The Killer Nashville conference announced its annual Silver Falchion awards in a virtual ceremony this past weekend, including Book of the Year winner, Queen's Gambit by Bradley Harper; Best Mystery: Lovely Digits by Jeanine Englert; Best Procedural or PI: Paid in Spades by Richard Helms; Best Thriller: Hyperion's Fracture by Thomas Kelso; Best Action or Adventure: The Best Lousy Choice by Jim Nesbitt; Best Cozy: A Sip Before Dying by Gemma Halliday; and Best Suspense: Queen's Gambit by Bradley Harper. For all the awards in the various categories, follow this link to the official conference website.
The McKnight Foundation announced the selection of Marcie Rendon for its 2020 Distinguished Artist Award—a $50,000 award created to honor a Minnesota artist who has made significant contributions to the state’s cultural life. Rendon, an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, is a writer whose poems, plays, children’s books, and novels explore the resilience and brilliance of Native peoples. Rendon is the author of the award-winning Cash Blackbear mystery series, set in Minnesota’s Red River Valley. The first novel in the series, Murder on the Red River, earned the 2018 Pinckley Prize for Debut Novel, and the second, Girl Gone Missing, was nominated for the Mystery Writers of America–G. P. Putnam’s Son’s Sue Grafton Memorial Award.
The 2020 BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival is all set to go ahead virtually from September 10-13 in what organizers are describing as a 4-day virtual crime "extravaganza." This year, eight prominent international authors will headline morning and evening events, including Norwegian writer Jo Nesbø, UK star Ann Cleeves, US author Don Winslow and more. Ticket prices are $10 or you can purchase a festival pass for $50 via the conference website.
Every year, Phoenix’s Sisters in Crime Desert Sleuths Chapter brings together a sensational line-up of bestselling authors, experienced editors, and qualified agents for a one-day festival filled with presentations, panel discussions, and workshops. This year, the WriteNow! 2020 Conference is going virtual on September 11-12, 2020, with free registration for all. Special guest authors are set to include Michael Connelly, Matt Coyle, and Naomi Hirahara; plus top-tier developmental editor Jessica Page Morrell and Literary Agent Kirby Kim (Janklow & Nesbit Associates). To continue supporting authors and local booksellers, organizers are asking that all attendees buy books from our conference bookstore, The Poisoned Pen, which ships across the country.
Also coming to the Interwebs near you is the virtual Bloody Scotland writing festival on September 18, available with free registration. Features include a panel on Pitching Your Story; Jeffery Deaver - My Life in Crime; The Fun Lovin' Crime Writers - Behind the Scenes; and The McIlvanney Prize and Debut Prize announcement. Organizers also recently announced that the entire Bloody Scotland crime fest (running September 17-30) will be available for free online, including events with special guests Lee Child and Ian Rankin.
The pandemic has certainly taken its toll on the various crime fiction conferences around the world this year, but apparently, that trend is heading into next year, as well. The Left Coast Crime Conference, originally scheduled for April 7-12, 2021 in Albuquerque, NM, announced it would bypass next year and reschedule for 2022 – same place, same week in April, just a year later. Special Guests were to include Mick Herron, Catriona McPherson, Kristopher Zgorski, and Kellye Garrett, all of whom will apparently be back for the 2022 event. Registration is official open via the following link.
Writers who can boil down a mystery into a half-dozen words are encouraged to enter the fourth annual Six-Word Mystery Contest sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (RMMWA). The contest opens September 15, 2020 with instructions to be posted at www.rmmwa.org, with an entry deadline of midnight, Oct. 31, 2020. Six-word "whodunits" can be entered in one or all five of the following categories: Hard Boiled or Noir; Cozy Mystery; Thriller Mystery; Police Procedural Mystery; and/or a mystery with Romance or Lust. Last year’s winning entry by Jeffrey Lockwood was "36D, 44 magnum, 20 to life." This year’s esteemed judges include Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Editor Linda Landrigan; New York Times best-selling author Anne Hillerman; award-winning author, lawyer and activist Manuel Ramos; BookBar Denver store owner Nicole Sullivan; and literary agent Terrie Wolf, owner of AKA Literary Management.
Elizabeth Foxwell, Managing editor of Clues: A Journal of Detection, the oldest US scholarly journal on mystery/detective/crime fiction, noted that the latest volume, guest edited by Maurizio Ascari (University of Bologna), has been published on the theme "Genre B(l)ending: Crime's Hybrid Forms." The issue includes essays on G. K. Chesterton, John Dickson Carr, Craig Johnson, James Church, Janet Evanovich, Juliet Blackwell, Minette Walters, Gillian Flynn, Mark Haddon, and Ben H. Winters, as well as reviews of new nonfiction books related to crime fiction.
Sydney, Australia, writer Daniel Hatadi founded Crimespace back in 2007 as a social media gathering place for writers and fans of crime fiction. He sent out a note last week that due to fee increases by the hosting company, Ning.com, and the appearance of other social-media groups that have lured participants away, he's shutting down the service. He added, "Thanks to everyone who has donated along the way, it’s much appreciated."
Although voting has ended, Art Taylor offered up links to all the Mystery Readers International Macavity Award-nominated short stories for your reading pleasure. The winning story will be announced at Virtual Bouchercon in October.
The Washington Post reported that people who want to support their local bookstores might be hurting them instead. Although indie stores are doing their best to accommodate well-wishing customers, new stresses of both high demand and inventory slips have led to often-disgruntled patrons. (Note to bookstore customers: don't be that guy.)
The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "The Fruit Cellar" by Lindsey Grant.
In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with Lisa Black, bestselling author of suspense novels including her latest, Every Kind of Wicked; and Red Carpet Crash spoke with Brad Parks, the only author to have won the Shamus, Nero and Lefty Awards, about his new thriller, Interference, that blends quantum physics, espionage, and crime.
What really killed Crimespace was the "mandatory donation" policy that came up a few years ago when it was time to renew. That was not cool. He refused to make any allowance for folks like me who had a dying wife, huge medical bills and others, and were on food stamps and trying to get rent assistance. I made it public at the time why I was leaving and I was not alone in being upset by the new policy. I got flooded with emails and comments on FB from other folks who were also leaving because of his "mandatory donation" policy.
Posted by: Kevin Tipple | August 27, 2020 at 04:12 PM
So sorry to hear about that Kevin. I guess that happened after I stopped participating, as I was in the "too many social media services" camp and had to cut way back. I agree that any "donation" that is mandatory is not a donatation at all but a membership fee. Perhaps it would have been better to go the ad route; seems to work very well for Facebook!
Posted by: BV Lawson | August 27, 2020 at 07:32 PM