Beth Blakely at VibrantNation asked me to write a top ten list of my favorite books so they could post it on their website.
I went her one better and gave her a “top ten list of books that make me want to quit writing because I’ll never write anything this good so why am I bothering?” Go here to see what made my list.

For the crime fiction anthology fans out there, I just got the word that At the Scene of the Crime is coming out on November 3, not even three wee months from now. You can pre-order a copy on Amazon here.

I edited the anthology and contributed a story to it. Here’s the introduction I wrote for it:

A couple of years back Marty Greenberg, The Anthology King, poked his head up and noticed how popular an obscure little television series called CSI was. He wondered if perhaps a book of short stories involving criminal cases which turn on hard evidence found at the scene might be equally popular. He wondered further if I would edit such a collection, and I replied, as to my cost I often do to Marty, why, shore. He and John Helfers rounded up a stellar cast of writers and found a publisher, and the result is the book you hold in your hand.
So here, for your enjoyment, thirteen investigations into means, motive and opportunity that together prove the law of unintended consequences can trip up even the most masterminded criminal, so long as the investigator on the scene is on the ball. I find that kind of comforting.
The scenes of crime are all over the American map, from Brendan Dubois’ story set in a coastal fishing village in New Hampshire, to Julie Hyzy’s in a retirement home in Florida, to Kristin Katherine Rusch’s in a suburb in Oregon, to mine in a wilderness in Alaska. Anything is grist for the investigator’s mill, from forensic dentistry to the rate of nuclear decay. John Lutz uses satellite imagery as part of his crime scene equipment to solve the murder of a retired major league baseball player.
Loren Estelman writes about twins separated at birth reunited by murder, Jeremiah Healy sets his story in a McMansion in an Everygatedcommunity, and Edward Hoch writes about an arsonist who may or may not be retired. Maynard F. Thompson tells of a retired medical examiner’s memories of his first murder. Max Allan Collins and Matthew V. Clemens write about high life in the heartland, and Michael Black’s hero takes a bite out of crime in the Arizona desert. N.J. Ayres writes a haunted memoir set in rural Pennsylvania, and Jeanne C. Stein sets a tough urban narrative in the rare book room of a Denver university.
And then I, just to be contrary, wrote a Liam and Wy story that proves that sometimes it isn’t all about the evidence. Sometimes it isn’t, sometimes it’s all about the hunch, whatever that is, wherever it comes from, and whatever you call it, at the scene of the crime.
Pull on your rubber gloves and your paper booties and come on in.

And speaking of anthologies, don’t forget about Unusual Suspects coming out in December, which I also edited and to which I contributed the second Seer and Sword story, “A Woman’s Work,” set in the land of Mnemosynea.

And Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, an anthology of short stories about werewolves at Christmas, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner, coming out in October, to which I also contributed a short story called “The Perfect Gift.” It was really fun to write.