Next week at Maine Crime Writers we’ll be featuring posts from Gerry Boyle (Monday) Special Guest Jen Blood (Tuesday), Kaitlyn Dunnett (Wednesday) Vicki Doudera (Thursday), and Lea Wait (Friday).

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

Congratulations to Barbara Ross, finalist in two categories for the Agatha Award. Barb’s Clammed Up is nominated for Best Contemporary Novel and her short story, “Bread Baby” is up for Best Short Story. Awards will be given out at the Malice Domestic banquet on May 3rd. Also a finalist for Best Contemporary Novel is Maine Crime Writers alum, Julia Spencer-Fleming, for Through the Evil Days. Well done, Julia. And, of course, among the Malice Domestic honorees at this year’s convention are Maine Crime Writers Dorothy Cannell for Lifetime Achievement and Kathy Lynn Emerson (aka Kaitlyn Dunnett) as Guest of Honor.

Barb: Thanks, everyone! I’m so excited about Malice Domestic this year. We will have quite the Maine Crime Writers contingent.

Kate: We’ve got so much exciting stuff going on at Malice Domestic that I think we ought to have MCW t-shirts to wear to the conference. What do you readers think about a t-shirt design contest? Winner to get a box of Black Dinah chocolates?

Also, in case you haven’t noticed this yet, we’re delighted to have Al Lamanda joining us as a monthly contributor.

And keep your antennae up for an announcement next week of the details of The Maine Crime Wave, our own mystery conference coming in April.

Lea Wait: What a wonderful and talented group we have! I’ll just note that this week I’ll be paying Skype visits to four fourth grade classrooms at the Ridge View Community School in Dexter, Maine. And Sunday, February 16, I’ll be speaking (as part of the Lincoln County Historical Association’s Winter Lecture Series) about “The Marie Antoinette House: Myths and Realities.” The talk is open to the public, and will be at 1:00p.m. at the 911 Center (the building in back of the courthouse on Route 1) in Wiscasset. Of course, I’ll also have copies of my books available there.

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. Contact Kate Flora: kateflora@gmail.com