Exceedingly pleased to report that I'm one of the shortlisted entrants for the 2006 Debut Dagger competition (run by the Crime Writers' Association). Award ceremony on 29th June so fingers crossed that The House on Fever Street is the winner

Wow! Fanstastic news, Cea! Very good luck with it!

Emma

Marvellous news - well done! That's fantastic!!

)

A
xxx

Fabulous- what a lot of award winner/nominees WW is hosting!

That is really good news Cea, you'll be hobnobbing with the likes of Rankin and PD James. Have a great time and good luck!

Luke

Brilliant news, Cea!

Fingers crossed...

Dee

Thank you so much, guys. Will let you know the outcome.

Most excellent news Cea. Knock 'em dead.

Best

Prosp

Well done Cea. That's truly impressive. I hope it will lead to great things.

A nice one, Cea. May there be many more. Congrats.

Len

Fantastic! Fingers crossed for the result.

Huge congrats!

Best of luck!

Nik.

I adore crime writing and detective stories, and don't at all seem to be able to write them, so I'm in awe of anyone like you, Cea, who so obviously can!

Emma

Thanks Emma, but the praise is somewhat misguided because I don't really think I write crime! My books do indeed deal with crimes being committed (usually murder, naturellement) but I write more about the aftermath and the psychological effects on the people involved. Kind of Barbara Vine-esque territory (although about a hundred times more amateurish than her fantastic books).

However, the Debut Dagger judges do state that they have a very wide intepretation of what makes a crime novel, so that's all to the good.

Thank you for all your good wishes, much appreciated.

Well I didn't win but had a great night nonetheless. The winner not only had a groovy name (Otis Twelve) but had been shortlisted 3 times already so it was pretty much his turn to win!

Met some interesting people and have already had an agent ring to ask for the full manuscript - unfortunately I had to confess that it's not completed yet - typical. Still, they told me they still wanted to see it when it was finished, so it's all good.