Read the Agatha nominees for Best Short Story

Just in case you haven't seen them elsewhere, links to the Agatha nominees for "Best Short Story" are here--for a short time only!

Dana Cameron, "Femme Sole," in Boston Noir (Akashic Books)

Kaye George, "Handbaskets, Drawers, and a Killer Cold," (Crooked, a crime fiction e-zine)

Barb Goffman, "The Worst Noel," in The Gift of Murder (Wolfmont Press)

Hank Phillippi Ryan, "On the House," in Quarry (Level Best Books)

Elizabeth Zelvin, "Death Will Trim Your Tree," in The Gift of Murder (Wolfmont Press)

Happy reading--and don't forget to vote at Malice Domestic!

What happens after the list is completed

Everyone loves a list. Crossing things off is satisfying, but so is encapsulating all your tasks. It organizes the mind and refreshes the soul. It's logical and sooooothing. But what happens after, when it's all crossed off?

I've had a huge great list of things to do for Edgars Week and Malice Domestic, and, well, now the list is letting me down. The dress has been hemmed, strategic undergarments acquired, the shoes chosen (finally!), tickets purchased, plans made, lists of lists compiled, etc. What isn't done, either isn't germane or can be completed today. Even packing this weekend, I'll have plenty of spare time, which is exactly what I don't want.

Let's face it: excited and nervous doesn't begin to cover it. I'm humming like a coked-up chinchilla (and no, you may not ask how I know). I know I should be calm—what will be, will be, right?--but I think you'd have to be made of stone not to be excited about an Edgar and an Agatha nomination, and I'm no stone. Scratch that: even stone gets excited sometimes. Just ask Eyjafjallajokull.

Then an email comes: it's from Toni, we're traveling down to NYC together. That will be fun! Then other emails follow, plans are hatched, stratagems contrived, and suddenly, I remember I'll be surrounded with friends, people I look forward to hanging with at every conference. Is there room among the shoes and dresses for Miss Lillian? For bourbon and puppies, shotguns and sock puppets? You bet!

Will I be disappointed if I don't win an award? Sure (remember: not stone), but I'll also remember the company of nominees and how honored I am to be among them. This is a truly wonderful time for me. But until I know one way or another, trust me. My heart will be beating like a tweaked-out chipmunk listening to “Radio Free Europe” on 78 rpm.

(for a list of where I'll be, check here.)

Going to Malice Domestic? Want to meet an agent?

Then check out this item, going up for bid at the Malice Domestic Live Auction:

"Got Noir? Breakfast"

You may like your coffee dark and bitter, your eggs beaten, and your bacon fat in the fire, but are you brave enough to breakfast with Anna Hoyt?

If you do, bid on this: Breakfast for two (the winning bidder and a friend) with Agatha-nominated short story writer Dana Cameron, creator of Anna Hoyt ("Femme Sole"), and Dana's slightly terrified agent Janet Reid (FinePrint Literary Management.)

In addition to breakfast 8 a.m. Sunday, May 2 at the Malice hotel restaurant, Janet will read up to ten pages from each of the two breakfast guests before the early panels Sunday, if they so choose. Dana and Janet will answer questions, or talk about whatever topic the
winners care to discuss: writing, reading, getting published, and Dana's award-winning short--or long!--fiction.

Thanks for supporting Malice Domestic's Live Auction!

The value of breakfast: $40.
The odds of surviving an encounter with Anna Hoyt: negotiable