Building Crime-Fiction Community Spirit

Last week Brian Lindenmuth of Spinetingler Magazine announced the short-story nominees for the 2011 Spinetingler Award. Today (evidently by accident) he has posted the list of contenders for this year’s first David Thompson Community Leader Award. They are as follows:

• Crimefactory
• Do Some Damage
• Jen’s Book Thoughts
• Mulholland Books Web site
• Musings of an All Purpose Monkey
• Needle magazine

Lindenmuth goes on to say that “the rest of the nominees will be announced tomorrow as originally planned.” Online polling for this and other Spinetingler Awards will begin on Friday morning.

So Much for That Marriage

Well, this is an interesting development, coming less than five months after Tyrus Books announced that it was acquiring Busted Flush Press. In a release posted earlier today in Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine, Tyrus Books publisher Ben LeRoy wrote:

McKenna Jordan and I would like to announce the following:

“In early September of 2010, Tyrus Books, Incorporated entered into an agreement to acquire Busted Flush Press, LLC. Unfortunately, before the deal could be finalized, David Thompson, the owner of Busted Flush Press, died unexpectedly. The continued process of settling Mr. Thompson’s estate necessitated substantial reconsideration and subsequent termination of the proposed deal. McKenna Jordan, Mr. Thompson’s widow, will assume full legal and financial control of Busted Flush Press. Tyrus Books will no longer be involved with the operation of Busted Flush Press.

It’s too bad that what might have been a good deal for both independent publishers has perished, due to probate-settling problems.

An Appropriate Farewell

Author and blogger Bill Crider (Murder in the Air) attended yesterday’s memorial service, in Houston, for bookstore co-owner and publisher David Thompson, who died earlier this month at age 38. Today Crider writes about that event. “It wasn’t really a service so much as a celebration of David’s life,” he explains. “Margaritas and Mexican food, the way David would’ve wanted it. Hundreds (and hundreds) of people turned out to show their support for David’s wife, McKenna, for David’s family, and for David’s friends at Murder by the Book.”

You can read all of Crider’s post here.

Share Memories of David Thompson

Author and blogger Patti Abbott sent me an e-note this afternoon, letting me know that a slight change is being made to the schedule for November’s NoirCon 2010.

There was originally going to be a panel discussion of the December anthology release, Damn Near Dead 2: Live Noir or Die Trying, edited by Bill Crider. But with the unexpected death earlier this week of David Thompson--who was to lead that discussion, and whose publishing company, Busted Flush Press, was issuing the book--the panel event is being turned into a tribute to Thompson. Abbott explains:

If any of your readers have remembrances of David they would like to include in the printed material or have read at the panel, we would be so happy to have it.

NoirCon takes place between November 4 and 7 in Philadelphia, and we urge anyone who can to register, come and participate. But if they cannot, they can e-mail me anything they’d like included about David. The panel participants will read the remembrances, and if we get them in time, include them in the program. Happy or funny memories are especially encouraged.

Click here to contact Abbott via e-mail.

The Long, Fond Good-bye

Earlier this week, Texas bookstore owner and crime-fiction publisher David Thompson died at age 38. For anyone who would like to participate in a coming “celebration of [his] life,” here are the particulars, copied from the NoirCon Web site:

Please join McKenna Jordan and the Murder by the Book family for a celebration of the life of David Thompson, who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on Monday, September 13, 2010. David loved a good party, and we will honor him by celebrating the life of an extraordinary young man who touched the lives of many in his 21 years at the bookstore.

Place: The Briar Club, 2603 Timmons Lane, Houston, 77027 (for map & directions, click on this link to the Briar Club website)

Date & Time: Sunday, September 26, 2010, 2 to 5 p.m.

There will be margaritas and Mexican hors d’oeuvres--great favorites of David’s--along with other drinks. No RSVPs are necessary.

Many have asked about tributes to David’s memory. Alafair Burke has set up a fund for those who would like to make a donation in David’s name. The charity will be determined later. For those wishing to contribute, here are the details:

Checks to the order of “In Memory of David Thompson” (NOT simply David Thompson)

Mail for deposit to: 7 E. 14th St. #1206, New York, NY 10003

For those who would like to make a direct payment, please contact alafair@alafairburke.com for account information.

We at Murder by the Book want to thank you all for your generous and unstinting support during this most difficult of times.

I hope that lots of people--readers, authors, and bookstore patrons--will be able to attend this memorial/wake.

R.I.P., David Thompson

I just returned to my office after spending most of the day away, only to learn that David Thompson, the co-owner of Murder by the Book in Houston, Texas, and publisher of Busted Flush Press (recently acquired by Tyrus Books), has died at the way-too-early age of 38.

Although I received many e-mail messages from Thompson over the last couple of years having to do with Busted Flush releases, I didn’t know David and I don’t think I ever met him at a convention. But I have to be impressed by the volume of posts lamenting his loss. (Sarah Weinman has an excellent wrap-up here.)

We should all be so lucky to be loved so well by so many others.

I Didn’t See This One Coming

As reported in the blog Central Crime Zone:

Tyrus Book, Inc. today announced the acquisition of Busted Flush Press, LLC., in a move that brings together two of crime fiction’s most recognizable independent presses.

“We’re very excited to add the Busted Flush brand to Tyrus Books. David Thompson is a dedicated and tireless advocate of crime fiction and I look forward to seeing the Busted Flush brand continue to grow,” said Benjamin LeRoy, publisher and president of Tyrus Books.

(Hat tip to Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine.)