The ANTIQUES ROADSHOW season has started. On Saturday, we shot our first show of the 11th season in Tucson. We had moved to LA last spring and this spring we finally bought a new car, a Saturn VUE. We were going to drive to Tucson and then back to LA and then fly to the next venue, Salt Lake City. However, Rudy decided to be brave and drive the whole way.

We left LA on Thursday and spent Thursday night in Quartzsite Arizona, an old gold mining town on the California/Arizona border. It is desperate. We had a choice of MacDonald's, Burger King, or a local Chinese restaurant for dinner.

With a little time to spend exploring on Thursday afternoon, we drove along what seemed to be the only road in town and found a used book store. It was in a large shed with no A/C. I think the temp was only around 98F (36C), balmy for this time of year at almost 1000 feet above sea level. The proprietor of the shop came out from behind his counter to greet us wearing nothing but a posing strap! We kept searching because who can leave a bookstore without buying anything. He had paperbacks at 3 for $1. I didn't buy any of those but did find a paperback first edition of Philip K. Dick's THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, in which he predicted the pop culture collectible craze. Besides, it is one of the best alternative histories around.

We existed without an internet connection that night since the only connection was dial-up with a long distance line to somewhere else, and drove to Tucson in the morning. We endured a long discourse from the producer at the production meeting in the afternoon and then ordered room service and watched some episodes of 24 on my laptop before going to bed.

Next morning, up at 6 AM to get to the convention center to start work at 7:45 AM. Got back to the hotel by 7 PM, had dinner and fell asleep before 11. Up at 8 AM and rush to get out to get to Sedona for a 6 PM dinner appointment. Road to Sedona is beautiful...all red rocks and mesas in the desert with several kinds of cactus and some other xerotropic plants the only color. I had been in that sort of country before, but Rudy hadn't. He was driving and trying to look at the scenery at the same time. Then we spotted smoke from a fire in the distance. When we got to Sedona, we found out that there was a fire just on the other side of the pass, and that several homes had been evacuated that afternoon. The sight at night was frightening. Fire seemed to be coming down three passes. Apparently, the road we are supposed to take out of Sedona is now closed and we will have to take a detour.

Off for Williams and a train ride to the Grand Canyon with a bus tour along the rim tomorrow. More later in the week.

Janet Rudolph has just announced the MACAVITY nominates to be given at the opening ceremonies of Boucheron in Madison in September. Here is her press release:


For Immediate Release

The Macavity Award Nominations 2006
(for works published in the U.S. in 2005)

The Macavity Awards are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International. Winners will be announced at Bouchercon during opening ceremonies, September 28, 2006.

Best Novel
o   One Shot by Lee Child (Delacorte Press)
o       The James Deans by Reed Farrel Coleman (Plume)
o       The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
o Vanish by Tess Gerritsen  (Ballantine Books)
o   Strange Affair by Peter Robinson (William Morrow)
o      The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow (Knopf)
o    Solomon vs. Lord by Paul Levine (Bantam)

Best First Novel
o       Immoral by Brian Freeman (St. Martin's)
o        All Shook Up by Mike Harrison (ECW Press)
o      Baby Game by Randall Hicks (Wordslinger Press)
o The Firemaker by Peter May (St. Martin's)

Best Nonfiction:
o       Tracks to Murder by Jonathan Goodman (Kent State University)
o   Behind the Mystery: Top Mystery Writers Interviewed by Stuart Kaminsky; photographed by Laurie Roberts (Hothouse Press)
o        New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Novels, edited by Leslie S. Klinger  (Norton)
o       Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak (Harcourt)
o      Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach (Norton)

Best Short Story
o       "It Can Happen" by David Corbett in San Francisco Noir, Akashic Books
o  "Everybody's Girl" by Robert Barnard
o   "The Big Road by Steve Hockensmith (AHMM, May 2005)
o    "There Is No Crime on Easter Island" by Nancy Pickard (EQMM, Sept-Oct 2005)

Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award
o     In Like Flynn by Rhys Bowen (St. Martin's Minotaur)
o    Spectres in the Smoke by Tony Broadbent  (St. Martin's)
o        The War of the World Murders by Max Allan Collins
o      Night's Child by Maureen Jennings  (McClelland and Stewart)
o       Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear, (Henry Holt)

--
Janet A. Rudolph, Editor, Mystery Readers Journal
http://www.mysteryreaders.org

Mystery Readers Journal is a thematic quarterly review. Themes in 2006: Mysteries set in Italy, Part II; Murder in the Far East;Academic Mysteries; the Ethnic Detective. Articles, reviews, AUTHOR essays, special columns and calendar of events.