Surprise, Reverse, Reveal!

The title of this post is novelist Joseph Finder's chief words of advice to writers.  Surprise, Reverse, Reveal. Finder was guest of honor at the eleventh annual New England Crimebake.  WTF, you ask is that?  It's a New England crime writing conference held every year in the Boston area over Veteran's Day weekend.  The fun starts Friday with six master classes taught by veteran New England crime writers.  Then there's some drinking (after all, we're writers!) and a pizza party followed by a couple of seminars and a movie, in this case, a film based on Finder's High Crimes.  More drinking.

Saturday a.m. comes breakfast, caloric energy for the panels on writing and forensics.  We cover a broad range of topics, such as female stereotypes in fiction, true crime,  traditional mysteries, the "dark side," agents and editors (on site and available for 5 minute pitches). We have parties sponsored by Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.  BTW, when I booked tour of the Norfolk County Jail for Sisters in Crime, you should have seen the eyebrows shoot up and the quizzical faces. Sisters in Crime?  Ho. ho. ho.

Saturday afternoon wrapped up with panels about setting, esp. New England, and how to write short stories.  Then comes the cocktail party (more boozing) and the Banquet and Costume Party, Femmes Fatales and Lady Killers.

On Sunday, the revelers drag themselves to a big fortifying breakfast, and two forensics presentations and a final panels on plotting, whereby the panelists come up with a serviceable plot in a short time amid much laughter.

Oh yes, books!  Did I mention books? We have a bookseller and the panelists will sign them.  The books, not the bookseller!  I've barely touched on the good writing info and the fun.  And the drinking.  It's amazing how people who sit in front of a screen or a yellow pad and write all day can get out on the dance floor and boogie.

I'll post photos when Significant Other has a chance to remove the omnipresent "red eyes" and email them to me.  Yours truly made a pretty good pitch and got dynamite suggestions for improvements to her manuscript which she is busily making this week.  Manuscript critiques are available from established writers. We have it all.

At home, this morning,  there's a huge ugly mess of programs, papers, books and even bookmarks to sort through as well as two days of mail and nine newspapers.   As there was no food in the house, we had popped over to the Longhorn after watching the Pats win.  Nice leftovers of prime rib and barbecued ribs for lunch.  My own chicken parm for dinner.  O.K., the diet starts tomorrow.  After walking the length of the hotel about 50 times, this may not be as necessarily as one would imagine. The conference hotel, the Dedham Hilton has been the scene of the "Crimebake" for several years and they know the drill and do an excellent job.

I sold a couple copies of World of Mirrors out of the trunk of my car, metaphorically speaking, and reconnected with writers from past Bakes.

So people, no matter WHAT you are writing, remember:  surprise, reverse, reveal!

Grapeshot 

New England Crimebake: another rip-roaring success

So here I am, sleep deprived, stomach full of sort-of-junky food, wine-soaked, high on energy and the excitement of an entire weekend devoted to learning about writing, talking about writing, writers, agents, editors, celebrities, write, write, write.  Met wonderful authors like Nancy Pickard and Barry Eisler whom one doesn't rub elbows with every day,  So great making new friends and seeing old colleagues. Believe it or not a big ballroom full of writers, all with egos is still a magic place.  So cool to connect with old friends that one doesn't see often enough and learning good news about others, (way to go, Edith) and hearing fascinating talks on forensics and art thefts and all the stuff we crime fiction writers get off on.  

When you're on a committee you are always aware of the white underbelly of the event, praying that nothing major goes wrong, and hoping to smooth over the little minor unavoidable things that do go wrong. No crises of note.

I found a bunch of new authors that I MUST READ, and was reminded of others--got to get that book or in the case of some, got to read that book I already got.

We've had a tough fall with Irene, big trip to Europe,  bad colds, the Halloween storm, and then busy, busy with the Crimebake event, winterizing the garden, and now, ye gods, Thanksgiving is upon us but at least I have a menu, which will translate to a bill of materials, AKA grocery list, and eventually a meal. 

The  weary will have little rest because along with playing catch up, we gotta write now, that the energy is pumped, the ideas are percolating, the advice is still in memory, and all systems are go.  Gotta write!!!

And I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog from Suck It Up to Crazy is Good.  As everyone knows, the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  And yet a writer may write book after book after book expecting,  well, expecting to find an agent, a publisher, readers, you know.  And sometimes this doesn't happen.  So we are crazy, but in a good way.  That's how I'm looking at it now.  Crazy in a good way.  Crazy in a persistent  way.  Okay, maybe just crazy.

No food in the house, 4 weeks behind on Boardwalk, house not passing the white glove, hell, maybe not even the gray glove test, desk the usual mess, filing piling up.  Yeah, well, gotta write!!

The New England Crime Bake

Haven't posted much about writing lately, but I'm down deep in the trenches with my 6th novel and half-way through a difficult short story.  Writing groups and conferences make the lonely life of a writer less so and can give one heart and inspiration after being rejected.  One such conference for crime writers is the The England Crime Bake.  Yours truly was on the first (and many subsequent) committees ten years ago when the event was born.  Check out Lindsay Down's  blog to  read first-hand how one of these events gets off the ground.  How The New England CrimeBake got started

We've been sold out for many moons, but check it out.  Great panels, guests, agents, editors and an entire weekend that's all about crime writing.  Yowza.  Official website of the New England Crimebake 

It's a fun weekend for old writing pros and beginners alike.  Very friendly and accessible.  

Grapeshot

Doggie Book Party

Last night we went to a supercool book party for Susannah Charleson and the Rescue Dog Puzzle. A dynamite cake of Susannah's rescue backpack had arrived all the way from Baltimore. The cake, a pear spice, was scrumptious and totally amazing. Puzzle is totally amazing. She sits quietly in a corner if there's a room (or yard) full of people milling around, as she's been trained to do.

Susannah and Puzzle came to the New England Crimebake a few year's back, and Puzzle astounded, nay, flabbergasted us all with her sense of smell.

So we bought the book, of course, Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search and Rescue Dog.

I can't wait to read it. Puzzle and Susannah rock. It was fun to see and connect with old writing friends on a rainy Boston evening.

Still playing catch up

Not recovered yet from The New England Crimebake, but at least I'm not waking up feeling like I've been tasered.

On the writing front: Last week I took the first pages of the novel my writer's group liked (loved is much too strong a word) best, a novel that one agent really liked, but he didn't represent that sort of book, and passed it on to his colleague and "it didn't really work" for her. Another agent liked, but was only selling cozies, and this ain't your Aunt Agatha's knitting mystery. Nope.

One publisher said the beginning was rushed (I was following the current "wisdom" to drop a body in Chapter one and had slashed the first 40 pages to get there), and also that the character wasn't believable, yet they asked for any future novels. Go figure.

So, after heard from an agent that the East German book (because of old technology, not the writing) is pretty well unpublishable, and not being able to figure out a way to bring new technology into the picture, that book will either be retired to the backup drive or brought into the world via POD. Haven't decided. Too bad the wait was so long the technology is historical. Yup, that's right. Remember CD-ROM's? No? Thought not.

So, I dusted off the "Wisconsin Book," Promiscuous Mode and took the first 6 pages to the writing group and with the years gone by, they thought it pretty much sucked,. Not of course, what I wanted to hear, and some of the writing did seem a little kludgey because in the meantime I've knocked off another 200,000 words writing this and that. More experience and all.

So . . . wondering what to do. Don't really want to sh__can 3 novels, nosirreee. Nobody wants to do that. So there I was last Thursday, driving to Toastmasters, only 6 minutes from the house, and barely time to think of anything, but a new beginning popped into my bed, practically fully-formed.

So I wrote it. Anyone reading these 6 pages gets the whole setup, and should fully understand what the book is "about." And the body drops later, but we get a chance to "meet" the body. How this is going to work out is anybody's guess.

Made a fab Vietnamese shrimp recipe last night. Lots of good veggies and seasonings. Tonight is goulash soup again. All holiday shopping done, and now the pears have to ripen and we're good to go. Grocery crowded. Everybody's cooking up a storm.

I enjoyed Jane Kramer's article on cooking Thanksgiving in foreign countries, having done that once myself.


Grapeshot

C is for Crimebake

So, I mut be the only person at the the entire New England Crimebake who did not get her photo taken with Sue Grafton this weekend. The shy little skinny kid who hung back from the swings in first grade is still someone who does not feel comfortable intruding herself into photos, conversations and stalking literary agents thru the hotel trying to pitch her novels to them. Nope! Would rather bathe in hot pitch. You can give countless Toastmaster's speeches, stand up in crowds, yada-yada but the shy person always remains, at heart, a shy person.

I remember a conversation with my mom in the early days of high school. I had a girls get-together at our house, and afterward, my mom analyzed the girls and their behaviors. C was too forward, and J was just about right. In my mom's book, a "too forward" woman was not a good thing. Since my mom was always a forward person, this was sort of interesting. She obviously did not consider herself so. Hanging back (like moi) was not good either. Striking a balance was right. Hey, how does one do that? I am still hanging back. Not that a photo with Sue actually means anything. But it would have been sort of nice. Because Sue is very nice and I try to be nice, too. Nicely nicely, thank you.

The conference was great, and there were a few little SNAFUs that went unnoticed and of course always undercurrents of competition and "stuff" that we writer's like to write about.

Once I sort through the last pile of paperwork and get food in the house, we're good to go. I can think about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Is one permitted to hide until the holidays are ove? Please? It's too late to start Nanowrimo. Best get on the stick and make a little plan, and keep writing. Keep things sane. Keep things simple. Make soup.

I missed all my HBO programs and Mad Men last night to watch the blankety-blank Pats game. The horror!

For a good overview of the Crimebake, read this blog: http://patremick.blogspot.com/

Significant Other did the moody, atmospheric cover of the 2009 Crimebake program. Cool, yes?

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Every Town Needs A Fully Functional Library

Significant Other and I have spent some time this week taking posters and flyers advertising The New English Crimebake, http://www.crimebake.org/ to local libraries. Sue Grafton is the guest of honor at our conference this year, and it unlike some writing conferences, we're actually ahead of last year with our enrollment. This year we even have a panel of librarians, all of whom took a poster and a handful of flyers.

This morning, before our weekly trip to the Norton Roche Brothers, we drove into town to drop off the materials at the Norton Library. Not having been theere for a year, I almost remembered where the building was. Suffice it to say, we missed the parking lot and parked on a side street and I had a short hike. A swap meet was the "happening" in front of the library, and I hurried on by.

Can you imagine my consternation to find the library closed at noon on a Saturday? The sign in the window stated they were open Monday thru Thursday and not very long hours either. They've been decertified due to loss of funding. So sad.

I read yesterday that traffic at libraries had increased from 10 - 30 % in the last year. So many towns in our area have had serious financial problems and voters have been swift to come to the polls and vote down everything. Short-sighted to be sure.

Support your local library, in all possible ways. I grew up in a little town with a Carnegie library, and I probably would have become a juvenile deliquent without the library.

Well, McAfee decided to some something to this machine and between AOL and using a very old Dell, I am about to set my hair on fire. Slower than molasses in January.

More anon!

The party's over now . . . .

I'm tired but still exhilarated. After ten months of effort, the Crime Bake weekend is almost a blur, and the credits are rolling and you want to say, “Wait! Stop! I want to see that scene again.”

These events come together with a huge effort and much attention to details, and we all know that's where the devil is. If you want to live the Crimebake vicariously, try the web site http://www.crimebake.org/ in a few days because Mo Walsh, roving photographer, snapped pictures everyplace except the restrooms and I’m not too sure about them.

Between the bar and the banquet I spent a lot of time visiting what we call “the dark side,” in other words, noirish writing, which is what I seem to have plunged into, in this new book “In Flight.”

What is noir? According to a panel I heard years ago, in a noir film or novel, the world is corrupt. All the characters are already in purgatory. Trying not to slide into hell. Knowing the truth doesn’t change anything. It just makes life worse.

Cozies need not apply.

With moderator Hallie Ephron, the Playing After Dark panel discussed their noir genre, and whether there is any redemption for the characters and the answer is yes and no. Compelling authors Alex Carr, Amy McKinnon and Richard Marinick told how and why they write on the dark side. For non-readers who watch movies or television, the Wire, Chinatown, The Sopranos and even Mad Men are all dark to greater or lesser degrees.

One can O.D. on all this writing stuff. Come Saturday evening you just want to go home and write, but by Sunday, on overload, I am more inclined to watch, say, Sex And The City and chill, preferably with chocolate.

Of course I want to read all the new authors I discovered. The house looks like a book drop, with stacks all over and no end in sight. This week we hauled off a huge collection to the jail, a book exchange and the Viet Nam Vets and nothing seems to make a dent because I come home with more including Hallie’s book about 1001 more books to read. Sheeesh! Just what we need. 1001 more books.

Two days of newspapers, await, including the Sunday papers. I recycle the newspapers once a week ere they take over the house like the books have. Of course I’ll read the New York Times book review this evening and want even more books.

Something triggered an old memory this week, and I recalled discovering my parents Frank Yerby novels when I was perhaps in fourth grade and reading them and lots of other stuff that was unsuitable. Elinor Glyn in high school, Guadalcanal Diary, Forever Amber, which fell open at the “good parts.” I think I read most of the fiction in our little town's Carnegie Library, so thank you Andrew Carnegie. Let’s hear it for a robber baron who gave much, much back to the little towns of this country. Fortunately, my parents took no interest in what I read, assuming perhaps that it was Nancy Drew and something suitable for young ladies. Ha!

Back to the Crimebake. The attendees also sat rapt through riveting forensics discussions which we crime writers like. Your assignment is to hie thee to the web site and surf around, especially once the photos are up.

In the meantime, all those Sunday papers are calling my name.

Cheers!
Grapeshot

New England Crime Bake

The place to be today, tomorrow and Sunday is in Dedham, MA at the mystery conference The New England Crimebake (http://www.crimebake.org/).

Authors, agents, editors and fans are coming to master classes, panels, and to meet guest of honor Harlan Coban. Attendees can even watch the French movie taken from Coban's book Tell No One tonight. A gala banquet caps Saturday's activities.

I'm not blogging anymore until Sunday because I'll be baking in crime, so to speak. Hoping, as always to connect with an agent or editor that will love my writing enough to represent or publish it.

Someday it will happen. I hope not posthumously.

In the meantime, I baked this vegetarian quiche for us to eat Sunday night after the conference is over and the guests are on their way home and it's kind of a let down but we bask in the glow of a job well done. Again, the yin and the yang.

Onward.

Grapehsot

Writing Bad Guys

One loves one's literary characters and doesn't want anything bad to happen to them. I am really starting to like my Columbian Drug Lord, as I flesh him out. He sees himself as a businessman with "product" and all of these disasters descend on him--supposedly loyal employees skimming money, a missing laptop, employees swimming at the shallow end of the gene pool, bad luck, smart opponents, a greedy girlfriend, huge outlays of cash for his little submarine fleet, and this woman who has disappeared, a woman who has caused him so much grief, a woman who needs to be killed. But where the hell is she? He has a grudging respect for her, and she for him. Throughout the book they will be doing this dance. I love the way he cusses and views the world and what he really wants, which is to go home to Cartagena. But of course he can't. Life is complicated. For all of us.

Tonight I took the scraps of chicken (some pretty big scraps) and made a tasty chicken pot pie with homemade crust, again the food processor recipe which takes one minute and rolls out like a dream. I had chicken fat left over, and all the savory pan juices, garlicky and lemony and chickeny. I bought a few mushrooms, but the peas, carrots, celery and onion came from the fridge. There was one problem. So good we couldn't stop eating. Not a good thing. About a million calories. Thank the lord I didn't add any heavy cream as the Food Network recipe called for. The recipe made enough for three, so there is a lunch to die for in the fridge.

We have been very busy getting ready for the mystery conference, the New England Crime Bake, and I've done mail merges for labels, which I have to relearn every time I do them, although I hope that I'll remember at least enough to do the Christmas card labels. Doing the mail merge is NOT like riding a bicycle. You forget practically everything.

Late fall is here. The colors are mostly drab and there are more leaves on the ground than on the trees. I put the acorn squash seeds outside for the critters and fed the Highland Scottish cattle their fruit and veggie scraps. The little herd has increased by four new cows with tags in their ears. A second bull has been added. Everyone seems to be getting along. They liked the acorn squash skin and the grapefruit rind and the apple cores. Banana skins always popular. We have taken recycling to a new level.

More anon.

Grapeshot

Out and About In the World

Nothing beats going into the world, and how many of us really do? I have friends and fellow writers who had no clue what a so-called "wife beater" undershirt was. I have friends who don't know anyone who is black or gay or poor.

So Friday night we take the MBTA into town for a concert. Left with plenty of time to spare which was quickly eaten up by a wreck on I-95, where someone had been rear-ended. A long wait for the subway. Lots of people going to the Celtics game. We are quite obviously the only couple headed for Symphony Hall.

At Park Street a young Chinese man asks which train goes to Symphony Hall. We must look like we know, which, of course, we do. Train takes forever, too. Hustle up three flights of stairs from the MBTA station, and are shown to our seats with about one minute to spare. Glad I work out.

Nice all Mozart-Beethoven concert. The orchestra really has to break a sweat on the Prometheus Overture and the 8th Symphony. Mozart more sprightly. Good crowd. Nowadays, one worries about the arts.

During intermission I eavesdrop shamelessly on the tales of the woman behind me who also went to New Hampshire (and Ohio) to ring doorbells for Obama. There was an army of unlikely types to went forth and canvassed.

We have dessert at Brasserie Jo, still crowded at 10:00 p.m. Economy has not totally tanked, and lots of young people are in the restaurant. S.O. orders the bread pudding and I take a slice of lemon tart with fresh berries. Delicous. Berries salve conscience.

Back on the T. We wait forever at Park Street. The game is over and the Celtics won. Crowd in a good mood. A group of young ladies (teenagers) en route back to Quincy. They remind us of some of the girls in Quinceneara, the movie we watched last night. A group of eight, all very different, and they are having fun.

Friday we watched Rabbit Proof Fence. Both good movies. No explosions. We do not always have to go out into the World to go into the world.

Yesterday I went to a meeting, and I'll preserve the anonymity, because there was a panel about self-publishing and unfortunately, I knew more than most of the panellists. Two of them had spent a combined amount of $50,000 to self-publish, which is beyond most writer's budgets. This was all non-fiction, and some of the advice was so bad. They did not even mention Print On Demand.

Some comments:
"I didn't hire an editor because I didn't want anyone changing my words." "Just get it out there, and you can fix it in the next edition." "I only found out what a literary agent is this morning."

Oh my god. The panels at Crimebake, which eschews the mere mention of self-publishing as being beyond the pale, are more entertaining and certainly better-informed about whatever the topic may be.

Came home to the rest of the Garbure, wherein the cabbage had disappeared, but the potatoes seemed to come to the fore. Tonight I'm roasting a chicken and we have fresh cranberries and acorn squash. Baked apples for dessert. See photos. These are dynamite apples, and a) don't break the bank and b) may even be good for you. What ho!

Grapeshot

Bouchercon and I'm Not There

This year I've skipped Thrillerfest, Edgar's Week and now Bouchercon, taking place today and this weekend in Baltimore. O Poe! O Nevermore!

Bouchercon is the biggest mystery and crime writing conference, with many of the big names in mystery writing, and endless panels, some good, some dull, and high times in the bar. Always high times in the bar.

I went to Bouchercon in Chicago a few years ago. At that time, The Shadow Warriors was newly out and the bookstore actually sold copies. Now the rules have changed and it wouldn't be considered legitimately published and so the bookstore wouldn't have it and I wouldn't be listed as an author. How galling is that?

E-publishers are not now and never were "real" publishers, and POD is not a legitimate printing method in the eyes of most writing organizations, with more jumping on the "let's keep ourselves exclusive" bandwagon all the time. Sisters in Crime, formerly the most democratic of organizations has become "exclusive" too. It is hard to have one's nose pressed against the glass of the candy store, or book store or . . .

But that's not why I'm staying home. Instead, I went to The Muse and the Marketplace here locally, and I'm taking a writing course at Brown, and actually trying to improve my writing rather than rub elbows with other writers. I've been rubbing elbows until my sweaters need leather patches, and you know, there are people who really suck at networking and promoting themselves and I am one.

Of course I'll be at the New England Crime Bake which is only 20 miles down the road, and I trekked to Sleuthfest, and heard positive comments from the agent and editor and it came to naught. There's a lot to be said for Florida in late February-early March. Sun. Warmth. Beaches. Crab meals. Relaxation. Friends.

So it's back to writing and writing and writing and trying to write the best book possible, and then make it better, because that's the only thing that's going to count. Not schmoozing and smiling and propping my frayed elbows on the bar no matter how much more fun socializing is that sitting here staring at the screen.

Writing is hard work.

I hope this doesn't come across as a whine. As a kid you expect a level playing field and things to be fair and of course they are not and maybe you rail against unfairness and then you suck it up and become more realistic about life. I'm sure McCain rails at the unfairness of the economy diving into the toilet at this time. Not fair! So he and Caribou Barbie talk dirty about Obama. She is edging toward demagogue. I try to stay above all that.

Rolling in the gutter is for losers.

At Boucheron I would love to corner Dan Fesperman and talk about his Afghan book. So good. Wow, was it good! Should have made the best seller list, but then nothing about publishing is necessarily about quality, or even a good story, it's about what the public finds comfortable to read, those who do read, which are fewer and fewer; the public reads romances, little cozies, fantasies, thrillers with cardboard characters, and sometimes the excellent books that everyone can love. Just because many of the books that are published don't appeal to me doesn't mean they're not eminently readable.

I don't pretend to understand what resonates with the reading public. It ain't fictionalized computer crime, that's for sure. I hope when I use the vernacular, so to speak, that I don't start sounding like Sarah Palin. That's for darn sure.

O.K. off to the drugstore and a walk through town. Walking always puts me in a better frame of mind.

Grrrapeshot

On the Literary Scene

A moment of silence for David Foster Wallace, a victim of depression. How deadly this disease can be. How sad for anyone, and especially when we lose one of our great writers. It is hard.

I continue to struggle, but in a good way, on my newest novel. It is my sixth, and I currently have three unpublished babies that want to be adopted. They are feeling like ugly stepchildren, wanting love and appreciation.

Tomorrow night, if you're in the vicinity of Cambridge, MA/Somerville, MA, drop in for a drink and some appetizers at Redbones Barbecue and meet three Boston mystery/suspense writers. My friend Sibylle Barrasso will be signing Dark Waters, along with two fellow writers. The company can't be beat and the food is to die for. Sponsored by Kate's Mystery Books.

A confession is now in order. Saturday I made the appetizer that my main character in the new book is taking to a party and I carried it to not one but two parties. It is called Shrimp Butter on Toast, and it actually tastes quite yummy. The shrimp butter is made out of shrimp and butter with some seasonings, and dumped into the Cuisinart, and the toast is made with little triangles of sandwich bread brushed with butter and toasted in the oven. It's a fairly simple thing if you have a Cuisinart, and isn't too fancy or complicated, because my character is not a gourmet cook, only an adequate cook. Fancy is when you garnish it with tiny shrimp and a bit of parsley.

My character is eating in a restuarants where I ate and living in my friend's father's old condo. It's nice when you don't have to make everything up, and I need a bit of local Florida color.

Don't forget The New England Crime Bake if you're a mystery fan or writer. See the website for details, www.crimebake.org.

The Red Sox are creaming Tampa Bay, and I have to watch the last inning.

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The New England Crime Bake - Mystery Conference Par Excellence

This post is a plug for the New England Crimebake, a mystery conference for writers and readers--anyone interesting in the crime-writing genre which includes not just mysteries, suspense and thrillers, but true crime writing, screen writing, well, you name it.

Up front, I have to confess I have been on this committee for eight years now, and was one of the founding members, so this is a writing event near and dear to my heart. We have folks from as far away as California and Florida, so this is by not a conference for locals but for everyone.

In addition to Harlan Coben as Guest of Honor, we have Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader) who has created a huge buzz with her Salem set novel of mystery and history, which I am eager to read. According to yesterday's Globe, the novel was self-published until William Morrow acquired it for big bucks. Gives hope to all the self-pub grubbing along in their get-no-respect ruts.

Below is a list of reasons why you might want to attend the Crimebake which takes place in Dedham, MA, a short convenient hop from Boston on November 14-16th. The Dedham Hilton is a great venue for a conference and the room rates are fab. I know, having just reserved a room for a road trip.

Back to the Crimebake. One of Harlan Coben's thrillers, Tell No One, is now a first run movie set in France. I read the novel and it was great, with twists and turns that kept the reader engrossed. I've seen Harlan in action as a panelist and he's an entertainer as well as a respected writer.

Here are some reasons, in reverse order, why you might want to schlepp yourself to Massachusetts in mid-November for this truly cool event.

After arriving at the Dedham Hilton, feast on pizza and conversation at the FREE pizza party where you can meet and greet mystery readers, writers, agents and editors. Rub your elbows raw!

Following the FREE pizza party, you get to choose to attend one of two fabulous and FREE Friday night workshops: Practicing Your Pitch with Lynne Heitman, a huge hit at previous Crime Bake conferences or Creating Your Wave with publicist Susan Schwartzman about how to effectively market your mystery in today’s tough market. Schmooze and booze afterwards in the bar.

Yes, another FREEBIE! Crime Bake conference attendees are entitled to sign up for a FREE 5-minute one-on-one session to pitch their work to a literary agent. This year, attendees will have the opportunity to list their top three agent choices. Don’t wait to take advantage of this fabulous opportunity. See below.

The agents are coming, the agents are coming and they include some of the finest, including Janet Reid, Donna Bagdasarian, Susan Gleason, Christine Witthohn, Ann Collette, Esmond Harmsworth, Sorche Fairbank and Gina Panettieri. Yowsa!

Great Master Classes are offered again. Choose two from PLANNING THE PLAYS - "Painless Research" with Kathy Lynn Emerson; WHO'S ON FIRST - "Point of View" with Hallie Ephron; HITTING IT OUT OF THE PARK - "Ten Key Ingredients For a Successful Thriller" with Gary Braver; and PEEWEE LEAGUE - "Writing for Young Audiences" with Peter Abrahams.

Gary and Hallie have new books out. This is such a great opportunity to rub elbows with all these fab New England authors. My writing-group compadre and friend Sibylle Barrasso will be on a panel, Sibylle's first novel, Dark Waters, is coming out next month, and the reviews are great. Folks, it can happen.

Manuscript Critiques are available. Attendees may submit a 15-page writing sample (novel or short story) in advance and receive a one-on-one critique with a published mystery author during the conference. Professional feedback can be an invaluable addition to your writing group and your brother-in-law's snarky comments.

A fountain of forensic experts, including the popular Poison Lady, will hold panels where you an can fill your writing well with ideas on how to commit those dastardly deeds. Or just find out how writer's do it. Or pick up some hints for well, you know. Ahem.

You can dine elbow to elbow with agents, authors, editors and forensic experts at the SATURDAY NIGHT BANQUET where the menu includes delicious food and maybe even a book deal. Your fabulous Saturday night will be topped by “Mystery Bingo” hosted by our own prime-time Hank Phillippi Ryan.

The number one reason to register for Crime Bake today is the NUMBER ONE New York Times, Los Angeles Times and London Times author and our Guest of Honor, HARLAN COBEN.

Hey, don't forget Bruonia Barry, either. If you attend, say hello to Grapeshot at the registration desk or in the bar, esp. in the bar after hours, pounding down the vin rouge tres ordinaire.

http://www.crimebake.org/ Be there!!!!