Prepping For Malice

 by Sybil Johnson

I’ll be attending Malice Domestic once again this year. For those who don’t know, it’s a mystery convention celebrating traditional and cozy mysteries. This is my 10th or 11th one or something like that. I’ve lost track over the years.

Malice is my favorite mystery convention. I look forward to it every year, even though it means a plane ride across the country and a 3 hour time difference. An added bonus is I get to visit the pandas at the National Zoo.

I’m particularly excited for this year since I know both the Guest of Honor, Annette Dashofy, and the Toastmaster, Ellen Byron. They’re both great writers and people.

I’ve been lucky to be on a panel every year I’ve attended as a published author. This time around I’m moderating a panel, MUSEUM MACGUFFINS: Art & Artifacts in Mysteries. On the panel are Lynda Allen, D.R. Ransdell, Lane Stone and Jeff Tanner. The topic is an interesting one. Should be quite fun.

I feel the role of the moderator is to keep the conversation flowing, ask interesting questions, and make sure everyone gets in on the conversation. In order to do this, I need to know about each panelist so I’m checking out their websites and reading at least one of their books. After all that, I should be able to come up with interesting stuff to talk about.

I had better get back to it.

For the full Malice schedule: https://www.malicedomestic.net/ Clicking on 2026 Schedule will bring up a pdf of the current schedule.