I've been checking out a few more Shadow websites (the old Pulp fiction series from the 30s and 40s) and came across a website which organizes all of the characters that appeared in the series. The Shadow Cast by Walter Gibson website lists characters alphabetically or chronologically. Those interested in these voluminous pulp writings might find this a good source for research.

As some of you may have guessed, we are taking a little break currently from Editorial duties here at NEFARIOUS - Tales of Mystery. We're planning a great new issue this month, November, along with posting the results of our 55 Fiction Contest (submissions for the contest end 11/11/2000).

In the mean time, I came across a great site for book lovers of all kinds called BookBrowser. It has lots of reviews, reading lists that help you find books of a certain kind, and an online community, among other things. You might want to check it out.

Issue 4 of HandHeldCrime is now available at http://www.handheldcrime.com/

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has an interesting feature which lists the top 25 most popular searches for the last 30 days in a particular genre. Here's the top Mystery searches for the last 30 days, and the top 25 Film-Noir searches.

Pat Harrington, a name which seems to be coming up a lot around here lately, just won first place in the OMDB Cola Caper Contest (cross-genre category) with a piece called JOE THE ANGEL AND THE PEPSI CHALLENGE. Despite what you may think, Pat is not bribeing me to constantly mention her and her work here on NEFARIOUS. This is just a good chance for me to mention both Pat and OMDB (Over My Dead Body!), both of whom contribute much to the Mystery genre on the web.

I came across this interesting article on ZDnet about the current state of the "e-book" industry. Excuse a little Blatant Self Promotion (BSP) when I say that I had my eBooks Centre webpage done and ready to go here on NEFARIOUS - Tales of Mystery before this story appeared on ZDnet. I think the story comes to some of the same conclusions as myself, although I disagree that it will take so long for the eBooks market to achieve critical mass.

CIO magazine also did a piece about eBooks and how it is effecting the traditional Publishing companies. It's definitely heavy on the business aspects of all of this but you might find something of interest. CIO generally characterizes most of the publishing giants as slow and lumbering when it comes to the whole eBooks question.

One of the ideas that I picked up somewhere in all of this was that some types of writing -- short stories, novellas, mid-list books -- that have been traditionaly hard to publish due to their size or low volume sales turn out to be well suited to e-publishing. That's one idea that's close to our hearts here at NEFARIOUS - Tales of Mystery.

Issue number 3 of HandHeldCrime has just come out on the website and through their AvantGo channel. They have now started a twice-monthly schedule for the PalmDoc format mystery publication. Needless to say, we hope you stop by since some of the stories published in NEFARIOUS - Tales of Mystery will be appearing in this new format, as indeed one does in the current issue of HandHeldCrime.

Those of you interested in the area of "Cyber-crime" might want to stop by the Security Informer website. It's a website providing news and information for those faced with the real world problems of protecting networks, hardware, and valued intellectual property from the new type of criminal prowling the Internet.

Individual.com has a story on a new business relationship between Adobe and iUniverse.com. This was one of two new relationships that came to light at the Seybold conference today. Adobe will also be purchasing Glassbook and integrating their technology with Adobe's own. This basically means that Adobe will now be able to provide a complete path from desktop (Adobe publishing software) to distribution (PDF format as well as others) for the burgeoning ebook marketplace. For more information, check out this report from Seybold.

USA Today ran a story about the problems facing law enforcement when trying to apprehend criminals that make use of the internet to perpetrate crimes. One basic idea to come out of the article is that petty crime has found an easy and secure home on the Internet due to various reasons.

Well, the Ramsey's underwent questioning today in Atlanta concerning the death of their daughter, JonBenet. Court TV Online has a short report on today's events. I hope one day the true criminal(s) is/are brought to justice to put an end to this long running "unsolved" crime.

If you'd like to visit a well designed (visually and for content) website, then check out Gallo Stories. It collects some of the writings of a female Chicago Cop, Gina Gallo, with many years experience in the real world of Crime.

Lady M's Mystery International is a subscription based website I just came across. The current page has an interview with Rochelle Krich. The site has reviews, interviews, fiction, and links. There are some "samples" available to everyone and then a Member's area for subscribers.

This week is the Seybold San Francisco 2000 conference. Those in the publishing biz know this to be a major trade fair for all things book related. This year there is a major track concerning ebooks. Many people in the industry are hoping to avoid the current problems facing the Music Industry with regard to online digital rights management. Another area of concern is ebook standards, basically there are none in the sense of having one industry standard that allows interoperability between book reader devices and purchased rights. By that I mean when one "buys" an ebook on one platform it cannot be easily transferred to another platform or reader device. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of this major convention.

Just found the Web address of Scarlet Street - The Magazine of Mystery and Horror. I saw a copy of the print version at my local bookstore today. I've never read it myself but it looked to be pretty well packed with articles, images, and such for the mystery Fan, especially classic mystery and horror. The website is a nice extension onto the web but the print version seems more impressive as a magazine.

Their links page brought me to the Charlie Chan Page. Unfortunately I haven't seen one of the Charlie Chan movies in quite some time. Those who love the Hollywood style of the Charlie Chan films will probably like this website.

I also found The Mystery Review at my local bookstore and online. The magazine is packed with mystery reviews and ratings (a really neat rating system indicated by number of daggers). The website lists the important facts about each back issue for reference. There's also a cover artwork gallery online where you can check out some of the artwork used for the print issues.

If you're into Dance/Trance music (I know this has nothing to do really with Mystery but there is more to life you know :) check out this Canadian MP3 channel for some great streaming mp3 (you need WinAmp for Windows or Audion for Mac to listen). For those of you with the software/hardware already, just click here: http://216.231.29.118:8000

Crime Watch -- New Mysteries & Thrillers is a webpage of reviews by Dick Adler who reviews for the Chicago Tribune and other publications. You might find a good lead on a new book there.

The latest issue of NEFARIOUS - Tales Of Mystery is now up on the website. Also, there is a new service for Mystery and Crime fiction lovers everywhere called HandHeldCrime. It's a service which provides some of the best fiction for download to your Hand Held computer such as a Palm device or PocketPC. Now you can take your mysteries everywhere. :)

Hitchcock used the term "MacGuffin" to refer to what all the characters in a story are trying to hide or acquire. The MacGuffin Guide to Detective Fiction is a website with a searchable database of authors, biographies, pseudonyms, fiction and nonfiction titles, awards, and a few true trivia questions.