I’ve not attended an Mystery Writers Of American Edgar A. Poe awards dinner in over a decade. So this article will be strictly about those years when I did attend–from 1994 to 2001. As I’ve written before, the Edgars are the highest honor given to a crime fiction author, like the Oscars, but with far less fanfare and categories. The evening begins with cocktails where everyone smoozes, checking out each other’s attire, and literary agents, guzzling concoctions from the open bar and afterward eating the nouveau cuisine as quickly as the microscopic fare is spooned in front of them. Attendees are assigned tables. The more important the nominee, or publisher, the closer to the awards area. If you are a fledgling author paying your own
writers Archive
I remembered why I didn’t read many crime novels by Margery Allingham. Of the books I’ve read so far, Her writing is gibberish to me. Excepting Traitor’s Purse, that is. That book is on my list for the very reason that it’s not remotely like any others she wrote. It’s straight forward, with regular language, no affectations, no upper class slang, no slightly comic protagonist. In that book, which is about amnesia, you are given the viewpoint from someone whose world is unknown, and in his finding the way back, you come to finally respect and understand Albert Campion. In the book preceding Traitor’s Purse, the subject matter is far less serious–the fashion industry and the dilettante upper echelon within that world. An self centered artfully
There are some writers who excel in the short story form, such as Ed Hoch did, opposed to full length novels. Another is Carla Coupe whose short story pastiches of Sherlock Holmes have garnered critical and reader praise. Not that she couldn’t and won’t lengthen her work in the future–as she explains in this author interview. Carla gives us her take on Holmes and his fans, why she enjoys the short story form, and delves into her contributions to a Chesapeake Bay locale mystery anthology. Q 1. Carla, what is it about the short story form that draws you to it? As much as I enjoy gigantic, sprawling novels, in short stories I love the narrative focus, the need to cut away all extraneous
I didn’t join Goodreads. Mostly because until recently I didn’t know what it was or what I would want to join for. Many authors and friends had suggested via facebook I should join, and that only made me less likely to do so, because I assumed it was another facebook game or oddity. When I finally realized it consisted of normal people, well, as normal as any one who would join something called Goodreads–meaning lovers of the written word–are, the grassroots group sold out to the man, as the kids in my youth would say. They sold their original nice friendly swapping of what members enjoyed and didn’t like to the Robber Baron devil of Amazon. On the Goodreads home page, the list owners describe
If there were a library the likes of the Norfolk CT one around me, established in that venerable year, 1888, I’d probably use it as a second home. One without taxes, mortgage, lawn to mow, or mother constantly chattering in my ear. I’ve not been in such an inviting space since a kid, at my local fairy tale building library. The architecture is not Tudor, nor does it have any of the leaded paned windows of my memory, but what it does have is a cosy, warm, friendly atmosphere, and window seats. Window seats! In my dream house, window seats abound, and I picture myself lounging on one each day, book in hand, Crystal Light in a tall cool glass, my dog at my feet