Don Bingle, my co-author on The Love-Haight Casefiles, was gracious enough to attend with me. Our book was up for a few awards. And--wow--we won three.
Three Silver Falchion Awards...Best Fantasy (peer voted), Best Urban Fantasy (judges award) and Best Multi-Genre (judges award).
Three days later and I'm still floating. How awesome is that? How friggin' awesome is that?
Gee, I love this convention.
But honestly, I love it for the people. They have incredible author guests. This year Janet Evanovich. Hey, Beth Vaughan...I got my picture taken with JANET EVANOVICH. Kevin O'Brien, who was soooooo gracious and who presented us with one of our awards. William Kent Krueger, a joy to sit and chat with. I met the awesome and delightful Anne Perry and chatted with Glenn Meade, who wrote one of my favorite military books--Snow Wolf. Robert Randisi was beyond belief...he's written more than 700 novels. And I grabbed pieces of author Jaden Terrell's time. I'm gonna finish her book, River of Glass, tonight. Her book sends shivers, beautifully written. I started it yesterday and had to set it in another room so I would work today.
I like the South, the feel of it, the way complete strangers stop and wish you a good day...and sound like they really mean it. I like the music. No, I LOVE the music. There was a great band at the awards dinner, playing a mix of 70s and 80s rock. Joy to the World, It'd been a long time since I heard Jermiah...he really was a good friend of mine...and I danced to a Billy Joel tune with a retired policeman. The saxophone player was brilliant.
What I like most about the convention is the opportunity to chat with a variety of professionals...editors, agents, social media gurus, booksellers, publishers, and fellow writers. It's not a competitve atmosphere. Everyone tries to help each other. So, yeah, I recommend the convention if you write mysteries. Conversely, I touted Gen Con's Writer's Symposium to attendees who specialize in fantasy and science fiction. So...Marc...you might be seeing some new faces in your audience.
I spent more than an hour with an agent--who wasn't at all interested in the actiony stuff I write--but who talked about the business, rewrote my query letter, gave me all sorts of tips and insights...and who I just had fun chatting with. She sought me and Don out later to chat some more.
I got lots of good information about social media, promotions, and on and on. Yeah, I been in the business a while, 35 novels to my credit and more short stories than I care to count, but I learn something at every writing convention I attend. I learned a lot at this one.
Clay Stafford and his folks put on a fine convention.
I intend to be at next year's Killer Nashville. I love the South and the music, the people. My husband comes along so he can venture down to Broadway and visit all the honky tonks.
It's a great way to spend vacation days.
The three Silver Falchions with Don this go-round was that proverbial icing on the cake. It was really, really, really tasty icing.
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