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! 

Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer.

 RHYS BOWEN: When you read this I'm on the beach in San Diego, spending a wonderful week with my whole family. Fifteen of us in a big, lovely beach house--sunbathing, reading, swimming, eating, drinking and laughing as we play silly games. What could be more perfect?

This is a repeat of last summer's adventure, which took the place of a house I had booked in England and of course we couldn't travel to. We had such a good time that we're repeating this year. It might be the last time that the whole family is together like this. Granddaughter Lizzie has just graduated from UCSD and plans to spend a gap year in Europe before going to dental school. The twins are college-bound. 

The situation is perfect, with the ocean and Mission Bay right on our doorstep. We bring kayak, paddle boards, boogie boards, volleyball etc. You might be interested to know that I still love to boogie board--a little more gently now, but the old girl has still got it!

I also love to kayak.  I leave the volleyball to the younger members.

The one thing I won't do is cook. I make it clear that I pay for the house and they are responsible for meals. So every night a different family cooks for us and we get a wonderful assortment of food from shrimp enchiladas to twice baked potatoes with smoked salmon. And we celebrate every evening: birthdays, graduations and Dominic and Meredith's wedding anniversary. A different cake every night!

After dinner we play silly games with lots of laughter. The name game is a favorite. Too complicated to explain here.  So I'm sharing pix from last year in the hope that everything will be repeated. What could be better than sea and sand and surrounded by those you love most?

Are you risking a vacation this year? Daring to fly? Going abroad or sticking to home like this?

Lisa Brackmann--Black Swan Rising

DEBORAH CROMBIE: How very strange and disconcerting to find that the worst case scenarios you imagined for a novel are now the stuff of the nightly news. This is what happened to award-winning, multi-talented author and Jungle Red friend Lisa Brackmann with her novel BLACK SWAN RISING.  (A "black swan" is a highly unlikely event that has massive impact, and which seems predictable in hindsight.) Booklist called it "An absorbing and apocalyptic vision of American politics that leaves the reader hoping it will never come to this." It's a gripping, can't-put-it-down read, and here's Lisa to tell us how it all came about. It will give you goosebumps.

LISA BRACKMANN: At some point after I finished writing BLACK SWAN RISING, my lovely agent told me that I was not allowed to write about World War III.

I did not intend to write a book that was “ripped from the headlines” when I started work on BLACK SWAN RISING. And it was more than slightly disconcerting to see things that I’d written
as fiction repeated time and time again on the nightly news in full, awful reality. Friends started calling me “Cassandra.” And as we all know, it’s no fun being Cassandra.

So I guess my agent really has nothing to worry about. Cassandras can only predict, not change the outcome. But I think for my next book I will write something hopeful and healing, just in case.

I wrote the first chapter and a very rough outline of BSR in mid-2014. I was inspired by several things: an incredibly expensive and polarizing congressional campaign here in San Diego, in
what was at the time a swing district, the then unexamined link between misogyny and violence against women and mass shootings —“incel” was a self-characterizing term used on obscure message boards back then – and GamerGate, an organized campaign of harassment and at times violent threats against women and their allies in the gaming industry. Which, at the time, was not taken very seriously but provided a template for the Alt-Right and their online harassment and organizing. What’s even worse? That white supremacists found incel and gaming forums the perfect recruiting grounds for their racist movement.
(you can find out more about the genesis and setting of the book here)

None of that is any good in a novel if it isn’t anchored in characters and story. Writing about “issues” in fiction can all too easily become didactic and dull – the real-life stuff has to be embedded deep in the bones of the book and in individual human struggles. I hope I did that with BLACK SWAN RISING. I’m very fond of the characters – ambitious Casey Cheng, struggling to find meaning from her own tragedy, deeply damaged Sarah Price and Matt Cason, each in their own way searching for connection with others that they can’t quite make, existentially frustrated Lindsay Cason, who can’t figure out how her life went off-track and where to lay the blame. And I hope the plot is suspenseful and involving. But it’s not a story that ends with any easy answers. As I was writing the book, I kept asking myself, how do I wrap this up? How do I
solve the problems that the book posits? And I realized that I simply could not. The closure the characters sought was still a ways down the road.

A lot has happened since I wrote this book. We’ve had three and a half years of a disastrous presidency that has polarized our nation even beyond what BLACK SWAN RISING portrayed. Before, the book was a description and a prediction, my attempt to put some of the seemingly disparate pieces together to create a picture of where I thought we were heading. I think of it now as a prequel of sorts to the times we are living in today. I hope that our country has a
happier sequel in its future — I have to believe that we do.

Lisa Brackmann is the NYT best-selling author of the Ellie McEnroe trilogy (ROCK PAPER TIGER), and suspense novels GETAWAY, GO-BETWEEN and BLACK SWAN RISING. Her books have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Strand Critic’s best-first-novel and Amazon’s Top 100 Books of the Year and Top 10 Mystery/Thrillers. Her work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Travel+Leisure, Salon, LARB, and CNET. She lives in San Diego with a cat, far too many books and a bass ukulele, and plays a regular bass in a local band. You can find her at www.lisabrackmann.com

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Rising-Lisa-Brackmann-ebook/dp/B089ZN4DFL/  (new ebook)

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Rising-Lisa-Brackmann/dp/0738759473   (old HC)

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Rising-Lisa-Brackmann-audiobook/dp/B07GWYFKJ9/ (audio) 

DEBS: Readers, stop in and welcome Lisa!