Before long, Barb and I will be heading to Raleigh, North Carolina, for this year’s Bouchercon. We will be making a rare appearance on the same panel (I don’t recall this happening before), and are frankly lucky to be on any panel alone or together – more about that below.

But for now, here’s our schedule:

Friday, Oct. 9:

2:30 PM, signing and book giveaway at the hospitality suite, hosted by Forge/TOR. The signing will only last half an hour, and free copies (of ASK NOT, I believe) won’t last long. You are free to bring copies of other books of mine (and ours) for signing.

4 PM Panel – both Barb and me – Crime, Mystery & Thriller Writing Before & After ‘The Internet & Smart Phones’
State AB.

5 PM – Autographing by both of us (Matthew Clemens will likely also be signing with us). Author’s room.

We will also be attending (and, as last year’s winner, I’ll be presenting “Best Short Story”) (currently trying to figure out how to win this, since I wasn’t nominated) at the annual Shamus Awards Banquet, which starts at 6:30. I understand the venue has no drinking, so it will be a surly crowd.

And that’s it. Nothing on Saturday or Sunday except business meetings with editors and my agent. Also, Matt’s panel is Friday at 8:30 AM in State AB – “Plot Twists in Mystery Narratives.” He and I will likely be at each other’s signings so that we can both autograph our collaborations.

Now here’s why I almost wasn’t on a panel. Barb and I, much better organized than usual, booked the con hotel way in advance. Then I started dealing with a health problem that I’m not ready to discuss that hit us in a nasty way and we essentially lost a good two months from any career stuff. But when I was in shape to seriously schedule going to Bouchercon, we bought our plane tickets and were ready to rock ‘n’ roll.

Not long ago – just a few weeks – I started wondering why I hadn’t heard from the con about appearing on a panel. I usually get at least one panel and often two, because I am, let’s face it, not shy in such situations. Barb is less keen to do panels, but she’s excellent on them – like the time on a cozy panel when she refused to say what kind of tree she’d like to be.

Anyway, I wrote an e-mail to the con organizers – Barb having advised me to “be nice” – and asked what was up. Why had I been overlooked? I reminded them of my credentials, emphasizing the upcoming QUARRY Cinemax series. Erin Mitchell at the con was very nice about it, answering me immediately, and apologizing profusely. They really wanted my participation. Then she wrote me saying that somehow my registration had fallen through the cracks – anyway, she couldn’t find it.

Barb and I discussed this and came to the embarrassing conclusion that we were mis-remembering having registered for the con. Yes, we had registered for the hotel, all right…but not the event. I got in touch with Erin and apologized and sent in our registration fees at once. I made it clear I’d love to be on a panel, but understood this was late in the game. Maybe Barb and I could be on tap should somebody on a panel drop out, last-minute.

Well, Bouchercon 2015 did better than that. They put a whole new panel together, to give us and a handful of other authors, who were flying Bouchercon standby essentially, a place on a panel. Panels are important not only for the public appearance opportunity, but because autograph signings are scheduled right after.

Erin also provided a list of booksellers for us to contact, to make sure our stuff is available in the dealer’s room. Every bookseller responded favorably.

So I want to thank Erin, Al Abramson and my old buddy Ali Karim for making this happen (even if UK resident Ali insists on pronouncing “shit” as “shite”). Stand-up folks all around.

Be there or be square!

Here’s an interesting review of THE GIRL HUNTERS DVD and Blu-ray, commenting favorably on my participation. Oddly, throughout the body of the piece, the reviewer refers to the film as THE LADY HUNTERS.

M.A.C.

Tags: Appearances, Bouchercon, Bouchercon 2015, Mike Hammer, Reviews, Signings, Spillane, The Girl Hunters