Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Malice People

  
How interesting it is that things appear to occur in groups. 

I booted up my computer yesterday to start drafting this blog post for today and saw Monica's post about her current health situation, including the people at the facility where she's staying--very interesting people.  And I'm glad to hear she's improving.

What I'd already intended to write about for my blog today was the people I saw at the Malice Domestic conference I attended last weekend.
 
I did a blog for InkSpot, the Midnight Ink blog, for Monday, and it's more generally about my experience at Malice--all fun.  You might want to take a peek at it there.  But I wanted to write even more about the people I saw at the conference, so here it is.

I've been attending Malice for more than ten years, nearly every year, so I've met a lot of the regulars from all over the country, even other parts of the world.  I'm also active in my local mystery writers' groups such as Sisters in Crime, so I knew people from the local chapters, too.  It's always fun to see and try to catch up with those I've spoken with before.

At this Malice, I also met some new writers and others who are hoping to do more writing when things about to shift in their lives finally occur.  My roommate was recently published for the first time.  I'd met her through another friend whom I'd asked to room with but who already had a roommate, so she hooked me up with the very sweet woman I did room with, and it turned out to be a delightful situation.

Others I knew included a writer whose very first book was about to be published by my current mystery publisher, Midnight Ink.  The second book in my Barkery & Biscuits Mysteries, TO CATCH A TREAT, is officially available on May 8, the same date as her first book, so it was fun to chat with her about her journey and her current excitement level.

I talked a little bit with some of the regular booksellers in the sales room but fortunately for them they were too busy a lot of the time to talk much. 

And I also chatted a lot with some others I knew or met at the conference, including some delightful people who were on my own panel: The "Paws" That Detect: Animal Sidekicks.  All of us have animals in our stories--of course!

So the upshot of all this?  Well, I used to work as a lawyer, often in office situations, and I always enjoyed the camaraderie with others in those offices.  Now that I'm a full-time writer, I enjoy the camaraderie of my husband and dogs regularly, and I communicate with others, including fellow writers, online, but it's really fun to get together with some in person--especially when it's a delightful group like the one at Malice!

1 comment:

Betty Hechtman said...

I'm glad to hear your Malice weekend went well.