Bouchercon 2010

In October, I attended Bouchercon 2010 in San Francisco. Yes, I admit that there is a secondary reason for attending these conventions, and that is to travel. Anyway, Bouchercon is the world mystery convention, held every fall, usually in October, and attended by 1500-2000 fans, authors, publishers, publicists, and others in the publishing/mystery world.  Bouchercon By the Bay: San Francisco was a blast, helped by the fact that for the first few days I was there, the temps were about 30C (absolute bliss), meeting up with friends, and eating great food. This convention for me was the perfect combination of panels and site-seeing, so I am very happy about what I got out of my trip.

For anyone unfamiliar with these types of conventions, they are usually made up of 2-4 days of panels that last 45-50 minutes. The panels cover a wide variety of topics, such as historical mysteries, police procedurals, humor, etc. Sometimes there are panels that cover a specific topic about publishing, PR, or other more business-like subjects. This year the panels were named after episodes from The Streets of San Francisco. Some examples of the panels are:
"Most Likely to Succeed" - Our Favorite books - fan/reviewer panel
"The Year of the Locusts" - Books to screen featuring Kelli Stanley, Derek Haas, Paul Levine, Val McDermid, & Ken Bruen
"A Good Cop...But" - US/UK cops featuring Robin Burcell, Colin Campbell, Mike Black, Connie Dial, Matt Hilton, just to name a few.

One of the panels I went to was "Murder By Proxy" - Mulholland Books Presents. Mulholland books is a new imprint of Little, Brown, and Company that is devoted to suspense fiction. The panelists were John Schoenfelder, Miriam Parker (I think they are publisher and publicist, maybe?), Mark Billingham, Marcia Clark, Duane Swierczynski, Daniel Woodrell, and Sebastian Rotella. I went to this panel for one reason only: Marcia Clark. Yes, that Marcia Clark...O.J. Simpson Marcia Clark. Most of my non-mystery friends haven't heard of the authors I read, but I figured they would have heard of Marcia Clark, so this was my opportunity to meet someone they would know. Ms. Clark has written a book, Guilt By Association, with a lawyer as the protagonist, of course, which is due to be published April 2011. I went to her signing and the publisher was giving out free ARCs (advanced readers' copy) of her book. Hell yes! And I met her and took a picture to prove it. Very nice lady. I have yet to read the book, but will post when I do.

Re: Mullholland books. I went to the panel to see Marcia Clark, but was impressed with all the authors. I've already read Mark Billingham and have some more of his books on my TBR (to be read)  mountain. I bought 2 of Duane Swierczynski's books, and was impressed by Daniel Woodrell, so will give him a try.  Mulholland Books has a great list of authors, and I'll be checking them out frequently.

Tata for now.