ThrillerFest 2007

NYC will never be the same.  Nope.  It won’t because JenT was there.

So, I arrived in NYC on Wednesday.  While waiting for my friends CJ Lyons and Amy Shojai so we could share a cab I ran into Lisa Gardner.  Me, being the shy and quiet type went right up to her and said, “Hi.”  She said, “Oh, Hi Jen.  It’s so good to see you.”  Okay, so I’ve met her before.   A few minutes later Tess Gerritson and her wonderful husband (who has become my new best friend) walks up to Lisa.  Lisa introduces us and let me tell you, Tess is one class act and she’s a very talented writer.  We becaome fast friends.  I don’t have a picture of me and Tess because my camera got stolen with before I had a chance to up load most of them.  I’ll tell that story later.

Now, I’m standing line line at the the hotel and a woman by the name of Laura Benedict and another woman by the name of Margie Lawson start talking to me.  Of course, CJ knows them.  CJ knows everybody.  We start talking and the next thing I know I’ve been ubducted for dinner.  CJ ditched us so she could have dinner with her friend…. David Morrell.  Like I said, she knows everyone.  From left to right.  Laura, Alien Jen, Margie and then Amy.  We had quite a night.

And it’s still only Wednesday.  Okay, on to Thursday which is what they call Craftfest is is for writers.  I went to all sorts of workshops.  The first one was given by David Morrell and he made me cry.  Seriously.  There I sat in the front row of his lecture, crying.  Why was I crying?  Because he made me realize what a sick and twisted human I was and that the reality of that was quiet normal.  Really.  Not kidding.  There were so many wonderful talks that day.  James Rollins, D.P. Lyle, MD (who is really my new best friend, but I’ll tell you why later), Tess Gerritson, Lisa Gardner and more.  It was a fab day, but exhausting and I was calling it a day around 9pm when I headed toward the lobby and walked right by Lee Child.  He smiled and said hello, I smiled and said, “Oh, Hi  Lee.  I’m the woman who you signed the cup for in Denver.”  He actually laughed, then hugged me and said, “It is so nice to meet the person I did that for.”  We chatted a bit longer, but I can’t tell you the conversation, or I’d have to kill you.  Kidding.  We never did get into why the cup, but he did mention it was not the strangest thing he had ever signed, but choosed not to elaborate.  Later in the conference I got to have a drink with him.  The conversation started out very serious, but ended up me having to use the ‘cup’.  That man is funny.  And the things we ended up talking about one would think we were at a Romance writers convention. 

The next few days were filled with panels and book signings.  One of the things I volunteered for was helping out in the booksigning and I ended up being the woman who had to attend to Vince Flynn’s every need.  It was such a hard job.  At the end of the signing he told me it had been bugging him that I looked like someone, but he couldn’t place it but he had just figured it out.  He said, “You look just like Cheryl Crow.”  I smiled and then said, “I married the right man.”  Vince said, “Huh?”  I laughed.  “My husband is a huge fan of hers and has the biggest crush on her.”  We both laughed.  Later in the bar I milked that one for all it’s worth and by the end of the conference I was known as, “Hey, look, there goes the girl that looks like Cheryl Crow.”  Hey, gotta leave an impression some how.  Sorry to say that my picture will Vince was stolen, although a few rumors are circulating that a few of my friends have one of us so hopefully the will send it along.

One night I went out to dinner with Tim Maleeny and Laura Benedict.  Tim is an up and coming writer.  I already read his latest book STEALING THE DRAGON and it’s great!  Laura’s first book ISABELLA MOON comes out on September 25th.  I’m happy to report, I got an ARC and will be reading it tonight.  Again, no picture of that.  But I can tell you that they are both really great.

Now, on to my new best friend Doug Lyle.  Doug is the author of many non fiction work including Forensics for Dummies and Murder and Mayhem.  He also has some Thrillers out there and I highly recommend him.  He’s also chalk full of information.  I asked him after one of his panels if I could talk about my book with him.  He said, sure.  We went out for coffee and I picked his brain.  He had all sorts of information for me and at the end of the day he told me he thought my book idea was great and he was really excited to help me anyway he can.  He’s is totally cool.  Nope, no picture.  Sigh…

Grant Blackwood is another up and coming thriller writer and the man is a saint.  He saved my toe.  Really.  He was a day late, but he saved it just the same.  I wore the same stupid brown shoes I wore at Nationals last year that gave me a blister.  I had forgotten and wore them at thrillerfest.  I saw me in the lobby and said he’d bring me a band-aide.  We did not see each other the rest of the day, but when I saw him at breakfeast, he had the band-aide with him.  I shared a cab with Grant on the way back to the hotel.  He’s a gem and a very talented writer.

I wish I had a picture of me in my really hot dress that I wore to the awards dinner on Saturday.  It was a big hit later in the bar.  Of course, everyone kept thinking, is that really Cheryl Crow.  Snort.  It got so bad that people were just introducing me as that.

I wish I had more pictures to share.  Stupid theif.  It was a fab conference I will be returing to it next year.

Feel free to ask me anything.  I might answer.

134 comments July 16th, 2007