Well, okay, I didn’t win the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel of 2000, the highest accolade of the Mystery Writers of America, at last night’s awards banquet in midtwon Manhattan.
Joe R. Lansdale did, for his terrific historical crime novel The Bottoms, published last September. Congratulations, Joe!
But I’m the guy that brought Joe into the publishing house; I’m the guy who made four separate deals with his literary agents; I’m the guy who pushed and pulled for him and his books at meeting after meeting with boneheaded executives and marketing people; I’m the guy who sweated over seven manuscripts since 1992, painstakingly shifting prose and recommending alterations and asking for rewrites and bringing out that bizarro East Texas Lansdale voice in the most effective way possible.
And it’s not just some candy-ass Edgar Award like Best Critical Work or Best Segment of a TV Series or Best YA Mystery, it’s the BIG ENCHILADA…Best Novel of the Year!
Since the publisher laid me off a couple months ago (I skipped the banquet last night, and only heard the news an hour ago), I’m gonna go work the phones now…good time to find a better gig, I’d say.
Congratulations, Uke, on a job well done! You have a great deal to be proud of. Any publisher not interested in your talents is a moron! Go make them beg!!
Hey, back off buddy. Success had clearly gone to your head. Those are pretty good honors in their own right. We won the Children’s award last year for The Night Flyers by Elizabeth McDavid Jones and we were all pretty pumped about it.
I haven’t been able to find a list on the net of last night’s winners. Do you know who won for Best Children’s Novel? We had another nominee in this year’s bunch (Trouble at Fort La Pointe by Kathleen Ernst) and I haven’t heard who won in that category.
Sorry about that, BoS; consider this a retraction and apology. Why do I always got to build myself up by knocking others down, my Sainted Momma used to ask me.
Not sure where to find Edgar results on the net…the mystery bookshop websites should have the winners posted by noon, though.
Of course your publisher laid you off Uke. Why would a publishers want an award winning author writing for them when there is BIG money to be made selling the new Left Behind series.
Aw, pshwaww. I was just kiddin’ you of course, ya big lug
I wish. We just went through a round of layoffs ouselves a while back. But what the hey – if you tire of life in the big apple, come on out here to sedate southern Wisconsin. We got beer and cheese aplenty.
Congratulations, Uke! That’s a fantastic, wonderful, amazing succès fou for you. Your mother and I always knew you had talent, kiddo. Good luck in the job search too, my friend
Congratulations, dear heart. Always knew you had it in you.
[Scanning my Webster’s Biographical Dictionary: “Poe . . . Poe . . . Wasn’t he that emotionally unstable depressive who drank himself to death in the gutter at the age of forty?”]
Hey, Ike, well done, me boy. Sorry they remaindered your office space, though. But I would say it’s definitely bounce-back time.
I’ll let the comment about YA mysteries slide, though, and chalk it up to youthful exuberance. As a former kiddie-lit editorial person, I always hate to see children’s books shunted off into some “sub-standard” category, as if the authors and editors were slumming. In many ways, it’s more challenging, since you’re trying to maintain low-vocab, high-interest. Sorta like the New York Post.
Besides, I always had a crush on Alane Ferguson, winner of her own Edgar in the YA category. She’s a real dish.
Congratulations again, Ike. And I second what Manhattan said. Make the dirty bastids pay.
Amen, Manny. Drinking one’s self to death is a noble end to an artistic career. Going insane is also an option. And since half of an artistic career is recieving recognition but no actual cash rewards, Ike’s half way there.
Incidently, I’m looking around for a job, too. (Hence the headhunter link…) We should go into business. Wiseasses Unlimited. I’m not sure what we would do, but it would definately involve your editing skills and my wiseass skills. I’m sure we could pick up a few other Dopers on the way… (Oh, and Congrats, man!!!)
Hey Uke, right on man! Congratulations.
I’ve got some work for you, editing psy and my kids’ homework, but we can only pay you 5 bucks a week. Do you have any other skills like, say, doing dishes or laundry? We might be able to up the pay a bit if you do.
Congratulations, Ike!!! You may not have written it yourself, but without people like you, no book would ever be published. On behalf of readers everywhere, thanks!
This should up your asking price at least 10%, right?
