I was so sorry to miss this year’s Bouchercon in New Orleans—especially because the Thursday night opening ceremonies included the presentation of this year’s Derringer Awards, and I wish I’d been there to accept the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement, such a tremendous honor!
Robert Lopresti hosted the awards presentation for the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and I’m grateful to Alan Orloff (my sometime dopplegänger!) for stepping up to accept the prize on my behalf. Here are the remarks I sent his way.
I’ll admit to being of two minds about receiving this year’s Golden Derringer Award. Thrilled by the honor, of course, but also stumbling over that phrase lifetime achievement—scrambling suddenly to take stock of where I’m at, what I’ve accomplished, what more I might have accomplished, and what possibilities still await (hopefully!) in the further lifetime ahead. To be honest, a lifetime achievement suggests I at least know what I’m doing, but—another admission—each blank page still leaves me scratching my head a-fresh: What now? What next?
Whatever my struggles or status, however, I hope my work as a writer, an editor, and especially as a teacher have helped inspire and encourage other writers, at all stages, who have endeavored to find their own way past that blank page and into a short story—both throughout our mystery community and especially in the Short Mystery Fiction Society, to whom I’m so overwhelmingly grateful for this award.
Thanks to Martha Reed for sending the photo at the top of the post. For more information on the award, here was the official announcement at the SMFS Blog. Appreciative as always of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and all its members!