Meeting authors I long admired, attending panels that had big effects on my writing, getting to know other authors struggling with the same things I struggled with. Not to mention getting to visit cities I probably never would have visited, getting to explore and enjoy. For example, being shown around the city of Toronto by a native who took me to “the spots.”
Probably the night my first book was awarded the Macavity Award should be my favorite memory. After all I was sitting between Charmaine Harris and Kent Krueger and both of the gave me big hugs. Giddy times.
But my favorite happened before I was a published author. I attended Bouchercon because my friends, authors Marilyn Wallace and Judy Greber urged me to go. They knew I was an aspiring mystery author and thought I would enjoy it. They were so right. It was fun and informative and a wonderful getaway. I was a new mom with a nine-month old. He’s now 38, so that’s how long ago this incident occurred. But I always remembered it fondly.
I knew very few people and the ones I knew had events with their publishers, so I was on my own for dinner. That was fine with me, so I struck off for a nearby restaurant. I walked in and told the hostess I was “one.” Suddenly I saw someone waving at me from a table. She beckoned me over. “Hi,” she said. You’re with the conference, aren’t you?” I said I was. “Please join us.” I told her I didn’t want to be any trouble and she insisted that wouldn’t be a problem. She asked the hostess to bring another chair to squeeze in next to her.
And that’s how I got to meet Mary Higgins Clark. She was more than gracious. Asked me about myself, what I was writing, about my family, including my 9-month-old. It was a lovely evening, and I’ve never forgotten it. It was my first taste of the real kinship that exists among crime writers.
At the same conference I met other writers who were happy to share information about writing, query letters, agents they thought might be interested in my work, other conferences.
Not to mention that at that same conference I attended a powerful gathering of women crime writers who were hearing for the first time about a new idea. Sara Paretsky presented the idea of an organization to support women crime writers. The organization was to be called Sisters in Crime. There was such excitement in the room, and of course we all know the result of that meeting. A large, complex organization that has grown to be a nationwide force for women crime writers.
There’s a coda to the story about Mary Higgins Clark. I attended Bouchercon again the next year. I was walking down the hallways and MHC saw me and came over. “How’s your son?” After a year. With all the people she met daily, she remembered a wanna-be writer whom she was kind to.
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