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Bouchercon 2009 in Indianapolis
Mr. Larry McQuern attended the 2009 Bouchercon in Indianapolis in October. Below is a small part of the report he wrote on his experiences there.
Bouchercon was named after Anthony Boucher, the pen name for William Anthony Parker White (1911-1968). Boucher wrote mysteries, science fiction, and was a writer for Sherlock Holmes and Ellery Queen radio shows. He helped found the Mystery Writers of America.
The Guest of Honor this year was Michael Connelly. Connelly has written twenty-one books. His first won the Edgar Award for best first novel. The Toastmaster was S. J. Rozan. Ms. Rozan has written eleven novels and received numerous awards. In every city that Bouchercon is held, Ms. Rozan organizes a basketball game. The one for this Bouchercon was in an old gym. It looked a lot like my elementary school gym.
Session about writing.
The session consisted of four panelists and a moderator. Panelist Nancy Pickard, the author of seventeen novels, talked about her rules of the case: C = conflict; A = action; S = surprise; E = emotion. The action must advance the plot and the main character must show an emotional change. Writing isn't just throwing words on paper, it's plotting the story out, even if just in your head. James Scott Bell talked of SUES -- something unexpected in every scene. Bell wrote a column for Writers Digest magazine for several years. He has written two best sellers on the craft of writing. Kathy Lynn Emerson spoke of keeping the story moving. It's important she said, to keep the reader moving through the book.
Session on book reviewing
Two men from Booklist, the official review journal of the American Library Association, spoke on reviewing books. Booklist gets 60,000 books a year, all hoping for a review, good or bad. Just being in Booklist sells books. The reviews are made up of 30% editors and contract reviewers, the rest by the journal staff. They do like new authors and will take a look at small press and self-published books. They look at mass market paperbacks, as well, simply because there are so many of them out there. Not all books are created equal, so a 200,000 word book is not looked at the same way an 800,000 word book is evaluated.
Session about Amazon.com
Jon Fine was from Amazon.com. He said that Amazon's purpose was to “put more books in more readers’ hands in more ways." They are working with authors to get more information about the authors and their books to the buying public. They now have over 1.5 million author pages. This gives the readers more choices in their buying decisions. Three things make up customer buying decisions: pricing, availability, and discoverability. By changing their web site to be more user friendly, Amazon hopes to meet all three categories.
Session on Setting as Character
We all know what the setting does to a story. You feel what the characters feel. Hot, cold, windy, dark, and scared. One panel talked about just that. They were writers whose stories are placed in Hawaii, The Florida Keys, Minnesota and Asia.
William Kent Krueger writes the Cork O'Conner mystery series set in Minnesota. Deborah Atkinson lives in Hawaii, and has authored three books. Tom Corcoran has written six books about the Florida Keys in his Alex Rutledge series. J onathan King writes about south Florida. Eric Stone writes about Asia, and was based there once as a journalist and editor.
Stone said, "Setting provides context for actions of the characters, part of the fabric of the story in a way readers can get emotionally involved in."
Jonathan King agreed: "The Everglades is such a wild place... it's a creepy place ... alligators with their creepy red eyes. T he greatest compliment I ever got was from a woman in Maine. She wrote, 'It's January in Maine, I'm reading your book and swatting mosquitoes.'"
Tom Corcoran first went to Key West while in the Navy and stayed for several years, becoming friends with the most famous resident, Jimmy Buffet. His view of Key West was skeptical. "Key West is a party paradise where cruise ships spew out passengers who buy R-rated tee shirts. Arrive on vacation -- leave on probation. There is a big contrast of income levels and lifestyles. A lot of hotels have built dormitories and brought in workers from Eastern Europe."
The life experiences of these writers are profound. Some started their lives as housewives, some as beat reporters on newspapers. Their world is changing quickly. Jon Fine from Amazon.com talked of e-books like Kindle and how that will change publishing forever.
Joshua Bilmes put it this way: "Challenges are still challenges. File share is the biggest threat. File sharing is an increasing problem in publishing. I don't know where we will be if file sharing gets to be as big in publishing as it is in the music business." Writers expect to get paid for their work. They want the customer to pay each time they access an e-book. Sharing it takes the writer out of the consumer process. Michael Pietsch summed it up nicely: ‘The internet is the best thing that has ever happened to publishing, until it destroys us.’"
Session on Thrillers
Besides the many varieties of mysteries, there was room for the thriller writers. One of my all-time favorites was there -- David Morrell. For those of you who don't recognize the name, you just may have heard of his most famous character. David Morrell is the man who created Rambo. He wrote First Blood. The movie from that book was the first of the Rambo movies.
David Morrell co-founded the International Thriller Writers Inc. with Gayle Lynds. Through Gayle I met her friend, Melodie Johnson Howe. Melodie writes the Claire Conrad/Maggie Hill novels and the Diana Poole short stories. She has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Agatha Awards.
Bouchercon was named after Anthony Boucher, the pen name for William Anthony Parker White (1911-1968). Boucher wrote mysteries, science fiction, and was a writer for Sherlock Holmes and Ellery Queen radio shows. He helped found the Mystery Writers of America.
The Guest of Honor this year was Michael Connelly. Connelly has written twenty-one books. His first won the Edgar Award for best first novel. The Toastmaster was S. J. Rozan. Ms. Rozan has written eleven novels and received numerous awards. In every city that Bouchercon is held, Ms. Rozan organizes a basketball game. The one for this Bouchercon was in an old gym. It looked a lot like my elementary school gym.
Session about writing.
The session consisted of four panelists and a moderator. Panelist Nancy Pickard, the author of seventeen novels, talked about her rules of the case: C = conflict; A = action; S = surprise; E = emotion. The action must advance the plot and the main character must show an emotional change. Writing isn't just throwing words on paper, it's plotting the story out, even if just in your head. James Scott Bell talked of SUES -- something unexpected in every scene. Bell wrote a column for Writers Digest magazine for several years. He has written two best sellers on the craft of writing. Kathy Lynn Emerson spoke of keeping the story moving. It's important she said, to keep the reader moving through the book.
Session on book reviewing
Two men from Booklist, the official review journal of the American Library Association, spoke on reviewing books. Booklist gets 60,000 books a year, all hoping for a review, good or bad. Just being in Booklist sells books. The reviews are made up of 30% editors and contract reviewers, the rest by the journal staff. They do like new authors and will take a look at small press and self-published books. They look at mass market paperbacks, as well, simply because there are so many of them out there. Not all books are created equal, so a 200,000 word book is not looked at the same way an 800,000 word book is evaluated.
Session about Amazon.com
Jon Fine was from Amazon.com. He said that Amazon's purpose was to “put more books in more readers’ hands in more ways." They are working with authors to get more information about the authors and their books to the buying public. They now have over 1.5 million author pages. This gives the readers more choices in their buying decisions. Three things make up customer buying decisions: pricing, availability, and discoverability. By changing their web site to be more user friendly, Amazon hopes to meet all three categories.
Session on Setting as Character
We all know what the setting does to a story. You feel what the characters feel. Hot, cold, windy, dark, and scared. One panel talked about just that. They were writers whose stories are placed in Hawaii, The Florida Keys, Minnesota and Asia.
William Kent Krueger writes the Cork O'Conner mystery series set in Minnesota. Deborah Atkinson lives in Hawaii, and has authored three books. Tom Corcoran has written six books about the Florida Keys in his Alex Rutledge series. J onathan King writes about south Florida. Eric Stone writes about Asia, and was based there once as a journalist and editor.
Stone said, "Setting provides context for actions of the characters, part of the fabric of the story in a way readers can get emotionally involved in."
Jonathan King agreed: "The Everglades is such a wild place... it's a creepy place ... alligators with their creepy red eyes. T he greatest compliment I ever got was from a woman in Maine. She wrote, 'It's January in Maine, I'm reading your book and swatting mosquitoes.'"
Tom Corcoran first went to Key West while in the Navy and stayed for several years, becoming friends with the most famous resident, Jimmy Buffet. His view of Key West was skeptical. "Key West is a party paradise where cruise ships spew out passengers who buy R-rated tee shirts. Arrive on vacation -- leave on probation. There is a big contrast of income levels and lifestyles. A lot of hotels have built dormitories and brought in workers from Eastern Europe."
The life experiences of these writers are profound. Some started their lives as housewives, some as beat reporters on newspapers. Their world is changing quickly. Jon Fine from Amazon.com talked of e-books like Kindle and how that will change publishing forever.
Joshua Bilmes put it this way: "Challenges are still challenges. File share is the biggest threat. File sharing is an increasing problem in publishing. I don't know where we will be if file sharing gets to be as big in publishing as it is in the music business." Writers expect to get paid for their work. They want the customer to pay each time they access an e-book. Sharing it takes the writer out of the consumer process. Michael Pietsch summed it up nicely: ‘The internet is the best thing that has ever happened to publishing, until it destroys us.’"
Session on Thrillers
Besides the many varieties of mysteries, there was room for the thriller writers. One of my all-time favorites was there -- David Morrell. For those of you who don't recognize the name, you just may have heard of his most famous character. David Morrell is the man who created Rambo. He wrote First Blood. The movie from that book was the first of the Rambo movies.
David Morrell co-founded the International Thriller Writers Inc. with Gayle Lynds. Through Gayle I met her friend, Melodie Johnson Howe. Melodie writes the Claire Conrad/Maggie Hill novels and the Diana Poole short stories. She has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Agatha Awards.
Another thriller writer there was Lee Child. He is the epitome of a British gentleman. Tall, sharp features, with a crisp cut suit. I recommend his Jack Reacher novel, Bad Luck and Trouble. Reacher is not playing by any rules. He is a man on a mission.
General information
How many writers were there? At least 359. The total attendance was 1600. This was a big deal. Everyone had a name card with his/her home town or country. I saw tags from Japan and Australia. I didn’t attend every event, but I did go to the Eiteljorg Museum of Western Art for one session, and to the Indianapolis Public Library for the One Book One Read program. We all received the book in our packet. It was Some Buried Caesar, by Rex Stout.
