Level Best Books Seeks New Editorial Team

The current editors of New England-based Level Best Books, publisher of several Derringer-honored anthologies, have announced the 2016 volume (on sale November 2015) will be their last.

If you are interested in carrying on Level Best Books, email LEVELBESTBOOKS at YAHOO dot COM.

Members' Publication News

The following members sent in publication news this month:

• Michael Bracken, "Quarryville, Texas", The Private Eye Writers of America Presents: 50 Shades of Grey Fedora, ed. Robert J. Randisi (Riverdale Avenue Books, March 2015)
• "Beneath Still Waters", And All Our Yesterdays, ed. Andrew MacRae (Darkhouse Books, March 2015)

• Jan Christensen, "After Hours Blues", Mysterical-E (January 2015)
• "Who's Who?", Over My Dead Body! (March 2015)

• Nancy Brewka-Clark, "Boston Banshee", Kings River Life (March 14, 2015)

• John M. Floyd, "Dreamland", Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (May 2015)
• "Catch Me If You Can", Woman's World (March 2, 2015)
• B.V. Lawson, "With Sweet Lavender", Over My Dead Body! (March 2015)
• Andrew MacRae ed. And All Our Yesterdays, featuring stories by Jack Bates, Debra Borchert, Michael Bracken, Lillian Csernica, K.B. Inglee, Kevin Lauderdale, R.T. Lawton, Michael Allan Mallory, Susan Cummins Miller, Joe L. Murr, Lorraine Norwood, Timothy O'Leary, Dennis Palumbo, Caryn Sutorus, Anne-Marie Sutton, and Albert Tucher (Darkhouse Books, March 2015)
• Robert Mangeot, "Two Bad Hamiltons and a Hirsute Jackson", Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (May 2015)
• William Burton McCormick, "On Record", The Saturday Evening Post (March 13, 2015)
• Alan Orloff, Running from the Past (Kindle Press, March 2015)
• Alan also contributed a recipe to the Mystery Writers of America Cookbook ed. Kate White (Quirk Books, March 2015)
• Percy Spurlark Parker, "The St. Patrick's Day Murder", Over My Dead Body (March 2015)
• Jacqueline Seewald, "Parts", Blight Digest (Winter 2015)
• Serita Stevens and Jo Schaffer, Against Her Will (True North Publishing, March 2015)

Email news for next month's post to Gerald So (G_SO at YAHOO dot COM).

2015 Derringer Finalists

As posted to Shortmystery by Awards Coordinator Tony Rudzki, the finalists for our 2015 Derringer Awards:

For Best Flash (Up to 1,000 words)

• Joseph D'Agnese, "How Lil' Jimmie Beat the Big C" (Shotgun Honey, May 12, 2014)
• Rob Hart, "Foodies" (Shotgun Honey, May 2, 2014)
• Jed Power, "Sweet Smells" (Shotgun Honey, July 28, 2014)
• Eryk Pruitt, "Knockout" (Out of the Gutter Online, August 31, 2014)
• Melissa Yi, "Because" (Fiction River: Crime, March 2014)

For Best Short Story (1,001–4,000 words)

• B.V. Lawson, "The Least of These" (Plan B Magazine, June 6, 2014)
• William Burton McCormick, "Killing Sam Clemens" (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #13, July 2014)
• Britni Patterson, "The Bad Son" (Carolina Crimes: 19 Tales of Lust, Love, and Longing, March 2014)
• Mary E. Stibal, "A Friend in Brown" (Best New England Crime Stories 2015: Rogue Wave, November 2014)
• Cathi Stoler, "The Kaluki King of Queens" (Murder New York Style: Family Matters, August 2014)

For Best Long Story (4,001–8,000 words)

• M.H. Callway, "The Ultimate Mystery" (World Enough and Crime, October 2014)
• Angel Luis Colón, "Separation Anxiety" (All Due Respect #3, May 2014)
• Hilary Davidson, "A Hopeless Case" (All Due Respect #4, September 2014)
• James T. Shannon, "The Missing Money" (Best New England Crime Stories 2015: Rogue Wave, November 2014)
• Cathy Wiley, "Dead Men Tell No Tales" (Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays, October 2014)

For Best Novelette (8,001–20,000 words)

• Doug Allyn, "The Snow Angel" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January 2014)
• Doug Allyn, "Hitler's Dogs" (Fiction River: Crime, March 2014)
• Vicki Delany, "Juba Good" (Orca Books Rapid Reads, April 2014)
• Trey Dowell, "Infernal" (Untreed Reads, June 2014)
• Richard Helms, "Busting Red Heads" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2014)

Finalists may obtain certificates for web display and printout by emailing Gerald So (G_SO at YAHOO dot COM).

The group vote to determine the winners takes place March 1–30. Winners will be announced March 31.

Members' Publication News

The following members sent in publication news this month:

• Peter DiChellis, "More to Huff", Shotgun Honey (February 11, 2015)
• Susan Furlong, writing as Lucy Arlington, Played by the Book, Berkley Prime Crime (February, 2015)
• James S. Dorr, "The Labyrinth", Insidious Assassins ed. Weldon Burge (Smart Rhino Publications, January 17, 2015)
• Debra H. Goldstein, "Power Play", The Birmingham Arts Journal (February 2015)
• "Grandma's Garden" reprinted in the Texas Gardener SEEDS (January 21, 2015)
• William Burton McCormick, "Pompo's Disguise", Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (March/April 2015)
• Madeline McEwen, "Heart-Shaped", Speculative Valentine Drabbles 2015 ed. Roy C. Booth and Jorge Salgado-Reyes (Indie Authors Press, February 4, 2015)
• Terrie Farley Moran, "On Target" (online excerpt), Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (April 2015)

Email news for next month's post to Gerald So (G_SO at YAHOO dot COM).

2015 Derringer Submissions Update

From Awards Coordinator Anthony Rudzki, the following stories have been received for Derringer consideration as of the January 31 submission deadline.

Stories are listed from shortest to longest. If your submission is not listed, email TONY dot RUDZKI at GMAIL dot COM.

FLASH (Up to 1,000 words):

Faces
Exit Plan
They Die in Eight Minutes
Because
Final Thoughts
Torch Song for Two Voices
Romantivores
Tomato Soup
Sweet Smells
There Is No We
In Your Easter Bonnet
Two for Tea
HOW LIL JIMMIE BEAT THE BIG C
Foodies
My Blues-Eyed Girl
Agoraphobic Alibi
Johns Spot
Knockout
Six bullets
Chain of Custody
Living the Dream
Because
Shanks Holds The Line
Mansion on the Hill
Front Deck


SHORT (1,001–4,000 words):

A Jobs A Job
A Thousand Kinds of Fur
Didja Think of That?
Jasmine
Hook Line and Sinker
Home for the Holidays
Premonition
Automat
Ted Williams Dreams
Death or Taxes
Tourist Town
Stroke of Genius
Snatched Potatoes
Legacy
Payback
The Fifth Digit
Just Desserts for Johnny
Plan D
Busted!
Who Dat? Dat the Indian Chief!
Wishing For Ignorance
Murder and Money
The Man Who Sold Nothing
The End of the World
The Blessing Witch
Its a Wonderful Rat Race
Moving On
A Bad Day For Bargain Hunters
No Honour Among Thieves
Wish I May Wish I Might
Gods Country
Tote the Note
The Lady in the Lake
Pickled
The Accessory
Thanksgiving on the Throgs Neck Bridge
Murder in a Family
The Kaluki Kings of Queens
Elk Island
Antonia
There Goes the Neighbourhood
Dust to Dust
Live Free or Die
The Least of These
An Inexpensive Piece
Jumping the Bags
Everything in Its Place
Wehrkraftzersetzung
Sawbill Checkpoint
So Long Farewell
The Odds Are Against Us
Bad Memory
Union Man
Killing Sam Clemens
Thanksgiving in Moderation
Baptized at the Casino
The Black Cat
Here Kitty Kitty
SMUDGE
DESPERATION
A Friend in Brown
Missing Person
The Dead of Winter
Pea Soup
Male Leary Comes Home
Forever Mine
Remember Me?
Contents Known
Special Delivery
Christmas in Paradise
Worry a Line
Witch Hunt
Monster Party
The Game
Christmas Concerto
You Always Hurt the One You Love
Francetta Repays Her Debt to Society
A Cold Place to Die
Eyes on My Cards
Compromised Circumstances
Friends
Reckoning
Murder (Redux) in Paradise
The Fourth Girl
Heart Surgery
The Bad Son
Death Will Fire Your Therapist
Their Little Secret
Um Peixe Grande
Do I Know You?


LONG (4,001–8,000 words):

Gibet de Montfaucon
A Hopeless Case
The Poet Moon
More Good Times
Annual Marriage Test
Burned
Separation Anxiety
The Ultimate Mystery
Runaway
Hammered
Easter Aches
On Pacific Beach
The Missing Money
Lamplighter by the Sea
The Great Houdini Murder Case
200 Feet
The Shadow Knows
Last Rites
When Stars Collide
An Open-and-Shut Case
Aix to Grind
Devil Chased The Wolf Away
We Take Care of Our Own
The Angels Wait
Who Murdered Maura Thompson
Dead Dames Dont Wear Diamonds
The Curious Case of the Ha Penny Detective
The Jewel Box
Mrs. Featherpatch Cooks Up a Murder
Its a Trap!
Dead Men Tell No Tales
Howling at the Moon
Kity Cop
Disco Donna
Twice Widowed
A Visit with the One-Eyed Man
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Hunters
Precision
Honeymoon Sweet
The Roseville Way
Impressions
The Monitor
A Haven of Learning...and Death
HARM AND HAMMER
My Sweet Angel of Death
Family to the Bone
Habitat for Inhumanity
Red Beans and Ricin
Purse Strings
Blank Slate
The Real Santa Claus
Jaguar
Gorilla of the Gasbags
Wildcraft
Not Sure Which Way Im Headin
AFTER DADDY DIED
Calculated Risk
The Photograph
Playing for Keeps
IFHC
Yuletide
The Hoard


NOVELETTE (8,001–20,000 words):

The Stonewall Rat
The Bank Robber
MY MOM THE MOVIES AND ME
Bell Book and Candlepin
Neighbor
Hitlers Dogs
Infernal
For Dot
BUSTING RED HEADS
The Assumption Of Seamus Tyrrell
SECOND SIGHT UNSEEN
The Monster in Our Midst
Murder Town
The Snow Angel
Gone Fishing
True Enough: Bolts Last Case
Juba Good
The Artful Goddaughter

Private Eye Writers of America 2015 Shamus Awards Submission Guidelines

Forwarded to the SMFS by Gay Toltl Kinman, following are the categories for the Private Eye Writers of America 2015 Shamus Awards for private eye novels and short stories first published in the United States in 2014. The awards will be presented during Bouchercon 2015 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

DEADLINE: For publishers submissions must be postmarked by March 31, 2015. No extensions can be given.

Shamus Committees will forward their final list to the Shamus Awards Chair by May 31, 2015.

ELIGIBILITY: Eligible works must feature as a main character a person PAID for investigative work but NOT employed for that work by a unit of government. These include traditionally licensed private investigators; lawyers and reporters who do their own investigations; and others who function as hired private agents. These do NOT include law enforcement officers, other government employees or amateur, uncompensated sleuths.

SUBMISSIONS: Please send one copy of each eligible work to ALL members of the appropriate committee, and send a copy to the Shamus Awards Chair, Gay Toltl Kinman. Do NOT submit a book to more than one committee.

There is no application fee and no submission form, as a simple cover letter will suffice. Email Gay Toltl Kinman (GAYKINMAN at GAYKINMAN dot COM) for the Chair and committee members' mailing addresses or if you have any questions.

BEST HARDCOVER PI NOVEL: A book-length work of fiction published in hardcover in 2014 that is NOT the author’s first published P.I. novel.

BEST FIRST PI NOVEL: A book-length work of fiction, in hardcover or paperback, first published in 2014 that is the author’s first published novel featuring a private investigator as a main character.

BEST ORIGINAL PAPERBACK PI NOVEL: A book-length work of fiction first published as a paperback original in 2014 that is NOT the author’s first P.I. novel; and paperback reprints of previously published novels are NOT eligible.

BEST PI SHORT STORY: A work of fiction of 20,000 words or fewer. Stories first published in an earlier year and reprinted in a magazine, anthology or collection in 2014, are NOT eligible.

BEST INDIE PI NOVEL: A book-length work of fiction, in hardcover, paperback or e-book, first published in 2014 featuring a private investigator as a main character and published independently by the author.

Members' Publication News

The following members sent in publication news this month:

• Peter DiChellis, "The Owl Clock Murder", Over My Dead Body! (December 20, 2014)
• Michael Haynes, "Lakeside Memories", Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (February 2015)
• Robert Lopresti started a new blog, Today in Mystery History
• Edith Maxwell, "A Questionable Death", History and Mystery, Oh My! (January 2015, Mystery and Horror, LLC)
• Melissa Yuan-Innes, "Om", Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (January 2015)

Email news for next month's post to Gerald So (G_SO at YAHOO dot COM).