Saturday, March 22, 2014

It's Calamari Time For Murder Is Everywhere.



Wow, where did the time go?  There’s only a few hours left until my Saturday post is due and I haven’t had a moment to write a word since striking out from NYC’s JFK airport early Tuesday for Left Coast Crime’s 2014 Calamari mystery convention in Monterey, California.  Monterey is approximately 120 miles south of San Francisco in the heart of some of the most beautiful coastline and fertile agricultural land on earth.  But it’s all been one giant blur to me, punctuated by terrific weather.  Not that I’ve had much of a chance to enjoy it. 


Left Coast Crime conventions are always great fun, but for me this one’s been particularly consuming…as I have been of a batch of homemade cookies offered by the 2014 Bouchercon folk at their hospitality table to anyone signing up for its November 13-16 Murder at the Beach convention in Long Beach.  I think it’s fair to say—from a cookie perspective—that I’ve registered a baker’s dozen number of times.


To give you a taste (not of the cookies) of the sorts of suspicious characters frequenting these conventions, here are my efforts at trying to capture them unaware in their native habitats, but it’s been hard. 

Lefty Nominee and left hand

US Guest of Honor 

Many are just far too wily to surprise. 

Annamaria superior


Others just have an instinct for the camera.

Party Animals

This one I caught trying to beat me at my own game.

Stalker

No matter.  The days have been filled with meeting old friends and new, and basking in gracious honors bestowed upon all of us in the Murder is Everywhere family to share: Cara is the convention’s US Guest of Honor, Cara, Lisa, and I are nominated for the 2014 Calamari Award for Best Mystery in a Foreign Setting, and alum Tim Hallinan is up for The Lefty for 2013’s Best Humorous Mystery Novel.  The awards will be announced later tonight but it really doesn’t matter who wins (honest), because not only do we already feel like winners, we each have plaques to prove it!

Tim, Lisa, and Jeff holding validation of efforts

Besides, it’s hard to let such things go to your head when Cannery Row is literally next door and the Salinas Valley is just up the road.   These were the stomping grounds of a literary master who, though never lucky enough to be honored with a Calamari award nomination, did manage to make a name for himself.  Perhaps you’ve heard of him:  He moved to New York City late in life, lived in two separate apartments on the corner of 72nd Street and Third Avenue, purchased his eyeglasses at E.B. Meyrowitz, and bore the initials “JS.” 


He also happened to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.  That’s him up there with the dark hair giving his Nobel acceptance speech and looking down on his gray-headed, similarly bespectacled, NYC neighbor and lifelong admirer.


Jeff—Saturday


14 comments:

  1. Love the post, and the photos! It was great meeting you Wednesday night at dinner - and I, too, am loving the Calamari Con!

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  2. Counselor, we've just formed a mutual admiration society :). Looking forward to many more great occasions together, Susan.

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  3. Such an honor! Thanks for the photos - kinda felt like I was there. Enjoy your awards ceremony and all the activities surrounding it!!

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    1. Thanks, J&J, and enjoy your up and coming trip to Greece.

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  4. I, the stalker? Perjury! My defense team will present evidence on Monday. In this case, the jury may post their deliberations here at any time.

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    1. My, oh my, Annamaria, guilty conscience have we? There were dozens of other folks in that photo and you assumed I was talking about you? Can't imagine why you'd jump to that conclusion.

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  5. Obviously, Annamaria, you are completely innocent. You are clearly stationary in your own assigned seat, while clearly the real stalker is out of his seat, on his feet, accomplishing the actual feat of stalkerization.

    The jury returns a verdict of not guilty (at least, of THIS crime...)

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  6. Remember, Everett, that there is a "fair and impartial" part to your juror's handbook. :)

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    1. I am fair, Jeff (just look at my picture...), AND impartial: I defend AmA against everyone equally. Don't blame me if you step in front of a lorry, that's between you and the lorry...

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    2. Hmm, Everett, I wonder what possessed you to raise in the same sentence the visual of your "picture" and being run over by a lorry? :)

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  7. I have the best left hand in contemporary literature.

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    1. And, since you only type with four fingers, it's good to see that you put the left hand to good use, rather than just letting it be a no-good lay-about.

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    2. Whatever your left hand is doing, Tim, it's the product if your right brain that we love the best.

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    3. And the cutest cuticles in the business.

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