We’re back from a whirlwind trip to Manhattan for the Edgar Award banquet. We flew out on Thursday morning and encountered our first and only real bump in the road when the pilot had to reboot the entire airplane before we could leave Houston. Some sort of computer glitch, but the reboot fixed it and we were on our way. We went via Philadelphia and got into LaGuardia about 30 minutes early. Though it’s an airport that is clearly showing its age, I like its proximity to the city. Even during a hectic time of day, we were at the Grand Hyatt in less than 30 minutes.
We met up with my agent at an outdoor cafe next to Bryant Park, the first time I’d seen that area of town. It was a beautiful day to sit outside and sip iced tea while talking, though the air was full of pollen. I always enjoy talking with my agent — we cover a wide range of topics from books to food to hockey, and I always feel like he has all the time in the world for us. We were supposed to go to the EQMM reception after that, but we ended up talking for so long that it hardly seemed worthwhile to schlep all the way across town for half an hour at best, so I decided to skip it. We had a snack to tide us over until the banquet started and went back to the hotel to change into our finery.
The nominee mixer started at 6 p.m. The standard icebreaker at that event was “What’s your category?” Got to meet some fascinating people and sip free wine. I wanted to pace myself in the unlikely event that I had to deliver a speech later that evening. After being photographed by category (I met for the first time Lisa Rogak, who interviewed me for Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King and was photographed with her, Otto Penzler and Joan Schenkar) we were ushered down the hall to the general reception at 6:30, which was wall-to-wall people, including Michael Connelly, C.J. Box, Alafair Burke, Meg Gardiner, Laurie R. King, Harlan Coben, Mary and Carol Higgins Clark, Donald Maass, R.L. Stine, and Charles Todd, to namedrop just a few. In fact, it was so packed that I didn’t even know Simon Wood was there until after we got home and saw his picture on Facebook! More free wine, which I also sipped.
Eventually we were allowed into the banquet hall and found our table, where we were seated with a couple of other nominees: Laney Salisbury, author of Provenance, a true crime novel about an art forger, and Russell Hill, author of The Lord God Bird (paperback original), an editor from The Penguin Press, and others. The meal was fine and the awards ceremony proceded apace until about 10:07 p.m., with Laura Lippman and Lee Child running the show. I didn’t win my category–that honor went to Otto Penzler–but it was fun to bask in the public glory of being a nominee for the evening, and a special treat to have my wife at my side throughout. She’s my number one fan, and I’m hers (as I would have said, were I presented with the opportunity to make a speech). Here are the winners.
Afterward, the lobby was stacked with books and galleys that publishers donated. Some people were filling sacks with them. I took just a few that interested me, including Tess Gerritsen’s next book (Ice Cold), an Alafair Burke (212) and a couple of others.
Up before the crack of dawn the next morning for our return flight. An even faster ride to LaGuardia and smooth sailing all the way. I read Gerritsen’s novel cover-to-cover during the flight and will produce a review in the near future.
Speaking of reviews, Hellnotes published a very nice review of When the Night Comes Down. After a nice paragraph about my story “Knock ’em Dead,” the reviewer concludes: “The savvy writers featured in When the Night Comes Down are skillful tellers of tales. Arch, wise and warped, this collection has much to offer: A savory supernatural sampling of choice works.”
