Edgar week!
Last week I was in New York for Edgars week, a whirlwind of writers and publishers and really good food and more to drink in two days than I had over the past two months.
Wednesday was the Edgars week symposium, which is always interesting and this year was amazing: first-rate authors (most of their names taken from the list of that year’s Edgar nominees) talking about craft. I was moderating the panel about research, Just the Facts, with Kate Summerscale, Ruth Franklin, Lawrence Leamer, Caroline Todd, and James Ziskin.
(pic by Donna Andrews)
Putting together the questions was an interesting challenge, since they wrote (in order) a nonfiction story about a Victorian child murderer; the biography of Shirley Jackson; the 1981 lynching that brought down the KKK; a WWI novel about a British nurse in Paris; and a novel set in the 1960s Adirondacks. But in fact, a story needs to be compelling whether it’s biography or novel, and even those of us who lie for a living base our alternative facts on hard core research.
(There’s a list of all the day’s panels and interviews here, which will be available soon in audio format. And if you like what you see, think about joining the symposium next year, the Wednesday of Edgars Week.)
Wednesday night Lyndsay Faye took a bunch of us to an incredible Thai meal at a bustling and decorative place called Uncle Boon’s.
Then the next day, we started all over again, with meetings and meals and pre-Edgar drinks with friends (see above) before the banquet got under way and the awards were announced, all of it organized by our intrepid (though sore-footed) leader.
Friday was dedicated to exploration and some of the backlog of work, and then Saturday I headed off to London, where…
Well, more on that later.
Hope you’re enjoying May?
