Today we welcome the second of our Agatha Award nominees for Best First Novel Sheila Connolly who writes as Sarah Atwell.
Many thanks to the writers at Killer Hobbies for allowing the Twisted Sisters of Malice to toot their own horns here.
I never planned to be two people, but I was born a Gemini, so I guess I should have been prepared. Still, Sarah Atwell was a surprise. Three years ago my agent said, "Berkley Prime Crime is looking for someone to write a glassblowing series. Are you interested?" Of course I was. I have always loved glassblowing–I've even visited the glassblowers' island of Murano, outside of Venice–and I was a medieval art historian for a time, so I knew something about glass. I made a beeline to Sandwich Glass on Cape Cod and interviewed their sole woman glassblower, and then I took a hot glass class myself, so I'd be able to describe the process–and Tucson glassblower Em Dowell was born, making her debut appearance in Through a Glass, Deadly.
I love Em. She's fiercely independent but she really cares about people–her long-time employee Nessa, her brother Cam, and even needy strangers like Allison McBride (whose husband turns up dead in Em's studio). She hides a soft heart with a sharp tongue. She doesn't let her on-again-off-again relationship with the Tucson police chief get in the way of doing what she thinks is right. She's a lot of fun to write, and I want to be her when I grow up.
That's why it was such a happy surprise when Sarah Atwell got the call that Through a Glass, Deadly had been nominated for an Agatha Award. It's a wonderful tribute when people like what you write, and you are rewarded for doing something you love to do. I am truly grateful to be on the list with such talented people.
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Join us next week when our guest will be Rosemary Harris, author of Pushing Up Daisies.
** Clue word: frit
Remember--Submit all five "clue words" and I'll draw a name from the group on Monday, May 11. The winner will receive an autographed set of all five of the Agatha-nominated Best First Novels. That would be G.M. Malliet's Death of a Cozy Writer, "Sarah Atwell's" Through a Glass, Deadly, Rosemary Harris' Pushing Up Daisies, Krista Davis' The Diva Runs Out of Thyme, and Joanna Campbell Slan's Paper, Scissors, Death.
Many thanks to the writers at Killer Hobbies for allowing the Twisted Sisters of Malice to toot their own horns here.
I never planned to be two people, but I was born a Gemini, so I guess I should have been prepared. Still, Sarah Atwell was a surprise. Three years ago my agent said, "Berkley Prime Crime is looking for someone to write a glassblowing series. Are you interested?" Of course I was. I have always loved glassblowing–I've even visited the glassblowers' island of Murano, outside of Venice–and I was a medieval art historian for a time, so I knew something about glass. I made a beeline to Sandwich Glass on Cape Cod and interviewed their sole woman glassblower, and then I took a hot glass class myself, so I'd be able to describe the process–and Tucson glassblower Em Dowell was born, making her debut appearance in Through a Glass, Deadly.
I love Em. She's fiercely independent but she really cares about people–her long-time employee Nessa, her brother Cam, and even needy strangers like Allison McBride (whose husband turns up dead in Em's studio). She hides a soft heart with a sharp tongue. She doesn't let her on-again-off-again relationship with the Tucson police chief get in the way of doing what she thinks is right. She's a lot of fun to write, and I want to be her when I grow up.
That's why it was such a happy surprise when Sarah Atwell got the call that Through a Glass, Deadly had been nominated for an Agatha Award. It's a wonderful tribute when people like what you write, and you are rewarded for doing something you love to do. I am truly grateful to be on the list with such talented people.
**
Join us next week when our guest will be Rosemary Harris, author of Pushing Up Daisies.
** Clue word: frit
Remember--Submit all five "clue words" and I'll draw a name from the group on Monday, May 11. The winner will receive an autographed set of all five of the Agatha-nominated Best First Novels. That would be G.M. Malliet's Death of a Cozy Writer, "Sarah Atwell's" Through a Glass, Deadly, Rosemary Harris' Pushing Up Daisies, Krista Davis' The Diva Runs Out of Thyme, and Joanna Campbell Slan's Paper, Scissors, Death.
