Bouchercon 2012 Party Pictures Part 2

More Bouchercon party pictures, this time from Heather Graham's rocking party at the Cleveland House of Blues. The party was held in the restaurant area, and was a lot of fun. There were Halloween decorations, books strewn here and there, lots of music and food. Heather, Daniel Palmer, F. Paul Wilson and Don Bruns were among the folks providing some kickin' entertainment. I thought the venue itself was pretty cool, which will explain why there are mostly pictures of that ...

Enjoy!

Daniel Palmer rocking out on the harmonica.

Sightly blurry party people.

Wall art.

 

 

 

 

Ceiling art.

 

 

 Party decorations.

 

 

 

Next time you're in Cleveland, check the place out.

It's pretty neat.

Bouchercon 2012 Party Pictures Part 1

The opening ceremonies at Bouchercon were held at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

Lolly the Trolly provided transportation to those not inclined to walk or drive.

 

When you walk up to the HOF you are treated to an awesome display of decorated guitars.

 There are also some inside.

To be honest, after some munchies and the speakers, we sneaked away from the crowd to check out the decor and the exhibits. (We weren't the only ones.) Here are some of the highlights:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And yeah, that was for us. Pretty cool being part of a private event for an evening!

Bouchercon Rocked!

Bouchercon was a lot of fun this year, but hectic. I had the chance to chat with my favorite author, Elizabeth George, whose books I lugged in 2 suitcases to get signed. It was awesome to hear her speak as well. I've had the pleasure before, but now that I've written a book of my own her words meant that much more.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter Carol Higgins Clark. They were both delightful ladies and I enjoy their books as well. They sat side by side at the book signing, cheerfully signing hundreds of books, if not more.

The book room was the heart and soul of the conference (although some might argue that it was the bar) where authors signed, people caught up, and books were in abundance!

My favorite panel was a discussion of characters by Charlaine Harris, Daniel Palmer, Brad Parks, Alison Gaylin, Elizabeth George, and Don Bruns.
 

There were tables full of author promos and free books. It was hard to choose what to take home for further perusing!

 

 

 

 

Opening ceremonies were at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. More on that later, in the meantime here is a picture of what we saw when we first walked up.

Bouchercon and Cleveland had a lot to offer this year. Coming up, posts on the House of Blues, where Heather Graham hosted an awesome party, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Melt, Paranormal Hotel Cleveland, and Tower City. 

Until next time ...

Last Day of Bouchecon 2012

Heading off to the last panel of Bouchercon 2012. Tired but happy!!

To tide you over until next time, here's a picture of my favorite author signing one of her awesome books:

(In case you couldn't guess, it's Elizabeth George.)

Packing the Car!

The books have been in the car for three days. Next come the clothes, shoes, munchies, cooler full of water, suitcase for the rest, etc. etc. etc.

We are off to Bouchercon 2012 in fabulous downtown Cleveland. 

Hope to see you there, details when we return!

Dennis Lehane Up Close and Personal

A couple of Bouchercons ago I was made aware of a well-known author I had not heard of by a certain ocean-dwelling creature, I mean, lovely lady named Janet. She was so excited to get her hands on his latest that I knew there had to be something special about this guy. His name is Dennis Lehane (Shutter Island, Mystic River, Moonlight Mile, among others). There was a certain amount of subterfuge involved during the incident but it all worked out in the end. I had discovered an amazing author! 

I love hearing other authors speak, hearing about their journey, their inspiration, hopes and dreams, the good and the bad. It motivates me, and gives me hope.

So I was excited to hear that Dennis Lehane was appearing at a local library. Of course, I found out pretty late, and in a weird sort of way. I am on Facebook, but stuff flies by so fast I miss most of it, especially since I am not on it with any regularity. Four days before I found out about Dennis Lehane I had about five minutes to kill so I checked FB, and saw a posting from Hallie Ephron with a string of comments below. One of the people asked if it was true that she was going to be at the Clifton Park Library. Since we have a Clifton Park nearby, I went to the CP library's page to see for myself. I have taken one of Hallie's workshops, and it was amazing.

When I pulled up the library's home page, there was an announcement for Dennis Lehane. And you had to register. I immediately registered and the confirmation email came quickly. I was on the waiting list. Oh well. Three hours later I was in!

It was a packed house. Mr. Lehane began by reading from his latest book, out October 2, called Live By Night. I had already read it due to the aforementioned subterfuge (it was an ARC) and enjoyed it. After he finished reading he told us about his inspiration for this book about gangsters, watching Jimmy Cagney movies with his uncle when he was a kid. When he visited Ybor City he found his setting.

He talked about his Irish family, and their love of storytelling. He grew up surrounded by people who knew how to tell a story and had an interesting relationship with facts: they didn't like them.

He also prefers stand alones because, as he explained, it's a lot of work putting a new character on the page for the first time. But once the character works on the page, the sense of discovery is wonderful.

Someone asked him what his favorite book was (of those he's written), and he actually has three. The Given Day, Live by Night, and Mystic River. The reason he gave was that these three novels have the shortest gap between what was in his head and what landed on the page.

So I'd like to thank Janet for turning me on to Dennis Lehane. If you haven't read him yet, what are you waiting for?

The Past Coming Back to Haunt Me

Going through my mom's stuff sometimes brings little surprises. As the book lover in the family, I took it upon myself to go through her bookshelves and save what I could from the upcoming garage sale. (No worries, no one else wanted them. Their loss!!!) Space is limited on my personal bookshelves, so I only took hardcovers.

I keep a spreadsheet of all my books, a recent thing as I often end up with multiples because I forget what I have. So I went through every book and recorded the title and author (among other information), discovering that a bunch of the books belonged to me when I was a child. Inside one of them was a folded up piece of lined notebook paper that contained what appears to be a short story I wrote, complete with pictures. I am not sure if there was a first page, but here is the story (reproduced exactly):

     "$20,000!" shouted Judy.
     "Yippee!" said Paul. "Now we each can get a horse!"
     "I'll be right back, Paul. I'm going to tell Mom we're going to buy a horse or two."
     Jack put $10,000 in Judy's place and took $10,000. Just then Judy came.
     "We can go!"

     As they arrived, men brought in the ponies. Next came the horses.
     The first one was a skinny little animal. She had an uncut mane and tail. Her winter coat was falling off and there were large patches of her summer coat showing. Her hooves were not cut. She was a racing thoroughbred.

     "$5.00!" shouted the horse-meat man.
     Judy looked at the horse and quickly shouted, "$10,00!"
     (over)
     "Going, going, GONE! Sold to the young lady with $10.00!"
     "Call her Old Bones!" said Paul. "That's what she is! A sack of bones!"

     A year later Judy entered a race. She won. Her horse was the fastest in the city. Judy named her "Windy".

I wondered what finding this meant, besides the obvious enthusiasm for exclamation points I had as a child. I am wrapping up my first novel (although every time I read it I find something to change so I may never finish) and suffering from that fairly common writer sickness known in some circles as isuck syndrome. Other fairly huge things are also going on in my life which aren't helping to alleviate the symptoms of isuck.

So when I found this, I couldn't help but try and attach some significance to it. Honestly, the story is pretty pitiful, but I was only 9 or 10 at the time so I can't beat myself up too badly. So maybe it was a gentle reminder (maybe from Mom!) not to give up on as dream I've had since I was old enough to read.

This past Monday evening I was lucky enough to get a seat at an appearance by Dennis Lehane (more on this next post). One of the things he said was that in his opinion you needed to put in your time as a writer, 10 years between first picking that pen. I smiled to myself when he said that because I had proof I'd put in the time, and then some.

My conclusion: don't give up on your dream.

Lucky for me my dream wasn't to become an artist.