Friday Street

Paul Weller everyone


Minds alive! On Friday Street
Summerflys around my feet
And wee still stars
Are in my eyes
And mine's alive on Friday Street
A pulse goes on, on Friday Street
Time seems longer against its beat
And it's easy to remember
And it's hard to forget
That mine's alive on Friday Street
Yeh! Mine's still alive on Friday Street
We're home!! I love Baltimore.

I'm really getting excited now. That Thursday morning is getting so close I feel it in my bones. I really hope that this year's Bouchercon is for everyone attending exactly like grabbing a rainbow. We all know that the company will be great, so come expecting to touch at least one.

So a week of meetings, glimpses of Baltimore. It's all coming together. The space has been charted, there are so many folks looking forward to this just in the two hotels. Sales people are sales people first, but both the team at the Sheraton and Radisson have made this easy. The man who runs the gift shop asked if it would be okay for him to bring books from home to have signed. Evyette in the dining room wants to meet Laura Lippman and Agatha Christie. The bellmen want to suggest their favorite restaurants.

I have a couple of notes meant to be informative to the folks attending, so this blog may run a little long and not be all that entertaining, but I promise to follow up with something a little more fun.
And being that I'm on the road I cannot connect to our large community through e-mail means also if you're a member of Dorothy L, 4MA, any of those wonderful blogs out there or our own facebook page & bulletin boards and you can pass along the link to this page I'd really appreciate it.


If you are somebody who's planning on attending but have yet to book a room the room block at both hotels' is full and our room rate is no longer available at the Sheraton, but as luck would have it, there are vacations going on at the Radisson so, if you hurry you may squeeze in before they shut their convention rate down. I imagine they'll cut it off no later than Monday (possibly before) so dial quickly.

I have also been asked by attendees to guarantee the quality of other hotels in the vicinity. I'm sorry, but there are only three I've been fortunate enough to enter in my various stays over the past four years. The Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace is right on the water, a seven block walk or a four dollar cab fare. Years ago it was the Renaissance who although they could not accommodate our meeting space needs worked with me to make sure I had what I needed to present a viable bid. Their roomrate is steep, 359 for 2 adults on hotel.com today. Four blocks from the Sheraton is the Day's Inn Inner Harbor. The building is nice and the walk is short and for Baltimore, level. Their rate today on hotel.com is 146. There's also a Holiday Inn that's a quick walk with current rates of 198 to 230 a night. I know some of you will book other rooms, farther out, and while my experiences with light rail, buses and the train have all been good (I love the rail from BWI, it's fast and you're let off a block from either of our hotels) I cannot guarantee that the transport of your choice will run on time. I've found it kind of amusing that some folks have asked for that guarantee, if only I had the power. There are links on the blog for many of the transports schedules and you can google everything, beyond that my powers fail.

Authors and others planning on contributing to the silent auction, our team would love to hear from you so they can begin to finalize the plans for both the silent and live auction. I cannot wait for everyone to see the Calvert Ballroom. It is a glorious space.

Most Potential Panelists should be hearing from the panel chairs by end of weekend.

AND THAT'S ALL SHE WROTE FOR NOW.

RUTH