Trains Tracks on the cover

I have not seen the January/February 2018 issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine yet, but today I saw the cover.  Take a look at "Train Tracks," my 28th appearance in AHMM.  My fourth shot on the cover.  What a thrill.

Librarians as Mystery Writers

Janet Hutchings, editor of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, invited me to write something for their blog, Something is Going to Happen.  I decided to write about where my vocation meets my avocation.

When Women Didn't Count at Island Library

Last night I had the honor to speak about my book at Island Library on Lummi Island.  Great fun  with a very engaged crowd.  Must have been half an hour of questions. 

The Chair Thief reviewed

Catherine Dilts reviews at least one short story every week and good for her.  The week after Thanksgiving she reviewed five and one was "The Chair Thief."  She said it had "quite a shocking ending. But totally believable to anyone who has been burned by office politics."  Thank you, Catherine.

The Chair Thief at Trace Evidence

At Trace Evidence, the Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine blog, I have a piece about "The Chair Thief," and about coming up with titles.,

When Women Didn't Count: Choice Review

CHOICE is published by Association of College and Research Libraries, and is the major source academic libraries go to for selecting which nonfiction books to purchase.  When Women Didn't Count was reviewed there today and the bottom line is: "Recommended. All levels/libraries."  Suits me.

The Cop Who Liked Gilbert and Sulllivan

Eighteen months without  a published story and now two in the same month.  Crazy business.  The new issue (#23) of Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine features "The Cop who LIked Gilbert and Sullivan."  Rare for me, it's a fair play mystery, with a dying clue.

The Chair Thief at The First Two Pages

Art Taylor has taken over B.K. Stevens' fabulous First Two Pages blog at the request of her family.  I had the honor of taking the first swing at it with a piece on "The Chair Thief" which appears (with one of B.K. Stevens' last stories) in the November/December issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.  Thanks, Art (and Bonnie, and family).

When Women Didn't Count at NGIN

I got to speak about my book yesterday at a meeting of the Northwest Government Information Network.  That's the government information librarians for my part of the country, a jury of my peers.  It was fun.  And I was told that the King County Library System has four copoies of When Women DIdn't Count, and they are all checked out.  Clearly they need a fifth. 

The Chair Thief at SleuthSayers

Today at SleuthSayers I explain what inspired my new story "The Chair Thief."

The Chair Thief

"The Chair Thief" is in the November/December issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.  My 27th appearance there, but who's counting?

When Women Didn't Count at the Federal Depository Library Conference

Last week I had the opportunity of speaking at the Federal Depository Library conference in Arlington, VA.  You can hear my speech and/or read the transcript right here.

And below you will witness most of the shockingly attractive audience.

Reference Librarian on Chuckanut Radio Hour

Last night I got to perform my song "Reference Librarian" on the Chuckanut Radio Hour.  The author/guest was the world's most famous librarian, Nancy Pearl, which is why I was included.  Great fun.  You can see it on my FB page or Village books.  It will eventually be on the radio and the web.  THank you VB for the opportunity.

When Women Didn't Count hits VB

Did my first reading/signing for the new book yesterday.  The staff at Village Books are wonderful and the crowd was terrific.  Lots of participation and questions. And cookies based on government recipes from World War II!

When Women Didn't Count at Village Books

Getting excited to be speaking this Saturday night at Village Books.  Here is their publicity page.

Western Washington University announces When Women Didn't Count

The Communications Office at WWU just put out a press release.

When Women Didn't Count coming to Village Books

On September 9th I will be discussing WHEN WOMEN DIDN'T COUNT at Village Books in Bellingham.  We will have some fun.  A quiz show!  Prizes!  Terri is planning to bake cookies based on official government recipes.  Yum?

The Red Envelope at SleuthSayers

Brian Thornton is doing a  series on mystery novellas at SleuthSayers and today he interviewed Steve Liskow and me about our Black Orchid Novella Award winners.

When Women Didn't Count: Review on Gov-Stuff 4 U

Thanks to Lori L. Smith for the kind words at Gov Stuff 4 U. 

In the book, society's (and government's) changing attitudes toward women are chronicled through statistics on marriage, motherhood, heads of households, occupations, health, crime, and military service, among other topics. The focus isn't on the statistics themselves, but on how and why they were collected as they were. It is, indeed, both fascinating and disturbing.  

When Women DIdn't Count: Publication day!

It is official.  It is real.  And by coincidence, my copies arrived last night. 

When Women Didn't Count gets a webpage

Just published my page for the new book.  The book itself gets published on June 30.

When Women Didn't Count sneaks out

Interesting experience today.  I was hunting some examples for a history project at work and I went looking for a source I used in my book.  I remembered a quote so I searched for it and what was the first thing that came up?  My little baby at GoogleBooks.  I don't have a copy yet but Google does.

To be clear: My copy isn't late.  Google got theirs early.  I suppose that's a good thing.

When Women Didn't Count gets used

Big event for me today.  I was in the Research and Writing Studio in the library today, helping a student with a sociology project.  I realized that he might be helped by a quotation I mention in my new book which Praeger will be publishing in late June.

I happened to have it on a flash drive in my pocket so I slapped it into the computer and pulled up the PDF.  I found the quotation, found the citation, and checked it in the bibliography.  They all worked (yay!) and I quickly linked to the source of the quotation.  The student was amazed.  "I can't believe the government was studying this subject in 1870!"

They were.  And guess what?  When Women Didn't Count just received its first research use..

SMFS and Shanks

The Short Mystery Fiction Society is celebrating Short Story Month.  Today they call out "Shanks Holds The Line," which is available for free here.   Thanks, SMFS!

Nakhshon in the Washington Independent Review of BOoks

The Washington Independent Review of Books highlighted the nominees for the Agatha Award for Best Short Story, and invited them to "suggest an additional story — a recent favorite — for readers here to seek out, with bonus points for any resonance or connections with their own works."

B.K. Stevens, nominated for her excellent story "The Last Blue Glass," had this to say:

When I looked for a story “connected” to mine, I thought of Robert Lopresti’s “Nakhshon,” published in Jewish Noir. In both stories, someone others see as helpless gets caught up in a wrenching situation and decides to strike back. The situations and the decisions are very different, but both characters face tough, potentially deadly dilemmas.

Take a Box escapes

A friend told me today that a friend of hers was at some kind of musical/religious retreat recently and someone said "This song is by Rob Lopresti.  I think he lives in Bellingham."  And sang this one.  It's always nice when one of my little darlings sprouts wings and flies away from home.

Lopresti Italiano

From Sherlock Magazine:

In attesa del suo romanzo presto edito in Italia, l'autore americano torna con un altro suo ottimo racconto sulla prestigiosa Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

So now you know.

Today in Mystery History in EQMM

Bill Crider is a wonderful writer and an all-around nice guy. This is the first paragraph of his Blog Bytes column in the latest Ellery Queen's: "Since this is the January/February issue of EQMM, it's time to think of calendars and to remind you of Rob Lopresti's Today in Mystery History. It was updated only intermittently toward the end of 2016, but perhaps it will return to its regular daily schedule in 2017. You'll find authors' birthdays, dates of first publication of famous crime stories and novels, dates well-known crime movies opened, and more. That's the kind of trivia that's hard to resist."