When I was first asked by the Nominating Committee if I wanted to be chapter president of MWA-NY, I was sure they were mistaken. Who me? Someone who had racked up no books in print, no bestsellers, no major awards. I felt the members would look at me and ask, So when is the real president arriving? But the then-president, […]
Think of Provence – and what comes to mind? Fields of lavender, groves of olive trees, terracotta tile roofs, a steaming pot of bouillabaisse, a glass of chilled rosé, the mistral blowing. (You get the idea.) That said, I’m pretty certain my own experience in the picturesque small Luberon village to which I’ve been coming for 35 years is rare.
On Wednesday, December 2, we had our MWA-NY Chapter annual Winter Revels holiday party. Our guest of honor, our sort-of-Secret-Santa, was best-selling author Lee Child. We were in the formal reception room of the Salmagundi Club, the club where we have all our meetings. There was an open bar, appetizers, and a mountain of bright red goodie bags. The place
Terrence P. McCauley is an award-winning writer of crime fiction. His first techno-thriller Sympathy for the Devil was published by Polis Books this July. Polis is also republishing his first two crime novels set in 1930 New York City — Prohibition and Slow Burn. He has had short stories featured in Thuglit, Spintetingler Magazine, Shotgun Honey, Big Pulp, and other publications. A proud native of
As I write this, Thanksgiving is a recent memory and Christmas a (relatively) distant event. It hasn’t even snowed yet in an unseasonably warm city. This is my last blog post, and my thanks to MWA-NY for the opportunity to expound on a few favorite subjects. I hope I’ll see you at the Winter Revels on December 2. The Lee
This past Saturday, a number of MWA-NY members met to assemble the gift bags which will be given to all who attend our Winter Revels on December 2. Lots of swag—books and magazines, yes, but also a few surprises. With the gift bag, the food and drink, and the chance to congregate and indulge in convivial conversations, it’s safe to say
Author Joseph Goodrich poses the question: who are your influences?
Crime and the theater have always had a mutually beneficial relationship. As an extremity of human behavior, crime is dramatic. We see this in plays that we might not immediately think of as mysteries. Oedipus Rex, of course, and Medea, which could be viewed as an ancient Cornell Woolrich revenge story—The Bride Wore Poison. O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra is, among other
Carrie Smith has won writing awards and a fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her debut mystery novel is SILENT CITY. In this Mug Shot profile, she lets us in on her writing routine and who some of her favorite authors are.
Host Robert Daniher (far left) with the cozy crew of (left to right) Mary McHugh, Carole Bugge (aka C.E. Lawrence), Susan Breen, and Peggy Ehrhart. On Saturday, October 17, Madison Public Library and MWA-NY hosted the first-ever Bones & Scones reading event in Madison, New Jersey. A cozy mystery version of Noir at the Bar, Bones & Scones was the brainchild of
During the last weekend of September, I attended the Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity (C3) conference in Hunt Valley, Maryland. The C3 is an annual book lovers’ event for fans and writers of horror, mystery, suspense, thriller, fantasy, and paranormal. Attendees were greeted with a tote bag of goodies, including a copy of Prose ‘n Cons magazine, a notepad and pen set, and
Greenwich, Conn., author Nina Mansfield shares an insider’s view of CrimeCONN 2015, the annual Connecticut Mystery Conference co-sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America, New York Chapter.
C.J. Carpenter was born and grew up in Upstate New York. She worked in advertising and television production before she decided to embark on a writing career. About her first novel, Never Alone, Kirkus Reviews wrote: “A promising debut for fans of the procedural thriller. The complex heroine and startling denouement lift this one above the average and bode well for future installments.” Her second novel, Hidden Vices, was released in July.
On the blog, we have recently published reports on four bookstore interviews I conducted recently: Doylestown Bookshop, the Mechanicsburg Mystery Bookshop, Moonstone Mystery Book Store, and Buffalo Street Books. This project began because Sisters in Crime asked Stefanie Pintoff and me to interview Otto Penzler and Ian Kern of Mysterious Bookshop about the state of the retail book business. SinC
All the lying and the hiding and the subtext of theater add up to the best elements of a good crime story. Many novelists, like David Mamet and Theresa Rebeck, have launched their novel-writing careers from a background in theater. Theater has taught them how to tell a story. Is it any surprise then that the most dramatic of novel
