OK, we made such a big deal about the owners of Once Upon a Crime jetting off to New York this week to receive the Raven Award during the annual Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards that we completely neglected to tell you about another Minnesotan who will be there.

Dori Hillestad Butler, who writes a wonderful wonderful blog about the writing life (which you can read here), and who grew up in Fairmont, Minn., (where her mother still lives) and also lived in Bemidji, Minneapolis and Rochester (though, presumably, not all at the same time), is a finalist for an Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery.

Butler has been a children's author for many years, and in 1998 Gov. Arne Carlson declared Nov. 19 "Read 'M is for Minnesota' Day" in honor of one of her early books, which was published by the University of Minnesota Press.

She was recently at the heart of a fascinating controversy when a child in Texas checked one of her books out of the library--"My Mom's Having a Baby" apparently shocked the child's babysitter, who marched immediately to Fox News and complained.

(The book covers the facts of life in a rather candid fashion and is perhaps not for every kid, but it was honored by Booklist, which gave it a starred review and named it an editors' choice for 2005.) Butler, who now lives in Coralville, Iowa, ended up doing an interview on the Fox affiliate in Ames (and blogged charmingly about the harrowing limo ride that got her there barely in time).

And now her latest book, "The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy," is a finalist for an Edgar. It's the story of a mystery-solving dog named Buddy, which sounds like a great premise for a book if you ask me, especially since neither of my dogs show any ambition at all and are completley unemployable. Buddy could be their inspiration.

Dori Hillestad Butler and her dog, Mouse

Winners will be named Thursday. Like with any good mystery, the suspense must be killing her.