As I write this, I am only five weeks away from attending one of my favorite writer and reader conferences: Bouchercon, September 3 - 7 in New Orleans.
I’m proud to be invited to be a panelist on Mysteries and Thrillers Infused with Espionage and Intrigue, a genre that precisely defines my writing in the Team Walker Series.
The panel includes five extraordinary writers. I’m familiar with two of them from previous conferences. The other two I know only by reputation and their remarkable success. The moderator is an amazing writer herself, A.M. ADAIR draws on a career in naval intelligence to create gripping stories. I read her book, A New Game, from cover to cover on a flight last year.
I was the moderator on a panel at Bouchercon previously and one of my panelists, CHRISTOPHER SWAN, a Georgia based writer had to cancel at the last minute. But in preparing for the panel, I read his Shadow of the Lions, set in an elite small school in the south. His characters, especially Matthias Glass, are so real that you can hear them talking to you. The story is a mystery set in a setting that cannot hold mysteries; a simple ‘what happened’ that becomes ‘is this even possible?’ I am looking forward to finally meeting Christopher.
DACO S. AUFFENORDE, is an award-winning author from the south. Her background is in creative writing, but family experiences give her a deep understanding of technology, science and human strengths and weakness. I just bought her book, Cover Your Tracks, a story of complex lives, just trying to survive in a rugged outdoor setting. As an Alaska based writer, any story set in mountains, storms and snow intrigues me. I look forward to meeting Daco.
BRETT BATTLES is the kind of professional author that someone with less than a decade of fiction experience, like me, is in awe of. A California writer, he has written over forty novels. I read his novel The Deceived years ago and I studied his remarkable plot and a little of his style filtered into my work. The Deceived won the prestigious Barry Award. He understands the business of writing like few others, and the first part of that is to write great books. I’m honored to be seated close to a legend.
A.C. FRIEDEN could not have a better background for writing espionage and intrigue. Born in Africa and educated first in science and then in law including studying law in Moscow, he speaks at least four languages, and his wife Elena helps him with his Russian when needed. His international law practice takes him all over the world. We met at Bouchercon a year ago and became friends. The hero of his stories somehow gets dragged out of New Orleans and into impossible situations that a small-town lawyer should never face. I’ve now read two of his books, Midnight in Delhi and The Pyongyang Option. A.C.’s personal travels in North Korea, made The Pyongyang Option a favorite, as few writers have ever visited the hermit kingdom. We’ve both roamed all over the globe and the authenticity of his settings, both geographic and culturally is extraordinary. I love his work.