Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Donate to Hero Dogs In Memory of Jeremiah Healy

With the rest of the crime fiction community, the SMFS was saddened by the August suicide of member Jeremiah Healy. With permission from his fiancee Sandra Balzo, Jerry's friends and fellow authors have found a way to prolong his legacy after his own heart. Brendan Dubois explains:

Besides his work as an attorney and an author, Jeremiah Healy was a U.S. Army [veteran], and was also a lover of dogs. We have therefore reached out to a service dog organization in Maryland that trains dogs to assist wounded veterans, and they will be thrilled to receive donations in Jerry's name.

The group is called Hero Dogs, and is based in Maryland...They are an IRS approved 501(c)(3) organization and operate entirely on donations. You can donate via their website, or by sending a check to Hero Dogs, P.O. Box 64, Brookeville, MD 20833-0064. But *please* ensure either by writing on the memo section of your check, or using the form on their website, that you're making this donation in Jerry's name.

That way, Hero Dogs can track how many donations come in, so that they can be used in some way to keep Jerry's memory alive in years to come. Please donate what you can, and please share this link. Thanks to all of you who were friends or fans of Jerry's.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Members' Publication News

The following members sent in publication news this month:
  • M.H. Callway, Windigo Fire, Seraphim Editions (October 2014)
  • Peter DiChellis, "One Fingertip", Thrills, Kills, 'n' Chaos (October 15, 2014)
  • John M. Floyd, "A Loan-ly Murder", Woman's World (October 20, 2014)
  • Barb Goffman, "The Shadow Knows", Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays (Wildside Press, October 7, 2014)
    • "It's a Trap!", The Killer Wore Cranberry: A Fourth Meal of Mayhem (Untreed Reads, October 2014)
  • Jay Hartman ed. The Killer Wore Cranberry: A Fourth Meal of Mayhem (Untreed Reads: October 2014), featuring several SMFS members
  • Robert Lopresti, Shanks on Crime, a collection of 13 Leopold Longshanks stories
  • Jacqueline Seewald, Death Legacy (coming to ebook October 27 from The Novel Fox)
  • Judy Penz Sheluk, "Live Free or Die", World Enough and Crime (Carrick Publishing, October 2014)
  • Gerald So, "What Are Friends For?", Shotgun Honey (October 6, 2014)
  • B.K. Stevens, "True Enough: Bolt's Last Case", Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (December 2014)
  • John Weagly, Ten Tentacles (Amazon Createspace)

To send news for next month's post, email Gerald So (G_SO at YAHOO dot COM).

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Logo & Gift Shop

Lapel pin by Pattie Tierney
Artist John Moody drew the Short Mystery Fiction Society logo in 2003. Its derringer represents the Society's Derringer Awards, which date back to 1998 annually honoring outstanding published mystery & crime short stories up to 20,000 words, living writers' outstanding bodies of work, and people who've greatly advanced or supported the form.

The lapel pin pictured at right was designed by Pattie Tierney in 2009. Order by emailing PATTIE dot TIERNEY at GMAIL dot COM. The cost is $12, which includes postage, payable by check or PayPal.

Members may show the logo on their websites.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

How to Vote in SMFS Polls

To elect our officials, decide the Derringer Awards, or resolve other issues on Shortmystery or its subgroups, we use that group's Polls feature:

To vote, you need to be a group member able to log into the particular Polls webpage with your Yahoo! ID and password. If you're a member but can't log in, you need to enable Web access.

Once logged in, you will see any open poll questions:


Click on the question you want to vote on and you'll see the answer choices:


Click on the circle to the left of your choice. This fills the circle with a white checkmark against a green background, the record of your vote.

If you want to change your vote before polling ends, return to the poll page and click on the circle to the left of your new choice. The white checkmark and green background will move accordingly.

If you just want to withdraw your original vote, click on the same circle you did before and it will go blank.

For this example, let's say you change your vote from Sample Choice B to Sample Choice C. When polling ends, the breakdown of votes is shown, your final choice highlighted green: