Thursday, October 15, 2015

Alafair Burke's nachos

By Steve Weddle

Had a lovely time a Bouchercon this past weekend. I'd said I would try to get to a Bouchercon and a NoirCon, and I have. Five years ago I hit NoirCon in Philly. Here's what happened then.

At Bouchercon on Saturday, I met many, many people, most of them for fewer than five minutes. I spent Sunday emailing people saying I was sorry I had missed them or sorry I hadn't gotten to spend as much time with them as possible. Years back, I would have had regrets because of things I'd done at conferences or conventions, things I'd done while full of blended whiskey, things I'd done on tables to potted plants. This time, I regret not being able to hang out with more people for more of the time. I only met a couple of people who were complete jerks, so I had a pretty swell go of it.


This week I've read many great write-ups about the Bouchercon weekend. Joe Clifford and Angel Colon and Jed Ayres had wonderful recaps.

I'll probably spend the rest of my life reading the books of the nice folks I met there -- including about 80% of DSD bloggers (past and present) -- so it was pretty swell.

Oh, and the noir crew stole Alafair Burke's nachos.


The only thing better than a plate of nachos is a plate of stolen nachos

And knowing that it is rude to follow people into the restroom to get them to sign a book for you, I waited outside for Alafair Burke to sign my copy of All Day and a Night. Because I am a damn gentleman.

I also followed Kathy Reichs into the elevator to ask her to sign a book for my lovely bride. That went less well. Kathy Reichs used the phrase "off kilter." That is a true story of trueness and fact.

I had many, many books signed, some brought and some bought. Here are the bought ones:


The fancy counter that the books rest on is in Chad Rohrbacher's house. I stayed there. (The house, not the counter.) You might remember Chad from that time Amazon hated me.

Hey, speaking of Amazon, Country Hardball is on sale for $1.99. As the book is usually around $9, that's a savings of [insert math]. If you've already bought a copy, keep in mind that you can gift an ebook pretty easily. I'm not saying you should gift the book to everyone you know, of course. Then again, I'm not saying you shouldn't.

And speaking of Country Hardball, the follow-up to that book is out in the November Playboy magazine. [This is what we call "burying the lead," bee tee dubs.]


"South of Bradley" takes place about five days after Country Hardball ends and involves Roy Alison hunting down his grandfather's killer. 

Stolen nachos. A huge sale on a book. And Playboy. Good grief. What a week. I'd hug you all if I weren't so nyquil-sick and didn't mind human contact.

Oh, and Jay Stringer has worked his tail off getting some fresh blood to start here at DSD in the next few weeks. You have no chance to survive make your time.

8 comments:

Holly West said...

New blood at DSD? Tell me more.

Steve Weddle said...

Check the Tuesday slot up there on the left.
More to come.

Scott D. Parker said...

Nice pull for the RH Factor. I've got both CDs.

And new blood seems to equal minus Jay?

Kristi said...

NOOOOO! Jay is not allowed to leave.
I mean that. Jay, are you listening? I'm dead serious.
I'm all for new blood, but Jay CANNOT leave.
Speaking of B'Con, three people I was incredibly excited to see and then barely got to spend any time with were Holly, Jay and Steve.
I think if DSDers go to B'Con next year we need to have a Secret Lunch or something so I can get my fill of DSDers (really just so I can hog their time)
PS Steve, PLAYBOY? You're a stud.

Scott D. Parker said...

Agreed on the DSD idea. I will be there.

Steve Weddle said...

Renee on Fridays and Scott on Tuesdays.
McFet and Jay (Tues) and RDMcLean (Fri) will be in and out, I think.

Kristi said...

Welcome to Renee and Scott!
Okay, now that I'm officially NOT the newbie anymore I'm just gonna come out and ask - Sandra Ruttan still on DSD? In the two years I've been here, I haven't seen anything by her but the jpg of her book pops up everytime I like to DSD. Hi Sandra! We haven't met, but I'm sure I'd like to read your blog posts if you still are here.

Kristi said...

PS and McFet - didn't get more than 30 seconds with him at B'con either. Not fair.