Tuesday, March 04, 2008

A Weekend with Jeffery Deaver

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? :-)

Jeffery Deaver arrived in Colorado Springs on Friday to conduct a workshop and give a dinner presentation the next day to Pikes Peak Writers. As Vice President of Programs for PPW, I and the Workshops Director dined with Jeffery Deaver on Friday evening. We showed him what rooms in the hotel would be used for the workshop and dinner and went over the next day's schedule, but the rest of the evening was pure entertainment.

He's a very interesting conversationalist--and person, and obviously highly intelligent. Thoroughly charming! He even bought me a drink and toasted my Agatha Award nomination (he who has been nominated for six Edgar Awards). The time just flew by, and we didn't realize how late we were keeping him. I also discovered that we two have some common friends/acquaintances in the software engineering community. And he graciously signed my copy of the The Blue Nowhere.

The next day was the Writing Workshop in the afternoon, followed by "An Evening with Jeffery Deaver". I was busy running errands and making behind-the-scenes arrangements a lot of the day, but I did get to hear his workshop presentation and dinner speech. I thought I did a lot of outlining work before I write a novel (3-4 months worth), but he works about 8 months to generate a 150 or so page outline before writing his novels. Of course, they are MUCH more intricately and brilliantly plotted than mine! Jeffery was very gracious about spending time with attendees during the breaks, at the bar, and at the signing after the dinner. We couldn't have asked for a better speaker and really appreciate his visit. I now have his Twisted short story collection on my TBR pile.

Today I'm prepping for the Left Coast Crime conference this coming weekend, and I hope to blog about it after my return.

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