Gearing up for Malice
Apr. 27th, 2012 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsI'm finding myself getting quite excited about Malice Domestic con, even though I won't be fully participating until this afternoon. I've taken the day off work so I can spend this morning doing all the weekend things - laundry, cleaning, generally being an adult, but I spent last night schlepping to Bethesda to do early registration and look at the tote bag (nice, but not extraordinarily so) and the books in it (TBH, none of them have particularly caught my attention either, although there is a book in a series I panned pretty hard in the Reviewing the Evidence days.) I also took myself out to dinner at the Mongolian Barbeque down the street and note to self: your new favorite is duck, shrimp, mushrooms, corn, and bean sprouts with a sauce of 2 dips of lemon, 1 of sweet orange peel, and 1/4 of ginger. Nick an extra sauce bowl for 3-4 spoonfuls of chopped peanut and scatter that over the top of the result. BD's is probably going to be hopping for the rest of the weekend, but maybe I can go get another bowl of that for lunch today.
I notice that one of the listed author guests is Joan Hess. I haven't particularly forgiven La Hess for Damsels in Distress - and I note that Reviewing the Evidence still has my review of it up - the one where I called it "mean spirited" and told the putative readership "there is no reason for you to buy this book; you're only spending your money to be insulted" and suggested they go read Donna Andrews.
Wow. I can really be a bitch when I want to be. I'm still a bit surprised I was allowed to turn one author's review into an ad for another.
(Not that I'm still not telling people to avoid Hess altogether, because if you want a good re-enactment mystery, Donna Andrews' Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos is totally the way to go. And if you want a good SF con mystery, check out her We'll Always Have Parrots.)
But anyway - Malice, not me being malicious. We have to sign permits to be recorded when we register, and I'm glad that so many of the panels are recorded, because there's a lot of tempting stuff going on. My tentative schedule is:
Friday: You've Got Fan Mail (Honored Guests Discuss Mail from Fascinating Fans) I may or may not stick around for the official opening ceremonies. This may depend on the speed of the service at BD's.
Saturday: Choice of Capitol Crimes (All Politics is Deadly) vs Lights, Camera, Murder (Mysteries that Translate to Stage and Screen). Later I'll check out the paranormal mystery panel Witches and Zombies and Ghosts, Oh My, and I'll be attending the lunchtime presentation with the Poison Lady (!). That afternoon, I'm thinking What Authors Endure in the Name of Research and round out the day deciding between the Agatha Best Nonfiction Nominees and Living With the Seven Deadly Sins (Mysteries as Modern Morality Plays). That last is a particularly tough choice!
Saturday signings include Claudia Bishop (aka Mary Stanton; I'm going to get the latest two Beaufort & Co mysteries signed) and Laurie King. I've never forgiven King for marrying Holmes offand besides, she signed my first edition of The Beekeeper's Apprentice 15 years ago but my housemate is a huge fan and I've said I'll get signatures for her. M, in return, is urging me hard to pick up my own copy of the King with Sherlock Holmes doing Gilbert and Sullivan.
Sunday has a signing with Chris Freeburn, who I think is the same C.A. Freeburn who wrote Dying for Redemption. It's always broken my heart that didn't turn into a series; I'm going to tell her that.
Sunday's events include the Agatha tea and panels on The Intersection of Religion and Murder (a pity Julia Spencer-Fleming isn't a guest), Mysteries with a Kick-Ass Heroine, and the very tough choice between the simultaneous panels of: Murder by the Book (No One's Safe in the Book Industry); Guilty Pleasures, Innocent Sleuths; Modern Gothic Mysteries; and Murder Comes to England. I have a feeling that it's going to come down to a coin flip between the last two.
How much fun I have this weekend is going to have a direct correspondence to the likelihood that I'll drive to Cleveland for Bouchercon in the fall. It's up against the 25th anniversary of an entirely different kind of a con here.
And now I have to catch up from being offline for a day and then be an adult and mop the floors. :P
I notice that one of the listed author guests is Joan Hess. I haven't particularly forgiven La Hess for Damsels in Distress - and I note that Reviewing the Evidence still has my review of it up - the one where I called it "mean spirited" and told the putative readership "there is no reason for you to buy this book; you're only spending your money to be insulted" and suggested they go read Donna Andrews.
Wow. I can really be a bitch when I want to be. I'm still a bit surprised I was allowed to turn one author's review into an ad for another.
(Not that I'm still not telling people to avoid Hess altogether, because if you want a good re-enactment mystery, Donna Andrews' Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos is totally the way to go. And if you want a good SF con mystery, check out her We'll Always Have Parrots.)
But anyway - Malice, not me being malicious. We have to sign permits to be recorded when we register, and I'm glad that so many of the panels are recorded, because there's a lot of tempting stuff going on. My tentative schedule is:
Friday: You've Got Fan Mail (Honored Guests Discuss Mail from Fascinating Fans) I may or may not stick around for the official opening ceremonies. This may depend on the speed of the service at BD's.
Saturday: Choice of Capitol Crimes (All Politics is Deadly) vs Lights, Camera, Murder (Mysteries that Translate to Stage and Screen). Later I'll check out the paranormal mystery panel Witches and Zombies and Ghosts, Oh My, and I'll be attending the lunchtime presentation with the Poison Lady (!). That afternoon, I'm thinking What Authors Endure in the Name of Research and round out the day deciding between the Agatha Best Nonfiction Nominees and Living With the Seven Deadly Sins (Mysteries as Modern Morality Plays). That last is a particularly tough choice!
Saturday signings include Claudia Bishop (aka Mary Stanton; I'm going to get the latest two Beaufort & Co mysteries signed) and Laurie King. I've never forgiven King for marrying Holmes off
Sunday has a signing with Chris Freeburn, who I think is the same C.A. Freeburn who wrote Dying for Redemption. It's always broken my heart that didn't turn into a series; I'm going to tell her that.
Sunday's events include the Agatha tea and panels on The Intersection of Religion and Murder (a pity Julia Spencer-Fleming isn't a guest), Mysteries with a Kick-Ass Heroine, and the very tough choice between the simultaneous panels of: Murder by the Book (No One's Safe in the Book Industry); Guilty Pleasures, Innocent Sleuths; Modern Gothic Mysteries; and Murder Comes to England. I have a feeling that it's going to come down to a coin flip between the last two.
How much fun I have this weekend is going to have a direct correspondence to the likelihood that I'll drive to Cleveland for Bouchercon in the fall. It's up against the 25th anniversary of an entirely different kind of a con here.
And now I have to catch up from being offline for a day and then be an adult and mop the floors. :P
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-27 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-28 12:04 am (UTC)Just posted about the first day, which disappointed on a few levels. But the panels and the company will hopefully make up for much.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-27 08:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-28 12:05 am (UTC)