Bouchercon 2011: St. Louis

I am very excited and thrilled to be a moderator at a terrific panel called, "Writing From the Headlines," with a spectacular line-up of panelists at next month's Bouchercon in St. Louis. Our panel's title is "She's Not There" (all panel titles were taken from True Blood, Wire in the Blood, and various shows written by Robert Crais) and will occur on Friday, September 16, 2011 from 11:30 am - 12:30 p.m. in "Landmark 4" room of the Renaissance St. Louis Grand.

I will have the privilege of introducing and interviewing: Pamela Callow (@PamelaCallow) Diane Fanning (@DianeFanning), Ryan David Jahn (@RyanDavidJahn) Karen E. Olson (@kareneolson) and Rick Reed (@JackMurphy1010).

I am grateful to programming chairs Judy Bobalik and Ruth Jordan for arranging such an awesome group and bestowing upon me the absolute honor of moderating this panel.


If you are attending Bouchercon next month, I hope to see you at our discussion ~ and come prepared with intriguing questions for these talented authors who have written true crime and/or written mystery, thriller, and detective fiction influenced by or based on true crime events.

I will devote blog posts to each of these authors to get to know each one of them better ~ so stay tuned!

Marilyn Levinson, Author of A MURDERER AMONG US

I'm thrilled to have Mystery & Children's Books Author Marilyn Levinson, the President of Long Island Sisters in Crime, as my guest blogger today. 
Congratulations, Marilyn, and much success on the release of your latest novel, A Murderer Among Us. 

Kathy, I’m happy to be your guest blogger today.  I was fortunate to meet Kathy when she joined the Long Island chapter of Sisters in Crime that I co-founded last summer with my friend and fellow writer, Bernardine Fagan.  Kathy became a valuable asset -- helping us with all things police-related, PR, Facebook, and Twitter.  We’re a friendly, informal group of mystery writers who meet in various libraries around Long Island.  Our meetings vary from month to month.  We’ve been fortunate to have two wonderful writer guests so far -- Hank Phillippi Ryan and Reed Farrel Coleman.  We critique, try to fathom the mystery of writing mysteries, publishing, and marketing, and support one another wholeheartedly.  We welcome all Long Island mystery writers to come and join us.

My mystery novel, A MURDERER AMONG US, debuted on June first.  My sleuth, Lydia Krause, has moved to Twin Lakes, an upscale retirement community on Long Island, to start a new life.  Lydia’s appalled when her neighbor introduces her to the community’s financial advisor, a convicted embezzler whom Lydia holds responsible for having driven her sister to suicide. She exposes the man in public and exchanges heated words with his wife, who is discovered the following morning, mowed down by Lydia’s Lexus. Suddenly, Lydia is Suspect Number One. Employing the many skills she’s honed as CEO of her own company, Lydia undertakes an investigation to prove her innocence.

The book is about new beginnings.  Widowed and no longer in charge of her company, Lydia forges new friendships.  Her relationships with her grown daughters take unexpected turns.  She even finds herself in a budding romance.  Life, Lydia learns, marches on.

A MURDERER AMONG US is available at Wings ePress in print and eBook format. will soon be available on Amazon.com, Kindle, and Fictionwise.com

Visit my website at: http://www.marilynlevinson.com. 

If you’d like to know more about Long Island Sisters in Crime, feel free to contact me at Marilev4 (at) optonline (dot) net. 

***

Thanks, Marilyn, for visiting today, and your very kind words. I enjoy being a member of Long Island Sisters in Crime. As a relatively new group, I think we're off to a smashing start, if I say so myself!

Visitors: If you have a question or comment for Marilyn, leave a comment ~ and thanks for stopping by!

Two Sentence Tuesday

Today is Two Sentence Tuesday at Women of Mystery -- if you're unfamiliar with this weekly event, here's how it works: Either on your own blog or in the comment section at WoM, post two sentences you've read, and two sentences you've written. It's that easy!

Two from the 2010 Best Mystery Novel Macavity Award winner, TOWER by Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman:

Grayness burned away by the sun like a match through dark acetate. Still cold as an icehouse, but to feel the sun on my face was redemption, if only temporary.

Two from my true crime memoir, A Perfect Night for Murder -- still a W-I-P!

Throughout dozens of interviews, a single thread pierced the fabric of every conversation concerning communication between family members, spouses, children, friends, and neighbors of the historic harbor enclave in the 1950s: residents simply avoided talking about unpleasant or uncomfortable things — as if they didn’t exist.

I also learned that infidelity, spousal and child abuse, and alcoholism was rampant; these painful experiences created silent suffering for its victims.

Join us ~ share 2 + 2, this and every Tuesday. If you've been been meaning to write, this gives you a great excuse to get to it -- at the very least, two sentences -- and you never know where that might lead!

Mystery Monday: The Disappearance of Judge Crater

On August 6, 1930, Judge Joseph Force Crater disappeared after hailing a cab in Manhattan on 45th Street near Eighth Avenue after dining at a Times Square restaurant with his mistress and a friend. He had just withdrawn $5100 from his two bank accounts.

It is the longest unsolved missing person's case in the NYPD.

Following the Judge's disappearance, "Pulling a Crater" became a part of the lexicon, as did "Judge Crater, please call your office," by comedians.

Novelist Peter Quinn wondered about his disappearance for years ~ his father was a justice at the same courthouse as Judge Crater ~ and he decided to fictionalize the story in The Man Who Never Returned, through the eyes of a detective in 1955. This past August, Alan Feuer interviewed Quinn for an article in the New York Times. Quinn's fascination and involvement in this case is detailed in this informative article.

In August 2005, authorities announced they had received notes left by the wife of an NYPD officer, after her death at age 91. The notes alleged the judge was buried under the boardwalk in Coney Island. Author Richard J. Tofel expressed skepticism of the woman's account in his book, Vanishing Point: The Disappearance of Judge Crater and the New York He Left Behind.

Sounds like some intriguing books for my Christmas list!

Images from The Overlook Press blog and Barnes and Noble.

The Insight of Maxwell Perkins

On this date in 1884, William Maxwell Evarts Perkins, better known as Maxwell Perkins, was born. He is probably one of the most famous literary editors who ever lived; he worked with Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe.

I found some wonderful quotes on the Famous Quotes and Authors site, attributed to the talented Mr. Maxwell, and I wanted to share them with you:

"Every good thing that comes is accompanied by trouble."

"Just get it down on paper, and then we'll see what to do with it."

"Anybody can find out if he is a writer. If he were a writer, when he tried to write of some particular day, he would find in the effort that he could recall exactly how the light fell and how the temperature felt, and all the quality of it. Most people cannot do it. If they can do it, they may never be successful in a pecuniary sense,

but that ability is at the bottom of writing, I am sure."

"I believe the writer... should always be the final judge. I have always held to that position and have sometimes seen books hurt thereby, but at least as often helped. The book belongs to the author."

"You have to throw yourself away when you write."

I'm sure that one or more of these resonates with you.

The beautiful Snapdragon Inn, located in Windsor, Vermont, was once owned by Maxwell Perkins. Looks like a lovely place to visit.

Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg, a 1978 National Book Award Winner, will be going on my TBR pile. The word is that Sean Penn is in talks to portray the famous Scribner editor, based on the Berg biography of Perkins.

Perkins died in 1947 at age 62.

Photo sources: North Carolina Historic Sites and The Snapdragon Inn.

LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov

On August 18, 1958, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov was published in the United States by G.P. Putnam & Sons. The controversial novel is included on Time's 100 best English language Novels from 1923 to 2005, and is fourth in Modern Library's 1998 list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century.

Nabokov wrote the novel from 1949 to 1955; it was published in France in 1955. It was banned in Paris from 1956-1958.

The review that appeared in September 1958 in The Atlantic Monthly can be found here.

The novel sold 100,000 copies in the first three weeks, the first novel to do so since Gone With the Wind.

Nabokov wrote the screenplay that Stanley Kubrick directed in 1962, starring James Mason as Humbert Humbert. Adrian Lyne directed an adaptation in 1997, starring Jeremy Irons.

Nabokov, who was born in 1899 in St. Petersburg, Russia, died in Switzerland in 1977.

NPR's Audience Picks: Top 100 "Killer Thrillers"

The results are in ~ NPR's audience vote of Top 100 "Killer Thrillers."

Which are some of your faves? I took part in this ballot after my blogmate on Women of Mystery, Cathi Stoler, brought the poll to our attention. The list was narrowed down to 182 titles from 600, and you could vote for your top ten.

My opinion is similar to the readers who voted ~ every one of my picks made the list.

If you're looking for a suspenseful novel during your next trip to the library or book store, or ordering it straight from your e-reader, this is an exciting list of titles to review.

Don't forget to check Project Gutenberg to look for some of the free e-books available, such as #10, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or #11, Dracula, by Bram Stoker.

Speaking of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, have you seen him discussing Sherlock Holmes on a YouTube video?

Are there some books that you've been meaning to read and haven't gotten around to it yet? Maybe now's the time!

Happy reading!