Two minutes, and everything changes!

At last!  Bouchercon 2012!!!

Tomorrow I'm heading off to the world mystery convention, where readers, authors, librarians, agents, and publishers get together and talk mysteries and crime fiction.

A year ago, I hadn't even heard of this amazing convention. More over, when I had arrived as a wide-eyed new author, I quickly discovered I wasn't even pronouncing the name properly.  Named for famed mystery critic Anthony Boucher, apparently the conference is pronounced Bough- cher-con, not Bowchercon, and certainly not Boochercon like I thought. Or maybe it's the other way around. Oh well. I'll find out tomorrow.

Since  A Murder at Rosamund's Gate is not out yet (Don't forget, April 23, 2013!), I won't be doing any book signings or anything like that.  Given that I haven't worked out a fun way to sign my books yet (6 1/2 months to figure that out!), that's probably a good thing.

However, this year, I do have a teeny space in the program. I will be part of a "New Authors Coffee" on Friday morning-- I get to stand up for two minutes, with a slew of other new mystery authors, and share something about my book. What exactly I'm going to say, I have no clue (which, you know, seems to be a bad thing to admit to other mystery writers. :-) )

Two minutes.  A commercial break. An amusement park ride. A descent in an elevator.  A walk down an aisle. Not a lot of time, some might think. 

Certainly,  that's true. I've asked myself, how can I capture ten years of work, three hundred some pages, an entire cast of characters, plot and subplots etc in just 2 minutes?

It's daunting, overwhelming...and wonderful.  A huge, strange moment.  My first public moment as an "author." (Here's hoping I don't blurt out nonsense! Or babble on about the concept of two minutes! Or muse about my pronunciation issues. Most importantly, let's hope I focus on my book!)

Two minutes. Everything changes!

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