Left Coast Crime - Part I

Rabbit, rabbit! Right? Kind of funny saying that the day AFTER Easter. I hope you all had a great weekend.

So, you know I traveled to Colorado to attend my first Left Coast Crime. And I have to say, it was a great experience. I liked the size of the conference and the resort was absolutely lovely. I personally would have preferred it in the summer, but some left-coasters who don't get to see snow very often enjoyed it. Here's a view of the scenery Friday morning:

This was the same view Saturday morning:

This was also the reason Lou Diamond Phillips had a difficult time getting to Colorado Springs, but more on that later. Despite the weather, we had a grand time.

Thursday was our panel on social media. I video taped the panel, but unfortunately the view wasn't wide enough to get everyone. So, it's only a partial view. When I have that available on YouTube, I'll let you all know. But we touched on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads (too bad we didn't have the Amazon topic to throw in), Pinterest and Google Plus. Time prevented us from addressing blogs, websites and newsletters, though. Our panelists were so wonderful and all had unique perspectives, so the conversation was great and we received many compliments. The greatest thing I heard from people was that they learned something something from the panel. Yay!

The next day started off with a panel about literary influences, followed by a panel on the anti-hero. The discussion on the anti-hero was rather fascinating and revealing. Questions such as "is there a line your anti-hero can't cross" and "should the reader judge the anti-hero" came up. I think readers are going to judge all characters no matter but whether they're justified in doing so is the real question. This brings to mind for me the idea that readers should first and foremost ask themselves if the author is doing what he/she set out to do. John Gilstrap says the problems arise when you have the anti-hero step outside his/her own code.

The panel was all male and I wonder what direction some of the questions would have taken if there had been a female on the panel. It was pointed out later in the panel that Zoe Sharp writes a female anti-hero. That may very well have changed the climate of this panel, but it was insightful nonetheless.

One of my favorite panels of the weekend was the "Lighter Side of Death and Dismemberment" featuring Deb Coonts, Harley Jane Kozak, Rochelle Staab, Brad Parks and Chuck Greaves. These folks know how to avoid taking life too seriously. While I had a hard time believing that Brad Parks is the shy quiet one in his family, the fact that Deb has made it her life's mission to embarrass her son sounded like a parental truth.

The idea of humor in the darker books of crime fiction came up and humor as a defense mechanism was discussed. Most professions that encounter regular horrors like law enforcement, the medical professions, etc. have a way of dealing with what they witness every day. To people on the outside that may come across as sick, but for those in the trenches, it's the only way to remain healthy. So humor is true to life for these people.

I have some video from this panel as well. I need to do some editing with it, but will hopefully have that done soon so I can share. I think you'll enjoy a little tidbit from this panel.

Following this humor panel, I attended another absolutely hilarious event and that was the Truth or Dare panel. The folks subjecting themselves to this were Brad Parks, Toast master David Corbett, Guest of Honor Laura Lippman and Parnell Hall.

The questions and dares were posed by Rhys Bowen. At first everyone was willing to respond to the truths: what non-living writer doesn't deserve their fame? What's your birth name? What's the worst thing anyone's ever said or written about you? But when the question of "What LIVING author doesn't deserve their wealth or fame" no one was willing to answer and the dares started. 

Several of the dares dealt with singing, but when they arrived at Brad, he was given a blind fold and then Jan Burke came to the stage and stood next to him. He had to determine who Jan was without looking. And yes, we were all a little concerned about this! No lives or limbs were lost, however.

To top off this night, Brad Parks and I went to dinner at a dive called The Hatch Cover. Brad had been in the "Concealed Weapons Fashion Show" as James Bond and was decked out in a tuxedo. I fit in much better in my jeans and sweatshirt. As Brad describes it, when we walked in the record scratched and everyone turned to look at the first tuxedo to grace the Hatch Cover. The tuxedo may also have been the reason the waitress carded Brad when he ordered a beer. He was astonished and had to brag to everyone that night about being carded. A success Friday at Left Coast Crime I would say!

I'll have more on Saturday tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Bouchercon Part 1 & A Facebook Giveaway

Well, I may get the record for latest Bouchercon post, but here it is finally. Prepare for photos and fun!

Bouchercon was, of course, in my back yard this year. And as always I had a fantastic time meeting up with friends from all over the country who all share a love of crime fiction.

My good friend and fellow blogger, Lesa Holstine, flew in Wednesday and I picked her up from the airport. Do you think I thought to get a picture of us together? Jen, fail #1. But we were roommates for this - her first - Bouchercon. I'm so thrilled I could share her first Bouchercon with her.

Thursday kicked off the official festivities. I only attended one panel, and that was the "What an author will do for a story" panel with Sean Chercover, A.C. (Andre) Frieden, Jamie Freveletti, and Sam Reaves. The panel was moderated by PR rep extraordinaire Dana Kaye. These authors have traveled all over the world in search of their stories.

Jamie Freveletti and Andre Frieden

Sean Chercover says his lack of focus ignited his travel and various forms of employment and that ultimately resulted in his stories. His big piece of advice for sparking ideas, though, was to indulge in a "shath." For those who are not familiar with a "shath" it is when you sit in the bath tub and run the shower over you...thus, a "shath."

Sean "argh, matey" Chercover and Sam Reaves

While Sam Reaves has a strong background in languages, which was helpful with interviews abroad, he says, you can't write a travel log. The research is interesting, but that alone doesn't make for a great crime novel.

Sam Reaves and Jamie Freveletti

My other adventures Thursday included interviewing Sophie Littlefield and Juliet Blackwell, which hopefully you watched on Thursday. I also picked up xuni.com's fearless leader, Maddee James from the airport, attended the St. Martin's cocktail reception - and was able to chat with Steve Ulfelder, who is absolutely wonderful - and had dinner with Brad Parks. I decided to forego the opening ceremonies at the Rock Hall. As I mentioned, this is my backyard, the Rock Hall wasn't a big sell for me.

Friday kicked off with the Mary Higgins Clark breakfast. It was geared toward librarians, but some reviewers and bloggers were invited as well. Mary Higgins Clark is a charming, humorous, vivacious lady. Whether you're a fan of her work or not, she was a super fun guest of honor for this breakfast.

Mary Higgins Clark

Criminal Element's fearless leader, Clare Toohey and Tracy Kiely

Following the breakfast was my first panel as moderator. It was the "Old Friends/New Friends" panel with Parnell Hall, Mary Jane Maffini, Jeff Cohen/E.J. Copperman, and Libby Fischer Hellmann. We had a full house and I thank everyone who came out. Several people stopped by to say "hi" and I want you to know that meant the world to me. So thank you!

We had a great conversation about series characters. I was fascinated by Jeff and Libby's differing views on writing characters of the opposite sex. Jeff has taken his experience with the women in his "real" life and build on those to create his female protagonist, while Libby learned early she thinks too much like a female to write a male protagonist.

Mary Jane Maffini is absolutely delightful and shared experiences with us about making friends as a librarian and bookseller as well as writing with one of her best friends, her daughter. Parnell Hall talked mostly about how his books don't sell, but he would be willing to play the role of the Puzzle Lady in a movie if the offer ever presented itself.

The panel I attended after mine was called "Eve of Destruction." The panelists were all interesting, spirited and fun, however, the moderator spoke for the first 22 minutes of the panel and pitched her sister's memoir coming out later. Epic Fail!

Sophie Littlefield and Tracy Kiely

When the panelists were given the floor, a discussion ensued about female characters. Sophie Littlefield pointed out that we're more accepting of relateable characters now - characters with foibles; characters who aren't perfect. And Rochelle Staab pointed out that she feels there's an expected vulnerability for female characters that doesn't exist for males.

Tracy Kiely and Rochelle Staab

This was my first experience hearing Deborah Coonts on a panel and now I'm determined to read one of her books! She had me laughing when she told a story about her male fans writing her to ask for less feminine book covers. They have to take the covers off the books so people don't make fun of them reading! Gotta love it!

Sorry, I wasn't able to get a great pic of Deborah Coonts because of the champagne bottle. Bummer!

Whew! Friday was my busy panel day. A lot of great people to see and listen to. The next panel was the Ex Libris panel (a.k.a. the xuni.com panel). I wasn't able to do any tweeting from this panel because it was a dead zone for my cell phone, which was a real bummer because it was such a fun panel: Jan Burke, Marcia Clark, Jim Conway and Carter Wilson and moderated by Maddee James. They are a blast, let me tell you. They were creating fake first sentences for books - both their own and others. The one thing we all definitely took away from this panel: they like to drink. I think every book covered included a first line about some alcoholic drink!

Jan Burke and Marcia Clark...Jan looks like she's up to something!

Two of the nicest people you could meet: Marcia Clark and Jim Conway

Marica, Jim and Carter....looks like that line was especially funny!

Debut author Carter Wilson

The other thing that was abundantly clear was that they are all extremely talented writers.

All the panelists hard at work on their first lines!

Not done with Friday yet! Are you still hanging with me?

I attended the "Morally Challenged Characters" panel next. This panel included Lou Berney, Elizabeth Hand, Seth Harwood, and Chris Holm. It was moderated by Ali Karim. Again, it's fascinating for me to hear about how writers approach their stories.

Ali Karim, Lou Berney, Elizabeth Hand and a sliver of Seth Harwood

Lou indicated that he prefers to have a jumble of characters without any set designated roles for them. However, he also pointed out that if you have an unlikeable protagonist, you need to make sure the antagonists are sufficiently unlikeable to still make the protag look better.

Elizabeth likes to push her character to the border of where she'll go and what she'll do. While Chris Holm likes to discover the line his character won't cross and then put him in a situation that gives him no choice but to have to cross it.

Sorry about the lack of photos on this panel. The room was HORRIBLE for taking pictures. There were big pillars directly in front of where I was sitting. I moved to take this photo, but had to go over to the right side to be able to get anything at all...Jen fail #2.

So that was my crazy Friday line-up of panels. I'll save my final two days for tomorrow's post because I want to make you aware of a giveaway I'm doing on the Facebook page if you haven't seen it already. I do giveaways over here regularly and have some new ones coming up, but this is a FB page exclusive this time.

I took a Jen's Book Thoughts tote bag to Bouchercon and collected signatures from many authors. The bag has signatures on both sides. Some of the authors who signed it include: Lee Child, John Connolly, Karin Slaughter, Kelli Stanley, Alafair Burke, Marcia Clark, Michael Koryta, Steve Ulfelder, Brad Parks, Sean Chercover...whew, you get the idea. I'll include a card for the lucky follower with the names of everyone who signed the bag. To be in the drawing for the bag, you just need to be following the Jen's Book Thoughts page by Sunday, October 21st. I'll do a drawing and pick a name to win the bag and goodies from Bouchercon.

Just as I do periodic giveaways here on the blog, I'm going to start doing periodic giveaways over on the Facebook page as well. This is just the kick off.