Jungle Reds Rock at Cleveland Convention

RED RHYS: Greetings from wet, cold Cleveland where the Jungle Reds are currently enjoying a fabulous Bouchercon convenion. For those of you who don't know, Bouchercon is the annual world mystery convention at which the whole mystery/thriller-writing community gathers to feast, drink, learn and laugh. Many big names from our profession are here and it's a chance for fans to meet and mingle with their idols.

Last night the opening ceremonies were held at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I have to say I was impressed with the glass and steel building and the giant guitars outside although the noise level inside was a bit much to take. But toastmaster John Connelly gave a good speech, guests of honor were introduced, including Mary Higgins Clark and Robin Cook, and the MacAvity, Dilys, and Barry Awards were presented.

There was a librarians breakfast that Hallie, Julia and I attended and at which Mary Higgins Clark spoke, then some excellent and diverse panels all morning.

But the central event of the convention was looming for us Jungle Reds. We decided that panels at these conventions can get a little serious and can repeat themselves, so we wanted to try something difference. We decided to hold our own game show--The Jungle Red a mystery version of Family Feud--and we weren't at all sure how it would be received, or whether we could pull it off. A brief rehearsal last night indicated it might be a career-ending moment for all of us. But Hallie had put in so much work, getting her computer to recreate the board, visuals and music from the game show. She had also endured embarrassment and possible jail when the game show buzzers went off in her bag while going through security. So we didn't feel we could plead a sudden case of the Black Death and not show up.

So dressed to perfection in our new jungle red pashminas that Hank had found for us, our nails painted bright Jungle Red and forced hopeful smiles on our faces, we showed up in the ballroom this afternoon. We were rather astounded to see that the ballroom was packed to overflowing, in fact some people had to resort to going up to the balcony. We were announced, one by one, came out from behind the curtains and the show started.

The other team (of Julia, Lucy and Debs) came up with great answers to what kind of evidence you'd find at a crime scene. Our token male Red for the afternoon, Julia's husband Ross, had to be restrained from claiming that "circumstantial" was a good answer. I also had to wrestle the buzzer away from him on several occasions but his high spirits delighted the audience. 

One of the questions that stumped us was who should play Reacher in the movie. One of the answers we didn't get was "anyone other than Tom Cruise." Liam Nissen was the number one answer, which made more sense than Lucy's suggestion  of Jack Nickleson or Dustin Hoffman (proving how long it is since she's been to the movies).

For every winning answer we gave out prizes. The audience laughed, shouted out answers and had a good time. And that is what it was all about. I think we'll all stick to writing mysteries rather than try and take Vanna White's job away from her!

Tonight it's cocktail parties and schmoozing in the bar. Tomorrow more panels and tomorrow night our own Red Lucy's short story is nominated for one of the Anthony Awards. It has been great putting names to faces of those of you who follow our blog and send us your interesting comments.

And those of you who are with us at Bouchercon, do share your experiences!

On Fantasy

"But I never let a fantasy get away, because I always stop to analyze it." Shelley Duvall

Charlie Bakst reading Yesterday's Fatal on a beach in Italy.

Jan: I'm not talking about sexual fantasy (sorry guys), but writer fantasy. It goes like this: You are walking through a crowded airport, or through a crowded beach, and all of a sudden you come across someone reading YOUR book.

The perfect fantasy, of course, is when you have no idea who the reader is. He/she is just one of the many fans you never knew existed. In this photo, the reader, who sent me the pic, is a friend of mine, Charlie Bakst, but he was reading my book on a beach in Italy -- so I figure that makes up for him not being a complete stranger.

Once, my daughter, who has experienced the highs and lows of my writing career, called me up from college screaming excitedly. It turned out that as she was leaving the cafeteria, she saw the clerk at the register reading my book, A Confidential Source. So although I didn't actually come across the reader myself, I get fantasy points, right?

A couple of years ago, I was speaking at a mystery brunch in on Martha's Vineyard (hosted by Edgartown Books) and Robin Cook -- yes, the best selling medical thriller writer -- made a joke of hoping to stumble across someone on South Beach reading his book. You'd figure for Robin Cook this would be an everyday reality.

So I'm curious about how widespread this fantasy thing is. Is it just Robin Cook and me (I doubt it) or do we all have a verson of this, not just writers, but artists, musicians, teachers and even lawyers??

RO: It's a rush, no doubt about it. I haven't had the book version yet, but some years ago I produced a video called Say it By Signing, for friends and family of hearing-impaired people who sign; also acquired a book on the same subject. Not a huge market, but if my book does as well, it will be champagne all around. I saw the book in the window of a small bookstore in Bar Harbor, and the video was picked up by a nationwide chain (anyone remember the dear departed Nature Company?) I was ecstatic. it didn't even matter that I didn't make a lot of dough on it...I was thrilled. I think it's the Sally Field, "you like me..you really like me" thing.

HALLIE: My fantasy was to find my books for sale at an airport or train station newsstand. One day, my daughter phoned me from the Los Angeles airport to say that she was looking at a copy of OBSESSED right there at the newsstand! Then I found out they change the book displays every 24 hours.

In a related be-careful-which-fantasy-you-wish-for scenario--I was chatting with a woman author I'd met at a conference a few years ago. I told her my book-at-the-aiport fantasy, she she told me this story. Her husband worked for Hudson News (they're the franchise that owns all the newsstands in airports, Grand Central...) and he was able to use his muscle to get HN to order up 300,000 copies of her first paperback novel. She was ECSTATIC. The publisher was ecstatic, too. 100,000 copies were sold. Pretty great, right? BUT (and this is a very big "but") 200,000 copies were returned. This was very bad news for the publisher because they lost a huge chunk of change, and it was the last novel she did with them.

HANK: Here's a fantasy come true: look at this photo of my Prime Time as one of the staff favorites at the wonderful Willow Books in Acton MA. (Whoo hoo. See it? Right in the middle, top shelf?) Now, as for my next big fantasy: please all of you take a moment to send good karma that I make the deadline for Air Time. I'm not even going to tell you when it is...it's all too scary. Back to to reality.

JAN: So aside from the obvious ones -- book gets made into Oscar-winning movie -or making the NYT bestsellers list - I'm curious to hear about other writer fantasies. Also, the comparable career fantasy in other fields! There must be a chef fantasy, salesman-of-the-year-fantasy, and dermatologist fantasy, right?