Bouchercon here we come!!

This is the first of what will hopefully be my blog about Bouchercon. How frequent it is going to be I do not know.

Bouchercon does not exactly start until tomorrow but pre-Bouchercon stuff has been fun already. Thanks to Jon Jordan so far I have managed to go to a baseball game and saw the St Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves along with the ever delightful Ruth Jordan (Mrs Crimespree), Kirstie Long and Paul Jordan. At the same time the St Louis Rams were playing the Philadelphia Eagles and I have to say that despite the fact that I was at the baseball game I was also keeping my eye on the football results. Why you may ask? That is because I support Philadelphia Eagles so it was nice to see the results and realised that they beat the Rams! I have had a trip round the City Garden and have seen the wonderful sculptures and the pink flamingos! If you have chance to go to the City Garden then one should do so as it is a delight.

Since mid-morning Monday people have already started to turn up. I finally got to meet the wonderfully delightful Jen Forbus. Hi Jen! Adrian Magson and his wife Ann were amongst the first Brits to arrive (aside from myself and Kirstie long) who have been in St Louis since Saturday. Also renewed my acquaintance with Ann McNulty whom I last saw at Baltimore and also B G Ritts. Also met Kat Tromp again, John Purcell and Emily Bronstein (whom I last saw at Crimefest last year!). It was also lovely to see again after such a long time McKenna Jordan who owns Murder by the Book in Houston and Crimespree’s comic and film extraordinaire Jeremy Lynch along with his lovely wife Jill and his mother. Of course the place to be is the bar!

Pictures © Ayo Onatade

Yesterday evening (Tuesday) a lot more Brits started to arrive. My fellow Shotsmag colleagues Mike Stotter and Ali Karim flew in with Roger Ellory, Lauren Henderson, CWA Chairman Peter James, and Guest of Honour Val McDermid and rather later on Tuesday night (sans luggage) Russel McLean. Even though things have not really started today (Wednesday) is going to be rather busy. Trucks to unload with all the book bags and the stuff for registration, which should start @3pm this afternoon. The book bags are stuffed full of wonderful books and I dare anyone to complain! There will also be a swap table set up so if people want to leave books and or swap them there. It will be interesting to see how the hotel manage to cope with the large influx of people that are no doubt due to turn up today. I am sure that they will be fine as they have been excellent so far. So, if you see me wandering around the hotel at some stage during Bouchercon please do come up and say hello, give me a hug as I am sure that I may not remember to do so or I might be distracted and I would not want anyone to think that I was ignoring them on purpose.

There are also a lot of pre-Bouchercon activities taking place as well today. Noir at the Bar will be starting at eight PM, will be held at Meshuggah Café 6269 Delmar Boulevard Saint Louis, MO 63130 (314) 726-56626269. Admission is free, but bring money for drinks and books. Food is also available. Subterranean Books and Bouchercon present Charlaine Harris and Laurell K. Hamilton in an intimate Q&A to benefit the St. Louis Public Library, at Christ Church Cathedral, 1210 Locust Street (across from Central Library, two blocks from convention hotel), Wednesday, Sept 14 6pm (Doors at 5pm). This is a ticketed event and your ticket price gains you admittance to the one-hour event and gets you a signed copy of Harris' SOOKIE STACKHOUSE COMPANION or Hamilton's HIT LIST.

Tickets available here

St Louis County Library presents “Suspense Night 2011” on Wednesday, September 14, at 7 p.m. at Library Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd. The free event brings together seven suspense authors from across the country. The authors are Megan Abbott, Reed Farrell Coleman, S J Rozan, Peter Spiegleman, Steve Hamilton, Lisa Lutz and Christa Faust.