I’d been to LCC in Portland earlier in the year, but the face I’m making above is pretty much the steady-state of where my brain was at when I landed in Raleigh, NC for Bouchercon 2015.

Now before I go in, Joe Clifford got all mushy about this insanity and pretty much nailed every damn thing I could say about what an incredible experience this was at his blog HERE make with the clicky and get all misty-eyed.

So instead of stealing Joe’s words (I’ll save that for my next novel), here’s a quick and dirty list of highlights.

• Bike Sex
• The incredible kindness and INSANE local knowledge of Eryk Pruitt. The man drove me to one of the best meals I’ve ever had – you rock, sir.
• Getting to meet Christa Faust – fucking aces getting to hang out with someone so New York to the god damn bone. I think she may be my spirit animal.
• Selling a book as I walked down a hallway in the Marriot. HELL FUCKING YES.
• Reading in an abandoned storefront atrium as the wind whipped dead leaves at my feet and people across the street stared. Big thanks to Steve W. Lauden for asking to record the story. You folks will be hearing/reading it soon.
• Dumping ten copies of The Fury of Blacky Jaguar and signing 9 of them at random junctures as I wandered my hotel. That was fucking awesome.
• Keeping my cool and not gushing like a fanboy when I met Steve Weddle. Don’t tell him I said this, but Country Hardball is probably one of my favorite novels of the decade. No fucking joke. The man is one of the finest writers I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.
• The food. OH MY GOD, THE FOOD.
• Explaining what a cobbler is to a poor boy from the UK (contrary to Brit belief, it is NOT a man who fixes shoes).

• Finally getting to be in a single place with my Shotgun Honey/One Eye Press peoples. They are lovely. Ron Earl: stay healthy or we’ll kill yah.

• Getting asked to share insight into live-reading to a first time reader. It was a weird feeling – might have been I was drunk at that point.
• Once again forgetting that I have met Susanna Calkins…a few times. I’M SORRY! PLEASE DON’T HATE ME.
• Seeing kick ass peoples; Chris and Kat Holm, Jay Stringer, Johnny Shaw, Rob Hart, Chris Irvin, Jen Conley, Scott Adlerberg, J David Osborne, Eric Campbell, Chantelle Aimee Osman, Nik Korpon, Mike McRary, Joe Clifford, Tom Pitts, Ro Cuzon, Brian Panowich, Holly West, Jennifer Hillier, Travis Richardson, Jedidiah Ayres, Hilary Davidson, Pam Stack…all the people I’m leaving out – you all rocked!

So needless to say – I’ll be back next year. Hopefully with more to shill.

Be easy,

Angel