BoucherCon rocks.

Albany is a very odd town, with nice buildings and handsome streets, but strangely lacking in population–so much so there are rumors that this is the initial site of the apocalypse. But despite an equally odd venue, the people are as fab as ever and they feed me chocolate in various forms, some of them…

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Malic-ious Laurie!

Malice Domestic is an annual conference held in Bethesda, MD, dedicated to the traditional mystery, gentle on its surface but roiling with deadly currents beneath.  And guess who’s just been named next year’s guest of honor? Guest of Honor: Laurie R. King Toastmaster: Laura Lippman Lifetime Achievement: Aaron Elkins Malice Remembers: Dick Francis International Guest…

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Life in Baker Street

I’m in New York, for the annual festivities of the Baker Street Irregulars, that wild-and-crazy bunch of Sherlockians (it began as a drinking society, after all) that inexplicably welcomed me to its (mostly) manly bosom a couple of years ago. Tonight begins with a distinguished speaker’s lecture, to get things off in the properly academic…

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St Louis, Denver, & New York (Times)

Since Thursday, I’ve been in St Louis for BoucherCon, the World Mystery Conference, along with 1600 or so other writers, editors, publicists, future writers, and just plain fans.  BoucherCon is a mixed conference, as much for fans as for people looking to learn something about the craft and the industry, and it’s often the only…

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The conference as tool

Wednesdays here on Mutterings are about the writing process, from nouns to e-readers.  Today, since I’m in Santa Fe for Left Coast Crime, I thought I’d talk about the conference as part of a writer’s life. We’re a solitary species, we writers.  Except for a few of us who work in tandem, and for those…

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BoucherCon 2010 (4)

I always begin BoucherCon with the best of intentions when it comes to panels.  I search the schedule before I make lunch dates and appointments, because I really do enjoy listening to my fellow writers speak, and after 23 years of writing, I still have a lot to learn.  So I go through the preliminary…

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BoucherCon 2010 (3)

It takes a village to put on a BoucherCon. One of the early conversations we had about BoucherCon concerned coffee, specifically, the need for copious quantities of good coffee.  And tea.  Since two of the three author guests of honor are published by Random House, that house generously stepped up and offered to sponsor the…

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BoucherCon 2010 (2)

It takes a village to run a BoucherCon. Rae Helmsworth, blessed be her name, asked me (back when BCon-San Francisco was but a twinkle in her mischief-filled eye) if I would consider being the US guest of honor.  I had to think about it, for about a thousandth of a second, before I said yes. …

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BoucherCon is underway! We started with a meeting over coffee and fruit with a dozen or so Friends of Laurie, went on to a quick round of handshakes at the newbies’ breakfast (those new to BoucherCon’, not new to LRK) and then got waylaid by the popping up of friends–Val McDermid and Meg Gardiner and…

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