The Edgar Allen Poe Awards Banquet is coming up in a couple of weeks. Did you vote? Oh, you're not a member of the Mystery Writers of America? Sorry. Seen the list of nominees anyway?
Best Novel:
Harlan Coben - Caught
Tom Franklin - Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Tana French - Faithful Place
Timothy Hallinan - The Queen of Patpong
Steve Hamilton - The Lock Artist
Laura Lippman - I'd Know You Anywhere
There are several other categories which you can check out here and see how well read you are (or how unjust the world is - if you're like that), but yeah, voting's closed. Are you attending Bouchercon 2011 in St. Louis? The Anthony Awards are issuing ballots and collecting nominations from registered attendees now, so you can throw some recognition any which way you'd like, but if you aren't a member of the MWA and aren't registered for B'Con you can still participate in a semi-democratic process by voting in the Spinetingler Awards, the annual recognitions of Spinetingler magazine, the online crime and mystery journal edited by Sandra Ruttan, Brian Lindenmuth and co.
They have three different categories for Best Novel -
New Voice, Rising Star and
Legend. They also cover short stories in three categories - Best Anthology, Best Collection and Best Online story. I love the depths of nerdy obsession that allows me to descend into, (they even have a Best Cover category:
The Vaults by
Toby Ball,
Villain by
Shuichi Yoshida,
Misadventure by
Millard Kaufman,
Shot To Death by
Stephen D. Rogers,
Bad Juju by
Jonathan Woods,
Hello Kitty Must Die by
Angela S. Choi,
Beat To A Pulp edited by
David Cranmer &
Elaine Ash,
Cemetery Road by
Gar Anthony Haywood and
Expiration Date by
Duane Swierczynski - go ahead and click on those links to see the nominated artwork... then go vote!)
But my favorite category unique to the Spinetingler Awards is
The David Thompson Community Leader Award, named for the late bookseller, publisher, friend and promoter of the crime and mystery community,
David Thompson (more about him
here). The nominees for this one are those that pull together the writers, readers, film makers and over all fans of the genre and break down the barriers between the clergy and lay members of our peculiar cult. It's a great idea for an award and it was a really difficult choice to vote on. Do you know these online places?
So, what are the blogs, websites, forums, slicks, zines, scandal rags, podcasts or sketchy neighbors that you turn to for your inside scoops? I wanna know.
