Saturday, Day 3:

Got to meet some more heroes in the Crime/Mystery/Thriller genre today! Meeting John Connolly in person was definitely a huge deal to me since he’s one of my biggest influences, and he’s one of the best writers working in the field today. If you haven’t read The Book of Lost Things, get to it. Then give his Charlie Parker series a try! I can’t wait for the next release! Thanks to Clair Lamb again for everything!

John was hilarious, as were those on the Heroes & Villians panel with him (Alafair Burke,  Karin Slaughter, Mark Billingham, and Martyn Waites.)

Me and my hero John Connolly

Also met the very interesting Lee Child! He’s a badass. I would have never guessed him to be so soft spoken and reserved, but there you go. What a pleasure. Check out his Jack Reacher series!

Me and the awesome Lee Child

Meeting Karin Slaughter was a lot of fun. She did a great job in a one-on-one with John Connolly (that sounds so perverted, I know. ), and she was terrific on the panel called The Pleasures and Perils of Series Slueths with moderator Dave Magayna, and authors Robin Burcell, Reed Farrel Coleman, Michael Sears, and Ben Coes. Great group of authors sharing their wisdom. I took some notes on that experience that I’ll make a post on for the next Tuesday’s Training about writing a series character. Also talked to Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip in the lobby for a while and they were very nice guys. Look forward to interviewing them in the coming month or two about their work and what it’s like to work as a writing team (something I find fascinating.)

Me and Karin Slaughter

This is one sexy book talking about other sexy books. I have a feeling my TBR pile is going to grow astronomically.

Plus I got some signatures from John Connolly, Lee Child, Karin Slaughter, and Clair Lamb.

Also started reading SO COLD THE RIVER by Michael Koryta and loving it so far. Go check out his work! Thanks to him and Sabrina Callahan for the smiles. That interview between Koryta and Michael Connelly was one of the highlights of the weekend.  And it was great talking to Les Edgerton, who is quite the character! Also met Sarah Melnyk from Minatour Books at the bar. She was very cool and made me laugh. 

And that’s a wrap. Going to go up there for a bit tomorrow to say goodbye to some people between 9:00 – 10:00 and can’t wait for  Bouchercon 2013 in Albany, New York!

Took some random shots of downtown Cleveland, too. Pretty neat city.