Tuesday with Attitude- Bouchercon Memories
Ah the Irish in me continues to rejoice. And no, I do not have a green tongue today. While the scent of boiled cabbage continues to linger in American homes everywhere and the Irish themselves wonder why we celebrate the holiday with a boiled dinner, I am enjoying a book. Written by today’s guest.
It’s very cool when authors turn you on to other writers. I “found” this guy through John Connolly, and loved his first book. This “newbie” continues to deliver work that surprises, energizes and says something unique in our genre. His first two books have been hailed by the American Crime Fiction community. The winner of 2007’s Shamus award for best First Novel, Declan Hughes’ third novel in the Ed Loy series, THE PRICE OF BLOOD is out today. It is a great read. So go ahead and get your Irish on. And you can visit
Declan’s Blog
- Ruth
At Madison, I remember a lot of singing - Laura Lippman's bachelorette party, where we sang show tunes, much to John Connolly's dismay, and the last night in a dive bar called, perhaps to avoid confusion, The Pub, where
John, Laura, David Corbett, Cornelia Read, Dan Fesperman, Michael Robotham and I took turns to get beaten at pool by Mark Billingham and Jon Wood, and between times sang along to the Stones and Steve Earle on the jukebox. Was there drink taken? Quite possibly. I remember feeling a little trepidatious in a first-day-at-university way on the Thursday, and I remember how quickly this was dispelled, largely by the good agencies of the Jordan clan, who are like some informal Bouchercon Diplomatic Service: Jon presented me with a badge he had made from the cover of my first novel, Ruth steered me through the rigours of my first panel and Jen went from handshake to piss take in record time .
I remember sharing the flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage with the indomitable Ruth Dudley Edwards, so in fairness it's a miracle I can remember anything else at all. But thre were award ceremonies and a lot of parties and I got slung out of a Karoke bar for swaying, which ranks fairly low on the bad-behaviour scale in Dublin, but different strokes and so on. Most of all, I remember going into the hotel bar on the first night in Anchorage and being greeted warmly by a dozen people I hadn't even met a year before, but who now felt like old friends. And that's a very good memory indeed.
It’s very cool when authors turn you on to other writers. I “found” this guy through John Connolly, and loved his first book. This “newbie” continues to deliver work that surprises, energizes and says something unique in our genre. His first two books have been hailed by the American Crime Fiction community. The winner of 2007’s Shamus award for best First Novel, Declan Hughes’ third novel in the Ed Loy series, THE PRICE OF BLOOD is out today. It is a great read. So go ahead and get your Irish on. And you can visit
- Ruth
At Madison, I remember a lot of singing - Laura Lippman's bachelorette party, where we sang show tunes, much to John Connolly's dismay, and the last night in a dive bar called, perhaps to avoid confusion, The Pub, where
John, Laura, David Corbett, Cornelia Read, Dan Fesperman, Michael Robotham and I took turns to get beaten at pool by Mark Billingham and Jon Wood, and between times sang along to the Stones and Steve Earle on the jukebox. Was there drink taken? Quite possibly. I remember feeling a little trepidatious in a first-day-at-university way on the Thursday, and I remember how quickly this was dispelled, largely by the good agencies of the Jordan clan, who are like some informal Bouchercon Diplomatic Service: Jon presented me with a badge he had made from the cover of my first novel, Ruth steered me through the rigours of my first panel and Jen went from handshake to piss take in record time .
I remember sharing the flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage with the indomitable Ruth Dudley Edwards, so in fairness it's a miracle I can remember anything else at all. But thre were award ceremonies and a lot of parties and I got slung out of a Karoke bar for swaying, which ranks fairly low on the bad-behaviour scale in Dublin, but different strokes and so on. Most of all, I remember going into the hotel bar on the first night in Anchorage and being greeted warmly by a dozen people I hadn't even met a year before, but who now felt like old friends. And that's a very good memory indeed.
Labels: Declan Hughes
posted by ruth the crimespree gal at 5:08 PM
1 Comments:
You were stooping, dear. As if you wanted to commune with your shoes kind of stooping. But I still don't know what the hell the clearly insane people of Anchorage were fussing about.
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