The Bouchercon Blog

Robin Agnew

This year, when I went to Bouchercon, I decided I'd take notes, so I could really do it up proud, and found that naturally the writers I was listening to were continually saying interesting and funny things that were worthy of recording. I encountered author Sharon Fiffer a few times, notably at the Minotaur cocktail party, where she told me she had "opened her aura", and decided to enjoy herself. I had made a similar decision myself, and found this Bouchercon to be one of the best I have attended.

Jim Huang and his committee and his hard working wife, Jennie Jacobsen (who never gets enough credit, and is one of the nicest, smartest people you will ever meet), did a fantastic job of organization. Indianapolis was a great venue, almost perfect in terms of locations of hotels, space for events, etc. When I was able to grab some dinner with Jim on Saturday night he said he hadn't eaten lunch since Tuesday - I'm not sure anyone should work that hard! But it was certainly worth it, as everyone I encountered, from people waiting in book signing lines to authors, had nothing but good things to say about it.

Of course, as you may know from attending, Bouchercon is a swirl of humanity. Trying to find someone in a crowd that big is not always easy, and you're often swept along, willy nilly, saying hello and chatting to both likely and unlikely people. My actual point is that my version of Bouchercon is slanted by what I was actually able to see and do. Bouchercon is so big, no one can do it all.

The centerpiece of the convention, of course, was Michael Koryta's interview with Michael Connelly. Michael Connelly had lots of interesting things to say, but here's a distillation:

"I like to please myself (when I'm writing). I like the 'aha' moments. I like to think as a reader."

"You...write about what you never want to know." (Talking about a child endangerment plot).

"I don't have time to write a lot of stuff that's boring to me, like descriptions. I don't sit around thinking about my style...I actually dont have time to."

"If you feel like you have momentum in the process then there's momentum in the reading."

And a sweet note. I waited in a very long line to get a few books signed, and one of the nicer things about waiting in a Bouchercon line is getting to talk to the people around you, all of whom were huge Connelly fans and seemed like that could now die happy. When I got up to the front, he took a long look at me, and actually recognized me, much to my great surprise. He had been in our store a couple times a few years ago to sign stock. I told him my son was now old enough to read his books and was a big fan. He took the time to pause and write a personal note in a copy of Void Moon. If there's a better illustration of what a nice person this man is, I don't know what it might be. And my son has something to treasure.

Another highlight panel for me, because I was pleased by the slant, was the panel titled "Telling Women's Stories", with Sara Paretsky, Liza Cody, Kate Flora, and Mary Saums, who surprisingly held her own and then some with that formidable crew of talented feminists (and writers). A few of the men I talked to who had been to this panel weren't big fans, but I enjoyed it. A small distillation:

"If you look at society on any interesting way you have to look at the deviants." - Liza Cody, on writing Bucket Nut, about a female wrestler

"I gave (series character) Thea Kozak two godparents - her godfather was Dick Francis, and her godmother was Sara Paretsky." - Kate Flora

"I'm southern, so I really know a whole lots about deviants! There's nothing better than walking down the street and meeting a few crazy people...(I like) to explore what makes them so strange." - Mary Saums

"What do you do when the kitty cat walks on your computer keyboard and deletes the text? We just pull out our Smith and Wesson and kill that kitty cat." - Sara Parestky, on being tired of "women writer" questions, her answer, and her partial reason for founding Sisters in Crime.

Now, as I mentioned the technical centerpiece of the convention was the Connelly interview. But for me, it was the panel on Edgar Allan Poe. The panelists were Michael Connelly, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Peter Lovesey and John Lutz. I actually had goosebumps seeing that array of the scope of recent mystery writing - expecially significant American mystery writing - assembled on the same stage. It was breaktaking. Lovesey and Paretsky, as a bonus, are also scholars by nature and had done an impressive amount of research. A distillation:

"It's not true I was picked because I'm old enough to have known Edgar Allan Poe." - Sara Paretsky

"I do think I should observe that Edgar Allan Poe was the Roman Polanski of his day." - Sue Grafton

"I tried to put myself in his place. So once I had taken my opium and gotten drunk I understood him better." - Sue Grafton

"I managed to completely freak myself out." - Michael Connelly, who said reading straight through Poe's poetry alone on a hotel room caused him to jump off the bed when he heard a gunshot in the hallway. It was actually a door slamming. (This incident is included in The Poet).

"I think many of us have learned that there's a lot to be gained by scaring women." - John Lutz, on Poe's influence on his own work.

A woman stood up at the end of the panel and thanked these authors for enriching our lives. I feel the audience should have given them a standing ovation - here's a virtual one. Thank you.

A few other highlights: Deborah Crombie winning the Macavity for Best novel in a cute new haircut and pretty new dress & high heeled boots; and Julie Hyzy, adorably incredulous and delighted at winning both the Barry and the Anthony for Best Paperback Original. That kind of happiness should be bottled.

And of course Bouchercon is enriched by conversations. I met a delightful and very funny bookseller from Brisbane, Australia, along with many people who read this blog. I especially enjoyed meeting Gary Corby, who reads the blog in Australia and, like me, is a huge figure skating fan (and also an ice dancer himself). I also was delighted to meet Greg and Mary Bruss, booksellers from Nashville. I enjoyed trading book recommendations with George Easter (we both liked John Hart's The Last Child a good bit, and I hope I have steered him in S.J. Bolton's direction).

But conversations through the weekend with Kent Krueger, Louise Penny, Michael Stanley (a fellow Charles Todd fan), Naomi Hirahara, Rosemary Harris, Donna Andrews, Suzanna Arruda (and her very nice sister), Sharon Fiffer, Deborah Crombie, Julia Jones, Gary Niebuhr, Sharan Newman, and especially my new pal Cornelia Read, made the whole thing doubly worthwhile. As did my conference "dates", Patti O'Brien, Alan Gordon, and Aline Clayton-Carroll, a customer I cajoled into going who had the time of her life.

Phew! Can't wait until the next one. Oh, yeah, and Barb D'Amato in her Aunt Agatha's t-shirt was just icing on the cake.