Bouchercon 2015 Debrief: Day One

In which our hero comes to the end of the road, goes shark hunting, finds bones, and doesn’t eat barbecue.

When I first told my wife about Bouchercon back in February, her pretty brow furrowed and she said, “Badgercon? Why would you want to go to a badger convention?” With an arm around her shoulder, I gently explained that Bouchercon is the premier Mystery/Suspense/Thriller convention in the country, nay, the world. Named after mystery writer William Anthony Parker White, AKA Anthony Boucher, this 46-year-old convention draws lovers of the genre from all over the world to a long weekend of panels, book signings, events, and the opportunity to rub shoulders with readers, writers, and publishers of mysteries and thrillers. She then popped me over the head with a pan and told me not to be so patronizing. However, since this year’s convention was in Raleigh, NC–a mere hour-and-a-half away from us–she said she would solo parent for a few days so I could attend. Isn’t she a keeper? 🙂

Days before leaving, I pored over the conference schedule. Twenty-six pages of panels to choose from. In the end, I decided not to worry about it too much, and maybe favor panels on writing, and panels with writers I know. I then looked through the list of attendees and picked off names of people I wanted to meet. Literary Agent, Query Shark, Queen of the Known Universe, and She-of-the-Writing-Contests Janet Reid was top of the list. Then Donna Everhart, a fellow Janet Reid stalker blog commenter, and Terri Lynn Coop, who is not only a published writer, but someone I also got to know through Janet’s blog. Then other writers: Andrew Grant, Karin Slaughter, Donna Andrews, Kathy Reichs, Terry Shames, Loretta Sue Ross, and Stephanie Jaye Evans, and literary agents Barbara Poelle and Jessica Faust. If I ran into anyone else, that would be a plus.

My plan was to stay with my sister-in-law in Holly Springs, which is south-west of Raleigh and, on a good day, about 30 minutes away from downtown, where the convention was being held. We lived in Raleigh for ten years when I first moved to the States, so I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with the area, but I didn’t spend a lot of time downtown, and really didn’t know Holly Springs. Sister-in-law suggested that instead of taking I-40 into downtown, which was bound to be very busy, let alone all the road works going on, I should take US-401, which comes in from the south. It would still be busy between 7 and 8 in the morning, but not too bad–certainly not as bad as I-40.

The Road Not Taken

I set off Thursday morning, map and directions in hand (I have a terrible sense of direction–a fact that will become important in a moment), leaving early enough that I should at least be in time for the Bouchercon 101 panel at 10, if not the “Author Speed Dating” panel beforehand, which sounded like fun. Apart from driving past two of my turns and having to turn around, I made it to US-401 in good time. I was merrily making my way up the highway, Mix 101.5 playing the best mix of 80s, 90s, and today on the radio, thinking about the authors I would meet, when traffic slowed. Rush hour traffic, I thought. Okay. I expected this, but no worries, I was still making good time. After about fifteen minutes, I began to get concerned. We were crawling along, and the line of cars ahead formed a large, endless metallic snake into the distance. Then cars started peeling off the left lane and U-turning onto the south-bound road. I considered doing the same, but worried that I would never find my way back and probably end up in Charlotte, or Miami (remember–bad sense of direction). Then the traffic news came on the radio:

“… and a downed power line on the intersection of Mechanical Boulevard and 401 means that all lanes of 401 are closed at that point…”

Oh poo.

I then remembered something that truly saved my bacon (aside from prayer–actually, my thinking about this was probably an answer to prayer): I have a smartphone. With Google Maps. I quickly entered my destination (South Salisbury Street, Raleigh) and waited to see where it would send me. Google directed me to take the next right, and then guided me down some back roads (cool, I thought, it knows about the road closure), and then back around to… 401. No, I said to my phone. Try again. So it did. And lo, it brought me back to 401. Eventually, I reached the road block, and followed the cars turning left off the highway. After a few minutes, I tried Google Maps once more. It calculated a route that took me down some roads and… back onto 401. NO! I told my phone. No! No! No! By this time it was after 10, and I resolved to get to the Sheraton Hotel (where I was to check in) whenever I got there. Better to get there safely than panic, rush, and end up as road kill. Or in Miami. The next bright idea I had was to return to the road block and follow one of the cars that turned off to see which way it went. This was a much more successful venture. Once I was far enough away from 401, I tried Google again. This time, she (the computer voice is female) led me to Wilmington Street, and into downtown. Hurray! Except that it had taken me longer to drive from Holly Springs to Raleigh than it had to drive from home to Holly Springs.

I found a space in a nearby public parking lot, and paid a pound of flesh because I was too frazzled to argue ($17 for the day–really?!). I gave the park-and-pay machine my space number and put in $7. This was my first Bouchercon. Maybe I’ll be driving somewhere for lunch, or maybe the organizers arranged free parking somewhere for attendees. If I had to, I could come back later and put in more money.

Face to Face with Sharks

I hurried along to the Sheraton Hotel where I was supposed to register, and picked up my name pouch and book bag. The name pouch has your name in the front, and a booklet version of the convention schedule in a pocket behind. It’s supposed to hang around your neck so people can see who you are, and to give you easy access to your schedule. A cool idea. I made much use of that booklet (as you can see):

While Raleigh is North Carolina’s capital city, it’s not the largest city. That honor goes to Charlotte (I suppose it’s the same in other states–Albany vs. New York City, perhaps?). Consequently, there wasn’t a single hotel in downtown Raleigh that could host the entire Bouchercon event, so the organizers split it between the Sheraton and the Marriott hotels, which are literally within a minute or two’s walk of each other. There was some grumbling about this from conference-goers, but since it was my first time, I didn’t know any better.

Bouchercon 101 was in the Marriott. This was where Janet, Donna, and I had arranged to meet. Janet said she would be handing out books, so it seemed the ideal place. Except I was very late, and by the time I arrived, I couldn’t find either of them. I ducked into the room and caught about ten minutes of the presentation, listening intently for mention of free parking. When it became clear the speaker wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know, and I was stuck with paying $17 a day to park, I slipped out and decided to wander around, see if I could run into Janet and Donna, and figure out what panel I wanted to go to at 11:30.

Bouchercon 101

One of the problems with only knowing people by name (as happens when your Bouchercon friends are all commenters on a blog) is that you are depending on name recognition to find them. Which in turn means you spend a lot of time looking at people’s name pouches, not their faces. I just hoped the ladies didn’t think me some kind of pervert as I glanced at their chests hoping to find my friends.

Janet and Donna were nowhere to be found, so I gave up the search for now and went to…

50 Editing Mistakes Authors Make, a panel hosted by Chantelle Aimee Osman. Chantelle is a professional editor with a lot of Hollywood experience, so not only does she know about words and grammar, but she understands pacing, plot, and arcs. There are things she said that I had heard before, but she also made a number of very good points. I took a couple of pages of notes, so here are some of the things I found helpful:

• Don’t put your work “out there” and let the public tell you what’s wrong with it. You have ONE chance to capture your audience. Most of them won’t be forgiving if it sucks the first time.
• Know your genre. Understand the tropes and where your work will go on the bookstore shelf.
• Never give the reader a neon sign telling them where the plot’s heading and what’s going to happen.
• There shouldn’t be anything that the reader needs to know before they read the novel.
• With dialog, don’t write a voice you’ve never heard. Don’t even guess at it. If you’re writing teens, go to a mall and listen to teens talk.
• Avoid awkward phrasing. Use the “as opposed to” rule. If you can say “as opposed to” then there’s a problem. For example, “He put his hat on his head” as opposed to where?
• Readers never skip dialog, but they will skip paragraphs of prose. Try to include important information (clues, plot points, etc) in dialog.
• Don’t info-dump backstory. Rather, scatter backstory like breadcrumbs throughout the novel.
• You learn more about people from what they say, and this helps form your first impressions of them. People don’t usually hand you a resume and their vital statistics when you meet them, so don’t go there when describing people. There’s plenty of other “human shorthand” you can use. For example, a name. Frank and Francesca are two very different people–you can tell just from the name.
• When a reader buys a novel, it’s like the author is giving the reader a blank coloring book. The author sketches the world and leaves it to the reader to color it in with his/her imagination. The more detail the author gives, the more crayons he’s taking from the reader. Don’t do this!
• Conflict keeps the readers attention and keeps the story moving. Have as much conflict as you can, whether it’s a fist fight, or a misspelled name on the Starbucks cup, or a burned tongue.
• Make sure your characters act consistently with their type and the genre. If you’ve got a sweet Sandra Dee character, don’t have her suddenly drop f-bombs because she’s late for her nail appointment. The reader won’t buy it.
• Do your research! Gun manufacturers stopped using cordite in guns from 1945 onward, so you shouldn’t be smelling cordite in a contemporary thriller.
• You have to nail the beginning and the end. Readers will remember endings. The end should satisfy, tie up all the major plot ends. The end is not the climax; it’s what happens after that final denouement. It’s the return to everyday life, or the attempt to live in the new reality–whatever the consequence is of the climax.

That’s just a sampling of my notes. Chantelle did an excellent job, and there were good questions at the end.

Chantelle Aimee Osman: 50 Editing Mistakes Authors Make

After topping up the park-and-pay, and having lunch in the Marriott, I decided to resume my hunt for Janet and Donna. I recalled Janet saying that she always tries to attend her clients’ panels. It so happened that Terry Shames, one of her clients, was on a panel at 2:30 in the Sheraton…

Mysteries: Small towns/Big secrets was moderated by Mysti Berry, and included Christine Goff, Gayle Trent (who also writes as Amanda Lee), Lisa Carter, and Terry Shames. The panelists got into an interesting discussion around the nature of secrets, and the differences between small town secrets and big city secrets, and what people find appealing about that small town environment. From my notes:

Keeping a secret is often a strong motive for murder. Doug Lyle says most people kill ultimately to save face. People are attracted by that small town, “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “Maybury” kind of atmosphere. There’s something appealing about being known and cared for by the whole town. But it has its down sides. In a small town, you only ever know what you know; you rarely get to know other sides. And people never change in a small town. You might grow up there, leave and become a success elsewhere, but whenever you return, you’re still the kid who tore his jeans stealing apples in Mr. Brown’s orchard.

Mysteries: Small towns/Big secrets. L-R: Christine Goff, Terry Shames, Lisa Carter, Gayle Trent, Mysti Berry

Patrick Lee (nytba)

When the panel was over, sure enough, I found Janet Reid sitting in the back row. Unfortunately, Donna had to return home for the day. To my surprise, however, New York Times Bestselling Author Patrick Lee was with Janet! Patrick is one of Janet’s clients, and the author of the amazing novel RUNNER (among other books). Also with Janet was Terri Lynn Coop, author of DEVIL’S DEAL (another book I enjoyed), and fellow Janet Reid Blog Commenter. Bouchercon may have had a shaky start for me, but now the event was beginning to hit its stride.

Janet wanted to check out the book room, so that’s where we headed. Every Bouchercon has a large room set aside in which local booksellers are invited to set up tables and sell their wares. As you might expect, the price of books there is not the cheapest, but the point is to support local independent booksellers. One of the vendors sold rare, first edition, and signed books which made for interesting perusing.

The Book Room

Alafair Burke (nytba)

Evidently, attending conferences and conventions and looking at books is thirsty work, because Janet insisted we all then head to the bar. On the way we ran across New York Times Bestselling Author Alafair Burke. Perhaps I should start saying nytba instead of New York Times Bestselling Author. Anyway, Janet introduced me as her friend (and I’m not just saying that to be sentimental–pay attention).

Janet found us a table at Jimmy V’s Osteria + Bar in the Sheraton, and a girl named Grace waited on us. (Again, that’s not throwaway info, folks. It will become important later.) The four of us whiled away a good hour or two talking and sipping beverages, after which we went our separate ways.

The next big event was the Bouchercon 2015 Opening Ceremonies. It was here I caught a glimpse of Kathy Reichs (nytba), writer of the “Bones” books, and also consultant/producer of the TV series. Awards were presented (namely the Macavity Awards and the Barry Awards), speeches were given, and special guests were recognized.

Bouchercon 2015 Opening Ceremonies

Then we were all dismissed to visit the HarperCollins signing event, where some HarperCollins authors were signing free books, first-come-first-serve. The lines were long, so I targeted Alafair Burke’s table. Janet has been recommending her books for a while now, so I took this opportunity to snag an Adance Reader’s Copy of her forthcoming novel, THE EX, and have her sign it. She remembered me from earlier:

After that, we were invited to partake of some North Carolina barbecue. HarperCollins had set up a huge tent between the two hotels with seating for a few hundred, and four lines to get barbecue, fried chicken, hush puppies, potato salad, coleslaw. and rolls. I’m vegetarian, so I skipped the meat, but still had plenty to eat. It was a warm evening with a slight breeze, perfect for eating outdoors. And that’s how I rounded off day one of Bouchercon.

But that’s not quite the end. When I returned to my car, there was a citation under the wiper. It seems I put the wrong space number into the machine. I had paid for space number 40 while I was parked in space 49.

*sigh*

Come back tomorrow for DAY TWO!