May 2012

CONTENTS:

• Writing a Mystery in Short Story Form
• Spotted Owl Winners for 2012 Announced
• Book Review: The Chalk Girl
• Collecting Books: An Interview with Keith & Marlyne Stucky
• Friends of Mystery Book Sale: May 24
• Submissions Needed

Writing a Mystery in Short Story Form

What is the difference between writing a mystery novel as opposed to writing a short story? FOM is pleased to have a distinguished panel of writers to discuss this question and other topics relating to short stories: Bill Cameron, Evan Lewis, Kristine Rusch, and Dean Wesley Smith.

Evan Lewis is a Portland writer who is the recent winner of the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for best first short story by an American author. This award is part of the Edgar Awards, given by the Mystery Writers of America. His story, “Skylar Hobbs and the Rabbit Man,” appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. The story is set in Portland, and the main character believes himself to be the reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes. Lewis is now completing a novel that pits Hobbs against a serial killer.

Kristine Rusch isn’t a stranger to FOM. Writing under the pen name of Kris Nelscott, she is a two-time winner of our Spotted Owl award for A Dangerous Road (2005) and Days of Rage (2007), featuring Smokey Dalton. Rusch writes under various pseudonyms in multiple genres, including science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, and mainstream. She won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 2001, the 2003 Endeavour Award, and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History in 2008. Rusch edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for six years, winning one Hugo Award as Best Professional Editor. She is married to fellow writer Dean Wesley Smith, and they have collaborated on several works.

Dean Wesley Smith is a bestselling author who has written over ninety popular novels and more than 100 published short stories. He writes under many pen names and has also ghosted for a number of top bestselling writers. Smith has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse. Over his career, he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, next for VB Tech Journal, and then for Pocket Books. He is currently writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.

Bill Cameron is the winner of the 2012 Spotted Owl award for his mystery County Line, featuring retired Portland homicide cop Skin Kadash. His three previous mysteries, Lost Dog, Chasing Smoke, and Day One, have all been finalists for the Spotted Owl award. Cameron’s short story, “The Princess of Felony Flats,” was nominated for the CWA Short Story Dagger 2011. His short fiction has appeared in Portland Noir, Spinetingler, the Killer Year, and First Thrills anthologies. Bill is the webmaster for FOM, and is currently serving on the Board of the Mystery Writers of America.

The program will begin at 7:30 pm at Terwilliger Plaza, preceded by our annual book sale. The meeting is free and open to the public. Free parking is available in the employee parking lot across 6th Avenue from the lower level entrance. Handicapped parking is available at the upper level entrance. Tri-Met bus #8, Jackson Park, stops just in front of the lower level entrance. Learn more at our Bloody Thursdays page.

Date: Thursday, May 24, 2012, 7:00pm

Location: Terwilliger Plaza, 2545 SW Terwilliger Blvd, Portland, OR

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Spotted Owl Winners for 2012 Announced

by Elinore Rogers

The Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Committee announced the winners of the 2012 awards. Bill Cameron was selected for his mystery County Line. A special award, named for our late co-founder Stan Johnson, will also be given to Johnny Shaw for his debut mystery Dove Season. The other finalists are:

• Heather Sharffedin for Damaged Goods
• Urban Waite for The Terror of Living
• Chelsea Cain for The Night Season
• Robert Dugoni for Murder One
• Dana Stabenow for Though Not Dead
• Aaron Elkins for The Worst Thing
• Mike Lawson for House Divided
• Kate Wilhelm for Heaven Is High
• Gary McKinney for Darkness Bids the Dead Goodbye

The committee members who evaluated the 67 books are Sheila Sweet, Marlyne Stucky, Pete Scott, Carrie Richards, and Jeannette Voss. This is the 17th year of Spotted Owl awards. Previous winners include Earl Emerson, John Straley, Tom Mitcheltree, L.L. Thrasher, Marcia Simpson, G.M. Ford, Kevin O’Brien, Phillip Margolin, Alan Bradley and Dana Haynes. Kate Wilhelm, Kris (Nelscott) Rusch, and Lowen Clausen have each won the award twice. Mike Doogan was the first to receive a special debut mystery award.

The Spotted Owl award was first awarded in 1996, to celebrate the work of mystery authors who live in the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, and the province of British Columbia.

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Book Review: The Chalk Girl

by Harriet Stay

The Chalk Girl

by Carol O’Connell

Check out this interview with Carol O’Connell by Crimespree Magazine’s Jon Jordan.

I had just about given up hope. It had been almost four years since the last Kathleen Mallory crime novel or even a standalone story by Carol O’Connell. Over a span of seventeen years, Carol O’Connell has written twelve books. The Chalk Girl is the latest. My impatience and worrying has been for naught.

Her first, in 1994, was Mallory’s Oracle. I read it while I was still the publisher of Mystery News, but as with most books I received, they were passed along to my reviewers; however, I never failed to purchase and collect each one. On the first day of my retirement, I gathered those books beside my favorite reading chair and began my journey into the world of Kathy Mallory. Only a privileged few are allowed to call her Kathy, the eccentric young woman, once orphaned, now a NYC police detective.

A silly notion entered my head when first encountering Lisbeth Salander…could Stieg Larsson have been thinking of Mallory when he envisioned Lisbeth? The comparison is uncanny: loneliness, self-reliance, haunting wildness both possess. Even their physical descriptions bear resemblance. Not the clothes. Kathleen Mallory is definitely a classy New Yorker. I don’t recall other writers integrating the use of computers with their protagonists before Mallory. Remember, computers were not a household word back then. No matter. Just an idle thought, and I enjoyed reading Larsson’s trilogy, as well.

During the opening scene of The Chalk Girl, I was delightfully escorted into Central Park, NYC, under the guide of a visiting school teacher, Mrs. Lanyard, but it turns out that rather than losing one of her charges, she gains an additional one- one who has the rest of the children enthralled with her knowledge about rats. Rats. Suddenly, they were swarming the park and in broad daylight, no less, which all leads to the discovery of murder…bodies found inconspicuously hung in the park.

It’s true Mallory is a loner. She has no friends her own age. What she does have and adds delightfully to each story is a stable of friends who could be considered her surrogate parents, family whom she beats at poker, most of the time. They come to the rescue when the “additional” child, who calls herself Coco, appears to be out on a limb herself. Part of solving this mystery is figuring out where Coco came from, so I’ll leave the reading and detecting to you. You won’t be disappointed.

Oh, there’s something I came across that I want to share if you haven’t caught it already. It made me laugh. Mrs. Lanyard. Her name fits her part so perfectly. I recall as a Girl Scout leader wearing a lanyard because we made them. How clever a name choice. It was a thousand pictures in one word. If you haven’t discovered Mallory (Carol O’Connell) yet, you’re in for a treat.

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Collecting Books

An Interview with Keith & Marlyne Stucky

By Jeannette Voss

I would venture to guess many FOM members have at least one stack of books just waiting to be read, and a somewhat smaller percentage have more than that (I would include myself in that number.) I enjoy going to author readings, and it’s always a bit of a thrill to buy a book and get it signed by the author. FOM members Keith and Marlyne Stucky have taken collecting books to a higher level, and I wanted to speak with them about the ins-and-outs of collecting mysteries.

Keith and Marlyne have been members of FOM since the late 1980’s, but began collecting before then. Keith first collected Western paperbacks, with an emphasis on Louis L’Amour. After meeting Tony Hillerman at the Portland Book Fair, they became friendly, and Hillerman was added to their “collectibles” list, along with Ed McBain, Robert B. Parker, Nevada Barr, P.D. James, Sue Henry, A.E. Maxwell, and Elizabeth George. As they became more involved with the mystery world, they began attending conferences such as Left Coast Crime and Bouchercon, becoming friendly with many of the mystery writers they read, and taking advantage of the opportunity to acquire many signed first editions.

Besides mysteries, they enjoy collecting westerns, thrillers, and historical novels. In deciding which authors they wanted to collect, they chose those they enjoyed reading, which were suspenseful with plots that were twisted and well-resolved, and whose protagonists were believeable.

Among their favorite authors to collect are (in no particular order): Harlen Coben, Phil Margolin, George Pelecanos, Robert Parker, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, T. Jefferson Parker, Bill Pronzini, Sara Paretsky, Marcia Muller, Carola Dunn, J.A. Jance, Peter Robinson, Margaret Coel, Margaret Maron, Patricia Cornwell, Robert Dugoni, Lawrence Block, Loren Estleman, Rhys Bowen, Phillip R. Craig, William G. Tapply, Linda Fairstein, Henning Mankell, and S.J. Rozan.

When asked what advice they would give to someone who is thinking about collecting, they suggested the following:

• Save your money! Use the library, and collect authors that you want to read.
• Make sure your copy is a first edition, in very fine condition.
• Use plastic book jacket covers.
• Collect signatures on the title page.

Factors that make a book collectible include the condition of the book and the dust jacket, whether it is the author’s first book, and whether the book has won any awards.

Sources where you can find collectible books are book dealers’ catalogs, such as Buckingham Books, book stores that specialize in autographed first editions, such as High Crimes in Boulder, Colorado, and The Poison Pen in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Thanks to Marlyne and Keith for sharing their expertise.

If you are interested in reading about book collecting, some resources are:

• Goldstone, Lawrence and Nancy. Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World.
• Goldstone, Lawrence and Nancy. Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore.

John Dunning writes a good mystery series about Cliff Janeway, a book scout:

• Booked to Die
• The Bookman’s Promise
• The Bookman’s Wake
• The Bookwoman’s Last Fling
• The Sign of the Book

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FOM Book Sale

May 24th at 7:00 pm, during the Bloody Thursday reception preceding the program.

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Submissions Needed

Members and readers are encouraged to submit book or film reviews, comments on authors, and recommendations for books to read or questions about mysteries, crime fiction and fact. You can mail these to our PO Box 8251, Portland, Oregon 97207 or send to our email address at info@friendsofmystery.org.

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Low believes Legate was murdered and the department at the time wanted the investigation to go away.

Watch the interview of Neil Low below, and read McNerthney’s story in the Seattle PI. The interview also running on KOMO News Radio.

The LeGate murder inspired Low’s novel, UNHOLY ALLIANCE, a term incoming Chief Sevryns used to describe his Department’s link to the Crime Lords in Chinatown.

Where: Atkinson Memorial Church
710 Sixth St (Sixth & John Adams)
Oregon City, OR 97045

• See the Author Fair flyer (PDF).

In this volume, Irwin Glass, a teacher of English to foreign students, is  sucked into the role of FBI informant on the Moslem students at Michigan Institute of Technology with tragic results. All three books are among more than a score of Sachs’ books available for Kindle and Nook, and from Lulu.com in paperback.

Sachs, a long time resident of Terwilliger Plaza, was once a CIA informant in Europe so he knows this territory well.

Visit the web site, where you can listen to two stories, read a third, read reviews, and find links to the publishers of Sachs’ books.

Evan Lewis is the 2011 winner of the prestigious The Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for “Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man,” given each year by the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Committee for best first short story.

Kristine Rusch is an international bestseller and multiple award-winner in a range of genres, including her 2007 Spotted Owl Award for Days of Rage (writing as Kris Nelscott).

Dean Wesley Smith is also a bestselling novelist and writer of over 100 short stories. He co-authored with Kristine Rusch the Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom.

Bill Cameron is the 2012 Spotted Owl Award winner for his novel County Line, fourth in his Skin Kadash mystery series. He has short stories published in Portland Noir, First Thrills, and other anthologies.

Meetings begin with a reception at 7:00pm, with the presentation at 7:30pm. They are free and open to the public. Learn more at our Bloody Thursdays page.

Other finalists are:

• Heather Sharfeddin for Damaged Goods
• Urban Waite for The Terror of Living
• Chelsea Cain for The Night Season
• Robert Dugoni for Murder One
• Dana Stabenow for Though Not Dead
• Aaron Elkins for The Worst Thing
• Mike Lawson for House Divided
• Kate Wilhelm for Heaven is High
• Gary McKinney for Darkness Bids the Dead Goodbye

The committee also selected Dove Season by Johnny Shaw to receive a special Stan Johnson Outstanding Debut Mystery award.

April 28th, from 11 – 3 pm

This free event will be in the Cutsforth’s Marketplace Town Hall located at 225 NE 2nd Avenue, Canby, Oregon, 97013.

For more information, check out: canbyauthorsfair.weebly.com.

March 2012

CONTENTS:

• Writing Mysteries As a Father-Daughter Team
• Edgar Award Nominees 2012
• Whose Books Do You Look Forward to Reading?
• Member News: Sharon Appleman
• James Sallis by Pete Scott
• The 2012 Dilys Award Nominations
• Upcoming Events in the 2011-2012 Bloody Thursday Season
• Submissions Needed

Writing Mysteries As a Father-Daughter Team

Phillip Margolin and Ami Margolin Rome

Phillip Margolin is no stranger to Friends of Mystery – he has been honored for his contributions to our organization, and is a past winner of The Spotted Owl Award for Executive Privilege.  With his latest book, Vanishing Acts: A Madison Kincaid Mystery, he is achieving two firsts – his first book for young readers and his first book writing with his daughter, Ami Margolin Rome.

Mr. Margolin grew up in New York.  He graduated from The American University in Washington, D.C., followed by volunteering in the Peace Corps from 1965-1967.  In 1970 he graduated from New York University School of Law, and came to Oregon to clerk with Herbert M. Schwab, the Chief Judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals.  From 1972 until 1996 he was in private practice in Portland, Oregon, specializing in criminal defense at the trial and appellate levels.  As an appellate attorney he has appeared before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Oregon Supreme Court, and the Oregon Court of Appeals.  As a trial attorney, he handled all sorts of criminal cases in state and federal court and he has represented approximately 30 people charged with homicide, including several who have faced the death penalty.

Since 1996, Margolin has been writing full-time.  His books have been New York Times bestsellers and selections or main selections of the major book clubs.

Ami Margolin Rome serves as the Executive Director of the North Clackamas Education Foundation (NCEF), and has worked in the education field her entire career.

Prior to joining NCEF, Mrs. Rome was a Policy Analyst for an education policy consulting firm, Education First Consulting, specializing in strategic planning, research, policy analysis, and advocacy for large foundations, state education agencies, school districts and non-profit organizations.

From 2001-2003, Mrs. Rome served as a Peace Corps Volunteer working with teachers in three school districts in the Dominican Republic.

In her spare time, Mrs. Rome enjoys writing, and her first novel, co-written with her father, was published in October 2011.

We hope you will be able to join us for their presentation.  The program will begin at 7:30 pm and will be held at Terwilliger Plaza in the White Auditorium. Directional signs will be posted in the building. The meeting is free and open to the public. Free parking is available in the Terwilliger Plaza employee parking lots across 6th Avenue from the lower level entrance, and on Sheridan Street. Handicapped parking is available at the upper level entrance. Tri-met bus #8, Jackson Park, stops just in front of the lower level entrance. Click here for directions to Terwilliger Plaza, including a map which shows parking in the area.

Date: Thursday, March 22, 2012, 7:00pm

Location: Terwilliger Plaza, 2545 SW Terwilliger Blvd, Portland, OR

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Edgar Award Nominees 2012

Announced by the Mystery Writers of America for works published or produced in 2011, the Edgar Awards will be presented on April 26, 2012.

BEST NOVEL

• The Ranger, by Ace Atkins
• Gone, by Mo Hayder
• The Devotion of Suspect X, by Keigo Higashino
• 1222, by Anne Holt
• Field Gray, by Philip Kerr

BEST FIRST NOVEL

• Red on Red, by Edward Conlon
• Last to Fold, by David Duffy
• All Cry Chaos, by Leonard Rosen
• Bent Road, by Lori Roy
• Purgatory Chasm, by Steve Ulfelder

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

• The Company Man, by Robert Jackson Bennett
• The Faces of Angels, by Lucretia Grindle
• The Dog Sox, by Russell Hill
• Death of the Mantis, by Michael Stanley
• Vienna Twilight, by Frank Tallis

BEST FACT CRIME

• The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars, by Paul Collins
• The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge, by T.J. English
• Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard
• Girl Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender, by Steve Miller
• The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter, by Mark Seal

BEST CRITICAL / BIOGRAPHICAL

• The Tattooed Girl: The Enigma of Stieg Larsson and the Secrets Behind the Most Compelling Thrillers of Our Time, by Dan Burstein, Aarne de Keijzer & John-Henri Holmberg
• Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making, by John Curran
• On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling, by Michael Dirda
• Detecting Women: Gender and the Hollywood Detective Film, by Philippa Gates
• Scripting Hitchcock: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie, by Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick.

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Whose Books Do You Look Forward to Reading?

I asked that question at the end of the January newsletter, and a reply was forthcoming:

My list changes as some leave us and new voices emerge.  Two Michaels, and both former journalists, head my list:  Michael Robotham, whose latest must-read is The Wreckage with dual settings (London and Baghdad), and Michael Connelly, a long-time favorite, especially LAPD Detective Harry Bosch.  I was overjoyed with all the Scandinavian writers, but for prose and thought-provoking writing, Norwegian Karin Fossum goes on my list ahead of many others.  When I read his first book, Child 44, then his second, The Secret Speech, Tom Rob Smith became a standout for this list.  His historical mingling with intelligent, imaginative storytelling make his books outstanding.  I’m waiting patiently for Agent 6.  My most recent find, and I’m gobbling up her books as I find them, are those by Denise Mina.  She may not be everyone’s cuppa, but her character-driven stories set in Glasgow far exceed even Edgar winners I’ve read.

—Harriet Stay, Port Townsend, WA

Please consider sending your favorite authors to share with us!

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Member News

Sharon Appleman is pleased to announce her novel, Coyote Willows, made it through the first round of the Amazon Breakout Novel Contest.  Coyote Willows is a mystery within a modern-day ecological thriller which takes readers on a dizzying journey across the high desert of the Pacific Northwest, where murder, mercenaries, and mysticism collide, revealing a threat more deadly than Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi.

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James Sallis

By Pete Scott

DRIVEN, the sequel to DRIVE, comes out in April 2012

The recent release of the movie “Drive” starring Ryan Gosling and the publication of the new crime novel, The Killer is Dying, reminds one of what an impressive writer James Sallis is.  He has been publishing and teaching creative writing since the early seventies and goes from strength to strength.  The new article about his career in Mystery Scenemagazine describes him as a “man of letters.”  He is a crime fiction writer, short story writer, screenwriter, poet, and a critically acclaimed biographer.  I first became aware of him when I picked up a well-worn paperback crime novel from his Lew Griffin series.  What great stories set in New Orleans, about an African-American part-time college professor of the French novel.  Who just happens to get involved in all sorts of doings.

An entirely different situation is found in the Salt River trilogy.  Here we have a former Memphis cop who is convicted and, after release, moves to rural Tennessee where he eventually finds himself becoming a deputy sheriff.

In summary, you can pick anything by Mr. Sallis and find it worth your while.

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The 2012 Dilys Award Nominations

The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA) has announced the nominees for the Dilys Winn award, given annually to the mystery which the members most enjoyed selling.  The award will be presented at Left Coast Crime in March.

Nominees

• When Elves Attack, by Tim Dorsey
• Wicked Autumn, by G.M. Malliet
• Tag Man, by Archer Mayor
• A Trick of the Light, by Louise Penny
• Ghost Hero, by S.J. Rozan

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Upcoming Events in the 2011-2012 Bloody Thursday Season

• May 24, 2012 Mystery Short Story Panel. The panel members will be Bill Cameron, Evan “Dave” Lewis, Kristine Rusch, and Dean Wesley Smith
  • Annual Friends of Mystery Book Sale

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Submissions Needed

Members and readers are encouraged to submit book or film reviews, comments on authors, and recommendations for books to read or questions about mysteries, crime fiction and fact. You can mail these to our PO Box 8251, Portland, Oregon 97207 or send to our email address at info@friendsofmystery.org.

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You can learn more about the Discover Mystery Award at the Poisoned Pen Press website.

Meetings begin with a reception at 7:00pm, with the presentation at 7:30pm. They are free and open to the public. Learn more at our Bloody Thursdays page.