The Last of Bouchercon...

The best part of it - organized part, I mean, not the running into people in the hallways stuff - was the live auction. Chris Grabenstein was hilarious. I wonder how much people would bid for a critique of their manuscript by me. I think one critique went for something like $350. Could have been more. Someone bid $500 to have their name immortalized in an SJ Rozan novel. Don't think I'd raise that kind of scratch...More was bid for inclusion in a Charlaine Harris novel. Frankly, I'd never heard of Harris. Not a knock except perhaps at my own ignorance. The roll of duct tape used as a gavel went for $125. That seemed excessive. I think the print of the conference logo with dozens of signatures on it ent for a good sum.

One item went for over $1,000. Can't remember what it was...Oh wait. it was an autographed first edition of a first novel by an Alaskan author. Still don't have a name.

Not as many items to bid on as what I've seen in previous B'Cons, but a great time anyway.

Of course, talking with Ted Fitzgerald or Gary Warren Neibuhr or Jeri Westerton or Juan Carlos Arias or Jim Huang or Ted Hertel or Ruth Jordan or Jen4 Jordan or Emily Bronstein or Judy Bobalik or any of the many I'm forgetting right now was the real fun of the conference. Always is.

I think I got Jim Huang and Ted Hertel to agree that if they read THE CONCRETE MAZE and liked it, they would not refer to it as either "Heart Breaking" or "Gut Wrenching." We decided on "Bone Crunchingly Good!" Of course, they are also free to say "THE CONCRETE MAZE... It will blow you away!"