Except there’s no prize.
Here’s the deal. I have run two completely random contests for ARCs. But this is big. Really big. Thanks to one of my best reader friends ever, I have pristine copies of Laura Lippman first editions. Granted, they are all inscribed to Bob “One O” Smith, which diminishes their value in the market at large, but increases their value tenfold in my estimation. Bob recently moved to a smaller place and had to downsize and asked me if I had any use for my own first editions. I would like to give them away to another reader, but that’s a pretty nifty prize and I think this contest should be merit-based.
But what should it be? I open the floor.
Inevitably, while exchanging notes with Bob, I asked if he could remember when we first met because I wasn’t sure. It was in 1998, at the Philadelphia Bouchercon. After our meeting, Bob went on to join the lively listserv known as DorothyL. Eventually, he and his Boston cohorts would start holding DL cocktail parties at Bouchercon.
Bob was always very honest about my work. He didn’t love everything I did. But he had a way of not making me feel bad, which is pretty cool.
I repeat myself: How should I determine who should get Bob’s collection of my first editions?
Oh, this is big! My lawyer brain is still operational enough to suggest that since I plan on diligently entering the contest/competing etc. in whatever form it takes, it would problably be a conflict to suggest the form of the contest. Otherwise, I would suggest that the prize go to Baltimore expats who are lawyers turned librarians and now living in Colorado.
You should take the first responders to this entry from each state.
I get Ohio!
Mix em up in a fedora and pick the winner.
I also really like Feste’s comment!
Why, thank you, Kevin! Might as well promote the new book while enjoying the old. One is silver, the other is gold.
everybody should remember where they were and what they were doing the first time they ever read your the first book of yours, keeps it nice and simple, xx
shud read, the first book of yours they ever read, sorry
i like feste’s idea a lot…that’s what i would suggest if feste hadn’t mentioned it first!
Thanks, Julijana. I think it could be fun. Perhaps Bob with One “O” could be a judge, too.
Well, I always get a kick out of the little echos that indicate you’re reading a Laura Lippman story. Maybe a two-track challenge, wherein the contestant first lists a recurring plot element or detail that strikes them as the most interesting*, along side a flat-out quantity challenge wherein the contestant lists as many of these as possible, across LL’s work.
I will (quite rightly) NEVER win such a challenge, since I’ve only read five of the LL books so far, but I nonetheless have a nomination for the first part of that proposed challenge:
Neglected candy machines as a metaphor for lust-driven errors.
Somewhere in Baltimore Blues, when Tess and the handsome guy at the newspaper are in the basement-level cafeteria, and there is a little bit of sexual tension in the air, and a long-neglected candy machine appears – and the temptations within are somewhat questionable and dusty.
And somewhere in What the Dead Know, there’s a flat-out sex scene wherein such a machine again shows up, right in the motel room; the dust on the Bit O’ Honey (if memory serves) caught my imagination, and made me smile.
Anyway – that’s the LL echo that’s at the top of my mind…
*recurring plot elements NOT to include specifically the same characters, such as Tess or Whitney or Tyner, etc
First one from each state, I get Colorado. Where I met Laura, Bouchercon in Denver. First book: Baltimore Blues during lunch breaks at work. Here’s my suggestion for the contest, name all the Beany Malone references.
I’d suggest the contest winner should be the expat most distant from Baltimore. (I’m in Washington State.)
Or possibly flaming games of chance.
Or feats of strength, as in Festivus
Ah, Festivus. My favorite holiday.
No fair! Feste requires we travel. My wife hates to travel, but we just got back from cruise to New England, so it’s too late for us. Also what about disability discrimination, huh? How about photo’s of unusual B’more landmarks?
Now, now, Alan, don’t fret! I did say that the flat IKYA could also be lavishly decorated and that would serve just as well for a contest entry as having the cover being held up by Lindsay Lohan or Lebron James! Plus we haven’t had a decision yet from LL on the fate of the contest for the contest.
–Feste