Upon Receiving the Agatha for Best First Novel...


I won! I won!

Ahem. Now that we’ve got the unseemly hysterics out of the way, we’ll proceed in a more dignified fashion.

I am stunned and thrilled in equal measure that The Heat of the Moon was awarded the Agatha for Best First Novel at Malice Domestic on May 5. As best I can recall, this was my shaky acceptance speech (after I mounted the stage and whispered to the presenter, “You did say Sandra Parshall, didn’t you?”):

“This is a huge honor, and I truly did not expect it.

“I’m grateful to everyone who voted for The Heat of the Moon. If all of you will see me afterward, I will kiss the hems of your garments. [Note: One person took me up on this, and I followed through.)

“I want to thank my husband for putting up with my whining and moaning through all the years I was trying to get published. Thanks also to members of the Guppies Chapter and the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, who have been so supportive.

“I’m especially grateful to Barbara Peters at Poisoned Pen Press, who gave me the chance to have a writing career when I sometimes believed it would never happen.”

I am pleased to report that I managed to get off the stage and back to my seat without tripping and dropping the Agatha teapot and breaking it.

The evening was doubly -- no, tripley, if that’s a word -- exciting because two other members of the Guppies were also winners: Chris Roerden received the Agatha for Best Nonfiction (and a hug from me that nearly knocked her off her feet) for her book, Don’t Murder Your Mystery, and Meredith Cole won the St. Martin’s contest for her unpublished mystery novel, which will now be brought out in hardcover by this prestigious publishing house. All in all, a fabulous evening!