This blog post was originally written on September 26, 2006, the year my first book came out and in the midst of attending my first Bouchercon. I am pleased to say I am older but no more mature than when I originally wrote it. Enjoy!
And the Beat Goes on...
9/26/2006
It's true. No one is rude at Bouchercon. The one Rudinator from Love Is Murder has been surprisingly sober every time I see him, so who's left? Oh wait, there was that one guy, the smirking-laugh-at-you-corrector-of-everything-you-say, but I needed a new villain to kill off in the next mystery, and he was a great prototype. So thank you, Mr. New Rudinator.
Otherwise, all good. Sandra Ruttan, despite her offer, would be hard pressed to pull off rude with any believability (although I bet she does pissed off pretty well if you give her a reason), Tim Maleeny is not only an interesting storyteller but a charming person, Bill Cameron is a little bit meaner than Santa Claus and not quite as nice as Mister Rogers, and I'm pretty sure Julia Buckley is nice, too, but she was too busy being clever and funny for me to be sure. By the way, check out her blog. It's fabulous.
Today, I got Kent Krueger and Laura Lippmann
to sign their new mysteries for me, so yay! I also accidentally sat
next to a crazy man who writes short stories but wouldn't tell me what
they were about because they're private and only his publisher can see
them (and I couldn't help noticing his age spots were the same color as
his eyes). Ah, the tales from Bouchercon.
Tomorrow, my goal is to meet reviewers, but the deal is that somehow
you can't tell them apart from the rest of us regular folk. I hear they
float when you drop them in water, though.
What I've learned so far at Bouchercon:
1. How to take a shoe imprint out of snow (hot sulfur, interestingly enough).
2. Paint chips are used in identifying criminals, but there needs to be at least eight layers of paint in the chip for it to be admissible. (Got both those tips from Jerry Geurts, Director of the Wisconsin State Crime Lab. You know, the real CSI guy for Wisconson.)
3. I never want to read a medieval mystery. It's just me, and I think it has more to do with the disappointment at finding out there are not automatically wenches and swords in them as much as anything.
4. Midnight Ink has a great line-up of authors, and a fantastic team all around (everyone I meet loves the covers!).
5. I automatically take people with British accents more seriously because they're smarter.
6. According to mystery writer Barb D'Amato, death is not funny, but people are funny. I would like to add to that that sex is funny, but dead people having sex isn't.
7. All mystery writers are nice, except for the three assholes, and everyone knows who they are. I stole that from Tim Maleeny, who heard it in a presentation yesterday. It's true and brings this post full circle.
More to come tomorrow!
_______
This is real-time Jessie. Please consider helping me to publish my next book, a magical realism novel called THE CATALAIN BOOK OF SECRETS. I love this book! You can find out more here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675834533/the-catalain-book-of-secrets
And the Beat Goes on...
9/26/2006
It's true. No one is rude at Bouchercon. The one Rudinator from Love Is Murder has been surprisingly sober every time I see him, so who's left? Oh wait, there was that one guy, the smirking-laugh-at-you-corrector-of-everything-you-say, but I needed a new villain to kill off in the next mystery, and he was a great prototype. So thank you, Mr. New Rudinator.
Otherwise, all good. Sandra Ruttan, despite her offer, would be hard pressed to pull off rude with any believability (although I bet she does pissed off pretty well if you give her a reason), Tim Maleeny is not only an interesting storyteller but a charming person, Bill Cameron is a little bit meaner than Santa Claus and not quite as nice as Mister Rogers, and I'm pretty sure Julia Buckley is nice, too, but she was too busy being clever and funny for me to be sure. By the way, check out her blog. It's fabulous.
Today, I got Kent Krueger and Laura Lippmann
to sign their new mysteries for me, so yay! I also accidentally sat
next to a crazy man who writes short stories but wouldn't tell me what
they were about because they're private and only his publisher can see
them (and I couldn't help noticing his age spots were the same color as
his eyes). Ah, the tales from Bouchercon.
Tomorrow, my goal is to meet reviewers, but the deal is that somehow
you can't tell them apart from the rest of us regular folk. I hear they
float when you drop them in water, though.What I've learned so far at Bouchercon:
1. How to take a shoe imprint out of snow (hot sulfur, interestingly enough).
2. Paint chips are used in identifying criminals, but there needs to be at least eight layers of paint in the chip for it to be admissible. (Got both those tips from Jerry Geurts, Director of the Wisconsin State Crime Lab. You know, the real CSI guy for Wisconson.)
3. I never want to read a medieval mystery. It's just me, and I think it has more to do with the disappointment at finding out there are not automatically wenches and swords in them as much as anything.
4. Midnight Ink has a great line-up of authors, and a fantastic team all around (everyone I meet loves the covers!).
5. I automatically take people with British accents more seriously because they're smarter.
6. According to mystery writer Barb D'Amato, death is not funny, but people are funny. I would like to add to that that sex is funny, but dead people having sex isn't.
7. All mystery writers are nice, except for the three assholes, and everyone knows who they are. I stole that from Tim Maleeny, who heard it in a presentation yesterday. It's true and brings this post full circle.
More to come tomorrow!
_______
This is real-time Jessie. Please consider helping me to publish my next book, a magical realism novel called THE CATALAIN BOOK OF SECRETS. I love this book! You can find out more here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675834533/the-catalain-book-of-secrets
I prefer to refer to myself by the term "sphincter lily."
ReplyDeleteAre you one of the Big Three Mystery Aholes? I've only met the one. Ooh. It'd be like a yeti sighting to have discovered one of the other two.
DeleteI canNOT wait!
ReplyDelete