Murder’s a Beach Newsletter: October 2019

Meet The Team: Introducing our Registrar and Treasurer

Kathleen Krevat, LCC 2020 Registrar

Kathy is the one many of you have dealt with in registering for the conference or when you've had questions about the event. Besides being super organized and amazing at her LCC work, she is published under two names: Kathy Krevat and Kathy Aarons.

As Aarons she is the author of the national bestselling Chocolate Covered Mystery series by Berkley Prime Crime. Death is Like a Box of Chocolates was selected as a Top Book of 2014 by the San Diego Union Tribune. Her second series (under her own name) is the Gourmet Cat Mysteries from Lyrical Press which is about a single mom who makes gourmet cat food, taste tested by her cat Trouble, and gets involved with solving mysteries. The three titles are: The Trouble with Murder, The Trouble with Truth, and The Trouble with Talent.

Kathy grew up in rural Pennsylvania, attended Carnegie Mellon University, and moved to New York City where she built her career in public relations and met her husband. They relocated to California where she became one of “those” moms: running the PTA, fundraising for school foundations, creating costumes for youth theater, building puppets, and cheering on her daughters in hundreds of swim meets and soccer and basketball games. She began writing when her youngest daughter attended school five days a week and pursued publishing more seriously when her oldest daughter went off to college.

Kathy has been a tireless advocate for arts education for youth, serving on the board for Playwrights Project and volunteering for the CCA Writers’ Conference, the only free writing conference for high school students in the US. She was the founding president of the local chapter of Sisters in Crime. She never seems to be able to say no to volunteering for a worthy cause — which may explain how her friends talked her into this position. Visit her at www.kathykrevat.com.

Corey Lynn Fayman, LCC 2020 Treasurer

“A powerful new voice on the crime-fiction scene” (Clarion ForeWord Reviews), Corey Lynn Fayman has made a career of avoiding the sunlight in his hometown of San Diego, California, where he’s done hard time as a keyboard player for local bands, a sound designer for the world-famous Old Globe Theatre, and an interactive designer for organizations both corporate and sundry. Armed with a B.A. in Creative Writing from UCLA and an M.A. in Educational Technology form SDSU, he’s also taught interactive design courses at various colleges and universities in Southern California. His adventures working for the infamous Internet startup MP3.com, along with a warped sense of literary ambition, led him to conceive of the character of Rolly Waters, the guitar-playing detective first featured in the San Diego Book Awards finalist Black’s Beach Shuffle. Unduly encouraged by this early success, or perhaps from a personal need for symbolic revenge against guitar playing show-offs, he set about writing a second Rolly Waters Mystery, Border Field Blues, winner of the Genre Award at the 2013 Hollywood Book Festival. Desert City Diva, the third novel in the series, was the bronze-award winner in Foreword Reviews 2015 Indiefab Book of the Year Awards.

Unlike his hard-rocking protagonist, Corey claims he can only knock back a couple of beers before needing to lie down and take a nap. He’s been married to the same woman for more years than either of them probably expected, aided by a shared love for improvised driving adventures and an equally arid sense of humor.

He is a founding member of the San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime and has served as both membership chair and VP. We managed to rope him into helping us keep track of our budget and handle our finances, for which we are very grateful (because nobody else wanted to do it!). See his website, Sunburned Fedora, for more info on his books.

The Book Room Will Delight

The Left Coast Crime Book Room provides a convenient place for attendees to purchase books by their favorite authors.

Book Room Hours
Thursday: 9:00 AM–6:00 PM
Friday: 9:00 AM–6:00 PM
Saturday: 9:00 AM–6:00 PM
Sunday: 9:00 AM–1:00 PM

This year we will have FOUR booksellers for you to find some great books. In this newsletter we will highlight two of them (you’ll hear about the others in a future newsletter).

Mysterious Galaxy

In addition to being the Fan Guest of Honor, this bookstore will be dealing with all of the books by authors presenting at the conference. Founded in 1992, Mysterious Galaxy is an independent genre bookstore specializing in mystery and suspense, science fiction, fantasy, romance, and horror. Mysterious Galaxy received the Raven Award from Mystery Writers of America in 2013. Their mission is to continue to be a part of a community of readers and writers for as long as there are books to be sold, authors to host, and a variety of ways to share our passion for reading and books.

Mysterious Galaxy will be handling the majority of sales of books published by traditional publishing houses available at industry standard terms of discount and returnability.

Mysterious Galaxy will also handle consignment sales for the authors who publish their works through alternate avenues that are not available at industry standard terms of discount or returnability. Authors will need to bring or ship their own books to the convention. Please email Jackie Jou at jackie@mystgalaxy.com to request consignment policy terms and materials. Consignment titles must have a price listed on the book or a price sticker for those books that do not have a listed price or a different price than listed on the books. Consignments are accepted at the rate of 60% for the author and 40% to the bookseller. At the end of the convention authors will need to pick up any unsold books.

James Keeline, Bookseller

A specialist in children’s series books, this local vintage bookseller will be on hand with some of the books you remember from your childhood. Did you start reading mysteries because you loved Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden or Judy Bolton? These series and more will be available in collectible copies. In addition, James will bring a selection of used mystery novels, many first printings, signed or limited from many major authors. If you collect a particular author or series and have a want list, bring it to the conference.

Questions about the Book Room? Email Maryelizabeth Yturralde, Book Room Chair.

We’ll tell you more about our book room later, but for now just now that it’s going to be so much fun, it’s criminal!

Team 2020
Lisa Brackmann
Kim Keeline
Maryelizabeth Yturralde

Lefty Awards

The Left Coast Crime “Lefty” Awards are fan awards voted by attendees at each Left Coast Crime convention. Left Coast Crime 2020, “Murder’s a Beach,” will be presenting four Lefty Awards at the Awards Banquet on Saturday, March 14, 2020. A ballot listing the official nominees is given to each registrant when they check in at the convention, and final voting takes place at the convention.

Registrants of the 2019 and 2020 Left Coast Crime conventions will be able to nominate three titles in each Lefty Award category. Nominations will be accepted in early January for the four 2020 Lefty Awards:

Best Mystery Novel
Best Debut Mystery Novel
Best Humorous Mystery Novel
Best Historical Mystery Novel (The Bruce Alexander Memorial), covering events before 1970

To be eligible, titles must have been published for the first time in the United States or Canada during 2019, in book or ebook format. (If published in other countries before 2019, a book is still eligible if it meets the US or Canadian publication requirement.)

It’s time to start making a list of all your favorite books published in 2019!
Nomination forms will be emailed to all 2019 and 2020 LCC registrants in late December. The Lefty Award nominees will be announced on January 13, 2020. Final voting for the Lefty Awards will be by paper ballot at the convention in San Diego.

Questions about the Lefty Awards? Email Awards Co-Chairs Lucinda Surber & Stan Ulrich

Sponsorship

Left Coast Crime encourages organizations to sponsor a variety of events such as the Opening Reception, the Awards Banquet, the Friday “Meet the New Authors” breakfast, the Saturday breakfast, and the hospitality suite. Other options include sponsoring one of our Guests of Honor or supporting Left Coast Crime by sponsoring items such as the convention book bag. Please email Lucinda Surber if you are interested in learning more about our sponsorship opportunities.

Advertising

Attention Authors! Please encourage your publisher to advertise in the Left Coast Crime Program Book. There are sizes and prices for every budget. Don’t be left out! The deadline for reserving ad space is February 1, 2020. Details and Ad Form

Note: LCC 2020 San Diego Newsletters are also sent to LCC 2019 Vancouver registrants through the Lefty nomination period ending in January 2020. If you are not sure whether you are registered for LCC 202o, check the San Diego Attendee page! Questions about registration? Email Registrar Kathy Krevat.

Left Coast Crime 2021: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Registration Is Now Open!
When: April 8–11, 2021
Where: Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
Guest of Honor: Mick Herron
Guest of Honor: Catriona McPherson
Fan Guest of Honor: Kristopher Zgorski
Toastmaster: Kellye Garrett
Ghost of Honor: Tony Hillerman
Visit the LCC 2021 website for more details and to register.