Much to Anticipate

• In the wake of the 50th anniversary of Dashiell Hammett’s death back in 1961 comes news that a previously unknown short story by that author, “So I Shot Him,” will be published in the Winter/Spring 2011 edition of The Strand Magazine. As Omnimystery News reports, “‘So I Shot Him’ is a 19-page crime thriller written in the clipped style Hammett made famous in The Maltese Falcon and other works. Strand Magazine managing editor Andrew F. Gulli found the undated story, and 14 others by Hammett, while looking through archives at the University of Texas in Austin.” Excellent! More Hammett yarns to come. UPDATE: Editor Gulli talks with Newsweek/The Daily Beast about how he found “So I Shot Him” and the other previously unknown Hammett yarns.

• Beginning on Wednesday, the Mulholland Books blog will roll out Black Lens, Ken Bruen’s new “novel in serial form.” Check here.

• Blogger John Kenyon’s recent “fairy tale as crime fiction” contest drew 16 entries, links to which can be found here. Among the contenders are Eric Beetner, Nigel Bird, Sandra Seamans, Evan Lewis, Patti Abbott, and B.V. Larson. Kenyon promises to read all the stories, and this coming Friday, January 21, he will announce the first-, second-, and third-place winners, along with a “most inventive recasting of a fairy tale” award. He’ll also post his own fairy tale crime tale at that time.

• Returning from its month-long holiday hiatus, Beat to a Pulp has posted its first story of 2011, “Serenity,” written by Shamus and Nero award-winning author Brad Parks.

• Congratulations to Wikipedia, which turned 10 years old this week.

• We bow in respect, as well, to PBS-TV’s Masterpiece Theatre, which last week began its 40th year on the small screen.

• Historic Bath, England, would provide the backdrop for The Regency Detective, an as-yet-unsold TV series set “between 1800 and 1805 when [author Jane] Austen lived in the city ...,” according to This Is Bath. The program would feature an ex-Bow Street Runner, Jack Swann, “who moves from London to Bath and each week confronts the city’s villains.” Austen is expected to make at least one cameo appearance within the first eight, one-hour episodes, which have already been written by David Lassman and Terence James. (Hat tip to January Magazine.)