Back From Seattle

Considering what I’ve been up to, my astrology.com horoscope today was eerily goofy:

It’s time for more hugs, more kisses, more friendly, flirty conversation -- you’ve got so much fantastic social energy in your astrological sphere, it would be a crime to keep it at home. What are you waiting for?

But for those of us that enjoyed Left Coast Crime in Seattle this past weekend, the hugging, kissing and friendly-flirty conversations have, alas, come to an end.

I’m not even going to attempt to run it all down for you: I’m afraid I’ll leave someone or something significant out. And, anyway, lots of rundowns will be available today. The Rap Sheet and Crimespot would be good places to start looking for them. I’ll leave it short and sweet: it was a terrific convention in a gorgeous city with lots of fun, lots of learning and lots of great food!

I attended several great panels and talked to so many interesting people, I’m only sorry I couldn’t clone myself so I could get to still more panels and chat with all of the people I had wanted to meet. I guess that’s why people keep going back to conventions: you can never fit it all in. But you can try. (It just makes your head hurt and all the names swirl. You just keep telling yourself you can rest when you get back home!)

Before going in to my panel on Thursday, I foisted my camera on an unsuspecting Alex Brett (Cold Dark Matter), leaving her in charge of documenting the event for posterity. I regretted my decision midway through the panel, not because Alex didn’t do a super job of it -- she did -- but I could see that the weighty responsibility marred her enjoyment of what was otherwise a very fun panel.

From Alex’s fine photograph (above) of the Going Out of Your Comfort Zone panel: there’s me on the extreme left, then Don Bruns (South Beach Shakedown); Jane Cleland (Deadly Appraisal); Toni McGee Causey (Bobby Faye’s Very, Very, Very Bad Day) and our fearless leader, moderator Gwen Shuster-Haynes who is already busily helping plan LCC 2008, which will be held in Denver, Colorado in March of next year. I can’t wait!