Holy Wow! What a Week

Well if this hasn't been a weeks of ups and downs, I don't know what is.

Of course, the major down was the loss of Robert B. Parker, a man who influenced the genre in monumental ways. An additional tribute link includes Ali Karim's write-up of Dennis Lehane's hat tip to the Spenser creator. And Sarah Weinman has an extensive listing of folks who have posted their thoughts on this great loss to the crime fiction world.

But this week was also full of many "ups". Numerous award nominations were announced this week. You can see the Edgar nominations here. David Thompson of Busted Flush Press passed along a fun tidbit about this year's Edgar nominations, and it deals with 3s.

John Hart -- Three straight books up for Edgar!
THE KING OF LIES -- Edgar Award winner for Best First Novel (2007)
DOWN RIVER -- Edgar Award winner for Best Novel (2008)
THE LAST CHILD -- Edgar Award nominee for Best Novel (2010)
(He didn't have a book out in 2008.)

Megan Abbott -- Three straight nominations in years she's been eligible!
DIE A LITTLE -- Edgar Award nominee for Best First Novel (2006)
QUEENPIN -- Edgar Award winner for Best Paperback Original (2008)
BURY ME DEEP -- Edgar Award nominee for Best Paperback Original (2010)
(She had no books in 2007 or 2008, but two in 2007.)

Busted Flush Press -- Three straight Short Story nominations!
Bill Crider's "Cranked" from DAMN NEAR DEAD -- Edgar Award nominee for Best
Short Story(2007)
Daniel Woodrell's "Uncle" from A HELL OF A WOMAN -- Edgar Award nominee for Best Short Story (2008)
Ace Atkins's "Last Fair Deal Gone Down", an original short story published for the first time in Busted Flush
Press's reprint of Atkins's first novel, CROSSROAD BLUES -- Edgar Award nominee
for Best Short Story (2010)
(BFP didn't have an original story out in 2008.)

So, do you suppose this would be considered the Edgar tri-fecta? I have to send special shout-out congrats to Sophie Littlefield (YAY Sophie!!), Megan Abbott (Go girl!), Busted Flush Press (Keep that good stuff comin', David!), and also Otto Penzler (Thrilled to see THE LINE-UP on the nomination list).

In addition to the Edgars, there were the Dilys Award nominations. You can see those nominations on Janet Rudolph's blog, if you haven't checked them out already. And special cheers for two of my all-around favorite crime fiction writers here: Craig Johnson and Louise Penny. Both books are truly deserving of the nominations!

And finally, we have the Left Coast Crime Award nominations. Again, you can check that list on Janet Rudolph's blog if you haven't seen it already. These folks know about good crime fiction, too. Gregg Hurwitz's TRUST NO ONE is nominated for the Panik Award for L.A. Noir, and Tasha Alexander and Rebecca Cantrell are both nominated for the Bruce Alexander Award for Historical Mystery. Congrats to these fantastic writers as well.

If you don't already know, Pop Culture Nerd has moved her blog. She's now housed in a fancy new look at http://popculturenerd.com/ My link is incorrect in my blog roll right now. I'm preparing to shift over to my own fancy new look at the end of the month, so I will update it at that time. In the meantime, you can subscribe to her blog so as not to miss out on any of the fun!

Timothy Hallinan has started a series on his blog called Plotting vs. Pantsing. He's recruited authors to write about whether they plan out their plots ahead of time or write as they go. I know several of the writers contributing to this series, so I'll be following along to see what they have to say. Stephen Jay Schwartz is the first in the series line-up.

On Thursday I had the great pleasure of meeting blogger Jenn from Jenn's Book Shelves. She was in Cleveland for work and we were able to meet up and have dinner at the Great Lakes Brewing Company. We talked about blogging and crime fiction, and it was a wonderful time! She's a wonderful person. I wish we lived closer and could do that on a regular basis! What fun! If you've never seen her blog, I encourage you to jump over and take a look.


And before I finish up with some blog awards, I wanted to share this link to Dave White's blog where he's talking about L.A. Requiem. He summed up quite a few of my sentiments in regard to this magnificent work of crime fiction. In addition to reading Dave's blog post, I've been listening to Ken Bruen's THE DRAMATIST on audio, and today there was a segment where Bruen cited LAR. It's all the pomp and circumstance leading up to Sunday for me! Now I've got to be off to finish packing my things for Dayton - camera, extra batteries, books to be signed - one can never be too prepared for a Robert Crais event, especially since I can't turn around and come back home easily if I forget anything!

And to wrap up today's ridiculously long post, I was recognized this week by two bloggers/friends that I admire greatly, so I need to mention those recognitions, as they mean a lot to me. First the awesome le0pard13 over at Lazy Thoughts from a Boomer (a.k.a. Michael) nominated me for the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thank you so much Michael! Most of you don't know how much I rely on Michael for audio book info, tech support, and general all-around friendship. He's just an amazingly wonderful friend and he's an incredible blogger. His site is a source of great entertainment for me, so being recognized by him truly is special to me. I've mentioned before that Lesa from Lesa's Book Critiques is who I consider to be my blogging mentor. I often look to her for advice and recommendations. Lesa also use to live in my neck of the woods so we often fondly share Ohio stories. She created a fun award, called the "Lesa's Bald-Faced Liar, whoops, I meant to say 'Creative Writer' Award."


With both of these awards the requirements have you acknowledge where they came from and link to the person's blog. I've done that. Kreativ Blogger Award wants you to list 7 things people wouldn't know about you. And the Bald-Faced Liar, whoops Creative Writer Award wants you list a number of lies with at least one true fact hidden in. So, I'll kind of combine them. There are some truths in this list and some falses. You can guess in the comments which are which. Although some of you who read here regularly probably aren't going to have trouble figuring these items out.

1. I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Baldwin-Wallace College with a degree in Journalism and Education.

2. My first job (outside of babysitting) was selling shoes for Endicott Johnson.

3. In high school I dated the captain of the football team.

4. I have never traveled outside the Continental United States and do not own a passport.

5. My dog was named after my favorite baseball player.

6. I learned to crochet from my grandmother when I was in high school.

7. I can curl my tongue.

8. The very first car that I bought and paid for myself was a 1989 Ford Escort.

9. A teacher from my elementary school was the runner up for the teacher in space program that sent Christa McAuliff on the Challenger Space Shuttle in 1986.

10. One of my goals is to learn sign language.

Alright, post your guesses in the comments. Which of these statements are true?

When I return, I will be recapping my visit with Robert Crais in Dayton. It probably won't be until Tuesday since the event got bumped back to 6p.m. I won't be getting home until very late Sunday night. But rest assured I will be sharing my experience and pictures. I'm meeting up with (at the very least) Christine and Naomi. If you're going to be there, let me know so we can meet and say "hi."

Oh, one quick last reminder. I swear this is the last item. Remember that I'm still taking bloggers for the "Detectives Around the World" theme week, that will take place in April. I have a detailed .pdf for anyone who might be interested. E-mail me and I'll send it your way. If you know of other bloggers who aren't involved, encourage them to check it out. The more the merrier! It'll be fun; it isn't a huge commitment, but there are lots of prizes involved. Reconnect with a detective you've been wanting to read again; check out a new detective you've been meaning to read but haven't yet. And if you haven't been a reader of crime fiction in the past, ask (myself or another participant) and we'll be more than happy to make recommendations for you.

Have a great weekend and happy reading!