News item from the Edinburgh Herald, by Quentin Swope:
Book lovers wait in thrilled anticipation of this week's Dead on Arrival conference, where fans and would-be authors gather to meet their favorite crime writers-in the flesh. Said writers will also be signing their books "by the hundreds," conference chair Rachel Twalley tells this reporter.
Among conference highlights is the anticipated appearance of hot young newcomer Kimberlee Kalder, who burst onto the crime-writing scene last year, quickly climbing the charts with her runaway "chick-lit" hit, Dying for a Latte. Kimberlee will be feted before and during the conference by her Deadly Dagger Press publisher, Lord Julius Easterbrook, who must be thanking his lucky stars for leading him to Kimberlee. She may single-handedly have revived his moribund family publishing house.
Other Dagger authors invited to push out the boat at Easterbrook's exclusive gathering at Dalmorton Castle include Magretta Sincock, Annabelle Pace, and Winston Chatley-the stars of yesteryear. Rumor has it top agents Jay Fforde and Ninette Thomson, and American publicist B. A. King, are also on the guest list, along with ex-pat Joan Elksworthy, author of a detective series set in Scotland, and American spy-thriller novelist Tom Brackett. Also look out for newcomer Vyvyan Nankervis-a little bird tells me she's really Portia De'Ath, a Cambridge don, and the author of a delightful series of Cornish crime novels.
But it's our little Kimberlee who is stealing the other crime writers' thunder. Definitely, a publishing force to reckon with!