About the time this blog is published, I will be off to New Orleans for Bouchercon.
This is one of the premier conferences in the writing industry, and the one that is most welcoming to readers and the general public. I bump into more of my readers there than any other conference.
Each year Bouchercon moves to a different city. This is an all-volunteer effort which is extraordinary since it includes literally dozens of seminars as well as a bookstore where many great authors you have never heard of, offer extraordinary books. Many sessions encourage readers to chat with authors about their work, and some walk away with a signed edition.
I will be joining five great authors on a panel that will discuss how authors infuse mysteries and thrillers with espionage and intrigue. My fellow panelists have been writing international intrigue stories for years. A couple of us have years of experience in politics, law and business in countries in Europe, Asia, and South America, which really helps with the authenticity of what we write. As I write this, the summit between Putin and Trump is taking place only five miles from my home in Alaska. Having lived and worked overseas experience helps make a story real. For example, if you’ve spent a lot of time in Russia as I have, you know that while the Russian people by and large look European, culturally they are more Asian where saving FACE means everything.
(This may be why helping Putin get out of an endless war is so challenging. He cannot admit that he made a mistake or worse that he failed.)
But, before I go, let me give a big shoutout to New Orleans itself. This is one of Carmen and my favorite cities. The Mississippi River gives it a southern feel and the multicultural history from Native, Spanish, French and American control is rich with stories. It is a cosmopolitan city with a blue collar feel, a place where skin color only matters if you don’t love ‘Nawlens.’ It is also a city filled with great music, from jazz and blues to Cajun. The cuisine is also a bit blue collar, and features seafood, oysters, shrimp, redfish and crayfish. Local farms produce greens and other southern favorites as well as pork and chicken. Many of the restaurants feature simple southern cooking while others have taken the same ingredients and turned them into works of art.
But a caution, some places, especially those on Bourbon Street serve a fluorescent green drink that goes down like soda but can kick the hell out of you if you ask for another. Many of the bars and restaurants have great drink menus. My favorite New Orleans cocktail is a Pimm’s Cup. I’ll let you explore it yourself. While there, we’ll spend some time exploring small restaurants and bars housed in buildings built before the Civil War. In some we’ll find extraordinary music from artists and bands that the rest of the country will never hear of. We’ll enjoy a drink and then wander on to look for the next special moment of our visit in a very special city.