After reviewing all the recommendations, tallying the numbers and reviewing material, we are pleased to announce the nominees.
Best Novel – Legend
Ken Bruen, Cross
Ken Bruen, Priest
James Lee Burke, Tin Roof Blowdown
Laura Lippman, What The Dead Know
Ian Rankin, The Naming of the Dead
James Reasoner, Dust Devils
Best Novel – Rising Star
Sean Doolittle, The Cleanup
Charlie Huston, The Shotgun Rule
Larry Karp, The Ragtime Kid
Rick Mofina, A Perfect Grave
PJ Parrish, A Thousand Bones
Steven Torres, Concrete Maze
Best Novel – New Voice
Megan Abbott, Queenpin
Declan Burke, The Big O
Allan Guthrie, Hard Man
Steve Mosby, The 50/50 Killer
JD Rhoades, Safe and Sound
Duane Swierczynski, The Blonde
Best Publisher
Bitter Lemon Press
Europa Editions
Hard Case Crime
Poisoned Pen Press
Text Publishing
Best Cover
Robert Terrall - Kill Now, Pay Later
Cover painted by Robert McGinnis
Gil Brewer - The Vengeful Virgin
Cover painted by Greg Manchess
George Axelrod - Blackmailer
Cover painted by Glen Orbik
Allan Guthrie - Hard Man
Design: Vaughn Andrews. Photo: (c) Corbis.
Nick Stone - Mr. Clarinet
Designed by Emily Cavett Taff
Best Editor
Charles Ardai, Hard Case Crime
Stacia Decker, Harcourt
Alison Janssen, Bleak House
Barbara Peters, Poisoned Pen Press
Dave Thompson, Busted Flush
Special Services to the Industry
Daniel Hatadi - Crimespace
Ali Karim – Shots, The Rap Sheet
Graham Powell - Crimespot
J. Kingston Pierce – The Rap Sheet
Maddy Van Hertburger – 4MA
Sarah Weinman – Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind
Best Short Story On The Web
The Leap by Charles Ardai - Hardluck Stories
Breaking in the New Guy by Stephen Blackmoore - Demolition
Amphetamine Logic by Nathan Cain - Thuglit
The Switch by Lyman Feero -Thuglit
Seven Days of Rain by Chris F. Holm - Demolition
Shared Losses by Gerri Leen - Shred of Evidence
The Living Dead by Amra Pajalic - Spinetingler
Convivum by Kelli Stanley - Hardluck Stories
At some point, I may post some of my observations from going through this process. For now, I’ll just say that for the most part, straight voting was considered, other than when there was a tie, in which case editorial input was given final say.
Because of nominations for stories from Spinetingler, the short story category proved most difficult. I didn’t want to exclude these authors from consideration, as that didn’t seem fair, but it also seemed unbalanced to create a second category exclusively for Spinetingler stories.
Some recommendations couldn’t be considered because the guidelines weren’t followed.
What Happens Now
Voting is open. ONE E-MAIL PER PERSON ONLY. You cannot send another vote in, even for a different category – multiple votes from the same sender will not be counted. Take the time to consider your votes carefully. E-mails must be received by December 30, 2007 - authors, if you're putting this in your newsletter make sure you are clear about the deadline for voting. Many recommendations were not considered in the first round because they were sent late.
You may vote for one winner in each category as long as all votes are submitted in one e-mail. Simply state the category and your chosen winner for each of the eight categories. Any votes that contain more than one selection per category may be removed from consideration completely. No ties.
Send your e-mail to sandra.ruttan@spinetinglermag.com with AWARD NOMINATIONS in the subject line. It is not necessary to explain the reason for your vote.
Popular vote will be counterbalanced against editorial opinion at this stage, except for the short story category. In order to ensure fairness the short story category will be determined strictly by popular vote. While I also appreciate the people who nominated me for special services, I removed myself from consideration for that category as well as from the New Voice category. Winners will be announced in early 2008.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Spinetingler Awards Shortlist
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10 comments:
Uhh.. I believe Amphetamine Logic was in Thuglit.
When you said a while back that the voting was skewed toward one gender, I thought you meant toward the female side of things. Whew!
Kind of reminds me of a panel at ConMisterio that debated whether women could write mysteries - Megan Abbott was the moderator and the panelists were Sean Doolittle and Jonathan Santlofer. Can't recall what the conclusion was...
Indeed, it was published by Thuglit - thanks for catching that. The value of fresh eyes...
Steven, delving into the heart of the potentially most touchy topic about this. 47.7% of votes cast were by women, with just over 6% being cast by a couple as per e-mail name (specific sender unspecified) and just over 6% being cast by an undetermined sender (no name on the e-mail, although 'mittens' is probably a woman...)
And yet the male authors took just over 86% of the votes received in the novel categories.
We're just that good.
(Joke, joke.) ;-)
No credits for the cover artists? The writers didn't paint those pictures...
True enough, although I don't know who did the design in each case. It's something I have to track down, because I have a different version of HARD MAN, for example, and my ex owns the Hard Case Crime collection, although I have the information courtesy of a voter for a few of those covers. I just have to rifle through and find them. That's why I started deleting the e-mails after I ticked the boxes, because once you have a few hundred in a folder you start to lose track of who said what, but I'm pretty sure I kept some of that information.
Guess I need to add e-mailing Al and Charles to the list of things to do... I did no advanced contact because I didn't notify the nominees formally about their nomination. There are several I don't know or have contact with, and honestly, I was just so relieved to be done with the short story shortlist by the time I put this up I forgot about that.
Wow. Now, this is a surprise.
Neat!
I think the best editor category should be limited to people who actually edit, and not acquire.
RJR
Thanks for sharing your opinion Mr. Randisi. However, by definition the role of acquiring works is termed an acquiring editor. If people wanted to get anal about it it could be necessary to distinguish between the value of a copy editor, an acquiring editor, a development editor, and the intention of the award is not to get bogged down in whose role is more valuable (thus potentially opening the debate of who is expendable).
Part of the reason for an editing award was because of trends cited with some publishers who have stopped carrying in-house copy editors and farm out those responsibilities, in the same way that the decision to have a cover award was as a counter to the trend to recycle stock photos for cover designs. The objective is to hold up those who are getting it right and making an impact, and each editor who made the list received multiple nominations from people who feel they're contributing to the genre.
As was stated when we initiated the awards it was our first time doing this, and we expected there to be some potential kinks in the process to work through. However, I'm satisfied with the results and do feel they reflect acknowledgement of valuable contributions made to the industry.
And most of the nominations in that category came from authors and other editors, at least from the names I recognized. They followed the guidelines as given and their selections stand.
Larry Karp's The Ragtime Kid has my vote
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