The premier fanfest, Bouchercon, will be held this year in Cleveland OH, Oct. 4-7. Each year at the convention, awards named for Anthony Boucher, a well known mystery critic and novelist, are given out. The fans who pay in advance to attend, send in nomination ballots, and then vote on each category, the winners are … Read more
Today’s news about Amazon purchasing a 62 year old publishing company with a backlist of 3,000 titles, isn’t a surprise. Nothing Bezos and Amazon does anymore can surprise me, unless they decide to treat employees well and stop using cutthroat tactics to kill competition. Avalon isn’t the first publisher Amazon acquired, and I have no … Read more
Sitting in the movie theatre waiting for Johnny Depp to appear as Barnabas Collins, various trailers were screeching across the screen. Violent one and all, nothing new there. But when the familiar figure of our most beloved president appeared, I was pulled in–for about 30 seconds. Because after identifying the protagonist, the 16th president known … Read more
Or, why am others and I like me, obsessed with books? Yesterday I think I startled a friend with my guttural reaction to her having ripped apart some old used children’s books we had found together for a project we are jointly working on. She is not careless or indifferent to the written word. On the … Read more
Nancy Drew, a familiar name even to those who have never opened a juvenile mystery. The original books have been edited, altered, modernized and celebrated in film and TV. Even today there are contemporary stories featuring the teenager and her two girl friends, Bess and George. But if you are like most, you’ve never heard … Read more
In the mid 2000’s, I had a website where I sold vintage illustration jewelry. For each category I wrote a description. Within the Girl Sleuths subject was a sub category of just Nancy Drew pins. Instead of describing the dust jacket art, I decided to write a little ditty using Nancy and her entourage for … Read more
The gradual or sudden lack of desire to pick up a book and read occurs frequently to me. There’s no discernible reason for it. One day I’m finishing an exciting thriller, the next I can’t find the interest to open my favorite author’s latest book. No specific time of the year, week, or day indicates a … Read more
The annual conference that ran Friday through early Sunday, named the winners of the coveted teapot, The Agatha. The Malice Domestic Conference is always held at the end of April, on the Friday after the Mystery Writers of America has their banquet, citing the best in crime fiction by bestowing authors with a bust of … Read more
