David Thayer

Wellington Leg: I’m a mystery fan and now a reviewer so going to Left Coast Crime last weekend was a double shot of fun mixed with professional interest. Like everyone who attends these events I learned a great deal, missed some events, met some great people and even managed to find parking. Here then some reporting:

I’d never met Jeff Pierce, the managing editor of January Magazine, the man who takes this reporter’s crime fiction reviews in hand, via email, and whips them into shape. I met Jeff and January’s founder, Linda Richards, as well as Stephen Miller and Megan Abbott. When Linda told me that January gets 35,000 hits a day I almost fell over.

Meeting Daniel Judson, author of THE DARKEST PLACE, one of my favorite books from 2006. Dan was bold enough to go for a walk during one of Wellington Leg’s signature cloudbursts. I discussed West Village geography with SJ Rozan, shook hands with the Killer Year gang, Sandra Ruttan, Bill Cameron, Toni McGee Causey, and Greg Battles. I spent some time catching up with Robert Dugoni whose thriller DAMAGE CONTROL is coming out Hachette this month.

Megan Abbott ( THE SONG IS YOU) and Peter Spiegelman ( RED CAT) discussed the events of 1964 in New York, the World’s Fair, Kitty Genovese, Bob Dylan performing for 14 people at a club on Bleecker. Why no one mentioned Marvelous Marv Throneberry is a mystery.

More highlights to come. I’ll tell you all about double clutching on the vertical while cashier vanishes and minivan closes distance blaring horn. Modern life, my friends, is all about parking.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 7:49 am and is filed under Author Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.