Are. You An Unpublished Writer in the Crime Fiction Genre?

E.A. Poe, the father of the mystery story 

Two. $500 Scholarships from MWA Organization 

Writers who have not been published in the mystery field are eligible to apply for the annual MWA-Helen McCloy Scholarship, which awards up to $500 to each of 2 writers to take a legitimate course of study or series of classes or workshops to improve writing skills. Writers may submit the first 3 chapters of a mystery novel, or 3 short stories, or a script (movie, tv, or play), or 3 short nonfiction pieces in any mystery or mystery subgenre.

Scholarship funds will cover actual tuition and fees, not travel or accommodations, and are usually awarded in April or May of every year in time for classes beginning in the summer, fall or winter of that year or early spring the following year. You can download the application form, learn the details, and send for a copy of current guidelines here:

MWA Edgar Nominations

Congratulations to all the Edgar nominees, but especially to New Englander's Hank Phillippi Ryan and Steve Liskow for novel and story story nominations, respectively.
Here is the link to all the nominees.  Good to see plenty of women in the group.  MWA Edgar Nominees

Christmas Dinner Chez Grapesho

I have been slaving on a short story for over a month and haven't done a lot of posting.  Christmas house guests, baking, socializing, then cleaning and laundry.  It's a full life, Charlie!   Who said that?  No idea.  

Also need to keep the PR machine oiled.  It's hard to imagine having enough time to do everything.  I keep a "to do" list?  Do you?  Some of the things are long term items, others are for today!    Always satisfying to cross tedious chores off the list.

Right now I'm wondering if I can have rice in both today's dessert and today's main course?  Why the heck not?  I almost wrote "main coarse."  Well, sometimes it is.

Birds on suet and cats on window sill except for the fat creature on the couch.  The youngest cat hides her mice from everyone, and then bawls for me to fish them out from  under the wooden icebox we use to store the booze in.            
Back to the short story.  A could have written a "cozy" mystery novel in the time it has taken to write this damn story.  Still, I am having fun and learning stuff.  That's what counts.


Grapeshot 

Mystery Writers of America Announces 2012 Edgar Award Winners

BEST NOVEL

Gone by Mo Hayder (Grove/Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)


BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Bent Road by Lori Roy (Penguin Group USA - Dutton)


BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (Hachette Book Group – Orbit Books)


BEST FACT CRIME

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
by Candice Millard (Random House - Doubleday)


BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda (Princeton University Press)


BEST SHORT STORY

 “The Man Who Took His Hat Off to the Driver of the Train” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Peter Turnbull (Dell Magazines)


BEST JUVENILE

Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby (Scholastic Press)


BEST YOUNG ADULT

 The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall (Random House Children’s Books – Knopf BFYR)


BEST PLAY

The Game’s Afoot by Ken Ludwig (Cleveland Playhouse, Cleveland, OH)


BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

 “Pilot” – Homeland, Teleplay by Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon & Gideon Raff (Showtime)


ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

"A Good Man of Business" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
by David Ingram (Dell Magazines)


GRAND MASTER

Martha Grimes


RAVEN AWARDS

M is for Mystery Bookstore, San Mateo, CA
Molly Weston, Meritorious Mysteries

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD
                                                                                          
Joe Meyers of the Connecticut Post/Hearst Media News Group

**********************

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 25, 2012)

Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry (Crown Publishing Group)

 

In Disgrace

My Facebook account caught a virus which sent itself to 200+ friends, and after I deleted each and every message, Facebook blocked me from sending links. 

The MWA newsletter that arrived today had some interesting links to online writing advice.  Here is a link  you may profit by:

Writing Advice  


The writer is Janet Finch and she has some trenchant suggestions. 

How does it feel to be in the doghouse?  Baaaaad.  Sometimes I think I've spent the better part of my life smarting from something I did wrong, didn't do, didn't say, should have said, blundering along like a blind dog in a meat house (my Dad's phrase).  This person becomes a black sheep.   I wrote a story about that once, and even gave a speech at Toastmasters about black sheephood.  Did you know that black sheep are undesirable because THEIR WOOL CAN'T BE DYED.   Today's fact. 

I'm going to crawl back under my rock.

Sadly,

Grapeshot

Edgar Nominees for Fiction

Exciting news today with MWA's Edgar nominees.  Two of my favorite authors are nominees: Laura Lippman and Steve Hamilton, also Harlan Coban, no three of my favorite authors, a veritable embarras de richesses.  What?  No female names in the best first novel group?  I know the committees work endless hours reading and pondering to come up with the best slate of books. Women, who are more inclined to write "cozies," have a hard row to hoe. 

What is hugely exciting is the  nomination of  "A Good Safe Place" by Judith Green for Best Short Story in Thin Ice.  Level Best Books are the greatest!  They publish an anthology of short stories by (mostly) New England authors every year.  Last year I was fortunate enough to be included in Quarry with my story, "Bad Trip."

Congratulations to all the nominees for their achievement.  Mega congratulations to Level Best Books and Judith Green.  Love live Crime Fiction! 


BEST NOVEL

Caught by Harlan Coben (Penguin Group USA - Dutton)
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
Faithful Place by Tana French (Penguin Group USA - Viking)
The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books)
I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva (Tom Doherty Associates – Forge Books)
The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron (Minotaur Books)
The Serialist: A Novel by David Gordon (Simon & Schuster)
Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)
Snow Angels by James Thompson (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard (Random House - Bantam)
The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn (Henry Holt)
Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski (Minotaur Books)
Vienna Secrets by Frank Tallis (Random House Trade Paperbacks)
Ten Little Herrings by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem Press)

BEST SHORT STORY

"The Scent of Lilacs" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Doug Allyn (Dell Magazines)
"The Plot" – First Thrills by Jeffery Deaver (Tom Doherty – Forge Books)
"A Good Safe Place” – Thin Ice by Judith Green (Level Best Books)
"Monsieur Alice is Absent" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
by Stephen Ross (Dell Magazines)
"The Creative Writing Murders" – Dark End of the Street by Edmund White (Bloomsbury)

MWA announces Edgar Nominees

Hot off the press!  Nominees for this year's Edgar awards.  Books, etc. published in 2009
BEST NOVEL

The Missing by Tim Gautreaux (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf)
The Odds by Kathleen George (Minotaur Books)
The Last Child by John Hart (Minotaur Books)
Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston (Random House - Ballantine Books)
Nemesis by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett (HarperCollins)
A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano (Grand Central Publishing)
Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley (Simon & Schuster - Touchstone)
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf (MIRA Books)
A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield (Minotaur Books – Thomas Dunne Books)
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (HarperCollins)
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (Minotaur Books)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
Havana Lunar by Robert Arellano (Akashic Books)
The Lord God Bird by Russell Hill (Pleasure Boat Studio – Caravel Books)
Body Blows by Marc Strange (Dundurn Press – Castle Street Mysteries)
The Herring-Seller’s Apprentice by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem Press)

BEST FACT CRIME

Columbine by Dave Cullen (Hachette Book Group - Twelve)
Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn (Simon & Schuster)
The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston’s Racial Divide by Dick Lehr (HarperCollins)
Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo (The Penguin Press)
Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa by R.A. Scotti (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf)
The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives edited by Otto Penzler (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company)
Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King by Lisa Rogak (Thomas Dunne Books)
The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar (St. Martin’s Press)
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion by Bev Vincent (Fall River Press)

BEST SHORT STORY

"Last Fair Deal Gone Down" – Crossroad Blues by Ace Atkins (Busted Flush Press)
"Femme Sole" – Boston Noir by Dana Cameron (Akashic Books)
"Digby, Attorney at Law" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Jim Fusilli (Dell Magazines)
"Animal Rescue" – Boston Noir by Dennis Lehane (Akashic Books
"Amapola" – Phoenix Noir by Luis Alberto Urrea (Akashic Books)

BEST JUVENILE

The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour by Michael D. Beil (Random House Children’s Books – Alfred A. Knopf)
Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Books)
Creepy Crawly Crime by Aaron Reynolds (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers)
The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline by Nancy Springer (Penguin Young Readers Group – Philomel Books)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Reality Check by Peter Abrahams (HarperCollins Children’s Books – HarperTeen)
If the Witness Lied by Caroline B. Cooney (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte Press)
The Morgue and Me by John C. Ford (Penguin Young Readers Group – Viking Children’s Books)
Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone by Dene Low (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Books)
Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte Press)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

"Place of Execution," Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson (PBS/WGBH Boston)
"Strike Three" – The Closer, Teleplay by Steven Kane (Warner Bros TV for TNT)
"Look What He Dug Up This Time" – Damages, Teleplay by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman (FX Networks)
"Grilled" – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by George Mastras (AMC/Sony)
"Living the Dream" – Dexter, Teleplay by Clyde Phillips (Showtime)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

"A Dreadful Day" – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Dan Warthman (Dell Magazines)


GRAND MASTER

Dorothy Gilman

RAVEN AWARDS

Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, Pennsylvania
Zev Buffman, International Mystery Writers’ Festival

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

Poisoned Pen Press (Barbara Peters & Robert Rosenwald)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 28, 2010)

Awakening by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books)
Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof by Blaize Clement (Minotaur Books)
Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
Lethal Vintage by Nadia Gordon (Chronicle Books)
Dial H for Hitchcock by Susan Kandel (HarperCollins)

Special Congratulations to New England writers Dana Cameron, Hallie Ephron and Peter Abrahams.    

Sucking It Up Again

Last week, in a query frenzy, I sent out queries for World of Mirrors, Promiscuous Mode and Festival Madness.

Today, the rejections started coming in like kamikazes after a battleship. Poor old World of Mirrors, which I rewrote numerous times, has ninety-three (count 'em) rejections. I need to get 114 before I throw in the towel. Harry Hunsicker who went on to publish several well-received books and become an officer in MWA got 113 rejections before he found an agent. Persistence wins the day. I guess. This is really a cool novel--an honest-to-god original story , with fun (read bad) characters, a suspenseful plot and a slice of history on a beautiful island. So whatchagotta do? Dunno. It's hard to let this book die.

I'm having trouble finding agents who might like Promiscuous Mode with its funky locale, business setting and lighthearted adultery. Cripes, it even has a cat and casinos. BTW, a relative reports the sleazy casino I wrote about has been gussied up and has a fancy hotel across the street instead of El Sleazo Motel. I like the lowlife locale better. My writing group loved this book; even Significant Other says it's his favorite, but so far fifty-eight rejections.

Festival Madness is coming up on the rail, rejection-wise. forty-nine to date. If the agent never responds, I count that as a reject. And with Burning Man next month I should query a bunch more agents.

Have you been doing the math? That's 200 rejections, a universe of sucking it up. And still, I'm writing another novel and have one on the horizon after that. Maybe yet another. Crazy Grapeshot, must be the world's biggest masochist. Not.

So. I made pizza tonight for us and the two guests. We always do a lot of toppings, with fresh veggies ascendant, and beaucoup cheese. Always tasty. I can control what comes out of my kitchen. Actually, I can control my writing but not its acceptance.

I'm going up to watch the Red Sox in the All Star game. Tomorrow we're trekking to Plimouth Plantation and the Mayflower.

Thisbe is curled up by my feet and having a cat nuzzle your toes makes up for a world of pain.

Two hundred rejections! OMG.

Edgar Winners

I wasn't at the Edgar's banquet on Thursday, but MWA announced the winners right afterward.
Ta Da!

The Grand Masters were James Lee Burke and Sue Grafton--there couldn't be better picks than those two.

BEST NOVEL Blue Heaven by C.J. Box
BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR The Foreigner by Francie Lin
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL China Lake by Meg Gardiner
BEST FACT CRIME American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century by Howard Blum
BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories by Dr. Harry Lee Poe
BEST SHORT STORY "Skinhead Central" - The Blue Religion by T. Jefferson Parker
BEST JUVENILE The Postcard by Tony Abbott
BEST YOUNG ADULT Paper Towns by John Green (BEST PLAY The Ballad of Emmett Till by Ifa Bayeza
BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY "Prayer of the Bone" - Wire in the Blood, Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson
BEST MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY In Bruges, Screenplay by Martin McDonagh ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD "Buckner's Error" - Queens Noir by Joseph Guglielmelli

RAVEN AWARDS Edgar Allan Poe Society, Baltimore, Maryland Poe House, Baltimore, Maryland
MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD The Killer's Wife by Bill Floyd

Sue Grafton and James Lee Burke are so gracious and witty--I enjoyed sitting in on their Symposium interviews. Each one signed a book for me. James Lee Burke admitted he had waited nine years between publication of books 2 and 3 and submitted the book 111 times. So let Suck It Up forever be the motto. We never think of published authors having these issues. The book went on to win (I believe) a Pulitzer. So take heart, ye weary writers.

I rode busses in NY and didn't worry too much about the flu because I had my tiny bottle of hand sanitizer with me.

In my next blog, I'll discuss trying to get out of a restroom without contaminating your just-washed hands. This ain't easy.

Grapeshot

Off To the Big Apple

From Beantown to the Big Apple tomorrow, the occasion being the MWA Edgar's week, esp. the Symposium, God, how Platonic. I missed last year, being in a funk about my writing. This year, the funk is worse, but since I've resolved to give up crime fiction for mainstream or maybe even literary fiction (can I still do that?) this may be my last year, and I've been trekking down to NYC for at least 10 years for this event.

I have learned a lot about "the state of the market" which grows worse every year unless you are a top gun like Sue Grafton or Harlan Coban, and I've met some nice people, and rubbed elbows and pitched two books. I haven't pitched Festival Madness, and I suppose I should get an elevator pitch ready. For all it's worth. I've learned not to mention the KGB or Osama Bin Laden with reference to these books because that's sooooo yesterday. I've learned that people I met last year (never mind two years ago) won't remember me. I've learned that agents and editors would really rather talk with agents and editors other than aspiring writers, but that's o.k., too. In their shoes, so would I.

I've learned that it's really true. If you're standing like the wallflower at the orgy in the midst of 200 people, that if you just smile, someone will approach. This can be the most forced, shit-eating smile in the world and someone will at least return your smile.

So: life lessons learned at the Edgar's. I used to go to the banquet, too, now, alas, no longer affordable. I was always seated in Siberia, but that was O.K., because there were nice writers seated there, too, and why wouldn't I be in Siberia? Me and The Shadow Warriors. That cocktail party was even more excrutiating unless one of my New England writer buddies was along.

Some of my fellow Guppies (the Great Unpublished) will be there, so I should have lunch companions, although I didn't mind eating alone at a cool Italian place two years ago. Sat at the bar, had a wonderful lunch with wine and an attentive waiter. Sometimes, when one is in a certain mood, others think that you are SOMEBODY and serve you well.

When we were young and sexy this happened to S.O. and I at Chasen's in LA (best table in the house) and also at The Bakery in Chicago (seated in the kitchen where all the VIP's were placed.) The photo shows that young woman.

"You're up in an aeroplane, you're dining at Sardi's." Well, those were the days, and I never write about them, but I'm thinking maybe I should, and tell all the secrets, but I probably won't. Or will I? Nope. Have to outlive everyone first, including myself. Ha ha.

So after this ramble--ramble, not rant, I need to check on the orange yogurt bread and get my chicken breast in the oven. And pack. Those not-too-old-not-too-unstylish clothes. And wash my newly cut, streaked hair. "You're dining at Malibu, alone on the sand."

Onward.

Grapeshot

Why Is Everything Such A Hassle?

Yesterday I had my hair cut and colored for the first time since early November. I was the two-toned kid, with 4 inches of brown and 5 inches of streaked blond brown with ends that had seen better days. Looking good, now. I did this in prep for Edgar's week in NY. It is bad enough to be the unstylish country cousin, even the pudgy unstylish country cousin without being the bad hair etc. country cousin, and might I add the cousin who hasn't published a book since 2003, etc. etc.?

But my hairdresser is great and he is even reading my book as is one of the other stylists. He liked the "descriptive" passages, which I suspect is damning with faint praise, but anyway. . .
I go back to Wellesley for my hair, and bopped into E.A. Davis to ogle the Lily Pulitzer clothes. So cool. So summery. So very Nantucket. Drool. Prices too high. I debated, and decided not to try anything on in the unlikely event that it fit. E.A. Davis is never a hassle.

We were having lasagne for dinner and I needed parmesan cheese and lettuce, so I stopped at Shaw's. Bought a wee box of black raspberries, so I had three (count 'em) 3 items. Took my understuffed basket into the 10 items or less check-out line. The clerk had already scanned the stuff the woman in front of me purchased, and then she began to pack it up, and I realized about the 3rd grocery bag that this woman must have had AT LEAST 20 items. That Shaws is always a train wreck. So, one might expect that the woman would turn and apologize. Maybe no one was behind her when she unloaded her week's groceries. Nope.

Maybe I had a right to expect that the check-out clerk would apologize for holding up the line endlessly. Paper and plastic and the woman's own bag (just one!) and was that a debit or a credit card yada yada.

Nope. Instead, a cheery, "how are you, today?" Now, how is anyone, especially us type A's who must wait and wait in the quick ten-items-or-less (not fewer) line for endless minutes for the rude feeling-so-priveleged shopper? I said "fine," with a chiliness that must have given her a clue. Still no apology. Not even a breezy apology.

Certainly no abject apology. That would come later.

On to the dry cleaners. Opened the door, and the woman who works there was sitting at her desk. She didn't look up. I did a double take. Hmmm. Her eyes are closed. She is erect, and therefore not dead. This woman never looks exactly healthy, so this was a legitimate consideration. I said, "excuse me."

She woke up with a start and starred at me. Abject apologies. My god, you would think they had lost the cleaning, which has actually happened, but not there. I had two "groups" of cleaning and no cash, so I whipped out ye old charge card, and for some reason she rang the cleaning up in three groups, but she had to key in a lot of numbers and the charge machine was SLOOOOOW, just like the Shaw's checkout line. I didn't understand why she couldn't add 10.00 and 19.65, after all it wasn't a quadratic equation, but this math seemed to be beyond her ken.

In the meantime another customer came in and waited and waited and waited, just like I had at Shaw's, and I was tempted to apologize, but hey, I wasn't the sleepy, slow, abject one.

Finally, with three charge receipts for $29.65, I was out of there. No other hassles. It's a wonder I didn't get rear-ended driving out of the parking lot. This is the center where all the truckers stop at the Dunkin' Donuts because there's a big parking lot. Sometimes you have to wait there indefinitely, but when the wait is long, we will feel virtuous and skip the donut. Never a bad idea, skipping the donut, especially is you are the not-very-stylish country cousin a little pudgy and not recently published.

Alas,

Grapeshot

Agatha Nominees from Malice Domestic

Some of my friends listed here, good writers all. The Agatha awards are for "traditional" mysteries, which means whodunnit. Most are so-called cozies, is the spirit of Agatha Christie. The best definition of a cozy mystery that I have ever heard is "a story where more tea is spilled than blood." You get the idea. Of course some stories are edgier than others. This type of novel does not tend to be nominated for the Edgar awards by the MWA. See previous post.

Your assignment is to buy or borrow the books, read them, and determine your favorites. There will be a test.


AGATHA AWARDSNamed in Honor of Agatha Christie
2008 Agatha Nominees

Best Novel:

Six Geese A-Slaying by Donna Andrews (Minotaur Books)
A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen (Penguin Group)
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)
Buckingham Palace Gardens by Anne Perry (Random House)
I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming (Minotaur Books)

Best First Novel:

Through a Glass, Deadly by Sarah Atwell (Berkley Trade)
The Diva Runs Out of Thyme by Krista Davis (Penguin Group)
Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris (Minotaur Books)
Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet (Midnight Ink
Paper, Scissors, Death by Joanna Campbell Slan (Midnight Ink)

Best Non-fiction:

African American Mystery Writers: A Historical & Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey (McFarland & Co.)
How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries by Kathy Lynn Emerson (Perseverance Press)
Anthony Boucher, A Bibliography by Jeff Marks (McFarland & Co.)
Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories by Dr. Harry Lee
Poe (Metro Books)
The Suspicions of Mr. Whitcher by Kate Summerscale (Walker & Co.)

Best Short Story:

"The Night Things Changed" by Dana Cameron, Wolfsbane & Mistletoe (Penguin Group)
"Killing Time" by Jane Cleland, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine - November 2008
"Dangerous Crossing" by Carla Coupe, Chesapeake Crimes 3 (Wildside Press)
"Skull & Cross-Examinations" by Toni L.P. Kelner, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - February 2008"
A Nice Old Guy" by Nancy Pickard, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - August 2008

Best Children's/Young Adult:

Into the Dark by Peter Abrahams (Harper Collins)
A Thief in the Theater (A Kit Mystery) by Sarah Masters Buckey (American Girl Publishers)
The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein (Random House Children's Books)
The Great Circus Train Robbery by Nancy Means Wright (Hilliard & Harris)

2009 Edgar Nominees - Mystery Writers of America

Ta da! Here are the nominations for best crime novels of 2009. The people on the nominating committees do a terrific job. It's a huge time suck and we can be grateful, because now we can focus on reading some interesting new books.

Best Novel

Missing by Karin Alvtegen (Felony & Mayhem Press)
Blue Heaven by C.J. Box (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
Sins of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)
The Price of Blood by Declan Hughes (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
The Night Following by Morag Joss (Random House – Delacorte Press)
Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster)

Best First Novel

The Kind One by Tom Epperson (Five Star, div of Cengage)
Sweetsmoke by David Fuller (Hyperion)
The Foreigner by Francie Lin (Picador)
Calumet City by Charlie Newton (Simon & Schuster - Touchstone)
A Cure for Night by Justin Peacock (Random House - Doubleday)

Best Paperback Original

The Prince of Bagram Prison by Alex Carr (Random House Trade)
Money Shot by Christa Faust (Hard Case Crime)
Enemy Combatant by Ed Gaffney (Random House - Dell)
China Lake by Meg Gardiner (New American Library – Obsidian Mysteries)
The Cold Spot by Tom Piccirilli (Random House - Bantam)

There are also categories for non-fiction, screenplays, children's books, and lots of other interesting reading possibilities. Go to the MWA web site for a complete list of nominees.

www.mysterywriters.org

NEIBA photos

The car is unpacked and the booth needs to be stashed on the garage shelves, a two-person job.

I'm drooling over all the books we picked up, including War and Peace, Christmas presents, and plenty of good airplane reading.

Toni Kelner and Dana Cameron are blogging NEIBA, as well as many other Sisters in Crime and MWA members. Isn't the blogosphere cool?

I'm going on one of my semi-annual pilgrimages to my tiny place Northern Nevada tomorrow, so postings may be scanty. On the other hand, I may write volumes. Photos will be fab. And the books come with. That's a Chicago expression that pains S.O., but I still like it.

Next post will be recipes, so come back soon.

Grapeshot

New England Independent Booksellers = NEIBA

This weekend, you'll find me at NEIBA in the Hynes Convention Center in Downtown Boston. If there's anything a writer loves more than writing it's reading and books, books, books.

We are representing Mystery Writer's of America and Sisters in Crime in the New York-New England areas. So, last year we used one of S.O.'s old pop up booths from aeons ago, something still in our garage along with other sundry items. This year, with yet a bigger floor space we brought two more sections. Now a few years ago, we had put up one in the driveway/garage area to make sure all the pieces were present, because we were going to put it on Craig's List.

Actually we did put it on Craig's List, and it didn't sell, no inquiries even, and that was the end of that. Until today. We got everything into our smallist car and tooled into town. We put the easy part together first and then tackled the unfamiliar.

Yikes! Put it together wrong not twice but thrice, and that was only the first section. Second section was missing a few pieces. We made do, hoping no one leans against it and sends it crashing down. Got all the signage up. Stuffed some "goody bags." Busy, busy with no time to cruise around and scope out all the really cool books. The University of Chicago always has a wonderful booth, but then I am an academic at heart.

Left everything looking a-ok. Up to P.K. Chang's for a Chinese Bistro meal that can't be beat. Home again, home again, jiggety jig to a mailbox full of crap and some stupid phone messages that made no sense at all.

Put the towels in the dryer and gave the cat and pill and hear we are. Exciting day, no? Tomorrow the show opens and we promote our organizations like crazy. Saturday, too.

I really need to work on this book, but duty calls. Seems like duty calls a lot. Is duty another name for procrastination? Someone tell me, quick.

Grapeshot

And The Edgar Award Winners Are . . .

Image from http://www.brittanica.com/


At a glitzy party in a NYC hotel ballroom, some of the best and the brightest in the crime writing genre came together to honor the nominees and winners of this year's Edgars: novels, short stories, plays and television programs.


I've been trekking from Bean Town to The Big Apple for years to attend the symposium and the agents and editors parties and some years even to the pricey banquet ("come dressed to kill") , but it's always an expensive undertaking, and this year my heart wasn't in it, so I went to Muse & the Marketplace instead for about the same money.

Earlier in this blog I posted the nominees, and now the charmed (and talented) few who bask in the winner's circle.

BEST NOVEL

Down River by John Hart (St. Martin's Minotaur)


BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

In the Woods by Tana French (Penguin Group – Viking)


BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Queenpin by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)


BEST FACT CRIME

Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
by Vincent Bugliosi (W.W. Norton and Company


BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters
by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley (The Penguin Press)


BEST SHORT STORY

"The Golden Gopher ' – Los Angeles Noir by Susan Straight (Akashic Books


BEST JUVENILE

The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh (Hyperion Books for Young Readers)


BEST YOUNG ADULT

Rat Life by Tedd Arnold (Penguin – Dial Books for Young Readers)


BEST PLAY

Panic by Joseph Goodrich (International Mystery Writers' Festival)


BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

"Pilot" – Burn Notice, Teleplay by Matt Nix (USA Network/Fox Television Studios)


BEST MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY

Michael Clayton, Screenplay by Tony Gilroy (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Congratulations to all. I read Megan Abbot's first book and thought it was brilliant. Loved Michael Clayton, too.

Link to Galley cat photos and more news of the Edgar's event
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/awards/scene_the_edgars_prebanquet_reception_83875.asp

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Surgery Without Anesthesia

For the last two weeks, I'm been excising extraneous words from Promiscuous Mode, cutting it from 109,000 words to 105,000. This was after a prior session which had already resulted in cutting 5,000 words.

I find it amazing that one can go back again and again making corrections. I also fixed a bunch of passive sentences, awkward phrasing (how did that get left in there?) and routed out unnecessary sentences, adverbs (especially) and adjectives.

It's hard work, this paring, but the novel is always stronger, better, more readable. A good editor could probably find a few thousand other words. After all, I cut 16,000 words out of World of Mirrors.

Next week, we're travelling to Sleuthfest, in Deerfield Beach, FL, sponsored by the Florida chapter of Mystery Writer's of America. I'm meeting with an editor or an agent and also reading the first pages of Festival Madness to an audience. Tonight I'm practicing on my writer's group and Thursday on my Toastmaster's chapter. Practice makes perfect, etc.

I'm also going to send out another half-dozen queries for PM. This is my last year of crime fiction writing unless something breaks. Then it's on to literary fiction, commercial fiction, women's fiction, whatever. And then to the young adult that is screaming, "write me! write me!"

It's hard to admit failure after pounding away at a project for almost 15 years. 5 books, endless rewrites, queries, groups, meetings and finally rejection. A lot of sucking up, believe me. On the plus side, I have become a decent writer--no one gainsays the competent writing. Seems to be the stories. They're good stories, but they're perhaps a little "thinky" as one instructor noted.

Heaven knows, anyone who programmed computers for as long as I did is bound to be "thinky." That's what computer people are--have to be. Thinky. What a word. What a concept. And mystery readers are people-people and like their stories "Feely."

I tried to make the transition from Thinky-thinky to thinky-feely, but I am not a touchy-feely person. Sorry, can't help it.

It's not that thinkers are unfeeling, but first and foremost, they're thinkers. Vivaldi was a thinker. So was Bach. Thinkers can write thrillers, but I have no interest, and probably less talent in that genre. No ideas, either. So it goes.

Listen, if you need 4,000 words, mostly redundant sentences, adverbs and a few adjectives, I have them for sale cheap.

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MWA 2008 Edgar Awards

Let's hear it for some great new novels. I have Ken Bruen's Priest on my "next read" list. Everyone involved in Crimebake and/or Level Best Books is also pulling for "The Catch" in the Still Waters Anthology. A new writer's first published story is nominated for a prestigeous award. How cool is that? Mega-congratulations to Mark Ammons.

BEST NOVEL

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (Henry Holt and Company)
Priest by Ken Bruen (St. Martin's Minotaur)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)
Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House Books)
Down River by John Hart (St. Martin's Minotaur)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
In the Woods by Tana French (Penguin Group – Viking)
Snitch Jacket by Christopher Goffard (The Rookery Press)
Head Games by Craig McDonald (Bleak House Books)
Pyres by Derek Nikitas (St. Martin's Minotaur)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Queenpin by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
Blood of Paradise by David Corbett (Random House - Mortalis)
Cruel Poetry by Vicki Hendricks (Serpent's Tail)
Robbie's Wife by Russell Hill (Hard Case Crime)
Who is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall (Simon & Schuster)

BEST FACT CRIME

The Birthday Party by Stanley Alpert (Penguin Group – G.P. Putnam's Sons)
Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
by Vincent Bugliosi (W.W. Norton and Company
Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit by Kerry Max Cook (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
Relentless Pursuit: A True Story of Family, Murder, and the Prosecutor Who Wouldn't Quit by Kevin Flynn (Penguin Group – G.P. Putnam's Sons)
Sacco & Vanzetti: The Men, The Murders and the Judgment of Mankind by Bruce Watson (Penguin Group – Viking)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction by Patrick Anderson (Random House)
A Counter-History of Crime Fiction: Supernatural, Gothic, Sensational by Maurizio Ascari (Palgrave Macmillan)
Deviance in Contemporary Crime Fiction by Christiana Gregoriou (Palgrave Macmillan)
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley (The Penguin Press)
Chester Gould: A Daughter's Biography of the Creator of Dick Tracy
by Jean Gould O’Connell (McFarland & Company)

BEST SHORT STORY

"The Catch" – Still Waters by Mark Ammons (Level Best Books)
"Blue Note" – Chicago Blues by Stuart M. Kaminsky (Bleak House Books)
"Hardly Knew Her" – Dead Man's Hand by Laura Lippman (Harcourt Trade Publishers)
"The Golden Gopher" – Los Angeles Noir by Susan Straight (Akashic Books
"Uncle" – A Hell of a Woman” by Daniel Woodrell (Busted Flush Press)

BEST JUVENILE

The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Shadows on Society Hill by Evelyn Coleman (American Girl Publications)
Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn (Clarion Books)
The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh (Hyperion Books for Young Readers)
Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things by Wendelin Van Draanen (Random House Children’s Books – Alfred A. Knopf)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Rat Life by Tedd Arnold (Penguin – Dial Books for Young Readers)
Diamonds in the Shadow by Caroline B. Cooney (Random House Children's Books – Delacorte Press)
Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing – Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Blood Brothers by S.A. Harazin (Random House Children's Books – Delacorte Press)
Fragments by Jeffry W. Johnston (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing – Simon Pulse)

NEIBA

NEIBA is the New England Independent Booksellers Association. The photos are the New England Mystery Writers Booth, sponsored by the New England associations of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. We had a booth this year for the first time, and our we got lots of visitors and handed out promo literature. The second photo is the convention floor. What is more tempting than a huge room full of books, writers, publishers, booksellers? All the booths had temptations--not just books but puzzles, maps, charts, ah, the wonder of it all. Felt like a kid in a candy store. Back again tomorrow. The event is at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence.

MWA Approved Publishers: the Debate that Will Not Die

Now DorothyL posters have put on the boxing gloves to debate the MWA (Mystery Writer's of America) approved publishers debate. It started on the Sisters In Crime Internet Chapter and has segued to DorothyL, a mystery readers, fans (and writers) list serve.

In a nutshell, MWA decided to "vet" various mystery publishers, in terms of advance paid, length of time in publishing, number of copies printed. This was done to separate the sheep from the goats, but screams of "elitist" rent the air and writers who were not on the approved list (the have-nots) beat their breasts and accused MWA of arbitrary decisions regarding publishers, and pointed out, fairly I think, that some dreadful books are published by major publishing houses and some good books are either self-published or published by very small presses that do not meet MWA's criteria. The small (now defunct) e-publisher that first published The Shadow Warriors would no longer pass muster.

This is a debate that goes round and round and like many things in life there is no good answer. I was thirty-seven when I learned that, a bolt of lightning to be sure in my still young lfe. A right way and a wrong way and eeek, no good way at all. What a revelation! There is no good answer. Some people never learn that, so I consider myself fortunate. Consider: "what do we do about Iraq" as an example. No good answer.

I sit on the sidelines of the MWA/vs. small press debate, and only hope they don't change the rules to boot me. Grandfathered in is not a comfy place. Sort of like being a legacy at an Ivy League school. No, even worse.

Suck it up, the only alternative. Whatchagonnado?

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Writing Down the Moans

O.K., bad pun. There's been a dust-up, almost a brouhaha on one of the writing listserves I monitor. Seems Left Coast Crime and Murder in the Midlands, two mystery conferences, have decided that only MWA approved publishers can sell books at these conferences, leaving out scores of self-published and small independents who for whatever reason aren't on MWA's list of "real" publishers. Lots of bad feelings and name-calling. Seems a bit Draconian that, for example, the Hilliard & Harris authors can't sell books at these conferences, or the Oceanside, and a lot of other presses. MWA now says a "real" publisher must have a book run of 500 or more, which leaves out the POD presses. Bear in mind POD is a print technology that says nothing about the quality of the writing. And said publisher also has to pay at least $1000.00 advance. Well, one would hope.

I was grandfathered into MWA when the rules were loosey-goosey, not that I didn't have a "real" publisher who assigned editors and cover artists and all that stuff. No money upfront from the authors. Generous payments (not the right word) for each book sold. However, it was a no-advance, POD outfitt, long gone belly up. So I slink and skulk and realize that I am not one of the chosen, and that it was authors like me who they changed the rules to keep out. Not a happy thought. Just one more reason to suck it up of which there are always many. So I have a great deal of sympathy for the writers with their noses pressed against the fence.

Rumor has it that Sisters In Crime is going to the "not all writers are equal" stance in order to promote the more traditionally published , but that's just a rumor. Well, I've sat through a lot of meeting where I have to shut up. Builds character. The haves and have-nots are in a deadly embrace that nobody is gonna win anytime soon. Horse manure at five paces anyone? That is what Abraham Lincoln reputedly said when challenged to a duel. One of my favorite quotes.

I've finished the third draft of Festival Madness, and now it has to lie fallow for a spell. A good friend from college days has done a line edit of Promiscuous Mode, and I can't thank her enough. So need to revisit that book a bit. Haven't sent it out as often as I could. It's my writing group's favorite book and it had a rocky start with an agent requesting the full manuscript and never responding to email, mail, phone, or anything. Off on the wrong foot.
But it's a traditional mystery, not a cozy, not a thriller, and there aren't any crafts or really loveable old ladies. Medium boiled? One cat, two murders, a little adultery. Some food, some fishing, a sleazy casino. Works for me. So one more pass and out into the world it goes again. Another one of my babies.

Lots of plans underfoot. The Information Systems memoir, the 1928 California book, and now a young adult that takes place in Germany in the last months of the war. And a web site class that will be the kick in the pants I need to redo my long neglected site. So stuff is happening. Short stories. The Meth House explosion. (The book, not the real thing. ) Horrors!

Better get busy. What do you think?

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