conferences
Edgar week!
Last week I was in New York for Edgars week, a whirlwind of writers and publishers and really good food and more to drink in two days than I had over the past two months. Wednesday was the Edgars week symposium, which is always interesting and this year was amazing: first-rate authors (most of their…
Read MoreEdgars symposium
If you’re interested in crime, or writing, or crime writing—and especially if you’re anywhere near New York the end of this month—you should seriously consider the MWA Edgar symposium. This year is a particularly strong set of offerings, including Jeff Deaver, Alafair Burke, Megan Abbott, Reed Farrell Coleman, Lyndsay Faye, Charles Todd–oh, and that Laurie…
Read MoreOne writer’s travails
Left Coast Crime is an annual conference that moves around the left coast, generally of the US. This year LCC was in Honolulu. Like the other moveable crime conferences, location is a prime consideration, since fans and readers use this as a holiday as well as a chance to meet their favorite writers. So, the…
Read MoreNo hand-bag clutching in NOLA
The first mystery conference I ever attended was in London, in 1990. At the time, I had a separate agent for the English/Commonwealth market, and she happened to mention that there was this conference that I might go to… Because it coincided with family stuff, I went. And found it interesting, and informative, and more…
Read MoreThe craft of crime
One of my favorite of the year’s mystery get-togethers is not a fan conference (although I love BoucherCon, and Left Coast Crime, and…) but one on the craft of writing. The Book Passage conference has a great track record with getting new writers published, and it’s a great place to meet your community, both in…
Read MoreLaurie emerges from her cave
Neck deep as I am in a first draft, nonetheless I’m due to extricate myself this week from the blizzard of paper scraps that is my study to appear in public, face scrubbed and carrying on normal conversation (as opposed to muttering vague bits of dialogue under my breath.) Thursday night I’ll be in San…
Read MoreMe & Edgar & Agatha & friends
That shriek that rattled the country just before 10:00 pm EST was me reacting to the sound of my name from the podium at the Agatha Awards: Malice Domestic’s choice of Best Historical Mystery is Dreaming Spies, by Laurie R. King! I was nominated for an Agatha once before (for The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, in 1995) and…
Read MoreAgatha and me
The list of nominees for this year’s Agatha awards is now up on the Malice Domestic web site. Malice, which takes place in Bethesda the first weekend in May, celebrates “the traditional mystery,” and Dreaming Spies is one of the attendees’ top choices for “Best Historical Mystery.” This is a great honor–I mean, just look…
Read MoreBoucher’s Con
As you probably know, every year the Crime World [Fictional Division] gathers to discuss pretty much everything to do with crime & mystery books: from character development to social media, e-books to Hollywood. The conference is named after the editor/reviewer/writer Anthony Boucher and this was Bouchercon’s 46th year. We met in Raleigh, and the fun began.…
Read MoreTHE ANTHONY!
BoucherCon is fabulous at any time, but when they call your name out for an Anthony, it becomes positively intoxicating. Or maybe stunning: Of course, I can’t help feeling I cheated. After all, Les and I just had to talk a bunch of first-rate writers into playing in the Sherlock Holmes sandbox and writing a…
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