Crimefest 2009 - Part 5

My last post was rather brief and as promised I said I would post again! Seriously though this has been an excellent conference and those of us that get to go to them know that one of the best things about conventions is the camaraderie that is part and parcel of it. Think late nights, sometimes getting up late in the morning and generally hanging out in the bar. This time around I have been rather good, so I think anyway. On Thursday I managed to get to bed at 11:30pm, on Friday I got to bed at 2:00pm and Saturday evening/ Sunday morning is still ongoing. I am not sure whether or not I will get to bed before 4:00am. I am going to be shattered tomorrow if I don't go to bed soon.

At the Gala Dinner the Toastmistress Meg Gardiner had the lovely job of introducing the featured guests of honour all of whom spoke briefly and all of whom received a small gift. Amongst those on my table were Lizzie Hayes who runs the group Mystery Women, Maureen Carter, Mary Ann Clarke and Linda Regan all who have books published by Creme de La Crime, Sarah Rayne and Michael Walters who rights police procedurals set in Mongolia. The dinner did not in fact last too long and as can be expected we all converged on the bar immediately. I even managed to find the time to persuade Ali that he should post on twitter the fact that the blog has been updated. I spent most of the evening talking to Zoe Sharp and then later to Kevin Wignall and then Zoe Sharp's ever charming husband Andy. I also got the opportunity to have a quick talk to quite a number of crime writers before they all started wander in off to bed. I finally left the bar at 3:15am in the morning. Tomorrow's panel's look quite interesting! I am not sure at this stage that I am going to make the first panel in the morning I will try but I am not holding out to much hope. I do know however that I will be putting a post on line pretty soon. There is only half a day left.