The 2011 Edgar Award Nominees Announced

Mystery Writers of America has announced (on the 202nd anniversary of the birth of Edgar
Allan Poe), its Nominees for the 2011 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2010. The Edgar® Awards will be presented to the winners at our 65th Gala Banquet, April 28, 2011 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

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 FACT CRIME
 

Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity
by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry (University of Nebraska Press – Bison Original)
 

The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in Jim Crow South
by Alex Heard (HarperCollins)
 

Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery
by Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)
 

Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr and the International Hunt for his
Assassin by Hampton Sides (Random House - Doubleday)
 

The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science
by Douglas Starr (Alfred A. Knopf)
 

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
 

The Wire: Truth Be Told by Rafael Alvarez (Grove Atlantic – Grove Press)
 

Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making
by John Curran (HarperCollins)
 

Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Steven Doyle and David A. Crowder (Wiley)
 

Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendevouz with American
History by Yunte Huang (W.W. Norton)
 

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview Publishing)
 

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)
 

BEST JUVENILE
 

Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon (Candlewick Press)
 

The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy by Dori Hillestad Butler (Albert Whitman & Co.)
 

The Haunting of Charles Dickens by Lewis Buzbee (Feiwel & Friends)
 

Griff Carver: Hallway Patrol by Jiim Krieg (Penguin Young Readers Group - Razorbill)
 

The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
 

BEST YOUNG ADULT
 

The River by Mary Jane Beaufrand (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
 

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (Random House Children’s Books – Alfred A. Knopf)
 

7 Souls by Barnabas Miller and Jordan Orlando (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte Press)
 

The Interrogation of Gabriel James by Charlie Price
(Farrar, Straus, Giroux Books for Young Readers)
 

Dust City by Robert Paul Weston (Penguin Young Readers Group - Razorbill)

 

BEST PLAY
 

The Psychic by Sam Bobrick (Falcon Theatre – Burbank, CA)
 

The Tangled Skirt by Steve Braunstein (New Jersey Repertory Company)
 

The Fall of the House by Robert Ford (Alabama Shakespeare Festival)
 

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
 

“Episode 1” - Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)
 

“Episode 4” – Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)
 

“Full Measure” – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC/Sony)
 

“No Mas” – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC/Sony)
 

“The Next One’s Gonna Go In Your Throat” – Damages, Teleplay by Todd A. Kessler,
Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman (FX Networks)
 

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
 

"Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
by Evan Lewis (Dell Magazines)
 

GRAND MASTER
 

Sara Paretsky

 

RAVEN AWARDS
 

Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, Forest Park, Illinois
 

Once Upon A Crime Bookstore, Minneapolis, Minnesota
 

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 27, 2010)

 

Wild Penance by Sandi Ault (Penguin Group – Berkley Prime Crime)
 

Blood Harvest by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books)
 

Down River by Karen Harper (MIRA Books)
 

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
 

Live to Tell by Wendy Corsi Staub (HarperCollins - Avon)

# # # #

The EDGAR (and logo) are Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by the Mystery Writers of America, Inc.

Martin Luther King Day, 2011 by SJ Rozan

photo by Marion Ettlinger

SJ Rozan, a native New Yorker, is the author of twelve novels. Her work has won the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, and Macavity awards for Best Novel and the Edgar for Best Short Story. She's also the recipient of the Japanese Maltese Falcon Award. BRONX NOIR, a short story anthology SJ edited, was chosen NAIBA "Notable Book of the Year." SJ has served on the National Boards of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and is ex-President of the Private Eye Writers of America. She speaks, lectures and teaches, and she runs a summer writing workshop in Assisi, Italy. In January 2003 SJ was an invited speaker at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The 2005 Left Coast Crime convention in El Paso, Texas made her its Guest of Honor and she was Toastmaster at Bouchercon 2009. A former architect in a practice that focussed on police stations, firehouses, and zoos, SJ Rozan lives in lower Manhattan.

Martin Luther King Day, 2011

by SJ Rozan

When Kaye invited me to do a guest blog and asked me to choose a date, I chose Martin Luther King day specifically because I wanted to muse about the relationship between what I and my pals write -- crime, including violent crime -- and the darker aspects of American culture. Crime writing, and even bleak, dark, unredeemed crime writing, isn't unique to the U.S. -- look at all those Scandinavians -- but the idea of that bleakness, that nihilistic vision, as something to strive for, not against, was born here. It's been exported now -- those Scandinavians outdo us in their joy of it, as do the Japanese and sometimes the French -- but we were first to tire of murder-as-puzzle and start thrashing around for meaning and consequence.

I was going to talk about that, about why that was, and what it meant; but that was before the shootings in Tucson. Now I want to speak about something different, something less well thought out, but it's my way of groping toward an answer, trying to find something positive to say about who we are.

Here's what I think: as Sam Spade once said, there are such a lot of guns around town and so few brains. I blogged about this myself, about the Second Amendment problem; one of my commenters convinced me that the solution lies in the world of the founders. They didn't have or anticipate automatic weapons, so maybe it doesn't contravene the Second Amendment if we ban them. Fine with me. The easy availability of guns is a big part of the problem. It's really, really hard to assassinate someone with a knife. And two hot-heads mixing it up in the schoolyard are thousands of times more likely to both survive if neither can draw on the other, no matter how much, in the moment, they want to taste blood.

But it's not the guns, it's the brains, that are the real issue.

Not that there are actually so few. Americans on the whole are no dumber than any other humans -- though as architect William McDonough said recently, "It took our species 5,000 years to put wheels on our luggage. We're not that smart." But whatever we have for brains, it's what we have. Why do Americans, more often than other people, insist on blowing each other's out?

I think it's this image we have of ourselves as, in the end, alone. The good news is, it's that sense of ourselves, each of us singly and us collectively, as the backstop, the superhero, the court of last resort, that's enabled us to do things like go charging into WWII on two fronts. And win. Deep in our hearts is embedded the idea that if anyone comes to help you it's your good luck, but don't sit and wait. If it needs to be done, you'd better be able to do it yourself because you're all you can count on. This almost desperate idea has pushed us -- singly and collectively -- to great things.

That's the good news. The bad news, we've all seen, and quite recently. If we don't find some way to rein in the idea that the ability to Just Do It confers, immediately and without the use of those brains, the right to Just Do It, we'll descend on an ever-faster spiral into millions and millions of tiny, armed camps, all of us waiting behind bunkers to blow the bad guys -- meaning, the other guys -- away.

My thoughts on Martin Luther King Day. Peace be upon you.

Eat, Dash—Hesitate . . . by Leslie Wheeler

An award-winning author of biographies and books about American history, Leslie Wheeler  now writes the Miranda Lewis “living history” mystery series. Titles include MURDER AT PLIMOTH PLANTATION, MURDER AT GETTYSBURG, and the recently published, MURDER AT SPOUTERS POINT.  Her short crime fiction has appeared in five anthologies published by Level Best Books, including the current anthology, THIN ICE, to which she is now a contributing editor.  A member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, Leslie serves as Speakers Bureau Coordinator for the New England Chapter.  Visit her website at http://www.lesliewheeler.com. 

Eat, Dash—Hesitate . . .

by Leslie Wheeler

When did it begin, my love affair with Dash and Ellipsis?  Not in college, surely.  If I used an ellipsis at all, it would have been within quoted material to show that certain parts of the quotation had been omitted.  And I don’t recall any dashes in those carefully written, carefully punctuated college and graduate school essays of yore.

As I glance at my later non-fiction writing, which includes JIMMY WHO?, a popular biography of former President Jimmy Carter, written during the 1976 campaign, and LOVING WARRIORS, a more scholarly biography in letters of the nineteenth-century feminist and abolitionist, Lucy Stone, I note the occasional dash, but not in the quantity that would eventually appear in my fiction.

My first fiction was a long, unpublished historical novel.  A look at a chapter from that novel, which was published as a short story, shows a growing number of dashes as the story progresses—one in the first paragraph, two in second, and so on.  But it wasn’t until I began to write mystery fiction that I adopted a truly colloquial style—replete with dashes and ellipses.  Why?  They just seemed to appear on the page—the way characters sometimes do without  warning.  I even think of Dash and Ellipsis as characters.

Dash, after all, is short for Dashiell, a name made famous by the mystery author, Dashiell Hammett.  In the baby name book from the 1980s, BEYOND JENNIFER AND JASON, Dashiell shows up on a list of new manly names that, according to the authors, “bespeak a transformed masculine ideal—sensitized, enlightened, liberated from the manacles of machismo.”  But this doesn’t describe my Dash. No: He’s tall, handsome and—dashing.  He’s also impatient, interrupts frequently, departs abruptly and returns unexpectedly.  Dash is bold, strong, and sure of himself.

And Ellipsis?  She’s just the opposite: shy and well . . . hesitant.  Because of her name, I picture her as a figure out of Greek mythology, a mortal whose beauty attracts one of the many lascivious male gods like Zeus or Apollo.  He pursues, she flees, and is about to be overtaken and ravished when a sympathetic Diana whisks her into the ether, leaving behind a series of small, rounded, evenly spaced footprints.

Dash and Ellipsis figure prominently in my first mystery novel, MURDER AT PLIMOTH PLANTATION.  My editor for that book didn’t raise an eyebrow at their abundance, but she did insist they be done correctly. No weak, half-hearted double hyphens for him, but the long, unbroken line of a true Dash.  My galleys were red-penciled with 1/m marks lest the printer mistake my shorter, broken lines for the real thing.  Red pencil marks also revealed Ellipsis in her full glory as a series of spaced periods, instead of the scrunched-together dots I’d been doing.

I use Dash and Ellipsis most often in writing dialogue to show how people really speak with all the interruptions, sudden halts, pauses, and trailing-offs.  By my third mystery, MURDER AT SPOUTERS POINT, I’d become so enamored of Dash and Ellipsis that I could barely write a paragraph without using several of my darlings. My editor decided I’d gone too far.  “You really don’t need all the dashes,” she wrote on the manuscript.  And so, reluctantly, I changed some to commas. But those sentences seemed weak and emasculated without Dash’s force and energy. At my editor’s suggestion, I also eliminated some of my Ellipses, but again, I wasn’t happy with the result.  Instead of fading away with gradual grace, those sentences had a clipped, brusque feel.  Oh well . . .

Although I caved in a bit on that book, I remained a fierce champion of Dash and Ellipsis in THIN ICE, Level Best Books’ eighth anthology of short crime fiction by New England authors, to which I recently became a contributing editor.  The Dashes and Ellipses I fought for didn’t just appear in my own story, but in the stories of twenty-four other authors.  And I insisted that they be done right. Now I was the one wielding the red pencil and fixing every Dash that looked like a hyphen, every Ellipsis that wasn’t properly spaced—much to the dismay of the co-editor who was handling the production end of the book.  She even began referring to the correct way of indicating an ellipsis as “Leslie’s preferred method.”  Another co-editor spoke openly in a half-joking, half-serious manner about battles over ellipses that nearly led to blows.

But if you care about someone or something as much as I do Dash and Ellipsis, you have to stand up for them, right?    

 

 

 

Stories from the Sixties by Libby Fischer Hellmann

Libby Fischer Hellmann, an award-winning crime fiction and thriller author, has released her 7th novel. Set the Night on Fire, a stand-alone thriller, goes back, in part, to the late Sixties in Chicago. She also writes two crime fiction series. Easy Innocence (2008) and Doubleback (2009) feature Chicago P.I Georgia Davis. In addition, there are four novels in the Ellie Foreman series, which Libby describes as a cross between "Desperate Housewives" and "24."

Libby has also published over 15 short stories in Nice Girl Does Noir and edited the acclaimed crime fiction anthology Chicago Blues. Originally from Washington D.C., she has lived in Chicago for 30 years and claims they'll take her out of there feet first.

Stories from the Sixties

by Libby Fischer Hellmann

When Kaye asked me to blog for her, I asked her what she wanted me to write about. I offered to put together a new quiz about the Sixties (the old one can be found here) or I could tell some of my stories about the time period.

It wasn’t even close. Stories, she said. I love stories.

So I want to tell you two stories from the Sixties. Both are true. An abbreviated version of one is in SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE, but the other has an ending I just discovered about a month ago, so it’s not in the book.

I lived in Georgetown during what I now call “The Summer of My Discontent.” I shared an apartment with four other people above a movie theater at 28^th and M. (Both are gone now). I was working at an underground newspaper, selling them on the streets, and generally trying to make sense of the world. Next door to the movie theater was a head shop run by a weird – but sweet -- guy named Bobby. He wore black all the time, before there were Goths. The scent of Patchouli oil hung in the air of the shop.

I used to drop in every once in a while. Often two of his friends, Donna and Linda, would be there. They were a couple: Linda had long brown hair and appeared to be kind of spacey. Donna had short blond hair and wore a leather jacket, even during July. They were cool, though, in the way that everyone was cool back then, and we’d smoke a joint, laugh a lot, and discuss what a shitty place the world was becoming. Then, around August, they disappeared. After not seeing them for a week or so, I asked Bobby where they went. He hemmed and hawed and wouldn’t tell me. Finally, he did.

Donna used to be Don, he said. And was going through the process of becoming a woman, but hadn’t completed it when she met Linda. They fell in love, and because of that, they jointly (no pun intended) agreed that Donna should turn back into Don. So they hustled some money from someone and were off to California to reverse Donna’s transformation.

I never saw them again. But I still think about them.

The other story is more political. As I said, I worked at an underground newspaper in DC for a summer. I was just a flunkie, not even considered staff. But there was a photographer, Sal, who was in and out all the time. He took photos at every demonstration, interview, and event that could be considered “alternative.” I actually had a crush on him at one point. (Yes, I know. Very bourgeois).

At any rate, the editor of the newspaper was very cautious about trusting people, almost to the point of paranoia. He always thought the paper was being infiltrated  by CIA or FBI types (these were the days before COINTELPRO proved the FBI was indeed infiltrating radical groups) At the time, I thought his paranoia was exaggerated. Triggered perhaps by an inflated sense of self-importance.

I left at the end of the summer to hitchhike across country (That’s a different story), but I heard a few months later that Sal had left too, and was off to Paris. He stayed there for a while, then disappeared. I never knew what happened to him.  Then, about a month ago, well after I finished SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE, I Googled some of the people from the newspaper. Suddenly a photo of Sal popped up.  It turns out he had been featured in Secrets: The CIA's War at Home by Angus MacKenzie.

You guessed it. Sal had been a CIA agent, recruited when he was in college in Chicago. The entire time he was taking photos for the paper, he was reporting to his CIA handler. Eventually, I think the editor suspected him. Maybe he even confronted him, which precipitated his abrupt departure.

It doesn’t end there. According to MacKenzie’s book, Sal went to Paris, befriended Philip Agee, himself a former CIA agent turned whistleblower, and fiddled around with the typewriter on which Agee was writing his story. Agee discovered it, and Sal fled. From what I understand he changed his name and now lives in Southern California.

True stories. Really. I mean, who could make this stuff up? Comments and questions welcomed. 

And as a bonus:  Here's that old quiz about the Sixties: 

http://www.libbyhellmann.com/60squiz.html

I'm Having a Party

In case anyone on God's green earth missed the news - I'm going to be retiring the end of this month.

AND -

Borrowing from a long and much loved DorothyL tradition - I'm going to have a "virtual party" to celebrate.  This way, some of my friends who aren't able to come by my office on Friday, January 28th to give me a real hug,  can stop by my virtual party and pass along a virtual hug.  And indulge in some virtual champagne, and some virtual chocolate cake and whatever else some of the virtual guests might bring along to share (virtually).

So - if you can - drop by Meanderings and Muses OR my Virtual Retirement Facebook page on the 28th for a little get-together. 

In the meantime - we're trying to come up with some good music for the event.

Here's a few some of us have come up with - if you have some more ideas, please share!

I'm Already Gone by The Eagles -

We've Gotta Get Out of This Place by The Animals -

and - Of course - - - -  

Working Nine to Five by Dolly Parton -

More good music suggestions?  Let me hear 'em, please!

The Crust Will Never Hate You by Debra Ginsberg

Debra Ginsberg is the author of the memoirs, Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress, Raising Blaze: A Mother and Son's Long, Strange Journey Into Autism, and About My Sisters and the novels Blind Submission, The Grift, which was a New York Times Notable Book for 2008. Her most recent novel is The Neighbors Are Watching. She has contributed to NPR’s All Things Considered and The Washington Post Book World; is a regular reviewer for Shelf Awareness and The San Diego Union-Tribune and works as a freelance editor. She lives in San Diego.

http://www.debraginsberg.com/piesandtartsgallery.html

The Crust Will Never Hate You

by Debra Ginsberg

I’ve spent $7 on a can of butane and $8 on two pints of raspberries. Combined, those items cost 5 times the price of the crème brûlée set I bought on clearance at Ralph’s. It’s possible I’ve gone too far. The torch scares me a bit. After all, I am not allowed to use Super Glue anymore (don’t ask) and managing flammable substances seems an even dicier prospect. But those raspberries were expensive and I can already see the finished product in my mind—the creaminess of the custard, the sparkle of the burnt sugar… Plus, I have some writing to do. Well, to be honest, not some—a great deal. So I’m committed; it’s crème brûlée or bust. 

I didn’t cook much—or bake at all—during the twenty years I spent waiting on tables. I was surrounded by food and served it up on a daily basis, which any waiter will tell you, is more than enough to put you off it at home. But ten years ago, after the publication of my first book, WAITING, I re-familiarized myself with my own kitchen. I was cautious about it at first—my sister, Maya, had always been the designated chef in the family and a little protective of her turf—but began to pick up steam, so to speak, when I started baking. There too, I started slowly with muffins, scones, and cupcakes. But when I discovered tarts (especially heirloom tomato tarts) and pies (how wonderful are pies?), it was true love. There are a few reasons for my love of all things baked in a crust. For a very practical one, I don’t eat or cook with eggs and it is much easier to make delicious and attractive pies and tarts without them than, say, a genoise or meringue or any number of other egg-dependent baked goods. For another, pies and tarts can be either sweet or savory (or, in the case of the tomato tarte tatin I made last night, both) and I like the flexibility. There is hardly anything you can’t bake into a crust—and only a few ingredients that you need to make a basic pâte brisée. And, oh, the accouterments… Tart pans! Shape cutters! Pie birds! I’m afraid that in addition to being banned from handling Super Glue, I am no longer allowed to hold my own purse when I go into Good News (our superb kitchen toy—I mean, cooking supply store here in San Diego). 

But perhaps the most compelling reason for my rapidly increasing interest in and output of baked goods is that they make an excellent counterpoint to writing in both process and result. In terms of process, for example, baking is every bit as creative as writing (though decidedly messier) and requires all the same planning skills. Baking, like writing, also depends on alchemy. And I say alchemy and not chemistry because there is something magical about the way flour, butter, water, salt, and a bit of sugar fuse with filling and are transformed by heat into something deliciously, beautifully different. Writing too requires alchemy—all those words need to be combined with character and theme, cooked into a plot, and emerge as something deliciously, beautifully different. The alchemy of baking, however, is much more reliable. If your conditions are less than optimal or if you perhaps become careless, your crust may become uncooperative. But your crust will never hate you. It will never accuse you, for example, of overusing a metaphor. 

Ahem. 

The process of baking also requires a short-term commitment. No matter how complicated the pie, tart, or cake, you’re in it for a few hours at most. Writing? Not so much. 

And then there is the result. Unlike a book, a pie disappears in a moment. No matter how tasty or spectacular looking, it must be consumed quickly and then it’s gone. Baked goods are wonderful for short-term gratification. Who is going to complain about a cherry pie with heart-shaped cutouts? At the risk of sounding immodest, I have to say the recipients of my pies and tarts are very happy with them. Even those who don’t taste the final product enjoy looking at the photographs (yes, styling these things is half the fun). 

Again, writing? Not so much. 

I’ll never stop writing because it is the only thing I have ever wanted to do. I began dictating stories to my mother before I even knew how to write them down and was already writing a primitive memoir by the age of ten. I’ve only been publishing books for the last ten years but I’ve been working on them for—um—much longer than that. But it’s nice to know that there is something else I can do—something that satisfies the creative urge, garners consistently positive reviews, and feeds people in a very literal way. Plus, and this is no small thing, nobody will be upset if I switch genres and move on to something like, I don’t know, crème brûlée. 

I know what you’re thinking—how does she plan to make crème brûlée without eggs? But let me tell you, after switching from memoirs to novels, that doesn’t seem like much of stretch. 

Now, to the torch. 

Just a Reader by Patty Andersen

Patty Andersen is Library Director at the Devereaux Library which is located on the campus of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, South Dakota

Just A Reader

by Patty Andersen

Last year, when Kaye asked me to contribute to her blog, I took on the topic of “not fitting in” with many in my peer group. Now, this year I need to come up with a new topic. And, to add to the pressure she has me posting immediately behind one of my all-time favorite authors, Craig Johnson. Sheesh, talk about making things tough on a non-writer!

Because I am following a favorite author it got me thinking about what it means to be a fan (or author groupie). I’ve been reading since I was four or so and have had “favorite” authors at all the stages of my reading life (okay, getting close to 50 years). Until I started interacting with various authors I would always have referred to myself as “just a reader”, which I now understand boggles the authors mind. JUST a reader they say, no one is more important. I never in my life thought I would be chatting online with my heroes, let alone actually meeting any of them! I’ve not met many in person and the two that stand out both live close to me (by South Dakota and Wyoming standards), the aforementioned Craig Johnson and Kathleen Taylor. I invited Kathi to be a speaker at one of our SD Library Association meetings and she kindly agreed, thus I met her as professional to professional. We now share weather from the middle of the state, where she lives, to the western edge, where I live. My meeting with Craig was different, I entered a contest to try and win a t-shirt.  I won (and still own) a shirt that proclaims me Sheriff, Absaroka County, Wyoming. Not long after that Craig was going to be speaking at a small library about 50 miles from my home and I decided to attend, of course wearing my t-shirt. I forgot about the season in western SD – construction – so was a few minutes late. As I walked in the door he turned and interrupted his talk to say “nice shirt”. The crowd loved it and it put me instantly at ease and made me even more of a fan.

With all that, I still hold authors in high regard. I still consider myself just a reader, and it boggles my mind that they consider people like me so important. The brave new world of the Internet has bridged many gaps but I think the bridges that authors are making with their fans through social networking are the most impressive. I haven’t and probably never will meet Stephen King or Nora Roberts, but the authors who I read the most, those who are newly published, the mid-listers or those just above that have become “real people” to me and I’m loving’ it.

Many thanks, Kaye, for allowing those of us who read to share your playground with those who write. It is a great place to get to know each other.



and now - Patty's Pups!

Browser, miniature Schnauzer, rescue dog 

Kirby, Pembroke Welsh Corgi (our "troll")

Mocha, Havanese (King of the house at 9.3 lbs)

Orbit, standard Schnauzer, rescue dog

Spice, Pembroke Welsh Corgi mix (Spice Girl is busy, busy, busy), rescue dog

Trooper, standard Schnauzer, Cindy's Hearing Dog, (the family "boss" although Spice is trying to challenge him for the title)

Harley Likes the Snow

Okeey doke - here are the latest snow pictures - Enjoy!

and keep checking back - I'm sure Harley and I will be taking more walks as this weekend goes on.  

Right now though, the forecast is still for the "big" snow to come on Monday.  (Personally - this which we have right now is just fine fine fine, thank you very much).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

  

This was taken this afternoon.  Now, several hours later, there are several more inches of snow.

Harley thinks it's grand.

Tomorrow we'll take some more pictures 'cause if there's one thing Harley Doodle Barley likes almost as much as the snow, it's having his picture taken.

Check back!

Post-It: The Face in my Head by Craig Johnson

Craig Johnson has received high praise for his Sheriff Walt Longmire novels The Cold Dish, Death Without Company, Kindness Goes Unpunished, Another Man's Moccasins, and The Dark Horse, which received a superfecta of starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal, and was named one of Publisher's Weekly's best books of the year (2009). Each has been a Booksense/IndieNext pick with The Cold Dish and The Dark Horse both DILYS award finalists and Death Without Company the Wyoming Historical Association's Book of the Year. Another Man's Moccasins received the Western Writer's of America Spur Award for best novel of 2008 as well as the Mountains and Plains award for fiction book of the year. The latest Walt Longmire novel, Junkyard Dogs, was released by Viking on June 1, 2010. 

The Cold Dish was translated into French in 2008 as Little Bird and is in competition for Le Prix du Polar Nouvel Observateur/Bibliobs. It was also selected for Le Grand Prix des Litteratures Policieres and was a finalist for Le Prix 813. Death Without Company, Le Camp des Morts in French, was just released in April of this year. The Dark Horse will be translated into Czechoslovakian in 2010. 

Craig is a board member of the MWA, having been elected as a member at large. 

He lives in Ucross, WY, population 25. 

Post-It: The Face in my Head

by Craig Johnson

Since A&E green lighted, (green lit, green illuminated?) the pilot for Longmire, I’ve been inundated with questions and advice from folks with sometimes very strong opinions about the actors who should play the venerable sheriff. I’ve pretty much dodged the question about who should play Walt by answering Gary Cooper, but I’ve gotten about as much mileage out of that as I’m going to… In all honesty, I’ve heard other authors describe their characters as ‘an older Daniel Craig’ or ‘a brunette Reese Witherspoon’. I’m always surprised by that because I just don’t use actors as models for my characters for the simple reason that I don’t know any of them.

I once handed Reese Witherspoon a toothpick at the California Pizza Kitchen in Brentwood and she was very nice, but I don’t think that counts.

I tend to use people I know as characters in my books, simply because they are people I know. Sometimes it’s something in their physical appearance, but more likely it’s a gesture, a phrase, or some kind of telling character trait. Appearance doesn’t mean all that much to me, I have to confess, and with an actor you get that and the character of whomever they might be playing.

I guess I find it confusing when assembling a character from someone who’s already assembled their own.

For me, the outside of a person is under the direct influence of the inside person. There are an awful lot of inferences that tell me about a person when I’m looking at them, and very few of them have to do with whether the person is good or bad looking, and I’m pretty sure that the guy Warner Brothers Horizon and A&E come up with will probably be better looking than the Walt I’ve got in my head.

And probably shorter, since Walt’s 6’5” and everybody in Hollywood is 5’8”.

The casting directors are starting with Walt, and rightly so since he’s the linchpin for the series. Whichever actor they get for that roll will have a direct effect on whom they get to play Henry, Vic, Ruby, and all the others. Hell, it might even affect who plays Dog.

I’m seeing a Rin-Tin-Tin with just a touch of Buck in Call of the Wild--the seminal, Clark Gable version.

Even though I’m a ‘creative consultant’ to the series, the producers don’t have to ask me much, so I’ve been amazed at how extraordinarily responsive the team has been to any input I’ve had. I’m careful though, realizing that this is an entirely different medium and that they have to do things for certain reasons that I might not at first understand because of my limited experience in film and television production. When the producers told me they were most likely going to make Walt a little younger than in the books, I immediately wanted to know why. They patiently explained that they were hoping that this might be a long-lived series on A&E and they’d just as soon not have Walt on a walker by season six.

I had a hard time arguing that one.

It’s all a learning experience for me, along with the realization that the TV series won’t be exactly like the books. I think when you find yourself in a collaborative artistic effort (i.e., producers, directors, casting directors, screen writers, and actors), you either have faith in their connection to the material or you don’t. I’ve got a lot of confidence in these people, because of their conviction in the novels. They love the characters in these books and are remarkably talented, with extended track records of fine work—so most of the time I spend keeping my nose out of it until asked.

So, who’s going to play Walt in the A&E pilot of Longmire?

I don’t know yet—but I bet he’ll be different from the one in our heads—and I bet’cha he’ll be good.

Happy Trails,

Craig Johnson

www.craigallenjohnson.com

My Newest Most Favorite Quote Ever (at least for now)

I love quotes.

I ran across this one at Facebook yesterday.  J.D. Rhoades had posted it, and I promptly "borrowed" it and posted it on my Facebook page.

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself." - - - Neil Gaiman

It touched my soul.

I've heard of Neil Gaiman, but I've never read any of his work.  That, I do believe, is going to change.  I believe Mr. Gaiman's work is referred to as "Urban Fantasy."  This doesn't sound like the type of writing that might appeal to me - but, as you know, I've been wrong before.  I'm going to give it a try - any of you have a suggestion as to which of his books I should start with?

And while we're talking about quotes, I'm thinking this would make a fun blog.   Do you have some favorites you'd care to share?

And finally - some of you have gently reminded me that I forgot to post Christmas pictures of Harley!  WHAT was I thinking?!  Here's a couple.  Enjoy!