Bouchercon

by Linda Rodriguez

Right now, I'm at Bouchercon in New Orleans, so this will be a short photo-heavy blog.

My Bouchercon began with the SinC Into Great Writing, “Doing Diversity Right,” afternoon after great drama in traveling there with lots of “will I make it in time” suspense. But my wonderful road-warrior husband dropped me off at the entrance to the Bouchercon hotel only a few minutes after the afternoon had begun, and I rushed up to the 41^st floor to find a breathless seat.

The great and impeccable Walter Mosely gave the keynote speech, followed by a great Q&A session. Then, we had four workshops on various aspects of diversity—characters, plot, dialogue, and cultural background. I taught the cultural background workshop, along with Greg Herren, Cindy Brown, Frankie Y. Bailey, who taught characters, plot, and dialogue respectively.

These were excellent workshops, each offering a different take on writing diversely with a heaping helping of the instructors' unique personalities shining through. At the end of the afternoon, we held a big panel to answer the audience's questions with Greg, Cindy, Frankie, and me, plus Terri Bischoff, acquiring editor for Midnight Ink, giving a view from the publishing side.

An hour wasn't enough time for all the questions, but all of the panelists told audience members they'd make themselves available for further questions throughout the conference. If my own experience is anything to go by, those in the audience are certainly taking advantage of that offer.