Summer is here, the season of long days, beautiful sunsets, strawberries with breakfast, lunch and dinner and blueberry season ahead. I’m doing my best to ignore the heat dome, the humidity index and all of the rainy Saturdays. Soon we’ll be on vacation, two precious weeks when I’ll have hours each day to write. A decade ago, it was relatively easy to switch from my lawyer to my writer brain after working all day. For a variety of reasons, that’s less true now.

A stunning summer sunset.

As I’ve made peace with my slower process, I’ve come to treasure all the more the summer weeks when I can immerse myself in writing, fueled by blueberry pie and punctuated by icy plunges into the sharp, salty, sea.  I have three works in process right now—two short stories and a novel-in-process that’s it’s time to revisit—and I’m eager to get to work.

As newspaper editor Bernie O’Dea is fond of saying in the Maine Literary Award-winning novel DYING FOR NEWS by MCW’s own Maureen Milliken, I’m going to move forward like a shark.  Many thanks for that inspiring mental image, Mo.

My summer vacation writing spot.

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In no way do I want to rush the season, but two conferences are coming up this fall that readers of this blog won’t want to miss.

Maine Crime Wave has been moved from the spring, where it tended to collide with many other events, to September 27, and from the USM campus to Mechanics’ Hall in downtown Portland.

As MCW emeritus Barbara Ross blogged on May 27 (go here:  https://mainecrimewriters.com/2025/05/27/what-happened-to-crime-wave )  Crime Wave 2025 will focus on building and connecting the crime writing community. The planning committee has designed a conference that’s far more interactive than in the past, with roundtables for discussion, more craft workshops, and a couple of special events on the Friday afternoon and evening before the conference itself.

At 4 p.m. Friday there’ll be a group tour of the Maine Historical Society’s exhibit NOTORIOUS: MAINE CRIME IN THE PUBLIE EYE, 1690 – 1940, which promises to be spectacular. Here’s the link for more info.   https://www.mainehistory.org/all-exhibitions/notorious-maine-crime-in-the-public-eye/

Also on Friday, at 7:00 p.m., Novel, the book bar and café on Congress Street, will host NOIR @ THE BAR, where crime writers will read from their work in what is sure to be an uproarious, wonderful event.  Novel is just down the block from Mechanics’ Hall, and more information is here: https://www.novelmaine.com/

As for Saturday’s events, Paul Doiron, author of the award-winning Mike Bowditch series, is 2025 Crime Master. Julia Spencer-Fleming, author of the award-winning Rev. Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne mystery series, will interview Paul during the lunch hour. That discussion alone will be worth the price of admission, but the entire day will be packed with interesting conversations and opportunities to connect with Maine Crime Writers of all sorts.

Crime Wave includes a flash fiction contest open to all comers. The deadline to enter is August 1.  The challenge is to write 500 words with the following opening line, devised by Paul: “The first recorded incident of cannibalism in Maine occurred in 1710 at Boon Island. The most recent incident was discovered last week.”

Inspired? Send your best work . . .

More details are on the Crime Wave website. The full schedule is here: https://www.mainewriters.org/events/crime-wave-schedule-2025  and the registration link is here: https://mainewriters.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/mainewriters/eventRegistration.jsp?event=941&%20%20

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On the weekend of November 7 – 9,  New England Crime Bake will take place outside of Boston. A large contingent of Maine crime writers attends each year, along with folks from all over New England as well as other parts of the country.

Lori Rader-Day, a marvelous writer and wonderful human being, is 2025 Guest of Honor. She’ll be launching her newest book, WRECK  YOUR HEART, in early winter, so Crime Bake will offer the opportunity to hear from Lori about its protagonist, an up-and- coming country musician from her hometown of Chicago. You’ll als0 have a chance to do a some boot scooting to a live band at the Saturday evening banquet.

The aforementioned Barbara Ross, renowned not only for her writing but for her consistent support for other crime writers, will be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Saturday evening’s banquet. Barb is also teaching a on Friday afternoon a Master Class called “What I’ve Learned.”  If you’ve ever heard Barb speak, you know it will be (1) inspiring and (2) hilarious.

As a craft-focused conference, Crime Bake offers all kinds of opportunities to plug in with the region-wide crime writing community, and one of us probably will preview it again as summer moves to fall.

But don’t wait for that!  This conference tends to sell out, so if you’re interested, this is the time to sign up. The full schedule is here: https://www.crimebake.org/event/b37885aa-3475-44c8-80a2-3a16206ce929/schedule

and here’s the link to register: https://www.crimebake.org/event/b37885aa-3475-44c8-80a2-3a16206ce929/regProcessStep1

Brenda Buchanan sets her novels in and around Portland. Her three-book Joe Gale series features a contemporary newspaper reporter with old-school style who covers the courts and crime beat at the fictional Portland Daily Chronicle. Brenda’s short story, “Means, Motive, and Opportunity,” was in the anthology Bloodroot: Best New England Crime Stories 2021 and received an honorable mention in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022. Her story Assumptions Can Get You Killed appears in Wolfsbane: Best New England Crime Stories 2023.  In 2025 she is staying busy with new projects.