Sunday, September 22, 2013

Dispatches from Bouchercon: Wrap up #Bcon2013

Chris Grabenstein, Donna Andrews and Al Abramson the Bouchercon Live Auction

Kim Hammond sums up her trip with Tracey Loh to Bouchercon 2013, the world's largest mystery convention. You can read about her other Bouchercon 2013 adventures as well. 

I was excited to get home to my family as I was packing on Sunday morning to go home from Bouchercon, but a little sad too. The next Bouchercon isn't until November 13-16, 2014 and I won't see some of my friends again until then, except on Facebook or if they have a book signing in the Cleveland area in the next year.

I went down to the hotel lobby to wait for my airport shuttle and of course ran into some people. Hank Phillippi Ryan was on her way home to Boston so after a hug she was off.

The Jungle Red panel

Jeffrey Sieger needed multiple hugs before heading to the airport to return to Mykonos, Greece, where he now resides. We'll be working together for the next few years on the board of National Bouchercon and I look forward to it.


Tess Gerritsen signing books

I thanked Judy B. for a fabulous job putting together the 2013 panels because I know how many hundreds of hours of volunteer time goes into each Bouchercon (and also some blood, sweat and tears), as these conferences are entirely run by volunteers. Judy was sitting with Joseph Finder and I confessed that I thought he had the sexiest voice of any author I know. I think he blushed. 

The highlight of my departure was riding to the airport in the same shuttle with Lee Goldberg as my trip ended exactly how it began. He entertained us all on the trip with stories of fan mail nightmares.


Jeffrey Deaver at Bouchercon 2013
I have many fond memories as I say goodbye to the 2013 conference. I saw many old friends, made some new ones, and I think I got Tracey Loh hooked on Bouchercon. Let's see if she comes to Long Beach. With Jeffrey Deaver, J.A. Jance
and Edward Marsdon as Guests of Honor and Simon Wood as Toastmaster, how can she say no? 


Kim Hammond and Tracey Loh, our #Bcon 2013 reporters on the ground
To learn more about Bouchercon 2014 in Long Beach, California, you can visit the website, like the page on Facebook, or follow @Bcon2014 on Twitter. 



1 comment:

  1. What a bittersweet ending to a wonderful conference. I have put it on my calendar for 2014, I only hope it's as fun as Cleveland was last year and Albany seems to have been this year. Thank you so much for these blog posts and making us feel like we were there.

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