FWIW, I agree with you re Hess, whom I saw being rude to attendees at one of the early Malices that was in Bethesda. I wasn't impressed with her then and I haven't been impressed since then. (I also wasn't impressed at that point with the reasoning for giving that year's Agatha: "well, let's give it to her because she's so nice and she hasn't gotten one yet." As opposed to giving it to someone who wrote good books...)