Edgar Awards Banquet: It's today!

This is an amazing event. Wish I was going! I'm rooting for Teresa Solana and Tom Piccirilli for their EQMM stories.

Yikes, I'm on YouTube!

My fifteen minutes of fame actually only lasted a minute, but it sure was fun.

The Edgar Awards, Part 7: Best First Novelists

The nominees in attendance. Missing from the line-up were

James Thompson (Snow Angels) and Nic Pizzolatto (Galveston).

I got a chance to talk to Paul Doiron (The Poacher's Son) and his wife.
Good news: Another novel featuring game warden Mike Bowditch is in the works.
Paul chats here with Best Novel winner Steve Hamilton.

David Gordon (The Serialist) and Jennifer Martin.

The winner: Bruce DeSilva (Rogue Island) with S.J. Rozan.
I enjoyed meeting Bruce. He shares my obsession with detective pulps.

The Edgar Awards, Part 6: Best Paperback Originals

The nominees. Presumably NOT in attendance were 

Catherine O'Flynn (The News Where You Are) and Frank Tallis (Vienna Secrets).

L.C. Tyler (Ten Little Herrings).

That's Robert Goddard at right. 

Two very nice folks: Duane and Meredith Swierczynski. 

His nominated novel, Expiration Date, is a cool book!

The Swierczynskis at the baquet. 

That's Duane's agent David Hale Smith in the foreground.

The Winner! Robert Goddard, author of Long Time Coming. That, too, is a great read.

At left, Inkwell Management agent George Lucas digs into his mushroom bisque.

Photos thanks to Matt Peyton Photography. More pics to come.

The Edgar Awards, Part 5: Best Novelists

The nominees for Best Novel. For an earlier photo of All Nominees, Steve Hamilton and I were in the back row, where I shook his soon-to-be winning hand, but I failed to meet these other folks. Far as I know, the sixth Best Novel nominee, Tana French, was not in attendance.

Laura Lippman, author of I'd Know You Anywhere, with agent David Hale Smith, there to support his client and Best PBO nominee, Duane Swierczynski. I was pleased to make the reacquaintance of Mr. Smith, whom I met in Portland a few years back.

Timothy Hallinan (The Queen of Patpong), center. 

That's Best First Novelist Bruce DeSilva at left, and David Morrell at right.

Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.

Harlan Coben (Caught), with Ann Armstrong Coben and Shelley Costa.

Steve Hamilton (The Lock Artist) with that coveted statue of Ed.

All pics by Matt Peyton Photography. Coming soon: More nominees, more winners. Hey, the MWA sent me about 800 pictures. I might as well share a few of them.

The Edgar Awards, Part 4: The Main Event

OK, gang. Here it is. The Big Moment.

My apologies in advance, because no one, not even my mother, would want to see this many pictures of me all at one time. But I might as well get them up here and out of my system so I can move on. Next week I'll give you a break and post photos of other winners and nominees. Promise.

Things got rolling with a private reception for nominees, and I got to meet several folks whose work I admire. In the pic above, one of those guys tucks away the business card I foisted upon him, while Irene feels sorry for him.

Here are the assembled nominees. I'm in the back row (the price of being tall).

Edgar winner Doug Allyn introduces me as the Robert L. Fish winner, waving the check while explaining that the Fish is the only award that comes with a hunk of do-re-mi.

 

I take the stage. Doug told me I could say anything I wanted up there (a truly dangerous prospect). Luckily, I was sober, and took pity on the crowd, speaking only for about a minute. They honored me by laughing at my closing line: "Finally, I'd like to say thank you in advance to my spectacular new agent . . . your name here, and the wonderful editor of my first Skyler Hobbs novel . . . your name here."

 

Since my award was announced in advance, my biggest thrill of the night was seeing Doug Allyn - who is an incredibly nice guy, and who was sitting next to me at the Dell table - win the Edgar for Best Short Story. His tale, "The Scent of Lilacs," from EQMM, is a love story set in the Civil War.  

The Winners: Augie Alesky (Raven Award, Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, Chicago), Sam Bobrick (Best Play, The Psychic), MWA President Lisa Scottoline, Steve Hamilton (Best Novel, The Lock Artist), Dori Hillestad Butler (Best Juvenile, The Buddy Files), Bruce DeSilva (Best First Novel, Rogue Island), Sara Paretsky (Grand Master), Robert Goddard (Best Paperback Original, Long Time Coming), Charlie Price (Best Young Adult, The Interrogation of Gabriel James), Doug Allyn (Best Short Story, "The Scent of Lilacs"), Yours Truly, Yunte Huang (Best Critical/Biographical, Charlie Chan, the Untold Story...), Gary Shulze and Pat Frovarp (Raven Award, Once Upon a Crime bookstore, Minneapolis).

 The proof.

Photos 1, 2 and 6 are from Matt Peyton Photography. 3, 4 and 5 are courtesy of Eve Allyn.

Next week: A lot more great writers. And (almost) no pictures of me.

The Edgar Awards, Part 3: Ellery Queen/Alfred Hitchcock Party

Thursday afternoon it rained. Geez, it was just like being back in Oregon, except the buildings were taller, and there were lots more of them.

After sheltering in a nearby Starbucks, Irene and I arrived a few minutes early at the Dell Magazines Party thrown by Janet Hutchings of EQMM and Linda Landrigan of AHMM.

Ron Goulart!

Next thing I knew we were talking to Ron Goulart, a man who changed my life (a familiar tale, because he did the same thing to Walker Martin, Will Murray and others, with the publication of The Hardboiled Dicks). In my case, he sent me on a seven-year quest to acquire everything I could related to the pulp writers featured in that book. Unable to help myself, I monopolized Mr. Goulart’s time for a good chunk of the party as we talked about pulps.

Dave Zeltserman

The shindig was partly in honor of EQMM Reader’s Choice winners Dave Zeltserman and Doug Allyn. I was mighty pleased to find Mr. Z and his wife Judy in attendance. As a BIG Nero Wolfe fan, I loved his winning Julius Katz and Archie story, and was at that moment halfway through one of his recent novels, The Caretaker of Lorne Field. Dave was a joy to talk to, and curious to know if I believed the Aukowies in the novel were real. Now that I’ve finished the book, I’m still not sure, but I sure as heck enjoyed it. Dave announced the imminent publication of a new direct-to-ebook novel, Julius Katz and Archie. I’m sold!

Eve and Doug Allyn *

Doug Allyn, a perennial Reader’s Choice favorite, this time took both second and third place in the voting, and was on hand to accept his awards. Doug’s charming wife Eve proceeded to introduce Irene and I to our host, Mr. Peter Kanter, president of Dell and Penny Press. Another very nice guy. In Mr. Kanter’s honor, I’m going to work a crossword puzzle magazine into my novel manuscript.

Another extremely nice person was Marcia Markland, Senior Editor at Thomas Dunne Books. She presented me with a business card with a wiener dog on it, which I took as a good sign. Irene and I have four of the little boogers, all rescues.

The well-dressed Stephen Ross *

Edgar nominee Stephen Ross was also in attendance, and we supported each others’ decision not to wear tuxedos to the banquet. Folly loves company, I guess.

Though there were many more people I would have liked to meet, we had to bug out early to catch the subway back uptown to get dressed for the banquet. I did manage to shake the hand of the great Otto Penzler, but later discovered I had failed to meet Emily Giglierano, the former Assistant Editor who played a large part in helping Mr. Skyler Hobbs sneak into EQMM. Sorry, Emily! If you’re ever in Portland, we’ll take you to dinner. Don’t forget to bring your umbrella.

* Official Edgars pics by Matt Peyton Photography

Tomorrow: The Banquet

The Edgar Awards, Part 2: Agents and Editors Party

On Wednesday evening, the place to be was the Agents and Editors Party at the Lighthouse International Ballroom. So there I was. Unfortunately, I was there without Irene. This was a MWA members only event, so she was back at the Hyatt reading a book (and just to show ‘em, it was not a mystery).

Quite coincidentally, I happen to be in search of an agent and an editor for first Skyler Hobbs novel, tentatively titled Skyler Hobbs and the Blueface Killer, and this seemed a good place to ply them with my business cards.

I was pleased to see several familiar faces, folks I’d met over the past few years at Portland’s annual Willamette Writers Conference. First of these was Joshua Bilmes, President of JABberwocky Literary Agency, who came highly recommended by Janet Hutchings of EQMM. I remembered Mr. B as a nice gent from our previous meeting, and guess what? He still is.

Other friendly faces belonged to Victoria Skurnick of Levine Greenburg Literary Agency (when I met her in Portland she endeared herself to me by singing “The Ballad of Davy Crockett”), and Kristin Sevick, editor at Tom Doherty Associates. While I was reminding Kristin that she once ran away from me in Portland, agent Doug Grad joined the conversation, little knowing that one of his clients, Doug Levin, is one of my critique group partners. I ended up pitching Doug (Levin)’s caper novel, Jalehouse Pale, to Kristin, and Doug (Grad) agreed to send it to her. If she buys it, Doug (Levin), you owe me a beer.

I also enjoyed meeting a number of agents for the first time, among them New York powerhouses Jane Chelius and Cherry Weiner.

 Steve Steinbock, left, and me at the Dell table on Thursday night.

(courtesy of Matt Peyton Photography)

Another person I met for the first time was my fellow Alumni of DAPA-EM, Mr. Steve Steinbock, who made his debut in the current (June) issue of EQMM as the mag’s new book reviewer. And Janet Hutchings introduced me to the new assistant she shares with Linda Landrigan of AHMM, the very busy Jackie Sherbow. With Jackie was her new assistant Emily (not to be confused with Jackie’s predecessor, Emily Giglierano, who has recently moved on to a job with - I think - Random House). Emily G was one of the folks I was disappointed to find not in attendance, the others being Stacia Decker of the Donald Maas Agency (who agented Discount Noir) and Kathleen Conn of St. Martins. Hope to meet those folks somewhere down the road.

 Lina, Hilary & Kathleen.

(courtesy of Evan Lewis Photography)

As a bonus, I stumbled across my fellow blogger and Discount Noir author Kathleen Ryan, in the company of my fellow Beat to a Pulp: Round One author, Hilary Davidson. And as an innocent bystander, I was called upon to snap a photo of them with writer Lina Zeldovich.

All in all, a very cool time. And that was only the end of Day 1.

Tomorrow: The Dell Magazines Party

The Edgar Awards, Part 1: Breakfast with the Stars

At left, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Editor Janet Hutchings.

At right, some dude I don't recognize wearing my name tag.

After arriving in the Big City on Tuesday evening, my wife Irene and I were up and at ‘em on Wednesday morning. First up, we took in the first panel at the Edgar Week Symposium. With Larry Light moderating, the panelists were Robert Goddard, Laura Lippman, David Morrell and S.J. Rozan.

One topic of discussion was what inspired these folks to become writers. For Morrell, it was the TV series Route 66. For Rozan, Howard Pyle’s stories of Robin Hood. Goddard cited the works of Wilkie Collins, and Lippman (no fan of Nancy Drew) recalled a fondness for Harriet the Spy. Yeah, they talked about other stuff too, and whole thing is now available in either mp3 or DVD format on the MWA website. My favorite bit was a story Robert Goddard told about a reader who insisted on believing one of his protagonists was real. It furthers his contention, Goddard said, that “fiction is a higher form of fact.”

Doug Allyn. And no, that's not an Edgar design on his vest.

That's the real thing!

At 10am, we had to bug out of the Symposium and head for the Tramway Diner for breakfast with several soon-to-be friends. The soiree was hosted by EQMM Editor Janet Hutchings and AHMM Editor Linda Landrigan, and the freeloaders, along with me and Irene, were Doug and Eve Allyn and Stephen Ross. Doug and Stephen were two of the five nominees for Best Short Story, Doug for “The Scent of Lilacs” in EQMM and Stephen for the AHMM story “Monsieur Alice is Absent.”

Much witty chitchat followed, most of it of a non-professional sort. I did learn, though, that both Janet and Linda personally lay eyes on every story submitted to their respective magazines - and that’s a lot of stories. I admire their dedication, and sympathize with their eyestrain.

Direct from New Zealand, it's . . . Stephen Ross.

Doug, who has now written 105 short stories and at least seven novels, unwitting revealed the answer to that age-old question, Where do you get your ideas? The answer is . . . he pulls them out of thin air. Even during breakfast, he couldn’t resist stopping to write them down. And Stephen, who had come all the way from New Zealand, spilled the beans that on the heels of his Edgar nomination an enterprising agent tracked him down and signed him up. I have no doubt editors will soon be fighting over his first novel.

In other news, Eve Allyn informed Irene she is now a Fish Wife. That's the price she pays for being (like Eve) hitched to a Robert L.Fish Award winner. 

After Janet and Linda left (no doubt to peruse more submissions), Doug graciously hung around to share some of his insight on the writing biz with Stephen and I. Thanks again, Doug! And thanks again to Linda and Janet for the hearty breakfast (I had my first ever pizza omelette).

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine Editor Linda Landrigan

with that same Evan Lewis impersonator.

When the party broke up, Irene and I returned for another session at the Symposium, an entertaining and advice-packed presentation by MWA President Lisa Scottoline called How to Write a Novel. Shucks, I thought I knew, but I learned stuff. Thanks, Lisa.

A note about the photos: I was too star struck to even think about taking pictures at breakfast, so these are mostly from the reception and banquet on the following evening. I say mostly, because one of the photos is a phony. I wanted to have my picture taken with both Janet and Linda after the banquet, but one of them had to hotfoot it out of the hotel to catch a train. So three of these photos are real, and one ain’t. Can you spot the fake?

Tomorrow: The Agents and Editors Party

Robert L. Fish Award: Who, Me?

Yesterday was an interesting day. It started with an email from Cap'n Bob Napier, congratulating me on the Robert L. Fish Award. While I was still puzzling over that, I got a nice message from Janet Hutchings of EQMM. Then I saw a congratulatory post on Sandra Seamon's blog, Finally, I headed over to the News Authority of the blogosphere, Bill Crider's Popular Fiction Magazine, scrolled through the Edgar nominations, and found this:

Robert L. Fish Memorial

"Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

by Evan Lewis (Dell Magazines)

Very cool, I thought. I'm a long-time Fish fan, and the books shown here had been on my Sherlock shelf since the 70s. The award, I figured, must be for the best humorous Sherlockian story of the year. And the reason I was the only nominee was that no one else wrote one.

Then more emails came in, from Patti Abbott, Scott Parker, Allen Weiner (co-author of David Crockett in Congress), Emperor of the Universe Art Scott and members of my critique groups. And many folks made kind comments on blogs. And eventually I figured out the award was not Sherlockian after all. It was for best short story by a "new" author (which, you must admit, is better than being called an "old" author). 

But that got me worrying about the lack of other nominees. Would the MWA be issuing an apology, saying the others had been omitted by accident? If so, that's fine, because I'm sure there were many deserving stories. But if the list of nominees stays as is, I'm thinking my chances look pretty good. (I even consulted Skyler Hobbs, and he agrees.)

Whatever happens, I'm honored - and grateful to the MWA, the Edgar short story committee and everyone who sent congratulations my way. You really made my day.

Tomorrow: I'm Guest Host for Friday's Forgotten Books (Patti has the day off). PLUS: A book so forgotten it was never published.