Break Out the Party Hats, Everyone

I don’t usually attend crime and mystery fiction conventions. Which isn’t to say that I shy away from expressing my opinions about the genre, or that I don’t like sitting in hard chairs day after day and spending all my measly dough on new books I’ve just discovered through listening to one panel or another. I’m simply not the convention-going type. I prefer to have my conversations about literature one-on-one, or in small groups. Chatting it up with hundreds of other mystery lovers, many of whom read vastly different sorts of books than I do (yeah, I’m talking here about you “cozy” aficionados) just doesn’t do it for me. I would rather retreat to somewhere quiet, with my nose in a book.

The last convention I participated in was Left Coast Crime 12, which was held in Portland, Oregon, back in 2002. And before that, I hadn’t been to such a caucus since the 1994 Bouchercon gathering in Seattle, during which I had the pleasure of meeting Walter Mosley, Linda Barnes, Donald Westlake, and others. Some of my January Magazine colleagues tried to talk me into joining them for Bouchercon 2005, held in Chicago, but they couldn’t budge me, even though I love roaming the Windy City.

However, I have decided to break out of this monkish behavior, and attend Left Coast Crime 17--“Reading in the Rain”--which will be held in early February 2007. My decision comes partly from the fact that this convention will be held in my hometown of Seattle (I’d really be anti-social if I couldn’t bestir myself for a trip downtown). And partly because of who else is expected to show up for this gig, including Stephen Booth, Cara Black, David Corbett, Martin Edwards, Lee Goldberg, Ken Kuhlken, Peter Spiegelman, and Megan Abbott, who tells me that she’ll be “traveling, Thelma & Louise-style [from New York], with Theresa Schwegel to do some West Coast readings, and I always wanted an excuse to go to Seattle.” Also in attendance will be guest of honor Gayle Lynds and my old friend Gary Phillips (“Learning from Lew”), who’s signed up as toastmaster for the event. (That ought to be a kick in the ass.) What’s more, my cohort from January, editor-author Linda L. Richards, is registered for the festivities too, I see.

2007 might actually be a convention-going year for me. Bloody Words, the Canadian equivalent of Bouchercon, is scheduled for next June in Victoria, British Columbia--a lovely little island city not far north of Seattle--and I’m seriously considering an excursion across the border to meet some new Canadian authors.

Wherever will this new conviviality of mine lead?