NoirCon 2008: The Big Wrap-up

I urge everyone to attend a crime-fiction convention just small enough to allow convention goers to mingle, drink, hang out with and pick the brains of the panelists and presenters, especially if these include people like Ken Bruen, Dennis McMillan, Reed Farrel Coleman, Christa Faust, Scott Phillips, Gary Phillips, Charles Ardai, Vicki Hendricks and Duane Swierczynski, as a start, and those were just the guests of honor, a few of the authors, and an additional publisher.

The program at NoirCon 2008 also included enough editors, publishers, podcasters, professors, scholars, screenings (and screenwriters), forensic sculptors and cold-case specialists to keep the old synapses crackling long after logic dictated that I should have been asleep.

And that was just the official events. The real action happened after hours, when everyone would gather in the hotel bar to talk about crime fiction and its social role. Tempers sometimes flared, and club soda and ginger ale spilled amid vigorous exchanges of views that lasted until well after 10 p.m.

The final event, for those still in town and not exhausted by the late nights, was Sunday afternoon's screening of Deadline U.S.A. in conjunction with the Philadelphia Film Festival. That 1952 Humphrey Bogart classic was one of two movies that the festival screened as part of NoirCon, along with the over-the-top Blast of Silence, from 1961.

I'll be back tomorrow after a good night's sleep, perhaps to offer another detail or two. Until then, why not visit the NoirCon home page and check out the podcasts and the links to the panelists' Web sites? You'll find material sure to expand your mind and your to-read list.

© Peter Rozovsky 2008