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 

Malice Domestic

The Agatha (named after Agatha Christie) Awards for 2008 were handed out a week ago at the Malice Domestic Conference in Washington (Arlington).

Here is a link to the winners.
http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2008/04/and-malice-toward-all.html

Special congratulations to Hank Phillippi Ryan who won for the best first novel. Hank belongs to our local Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America chapters.

Her novel was a delightful read and it's always cool when the home team wins.

The Agatha are awarded for traditional mysteries, that an Agatha Christie born today might write. The Edgars, mentioned earlier tend to have a bleaker outlook about crime and murder.
I like both kinds of stories.

Right now I am liking (and admiring) The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. It is a real tour de force, and one feels so sorry for all the characters as they stumble through their sad imperfect lives. If Franzen wrote crime, he'd be in the noir section of the shelves.

Yesterday I made rhubarb bread and it was good. That sweet-sour combo is a dynamite taste sensation.

This recipe is very similiar to the one I used. Enjoy.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Rhubarb-Bread-I/Detail.aspx
Grapeshot