Left Coast Crime Newsletter
December 7, 2020
This newsletter is going out to all registrants of San Diego 2020 and Albuquerque 2022. San Diego registrants will remain on our newsletter list through the Lefty Nomination period.
To unsubscribe, click the link at the bottom of the newsletter and you will be removed from our list (and will not receive a Lefty Nomination form).
2021 Lefty Awards: The Unconvention
Because of the current extraordinary circumstances, Left Coast Crime will be handling the 2021 Lefty Awards virtually to celebrate books published in 2020. Registrants for the Left Coast Crime Conventions in San Diego and Albuquerque will be able to nominate three titles in each category. Nomination forms will be emailed to all eligible LCC registrants by January 1, 2021. The Lefty Award categories are: Best Mystery Novel, Best Debut Mystery Novel, Best Humorous Mystery Novel, Best Historical Mystery Novel (The Bruce Alexander Memorial).
More information about the Lefty Awards
Meet the Special Guests for Left Coast Crime 2022
Guest of Honor Mick Herron
My name’s Mick Herron, I live in Oxford, England, and I’m delighted to be Left Coast Crime’s Guest of Honour at Albuquerque in 2022.
The books I’ll be coming to talk about are the Slough House novels, a series which began in 2010 with
Slow Horses, and is currently seven books long. Slough House is a department – sort of – of the British secret service, a dismal building on the east side of London where those who’ve messed up their careers are sent to contemplate their misdeeds. Instead of the careers they’d hoped to lead, full of high-risk glamour and Bond-type adventures, they instead get to spend their days mired in soul-destroying, mind-crushingly boring tasks, overseen by the most boorish and bullying of bosses.
Of course, these books are thrillers, so it turns out that excitements can happen to even the most misbegotten of spies. As they do to even the most hapless of authors – an invitation to Left Coast Crime is an excitement indeed. It’s always a pleasure to meet and mingle with readers of crime fiction, and it’ll be a double thrill to do that in Albuquerque – can’t wait!
Guest of Honor Catriona McPherson
I was in Ashland, OR, on my wedding anniversary, celebrating with ice cream and Shakespeare, when Lucinda emailed to ask if I’d be “American Guest of Honour” at Left Coast Crime, Albuquerque. It put the cherry on top of an already lush weekend. Then she applied a bit of gold leaf to the cherry (which, as all Great British Bake Off fans know, is absolutely a thing) by saying Kristopher Zgorski was fan GoH, Kellye Garrett was Toastmaster, and Mick Herron was coming over from the old country to be international honouree.
I went straight out onto Siskiyou Blvd and bought a cactus-print dress for the opening ceremony. I should also have bought some mothballs to store it with, eh? No one could have foreseen the stony, switchback road strewn with burning dumpsters that was to follow. But we’re still on the path. And that’s the main thing.
So let me introduce myself. I’m Catriona McPherson (kuh-TREE-nuh Mc-Rhymes-with-however-you-say-person), recovering academic, serial awards-botherer, proud former national president of Sisters in Crime, and author of: sisteen preposterous historical detective stories set in Scotland in the 1920s and 30s — most recently
The Mirror Dance; eight standalone novels in the sub-genre I like to call “Where’s She Off To Now?”, because there’s so often a woman running away on the jacket – most recently
Strangers at the Gate; and three comedies about a fish-out-of-water Scot in California, fighting crime and kale.
These – the Last Ditch mysteries – are not particularly realistic in terms of plot, but I have been researching them for a decade, ever since I jumped out of my own Scottish waters into a new life in sunny CA. Which is what made it so unexpected, and as amusing as it was astounding, to be named American GoH. I am going to give it my best go. I will put fruit on the same plate as bacon. I will find 65° F a bit chilly. With vigor and fervor, I will endeavor to banish all extra “U”s. Thank you for the honor.
Fan Guest of Honor Kristopher Zgorski
fan
noun
: a person finding excessive joy from a pastime with no rational explanation available or needed. Typically presents as a devoted loyalty undiminished by time. (See also: fanatic, fanboy, fandom)
My fanaticism for crime writing and crime fiction, in particular, began at a young age with the discovery of Encyclopedia Brown. I soon found that books were a place of safety, somewhere I could escape to when the real world was too much to handle. This has remained a truism throughout my life. In the pages of my favorite novels, I could disappear to undiscovered places not found on any map; places like St. Mary Mead or Three Pines. But I could also travel to distant locations on the globe like the Shetland Islands or the Australian Outback. I could be there at any point in history whether it be ancient Egypt, the cusp of one of the major wars, or some less far-flung contemporary moment in time. There I would encounter friends: Hercule Poirot, Blanche White, Charlie Parker, Vera Stanhope, China Bayles, Ian Rutledge, Ari Thor, Starr Carter, Tess Monaghan, Jim Chee, Charlotte McNally, Harry Bosch, Benni Harper, Alvirah Meehan, “Surrender-Not” Banerjee, Sherlock Holmes, Harriet M. Welsch, Matthew Shardlake and countless others. They would welcome me with open arms and take me with them on each new adventure. In their world, good battles evil, wrongs are righted, and hopefully justice prevails.
For this reason, I am beyond thrilled to be the fan guest of honor here at Left Coast Crime Albuquerque. I see myself as an extension of all of you. We are all fans. This is my beloved community of readers, gathered together to celebrate our love of crime writing. Thank you for allowing me to be your stand-in during this Left Coast Crime; I take that honor seriously and hope that you understand that each one of you holds a special place in my life. Let’s make sure that we extol the virtues of reading and have a damn good time while doing so!
Toastmaster Kellye Garrett
Hello from New Jersey, where I’ve spent the last eight months working from home and avoiding large gatherings. It’s actually fitting that the last time I hung out with a large group was the 2020 Left Coast Crime in San Diego, which felt like a family reunion as much as it felt like one of the leading mystery conferences in the U.S.
I’m honored to have been selected Toastmaster for the (now) 2022 Left Coast Crime in New Mexico. It was just two years ago that I was a debut author excited for my first ever award nomination for Best Debut and my first ever conference as an actual, published mystery author. I never knew a casino in Reno, Nevada could feel so much like home. I met friends I’d only known online, authors I’d admired for years, fellow readers who were as obsessed with crime fiction as much as I was. I was, and continue to be, amazed at how warm and welcoming the crime fiction community is. Maybe it’s because we get our angst out in our books?
My book,
Hollywood Homicide, was lucky enough to win the Lefty that year. I wrapped it in so much bubble wrap when I took it home that airport security stopped me because they were sure I was smuggling something illegal. It immediately went on my desk at work as soon as I got home and has been there ever since—until I was finally able to get back in my office. It was the first thing I grabbed when I could. It remains one of the highlights of my life.
I can’t wait to come “home” again for our next conference from April 7-10, 2022. It’ll be a reunion for the ages.
Stay safe everyone and keep reading!
Don’t forget to make notes about all the wonderful books published in 2020 that you’ve read this year so you are ready when your Lefty Nomination Form arrives at the end of this month.
Not sure if you are registered for Albuquerque? Check the
Attendee page for your name.
Lucinda Surber & Stan Ulrich, Southwest Sleuths Co-Chairs
Left Coast Crime 2022: Albuquerque, New Mexico
When: April 7–10, 2022
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 2022 website for more details and to register.
