A Wee Wobbly At Bouchercon

Steve has asked for updates, and so, we shall have updates. Even if I'm working on an empty stomach here, I shall sacrifice!

I would like to point out that at B'con, you tend to use words like fantastic, amazing, incredible a lot. So, when you simply say, "I met Jess Lourey" it means no word need be said, for you should know she's fantastic, amazing, incredible and entirely too nice.

You know, I knew I'd miss people. How did I forget to mention meeting Tasha Alexander, from that snappy Good Girls Kill For Love and Money blog (or something like that - strange computers, can't always look stuff up). Very cool blog, though. I wonder if I've linked yet? I have them saved on my bookmark bar at home for convenience.

And I met Lee Child. He's okay.

Okay, okay... I met Lee Child and he's fantastic, amazing, incredibe...

So, Friday morning began with Bill Cameron, determined to buy me breakfast. Only Rob Gregory Browne bought both of us breakfast, so Bill was suitably pissed. Then we went to the convention hotel, and we saw KIM again! She's wonderful. I'm not exaggerating. She's a lot of fun, and she hung out with us for a bit.

Then I saw Cornelia, and we hid in the back of the coat area, sat on the floor and acted like children. It was so cool. Of course, when Laura Lippman came by, we had to get up and try to behave. It was great to meet Laura - see, I'll start running out of adjectives. But can you adequately describe how wonderful she is? Not on an empty stomach. I have to go eat at some point, guys!

I was SO nervous about my panel, but it seemed to go well. A number of people did say afterward that they really enjoyed it, but John Rickards got the best line in when he tried to describe Jesus on the streets of New York driving his fist into some guys mouth saying, "I died for your sins you fuck!" Hilarious.

And what was very cool was that Matt Baldacci from St. Martin's came to our panel, and introduced himself afterwards, so we had an impromptu chat. Now, Matt is fantastic, incredible, amazing and had some great Killer Year ideas. I didn't realize what an impression I made on him... more on that later.

Oh, and Trace, I met John S! Way Cool! He's so sweet!

I'm going to skip plenty of stuff I'll have to catch you up on later, but the highlight of the afternoon was(beyond meeting fellow Canadians John McFetridge and Mike Harrison and Anthony Bilduka and Alex Brett)going to the bar with Duane Swierczynksi, Al Guthrie and Bill Cameron. Since Dave White couldn't be here we did an impromptu video discussing Dave White. There are things I didn't know about goats and scratching posts that shall be more fully explained on the Killer Year blog, but we do agree he's an appropriate poster boy for KY.

Then it was off to the St. Martin's party, which was a lot of fun. It was around this time that I started to hear about my impression on Matt Baldacci - specifically something I had that he liked. Hmmm, no way to take that wrong. Okay, I'll tell you. I had a big "FUCK" button pinned to my nametag. I kept forgetting I was wearing it, but it was a great conversation starter. Anyway, I heard he really liked the button.

I went off to the Midnight Ink party (where they had more great buttons) and then it was dinner with Bill, Julia Buckley - another fantastic person I'll talk about next week, because I'm using her computer right now - Dave Skibbons and Anne Frasier. Yes, I met ANNE! Actually, damn, I forgot to say that 15 of us from DorothyL managed to have lunch on Friday, and that was incredible, that we even achieved it! Met Sandra Parshall and Caroline Upcher, to name a few - and they were both lovely. I had been looking forward to this for so long, and wasn't disappointed. Sandra and I had been on panels opposite each other, and I think we were both relieved to have them behind us.

Rob Gregory Browne tracked us down and then Brett came and we went to the St. Martin's late night party, different location. And, when Marcus told me, yet again, how much Matt liked my button, I made the ultimate sacrifice and gave Matt the FUCK button. And it isn't just any man I'd give a FUCK to. He bought me a drink.

I met Gayle Lynds - incredible. David Morrell. Again... you see, running out of adjectives - I shouldn't have started.

But I have to pull them out for the other big name of the night. Ken Bruen. Wow. The man is frickin' amazing, and he'd read my blog posts. He asked me why I didn't put that (time, energy) into the books and I told him I had the first three done, and he shook my hand. It was the closest thing to a 'god' moment I've had here - he really is a fantastic person.

There were so many other people I met, and I'm trying to write them all down. I found my first official business card from someone I don't remember. Seriously, the collection gets too thick after a while, and it's all a blur.

Oh, and I pinched Russel's butt. Marcus pinched mine. Well, that's all he did. He sort of groped Bill's. And Tribe did smack my ass, so it was a good day had by all, I think.

Except Dave White, who should live in fear of The Truth About Dave White, coming soon to a blog near you.

And on a completely serious side note, before you ever do a panel, before you do a convention, if you have the chance to get advice from Jon Jordan, he will not steer you wrong. Let me tell you, everything he told me about panels was absofuckinglutely dead on.

XO Jon.

Okay kids, I must go. Val McDermid and Denise Mina are on a panel together this morning. I have chocolates for Val, so I must get over there, and then at 10:30 it's the WIMP panel with the guys who need characters to kick ass for them.

And then it's the women in the bar, which will be a hell of a lot of fun.

Oh, and Reacher Creature tonight. Who needs sleep? That's what Monday and Tuesday are for.