I had a front-table seat this evening when our own Hannah
Dennison was among the presenters at the Mystery Writers of America Edgar
Awards. Hannah was the chair of the “Best TV Teleplay For A Series” category. Our
own John Corrigan also was on that committee.
The Grand Master Award went to Martha Grimes, author of the Inspector Richard Jury series, who was
delightful in person. Her two young grandsons – her “agents” – were there and
stood to take a bow.
Sandra Brown, this year’s President of MWA, was the emcee
for the awards ceremony. She looked smashing and was funny and charming. As a
fellow Southerner, I especially enjoy her accent.
The winners of the various book, short story, TV, and play awards were joyful, stunned, and/or speechless. But
they all managed to convey what an honor it was to be the one in their category
of talented writers to take home an Edgar (a bust of Edgar Allan Poe). The list of winners went out from MWA immediately after the banquet.
One of the two winners of a Raven Award was M is For Mystery
Bookstore in San Mateo, CA. I happened to be seated beside Ed Kaufman, the
proprietor of that bookstore. After he retired from his career as a lawyer, he
followed his second passion and opened a bookstore. The other Raven recipient was Molly
Weston, who has hosted many a visiting mystery writer to North Carolina and is the editor of
inSinc, the Sisters in Crime quarterly.
I should say more, including telling you how much I enjoyed
chatting with the people at my table and seeing old friends. But I have an
early morning train to catch. I’m on my way to Malice Domestic, and I need to be
off to bed.
This is my favorite week of the mystery year.
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