In answer to the email that poured in after my blog next week, (cheers, Carol!) Snooker the cat is fully returned to health and has taken up her position as Most Senior Animal once more. She’s snubbed Arthur, wound up the kitten, Minou, and resumed being snooty to canine branch of the Gordon-Smith household. I was discussing Snooker’s internet presence (cats love computers; after all, there’s a mouse involved!) when she removed herself from her sofa, walked across the room and plonked herself firmly on my knee in a warm gesture of approval. That cat loves being a star!
It was Poisoned Pen’s virtual Crime-writing conference yesterday. If you want to have a look at the sort of ground covered, go to http://www.ppwebcon.com
It was a really good idea. From your own computer screen you could log in and listen to live interviews, text other guests in the virtual coffee shop (and my daughter Jenny actually brought me a cup of coffee while I was doing it, which added to the ambiance) watch book trailers, take part in panels etc., etc. It’s weird how, although you know the other participants are all actually in their own homes, when in conversation with them it feels as if they’re all in one place. This struck me particularly in the evening session I took part in with Aileen Baron, broadcast on Blogtalk Radio. One of the other guests on the show was Jane Finnis. Jane’s contributions are always worth listening to, as she thinks very quickly and always has something to say worth listening to. Jane’s Roman mysteries are published by Poisoned Pen (USA) but she actually lives in Yorkshire, a matter of 80 miles or so from where I am in Manchester.
After having kicked the topic round thoroughly for half an hour or so, we signed off. It was really odd afterwards to ring Jane and do the telephone equivalent of going for a drink in the bar. It was hard to believe that somehow or other she hadn’t been in America. After all, her voice had been coming from America for the last half-hour. I’m sure there’s a good juicy Mystery Clue there somewhere. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure Dorothy L Sayers used the same notion in a short story. Damn.
The topic was Cozy Thrillers, as in should there be a new genre, called a Cozy Thriller. As assiduous readers will know, I’m not a huge fan (!) of the word “Cozy” applied to mystery/crime stories. It’s commercial death in the UK, but the Americans have a much more relaxed approach to the concept. What Aileen Baron was actually arguing for was intelligence in Thrillers, something we could all do with a bit more of. As far as I could tell, the conversation went really well – but I still don’t like the word “Cozy”!
I enjoyed the day too; I thought it was brilliant, and despite a technical glitch trying to batter my way into the chat-room, I got there eventually and it was fun. Re panels, I shared your feeling - and the notion of how odd it was - that panelists and listeners who called in were somehow all together in the same room. There was virtually no time-lag in our discussion and all the voices were clear as bells. Yet we were thousands of miles apart, and because of that, talking at different times in our day! And that was really the point of the whole exercise - to bring together a mix of people which would be very unlikely to assemble in real life because of distance, expense, lack of time, you name it. I myself can't afford traditional US conventions, tempting though they usually sound. I can do a couple in the UK, but of course a lot of the US/Canada contingent can't get to those. So a get-together in cyberspace is a terrific idea. I hope Poisoned Pen repeat it next year!
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