And the winner is . . . "Don't Sabotage Your Submission"! Despite warning myself to prepare for this remote possibility (having learned my lesson two years earlier when Don't Murder Your Mystery won the Agatha Award and I froze, literally, speechless), I started to stand, then realized my legs were straddling the leg of the large round dinner table. So I pushed back in my chair, once more stood and took a step, and got my feet tangled in the heap of pocket books and conference bags on the floor--just where I'd placed them.

I made it to the stage, breathlessly stumbled through my words of appreciation, and remembered--as I'd failed to do two years earlier at the Agatha Awards--to thank Pat Meller for all her work in helping me get these books to publication. As I did so I looked at the table where I'd left her but saw only two empty seats. Then some furious waving below the edge of the stage caught my eye, and I saw my dear friend crouching there, taking the photo you see before you now.