While in Santa Fe at the Left Coast Crime Conference, I tried to attend as many panels as possible. Here are a few of the tidbits I picked up. Nancy Atherton speaking about her Aunty Dimity series said she doesn’t do specific research into the location but instead goes to a place to experience it. This hit home as I always like to get a feel for a location in my writing. I go a little farther in that I often take photographs so when I get home, I can bring up visuals images of where I’ve been.
John Vorhaus spoke about scams and cons. He described the pigeon drop where someone leaves a wallet on the ground and when someone picks it up that person gets conned. As someone aware of this con, he almost fell victim to a variation of this when he was in Russia. He says the problem is with what he’s learned, he’s suspicious of everyone. Fear, greed or the desire to be a good Samaritan are the typical emotions that a con artist plays upon.
There was a lot of discussion about the expanding e-book market. I came back with a number of ideas I plan to pursue to expand my market beyond my current presence on Kindle and Nook.
One of my favorite quotes heard, “A mule will work with you for ten years for the opportunity to kick you once.”
This year’s award winners were:
-Louise Penny, Bury Your Dead - The Dilys
-J. Michael Orenduff, the Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein - The Lefty Award
-Jacqueline Winspear, The Mapping of Love and Death - The Bruce Alexander Memorial Award
-Margaret Coel, The Spider’s Web - The Hillerman Sky Award
-Craig Johnson, Junkyard Dogs - The Watson Award
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