True confession. I’ve never gone to a mystery fan convention... and I’m a mystery writer!
Well, I almost attended Bouchercon—which is the big one—when it was held in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2006. Madison is only 40 miles from my home... but the money, and I didn’t have a book out yet.
And it may have been just as well that I didn’t go. Most of the sessions were panel presentation by a half-dozen writers talking to the audience. I get a lot of those at writers conferences I attend.
But this year, the big B is different. Picture writing as a spectator sport. In one event, we will watch eight writers as they hammer out their stories. We’ll read on big screens what they’re typing. And we can talk to the writers, and we can ask questions, and, if we don’t like their work, we can vote them off the island.
Bouchercon 2009, set for October in Indianapolis, will be unlike any other that fans of mysteries have ever attended.
Read on.
Bouchercon brings ’em in
This year the granddaddy of mystery fan conventions will draw 1,800 people to Indianapolis where they will meet and mingle with mystery writers from across the country.
Normally, you would meet one of those writers in this story. This time you meet Bouchercon and Bouchercon’s chief planner Jim Huang.
Huang owns The Mystery Company, an independent mystery bookstore in Carmel, a suburb on the north side of Indianapolis, and he runs a small publishing company.
So much for Jim, now to the Con set for October 15-18.
Headquarters? The Hyatt Regency in downtown Indianapolis. And right here is where Bouchercon 2009 diverges from previous Bouchercons. Traditionally, most events have been held in the convention hotel. Huang and his planners will take a number of big events out into the city.
“We’re getting you out of the hotel,” Huang says. “You’ll be going to the City Market where there is a demonstration kitchen. So the food mystery writers aren’t just going to talk about food mysteries, they’re actually going to cook for us.
“We’re going to be in the rotunda of the State House, and the political mysteries session will take place in that setting.
“The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art has an incredible collection of Western art. The discussion of mysteries set in the American West will take place in a setting where you can then go look at all this great art from that region.
“The sports mysteries panel will be in the NCAA Hall of Champions, and we’ll have a chance to tour that facility as well.”
Another break with tradition. In the past, most sessions have featured panels of 4, 5 or 6 writers talking to the audience—one-way communication. Huang and his planners will build interaction into the program wherever they can.
Example, there will be a town hall meeting with agents, editors and publishers. “These are the folks who can make decisions about the kinds of concerns readers have, so there will be discussions here that readers can get involved in.”
Another example, a prose bowl. “This is a Survivor-style writing-as-a-spectator-sport competition. We will start on Thursday with eight writers. You can watch them at work. We will display their computer screens on big screens so you actually see the prose they are producing in response to a writing prompt. The audience can ask the writers why they made those choices, what were they thinking, what’s going on.
“There will be a vote, and, at the end of the first day, four writers will be voted off the island. And so it will go until we get a winner.
“This is going to be a lot of fun, but I think it will also give readers an insight into the creative process. Instead of having writers talk about how they work, they’re going to be demonstrating it.”
Most conferences pegged at adults ignore the kids who come with Mom and Dad. Not this year’s Bouchercon.
“We’re doing two days of programming specifically for younger readers. We’re inviting school groups to come down, home schoolers to come, families, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts. It’s important to us to extend the Bouchercon experience to a younger audience,” Huang says. “We value younger readers.
“We also reaching out to younger readers as a way to get to their parents. There is an age where mothers and fathers are so busy dealing with things with their kids that they don’t have time to look at things for themselves. There is that demographic of people in their 20s and 30s that’s been very difficult for Boucheron to reach, so our youth program is one of our strategies to reach out to these people.”
The ‘one city, one book’ program, popular around the country, makes its appearance at this year’s Bouchercon.
“We have a ‘one conference, one book’ program. We will pick a Rex Stout novel this month, and we will have everyone coming read the book. We will build programs around the book—discussions of Stout and several panels that will put Stout in a historical perspective.”
Stout is a Hoosier—he was born in Noblesville—and that’s one of the reasons why the planners chose to recognize him.
Toss in another factoid. This is 75th anniversary of the publication of Fer-De-Lance, Stout’s first Nero Wolfe novel.
“If you’ve ever read a Rex Stout novel, you know Nero Wolfe eats very well,” Huang says. “On Friday evening, we’ll recreate a meal from Stout’s 1938 novel, Too Many Cooks. It’s phenomenally expense and incredible elegant. It’s going to be an amazing experience for those who attend.”
Find out more about Bouchercon 2009. Here’s the website.
© Jerry Peterson.
