Left Coast Crime Conference

The Left Coast Crime Conference wrapped up yesterday. Excellent conference with kudos to Christine Goff and Suzanne Proux for putting it all together. I didn’t win The Lefty Award for the best humorous mystery of 2012 (Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder), but it’s an honor to be a finalist. The winners by category were:

The Lefty – Brad Parks, The Girl Next Door

The Bruce Alexander – Catrionia McPherson, Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day

The Rocky – Craig Johnson, As the Crow Flies

The Watson – Rochelle Staab, Brouja Brouhaha

A guest appearance was made by Lou Diamond Phillips to interview guest of honor, Craig Johnson. Craig’s books led to the Longmire television series, and Lou plays the role of Henry in the show.

One of the highlights was the Concealed Gun Fashion Show, sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Here’s author Parnell Hall trying to get a concealed knife out of his lipstick. 

Left Coast Crime Conference Events

The Left Coast Crime Conference is taking place in Colorado Springs March 21-24. I'll be moderating the Meet the New Authors Breakfast and the Meet the Established Authors Breakfast and on a panel of nominees for The Lefty Award for best humorous mystery novel of 2012 and on a Niche Mysteries panel.

Paranormal Mysteries

I have something new in the works—two paranormal mysteries that will be published in the next few months. One is a paranormal geezer-lit mystery. Here’s a preview: In THE BACK WING, Harold McCaffrey, a grieving widower, moves into the Mountain Splendor Retirement Home and finds himself living in the Back Wing with a group of strange residents. This is surpassed only by the snooty people in the Front Wing. Harold makes friends with his fellow Back Wingers, including Bella, who has promise of becoming more than just a friend. Harold discovers that the Back Wing is actually home to aging witches, vampires, werewolves and shape-shifters.  Harold and Bella must use all their normal and extra-normal skills to solve two murders in this very unique retirement community.

Here’s the cover for The Back Wing:

 

The second is a paranormal PI mystery: In THE V V AGENCY, Van and Vanna run a detective agency but clients never see them together for a simple reason. Van shapeshifts into Vanna when he has sex and vice versa. This presents some interesting dilemmas for his/her love life. Van and Vanna take the case of a woman suspected of killing her husband. A dash of Philip Marlowe wrapped in an urban fantasy.

Stay tuned.

The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

As an author of geezer-lit mysteries, I particularly enjoyed reading the novel, The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jona Jonasson. This book is a whimsical romp through the aging process with a mix of crime and flashbacks to some of the most important events and interesting historical characters of the last eighty years. Like Water for Elephants if moves from the current point of view of an aging man back to the adventures of his earlier years. Like Forrest Gump, the protagonist, Allan Karlsson, has interacted with some of the most famous people in recent history. A delight.