Gonna be at the Idaho Writers and Readers Rendezvous!

 

Hi folks,

Well, tomorrow I climb on a little silver bird and fly to Chicago where I run like a madman and catch a bigger silver bird which will take me to Boise, Idaho, where I’m one of the presenters at the Idaho Writers and Readers Rendezvous.

I’m stoked!

They have a feature for the conference where folks can sign up to have lunch with some of us who are presenting and I can’t wait to meet the ones who’ve signed up to break bread with me. Those kinds of things are always great fun and you meet the nicest folks. The first night, I’ll do an hour reading of my work at the Rediscovered Books Bookstore at an event they call “First Thursday.” I’m reading some R-rated stuff so if anyone’s thinking of attending you might want to bring earplugs for the kids if they come along… Just sayin’… 

The main speaker will be author C.J. Box. A few weeks ago, I thought it would be the polite thing to do would be to read one of Mr. Box’s novels so that I’d have a bit of familiarity with his work. After all, we might end up in a bar or restaurant or panel together and it’s just what I try to do whenever I’m asked to make an appearance with others at an event like this.

Well, I read the first novel of his I picked up in a day… and couldn’t put it down! Fantastic writer! I’m just sorry I didn’t discover his work earlier, but jazzed that I now have another writer to follow. To date, I’m just about finished reading the ninth of his books. Every single one has been a pageturner and now I’m dreading the day when I finish the rest of his work and will have to wait for him to write a new one. I’d like to kind of save them and savor them… but dang it! They’re just too good to not plow through the instant I get one and the second I finish another one, I’m off buying another one for my Kindle. If you haven’t read C.J. Box and you like fast-paced thrillers, glom onto the guy!

There are a few other writers who’ll be there I’m familiar with. One in particular is Ron Carlson. I’ve been reading his short stories for many years and he’s just a wonderful writer. Some of the others I’m not yet familiar with but hope to be by the time I leave Boise.

I get to stay with one of my publishers, Aaron Patterson who runs the press StoneGate Ink, at his house. He’s even furnishing me one of his cars! Fantastic host! Except... a car? I thought they all rode mustangs out there...

I’m doing a couple of presentations. One on my book HOOKED and another on the movie THELMA&LOUISE in how it can inform fiction techniques. I also get to critique a couple of writers work and the stories they sent to me are fantastic.

In fact, I think they’ve got so many things planned for me to do, I’m wondering if I’m going to be able to squeeze any bar time in… We’ll see…

See ya when I get home next Sunday night.

Blue skies,

Les