Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by John Clark (Monday), Sarah Graves (Tuesday), Kate Flora (Wednesday), Kaitlyn Dunnett (Thursday), and Vicki Doudera (Friday).

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

Barb: There’s a cover for Musseled Out, the next book in the Maine Clambake Mystery series, due out May 5, 2015. What do you think?

As part of the Acadian World Congress: Vaughn C. Hardacker will be selling/signing his novel, SNIPER, during the Maine-on-Main days in Van Buren (August 9 & 10). Stop by if you’re in the area.

Recently, we blogged about Thirteen Reasons Maine is the BEST Place to Live. But we didn’t give you all thirteen, because we decided to space them out and bring you smaller tastes of what makes Maine great in our weekend updates. So for this week, we offer:

Real Small Town Life: Main streets with local stores, just about every town has an art gallery, an antiques shop, a craft shop, and a farmers’ market … where you can buy artisanal cheeses, free-range chickens (and their eggs), local beers, wines, gins and vodkas along with baked goods, jam, fresh vegetables and Maine-made cheese. Dogs are welcome, kids abound, and sometimes someone even plays the ukulele.

In the summer, Maine Crime Writers occasionally leave their desks. Here are Kate Flora, Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett, and Dorothy Cannell at the Beyond the Sea Book Festival in Lincolnville last Saturday. A perfect taste of small town life in a gift shop full of books, cards, jewelry, scarves and other irresistible things.

A man called Dave, a dog named Reny, and a book by Kate

Lea Wait: And sometimes we combine art with writing! Thursday, August 7, I’ll be speaking in Damariscotta (route 1 just north of business route 1) at the River Arts Center on “Living and Writing in Maine.” Gee — sounds like a good blog topic! I’ll be speaking at 7 p.m., and look forward to answering lots of questions, and signing some books.

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. Don’t forget that comments are entered for a chance to win our wonderful basket of books, and the very special moose and lobster cookie cutters.

Pothole in Camden, Maine shaped like the state of Maine. Is there a message here?

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: mailto: kateflora@gmail.com