A Day in the City with Edgar

           


Yesterday was a great day. Not only for me, but for the Mystery Writers of America 2018 Edgar Award Nominees.
            Yesterday was the 2018 Edgar Symposium, where the best First Edgar Nominees like Jordan Harper (She Rides Shotgun), Deborah E. Kennedy (Tornado Weather), Winnie M Li (Dark Chapter) and Melissa Scrivner Love (Lola) shared their stories and talents with us. From the tale of an 11 year-old girl on the run, the survival story of sexual assault victim, to a female gang LA leader, the audience of aspiring mystery writers was enthralled with their terrific characters and plots.     Any one of these would make a great read for your book group or on the beach.
            I couldn’t stop laughing at Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) and Tom Straw’s (The Richard Castlebooks) recollection about the groundbreaking writer William Link. Remember Columbo? Murder, She Wrote? Ellery Queen? These shows are oldies but goodies and you can still catch them on MeTv every once and a while.
Ruppert and Tom had some great backstage stories about Link, who insisted that murder mysteries on television have no sex or car chases. Did you know that Bing Crosby was the first choice for Columbo? How about Jean Stapleton instead of Angela Lansbury on Murder?
            I particularly enjoyed the panel on secrets chaired by Mark Stevens (Lake of Fire). Hallie Ephron (You’ll Never Know Dear), Carol Goodman (The Widow’s House), Abir Mukherjee (A Rising Man) and Hannah Tinti (The Twelves Lives of Samuel Hawley). They explored the symbolism of dreams, water and even apples during their discussion. And how, like Hansel and Gretel, mystery writers sprinkle clues along the path, and it is up to the reader to figure out which are true clues or false ones. You’ll have to read their books to find out why their characters are keeping secrets.
            The winners of the 2018 Edgar awards will be announced tonight, and you can discover the winners tomorrow at theEdgars.com.
            It was a fun and exhausting day of networking with other mystery writers and  it only served as inspiration for me to get back to work at my laptop.


Goodrich, Holmes & Straw

Stevens, Ephron, Goodman, Mukherjee & Tinti

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