On Wednesday, December 2, we had our MWA-NY Chapter annual Winter Revels holiday party. Our guest of honor, our sort-of-Secret-Santa, was best-selling author Lee Child. We were in the formal reception room of the Salmagundi Club, the club where we have all our meetings. There was an open bar, appetizers, and a mountain of bright red goodie bags. The place was packed. [Click here to see an album of photos from the event.]
Child was a perfect Santa for us. He’s a quintessential New Yorker—he dresses in black, is hard working and successful, and comes from somewhere else. He’s also typical in that you expect him to be cold and unfriendly, yet he’s surprisingly approachable. On the street he’d probably give you directions. He was also perfect because, a head taller than everyone else, you could easily pick him out above the bobbing heads in the crowded room. In fact, he was easier to find than the bar. There was a bottleneck around it. But, you show me any bar in a busy location that’s giving away booze, and tell me it’s easy to get to. I won’t believe you.
Richie Narvaez, who is ending a two-year run as chapter president, was presiding for the last time, with his usual warmth and humor. He’s brought kindness and a more efficient use of social media to the chapter, among many other things. A joy to work with on the board.
Chapter President Emerita Patricia King presented well-deserved Silver Noose pins to Clare Toohey, the former chair of our Program Committee, and Richie, for their service to the chapter. It’s a great symbolic little pin—a pen nib twisted into a hangman’s noose.
At one point I spoke to Lyndsay Faye, who was looking beautiful, as usual, in black lace. Wonderful little back shoes decorated with colored subway lines. Lyndsay, if you’re reading, could you post a pic of the shoes? I think people should see them.
It was such a wild and successful party that Lyndsay ended up with a stranger’s name tag stuck to her back. No, he wasn’t stalking her. I imagine in the mad crush of laughing, chatting, munching and sipping people he brushed against her and his name tag left his lapel and ended up on her black lace shoulder. A mystery story could start that way.
Those bright red goodie bags were filled with copies of Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, Mystery Scene, Strand Magazine, and the Mysterious Bookshop’s annual Christmas short story—as well as books donated and written by David Black, Lee Child, Hilary Davidson, Nelson DeMille, Kimberly McCreight, and Wendy Corsi Staub. There were also MWA-NY notepads, baseball caps, and thumb drives—to keep us all working hard, while shaded from the hot sun.
So, here’s my wish: may next year’s festivities be just as full and exciting as this year’s, and may we all end up with our name tags stuck to the backs of strangers.
—Julia Pomeroy
Julia Pomeroy has written three crime fiction novels, The Dark End of Town and Cold Moon Home (Carroll & Graf), and No Safe Ground (Five Star). She has been a member of MWA for nearly ten years, and on the NY Chapter board for four. These days she lives in East Chatham, N.Y.
Photo courtesy of Nancy Bilyeau.