Lefty Nominees Have Been Announced by Left Coast Crime
( December 2006 / ) - The five nominees for the Left Coast Crime 2007 Lefty award have been announced. The Award will be given during their convention Feb. 1-4, 2007 in Seattle, Washington.
On the first day of Chanukah... by Dave Gilbert
(Manifesto Games December 12, 2006 / ) - Rabbi Stone gave to me, A copy of The Shivah for free!
In the spirit of both the holiday season and of great games, Manifesto Games announces their first annual ever Chanukah contest: Manifesto will give away copies of The Shivah, which is the only game (that we know of) to feature a Rabbi as a protagonist.
Gamesite: Shivah
M is for Mystery Bookstore Celebrates It's 10th Anniversary by
( December 2006 / ) - M is for Mystery a specialty bookstore in San Mateo, CA celebrates it's 10th Anniversary. In this age of closing independent bookstores it's refreshing to hear of a success story.
From the NY Times Best 10 Best Books of 2006: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
(Viking Adult 03 August, 2006 / $25.95) - The NY Times has released its list of the ten best books of 2006, and coming in at #5 on the fiction list is a mystery by Marisha Pessl; SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS, "narrated by a teenager enamored of her own precocity" as "the plot snakes ingeniously toward a revelation capped by a clever 'final exam.'" It's the author's debut novel, and has been garnering raves from all corners of the literary globe. Maybe it's not too late to ask for a copy for Christmas. (more ...)
LA Times Defines Noir as the indigenous Los Angeles form by Richard Rayne
(LA TIMES Dec 8, 2006 / ) - There's an excellent article on the roots and expression of Noir in the LA Times, written by Richard Rayne for the paper and available online at This town is rated noir. In it he traces the roots of noir to the corruption and excesses of LA in the years following WWI and provides some useful insights into the fatalistic worldview of the genre.
"Noir is the flip side to the city's sunstruck myth, darker, more ambiguous. As William Faulkner, who did serious L.A. time, once said, 'They don't worship money here; they worship death.'"
Mystery Appeal: Effects of Uncertainty and Resolution on the Enjoyment of Mystery by Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick
(Hanover University of Music and Dance 2006 / ) - According to a study published recently in Media Psychology by communications researcher Caterina Keplinger, not everyone wants the same kind of ending in a mystery. Some of us like to be surprised, and some like to be reassured, neither of which is really surprising, but the correlation with levels of self esteem and the notion that there's an identifiable relationship between personality type and fiction preference is noteworthy. Now, if you're like me, and enjoy both noir and cozy alike...does it mean you've got a multiple personality disorder in the wings?
Tony Hillerman Prize for First Mystery by WORDHARVEST Writer's Workshop
& Thomas Dunne Books
( December 2006 / ) - WORDHARVEST Writers workshops and Thomas Dunne Books will present a new annual award for mystery fiction, The Tony Hillerman Prize, in 2007.
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