Shots

Three from Bristol shot by me, one from New Orleans not.

© Peter Rozovsky 2016, 2017

Crimefest, Bath, and London: What I did, and what I'll do when I get back

I'm on my way back to America after Crimefest in Bristol, three days in and around Bath, and two days in London. Some highlights for now, with normal blogging and discussion to resume shortly.

Maj Sjöwall. All hotos by
your humble blogkeeper

I met more new authors and other book-loving folks than usual at Crimefest, had more initial face-to-face meetings than usual with longtime online friends than usual, and attended more panels than usual. The only thing usual was the superb job by the organizers: Adrian Muller, Myles Allfrey, and Donna Moore. Well done, and discussion of authors and issues to follow once I get home, get some sleep, and do some laundry.

Next up was Bath, where I resumed my acquaintance with that harmonious Georgian city and, on a day trip to the Neolithic stone circle of Avebury and the West Kennet Avenue, stepped into a muddy furrow and sank up to my knees. The solicitude of my hotel manager, who had the trousers washed, dried, folded, and back in my hands by the next day, was another highlight.  If you plan to fall in the mud at a UNESCO World Heritage site, make sure you're staying at the Kennard in Bath.

Chinatown/Soho, London

Finally, London, where Mike Stotter, Ali Karim, Ayo Onatade, and the galleries of Early Renaissance painting at the National Gallery provided much high-jinks and cultural exaltation. See you all in Raleigh, Bristol, or London.

© Peter Rozovsky 2015

Bouchercon 2014 in a few more words and pictures

Gary Phillips brought up the mysterious Roosevelt Mallory during the  "Beyond Hammett, Chandler, and Spillane: Lesser Known Writers of the Pulp and Paperback Eras" panel I moderated at Bouchercon 2014 in Long Beach.  I now have Double Trouble, third of Mallory's four Radcliff novels, on order.


I've already mentioned my discovery of Dolores Hitchens, Charlotte Armstrong, Roy Huggins, and Ennis Willie in the course of my preparation for the panel, thanks to panelists Sarah Weinman, Sara J. Henry, and Max Allan Collins.

This was an especially rich Bouchercon for new discoveries, and I'm grateful to the panelists who helped me make them. (I intend no slight to the fifth panelist, Charles Kelly. I'd already started reading his author, Dan J. Marlowe, two years before the convention.) And here are a few more photos from Bouchercon 2014, all photos by your formerly humble blog keeper, with the exception of the Double Trouble cover.

At left is Ingrid Willis, who did such a fine job as chair of this year's Bouchercon. The noirish fellow at right is Stacey Cochran, who is doing the same job for Bouchercon 2015 in Raleigh, N.C. I've already registered. Have you?

Finally, two pics of my Bouchercon peeps and one from after the con. At left, Ali Karim points to the visual welcome from the Hyatt Regency Long Beach. At right/below, Mike Stotter contemplates the world through the prism of David Morrell's Macavity Award for Murder As a Fine Art. Below left, a mammoth reflected in the Lake Pit at the Page Museum/La Brea Tar Pits. The mammoth is a reproduction based on fossil evidence. The oily slick is real.  (Read all my Bouchercon posts from before, during, and after the convention.)

© Peter Rozovsky 2014