Local Author Receives Black Orchid Novella Award

T.M. Bradshaw is pictured with her sons and daughter in law as they prepared to travel from Long Island into Manhattan to receive her Black Orchid Novella award in December. Pictured, from left, are: Ben Bradshaw, T.M. Bradshaw, Bill Bradshaw and Ann Bradshaw.

STAMFORD –  A local author recently received an award that she said she "has been chasing" for about a decade is "beside herself with delight". Many may be familiar with her historical writings and annual contributions to The Guide. Terry Bradshaw, known in writing circles as T.M. Bradshaw, is the 2024 Black Orchid Novella award winner.

The award is presented jointly by The Wolfe Pack and  Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine  to celebrate the novella format popularized by Rex Stout. Her winning submission is "Double Take" and it will be published in the July 2025  issue of  Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

"I thought about the award every year. Sometimes I sent it in and sometimes I didn’t because I either didn't like it or I didn't finish it," said Bradshaw. She has submitted for the award at least twice before.

"Double Take" is based on a down on his luck detective who is walking the streets of Manhattan on his way to meet a client. Along the way he bumps into a group of look-alike celebrity doubles including the likes of Cary Grant and Lauren Bacall. In her novella, they are a couple, husband and wife. Cary doubles over on the street in front of the detective.  While he is an old-movie buff, he can't stay because he is down on his luck and on his way to meet a new client. He later finds Bacall sitting on the steps of his office building and  she hires him to find out what happened to her husband. The detective has a side kick who is an Uber driver and a poet.The story winds its way around Manhattan until the mystery is solved and is in keeping with the required format.

Bradshaw said she worked in Manhattan for years and lived there for a time, so she knows the streets and the surroundings. She became interested in the Black Orchid Novella because her stepmother used to read Alfred Hitchcock Magazine.

"It must be written in the form of a traditional mystery,” said Bradshaw.  The detective must figure it out for themselves and the victim must know the killer. It can't be too graphic and it can't exceed 1,600 words," said Bradshaw. It is the form used by the Wolfe mysteries. It must be an unpublished work of fiction that conforms to the Nero Wolfe series tradition. The characters must have engaging relationships, it must be retro or current, contain wit and not be too explicit with sex or violence. Submissions must be 15,000 to 20,000 words in length and submitted by deadline. 

Bradshaw believes she made the deadline by about 10 minutes.

Bradshaw enjoys writing and belongs to a local writing group that meets weekly at the Stamford Library. She has also participated in Writing Out Loud in Cooperstown, where authors read their own works. 

"I am always looking at places to submit things," she said. She has made anthology submissions to Belanger Books: Consultations of Sherlock Holmes  (2023),  Sherlock Holmes Takes the Stage  (2024), and  Sherlock Holmes and the Great Lady Detectives  (2024). She enjoys writing mysteries as opposed to the historical articles many locals have read. She has also submitted to The Guide on an annual basis since 2003.

The phone call telling Bradshaw she had won came last September, but the award is presented at the Wolfe Pack’s annual banquet, always held on the first Saturday in December. She had to stay mum about the award and could only tell her family members. She was able to tell the editors of two Sherlock Holmes anthologies so  the award could be mentioned in her bio, but as it turned out those anthologies came out a few weeks too early to mention the award, said Bradshaw.

She traveled to Manhattan to attend the affair with her son Ben Bradshaw, older son and daughter in law, Bill and Ann Bradshaw and her granddaughter, Victorya Phillips and her boyfriend, Frank Bellina.

The banquet was held at the Arno  restaurant on 38th Street in Manhattan. In addition to great food, Bradshaw said said there were special toasts, mostly to Rex Stout’s characters, songs about them (mostly to Christmas carol tunes), and a keynote speaker, Jill Lepore, Harvard professor and frequent New Yorker  contributor.  Ms. Lepore spoke about Ruth Stout, a well-known gardener and garden author, and about Ruth’s competitive relationship with her brother Rex.

In announcing the award to her family, Bradshaw described herself as "beside myself with delight.”