Book Launch Party!

It was a lovely party yesterday at Mystery Ink to celebrate the launch of Avoidable Contact! Thanks to all of you who attended and listened to me babble on about racing and writing. Thanks to Debbie Mitsch for hosting and providing the book cake! Finally, thanks to Pam Beard (PB Shoots) for capturing the day.

Reminder: I'll be at Mysterious Galaxy next Saturday, August 16, 2 p.m. with Ken Kuhlken. Hope to see you there!

Here I am, talking (action shot!).

Posing with bookstore owner Debbie Mitsch and fellow author (and critique partner extraordinaire) Rochelle Staab.

We even passed the helmet around for everyone to try on.

The cake!

And the books.

Bouchercon Roundup

Last Thursday through Sunday was the annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and I was in attendance. Here's the view from my hotel room.

I was prepared to be a very, very small fish in a very large sea, but I wasn't prepared for how much I would still feel a part of the proceedings. Part of the reason is that mystery writers are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. (That's me with Julie Hyzy (Anthony winner!), Sheila Connolly, and Rochelle Staab.)

And part of the reason is that I was on my first Bouchercon panel, "It's a Job," about protagonists with unusual occupations. We had a full house, as you can see below!

So there I was, a published author at Bouchercon! That was a blast. And I even signed a few books for people.

But the best part was the conversations I had with other authors, writers, readers, and fans (sometimes those descriptors were all one person). We chatted over breakfast, between panels, during lunch, in the bar, over dinner, and in the bar again. All day talking about our backgrounds, interests, writing, challenges, and successes. It was fantastic.

We got to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for an opening/awards reception.

And we got to hear from luminaries such as Mary Higgins Clark (boy, is she a true storyteller!).

Plus we had a great Sisters in Crime breakfast, at which Hank Phillippi Ryan was invested as the new president (receiving the [stuffed, white] seal of office) and many of us sang the SinC song ... "Sisters in Crime, boys, Sisters in Crime/You show me your gun, I'll show you mine...." (Full text.)













In short, a great time was had by all, I think. I'm home and excited to feel like I know more of these people who are already my Facebook friends. I have a TBR pile that threatens to be taller than I am. And I'm energized to get cracking on another book in my racing mystery series.

See you all at the next convention!

Elvis, Alien Babies, and Me

(aka, Where I've Been, Part 1)

It's been a while. But the particular madness known as book-promotion-plus-full-time-job is wearing off, and I can think again (I won't claim other madness won't set in). And what's clear is that I've neglected to post news, thoughts, and updates here. So I'll work on fixing that.

One of the silliest (and possibly farthest reaching!) places my book turned up last month was in a tabloid. Yes, I was in a TABLOID. How awesome is that?!?! And I didn't even have to have to have an alien baby or see Elvis in my moldy bread. It was the National Examiner, and I got a brief review in the lower right corner (photo taken by me at supermarket checkstand) that included "This amazing debut novel..." and "Pulse-pounding excitement...." I'll take it! In fact, I took three copies.