conferences
BoucherMania!
Three weeks from today, BoucherCon starts. BoucherCon is the annual conference of crime writers, readers, and professionals, a four day combination family reunion, frat party, business meeting, and master class in writing. It’s a hell of a lot of fun, a year’s worth of mental stimulation, and a chance to see those friends you see,…
Read MoreThe happening place
I’m in Los Angeles for Left Coast Crime, the mystery conference for the country’s looser nuts. It doesn’t begin until this afternoon, which leaves me a few hours to frantically catch up on work. And to write a blog telling about how I’m frantically catching up on work, which seems like cheating, somehow. In any…
Read MoreThe world-wide convention
Yesterday all over the world, people went to a conference. I took place on two panels, one with Lee Child and our editor Kate Miciak (who were in New Jersey and Long Island, respectively,) the other with Nevada Barr (in New Orleans.) Since then I’ve listened to various other panels, including a conversation between the…
Read MoreFab Friday at BCon
Friday in Indy, lots of business gets done. People who come to BoucherCon primarily as readers (the “fans”) may not be aware that the Con is also a trade show, with writers as the manufacturers of product. My morning began with a long breakfast meeting with my editor, Kate Miciak, during which we covered everything…
Read MoreBoucherCon ’09 Thursday
The problem with filling BoucherCons with meetings is that there is no time to listen to panels, which I enjoy doing. And yesterday I was in two panels, plus half an hour sitting the Mystery News desk, and a meeting with a nice gent from the Lilly library who are collecting papers for their archives…
Read MoreBoucherCon 2009, at the starting gate
So: Indy. Drive; wait; fly; wait; fly; drive; wait; check in. Exhaustion, although my West Coast clock insisted it was only four in the afternoon. The hell with West Coast clocks, I don’t do lagging time zones: it’s seven p.m. and I’ve been on the road for twelve hours, I’m not going to go hang…
Read MoreA conference near you (very near!)
Where can you sit in comfort and listen to: Dana Stabenow; Nevada Barr; Peter May; Leighton Gage; Laurie King (interviewing Lee Child and their Bantam editor, Kate Miciak); Ruth Dudley Edwards; Vicky Delaney and a host of others? I’m talking about BoucherCon this week in Indianapolis, right? Nope. I’m talking about the comfort of your…
Read MoreI only read it for the articles
Writing is widely regarded, I am often startled to discover, as inherently cool. As a person who spends her days muttering to herself in a book-padded room (although rarely in pajamas) I need reminding of the exotic caché of Being a Writer. Mostly I get those reminders through my friends, such as this weekend in…
Read MoreMr Bradley and the murderous book club
If you happen to be in the LA sprawl this weekend, come on out to West Hollywood for the WeHo book festival. I’m doing two events on Sunday, an interview at 1:15 and a panel on spirituality and fiction at 3:45. ** We’ve started a new feature over at the LRK online book club this…
Read MoreOctober? already?
The sign of a successful holiday is that the house looks very strange when you return. Did I have that mottled grey Corian on the counter before I left? Well, yes, but only for the past 7 years, so that’s all right. And now that I’m back and looking at my kitchen calendar, I see…
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