The envelope, please......

It’s that Anthony time of year.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the process (and until this year, I wasn’t ;-) it works thusly:

Nominations open on February 28 and close April 30. Anyone who attended the most recent Bouchercon – Indianapolis - and/or is registered to attend San Francisco, is eligible to make up to five nominations in each of five categories, from books published the previous year: Best Novel; Best First Novel; Best Paperback Original; Best Short Story; Best Critical Nonfiction Work.

The by-laws were changed last year, and the Special Service Award is no longer a competitive award. It’s decided by each year’s organizing committee whether to give the award, and to whom. We'll have more on that topic a bit closer to Bouchercon.

As for this year’s nominations, we’re changing the process a bit. We’re going to do as much of this by email as possible, to make it easier for you and to increase participation. Here’s what’s going to happen:

If you attended Indy and/or are registered for San Francisco, we’ll send an email to the address we have on file sometime during the next couple of weeks, letting you know about the nominating process. (NOTE: If we don't have an email address for you, you will of course receive a paper ballot.) One of three things will happen:

• The email will go through, in which case we’ll follow up around February 28 with an email ballot.



• The email will bounce, in which case you’ll receive a paper ballot sometime between February 28 and about March 10 or so.



• You'd prefer the pleasure of receiving snail mail from us, so you’ll respond to the email by telling us that, and we’ll be happy to send you a paper ballot.
  

The finalists in each category will be announced at least 60 days prior to Bouchercon. Voting will take place in San Francisco, and the Anthonys (they’re really gonna be cool) will be awarded on Sunday, October 17 at our Awards Brunch.

So, there you have it – I can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

We have a winner!

Actually, we have two winners.

People who attended Bouchercon Indianapolis had the opportunity to send in a special registration form prior to December 31, to be eligible to win one free night at the Hyatt Regency.

The official drawing was held a couple of days ago, by me and our Fearless Treasurer Janine, with help from Chief of Staff Sam, who acted as Official Observer and Enforcer ;-)

So, without further ado, our winners are - drum roll, please.......

Martha Bowman

and

Tina Karelson

Congratulations, ladies!

We're crafty, yes we are....

One of the best parts of chairing Bouchercon is getting to know people I might not otherwise meet. The other day I had the pleasure of having lunch with the wonderful Camille Minichino.

We talked about how much fun the craft room was in Indianapolis - so much fun, that we're going to continue the tradition in San Francisco.

There are those who, when they think of crafts, think of Miss Marple-type lades sitting in a rocking chair with their knitting needles.....that's not quite accurate. Click below to see what I mean (from a great George Romero movie):

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=141275

I don't know about you, but when I'm reading Michael Connelly, I want to listen to some great jazz. Whenever I read a Spenser novel, I want to a) go to Boston and b) cook something yummy. Which says something about the power of Robert B. Parker's writing, because I hate cooking and have big plans to turn my kitchen into a walk-in closet.

So I think it'll be a blast for people to be able to actually make the things that their favorite characters make, with the authors who've written the books.

Camille is running the show, and talks about it today on her blog, Killer Hobbies.

If I get brave, I might actually try to make something my very own self ;-)