Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind

Weekend Update Pending

Is it coincidence that I spend a weekend away just as Harry Potter-mania is unleashed upon the world? Actually, it is, and that's why the Weekend Update will be delayed (or skipped altogether, deadlines pending) but since word's already out about the Barry Award Nominations, I'll add my usual disclosure that I was on the nominating committee, offer my congratulations to all the nominees, and welcome the folks of Mystery News as co-sponsors of the award.

Super Seriously Cool News

If only I could have been at Harrogate to celebrate this in person, but instead a virtual shout-out will have to suffice. So congratulations, Mr. Guthrie, on taking home the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Prize for TWO-WAY SPLIT. I also like the irony as pointed out by another shortlisted, hard-driving campaigner, Stuart MacBride.

Farewell, Black Orchid Bookshop

I wish I could say I'm surprised at the news, but I'm not. Still, only months after the shuttering of Murder Ink, the news that Black Orchid will close its E. 81st Street shop in September is a real blow, leaving me with a mixture of sadness, guilt and many, many fond memories of hours spent in the company of Bonnie and Joe, two of the most beloved people in the mystery community.

But September isn't here yet, and the shop plans their 13th anniversary party nonetheless on August 16, starting at 6 PM. It may be farewell, but it's also sure to be a hell of a party. And "even though we may no longer have a brick and mortar presence in the mystery community," write Bonnie and Joe on the store's website, "we still plan to be around. So, for our song, may be we follow the lead of another large-sized albeit fictional Italian, put some money in the jukebox, and play Journey. We won't stop believing and just hold on to the feeling."

The midweek deal memo

First, I got wind of this deal on Backspace and had a feeling I knew who the editor would be:

Bram Stoker Award-winner Jonathan Maberry's PATIENT ZERO, in which a Baltimore police detective is recruited by a secret government organization to help stop a group of terrorists from launching a weaponized plague against America that turns its citizens into zombies, to Jason Pinter at St. Martin's, in a three-book deal (including PATIENT ZERO, by Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger (world).

Next, considering how fantastic NO TIME FOR GOODBYE is, this comes as little surprise:

Author of No Time for Goodbye Linwood Barclay's three stand-alone novels, to Danielle Perez at Bantam Dell, in a major deal, by Helen Heller at the Helen Heller Agency (NA).

And earlier this week, another legal thriller found a home:

Justin Peacock's A CURE FOR NIGHT, in which a fallen lawyer from a white shoe firm lands at the Brooklyn Defenders Office and, when assigned to a drug-related murder case, his past catches up with him with terrifying consequences, to Gerry Howard at Doubleday, by Betsy Lerner at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (World).

Peacock might be a practicing litigation lawyer but as his bio indicates, he clearly intended to pursue writing professionally.

Smatterings

Arthur Ellis Award winner Barbara Fradkin chats with the CBC about her Inspector Green series, setting mysteries in Ottawa and her next projects.

Brian Lindenmuth has a fascinating piece about Black Crime Fiction, with recommended reading listed at the end.

Patrick Anderson rightfully goes gaga for SONGS OF INNOCENCE by Richard Aleas.

Sebastian Faulks talks to EW's Popwatch blog about taking the James Bond reins. (via)

Stephen Carter is interviewed by Black Star News about his new legal thriller, NEW ENGLAND WHITE.

More Thrillerfest: PW gets dispatches from Jonathan Santlofer and Peter Cannon, while the ITW website has podcasts aplenty with Jeff Ayers at the helm.

Time Magazine asks a slew of writers, from Pete Hamill to Alexander McCall Smith to Joyce Carol Oates, for their summer reading guilty pleasures.

And finally, women and men are almost equally chatty, according to a new study. Stereotypes be damned!! (via)

ThrillerFest elsewhere

Now that it's Monday, reports are trickling in from more corners. Read perspectives from:

• Jason Pinter
• Sarah Langan (whom I twice saw and managed not to introduce myself to because I'm a dork)
• The Lipstick Chronicles
• Mario Acevedo
• Keith Raffel
• Emory Hackman & Linda Adams
• Disorderly Content
• Rosemary Harris
• Steven Torres
• Robert Gregory Browne

The Post-ThrillerFest Weekend Update

NYTBR: Lorraine Adams follows the Silk Road with travel guide Colin Thurbon; Jeremy McCarter has his thoughts on Arthur Miller's final volume of prose; and did someone at the Book Review assign Curtis Sittenfeld to review Rebecca Curtis's short stories b/c of the name displacement?

ThrillerFest Bulletpoints

Weekend Update to come first thing Monday morning after four days spent intermittently at the Grand Hyatt for Thrillerfest - and perhaps appropriately, this report is bulleted in scattershot fashion:

• It's damn hard to go to a convention in your home town because of the commute, however light in realistic terms. BEA's different, probably because the trade show element feels more like work or because I can manage it better somehow. So that's why I wasn't in the bar all that much, at least not after about 11 or so.
• Your Thriller Award winners: Joe Finder, Nick Stone, P.J. Parrish and Eric Roth. Congrats to all.
• Evidently Roth would have been happy to come to the banquet if he'd known about the nomination.
• I wonder if the prize Zoe Sharp won during the panel I thought of as "Truth or Lie?" would have been appropriate for the banquet.
• It's one thing to have an invitation-only party and have word get around - nothing propagates like word of an open bar. But announcing said invitation-only party on the hotel screencrawl is another matter.
• Speaking of propagation, pretty much everybody was talking about Barry Eisler's new book deal with Ballantine's Mark Tavani, brokered by Dan Conaway and Simon Lipskar.
• The Killerettes: good, clean wholesome fun or a setback to female writers?
• Ali Karim, in possession of the most dangerous water bottle known to man.
• Okay, so maybe it's me, but I thought the ARCs would be given away in the book bags, not tied up in impossible-to-untie bows at the banquet tables. I hope they all found good homes.
• Four people whose company I was glad to keep for long periods of time in the bar: Dana Kaye, Mike Stotter, Nick Stone and Larry Gandle.
• And yeah, we're stuck with Posh and Becks, dammit.
• Next time ThrillerFest should get a Cincinnati Red to be on one of the panels. Maybe Ken Griffey, Jr.
• I spent far too much time amusing myself in the book room looking at old author photos of people who once had hair.
• Keith Kahla wore an Armani suit and Cole Haan shoes. I point this out b/c this ensemble may never be seen in public again.
• Dave White makes his panel debut.
• I do believe the line (about to be misquoted by me, natch) of the banquet belonged to James Patterson, who compared the banquet proceedings to FINNEGANS WAKE. "Not that there's anything wrong with that, it just wasn't what I was expecting of a thriller convention."
• Some consensus on this year's ThrillerFest: more scattered, more reader-driven panels, more competition with outside interests, but still fun.
• Next year's ThrillerFest: may well be in New York again, with San Francisco rumored for 2009.
• And as always, thanks to all who said hello, had kind words for the blog or other nice things to say.

Here Be Your Shamus Award Nominees

The Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) is proud to announce the nominees for the 26^th annual Shamus Awards, given annually to recognize outstanding achievement in private eye fiction. The 2007 awards cover works published in the U.S. in 2006. The awards will be presented on September 28, 2007, at the PWA banquet in Anchorage, Alaska, during the weekend of the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention.

2007 Shamus Awards Nominees (for works published in 2006)

Best Hardcover

The Dramatist by Ken Bruen (St. Martins Minotaur), featuring Jack Taylor

The Darkest Place by Daniel Judson (St. Martins Minotaur), featuring Reggie Clay

The Do-Re-Mi by Ken Kuhlken (Poisoned Pen Press), featuring Clifford and Tom Hickey

Vanishing Point by Marcia Muller (Mysterious Press), featuring Sharon McCone

Days of Rage by Kris Nelscott (St. Martins Minotaur), featuring Smokey Dalton

 

Best Paperback Original

Hallowed Ground by Lori G. Armstrong (Medallion Press), featuring Julie Collins

The Prop by Pete Hautman (Simon and Schuster), featuring Peeky Kane

An Unquiet Grave by P.J. Parrish (Pinnacle), featuring Louis Kincaid

The Uncomfortable Dead by Paco Ignacio Taibo II and Subcomandante Marcos, Translated by Carlos Lopez (Akashic Books), featuring Hector Belascoaran Shayne

Crooked by Brian M. Wiprud (Dell), featuring Nicholas Palihnic

 

Best First Novel

Lost Angel by Mike Doogan (Putnam), featuring Nik Kane

A Perfect Place for Dying by Jack Fredrickson. (St. Martin's Minotaur), featuring Dek Elstrom,

Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith. (St. Martin's Minotaur), featuring Gustav “Old Red” Amlingmeyer

The Wrong Kind of Blood by Declan Hughes. (Wm. Morrow), featuring Ed Loy

18 Seconds by George D. Shuman. (Simon & Schuster), featuring Sherry Moore.

 

Best Short Story

“Sudden Stop” by Mitch Alderman. Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, November 2006, featuring Bubba Simms

"The Heart Has Reasons" by O'Neil De Noux. Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, September 2006, featuring Lucien Kaye

“Square One” by Loren D. Estleman. Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, November 2006, featuring Amos Walker

“Devil’s Brew” by Bill Pronzini. Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. December 2006, featuring John Quincannon.

"Smoke Got In My Eyes" by Bruce Rubenstein. TWIN CITIES NOIR (Akashic), featuring Martin McDonough

Congrats to all the nominees.

ThrillerFest in New York

This morning, the 2nd annual ThrillerFest begins, and hundreds of writers, would-be writers, agents, editors, publishers and readers will convene at the Grand Hyatt for panels, parties and of course, drinking. The official report will be on GalleyCat on Monday; more informal tidbits, lists and stray overheard thoughts can be found here as time permits (though knowing my schedule, also starting on Monday.)

See you at the bar.