My Cup of News Bits Runneth Over

• Barbara Fister has posted a fine and lengthy interview with Quentin Bates in her Scandinavian Crime Fiction blog. Bates, of course, is the author of Frozen Assets (or Frozen Out, as it’s titled beyond U.S. borders), a 2011 mystery that introduces Sergeant Gunnhildur Gisladottir of the Hvalvik, Iceland, police force. Not only does the post address Bates’ background, but it offers some interesting perspective on the state of Icelanders since their big economic crash of 2008.

• Something more to get you excited about this June’s 50th anniversary commemoration of that classic 1960s spy series, The Avengers.

• Another brand-new blog to sample: Life, Death and Fog, being written by Ronald Tierney, the author of 2011’s Bullet Beach and a San Francisco resident (which explains that weather reference in the site’s title). Tierney tells me he’ll be blogging about “crime-related fiction and film, about writing crime fiction with a few comments on San Francisco from time to time. Maybe eventually some interviews.”

• You can help name a new crime-fiction anthology. Contributors include Allan Guthrie, Reed Farrel Coleman, Gary Phillips, Hilary Davidson, Anthony Neil Smith, and Patti Abbott. As another contributor, Paul D. Brazill explains: “Using the soundtrack from Quentin Tarantino’s ’90s classic, Pulp Fiction, as a starting point, these writers are pumping the pages full of bullets, bodies, and brains (not intelligence, actual bits of gray matter).” Info about this naming contest can be found here.

• This is a frightening list: “10 Colleges That Allow Guns on Campus.” Don’t administrators understand that passions (as well as hormones) are already running high among college students, and the last thing they or anyone around them needs is a firearm to settle scores? Guns on campus can only lead to more violent school deaths. A frighteningly stupid idea!

• As part of today’s Moonlighting for Murder celebration, Jen Forbus profiles the delightful Rosemary Harris, author of the Dirty Business Mystery Series (Slugfest). Other entries in this weeklong tribute to amateur sleuths can be found here.

• And it’s never a bad thing to revisit Rex Stout’s Fer de Lance.