I traveled to Hamilton, Ohio (40 miles north of Cincinnati) for the Mad Anthony Writers conference. The event featured a Writers Police Academy on Friday which included trips to the county morgue, tours of the police station and a canine demonstration. Saturday was just as jam packed with tracks for aspiring writers as well as research sessions (e.g. SWAT, High Risk Traffic Stops, and Crime Fighting Technology). If you get the chance to go to this conference next year, GO!!
Thursday, October 9:Last weekend’s conference whirlwind tour started with Bouchercon in Baltimore.The 2008 mystery conference dubbed Charmed to Dead featured such legends as Lee Child, Harlan Coburn and Laura Lippman.I was on a Thursday morning panel entitled “Does Sex Really Sell Books?” along with Ted Hertel, Lori Armstrong, Meg Chittenden and David Corbett.Not surprisingly, it turned out to be a lively discussion that was great fun.I had the chance to visit Baltimore’s Mystery Loves Company bookstore.What a wonderful place!I could have gotten lost in all the books and couldn’t leave without buying a few books.I also had a truly lovely visit with Wilda Williams of Library Journal, which is one of my favorite sources for book reviews.
Wilda Williams and Mary Burton
Friday, October 10:It was back to Richmond for the James River Writers Conference, which featured such greats as David Baldacci and Adriana Trigiani.I participated on an afternoon panel:The Fun and Money of the Romance Game thatalso featured Jenny Gardiner, Judi McCoy and Cathy Maxwell.Again, we had another tremendous audience that had so many good questions.
Cathy Maxwell, Mary Burton, Jenny Gardiner and Judi McCoy
Saturday, October 11:The day started off on a grand note with the Virginia Romance Writers monthly meeting featuring the fabulous Caridad Pinero author of paranormals and romantic suspense.Her presentation on dialogue was so insightful and had me visiting my local library to check out all the books she referenced.If that wasn’t enough, I headed back up I-95 to visit the Marine Corps Museum at Quantico to gather background information for my latest book.The museum was beyond impressive and I was sorry I arrived so late in the day and couldn’t have stayed longer.I will definitely return!
If you’re a suspense writer looking to do some hands-on research, a traveling gun show can be the perfect field trip.Seven dollars bought my admission ticket to a recent gun show held in Richmond, Virginia at the Showplace located on Mechanicsville Turnpike.The event featured over 100 vendors.
My plan wasn’t to buy but to find tidbits for my latest novel. And I wasn’t disappointed!I not only examined guns perfect for my detective heroes Zack Kier in I’M WATCHING YOU and Jacob Warwick in DEAD RINGER, but I held a stun gun used by the serial killers in both novels.I was able to get question after question answered as I wandered, imagining what to put in my characters hands and trying to remember the firearms faced by some of fiction’s best-known protagonists—Kay Scarpetta, Kinsey Millhone. Stephanie Plum, Tess Monahan, Spenser, Alex Delaware…
Some items were factory new. Others looked old enough to have survived the Civil War. (Hmm…a vendetta? A story passed from generation to generation? A symbol of a long lost legacy…endless possibilities.) For fun I bought a MRE (Ready-to-Eat Meal).I chose the Pork Rib meal.It cost five bucks, was easy to prep and tasted okay.
And did I mention the books!There were tons of non-fiction books that covered everything from surveillance to first aid to survival techniques.I even spotted a couple of Nora Roberts books!
