Annamaria on Monday
Boo-Hoo! No Bouchercon again this year!
I was ready speed my way to NOLA for the first gathering of the crime-writing tribe in nearly two years. If that had happened, without further disasters, today I would be posting pictures of happy faces and fascinating panels. But alas, we were skunked.
Truth be told, I was concerned when I first heard that Bouchercon 2021 would be held in New Orleans at the end of August. Having spent a great deal of time on the Gulf Coast during my consulting career, I knew what it would be like: hot, very hot and, of course, it would be hurricane season. In fact, we would have been staring down the 16th anniversary of Katrina when we arrived last Wednesday. Still, I was so ready to be with my friends in person, instead of making do with Zoom or FaceTime, I wanted to be— Let's be honest, I was desperate to see my friends in the flesh rather than on a screen.
Many of them expressed similar feelings. But ‘twas not meant to be. Thanks to crimes against humanity committed by political figures in the USA, the state of Louisiana disregarded all pleas for sanity and refused any attempt at curbing the spread of the Coronavirus. In the end, it was the virus that put the kibosh on the conference. As I write this, hurricane Ida is bearing down on NOLA. Pictures are already coming across the wires of a roof blown off a building in the French Quarter. Of traffic backed up on Route 10 packed with people trying to evacuate. By the time you read this, we will know much more of the awful truth.
So not having gone there seems far preferable, virus or no virus.
Before the threat of Ida materialized, I had decided to console myself by reminiscing about Bouchercons past and how they connected me with the MIE clan. I am going ahead with my plan in an attempt to focus on something other than bad news.
As you will notice, this blog post is illustrated with photographs of the MIE clan, past and present, at Bouchercons through the years.
2009
I took no photographs of my attendance at the 2009 conference, which took place just as my first novel was a launching. Though I've pretty much always been comfortable doing what a lot of people despise—standing up and speaking before groups, I've never been any good at all at walking into a room full of strangers and striking up a conversation. Since I knew practically no one at Bouchercon 2009, in Indianapolis that year, I spent most my time hiding out in my room, working on my second novel. The outstanding experience for me was a panel discussion called, if memory serves, “Murder at the Edge of the Map.” Given the fact that I had written about the most exotic place I had ever visited or could ever have imagined, I thought that the promised discussion would be right up my street. Wow, was I right.
The moderator was an attractive and engaging man named Leighton Gage. Two of the panelists will be familiar to regular visitors to MIE: Cara Black and Stan Trollip. I spoke to Stan afterwards, drawn to his and Michael’s books by our mutual love for Botswana. Stan was the only stranger I spoke to at any length that weekend.
It was after that very successful panel that Leighton founded Murder is Everywhere, which I am proud to say is one of the most successful literary blogs there is. Being part of this clan is one of my major blessings!
2012
My second Bouchercon wasn't until 2012 in Cleveland. There, I got to be on a panel and palled around with MIE folk I had gotten to know, thanks to Leighton’s invitation to post as a guest.
2013
I don’t have pictures of the 2013 event. I bet practically no one does. It was in Albany, and so scattered and ill-organized that I was one of many who spent most of the time trudging from venue to venue and/or trying to find the way into one or another of the buildings.
2014
At Long Beach, no longer feeling like an outsider, I was even awarded a Kubu tee-shirt and, as promised, wore it with pearls to the Saturday night banquet.
2015
We were in Raleigh, and I was such a part of this group that when I lost my phone, Michael Sears recognized it and rescued it for me!
2016
2016 was our last gathering in NOLA, and it was perfectly lovely, and very well-attended. (Perhaps that is why the organizers chose New Orleans for this year. How were they to know that the Louisiana powers that be would ignore science in the worst pandemic in a hundred years. Or that a terrible storm would actually arrive on the anniversary of the last huge one.)
2017
Toronto, as far as I know, was the only time Bouchercon actually claimed its title as an international event.
I skipped 2018, since I already had plans to spend time in Japan climbing mountains with Susan.
2019 was in Texas, and I avoid Texas, if I can. Now I see that I should have gone, but how was I to know that the next two years in a row would be bereft of gatherings of the tribe.
Next year we are supposed to meet in Minneapolis, Stan’s hometown—at least his hometown on this continent. We say Murder is Everywhere. “Everywhere” is a word that also applies to the people who write for this blog. We all move around quite a bit.
Hopefully, in the autumn of 2022 we will all be heading to the same destination.
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Ah, so many sweet memories brought back to mind. Thanks, Sis.
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