New Jersey native Brad Parks has been nominated for the Shamus Award, one of the most prestigious honors in crime fiction.

Parks is one of five finalists in the “Best First Novel” category for his book, “Faces of the Gone,” which features the exploits of a Newark-based newspaper reporter. The Shamus is given annually by the Private Eye Writers of America, with the winner scheduled to be announced at a banquet to be held in San Francisco this October during Bouchercon, the world mystery convention. Past winners of the award, now in its 29th year, include Sue Grafton, Michael Connelly and Harlan Coben.

It is the second major award nomination of the summer for Parks, who was also nominated for the Nero Award, named after the legendary Nero Wolfe, in June.

A career journalist turned fiction author, Brad Parks worked at The Washington Post and The Star-Ledger as a sportswriter and news feature writer. His website is www.BradParksBooks.com. The next book in Parks’s series, “Eyes of the Innocent” is due out in February.

S3, a fresh-thinking agency specializing in advertising, marketing, public relations and social media communications, was the top winner at this year’s Jersey Awards held by the Advertising Club of New Jersey at The Chart House in Weehawken. The Boonton-based agency received 26 awards, including “Best of Interactive” for the MAD MEN online ad campaign they created for Eight O’Clock Coffee.

In addition to “Best of Interactive,” S3 took home 11 first place, 8 second place, and 6 third place awards on behalf of multiple clients, including Autism Partnership, Jaguar Cars, Turtle Back Zoo and Wyndham Worldwide.

For more information about S3, please visit s3s3s3.com. For more information about the New Jersey Advertising Club, please visit njadclub.org.

SONIA TSURUOKA is the winner of the first MEWS Scholarship.  The Montclair High School senior, who is the co-editor-in-chief of both the award-winning Mountaineer newspaper and the Phoenix Art and Literary magazine, as well as opinions editor of the Scoop Daily blog, plans to study writing at Johns Hopkins and hopes for a career as an international correspondent.

Sonia epitomizes the ideals of the $1500 award, established to honor a graduating senior who’s shown a dedication to and an interest in a career in the fields of writing, editing, and/or literature.  Sonia is also involved in Model UN, the Debate Team, and tutoring kids in writing.  Teachers and administrators called her one of the “unsung heroes” of Montclair High.

Thanks to NANCY STAR and FILIP BONDY, who worked with me to develop the award, interview the seven wonderful candidates, and ultimately choose Sonia as the winner.  And thanks too to all the MEWSies who contributed an impressive $1500 for the scholarship.

The full list of contributors (though I’m not counting the pennies and $20 bills thrown anonymously into the collection jar at the MEWS party):

BARI ADELMAN

LAURIE & FRANK ALBANESE

LAUREN ANDERSON

GLORIA AVERBUCH

LESLIE BRODY

ALICE ELLIOTT DARK & LARRY DARK

JESSICA DeKONINCK

LOUISE DeSALVO

RITA DiMATTEO

DEBORAH DUNN

BRUCE FRANK & SUSAN WEINBERG

DOROTHEA BENTON FRANK

NANCY GERBER

RON HOLLANDER

TONI MARTIN

JOHN & PATTI PAINE

LISA ROSENBERG

KEN & WENDY SCHUMAN

PAULA SPAN

NANCY STAR

NANCY WILLIAMS

Please, if I’ve forgotten anybody, let me know.  Thank you!

The first MEWS Scholarship will be award this Thursday night, June 3, at Montclair High.  The award, for $1500, will be given to a graduating Montclair High School student who’s evidenced an interest in and commitment to a career in writing and/or editing.

Thank you to my fellow MEWSies NANCY STAR, author most recently of the novel Carpool Diem, and FILIP BONDY, sportswriter for The Daily News, for help organizing the scholarship, interviewing the seven excellent candidates nominated by the MHS English Department, and helping to select the winner.

And thank you too to all the MEWSies who donated the $1500 for the award.  I’ll publish a full list of donors later this week when we announce the winner.

Veteran newspaper journalist Wendy Ruderman of the Philadelphia Daily News will speak at the Society of Professional Journalists annual New Jersey Excellence in Journalism awards luncheon, Sunday, June 13 at the Theatre Square Grill, in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, NJ.

Awards in 60 categories will be presented to outstanding journalists from daily and weekly newspapers, online publications, radio and television stations, newsletters and magazines.

Jake Remaly of the Daily Record and Sarah Rahman of the Jersey Journal won first and second place, respectively in the Wilson Barto category for outstanding achievement by a first-year reporter in daily newspapers. Jason Braff of the Town News, Lina Khouri of the Montclair Times and Jacob Kamaras of Eliyahu Publications took first, second and third place, respectively, among weekly newspaper journalists.

The Tim O’Brien Award for best  investigative reporting using the NJ Open Public Records Act [OPRA] goes to The Montclair Times for “Where’s Your Money Going?” by Terrence T. McDonald.  Local journalists from The Montclair Times and The Record won several other awards that will be presented at the luncheon.

The luncheon begins at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20. All are welcome. You may pay in advance by sending a check made out to NJ-SPJ, and mail it to Jane Primerano, Treasurer, P.O. Box 511, Hope NJ, 07844. You may pay at the door, but you must RSVP by June 10 and include the number of guests accompanying you. Please RSVP to Sue Livio at sklivio@yahoo.com.

MEWSie LISA DALE writes:

I just wanted to pass along this opportunity that I heard about through Writer’s Relief!

Writer’s Relief, an author’s submission service (est. 1994) in Hackensack, announces the First Annual Peter K. Hixson Memorial Scholarship For Creative Writers. Three writers in the genres of novels, short stories/personal essays, and poetry will be awarded two rounds of Writer’s Relief services (valued at $500 per winner).

In accordance with Writer’s Relief submission services, Writer’s Relief will compose cover/query letters, individually print and address letters, create mailing labels, and target the winners’ work to the best-suited literary agents or editors. Applications will be accepted April 1 through 23. There is no fee to apply.

For more information please visit http://www.writersrelief.com/peter-k-hixson-writing-scholarship.aspx.

Coming in from MEWSIE Joel Schwartzberg:

“The 40-Year-Old Version”, my collection of personal essays and humor, was just named a finalist in both the ESSAYS and HUMOR categories of ForeWord Magazine’s “Book of the Year” Awards.

See: http://bit.ly/d2n7vZ

Winners in each category, and overall fiction and nonfiction prize winners, will be announced at Book Expo America 2010 in May.

See more about the book at www.bookfordad.com

Cora Frazier, daughter of MEWS members Ian Frazier and Jacqueline Carey, has written a parody of the novel “Twilight” with her friend Courtney Bowman. Cora and Courtney are both members of The Harvard Lampoon, and the book, titled Nightlight, was published under the Lampoon name.

Nightlight has made the extended (i.e., online) New York Times bestseller list, entering at #32 for the week of December 20th.

The time is right for MEWS to offer its first scholarship, to a Montclair High School student planning to study journalism, writing, editing, or some other field related to books, publishing, or media.

Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be working out the specifics of our award, but for now, I wanted to open the door for contributions for the 2009 tax year.  Please make out your checks to Montclair High School and write MEWS scholarship donation in the memo section.  Send them to me at Pam Satran, 64 Myrtle Ave, Montclair, NJ 07042.  I will send the first batch to Maryann Wasko, assistant to the principal who is working with us on this initiative, before school closes for the holidays.

Our main fund drive will be at our January 30 party at the Diva.  But to grab a this-year tax return, help out a deserving Montclair student, and be a stronger part of MEWS in the process, send your checks (little ones are good!) now.

More good news for MEWSie authors Michael and Elizabeth Norman’s bestselling “Tears in the Darkness,” which has been hitting several Best Books of the Year lists.

http://www.nytimes.com/gift-guide/holiday-2009/giftguide-garner/list.html

Also:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_85920671_13?ie=UTF8&plgroup=1&docId=1000446491&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=left-1&pf_rd_r=0S8AKJPTFFJDA6MF81ZQ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=497521731&pf_rd_i=2233760011