Did you miss me? I know it has been a while since my last newsletter. I ran off to the other edge of the country for long weekend to attend a very important wedding and returned to a mountain of work that had waited patiently for my return. So each day this week I’ve spent time working on the past while new requirements piled in on me from the present.
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack at once.
Since I posted last I enjoyed a fun book…
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Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 25, 2009 at 3:33am —
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My latest post on the
International Crime Authors Reality Check blog:
Unlike the Palestinians (who don’t have one), Palestinian politics is in a real state. A civil war that’s been bubbling and sometimes burning for two years plus. No government in Gaza because Hamas, which rules there, is isolated. Accusations by a top PLO official that current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had his predecessor Yasser Arafat…
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Added by Matt Rees on July 24, 2009 at 7:28pm —
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As often happens in publishing, book titles change. Why they change can vary and really unimportant in the grand scheme. What matters is that the title is memorable and reflects the story unfolding between the covers. With that said, my debut novel has undergone a title change and I couldn't be more excited...
CRIMSON SWAN is now officially titled
BLOOD LAW!
Title changes aren't made lightly and without due consideration. Changing to
BLOOD LAW is a…
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Added by Jeannie Holmes on July 24, 2009 at 8:18am —
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Poison? By Matt Beynon Rees -
GlobalPost
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Yasser Arafat’s body lies in the back of the presidential compound, beyond the parking lot, in a mausoleum of stone and glass. Two guards in ceremonial uniforms that seem out of place in the camouflaged guerrilla world of Palestinian militias watch over the angled stone marking the…
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Added by Matt Rees on July 24, 2009 at 12:13am —
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Oh, surprise.
I'm working on 2 books at once. It's going well but I need to finish them both by October 1 so I can move on to another project. So I am seriously under the gun (ha! a pun on a crime site!) to write, write, write. Of course, I also have to attend myriad family functions -- this is the year people are getting married, having babies, getting married, graduating, getting married -- busy!
So I'll be back in the fall with my usual verbosity. Until then that noise…
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Added by J L Wilson on July 23, 2009 at 9:49pm —
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Robert Rees (no relation) writes about my books in this week's edition of
The Forward. Admirably Rob read all three of the books before passing judgment, and a good review it is (as well as an interview, because we spoke for some time on Rob's recent visit to Jerusalem). "Rees has created an award-winning crime series which provides a view of Palestinian society, warts and all, not previously available to a wider public," he…
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Added by Matt Rees on July 23, 2009 at 5:15pm —
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Here is a list of a few of my favorite websites I use when writing a mystery:
http://www.crime-scene-investigator.net/csi-response.html Includes Crime Scene Investigation resources, training, articles and links to forensic web pages.
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/forensics.shtml Comprehensive resource covering forensic identification.
http://www.terryburns.net/COPS_CRIME.htm Articles related to crime scene investigations, physical…
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Added by Miranda Phillips Walker on July 23, 2009 at 2:24pm —
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To all interested parties:
Please visit the NoirCon 2010 Blog site. It will provide information about what is in store for NoirCon 2010.
The site is noircon.blogspot.com
Added by Louis Boxer on July 23, 2009 at 12:11pm —
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I have an article featured in this month's issue of
Mystery Readers International:
Added by Michael P. Naughton on July 23, 2009 at 3:47am —
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When I was a child eating fish was a scary proposition. Everyone knew it was good for you. And it was even tasty. But beware of the dreaded fish bones. If you got one lodged in your throat it could kill you. And it seemed all fish had them. They were hard to see, looking very much like the flesh of the fish. Even when you went to a fancy restaurant and the waiter boned the fish in front of you, tiny dangerous bones were usually left to surprise you. You'd suddenly have to put your fingers in…
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Added by Gayle Wigglesworth on July 23, 2009 at 2:33am —
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It's hard enough to get around the notorious
Ein el-Hilweh Refugee Camp in Lebanon at the best of times. I can testify to that, having had a few sweaty-palmed visits to the place myself to interview the hardline Palestinian gunmen who rule the camp. Try doing it after calling on the head of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to eschew beards which "don't look good on your King Osama" and while dressed as "Austria's greatest gay superstar since…
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Added by Matt Rees on July 22, 2009 at 11:53pm —
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I have two places conducive to thinking, and they are as different as can be. First, I think in the car, preferably on a long trip and preferably alone. The automatic process of driving seems to calm my conscious mind and let the deeper thoughts arrange themselves into viable plots and possible characters. I particularly like the drive across Michigan's Upper Peninsula, which is both beautiful and remote, allowing lots of time to work out plot knots. I carry a small recorder and talk to myself,…
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Added by Peg Herring on July 22, 2009 at 7:00am —
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Sometime this fall, my short story "War Path" will appear in the
North Country Press mystery anthology:
Doing a happy [war] dance!
Added by Gigi Vernon on July 22, 2009 at 5:37am —
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Here we go again folks. My Mythica Publishing title 'Kiss of Life' is one of this month's nominations for the New Covey Cover Awards. If you feel like supporting me once again please go to
http://thenewcoveycoverawards.blogspot.com/ and vote for entry number 5, Kiss of Life. I really do appreciate every vote I get.
Regards to…
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Added by Brian L Porter on July 22, 2009 at 3:20am —
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I'm amazed and astounded that 'Legacy of the Ripper' has shown up at #42 in Amazon.co.uk's Top 100 bestselling Historical books. A Study in Red normally shows well in the Jack the Ripper and crime thriller category but this is the fist time I can remember one of my book being so high in one of mainstream categories at Amazon. I'm so excited today. The listing is at…
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Added by Brian L Porter on July 21, 2009 at 9:05pm —
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Really. I mean, the woman started reading me Edgar Allen Poe when I was still too short to reach the kitchen faucet and get my own drink of water. She would often appear in our bedroom doorway with a book and share a snippet of poetry or prose that had grabbed her imagination, and it was usually something spooky. She talked about words and the usage of words, why things were better said this way than that. And she put into my hands at about age thirteen the most unlikely of English teacher…
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Added by Peg Herring on July 21, 2009 at 7:00am —
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I've joined up with a few other crime writers to fill a single blog,
International Crime Authors Reality Check, with original content. Last week Colin Cotterill wrote about his attempt to get a "vagina" into the title of one of his novels. This week, Colin has a hilarious post about his bemusing appearance at the
Crime Writers Association's Daggers dinner -- at which Colin was…
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Added by Matt Rees on July 20, 2009 at 10:47pm —
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I posted last week about an editor who asked me to change two sentences, with the enticing, "Before I can offer you a contract..."
Well, I fixed 'em and she sent me the contract. Sometimes it happens just like that.
I should be cheering, but I think I'm still in shock: no year of waiting for an answer? No "We'll see what the sales department thinks of your chances?" That's cool.
Added by Peg Herring on July 20, 2009 at 9:28pm —
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My latest release 'Legacy of The Ripper' (Double Dragon Publishing) has just received its first review at Amazon.com I'm delighted to say that it received five stars and I'm very proud to reproduce the review here:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Continuing Saga of the Legacy of Jack the Ripper, July 19, 2009
By Martha A. Cheves (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
'Does violent death have a name? Can evil truly be born into the world, evil so…
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Added by Brian L Porter on July 20, 2009 at 8:39am —
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It's official! I just got the word from my publisher that their foreign rights department sold the rights to FREEZING POINT to Droemer Knauer in Germany and to the Czech Republic, whoo-hoo! The German edition will be paperback, and the Czech will be hardcover. These are my first foreign rights sales. Really, REALLY happy and excited!
Added by Karen Dionne on July 20, 2009 at 7:30am —
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