Me & Edgar & Agatha & friends
That shriek that rattled the country just before 10:00 pm EST was me reacting to the sound of my name from the podium at the Agatha Awards: Malice Domestic’s choice of Best Historical Mystery is Dreaming Spies, by Laurie R. King!
I was nominated for an Agatha once before (for The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, in 1995) and the convention chose me as their Guest of Honor three years ago, but the award teapot (this convention, after all, focuses on the Traditional Mystery) eluded me until now.
Best of all, I got to sit at a table with the awards of three other friends on it: one each for my friends Barbara Peters and Rob Rosenwald, joint recipients of the Poirot award (for which I got to conduct the conference interview, which ranged over subjects from the state of modern publishing to whether or not they had the requisite RomCom “meet cute”–which, it turns out, they did, over accusations of cheating at cards)
…and also on the table was Margaret Maron’s Agatha for Contemporary Mystery (for the gorgeous 20th and—alas!—final Deborah Knott story, Long Upon the Land.) Here are three of the four of us winners:
In general, Malice Domestic is a really fun conference, casual and filled with dedicated book-lovers. I was pleased this year to hear that Good Friends Alice W. (who took a couple of these pictures) and Merrily T. would be going,
along with more-or-less locals like Bill M. and eminent Sherlockians Peter Blau and his wife Bev Wolov (a Smithsonian lace expert!)
My trip to DC came on the heels of a quick 36 hours in New York, during which I fit in dinner with friends, meetings with Picador (who do the stunning paperbacks of the early books) and Random House’s enthusiastic Team LRK, and the Edgars Awards banquet of the Mystery Writers of America. There I had the honor of giving the Ellery Queen Award (for work in the mystery-publishing field) to my friend Janet Rudolph, whose passion for Crime is exceeded only by the joy she takes in fine chocolates. I introduced her by saying:
It’s not often a person is given the chance to speak for an entire community. I am so pleased to be the one to stand up here and say, Janet, we love you. We honor and respect you. We stand amazed at your unflagging energy, your unfailing good will and optimism, and your endless creativity in celebrating the genre.
We, the world’s scribblers, give you our thanks, our affection, our Ellery Queen Award–and, more to the point, our chocolate.
Janet Rudolph.
And then handed her the MWA statue, along with a box of chocolate truffles.
The Edgars banquet also involves, of course, drinks in the bar before and after with friends like SJ Rozan and Dan Stashower and Laura Caldwell and—well, it wouldn’t be a black tie party without Les Klinger.
You can read about MWA’s 2016 awards, here.
And think about joining us for the fun, in New Orleans or Honolulu!
Congratulations!
It was wonderful to see you, Laurie, and I can’t tell you how happy Alice and I were to be present when your name was called for the Agatha. Such a thrill and so well deserved!
Malice Domestic 2016 was a super conference!
Well-deserved, Laurie. I just recommended the Holmes-Russell series to someone yesterday and told her to start with “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice” which my husband and I feel is still one of the best in the series. But you broke my heart with the news that there will be no more Deborah Knott books. Why? 🙁
Again, congratulations!
janet
https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/blog-article/5020-say-goodbye-to-deborah-knott
I’m relieved, I was wondering if Laurie was writing another series that I’d missed…
Congratulations, Laurie!
Congratulations! I loved “Dreaming Spies,” as I do all your books! Just finished reading “The Murder of Mary Russell,” and it was a pure delight 🙂
Grand news!
Congratulations!
Congratulations on a great award for a great writer!
Congratulations, Laurie! You so deserve it! Thank you for all the great years of wonderful stories ????
An award well earned and much deserved! Congrats!
Congratulations! I’m sure more honors are headed your way considering they have to catch up with Marriage and Murder. Love them all! Thanks for all you do.
Are you going to have a tee shirt with the prize teapot made? ?
I imagine the teapot image is copyrighted by Malice, so probably not…
How wonderful! Congratulations!
Wonderful; you deserve this for your entire body of work! Thank you for sharing your talent.
Congrats on the Agatha! It was lovely to chat with you at the Edgars.
Yes, one of our brief semi-annual conversations, drink in hand!
Wait. WHAT?? The last Deborah Knott book? Whhhhhhyyyyyy? (she wailed) and congratulations and don’t get any ideas like that in your head, please!
Not only did you win,I think that was the best list of historical nominations sinc Malice added historical sites as a separate category. So happy for you!
Congratulations on your well deserved award! While I will mourn the lack of Deborah Knott books, I will look forward to all future Mary Russell adventures. Thank you for adding spice, adventure, and pure enjoyment to our lives.
Wonderful news, congratulations, and what an exciting time, too! I only met your work when I saw the cover for Dreaming Spies and was moved to open and read the description. That started me off, and back I went, and I believe I’ve now read all but “Letter…”.
Like your other fans, I hope there will be many more Mary Russell novels in my reading future.
My two favourite authors in one photo! (LRK and MM)
Congratulations! Dreaming Spies is one of my favorite Mary Russell books.
Let me add my voice to others… so well deserved.
I just finished The Murder of Mary Russell. Mrs. Hudson….who knew??? We MUST be hearing from her again, the sooner the better. This is LRK at her best for my money!
Well, hell. I really didn’t want to know that, Tom!
Not sure that he actually told you anything, Shannon, so you’re good.
Congratulations, Laurie! A beautiful series and a well-earned recognition for a very good read! I love the changes of locale and find myself doing a lot of encyclopedic and geographic research after I finish one of Mary Russell’s adventures. Much as I delight in the entire series, I think my favorite(s) are the paired The Language of Bees and The God of the Hive. There’s a lot to “chew on” in those two books.
Congratulations Laurie
And I know you will use the teapot – a sake set for hot sake would have been appropriate this time but only if you had won!
Andrea