My Golden Colorado Weekend

This weekend I attended the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Colorado Gold conference. I boned up on some law enforcement facts at James Born's "Realism and What Drives Readers Crazy" workshop, which I moderated, and Julia Hunter's "Behind the Badge" workshop. At my own "Networking to Further your Writing Career" workshop, magic again happened when writers spent five minutes talking to another writer they didn't already know and found ways to do favors for each other.

I did quite a lot of my own networking at the conference, catching up with old friends and meeting new ones, including my roommate, Rachel Hoff, who traveled all the way from China to attend the conference. The first photo shows me with science fiction author Laura Reeve, fellow Five Star mystery author Mike Befeler, "Writer of the Year" Mario Acevedo, and Warren Hammond, a future noir author who shared my table at the Friday evening signing.

I was very gratified by the fellow writers who bought copies of my books at the Friday evening signing, and I had a fun time chasing down authors of short stories in the new RMFW anthology, Broken Links, Mended Lives, to have them autograph their stories. These RMFW anthologies are always special, and I can't wait to read all the stories!

Besides moderating, my other volunteer duties included setting up the "Freebies" table where authors put out their bookmarks and other giveaways, and fetching Saturday lunch for the agents and editors. I highly recommend volunteering at conferences as a way to make more connections and get involved. Besides, it's fun!

I did sneak away on Saturday afternoon to conduct a signing at Murder by the Book and enjoyed chatting with some die-hard mystery fans there. For signings, the store always commissions a cake decorated with the cover of the author's latest book release, and I was thrilled to see mine, complete with 3-D skis. The second photo shows the cake.