Busy Week of Appearances

Whew! Had four writing appearances in one week, plus a meeting of a Mystery Book Group.
Add that to the day job and I have a tough time answering when people ask "when do you find time to write?"

Last week was the Boston Book Festival, followed by speaking on a panel at the Huntington Theater.
You can read about those here.

This week I gave a talk on mystery writing, "It's a Mystery to me" at the library in Pelham, NH, to a small but enthusiastic crowd, who are now new fans of the Zack Taylor series.

Had a sign out front

One woman said she'd read a great paragraph out to her husband, who then read the book in one sitting! They were quite happy to discover there were more in the series.
Thanks to Rita and the library for hosting this event.

And this Saturday, gave a workshop on The Business of Writing at the Thayer Memorial Library in Lancaster, MA, hosted by the Seven Bridge Writing Collaborative.
Thanks to Hollis and the library for hosting this one.

Introduced by author Ursula Wong

To see an interview with Ursula, click here.

A larger crowd than my previous engagement.

And here I am

With books for sale

A week from Saturday, have another busy weekend. Saturday will be the Holiday Author's Market  at the Chelmsford Library from 1-3, and Sunday, I'll be at The Silver Unicorn bookshop, signing books with Ursula Wong.

Boston Book Festival and Sherlock at the Huntington

It was a busy weekend, with great events in Boston.
First off was the Boston Book Festival, a lovely celebration of books, authors, and reading. I was at two different booths on Copley Square with other members of the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, telling people about the organizations and selling and signing our books.

Right away I saw noted Maine author Dick Cass at his publisher's booth, and stopped by to say hi.

To see an interview with Dick, click here.

I traveled with the mysterious Ursula Wong (L, in shadow), who kept my spirits up on a cold, wet, rainy day.

To see an interview with Ursula, click here. 

Here's the crew that was at the SinC booth before our turn.
L to R: Amy Ray, Leslie Wheeler, Jolene Grace
Check out the book launch for Leslie's Rattlesnake Hill.

 

The crew at the MWA booth: Connie Johnson Hambley, Judy Copek, Mo Walsh

To see an interview with Connie, click here.

Author Joanna Schaffhausen stopped by with family, including this lil doggie. Awww.

To see an interview with Joanna, click here.

Another crew of suspicious characters. Kari Lemor, Lisa Lieberman, Arlene Kay

 To see an interview with Arlene, click here.

New author Nicole Asselin, who has her debut novel coming out soon! 

Now I'm not claiming credit, but Nicole took my classes in writing mysteries and thrillers at the Cape Cod Writer's Conference last August, and is now publishing. Just sayin'... 

And one more crew: Paula Munier, C. Michele Dorsey, Anne MacDonald.

And author J.M. Taylor dropped by to give support.

Our members have been active this last year- here's a few of their new books. 

Thanks to Hans Copek for once again making these great promo posters!

 

You may notice my latest short story collection, All the Crooked Paths, is on both, since I'm a member of both orgs.

People came out to attend in inclement weather, bless them. 

It's great that Boston is such a literate city of people who love reading and books.

And then the day after, on Sunday, another great event, with much better weather. We attended the play Sherlock's Last Case at the Huntington Theater.
After the play, a few of us from the Mystery Writers of America gave a panel discussion on sleuthing and Sherlock, awarded prizes for trivia responses, and answered lots of great audience questions.

L to R: Dave Zeltserman, Elizabeth Elo, Paula Munier, moi.
To see an interview with Dave, click here.

Boston Book Fest

Once again we proved that Boston is a book town! Thousands came out for the Boston Book Fest, to browse at booths from everyone in the city involved in books and their production.

I was at booths for both the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.
We passed out information on each organization and answered questions as to our purpose and mission. 

Our booth at Mystery Writers of America was set up by Mo Walsh, local chapter President.

With Don Kaplan, Mo, and Judy Copek

Hans Copek creates a poster every year with the covers of books produced by our members in the last year. Notice A Sharp Medicine on the right, my fifth Zack Taylor mystery.

Dave Zeltserman drops by, on his way to giving a talk

To see an interview with Dave, click here

Our Sisters in Crime booth was staffed early on by this trio: 

Susan Oleksiw, Barbara Struna, and Edith Maxwell

With the titles done by SinC members in the last year

The new crew came in: 

 Ursula Wong, Amy Ray, and Frances McNamara

To see an interview with Ursula, click here

Then came

Connie Johnson Hambley, Arlene Kay, and Leslie Wheeler

 To see an interview with Connie, click here

 To see an interview with Arlene, click here

And we came on: Me, Sheila Connolly, Coralie Jensen
Thanks to Silke Hase for this photo and the one following! 

And were followed later on by Gus Berger, Clea Simon, and Sarah Smith

Lots of fans at our booths

 Lisa Lieberman talks to a fan

Hallie Ephron and Susan

Sarah Smith and Patricia Hale

And Ray Daniel drops by on his way to a talk.

To see an interview with Ray, click here

It was a lovely day, with sunshine and so much to see

And lots of our favorite people- authors and spouses.

Center is Sheila Connolly, who was at the booth with me. 

Many strange sights that day

Boston Book Festival Fun and Communing With Poe

This weekend I signed books at the Sisters in Crime booth at the Boston Book Festival in downtown Copley Square, across from the Boston Public Library.

Huge event, with many publishers and writers showcasing their wares. We were the first author set of the day, with fellow sisters Judy Copek and Penny Goetjen.

 

Later came more: here are Edith Maxwell, Sheila Connolly, Connie Johnson Hambley (Connie was interviewed here)

 

Here are Leigh Perry, Ray Daniel (Ray was interviewed here), Edith, and Janis Bolster

 

Here are Leslie Wheeler, Elaine Anderson, and Leslie Meier

 

 

And Marian Lanouette (interviewed here) and Arlene Kay (interviewed here)

 

After my stint with the Sisters, I dropped by the IPNE booth to see T. Stephens show his debut book, Dante's Cypher. 

 

Here he's with Rachael McIntosh

 

T. and I found time to walk down Boylston St to see the new statue of the great Edgar Allan Poe, done by artist Stefanie Rocknak.

 

And we had a great lunch at P.F. Chang's, a long-time restaurant known to Bostonians. The food, ambiance and service were top-notch, so a shoutout here for them. When you go see Edgar's statue, pop on across the street for a bite of delicious Asian food.

 

 

And I also met Sean Tuohy and Daniel Ford, of the cool podcast Writer's Bone, where they tell about all the new badass writers... Will have to give them a call...