CONFERENCE CALL

by John M. Floyd

Here’s the deal: four cold, rainy days in Indianapolis, and you foot the bill for registration, food, travel, hotel, and parking. Sound appealing?

It is if you’re a mystery fan. I’m referring to Bouchercon 2009, held last week in Indy, and I enjoyed every minute. I wasn’t able to be there for the whole shebang — I drove over from Ohio a day late and drove back a day early (my wife and I were visiting grandbabies in Cincinnati) — but I’m sure glad I sandwiched the conference into our trip.

Like my compadre Steve Steinbock, I don’t attend B’con for the panels and sessions. I attend to meet new people and to see old friends again. It’s a little like the class reunion I wrote about recently, except that here the attendees share more than a hometown. They share a love for mystery/suspense fiction, and that bond alone is a strong one.

Bouchercon, as you probably already know, is not only for writers but for all fans of the genre, and that’s one of the reasons it’s so much fun. It’s a great thrill for me as a reader to have a chance to glimpse my heroes in the wild, folks like Harlan Coben and Lee Child and Loren Estleman and Marcus Sakey. (This year, alas, I was approached by none of my own fans. I think both of them must have had other commitments.)

As for the session and panels, several were outstanding. I especially enjoyed one featuring the AHMM and EQMM editors and three authors, one of whom was our former Criminal Brief teammate Melodie Johnson Howe. I also attended a presentation of the Derringer, Macavity, Barry, and Crime Spree awards.

Highlights of the conference, for me, were visiting with editors Linda Landrigan and Andrew Gulli and Janet Hutchings; discussing Hitchcock with Steve Steinbock and Jim Doherty; and catching up a bit with old friends like Steve, Melodie, Charlaine Harris, Margaret Fenton, Angela Zeman, and others. A bonus this year was that I was finally able to meet, face-to-face, some of the talented authors I worked with (as editor) of a mystery anthology released earlier this month — Herschel Cozine, Liz Zelvin, Austin Camacho, and Joseph Benedetto. Thankfully, they were all just as nice in person as I’d hoped they would be.

So that’s my travel report for the 40th annual (and my second) Bouchercon. It’s brief because my stay this time was brief, but I had fun just the same. I’m already planning to go next year, especially because of the location: San Francisco’s one of my favorite places in the world. I’m hoping JLW and Rob will be there too, since it’s on their side of the country.

Knowing my luck, it’ll probably be cold and foggy . . . but who cares?