Thursday, March 22, 2018

Why Attend Mystery Conferences?

First of all, what are mystery conferences? These are annual gatherings of mystery fans and mystery writers to share our mutual love of the mystery/suspense/crime/thriller genres. They range in size from three hundred to two thousand attendees.

As an author, I attend anywhere from one to three of these a year. Upcoming is The Left Coast Crime Conference in Reno, Nevada.

I don’t sell a whole lot of books at these conferences, but they are a great opportunity to connect with avid mystery readers and schmooze with fellow writers. I always attend a number of the panels, which give me new ideas for my writing and help to re-energize me. At The Left Coast Crime Conference I have volunteered for the last eleven years to moderate the Meet the New Authors Breakfast. Through this event, I meet new authors and then have the opportunity to track their writing careers. This year I will also moderate a panel on writing in different genres. This is a subject dear to my heart because I write geezer-lit mysteries, paranormal mysteries, theater mysteries, historical mysteries, sports mysteries, thrillers and biographies.

Next post I'll share some of my experiences at this year’s conference.

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