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

Around the Block:
Mystery Writers Convention News

Okay, so by now you’ve read the numerous Bouchercon reports, from Sarah Weinmann’s blog to David Montgomery’s treatise on how to be a good panel moderator, so you know who won the awards and what books got the best buzz ...

So let’s talk conflict. What’s a story without it? It’s your Uncle Bob’s pointless anecdote about the car mechanic and the monkey, that’s what. So, I went to Chicago hoping to document disagreements, dissension, rivalries and, if lucky, some fisticuffs in the bar. But this group of authors, fans, agents and editors was tough to tell apart from the members of St. Vincent de Paul who shared the Sheraton with us rough-and-tough crime writers.

Oh, wait, there was Joe Konrath agonizing over whether, as moderator of a thriller panel, he was too funny, as if it’s possible to be too funny. Apparently one writer felt overshadowed by Joe’s stand-up schtick, and that’s a shame. It was, to this correspondent, one of the best panels of the convention.

Or CJ Carpenter loudly telling a well-known writer that polite conversations demand eye contact and looking over your partner’s shoulder to find someone more important is completely unacceptable behavior.

And there was much grousing over the price of drinks in the hotel, or was that just me?

But, aside from those few minor dust-ups, the convention was frustratingly conflict-free. Which brings me to the one big question: why go? John Rickards wonders if you can financially justify spending just under two grand to travel from the UK to Chicago and decides there’s no way he could sell enough books so that, like every blackjack player I’ve ever known, he could just break even. My own editor suggested I’d be better off working on my next book, which could desperately use some close attention. The panels are interesting, but no more enlightening than advice you could find elsewhere for a lot less money. The signings are fun, but hardly a reason to travel half way across the continent unless that signature you get is on a check. So, what is it that already has me thinking about next year in Madison?

The conversations. That’s why. Talking firearms with a weapons expert who doesn’t think you’re gun crazy. Wondering with Ray Banks why readers don’t bat an eye when the body count rises into the double digits but scream blue murder when you off a pet. Swapping debut novelist woes with the beautiful Tasha Alexander. Sharing the worst Chinese food and best conversation with Con Lehane, a gentleman who is as generous as he is entertaining. Greeting a fan at the Mystery News table. Talking to interviewer Stephen Miller and writer James Winters, a man who should leave Cincinnati as soon as possible for his own mental health. Having a late night drink with film cutter Josh Stallings talking crazy talk about the joys of being married for decades to great women. Watching JD Rhoades and his wife, Lynn, charm everyone within earshot of Dusty’s accented wit. Bending Joseph Finder’s patient ear with ramblings about how he handled POV in The Company Man. Watching David Montgomery skillfully play the contradictory roles of reviewer, fan, writer, and friend. Meeting Duane Swierczynski, a man with a bigger name in crime fiction than my own.

So if you go, go for the conversation. You won’t sell enough books or make enough contacts or wow enough potential fans or cadge enough drinks to make up for the cost or the time away from your work, but you will spend quality time with smart, funny, gentle and insecure people working in a very tough business. You could do worse.