Tag Archive for: Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Short Story Nominations

/in /by

by Paula Gail Benson
This time of year, it’s great to be able to celebrate some of the
best in mystery short stories with the nominations for recognition by the
Mystery Writers of America (which presents the Edgar awards, named after Edgar
Allan Poe) and Malice Domestic (which presents the Agathas, named after Agatha
Christie). The Edgars are determined by MWA member judges and presented at a
Gala Banquet, held this year at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
pauldavidsoncrime.com
Following are the 2019 Edgar Best Short Story nominees:
“Rabid – A Mike Bowditch Short
Story” by Paul Doiron (Minotaur Books).
“Paranoid Enough for Two” – The Honorable
Traitors by John Lutz (Kensington Publishing).
“Ancient and Modern” – Bloody Scotland by
Val McDermid (Pegasus Books).
“English 398: Fiction Workshop” –
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Art Taylor (Dell Magazines).
“The Sleep Tight Motel” – Dark Corners Collection by
Lisa Unger (Amazon Publishing).
Gigi Pandian’s 2017 Agatha Best Short Story Award
The Agathas are nominated by
persons registered to attend the annual Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda,
Maryland, and will be selected by a ballot of those who attend the conference. The
awards will be presented at the banquet on May 4, 2019. This
year’s nominees provide a range of time periods and characters to contemplate
and savor. For the first time, a wife and husband (Tara Laskowski and Art Taylor) have been nominated for the award. Here are the links to each story:
“All
God’s Sparrows” by Leslie Budewitz (Alfred
Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)
“A Postcard for the Dead” by
Susanna Calkins in Florida Happens (Three Rooms Press)
“Bug
Appetit” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery
Magazine)
“The Case of the Vanishing Professor” by
Tara Laskowski (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)
“English 398: Fiction Workshop” by
Art Taylor (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
Please
read and enjoy!

A Master Class in Mystery Writing

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

Are you a fan of Laura Lippman’s detective
stories or Megan Abbott’s crime novels? Do you ever wonder how they manage to
draw you into a web of intrigue, book after book—holding you spellbound,
keeping you reading way past your bedtime? Lucky me, I got to learn some of
their secrets last Saturday in New Orleans.

That’s where Laura Lippman and Megan
Abbott were joined by other award-

Back l-r: Bill Loefhelm, Laura Lippman,
Megan Abbott,  Alison Gaylin.
Front: organizer Greg Herren.
Not pictured: Alison Gaylin
and moderator Susan Larson.

winning authors Alison Gaylin, Bill Loefhelm,
and Erica Spindler in presenting a seminar designed to teach the essential
skills needed to write a novel. In a program sponsored by Mystery Writers of
America, these five bestselling novelists instructed us participants how to
move from the idea stage all the way through to final editing. And clearly, they
know their stuff. The awards and accolades among them include the Anthony
Award, Agatha Award, Daphne du Maurier Award, Edgar Award, Nero Wolfe Award, Shamus
Award, Strand Magazine’s Novel of the Year, and the International Thriller
Writers Award for Best Novel. Here are just a few of many points made by these talented
authors. <For more background on each author, see http://mysterywriters.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Teacher-Bios-Website.pdf> 

Megan Abbott began by suggesting ways to expand on
your book idea, confiding that her inspiration often comes from news items. She
doesn’t
always begin at the beginning of a book, instead starting by writing
about what has inspired her—a murder, a rumored sexual encounter. She ran us through
exercises that got our creativity flowing.
Laura Lippman talked about the importance of proper
plotting and shared her method for diagraming plots. She said that if you get
stuck in writing your book, it usually means that you’ve taken a wrong turn in
your plotting, and you must fix it before you can continue. When she sees
something wrong in her diagrams, then she knows where the problem lies. “There are no
formulas,” she said. “The only thing that carries over is that I have finished
writing a book before, so I figure I can do it again.”
Erica Spindler discussed the use of setting and details to
ramp up tension. She quoted Stephen King, who said, “I write about the thing
under the bed.” She said, “I write about the wolf in sheep’s clothing, in other
words the friendly neighbor who turns out to be Ted Bundy.” Details added to a
story must do one of two things—either effect one or more characters, or, move
the plot forward. So, identify and chop extraneous details.  
Bill Loefhelm examined the critical area of character
development. “The trick to writing a successful series,” he said, “is to create
characters that people want to return to. That is the most effective tool for
storytelling.” One way of doing this is to take a tried-and-true one—think Sherlock,
Batman, Superman—and make the tired character new, fresh, twisted. Dialogue is
an important way to show character, but he cautioned not to overdo accents or
slang. A little goes a long way.
Alison Gaylin switched from discussing writing a book to
rewriting it. After your first draft is completed, she said to go back and do
these things. Drop clichés and tropes. Get rid of info dumps—dribble out crucial
backstory details throughout the whole book instead.
The seminar concluded with a discussion among the instructors,
moderated by Susan Larson, two-time chair of the jury for the Pulitzer Prize
for Fiction and book review editor for The
New Orleans Times-Picayune for 22 years. The focus was on the idea of a
muse as inspiration for writing. What stuck with me came from Bill Loefhelm,
who didn’t buy into the muse concept. However, if there was one, he said she would
be like Rosie the Riveter, with her sleeves rolled up, ready to work with him
when he came to her, when he was willing to work hard on his writing.
Greg Herren organized this wonderful day of
learning. He is outgoing president of the Southwest Chapter of Mystery Writers
of America and an award-winning New Orleans author of two mystery series, among
his other writing activities. This program is called MWA-U, Mystery Writers of
America University. Find it online here — https://mysterywriters.org/mwa-university/about-mwa-university/

~~~~~~~ 

Kay Kendall’s historical mysteries capture the spirit and turbulence of the
1960s. DESOLATION ROW (2013) and RAINY DAY WOMEN (2015) are in her Austin Starr
Mystery series. Austin is a 22-year-old Texas bride who ends up on the
frontlines of societal change, learns to cope, and turns amateur sleuth. Kay’s
degrees in Russian history and language help
ground her tales in the Cold War, and her titles show she’s a Bob Dylan
buff too. Kay lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits,
and spaniel Wills. In her former life as a PR executive, Kay’s projects won
international awards.

 

The Generosity of Mystery Authors

/in /by
by Kay Kendall
The first conference for mystery fans that I attended
was Bouchercon 2011 in St. Louis. Previously I’d only attended writers’
conferences where would-be authors pitched manuscripts to agents and sat at the
feet of those hallowed gods/goddesses called published authors. Bouchercon,
billed as the “World Mystery and
Suspense Conference,“ was an entirely different breed of cat. I couldn’t
get my mind around what was going on.  
And then I got it! The published mystery authors weren’t there to tell us
how to write, how to sell, or how to win an agent. No, they were there to talk
about their writing and their writing worlds. Once I figured that out, I soaked
up every tiny detail that came my way. And I loved it.

I’m holding Charlaine’s LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS,
 the second Sookie Stackhouse book,
and she holds my debut mystery, DESOLATION ROW. 

The session that stands out, still to this day, was an
afternoon panel of new authors. One man exclaimed his astonishment over the
generosity of mystery writers. He said they supported each other and even him—a
newbie. But he was shocked to discover that mystery writers do so little
backbiting. Then he leaned over and leveled a hard look at us in the rapt
audience. “Poets are not like that,” he said. “I’ve attended meetings of poets
with a relative, and they’re just awful.” The audience howled.
While I can’t comment on poets, I can say from experience
that mystery authors are indeed generous. At Bouchercon 2012 in Cleveland I met
two authors who later agreed to blurb my debut mystery, Desolation Row. First,
thriller writer extraordinaire Norb Vonnegut gave key advice that helped me through
final edits. Whenever I need advice from
a seasoned pro, I still turn to Norb. Janet Maslin, influential book review at the
New York Times, calls him “the author of three glittery thrillers about fiscal
malfeasance” in which “he is three for three in his own improbably sexy genre.” 
The second author was Hank Phillippi Ryan, to whom I
was introduced only in passing. Yet brief as that encounter was, this
multi-award winning mystery author agreed to blurb my debut effort when I asked
her. 
As well, Stiletto Gang member Linda Rodriguez reached
out to me as an online pal to offer help setting up a bookstore event in the
Kansas City area. (Her writing career began as a poet so she may disagree with
the opinion I quote above.)
I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Mystery
authors are a benevolent group. At heart they love the genre we write in and
seem to understand that the success of one does not take away from the others. In
fact, a whole organization has been founded on that principle, the
International Thriller Writers. After attending Bouchercon 2004 in Toronto, ITW
founding members decided to reach down and pull up writers who needed help in
climbing the slippery slope to publication, “providing opportunities for mentoring, education and
collegiality among thriller authors and industry professionals.” 
A much older organization is the Mystery Writers of America founded in 1945. It underwrites MWA-University, one-day seminars led by
experienced authors who share their how-to advice for a minuscule fee. The session
I attended last weekend in Dallas was, as the under-30s would say, “awesome.” The
attached photo of me with Charlaine Harris was taken at that event. When this
creator of the Sookie Stackhouse series of paranormal mysteries (on which the
HBO series True Blood is based) wished me success like hers, I almost fell
over. In truth, I’d be pleased with one percent of her enormous fan base.

Traditionally the holiday season is when we are encouraged
to be more big-hearted and giving than usual. As I contemplated blogging about generosity, I remembered the mystery authors I’ve been privileged to meet. While I can’t
thank each one individually because they’re too numerous, I can offer this
posting as an ode to them collectively. Both their writing and the generosity
of their spirit serve to inspire me. 

Kay Kendall
~~~~~~~
To celebrate the conclusion of 2013, the year in which my debut mystery was published, I will give away one copy of Desolation Row to someone who leaves a comment here about the joys of reading mysteries . . . or how you feel about mystery authors . . . or, heck, anything that you think is related!