Wednesday, October 22, 2014

NoirCon 2014 is almost here // Noir at the Bar comes back home

I'll be part of another con before Bouchercon, the fourth incarnation of the event that introduced me to the joys of the con, Philadelphia's own Noircon.

This year's event happens Oct. 30-Nov. 2, and it has a more international flavor than the versions in 2008, 2010, and 2012, including several authors who will be part of my Bouchercon panels two weeks later in Long Beach. Stuart Neville will be here. So will Paul Charles, who will join Stuart, Adrian McKinty, and Gerard Brennan on my Bouchercon "Belfast Noir" panel.  Sarah Weinman and Charles Kelly will be here, sharpening their oratorical skills for their appearances on my "Beyond Hammett, Chandler, and Spillane: Lesser Known Writers of the Pulp and Paperback Eras" panel in Long Beach.

The gang from Soho Press is coming to Noircon to receive awards. The delegation will include author Fuminori Nakamura and Paul Oliver, whose current reissues of Ted "Get Carter" Lewis' novels are an event of high importance to noir readers. Trust me: You want to read these books.

I'll be doing my part by MC'ing a NoirCon edition of Noir at the Bar as N@theB returns to the city where I staged the very first ones in 2008.    The list of readers includes several of the original Noir at the Bar authors and moderators, so here's a special thank you to Duane Swierczynski, Jon McGoran (who set this event up), Dennis Tafoya, and Sarah Weinman. Welcome back.

NoirCon 2008 was my first convention, my first chance to meet authors and others in the profession. It's where I met Ken Bruen and Christa Faust and Scott Phillips and Sarah Weinman and Reed Farrel Coleman and Ed Pettit and Charles Ardai and Megan Abbott and more, and not just met them, but hung out with them and talked with them. The experience was so much fun that I signed up for that year's Bouchercon almost immediately, and the rest is history. 

NoirCon: Because Not Everything Great That Started in Philadelphia Was Run By Guys Who Have Their Faces on Money.

© Peter Rozovsky 2014

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8 Comments:

Blogger seana graham said...

Very cool, Peter. I think you must be into the long con now...

October 23, 2014  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

At moments of high optimism, I think life is one big con.

October 23, 2014  
Blogger Dana King said...

Oh, yeah. I'm there.

October 23, 2014  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Dana, will you be in town for the Wednesday evening N@tB?

October 23, 2014  
Blogger Unknown said...

Life is noir. Enjoy another of your moments in the sun . . . or are they moments in the shadows when noir is involved? And as for Philadelphia, I intend no insult, but I seem to remember that W. C. Fields spent a week there one day. Or am I thinking of someone else, somewhere else, or another time span. As a native of Pittsburgh, I only occasionally spent time in Philadelphia, and I remember one weekend that was particularly noir-ish. Perhaps I should have skipped that weekend. If I could only remember more about it (i.e., a lost weekend in the mid-60s). But I have ramble on for far too long.

October 23, 2014  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I walk in Fields’ footsteps five days a week. And Philadelphia does get an occasional mention in crime fiction. Or this, from Richard Powell’s Masterpiece in Murder (1955):

Most of my friends in Philadelphia lead breathless lives. … I met Nancy on one of those lovely May afternoons when even Philadelphians from the Main Line get slightly irresponsible, and start nodding to strangers, taking off their coats in public, and wondering if the Phillies could win the pennant.

October 23, 2014  
Blogger Kelly Robinson said...

I came very close to registering this year, but ended up going to the Mostly Lost film event in VA. and couldn't swing two trips. Maybe next time.

October 26, 2014  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

You need to come to Noircon; it happens only every two years. But what should I know about Mostly Lost film? That sounds worth a look.

October 26, 2014  

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