Mystery Convention News by David Terrenoire in Web Mystery Magazine, Summer 2005

Around the Block
Mystery Writers Convention News

This issue we’re looking at three conventions, Malice Domestic, Mayhem in the Midlands, and Bloody Words. I want to express my thanks to Carl Brookins for the Midlands report and Tania Hutchison for the news from up north, covering Canada’s Bloody Words conference.

MALICE DOMESTIC – David Terrenoire

“If you want privacy, go to the men’s room,” was Bill Deeck’s advice, the late patriarch of Malice Domestic. There were a few dozen males scattered among the crowd, but the majority of Malice attendees were women. In fact, I haven’t spent this much time around so many women familiar with firearms, poisons, and the gentle art of pushing someone down a flight of stairs since 1970, when I spent a few dark nights in an infamous roadhouse on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa. But that’s another story. As for these distaff authors and fans, I suspect their husbands sleep lighter than most, and do more housework.

Among the highlights of opening night were hearing about MWA’s program, Kids Love A Mystery, which puts books into kids’ hands, and Books For Soldiers, where you can send a book to a GI stationed overseas. Both programs deserve our support.

A debate raging among authors is the value of handing out promotional swag. There was plenty of it at Malice, from Joyce and Jim Lavene’s Lilliputian pitchfork for their novel, Pretty Poison; to Tim Meyers, handing out candles while dressed in a cape and magician’s hat promoting his latest in the Candleshop mysteries. Do these things work? Do they really sell books? I don’t know, but I gave away bookmarks to anyone unfortunate enough to have an empty hand, including the concierge and bartender. You do what you can. My vote for best promotional swag goes to JoAnna Carl’s chocolate for The Chocolate Puppy Puzzle. It was delicious.

My next novel is set on the eve of WWII, so I was drawn to a panel on mysteries set in the 40’s, with Hal Glatzer, moderator; Larry Karp, First, Do No Harm; David Skibbins, Eight of Swords; Frankie Bailey, Old Murders; and Max Allan Collins, Road to Perdition. This was primarily a discussion of research – how much to do, where to do it, what to do with it once you have it. For those interested, all the authors praised the Internet, and encouraged writers to seek out primary sources in period newspapers, magazines, novels and movies popular at the time. On the amount of research, Max Allan Collins said, when he knows enough to write the definitive nonfiction book about a particular period or crime, then he writes the mystery. He also suggested mail order catalogs from the period.

But, the real reason people attend conventions is to meet people. Fans meet their favorite authors and writers meet their readers. In the bar is where writers meet other writers and swap war stories about publishing, editors and agents. That’s where I met Jack Bludis, whose novel Shadow of the Dahlia is up for a Shamus, and Sandra Balzo, whose first novel, Uncommon Grounds, has been nominated for an Anthony. At the time, we were both in competition for the same Derringer Award. Sandy won, of course.

Stacey Leigh Juba and Hilary McGowan, winners of a $1000 Malice grant, prove that young writers are still drawn to a genre that Hilary described as “Oops, I stepped over a body.”

I made a special trip to meet Sarah Shaber in Authors Alley. Sarah is a fellow North Carolinian and writer of the acclaimed Simon Shaw series. She’s recently edited a collection of shorts by North Carolina writers called Tar Heel Dead.

Hal Glatzer and another, much less talented musician, performed an impromptu hallway duet, demonstrating that swing is not dead, but could be seriously ill.

The big night, of course, was the banquet where winners of this year’s Agatha were announced. Jacqueline Winspear’s Birds of a Feather won Best Novel. Harley Jane Kozak’s Dating Dead Men won Best First Novel. Jack French won Best Non-Fiction for Private Eye-Lashes: Radio's Lady Detectives. Elaine Viets won Best Short Story for “Wedding Knife.” Blue Balliett won Best Children’s/YA Novel for Chasing Vermeer.

So, did we learn at Malice? Do your research. Always pack your instrument. If you’re in the company of an editor or publisher, let them buy the drinks. If you’re up against Sandy Balzo for an award, learn to be a gracious loser. In the words of Jack Bludis, don’t write what you know; write what you love. And finally, women who write about murder seem to laugh a lot, which should make the rest of us very nervous.

MAYHEM IN THE MIDLANDS - Carl Brookins

In the first place, the conference is held in Omaha, Nebraska, right in the middle of the country where, it happens, resides a thriving mystery bookstore called Kate’s, and a good-sized audience of mystery fiction fans.

The con is sponsored and operated by the combined forces of the Lincoln and Omaha Public Libraries. Everybody knows librarians are devoted to proper shelving, a quiet environment, and a high degree of organization. Right? Well, organized, smooth-running, and efficient this one is. Quiet and shelved, not so much.

In the first place, they always hold this meeting of like minds in an historic hotel that’s small enough to make close contact almost a necessity. Then the librarians get serious help from local Sisters In Crime and other hard-core fans. The opening night reception takes place in the hotel’s marble courtyard. With fountains. With examples of marble from everywhere in the world. If you want to know why, look it up! The hotel is excellent, comfortable, well-staffed, used to the maunderings of criminous authors and fans, the 2005 gathering being the sixth annual affair.

Authors and fans gather from all over – guest of honor this year was author Peter Robinson, who dropped in from Toronto. Also sighted wandering the halls or contributing to panels, Chicagoans Libby Fischer Hellmann, Michael Allen Dymnmoch and David Walker, from the tree-crowded hills of Minnesota, Kent Krueger, K.J. Erickson, Brian Lutterman, Pat Dennis, and from far and wide, a bunch of other talented folks, including Dana’s Willner, and Cameron, Hale, Shelby, Rawls, Doolittle, Sprinkle, and McBride, to name only a few. And let’s not forget the fans. The readers. Lots of interested engaged and engaging readers.

Oh, it was a fine time. Three tracks of interesting panels and multiple opportunities for conversations filled Friday and Saturday of the Memorial Day weekend. The final event of the conference allowed all who were able to struggle up for breakfast a fine chance to hear Toastmaster Donna Andrews in wide-ranging conversation with Guest of Honor, poet Peter Robinson.

Add the nearby Old Market where police horses laugh when their riders hand out tickets and there is good food of great variety, stir in a mystery dinner, and you can’t ask for much more. Mayhem in the Midlands, one of the best small crime fiction conferences in the country.

BLOODY WORDS – Tania Hutchison

My experience at this year's Bloody Words Mystery Conference can be summed up in three words: hot, fun, and [too] short!

We arrived in Toronto just around the time that the weather was really heating up, so the 32 degree Celsius weather (40 degrees with the humidity) was great incentive to stay inside the hotel and attend panels. It turned out, however, that no outside incentive was needed because the whole conference was terrific.

On Friday evening, we signed in and got our much anticipated book bags. The bag itself was great (sturdy canvas, zippered bag with logo and handy water bottle pocket)...much better than last year's Bouchercon 'sac'. The contents were okay – between my friend and I, we got 10 books: Dark Places by Jon Evans, No Graves as Yet by Anne Perry, Some Reason in Madness by Cathy Vasas-Brown, Footprints in the Butter by Denise Dietz, The summer that Never Was by Peter Robinson, Bitten by Kelley Armstrong, Forty Words for Sorrow by Giles Blunt, The Sleeping Boy by Barbara J. Stewart. Thrown in were the usual bookmarks and even a nail file (which came in handy after a rather nasty slam into the wall with my nail).

The reception that evening was well-attended. Lots of fans and authors milled around, drinking, eating and, of course, chatting. As a long time reader, but fairly new to the world of conferences, I still get a real kick out of seeing some of my favourite authors as well as meeting new authors and friends.

There were a few panels after the reception, including "Cops and Lawyers ... Keeping it Canadian," "Shaman as Shamus: Native Sleuths," and a demo of street fighting techniques. There were also author readings, so there really was a bit of something for everyone.

At 10 pm, the fashion show book launch began. It featured about 25 to 30 authors dressed up in various costumes representing their latest book. Carol Soles did a good MC job, and it was really fun seeing the authors parading up and down the catwalk. A few drinks in the hotel bar afterwards rounded out a great evening.

Saturday was packed full of events. The panel line-up was once again varied, and I started the day off with the "What's Your Gimmick: Amateur sleuths with out-of-the-ordinary occupations" panel that featured Denise Dietz, Karen Irving, Nancy Means Wright, Kelley Armstrong and Charles Benoit (as moderator). The authors discussed the career of their sleuths (witch, astrologist, farmer, and werewolf) and how the trends have changed over time. Apparently, fantasy and woo woo in mystery novels is popular. I'm not personally a fan of that sort of thing, but it was interesting to hear a
bit about it. I haven't read any books by the panelists except for Karen Irving's series (featuring Katy Klein, astrologer and reluctant sleuth), but am thinking of giving the books by Wright and Dietz a try. Charles Benoit was a funny moderator who kept the discussing moving well and on topic.

Next up was the "Murder's No Laughing Matter" panel. It had two (very good) psychological suspense writers (Cathy Vasas-Brown and Rick Mofina) and two humorous writers (Cathy Pickens and Rick Gadziola). I was already a fan of Vasas-Brown and especially Rick Mofina, but was new to the two other authors. Not for long though ... I purchased a book by each of them soon after the panel because they and the premise of their books intrigued me. During the panel discussion, the two subgenres (suspense & comedy) were compared.

Michael Blair (a good Canadian author with two mystery novels set in Vancouver) did a good job as moderator. The overall consensus seemed to be that there is often some cross-over between the subgenres, and there's room enough for all types of books and stories. Rick Gadziola gave a great example of how he combined humour and serious events in his poker mystery series, and Rick Mofina shared how some real life events were integrated into his series.

I was drawn to the next panel "Cop as Crusader: Police procedurals tackle social issues" panel mainly because I've enjoyed books by all of the author panelists: Peter Robinson, Barbara Fradkin, J.D. Carpenter, and Thomas Rendell Curran. The moderator, Julia Vryheid, announced that she didn't usually read police procedurals, so her questions were really focused on social issues in books. All the authors seemed to agree that none of them wanted to preach or come across like they were on soapboxes, but that some social issues crept into their books. One question dealt with social issues that were overdone, but there wasn't much consensus. I found it interesting that the authors had very different books and approaches to their writing, even though they all wrote police procedurals.

The last panel I attended was actually less of a panel and more of a game show. It was hosted by the very funny Mary Jane Maffini and Rick Blechta, and two teams competed against one another in a Jeopardy-style game of questions related to crime fiction. The audience had opportunities to participate, and several people won books and even some chocolate. It was fun, but I can only imagine how much more fun it would have been if it had been held in the bar, with drinks flowing. :)

I found some time to visit the Dealer's Room, and was a bit surprised at how small it was. Well, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that the room was large but the number of book sellers and number of available books was quite limited. I did, of course, manage to buy a few books.

The banquet was fantastic, a real highlight of the conference. The food (surprisingly?) was quite good, and the MC, Linwood Barclay, was outrageously funny. Everyone I spoke to raved about his performance. I bought his first book at Bouchercon (but haven't read it – yet!), and was impressed enough with him at the banquet that I had to buy his latest book, Bad Guys. When not being entertained by Linwood, Anne Perry, and Maureen Jennings, I had some really good conversations with my dinner-mates, including Jan Long, author Nancy Means Wright, and author John Ballem and his wife.

I didn't attend the author workshops on Sunday, and nor did I attend the preview screening of Under the Dragon's Tail, followed by Q&A with cast and Maureen Jennings. This TV movie will be shown here in Canada (on Showcase), so I opted to do a few things around Toronto before having to head home later that day.

For those used to Bouchercon, this is definitely a shorter conference. There are fewer panels and fewer participants. Like with many things, size doesn't always matter, and it doesn't in this case. It was a great conference, with a real sense of camaraderie. Next year's conference will be held in Toronto again (with Mary Jane Maffini as the Guest of Honour), but will move to Victoria, B.C. in 2007. I can't wait!