The Edgars in New York, like the Oscars in LA, has always been a time for mystery writers to put on their party duds and have a blast with their peers and peeps. Thanks to the pandemic, the last couple of years have been lonely ones for writers. But this spring, a lot of people got on planes, a lot more came off Zoom and closed their computers, some went to Albuquerque for Left Coast Crime, some to Bethesda for Malice, and a splendid aggregation foregathered in New York. Some of us, who actually live in New York and have been known for years for going to all the parties, were jumping with joy and ready to climb however many subway stairs it took to join in the festivities.
I gave the banquet a miss—expensive, and I knew I’d see all the nominees I knew elsewhere. SleuthSayers's own R.T. Lawton won the Edgar for Best Short Story with "The Road to Hana." Way to go, R.T.! When I saw him, he was a contender, along with Michael Bracken and co-writer James A. Hearn, who goes by Andrew, and Gigi Pandian, an old friend from Guppies in the early days when it actually meant Great UnPublished. I did attend the book launch for the MWA anthology,
Crime Hits Home, edited by S.J. Rozan, at the legendary Mysterious Bookshop, and the pre-Edgars Dell party, which honors the
EQMM Readers Choice Award winners as well as Edgar nominees for Best Short Story whose stories appeared in
Ellery Queen’s and
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazines. Fellow Sleuthsayers are doing great this year: David Dean is a Readers Choice top four, and Steve Liskow has a story in the MWA anthology. I was also the first to volunteer when Michael Bracken asked who wanted to come out to lunch with him and Andrew Hearn. I didn’t know what Texans eat in 2022, so I took them to Restaurant Row on West 46th Street near Broadway, which offers everything from museum quality vegan to death by cholesterol and let them choose. Let’s put it this way: we didn’t eat vegan. Them Texans!
The rest of this will be a photo essay. I live to schmooze—when you see me taking pictures with my phone, never think I’m not also talking a mile a minute with the people I’m actually with—and I was in heaven. I took too many pix and not enough. Among folks you know whom I talked to but didn’t get a chance to snap were the ladies of Dell themselves—Janet Hutchings, Linda Landrigan, and Jackie Sherbow, whose hair is bright green these days—Art Taylor, Brendan DuBois, S.J. Rozan, Joe Goodrich, Richie Narvaez, Jacqueline Freimor, Michele Slung, Barry Zeman, and more. I wish I’d had a chance to say hello to Charlaine Harris, Toni L.P. Kelner aka Leigh Perry, and Charles Todd. Overall, I certainly got my writer people fix for a while.
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| Liz with Andrew Hearn and Michael Bracken |
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| David Dean, Liz caught mugging, R.T. Lawton |
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| Michael Bracken & Andrew Hearn at Bareburger |
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| Liz with Gigi Pandian |
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| Liz with Steve Liskow and Crime Hits Home |
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| Jonathan Santlofer and Jane Cleland |
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| Kevin Egan |
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| Kiti and R.T. Lawton |
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| Stacy Woodson at Mysterious Bookshop |
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| Bill McCormick (or is it Reacher?) with Liz |
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| Connie Johnson Hambley and Liz Zelvin |
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| Liz Zelvin and Gigi Pandian |
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| Liz with Meredith Anthony and Larry Light |
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| Liz with Otto Penzler and Neil Nyren |
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| Liz and Shelly Dickson Carr |
Wow, party girl! You sound like you had the most wonderful time, Liz.
ReplyDeleteAnd congratulations to everyone, especially RT and Michael, Steve and David. Well done!
I did indeed, Leigh. And it’s not too soon to start thinking about the party we’ll have when the SleuthSayers anthology finally comes out. ;)
DeleteWhat fun! Congratulations to everyone - just in awe of the company here at SleuthSayers. Huzzah!
ReplyDeleteEve, I’m lobbying for a SleuthSayers anthology party whenever that happens, with everyone coming, even from the wilds of South Dakota.
DeleteA terrific week, even though I could only do the book launch. It was great meeting you in person for the first time, along with Michael, Andrew, and Stacy and touching base with a few others again. Thanks for these great pictures, too. And congratulations to R. T. for his Edgar.
ReplyDeleteSteve, it was great to meet you too. So lovely to be partying at Mysterious again after the long drought of the pandemic.
DeleteLiz, it was good to see you again after all these years. We enjoyed talking with the ones we met and sorry to have missed those we didn't find.
ReplyDeleteA pleasure to see you and Kiti too, R.T. I hope you have a good spot picked out to display your Edgar!
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