Murder, Vampires and a Year of Work Ends

I'm delighted and relieved to report that my year of hard work came to successful fruition this past weekend at the New England Crime Bake for Mystery Readers and Writers.

While it has been exciting and stimulating to be co-chair of a conference totally run by mystery-loving volunteers, it also has been challenging and required much effort. It also has eaten up a great deal of writing (and other) time and I will be extremely thankful to get that back.

Crime Bake, now in its ninth year, takes place in "DEAD"ham, Massachusetts, and is co-sponsored by the New England chapters of the international mystery organizations Sisters in Crime (SinC) and Mystery Writers of America (MWA). Traditionally the co-chairs are the presidents of the local organizations, which in my case means not only presiding over an active SinC chapter that spans six New England states, it also required heading a Crime Bake committee of 20 people who hail from three of them -- and with someone I'd met only once before. In addition, this was only my second year on the Crime Bake Committee and it was MWANE President Margaret McLean's first so some of it we made up as we went along. (Here I persuaded Margaret that we should open the conference in vampire capes due to our Guest of Honor -- and sunglasses as daylight is a definite problem for vampires!)

We were aided in our conference planning by a strong cadre of dedicated fellow mystery writers who deeply love Crime Bake, which is known as a writer's conference. Sure, there were issues, false starts and some mistakes, but I was so grateful for the hard work of each of them because it has been vital to this venture and responsible for us selling out at the beginning of August.

Another major factor in our success was our guest of honor -- the incredible Charlaine Harris with four, count 'em four, mystery series, including the Sookie Stackhouse "Southern Vampire" books on which the HBO series True Blood is based. Charlaine was incredibly gracious, extremely generous with her time and writing advice, and one of the funniest women you'd ever meet. I had the privilege, along with my co-chair, of conducting a 45-minute Guest of Honor interview with this smart and engaging woman in front of a luncheon attended by almost 300 conference attendees -- and it was a highlight of my weekend. One of the things she told us is that in writing the Sookie series, she also is writing about discrimination, especially against the gay community.

This Arkansas mother of three has been a published author for 25 years (her second husband gave her what I consider an extremely romantic gift -- a typewriter for her to become a writer -- as a wedding gift so, as she says, she "kept him"). One of her characters has inspired a video game coming out early next year and CBS is developing a series based on her Harper Connolly books. We were very fortunate to have her as our Guest of Honor.

Our weekend lineup also included best-selling New England authors Dennis Lehane (seen here and personally invited by yours truly after stalking him at my local chain bookstore), Julia Spencer-Fleming, Hallie Ephron, Sheila Connolly and so many others, as well as exciting debut authors like Barb Ross. The schedule of fascinating panels also featured fabulous forensics experts, as well as 10 agents and editors from New York and New England. How could we not succeed?

This conference is always stimulating and energizing because the rooms are filled with so many enthusiastic mystery writers dedicated to improving their craft and talking about it. Let's face it: there also aren't many conferences where people can legitimately allow themselves to be excited about discussing murder, ways to dispose of a body or blood spatter patterns.

This year, we added a Vampire Ball to the activities in Charlaine's honor and urged people to dress in costume (the lobster and Vampire bride were among my favorites) or red and black, which are the official Crime Bake colors. Some, like me and "Dirty Business" mystery series author Rosemary Harris (photo at far right) also added the colors to our hair. The photo to the left below shows a bit of my red hair extension and two my fellow Working Stiffs bloggers after we met in person instead of the virtual world. Husband No. 1 (shown trying to keep up with me on the dance floor) opted for a blood red shirt to follow the red and black theme.
This weekend once again reminded me how blessed I am to have found my way to the mystery genre and to now be part of such an amazing community of writers. And I was giving thanks for this experience throughout the entire weekend, both when I was wearing my vampire cape and fangs -- and when I wasn't.

"Don't freak out, but .... "

That was the subject line of a message that popped into my emailbox early Friday morning and as you might expect, I totally freaked out over what the rest of the missive from No. 1 son might say.

With my imagination in overdrive, I feared something had happened on his overnight shift that was too terrible to tell us over the telephone. Or had the "I want a bike" message on his Facebook page finally led to the dreaded purchase of a motorcycle?

Needless to say, my heart was doing somersaults while I opened the email. To my surprise, it contained a link to a news story that had nothing to do with No. 1 son but everything to do with No. 2.

It seems the Army Corps of Engineers has uncovered a fourth major disposal area for World War I weapons in a neighborhood near American University, the college we pay thousands of dollars for No. 2 son to attend. Apparently it was once home to an Army chemical warfare testing station -- something I do NOT recall reading in the school's slick admissions brochure.

The most recent finds were a jar containing the chemical agent mustard, glassware still smoking and fuming (since World War 1????), scrap munitions, and oh yeah, a shell containing a tear gas agent. (For the gory details, click here.) I picked up the phone and called No. 1, who was en route to bed after working all night. I knew No. 2would never be awake at that hour.) "I wonder if maybe you should get in your truck and go get your brother," I said, only half-kidding.

"What -- in my hazmat suit?" he chuckled, then advised me such attire wasn't standard issue for DC Metro Police.

Life is never dull with these children. I'm not sure what to do about this interesting new piece of information about No. 2's son current location because AU assures us there's no danger. Whether or not that's true, my investment in "color enhancement" is skyrocketing as I attempt to deal with the gray hair created by activities related to my children.

It's also been another week of wondering whether participating in the local Citizens Police Academy was a good choice for parental sanity. I did a four-hour ride-along with a patrolman Friday night and let me tell you, watching him use his right hand to touch every vehicle he stopped unnerved me even more about No. 1 son's career choice.

The reason law enforcement officers do this, you see, is to make sure their fingerprints are on the vehicle in case something goes terribly wrong with the traffic stop. The patrolman also called in the plate number to the dispatcher before approaching any vehicles he pulled over so there would be a record of the car or truck involved. Law enforcement officers are only too aware that motor vehicle stops and domestic disturbance calls can be the most unpredictable -- and deadly.

I had hoped the Citizens Police Academy would help with my mystery writing, and it will. Just last week during the demonstration on TASERs, I realized with a jolt (a literary, not literal one) that a personal TASER would be a useful tool for one of the characters in my novel-in-progress.

(TASER, by the way, is named for the 1911 book "Thomas Swift's Electric Rifle" that inspired the weapon's creator. These nasty "less than lethal" weapons shoot two hooked electrodes into a person and then deliver a five-second pulse carrying 50,000 volts that causes temporary paralysis and considerable pain which reportedly ends the second the pulse does. I can't speak from experience -- I was too afraid to shoot one last week, fearing I might hit one of CPA classmates by mistake. )

Mystery writers, as you may know, write about what interests them (so you can count on "Murder Most Municipal" containing several police department tidbits). A good example of this is the Dirty Business Mystery series authored by my friend Rosemary Harris, a master gardener whose new book "Dead Head" is featured in the short book trailer below. Enjoy!