Yahoo! Groups Planned Downtime April 1

Yahoo! Groups members and owners may experience intermittent downtime beginning at 1pm PT on Thursday, April 1, 2010 while the Groups team performs regular maintenance on some of the systems. During this time Yahoo! Group members and owners may not be able to access the Yahoo! Groups site or receive Yahoo! Groups mails.

We will update you as soon as the maintenance is complete. Thank you for your patience!

2010 Derringer Submissions - Final Tally

From Awards Coordinator Suzanne Rorhus:

The submission period for the Derringers has officially ended. Please see below for a list of stories in each category.

Flash (Up to 1,000 Words):

A Matter of Opinion
An Old-Fashioned Vacation
And Here's To You, Mrs. Edwardson
Awake
Bottled Up
Confessions of a Telemarketer
Gutterball
Night Fall
Organization Girl
The Enumerator
The Right Track
Unplanned
Verdict

Short (1,001-4,000 Words):

A Bad Day at the Office
A Christmas Tail
All Set
An Inconvenient Killing
Anything
Avenging Angel
Baby, It's Cold Outside
Bad to the Corps
Biography of Stoop the Thief
Brew's Clues
Brotherly Love
Bye Bye Baby
Caught on Christmas Eve
Dream Catcher
Due Consideration
Dying For Chocolate
Eddie's Dungeon
Excuse Me, But There's a Kidney
Family Man
Grounds for Divorce
Gun Love
Identity Theft
Insatiable
Jibber Jabber
Keeping It Clean
Lights Out
Maker's and Coke
New Year's Eve Surprise
Nice Climate, Miami
One Good Turn
Pinked Off
Preferred Customer
Quick on the Draw
Raising the Dead
Reader of Dreams
Running to Zero
Shanks on Misdirection
Some Call It Revenge
Spare Change
Stephen Colbert's Ameri. Night.
Suitcase and Slow Time
Survival Instincts
Swim in the Sunshine
Taking Care of Our Own
The Big Switch
The Bite
The Good Woman
The Hard Sell
The Kindle Did It
The Lap of Luxury
The Night Before Christmas
The Right to Remain Silent
The Scene of My Second Murder
The Seven Dollar Clue
The Tortoise and the Tortoise
The Worst Noel
Trouble with Wind
Twas the Night
Unanswered Prayers
Undying Love
Unexpected Endings
Where there's Smoke
You Can Be Too Thin

Long (4,001-8.000 Words):

A Fellow of Infinite Jest
A Hollywood Ending
A Stab in the Heart
Bad Trip
Between Sins
Between Us Girls
Bismarck Rules
Bob's Superette
Boudin Noir
CHRISTMAS CAME LATE
Don't Call Me Simon
Famous Last Words
Fictional History
Finish the Job
FM is for Murder
For the Love of the Grape
Handbaskets, Drawers, and Killer Cold
Horns
Like Father, Like Son
London Calling
Los Simpaticos
Lucky is Another Country
Message in the Sand
On the House
Preminger's Gold
RED DOG
Regarding Certain Occurrences in a Cottage at the Garden of Allah
Shut Up and Kill Me
Sling
Snow on Bloedkoppie
Stepmonster
That Kind of Guy
The Case of the Piss-Poor Gold
The Center of the Universe
The Devil's Dumping Ground
The Gas Leak
The Greenhouse Effect
The Last Resort
The Shanty Drummer
The Shipbreaker
The Sleepy Pines Nursing Home
The Taskmaster
There's a Dead Elf in Santa's Workshop
Time Will Tell
Timing is Everything
Trust to Dust
Vacation
What Price Retribution?
White Wolves
Yule Night

Novelette (8,001-17,500 Words):

A Model for Murder
A Murder of Crows
A Voice From The Past
Adjuncts Anonymous
Bacon
How the Story Goes
Julius Katz
Killing Mum
Price Tag Attached
The Candy-Factory Girls
The Last Drop
The Pirate's Debt
Uncle Brick and Jimmy Kills

2010 Derringer Awards Voting Reminder

A reminder that this year's group voting for the Derringer winners will take place on The Derringers Voting Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Derringers/ from April 1 through April 30, 2010.

Derringer Coordinator Suzanne Rorhus will upload the five finalist stories in each category to the Derringer Voting Group's Files section for members to read. Automated polls will be created for each category.

To vote for the Derringer winners, you must subscribe to the Derringer Voting Group. When you subscribe, Suzanne will check your eligibilty to vote based on whether you joined the SMFS prior to February 1, 2010. If you did so, you are eligible to vote for this year's Derringer winners. If you joined Shortmystery on or after February 1, 2010, you are not eligible to vote. This measure is in place to prevent last-minute ballot-stuffing.

The polls will close at midnight ET May 1, and the winners will be announced later that day.

Golden Derringer Panel Volunteer Needed

As ratified last year, the Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement is given after deliberations by a five-member panel including the SMFS president and vice president, Derringer Awards Coordinator, lifetime member, and one randomly-selected member-volunteer.

If any SMFS member would like to volunteer, please e-mail me at g_so AT yahoo DOT com with the subject line "Golden Derringer Volunteer". I will put the volunteers' names into a randomizer program, and announce the chosen member on April 1.

While the group voting on the regular Derringers is going on (April 1-30), the Golden Derringer panel will be considering recipient candidates.

SMFS members may submit 200-word max essays nominating Golden Derringer candidates. E-mail them to g_so AT yahoo DOT com in the body of a message with the subject line "Golden Derringer Essay".