Hi. Barb here.

I’m excited to announce the launch of Best New England Crime Stories 2014: Stone Cold this weekend at the The England Crime Bake. Stone Cold is the eleventh anthology in the series and the fourth I have been a co-editor and co-publisher.

As always, the Best New England Crime Series has many Maine connections. In fact, it offers stories by three, count’em three, Maine Crime Writers. And a host of other wonderful stories by New England authors. Let’s look at the Maine connections.

Michele Albion: Non-fiction author Michele Albion is the author of The Florida Life of Thomas Edison, The Quotable Edison, The Quotable Henry Ford and The Quotable Eleanor Roosevelt. She writes, raises four kids and a husband (she notes that yes, husbands need raising) in Dover, New Hampshire.

Her Maine-set paranormal story, “Wicked Stone Cold,” about the scariest Fast and Freezy soft-serve ice cream drive-up ever, is her first published fiction.

John R. Clark: Fellow Maine Crime Writer John R. Clark is a Maine librarian who writes short fiction, essays, young adult fantasy novels and newspaper opinion columns. He reviews young adult fiction for www.teenliteraturenetwork.org. When not writing, he enters sweestakes and loves to cook and garden.

John’s story in Stone Cold, “The Dead Letter Office,” is about exactly the sort of entrepreneurial business Maine should be be trying to attract. Or not.

Jennifer Dupree: Jennifer Dupree is an MFA student currently working on a novel as well as a linked collection of stories. She has work published or forthcoming in Front Porch Review and The Masters Review as well as the Family Circle website. She lives and writes in Maine and blogs about books at http://ptopstory.blogspot.com/.

Jennifer’s gut-wrenching story in Stone Cold, “Kitchen Sink Shampoo” is about a boy coming to terms with a family trauma.

Kate Flora: Kate probably needs no introduction to this audience, but just in case, here goes. Kate Flora is the author of 12 books including seven Thea Kozak mysteries, three Joe Burgess police procedurals, and a true crime, Finding Amy. Redemption won the 2013 Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. She’s a founding member of the New England Crime Bake, and a former publisher and editor at Level Best Books and teaches writing at Grub Street.

In Kate’s story, “Family Jewels,” two sisters come terms with the death of their difficult mother. This is one of those stories that springs from a concept someone else brings to the author’s attention. Kate gives idea credit to Dina Connors.

Judith Green: As a former Adult Education Director for an eleven-town school district in rural western Maine, Judith Green has written 25 high-interest/low-level books for adult students. Her mystery stories have been chosen for each of the Anthologies of New England Crime published by Level Best Books. “A Good, Safe Place,” published in 2010 in Thin Ice, was nominated for an Edgar.

Judy’s story this year, “Family Resemblance,” gives us another slice in the life of her protagonist, Margery Easton, this time the bizarre events surrounding her first meeting with her future in-laws. Level Best loves being the first publisher of Judy’s Margery Easton stories, but please, some publisher needs to offer these gems in a collection.

Barbara Ross: And, of course, moi, who probably also needs no introduction, but here goes. Barbara Ross is the author of Clammed Up, first in a new series of Maine Clambake Mysteries published by Kensington. She is a co-editor/co-publisher of Level Best Books and the 2013 co-chair of the New England Crime Bake. She divides her time between Boothbay Harbor, ME and Somerville, MA.

I am very proud that my story in Stone Cold, “Bread Baby” combines a cartel of powerful Manhattan executive assistants and tantawawa, human images made of bread by the Andean Indians of Peru to honor their ancestors on the Day of the Dead.

We hope you enjoy Stone Cold!