Cartoon of the Day: The Exit

Spain's Asturias Prize for Literature: Fred Vargas

French crime writer Fred Vargas, the pen name of Frederique Audoin-Rouzeau, has won Spain's prestigious Asturias Prize for Literature.

According to the jury, more than 30 candidates from 21 countries opted for recognition, among which the French author's work stood out since 'it embodies the revitalization of a genre such as intrigue novel.'

The president of the Royal Spanish Academy, Dario Villanueva, read the jury's verdict in which he praises the quality of Vargas' writing and the originality of her narrative work. 'He has an ability to combine intrigue, action and reflection with a rhythm that recalls the musicality characteristic of good prose in French,' Villanueva said.

The verdict also highlighted the mysterious and complex ecosystem implicit in its plots, the irony to describe her characters, the deep cultural knowledge and the overflowing imagination that opens unpublished literary horizons to the reader. 'Vargas added brilliantly original pieces, atmospheres and spaces to black novel, which leaves us a work of universal projection', highlighted the specialists in the official declaration of the award, fifth of the eight international awards convened annually by the foundation.

Frederique Audoin-Rouzeau, 60, is a French author of crime novels that gave great importance in her prose to legends, historical events, humor and poetry. Also known for her archaeological work in the rescue of medieval pieces, Audoin-Rouzeau chose the pseudonym Fred Vargas like her twin sister Jo, in homage to Maria Vargas, Ava Gardner's main character in The Barefoot Contessa.

Her work includes The Games of Love and Death, 1986, and Those who are about to die greet you, 1994; and the most remembered character is Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, a police superintendent without a real research method.

The award foundation said that Vargas, who is also a distinguished archaeologist, perceives society as "a mysterious and complex ecosystem" and her detective stories possess original plots and irony in their description of characters, as well as abundant imagination.

Vargas has won three International Dagger Awards from the Crime Writers Association.

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Fred Vargas was born in Paris in 1957. As well as being a best-selling author in France, she is an historian and archaeologist. She worked at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), which she joined in 1988. She later joined the Institut Pasteur, as a eukaryotic archaeologist. She mostly writes police thrillers (policiers) that take place in Paris and feature the adventures of Chief Inspector Adamsberg and his team. Her interest in the Middle Ages is manifest in many of her novels, especially through the person of Marc Vandoosler, a young specialist in the period.

HT: BV Lawson, In Reference to Murder

Cartoon of the Day: The Submission

Cartoon of the Day: At the Oxymoron Museum

JAMES ZISKIN & TERRY SHAMES LITERARY SALON: June 13

Join Mystery Readers NorCal for an evening Literary Salon in Berkeley (CA) with award-winning mystery authors James W. Ziskin & Terry Shames.

When: Wednesday, June 13, 7 p.m.

Where: Berkeley. RSVP for address by making comment below with your email

 
James Ziskin is the author of the Anthony and Macavity Award-winning Ellie Stone Mysteries. His books have also been finalists for the Edgar, Barry, and Lefty awards. A linguist by training, he studied Romance Languages and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. After completing his graduate degree, he worked in New York as a photo-news producer and writer, and then as Director of NYU’s Casa Italiana. He spent fifteen years in the Hollywood post production industry, running large international operations in the subtitling/localization and visual effects fields. His international experience includes two years working and studying in France, extensive time in Italy, and more than three years in India. He speaks Italian and French.

Terry Shames writes the Samuel Craddock mysteries set in Jarrett Creek, Texas, a fictional version of her grandparents' Texas town that sparked her early imagination. Her first book, A Killing at Cotton Hill, won the Macavity Award and was a finalist for Left Coast Crime's Best Mystery and Strand Magazine's Critic's Award for Best First Mystery. The Last Death of Jack Harbin was named one of the top ten mysteries of 2014 by Library Journal and top five of 2014 by MysteryPeople. There are seven books in the series, all of which have been nominated for awards. Her latest mystery is A Reckoning in the Back Country. She lives in Berkeley, CA, with her husband and two rowdy terriers.

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Upcoming Literary Salons (more to come)

July 11: Cara Black and Susan Shea (An Evening in France!)
September 26: Lisa Brackmann 
September/October: Lou Berney
September/October: Alex Dahl

NEURODIVERSITY AND CREATIVITY: Guest post by Alex Dahl

Alex Dahl:
Neurodiversity and Creativity

I do not believe in labels, though I’m sure it has been tempting to give me several over the years. As a child growing up in Scandinavia, I was attention-deficit. Hyperactive. Hypersensitive. Extremely imaginative. Very narrow-focused. I just wanted to read, write, repeat. But I was lucky- those traits, which could have been diagnosed and medicated, were actually specifically encouraged, and then directed in a constructive way. My teacher let me read books up in a tree, and my mother encouraged me to release energy through endless cycling and skiing.

I am not suggesting that medication is never the answer, but I am suggesting that as these traits can also be an important and positive aspect of an individual, perhaps the world needs to adjust to fit the individuals, rather than the other way around. Too much creative gold is being lost in the rigid, conformist system our kids are forced through. Can’t sit still? Maybe that kid wasn’t designed to sit still all day in a classroom. Constantly daydreaming? Maybe those dreams are precisely what will take that child somewhere amazing.

I am a novelist because of many of these traits, not in spite of them. My attention deficit was never a problem when I was allowed to direct most of my focus towards the areas that interested me, and these days, it is a huge advantage to have so many interests- as a writer it makes research a breeze! Hyperactive became hyper-energetic, and there is no doubt in my mind that my energy levels serve me well in my career as a writer- I quite often do between 5000 and 8000 words a day. I was, and am, extremely sensitive, and while this sometimes can be difficult on a personal level because it can be exhausting to feel so much all the time, it is an enormous advantage as a novelist. I feel my characters so profoundly that their experiences become part of my own. I spent my childhood dreaming up plots and developing characters in my head. I spend adulthood much the same, and it has led me to the career of my dreams. Being narrow-focused (and a natural risk-taker) has also been a big advantage- I only ever wanted to be a writer, so I pursued it relentlessly, with no plan B, and determination is essential in an industry where rejection and set-backs are unavoidable.

It is important to discuss the potential gifts associated with some of the neurodiverse ways of being a human. We are not all the same, and we are not supposed to be. If you pursue something you love and channel your hyper focus, you are going to have a competitive advantage that other people can’t borrow, buy or steal. If you try to conform to tasks which seem easy for others but difficult to you, you will never be very good at it. Being dreamy, imaginative, narrow-focused and hypersensitive may earn you a diagnosis in the standard classroom, but it may earn you a book deal in the real world.

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Half-American, half-Norwegian, Alex Dahl was born in Oslo. She graduated with a B.A. in Russian and German linguistics with international studies and went on to complete an M.A. in creative writing at Bath Spa University, followed by an M.S. in business management at Bath University. Alex has published short stories in the U.K. and the U.S. She is a serious Francophile. The Boy at the Door is her first novel and she wrote it while living in Sandefjord.

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I loved The Boy at the Door.  Read Sue Trowbridge's review of Alex Dahl's The Boy at the Door at The Saturday Reader. The Boy at the Door is available for pre-order.