Happy birthday to us!

Stanley - Monday

On this day in 2009, the first Murder is Everywhere blog graced the internet. The whole idea was hatched after a panel moderated by Leighton Gage at the Bouchercon in Indianapolis. The title of the panel was Murder at the Edge of the Map and among the panelists were Cara Black with her books set in Paris, Tamar Myers and her Congo books, and me (Botswana). Leighton, of course, wrote books set in Brazil.

The panel was a great success largely due to Leighton being an excellent moderator. 

After the panel, Leighton suggested that we combine to write a blog - with contributors being writers who set their books outside the United States. 'What a great idea!' we said, and so Murder is Everywhere was born.

The initial group of writers comprised Leighton, Cara, Stan and his co-writer Michael Sears, Dan Waddell, Tim Hallinan, and Yrsa Sigurdardottir.

A contributor from the beginning

A contributor from the beginning

A contributor from the beginning

It turned out that a future MIE writer was in the audience at that panel. Patricia King, known as Annamaria Alfieri, had just published her first novel, City of Silver, set in South America. She came up and chatted to me because she had visited Botswana, and later became good friends with Leighton.

Since November 11, 2009, we have published 3,320 posts with 3,890,703 page views. 

Over the years, contributors came and went. Jeff Siger (Greece) penned a guest blog in February 2010 and joined full time in November of the same year.  Annamaria (South America and now East Africa) was a guest in June 2010 and became a regular contributor in June 2013 when Leighton became too ill to continue writing for the blog. Lisa Brackmann (China), known as Other Lisa, joined in January 2013, also after writing several guest blogs. In the same month, Caro Ramsey (Scotland) also joined. Later in 2013, Zoë Sharp (USA and UK) joined, also after being a guest contributor.

In 2015, Jørn Lier Horst (Norway) joined the motley crew, as did Susan Spann (Japan) and Sujata Massey (India and Japan). A year later, Leye Adenle (Nigeria) became a regular contributor.

What a ride it has been!

From my perspective, being an MIE contributor has been an amazing experience. Most important has been the camaraderie and friendships that have developed from it. I know others share the same feeling. Annamaria wrote to me the other day and said "I love being a part of this team.  To call all the regular contributors past and present my friends.  My inspiration.  What a gift!"

Jeff wrote about his experience " It was in large measure Leighton's energy the led me to accept an invitation be MIE’s Saturday full time blogger, a decision I consider among the best I’ve ever made, for it’s given me a brand new family—not that there’s anything wrong with the old. :)" 

The inimitable Caro sent me a message: "I was very honoured to be asked to write on this blog. (In fact, I demand to know whose idea it was!) I think we are a great bunch. I feel rather privileged, as a wee lassie from a close in Govan, to count you all as my pals. Imagine me knowing a Wall Street lawyer, a man who had a hippopotamus in his swimming pool and a seahorse called Magellan who never grew up. But, just think for a mo, if we had met in different circumstances, what a criminal team we would make!"

It is amazing that such a long-term blog emerged from a single panel at Bouchercon and the energy of the wonderful Leighton Gage. Many of us who write for MIE regard our contributions as a homage to Leighton - a wonderful writer and friend.

So we thank him for what he has done for all of us.

We also thank all of our readers for hanging in with us over all these years. We know there are some whom have been with us from the beginning. Please continue to read what we write and invite others to become MIE followers.

Thank you.

____________________________

On this day, it would be remiss of me if I failed to thank servicewomen and servicemen all over the world for their sacrifices. MIE tries to bring the world closer. I wish politicians would do so also.