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On Thursday, April 30, the annual Edgar Awards were held at the Grand Hyatt in New York. The awards are sponsored by the preeminent mystery writers organization in the U.S., the Mystery Writers of America, and the statuette is an eerie bust (think John Waters but with longer hair) of Edgar Allen Poe. (Click here for a photo of Putnam's bestselling author, Sue Grafton, accepting the 2009 Grand Master award from Otto Penzler, owner of The Mysterious Bookshop) The unique aspect of the Edgars is that it is, and always has been, a place where the biggest names in the mystery world (Sue Grafton, Lee Child, Harlan Coben) companionably and accessibly wander about, chatting with aspiring and first-time mystery writers. It is often said that the mystery writer community is the warmest and most supportive of its own, and at this year's banquet, the current President of the Mystery Writers Association, Lee Child, exhorted bestselling authors to give blurbs and advice and all manner of support to up-and-coming writers--especially needed in the current economic period.

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So I sat down last week, tired from too much office work and decided to see what Oprah was into these days. I like to check her show out now and then to see what she has America thinking, feeling, wearing and reading at any given moment.

Well, her show was about hooking people up to make their lives better...note that I said to make their lives better...and the promos for the show were positively seductive! Oprah looked directly into the camera, her big brown eyes moist with compassion and promised America that she was hooking everybody up with a special gift.

» Young Readers: Author Barbara Joosse, Illustrator Jan Jutte, and Editor Patty Gauch discuss how their collaboration on this picture book came about, and how little boys sometimes need to be a little bearish.

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Barbara Joosse, Roawr!, Podcast