Hello from San Diego. I have a new website!  Maddee James and her colleagues at xuni.com created it and are also helping me with the newsletter—how do you like my new template?  In addition to the website, they also designed and got new bookmarks to me in four days! I gave her an emergency request so I would have them for the Left Coast Crime conference. I didn’t think four days was possible. Check out the website and let me know what you think.

Here is what the bookmark looks like. If you’d like one just send me your address through the newsletter and I will send you a couple.

I just had a great Left Coast Crime conference in Albuquerque. About 500 fans and writers of crime fiction congregated at a single hotel. It was the first in-person meeting since the Left Coast Crime conference in San Diego in 2020. The San Diego conference was canceled after one day due to the pandemic. I was very disappointed then because my book, Murderabilia, was a finalist for the Best Debut Mystery. The good news was that there was still a virtual vote and Murderabilia won. At the conference in Albuquerque there was a breakfast for debut authors in which 23 authors got to introduce their books to the room. Because that event was cancelled at the San Diego conference, I got to present Murderabilia. Kind of strange but I was still very grateful for the opportunity. I met lots of old friends at the conference and got to catch up on the books all of us had written during the pandemic.

The conference award winners were:

• Best Humorous Mystery Novel: Mango, Mambo, and Murder, by Raquel Reyes

• Best Historical Mystery Novel: Clark and Division, by Naomi Hirahara

• Best Debut Mystery Novel: All Her Little Secrets, by Wanda Morris

• Best Mystery Novel: Lightening Strike, by Kent Krueger

Congratulations to all the winners. And to the finalists. It was an honor for many friends like Ellen Byron, Wendall Thomas, Shawn Cosby, and Matt Coyle to be nominated.

I was on a panel that talked about where to begin planning and writing a mystery. Should you start with the character, the plot, the setting or something else? I appeared with Anne Hillerman, Jordan Harper, Claire Johnson, and Mark Stevens. Above is a picture of us pontificating (making it up). Mark Stevens did such a a great job moderating that I’m saving his questions. Here was the first one:

Neil De Grasse Tyson said, “Just to settle it once and for all, which came first the chicken or the egg? The egg, laid by a bird that was not a chicken.”  As writers, do you in fact know for sure what comes first, the character or setting or plot? And, does it matter?

Whoo. That was a tough one. I usually start with a premise. Then I go to character and plot. Then an outline. Some pantsers like Jordan never outline and ride “the tiger of creativity.” I’m more of a grinder. The outlines and aspects of the character continually change as I write. Settings are also hugely important to me and I decide on those in the outline. I try to visit whatever place I am writing about to get the feel of it and to get the right details.

Some friends like Kim Keeline and Margaret Mizushima also had panels. Kim’s was When Less Is More on short stories.

Margaret’s panel was on Critters and Crimes. Amazing how many animals can help solve a mystery.

At the award’s banquet, John McMahon, a terrific author, and I hosted a table for other authors and readers.

Finally a note on activities with Social Venture Partners. One of the hardest things for a nonprofit to figure out is what to measure. What data will quantitatively demonstrate the nonprofit’s impact and also indicate how well its programs are working? The measurements are called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and are increasingly important to grant funders. Besides the usual measurement of the number of people served, revenues, and funding, some more difficult KPIs are how the program has changed the participants. Measuring improvements in confidence, discipline, community involvement and other aspects of character are very important. Then how do these results compare with other organizations in similar nonprofit sectors? This is what we and our friends at Cesar Chavez Service Clubs are getting our hands around. We hope to have our KPIs defined soon.

For more on CCSC, go to their website.

That about wraps it up for this newsletter. As always, if you haven’t read Murderabilia, or know someone who might enjoy it, please order by using the buttons below.

Until next month.

All the best,

Carl