Rocky Mountain High Jinks News
December 21, 2024
Happy Winter Solstice!
As we experience the longest night of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are eager to celebrate more sunlight every day while waiting for Spring, and Left Coast Crime in March!
Welcome to all the new registrants since our previous newsletter.
This newsletter is going out to all registrants of Seattle 2024 and Denver 2025. Seattle registrants will remain on our newsletter list through the Lefty Nomination period in mid-January.
2025 Lefty Awards
We hope you have been making notes about all the wonderful books published in 2024 that you’ve read this year so you are ready when your Lefty Nomination Form arrives at the end of December. The Lefty categories are:
- Best Historical Mystery Novel (The Bill Gottfried Memorial), covering events before 1970
- Best Humorous Mystery Novel
- Best Debut Mystery Novel
- Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories)
Triage note: Debut books go into the Debut Mystery Novel category, regardless of other factors. Funny books that are not debuts, go into the Humorous Mystery Novel category, even if historical. Historicals set before 1970 go into the Historical Mystery Novel category. Anything else goes into the final Best Mystery Novel category.
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.)
Registration for LCC 2025: Denver, Colorado
The registration fee for Rocky Mountain High Jinks increases on December 31, 2024, so remind your friends and relations who have not yet registered!
Note to Potential Panelists: Register by December 31 for priority panel consideration. Panels are scheduled from noon Thursday through noon Sunday. Authors attending the full convention have a much greater chance of receiving a panel assignment. If you are unable to attend certain days, please let us know before the priority panel placement deadline of December 31.
Not sure if you are registered? Check the Denver Attendee page
Registration and More Info
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.
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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. 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
