Dana Camerontag:www.danacameron.com,2010-04-24://1THE OFFICIAL WEB SITE OF AWARD-WINNING WRITER DANA CAMERONMovable Type Pro 5.01Where has July gone? - Dana's Notebooktag:www.danacameron.com,2010:/danas_notebook//2.162010-07-29T17:50:56Z2010-07-29T18:00:44ZDana Cameron
has July gone?
Okay, you got me. I haven't the faintest. I've tearing one completed novel apart and writing another. Trouble is, that kind of editing takes all of my concentration, a total immersion in the work. And...the second half of a book, for me, is when the writing carries me off, going faster and faster. So where does that leave your humble narrator, caught between all-demanding and all-consuming? Locked in an air-conditioned office.
Bad craziness.
On the other hand, what I've been learning from both projects is wicked helpful. Maybe even...dare I say it? Good. I've been keeping track of these lessons, as well. Fingers crossed, it will be good enough to continue yielding the results I hope I'm getting.
Oh, I was let out of the cave on a couple of occasions. One was for the simulcast premiere of "Rizzoli & Isles," at the Camden (ME) Opera House. Tess Gerritsen--on whose books the series is based--was there to describe the project. The whole thing was immeasurably cool.
Another time, I escaped to Exeter, NH and the Water Street Bookstore, where Toni Kelner and Brendan DuBois, and I were discussing our stories in Crimes by Moonlight (the MWA anthology edited by Charlaine Harris). Neat town, great crowd, super book store. We'll be reprising the discussion at RiverRun Books in Portsmouth in August, if you weren't able to catch us before.
And the kittens are now cat-sized, but with kitten-sized brains. Nothing like tumultous teenage tabbies trying on their attitudes. Kaylee and Zoe used to be small enough to both fit in the tower, now... Now we have to be careful when they try to hip-check us. Seriously.
Back to the word mines.
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Happy summer! - Dana's Notebooktag:www.danacameron.com,2010:/danas_notebook//2.152010-06-21T18:26:12Z2010-06-21T18:31:47ZDana Cameron
And to celebrate, we have our first basket of vegetables, herbs, flowers, and eggs from from our local farm, Bird in a Beehive! I'm a little rusty on the break-down, cleaning, and storage, but I'm betting it will come back very quickly. ]]>
The sky over Berlin - Dana's Notebooktag:www.danacameron.com,2010:/danas_notebook//2.142010-06-13T15:59:50Z2010-06-13T17:46:29ZDana Cameron
Okay, no angels spying on and longing for us, but Berlin certainly put on a show for the few days I was there. Instead of cool drizzly spring, we had wonderfully summery weather--one of my beers was green* and so were the gardens--and everyone (I do mean everyone!) was making the most of it.
The streets and parks were full of families picnicking, bicycling, playing ball, listening to music. The cafes and biergartens were full. I snuck in at the very beginning of the tourist season, in time to catch a few museums, eat some great food, and walk for miles (several times past the Brandenburg Gate and this giant Lego giraffe).
Part of the lure of the city (besides visiting Mr. G, away for work) was the museums. The Pergamon Museum has a terrific collection of antiquities, some from sites we visited in Turkey last year.
The centerpiece is the Pergamon Altar, with its frieze of gods battling giants.
Pretty lively stuff. Not content with big-boy architecture (like the Gate of Ishtar and Processional Way from Babylon), we hit the Altes Museum next.
Alas, the famous Egyptian collection (with the Nefertiti bust) was closed.
But how many masterpieces can you take in one weekend, anyway?
Well, maybe a few more. Sunday morning at the Gemäldegalerie was pretty spectacular. An incredibly manageable museum with some seriously wonderful European paintings, my favorites were the Jan van Eyck (Madonna in the Church), Vermeer's The Glass of Wine, and a couple of portraits by Pollaiuolo and Bronzino (which I saw just when the battery of my camera gave out). We spent the afternoon drinking coffee with some of Mr. G's German colleagues in a quiet courtyard back near the Altes Musuem: perfect.
Crazy to go for just a few days? Perhaps. Was it worth it? Undoubtedly, yes. I saw such a small percentage of this amiable city I will certainly go back.
*Berliner Weisbier mit Schuss Waldmeister (Berlin white beer flavored with woodruff syrup)
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Anthony and Macavity nominations for "Femme Sole" - Dana's Notebooktag:www.danacameron.com,2010:/danas_notebook//2.132010-06-13T15:48:07Z2010-06-13T17:39:09ZDana Cameron Anthony Award Nominations Recipients will be announced at Bouchercon, San Francisco, at the Anthony Awards brunch on Sunday, October 17 in the Grand Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency.
BEST NOVEL THE LAST CHILD - John Hart [Minotaur Books] THE MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH - Charlie Huston [Ballantine Books] THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE - Stieg Larsson, translated by Reg Keeland [Quercus/Knopf] THE BRUTAL TELLING - Louise Penny [Minotaur Books] THE SHANGHAI MOON - S.J. Rozan [Minotaur Books] BEST FIRST NOVEL THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE - Alan Bradley [Delacorte Press] STARVATION LAKE - Bryan Gruley [Touchstone] A BAD DAY FOR SORRY - Sophie Littlefield [Minotaur Books] THE TWELVE/THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST - Stuart Neville [Harvill Secker/Soho Press] IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM - Stefanie Pintoff [Minotaur Books]
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL BURY ME DEEP - Megan Abbott [Simon & Schuster] TOWER - Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman [Busted Flush Press] QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE - Max Allan Collins [Hard Case Crime] STARVATION LAKE - Bryan Gruley [Touchstone] DEATH AND THE LIT CHICK - G.M. Malliet [Midnight Ink] AIR TIME - Hank Phillippi Ryan [Mira]
BEST SHORT STORY "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" - Ace Atkins, CROSSROAD BLUES [Busted Flush Press] "Femme Sole" - Dana Cameron, BOSTON NOIR [Akashic Books] "Animal Rescue" - Dennis Lehane, BOSTON NOIR [Akashic Books] "On the House" - Hank Phillippi Ryan, QUARRY: Crime Stories by New England Writers [Level Best Books] "Amapola" - Luis Alberto Urrea, PHOENIX NOIR [Akashic Books]
BEST CRITICAL NONFICTION WORK TALKING ABOUT DETECTIVE FICTION - P.D. James [Bodleian Library/Knopf] THE LINE UP: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives - Otto Penzler, ed. [Little, Brown and Co] HAUNTED HEART: The Life and Times of Stephen King - Lisa Rogak [Thomas Dunne Books] DAME AGATHA'S SHORTS: An Agatha Christie Short Story Companion - Elena Santangelo [Bella Rosa Books] THE TALENTED MISS HIGHSMITH: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith - Joan Schenkar [St. Martin's Press]
Macavity Award Nominations: The Macavity Award is named for the "mystery cat" of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats). Each year the members of Mystery Readers International nominate and vote for their favorite mysteries in four categories.
Best Mystery Novel:
* Megan Abbott: Bury Me Deep (Simon & Schuster) * Ken Bruen & Reed Farrel Coleman: Tower (Busted Flush Press) * Deborah Crombie: Necessary as Blood (Wm. Morrow) * Jo Nesbø: Nemesis (translated by Don Bartlett) (HarperCollins) * Louise Penny: The Brutal Telling (Minotaur) * S.J. Rozan: The Shanghai Moon (Minotaur)
Best First Mystery Novel:
* Alan Bradley: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Delacorte) * Jamie Freveletti: Running from the Devil (Wm. Morrow) * Sophie Littlefield: A Bad Day for Sorry (Minotaur) * Stuart Neville: The Ghosts of Belfast (Soho Crime) * Malla Nunn: A Beautiful Place to Die (Picador)
Best Mystery Nonfiction:
* John Buntin: L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City (Random House: Harmony Books) * P.D. James: Talking about Detective Fiction (Alfred A. Knopf) * Craig McDonald: Rogue Males: Conversations & Confrontations About the Writing Life (Bleak House Books) * Otto Penzler, editor: The Line Up: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives (Little, Brown & Co) * Laney Salisbury & Aly Sujo: Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art (Penguin Press) * Elena Santangelo: Dame Agatha's Shorts: An Agatha Christie Short Story Companion (Bella Rosa Books)
Best Mystery Short Story:
* Ace Atkins: "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" (Crossroad Blues, Busted Flush Press) * Dana Cameron: "Femme Sole" (Boston Noir, Akashic Books) * Jim Fusilli: "Digby, Attorney at Law" (AHMM, May 2009) * Carolyn Hart: "Your Turn" (Two of the Deadliest, Harper) * Hank Phillippi Ryan: "On the House" (Quarry: Crime Stories by New England Writers, Level Best Books) * Marcus Sakey: "The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away" (Thriller 2: Stories You Just Can't Put Down, Mira) * Luis Alberto Urrea: "Amapola" (Phoenix Noir, Akashic Books)
Sue Feder Historical Mystery:
* Rebecca Cantrell: A Trace of Smoke (Forge) * Stefanie Pintoff: In the Shadow of Gotham (Minotaur) * Charles Todd: A Duty to the Dead (Wm. Morrow) * Jeri Westerson: Serpent in the Thorns (Minotaur) * Jacqueline Winspear: Among the Mad (Henry Holt)
Congratulations to all the nominees! See you in San Francisco!
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BOSTON NOIR (and a very nice mention of "Femme Sole") in "Spinetingler" - Dana's Notebooktag:www.danacameron.com,2010:/danas_notebook//2.122010-06-01T13:49:50Z2010-06-01T14:07:52ZSpinetingler Magazine (check it out!) ran a review of Boston Noir by Matthew Funk, with some lovely words about "Femme Sole:" Dana Cameron seizes a noir plot and transplants it artfully into pre-Revolutionary Boston with Femme Sole. Dana Cameron knows...Dana Cameron
Spinetingler Magazine (check it out!) ran a review of Boston Noir by Matthew Funk, with some lovely words about "Femme Sole:"
Dana Cameron seizes a noir plot and transplants it artfully into pre-Revolutionary Boston with Femme Sole. Dana Cameron knows her subject well and gets the reader familiar with the setting fast, with descriptions steeped in the antique atmosphere and reflection that clearly relates its attitudes. She wins that brass ring authors aim for -- leaving the readers wanting more -- thanks to her command of perilous circumstances and outstanding personalities that struggle in them.
What a terrific way to start the working day!
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Back to pumpkin and mice - Dana's Notebooktag:www.danacameron.com,2010:/danas_notebook//2.112010-05-17T17:33:38Z2010-05-21T14:50:48ZDana Cameron
It's been a couple of weeks since My Very Big Adventure, attending Edgars Week, as an Edgar nominee, and then Malice Domestic, as an Agatha nominee. Cinderella's home from the ball and things are getting back to normal.
Normal, as in before January 19. My heart's calmed down for the first time in months, and work is again possible. But I'm glad that it was such an adventure, I'm glad that I was entirely manic on endorphins and adrenaline, I'm glad of the sleepless hours when I thought, Hey, shit, I'm a nominee! Hey, I could win! I wish the experience for all of you.
Not expecting this honor, ever, I decided I'd already won. I can get "Nominee" inscribed on my headstone/ cremation urn/ viking ship before it's set alight. I determined the week was going to be one big party to celebrate mystery and crime fiction. I had a total blast. And now, my Cinderella time line:
Tuesday: up way early on the train with Toni Kelner. Hate the fact I'm traveling with about the same amount of luggage I used for a ten-day wedding cruise through Greece, with more shoes per day than I usually wear in a month. Love the fact there's a food car: hot dogs for everyone as the countryside rolls by! Yes, the Acela has issues with Connecticut, but we hop the commuter rail and make it to NYC in plenty of time for the launch of the MWA anthology (edited by Charlaine Harris), Crimes by Moonlight. The great thing is I get to meet some of the contributors I didn't know in person: Terrie Farley Moran and Jeff Somers, with whom I share my agent. Toni, Jeff, and I have too much fun; cackling manically at our own jokes, we draw anxious glances. This is a bad idea, I can see the other attendees thinking. This is gonna be great! I'm thinking.
Wednesday: The Symposium panels are a hoot. The highlight is getting to see Laura Lippman and Lee Child interviewed by the wonderful Oline Cogdill. The scrum of the agents and editors party following has cheese! And wine! And I'm not an agent or editor, so I can enjoy it and catch up with friends. And eat cheese! And drink wine! My agent and her colleagues play cruel jokes on each other and ply us with dinner after. Life is good.
Thursday: Der Tag. Have a terrific chat with Linda Landrigan and Janet Hutchings at the EQ/AH cocktail party (you can see me with Mike Wiecek, Toni, and Chris Grabenstein, right), then run back to change. No, contrary to popular opinion, I did not have a wardrobe change every hour. I wore the blue dress so I wouldn't be wearing a floor length pink gown in a cab through an NYC rush hour. I blot and touch-up, then shimmy, hoick, and slither my way into my dress: my thanks again to the teams from JPL and Stanford for engineering the support structures required for a strapless gown. (Yes, guys, we are still on for doing the Mythbusters episode.)
I am the first one down to the table with the nametags: eager, yes, is one word, to describe my state. Everyone looks so pretty, so cleaned up! It is the prom everyone should have had. All of the nominees look nervous; none of us have drunk anything or been to the loo in hours, just in case. I'm staggered and honored to find out who the judges were in each category: they read my story! They liked it! Then the serious drinking begins and I'm just staggered.
Friday:
Toni and I hop the train
for D.C. and the opening ceremonies of Malice Domestic. The one picture of the Agatha nominees, and I've got my head down, making sure my certificate is open. Everyone else is smiling for the camera. Oy. Dinner with the fine folks at Berkeley is always terrific. My agent, Janet Reid, who has been making the entire week a combination
of a slumber party and Mardi Gras, has sent me beautiful flowers! The princess-itude continues!
Saturday: The panel on short stories is fun! Running around and hugging everyone is fun! It takes time to get from one place to another, a hundred yards away because of all the hugging. That's what's made what could have been a frantic week terrific: it's one big chance to see friends and tell rude jokes and catch up. The Agathas banquet is more fun, and we have the best table.
I'm hosting, and there's
a wild bunch of women from Chicago who know how to stage a riot (left, with L.C. Hayden and Toni). By the end of the night (in the bar, bien sur), we are hoarse and exhausted.
Sunday: more panels and the tea. I don't know why, but I always make sure I have a full lunch, then go and eat sandwiches and pastries an hour later. Just in case. You never know, in the wilds of Arlington, on top of a mall, and in a hotel with room service. Toni and I should be sick of each other at this point, but we can't stop giggling. Even at the airport, waiting for a late flight (which becomes even later), with the magic fairy-dust draining away at an alarming rate (let's just say the other travelers at National didn't see me at my best), we're hunting cheeseburgers and copies of the NYT, because Charlaine has an interview in the Magazine. On the plane, I doze. At home, the cats take one whiff of Eau de Airport and decide they don't know me. A shower helps, and I'm asleep in moments.
Monday: The horses have turned back into mice (and my cats have eaten them). The coach is once again a pumpkin, ripe for the compost pile. Life is normal again, now the ball is over, but I still have my slippers.
ack of these lessons, as well. Fingers crossed, it will be good enough to continue yielding the results I hope I'm getting.
The streets and parks were full of families picnicking, bicycling, playing ball, 
listening to music. The cafes and biergartens were full. I snuck in at the very beginning of the tourist season, in time to catch a few museums, eat some great food, and walk for miles (several times past the Brandenburg Gate and this giant Lego giraffe). 
Part of the lure of the city (besides visiting Mr. G, away for work) was the museums. The Pergamon Museum has a terrific collection of antiquities, some from sites we visited in Turkey last year.
The centerpiece is the Pergamon Altar, with its frieze of gods battling giants. 
Alas, the famous Egyptian collection (with the Nefertiti bust) was closed.
But how many masterpieces can you take in one weekend, anyway?
same amount of luggage I used for a ten-day wedding cruise through Greece, with more shoes per day than I usually wear in a month. Love the fact there's a food car: hot dogs for everyone as the countryside rolls by! Yes, the Acela has issues with Connecticut, but we hop the commuter rail and make it to NYC in plenty of time for the launch of the MWA anthology (edited by Charlaine Harris), Crimes by Moonlight. The great thing is I get to meet some of the contributors I didn't know in person: Terrie Farley Moran and Jeff Somers, with whom I share my agent. Toni, Jeff, and I have too much fun; cackling manically at our own jokes, we draw anxious glances. This is a bad idea, I can see the other attendees thinking. This is gonna be great! I'm thinking. 
e EQ/AH cocktail party (you can see me with Mike Wiecek, Toni, and Chris Grabenstein, right), then run back to change. No, contrary to popular opinion, I did not have a wardrobe change every hour. I wore the blue dress so I wouldn't be wearing a floor length pink gown in a cab through an NYC rush hour. I blot and touch-up, then shimmy, hoick, and slither my way into my dress: my thanks again to the teams from JPL and Stanford for engineering the support structures required for a strapless gown. (Yes, guys, we are still on for doing the Mythbusters episode.) 
for the compost pile. Life is normal again, now the ball is over, but I still have my slippers.
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