Vanity, Thy Name is Rhys

 RHYS BOWEN: A few days ago I had my hair cut at a new hairdresser in Phoenix. I was getting ready to go out when I looked in the mirror and stared in horror. My hair looks awful, I said to myself. I can't go to the hairdresser with hair like this. I imagined the stylist going "eewww. Yucky hair."  I should point out it was only two days since I shampooed it so not really terrible. However I rushed into the shower and washed my hair.

Then I drove to the hairdresser who promptly shampooed my hair again. Is this silly or what? Am I vain or self conscious that I didn't want to appear at the hairdresser's with bad hair? 

Another thing I'll confess to: when my cleaning lady is coming I rush around the house frantically tidying up and wiping off counters. John thinks this is incomprehensible. But I don't want my cleaning lady to come into my house and go "eewww. Yucky house." Also from a practical point of view, she can clean much better if all the surfaces are free of clutter.

I suppose the same thing happens when I put on make up to go my doctor or to have blood drawn. I don't want to look like a sick person. 

I also can't bring myself to wear shorts or sweats when I'm doing a Zoom interview and my top half is glamorous. I guess it's a matter of pride. 

I'm horrified when I fly these days to see what people wear on a plane. Shorts, bear midriff, pjs... having been married to an airline executive for years we had strict dress code when we flew. The children were to dress as if they were going to church. We had to wear suit or dress and look like a business person. That attitude still lingers and has served me well. More than once, when flying alone in a business suit I've been upgraded to business class because I look as if I belong there.

My latest bout of vanity has to do with the Edgars Banquet. I'm a  nominee and I've been shopping for a new dress. This is silly really as I have several dresses worn at past banquets. I'm sure nobody is really going to notice what I'm wearing if I look respectable and suitable. But I can't bring myself to wear one of those dresses for a second time. They take pictures of the nominees. I'd hate someone to say "Oh look, she's wearing that one she wore in 2019. Also I wore those dresses when I was a nominee and didn't win. I don't want a dress that carries bad karma!

I was having trouble finding the perfect dress. As a dignified older lady I don't want low cut or strapless or with a slit up the side. I sent off for one that I saw online. It seemed to be pretty--silver embroidered with pearls. When it arrived it looked quite good... until I saw that the way it did up was a length of fabric threaded through endless loops at the back. Okay, how was I supposed to do up my dress? Take a maid with me? Knock on the next door room and ask the occupant if he'd mind lacing me into my gown? Or even worse, unlacing me at the end of the evening?

So it had to go back And just when I had almost given up in despair I found the perfect gown. PLain. Navy long sleeved top and the most gorgous full silk skirt that changed from navy through various shades of purple-blue. I'll share a picture when I wear it. right tnow it's hanging on my closet door.

Hank and Lucy will also be at the banquet. We'll take pix!

What Rhys has been Doing

 RHYS BOWEN: My fellow Reds have suggested I share my recent exploits so here they are:

I've been busy during the last month. After two years of living as a hermit, going out with mask on to Trader Joe's I finally started traveling again--with much trepidation, I confess. I had a new book out, WILD IRISH ROSE, the 18th Molly Murphy novel, now written with my daughter Clare and I thought should introduce her to the writing community.

First we went to Albuquerque to attend Left Coast Crime convention. It was amazing to see friends after so long and Clare was warmly welcomed, given a panel appearance plus a chance to share the stage with me and discuss what it was like to work together. (Of course she had to be polite!)

Almost nobody wore a mask, which was a little intimidating, but we all had to be vaccinated so that should have been okay. I didn't hear about anyone testing positive afterward. We also had some lovely meals with fellow writers, but Albuquerque downtown was scary and dead, the hotel had just changed hands and there was NO FOOD TO BE HAD! All a bit chaotic.

Then our next adventure: we flew to Washington DC to attend Malice Domestic Convention at which I shared being Guest of Honor with fellow Red Julia. Again it was wonderful to be among friends. Louise Penny, one of my dearest friends, flew in from London to interview me. We had a fun dinner together and the interview was such a treat.

Louise even called Clare up onto the stage at the end which I thought was so sweet of her.   I also had to run the charity auction, with another friend, Charlene Harris. I had no idea how tiring this is! I was wiped out by the end, but we did raise a lot of money.

I also had to give a speech at the banquet and it was lovely to share a table with  Louise, Clare, our agent Christina and friends from the writing community including Kathy who had been a member of one of my writing workshops in Tuscany. (I also had to go up to accept my Agatha Award from last year, although there are no teapots yet, the firm having closed during Covid).

Clare announced that she had found her tribe and would be a convention junkie from now on!  She had to fly home from DC but I took the train to New York where I spent four days before the Edgar awards. During those days I toured the areas that Clare and I write about, taking lots of photos for her. I had lunch with an old friend, breakfast with fellow Red Lucy, meetings and meals with my agents and then a very grand dinner with my team from Lake Union. 

It all culminated in the Edgar's banquet. We had to show proof of vaccination and were given masks, but once inside the reception the masks all came off. So it was a little scary, knowing that people had come from all over the world. But I arrived home safely with no sniffles and a sigh of relief. (Oh, and I didn't win the Edgar but it was lovely to see my cover on huge screens around the room and to be photographed with the other nominees).

After that I needed to decompress. I was simply not used to getting dressed up, sharing meals with people, speaking at microphones--all skills I had to relearn.  I survived without getting Covid (although several people did test positive from the Malice convention, including some here). 

But no rest for the wicked, eh? On arriving home I had to clean the whole house, put away garden furniture etc before we drove back to our home in California. Now all I have to do is finish a book, do edits on another and then start the next Molly book with Clare. At least my life isn't boring any more!

How about you, Reds? Have you dared to travel yet? 

What We're Missing (sigh)

JENN McKINLAY: When I first started writing, I wrote in this Emily Dickensonesque solitude where not only did I not take any classes, go to any conferences, or find any other authors to commiserate with, I also didn't tell anyone I was trying to be a writer. This is one of my biggest regrets. Why?

Well, it turns out, writers are, by and large, very friendly, generous with their knowledge, and extremely supportive of their fellow pen monkeys. Conferences are where I've made some of the best friends of my life -- like this crew of divine women: 

Jungle Red Writers Bouchercon 2019

And I've been to places I'd likely never have gone to without a conference being held there, such as Toronto's CN Tower. Yes, I'm standing on the glass floor, looking down at the aquarium. (Bouchercon 2017).

The friendships that are forged while being on a panel with other authors, going to dinner with your editor and agent, or just hanging out for a coffee or a large breakfast (my favorite) with readers is the BEST.

My bestie and frequent conference roommate Kate Carlisle, whose book THE GRIM READER is coming in June! I can't imagine my life if I'd never met her. Yes, we're enjoying
pre-book signing "salads" here. 

At the recently aborted Left Coast Crime, I even got to see blogger and Reds regular, Mark Baker, moderate the panel What's Cooking? He did an amazing job!

Left Coast Crime 2020

For most of us in the crime fiction world, this is the week for the Edgars, where our Hank is up for a Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Murder List (Available RIGHT NOW in ebook form for $1.99). It will be announced on Twitter on April 30th at 11:00 EST. I love you, Twitter (okay, not really) but this is NOT the same.

Today, I should be on a plane headed to the second Malice Domestic I've ever attended. Kate Carlisle and I were going to check out the Library of Congress, but the big event was to celebrate our Julia, who was Guest of Honor! Obviously, it, too, was canceled. 

This is particularly sad for me, because one of the friendships I forged at Malice, way back in 2012, was with our dearly departed Sheila Connolly.  Sheila passed away last week. It was a crusher for the entire cozy mystery community, but her blog mates at Wicked Authors say it best with a lovely tribute written by our friend Edith Maxwell. It's cold comfort, I know, but I'm so glad we have Sheila's books to take us with her to Ireland or an apple orchard or wherever her talents lead. 

Sheila was a genuine character, wickedly smart and with a delightful sense of fun. Here we are posing as Charlie's Angels, with finger guns and everything, because we're both so tall. We laughed pretty hard at ourselves. I'm so sorry I won't get to laugh with you again, my friend. RIP. (photo by Dru Ann Love)

So, if there is one thing I've learned and learned and relearned in the spring of 2020, I won't take any of these conferences, the amazing people who put them together, or those who attend them for granted -- ever again! Here's hoping I get to see you all at a signing, a conference panel, or a breakfast again soon! 

So, tell me, Reds and Readers, what conferences, signings, or other book centric events are you planning to attend, if any, when the world starts up again?

Not the Laurel, But the Race

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: If you follow crime fiction news (and if not, you should!) you know the Edgar Awards, sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America, and the Lefty Awards, given at the Left Coast Crime conference, have recently been announced. We're thrilled to have three Reds on the shortlists. Hallie Ephron has been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, and BOTH Rhys Bowen and Susan Elia MacNeal are on the list for the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Fiction Award. (Will they go mano-a-mano for the prize, wrestling and throwing punches? Probably not, but you should attend Left Coast Crime just in case.)

Award wins and nominations are, to be perfectly frank, delightful. We at Jungle Reds like them a lot: between us we have won the Barry, the Booky, the Bruce Alexander, the Dilys, the Freddy, the Gumshoe,the Herodotus, the Lovey, the Daphne and the Nero Wolfe. We've been nominated twice for the Dilys and Bruce Alexander Awards, three times for the Barry and Edgar Awards, six times for the Mary Higgins Clark award, eight times for the Macavity, fifteen times for the Anthony and a staggering twenty-one nominations for the Agatha Award.

At home, on our bookcases, we can display two Barry Awards, three Sue Feder Historical Mystery Awards, five Macavity cats, five Anthony awards and eight Agatha teapots. For those of you scribbling figures on the back of an envelope, that's 13.14 awards and nominations per Red. Here's the thing, though: we don't write to receive nominations and awards. We write to please our readers. The teapot, the cat - or that oh-so-coveted Poe statuette - are useful. They draw attention to our work, make our publishers happy and raise our profiles in the community. But the best thing about them is that they're a tangible form of reader satisfaction.  Behind every nomination is eight or eighty or eight hundred readers who closed the cover and sighed, "That was a great book."

And that's one reason why crime fiction authors aren't (tooo terribly) jealous when our colleagues nab awards. Because we read - and love - each others' books. In 2014, Hank and I were both up for a Best Novel Agatha, for THE WRONG GIRL and THROUGH THE EVIL DAYS. When Hank won, as soon as she had finished getting her pictures taken, she rushed over to me and said, very seriously, "Is this okay?" It was, and I was happy for her, and we hugged and I had a great time that evening at the bar bragging on my sister Red.


If award nominations have any lasting impact, it's this: they remind us to always push ourselves to become better writers, to strive to deepen our understanding of the craft, and to promise ourselves to make every single book a little bit better than the last one. Reds, what are your thoughts on the role of awards in your career? And do you have any good award ceremony stories to share?

RHYS BOWEN:  Julia, the one time I was ever nominated for the Edgar best novel, you were a fellow nominee!  How seldom is a woman ever nominated and that year there were three of us. Laura Lippman was the third. I secretly felt we cancelled each other out! But I would have cheered loudly if you had won.

My most recent award ceremony memory is winning the Agatha last year and then cheering for Hank when she won hers and having our pictures taken together with teapots! You are so right that we are each others' biggest champions! We are in a great profession and wonderful community.  I feel blessed.



SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: I was completely gobsmacked to be nominated for an Edgar for Best First Novel and I'm happy to say that we nominees (Kim Fay, Daniel Friedman, Michael Sears, and Matthew Quick) became fast friends there and have remained close! And I remember winning the Barry — not only did I never think I would win, but I didn't fix up my hair or put on fresh lipstick, and had a couple of glasses of wine beforehand. (Because I REALLY didn't think I would win.) I have no idea what I said, but my editor tells me it was sweet and people liked it. Thank goodness. Maybe that's the trick to winning? Not wearing lipstick and being completely unprepared? One of the unexpected benefits of being nominated for things is getting to sit at the awards ceremony with Lee Child, because we share an editor. Even after a few years, I'm always shocked Lee Child knows who I am. And once he even told me, "My wife loves your books." That's good — right?

JULIA: Absolutely!

HALLIE EPHRON: Julia, when you lay it out like that, we've got quite an impressive array of nominations and awards among us. Congratulations, Susan and Rhys! I had a lovely day on Tuesday when the nomination was announced -- with my phone and email pinging nonstop with congratulatory messages. I got zero writing done.

This will be my fourth time up for the Mary Higgins Clark and while it is certainly an honor to be nominated, and I admire my fellow nominees several of who I consider friends, is it okay to say: I want that glass doorstop!

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm so pleased and thrilled for our nominated Reds! I've been nominated for Agathas (up against Julia for best first, which she deservedly won), the Anthony, and the Macavity (boy do I want one of those cats one day...). I've also served on quite a few Edgar committees--best novel, best YA, best TV, best juvenile. From that perspective, a writer begins to see how much competition there is out in the world. Since we truly have no way to influence awards, my theory is we don't write for them--we write for you!


HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  OH, Rhys and Julia, what wonderful memories!  Thank you. I love my five teapots and my Mary Higgins Clark crystal bookend and my Anthonys  and Daphne and Macavitys. But think about it--we sit, alone alone alone, in our studies, making new worlds. something out of nothing but our imaginations. How does that even work? And then--at some point, someone will read it! Real people, most often people we've never met. And then-they decide if they "like" it. What does that even mean??  And what does"good" mean? Or successful? It's all such a magical impossible thing. So when someone says--we love it! It's the best! Well, how do you not burst into tears?

And then I work harder than ever.

Now Julia.  HOW did you do all that calculation??? Amazing.

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  Really, Julia, how did you do that?? I must say I'm collectively impressed with us. Wow! I've been nominated for the Agatha, the Edgar, and I think four times for the Macavity, which I've won twice. I know we always say, "It's great to be nominated," but it's really true. Having served on several Edgar committees over the years, I know how seriously the judges take their task, and how hard it is to choose between that top handful of books. And the awards given by readers are really special, because it means we've done our jobs and given readers a book that touched them in some way.

So thrilled for our nominated REDS this year! Will be holding my breath on awards nights!


JULIA: Coming up with those numbers involved a lot of checking out everyone's web sites and then cross checking against award records. Thankfully, most of the crime fiction writing awards have searchable databases!

Dear Readers, I think our thoughts about the role of awards is well captured in this poem by Gelett Burgess:

Not the quarry, but the chase,

Not the laurel, but the race,

Not the hazard, but the play,

Make me, Lord, enjoy alway. 

Awards Season and Stuffed Peppers (for those left behind)

LUCY BURDETTE: You guys have probably noticed that the blog is a little slow this week. That's because it's a big week in the mystery business. The Mystery Writers of America awards were given out on Wednesday and Thursday, and the Malice Domestic Agatha awards will be given out tonight at the banquet. We are really proud to have four Jungle Red Writers nominated this year--Hallie for the Mary Higgins Clark Award for THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN, Hank and Julia for the best traditional novel (THE WRONG GIRL and THROUGH THE EVIL DAYS), and Rhys for best historical novel for HEIRS AND GRACES. Isn't that an amazing line-up? I won't even list all the friends of Jungle Red that are also nominated, but it's an amazing collection of books and writers.
I went into New York for a really quick overnight to celebrate Hallie's nomination. She didn't win (that honor went to Jenny Milchman), but as Hank pointed out, Hallie's book was ONE of FIVE books in the entire mystery universe short-listed, including (ahem) titles from most of the rest of the Reds! Congratulations Hallie!

Now we have to wait with bitten nails to hear the results of the Agatha voting. It feels a little melancholy to be sitting home waiting, doesn't it? So for the rest of us, I thought we deserved comfort food tonight--in the guise of my favorite stuffed peppers.


Ingredients:

1 12 oz roll sausage
1 medium onion, chopped
1 jar Classico spicy red pepper pasta sauce (or your choice)
1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
1/2 cup water
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4-6 uncooked green peppers

Saute the sausage until brown, then drain on paper towels.

Saute the chopped onions in the same pan. Return the meat to the pan once the onions are soft. Add the uncooked rice, the water, the Worcestershire sauce, and half the jarred sauce. Simmer, covered, until the rice is cooked. This might take a half hour, depending on your rice--and you might need to add a little water along the way. Then stir in the cheese.
While the meat mixture is simmering, cut the peppers in half lengthwise. Cut out the stems and seeds and membranes. Pour the remaining half of the sauce into a greased baking dish, and set the peppers into the pan. When the meat mixture is ready, stuff it into the peppers, cover with foil, and bake 30 minutes at 350 until peppers are soft and sauce is bubbling.
Good luck ladies--you are all winners in our book! But winners, losers, or those left behind, here's my new recipe for orange almond sponge cake--it soothes and celebrates equally well:).

I've Got A Little List!

Hank Phillippi Ryan: Summertime! And soon…the summer reading lists will be out! But hey, why wait for the Times or the News or People--when we have the Reds? What are you reading--right now? (Come on, be honest.) and what're you reading next?

I'll admit it--I'm reading Dan Brown's Inferno. And okay, fine, it's a page turner. Irresistible! I'm also reading Joe Hill's NOS4ATU. Which is creepy as pie and just as delicious.  And Bruce DaSilva's new PROVIDENCE RAG. He's good! Sort of if Spenser was a reporterand lived in Rhode Island.

 Next is Jon McGoran's DRIFT. Or maybe ...Susan Elia MacNeal’s HIS MAJESTY"S HOPE.(She’s so terrific. I am hooked on her books!) And Catriona McPherson has a new one, AS SHE  LEFT IT. Sigh. And I SHOULD be writing!

 How about you?

LUCY BURDETTE:  I'm reading a romance by Nancy Herkness called TAKE ME HOME. It's about a woman who goes home to West Virginia from NYC and finds both a "whisper horse" (a horse who will listen to your troubles) and a romance with a sexy vet. It's light summer reading that seriously sizzles....

 And next up, KNEADING TO DIE, by our friend Liz Mugavero. And after that, Erica Baumeister's THE LOST ART OF MIXING. But really, seriously, need to be finishing MURDER WITH GANACHE...

HANK : Oh, me, too. (and Lucy, I cannot wait to read it!) LOVE Liz Mugavero!   Ah, I’m at 50,000 words—hurray! Of a book that has no title, boo. Soon, I’ll be coming to you to ask  for advice. How can you write a book that has no title? Well, I secretly  have one. (Is it: The Last to Lie? One False Move? No Good Deed? As Good As True? What do you think?)

Rhys is en route from London, Julia has a big deadline, Ro is doing something glamorous,  and Hallie’s writing, too, I know…and she’s just back from vacation.

HALLIE EPHRON:     My TBR pile is topped by Jess Walter's "Beautiful Ruins" -- I'm a huge fan since he blew me away with Edgar winner "Citizen Vince." Like Roberta I'm behind on my

deadline so reading for pleasure is on the back burner--temporarily at least. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING:  Hallie, I'm so happy to be (temporarily) able to read for pleasure! I'm still recovering from the Best Novel Edgars, and as such, I've been reading a lot of romance, womens fiction, etc. I just finished the latest Nora Roberts stand-alone, WHISKEY BEACH. Always a good read. When you're in a Nora mood, nothing else will suffice. 

I'm also backtracking to read Lee Child's THE AFFAIR; after I bought it in 2011, Ross grabbed it off my pile and read it and for some reason, I never got back to it. I want to catch up before NEVER GO BACK lands at the beginning of September. A couple of summer books I'm REALLY looking forward to laying hands on: William Kent Kruger's TAMARACK COUNTY and Paul Doiron's MASSACRE POND. Both faves of mine in the "Rugged men sleuthing in places that can kill you" genre. Seriously, I may have to hit up their editors for Advance Readers Copies.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Whew, Julia, now I feel a bit better (grovel, grovel) about admitting the fact that until now I had never read a Lee Childs' novel. Not a deliberate oversight--I've had two in my TBR pile for donkey's years-- just too many books... Anyway, I'm reading the very first Jack Reacher, KILLING FLOOR, while alternating hitting myself on the head for not having read ALL of them sooner.  Halfway through, I could write a dissertation on Reacher as the iconic hero in literature, but suffice to say it's a cracking good story.

Also part way through the 75th anniversary edition of THE HOBBIT (a birthday gift from a friend,) which I hadn't reread in years. And THE HOBBIT: THE CHRONICLES, a gift from my publisher--a fabulous coffee table book on the art and design in the film. Then a good bit more non-fiction: THE POSSIBILITY DOGS by Susannah Charleson (out yesterday!), THE TRAIN IN THE NIGHT by Nick Coleman (a book about music and hearing loss,) and THE MURDER ROOM, by Michael Capuzzo. Then more fiction; a galley of MIDNIGHT by Kevin Egan, who will be my guest on JR in July. And somewhere there is a new Jo Bannister novel, if only I could find it... I think we will all be buried in books...

(Oh, and I LOVE William Kent Krueger, so the new one is going on the pile, too.)

RHYS BOWEN:  I'm on a plane as you read this, finishing up Deb's No Mark Upon Her, which I had had on my Kindle for a year and never had time to read. I was interviewed by a woman who belongs to Leander Club so that was fun. And I'm no longer sure what lurks in the TBR pile at home. I know I have to blurb Hannah Dennison's new one, and definitely want to read Catriona's (she'll be our guest next week) and the latest Kate Morton is waiting for me and I confess, I'll have to read Dan Brown as I was just in Istanbul.

LUCY BURDETTE:  Could I just say that I was on the Edgar committee that chose CITIZEN VINCE as best novel that year? I was very proud of that one!

HANK: See, Lucy/Roberta? You know your stuff!  It’s very gratifying to be on that committee—ours picked Mo Hayder’s GONE. A fabulous book! I smile every time I see it in a bookstore.

So how about you, Readers? Tell us your then, now, next! We’d love to hear what you’re reading! There are SO many wonderful books!

(And yes, indeed! One lucky commenter wins the ARC of THE WRONG GIRL!) Yesterday's winner: Katie Baer! Email me h ryan at whdh dot com with your address!

SNOW DAY

      **On Bent Road, a battered red truck cruises ominously along the prairie; a lonely little girl dresses in her dead aunt’s clothes; a boy hefts his father’s rifle in search of a target; a mother realizes she no longer knows how to protect her children. It is a place where people learn: Sometimes killing is the kindest way.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I have no idea, though I’ve really tried to remember, when the moment was that I decided I was a writer. I had an English teacher in high school, Mr. Thornburg, who taught me about Shakespeare and the wonders of analytical thought, and once gave me an A for a paper comparing The Faerie Queen with Out of the Silent Planet. I do remember that.

I  remember, as a semi-grown-up, maybe age 22, writing a story for Rolling Stone about Susan Ford’s prom at the White House. I remember seeing that in print, and staring at the page in wonder.

I remember when I finished Prime Time. I typed ‘The End” and burst into tears.

Lori Roy, though, does have an idea when she began. She’s come a long way since then—and now her first novel, the lyrical and moving BENT ROAD, is an Edgar nominee. Something must have gone right.

Grab a cup of tea or coffee, and maybe curl up in a chair. And listen, for a moment or two, as Lori remembers—it all began on a

        SNOW DAY

           by Lori Roy

 

Brother flips on the radio and rolls the dial until a familiar voice speaks to us. I stand in mismatched socks and faded flannel pajamas, a patchwork quilt wrapped around my shoulders. When the heater clicks on, I shuffle a few steps until I stand over the floor vent. My quilt traps the warm air that begins to flow. Brother gives me a shove because no fair hogging all the hot air.

In the kitchen, Mother pulls a skillet from the shelf over the oven and fishes a spatula from the utensil drawer. The announcer begins to read from his list. We shout for Mother to please be quiet because we can’t hear the radio. USD 320…that’s Wamego. USD 475…that’s Junction City. Brother pounds both hands on the table, one on either side of the radio. Come on USD 383. Come on USD 383.  I slide one foot after the other until I again stand over the vent, trap all the hot air and close my eyes. Silently, only mouthing the words, I say the same as Brother.  Come on USD 383.

The announcer says, “USD 383.” It’s official.  Our school district is closed for the day.

Brother gives the table one last smack, runs for his room and his mattress springs creak as he dives back into bed. I join Mother in the kitchen and sit at the table while she scrambles half dozen eggs. She’ll add ham and cheese before she’s done.  Outside, the drifts have piled up against our front door and the plows haven’t yet reached our street. A lone set of tire tracks cuts through the fresh snow. At the end of May, when we should be getting out of school for summer break, we’ll have to make up this day, but for today, it’s a snow-day. No school.

Unlike Brother, I don’t want to go back to bed. I am awake, wide awake. Too windy to play outside. Maybe later if the snow stops, but it’s too cold for good snowballs. The snow won’t stick. So, instead, I’ll write a book. I have the whole day. How long could it take? How hard could it be?

This time, I sit alongside the vent in the floor, again trap the warm air with my quilt and tap a number two pencil on the tablet Mother found for me. I keep tapping, and while I can’t think of anything to write, I do see a picture in my mind.  A boy. He’s thirteen or fourteen—about my brother’s age. He’s sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree. He’s lonely, I think. I don’t know who he is, what has happened to him or what will happen to him, but my novel is definitely about this boy.

I ask Mother if she has any cardboard. She tells me no, but she does have a small shirt box—a leftover from Christmas morning. Perfect. It’s thick like a novel would be. I fetch a box of Crayolas from my room, return to my spot over the vent, and design and color my novel’s cover art. It’s a picture of the lonely boy leaning against a tree with no leaves. I’m no good at drawing the leaves.

In the year since my first novel—BENT ROAD—came out, I am often asked when I started writing. This is the story I tell in answer to that question. I wasn’t disciplined in those days and never made it past designing the novel’s cover. In truth, I wasn’t disciplined enough until I hit my thirties. 

So perhaps I should say that’s when I started writing.

  For about ten years, I wrote every day. I gathered rejection slips for unwanted short stories, attended a few writers’ conferences, met some great writer-friends, won a small award here and there, gathered more rejections slips and finally wrote and sold BENT ROAD.  And while the novel I started on that snow-day back in the mid 70s never made it beyond a hastily colored shirt box, I’d like to believe the young boy I envisioned did find his way into print. He is Daniel Scott, one of my point-of-view characters in BENT ROAD.

Given this, I will continue to say I first became a writer on that snow-day when I was eight-years-old.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Ah. I'm reading Bent Road right now, and it's absolutely original--you can tell, from this essay alone, how special it is.  So, Reds—if you write, when did that happen? If you read, when did you realize how important it was to you? A copy of BENT ROAD to one lucky commenter!

*************************************************

Lori Roy was born and raised in Manhattan, Kansas where she graduated from Kansas State University. Before beginning her writing career, Lori worked as a tax accountant in the public sector and later for Hallmark Cards. Bent Road, Lori's first novel, was named a 2011 New York Times Notable Crime Book and has been nominated for the Book-of-the-Month Club First Fiction Award and the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Novel by an American Author. Additionally, BENT ROAD was named One of the Best for 2011 by the Library Journal and one of the top 100 books for 2011 by the Kansas City Star.  Lori currently lives with her family in west central Florida. 

MWA University: A Labor of Love

ROSEMARY: On August 13th, MWA is holding another session of MWA University, this time in my home chapter of New York and featuring - not only two of our very own Jungle Reds - Hank and Hallie - but award-winning mystery writer Reed Farrel Coleman.
I asked Reed to tell us how this incredible opportunity got started.

RFC: About five years ago, right after my term as Executive Vice President of MWA ended, I began teaching mystery and genre writing at Hofstra University on Long Island. I teach an accelerated summer term during which the students attend class for four hours a day, five days a week for two consecutive weeks.

It struck me during my second year at Hofstra that there had to be a way to accelerate the process even further. This was also during a period when new writing classes and workshops were sprouting like weeds. For me, the sad part of these new classes and workshops was that they didn’t actually focus on writing at all … not unless you consider composing a query letter writing.

I have always believed and continue to believe that the vast majority of a writer’s energy needs to be spent on the writing itself. That finding an agent, finding a publisher, and developing a marketing strategy are concerns to be tackled after a writer produces the best work possible. Unfortunately, I found that even many of my own students were more concerned with agent hunting, marketing schemes, and ideas on how to spend their millions than on writing. I began to develop an idea for a one- or two-day event to be held at Hofstra that, for the most part, would focus on the writing skills necessary to produce good work. I went to then-EVP Harry Hunsicker with the idea of MWA co-sponsoring the event and calling it MWA University. He was enthusiastic about the concept. Then, at the time we were ready to move ahead, the economy went south.

About two years ago, Larry Light, the current EVP, and I had a conversation. He remembered my MWA U concept and asked me to revive it, to make it something MWA could offer to the chapters as a benefit, a recruiting tool, and, more importantly, as a program in keeping with the spirit of MWA. I agreed to co-chair the Education Committee with Hank Phillippi Ryan who was as enthusiastic about the idea as Larry and I. Hank, Jess Lourey, Dan Stashower, myself, and the rest of the committee worked at it for many months and came up with a proposal for the board. With little alteration, that proposal is what MWA U is today: six hours of college-level writing instruction for the nominal fee of $50. These six innovative sessions are not your grandma’s writing classes. New and original techniques are employed to make the best use of the time. The classes include instruction on the process of developing an idea into a novel, on setting, on plotting, on character, and on editing. The last class is usually taught by Hank, and is less writing instruction, per se, than inspiration to write. If listening to Hank doesn’t make you want to run through walls to get home and go to work, I don’t know what will.

Our goal is not to make money. It is to give people with a dream a chance to take one step closer to reaching it without bankrupting themselves. Dreams shouldn’t be held prisoners of a bad economy or tough circumstances. MWA U is a way for us to give back to the mystery community, to let people know we’re all in it together and that we want you to be successful.

There’s room for all of us. Do yourself a favor by joining us on August 13 for what promises to be a great day. MWA members and non-members alike are welcome. Your dreams are welcome too.

ROSEMARY: Hank, Hallie and I will be there. What about you? Register at http://tinyurl.com/445rhma

Reed Farrel Coleman has been called a hard-boiled poet by NPR's Maureen Corrigan. He has published twelve novels—two under his pen name Tony Spinosa—in three series, and one stand-alone with award-winning Irish author Ken Bruen. His books have been translated into seven languages.

Reed is a three-time winner of the Shamus Award for Best Detective Novel of the Year. He has also received the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards, and has been twice nominated for the Edgar® Award. He was the editor of the anthology Hard Boiled Brooklyn, and his short fiction and essays have appeared in Wall Street Noir, The Darker Mask, These Guns For Hire, Brooklyn Noir 3, Damn Near Dead, and other publications.

Visit him at www.reedcoleman.com and look for his latest release Hurt Machine, 10/2012 from Tyrus Books.


Today's music quiz -
"It was still September when your Daddy was quite surprised
To find you with the working girls in the county jail"

Guess the title and artist and you'll win a signed copy of Dead Head. Good luck!!

And the winners are...

Bouquets! Fire works! Champagne toasts to this week's winners of Edgar and Agatha awards! These books are the creme de la creme, and we congratulate the winners!

(Links are to interviews with many of the winners in the annals of Jungle Red.)

2011 Agatha Award winners, announced just last night:

Best Novel - Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (winning for the 4th time!)

Best Nonfiction - Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks by John Curran

Best Children's/Young Adult - The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith

Best First Mystery Novel - The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Aames

Best Short Story - "So Much in Common" by Mary Jane Maffini, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - Sept./Oct. 2010

Poirot Award: Janet Rudolph of Mystery Readers' International

And the 2011 Edgar awards, announced earlier this week, went to:

Best novel: The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

Best fact crime: Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity by Ken Armstrong & Nick Perry

Best Juvenile: The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy by Dori Hillestad Butler

Best young adult: The Interrogation of Gabriel James by Charlie Price

The Mary Higgins Clark award: The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

Raven Awards: Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore (Chicago, IL); Once Upon a Crime Bookstore (Minneapolis, MN)

Were you there? Have you read these? Share your thoughts...

And the Award Goes To.....

HANK: There's always that moment of intense suspense...the category has been called, the names of the nominees intoned, the possible winners arranging their faces into "it's lovely just to be nominated" composure. The presenter tries to open the envelope--why is it always difficult?--decide whether to make a joke of the difficulty, or just, for gosh sake, GO ON. The audience titters with nervous laughter. The composure on the nominees' faces begins to crack and fissure.

And then: they say the name. If you're Sally Field of course, the first example of "acceptance-oops" in everyone's mind, you gush and overdo. (Although it was endearing, really. )

Steven Spielberg, who won the Oscar for Saving Private Ryan, was honest: "Am I allowed to say I really wanted this? This is fantastic."

Kim Basinger, at the 1998 Academy Awards (she won for LA Confidential) was just as honest: "I just want to thank everybody I've ever met in my entire life."

And Benicio Del Toro who won Best Supporting Actor for Traffic, was realistic. "I won and I get to scream and jump a little. But I got to go back to work tomorrow."

There aren't as many people watching at Malice, or the Edgars (r). But wow, the emotion is just as strong. And the desire is just as deep. And the gratitude--is just as heart-warming.

Right now, nominees are wondering--should I think of something to say? Or just wing it? And if I decide to plan--is that a jinx?

(A wise person once told me--always plan what to say. It's the only respectful thing to do for your audience. So, okay, I'll try to plan. But it's probably a jinx. So I'm not really planning. It won't matter, anyway. It's a thrill to be nominated. And I mean it.)

You know--let's just change the whole subject. Sort of. And give the floor to the wonderful Carolyn Hart.

MEMORIES OF MALICE

by Carolyn Hart

Even though I won’t be able to attend Malice Domestic this spring, Malice is always in my heart.

The very first Malice in 1989 made a huge difference for me as a writer.In 1987 Bantam published Death on Demand. I wrote it thinking it was my last book. I had written seven books in seven years and sold none of them. At that point, any realistic writer would have found a more productive pursuit. But, as my fellow writers will understand, if you write, you have to write. However, I swore that Death on Demand would be my final try. If the ms. didn’t sell, I would play tennis.

So, not expecting the book to sell - after all a great many mss. were stacked in my office - I decided to write the kind of mystery I enjoyed reading, an old-fashioned, traditional mystery with clues and suspects. Moreover, my protagonists would be a young couple who truly loved each other. At that time, most female protagonists either had no relationship with a man or the relationship was dysfunctional. Unfashionable as it was, I created Annie Laurance and Max Darling. Hey, it was fiction, so Max was tall, blond, and rich, Joe Hardy all grown up and sexy as hell. I used a mystery bookstore as the background which gave me a chance to talk about wonderful mysteries of the past and present.

The first miracle occurred. Bantam bought Death on Demand. The editor said, “It’s the first in a series, of course.” I replied immediately, “Of course,” though it had never occurred to me that there would be a first, much less a second and third.

The third book was definitely the charm. Malice Domestic was created by Barbara Mertz and Charlotte MacLeod to celebrate traditional mysteries, which then, as now, are often overlooked or dismissed. I saw a little ad in Mystery Scene and decided to attend. There was also an announcement of a contest for the Agatha Award for Best Mystery Novel. Bantam entered SOMETHING WICKED.
I was astonished when the book was a nominee, one of five, for the Agatha.

Not only was the nomination a huge surprise for an unknown author, Something Wicked was a paperback original, so of course it wasn’t on the level of the other nominees. However, the nomination was thrill enough for me.I attended the first Malice. It was held in a shabby hotel in Bethesda, but I was walking on air as a nominee. At the first Malice dinner, the winner was announced: Something Wicked.

I walked to the podium in a state of shock. I could scarcely manage a word.

My thank you was a whisper. What a difference the Agatha made for me. The books began to attract notice. I continued to write them. On March 29, the 21^st in the Death on Demand series - DEAD BY MIDNIGHT - will be published.

Thank you, Malice Domestic.
CAROLYN HART

Carolyn Hart is the author of 46 mysteries. New in 2011 is DEAD BY MIDNIGHT, 21^st in the Death on Demand series. Hart’s books have won Agatha, Anthony and Macavity awards. She has twice appeared at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. LETTER FROM HOME, a standalone WWII novel set in Oklahoma, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize by the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers. She is excited by the new technology which will soon make possible the reappearance of 12 of her early books on Kindle. She lives in Oklahoma City with her husband, Phil. She loves mysteries, cats, happy ghosts, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.

SO REDS--do you think of your acceptance speech in advance...just in case? What's the best-worst one you ever heard?