Photos from Left Coast Crime 2013

Last weekend, I attended the Left Coast Crime 2013 conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I drove down the day before to meet with the Mystery Book Club at the Cheyenne Mountain Library branch of the Pikes Peak Library District. They had read my Wicked Eddies novel, a finalist for the LCC Rocky Award, and had a boatload of questions for me about my writing life. Then, I headed over to the conference location, the Cheyenne Mountain Conference Center, to put together honored guest gift bags with my fellow committee member, Cathy Dilts. We delivered the bags to the front desk, then I was off to BJ's to have dinner with most of the members of my former Colorado Springs critique group (shown below). What a fun evening!

At the opening night reception on Thursday, plaques were awarded to all the finalist nominees for the various awards to be given out at the conference--the Lefty, the Rocky, the Watson, and the Historical. I'm in the middle of the group of Rocky finalists below, wearing Craig Johnson's hat. The rest of the finalists are Craig, fellow Midnight Ink author Darrell James, Chuck Greaves, and Margaret Coel. I was very honored to be included in their company!

Here's my first panel on Friday, "Authors with Altitude", with fellow Colorado authors and friends, Mark Stevens, Laura DiSilverio, Robert Spiller, Leslie O'Kane, and Denise Dietz, who was also my editor when I was publishing with Five Star.

And here's fellow new MInker (Midnight Ink author) Shannon Baker (the blonde) on her panel, "You Say Teepee, I Say Hogan: Writing Other Cultures" panel with Margaret Coel, Craig Johnson, Curt Wendelboe, and R.J. (Robin) Harlick. Check out Shannon's brand new release, Tainted Mountain! Below that are two photos of me on the "Writing the West: the Rocky Nominees" panel with Chuck Greaves, Darrell James, Craig Johnson, Margaret Coel, and moderator and conference director (and good friend) Christine Goff.

Now, on to the Saturday banquet. We had a raucous and fun table of MInkers, including Acquisition Editor Terri Bischoff (seated on the far left in the first photo), and Janet Rudolph (seated on the far right), the "Mistress of Murder" and editor of Mystery Readers Journal. Look for an article written by me in the upcoming Environmental Mysteries issue of the journal. Below the group photo is one of me with fellow Minker Rocky nominee Darrell James. The last of this group is of live auctioneer Robert Spiller (who had us all in stitches!) and Special Guest Lou Diamond Phillips (actor in the Longmire A&E TV series based on Craig Johnson's mystery series) auctioning off a spiral-bound ARC of Craig's upcoming short story collection, Stay Calm, Have Courage and Wait for Signs.

On to the awards! We were all thrilled when fellow MInker, Catriona McPherson, won the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award (first photo below). And I was so pleased to see fellow Sisters in Crime Guppies chapter member Rochelle Staab (in the second photo) win the Watson Award for best sidekick in a mystery. Craig Johnson, of course, won the Rocky Award, and Brad Parks (last photo) won the Lefty Award, for most humorous mystery. After accepting the award, he proceeded to serenade Guest of Honor Laura Lippman, putting a fitting cap on a very fun banquet.

Appearing at Left Coast Crime

I am spending this weekend at the Left Coast Crime 2013 conference in Colorado Springs, home of Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods as shown above. If you are attending, here's when you can see me speak at the conference:

Friday 3:00–3:45 PM - Authors With Altitude: Colorado Authors panel

Saturday 7:30–9:00 AM - Meet the Established Authors Breakfast
Saturday 2:15 - 3:00 PM: The Sporting Side of Murder panel
Saturday 3:15 - 4:00 PM: Writing the West: The Rocky Nominees panel

I'll also be volunteering at Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America information tables. I hope to have a chance to talk to many mystery readers at the conference!

An Award Nomination for WICKED EDDIES!

I am absolutely thrilled that mystery fans who will be attending the Left Coast Crime 2013 conference next month (one of the three largest annual mystery fan conferences in North America) have selected my Wicked Eddies mystery novel as a finalist for THE ROCKY award, for the best mystery novel set in the Left Coast Crime geographic area (essentially the Mountain Time Zone and west to Hawaii)! You can read the list of award nominations HERE. I've got some heady competition with two of my favorite authors, Margaret Coel and Craig Johnson, in the running, along with a fellow Midnight Ink author, Darryl James. I'm honored to be in their company.

If YOU are attending the Left Coast Crime conference, I hope you'll read Wicked Eddies, if you haven't already, and consider voting for it to win the award. Another of my books has finaled for a mystery fan-selected award, A Real Basket Case, for the Best First Novel Agatha Award, but I have yet to make it from finalist to winner status. I'd love to be on that podium!

Left Coast Crime

Left Coast Crime is a mystery conference that is help annually in the spring in some location in Western North America. It is sponsored by fans and is held for fans, so they can meet and mingle with each other and the mystery authors they love reading. Past conferences have been held in California, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, Hawaii, Oregon, and Alaska. This year's conference, Left Coast Crime 2013, is being held in Colorado Springs, Colorado during March 21-24.

I have registered to attend LCC 2013 and hope to be on a panel of outdoor-oriented mystery authors. I'm also looking forward to reconnecting with fellow mystery author friends and mystery reader friends. I hope some of my blog readers will be able to attend, so I can hang out with you! Behind the scenes, I'm working with Sisters in Crime to sponsor a cocktail reception and man an information table and with the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America to sponsor a reception. I'll also be putting together gift baskets/bags for the key presenters.

One aspect of the conference is to vote on and present awards in various categories of mystery fiction. This year's awards include:

THE LEFTY — Best humorous mystery novel

THE BRUCE ALEXANDER MEMORIAL HISTORICAL MYSTERY — Best historical mystery novel covering events before 1960

THE ROCKY — Best mystery novel set in the Left Coast Crime Geographical Region (Mountain Time Zone and all time zones westward to Hawaii)

THE WATSON — Mystery novel with the best sidekick

Wicked Eddies, the second book in my RM OutdoorAdventures mystery series, is eligible for THE ROCKY. In the book, whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner discovers a murdered fly fisherman along the banks of the Arkansas River near Salida, Colorado. I hope those of you who are registered to attend the conference and have a nomination form will consider listing Wicked Eddies as one of your nominees for THE ROCKY.

I'd love to hear from those of you who are attending, so I can be sure to look for you at the conference!

Photos from Bouchercon 2012

I had a great time at the 2012 Bouchercon mystery conference in Cleveland, Ohio last weekend. Named after mystery author Anthony Boucher, this is the largest annual mystery convention in the United States, where mystery authors and their fans can mix and meet. I've heard estimates ranging from 1200 to 1700 for the number of attendees last weekend.

I arrived in Cleveland on Thursday after leaving home at 5 AM, just in time for the evening Opening Ceremonies at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The photo below is of me posing by one of the giant guitars that decorated the plaza in front of the museum.

Friday morning was the Sisters in Crime breakfast, business meeting and Parnell Hall sing-along (look for me in his video once he posts it). I was thrilled to sit next to Doris Ann Norris (see photo below), known as the 2000 year old librarian and honored as the Bouchercon Fan Guest of Honor. Doris is why I really wanted to come to this conference, to join in honoring this dear lady.

After a busy morning of panels and chatting with people in the hallways, the Hospitality Suite, and the Book Room, I gathered with Terri Bischoff, the Midnight Ink Acquisition Editor, and other attending Midnight Ink authors for lunch. See the group photo below (I'm waaay down on the end).

I volunteered to man the registration desk Friday afternoon and was able to sign in the Midnight Ink Publicity Director, Steven Pomije, who arrived just as we were closing the desk. He'd been held up at the airport because it was locked down for an hour while President Obama left after giving a speech in Cleveland. I showed Steven around, then we rendezvoused with Terri and others for drinks before going to the evening reception.

After a fun-filled morning of panels on Saturday, I took photos of the Midnight Ink signing at the Mystery Mike's booth in the Book Room late morning, where authors Colin Campbell (first on the left), Darrell James (second on the right) and Maggie Sefton (first on the right) signed copies of their books (or ARCs, in Colin's case). The first photo below shows them with Terri and Steven (in the middle). The second photo shows the shelf of Midnight Ink titles (including mine) at the Loganberry Books booth in the Book Room.

Next on my fun-time agenda was lunch with the Sisters in Crime Guppies on-line chapter, where I chatted with fellow members, some of whom I'd only known on-line in the past. Now I can put names to faces! Unfortunately, I was too busy chatting to get photos. I hope some others there took some. More panels and Guest of Honor interviews followed, then the Raffle Auction drawing. At the drawing, I volunteered to be a runner, delivering prizes to those who won them. The conference committee awarded me a very cool bright yellow Crime Scene Tape scarf for my volunteer work, which I will wear often and treasure.

After the prizes were all given out, the Anthony Awards were announced, and I was pleased to see so many women being honored, some of whom I count as friends. I've got Sara J. Henry's Best First Novel, Learning to Swim, on my to-read pile. I ended up the evening at The Chocolate Bar restaurant, enjoying a dark chocolate chili martini and Belgian chocolate pyramid dessert (see photo below). Yum!

Sunday morning, my roommate, fellow mystery author Karen Pullen, and I checked out of the hotel and stashed our bags. Then it was finally my turn to be on a panel, "Red Herrings" with Keith Raffel (moderator), Ross Pennie, Diane Pirone-Gelman, and Janice Hamrick. The last two photos below show the whole panel and me up close. Keith was extremely funny and made it a good time for all involved. After signing books, one last panel, and lunch, Karen and I were off to the train station and the airport. I didn't get home until midnight that night!

Bouchercon Bound

Early Thursday morning I will step onto a plane bound for Cleveland, Ohio, and the Bouchercon mystery conference. Named after mystery author Anthony Boucher, this is the largest annual mystery convention in the United States, where mystery authors and their fans can mix and meet. Bouchercon will run from Thursday through Sunday. If you are attending, I hope you will find me at one of the following events, nab me and say hi!

6:30 – 9:00 PM on Thursday, Opening Ceremonies at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

7:30 – 8:45 AM on Friday, New Author Coffee Hour, Grand Ballroom A

6:00 – 8:00 PM on Friday, Auction and Reception

7:30 - 8:45 AM on Saturday, Sisters in Crime Breakfast, Shuckers Room

6:30 – 9:00 PM on Saturday, Anthony Awards Ceremony/Reception

9:00 – 9:50 AM on Sunday, "Red Herrings" panel with Keith Raffel (moderator), Ross Pennie, Diane Pirone-Gelman, Janice Hamrick, Melodie Campbell, and me, Ambassador Room

This will be followed by a signing period in the Book Room. I hope you'll stop by my table to chat.

Mystery Conferences

Well, I've done it. I made the commitment. I've paid my registration fees for the Malice Domestic and Bouchercon mystery conferences in 2012. I'm looking forward to seeing fellow mystery lovers in Bethesda, Maryland, April 27-29 for the Malice Domestic conference and in Cleveland, Ohio, October 4-7 for the Bouchercon conference.

I'm also planning to include some appearances at whitewater festivals and various Colorado bookstores in my 2012 event schedule, and I hope to be invited back to the Festival of Mystery in Oakmont, PA. That's about as far as my writing travel dollars will stretch, but if my husband and I do some personal traveling (Oregon to see our daughter?), I may be able to add on a bookstore appearance or two to that. Stay tuned to the Appearances page of my website, which I'll update as plans firm up.

In the meantime, I'd like to wish all of my blog readers a Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoy celebrating whatever winter holiday you embrace, and if you're traveling, may your travels be safe and uneventful.

On the Road Again ...

I'm over at Inkspot today, talking about the glamorous life (HAH!) of an author on book tour. Please read the post and let me know what you think. Even better, if you live in Virginia, Maryland, or near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I hope you'll come to one of the events on my East Coast Book Tour. See the Appearances page of my website for details. And wish me luck!

Left Coast Crime: Report 2

This is the second report, with photos, about my trip to Santa Fe, NM, for the Left Coast Crime conference. I ended Report 1 with the Friday evening blessing ceremony. After that, we all chowed down on the plentiful appetizers and the "Mass Market Murderers" made a supreme effort to get liquored-up enough to gather our courage for our later performance of "Paperback Writer" by the Beatles. The photos below are from that hilariously awful rendition--after my muscle pose with program chair Rob Kresge. I've been told we'll be YouTube stars soon. (Shudder!)




Saturday morning was the Established Author Breakfast, where I made my pitch for Deadly Currents, and where I met up with Becke Martin, who runs the Barnes & Noble on-line Mystery Book Club (photo below).



After listening to Craig Johnson's delightful interview of Margaret Coel (photo above), I lunched with the Sisters in Crime Guppies chapter members who were attending the conference, about a dozen of us (photos below).

Patricia Gulley, Avery Aames, Kaye George.

Gigi Pandian, Elizabeth (Liz) Wilkerson, Mysti Berry.

Jill Amadio, me, Kari Wainwright's sister.

Kari Wainwright, Tammy Kaehler, Gigi Pandian.


Then I listened to the "Series vs Standalones" panel of authors who have written both: Michael A. Black, G.M. Malliet, Janet Dawson, Rosemary & Larry Mild, and Penny Warner (photo below). After volunteering in the Hospitality Suite, I napped in my room, then refreshed, dressed for the banquet. I sat at my good friend LC Hayden's table (photo below).



Sunday morning, I breakfasted with Kris Neri and the conference chair, Pari Noskin Taichert, attended the "Police Procedurals" panel moderated by LC Hayden, then hit the road. I stopped in Pueblo, CO, for a signing on the way home to Colorado Springs, did a couple loads of laundry, then fell into bed and slept for ten and a half hours!

And here's the YouTube link to the slide show from our "Murder in the Great Outdoors" panel. it's short and sassy!

Left Coast Crime: Report 1

Last weekend, I attended the Left Coast Crime conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Below are the first set of photos from the event. I'll post another report tomorrow with more photos.

Wednesday, I drove down from Colorado Springs, checked into the hotel, then went to the Otowi Station Bookstore in Los Alamos, NM, for a signing. If you're ever in Los Alamos, you've got to stop in there! What a fun collection of children's science toys and all kinds of books (they're next to the science museum in town), and the two owners, Peggy and Michele, are very nice & friendly. The next photo is of me with two store customers who bought copies of Deadly Currents at that signing.


Thursday, I spent the morning checking in, schmoozing, and figuring out where all the conference rooms were. The first panel I attended was after lunch: "Santa Fe, the City of Different", with Susan Paturzo, Joe Badal, Margaret Coel, and Susan Shea, as shown in the photo below. After volunteering in the Hospitality Suite, I went to the "Short But Not Sweet: Short Stories" panel with Jane Burfield, Stephen D. Rogers, Lance Zarimba, Patricia Morin, and Michael Bracken, shown in the second photo below.



After that was a dinner at Milagro 139 with 20 members of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America that I had arranged. The meals were delicious, the margaritas were flowing, and Denise Dietz, editor for Five Star, gave a brief talk and answered a few questions. The next three photos are from that dinner.




Friday morning I went to the New Authors Breakfast where 16 first-time authors took turns pitching their mystery books. After that, I attended the "Crafts, Hobbies & Murders" panel with good friends and cozy mystery authors Christine Goff (birdwatcher series), Maggie Sefton (knitting series), Avery Aames (cheese shop series), and Camille Minichino (miniature series). Next, I sat in on the "Industry Professionals on Publishing" panel manned by agents and editors with their thoughts on the state of the mystery business, and the publishing business in general.

Then came my own "Murder in the Great Outdoors" with Sandi Ault, Michael Norman, and Twist Phelan. We each brought a few items we took with us into the great outdoors while researching our books. Mine were a PFD (personal floatation device), whistle, and pocketknife. Also, Sandi and her husband crafted a wonderful slide show of photos of us doing outdoor activities & research and of some joke images of celebrities holding our photo-shopped-in books. People kept coming up to me later to tell me how much they enjoyed the panel, so I'm very pleased with its reception! The next photo is from that panel.


Next was a late lunch at Cafe Pasquel's with historical mystery author and long-time friend Ann Parker (photo below).


We got back to La Fonda in time for Toastmaster Steve Brewer's interview of New Mexico author Steven Havill, which was very interesting and entertaining. We reconvened in the ballroom a half hour later for a blessing ceremony performed by the Ice Mountain Dance Group from the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. The rest of the photos are from that ceremony.




Stay tuned for tomorrow's report, with photos of my most embarrassing moment at the conference!

The Malice Domestic Conference

I just sent in my registration for next year's Malice Domestic conference, that celebrates the traditional mystery genre, and I hope that I will see many of my blog readers there. I'll be talking about the newly-released debut mystery in my RM Outdoor Adventures series, DEADLY CURRENTS, making new friends and getting reacquainted with old ones. Next year's Malice should be a great one, with Toastmaster Donna Andrews (always a hoot and a half), Guest of Honor Carole Nelson Douglas, and Lifetime Achievement Honoree, Sue Grafton. And it's in Bethesda, MD next year, not Arlington, VA, so I'll be staying at the conference hotel instead of my friends' house in Arlington. It's a trade-off in that I'll be spending more money, but I won't have to worry about how much I have to drink in the evenings! ;-)

I'm also planning to extend the trip with other events back east, such as the Festival of Mystery put on by the Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, PA, a dialogue workshop for the Hampton Roads Writers, hopefully some sort of fundraiser event for American Rivers, and signings in Annapolis, MD, Charlottesville, VA, Newport News, VA, and at my alma mater, the College of William and Mary bookstore. And, I'll get to visit my parents and sister in Virginia! That's another reason I love going to Malice.

What about you? Are you planning to attend the conference? Let me know in the comments!

My Week Back East - Part One

My trip back east was a whirlwind tour with four major stops. I flew into the Newport News airport on Tuesday to spend two lovely days with my parents in Hampton, VA (Mom cooked my favorite dinner of hers--crab cakes. Yum!). On Thursday, I drove my rental car up to Arlington, VA, to dump my luggage at the home of friends. Then I picked up L.C. Hayden at the Crystal City Marriott to drive to the Columbia, MD, Library for a Women of Mystery panel. After that came the Malice Domestic conference Friday - Sunday and the Festival of Mystery on Monday. Tuesday I flew home and put my camera in my husband's hands to process my photos. We were booted out of the house twice yesterday for real estate agent showings, so it wasn't until today that he could finish the photos and I could write up my thoughts about the trip. I'll blog about the second half of the trip tomorrow.

After a two hour drive on Thursday afternoon through rush hour, and including a couple of wrong turns, L.C. Hayden and I arrived at the Columbia, MD library to meet up with the rest of our panel (Meredith Cole, Debbi Mack, Kris Neri, Joanna Campbell Slan, and Elaine Viets) and our lovely moderator, librarian and Mystery Babe, Jacquelynn Morris. We had an early dinner of sandwiches, took a short tour of the library, then settled in for our panel. The first two photos show the panel in action and the third photo shows the appreciative audience. We talked from 7 - 8:30 pm, then signed books for a half hour, then hit the road for the return trip at 9 pm. After dropping off L.C., I stumbled in to my friends' house around 10:30 pm. In hindsight, starting off the Malice Domestic weekend already tired was probably not a good idea!



































Friday morning at the Malice Domestic Conference, I checked in and said hello to the booksellers, Tom & Enid Schantz at Rue Morgue Press, Kathy Harig at Mystery Loves Company, and Don & Jenn Longmuir at Scene of the Crime Books. Then I ran the gauntlet of Malice-go-Round, pitching my books with partner Barbara Graham to 21 tables of attendees. It took awhile to recover from that experience, but I really enjoyed the You've Got Fan Mail panel in the afternoon, the Opening Ceremonies Reception, the panel of Agatha Best Novel Nominees and Parnell Hall's interview of Mary Higgins Clark before heading to my friends' house for the evening.













After sitting at Lisa Bork's table for the New Author's Breakfast Saturday morning, I served on my panel, Into the Wild: Mysteries Set in the Great Outdoors, with Suzanne Arruda, Rachel Brady, and Deborah Sharp, moderated by the delightful Caroline Craig. Barb Goffman, the Malice Domestic Program Chair, told me later that she could hear our audience laughing through the walls as we regaled them with tales of things-gone-wrong during research expeditions into the great outdoors. After that came my signing period, and I took some photos of fellow signers, shown below, after the photo of the panel. The second photo shows Rachel Brady, Dana Cameron, and Joanna Carl. The third photo shows me with my table mate, Barb Goffman. The fourth shows me with Hank Phillippi Ryan, Maggie Sefton, and Deborah Sharp. The last photo shows Alan Orloff and Stephanie Pintoff.









































































Next came the much-awaited Sisters in Crime Guppies lunch, with 33 of us crammed into tables at Sbarro in the Underground. This is such a fun group, and I love getting together with fellow Guppies at Malice every year. Quite a few photos of the lunch follow this paragraph. I'll blog about the rest of the conference and the Festival of Mystery tomorrow.