Let Your Voice Be Heard

I’m honored to discover my own name among the nominees for the 2009 Spinetingler Awards, being given out--for the second year in a row--by Spinetingler Magazine. (Look down there under “Special Services to the Industry.”) The full list of contenders in all of the categories looks like this:

New Voice:
• Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow (Harper)
• The Price of Blood, by Declan Hughes (Morrow)
• Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, by John McFetridge (Harcourt)
• Borderlands, by Brian McGilloway (Minotaur Books)
• Go With Me, by Castle Freeman Jr. (Steerforth Press)
• The Crazy School, by Cornelia Read (Grand Central Publishing)
• Who Is Conrad Hirst?, by Kevin Wignall
• Crimson Orgy, by Austin Williams (Borderlands Press)

Rising Star:
• When Will There Be Good News?, by Kate Atkinson (Black Swan)
• No More Heroes, by Ray Banks (Polygon)
• Money Shot, by Christa Faust (Hard Case Crime)
• The Shadow Year, by Jeffrey Ford (Morrow)
• Savage Night, by Allan Guthrie (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• A Nail Through the Heart, by Timothy Hallinan (Morrow)
• Empire of Lies, by Andrew Klavan (Harcourt)
• Victory Square, by Olen Steinhauer (Minotaur Books)

Legend:
• Hit and Run, by Lawrence Block (Morrow)
• Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child (Delacorte Press)
• Chasing Darkness, by Robert Crais (Simon & Schuster)
• Leather Maiden, by Joe R. Lansdale (Knopf)
• The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane (Morrow)
• Dooley Takes the Fall, by Norah McClintock (Red Deer Press)
• A Darker Domain, by Val McDermid (Harper)
• Salt River, by James Sallis (Walker & Co.)

Graphic Novel:
• 100 Bullets, by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
• Criminal, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
• Femme Noir, by Christopher Mills and Joe Staton
• Hawaiian Dick, by B. Clay Moore and Steven Griffin
• Incognegro, by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece
• Scalped, by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera

Best Editor:
• Ben LeRoy, Bleak House
• Charles Ardai, Hard Case Crime
• Neil Nyren, Putnam
• John Schoenfelder, Thomas Dunne

Best Reviewer:
• Ali Karim
• Larry Gandle
• Lesa Holstine
• Karen Chisholm
• Glenn Harper

Best Publisher:
• Bleak House
• Hard Case Crime
• Soho Press

Special Services to the Industry:
• Declan Burke, Crime Always Pays
• Barbara Franchi, Reviewing the Evidence
• J. Kingston Pierce, The Rap Sheet
• John and Ruth Jordan, Crimespree Magazine
• Peter Rozovsky, Detectives Beyond Borders
• Ruth Jordan and Judy Bobolik, Bouchercon 2008

Best Cover:
• At the City’s Edge, by Marcus Sakey (St. Martin’s Minotaur)--cover design: The DesignWorks Group
• Death Was the Other Woman, by Linda L Richards (St. Martin’s Minotaur)--cover design: David Baldeosignh Rotstein
• Empty Ever After, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House)--cover design: 2Faced Designs
• Fifty to One, by Charles Ardai (Hard Case Crime)--cover design: Cooley Design Lab
• Mad Dogs, by Brian Hodge (Cemetery Dance Publications)--cover design: Jill Bauman
• Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow (Harper)--cover design: Suzanne Dean

Best Short Story on the Web:
• “Cold Rift,” by Sandra Seamans (from Crooked)
• “Fruits,” by Steve Mosby (from Spinetingler)
• “Hard Bite,” by Anonymous-9 (from Beat to a Pulp)
• “Lenny and Earl Go Shooting Off Their Mouths,” by Ray Morrison (from Word Riot)
• “Random Acts of Fatherhood,” by Robert Pesa (from Darkest Before the Dawn)
• “Red Hair and Black Leather,” by Jordan Harper (from ThugLit)
• “She Watches Him Swim,” by Claude Lalumiere (from Back Alley)
• “Sisters Under the Skin,” by Naomi Johnson (from A Twist of Noir)
• “They Take You,” by Kyle Minor (from Plots With Guns)
• “Wishing on Whores,” by John Weagly (from Thieves Jargon)

As Spinetingler editor Sandra Ruttan explains, “Winners in each category will be determined by public vote. Voting will be open until April 25, 2009. Please follow this link to cast your vote in any or all of the categories, to see the covers nominated, and to follow the links to the short stories.” The victors will be announced on April 30.

What are you waiting for? Go vote. Now!