I’m at the World Mystery Convention in Cleveland, Ohio for the next few days! Got in the motel yesterday evening and walked around downtown Cleveland for a bit before going to register and get my name tag. Received this neat goodie bag, which I’ll carry around every day to fill up with people’s business cards and books I buy:

The gift bag was filled with tons of free ARCs, which will occupy the spare bed in my room until this trips conclusion. See:

As usual, since I enjoy drinking, I went to  the bar right away. There I met a woman who wanted to drink my beard and then met fellow author Les Edgerton. Entertaining and insightful guy. He introduced me to a few other people (Dan O’Shea, who has the best jacket ever and who seems quite the character; Johnny Shaw, who for some reason reminds me of Joe Hill; Thomas Pluck, who seems like a real nice guy) then I hovered around Christa Faust of Hard Case Crime fame for a bit but didn’t get a chance to talk to her because I didn’t want to interrupt her when she was talking to other people. 

Today I’m going to hit some panels, hopefully get to introduce myself to some heroes like John Connolly, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, etc., and learn some things. I’ll pick Les’s brain some more then go watch him, Thomas Pluck, and some others do a reading at the Wonder Bar.  

Will take lots of pics today and share some things I learn from the panels!