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

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

Barb: The other Level Best Books editors and I heard the good news this week that three, count’em three, of the stories in Best New England Crime Stories 2014: Stone Cold were finalists for the Derringer Best Long Story Award given by the Short Mystery Fiction Society: “Myrna,” the Al Blanchard Award-winning story by John Bubar, “Give Me a Dollar,” by Ray Daniel and “A Dangerous Life,” by Adam Purple. Congratulations, all!

Lea Wait: That’s fantastic news, Barb! I’m smiling this week, too .. Kirkus Reviews wrote about my UNCERTAIN GLORY (April 4 publication,)  “Wait nicely captures the infrequently depicted Northern homefront effects of the Civil War, as well as the entrepreneurial drive that some teens shared when there were fewer age-based labor restrictions. Joe’s homespun voice captures the full flavor of a smart and determined kid with his eyes firmly on the future, richly evoking time and place .. a worth and entertaining trip back through time.”

My protagonist, Joe Wood, really did publish a town newspaper in Wiscasset, Maine in the mid-19th century, and went on to publish newspapers in other Maine towns and cities. Currently there’s a giveaway of copies of UNCERTAIN GLORY on Goodreads.

Kate Flora: A while back, I promised I’d let people know when my mother’s mystery became available as an e-book. I’m excited to say that it’s finally available on kindle. She published this when she was 83, and I always hold her up as an example for people who say they always wanted to write but it’s too late. Here’s a description of the story:

Sixty-year-old Amy Creighton, an independent small-town Mainer, has her life arranged the way she likes it. She’s got her work as a free-lance editor, her gardens, her dog, and a pond to swim in. When she uncovers a body in the sawdust pile at the local sawmill, where she’s gone to get sawdust to mulch her strawberry bed, everything is turned topsy-turvy. The investigating officer is her long-ago sweetheart Dort Adams. The dead young man looks familiar, though no one admits to knowing him. Together, Amy and Dort fall into a easy alliance to solve the man’s death—one that forces them to recognize that they don’t know their neighbors as well as they thought, and that some people will go to great lengths to keep their family secrets.

On the domestic front, John Clark became a grandfather this week, welcoming little Piper Alexis Lozefski to the family.

Kaitlyn Dunnett here, although my news is from my evil twin, Kate Emerson, writer of non-mystery historical novels set at the court of Henry VIII of England. Awhile back, my agent sold translation rights for one of those books, The King’s Damsel, to a publisher in Russia. I received an advance and in due time a copy of the book arrived. With most foreign editions, that’s it. Imagine my surprise when I got a call to tell me that because The King’s Damsel was issued as the lead title in a Russian book club, it had sold . . . wait for it!! . . . 140,000 copies. I have to tell you, that’s a whole lot more copies than any of my books sell in the U.S. Color me gobsmacked.

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