Philadelphia Noir

When Duane Swierczynski isn’t writing novels, books on beer or freelance pieces, he’s the editor in chief of the Philadelphia City Paper. And this week, they announced a brand new writing contest devoted to all manners genre, not just the crime fiction kind. He explains further on his blog:

The quick and dirty: We’re looking for pulp-style, page-turnin’,

suspense-soaked stories set in one of three genres: mystery,

sci-fi/horror, or romance. They have to be set in Philly, but anyone

can enter. (Unless, of course, you work for the paper.) The deadline is

January 28, 2005.

The prizes are sweet. (Trust me.)

Sweeter

still are the judges–most notably Ken Bruen, who’s graciously agreed

to take time away from blurbing all of the PointBlankers to read the

mystery entries. How cool is that?

No matter how the contest

turns out, it’s going to be worth picking up the March 3, 2005 issue of

the paper just to read Ken’s judging comments.

I bloody well think so, although  it would have been funnier if Ken was judging the romance entries…(Sarah Dunn has those honors, and Michael Swanwick  will oversee the sci-fi entries.)