Viva Las Vegas! by Jenn McKinlay

I recently went to Las Vegas. It had been about ten years since I'd last visited while doing research for a book VANILLA BEANED (you can see by the cover it's a Vegas story).

I had a blast researching that mystery -- there are Elvis(es) lots of Elvis(es) in the plot. And while I was there this time, I was doing more research for yet another book, but I can't share any details about that just yet.

Instead, I'll share some of the high points:

I attended a concert by the Gin Blossoms: This is crazy to me because some of the GBs have become personal friends and they were HUGE when I first moved to AZ. In fact, my boyfriend at the time worked for a guy named Forrest who nicknamed me "Gin Blossom" - no idea why. Tangentially, his daughter, a baby back then (obvi) grew up to be Haley Lu Richardson (White Lotus, season 2). Life just keeps on keeping on, doesn't it? Anyway, the concert was fabulous and I had a blast.

Because that wasn't enough fun, the next day I decided it would be a hoot to go ziplining over Freemont Street. Because...why not? I do not have any pictures because we were going 35 mph and Hub couldn't snap a pic from below (five stories down) fast enough. Probably just as well. Having my lips and eyelids peeled back from my face is not my best look. But my partner in crime and I did pose for some ridiculous pre-ride pics, because of course we did.

Hub and I went thrifting on Main Street, even popping into the famous Gold and Silver pawn shop from Pawn Stars. I can not confirm nor deny whether this was research but we didn't buy anything despite being dazzled by the riches within.

We also managed a pool day with our friends who flew in from CT -- they wore swimsuits while Hub and I were in hoodies -- and the resort had Dole Whip, which makes everything better. LOL. 

Love it or hate it, there really isn't any place quite like Vegas. It's not where I would choose to spend vacation time as I'm more of a beach gal, and I don't think I can be there for longer than a weekend (too many people) but whenever I'm there, I have to say I'm never bored and the people watching is always spectacular. 

How about you, Reds and Readers, are you a Vegas person? If not, where's a place you discovered to be surprisingly entertaining?

Bouchercon Memories

 The winner of KILLIN' TIME IN SAN DIEGO is Lenita, in California! Lenita, please send an email to julia spencer fleming (all one word) at Gmail.com and I'll connect you to editor Holy West!

 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: How to describe Bouchercon? It's a party that moves from someone's suite to the bar to the restaurant to the publisher's shindig to the hotel lobby. It's a four-day university with the best crime fiction authors in the world telling you whatever you want to know about writing mysteries. It's a massive family reunion, if you actually enjoyed seeing everyone in your family.

 

At my first B'con, in Austin, I was nervous and shy (I know, it's hard to believe,) and had the great good fortune to meet Steve Hamilton, who sat down with me and gave me SO much information about the world of crime fiction writers. 

 The next year, in Las Vegas, I swept the awards and barely remember it. What I do recall was the awful hotel/casino (it got demolished a year later!) the bug that bit my butt at the breakfast bar (which will be the title of my children's book, if I ever write one) and getting phone updates on the League Championship final during the Opening ceremonies (Boston vs. Yankees, with Ross and Lee Child parked in front of the overflow bar TV, cheering on their respective teams.)

Julia, Edith Maxwell &"Sherry Harris" in Albany

Lots of my memories are crowded with people, but some are just lovely solitary moments - walking back to my hotel in San Francisco listening to street musicians playing in the warm dark. Looking out the porthole of my room at the Queen Mary at the glittering lights of Long Beach. Starting each morning in St. Petersburg soaking up the sun while swimming laps in the hotel pool.

What about you, Reds? What are some of your memorable Bouchercon moments?

JENN McKINLAY: My favorite Bouchercon was Dallas in 2019 - all the Reds were together. Why can’t I remember the name of this drink? Perhaps I had a few too many.

 

A great many of these were consumed

  

Other memorable times were…meeting Sue Grafton for the first time in Long Beach (2014) and chatting for a half hour in a hallway. No one else approached her, which I found shocking! It was also my first Bouchercon - so wow, just wow! 

 

Another fave was Toronto (2017) where I went to the top of the CN tower! I always try to do some touring while at a conference and that tower has a glass floor. So cool! 

 

Another stellar BCon moment was Raleigh (2015) where I was told my series was getting moved into hardcover and I found out I hit #8 on the NYT which made me useless for the entire conference. Seriously, I had to meet with the head buyer for Barnes and Noble over dinner and I was as dumb as a potato. Luckily, he was very understanding and we’re still in touch. I think that’s why conferences are so important. You get to meet people and form friendships that are truly sustaining in an occupation that can be, frankly, rather lonely.

RHYS BOWEN: My first Bouchercon I knew exactly 2 people. I was chatting with one of them but had agreed to have dinner with the other. A man in the group invited me to join them for dinner. I explained I had a dinner commitment. As they walked away my acquaintance hissed, “You just turned down Jeffrey Deaver!” 

(I was clueless obviously)

My most memorable was winning two Anthony awards  in Toronto only the award was a giant tombstone I could hardly lift. I had to stagger through customs with an incredibly heavy box , trying not to look suspicious 

Rhys, Louise Penny and Debs in New Orleans

 

Other fond memories are all the Jungle Red game shows, good food  in New Orleans, walking into Austin with matching purple cowboy hats   My least favorites were the horror in Las Vegas and the dystopian Albany site.

 

JULIA: We really need T-shirts that say, "I Survived the Las Vegas Bouchercon." And Albany... sigh. Well, at least it was close enough to visit family and friends upstate.

HALLIE EPHRON: Oh dear, I do remember Albany. An impossible city for a conference of that size. I felt bad for the folks who worked so hard to organize it.

I vividly remember my first Bouchercon - it was in Denver (in 2000? Egads). I knew *NO ONE*! I remember after eating alone I wandered over to the bar where Lee Child was holding forth, and chickened out on hanging out. Only now do I realize what a welcoming place that conference can be, wherever it’s held.

My all time favorite (after the Jungle Red game panels which have been fabulous) was when I got to interview GoH Elizabeth George. She is so lovely and smart and it was a breeze. 

 

GOH Elizabeth George & Hallie

 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well, so many, and I think I remember the good ones more clearly. Certainly being Guest of Honor in Dallas, that was…well, I am still floating. I still kind of can’t believe it.  And I got to interview James Patterson, who was incredible, hilarious, and absolutely brilliant. I adore him, and we have stayed pals.  (Did you know he mentioned me and how much he loved  that interview in his autobiography? Aww.)

What is Patterson saying to Hank?

 

Anyway, yes, chatting with Sue Grafton. And  the time in maybe Cleveland, where I saw a guy putting out WHIrl360  tote bags, which I knew was for my favorite book at the time, Trust Your Eyes. And I said: “Are you putting out those for Linwood Barclay? I love that book, may I have one?” And turns out, it WAS Linwood Barclay, so that was nice.

And the moment in St. Louis  when William Landay told me he was worried that there were so many arcs of Defending Jacob, because he feared no one would buy it because everyone would already have it. I remember I said: Boucheron is NOT everyone. 

And when Robert Crais had to cancel at the last minute, and the Bouchercon people, in a real Hollywood moment, asked me if I could fill in for him and interview David Baldacci the next day. Well, of COURSE I could. And did. And it was great.

And winning the ANTHONY four times.  PLUS another time winning with the Reds for this very blog! (Where was that, you all?) And every moment with the Reds!

 

JULIA: St. Petersburg! I missed the awards because I was deep in conversation with Brad Parks and lost track of the time. Go on, Hank, I cut you off. What about your first?

HANK: Oh, my first Bouchercon? In Baltimore. I was MISERABLE, and lonely,  and decided to give up on this whole writing thing. Lee Child, who just happened to be there when I was looking pensive, and asked me about it,  told me not to. And I always do what Lee Child says.

LUCY BURDETTE: My first Bcon was in Milwaukee– 2000? I knew not a soul and I was petrified! Terrified! If I hadn't wanted to get published so badly, I probably would have flown right home. I am truly not a natural extrovert, so a big conference like that was very challenging. I have so enjoyed the times the Reds are able to all get together, especially to do a game show. My favorite might have been the one that Julia’s Ross filled in. He was hysterical! This is the photo of the Reds winning best website in St. Petersburg. Oh but wait, Dallas was great fun too, and it was an honor to interview our own Debs!

 

Some extremely happy & honored Reds in St. Petersburg

 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, so many Bouchercons, so hard to choose! My first Bouchercon was in Pasadena in 1991! I was so nervous and so overwhelmed. But people were so nice and I made friends I still have to this day. I remember Jonathan Gash (he wrote Lovejoy, if you remember) stopped and spoke to me and I thought, “Wow, a real author just talked to me!"

Dallas was fabulous for so many reasons, but some of the others that stand out in memory: Las Vegas (the worst hotel, ugh); Raleigh (my luggage went to California); Albany (we all know how many times we walked up and down those hills but, still, I had a great time at that one); Toronto (Susan Shea and I discovered a pen shop!); St. Petersburg, where the Reds won Anthony!  I am so excited to be making more memories in San Diego.

 

Debs & our own Ann Mason in Toronto

 

 JULIA: Notice how everyone has a happy memory of Lee Child at Bouchercon? That goes to show what a truly lovely gentleman he is. Now it's your turn, dear readers. Share your memories of B'con or any other literary conference/ festival you've been to. And if you're appearing in San Diego today, tomorrow or Sunday, let us know in the comments! 

Cathy Ace on Vegas: Where it's all right to fake it

HALLIE EPHRON: Our guest Cathy Ace hails from Wales, which you know the minute she opens her mouth and you hear her wonderful accent. Irrepressibly warm and funny, she now lives in more buttoned-down Canada. Where else would she set her latest Cait Morgan mystery novel but Las Vegas!

She explains why.

CATHY ACE: Las Vegas is what many would call the world capital of fakery. And I’m okay with that. In fact, I adore it. I embrace the falseness of it all, and thrown myself into its rhinestone encrusted arms as often as I can.

I know that Vegas is one of those places that has the ability to polarize opinion, but, ever since I first visited it about a dozen years ago, I have always felt “at home” there. I’ve been thinking about why that might be.

I was a pretty solitary child, not one to have friends come to the house to play with me, I was just as happy to live in my own little world with my imaginary friend and pretend. I would put on plays and recite poems for my toys, I’d involve the grown-ups as stage hands. My world was populated by fictional characters from books, (Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and Secret Seven, or Nancy Drew, of course) and my own invention.

As the years passed I spent a good deal of my time performing in choirs (being Welsh means that’s pretty much a given) or on stage in amateur dramatic or operatic productions. Both my mum and dad performed too, and even my little sister was involved. I was always surrounded by costumes, scenery, props, scripts, librettos, and rehearsal schedules. Pretending and dressing up was the norm for our whole family, and for those we mixed with.

Maybe that’s why I feel so comfortable in Vegas. It’s one huge piece of theater. Every casino is a stage setting, every server wears a costume, and each visitor arrives ready to be swept up in the performance art of the place. 

Having visited on dozens of occasions over the years, I have come to know some of the folks who live and work there. It’s that idea, sharing the drama and the normalcy of the place, that I tried to convey in this latest book. It’s something that visitors to Vegas often miss—the human stories behind the costumes, and the make-up. 

 
Set in an invented casino themed on Tsarist Russia, with an opera diva, a dead casino owner with a Rat Pack background, and a collection of the sort of people one frequently meets in Vegas—so, eclectic—I wanted to bring some of the tales from “backstage” to the audience’s attention. You see, the place might be fake, but the people aren’t—they are real people, living what they view as normal lives. 

Growing up in a world where dress-up and pretend was just fine, and where I was happy to perform in front of the scenery, or stand in the wings and watch, means I’m right at home in Vegas.

What about you? Is Vegas just too much for you to take? Are you uncomfortable at the thought of being pulled onstage to become a part of the performance, or would you be one of those throwing their hand into the air to volunteer to “help with the trick”?

If you’re reading this I am guessing you’re a fan of fiction. So how far does that love of make-believe go? Happy to have it between the pages, but not to participate when it’s “real”? Or is the “faking it” of Vegas just fine by you?

HALLIE: Great questions! So, does spending time in Las Vegas feel like submersing yourself in a great fiction? Or not...

About Cathy Ace's latest Cait Morgan mystery, The Corpse with the Platinum Hair: Welsh Canadian foodie and criminologist Cait Morgan takes off on a short break to the fabulous Tsar! Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas with her significant other, retired cop Bud Anderson. But before they can start celebrating Bud’s birthday in style at the casino owners’ exclusive private dining room, the death of Miss Shirley — a woman with a colorful background and the acknowledged Queen of the Strip — results in a security lockdown. Cait, Bud, a corpse, and ten possible murderers are trapped in the luxurious restaurant for twelve deadly hours. The bodies pile up, the tension mounts, the list of suspects dwindles — and Cait knows she has to work out who within the group is an audacious killer because there’s no telling who might be next to die.

That's Amore--but this is A Murder

Tattoo artist Brett Kavanaugh inks high-class clientele in her Las Vegas shop, The Painted Lady. And when she's not on the job, she sets her designs on catching killers. . . .
Las Vegas is a rocking place where impersonators of the legendary Rat Pack - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. - are alive and well and performing nightly at clubs all over town. Except they're not all. Alive, that is.

( ...to be continued...see below)
**Driven To Ink

Well, ain't this a kick in the head? Karen Olson is back--she's such a pal of Jungle Red--and we are thrilled that her newest book is out. (How many is this now? Seven?) Now Karen's gone all Vegas, baby, and probably has a cigarette in a long holder and long white gloves and a sllinky red dress and shakes a mean...martini. (And knows the rules of blackjack, which are obviously incomprehensible.)

But her inspiration is from the golden age of Vegas. Like Dino himself sings, er, sang: memories are made of this. Volare, everyone. Now, take it away Karen.

THAT'S AMORE...but this is--a Murder

KAREN: I’ve always had this thing for the Rat Pack.

Ever since seeing Ocean’s 11 for the first time, the original one, not the one with George Clooney (although admittedly, the George Clooney version is very easy on the eyes), but the one with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. The Rat Pack, which also included Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, Shirley McLaine, and Angie Dickinson, really were Vegas in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The group, brought together by Sinatra, were all around town, drinking and performing and having a blast.

They became legend.

So when I was trying to come up with a plot for my third tattoo shop mystery, DRIVEN TO INK, set in Vegas, I knew I had to pay homage to this bit of Sin City’s history.

So what did I do? I killed off a Dean Martin impersonator.

And not just any Dean Martin impersonator. A Dean Martin impersonator whose job was to serenade couples getting married at the That’s Amore Drive-Through Wedding Chapel.
Okay, sure, Dino wasn’t the most famous Rat Packer. Frank was. But Frank seemed so clichéd, so done. And I’d already used Frank in my Annie Seymour series, in which private eye Vinny DeLucia bears a striking resemblance to the old crooner (not the fat Frank from his later years, but when he was younger, with Ava).

That was in part for my husband, who is a huge huge HUGE Frank fan. So much so that if we hear a Frank song on the radio, we have to stop for a moment of silence to honor his memory. I’m totally not kidding. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard my husband say wistfully, “He can sing like that because he’s loved and lost.”

So Dino it was for this new book. And not just one impersonator. No. I had to do it right. There is a whole stable of Dinos at That’s Amore. And someone seems to be targeting them.


My editor was concerned that my readers might not know what the Rat Pack was. I found that a little hard to believe. I mean, who hasn’t heard of Frank Sinatra? Or Dean Martin? Maybe they haven’t heard of Peter Lawford, he’s a little more obscure. But regardless, I had to put a sentence explaining the Rat Pack to my readers, just in case they live under a rock.

Or get them confused with the Brat Pack. Remember them? From the ‘80s? Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Robert Downey Jr., Judd Nelson. That dreadful movie St. Elmo’s Fire. The Rat Pack they weren’t.
But I digress.

If you were going to write a book set in Vegas and had to pick one of the Rat Pack to put in it, which one would you choose?

HANK: Angie Dickinson! That's who I'd be. I mean, choose. How about you?

******************************************

Karen E. Olson’s newest tattoo shop mystery, DRIVEN TO INK, is now available. Visit her website at http://www.kareneolson.com/

...continued from above..

When Brett lends her car to Sylvia Coleman and Bernie Applebaum for a drive-through wedding, she's not expecting to get it back with a dead body in the trunk - much less one who looks like Dean Martin and sports a clip cord from a tattoo machine around his neck.
As for the newlyweds, they vanish before they can start their honeymoon, so Brett and Jeff, Sylvia's son, go undercover as bride and groom to sniff out the rat who seems to be targeting the impersonators. Whatever's going on, it's not amore. . . .

****************************************************************************************************************

And we're quiet for a moment, today on September 11....

****************************************************************************************************************

What Happens on Jungle Red, Stays on Jungle Red

It's good news Friday!




HANK: We love it when good things happen to wonderful people. Dear dear FO JRW Karen Olson's just got some terrific news...
NAL has just picked up two more books in Karen's tattoo shop mysteries. The third will be DRIVEN TO INK, with a possible pub date of late 2010 or early 2011. The fourth is tentatively titled INK FLAMINGOS.



And now, journalist Karen has forsaken the chic Connecticut life..and sets her new mysteries in VEGAS. Have you been there? I haven't...but Karen has!

KAREN: Vegas. Everyone knows it. Even if you haven’t visited, you’ve seen it on TV, in movies. It’s got an allure that was born of mobsters and celebrities and scandals and gambling. Bugsy and Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin and showgirls and casinos like the Sands and the Frontier and the Four Queens and the Sahara.
When my editor and I were discussing the setting for my new tattoo shop mysteries, she originally suggested Miami or southern California. Those are the places where those TV tattoo shows are located. But as I reminded her, those are also settings for great crime novels, too, and those novels are written by writers who actually live there. I was concerned I’d be exposed as a fraud, since I haven’t strayed too far from my native Connecticut. My editor said they were just looking for palm trees and heat.
So I suggested Vegas.


No, I don’t live there, either. And I’d only visited Vegas once, for a total of two days, 12 years earlier. But Vegas seemed easier to fake somehow. Since so much of Vegas really is fake. Like the canal and gondolas at the Venetian Grand Canal Shoppes, where the tattoo shop in my books is located. And the Eiffel Tower at the Paris resort. And the Brooklyn Bridge at New York New York. And the Roman statues at Caesar’s.


Halfway through writing the book, I realized I needed to actually visit Sin City. So my husband and I took our daughter out of school (yes, bad parents that we are) and flew to the desert in June, where it was a scorching 105 degrees every day. But it’s a dry heat. Ha.

There’s something about the desert that I’ve always loved. It was too hot to hike, but we took a drive up to Red Rock Canyon, just outside the city. It’s spectacular; the red rocks rising high into the clear blue sky, the brown desert floor speckled with the green of Joshua trees and banana yuccas.

Yes, I’m a New Englander, but I feel so comfortable in the desert.
We also spent a lot of time at the Venetian, where I took myriad photos so I could remind myself of the ambiance. We ate at Bouchon, Thomas Keller’s French bistro. We wandered through the MGM, where we stayed, and I took in the gamblers at the slots and the table games. We saw the Bellagio fountains.

When I started writing my books, I loved setting them in New Haven, the city I was born in. When my editor wanted me to move out of my hometown, I was a little nervous. Could I do it?

It was a lot easier than I thought. And I got to go to Vegas.

If you were to pick a completely different setting for your next book, where would it be?


Karen E. Olson
SHOT GIRL, NAL/Obsidian, now available
THE MISSING INK, NAL/Obsidian, July
www.kareneolson.com
http://firstoffenders.typepad.com