That was a fun trip!

The Malice Domestic convention was fun and exhausting! I didn't win the Agatha, but am so gratified, hearing from all the people who said they voted for me. My signing was really, really fun! One of the nine Guppies nominated brought home the teapot--Leslie Budewitz for her non-fiction legal writers' companion. There's a nice picture of her on facebook.

So many lovely things happened to me, I don't know where to begin. Krista Davis gave me a tiny teapot, just in case I didn't get another one. Good thinking, Krista!

At my signing, I met brand new readers and fans. One gal had already ready CHOKE and told me what her favorite part was. That warmed those heart cockles!

I tried to get some pictures of fellow Guppies on Friday, but they're all pretty fuzzy. Our own Hank Phillippi Ryan interviewing Dana Cameron. 

I had a great time hanging out with Dru Ann Love and her coterie in the bar in between panels and things.

The panel of nominees for Best Short Story, including Krista and Daryl Wood Gerber (2nd and 3rd from left), and Roberta Isleib on the right, moderated by Barb Goffman. 

Two shots of the Saturday Guppy lunch:

I had the very best people at my table for the Saturday banquet. Bonnie Steven's husband, Dennis, got a bottle of wine for the table to toast me right before the announcements.

Sue Evans is across the table, then Lynn Farris's husband and Lynn. Lynn Farris wrote the five-star review that appeared in the Malice nominee program. She and her family live in Costa Rica!

This is my daughter, Jessica, Kathleen Owens, and Anna Castle.

The Farrises and author Janice Hamrick.

Here's the complete list of nominees and Award winners.

Best Novel:
The Real Macaw by Donna Andrews (Minotaur)
The Diva Haunts the House by Krista Davis (Berkley)
Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet (Minotaur)
* Three-Day Town by Margaret Maron (Grand Central Publishing)
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Best First Novel:
Dire Threads by Janet Bolin (Berkley)
Choke by Kaye George (Mainly Murder Press)
* Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry (Crown)
Who Do, Voodoo? by Rochelle Staab (Berkley)
Tempest in the Tea Leaves by Kari Lee Townsend (Berkley)

Best Non-fiction:
* Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure by Leslie Budewitz (Linden)
Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks by John Curran (Harper)
On Conan Doyle: Or, The Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda (Princeton University Press)
Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel by A. B. Emrys (McFarland)
The Sookie Stackhouse Companion by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

Best Short Story:
* "Disarming" (PDF) by Dana Cameron, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - June 2011
"Dead Eye Gravy" by Krista Davis, Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology (Wildside Press)
"Palace by the Lake" by Daryl Wood Gerber, Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology (Wildside Press)
"Truth and Consequences" by Barb Goffman, Mystery Times Ten (Buddhapuss Ink)
"The Itinerary" by Roberta Isleib, MWA Presents the Rich and the Dead (Grand Central Publishing)

Best Children's/Young Adult:
Shelter by Harlan Coben (Putnam)
* The Black Heart Crypt by Chris Grabenstein (Random House)
Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby (Scholastic Press)
The Wizard of Dark Street by Shawn Thomas Odyssey (EgmontUSA)
The Code Busters Club, Case #1: The Secret of the Skeleton Key by Penny Warner (EgmontUSA)

Best Historical Novel:
* Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)
Murder Your Darlings by J.J. Murphy (Signet)
Mercury's Rise by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)
Troubled Bones by Jeri Westerson (Minotaur)
A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper)