Category: Uncategorized

Today’s featured queen is Varla Jean Merman, who is also originally from New Orleans. Varla Jean has never been on Drag Race–but was a guest on an episode of Project Runway. Varla often returns to New Orleans–or used to, anyway–to appear in Ricky Graham shows that were often brilliant musical parodies of classics (I really regret not seeing Shut Up Sweet Charlotte) and out of drag is a really hot muscle bear.

You never know what you’re going to get under the make-up, wig and dress, do you?

Today’s blatant self-promotion has to do with supporting characters. Every series needs a supporting cast of regulars that readers enjoy checking in with whenever a new book comes out, and they usually allow us to see a side of the main character that we might get otherwise. Sometimes supporting characters in a book series–just like in a television series–can become more popular than the main character, which creates the temptation to spin those characters off into their own series, just like happens with television. Paige Tourneur, Chanse’s best friend, was enormously popular with the readers. I tried spinning her off into her own series to no avail; Paige’s snarky sarcastic sense of humor works well for a second banana, but perhaps not for a lead character. Scotty, of course, has Frank, Colin, Taylor, and his entire family to bounce off–and I was happy to bring David back for a brief appearance in the new one.

But when it came to Jem, who were going to be his friends and/or family and nemeses? Usually, when it comes to characters, in order for me to write about them, I have to know their names (just like I can’t write a story or book that is untitled; too much uncertainty for me to not get anxious), but I was also in a hurry when I was writing Death Drop because I had a very short turnaround and a lot going on all at the same time…so I just started naming characters after my co-workers at the day job. Yes, I have co-workers named Jeremy (Jem), Kyle, Ellis, Latoya, and Blake; and I borrowed Jem’s last name from another co-worker. (My co-worker Kyle is also a pole dancer, so I made Jem’s best friend and roommate Kyle also a pole dancer)

I thought it was important for Jem to have a roommate; Mee Maw’s house that he inherited is really too big for just one person; and since Mee Maw owned the house outright all Jem needs is someone to pay enough rent to pay the property taxes, so it’s a good deal for Kyle as well. Since Jem wasn’t from New Orleans originally, he needed a roommate that was a native, and thus had connections and friends and ties to the community to help ease Jem into the gay scene of the city. (For those of you who pay attention and like these sorts of things, the guy Jem had been dating and ghosted him at the beginning of the book is the same guy who dumped Jake just before the beginning of Bury Me in Shadows; also, Jem’s client and friend Rachel Delesdernier Sheehan originally appeared in the Chanse series, before appearing in the Scotty as well. The bridge over the river in Mississippi River Michief was named after Senator Sheehan, and the Sheehans were the family involved in Murder in the Garden District–I always connect my books to each other even if it’s in a small way.) Jem has been living in New Orleans for a couple of years now, and his friend group has expanded and grown, and we will meet more of his friends, neighbors and acquaintances in the future.

The important thing about supporting characters is that they have to be fully realized; they may not be the main character, they may not take up as much oxygen or space, but they need to be realistic, they need to have interior lives, and they need to be three-dimensional. I did a lot of character building with the supporting cast of Death Drop, but I can’t really talk a lot about them without giving away spoilers for the story. But all of my supporting cast, at least to me, works…and make the book stronger.

I was also told that it’s not blatant self-promotion if I don’t include a buy link, so here is where you can order Death Drop direct from the store. Support an indie press AND an indie bookstore at the same time! What a deal!

Sick of my self-promotion yet? You can always scroll away, which is truly the loveliest thing about the Internet. You can always scroll past or close the window.

But buckle up, buttercup–I got another book coming out in ten days.

This is what happen when you blow deadlines, by the way. One of these was supposed to come out before Bouchercon–the Scotty–but a lot was going on in the second half of last year, okay? (The takeaway from this is don’t be like Greg–meet your deadlines.)

So, Greg, you decided to write a book that was an origin story for a drag queen amateur sleuth. Why start with the origin story?

Two reasons; one practical and the other artistic. The practical reason being that I’ve never done drag. I know some people who are drag performers, and as a gay man I’ve always been aware that drag is a part of our bar culture. Of course I’ve watched RuPaul’s Drag Race–not regularly anymore, but was a big fan in the original seasons. But watching a reality show isn’t enough research to write authentically about drag. I also didn’t have a lot of time to do a deep dive into drag culture and the world of drag; there wasn’t a big turnaround on the book from conception to contract to deadline to release. Artistically, I wanted to show his journey from the casual thought about possibly taking it up to actually becoming one and growing and developing as a performing queen. I also thought it would be more interesting to look at the world of drag and performance from the neophyte point of view; a wide-eyed outsider learning the ins and outs of what drag means.

Do you feel that writing such a book in our modern times is a political act? Drag queens have been under attack for quite some time now from the religious right, trotting out the tired old homophobic tropes of “grooming” and “recruiting.” How much did that play a part in your thought process of writing?

Anything queer these days is a political act. It’s horrible, but it’s been this way most of my life.

To begin with, drag has been around forever. Thetis dressed Achilles as a woman and hid him away at the court of King Lycomedes of Skyros to escape serving in the Trojan War. Women used to be barred from performing on-stage, so women’s roles were played by men for centuries. The examples from before the twentieth century are endless.

Usually, men in women’s clothes was used as a sight-gag–what could be funnier than a man wearing women’s clothing, after all, ha ha ha ha–but I remember Bugs Bunny and other cartoon characters doing it. Milton Berle, television’s first star, used the gag repeatedly and effectively and became famous for it. I remember watching Geraldine as a child on The Flip Wilson Show, and of course Some Like It Hot is one of the greatest comedies ever filmed (Tony Curtis made a beautiful woman, actually). Harvey Kormann often wore drag on The Carol Burnett Show, and the list just goes on and on and on–Bosom Buddies, Mrs. Doubtfire, etc. Gay bars have hosted drag shows for decades. The current problem with drag has nothing to do with grooming or pedophilia or recruiting and everything to do with right-wing ignorance; the conflation that transwomen are a threat to public safety and are really just drag queens; therefore in their logic drag queens are also a threat to public safety. It’s ignorant, uneducated, and morally reprehensible.

None of this is even about actual, valid concerns from parents wanting more dialogue on the subject. No, it’s about grifting for cash from homophobes and transphobes, and trying to get political and societal power by selling bigotry, prejudice and ignorance. It’s despicable, craven and cowardly.

It had never occurred to me to write a series, or a book, or even a short story centering someone who does drag; the book wasn’t my idea. But once I was recruited for the project, there was no question in my mind as to whether I would do or not; of course I would. I had been getting very angry and frustrated with all the transphobia and homophobia I’ve been witnessing since the rise of hateful trash like that LibsofTikTok (all you need to do is retweet that heartless failure of a human being to be blocked by me everywhere and your existence winked out of my life and world, never to return), and wanting to do something to try to counteract all of the lies and hatred and discrimination. I didn’t even have to think twice to say yes to this. Transpeople are my queer siblings, and so are drag performers. Come for my community at your own peril. I was happy to write a book addressing some of these issues while also showing how much ignorance, outright lies, and hatred those “issues” are built upon.

This is your fourth mystery series set in New Orleans. Is it difficult to come up with a new concept for a series set there? Do you ever fear repeating yourself, or not being able to differentiate between the series?

You can never run out of ideas or things to write about when it comes to New Orleans. I’ve written nineteen or so books set here, and haven’t even scratched the surface of the material that is here–and when you extrapolate further to Louisiana, there’s even more. I go down research wormholes all the time. I wrote a story several years ago for an anthology called The Only One in the World, and the anthology premise was everyone had to write a Sherlock Holmes story; the only thing that was off-limits was the London of Holmes’ time. So I set my story in 1916 New Orleans, and had to do some research to make sure the foundation of the story was solid. This sent me down so many research wormholes–ones I am still following to this day, while finding new ones all the time. The Sherlock story led me to the 1915 hurricane, which wiped out several lake shore villages on both Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne; turns out the first Filipino settlement/immigration in the United States was here, on Lake Borgne. Just today I found out Louisiana had one of the only, if not the only, leper hospitals in the US. In my novels I’ve touched briefly on the history of the city and the state–Scotty’s dealt with the Cabildo Fire and the legacy of Huey Long, for example–but it’s always a challenge to start a new series set in New Orleans.

Scotty lives in the French Quarter and Chanse lives in the Lower Garden District, and most of their cases take them mostly into the neighborhoods that are my New Orleans–Uptown, the Quarter, the Marigny and the Bywater. I’ve not even covered the entire city! Sometimes a case takes them over the bridge to the West Bank or over the causeway to the North Shore, but the stories aren’t set there. So, for A Streetcar Named Murder, I put Valerie in the Irish Channel close to Louisiana and Magazine streets. For Jem, his inherited home is on St. Roch Avenue in the neighborhood known as both the Seventh Ward or St. Roch (realtors are trying to rebrand it as the “new Marigny,” which is laughable) and while he and his friends do go to the bars in the Quarter, a fictional one on St. Claude Avenue I named Baby Jane Hudson’s (which will eventually devolve, as things are wont to in this city’s gay community, BJ’s) is their usual hangout. I want this series to focus more on that part of town more than anything else.

I do worry about how easy it is to repeat yourself as a writer. I’ve mentioned before I started writing a stand-alone (potential first book in a new series) with a different main character here in New Orleans but realized all I was doing was making him a hybrid of both Chanse and Scotty–and so I put that one away in a drawer. I may come back to it sometime. But I do think Jem is dissimilar from both Chanse and Scotty enough so readers of both series won’t think “retread!”

So this is the start of a new series?

I’m writing a sequel called You Gone, Girl, which is set at a national drag pageant in Florida. So it’ll be political too. I really like Jem and his community of friends, so I hope this turns into a long-running series. I know I enjoy writing him, and that’s always key for me.

Please order it here. Retirement from the day job ain’t looking good, folks, so please, buy as many copies as you can. They make especially great gifts for the tight-assed evangelical homophobes in your life.

Release day!!!! You can order it here, or get it from your local bookstore! Thanks!

And it’s Halloween, which makes it all the more perfect!

If you’d like to get to know the main character, Jem Richard, a little better, he wrote “A Day in the Life” post for Dru’sBook Musing that went live yesterday (thanks, Dru!!!). I like Jem, and had a lot of fun creating my accidental drag queen–because Death Drop is really the origin story of how Jem became a “killer queen”–a drag queen who solves mysteries.

I love origin stories, always have; which is kind of what Bourbon Street Blues was; the Scotty as a private eye origin story. The thing with writing amateur sleuths, which often can become a problem, is the unreality of it all; every day people rarely encounter murder mysteries, and real life murders usually aren’t terribly complicated (although there are some true crime stories and trials that beggar the creative mind), I used to call it the Jessica Fletcher syndrome–everywhere Fletcher went, someone died–and if she was visiting a relative that person would become a suspect. The show ran forever and the tie-in book series is also still going strong. (And yes, I am aware that private eyes mostly work on adultery and insurance fraud rather than solving murders…my mind isn’t always as logical as it could be.) I made a joke out of it in the Scotty books–he’s always stumbling over bodies–but I also didn’t want to do the same thing again in a different series.

That’s the problem with series–you want to be original with the new characters and everything. I had mentioned before how i wanted to write a new series only to realize the character I was creating was really just a mash-up of Scotty and Chanse. I was really worried about that with creating Jem, too–how to avoid making him a combination of my previous gay series set in New Orleans.

Like Valerie in A Streetcar Named Murder, I decided to make Jem of New Orleans but not of New Orleans. His father was born and raised there, but moved to Dallas after college and getting married, which is where Jem grew up. He spent the summers with his paternal grandmother in New Orleans; she had her own salon catering to upper class Uptown women and Jem loved hanging out in the Beauty Shoppe. I developed an entire back story for his childhood, but didn’t include most of it other than his parents are a bit uncomfortable with his sexuality and his older brothers were athletes…and he was not. His family was Mee Maw and her house on St. Roch in the 7th Ward…and when she died, she left him her house and he moved to New Orleans after a break-up and several years working in a high-end salon in Dallas.

Now, he doesn’t want to work in a salon again so he does glam for wealthy women, gets gigs working on touring theater companies, or films and television shows filming here. The income isn’t always steady, but when it’s there the money is good. I really became rather fond of Jem, and here is the scene where he becomes an accidental drag queen:

“How tall are you?” I heard Ellis ask from behind me as Tamponia String left my chair.

“I’m five five,” I replied, wiping the table clean with a sanitary wipe. “Why?”

“Please tell me you wear a men’s eight shoe.”

“I do,” I replied cautiously. “Why are you asking?”

“Turn around.” I did, to see Ellis looking me up and down thoughtfully. “You are almost exactly the same size as Trailor Swift.”

Uh oh. “And?”

“Trailor just called,” Ellis gave me a rueful smile. “She broke her ankle, so can’t make it, so we’re a model short—”

“Oh, no, no.” I waved my hand. “Sorry, Ellis, but—”

“Three hundred dollars? And you get to save the show?” He winked at me. “Trailor was going to wear the wedding gown at the end. Haven’t you always wanted to be a bride?”

“I don’t think I ever want to get married,” I retorted. “Seriously, Ellis, can’t you get someone else? You have to know someone you can get at short notice?”

“They’d never get here on time and we’d have to start late—Marigny would lose her mind and no one needs to see that,” Ellis said grimly. “Look, you killed on Fat Tuesday, I know you can do this.”

“But I don’t have padding or boobs or a wig—”

Ellis clapped his hands. “Queens, may I have your attention please?” Silence descended. “Trailor broke her ankle and can’t make it, but the show must go on.” He gestured at me. ”Jem here is the right size to fit into her gowns, but we need to get her made up and her hair done and she doesn’t have any wigs—”

Every eye in the room turned to me.

There was dead silence. I was about to decline the opportunity again when Floretta snapped her fingers, “Come on girls, we’ve got to turn this boy into a Queen!”

And they fell upon me.

And you know, with all the oppression being directed (all lies, as always) by the trash on the right (looking at you, LibsofTikTok; sorry you’re trash and no one loves you or ever will), it just felt right to center a new series on a drag queen.

I really like Jem; hope you all do too!

Monday morning and I decided to go in later than my usual Monday morning time–I don’t have to be there at seven-thirty if I am not working in the clinic, nor do I need to leave before five, so I made the executive decision last night to sleep an extra hour this morning and go in at eight-thirty instead and stay till five. So what if running errands after work now will get me home around six instead of five thirty? Again, these arbitrary “this is how you always do things” mentality, which is part of the whole anxiety issue and so forth, and trying to cope with it and defeat it.

I had dinner with my friend Ellen last night at San Lorenzo, in the old St. Vincent’s Orphanage that was turned into a very cheap hostel and then was completely renovated and reopened as a hotel with a nice restaurant and an outside pool bar. (St. Vincent’s was where they filmed Candyman II: Farewell to the Flesh many years ago.) I always wanted to write about St. Vincent’s; surely an old orphanage converted to a hostel would be haunted, or a great place to set a ghost story wrapped up in a mystery from the past. I do have a New Orleans ghost story I want to write set in my neighborhood. I don’t think I’m going to get to it any time soon, though. It’s been weird, writing has been very hard for lately, and I’m not feeling particularly inspired these days. It has been a rough year for one Gregalicious, of course; between my Mom and Scooter dying, my own health issues, and the long hot brutal dry summer (we’re still in a Burn Notice, or whatever it’s called) and we still haven’t gotten much rain as the Louisiana drought continues.

I started my reread of The Dead Zone yesterday, and it’s very well done. It was one of my favorite King novels for years; I have reread it dozens of times over the years since it was first released. King was on fire during the 1970s and 1980’s; he released one classic after another for years between Carrie and Misery; it wasn’t until The Tommyknockers that I can honestly say I read a King book I neither liked nor enjoyed. (Pet Sematary creeped me out so much I could never reread it; but that was my discomfort with the story and what it was about and I don’t think I was ready at that age for a lengthy exploration of grief and death; I may view it differently now. I always knew, for example, that “Don’t Look Now” was a meditation on grief and the loss of a child; but reading it in the wake of my own grieving process gave the story even more levels and layers than I originally recognized–and I already thought the story was genius. I watched another episode of Moonlighting–it really was marvelous when it was firing on all cylinders; everything worked and the chemistry and the writing and the acting was just aflame. When I got home from dinner Paul and I watched another episode of Elité, and are getting sucked into the story–it’s really a great soap, but it’s best days are still behind it, alas; I just have to recognize the show has changed and moved on from what it originally was–and I do appreciate the fact that characters grow up and graduate and move on….a lesson American shows (could and) should learn.

I feel rested and relaxed this morning for a change; that extra hour of sleep this morning certainly made a difference. Maybe I should recalculate when I come into the office? I’ve always come in at seven thirty since I went to this schedule so I can beat rush hour traffic home, but…do I really need to be here at seven thirty? Can’t I just come in at eight and work until five? I don’t know. I am rethinking a lot of things lately, and the stress and exhaustion (and anxiety) have been wreaking havoc on my mind and mental state lately. I’ve felt very tired and unfocused for a long time now, and that’s affecting me adversely. I’ve not been able to seriously target any one writing project, but just having dinner with Ellen and talking about writing and commiserating about the business helped me focus and clarify a bit; I’ve been feeling at loose ends by not having a contract in place for anything, and not really sure what I should be doing right now, with the surgery hanging over my head. I have no idea how long I’ll be on painkillers and I also have no idea how long the recovery process will be; I suspect I will find that all out on my 11/13 pre-surgery appointment–which is actually coming up pretty quickly. I know having that on the horizon has undoubtedly affected me in a subconscious way; no matter how much you try to compartmentalize your brain–something I’ve always managed to do since turning thirty-three and rebooting my life–things that weigh heavily on you will still impact and affect you regardless. I also realized that trying to control my anxiety is part of my mental fatigue; recognizing it as it starts to happen and then controlling it can be exhausting, and that probably has a lot to do with the malaise I’ve been experiencing for the last few months on top of everything else with the surgery.

It’s kind of been a rough year for me personally, if a good one professionally.

Heavy thoughts for a Monday morning.

And on that note I am heading into the spice mines. May your Monday be glorious and terrific, Constant Reader, and I’ll be back tomorrow.

The Macavity Nominations 2023 
(for works published in 2022)

The Macavity Awards are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. Stay tuned for your ballot. The winners will be announced at opening ceremonies at the San Diego Bouchercon in late August. 

Congratulations to all.

Best Mystery Novel
 
Back to the Garden by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone (MCD)
A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown)
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)
Secret Identity by Alex Segura (Flatiron Books)
 
 

Best First Mystery
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/EmilyBestler) 
Shutter by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime)
Devil’s Chew Toy by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane Books)
The Verifiers by Jane Pek (Vintage Books)
The Maid by Nita Prose (Ballantine)


Best Mystery Short Story

“The Landscaper’s Wife” by Brendan DuBois (Mystery Tribune, Aug/Sep 2022)
“Beauty and the Beyotch” by Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Jan 2022)
“First You Dream, Then You Die” by Donna Moore (in Black is the Night, Titan Books)
“Schrödinger, Cat” by Anna Scotti (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mar/Apr 2022) 
“Stockholm” by Catherine Steadman (Amazon Original Stories)
“The Angel of Rome” by Jess Walter (in The Angel of Rome and Other Stories, Harper)
“My Two-Legs” by Melissa Yi (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Sep/Oct 2022)


Best Mystery Critical/Biographical

The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)
The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie edited by Mary Anna Evans & J.C. Bernthal (Bloomsbury Academic)
The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations by David Geherin (McFarland)
Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Crime)


Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery
The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur)
In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson(Hodder & Stoughton)
Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow)
The Secret in the Wall by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)
One-Shot Harry by Gary Phillips (Soho Crime)
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen (Forge)

Congratulations to the Anthony Award nominees!

BEST HARDCOVER NOVEL

Like A Sister by Kellye Garrett

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias

The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

The Maid by Nita Prose

Secret Identity by Alex Segura

BEST PAPERBACK/EBOOK/AUDIOBOOK

Real Bad Things by Kelly J. Ford

Dead Drop by James L’Etoile

The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey

Hush Hush by Gabriel Valjan

In the Dark We Forget by Sandra SG Wong

BEST FIRST NOVEL

Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor

Shutter by Ramona Emerson

The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra

Devil’s Chew Toy by Rob Osler Writer

The Maid by Nita Prose

BEST HISTORICAL NOVEL

The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks

In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson

Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris

Danger on the Atlantic by Erica Ruth Neubauer

Under a Veiled Moon by Karen Odden

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen,

BEST HUMEROUS NOVEL

Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron

Death by Bubble Tea by Jennifer J. Chow,

A Streetcar Named Murder by T.G. Herren

Scot in a Trap by Catriona McPherson

Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking by Raquel V. Reyes,

BEST CHILDREN’S/YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

In Myrtle Peril by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Daybreak on Raven Island by Fleur Bradley

#shedeservedit by Greg Herren

The New Girl by Jesse Q Sutanto

Vanish Me by Lee Matthew Goldberg

Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade by Nancy Springer

BEST SHORT STORY

“Still Crazy After All These Years” by E.A. Aymar

“The Impediment” by Bruce Robert Coffin

“Beauty and the Beyotch” by Barb Goffman

“The Estate Sale” by Curtis Ippolito

“C.O.D.” by Gabriel Valjan

BEST ANTHOLOGY

Low Down Dirty Vote Volume 3: The Color of My Vote, edited by Mysti Berry

Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon, edited by Libby Cudmore and Art Taylor

Land of 10,000 Thrills: Bouchercon Anthology 2022, edited by Greg Herren

Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon, edited by Josh Pachter

Crime Hits Home: A Collection of Stories from Crime Fiction’s Top Authors, edited by SJ Rozan

BEST CRITICAL/NONFICTION

The Alaskan Blonde: Sex, Secrets and the Hollywood Story That Shocked America by James T. Bartlett

The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators by Martin Edwards,

American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower

Promophobia: Taking the Mystery out of Promoting Crime Fiction by Diane Vallere

Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment. and the Courts to Set Him Free by Sarah Weinman

Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

And thank you, double nominee Gabriel Valjan, for making this Greg-specific Anthony nominee graphic. Three nominations for me, so so weird!

Huzzah!

BEST NOVEL

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor (Soho Press – Soho Crime)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Or Else by Joe Hart (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)

BEST FACT CRIME

Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse (Flatiron Books)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins – Collins Crime Club)

BEST SHORT STORY

“Red Flag,” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Gregory Fallis (Dell Magazines)

BEST JUVENILE

Aggie Morton Mystery Queen: The Seaside Corpse by Marthe Jocelyn (Penguin Random House Canada – Tundra Books)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

The Red Palace by June Hur (Macmillan Children’s Books – Feiwel & Friends)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“Episode 1” – Magpie Murders, Written by Anthony Horowitz (Masterpiece/PBS)

* * * * * *

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

“Dogs in the Canyon,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Mark Harrison (Dell Magazines)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD

Hideout by Louisa Luna (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group – Doubleday)

 THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD

 Buried in a Good Book by Tamara Berry (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

SPECIAL AWARDS

 GRAND MASTER

 Michael Connelly
Joanne Fluke

RAVEN AWARD

Crime Writers of Color
Eddie Muller for Noir Alley and The Film Noir Foundation

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

The Strand Magazine

Ladies with an attitude.

Fellas that are in the mood.

Well, we made it to Wednesday. I slept really deeply and well last night–didn’t want to get up this morning out of the warm and comfortable cocoon that is also my bed–but here I am, bleary-eyed and trying to wake up, because we have site visits from funders at the day job today. Huzzah! (Yes, that was sarcasm.) But for now, I am waking up with my coffee and thinking it will be a great day. I was exhausted when I got home last night–to the point where I even considered the possibility that I will just feel tired for the rest of my life–but did get some things done around here and did get some work done on the revision. It was just a drib, but it was the first step on a long journey, and it’s way past time that I took that first step. Now I have to step up my game so I can get the damned thing finished. I’ll have quite a bit to do tonight as well when I get home–dishes, mostly, and of course the damned book–but I am really looking forward to this week’s Ted Lasso. Paul got home too late to watch last night, but I did look at spoilers on Twitter this morning, and the spoilers just made me want to see it all the more.

I may just go ahead and watch it when I get home tonight. I don’t mind rewatching with Paul, and I’ve kind of have already done this a couple of times this season already (shhh, don’t tell.)

I feel good this morning, the best I’ve felt all week. I don’t know how long this is going to last–probably until the caffeine rush wears off around two this afternoon, most likely–but I am hoping this is going to be a good and highly productive day; if not, I hope it’s one filled with joy and laughter. I don’t feel as though we laugh as often and as regularly as we as a society used to, if that makes any sense? I was reading an article about how the 2016 election and the four hellish years that followed actually changed the country–and it’s true. People always want to go back to “normal” when there’s been some kind of seismic paradigm shift (Hurricane Katrina, the pandemic, the 2016 election) but the truth is we can’t ever go back. Things change. People change. Society changes. There was no way in 1946 that the world was going to just back to the way things were before September 1939; likewise, the 2016 election was another one of those massive paradigm shifts. I think a lot of white people lost the blinders they’d been wearing most of their lives about this country and its reality–or at least started to notice what they’d overlooked or been too blind to see before. I’m frequently surprised or startled to find out people I knew and liked are actually terrible people or at least are nice people who have some terrible beliefs and values (there’s a difference; the latter can change, the former not so much); I’ve found myself blocking and cutting people off more since that election. I don’t get upset any more when I find out someone I know has reprehensible beliefs or values; sadly, it’s not really a surprise. I also don’t subscribe to the notion that it’s my job to talk to people I used to care about to try to convince them to change their abhorrent values or beliefs. Life is short, and I’ve already spent enough of my life trying to educate people about queer equality, and I’m tired. Especially when it comes from people who should know better.

Especially.

It’s tough when people think they don’t need to change, or refuse to even take a moment and reflect to see where they might do better. Not being a racist is more than not saying the n-word. Being a queer ally doesn’t mean you support part of the community and can hate the rest. The fundamentalists who are trying to wipe us off the face of the earth–and make no mistake, that is their end game–aren’t worth engaging with because they aren’t coming from a place where they are open to anything other than their goal. To them, we are all the same–gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transfolk, aces and aros and queers and everything else that fits under our rainbow flag; the fundies do not differentiate. We are all the enemy equally and all need to be destroyed. You cannot claim to be an ally while trying to deny the existence of trans people. Period. It’s terribly sad to realize that someone’s ally-ship is actually just a “gay men love me!’ because you like going to gay bars where gay men will share their drugs with you and buy you drinks and fuss over you, and that’s as far as it actually goes, and you’re out there retweeting fundies and haters because they agree with you about transpeople. FUCK YOU, fuck your fake ally-ship, and you’d better not be using me as “your gay friend” which proves you aren’t homophobic. Get thee behind me, Satan, and I am sorry I ever knew you and truly regret being fooled into thinking you were a decent human being, which you clearly are not.

That’s why, I think, I’ve really been enjoying things like Schitt’s Creek and Ted Lasso–shows that make you feel better about people, and seeing that positive growth and change is possible if you’re willing to do the work and think about being a better person. I try all the time to be a better person, and I often fail. I have always been deeply pessimistic about human beings and prone to think and expect the worst; years of retail and working for an airline will do that to you. I will never understand why people find it easier to be cruel and hateful than empathetic and kind; which really should be our default when dealing with other people. I will be the first to admit I don’t always automatically default to that myself–don’t come for me or people I care about–but at least I am trying to do better. Granted, I am going to be sixty-two this year, but I also don’t think you are ever too old to stop growing and changing and evolving as a person. I’ve always feared calcifying; I recognize the comfort of tradition but also do not believe things should continue to be done a certain way “because that’s how we’ve always done it.”

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines. Have a lovely Wednesday, Constant Reader, and we’ll touch base again tomorrow, okay?