Diane and I met up with Katie and Patrick at the San Diego Airport on August 30. Patrick and Katie spent the previous weekend in Vegas for the Beyonce concert. We grabbed an Uber and arrived at the Marriott Bayside hotel a short time later. Beautiful weather! Sunny and 70s.
Here’s my BOUCHERCON 2023 summary:
THE GOOD:
Diane is a big fan of Jacqueline Winspear so we both enjoyed her performance on the panel “Historical Hard Times: Conflict in Mysteries.” Winspear was also interviewed one-on-one by Hank Phillippi Ryan in a Standing Room Only session. Diane loved hearing all her stories!
We also enjoyed Sara Paretsky on “You Can’t Kill Me–Why the PI Novel Won’t Die.” And Megan Abbott was impressive on “Hollywood and Writers–Working for TV or the Movies Plus Publishing Stories.” Martin Edwards was his usual informative self on “Agatha and Company: The Elements of Traditional Mysteries That Appeal to So Many.”
While Patrick, Katie, and Diane did some sight-seeing, I went to hear Mark Greaney talk about “Dark Villains.” After that, on a whim, I went to an overflow one-on-one interview in the Grand Ballroom with David Baldacci. I came away impressed by a smart guy who has written 54 best sellers. And, of course, there was Jeff Smith’s favorite mystery writer, Ann Cleeves!
THE BAD:
We planned a wonderful meal at a swanky restaurant with Beth Fedyn…but then we got the phone call that Beth had to go to the Emergency Room. Maggie Mason was taking care of Beth. But, at the BOUCHERCON Banquet, Maggie’s knee went out on her, and she had to leave in a wheelchair. So many heath issues!
THE UGLY:
For about the dozenth time, the BOUCHERCON folks gave me a Name Tag with “George Kelly” instead of the correct “George Kelley.” Ironically, they spelled Diane’s Name Tag correctly!
SUMMARY:
We had a great time! Wish more of you could have joined us in San Diego. We loved the restaurants especially The Huntress which featured fabulous steaks! Do you have a favorite BOUCHERCON? Check out the photo gallery below! GRADE: A
BOUCHERCON/SAN DIEGO PHOTO GALLERY:
Gorg, imagine the Bouchercon Folks leaving out the E in your name! To quote everyone’s favorite Curly, “The noive!”
It’s been fifty years since I attended a Boucherson (Bouchercon IV, Boston). It was a small and intimate convention then. I had a great time!
And I’m glad you had a great time! The photos are awsome! — particularly the chocolate cake. There was one you didn’t properly label, but I was able to discern which were Kelleys and which were giraffes.
Best wishes to Maggie and Beth. May they both heal well and fast!
Jerry, I remember when BOUCHERCON was an intimate event with only a couple hundred people attending. This San Diego BOUCHERCON must have had 1500+! Both young and older attendees had panels to appeal to them. And…don’t forget the free books!
Glad you had a good time! Best wishes for a speedy recovery to both Beth and Maggie.
Deb, there were more BOUCHERCON attendees with canes, walkers, and scooters than ever before. Plus, a new generation of BOUCHERCON attendees. This event keeps getting bigger!
Goodness. That Bad outweighs the annoying Ugly, indeed…further wishes for a quick recovery, and glad you all had a mostly good time. I hope there’s no Covid nor other spike, particularly due to the packed rooms.
My only Bouchercon isn’t quite as far back as Jerry’s but it’s Getting There…I was at the 2001 Bcon, not too far from the Pentagon in Crystal City in Arlington and not too much more than a week after 9/11 (that was a year I could easily splurge on both my first SF/Fantasy WorldCon and my first Bcon, and they within two weeks of each other, wrapped around the hijacks). The Bouchercon was, if anything, much more pleasant than the WorldCon, given there was less jadedness and less crowding in the large assemblies among the CF crowd–not least in meeting Bill Crider and Joe Lansdale face to face. Alice remains a bit annoyed that I rode an elevator car, otherwise alone, with Sue Grafton and didn’t tell SG at least that Alice was a big fan. Meeting folks including the gracious Edward Hoch and the cheerfully but wryly no-nonsense Ron Goulart there also didn’t hurt. But first FtF meetings with a larger set of the FictionMags crowd at the WorldCon was pleasant, as well.
Todd, sounds like a great BOUCHERCON in 2001! Sorry I missed it…and you! I just received an email from Maggie Mason saying her boyfriend, Larry, has tested positive for Covid-19. Maggie and Beth both tested negative…so far. It keeps getting worse for these friends!
Todd, after 9/11 we canceled our trip to Bouchercon. Too bad.
Yes, the proximity to Ground Zero of the most “forgotten” hijack (some days, you’d think over the decades since that only NYC was affected, albeit of course the death and lesser damages toll was the worst in the two crashes into the WTC and the various mayhem which followed) in both distance and time I think might’ve made the camaraderie even more in evidence than it might’ve been otherwise. I’m sure a lot of people coming in from some distance had a Lot more hoops to go through than in previous Bcons.
Of course, my first (and only non-“virtual”), the 1998 (I believe) NoirCon here in the Philly area (much as the 2001 WorldCon was in Philly, and the 2001 Bcon was within an easy drive of my parents’ house, so they were kind enough to let me crash there) was as impressive in terms of face-to-face, as I was able to meet Patti Abbott and her husband Phil, Scott Cupp, and a small slew of others whom I’d known only via electronic means…
Lovely photos and I can’t wait to get to La Jolla in February. Thanks for the only photo I have of Megan at the conference. She had a great time too. Patrick and Katie are growing up! And Diane and you look great.
Patti, Megan was marvelous on that Hollywood panel! She had many insights about how a Writers Room operates. And, she also shared some thoughts about writing novels. Katie said Megan’s panel was the best one of BOUCHERCON!
So nice to hear. Katie and Patrick were at the one in Dallas (I think). A highlight of that one for me.
Patti, we enjoyed taking you to dinner in Dallas. We hope we can do it again sometime, someplace.
We’ve been to 20 Bouchercons, but I doubt we’ll go to another. Too many friends are either gone or just no longer come, and we went for the people much more than the convention. I could give you highlights from Chicago 1978 (and 1984, which I think was the year we got pizza under the El, and George told Jackie about fertility drugs!), Washington 1980 – the first time meeting Bill & Judy Crider in person, 1981 Milwaukee (Mickey Spillane and William Campbell Gault), 1983 New York (dinner with a just starting out James Ellroy), 1986 & 2008 Baltimore (the latter had our memorable introduction to Berger cookies), 1989 & 1998 Philadelphia (a pizza party in our hotel room, and Bill Clinton in town), Las Vegas 2003 (I remember Lee Child at Patti Abbott’s panel), Chicago again in 2005 (thinking of the late Hal Rice; plus watching the destruction by Katrina on television), Madison 2006 (cows everywhere! and great ice cream), 2009 Indianapolis (Jackie, Diane, Ann Smith and Judy Crider taking Bill shoe shopping after his shoe fell apart), 2011 St. Louis (that iffy downtown), 2015 Raleigh (Bill’s first time without Judy), 2016 New Orleans (Deb!), 2017 Toronto (Bill seemed much better than in Raleigh, perhaps because Angela was there, and we had a great time), 2018 St. Petersburg and 2019 Dallas.
Sorry I missed everyone in 1998, when I was still in my first full year at TV GUIDE and they/we had No Little fun with database crashes, etc. Good to know that I’m not the only person to have his shoe fall apart while traveling (visiting my ex Donna in Seattle in ’98, I think it was! A good year for shoe-destruction).
Nope, conflated Bill at Bcons in terms of his own shoe-collapse, in 2009.
Jeff, we’re in the same BOUCHERCON boat. Too many of our friends are not going to BOUCHERCON anymore. Travel, especially air travel, sucks. Diane is considering BOUCHERCON in Nashville only because she’d like to visit Ann Patchett’s Bookstore.
B’con sounds more and more like Malice Domestic every year!
Bob, certainly the 70% women, 30% men changes the BOUCHERCON dynamic.
The early Malice Domestic cons had like three or four guys in attendance, leading me to create my only noir line: “It was as desolate as the men’s room at a Malice Domesric.”
Jeff, you would have loved Ann Cleeves at this BOUCHERCON! There were more than three or four guys…more like three or four hundred guys in attendance. But, they were a distinct minority to the women in at BOUCHERCON!
As far as I recall, the first Malice had only Jeff Smith, Richard Moore and Bill Deeck. I started going with the second one.
I’m not sure those percentages would’ve perturbed me…2001 Bcon felt close to 50/50, or at leas I didn’t note otherwise…
I’m not sure those percentages would’ve perturbed me…2001 Bcon felt close to 50/50, or at least I didn’t note otherwise…
Todd, at the Jackie Winspear interview session, a woman sitting in front of me turned around and said, “You get high points for being here!” The audience was 90% women and 10% men.
Never been to any con. Not much of a traveler by myself and I never had friends that were interested. Glad you had a good time.
Steve, part of going to BOUCHERCON is seeing friends who share your interests. And…the free books!
Conventions were not that populat in Europe, in Britain maybe you’ll find them more often. And on my trips to the USA there bever was a convention “nearby”.
So I’ve been to only a few – those I remember:
A Perry Rhodan convention in a real castle in Bavaria in the early 60s Burg Marquartstein had been sold to a rich SF fan who let us sleep under the roof after our tent got soaked in rain.
Later a few cons in Germany, not really interested in the authors that showed up and the kind of fans there. Then my favourite:
The Eurocon/Eastercon in Brighton at the sea in southern England in 1984. Again hotel rooms were unaffordable/unavailable so I took my little camper van and parked it near the con hotel.
Fond memories!
Fond memories!
Wolf, I went to the World Science Fiction Convention in Toronto. A lot younger and a lot wilder than the audience at BOUCHERCON!
That’s interesting. The 2001 WorldCon might’ve averaged younger than the 2001 Bouchercon…but most of the people I spent time with did tend to be my age or older. But I wasn’t doing too many room parties, etc.
Todd, there’s a lot of “Dress Up” at the World SF Convention. Not so much at BOUCHERCON.