Pretend this is me.

Hi there! :) Going to Bouchercon is always great fun, because I see people there I don’t get see anywhere else.

Since I’m so overwhelmed and gimpy busy, I’ll try to keep this short. Especially since I had appointments yesterday and I didn’t get a damn thing done, except blog. Ha ha ha …

I saw the awesome Tim Hallinan, who was handing out cards that looked like this …

Awesome! :)

And I saw Thomas Kaufman, and told him about how (maybe) I might be interested in being an indie film producer. Possibly. Hey, anything is possible, right?

You see, Thomas does film stuff. If you look at his website you’ll see that. How about that, huh?

And I also finally met L.J. Sellers, who’s from Oregon. Eugene, OR, the home of Faber College, where my awesome niece and her husband got their degrees. We were joking about the rain in the northwest and how minor rain is really. And I said that my sister, who is at least as funny as Weird Al Yankovick always says that when it rains, don’t use an umbrella — just squint. Or words to that effect. Much better words.

I also got to meet Larry Kelter, who’s awesome and may or may not understand my feelings about baseball karma. :)

And then there was Ken Wishnia, who I ran into while picking up my bag upon arrival. I was going to catch a cab, but we ended up on a train. And while I was running to keep up striding toward the train with Ken, with aching thigh and cramped hand, I called out, “The last time I took a train from an airport, I fell down an escalator and nearly got my face ripped off.” LOL!

And I got to see Jim Fusilli! And Jeff Cohen! And Christa Faust, who I stalked had a bite to eat with one night, along with her awesome friends! And Reed Farrel Coleman, who fell off a platform at one point and had to go to the hospital for stitches, giving a whole new meaning to the term “Bouchercon head” and worrying me just a bit that he might suffer side effects a few months later from a hidden brain injury.

This reminds me that I also talked with Steve Hamilton, who gave a really funny speech at Deadly Ink one year about a book tour in East Germany. I told Steve that his humor reminded me of this guy …

I even got a word or two in with Duane Swierczynski, the author with the least pronouncible (sp?) name fastest moving plots in all of crime fiction! :)

I also saw Beth Tindall, my website genius.

And I also nearly ran over a few people, in order to say hello to Michael Connelly and tell him how much I love Mickey Haller, and what a great job he did depicting a criminal defense lawyer.

He was really nice, especially when I mentioned that I was also an attorney, and when I mentioned about my book being on the NY Times bestseller list, he wished me luck and he was really awesome. The whole experience was different than last year, maybe because I felt like we were just two writers talking, you know?

Plus I ran across Blake Crouch a few times, and I asked how Joe Konrath was doing. And Blake said Joe was doing well, and he confirmed that Joe was trying to persuade Amazon to switch to a non-proprietary digital format for ebooks. And I thought that was awesome. And I also thought it was a bit late in the game, frankly. :) But what do I know?

Oh, and I also saw Lee Child. And I had a brief convo with Lee about a speech he made at Sleuthfest that I’ll always remember. He said he grew up in northern England and didn’t see a tree until he was 11 years old. I’ve never forgotten that, because it made me think of Queens, NY. So, I said that I thought these kinds of experiences really shaped and defined who we were and came out in our writing. And Lee agreed totally, of course. Then, I mentioned how I’d gone to Ireland and the UK this summer and loved it and how friendly the people were, etc. And Lee said that people there really cared about books and literature, which was totally true in my experience.

And I thought about the various times I’ve met Lee and how nice he’s always been. And I didn’t mention Robert Crais or my concern that I might have accidentally stepped on his foot in a really loud bar.

Then … much later … I thought about the very first idea I had for a story about a woman who travels the world with nothing but a small backpack and a passport in her pocket. An adventurer. That was all I had. A strong female adventurer. Maybe someday I’ll write about her. She could be like Jackie Reacher. Ha ha ha …

Speaking of which, I got together for the last time with Sasscer Hill, who’s moving. So I won’t see her until the next conference. :( Good luck with the move, Sasscer! Stay in touch.

And, after eons of searching, I found Jack Bludis. :) We hung out at the Shamus Award ceremony and nearly fell into a coma dropped dead left before the awards were given, when the pre-ceremony raffle went on and on and on … but then, the awards were given. And someone else fell off the platform. And I was like, “Thank heavens someone else is falling for once. I hope they’re okay.”

And then, I got to talking to someone who handles TV movies. Well … I’d had half a glass of white wine and my hand was torturing me, so I just rolled with it. I basically pitched the screenplay, without even having planned it. How about that? And the guy said, “Send it! I’d like to take a look.” Or words to that effect.

So, I have. How about that?

You were right, J.T. Cummins. :)

Thanks, Scott Nicholson, for introducing us! :D

Well … Austin Film Festival here I come … soon. :)

PS: Leonard Rosen won the Macavity for ALL CRY CHAOS! :D Congrats, Leonard. Remember me? The goofy blonde. :)

PPS: While I was away, I actually got another contribution toward my Indiegogo campaign for my series. There’s only 20 days left to reach my goal. Will I fall down again make it?

Behold! The awesome cover of my latest novel — again!

And finally from the blog of Paul Downie, the reader in England I kept nattering on about telling everyone I actually met, Nik Nak’s Old Peculiar, here’s a really awesome quote:

“The thing we must do intensely is be human together. People are more important than things.”

Frank Herbert  October 8, 1920 – February 11, 1986

Amen to that!

Let’s boogie …