bouchercon

The strangest thing happened to me at Bouchercon. I realized how much I missed being in school. Listening to all the discussions, even the ones that were not panels, was exhilarating. I get so bored at home talking to myself. And here was an entire hotel full of people who read.

And I see the attraction for authors as well. I know being seen and promoting the new book is the publisher and agent approach to conferences. Get my author out where people will buy the book. Exposure is everything.

But writing is such a solitary thing that the authors seemed to enjoy seeing each other. They hung with each other a lot of the time. And talked about books and writing a great deal of the time. And how cool is that? A huge salon of writers in a bar in a Hyatt.

We went to great panels. The humour (this is for Martyn) panel really delivered. You could hear the audience laughing all over the second floor. Chris Grabenstein and Donna Andrews have spent so much time together that they could take this act on the road. The Chris/Donna show was repeated at the auction where people paid huge sums to be in a Michael Connolly and Sue Grafton book. The bidding went by me really fast.

And we heard people we are going to sample who were on our panels like the aforementioned Martyn Waites. Such an engaging Brit.

The biggest surprise was the author who turned out to have been one of David's interns at the Associated Press. I looked at the name and said I thought we knew her. We did. That was a lovely surprise. So look for Persia Walker.

Yeah, it was worth it.

randomness

So Heather finally updated, and I'm feeling the pressure. And so many Bouchercon thoughts are buzzing around that I felt the need.

David has decided since Bouchercon that he and I need another blog devoted to mysteries. I see the thought process, but since I'm so GOOD at keeping at this one that I'm not sure how adding to my things not done list will help.

I started this because I got tired of columnists especially, not really bloggers, complaining about how hard it was to write one column a couple of times a week. I thought that was so bogus. And I wanted to write to them and say I'll do it. Give me the money. And all you whiney famous and rich people--I'll take your money too and try my hand at famous and rich. So this was to be a personal challenge.

I also hated when columnists wrote columns about writing. So this blog was never to devolve into how I couldn't find a topic for the day. Such a really terrible topic. Who cares how hard your job is--just do it. Or as we say here at chez speer--give the money back.

I kinda hoped I'd write more if a "safe" outlet were afforded to me. Nobody really reading it, but something I hoped would be more than a journal. Things I hated. Things I loved. My various rants about politics, grammar, life, the universe, and everything.

So I still have put the butt in the chair issues. It's not topics that elude me. It's motivation. It's doing this instead of twenty other things. Things that might actually improve my quality of life. Like the dishes.

But David will, I'm sure, start this mystery blog. So now there will be 2. God help us.