Where Jen's Book Thoughts Readers Are Reading

I was absolutely delighted with last week's response to the beginning of Where Jen's Book Thoughts Readers Are Reading. I'm so happy you enjoyed it and I hope you all will continue to send your pictures in for the feature. But let's get on to today's reader. I was so thrilled that Rochelle submitted this picture because I HAVE been following her hikes on Facebook. So fun. Hope you enjoy!

While writing the Mind for Murder novels set in Los Angeles, I fell in love with L.A. history. To research my next series, also set in L.A., I take weekly hikes through neighborhoods with historical significance. A few weeks ago, my hiking partner and I planned a hike in the hills of the Pacific Palisades overlooking the Pacific Ocean, where history layered on history. One of the first landmarks was the building pictured behind me that housed actress Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe in 1934, the last place she was seen alive the night of her mysterious death (unsolved) in 1935. Some say her ghost still haunts the halls. That fact was interesting enough, but when I found out that Raymond Chandler reimagined Todd's café into the fictional sidewalk café in FAREWELL MY LOVELY, I had to read the novel before taking the hike! (Who could resist a reason to reread ANYTHING by Chandler? His writing is a treat.) Quoting Marlowe from chapter 8, paragraph three: "...I drove past and gave the sidewalk cafe my business to the extent of using its parking lot." The day of the hike we followed Marlowe's path from the café to the 280 step staircase he climbed to the home of a client in fictional Montemar Vista. So much fun.

 Rochelle Staab, pictured holding her copy of FAREWELL, MY LOVELY on the pedestrian bridge crossing Pacific Coast Highway to the roadhouse, is the author of the bestselling Mind for Murder series. Follow her weekly hikes through Los Angeles on Facebook. More info at www.rochellestaab.com

Heroes Caught Reading

We're back to one of my hero nominees today. Rochelle Staab is kind, energetic, smart, witty, super stylish and creative.

I am very lucky to be able to work with Rochelle through xuni.com and Rochelle is always so appreciative and considerate in all our interactions. In my forty years on this planet, I've come to appreciate that isn't always the case. Rochelle has interacted with some incredible superstars in her previous lives, but regardless of how big those people are, she always makes the person right in front of her feel just as big a superstar. And folks, I find that to be a pretty incredible characteristic.

And she gets bonus hero points for reading on the elliptical every day! Please help me recognize a fabulously talented and stunningly beautiful woman who I admire and am honored to know.

 If you're wondering about the photo credit, Hakan is a professional photographer in addition to being one of the trainers at the gym. He always carries his camera so I sweet-talked him into taking my picture :)

Every morning* at 7 you'll find me at Studio City Fitness reading a chapter of a book on my Kindle while working out on the elliptical. Always a mystery, from Agatha to Brad Parks and more. Ear buds blast music in my ears to drown out the TV above and the people talking around me. My favorite way to start the day!

Where have you caught your heroes reading? Or listening? I always listen to my audiobooks when I walk or go to the gym. Be on the lookout today and be sure to report back!


*except Sundays, but who's counting?

Five on Friday - Rochelle Staab

Happy Friday everyone! Don't forget that Sunday is Mother's Day...show mama some love this weekend. Actually you should probably be showing her some love every weekend, but especially this one.

The Anthony nominations were posted this week. I always think I've jinxed the people I nominate; it's rare for them to appear on the lists that make the cut. Am I really that weird of a reader? This year there are a number of books I nominated--four--I think that's a record for me. So to everyone else I nominated and jinxed, I'm profusely sorry!

I announced on Twitter and Facebook that Gregg Hurwitz will be here in the NE Ohio area on August 28th, which is really cool because his book, TELL NO LIES, only releases on August 20th, so we get him here pretty early. It's so amazing, I promise you're going to want to read it, so why don't you come meet him when you get your book? Ok, I digress...I hope that if you are in this area, you will come out and meet him at the Strongsville Library. You know from all of my blathering here that he is one of my all-time favorite writers and a great guy to boot. The event is free, but you'll need to register here.

A couple other events in the Cuyahoga County Library system you may want to know about:

Steve Ulfelder will be in Berea on May 17th (next Friday).
Taylor Stevens will be in Strongsville on June 18th.
Hank Phillippi Ryan will be in Beachwood on July 14th.

Come on out NE Ohioians and show the crime writers some love this summer!

Now on to the contest link round-up:

Lesa is trying to unload...er, I mean give away, Brad Parks' THE GOOD COP. She also has a copy of THAT OLD FLAME OF MINE by J.J. Cook that you can win in her "Protect and Serve" themed giveaway this week.

At Criminal Element they have a heckofa contest going right now called "Can't Get to Malice." You have a chance to win four hardcovers in that one.

Now the fun part! Today I am so excited to have Rochelle Staab as our Five on Friday guest. If you've had the chance to meet Rochelle you know what a spirited, fun, humorous, smart woman she is. When I mentioned in my post the other day that I could come up with a "dream neighborhood" of real life people...Rochelle would most definitely be one of those folks.

Rochelle writes the Mind for Murder Mystery series which have (in my humble opinion) the BEST titles ever. The third book in that series, HEX ON THE EX, just came out this week! Rochelle also won the Watson Award this past March at Left Coast Crime for her second book, BRUJA BROUHAHA (see what I mean? Are these titles not wonderful?). I was happy to be there to see how excited she was. But you know what really told me a ton about Rochelle? When she sent me her content for our post today, she told me about awarding the Edgar® this year. She told me how wonderful it was to hand the winner his award and experience his happiness. I could give you about a hundred more reasons why I admire and adore this woman, but I know you just want to hear from her, because this is seriously one of the best Five on Fridays EVER. So let me shut my trap and hand things over to a most amazing writer, Ms. Rochelle Staab!

Rochelle in her favorite athletic shoe!

1. The most famous person I ever met: Shook my hand at the Plaza Hotel in NYC and if I could have gotten away with it, I never would have washed that hand again. In 1974 I worked for a chain of Top 40 radio stations and attended a pop radio conference at the hotel. My boss and I were hanging in the lobby (every conference does the lobby hang) when a Capitol Records rep entered the room with John Lennon. Freaking Beatle John Lennon! My teenage-crush favorite Beatle! When the rep stopped to introduce us to John, I froze. Shocked. Could. Not. Form. A. Word. I hope I smiled. John—thinner and way cooler in person than in his photos—graciously took my hand. I wanted to explain in depth what growing up with Beatles music meant to me, but before I could engage my gaping mouth he was gone. I can still picture John in his long hair and heavy dark coat. Memorable.

2. If I had to be stranded on a desert island with only one other person: I choose the President of the United States. Seriously—the entire US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, FBI, CIA, and Interpol would be out searching for us. Hopefully POTUS would know a few camping tricks to use while we awaited rescue because my outdoor training only goes so far. Imagine the book deal!

3. My favorite kind of cookie: Tall, sophisticated, clever, romantic, and a wild man at a sporting event. Oh…not that kind of cookie? Well then, nutty, powdered-sugar double-dusted Russian Teacakes. I bake a batch for myself every Christmas.

4. My favorite brand of athletic shoe: Christian Louboutin pumps, because Mom taught me that dressing up is a sport.

5. The #1 item on my bucket list: A grand plan to ignore the rules and go for it when the warranty on my health and common sense expires. Bring on the junk food, alcohol, pink bows in my hair, relentless flirting, and a ban on my internal censor. My dotty phase could happen at age 90; could happen next year. I’ll keep you posted. #2 on the list (in case I chicken out on #1) is a trip to Egypt to view the pyramids in the spirit of Amelia Peabody.

Oh sorry, excuse me, I'm still laughing! Did I tell you this was great? Oh my goodness, I just love Rochelle. I believe she'll be lurking around today, so feel free to ask a question, say "hi," whatever. Personally, I can't thank her enough for this spectacular addition to our series.  If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go enjoy more of her creative wit in her books. You all have a great weekend! And Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms!

Happy Reading!

Left Coast Crime - The End??

O.k. I'm going to make every effort to wrap up the Left Coast Crime recap today. Next week you'll be bombarded with reviews!

On Tuesday I left off after the panels during the day on Saturday. Saturday night involved the Awards Dinner and the Craig Johnson interview.

The dinner was lovely and the food was great, and poor Lou Diamond Phillips arrived in the middle of the meal. The man had been stuck in the airport ALL. DAY. LONG. But he was determined to come. He worked some kind of magic and made it to Colorado Springs. I think that says a lot. He could have easily said, "Hey y'all, my plane is grounded, I'm going home." But he didn't. He persevered and made it!!

Lou Diamond Phillips (center) with Craig and Judy Johnson

Following the dinner, the guests of honor were recognized. Laura Lippman made a very gracious speech and then ended with, "a reader emailed me and asked me to hug Lou Diamond Phillips for her, but I said that would probably be awkward since he doesn't even know me." And like a flash, LDP jumped up from his seat, darted up onto the stage, off the other side--because Laura was walking off--and wrapped her in a big bear hug. The audience was in stitches!

Parnell Hall ended the guest of honor portion of the dinner with a song called "Murder is the Last Resort" a la the theme of the conference. There was a CD copy of the song in our book bags, so if you know someone who attended you can hear it for yourselves.

Parnell Hall sings "Murder is the Last Resort."

Next they conducted the auction with the awards announcements still to come--for future event planners, this is NOT a good idea, especially if your auctioneer is rather luke warm. The auction was slow going until the next to the last item. Craig Johnson had a proof copy of the short story collection that he has coming out from ASAP publishing. The proof copy included signatures from Craig and the various contributors, including Margaret Coel, Lou Diamond Phillips and William Kent Krueger. There are illustrations and photographs and of course the shorts, plus some non-fiction pieces from Craig. I ordered one of the finished copies, but they had a proof that was being auctioned off. And bidding started but it was ho hum until Lou Diamond Phillips jumped up and took on the role of auctioneer for this article.

What'll ya give Lou Diamond Phillips for this book?

Ham that he is, he rubbed the book all over his body and cracked jokes, enticing the bidding all the way up to $775. Auctioneering requires an entertainer! The audience was enthralled. And here we thought we were only getting an interview from the man!

So now it was time for the awards! If you haven't already heard, the winners included:

Brad Parks and Catriona McPherson proudly represent Minotaur

Bruce Alexander Memorial Award for historical fiction: Catriona McPherson
Watson Award for best sidekick: Rochelle Staab
Lefty Award for humor: Brad Parks
Rocky Award for book set in the LCC geographic area: Craig Johnson

Rochelle Staab and her stunning Watson Award!

I know I've met Catriona before, but as with almost everyone at the Left Coast Crime Conference, I was able to actually talk to her a bit and she's just a lovely woman. And her speech was lovely as well. I do know Rochelle Staab--she's a xuni author--and she's a doll, so I was very excited for her.

I must point out that when Brad won his award, he lived up to the award. Humor does not stop at the man's books. First he walked up on stage and asked Lou Diamond Phillips if he could have a hug as well. LDP obliged.

Sorry for the blur--Brad gets his hug from Lou Diamond Phillips

THEN after he thanked Hilary Davidson and I for stuffing the ballot box, he did what Brad does best...he sang...a song...to Laura Lippman, to the tune of "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin'." Laura got up and danced with him and the crowd loved it.

With the wrap of the awards there was a short break so they could rearrange things in the room for the interview. I took the opportunity to snag a seat front and center. Had I known I would have such a great seat, I probably would have taken my video camera along. Alas, I did not. But I have some good pictures to share. AND I do have some audio from the session, so I'm going to include a snippet here. And boy was this an ordeal. I had always edited my audio on my PC, and this time I had to do it on my Mac...I like to learn, but not late at night when I'd just like to get done...anyway, the audio is about 9 minutes and hopefully it'll give you a good sense of the wonderfulness that was the Craig Johnson interview.

I know that my headline says this is the end for my Left Coast Crime recap, and it is, but there will be one more fun little post this weekend that is kind of my highlight moments and pictures. Yes, I have even more pictures. Don't ask how many I took in the Craig Johnson interview alone....

I know you're going to be thrilled with tomorrow's Five on Friday guest, so I'll meet you back here you then! Happy Reading!

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.

More of Bouchercon 2011

The convention officially kicked off on Thursday with the beginning of the programming, more people coming in and an opening night ceremony. But I forgot to mention about my big surprise that arrived on Wednesday evening. Well, I can't claim it as totally mine, but when Pop Culture Nerd knocked on my hotel room door, I was OVERJOYED. The Craisie brigade would be out in full form!

The first session I attended was the Guest of Honor Panel, which included Colin Cotterill, Charlaine Harris, Val McDermid and Robert Crais, moderated by Oline Cogdill. Before the panel started I got to hang out with Daniel Palmer (DELIRIOUS) and we chatted about a number of things, but he also shared some fun info about his new book, coming out in February - and I'm reading right now. It's a page-turner y'all, so you'll want to check it out next year. Anyway, back to business.

Don't ask what was going on with my hair this weekend; it's hopeless!

The "Passengers" panel was lively and thoroughly entertaining. Robert Crais was asked out for a drink by a woman in the audience, Colin Cotterill wanted to know if anyone in the audience was NOT there to see RC. Val McDermid referred to writers as vampires (a la Charlaine Harris) - Val explained that they suck the life out of those around them to put in their stories. The only panelist to answer Oline's question about "sharing something the audience wouldn't know about you" was Val McDermid who said she knits scarves.

Following that panel, I attended the "Timebomb" panel. This time Daniel Palmer was ON the panel instead of watching it. He was joined by the most wonderful Meg Gardiner, JT Ellison, Adrian Magson and debut novelist Simon Toyne. This panel revolved around a lot of the age old thriller questions: "difference between a mystery and a thriller" - that sort of thing. The panelists were wonderful fun; Daniel and Meg bemoaned the horrors of the end of the school day for writers. My friend and librarian, Wendy Bartlett, commented to me later how impressed with Daniel Palmer she was. This is always good news to me because Wendy's the one who brings authors to the Cuyahoga Library System!

The final panel I attended on Thursday was "I Got the Right to Sing the Blues." This was also a very animated panel, but I don't think you could expect less with Mark Billingham, Jonathan Hayes and Roger Ellory all on the podium together. Debut novelist Rochelle Staab also contributed quite a bit to the energy of this panel. The final panelist was Bryan Gilmer and the panel was moderated by Wallace Stroby. Mark Billingham expressed his undying devotion to Phil Collins - that's a joke for anyone who doesn't know how much Billingham dislikes Phil Collins' solo work. And Rochelle Staab talked about meeting John Lennon.

Mark Billingham and Jonathan Hayes

Mark Billingham, Jonathan Hayes, Rochelle Staab

The official convention day ended on Thursday after the Opening Night Festivities, emceed by Ridley Pearson. Ridley is such a perfect emcee. I can't imagine ever being tired of listening to his wonderful stories. Each of the guests of honor was recognized, the Macavity, Barry and Crimespree Awards were all announced and authors from Harper and William Morrow signed books.

Ridley Pearson takes the prize for Outstanding Emcee

Robert Crais recognized as American Guest of Honor

Here you can see the Craisie Club gathered. We made Erin Mitchell an honorary member! This picture makes me so happy. What a joy to be with all of these wonderful friends. From the right: Michael, Carolyn, Naomi, Elyse, Lauren and Erin. I wish I had months to spend with them instead of just days.

Some of crime fiction's most powerful women congregating. Better watch out!

 

Val McDermid, Laura Lippman and Karin Slaughter

Following the ceremonies, people found their ways to dinner, publishing parties and of course the hotel bar. A very successful first day! And since I can never do anything in condensed style, there will be more Bouchercon fun, photos and VIDEO to come!