Killer Nashville 2007: My Adventures in Nashville

After speaking in Maine last week, I flew directly to Tennessee for the mystery writers conference, Killer Nashville (see post about losing luggage below to get a sense of my Friday).

Missing luggage aside, the conference was great. There was a great variety of speakers, including agent Donna Bagdasarian, as well as mystery authors Hallie Ephron, Chris Roerden, P.J. Parrish and Don Bruns. All these great writers were in attendance, not to mention, the man himself, Michael Connelly, who spoke as well. At one point, during author signings, I was sitting next to Michael at a table. He had a line about a bazillion people long waiting for autographs. I sat there, tapping my pen, looking at his line, and thinking "I'm nothing!"

Those in attendance at the Saturday night dinner were privy to Don Bruns picking up the guitar and singing. The man can sing—and I can prove it. See this link to watch him play:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVcNFtN5N1c

Conference coordinator Clay Stafford (left) presents
keynote speaker Michael Connelly with his gift: a
sweet six-string.

Me, on the breakfast panel, listening to Oceanview
editor Maryglenn McCombs.

If writing thrillers, mysteries, suspense, etc. is your bag, try and make it next year. The dates are already set: Aug. 15–17, 2008. Word on the street is that the coordinators are planning on getting more agents and editors in attendance for writers to pitch, and making the conference a little longer.

Check Out These Great Upcoming Writers Conferences:

• Feb. 11, 2017: Writers Conference of Minnesota (St. Paul, MN)
• Feb. 16–19, 2017: San Francisco Writers Conference (San Francisco, CA)
• Feb. 24, 2017: The Alabama Writers Conference (Birmingham, AL)
• Feb. 25, 2017: Atlanta Writing Workshop (Atlanta, GA)
• March 25, 2017: Michigan Writers Conference (Detroit, MI)
• March 25, 2017: Kansas City Writing Workshop (Kansas City, MO)
• April 8, 2017: Philadelphia Writing Workshop (Philadelphia, PA)
• April 22, 2017: Get Published in Kentucky Conference (Louisville, KY)
• April 22, 2017: New Orleans Writers Conference (New Orleans, LA)
• May 6, 2017: Seattle Writers Conference (Seattle, WA)
• May 19–21, 2017: PennWriters Conference (Pittsburgh, PA)
• June 24, 2017: The Writing Workshop of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
• Aug. 18–20, 2017: Writer's Digest Conference (New York, NY)