by Amy Alessio
What a treat to blog on this site. I really enjoyed Joanna’s mystery and love to make scrapbook cookbooks for folks. (I’m a cookbook junkie: http://vintagecookbooks.blogspot.com)
It’s an even bigger privilege to write about Missing: A Mysterious Gathering of Tales. In 2007, Echelon Press President Karen Syed asked me to contribute a story to her anthology The Heat of the Moment, benefiting the Fire Safe Council of San Diego County, where thousands of folks lost their homes to fires. I wrote about Alana, an antiques store bookkeeper and cookbook collector, and her savvy teenage son, who solve an arson case at their business. I was so impressed with Karen for putting this project together, and I was also impressed with the other area authors I met from the project, including Margot Justes, Norm Cowie and Robert Goldsborough.
At the same time the nightly news in Chicago was filled with stories of missing adults. Stacey Peterson, Lisa Stebic, John Spira. These folks, with families and busy lives, simply vanished. For many years, I had followed the stories of the young Bradley sisters, who disappeared after being seen on a Chicago playground. I asked Karen if she could do another anthology about missing people or animals, with the proceeds benefiting a missing persons organization, so someone could be found. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children does not publicly endorse projects like this, but we have chosen as a group of authors and publisher to donate all proceeds of the book to their important work. As Karen posted on the cover: During 2007, 814,967 missing person records were entered into the National Crime Information Center’s Database.
It was my pleasure to edit the collection, and to contribute another story about Alana and her cookbooks. Many popular authors came forward to be involved in this project, including Henry Perez and J.A. Konrath. Michele Scott has two popular series with Berkley and a new YA from Echelon, and she also took time to add a story. Luisa Buehler, Mary Welk, Margot, Norm and Robert added stories from their series. Some new authors also brought wonderful stories to the collection. While I had edited some librarian publications, this was my first fiction edition project, and these authors made it easy. Every story has something unique to bring, and readers of all types of mysteries should find many stories to enjoy.
The anthology is available now at www.echelonpress.com, but will soon be up on Amazon and through distributors like Ingram and other places.
Title: Missing
Author: Anthology
ISBN: 978-1-59080-611-1
Genre: MysteryPages: 344 Price: $16.99 US
Amy Alessiohttp://vintagecookbooks.blogspot.com”Missing Andy”, Missing, Echelon Press, February 2009http://www.echelonpress.com