Left Coast Crime report

In March I went to Left Coast Crime, the annual mystery conference--in Sacramento this year. Among other adventures, I was interviewed by Lorie Lewis Ham of Kings River Life magazine. Considering she recorded it on her cell phone, it came out amazingly well. You can see and hear it at I was interviewed by cell phone(!) at LCC. You can see the result here:
http://kingsriverlife.com/04/18/mystery-author-video-interviews-from-left-coast-crime/

I drove down to Sacramento from Eugene with a friend, passing Mount Shasta on the way. My friend had never seen the mountain before-- She got a terrific view. Often as not, it's hidden by clouds.

This is one of the panels I was on. Our subject was 20th Century History. My fellow-panelists--Ken Kuhlken, Bill Seil, Rebecca Cantrell, Kelli Stanley--all write mysteries set in various periods between 1900 and 2000.

Here I am saying something intelligent... I hope!

We saw some interesting buildings in Sacramento. This is the Crocker Art Museum

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This appears to be a sparrow condo!

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And here is Darth Vader looming over the city.

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This is my favourite train at the wonderful California State Railroad Museum.

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Back to the conference:

The other panel I was on was called Anglophilia, but we rechristened it Britophilia, as one of the panelists was Catriona McPherson, a Scot.

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The others on the panel were Jacqueline Winspear, Rhys Bowen, and Michael Kurland. Four British women living in the US against one American male--Michael was outnumbered. We were supposed to talk about the American fascination with British mysteries, but it seemed to me that it was the audience who ought to explain it to us.

What I enjoy most at mystery conferences is not the panels, but meeting and talking to readers and fellow-authors.

This is LJ Sellers, another Eugenean and author of--well, I lose count! She's a prolific writer of mysteries and thrillers.

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 Here's a reader who came up to the table at the end of a panel just to have a quick word before I dashed off to a signing.

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On the way home--so exhausted the madrone had to hold me up...

Picnic stop in the Rogue River rest area/park

All photos courtesy of Linda Cummens