Malice Domestic

Having a super time at Malice Domestic. The weather has been just great and it’s so nice to see spring accelerate as we came further south. I drove down with my good friends Mary Jane Maffini and Robin (R.J. Harlick). An easy comfortable drive. I’m rooming with Mary Jane who can always be relied on for a good laugh.

Yesterday I participated in something quite unique – Malice Go Round. Fill a room with 20 tables, ten places per table. Pair up two authors and let them loose, speed dating with authors. Each pair has four minutes to pitch to their table and then the bell rings and they leap up and rush to the next table. By the end my poor throat was starting to close up – not only are you talking fast but also trying to project in a packed room.

I was lucky enough to pair up with Louise Penny, the hugely successful Canadian author and genuinely nice person. I felt a bit like a guppy trailing after the big fish in Louise’s wake, but she is so kind that she put in a plug for my books at every table. Louise’s book The Brutal Telling is nominated for an Agatha Award at Malice Domestic and she received word yesterday that The Brutal Telling was chosen as one of Booklists top 10 mysteries of the year.

Tonight is the banquet and I am sponsoring a table. I was relieved to see that people signed up for my table quickly and it wasn’t left as the last resort for those who couldn’t get anything better.

We writers really do lay our egos on the line sometimes!

Off to enjoy the sunshine in Washington and talk in the National Art Gallery.