Mystillery Newsletter #15 - November 2021 |
From The Mystillery
While we were in Boston for our daughter's running of the Boston Marathon (Oct 11), your host also had the opportunity to visit a favorite place, Brattle Book Shop.
Daughter Bethany at the Boston Marathon. Should she continue running, or stop at the used book sale? Decisions, decisions!
Your Host in his Natural EnvironmentWe also happened across a little place called Caffé Nero. Could this be a retirement project of epicure Nero Wolfe? Note the back wall is covered with books.
So..... What current mystery author got her start when she fell into an open grave? Ewwwwwww. Here is the answer. Thanks to Avid Series Reader for pulling her out and bringing her into the M.E. Challenge!Refresh me: My goal is to get any updates posted within 24 hours of submission. If you don't see your latest submissions, be sure to click the REFRESH button on your web browser (swipe down on a cell phone) to load the newest version. Many days challenge pages are updated several times, which may be faster than your web browser can follow.
Bev at My Reader's Block has posted her 2022 Vintage Scattergories challenge. It is available for signup now!
Bev at My Reader's Block has just posted her Mount TBR 2022 challenge. It is available for signup now!
Medical Examiner news
We hope you enjoyed the "Are you a robot?" question on the Death Certificate form. It was a joke, of course, and it didn't matter what you chose. Just making fun of the various robot tests appearing on web forms.HAPPENINGS IN OCTOBER:
SueC (Utah) ties her 400th Toe Tag and squeezes the
Squishy Scarlet Sponge away from Tracy! Then....
Tina Hilbert (Utah) ties her 400th Toe Tag and squeezes the
Squishy Scarlet Sponge away from SueC!
Rick Mills (Maine) ties his 300th Toe Tag and belays the
Bent Brass Bone Saw away from Avid Series Reader! It wasn't to last, though...
Scott Nickles (Nebraska) ties his 300th Toe Tag and takes the
Bent Brass Bone Saw away from your host! Ouch!
Morgue Statistics
Year 2019 2020 2021* Medical Examiners 8 14 37 Total toe tags issued 1444 2719 8786 Total books read 441 806 1592 Average toe tags per book 3.27 3.37 5.51 Average toe tags per examiner 180 194 237 Average books read per examiner 55 57 43
* as of November 1SEARCH ENGINE UPDATED: The search engine had its monthly update this morning (Nov 1), so your submissions through Oct 30 are indexed and can now be found by it. This is available from the Medical Examiner and Six Shooter challenge pages.
Six Shooter news
You may notice "2020" appearing next to some of your titles read in 2020. This is to help sort things out during the rollover the last week of December.NEW NOTCHES CARVED IN OCTOBER:
NEW SHARPSHOOTERS IN OCTOBER:
Sanacrow (Tennessee) carves
notch #15 with author Karen Rose,
notch #16 with author Karen Rose,
notch #17 with author Karin Slaughter, and
notch #18 with author Kevin O'Brien!
OutsmartYourShelf (United Kingdom) carves
notch #2 with author J. D. Robb (Nora Roberts) !
C0NTENTH0MEB0DY carves
notch #14 with author Stuart Woods
SueC (Utah) carves
notch #12 with author Alexander McCall Smith
Tina Hilbert (Utah) carves
notch #10 with author Karin Slaughter!
Bev Hankins (Indiana) carves
notch #8 with author Frances & Richard Lockridge!
Your host (Maine) carves
notch #9 with author Kathleen Moore Knight!
- none
The Six Shooter rollover is coming! At the end of the year, the 2021 Six Shooter Challenge will roll over to 2022! When the 2022 version is posted, your completed targets will be removed. Your partially completed targets will still appear, so you do not lose any progress. All your numbers (notch, shot, TCP, bonus, and score) will reset to zero. Of course, the entire 2021 challenge will be archived so you can still refer back to see your 2021 targets. (For some nostalgia, take a look back at 2019 and 2020.)
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New from The Mystillery!
Just in time for the holidays! The Mystillery's new BookBit will up your reading challenge performance! The BookBit monitors your wrist movement to clock your page-turns in real time. Reading Challenge experts recommend a daily goal of 1000 page-turns to stay competitive in the cut-throat world of competitive reading challenges! Stop wasting valuable time with exercise, walking, and running! Settle in for some serious sedentary reading time this winter with the Mystillery's Bookbit!
- BookBit's daily goal is preset to 1000 page-turns.
- BookBit is compatible with hardcovers, paperbacks, and Kindles.
- BookBit delivers corrective mini-shocks if you fall asleep or fail to keep on pace.
- BookBit comes in Midnight Black, Mysterious Mauve, or Blood Red.
- BookBit has a handy clock built in.
Beachcomber news
BEACH BAGS FILLED IN OCTOBER:
Karen Baroness (Montana) just filled her second beach bag of Detectives !
Anchal Bhatia (Ontario) just filled her first beach bag of Victims !
- In 2022, all four categories will be the alphabet type.
Century Club news
No, madam. Corpus Delecti is not an appetizer.
- No activity in October. We're getting the Thanksgiving table ready, so this is a good time to grab a new decade.
- Remember, ALL past reading counts for this challenge - no matter when you read it! Check your bookshelves!
- It seems like the 1920's decade is the most difficult to find - those books are pushing 100 years old! So here are some 1920's mysteries available free from Project Gutenberg. They are in the public domain in the USA. You can read them online or download to your Kindle:
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie, 1921
- The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie, 1922
- The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie, 1923
- Poirot Investigates (short stories) by Agatha Christie, 1924
- The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie, 1924
- The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie, 1925
- The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart, 1920
- The Angel of Terror by Edgar Wallace, 1922
- The Daffodil Mystery by Edgar Wallace, 1920
- Mr. Justice Maxell by Edgar Wallace, 1922
Ten Pins news
Bev Hankins (Indiana) is the first to complete the game, using eleven titles in the process!
- In this game, feel free to shuffle your entries around as needed to get all the pins. Just resubmit the form for a pin, or explain what you want in an email.
Abra Cadavers news
Abra Cadavers has closed for the season.Back issues
- Newsletter #1 - Sep 2020
- Newsletter #2 - Oct 2020
- Newsletter #3 - Nov 2020
- Newsletter #4 - Dec 2020
- Newsletter #5 - Jan 2021
- Newsletter #6 - Feb 2021
- Newsletter #7 - Mar 2021
- Newsletter #8 - April 2021
- Newsletter #9 - May 2021
- Newsletter #10 - June 2021
- Newsletter #11 - July 2021
- Newsletter #12 - August 2021
- Newsletter #13 - September 2021
- Newsletter #14 - October 2021
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