Bouchercon Diary - Day Two

Alrighty, let's return to the Bouchercon recap! Friday, Day 1 (for me), was outstanding. How did Saturday have a chance? mmm....

I got up a little on the early side, took care of the bothersome necessities (shower, dressing, etc). Then I wandered out to find some tea and the first panel I was going to attend. I went to the Kindle presentation, more out of curiosity than anything else - I'm not actually interested in getting a Kindle. Kindle/Amazon won't attend our organization's conference so I was interested to see what they would have to say. It was evident pretty early on that the content was directed at authors and publishers, so I quietly bowed out before the session was over. This little disappearing act enabled me to get in line 1st for Lee Child signing table. I wanted to have him sign his memoir scrapbook page. Honestly, had I not been in a position to do this, I probably wouldn't have gotten it signed simply because his lines were always so long and that turns impersonal. To me that's not fun. It's just a matter of how fast can we move people through this line, kind of thing. But, I did get in line first, and I snapped this picture - not so great, but it was all I got.



Then I got back into line, this time to see David Morrell and have him sign HIS memoir page.


By the time I had gotten both of those taken care of, the next round of panels had already gotten under way, so I decided to forgo a panel and wander around. That's when I found this handsome fella hangin' out:


And then I sat for a bit and chatted with this other handsome guy, Duffy Dombrowski's alter ego:


I did by the way get my requisite hugs from both of these fine gentlemen! ;)

Finally, I hooked up with a third handsome guy for lunch! Michael Lister - who in all my giddiness I neglected to grab a picture with - met me for lunch and we enjoyed a very nice conversation. I had the chance to congratulate him on Michael Connelly giving him a shout out about his new book in Connelly's interview from the day before. Michael Connelly and I share an appreciation of Michael Lister's DOUBLE EXPOSURE. And let me tell you how flattered I was that he made time to get together with me when he was flying out that afternoon after his panel. Super, super nice guy. If you ever have the chance to meet him, by all means, snatch it up!

After lunch I sprinted back to my room and reorganized my books in my bag and headed off to what turned out to be the absolute BEST panel I attended at Bouchercon. This panel was titled "IMBA and the Dilys Winn Award." Between the facts that the panel was opposite a panel with Harlan Coben, in a large room and I arrived early, I got a front row seat for William Kent Krueger, Louise Penny and Sean Chercover, moderated by Robin Agnew (from Aunt Agatha's in Ann Arbor). The chemistry of the folks on this panel worked amazingly. All three authors were laid back, candid, funny. They talked about starting out in the publishing business and funding their own book tours. They talked about both good and bad experiences at independent book stores - or in Louise's case, at a library. If you can see in these pictures, at one point Louise was embarrassed by something she said so she swapped name tents with Sean. I heard a lot of people talking about the panel with Harlan Coben that the fact that it was a good one, but honestly, I wouldn't have traded being in this session for anything! Well, maybe that's exaggerating a little - maybe there are a FEW things, but I definitely wouldn't have swapped it for any other session!








Afterwards I toddled over to have Sean sign my books - I'd managed to corner Louise before lunch that day. So Sean signed my books (on one he wrote "P.S. - see ya online" too cool!! O.k., geeky fangirl moment, give me a break!) and then I still had some time; I looked around and found LIBBY FISCHER HELLMANN!! Yay! I was looking so forward to meeting her. I only had to wait for one other person to finish up and I walked up to her table and said, "Libby, I'm Jen, can I come around and hug you?" So, I got to share a big hug with Libby and a little bit of chit chat. I truly admire her and it was a wonderful experience to get to meet her. But again, no picture. I WILL get one soon, though. More on that later. The other person I got to meet at this time, who I was very much looking forward to was Rebecca Cantrell. She's another of the Criminal Minds bloggers. Oh! She is just amazingly wonderful. Just like with Sophie, I felt as though I had known her my whole entire life.


Then the big moment was upon me...my Hot Ticket session! With Michael Connelly! I truly admire him. He doesn't strike me as the kind of person for whom the spotlight comes easy, and that makes me admire him even more. Being in the spotlight constantly all weekend long has to be exhausting when it doesn't feel natural. But anyway, he was wonderful in our session, and answered everyone's questions. The MWA Midwest chapter that organized this did a very nice job and they made sure that everyone had a chance to ask questions and no one person dominated. This is where we found out the little tidbit about Robert Crais. Michael was explaining that both he and Crais had secretly stopped reading each other's work so that the same kinds of things didn't end up creeping into the other's books since they are both set in L.A. But, they concocted the idea to have each other's character cameo in the opposite's book. Each author would send the paragraph that the other's character was in to the other author for final approval. RC had Harry Bosch out behind the police station smoking...four books after Harry QUIT smoking! Michael sent Robert an email that said "BUSTED!" I just love that story. He talked about his feelings toward BLOODWORK, the movie, and the fact that he wouldn't be able to pick a Hollywood name to play Bosch because there isn't an actor that fits his image of Bosch that he's created in his mind throughout the years. I then asked him about audiobooks and if he's unable to hear them because they don't sound like what he believes Bosch should sound like. He said yes, that was exactly the case, but that he did listen to an abridged version of one of his books that Burt Reynolds did because someone told him to do that if he wanted a laugh. He said he didn't find what Burt Reynolds did at all funny!



What endeared me the most to Michael Connelly in this session, was when he said, "I know this is going to sound like I have an ego, and I do have an ego. I know I'm a good writer; I know I'm a talented writer. But there are a lot of good writers, talented writers in this business. I also had a lot of luck, more than any one person should probably be allowed to have." What he viewed as being entirely arrogant, I saw as incredible modesty. This man has made an amazing impact on the crime fiction genre; he has given back so much to the mystery community; and I was extremely humbled to be able to attend this session. It was wonderful. He still intimidates the hell out of me, though!

Afterwards Michael graciously signed our books (and my memoir page), I was able to chat a few minutes with Shannon Byrne, Michael's publicists and a great friend to Jen's Book Thoughts, and then I darted over to the book room to have Reed Farrel Coleman sign my books. He had a panel while I was in with Michael Connelly, so I wanted to make sure I grabbed him. On one book, Reed signed "To sixy Jen." Hehehe! He's so creative!


Alright! Now it was time for the Anthony Awards. I found Jon and Ruth Jordan and David Thompson and asked to follow along because once again, I didn't know where I was going. And we headed on over to the Hilbert Circle Theater. Very beautiful theater but none of my pictures came out thanks to the lighting. I'm sure that you heard about the Anthony Award winners already, so I'll just say that it was special for me to be able to congratulate Sean Chercover, Jon & Ruth Jordan and Chris Grabenstein in person. I was extremely happy for them all. I was also especially happy for Rosemary Harris who was nominated in the category of Best First Novel. S.J. Rozan was a magnificent toast master. What a witty character she is. And Michael Connelly was all class when he awarded S. J. Rozan her award for toast master. She was technically supposed to award it to herself, but he took it upon himself to bestow the award appropriately. Good guy!

After the awards there was a bit of a reception in the lobby. I finally caught up with Robin Burcell. I was so thrilled to have a chance to see her and talk with her and grab this picture:


I also snagged Hank Philippi Ryan so she could sign her scrapbook page. She cried. I didn't want her to cry, but I was also flattered that my project created that much emotion for her. What a lovely, lovely person she is. S.J. Rozan signed her memoir, as did Marcus Sakey and Jason Pinter. I met Megan Abbott in person.

Finally as I wrapped up my time at the theater, I met up with Robin Agnew and my friend Patti O'Brien and we went to dinner at a very nice brewery. Great dinner, great conversation. And the night still wasn't over!

After heading back to the hotel, I made my way to the Artsgarden for the charity auction. The auctioneers were Donna Andrews and Chris Grabenstein - thus, why I said Chris could make his living this way if he ever left writing. The items in this auction were way beyond my means, but it was fun to watch. A character name in an upcoming Sue Grafton went for a couple thousand dollars. Yikes! But, it was all for charity and that is wonderful.




I headed back to the Hyatt hotel bar after that, where I met up with Sophie Littlefield again. She and some others were headed over to Lee Child's Reacher Creature party and they invited me to tag along. So, off I went!

It was rather insane at the Slippery Noodle. The place was wall-to-wall people, so between the live music and all the people, you couldn't hear a thing unless you were right up against the person talking, and preferably with them talking directly into your ear! Plus, if you wanted to move anywhere, you pretty much had to shove your way through. I did get to see Reed Farrel Coleman dancing:


And snapped this picture of Brett Battles and Sophie:


But, I told Sophie I thought I would go; that wasn't really my speed. But, she and Brett left with me and we went to a gen-u-ine Hoosier bar, as Sophie called it! We had a great time there. Fun conversation, cool bartender, people watching. Juliet Blackwell joined us after awhile. Sophie really liked the deer heads mounted on the wall, and we all especially liked the poinsettia decorations which we decided had probably been up since LAST Christmas. But that's o.k., it was still great!

And finally, about 11, we headed back to the Hyatt bar where we met up with Rebecca Cantrell, Kelli Stanley, and I also got to snag Jason Pinter for a picture. I have to watch the scrapbook around him, though! ;) Jason's fun. I enjoy talking to him.


And that's where I called it a night, but lord, what a night it all turned out to be! Another awesome day at Bouchercon! Tomorrow I'll wrap up with the last day of Bouchercon and the scrapbook pictures. I hope you'll check back. Until then, happy reading!

Bouchercon Diary - Day One

I hemmed and hawed about how I wanted to set up my recap of Bouchercon, and I decided to do this by day. Then at the end, I'm going to show some pictures of the scrapbook. Naomi asked what it looks like now, and I promised Jason Pinter I would put some pictures up so everyone could see. For those who do not know. I created a scrapbook of the six-word memoirs. It isn't complete yet, but I worked very hard to finish up the pages of the authors I knew would be attending Bouchercon so they could sign their memoir pages. I'll likely mention it throughout the posts, so you know what I'm talking about. And then at the end, you can SEE what I'm talking about.


I drove to Indianapolis early Friday morning, so I missed out on all of Thursday's events. But, that's o.k. I still managed to fit in TONS of fun in the days I was there. The drive was fabulous at 4 a.m. I hit Columbus before rush hour and Indianapolis just after. Smooth sailing all around. I was greeted in the hotel lobby by the most friendly face a traveling gal could hope for. I finally got to meet my friend Kaye Barley in person, in real life, in the flesh! Nothing beats being greeted by a warm hug from a good friend. She walked me up to registration got me all set up and turned me loose!


As I headed to the first panel I would attend, I was greeted at the door by another friendly face and another welcoming hug, this time from Craig McDonald. Of course, if you follow my blog, you know I met Craig earlier this year and I have to say that it was heartwarming that he remembered me and recognized me right away. Also standing in the doorway was Sophie Littlefield, so I had the opportunity to introduce myself to Sophie first thing. What a wonderful, fabulous human being! You'll hear me mention Sophie every day because every day I saw her and every day she was inviting me to come along! She's amazing.

The panel I opted to attend first thing was called "The Dark Side of the Fair Sex." Sophie was a member of this panel, as was an author who is new to me, but one who's book I have in my TBR pile and he (the lone male) is Derek Nikitas. The panel was rounded out with Chelsea Cain, moderated by Megan Abbott. It was a great panel. Megan is a fabulous moderator. The only thing I didn't like so much about the panel was that it was dominated by one person, and I would have really liked to hear more from the other members of the panel. But it was still a great panel; also quite fascinating to have the male who writes the female characters. That was also one of the topics that came up - the idea of crossing gender lines. And of course, it was my very first panel of my very first B'Con!

So, then there was a bit of a break because it was lunch time, so I decided to wander around a bit. Figure out where things were. I also made my way to the Crimespree/Bouchercon 2011 table where I found David Thompson. When someone you've never met in real life recognizes you immediately and wraps you in a hug, you know the world is right. So we talked a bit and then I started working on locating the room for the Guest of Honor interview. The coordinators for this event were fabulous. They had people along every step of the way, guiding the guests to the right place, where we were welcomed with this special prize:



Yes, that's right. It would most definitely be an ARC copy of SO COLD THE RIVER, Michael Koryta's first publication from Little Brown due out in June. Very excited to be able to dig into this. I was equally excited to chat with all the folks around me who hadn't read Michael's work before. Really kicked it into evangelist gear, let me tell you!

While I wasn't front row center, I was front row for the Michael Connelly interview, which was conducted by Michael Koryta. I apologize for my photo, it's not great, but my camera didn't get along well with the lights in the room, unfortunately.
The interview was great. Both Michaels did a fabulous job.


I didn't go to anything in the next set of panels because I was attending the Eiteljorg Museum panel ("The Art of the Western Mystery"). There was a bus to the museum, which left in the middle of the 3:00 panels. But, this enabled me to wander back over to the Crimespree/Bouchercon 2011 table and meet Jon and Ruth Jordan. Jon bestowed upon me the most wonderful words a person could hear: "you are part of the family." And that's what it all is, it's a family. Feeling like part of it, is feeling like you're on top of the world. Truly. Like I said yesterday, I LOVE being a part of this family.

So the next panel was at the Eiteljorg Museum. And of course, you know I picked this panel because Craig Johnson and C.J. Box were both on it.
But I found another great prize in this group of authors, Steve Hockensmith! Because of his humor and energy on this panel, Steve has assured that I will read his books. Well, at least the first, but I have a feeling these are going to be great books. And I apologize; the other two writers on this panel were Blake Crouch and Ann Parker. The whole panel was wonderful, but for me, Steve really stood out.


After, when I took the scrapbook up for Craig to sign, he recognized me and came out from behind the table to give me a hug - are you noticing a pattern here? I wish I could be hugged this often EVERY day! ;) And I took this picture of him and Steve. Steve was talking to someone and Craig just grabbed him around the neck and pulled him over, thus the rather startled look on Steve's face. But he's a great sport!

And that was my last panel of the day, but the day was far from over. Now I headed back to get ready to go to the Minotaur party that I was invited to attend. In the elevator, I ran into Sophie Littlefield and I asked if she was going over and could I follow her since I didn't have a clue where I was going. She said I could definitely come along, but she wasn't sure where to go either. Tracy Kiely was also with Sophie so the three of us took off in search of the Omni Hotel. Luckily we ran into someone headed in that same direction and found it without a hitch.

The party was awesome and Sophie introduced me to many, many people. The only regret I had was in my choice of attire for the event. I was dressed far too warmly; shoulda brought the lighter top. Oh well, live and learn. But, at the party, we saw Craig McDonald again, who was joined by his wife Debbie. Had a great time chatting with them. Turns out Debbie works for Recorded Books so we talked about audio books; LOVED that! Craig and Debbie are wonderful folks.

We also ran into Kelli Stanley, who you'll remember from her interview here. She and Sophie are, of course, part of the 7 Criminal Minds. I snagged them for this picture.


Such super, wonderful, generous people they both are. And Steve Hockensmith was there! He's a Minotaur author. Sophie introduced me, and I got to chat with him for awhile. Too very cool. I will get Steve on this blog for something other than this picture, I promise.

On the way back to the Hyatt Hotel, Sophie talked about her protectiveness of her friends. That was when she informed me that she would break the knees of my husband if he was mistreating me. I said, "o.k., but there's no husband on the horizon." Sophie will work on that, though! ;) I truly felt like I had known her my entire life. That's how comfortable Sophie makes people feel around her. She's such an amazing person.


Night still isn't over! Are you tired yet? I couldn't believe I was still going after all this fun, but I felt like I had energy to spare. Sophie, Brad Parks, Juliet Blackwell, Brett Battles and some other fine folks headed up to the Eagles Nest restaurant. If you are unfamiliar with this restaurant, it is at the very top of the Hyatt and is the kind that turns slowly while you are sitting there. So we enjoyed some time up there and then came down to the hotel bar, where I found my beloved Kaye again.


This was also the time that I met in real life, for the first time, Tom Schreck and Marcus Sakey.

When I introduced myself to Tom, I said, "hi Tom, I'm Jen." He stuck out his hand and said, "hi Jen" then stopped abruptly and said, "JEN!" and wrapped me in a huge hug. I'm lovin' this hug thing by the way! Everyone found this a bit humorous; Tom and I chatted a minute or two before I made reference to Marcus's six-word memoir and then Marcus said, "Jen, JEN?" and I got a hug from Marcus, too. Seriously, though, two of the nicest, funniest, most genuine people. Amazing writers and awesome human beings.


Afterward, I floated back up to my room. I did feel like I was walking on air from the whirlwind of wonderfulness that filled my first day at Bouchercon. I didn't know how it could maintain this level of greatness, but it did. More tomorrow! ;)

Top 10 Things I Learned at Bouchercon

O.k., I have so much to share with you all about Bouchercon. There aren't enough adjectives to describe the extent of amazing-ness. There WILL be other Bouchercon's for me, but this one will always hold a very special honor in my memories.

So, anyway, I'm going to start out with a quick little fun post before I load you down with all the fabulous details. Here are the top 10 things I learned at Bouchercon in Indianapolis:

10. It is still legal to smoke in a bar in Indianapolis. It was a little strange to see since it is not legal in Ohio to do so.

9. Reed Farrel Coleman is a very good dancer.

8. Steve Hockensmith knows his television commercials, but didn't know he was writing a western.

7. While I seem to be cold most all of my life, I was not so at Bouchercon and should have packed lighter clothes to avoid the embarrassing sweating! October in Indianapolis - who knew?

6. Brett Battles is a true gentleman. There are some left!

5. Sophie Littlefield will break my husband's knees (whoever my husband may turn out to be) if he's ever bad to me.

4. Michael Connelly discovered Robert Crais wasn't really reading his Harry Bosch books when they decided to have their characters cameo in each other's novels.

3. If Chris Grabenstein ever decides to stop writing (I'll break HIS knees - no, just kidding), he can pursue a career as an auctioneer.


2. Tom Schreck and Jason Pinter are both VERY tall - and yes, VERY handsome.


1. I absolutely LOVE being called a part of this family! :)

A Weekly Roundup - and Input Requested

Wow! Where in the world did August go? It seems to have just zoomed by. The days are getting shorter again, which means the cold weather is just around the corner. I saw some leaves turning colors, and I was stopped by the school bus twice this past week on the way to work. It wouldn't be bad if the stop was ONCE, but no, it's about 5 times in less than 50 yards. The bus usually has 20-30 cars lined up behind it before it turns off that main road. I didn't miss the school buses over summer. Going to have to leave about 5 or 10 minutes earlier again so I can have a better shot at beating the bus now.

In book news, however! This was a fun week with another great six-word memoir round-up and a guest post on "Madcap Noir." And this week the visitor counter topped 19,000. That's amazing to me. After year #1 of Jen's Book Thoughts it hadn't quite hit 5,000. So, yes, I'm doing the requisite little happy dance over here in Lorain, Ohio. But there's fun stuff going on elsewhere that I'd like to tell you about, too.

My friend Corey over at The Drowning Machine has announced a crime fiction short story contest called "The Watery Grave Invitational". And he's rustled up some big time judges for this contest, too. So, all you writers make sure you hustle over to Corey's blog and find out the details to enter your short stories!

I know it may seem like a long way off, but the blog for Bouchercon 2011 in St. Louis is live now. I, of course, am already making plans for this one since Robert Crais will be one of the guests of honor! The hosts include David Thompson and Jon Jordan; I have a feeling it will be a hoppin' time in St. Louis Sept. 15-18, 2011!

I've started to hear rumblings about panel assignments for Bouchercon 2009 in Indianapolis, so if you've been assigned a panel, let me know so I can start making out my plan. Since this is my first B'Con, I'm a little obsessive! ;)

Also don't forget that Tim Hallinan is going to be in Westerville at FOUL PLAY Bookstore on September 23rd. I hope you'll make plans to come out if you are in the vicinity. I'll look forward to seeing you there!

This week has also been full of Book Blogger Appreciation Week work. I will again be participating in the blogger interview exchange, so I'm getting to work on that. I'm working on one of the award panels and that's keeping me busy. I submitted my links for my own award nominations. That was a killer! I appreciate all the input people gave me on what posts they most enjoyed. It helped me a lot; I discovered that trying to pick your favorite posts is like trying to pick your favorite child! Again, I thank all of you who submitted nominations for me. I'm not really expecting the nominations to turn into me being on all the short lists - there are a lot of great blogs nominated. It's an honor just to receive a nomination. Thank you.

Thanks also to everyone who voted for Hershey and Nestle in the Dog Days of Summer photo contest. Hershey managed to snag 2nd place and Nestle got 3rd. The two of them together actually had 50% of the votes. Maybe I should have found a picture of them together, huh? Literate Housewife, Jennifer, did an awesome job on coordinating the theme week. And she planted some seeds in my little brain as well.

And finally on tap for today is a question for you all. I've been doing author interviews for about a year now. I enjoy doing the interviews and hope to keep highlighting fun crime fiction writers for you. So, I'd like to know what kinds of questions you enjoy hearing responses for. A lot of the questions I develop have to do with my own curiosity. But what types of things are you curious about? Are there questions I seem to have stopped asking that you'd like me to fit back in? Are their questions I ask that you couldn't care less about? What peaks your interest? You can leave your responses in the comments section or you can always feel free to email me.

And I think that's about all I have for today. Hope your weekend is a great one, and happy reading!!

Bouchercon countdown: 47 days!!

My Six

It's been an incredible week already and golly, it's only Wednesday. I hope the rest of the week goes as well as the beginning.

I mentioned Tuesday that the registration for Book Blogger Appreciation Week is up. So if you are a book blogger and want to get in on the action scheduled for September 14th to the 18th, you can register here:

http://bookbloggerappreciationweek.com/index.php/site/register_for_book_blogger_appreciation_week_2009/

For EVERYONE, blogger or not, you can go and nominate your favorite book blogs for the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Awards here:

http://bookbloggerappreciationweek.com/index.php/awards/bbaw_2009_award_nominations_now_open/

There is a Mystery/Thriller/Crime category again this year if you think Jen's Book Thoughts is deserving of a nomination. But of course, I would never want to influence your vote or anything! ;) But seriously, go and vote. Show some love to those book bloggers that you enjoy visiting.

Some other exciting news to share with you. John Ceepak and Danny Boyle probably have a new publishing home! Chris is going to share details as soon as everything is signed and sealed. Once I have details, I'll share them with you. And he's working on book #6! Yes, yes, yes!

UPDATE: Since writing this post last night, it has been officially announced that Pegasus will be publishing the next Ceepak novel, ROLLING THUNDER. Oh, happy day!

Also this week I received a copy of THE SILENT HOUR, Michael Koryta's fourth book in the Lincoln Perry series. Many thanks to St. Martin's for that wonderful present that showed up and made my day. I want to remind folks around me that Michael will be in this area August 11, 12, and 13 (Fairview Park Library, Rocky River Community Center, Bay Village Library). He will be in Westerville at Foul Play bookstore on August 5, which is the day after the book release. And my friends up near Ann Arbor, here's your chance now to go to Aunt Agatha's. Michael is going to be there on August 10. His complete event schedule is here.

And I'm filling this blog post with 6s. Today is July 16th. October 16th is when I'm headed to my very first Bouchercon. So, I'm beginning the countdown. Counting today, there are 91 days to Bouchercon!

And finally, the most important 6 of this blog post, which is sort of not even book related. But...in another way maybe it's remotely related. Many authors will mention how music influences their writing. Of course we know Bruce Springsteen influences Chris Grabenstein's Ceepak series, ENVY THE NIGHT came from song lyrics, Tom Schreck's Duffy Dombrowski series is influenced by Elvis, etc. So, now I'm going to springboard off my dear friend Michael over at Lazy Thoughts from a Boomer who did this outstanding post on 6 songs that trigger important memories for him. Mine will not be anywhere near as awesome as his, so I encourage you to go check his out. And I will also warn you beforehand that I have very eclectic taste when it comes to music. I'm sure you'll notice that here. The first three were easy for me to come up with. The last three took a little more effort. But here are MY SIX:

1. Thank God for Kids - The Oak Ridge Boys. This song fondly reminds me of every small child that has had an important role in my life. I've always wanted to have children of my own, but as of now, I've had to make due with enjoying others' children.

2. The Little Old Lady from Pasadena - either Jan and Dean or The Beach Boys. My dad has always been an important influence in my life, and he always loved music from the 50s and 60s, especially Jan and Dean. His love of that era rubbed off on me. My very first music concert that I went to was with my dad and it was to see The Beach Boys. We sat on the lawn at Blossom and it rained...horribly. We were soaked. But, I remember that concert to this day.

3. There Once Was a Man - sung by Harry Connick Jr. and Kelli O'Hara in THE PAJAMA GAME - I don't get to travel a whole lot, but one of the greatest trips I've ever taken was my trip to New York City with my sister and mom. We went with the express reason of seeing Harry Connick Jr. in THE PAJAMA GAME, but we made a weekend of it. This song was my favorite from the show and I can't help but think of this weekend whenever I listen to it. I think it was also my sister's favorite. She calls it the "Wo-Man song."


4. Go Rest High on That Mountain - Vince Gill. I debated including this one because the memory it evokes is extremely painful. But, since it is still a powerful memory, I think it merits being included. My sister dated a young man in high school who was very well liked by our whole family. He died suddenly and inexplicably during his freshman year in college. Vince Gill released this song as a tribute to his own brother right around that same time. To this day I can't listen to that song. It just brings all the pain of that loss right back.

5. Playing with the Boys - Kenny Loggins. In high school, I was a student assistant for the football team and a statistician for the baseball team. I loved these jobs more than anything else in high school. That's where my fondest memories of those years are. I had the soundtrack to TOP GUN on cassette at the time and I remember one especially nice day on the way to a baseball game I had it playing in the car: windows down, volume up, typical teenager. I remember that day as though it was yesterday, and while the day wasn't anything distinctly special, I always remember it. And I, likewise, always associate this song with those jobs in high school.

6. 19 Somethin' - Mark Wills. This song reminds me of almost everything significant that was going on during my youth. And to understand what I mean, you can hear the lyrics and see the video here. (Sorry, I can't embed it.) I think they speak for themselves.

Did you notice the Atari there at the end? So, those are my six. Yeah, like I said, Michael's post was way better! But it was still fun to do. Thanks Michael!!

Now, while I have a couple of reviews I SHOULD be working on, I'm going to sneak off for a date with Lincoln Perry (shhh, don't tell Amy!). Have a great Thursday and Happy Reading!!