CHARLES ARDAI is one of those people whose energy, acuity, and achievements make you wonder what the heck you’ve been doing with your life. He’s won the Edgar, Shamus and Ellery Queen Awards, plus he is the author of five novels, including Little Girl Lost and Songs of Innocence. As the founding editor of the acclaimed pulp fiction imprint Hard Case Crime, he […]
After serving with the U.S. Army overseas, Albert Ashforth graduated from Brooklyn College and subsequently worked on two New York City newspapers. As a military contractor, he has done tours in Bosnia, Germany, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Afghanistan. He has worked as an instructor at Special Forces headquarters in Bad Tolz and trained officers at the German military academy in Neubiberg.
If all you know of Rupert Holmes is a little ditty titled “Escape (The Pina Colada Song),” then you don’t know Rupert Holmes. Novelist, playwright, lyricist, composer, performer, musician, Holmes does it all — and he does it well: His mantle is groaning with Edgars and Tonys and a diverse array of other prizes and citations for excellence. He also
It was mysterious! It was horrific! It was . . . romantic! Members of the Mystery Writers of America, New York Chapter, the Horror Writers Association, and the Romance Writers of America-New York City met and mingled over cocktails (and in air conditioning, on an extremely muggy summer night) at Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan on August 11. MWA-NY’s Laura
The deadline for the inaugural Leon B. Burstein Scholarship has been extended. Aspiring mystery writers can now submit their applications until Friday, September 23. You can download the application by clicking here. The scholarship, named for avid mystery fan Leon B. Burstein, supports mystery writing by providing financial assistance to writers who want to take a specific class, attend a conference,
The Internet, as we’ve all discovered, is a mixed blessing. One of its decided pleasures, however, is the ease with which books can be found. When I worked in a bookstore in Los Angeles over 20 years ago, if a book was out of print, there were only two options for the reader: look for it at every bookstore you stepped
It is for me, at any rate. In past entries for the MWA-NY blog I’ve written about the mystery play. I’d like to return briefly to the subject — briefly, for the best of reasons: I’ve got a play to finish. Might As Well Be Dead, my second adaptation of one of Rex Stout’s tales featuring the heavyweight detective Nero
Kira Peikoff is the author of three novels: Living Proof (Tor, 2012), No Time to Die (Kensington, 2014), and Die Again Tomorrow (Kensington, 2015). Since 2012, she has been writing health and science features on a freelance basis for publications including the New York Times, Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, and Cosmopolitan.com. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from NYU and
…It crooks your back, it dims your sight, it twists your stomach and your sides. In other words, as if we didn’t already know it, the writing life has always been hard. But the MWA-NY Mentor Program does what it can to help, by pairing writers in any stage of their career with a mentor from among our Active members.
Editor’s Note: This is the second in our series of chats with our top mentees from the 2015 Mentor Program. Top 10 Books I’ve Learned from as a Writer The red warning light came on five miles back in the middle of a rush hour crawl down the New Jersey Parkway. Now every gauge in the car was telling me to
As I look forward to my second year chairing the Mentor Program, I took some time to chat with the authors of our two top manuscripts from last year’s program. Since the Mentor Program is all about writers helping other writers, I thought it might be fun to switch things up a little and discuss how our mentees have learned
New York Times best-selling author M.J. Rose grew up in New York City mostly in the labyrinthine galleries of the Metropolitan Museum, the dark tunnels and lush gardens of Central Park, and reading her mother’s favorite books before she was allowed. Her novel The Collector of Dying Breaths was chosen as an Indie Next Pick, and her latest novel, The Secret
Laura K. Curtis discusses why interactions at conferences are not the same as those in everyday life.
Laura K. Curtis discusses why you need to be at least as picky about the writing of your cover copy as you are about the writing of your book.
Radha Vatsal‘s debut novel, A Front Page Affair, was published this May by Sourcebooks Landmark. It is the first in the Kitty Weeks mystery series and received a starred review from Library Journal, which also selected the novel as Debut of the Month. Vatsal has a PhD in English from Duke University and lives with her family in New York. What made
