Hi there! It’s been a while. A lot has happened with Lowdown Road since I last checked in here (and I’ll round up some links at the end of this post), but today my mind is on Bouchercon because it’s less than a week away. Some of you know what that is and are planning to be there. If so, be sure to say hi! I have a few leftover Lowdown Road ARCs that I plan to give away while in San Diego, and now you’re the first to know.
If you don’t know what it is, Bouchercon (rhymes with Voucher-con, not Poocher-con) is an annual gathering of crime fiction writers and readers, held in a different U.S. city every year. There are panels throughout the day, each featuring four or five writers holding forth on a particular topic, after which the panelists are available to sign their books. At night there are events like the Anthony Awards honoring the best mystery and crime fiction of the year, and Noir at the Bar featuring a number of authors reading selections from their work. (This year’s killer lineup includes Megan Abbott, Jordan Harper, Edwin Hill, and Walter Mosley.)
Is it worth attending Bouchercon? That depends what you’re hoping to get out of it. Once you account for the registration fees, airfare, hotel, meals and beverages, it certainly isn’t cheap. I can’t really speak to the pure reader/fan experience of attending the conference (although of course every writer is also a reader and fan), but if you’re a writer, you should be clear-eyed about what to expect. If your plan is to get an agent or sign a book deal, that probably isn’t going to happen. You may meet with some agents, but such meetings will likely only be a first step (or, in some cases, a dead-end).
If, however, your plan is to meet a lot of writers, some of whom may become good friends, and to feel part of a community in what is often a lonely endeavor, you have a very good chance of pulling that off. My first Bouchercon was in 2019. It was held in Dallas that year, which made it an easy one for me as I could just drive up from Austin to the hotel only a few blocks from the grassy knoll. At this point I only knew a couple of people who were going to be there, and had no idea how welcoming a bunch of crime writers would be.
As it turns out, they were more welcoming than I could have imagined. Some of the panels were informative and enjoyable, but the best conversations were going on in the bar after hours. I met writers I’d only known as names on Twitter, had some great chats, and made some good friends. I left Dallas exhausted but also rejuvenated, and looked forward to the next year’s gathering in Sacramento, which…didn’t happen. In fact, both the 2020 and 2021 events (the latter slated for New Orleans) were canceled due to Covid. I was just getting started with Bouchercon and already thwarted.
Fortunately, the 2022 conference in Minneapolis did take place, and if anything, it topped my first go-round. I met even more great people who became friends, and as the photographic evidence at the top of this post proves, I got to meet one of my crime-writing heroes, Dennis Lehane, who spent the whole weekend hanging out with us lesser luminaries in the bar. The opportunity to talk process and business and the ups and downs of the writing game with folks who are in the same boat can’t be beat. Those connections continue online throughout the year, but there’s nothing quite like getting together in person over a few (or more) drinks. It’s pricey, yes, but it’s a way of rewarding myself for all the solitary hours spent writing, as well as an opportunity to continue a never-ending education in writing and publishing.
Bouchercon certainly has its faults, but personally I can’t wait for next week’s gathering in San Diego. If you’re going to be there, why not stop by 20 Panels in One on Thursday at 12:45 pm? This should be a fun one, as audience members drop panel subjects in a hat and we take turns pulling them at random and attempting to address the topic raised. And if you can’t make it to that, find me in the hallway or the bar and say hello.
News & Notes
Lowdown Road is now in its second printing! Spike Carter reviewed the book for Air Mail, calling it “terrifically cinematic” and “crushable reading.” I also made the “brilliant” section of New York Magazine’s Matrix:
I wrote about some of the drive-in films that influenced Lowdown Road at CrimeReads, talked to Paul Garth at Do Some Damage, Scott Montgomery at The Hard Word, and Jon Finkel at Books & Biceps. I also appeared on the podcasts The Thriller Zone and The Stephen Kingdom.
I’d go, but my damn lanyard allergy.