Murder Ink holds a special place in my memory, especially
because of its second owner Carol Brener. In 1979, I had sold
two stories to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and another two
to Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine and was halfway through my
first novel. Although I had barely recovered from hepatitis,
my wife and I made it to New York for a celebration of the
fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the first Ellery
Queen novel. Murder Ink was one of the evening's sponsors and
the afternoon before we dropped by the store and enjoyed a
long talk with Carol.
The dinner event was held at the historic Lotos Club, an
imposing place, and our first sight on entering was Issac
Asimov primping a bit before a mirror near the coat check.
Although Bill Crider and others who have seen me hold forth
at later conventions may doubt this, I am by nature a rather
shy fellow and the sight of Asimov by this lifelong SF fan
was enough to complete my intimidation. Plus, the affair was
not a large one with only a few dozen in attendence.
It had been my hope to meet an agent or editor or someone who
could advise me about placing my half-finished novel. But as
no one wore big signs labeled AGENT or EDITOR and I had yet
to attend an MWA affair so as to identify people by sight, I
was at a loss of how to procede.
Carol Brener spotted me and came over to chat and remembering
EQMM had bought two of my stories asked if I had met Fred
Dannay, the guest of honor and editor of EQMM. I had not and
while I was mumbling some excuse, Carol diagnosed my
situation. She grabbed me firmly by the hand and literally
dragged me across the room to Dannay where she announced me
as the attendee tied for having traveled the longest
distance, an honor she had invented on the spot.
Dannay could not have been nicer. He not only remembered the
stories he had purchased (one rewritten to his suggestion)
but also a couple he had rejected. What a wonderful person he
was. Suddenly, he reached out an arm and grabbed an older
woman who was breezing past us on her way to the bar. It was
Lee Wright, legendary editor of the Inner Sanctum mysteries
at Simon & Schuster and later at Random House and now a
consultant with a new paperback line. Fred introduced me in
glowing terms as a young writer she should meet ending with
"...and I imagine he has a novel he is working on." I had not
mentioned the half-finished novel to him but, bless his
heart, I didn't have to.
I just had time to confirm the existence of a
novel-in-progress before Ms. Wright grabbed me by the tie and
jerked my head down to her level. "Do you have a pen?" I told
her I did. "Take down this number." I wrote down the number
she gave me. Still holding my tie she gave it three more
jerks as she finished with "Call me on Monday."
The rest of the evening was something of a blur as I observed
it from somewhere beyond Cloud Nine. I floated there until
Monday morning when I called Ms. Wright and was brought back
to earth when she had utterly no memory of meeting me. She
also made it clear she had little or no interest in seeing my
manuscript. At the point where she was about to hang up, she
stopped and asked "Who did you say introduced us?" I repeated
Fred Dannay's name and she audibly sighed. "Alright, I'll
take a look at it. Send it to this address."
I did and she liked it and sent it up the line for purchase.
As for not remembering me, I later learned that Lee enjoyed
her cocktails and probably had several before Fred grabbed
her. It may also have contributed to her bad mood that Monday
morning when I called as it was barely past nine. When she
called that afternoon with the good news, she was warm and
friendly.
But none of it would have happened with Carol Brener and
Murder Ink and for that I will always be most grateful.
Richard Moore
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, DJ-Anonyme@... wrote:
>
> I still have one of their large, black business
cards in the shape
of a
> .45 pistol.
>
> Mark
>
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