Bouchercon 2012

Wow!  That’s about all I can say right now.  I’m sitting at a crowded gate at the Cleveland airport, trying to find a way to sum up Bouchercon 2012, my first ever writer’s conference.  But seriously, B-con was so much more than that. 

It wasn’t just a convention for writers and authors, but for readers and fans of all types of crime fiction, as well.  So while I was in absolute heaven being surrounded by other writers who truly understood me and my passion for writing and my genre, and I learned an incredible amount of information at the panels, I also had the opportunity to chat and socialize with the very people who might buy my book when it “hits the stands” next week.

But before I get into all that, let me first fill you in on the personal side of this big excursion.  As most of you already know, I was planning to meet my bff, Lisa Regan, in person for the very first time.  She didn’t get there until my second day, so I met my other bestie first, Jennifer Hillier, author of Creep and Freak.

Jenny and I

I hadn’t seen Jenny since she moved from my neck of the woods last December.  Though she was suffering from some back pain, she managed to make the trip, and we had a grand time catching up, eating and drinking, and attending panels.  And when Lisa finally arrived, Jenny was there to capture it all on video.  But that’s a private moment I’m keeping to myself right now. I do, however, have a couple of photos Jenny took.

Lisa and I

The three of us spent no small amount of time partying it up at The Renaissance.  This newly renovated hotel, a grand dame dating back to1915, was opulent and conveniently located at Tower City, another beautifully revitalized structure also housing The Ritz Carlton, an entire shopping mall, food court, and cinemas, plus the RTA or local rapid transit train, which delivered me from the airport for only $2.  Everything we could ever want was right at our doorstep.  We never even had to venture outside. 

Me, Lisa, and Jenny

The Renaissance at Tower City at night

...and in the morning

The grand lobby staircase

Tower City entrance

The Renaissance lobby fountain

The street view out our room window at The Renaissance

But, of course, we did since the opening ceremony took place at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  That was a fun event with wine, beer, and hors d’oeuvres.  Best of all, it was emceed by famed master author, John Connolly.  We did have an incident where a close-talking stalker fan latched on to Lisa, but we managed to shake him, thank God.  Then it was back to the hotel bar for a nightcap where we were constantly surrounded by famous authors like Lee Child and Chelsea Cain.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Lisa, me, and Jenny out front of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Author John Connolly was quite the comedian emcee

Inside the reception hall at the museum

Author Charlaine Harris of the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries (True Blood)

Jenny and  Chelsea Cain

Author Will Lavender and Jenny

Friday and Saturday were again chock full of wonderful panels.  They were moderated and debated by panelists such as John Connolly, Chelsea Cane, Charlaine Harris, Linwood Barclay, and countless other rock stars of the genre and industry. I learned more than I ever thought possible on subjects such as morally challenged heroes, adapting novels into movies and television, crafting thrillers, character development, avoiding the unbelievable, and serial killers, the last of which was paneled by Jenny herself.  And all that barely scratched the surface.   

I met so many wonderful people, especially other writers and a few debut authors like myself.  One in particular was Mark Pryor, a friend of both Lisa and Jenny and author of The Bookseller, launching tomorrow, Tuesday, October 9^th from Seventh Street Books and As She Lay Sleeping, true crime from New Horizon Press and already available on Amazon.  I found Mark incredibly charming as he spent an entire evening regaling a group of us women with stories of his job as a prosecuting attorney in Austin, Texas.  

Mark, Lisa, and I were all on the New Authors panel where we were unexpectedly instructed to stand before the crowd and speak about ourselves and our books.  And although it was intimidating as hell, the moderator, legendary author Val McDermid, was so hilarious, she put us all at ease as we belly-laughed at her early morning Scottish humor.  

 Val McDermid

Lisa and I after our New Authors panel

At the Museum party, we met a group of women—readers and librarians from Lisa’s neighborhood in Philly—and just like so many of the attending fans, they were thrilled to learn that Lisa and I were launching books this year and were anxious to read and possibly share them.  How cool is THAT?!!

Seriously, Even though Jenny was wracked up and I had some weird eye infection the whole time, we had a blast, and I could go on and on about how wonderful and fulfilling this trip was, but with all I have to say, it would take 5000 words, at least, and to be honest, I drank more alcohol in last 4 days than I have in the last 4 months, so I’m a tad exhausted what with getting up everyday before 6am.  But I know so many of you were cheering me on here and on Facebook and Twitter, so I at least wanted to give you a glimpse into the most spectacularly fun 5 days of my life!

Have you ever been to a writer's conference like this?  

All Kinds of Wonderful!

Short post for me today.  Hey, did I just hear a cumulative sigh of relief?  Ha ha, no worries.  I’m swamped with all kinds of wonderful right now. 

On Wednesday, I leave for BoucherCon, my first-ever writer’s conference, though, to be honest, it’s way more than that.  It’s for anyone who loves mystery and crime fiction, fans and writers alike.  Even better, I get to see one of my besties, Jennifer Hillier.  Sadly, she moved from here in Seattle back to Toronto last December and I haven’t seen her since, so I’m excited beyond words!  Happy dance time!

But as incredible as that is—and it is incredible—something even bigger is planned.  I finally, FINALLY get to meet, in person, my pub-sister, my most valued critique partner, my email buddy, and my very best friend and confidant, Lisa Regan.  We’ve been CPs for over two years now.  Without fail, we email long-ass letters to each other twice a week, with lots of little ones and texts in between.  So, hell yeah, this is going to be EPIC!!!  Be prepared for lots of pictures when I return.

Also exciting, starting today, I’m a judge for the Small Press Pitch portion of Deana Barnhart’s Gearing Up to Get an Agent Blogfest or GUTGAA, as we lovingly call it.  How cool is that? 

And, of course, since I’ll be gone and it’s the beginning of the month, I have to compose a little sump’m sump’m for Alex J. Cavanaugh’s IWSG on Wednesday.  And with all this wonderfulness, I simply have nothing to complain about, so I plan on writing something a bit lighter than usual.

That said, I’m happy to be buried in edits—my new day job—which, I must say, I love, love LOVE!  In addition to all that, my debut novel, The Mistaken, launches in less than three weeks, along with my whirlwind blog tour, so while I’m drowning in promo, I’m lovin’ every minute of it!  This is me with my head ready to spin right off my body! 

What about you…have you ever found yourself drowning in pure euphoria?     

  

       

And Now a Word From Our Sponsors

Just a brief (for me) post today.  I’ll try to post something more profound later this week.  I know, I know, I’m not keeping to my newly published blog schedule, but my life is a bit frantic right now.  I have one more medical test today then I have to start applying for a multitude of financial aid and scholarships for my son and that takes priority.  But I do have a few things I wanted to mention:

First, and most exciting for me…I booked BoucherCon 2012!  Yes, I finally scraped the cash together and booked my first writer’s conference for October.  Now I have to get the airfare. 

Second, I need to spread the love and thanks around to three lovely fellow bloggers:

Ø      To Jamie Ayres for sponsoring a wonderful contest to celebrate her 100^th follower.  She invited twenty-one followers to submit their queries to be judged by literary agent, Nicole Resciniti, who would then, hopefully, request a partial or full from one lucky entrant.  But by some miracle, Ms. Resciniti requested fulls from two talented writers and partials and synopses from the rest of us!

Ø      To both Nick Wilford and C. Lee McKenzie for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award.  Both have wonderfully written blogs, so if you haven’t gone over for a visit and followed them yet, hop to it!  (Since I've done this award twice, I won't repeat myself.)

Lastly, I wanted to let you all know about two blogfests being held in February, because I think these bloghops are the best and easiest way to meet new writer/bloggers and acquire new followers, and heck, bloghops are fun!  So here they are:

Ø      Nicki Elson has teamed up with Mary Pax and Suze at Analog Breakfast for the Tumble 4 Ya Blogfest being held on Friday, February 10^th to ask one simple question:  Who was/is your 80’s celebrity crush?  If you're interested, go check out these wonderful bloggers and sign up.  

Ø      DL Hammons has joined forces with Creepy Query Girl, KatieMills and my two online writer crushes, Alex J. Cavanaugh and Matthew MacNish to sponsor the Origins Blogfest.  “On Monday, February 13th, you should post your own origin story.  Tell us all where your writing dreams began.  It could be anything from how you started making up stories as a child, or writing for the school newspaper, or even what prompted you to start a blog.  How about stories about the first time somebody took an interest in your writing, or the teacher/mentor that helped nudge you along and mold your passion, or maybe the singular moment when you first started calling yourself a writer.  It all started somewhere and we want you to tell us your own, unique, beginnings.”  I think this one will be a blast so head on over to any of these blogs and sign up using the Linky Tool. 

Well, that’s it!  I hope you all go visit my wonderful blogger friends and participate in the blogfests.  After spending the last week battling two snowstorms, one ice storm, and yet another wind storm, I’m off to conquer the world…or my corner of it, anyway.  Have a great week!  

The Book and the Sword

I deeply apologize for not making the blogging rounds this week.  After working with a gifted new critique partner (thanks JeffO,) I’m deep in revisions and want to get them done so I can send my manuscript out to my last two beta readers before I start querying again, hopefully in February. 

Aside from that, I’ve been having a few minor medical issues that have been consuming my attention.  It struck me that when you get news that has the potential of affecting your entire life, you focus on those things that are most important to you.  I was shocked at what became my highest priorities.

Of course, not shocking at all is my child as number one.  With college looming on the horizon, and the financial and living arrangements not yet worked out, I am obsessing over how I will get those finalized.  I’ve taken all the necessary steps, but we are still four months out from making a final decision, even as more acceptances arrive.  My son may be mere months away from adulthood and total freedom, but he still needs me and will for a long time.  This is not surprising.  I’m a mother.  It’s my job.

What is surprising is how important publishing my novel has become—all encompassing, in fact.  I’ve never had a dream that was specifically for me, to the exclusion of everyone else.  Again, I’m a mother, and a wife, and as such, I tend to focus on everyone else before myself.  That’s just part of the job.  But with my son so close to flying the nest, I’ve had to find things to keep me busy since the economy, and therefore my business, is so slow.  Like many others, I turned to writing.  Now that my book is ready to go, or nearly so, my drive to find and land an agent is consuming.  I believe strongly in my novel, that it has merit and can succeed commercially.  I simply won’t rest until I’ve exhausted every avenue available.  It’s a dream I cannot give up on.

My last dream is two-fold.  I’ve wanted to attend a writer’s conference for a while now, but with my business so slow, my funds are limited and, as many of you know, these conferences can be very expensive.  I wanted to attend ThrillerFest in July in New York City, but I don’t have a few extra grand in my pocket.  But BoucherCon, a crime writer’s conference, is remarkably more affordable and I’ve just about saved enough pennies for registration and maybe even the airfare.  So I’m pretty much golden on this dream.  But there is one other that is attached to this like a remora to a shark.

I want to meet my very best friend, writer Lisa Regan, in person, and will finally get to at BoucherCon.  Lisa has saved me in so many ways.  She knows me better than anyone else on earth, save my husband, but then again, she knows things even he does not.  I love this woman like a sister and cannot call my life complete without having met her.  I can’t talk much more about her without crying my eyes out, so I’ll stop here. 

I know I’ll be fine, so no worries, please.  But having my first real glimpse of mortality, at least in a way I cannot control, has focused me, pinpointing on those few things I want to do above all others.  There’s nothing like the Sword of Damocles hanging over your head to get you focused on what’s real and what’s not. 

So I ask you, if you had a sword over your head, what would you want to accomplish?         

Happy New Year!

I'm not one who normally makes resolutions, but I do set goals, and the new year is always a good time to refocus back on those goals.  So here is what I hope to accomplish in 2012:

1. Finish my first novel already!  While I thought I was finished, since I haven't yet landed an agent, I figure I need to get a few more CPs and work out the last kinks before I start querying again in January.  Which brings me to my second goal…

2. Land an agent!  This is the most important goal for me in 2012, but it’s also the one least under my control.  There’s nothing more I can do except write a kickass query (check) and start emailing.  Which brings me to my third goal…

3. Complete the first draft of my second novel.  I’m so ready to get right on this one.  I have so much of the story worked out in my brain.  I’ll need to drum up an outline first then dive right in.  This time, I have several awesome CPs lined up from the word go, so hopefully, knowing what I know now, it’ll be a much smoother process the second time around.  If all goes well, or even if it doesn’t, I have one more goal…

4. Attend my first ever writer’s conference.  BoucherCon 2012, a convention for crime and thriller writers, is being held in Cleveland, Ohio October 4^th through the 7^th.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to attend this, for obvious reasons, of course, but also because I will finally get the chance to meet my BFF, Lisa Regan, in person.  And I’ll also get to reunite with another wonderful friend, Jennifer Hillier, author of Creep and the forthcoming Freak, who just days ago, moved away from the Seattle area, where I live, back to her native Toronto, Canada.  If I haven’t bagged an agent yet, I hope I get the opportunity to make a few pitches. 

So that’s it for me.  What about you?  Have you made any resolutions or goals for 2012?  

Whatever they are, I hope you reach them.

Have a happy and blessed New Year, my friends, and thank you for hanging out with  me in 2011!