On The Road to Bouchercon:

(Ruth and Lauren Henderson with the sisters Jordan, Jennifer and Dianne. Girls Night Out)

Hello everyone. Well today at least I’m caught up on life…. except for the phone call I owe my brother.

It’s an exciting week for B-Con Baltimore.

The website is up. You can find it at Baltimore Bouchercon Website and here Register Here. I have to thank Cincinnati Media for web design and Jim Barker for the logo. This week I’ve been busy. Wearing many hats. Truth is I’m just one person though and mystery is the biggest part of my life. From October 9^th to October 12^th of 2008 I have but one goal. To celebrate the Mystery community in it’s entirety, our guests of honor specifically and the city of Baltimore in particular.

I’m going to begin to utilize this blog on a weekly basis to talk about 2008. And this first entry is going to be about me. I am not an egoist. B-Con is not about committee chairs. It is about the mystery community. However, there are many in the mystery community who have no idea who I am and may be curious. And so I give to you a bio.

I am a fan. A pure as Ivory Soap fan of the mystery genre. I love the books. I love the authors. I love the crazy fools who are independent book store owners and the people in big chain stores who champion the mystery author. I love the librarians who find the books first, mostly. I love the internet mystery community in all it’s many boards and blogs. Started there in fact. With Kathy Fountaneau, my first “mystery” friend. “Copykat” is still important to me but the list has grown over the last ten years.

At it’s core is “Team Jordan”. There’s myself and Jon and Jennifer. I met Jon at B-Con in 1999. I married him in 2000 just as people were sitting down to the Anthony Awards in Denver. And we thought of our friends who were there while celebrating our own beginning with friends and family on a snowy day in Wisconsin. Every day begins and ends for me with Jon Jordan and I consider myself one of the luckiest spouses alive. I have a husband who is passionate about mystery. Honest about his enthusiasm in a way unlike anyone else I know. And in the last six years he’s challenged me to go “all in”. Jennifer doesn’t remember meeting me. It was the bar. It was B-con. It’s understandable. But we’re compatriots now in our love for this genre and we’re sisters, which in fact, is much more important to me.

I’ve reviewed books for a variety of internet sites, briefly put out a monthly e-newsletter called Prime Crime, and then came Crimespree. A germ of an idea that started with Team Jordan, the extended version. Vegas B-Con, breakfast; Ali Karim, Sarah Weinman, Jeremy Lynch. In the last three years the mystery community has embraced Crimespree. Our extended family has grown. The number of people who’ve volunteered time, access, product, pictures and words makes my head spin. And still in the end it’s all about the books.

So I’m “all in”. Hosting B-Con in Baltimore in 2008. Did I mention I live in Milwaukee? I think maybe I’m insane.