The good, the bad, and the fun

I am the Purel Queen.  I slather it on every time I go out in public.  But I was so rushed and busy over the weekend at the Malice Domestic conference and the Festival of Mystery that I forgot to take out my little bottle of hand sanitizer on a regular basis and today . . .

I guess I'm grateful that I wasn't sick before and during the conference.  Been there, done that--in 2006.  Oh, I was so sick I had to excuse myself and go up to my hotel room to cough for five or ten minutes, and then come back to (wearily) join in the festivities.  Not so this time, although I swear I didn't have nearly enough time to talk with/visit with my friend.

The highlight for me was speaking to my editor and agent.  Weeeeeee!  They had such good news to share.  My head swelled so large I could hardly get through the door.

Six of the seven Cozy Chicks got together and had several meetings about the future of the blog.  What a great bunch of women!  Got to hang out quite a bit with Leann Sweeney, Heather Webber, and Jennifer Stanley, Kate Collins and Maggie Sefton.  (We missed you, Deb!)

Of course, Bookplate Special did not win the Agatha, but the banquet food was delicious, even if I, my editor, and Mary Jane Maffini did have to wait for ours--only to be informed they'd run out of beef and wouldn't we like to wait 15 minutes for them to cook more?  Meanwhile, our tablemates' food was getting cold as they waited for us.  We settled for chicken (and very good it was), but the wait staff was terrible.  They jerked slammed the plates down on the table (and at our table, slammed down a bottle of red wine, which tipped over, broke a bread plate that sent china flying, and doused one of the authors), and then practically snatched them away before you could finish your dinner.  Not impressed at all.

It was fun to see my friend Hank Phillippi Ryan win her second Agatha Award for her short story, On The House (which was wonderful).


The Festival of Mystery is always an exhilarating experience.  A gush of people storm the church where it's held, and in a mad dash, meet the authors and buy books.  I sold dozens (like maybe three plus  dozen?) of books and gave out bookmarks for Chapter & Hearse and A Crafty Killing.  Afterward, all the authors were invited back to the Mystery Lovers Bookshop for pizza, wine and beer.  Richard and Mary Alice (the owners) gave everyone a thank you gift as we went out the door.  If you can get to Oakmont, PA next May, you really should go to the Festival of Mystery.

After I download the pictures in my camera, I'll pick out a few and post them.