Sometimes it makes no sense to me either. I spent the past three days in the Maine North Woods, miles from any cell towers, fishing for late-season brook trout (landed a beautiful orange-bellied male with a kype), practicing my moose call (still needs considerable work), and bagging two ruffed grouse (called "pa'tridge" here) in the rain. I arrived home grubby, stubbly, and glad for a shower. Tomorrow I have a long day at the office preparing to ship the November issue of Down East to the printer. And within thirty-six hours I will be at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Cleveland where I will appear on a panel titled "Murder in the Great Outdoors." Somehow it all ties together, but as I wash one set of camouflage and blaze orange clothing and pack another outfit of black blazers and Blundstones, it all feels very haphazard, frenetic, and definitely unplanned.
Oh, Yes
I probably should have mentioned this before now. Bouchercon in St. Louis was a fantastic experience, and not just because I won an award, but also for the many new people I met and for the friends who aren't quite old enough to be old but whom I definitely look forward to seeing each year now.
Tweeting from Bouchercon
This is my periodic request for you to follow my twitterfeed. I'll be tweeting from St. Louis for the next four days while I attend the 2011 Bouchercon World Mystery Convention. Expect lots of twitterpics of famous crime writers looking at me with bewilderment as I train my iPhone on them across the bar and carrying those overstuffed tote bags that make it so hard to look dignified.
My Three Bouchercons
I am preparing to head to the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in St. Louis, and I have a new post up at MaineCrimeWriters.com about how my understanding of the conference, and myself as a mystery fan, has changed over the past three years. Give it a read. And if you are also planning to attend, please introduce yourself!
Anthony Award Interview
I am fortunate to be one of the finalists for the 2011 Anthony Award in the category of Best First Novel. Back in July, Julia Spencer-Fleming interviewed all the nominees for the Bouchercon Web site. Out on tour with a new novel to promote, I forgot to mention the interview here, but for some mysterious reason Google rediscovered our conversation this morning and sent me an alert as if it were breaking news. Have a look.