On Being A Fan

I love mysteries. I love the movies, the television shows. But most of all I love the books. I love the way they look, I love hunting down the ones I want. But mostly, I love reading them. And I really love the whole feeling of community that there is with mystery readers. There are conventions, magazines and websites devoted to it. You could very easily get so caught up in the peripheral things about it that you would not have time to read.

I started slow, like with any addiction. I read books passed to me by my mother. Slowly I started to look for books on my own. I was around ten and I was reading all the time. I don’t really remember my first mystery novel. I know my love of mysteries actually started with Batman. I do remember reading a lot of Ed McBain. Over the years the list of authors I love to read has become enormous, as has the amount of room needed to house all my books.

Eventually, I moved on to the next level. I went to an author signing. It was Robert Crais. It was so fun I instantly wanted to attend more. And I did. Over the following years I went to see every mystery author that came. And then the Holy Grail of all author visits. Bouchercon was coming to Milwaukee. When I first heard this news all I knew was that it meant a whole lot of authors in one place. Boy, was that an understatement!

My first convention was amazing. Not just getting books signed and listening to my favorite authors, but actually hanging out with them. And even more, I was surrounded by other fans. A lot of other fans. From all over the place. Now, as a little side bar, by the time I went to my first Bouchercon, I had been hanging around some mystery forums on the internet. So as an added kick, some of the people I met, I had been e-mailing for a while. Needless to say that my first experience with a mystery convention was great. I slept little, spent lots, and met lots of great people (including the woman I would marry a year later).

Around this time I suggested to my friend Richard that his website could use a little spicing up. I suggested putting up some interviews with authors. I approached a few authors that I had met at B-Con and did three at once. As I started working through the list of authors I had met, I started e-mailing other authors. Now, three years later I’ve completed seventy plus interviews and plan to do many more.

Also around this time, I asked Vicki of Books 'n' bytes if she would also like to use the interviews. And as you can see elsewhere on this site, she said yes. She also asked if I would like to do a column and maybe review books. And I was happy to do it.

I see it all as an extension of my being a fan. When I get interested in something, I like to get as much information as I can on the subject. And it only seemed right to share this information with other fans. I still get excited when reading a new author for the first time and discovering how great they write. And I still love meeting authors and others fans.

So, until next time.....

Jon Jordan