A gathering I have to miss. I was proud and pleased to be named a finalist for the Silver Falchion Best Historical novel at the Killer Nashville Writers’ Conference. (Don’t fret. They’re not killers. Just people who write about them.) Not only is the keynote speaker going to be Walter Mosley–I mean Walter Mosley!–but also the conference takes place in Nashville, a stone’s throw from the Shiloh Battlefield, a trip I’d promised my husband for his big birthday.

But the opportunity comes with too many complications. Covid numbers rising “exponentially.” Long flights. Family medical procedures conflicting with the dates. So I won’t be in Nashville to celebrate in the same room as Mosley and hundreds of other crime-writing people. But I hope to be there next year to celebrate and congregate with the gentle, humorous tribe of crime writers.