Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Jayne Hitchcock (Monday), Vaughn Hardacker (Tuesday), Sarah Graves (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:

It’s less than one month until Maine Crime Wave comes to South Portland on April 11. This all-day event features workshops and panels and folks from your friendly Maine Crime Writers blog are well represented. Adding to the excitement, there is also a pre-event event on at the Portland Public Library on Friday night. For details on that, click here: Two Minutes in the Slammer April 10 event

Lea Wait: Are you a teacher or school librarian whose students have read any of my historical novels set in 19th century Maine? I can still fit in some school visits or Skype visits this spring. For details, see my website, http://www.leawait.com. (Fifteen minute Skype visits are free!) In the coming week I’ll be Skyping for 90 minutes about my Wintering Well with fourth graders from Dexter, Maine, and then visiting seventh graders at the Bristol Consolidated School to share some prints and artifacts from the Civil War era and talk about Uncertain Glory.

Have you written a New England-based crime story? If so, you might want to enter it for the Al Blanchard Award. Here are the details:

The 2015 Al Blanchard Award

The 2015 Al Blanchard Award is open for submissions.

In memory of Al Blanchard, co-chair of the first three New England Crime Bake Conferences, the New England Crime
Bake Committee established the Al Blanchard Award to annually honor the best crime short story by a New England Writer or set in a New England setting.

THE PRIZE:
$100 cash award.
Publication in Level Best Books’ Crime Fiction anthology.
Admission to the Crime Bake Conference.
You’ll find guidelines and instructions on how to submit at http://crimebake.org/al-blanchard-award/

There is NO entry fee, and the deadline is April 30, 2015.
The winner is not required to attend conference.

Also open for submissions until April 30, 2015 are crime stories by New England writers for the next Level Best Books anthology. Details are here: http://levelbestbooks.com/submissions/

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.

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: mail to: kateflora@gmail.com