-gregory-genre

From Barb Ross: I’m thrilled to tell everyone that Clammed Up my first Maine Clambake Mystery was number 22 on the the Barnes & Noble Mass Market Paperback bestseller list last week, and is number 17 this week! Thanks to everyone who bought it!

From Kate Flora: There’s still some space at the MWPA fall retreat, where I’ll be teaching about plotting your novel and great openings in a mystery. Here are some links with more information:

https://www.facebook.com/events/290462837759773/

Several contributors to Maine Crime Writers, including Dorothy Cannell, Paul Doiron, Jim Hayman, Barb Ross, Julia Spencer-Fleming and Lea Wait, have been at Bouchercon in Albany, New York this weekend. Below are some of the details.

Report from Bouchercon: Barb Ross–intrepid girl reporter.  Went to a great panel with MCW’s James Hayman, his editor, agent and the publicist for the publisher about William Morrow’s new digital first publishing line. As Jim has told us here on the blog, his book Darkness First will be in the premier group of titles released this way by Morrow on October 1. The session was a fascinating look at the changing landscape of publishing. It also made me really, really want to read Jim’s book.

American Guest of Honor at Bouchercon 2013 is Maine's own Tess Gerritsen

In a panel full of interesting books on mysteries with environmental or scientific themes, Paul Doiron said, “Has anyone noticed there were no monarch butterflies in Maine this year? A game warden notices because he lives outside.” Incidentally, Paul recently announced he’s stepping back as editor in chief of Down East to focus on his novel-writing career. To which Maine Crime fans can only say, “Yay!”

Julia Spencer-Fleming and her fellow Jungle Reds lead their audience in a full participation game of “Guess the first line.” The real first line of a mystery was read by one Red. The others read lines they’d made up. The audience guessed and there were plenty of prizes.

Katharine Hall Page said over the years her writing has gotten so much leaner, she’s afraid she’ll soon write a book that says, “Faith Fairchild found a body and solved the crime. The end.” Her panel had many interesting things to say about the label “cozy.” More on this in a future blog post, perhaps.

Lea Wait, in a lively and well-attended YA panel, explained her love of writing about the 19th century. In that era, her characters, often aged 13 or 14 are making huge decisions about their lives–where they will live and what they will do. “Decisions today some people never seem to make.”

My panel, the food panel, was great due in large part to our fabulous moderator, Clare Toohey. She called out ingredients from each of our works and had the audience guess which book it came from. She then rewarded them with a treat and by reading a few paragraphs from the description of the food in the book. Such a great idea! I may steal if for Crime Bake.

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.