By Taylor Paraboschi
Renowned mystery author and University alumnus Tom Piccirilli has been nominated for the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original for his book “The Cold Spot.” This is Piccirilli’s first Edgar Award nomination and he could not be more elated.
“It’s a real honor to even be considered for the award. Considering how many of my literary idols have been nominated or won the Edgar, it’s a wonderful validation,” said Piccirilli.
Piccirilli graduated from the University in 1987 with a degree in both English and creative writing. He credits the informal structure of the classrooms and the “emphasis on the arts” at the University as two of the reasons why he was able to grow and develop as a writer. “I was given a lot of time to just write and deal one-on-one with an instructor,” said Piccirilli.
“I’m not sure where the need to be a storyteller comes from, except to say that the need to fantasize has always been with me,” he said. Piccirilli went on to add that he has found an escape in both books and story-telling since he was a young child and used it as a coping mechanism when his father passed away.
It was also in his early teens that Piccirilli first became serious about fiction writing and started to refine his voice and technique. “I spent a lot of years learning the sound of my own narrative voice and discovering the themes of life that interested me,” said Piccirilli. He went onto add that he finds inspiration for his novels in everything from his own life experiences and aspirations, to things he comes across in different films and newspapers. “I never know what might fall into place at any particular time,” Piccirilli said, adding that inspiration is “everywhere, all the time.”
Piccirilli, who has been in the writing business for 22 years, having his first novel published the summer after his graduation from the University, started his career by writing “supernatural horror” novels. However as he progresses along in both life and his career he finds that he now prefers to write about real life horrors rather than the made up ones.
“As I started my own screaming slide into middle age, I’ve learned that I prefer to write about more authentic and realistic matters rather than the fantastical ones of my youth,” Piccirilli said. He went on to add that he takes the dark and frightening matters of everyday real life such as the loss of a home or a loved one and sets them in the proper context to create a chilling crime story.
For his book “The Cold Spot,” which is up for the Edgar Award for best original paperback, is infused with the theme of a person’s identity and the question of whether people can change or are we all “predestined to be a particular type of character.”
“The Cold Spot” is about the life of a young thief who is raised by his grandfather who happens to be a heartless killer. “After witnessing his grandfather murder someone, the thief decides to go his own way. He meets a cop, they fall in-love, and he leads a straight life until she’s murdered and he’s drawn back into the underworld of his grandfather in order to get revenge,” said Piccirilli.
The winners of the Edgar Awards will be announced on April 30 and a reception will follow in the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. Until then Piccirilli is keeping busy preparing for the release of his upcoming novel “Shadow Season,” which is about a blind ex-cop who becomes a teacher in an all girls school, which is due out this coming October.