On Thursday, July 30th, mystery authors Jule Selbo, Rob Kelley, Moe Claire, and Matt Cost will work together with the audience to create a mystery on the spot! Attendees will be asked to fill out five slips of paper upon entering the library including a character name, possible occupations, a setting for the mystery, a weapon that was used, and the motive for the murder. Yes, there will be a murder. These slips of paper will be dropped into the corresponding bag for the authors to pull from and create a mystery, with audience participation, creating a mystery from scratch from beginning to end. The authors will share insights into their processes throughout the program.
Jule Selbo rises an hour before sun-up, likes the fuel of caffeine and loves to make up stories. She’s an award-winning screenwriter (Disney, Paramount, Universal and more) who moved to Maine, USA to write novels and short stories – focusing on her favorite genre: crime mystery. 10 DAYS, A Dee Rommel Mystery (2021) is the first of the award-winning series; it is followed by 9 DAYS and 8 DAYS and 7 DAYS (you can see the pattern) and 6 DAYS will be published summer of 2026. She has her PhD in Film and Story Genre and is a Professor Emeritus of Cal State University. Short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Magazine and Thriller Magazine.
Matt Cost has written six books in the Mainely Mystery series starting with Mainely Power, six books in the Clay Wolfe Trap series starting with Wolfe Trap, and two books in the Brooklyn 8 Ballo series starting with Velma Gone Awry. EveryThing vs Max Creed will be his second book in the Modern-Day Chronicles of Max Creed. A few historical fiction pieces fill out the shelves. Cost lives in Brunswick, Maine.
Moe Claire is the author of the Pyke Island Mysteries in Downeast Maine with three titles (A Fickle Tide, Granite and Bones, Black Veil, White Rose) and a fourth (A Blind Spider) due later this year. Her writing desk looks across Frenchman Bay to the mountains of Acadia, and if she's not writing, look for her hiking in the mountains. Find out more at www.moeclairemystery.com. Her non-murderous alter-writing-ego, Moe Moeller, has published award-winning short fiction and community theater plays. Find Moe on Substack as "Bookish in Maine with Moe" or Instagram @moemoellerisbookish.
Robert T. Kelley is the author of the thriller Raven. He spent 30 years in the technology industry, building multiple companies before turning to writing. Formerly the publisher of the quarterly literary journal, The Maine Review, Rob now regularly blogs for Maine Crime Writers. He received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla and his PhD in English from Indiana University. Rob lives in Midcoast Maine and Boston with his wife, writer Margot Anne Kelley.