Magna Cum Murder or Going To Muncie (on Purpose)

Last year in Washington DC, (October, 2001), the day before Bouchercon, we ventured to Baltimore for a small party. The party was wonderful, as were the people there. We had a wonderful time and some great memories of this party.

But that is not the purpose of this particular tale....

At this Party smoking was not permitted inside, due to health reasons of children living there. And being a smoker, I’m cool with that, and used to it. So, off to the porch to feed my habit. And it’s on this porch that my tale begins.

It seems that Ruth and I were not alone in our need to smoke. Among the others who crave the nicotine was a very young looking woman named Kathryn Kennison and her husband Dick. We started talking to them and we were instantly charmed, and we talked to them a lot through out the evening. As it turned out, Kathryn is the person responsible for a smaller convention called Magna Cum Murder. I’d heard the name of the convention, but that was about it. By the end of the evening we were very intrigued. Over the next few days we ran into them at Bouchercon and we were convinced that if this convention was half as fun as these people were nice, we’d have a great time. And so upon arriving home we made plans to go to Muncie Indiana the following year.

Jump ahead to this year in Austin Texas, (October 2002). We were talking to a few authors we know and found out that they were also going to Magna. This was starting to sound better and better. So after a hectic few days at home, which involved a long drive to Chicago to pick up my sister at one-thirty am and getting back home at four am, a funeral and a wake, unpacking lots of books and clothes and repacking again, we were in our truck headed south. Being a typical male that I am, I figured when the maps and instructions said around five hours, it would take around four. Let’s just say that I was a bit off, and that Yahoo maps suck. The drive through Chicago was not bad. Fast and busy enough to be exciting and keep me very alert. And then we hit Indiana. Wow. A very nice state, pretty, typical middle United States. But Damn!!! It’s really flat. You could set a level on the roads there. This made for some long driving. We exited US 65 to head east towards Muncie. For some reason I figured we were on our final leg of the drive. HA HA!!!!! I was wrong!!!! It was over an hour and a half (including a thirty mile detour) before we hit our junction with Wheeling Blvd. But, once on Wheeling, we had to be close, right?? As it turns out we were, didn’t know it. You see, the street names must have been changed, and no one at AAA or Yahoo knew this. We spent an extra forty five minutes driving around before I followed my beautiful bride suggestion and stopped at a gas station for help. After this we were at the Holiday Inn Express in about five minutes. Typical hotel room, nice but utilitarian. Some fast food near by. Groovy. We unpacked, we had a smoke, (did I mention we smoke?) and we headed downtown to find the hotel the convention was in. We drove past it once earlier in our quest for our lodgings, but I figured in the dark was a bad time to get lost. Especially after a six hour trip from home to the city limits of Muncie. We called a cab, (which was dirt cheap by the way) and eventually ended up at The Radisson Hotel Roberts. A gorgeous old, (by US standards, not British, the bris have really old buildings), building. We went in and looked around. This was not like Bouchercon! I saw no hoards of people spilling out of the bar area, and little over all activity. Hmmmmmm. We went in to the bar in search of food and sitting. As we walked in, we spotted Stephen Booth. Not surprisingly, he was smiling. We then also spotted Danuta Reah, whom we had just met in Austin. Before we had a chance to say hello, someone with out back to us jumped up and came running over. It was Kathryn. There was much hugging and we knew already that this convention would be different. We never even saw the organizers in Austin! We said our hellos and joined them for dinner. We had a nice talk with all involved, including a person who was setting up a party for Tony Hillerman’s PBS Mystery special. Afterward we went back and slept like babes. Babes in a jungle. The heat was on full, and a little adverse to being adjusted. I made my own adjustments with the window open.

I awoke the next day to Ruth discovering that she had forgotten her garment bag. Luckily Walmart is open twenty four hours a day even in Muncie. We went shopping at 6:30 am. After a little breakfast and relaxing we made our way to the convention hotel. We had a little time to kill till registration, so we explored the neighborhood. Some nice places to eat and a great coffee shop. When we got back to the Hotel Roberts we were able to register and the conventions was under way. Over the next three days we met a lot of wonderful people and saw some great people we had already met. Being a smaller convention allowed us to really spend more time with people. And I found that the readers who attended for the most part were all very well read. We had some great conversations.

The Panels were great. Jim Huang, of The Drood Review did a wonderful job setting them up. And again, due to the size of Magna, we were able to see just about all the authors on at least one Panel. They also had interviews with the guests of honor conducted by other writers. Michael Connelly was interviewed by Barbara D’Amato and Francis Feyfield was interviewed by Ruth Dudley Edwards. Lunches were supplied and a dinner banquet was given on Saturday night. Kuched took place during the interviews, and during the banquet there was a speaker, Elliot Engel, who did a wonderful job making Poe’s life seem almost entertaining!

My favorite panel was the balloon panel. The premise is that five authors of note (played by living attending authors) are in a hot air balloon. One by one the audience decides who to throw out. After two rounds, there were a couple of jumpers, and this left Dame Christie (played by Frances Feyfield) alone and afloat. Very entertaining.

The whole weekend was wonderful and everyone seemed to have a great time. It is such a tightly run convention that future convention organizers should attend just to see how it’s done.

After the long drive there and then back again, I was debating going again next year. But we had such a wonderful time, we will be going again for sure.

Among the authors we enjoyed hearing speak and talking to were; Deborah Morgan, Michael Connelly, Danuta Reah, Stephen Booth, Fidelis Morgan, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Deni Dietz, Barbara D’Amato, Charlaine Harris, Michael Lewin, John Gilstrap, Jeramiah Healy, Parnell Hall, Francis Feyfield, Carl Brookins, and many more. I can’t remember them all off the top of my head.

The convention is set up to be like a large cocktail party, and that’s the atmosphere it had. We really enjoyed it and hope to be at many more.

Jon Jordan

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