BoucherCon 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 More

A 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 More

Mr 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 More

October? 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…

Read More

Conferences I love

Corte Madera is a small town on the freeway just north of San Francisco, out of the main summer fog belt but close enough to feel its cooling effects.  Every July, Book Passage runs a mystery writing conference, limited to around 80 people, although it seems as if the published writers outnumber the would-be writers,…

Read More

The mystery scene

Thanks so much for Alice and her driving-elf Merrily for taking over the blog for the last couple of weeks, and giving me both a fun read and a holiday from blog-writing.  But I’m back now, kids.  Well, more or less.  I’m in Corte Madera (that’s just across the Golden Gate from San Francisco, still…

Read More

California Writin’

The California Crime Writers Conference began life as “No Crime Unpublished,” a writing conference run by the Southern California chapter of Sisters in Crime.  Which excellent organization you should join instantly, by the way, if you haven’t already, for their general helpfulness, intelligence, and positive energy.  And no, you don’t have to be published to join,…

Read More

Laurie’s where?

Head still spinning from the road, I now have four days to sit and let my spirit catch up with me before I get on another plane and leave it behind again. I have a number of thoughts on the whole touring business, and on specific places and events, but in the meantime, here’s LRK…

Read More