Monday, June 21, 2010

LEVEL BEST BOOKS CEASING PUBLICATION OF ANNUAL ANTHOLOGY

New England writers of mystery and crime fiction have just suffered a major loss. I have been notified by Kate Flora, one of Level Best Books editors, that they will not be publishing their 8th anthology Thin Ice. Kate did not go into specifics, but they aren't needed. What is important is that yet another short story market has bit the dust.

Level Best published its 1st anthology, Undertow, in 2003. Since then they have published a number of new New England writers and many who have been published. I was fortunate to have my story, Bagging The Trophy, included in the 6th, DEADFALL, available either from Level Best Books or my website.

If you are interested in ordering copies of the anthologies they are available via Level Best's web site: http://levelbestbooks.com.

I am particularly affected by this because I know the editors of this terrific anthology and consider them to be friends. Kate Flora, Susan Oleksiw, and Ruth McCarty (Skye Alexander co-edited the 1st three anthologies) have all been instrumental in my endeavors to be a writer. Susan and Skye were members of my very 1st writer group and (although I left many meetings limping) were the first professional editors (along with Paula Munier of Adams Media) to critique my writing...as much as it hurt--I learned more in the first two months than I had in the previous ten years! Kate and I served on the planning committee for four New England CrimeBake writer/reader conferences. I will miss working with her.