A good sign

I'll be off here shortly to Madison and the wonders of Bouchercon, and I'm pleased to report I only had that airplane dream once more. I take that as a sign I will be a sanguine flyer today. Sanguine for me, at least. I'll be busy on the plane anyway, which is a good thing. I have some notes to transcribe from my tape recorder, and I'm working on a scene where someone shoots someone else. That's gotta keep my mind occupied. Imagining shooting a guy and then writing about it. (But, officer, I was just imagining it!)

I will be dragging the laptop along, and allegedly the hotel has internet. No idea if that means I will actually open the laptop or link up to the internet, but on Monday I will be reporting on my experiences as an utter noob over at the Killer Year blog. This morning, JT has written a moving piece about the moments we cherish, and those who have helped guide us. I know I hope to find many such moments this weekend. (I'm just sad my wife can't join me for the fun. She's coming to Left Coast Crime in February though!)

If you're going to be at Bouchercon, by all means poke me in the head and say hello! Or, well, maybe not in the head. At least, not with anything sharp.

A quick recap of the things I'll be doing (among about a billion others):

My publisher, Midnight Ink, is hosting a party on Friday evening. A lot of Midnight Ink authors will be there, including the inestimable Julia Buckley and equally inestimable Jess Lourey, as well as Deb Baker, Sue Ann Jaffarian, Tim Maleeny, Keith Raffel, Nina Wright and Chuck Zito (all of whom I'm sure are wonderfully estimable as well). Everyone's invited!

I'll be on a panel Sunday morning:

HOW REAL DO YOU NEED TO KEEP IT?
Sunday morning, 10:30am. Panelists: Bill Cameron, Jodi Compton, Marshall Cook (M), Ellen Crosby, Julia Spencer-Fleming.

Have a great weekend, everyone!