Brrr! As I write this, the east coast is shivering through yet another
wintery blast. The Canadian half of this publishing team is delighted, the
American half most defintely is not..
Which explains why it took us so long to go see the newest Bond flick, Die
Another Day. Arctic chases around glaciers weren't all that appealing given
our balky heating system. And, frankly, the few Bond adventures I had seen
hadn't impressed me.
Well. Die Another Day turned out to be terrific fun. Pierce Brosnan brings a
self-deprecating humor to Bond's incorrigible womanizing that suggests
genuine attraction rather than fear--
That howling you hear in the background is Brian so I'll stop now. But if
you haven't seen a Bond movie for a while, Die Another Day is a great
re-introduction. (Plus, there's an excellent bring-down-the-house sword
fight.) As our cover suggests, this issue celebrates a 007 milestone-- forty
years of the Bond films.
Congrats to Ed!
Along with its 2003 Edgar nominess, MWA also just announced its Ellery Queen
Award: Ed Gorman. This award honors either writing teams or outstanding
people in the publishing industry. The first category doesn't apply to Ed
despite his output, but the latter description fits him to a "T."
Ed comments, "This was a surprise and a most welcome one. I have no idea why
I won but I'm delighted anyway. Is this the one you win for being an
all-around great guy and looking exactly like Brad Pitt from six blocks away?"
Eye Witness & Child's Play
We're delighted to welcome two new columnists in this issue.Kevin Burton
Smith, creator of the entertaining Thrilling Detective website, joins us with
a column covering P.I. fiction in all its variety--books, films, television,
etc.
And for younger 'tecs, we've recruited Roberta Rogow to cover children's
mysteries. Roberta, in addition to being an excellent mystery novelist in her
own right, is also a librarian with a considerable background in children's
literature.
Website News
Brian has set up credit card processing at the Mystery Scene website.
Our foreign subscribers might want to take note as this is much easier than
converting currency.
Brian has been working hard on the site with spectacular results. Look soon
for a huge list of annnotated author links, a review database and more.
Cheers!
