Today, I'd like to talk about books and auctions. Each year (and I'm sure at most book conventions), auctions are held to benefit charity organizations. A little way of giving back to the community where the event is held. Malice Domestic 30 had both a silent auction and a live auction (which included desserts and coffee - yum!). Last year, I bid at both events and won some things. This year, I visited the silent auction room, but I decided I would only bid at the live auction.
Let's talk about the charity to start - KEEN Greater DC is a non-profit organization which provides one-to-one recreational opportunities for children and young adults with developmental and physical disabilities at no cost to their families and caregivers. Such a worthy cause. The proceeds from the auctions at this Malice will go towards incorporating a new reading and literacy element into the current programs that KEEN already offers. Again, such a wonderful aim! And I understand that at this Malice conference, over $24,000 was donated. Well done everyone!!!
The auctioneers were two lovely authors - Christine Trent and Hank Phillippi Ryan. They both were quite good at getting the audience to 'bid it up'! I won two auctions and was very pleased.
This was the 'Elizabeth George, A Great Deliverance Gift Set', donated by Christine Trent. Since this year was the 30th year of Malice, Christine told us that she wanted to honor that milestone. Elizabeth George's first Inspector Thomas Lynley book, A Great Deliverance, was published in 1988 - 30 years ago. This gift package included both an advance copy and 1st edition of that book - signed by the author. Also a copy of George's latest book in the series (#20), The Punishment She Deserves, also signed. A picture of Elizabeth George from 30 years ago, the current issue of Mystery Scene Magazine with cover and feature article about this author, and a DVD set of the TV adaptation, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. Plus - Christine included a signed copy of her own new series opener, No Cure for the Dead - first in the Florence Nightingale books. Way cool or what??? So excited to win this. More about Christine tomorrow.
The second prize I won was the Guppy Book of the Month Club. The Guppies are a chapter of Sisters in Crime (an organization formed to promote women crime writers). Guppy stands for 'Great-Unpublished-Writer'. And many very well known crime novelists joined when they were still unpublished and remained afterward to encourage and mentor other writers. Hank Phillippi Ryan is still very involved in the Guppies and this 'Club' is one that she brought to the auction.
The Guppies collaborate to offer one or two or even three books a month to the winner. And that's me!!! So, I'll be receiving many books over the course of the next year from authors who are Guppies. And I've decided that I'll include a 'Guppy Book of the Month' feature here on the blog. After receiving each book, I'll do a special post highlighting it and the author - so watch for those - Guppy Book of the Month. Now on to the books that I sent home to Texas - two boxes full!
This picture shows the books that I sent home unsigned. Plus it shows the bag that each attendee received. Some of the books were bought, some came in my bag, and some were given to me. Kensington and Midnight Ink - both publishing houses - did fabulous events/signings/giveaways with a bunch of their authors. I could have brought home a lot more books, but I tried to limit myself. Really, I did! Ha!
Still Life - Louise Penny
A Cold Day in Hell - Lissa Marie Redmond
Fiction Can Be Murder - Becky Clark
Bookmarked For Murder - Marion Moore Hill
Lone Star Lawless - Austin Mystery Writers - Laura Oles
Old News - Ed Ifkovic
Fractured Families - Charlotte Hinger
The Burial Society - Nina Sadowsky
Here we have the 2 stacks of signed books. Great, right? And yes, you are seeing a 2nd copy of A Cold Day in Hell by Lissa Marie Redmond. I got an additional copy for a friend.
What Doesn't Kill You - Aimee Hix
Beyond the Pale - Clare O'Donohue
Room For Doubt - Nancy Cole Silverman
Murder in an Irish Churchyard - Carleen O'Connor
The Silver Gun - L.A. Chandlar
A March to Remember - Anna Loan-Wilsey
A Cold Day in Hell - Lissa Marie Redmond
Read Herring Hunt - V.M. Burns
Murder in the Lincoln White House - C.M. Gleason
Cremains of the Day - Misty Simon
Class Reunions Are Murder - Libby Klein
Death By Eggnog - Alex Erickson
Murder in the Bowery - Victoria Thompson
Murder on Union Square - Victoria Thompson
Hammered Silver - Susan Reiss
Yesterday's News - R.G. Belsky
(this was the new anthology that came out at Malice 30 - got most of the authors with stories included to sign it)
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Tomorrow I'll share some pictures and stories of special people that I met - some authors, some fans, and the cutest attendee. Hope you'll stop by and check them out. And I know this is a lot to take in. I encourage you to bookmark these posts and read them at your leisure. Plus, ask any questions you'd like in the comments.
Loving these posts, Kay. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteGlad you're enjoying them, Cath! Tried to make them a 'window' into the conference. :-)
DeleteWhat fabulous prizes you won! And I'm really interested in Guppy of the Month, so I'll be looking for more information on that. If I wasn't going to Book Expo in a few weeks, I'd be very jealous of you right now, lol. Enjoy your new books!!
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'd love to go to Book Expo one day, but I suspect I'll stick with the mystery conferences. I've already received one book from a 'Guppy'. Will have my first post in a couple of weeks.
DeleteWhat a great haul! That auction sounds great, as does the charity it supports! Great work.
ReplyDeleteI was pleased with the things I won, but I was even more pleased with where my contribution was going. :-)
DeleteThese are mostly new authors to me, so looking forward to the reviews that result. I think that Elizabeth George's A Great Deliverance is one of the best mysteries I have ever read. I like the characters in the series, but the later ones have just gotten too long for me.
ReplyDeleteTracy, I haven't kept up with Elizabeth George's books for a while. Can't think where I left off. However, I was very excited to get the first book and all the rest.
DeleteWhat great posts this week! I'm living vicariously through your experiences each time you go to a book convention!
ReplyDeleteI love Hank Phillippi Ryan and Christine Trent (I've read 3 in her previous series about the female embalmer). I read The Burial Society earlier this year and it was a somewhat confusing plot for me, though a good story. Beyond the Pale and A Cold Day in Hell went right on my BOLO list :)
Congrats on the prizes, too-- great luck!
Thanks, Rita, and so happy to see you around again! Good to know about the books you've read on this list. I really liked Christine Trent and more about her tomorrow.
DeleteFun! Fun! Look at all those books. I love it.
ReplyDeleteI know! Really fun, right? I've got lots of swag goodies for the group at the June meeting!
DeleteI did indeed read these posts at my 'leisure.' I sat down a few minutes ago to read them all at once. Kind of like binge watching. Ha! Hadn't heard of most of these writers either. I love it that you bid in the auctions, and won!! So much fun. I was under the impression that somewhere along the line, before you went, you mentioned the author of Snowblind, Ragnar Jonasson was going to be there. When I saw the short story collection, Snowbound, I realized that is probably what you had mentioned, perhaps? Would the books of Malice Domestic have been described as 'cozies' back in the 1990s?
ReplyDeleteYou know, you're right about Ragnar Jonasson - he was signed up to go and then his name disappeared from the list. Think something must have come up and he had to change his plans. Snowbound was a collection that one of the authors that did the 'Malice Go Round' told us about and I thought I would pick it up.
DeleteYes, and a lot of the books are still considered 'cozies'. I kind of differentiate in my mind between 'traditional' and 'cozy'. I don't consider Agatha Christie books as cozies, but I do consider them traditional. Cozies to me are more about amateur detectives that have hobbies or a theme or something. Louise Penny's books are 'traditional' but not 'cozies' because they have a definite police procedural viewpoint. Plus, there are just so many more aspects of the mystery genre these days. And not all the authors that attend Malice are 'cozy' writers. The awards do have certain 'rules' or 'guidelines'. As I said, more aspects and subsets.
That's exactly what I mean as a cozy, too. Someone runs a dog grooming business and tries to find out whodunit. My big gripe with too many of them is that the heroine almost always did something stupid. Put herself in trouble instead of getting help. I think over time I have come to like police procedurals the best of all. And I love how many there are from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. I suppose they would be 'traditional' since they were written so long ago before there were any 'aspects and subsets.'
DeleteOh wow, so happy you won those prizes! You are going to have reading material for all summer :) I don't even know which book I would start with first. I think I'd be a bit overwhelmed (in a good way of course!).
ReplyDeleteI know. Lots and lots of fun reading. And, yes, overwhelmed is right. I just found places for all of them on my bookshelves yesterday. :-)
DeleteThat is awesome! I feel like you must be in book paradise with all of these :) I’m going to be looking forward to your Guppy book feature! How fun! I am looking forward to all of your reviews already!!
ReplyDeleteGlad you'll watch for the 'Guppy' posts. I'll just be highlighting the books in those, but will also write my thoughts as I read the books. Hopefully sooner rather than later. LOL
DeleteWow, what an awesome haul! New books are always fun, no matter how they come into your life :)
ReplyDeleteThat's true. These were a nice mix.
DeleteOh how fun and what a haul! I love the cause the auction supported and those are some impressive auctioneers! I read the Elizabeth George series years and years ago and enjoyed them though I did lose focus with the series after awhile.
ReplyDeleteYes, I've been behind on the series too. Can't think where I left off. However, I plan to just go ahead and read the new one I got and not worry about the ones in between.
DeleteNice haul, but the guppy book of the month sounds fantastic!!!
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it sound fun to get those? I was so happy to win it!
DeleteLook at all those great books! I am loving your posts about Malice, Kay.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Wendy!
DeleteWinner, winner! Not just the auctions, but the great haul of signed and unsigned books. My mom is reading the latest Elizabeth George (what a chunkster!) and now I'm interested in giving the series a try. Not sure why, since I have several series that I'm sooooo far behind in, but I'm curious so we'll see. I still have all those Deborah Crombie books on my shelf that you sent me many years ago... And then there's Elly Griffiths to catch up on. Sigh. :) Anyhow, congratulations on your winnings!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I haven't read all the Elizabeth George books. That's a series that I read faithfully for a long time and then others came along and I got distracted. I've heard the newest of good though.
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