Thursday, February 25: Femme Fatale
AGATHA
by Deborah Elliott-Upton
The 2009 nominees for Malice Domestic’s Agatha Awards have been announced. The awards named in honor of Agatha Christie are given to Best Novel, Best First Novel, Best Nonfiction, Best Short Story and Best Children’s/Young Adult for the “traditional mystery,” best typified by the works of Agatha Christie as well as others.
Since we of Criminal Brief are concerned mainly with the short mystery, I am pleased to announce that the nominees for Agatha’s Best Short Story are:
“Femme Sole” by Dana Cameron,Boston Noir (Akashic Books)
“Handbaskets, Drawers and a Killer Cold” by Kaye George, Crooked ezine
“The Worst Noel” by Barb Goffman, The Gift of Murder (Wolfmont Press)
“On the House” by Hank Phillippi Ryan, Quarry (Level Best Books)
“Death Will Trim Your Tree” by Elizabeth Zelvin, The Gift of Murder (Wolfmont Press)
While I congratulate all the nominees, I would be remiss not to mention there are two nominees I am especially proud from the anthology benefitting the United States Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program.1 The Gift of Murder published by Wolfmont Press is the brainchild of Tony Burton and was edited by our own John M. Floyd.
“All I did was pick what I thought were the prettiest flowers in the field and put them on display for others to see,” John said. “I was glad to find out, though, that the folks who chose the nominees agreed with me on some of them.”
Tony Burton, CEO of Wolfmont Press, said, “Each of our Toys for Tots anthologies contained notable stories from talented authors, and The Gift Of Murder is no different. We were blessed enough this time for the right people to notice two of our stories, and thus we have Agatha nominees from two excellent authors: Barb Goffman and Elizabeth Zelvin. I hope one of them wins, but in the end, it is the kids who benefitted from the anthologies, who were the biggest winners.”
The best thing about hearing who’s nominated is knowing when you’re reading these authors, you’ll be reading some of the best mystery authors around. I can’t wait to get my hands on the other stories. This is going to be fun. I mean who doesn’t love an Agatha Christie type mystery?
- I am also quite partial since I, too have a story in The Gift of Murder — but mine is a bit too hard-boiled to be considered for an Agatha. [↩]
Congratulations to you and John!
I am rooting for ‘The Worst Noel’. I just LOVE that title!!
Deborah,
Thanks for the props on THE GIFT OF MURDER. The collection is a great one, and John did an excellent job of selecting and editing the stories.
Tony
Slave driver!
Thanks for the shout out, Deborah, and to Tony and John for their kind words and for putting the book out. All the authors worked together to sell a lot of copies, which hopefully helped a bunch of kids have a brighter holiday this past December. And thank you, Lissa. I had a good time writing the story. You can read it if you want – for a limited period of time, it’s up on my website.
Thanks to all for their kind words. Believe me, working with those 19 talented authors — and with Tony Burton — was an honor and a pleasure. And sincere congratulations to Barb and Liz for the nominations. Good luck to you both!
Thanks, Deborah. My story, “Death Will Trim Your Tree,” is up on my website too. And on Thursday March 25, links to all five Agatha-nominated stories will appear on Poe’s Deadly Daughters at http://www.poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com.
I’ve sasid it before—I gotta get that book! And I agree that “The Worst Noel” is an award-worthy title! (There should be a literary award for best title!!!)