Attending mystery conferences is one of my favorite things. Authors, publishers, editors, librarians, and just plain ordinary fans get together and talk about mysteries.
I get to go to panels and hear authors discuss their work. How they write. Why they write. Where they get their ideas from.
I get to hang out around the conference hotel and meet up with old friends and to converse with some of the promising new authors as well as some of my all-time favorites.
One would think that people who write mysteries would be a somber and negative lot, but, on the contrary, they are funny and basically idealistic people.
I caught up with Ann Parker, who has had two Inez Stannert books published by Poisoned Pen Press and is hard at work on the third. I first met Ann at Bouchercon in 2001 where she was shopping for a publisher. Ann is a physicist who has worked as a science writer for many years and has made a successful transition to award winning mystery writer.
Ann travels in the company of Camille Minichino, a fellow physicist, who writes the periodic table mystery series. Camille will be launching a new series in 2008 under the pen name Margaret Grace that is set amidst the world of dollhouses and miniature scenes, one of her hobbies.
I met Wendy Howell Mills, Pari Noskin Taichert, and Mary Anna Evans. All were new acquaintances for me. I had bought their books for the library’s collection on the strength of their reviews and now am eager to read them on the strength of their authors’ enthusiasm for their work.
I got to spend some time with award winning Julia Spencer-Fleming to discuss our shared love of the Adirondacks. She has five Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne books already in print and the good news is that there will be (at least) two more.
And I got to chat with retired librarian Anne White, whose mysteries are set in the Lake George Adirondack area. Anne’s books are published by Hilliard & Harris, a small publisher with an ever-growing catalog.
Best of all, though, was sitting down to dinner only to discover that I was sitting next to C.R. Corwin who writes the Morgue Mama books that I so thoroughly enjoy. We had a very interesting discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of using pen names and how a writer is often "outed" in reviews even though he or she is trying to maintain separate identities.
Names on my have-to–read-because-the–author-was-so-entertaining list include Con Lehane, Victoria Thompson, Lyn Hamilton, Hailey Lind, and Peter Pringle.
One panel I attended included Connecticut author Justin Scott. If you are a fan of his Ben Abbott mysteries, there is a new one promised for next winter that will be called Mausoleum.
Malice Domestic is just one of many mystery conferences. Bouchercon is probably the largest and best known. There was even a Murder She Wrote episode that had Jessica Fletcher in attendance.
I picked up flyers for several upcoming conferences and I will post a list here as soon as I have a chance to pull one together. If you are a mystery fan or fledgling writer you might want to attend.
