From October 15th through the 17th I attended Bouchercon (the World Mystery Convention) in Indianapolis, Indiana. To briefly sum it up: Michael Connelly, Michael Connelly, Michael Connelly!
Okay, there was more to it than Michael Connelly, who was the Guest of Honor. There were actually about 1700 people in attendance (authors, wanne be authors, readers, librarians) for 3 ½ days of panel discussions, programs, and general communication about the world of mysteries.
The Highlights: One of the best panel discussions I attended was called “Lost in Translation.” Moderated by Peter Rosovsky, who does a wonderful blog called Detectives Beyond Borders : a Forum for International Crime Fiction, the panel also consisted of 3 translators and an Icelandic writer. (Who can say Yrsa Sigurðardóttir?) One of the translators, Tiina Nunnally, talked about how translation is an art and that too many cooks spoil the stew. She learned this, when translating Smilla’s Sense of Snow, and the Danish author insisted on changes to the English translation that made sense in Danish but not English (can an English reader make sense of the phrase “a duck on your back”?!). Her husband, Steven T. Murray, talked about the pressures of translating the wildly popular Stieg Larsson novels.
“This Pen for Hire” was interesting, especially hearing Max Allen Collins talk about the late Mickey Spillane. My coworker Evelyn and I thought Collins looked like he’s about 40 years old, but later found out he’s 61.
I’m a huge fan of William Kent Krueger. Krueger, who sets many of his books in Tamarack County, Minnesota, was the perfect choice as moderator for a panel discussion about “Setting as Character.” Writers Deborah Atkinson, Tom Corcoran, and Jonathan King talked about how the locales they write about are actually as important as the characters in the novels they write.
The Librarian’s Tea sponsored by Sisters in Crime was fabulous. We had high tea, met and spoke with a variety of authors. The idea of SinC was to introduce librarians to authors. A panel moderated by Charlaine Harris and made up of S.J. Rozan, Nancy Pickard, Carolyn Hart, and Eve Sandstrom (aka JoAnna Carl) discussed why they love librarians. We even got to keep the tea cup and saucer!
The interviews with S.J. Rozan, the Toastmaster of the convention and with Michael Connelly were top notch.
And then there were the books. I had been to three mystery conferences in the past so my plan was to get at least a few autographs. I came prepared by bringing along my own copies of one of Michael Connelly’s books and two of Sue Grafton’s. I was impressed by what I heard from Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and the Australian Michael Robotham. The book room was too hard to resist (row after row of mystery booksellers) so I bought some of the above two authors’ books and had a chance to chat with them and have the books signed.
A great conference … did I mention that Michael Connelly was there?
~Ann
Read it or Weep 