Shoes That Can Never Be Filled

Yesterday Spinetingler Magazine announced its nominees for the 2011 Dave Thompson Community Leader Award. To say I was shocked to wake up to posts and tweets congratulating me on my nomination is an understatement of epic proportions. It honestly wouldn’t have crossed my mind in a hundred years that Musings of an All Purpose Monkey would be in the running for such a meaningful award. And that’s not “aw, shucks” false modesty. That’s a fact. I was floored.

Even though I mentioned my nomination yesterday on Twitter and Facebook, I wanted to do so formally here on the blog today in order to pay tribute to the man the award is named after. If you’ve even dipped a toe in the crime fiction pool you are well aware of David Thompson. But for those who aren’t, David Thompson was a bookseller (Murder by the Book) and publisher (Busted Flush Press) who was a force of nature in his advocating of crime fiction books and authors. His love of crime fiction and the community surrounding it was deep, genuine, and contagious.

Tragically, David passed away unexpectedly last year. He was only 38. Spinetingler renamed the Community Leader Award in David’s honor. To get a true sense of the footprint David left on the crime fiction community visit Sarah Weinman’s blog, where she compiled a deservedly lengthy list of the tributes that poured out from every corner of the crime fiction community in David’s honor.

That the people at Spinetingler Magazine found my blog worthy of being nominated for an award named for David is both an honor and truly humbling. And I’m rubbing elbows with some amazing people, all more than representative of the community spirit that exists amongst crime fiction readers and authors. I don’t care how clichéd it sounds, this truly is an honor just to be nominated. Thank you.

Spinetingler is also giving awards in several other categories, including: Best Short Story Collection, Best Anthology, Best Crime Comic/Graphic Novel, Best Cover, Best Novel: New Voice, Best Novel: Rising Star, Best Novel: Legend, and Best Mystery/Crime Fiction Press, Publisher or Imprint. Voting in all the award categories runs April 1st through April 30th.

7 Comments

Elizabeth A. White
April 1, 2011 - 8:02 PM

Thank you, all, for your kind words.

Lucious Lamour
March 31, 2011 - 3:30 PM

Elizabeth, congrats on the nomination! Love your blog. Always find something new and ineresting! Dave Thompson sounds like he was an amazing guy. Cool that they named the award after him. Fitting!

Shannon
March 31, 2011 - 2:40 PM

That is AWESOME Beth!!!! I am so proud of you and so excited!!! 🙂

Shan

Sabrina Ogden
March 31, 2011 - 2:34 PM

I think I’ve congratulated you a dozen time since yesterday, but it truly makes me smile to see you listed among so many other wonderful people being nominated for this incredible award.

Since I’ve only been a part of the reading world for such a short time I never had the opportunity to meet David. But I can say that he was on my list of people to meet, and like many, I was truly sad to hear of his passing.

You’re a wonderful example to me and many others. This nomination is truly deserved. Congratulations!

Charles Wingfield
March 31, 2011 - 2:27 PM

Elizabeth, that’s awesome! Your blog absolutely deserves to be nominated. I found your blog last summer and since then have been introduced to a ton of new books and authors. Your site’s a great resource. Always a pleasure.

Cathy
March 31, 2011 - 2:24 PM

Congratulations–a very well-deserved nomination!!

Elyse/Pop Culture Nerd
March 31, 2011 - 2:23 PM

I already congratulated you yesterday but will do it again here. You tirelessly promote everyone in the mystery community and do so with style and humor. It was great seeing your name among the nominees and the award renamed in David’s honor. Congratulations!