Sisters In Crime NY

New York’s wonderful Mid-Manhattan Library (at 40th St. and 5th Ave.) will be hosting a panel discussion with various members of Mystery Writers of America and our own chapter of Sisters in Crime.

Crime Scenes: From Cities to the Back of Beyond: Why & How Mystery Writers Choose their Settings will be held on April 13th at 6:30pm on the 6th Floor.  Joining moderator Peggy Ehrhart will be panelists Lorenzo Carcaterra, Henry Chang, Julia Pomeroy, Laura Joh Rowland, and Wallace Stroby.  Under discussion will be Evil *cue organ music* and everywhere it lurks, from seemingly harmless small towns to the glamourous metropolis, and even more exotic locales both in place and time.

Member Hilary Davidson has been nominated by Spinetingler Magazine in their category Best Short Story on the Web!

“Insatiable,” was originally published by e-zine Beat to a Pulp.  Learn about the award, read all the nominated stories, and vote here.

Many congratulations and good luck to Hilary!

5 of our local Sisters will be reading selections with international appeal at the legendary Kettle of Fish in Greenwich Village at 59 Christopher St.   Lina Zeldovich, Pat King, Liz Zelvin, Peggy Ehrhart, and Cathi Stoler, who was nice enough to share her flyer, will be reading short selections from their works from 6:45 to 8pm.  This is our first public reading- Hope to see you there!

Lina Zeldovich’s short story “Love Is a Strange Thing” just won an honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Award.  It was submitted in the Romance category, though she swears there’s a juicy death in it, too.

Congratulations, Lina, and we look forward to hearing more good news about these characters!

Malice Domestic is having its 22nd annual conference to discuss and celebrate mysteries from April 30th to May 2nd, 2010.  We’re thrilled that 3 of our local/recently-local Sisters have been nominated for Agatha Awards, which will be announced and presented at the event’s banquet.

Elizabeth Zelvin’s “Death Will Trim Your Tree” (Wolfmont Press) has been nominated for best Short Story and can be read at her site.  Meredith Cole’s novel POSED FOR DEATH (St. Martin’s Minotaur) and Stefanie Pintoff’s novel IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM (Minotaur Books) have both been nominated for Best First Novel.

All conference attendees are eligible to vote, and a complete list of Agatha nominees is here.

Many congratulations and best of luck to all!

We’ve all seen movies based upon other written works, but how does that process unfold in real-life?  Our two guests know from personal experience.  Philip Cioffari and Tim McLoughlin will discuss the joys and perils of working on stories that became films.  This one, like all our meetings at the Muhlenberg Library, is open to the public.  See more details at the Chapter Meetings link.

Lights, Camera, Adaptation!

This Saturday, March 6th, member Peggy Ehrhart will be signing her books at the Town Book Store in Westfield, New Jersey, at 270 Broad Street where it intersects with Elmer.  This gem’s been in business for over 75 years, so if you’re in the area, come say hello to Peggy, and do some browsing!

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, David B. Rivkin, Jr. offered his selections for the 5 best historical mystery novels, and THE FIRE KIMONO, by chapter member Laura Joh Rowland, is in this esteemed group!  Read the article for the rest of his choices and the accolades for this title in her long-running series about Sano Ichiro, a samurai detective in early 18th century Japan.

We congratulate her on earning such wonderful recognition!

Showing wonderful coordination with his recent historical release, member Kenneth Wishnia has written a short story about two rabbis and a wise woman exiled from Prague in the 16th century.   Entitled Between Minkhe and Mayrev, it stars some of the same characters as his novel, and appears in the current April issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.  On newsstands now!

Member Peggy Ehrhart’s debut mystery about a blues singer, titled in print as SWEET MAN IS GONE, has been released as an audiobook.  Andrea Bates is the reader/performer, and Books in Motion has retitled protagonist’s Maxx Maxwell’s first adventure in crime as BLUE MURDER.  Congratulations, Peggy!  This audiobook news must sound especially sweet to a musician’s ears.