Mystery Scene Community

General Discussion => Welcome and General Discussion => Topic started by: Brian on June 25, 2019, 11:00:49 am

Title: Please submit your requests for What's Happening With...
Post by: Brian on June 25, 2019, 11:00:49 am
For a few years we had a popular* feature in Mystery Scene, called "What's Happening With." I'm starting it up again!

The idea was for us to track down and talk to writers who for one reason or another hadn't written in a few years, talk to them about their careers, find out what they had moved on to, and so on.

Please reply to this topic with your requests for writers to talk to.
The only requirement is that they must've written at least two mystery novels, and they've not been published in a few years. Also they should still be alive, but I'll figure that out.

Here are three of my favorites from the past:

https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/component/content/article/38-articles/profile/1408-whats-happening-with-michael-a-kahn&Itemid=113 (https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/component/content/article/38-articles/profile/1408-whats-happening-with-michael-a-kahn&Itemid=113)
--"Then one day after this conversation took place his wife added, 'Why don’t you write a book, or shut up?'”

https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/component/content/article/38-articles/profile/2338-whats-happening-withjerome-doolittle&Itemid=113 (https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/component/content/article/38-articles/profile/2338-whats-happening-withjerome-doolittle&Itemid=113)
--“I never understood Chandler’s appeal. Any natural reading of Chandler shows that Marlowe is a psychopath.”

https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/component/content/article/38-articles/profile/2339-whats-happening-withabigail-padgett&Itemid=113 (https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/component/content/article/38-articles/profile/2339-whats-happening-withabigail-padgett&Itemid=113)
--"Thomas Harris responded graciously to the letter. 'He wrote me a lovely, elegant letter back, and apologized and said he wouldn’t do it again. He was a gentleman. And he said I should go ahead and write that story.'"

Hmmm... there was also a great one about Dorothy Simpson that I wrote entirely for my own benefit, because she was one of my personal favorites. But it's not online--I'll find it and post it!

*Do I really know it was popular? No! We never did a survey. But I loved it so I'm doing it again!
Title: Re: Please submit your requests for What's Happening With...
Post by: JRob on June 25, 2019, 11:15:19 am
I know the three I loved but haven't heard anything about in almost forever:

Karen Kijewski who wrote the Kat Colorado series.

M.D. Lake who wrote the Peggy O'Neil series.

Julie Smith who wrote the Skip Langdon series.


Oh, and can someone find out what's up with I Am Pilgrim author Terry Hayes. It's been 3 or 4 years since that first amazing book and I'm still waiting for a follow up!

Title: Re: Please submit your requests for What's Happening With...
Post by: Brian on June 25, 2019, 01:08:22 pm
I know the three I loved but haven't heard anything about in almost forever:

Karen Kijewski who wrote the Kat Colorado series.

M.D. Lake who wrote the Peggy O'Neil series.

Julie Smith who wrote the Skip Langdon series.

Oh, and can someone find out what's up with I Am Pilgrim author Terry Hayes. It's been 3 or 4 years since that first amazing book and I'm still waiting for a follow up!

OK, I'm on it. One of those writers very specifically does not want to be contacted but I will try the others and let you know.
Title: Re: Please submit your requests for What's Happening With...
Post by: JRob on June 25, 2019, 03:52:08 pm
I'm guessing the don't contact is Karen Kijewski.
Title: Re: Please submit your requests for What's Happening With...
Post by: Becke Davis on December 07, 2019, 01:34:51 am
I know the three I loved but haven't heard anything about in almost forever:

Karen Kijewski who wrote the Kat Colorado series.

M.D. Lake who wrote the Peggy O'Neil series.

Julie Smith who wrote the Skip Langdon series.


Oh, and can someone find out what's up with I Am Pilgrim author Terry Hayes. It's been 3 or 4 years since that first amazing book and I'm still waiting for a follow up!

I've read two of those four authors and liked them both. I had been wondering about three authors but answered my own question with two of them - turns out Elizabeth Lemarchand died about 20 years ago, and Evelyn Anthony died in 2018.

Well, dang, I'd been wondering whatever happened to Jill McGown - she died at age 59 in 2007. So sad!
Title: Re: Please submit your requests for What's Happening With...
Post by: JRob on December 07, 2019, 03:10:04 pm


I've read two of those four authors and liked them both. I had been wondering about three authors but answered my own question with two of them - turns out Elizabeth Lemarchand died about 20 years ago, and Evelyn Anthony died in 2018.

Well, dang, I'd been wondering whatever happened to Jill McGown - she died at age 59 in 2007. So sad!

Lately, I've been picking up books by authors who've passed that I never read before. Lea Wait is the latest author to fall under that category heading and now I really regret never reading her before because I loved the first book in her Mainely Needlepoint series and the book she wrote as Cornelia Kidd called 'Death and a Pot of Chowder'.
Title: Re: Please submit your requests for What's Happening With...
Post by: Becke Davis on December 07, 2019, 03:45:19 pm


I've read two of those four authors and liked them both. I had been wondering about three authors but answered my own question with two of them - turns out Elizabeth Lemarchand died about 20 years ago, and Evelyn Anthony died in 2018.

Well, dang, I'd been wondering whatever happened to Jill McGown - she died at age 59 in 2007. So sad!

Lately, I've been picking up books by authors who've passed that I never read before. Lea Wait is the latest author to fall under that category heading and now I really regret never reading her before because I loved the first book in her Mainely Needlepoint series and the book she wrote as Cornelia Kidd called 'Death and a Pot of Chowder'.

I do that, too - look for books by authors I haven't read before when I see their obituary. Several years ago I was reading some British mysteries by Janie Bolitho, and looking forward to reading many more. I was very sorry to learn that she died - and shocked, too, because she was only two years older than I am. https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/janie-bolitho/