Since 2008, the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Awards have recognized the best stories from the previous year told through various media utilizing the elements of mystery, thriller, and/or suspense. Judges are professional writers, book reviewers, librarians, academics, and—in specialized cases—specific industry peers.
Eligible works must have been first published in English between January 1, 2021 and January 1, 2022. They must be readily available to a North-American audience (print or digital format). Judging makes no distinction between self-published, indie-published, and traditionally published works.
2021 finalists will be announced July 30, 2021. Killer Nashville will contact all finalists using submitted information alerting them to the honor. Finalists will be honored and winners will be announced at the Killer Nashville Awards Dinner on August 20, 2022.
All entries will also be eligible for the 2022 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Readers’ Choice Award. This is a separate award that is not judged, but rather voted upon by fans of the author’s work. A sharable link to the ballot will be available after the contest closes on June 15, 2022. The results of this contest in no way affect the results of the other Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Awards.
All registrants for the 2022 Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference are entitled to one free Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award entry. In order to claim your free entry, you must register for the conference BEFORE submitting to the Silver Falchion Award. We cannot retroactively refund entry fees.
Authors: Deadline for entry for the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award is June 1, 2022
In their ten-week program, International Thriller Writers Organization sponsors online programs led by a master in the craft of thriller writing. Each instructor will teach some aspect of thriller creation during a two-hour Live Zoom session, will provide written materials for further reading along with study suggestions, and will offer an entire week of online Q&A with the registered students.
If you are unable to attend each week you will still be able to view the broadcasts and review questions that were asked. If you are unable to attend an entire week you will be able to review the Q&A from the other students and that week’s instructor.
2021’s instructors: Jeffrey Deaver, Lisa Gardner, Anthony Horowitz, Liv Constantine, Alexia Gordon, Adam Hamdy, Cate Holahan, Steven James, Tosca Lee, Jaime Levine, David Morrell, Samuel Octavius, Alex Segura and Jerri Williams.
Space is limited so contact Christopher Graham at [email protected] to be added to the wait list. Date has not been finalized. Tuition is $495. Attendee requirements are Facebook and Zoom accounts.
Do we ever read the privacy policy statements of sites? How about terms and conditions? The answer is probably no – and that includes me. Courtesy of the Washington Post here are the reasons why we need to start.
You may use Turbo Tax or H&R Block online to file your taxes. It’s easy. It’s quick. But did you know that by clicking “agree” to some of their privacy prompts, you may be allowing sale of your personal data?
A Washington Post reader dug into the agreements after starting his taxes with one of the online tax services. After agreeing to the primary privacy agreement, the website requested permission to access personal data to “optimize your experience.”
This second permission stated: “If you agree to share your tax return details, after you file, we can provide many benefits.”
Your benefits were labeled as “personalized services” and “quicker product support.” It became clear that the tax filing software industry advanced from returns processors to profiteers of personal data.
The U.S. is skimpy on privacy laws, but it does have one that prevents tax filing companies from disclosing the contents of your tax return. For online processors, that means they can’t automatically use the contents of returns for purposes other than preparing taxes.
With this new add-on agreement, Turbo Tax and H&R Block Both companies are asking special permission to supersede federal protections and use your information, including your income, investments and mortgage details to help them upsell you on other financial products.
In addition, H&R Block wants your permission to share some of the content of your return with two independent companies in the Philippines that help them do customer service.
Clicking yes for the “personalized service” or “offers” request means you’re probably going to receive marketing from H&R Block or Intuit that’s eerily specific to your financial situation.
H&R Block stated it vets their partners, and to its knowledge they haven’t suffered from a data breach. But it can happen.
If you agreed to these requests while preparing your taxes and have now changed your mind, you can try to revoke access. But they’re going to make you jump through some hoops. For TurboTax, you have to email [email protected]. You must mention you’d like to revoke your “consent for use of tax return information.” H&R Block said customers would have to contact the company, but didn’t specify how.
I was recently interviewed by Many Books. I am sharing a few insights here with a link to the complete Q&A at the end of this post.
What inspired you to write about someone who loses an old friend to what appears to be suicide?
When journalists get too close to exposing corrupt government officials, their lives are in peril. The inspiration for Rita evolved from a 1970’s unsolved murder near Washington, DC with events from more recent journalist murders in Mexico and Slovakia woven in. In all the cases, colleagues took on investigating the killings as personal; they became crusades.
Tell us more about Rita Mars. What makes her tick?
Rita Mars has been an investigative reporter. She’s quick and she’s smart. She does not tolerate fools. She can be abrasive. She’s the daughter of a policeman, a Viet Nam vet with definitive rules. While she rebelled against the rigidity, the lessons learned prepped her perfectly for her role. As she got older, she wanted more a hand in the justice she sought as a reporter, hence her leap from writing about wrongs to having a hand in “righting” those wrongs.
You used to work as a crime reporter. How have your real-life experiences in crime reporting influenced your work?
Immediately out of grad school, I became a reporter for the Fort Smith Times-Record on the Arkansas-Oklahoma border – home of the famous “hangin’ judge” Charles Parker of the movie True Grit fame. There were several murders, including one that remains unsolved today, but the highlight of my stay there was my getting to meet and interview Sam Ervin, Senate lead on the Watergate investigations. I was hooked then on writing about the back-channel manipulations of underhanded politicians.
Learn more about Valerie Webster, her current work and her new book, Objects of Desire, coming in the fall of 2022.
Winner of the monthly Mystery “WHO IS” Quiz is Jaclyn Garland. Jaclyn correctly identified Patricia Cornwell as our celebrated mystery author. Congratulations on taking the prize!
Winner of our monthly all-subscriber pool drawing is Cole Williamson. Cole is a new subscriber. He – and all our subscribers – will be eligible again for March.
Valerie Webster and Driven: A Rita Mars Thriller in the spotlight via Author of the Day interview.
Make your next book club event an author event with a writer who’s lived the cases, developed the crime fighting technologies. Contact Valerie Webster today.
