Bouchercon 2019 Recap

I spent all last week in Texas, half of it in Dallas for Bouchercon, half doing a little sightseeing in Austin and San Antonio. One of the highlights of our pre-conference travels was the Natural Bridge Caverns near San Antonio. We took the Discovery tour and descended into a world of stalagmites and stalactites. I’ve been in quite a few caves in the U.S. before. I always find them very interesting.

This was only my second Bouchercon. The first was the one in Long Beach several years ago, fairly close to where I live.

At this Bouchercon:

• I learned how to pick a lock and realized how terrible I am at it. Some of the people in my session were frighteningly good. I admit to being a bit envious. Maybe I just need more practice?

• I reconnected with people I hadn’t seen in awhile and met new people. We talked about writing, the publishing world and numerous other things. This is always one of my favorite parts of any conference.

• Books, books, books were everywhere. I got some free and bought a few more.

• Attended the Sisters in Crime breakfast where I talked with other SinC members and witnessed the handoff to the new board including incoming president Lori Rader-Day who also won an Anthony for Best Paperback Original and moderated the panel I was on. 

• Attended interesting panels and talks. With eight things going on at one time, there was a lot to choose from. The Poison Lady, Lucy Zahray, was there, which is always interesting. I attended the session where she talked about poisonous plants. Scary and interesting at the same time. I admit that I didn’t attend as many sessions as I could have, preferring to hang out with people.

• I did make it to the performance of “The Ghost Town Mortuary”, a radio play by Anthony Boucher and Denis Green. Members of MWA NorCal played the parts. This was the first time it had been performed since its original 1946 broadcast. It was originally written as an episode of The Casebook of Gregory Hood. This was a shortened version and was quite fun to watch. 
  
  
  
  

• Had a great time with fellow authors Lori Rader-Day, J.A. Jance, Libby Klein, Liz Milliron and Suzanne Trauth on the Small Towns, Big Crimes panel. We had a good turnout even if it was 10 am on Sunday morning and a lot of attendees had already gone home.

I’m glad I went. I had a good time and actually met real people who’d either read or heard of my books. Gasp! I’m seriously considering attending Bouchercon in Sacramento next year. One of these days I will decide. But right now, I have catching up to do and a book to write.

Speaking of giveaways, it’s #winItWednesday every Wednesday on my Facebook author page in November. I’m celebrating 5 years since my first book came out. Just stop by the page (http://www.facebook.com/sybiljohnsonauthor) every Wednesday and check out the giveaway post for that week.