The Ross Thomas First Line Award

The press release appears below, but I’m pleased to report that I’ll be serving as one of the judges for this particular award. So after July 1, knock me dead with your opening lines!

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The
Drood Review and Crimespree Magazine announce that nominations are now
open for this year’s Ross Thomas Prize, given annually to the best
first line in a thriller or mystery novel.  This year’s contest
will include a significantly expanded panel of judges, and is expected
to attract over a thousand entries.

Nominations
must be made here by July 1, 2006.  The first lines
of all novels published in the English language in the calendar year
2005 are eligible, including hard covers, paperbacks, and electronic
novels released by commercial presses or self-published.  Nominations
can be made by readers, publishers, publicists, agents, and authors. 
Authors are encouraged to nominate their own work.

A
short list of finalists will be announced August 1, and the winner will
be announced September 28, 2006, at Bouchercon in Madison, Wisconsin.   
Judges this year include librarians, critics, booksellers, authors and
industry experts. Among those serving are Lee Child, Laura Lippman,
Bleak House Books’ Ben Leroy, Raymond Kearney, Cara Black, Sarah Weinman,
Maggie Griffin, and David Montgomery, plus many others.

Last
year’s winner was Jennifer Apodaca of Los Angeles for the first line
of Ninja Soccer Moms: “The thing about revenge is it takes
a woman who is well and truly pissed to get it right.”

The
Ross Thomas Prize is given with permission of Ross Thomas’s widow,
Rosalie.