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The Orphan Scrivener.
Issue 56 of our newsletter

Eric's Blog
Ramblings and links

Poisoned Pen Press
Our publisher.

The Reviews Page
Recent reviews of our books

Other Appearances
Interviews, stories, essays
in anthologies etc.








News From 2008

We were recently interviewed by Jean Henry Mead for her blog Mysterious People.

Mary reviews Revenge! by Robert Barr for Steve Lewis' Mystery*File.

Mary reviews Midnight by Octavus Roy Cohen for Steve Lewis' Mystery*File.

Over at Christine Verstraete's Candid Canine, Mary offers a writing tip: Nicknames.

Mary reviews The Secret of High Eldersham by Miles Burton for Steve Lewis' Mystery*File.

Mary reviews R. Holmes & Co by John Kendrick Bangs for Steve Lewis' Mystery*File.

Mary reviews The Spiral Staircase by Ethel Lina White for Steve Lewis' Mystery*File.

There's an interviewlette with Mary at Suite 101, as part of Janice Hally's series "The Mysterious Writing Habits of the World's Top Crime Writers."

Mary writes about oral wills, one of which underpinned the plot of Five For Silver, at Postcard Mysteries , historical-mystery writer Catherine Mambretti's blog about the jury system and courtroom rhetoric.

Eric writes about researching historicals for Bob Sabella's zine Visions of Paradise. You can find Issue 132 over at the Visions of Paradise page at eFanzines. Or you can download the issue directly. (It's 971 kbs)

Mary talks about Ethel Lina White's Some Must Watch for the "books you have to read" feature at J. Kingston Pierce's Rap Sheet.

Mary reviews a Golden Age mystery, The Scarab Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine at Steve Lewis' Mystery*File.

Mary and I talked to Kim Malo about our books and writing. Which of our characters would we like to change places with for a day? Read our interview at MyShelf.com to find out.

Over at Fatal Foodies Christine Verstraete blogs about mystery books featuring food. One of the books is Seven For A Secret.

Our interview with Michelle Moran at History Buff concentrates on women of the past, particularly Empress Theodora.

Mike Glyer interviewed us for his science fiction news magazine File 770. You can download a pdf of issue 153 at eFanzines and read "The Secret History of John the Eunuch."

Mary reviews a Golden Age mystery, The Abandoned Room by Wadsworth Camp at Steve Lewis' Mystery*File.

Mary reviews a Golden Age mystery, The Cat's Eye by R. Austin Freeman at Steve Lewis' Mystery*File.

Mary reviews a Golden Age mystery, The Safety Pin by J. S. Fletcher, at Alan Bishop's Criminal History.

Mary reviews a Golden Age mystery, The Benson Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine, at Alan J. Bishop's Criminal History.

Mary and I talk about our writing and books at Lorie Ham's No Name Café.

Seven For A Secret was Pierce's Pick of the Week for April 21 at January Magazine.

Mary and I were recently interviewed by fellow Poisoned Pen Press mystery author Betty Webb and you can read the result now on WebbsBlog. We talk about writing and Seven For A Secret but of particular interest are Mary's tips about online book promotion.

Seven For A Secret is available in a Blackstone Audio edition.

Mary has written about her path to publication for Heidi Ruby Miller who has made the essay available at myspace, blogspot, and livejournal.

Mary has an essay, Tom, Dick and Harassment: Naming Your Characters, in Gayle Trent's Writing Up A Storm Newsletter.

Although it has been more than eight years since the publication of our first Byzantine mystery novel, One For Sorrow is still available in trade paperback and Kindle editions and has also been released in a UK edition. Thanks to Karm Holladay, who recently reviewed One For Sorrow for BellaOnline and Martin Edwards who reviewed it for Tangled Web UK.

We're happy to announce that One For Sorrow, Two For Joy, and Four For A Boy have been released in Kindle editions.

Courtney Mroch, writer and Petscribe blogger on families.com, recently grilled us like kippers about animals in our mysteries and pets past and present. We suspect few of her interviewees have laid claim to plots featuring such unusual but vital characters as a herd of fortune-telling goats and a mechanical whale and his real life counterpart!

Mary reviews a Golden Age collection, Ronald Standish, by Sapper at S.T. Karnik's The American Culture.

Mary reviews a Golden Age collection, A Master of Mysteries, by Robert Eustace and L.T. Meade, at Alan J. Bishop's Criminal History.

News From 2006 and 2007

Mary's article “Oops...how authors of historical fiction avoid pitfalls.” appears in the November-December 2007 issue of Cozy Times Many thanks to Diana Vickery, owner of the Cozy Library site and editor of Cozy Times, for the opportunity to pass along a few helpful (we hope!) thoughts.

The Mammoth Book of Dickensian Whodunits We're pleased to have a story in Mike Ashley's Mammoth Book of Dickensian Whodunnits (Carroll & Graf in the US and Constable & Robinson in the UK). In The Three-Legged Cat of Great Clatterden that jolly fellow with the scientific bent, Samuel Pickwick, investigates an ancient Kentish hill figure and a puzzling disappearance.

The anthology presents a mix of specially commissioned new stories and lesser known reprints, by writers such as Hilary Bonner, Anne Perry, Charles Todd, Kate Ellis, Alanna Knight, Martin Edwards and Gillian Linscott. Mary has an article about RAFFLES at Steve Lewis' online Mystery*File (The Crime Fiction Research Journal).

We were honoured to be interviewed by Su Kopil for the November issue of The Motivated Writer. The topic was setting and its effects on story.

Mystery author Julia Buckley has an interview with us on her Mysterious Musings blog.

We have been featured in a ProFile interview at MYSTERY*FILE, the crime fiction research journal where Steve Lewis has continued Ed Gorman's popular feature.

The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries Our Mongolian detective, Inspector Dorj, is faced with solving a locked circus caravan murder. The new short story "Locked in Death" is included in The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries, an anthology edited by Mike Ashley.





Byzantium Ablaze Two For Joy has appeared in a Greek edition from Govostis.

In Byzantium Ablaze. John gets to speak in his native tongue!






News From 2005

Eric's interactive fiction WAX WORX was voted winner in the "Most unusual Adrift setting/plot" category of the InsideAdrift Awards 2004. It finished second in the game of the year category.

Check out the award certificate.

News From 2004

FOUR FOR A BOY was published as a mass market paperback in June 2004 by ibooks, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. If you look for it at your local bookstore you'll find that the cover is different from the one pictured here, and all over the web.

FIVE FOR SILVER is one of "Pierce's Picks" for February-March. Check out The Rap Sheet , January Magazine's Crime Fiction Report.

Recently we chatted at length about John's world with Carolyn Chambers Clark, at BellaOnline Our thanks to Carolyn for this opportunity to bend the virtual ears of her readers.

FOUR FOR A BOY was one of three nominees for the Bruce Alexander History Mystery Award established by Left Coast Crime 14 to honor the memory of author Bruce Alexander (Bruce Cook). Congratulations to fellow Poisoned Pen Press auther Ann Parker (Silver Lies) and to winner Rhys Bowen (For the Love of Mike).

Five for Silver, the fifth John the Eunuch adventure will appear in hardcover in March.

News From 2003

For the holiday season, here's an unpublished story in the form of an interactive game. The Thorn can be played online (needs java). This is a bit of an experiment and it may not work on all machines. You can also download a version for PC here although it isn't guaranteed to work in the newest Windows.

Eric has moved his blog and given it a new look. There are some mini articles on writing and other subjects.

The December Orphan Scrivener is out with Eric adressing audiences and Mary writing about Doc Savage.

An interview with Eric, who dabbles in writing computer text adventures (a.k.a. Interactive Fiction) appears in the November 2003 Inside Adrift Newsletter .

The October issue of our newsletter, The Orphan Scrivener is out, featuring news, writing nuts and bolts and Byzantine anagrams.

Now we BLOG! Drop by Eric's blog for more stuff about writing and other topics.

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