Derringer Award Nominations

Nominations for the Derringer Awards will be accepted beginning February 1st. So think back about all those great stories you read in 2008. The ones you had to tell other people about. Pick the ones you love best and send them to me in an email. In the subject line type DERRINGER SUBMISSION – TITLE OF STORY and attach the story file, preferably in Word format but send it however. If I can’t open it we’ll figure out something. Please remove the author’s name from the stories. The attached files should have the title of the work and a word count included at the top of the story.

In the body of the email tell me the author's name, when and where the story was published. Also tell me who published the story. I’ll need to know if the person submitting the story is an editor, the author or a member of SMFS. Include indicate the length-category the work is to be entered in.


And last but not least, the submission must be a mystery of some sort.

Market update

ezine, non-paying:

http://Darknessbefore.blogspot.com

ezine, non-paying:

www.powderburnflash.com

Poll Results: Derringer Category Names

With 54.9 percent of the vote, the following Derringer category names have been chosen:

Best Flash Story (Up to 1,000 words)

Best Short Story (1,001-4,000 words)

Best Long Story (4,001-8,000 words)

Best Novelette (8,001-17,500 words)


The category lengths in parentheses are not part of the category names, but they will stay in effect for sorting the Derringer submissions.

Overall Tone

The SMFS Officers cannot be expected to police every phrase that may possibly offend. However, if a member's posts devolve from reasoned argument to impulsive reaction, that is cause to be placed on moderated status, whereupon the member's posts must be approved by the President or Vice President before reaching the list. Moderated members will be returned to normal posting status when a sufficient number of their posts show reasoned argument.

Poll Results: Golden Derringer Panel Permanent Member

By a margin of 46 FOR, 7 AGAINST, the membership has approved Babs Lakey as permanent member of the Golden Derringer panel, serving a term of her choosing.

Avoid Automated Invitations

Automated invitations (such as those sent by various social networking sites to a member's entire address book) should not be posted to Shortmystery. If an invitation is unintentionally sent to the list, I will place the sending member's account on moderated status to prevent further invitations from reaching the list until the member addresses the problem independently.

SMFS Market update

Here's a list of markets that aren't on our markets page on the website:

Yellow Mama ezine: http://blackpetalsks.tripod.com/yellowmama/index.html non-paying

A Twist of Noir ezine: http://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/ non-paying

Beat to a Pulp ezine: http://www.beattoapulp.com/ non-paying

Crooked ezine: http://easternstandardcrime.blogspot.com/ non-paying

Thug Lit ezine: http://www.thuglit.com/home.html non-paying

Orchard Press Mysteries ezine: http://www.orchardpressmysteries.com/index.html fiction, non-paying

Feel free to send market updates to Joy Seymour (joyleenseymour@earthlink.net)