Date: Sat, 04 May 2002 00:44:07 -0400
From: Ted White <tedwhite at compusnet.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Convention this weekend
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Kit Mason wrote:

> N Lynch wrote:
> >
> > --- "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at keithlynch.net> wrote:
> > > There's a convention called Malice Domestic this
> > > weekend in Crystal
> > Wow, and you can get a membership at the door for only
> > $150!  As far as programming goes, it runs roughly 9
> > AM to 6PM and is pretty thin compared to SF cons.
> > It's not listed, but with the number of authors, I
> > would guess they have a lot of book signings.
> > Compared to a regional SF con, SF cons are dirt cheap.
> >
> > I love mysteries and have been reading them probably
> > longer than SF, but it's not worth going.
>
> It was, actually, fairly affordable while it was located in Bethesda,
> until it outgrew the hotel and moved to Crystal City.  And it's a good
> con.  There are a lot of panels, not just
> writers-talking-about-their-books-for-publicity, but about criminology
> and detection and the challenges of historical research and all sorts of
> interesting topics.  If it goes the way it used to, when there were, say
> 400 people attending, about a third to half of them were authors, and a
> very few agents (usually attached to the authors; it's not that kind of
> con.)  Fans get to talk with authors all the time at this one, have
> dinner with them or coffee or just say hello and chat.  There is always
> a guest of honor and a toastmaster for the banquet, and also a ghost of
> honor.  Past guests have included Patricia Highsmith (who wrote the
> book,"The Talented Mr. Ripley") and Dick Francis; this year I think it's
> Rita Mae Brown.  Past ghosts have included Shakespeare and Poe.  Phyllis
> A. Whitney, at about 90, drove up from Charlottesville a few years ago
> to talk; she's been publishing mystery novels since just after WWII.
>
> Malice gives the Agatha Awards, for the best "cozy" (no explicit sex or
> gory violence) mystery in short story and novel, also the St. Martin
> Press Malice award for best first novel ($10,000 plus a publishing
> contract with St. Martin), plus grants to authors working on their first
> books.  It's not just the little con down the street, as if there were a
> lot of others.  It's international.  It is the second-largest convention
> of mystery writers on the globe, and one of the con's co-founders was
> Mary Mormon, who used to host WSFA.  (I wish it was still affordable,
> too.)

Personally, "cozy" mysteries have never been my cuppa, but my interest is
tweaked by your mention of "Mary Mormon, who used to host WSFA."  When was
this?  I knew a "Mr. Mormon" who attended WSFA meetings in the early and
middle '50s -- always accompanied by a briefcase which was empty of all but
a bottle of sloe gin -- but it's hard to imagine any relationship between
him and the woman you mention (or any other woman for that matter -- one of
his frequently-told stories was about how he'd adopted a little girl and
raised her to be his wife, but the ungrateful wretch ran off at her first
opportunity after hitting puberty) except the coincidence of last names.

--Ted White