I was reminded this weekend of why “Writer” is just about the best job out there. (It’s right up there with “Major League Pitcher” and “Really Successful Writer.”)
The South Carolina Book Festival was held in Columbia over the weekend and I was invited. I’m sure the invitation was intended for someone else, but I quickly accepted before they could take it back. If anyone out there is looking to plan a book festival or look to improve the one they already have, they should start right with these folks. They treated us far better than we deserve – food, drinks, organization, courtesy, good humor – and I’m pretty sure we’ve now been spoiled to the point that it will be impossible to attend any other large book-related event and not compare it to this past weekend. So a big, huge THANK YOU to Paula Watkins Millen, Mary Harris, Paula Benson, Jim and Debby Johnson and all the other fine folks who helped make the weekend a blast. (And if you ever have the opportunity to take Paula Benson’s behind the scenes State Capitol tour – I highly recommend doing so.)
I was also reminded this weekend of how much fun it is to be a mystery writer. I believe there were more than eighty authors invited to the festival and the list was pretty diverse – poets, non-fiction writers, novelists, children’s writers, chick lit writers, etc. But there is something about mystery writers – Homing beacons? A particular look? Inebriation? – that draws us to one another. And then once we’re all together, we have a damn good time. (And, of course, make fun of one another.) This phenomenon was remarked on more than once over the weekend – “You mystery people sure like to have a good time!” – and that’s right. We don’t get together to talk about our work or to dissect the finer points of writing – we get together to find out what’s going on in each other’s lives, how the kids are doing, how the spouses are doing, etc. We’re not colleagues – we’re friends. And it doesn’t matter if we’ve met before or not. I mentioned before I left that Born, Terrenoire and Cornelia Read were all going to be there – but I also got to catch up with Michele Martinez and Kathy Wall. And then I got to make several new pals in Bob Morris, James Sheehan (Dammit, Jim! Where's your website???) and Mary Anna Evans. (And we’ll go ahead and include Ad Hudler here, too, because he’s dying to come to the mystery conventions now and we told him he was more than welcome. Mostly because he looks like Jon King.) I’m not sure I’ve seen the same type of relationships between writers in other genres. The mystery/crime/suspense writers all want to be friends, want to meet each other, want to hang out together. I'm not in any way saying that writers in other genres don't behave this way - maybe they do and I just haven't been invited. But it's usually easy to spot the mystery writers in the crowd.
Why exactly is that?
Jeff
It's the funny hats.
Posted by: David Terrenoire | March 01, 2007 at 09:02 AM
I think it's the Kojaked hoohoos, but I'm probably biased.
It was great hanging out with you, Jeff!
Posted by: Cornelia Read | March 01, 2007 at 09:41 AM
Beer gut?
Posted by: Brett Battles | March 01, 2007 at 10:33 AM
We're the ones in the bar?
Posted by: Keith Raffel | March 01, 2007 at 11:41 AM
We're the ones not taking ourselves too seriously.
Posted by: JDRhoades | March 01, 2007 at 12:33 PM
So Cornelia, you're telling me that Britney Spears writes mysteries?
Posted by: AlisonGaylin | March 01, 2007 at 02:21 PM
I think Britney is more of a blank verse kinda chick, Alison...
Posted by: Cornelia Read | March 02, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Cornelia, how many times do I have to tell you this -- it's kojacked hoo-HA, not hoo-HOO.
All I can say is lucky Jeff Shelby was there for that moment when Jim Born started kissing the Strom Thurmond statue. It took Jeff's superhuman strength to tear Born off.
Posted by: michele martinez | March 02, 2007 at 07:52 PM