BOUCHERCON 2016: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

bouchercon-deb
George Kelley, Diane Kelley, Jeff Meyerson, Bill Crider, Deb Pfeifer, and Jackie Meyerson
bouchercon-folks
Jeff Smith, Janet Rudolph, Beth Fedyn, Joe Danger, Jackie Meyerson, and Kate Derie
bouchercon-oldies
Diane Kelley, Marv Lachman, George Kelley, and Art Scott
THE GOOD:
1. Meeting Deb and her husband, John. What a fun couple!
2. Free Books! Lots of them!
3. A decent Dealers’ Room. Good, but not great.
4. Loved the panel featuring Bill Crider, Joe Lansdale, Lawrence Block, S. J. Rozen, and Catherine Coulter.
5. Enjoyed seeing everyone who missed the Albany BOUCHERCON! And Raleigh!
6. Getting a tour of the Tammany Morgue by our niece who is a CSI agent for the Coroner’s Office. I saw a dead body they were about to autopsy!

THE BAD:
1. Heat, humidity, and torrential rain.
2. The faucet in the bathtub in our room at the Marriott leaked. I complained and the Front Desk sent an “engineer” to fix it. It continued to leak all during our stay. What a waste of water!

THE UGLY
1. Southwest Airlines sent us from New Orleans to Orlando, FL. Then there was a “mechanical” problem. Delay. Then Southwest decided to fly us to Buffalo on a “different” plane. But the plane had to fly in from Aruba. More delay. We left the Marriott at 11:30 A.M. and finally arrived home at 10:00 P.M. Not fun!

28 thoughts on “BOUCHERCON 2016: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

  1. Deb

    It was wonderful to meet so many of the people I’ve been “talking” to for almost a decade. And, as we were getting together for a final photo, Art Scott walked by and we corralled him in the photo too! A really fun morning.

    Reply
      1. george Post author

        Maggie, it looked like you and Mystery Mike were doing great business selling books at BOUCHERCON! Thanks for the chocolate bar and the free book!

  2. Jerry House

    That’s a might good looking crowd you hung out with, George!

    As for the good, the bad, and the ugly, I don’t believe the story Southwest Airlines gave you. I think they used all that extra time to load the gazillion books you took home with you.

    Reply
  3. Bill Crider

    Great photos! I had a fine time, although did have one not-so-good day, and that happened to be the one when I met Deb and her husband. I wasn’t my usual perky self. However, I recovered by the next day. I’m flying home today. Southwest. I hope I don’t have the troubles that you did!

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Bill, it was great seeing you at BOUCHERCON! Diane noticed you were “quiet” during our morning visit with Deb and John. But you were in fine form on that panel!

      Reply
  4. Walker Martin

    Thanks for these great photos. I wish I could have attended since I have such a love for detective and crime fiction but the only Bouchercons I’ve attended have been in Philly or NYC. I can take the train for these cities. I’ve sworn off flying after a terrible ordeal a few years ago in Paris France.

    Reply
  5. Jeff Meyerson

    Can’t believe the Southwest story.

    Great time with friends. Excellent food as expected.

    The weather, not so good. The rain seems gone now but the heat is still brutal.

    Glad my pictures came out as well as they did.

    Reply
      1. george Post author

        Rick, like you I’m not used to extreme heat and humidity. I’m built for cold. Diane was annoyed at the icicles in our hotel room because I set the A/C temp (I went with the ARCTIC setting) upon arrival.

  6. Wolf Böhrendt

    George, good to hear that you had some fun at the Con!
    Even though that flying experience is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

    I still remember those few SF cons I visited in the last Century (a long, long time ago) in England – Germany just doesn’t have that con tradition and I regret that I could never make it to one of the big cons in the USA!

    Reply
  7. Cap'n Bob

    New Orleans, bah, humbug! (Shakes fist at the sky!) Sorry I missed it, but I’m going to a model show on Saturday so that’s something!

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Bob, not to upset your day but Baltimore is now considering removing all Confederate statues and symbols. Like you, I disagree with this “re-writing” of the Past.

      Reply
  8. maggie mason

    It was nice seeing everyone, though there is never enough time. I was happy to finally meet the amazing Patrick.

    I’m with you on the book bazaar. They tried to do that in Indy, but the hotel gave the room they had reserved for it to a regular convention, so it was moved to the lobby, where it was not really successful.

    I wish the pocket program had had info for each author (ie panels, signings) as has been done for years. It’s like each con. seems to want to reinvent the wheel.

    I wish I’d gone to the opening ceremonies and participated in the parade. Hindsight is 20/20.

    Bob, the backlash against NC is for human rights, not rewriting history.

    Reply

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