Bouchercon 2001.

It seemed like an abstract. I knew I would have fun, and see some friends, but no way no how could I have known it would be as great as it was.

Monday: Ruth and I arrived early, morning around 11:00. Flight and airport use was pretty low on the hassle scale. We took the hotel shuttle and ended up a the wrong hotel. They own two, and the shuttle took us to the nicer one. After getting things straight and then over to the Holiday Inn, we dumped our stuff, and headed out to explore. A bit of Recon, if you will. We checked out the Crystal City Underground Mall and had lunch. We located the Metro entrance, and a book store and grocery store that also sells beer. We headed back to the hotel for a quick nap for me, and cyber time for Ruth. A few hours later we met the first of the group coming from the Rec.arts.mystery newsgroup. Woodstock and her husband Dwight. We had a great dinner and great conversation at a little Italian restaurant . They even grabbed the bill. It was also the first of the gift exchanges. I got a really cool Harley Davidson T-shirt from Denver. We all walked back to our hotels. After a short time in our room, it was time for a little more recon. So over the Hyatt to check out the bar. We met Pam, who turned out to be great fun through out the week. We talked about Harleys and books and discovered that she was a reader. We gave her a list of our favorite authors. We also told her about the convention. Including warning them they may need some extra help, because it seems mystery people really like bars. This seemed to help, because they opened three hours earlier than normal during the convention, and brought in extra bartenders. We left her a nice tip (early bribe) and headed back to the room to get what would be out last full night of sleep.

Tuesday morning: After a little phone tag with Ann from Australia (or Oz) we met her in the diner for breakfast. We lingered at the table after eating as she and Ruth had just met, and she and I caught up. We all headed into the city together on the Metro.

I need to say here that I thought the Metro was wonderful. The lines are color coded and easy to follow. And it’s fast. Ruth kept thinking “Risky Business” and I kept thinking “The Taking Of Pelham 123”. The difference of the sexes I guess!

So, anyway, off to downtown DC. Ann headed off to the Australian embassy to vote, and we went to look at sights. We strolled the mall in typical tourist fashion taking pictures of everything. We saw The law enforcement memorial which actually brought more of an emotional response that I thought it would. We the headed to the National Art Museum and did a quick stroll through, stopping at the gift shop and loading up on prints. We headed back to the hotel around 4:00 to get ready for a road trip to Baltimore.

After changing and showering we took a cab to one of the biggest Borders bookstores I have ever seen. We met up with Colleen, who works there and would be our ride. Colleen loves mysteries as much as us, so the ride was fun, even though it was long. We arrived on time and had a wonderful evening. It was weird at first, because the only people we knew were Colleen, Laura Lippman and Val McDermid. After a round of introductions we melted into the crowd. The party was held at Sujata Massey’s home and I have to say that it was beautiful. I was drawn to the front room like steel to a magnet by the bookcases her husband built. While standing hypnotized by the wonderful cross section of books and beautiful surroundings, I was introduced to the gal who runs the mystery bookstore in Baltimore. A bookseller at a party. I was in heaven! I don’t want this to become a name dropping kinda thing, so lets just say I met some great people, and had some wonderful conversations. We left late to the sound of authors singing to us from The Sound Of Music. The long ride home was actually quick because of the sights and company. We arrived back at the hotel for the first of many two or three hours of sleep nights.

Wednesday: We started with breakfast with Ann again, and then switched hotels. As we walked up to the hotel I was scared to death by a giant bear who yelled out “There’s Jon!”. It turned out to be Jeff Tindall. We got to meet Jeff and Beth briefly as they boarded a shuttle and headed downtown. The Hyatt was much nicer! Big corner room with nice big chairs, fax machine and giant bed. The people who worked there were great. We tipped early and they remembered. After getting situated we headed down to the registration area. We proceeded to bag books for close to three hours. Along side Ann, and a wonderful couple named Sage. Sara has just sold her first book. The people running things were super. Hired by the convention to take care of the details, they had it down to an art. We ended up handling a whole lot of books, and making some friends that we saw through out the convention. We also got some extra freebies! More on that later.

>From this point, the whirlwind began. Upon arriving back up in the main lobby area, I started to see old friends and people I had only met in cyber space. The first person I spotted was Ian Rankin, who was sporting a lovely new haircut. Naturally the first words out of my mouth were “what happened to your head?” . I got to hear a wonderful tale involving an electric trimming machine with suction unit attached and kids who wanted nothing to do with it, at least not till Dad did it first. Ian’s a good Dad, even with the funny hair. He went to register and got a laugh from Val McDermid about the hair, and I went towards the bar. Ruth joined up with me and we stopped to talk to Bill Deeck, who posts on Ram and lives in DC. I had met Bill briefly in Milwaukee, and it was really nice talking with him again. He was really tuned into what was going on. He had to go, and as he did two older ladies leaned over and asked if we had been to one of these before. We picked up our cigs and sodas, and went to sit on the couch near them. As it turns out, they are sisters, from Ohio. They heard about the convention on Dorothy L and decided to come. There first one. We told them about all the fun we had in Milwaukee, and how we met. They were very excited about the whole thing. We saw alot of them during the rest of the week and tried to introduce them to as many people as we could.

We met the first wave of people from RAM (rec.arts.mystery newsgroup) and we all went to dinner at a place called Stars and Stripes. There were enough of us that it took two tables to seat us all. Among the people eating were- Beth and Jeff Tindall, Judi and her hubby Jeff, Eileen, Ellen, Carleen, Jim from Scotland, Karin, Brigid, and I’m sure a few other people, but I can’t remember. Too much information taken in at once.....

Ruth and The Jeffs hit it off at once as they are all baseball fans. We went back to the hotel and hung out in the bar till closing. Ruth and I floated around talking with Rammers, our new friends, the Ohio sisters, and various authors. Jeff Cybulski is too much fun. He was a riot. Ruth took Ian over to meet the sisters and they became our friends for life. Eventually things got late and we headed to our room for a quick three hours of sleep.

Thursday: We started out with a coffee run and then went to the panel with the guests of honor. Nice panel, some laughs, some cool moments. We sat with some Rammers, which as it turns out was not hard. People from Ram were everywhere. We then went back to the lobby and spent the rest of the day hanging out with people. That evening we went to the award nominations ceremony and got real loud for Val McDermid, Katy Munger and Stephen Booth.

We again, closed the bar.

Friday: Getting up was becoming more of a chore, but we made it to the 8:30 panel with Ian Rankin, Michael McGarrity, Eleanor Taylor Bland and Elizabeth Corley, Moderated by Peter Lovesey. Very fun panel. Ian added to the fun by waking up ten minutes before hand and immediately putting his head on his arms to nap. He came around in time to answer questions though, and the whole panel was great. I now have a few more authors I want to read.

I took pictures in the signing room and headed to the After Jack panel. Ruth went to see something else, I can’t remember what. My panel was fun. Tom Savage moderated for Lee Child, John Connolly and Michael Newton. Serial killers was the topic and it was informative and funny. Especially John Connolly fixing Michaels mic. And as the new tradition demanded, we then hung out in the lobby bar with people we had been meeting. Also the trips into the dealer room had begun.

The evening started with a party in the bar with all the people from Ram. Many pictures and mountains of TimTams. Everyone who was there from Ram showed up. Even some lurkers. Great fun. Then we stopped by the meet the Brits party, and then went to the Marriott Courtyard for a Lee Child Party. We didn’t find it, and the people working there not being very helpful, we decided to just go to dinner. Since we actually forgot to eat dinner for two nights, the food budget had a surplus. Soooo, up to the roof to the Chesapeake room. It said casual but I felt under dressed. What the hell, I had money to spend, right?. It first seemed as though the mater’d was dissing us, but as it turns out he was waiting for a few reserved tables. We waited less than ten minutes, and had a wonderful dinner. Filet mingon for my wife, and grilled veal cutlet for me. Fantastic service, and excellent food. It was really nice to spend a few hours just staring at Ruth. We left a generous tip and headed......

To close the bar.

Saturday: We started with breakfast with Bill Burgess and his wife, and I forgot to get Jeff Tindall. This is a mistake I shall not make again! He joined us in time to eat, and we had a good time. The Burgesses headed into DC and we went to the hotel. We spent the day running around the dealer room and trying to get a hold of Ruth’s grandmother. Hectic but fun.

That evening we dressed up and headed to the awards banquet. Mark Allan Miller didn’t think anyone was going so he was going to blow it off. We talked him into joining us and we had a great time. The highlight was Val McDermid wining for best novel. Her speech was great. And other great speeches were given by the other winners and guests of honor. Being the cool kids, we snuck out to smoke, and ran into other cool kids Charles Todd and Lauren Henderson. I also discovered that a few of the ladies from RAM have a criminal streak. I may give details in private. Afterward we headed up stairs to .....

close the bar.

Sunday: We woke up very tired. We had breakfast and hit the dealer room. Bought some books that were marked down and then set about packing up all the books for home. Along the way, a person who shall remain nameless gave me a box and told me to get it to my room. It was a full case of Place Of Execution. I checked Christmas shopping off my list. I shipped the books out through the hotel, and we got packed. We hung out till Ruth had to catch a limo on the beginning of her excursion to Williamsburg, and hour later I headed to Dulles. After a real long sitting period I finally got on my plane and headed home.

And I actually slept on the plane.

Assorted Highlights: I can’t put all the detail into order, so they will end up here.

Meeting John Connolly was a real treat. He’s a great guy and fun flows off of him. We had breakfast and ran into each other a lot. He was more than happy to sign the monstrous pile of books I had by him.

I also really enjoyed meeting all the people from the newsgroup. It made the convention so much more fun. It was like having family around all the time. Every where we went we saw someone we knew. Sarah was great fun and after bar partied with us. So did Judi. I can’t go into enough detail to describe how much I love these people. All of them.

Ruth and I also got to spend time with a lot of our author friends. I won’t list all the names cause it would be gratuitous, but we love them too. It was really great seeing them and just hanging out with them as friends.

The Staff at the hotel were great as well. Pam, and Roberto the bartenders were wonderful. They made us feel like big shots, and we could not tip enough to repay that. And everyone else there from housekeeping to the wait staff and bell boys were great.

I actually wore a shirt louder than Ian Rankin.

Val McDermid was the queen of the ball. She was a joy to be around.

I got to see Charles Todd again, and meet his folks. They are truly wonderful people.

The crew from Ugly Town books was fun. And Sean Doolittle got around a lot. Looks like some good buzz for his book.

I saw Kate Flora again. She is a super lady.

Laura Lippman Rocks.

Lauren Henderson Rocks too.

So, in closing, anyone I missed, it is not on purpose. I’m just overwhelmed by how much fun was packed into five days. It was truly a great week. Thanks to everyone who made it that way.