Just back from the Left Coast Crime conference in Vancouver. What a wonderful city and a great conference! I’ve attended lots of writers’ conferences in the past, but like Bouchercon and Malice Domestic, Left Coast Crime is more of reader/author mixer and every minute is filled with bookish activities and events. There are author panels that range from informative to entertaining, interviews with notable guests of honor, a new
author breakfast, where you can hear about your next favorite book, author speed dating, where authors come to your table in short increments to tell you about their books, and free books! I picked up Paddy Hirsch’s new novel that I’ve been dying to read.
Of course, you don’t have to
attend every event. This is also a chance to meet in person people you’ve only interacted with online, meet authors you admire, or meet new friends. We’re all there to celebrate our shared love of books after all. And because both authors and readers aren’t often extroverts, there’s time to break away now and then to explore the host city. Left Coast Crime is in a new city every year. Next year, San Diego!
As I’m somewhat introverted, I’m always a nervous wreck when I
anticipate speaking in front of a crowd, but I managed to get through the New Author Breakfast without blathering and the Lefty Debut Nominee panel with Tracy Clark, A.J. Devlin, Keenan Powell, and J.G. Toews was so much fun! I’m thrilled to say my novel, A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder, won the Lefty for best debut mystery. I was so overwhelmed when I went up onstage to accept, I had no time to be nervous. I also have no idea what I said!
Have you ever been to Left Coast, Bouchercon, or Malice Domestic? How did you like it?