Left Coast Crime: Act 2

 First, let's get past the pesky issue of the who was stalking whom at Jeff's panel.   Here is my evidence, exhibit A.

The Defense rests.

MIE authors had many proud moments.  Jeff took some time off from stalking me to write about them in his previous blog.  Here is one of my favorites:

Our own Cara Black, just after she was interviewed by Louise Penny

Another highlight of the conference was an interview of Sue Grafton, during which she revealed that her first best seller, "A" is for Alibi, was her eight published novel.  A consoling and encouraging thought for many writers who have not yet reached those heights.

Following that interview,  I repaired to the bar with some friends for a preprandial libation.  A tall Frenchman came up to me as we were ordering our drinks and told me, in a charming accent, how much he admired what I had had to say.  I was pleased with the compliment and imagined he may have attended my panel earlier in the day.  I thanked him and shook his hand.  He told me he was so impressed that he was going to read all of my books.  What author would not want to hear such a statement?  I again thanked him, but I had some niggling doubts about what this all meant.  Then he said, "I was particularly impressed when you gave zat slap in zee face to zoze fools in Hollywood."  It was at that point that I realized, he thought I was Sue Grafton. I was taken aback, not imagining that this could be possible.  I didn't want to embarrass the man, so I thanked him a third time and said I hoped he would enjoy the books.  We shook hands again and he left.

Sue

Not Sue

I only wish all of her fans would mistake one of my books for one of hers!

Annamaria - Monday