Next week at Maine Crime Writers we’ll be featuring posts from Lea Wait (Monday), Jim Hayman (Tuesday), Barb Ross (Wednesday), John Clark (Thursday), and Kate Flora (Friday).

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

From Kaitlyn Dunnett: The first Lady Appleton short story in a long time, “A Wondrous Violent Motion” (w/a Kathy Lynn Emerson) is in the December Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, in stores in early October (This coming week!). The characters are from my Face Down historical mystery series set in Elizabethan England and the sleuth, Susanna, Lady Appleton is a gentlewoman and herbalist. She’s an expert on poisonous herbs or, as one reviewer put it, “every husband’s worst nightmare.” The violent motion of the title was a real earthquake in 1580. The epicenter was in the English Channel and there was considerable damage along the south coast of England and the north coast of France. At the fictional Leigh Abbey in Kent, the collapse of a wall reveals a skeleton . . . and gives Lady Appleton a very personal reason to solve yet another crime.

From Kate Flora: Wow. I aspire to someday be published in AHMM. I suppose that will never happen unless I write a story and submit it, right? Meanwhile, I’m thrilled that one of my short stories, Family Jewels, is going to be included in this fall’s  crime story anthology from Level Best Books, Stone Cold, edited by, among others, our own Barbara Ross. The story was inspired by a  magazine clipping that my husband’s secretary sent me, about cremation diamonds. People often want to give me story ideas, but usually, I’m not interested. This time, I couldn’t resist the challenge of creating a story about a diamond made from the ashes of a dead relative, and Family Jewels was the result. I’ll be curious to see how readers react.

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.