From First Lines to Action Scenes
5 takeaways from Bouchercon
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Last week, I spent three days at my first Bouchercon in New Orleans, and I have to tell you, I learned a lot. (Not least how to properly pronounce Bouchercon – which is BOW-shur-con, not BO-shur-con or Boo-shur-con, which was honestly a revelation.) Highlights included: geeking out over Lisa Jewell in a Starbucks line, catching up with Thrillerfest friends, meeting Substack writers/readers IRL, seeing idol Megan Abbott interview icon Steph Cha, awkwardly shoving a copy of my book in Vera Kurian’s hands on Canal Street, seeing (but unfortunately not hearing) S.A. Cosby and K.T. Nguyen read their work at Noir at the Bar (the bar part got in the way of the noir part but I was still happy to be there), and all the food I ate and art I saw off campus with my #1 local tour guide and very good art friend, Christy Speakman.
I went to many panels and took a lot of notes, and I’ve since boiled down what I picked up about craft and community into five major takeaways to share with you—-