Rocky Mountain High Jinks News

January 13, 2025

Our thoughts are with all of our mystery community family suffering through the disastrous fires in Southern California. The fire crews in California are some of the best in the world but they can’t fight fires of this magnitude alone. We are grateful for fire crews traveling from other states (including our own state of New Mexico) as well as Mexico and Canada, risking their lives to fight to control the fires. It’s heartening to learn of individuals and businesses offering free food, lodging, and transportation to the evacuees and their animals. We know it’s hard to focus on anything else right now, but hope you will join us in celebrating the 2025 Lefty Award Nominees.

Lefty Award Nominees

Our thanks to all who submitted their nomination forms for the best mystery/crime/thriller novels published in 2024. The Lefty Awards will be voted on at the convention and presented at a banquet on Saturday, March 15, at the Westin Denver Downtown. We are delighted to announce the Lefty nominees.

Lefty Nominees for Best Humorous Mystery Novel

Ellen Byron, A Very Woodsy Murder (Kensington Books)
Jennifer J. Chow, Ill-Fated Fortune (St. Martin’s Paperbacks)
A.J. Devlin, Bronco Buster (NeWest Press)
Catriona McPherson, Scotzilla (Severn House)
Rob Osler, Cirque du Slay (Crooked Lane Books)
Richard Osman, We Solve Murders (Pamela Dorman Books / Viking)

Lefty Nominees for Best Historical Mystery Novel
(Bill Gottfried Memorial) for books covering events before 1970

John Copenhaver, Hall of Mirrors (Pegasus Crime)
Robert Dugoni, A Killing on the Hill (Thomas & Mercer)
Dianne Freeman, An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder (Kensington Books)
Laurie R. King, The Lantern’s Dance (Bantam Books)
Laura Jensen Walker, Death of a Flying Nightingale (Level Best Books / Historia)

Lefty Nominees for Best Debut Mystery Novel

Peter Malone Elliott, Blue Ridge (Level Best Books)
Cindy Goyette, Obey All Laws (Level Best Books)
Audrey Lee, The Mechanics of Memory (CamCat Books)
Jennifer K. Morita, Ghosts of Waikiki (Crooked Lane Books)
K.T. Nguyen, You Know What You Did (Dutton)

Lefty Nominees for Best Mystery Novel
(not in other categories)

Claire Booth, Home Fires (Severn House)
Margot Douaihy, Blessed Water (Zando, Gillian Flynn Books)
Rob Hart, Assassins Anonymous (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Leslie Karst, Molten Death (Severn House)
James L’Etoile, Served Cold (Level Best Books)
Duane Swierczynski, California Bear (Mulholland Books)

Good-bye to Seattle Shakedown

Now that the Lefty nomination period is finished, those of you who attended LCC 2024 but are not registered for LCC 2025 will be removed from the Rocky Mountain High Jinks newsletter distribution list. If you are not sure whether you are registered for LCC 2025, please check the Denver website:
Denver Attendee Page: https://leftcoastcrime.org/2025/Attendees.html
Denver Registration Page: https://leftcoastcrime.org/2025/Registration.html

Book Room Information

Author, Author! specializes in online sales, special events, books for writers, and books for authors. Author, Author! will handle sales in the convention Book Room of traditionally published books — in general, titles returnable at a regular discount through major publishers or distributors — as well as consignment sales.

Traditionally Published Authors
If you would like some of your titles stocked in the convention Book Room, you MUST submit a list of up to THREE titles on this Author survey. The DEADLINE to submit the survey is Friday, January 31, 2025. (If Author, Author! cannot obtain your titles, they will let you know and you will need to use the consignment option described below.)

Consignment Sales
Author, Author! will also be handling Consignment Sales for authors who publish through alternate avenues. Consignment authors must bring or ship their own books to the convention and fill out this Consignment Agreement by email by February 28, 2025. (Email & phone number on Consignment Agreement for questions.)

Convention Updates

Panel Placement
The registration deadline for priority panel placement was December 31, 2024. Some panel spots are still available. Panels are scheduled from noon Thursday through noon Sunday. Authors attending the full convention have a much greater chance of receiving a panel assignment. Authors were requested to let us know prior to December 31 if unable to attend certain days. If you haven’t done that yet, please send us an email. Our panel team is currently creating the panels, and panel assignments will be sent out in early February.

Meet the New Authors Breakfast
Calling all authors who have a debut mystery/crime novel first published between January 1, 2024, and March 16, 2025, and did not present at the LCC 2024 Meet the New Author Breakfast. You are eligible to present at the LCC 2025 Meet the New Authors Breakfast, Friday, March 14, 2025. If you have not yet received an invitation from Mike Befeler, please contact him at mikebef@aol.com.

Other Opportunities for Authors
After the panels have been announced, we will begin taking requests for other events like Author Speed-Dating, Author-Hosted Tables, and Author-Reader Connections. Watch your newsletters for information about signing up for these events when it is time. (We do not accept requests in advance.)

Advertising in the Program Book

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 January 31, 2025.
Details and Advertising Form

Writing Workshop

Left Coast Crime will host a Writing Workshop on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, the day before the convention begins, at the convention hotel, Westin Denver Downtown.

      9:00 – 11:30 AM: Morning Session with Z.S. Diamante
      11:30 AM – 1:00 PM: Lunch Break (on your own)
      1:00 – 3:30 PM: Afternoon Session with David Heska Wanbli Weiden

You can register for the full day including both workshops or choose just the morning or afternoon session.
      Single session: $52.80 (Denver’s altitude)
      Both sessions: $100.00 (altitude of Kenosha Pass)

Z.S. Diamante: Using Social Media To Promote Your Books
Whether you’re a debut author trying to come out the gates swinging, or you have a great backlist to offer readers, the time to start selling books via social media is now. Come learn the ins and outs of different social media platforms and how to sell loads of books! Join award-winning author Z.S. Diamanti in this hands-on and interactive workshop where we’ll develop a plan and strategy for your social media presence that not only gets you in front of new users, but helps you sell books.

Z.S. Diamanti is the award-winning author of the Stone & Sky series, an epic fantasy adventure, and Guard in the Garden, the first book in the Fables of Finlestia cozy fantasy series. He went to college forever and has far too many pieces of paper on his wall. He is a USAF veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom and worked in ministry for over 10 years before pursuing creative endeavors full-time. He and his wife live in Colorado with their four children, where they enjoy hikes, camping, and tabletop games.
Z.S. Diamante’s Website

David Heska Wanbli Weiden: Compelling Conversations, Great Stories: Strategies and Techniques for Dialogue and Plot
Improving your dialogue is the quickest and easiest way to take your writing to the next level. In this seminar, we’ll examine techniques used by writers and playwrights for crafting effective dialogue. We’ll examine the purpose of dialogue; using conflict and tension in speech; the use of subtext, action, and emotion beats; and strategies for using internal monologue in dialogue scenes. We’ll also examine plot and narrative structure, and techniques for creating compelling storylines from screenwriters, authors, and literary theorists.

David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, is the author of the national bestseller Winter Counts (Ecco, 2020), which won the Lefty Award for Best Debut Novel (and numerous other awards) and was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. The novel is included in Time magazine’s list of the 100 best mystery and thriller novels of all time. Weiden is also the author of short stories and nonfiction. He’s the series editor of Native Edge, an imprint of the University of New Mexico Press specializing in Indigenous literature. Weiden received the PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship and is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from MacDowell, Ucross, Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, Sewanee, and Tin House. He was the Indigenous Visiting Artist in Residence at Brown University in spring 2024. Weiden received his MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, his law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He’s professor of English and Native American and Indigenous Studies at Stony Brook University and also serves on the faculty of the Cedar Crest Pan-European MFA Program. He lives in New York and Colorado with his family.
David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s Website

Writing Workshop Registration

Note: Online registration closes at 4:00 PM on Monday, March 10, 2025. Onsite registration will be available.

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 Room. Other options include sponsoring one of our Guests of Honor or supporting Left Coast Crime by sponsoring products such as the convention book bag or name badge holder.

Please email Lucinda Surber if you are interested in learning more about our sponsorship opportunities.

Books for Book Bags

We are happy to accept crime fiction and non-fiction books for distribution to attendees in our book bags. There is no charge, but you will need to ship the books to arrive in Denver by March 1, 2025. We accept any quantity of books, but prefer not to have more than 200 copies of a single title; multiple titles are recommended if you would like to place a book in every bag. In order to make book distribution work for both the participants (who will love receiving your books) and the booksellers (who will plan to bring different books to sell), we ask that you provide the title(s) and number of books you would like to donate.

Please email Lucinda Surber if you are interested in learning more about donating books for our book bags.

Left Coast Crime 2026

San Francisco Schemin’, the 36th Left Coast Crime convention, will be held February 26 – March 1, 2026, in San Francisco, California, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco.

Our Guests of Honor are authors Robin Burcell and Kwei Quartey. Randall Brandt is our Fan Guest of Honor and author Leslie Karst will be our Toastmaster.

The historic San Francisco Cable Car stops right outside the Hyatt, the Presidio Go Shuttle provides free trips to the Presidio National Park, and the Embarcadero BART station is steps away. The 1898 Ferry Building is right across the street from the Hyatt. The Ferry Building Marketplace is packed with restaurants and shops. From the Port of San Francisco you can catch a ferry to Treasure Island, Angel Island, Alcatraz, Jack London Square in Oakland, and many other destinations.

The Registration Price is $299 through March 17, 2025, the close of LCC Denver.

More information about LCC 2026 & Online Registration