[Insert BSP here]

Since a few folks were kind enough to ask how the reading at Barbes went on Sunday night, I thought I’d point you to Dave White’s storyboarded, picture-heavy version of the night. The good news is that no chairs were thrown at me. The bad is that the camera added 10 pounds more than it did last year…(must be the extra cookies and vodka, sadly.)

And PW has said its piece about the Ed Gorman/Marty Greenberg-edited ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING DETECTIVE AND 25 OF THE YEAR’S FINEST CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES, which includes this rather lovely bit:

The editors of The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories

annual have changed the series’ name, but continue to gather superior

stories augmented by various “state of the mystery” reports. Jon L.

Breen provides an overview of 2004’s trends and awards. Edward D. Hoch

looks at the year’s short story collections and anthologies as well as

nonfiction works in the field. Sarah Weinman, who surveys the

development of mystery blogs, also selected the three entries that were

published online. One of them, the chilling “Just Pretend” by [Martyn

Waites]2, is the gem of the anthology…

I could not be more thrilled that this story is getting the recognition it deserves. As soon as Waites sent it to me (for the Plots with Guns special UK issue) I couldn’t believe I was reading something so good — but because it’s fairly lengthy (at 7000+ words) I had to figure out a way to get it into print. And even better, thanks to Pegasus Press, Waites’ books will be slowly made available here, starting with THE MERCY SEAT in April.