Hi folks,
Well, I’ve been back two
days now from the Idaho Writers and Readers Rendezvous in Boise and am about
fully recovered… and tomorrow I have to jump on another plane for another
literary event which I’m really excited about… and can’t reveal just yet what
it’s about.
(In fiction, we call that “raising
a story question” and they’re intended to create tension for the reader and
help make the novel a page-turner... I’ll talk about it when I return, so stay
tuned…)
I arrived in Boise, already
tired from running to make connections in Chicago. I have fairly severe COPD,
so it’s not just a stroll for me…
My host and benefactor (he
paid for me to come to Boise), one of my publishers, Aaron Patterson, picked me
up at the airport. It was the first time we’d met in person, and for some
reason I had it in mind that Aaron was 6’5”. When this midget at 6”1” showed
up, I didn’t recognize him… Expecting a basketball player, I was shocked to
meet a jockey… Well, maybe not quite a jockey, but not 6’5” either…
StoneGate Ink publisher, Aaron Patterson
But, height-challenged as
he was, Aaron turned out to be one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. He’s also
a superb and hugely-successful publisher and I’ve three of my books with him—JUST
LIKE THAT, THE PERFECT CRIME and MIRROR, MIRROR. (There’s a new one that will
be forthcoming soon.) Aaron has gone far and above what most publishers do. He’s
gotten my work out in print, ebook format, and audio. He’s also extremely
successful with his books and authors and after hanging out with him for three
days, it’s easy to see why. He genuinely cares about the folks he publishes. As
does his chief lieutenant, Kate Copsey. Here’s a photo of the three of us at
the reading I did on Thursday night at Bruce Delaney’s Rediscovered Books
bookstore.
Aaron Patterson, me, and Aaron's CEO, Kate Copsey at the Rediscovered Books Bookstore before my reading in Boise.
We drove to his gorgeous
house and I unpacked a bit and then we hit it to downtown Boise to the Boise
Centre where the event was taking place and checked in. Met the director of the
Rendezvous, Doug Copsey (who just happened to be the uncle of the
aforementioned Kate Copsey). Grabbed an adult beverage and something to eat and
then we were off to my reading. I got to meet my cyber-friend, Bri Clark, and some other delightful folks. One was a lady I know just by her first name--Karen--and she was truly delightful.
Me and Bri Clark at the Rediscovered Books reading.
Afterwards, Kate, Aaron and
I went out to grab a bite to eat and… you know… adult beverages…
The next day, the
Rendezvous began in earnest. Doug Copsey set it up right. I’ve been to lots of writing
conferences where you don’t have five seconds to yourself, but he created a
schedule where all of the presenters had plenty of time to just mingle and meet
and greet and attend other presenter’s talks and it was terrific. I presented
my first talk in the afternoon when I was delighted to see a full room for my
talk on story beginnings. Great crowd, great questions, great responses. Got
some wonderful, positive feedback from many of the attendees. They put me in
the Snake Room, which many of the girls I dated pre-getting married, would
agree to have been fantastic type-casting…
BTW, the folks in Idaho are
just the nicest, most gracious, smartest people you’ll ever have the pleasure
of meeting. Plus, I LOVE their general politics! I could move there and feel at
home instantly. They’re fiercely independent and like me, abhor a nanny state.
The rugged individualist still exists, boobies, and they’re in Idaho in bunches.
These folks just don’t abide b.s. But, they’re polite about it and not in your
face, strident. Kind of refreshing. Kind of REALLY REFRESHING! I’ll tell you a
bit later about a small incident at bestselling author C.J. Box’s talk the last
night that will illustrate what I’m talking about here.
That morning, I went to
Aaron’s presentation on Ebooks: The New Landscape of Publishing which was
directly in Aaron’s wheelhouse. He’s one of the most successful ebook
publishers out there. I mean… hugely successful. Then, in the afternoon and
before my presentation, I got to sit in on author John Rember’s talk on Writing
Violence. John had attended my reading the night before and we hit it off
immediately. Along with Aaron and a couple of other folks, he became my “new
best friend.” He reminded me so much—both with his personality and his writing—of
another “new best friend” Jerry Dennis who I’d met at Yellow Springs for the
Antioch University conference I was privileged to be a presenter at earlier,
and the first thing I did when I returned home was to introduce them via email
to each other. I hope it’s the start of a beautiful friendship for each of
them. I got to sit in on the end of another of my “new best friends,”
screenwriter Lance Thompson for his talk on Adapting Story to the Screen.
Wonderful presentation!
Gave my talk and then
mingled. I met so many wonderful writers and readers and I won’t be able to
remember all of their names, alas. One guy I met and talked to quite a bit was
a truly terrific guy, Clay Morgan, who runs the BSU Story Initiative. We had a
lot in common. He’s married to a former astronaut and I was stationed at Cape
Canaveral at the NASA complex back in the early sixties and we had stories to
swap. I also met a wonderful woman, Amanda Turner, who was one of the
organizers and just a delightful person. She joined us at lunch on Saturday.
They have a deal where folks can eat dinner with one of the presenters and she
was part of our merry little group. I met another lady and I’m so sorry I didn’t
write her name down, but we hit it off immediately as she’d graduated from St.
Mary’s College in South Bend and her husband from Notre Dame and since I’m a
lifelong Irish fan, we hit it off immediately. Also at our lunch, was writer
Gabriel Cardoso, who’s writing a really cool book, and writer Rick Just, who
became another of my “new best friends.” The next day, Rick and I had a
manuscript consultation and I was pretty useless to him as the only crit I
could give him was on one line. If I was Rick, I’d demand a refund…
That night we went out and
I made the mistake of eating some steamed clams. Had a toss-and-turn night of mild food
poisoning that I won’t soon forget… My wife Mary reminded me that I’d had the same
thing happen earlier in the year when I was at Bouchercon, and suggested mildly
in her somewhat inimitable (read: sarcastic) way, that maybe I should avoid
seafood when on the road or in places where I couldn’t see a beach… Point
taken, Mary…
I screwed up the next day
with the food poisoning episode. I planned on putting a waste basket up by me
at the podium when I began the talk on THELMA and LOUISE, telling the audience
what had happened the night before, and that I was putting the waste basket
there in the event of… you know… a ralphing incident. But, I forgot to. I’d
planned at the end to tell everybody that I’d just presented a graphic example
of a story question. That I knew everybody, even while listening to me, had
part of their attention focused on the wastebasket, wondering when I was going
to toss my cookies (or clams, as the case might be), and that was what story
questions do—create tension on the page while reading the narrative… but, alas,
I simply forgot and I know I missed my chance to create some writer’s lore and
maybe beget an article in the Glorious Writing Times Magazine about how clever a teacher I was. Wish I could
do that over…
Met some other great folks.
Joanne Pence, for one. Had a great conversation with her and unfortunately wasn’t
able to attend her talk.
Had a consultation with
Rick Just and another writer, Sherry Horton, who was ex-Navy like myself. She
has a terrific idea for a novel and I got to see her first pages. Met Cameron
Morfit at lunch on Thursday and was stoked. He’s a senior writer for Sports
Illustrated and Golf Magazine and had some terrific stories to tell.
And then, I got to meet
C.J. Box, the headliner. A couple of weeks before the Rendezvous, I decided to
pick up one of his books so I’d be familiar with his work. Just the polite
thing to do, y’know? Well, today I’m finishing up the tenth of Mr. Box’s novels…
He’s that good. Brilliant writer, huge bestseller, and now I know why. He gave
the keynote speech of the event and it was a corker. During his talk, during
the Q and A, a guy stood up and asked if there were any gunfights in his books.
Well, since he’s got an
entire series centered around protagonist Game Warden Joe Pickett and his best
bud, super warrior Nate Romanowski who always carries the world’s biggest
handgun… and enjoys using it… this seems to have been a question that could
only be posed by someone who had never read Box or, if he did, simply wanted to
get his political stance on record… The guy asked if Box had any gunfights in
his novels and he wanted to know as he was against guns because they killed
folks. Guns just walk into rooms and shoot people, I guess… I confess I’m
curious what this fella thinks about violent video games that desensitize kids
into being able to kill, but that’s something for another forum…
Me, I probably would have
engaged in a bit of an argument with the guy, but Mr. Box handled it deftly and
without pissing anyone (even this guy) off. He simply said, “Well, my
character, Joe Pickett is a game warden and the books are thrillers with lots
of truly bad guys, so… yeah, there are gunfights.” He added, “You didn’t think
they fought each other with beanbags, did you?” The room erupted and the
situation not only was defused, it was never fused.
It was just a wonderful
experience, every single moment! Hope they’ll have me back at some future date.
If I neglected to mention
any of the wonderful folks I met, I’m truly sorry and only have my Halfzeimer’s
to blame. If I didn’t remember your name, please know that I remember your face
and the talks we had. There was a group of people who continually manned the
desk to answer questions, direct people, etc., and I regret I didn’t get their
names. They were so danged helpful and nice, too!
One last mention for Bruce
Delaney who owns the Rediscovered Books bookstore along with his wife. Not only
did they host my reading, but they were at the Rendezvous every hour of the
event, with a table set up with all of our books. I don’t think they got five
minutes during the whole time to take a break. And they sold some books! Bruce
told me he’d had to recorder my Hooked book four times and they still ran out.
I know that first-hand. On the second day, I was signing books and this lady
came up for me to sign a copy of Hooked, and she said she’d just “stolen it.”
Literally. She said it was the last one and another lady had it in her hand,
and set it down to dig in her purse for a pen and something distracted her and
she turned her head and this lady had snatched it up. Now, this is a woman who
could clearly write a thriller from the bad guys’ pov. I’m just sayin’…
If any of you ever get the
chance to attend the annual Idaho Readers and Writers Rendezvous… GO! You won’t
be sorry.
And, you know what? The
entire time I was there I never ate a single Idaho potato! I think I’ll have to
go back and see what they’re like. I hear they’re tasty…
Blue skies,
Les
Gotta include a photo of my lovely wife, Mary, whom I usually just call "Eye Candy" and who always offers me great advice, like "Don't eat seafood on the road" albeit too late...
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