CrimeFest

[Donna Moore]

Well, I had a wonderful weekend at CrimeFest in Bristol and am now recovering (not from the carousing and partying - although there was plenty of that - but from the injury I inflicted on myself stepping off a curb. Apparently, according to the hospital, "it will get worse before it gets better". How reassuring. Luckily, I still have the crutches and the stick from when I broke a bone in my ankle last year stepping off a bus...)

So, CrimeFest. Well, it was lovely to meet up with old friends again, and give them hugs, and spend time with my sister Jools and my little brother Vincent :o) And, of course, there are the people I wish I'd had the chance to spend more time with - including Karen from Eurocrime, the lovely Lizzie Hayes, and Lord Kevin (world's best hugger) Wignall.

And here is the mysterious and elusive Lord Wignall on a panel.

And one of my great treats - finally getting to meet people I've been corresponding with for a while, and the odd person I've never corresponded with but wish I had (Dec Burke, Chris (I'm so sorry for the wind-ups!) Ewan, Tony Black and Steve Mosby - I'm looking at YOU!) Crime fiction people are just the nicest people in the world. I believe it was Natasha Cooper who said that crime fiction writers deal with the dregs of society so, as a result, everyone they meet in real life is an absolute delight. Romance novelists, on the other hand, write about idealised characters and everyone THEY meet is a hideous disappointment :o)

Talking of Natasha - she is most definitely one of the very best moderators there is. No matter what the topic she always makes it fascinating, is well prepared, asks throught provoking questions and gives all of her panelists equal time. This time she was moderating a panel called 'The Bleeding Edge - Writing Violence'. As she put it, no one thinks you have perpetrated the violence you write about, but EVERYONE thinks you've had all the sex :o) Her mother stopped reading her books - not because of the violence, but because of the language - not so much that she used the words, but that she knew what they meant. Val McDermid pointed out to her once that the fact that her mother was shocked meant that SHE knew what they meant too :o) Chris Mooney mentioned that he had once received a letter complaining about the level of voilence in his book, calling him sick and twisted...and then going on to ask in the PS "When is your next book coming out?"

It's definitely the moderators and panellists who make the panels special and some other excellent panels I saw were 'Writing The Wrongs - Morality In Crime Fiction' with Kevin Wignall, Steve Mosby, Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Laura Wilson - excellently moderated by Jason Pinter (I understand it was his first time moderating a panel - you would never have known). Kevin said that one of his biggest fans is serving life without possibility of parole in Georgia (he said "I checked that before I wrote back to him" :o) ) It was a really interesting panel - loads of good stuff. And, as ever, I always love the Humour Panel - this one with Al Guthrie, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Declan Burke, L C Tyler - again, brilliantly moderated by Peter Guttridge. Although - Ruth, Dec and Al - I WILL get my revenge some time :o)

Apart from those moderators I either saw, or heard about some really good moderators - Zoe Sharp, Laura Wilson, Ann Cleeves, Martin Edwards, Andrew Taylor, Colin Campbell. I also heard about one spectacularly bad moderator from a number of sources. Needless to say, I am sure she won't be asked to moderate again! I heard a number of people say that she was so dismissive of the other panellists (she was quite proud of the fact that, even though she had received the e-mail about being moderator three months before, she had not bothered to read the other panellists books, or do ANY preparation. She then proceeded to spend 20 minutes talking about herself) I heard a number of people saying they would never buy any of her books.

One of the new features at CrimeFest were book groups. Beforehand, people could sign up to get a free book which would be discussed during the convention. Lizzie Hayes and I both facilitated 3 and we both agreed that we had had fun, and some great discussions - even in the cases where there were not many participants (in fact, even where there were only 2 peop,e the discussion was fascinating and lasted the full hour!) It's always great to discuss books with people who love books, and this was no exception. And many of the people who signed up said that they really enjoyed them.

Adrian and Myles did a wonderful job and everyone I spoke to said how well organised it was, how friendly, and how well it had gone. The Gala Dinner was excellent with yummy food and no rubber chicken.

The book bags were great - with both print and audio books. My book haul which included the ones from the book bag, the prize for coming second in the pub quiz (thanks Vincent, Steve and Ken!), Adrian's generosity, and purchases were:

Karin Fossum - BROKEN
Andrea Camilleri - THE TERRACOTTA DOG
Steve Mosby - CRY FOR HELP
Steve Mosby - THE CUTTING CREW
Colin Cotterill - ANARCHY AND OLD DOGS
K O Dahl - THE MAN IN THE WINDOW
Ted Dekker - ADAM
Chris Mooney - THE SECRET FRIEND
Bruce Kennedy Jones and Eric Allison - THE LAST STRAIGHT FACE
Declan Burke - THE BIG O (cos you can never have too many copies)
Ruth Dudley Edwards - MURDERING AMERICANS
Mehmet Murat Somer - THE PROPHET MURDERS
Rafael Reig - A PRETTY FACE
Hitomi Kanehara - AUTO FICTION

Audio CDs
Kathy Reichs - MONDAY MOURNING
John Le Carre - LOOKING GLASS WAR

DVD
Dexter - Season 1

A lovely weekend. i look forward to doing it again next year, as it was announced that it's going to be an annual event - yippee! Thanks to everyone who made it special.

Donna

[Chris Ewan]

Clearly, I'm not just slow to age but also to catch on to your latest post.
It was good to meet all you friendly folk. But Donna, I feel obliged to devise some cunning wind-up for you next year...

[Donna Moore]

Vincent - because you have that lived in type of face that looks older than Chris - who has either led a life of innocence or has a portrait in his attic.

And talking of lives of innocence - Kevin - I had to take that picture - it was perfect. See you in Harrogate.

[Kevin Wignall]

I do look rather smug in that picture, don't I? And I didn't even know it was being taken. My defence is that I was smiling at something one of the other panellists was saying...

It was great catching up, albeit briefly, with all of you. Am now in rehab preparing for Harrogate.

[Vincent Holland-Keen]

How come Chris qualified to be your son, yet I got to be little brother, eh?

Great photo of the Lord of Wignall - has him exuding an almost palpable air of smug, self-satisfaction. Which is, of course, completely unlike him.

And stay away from kerbs in future! They're clearly not conducive to your physical well-being.

[Donna Moore]

I'm glad you went too dollface - wouldn't have been the same without you. But that shirt suited his Lordship so well don't you think? :o)

[Julie Morrigan]

Hey, little sister! It was indeed fab - I'm so glad I went! Great fun, met some wonderful people, and Lord Kevin is indeed a top class hugger. (Shirt was a bit gay, though, don't you think? ;P)

Take care of that knee, my lovely. See you soon! :o) *hugs*

J x

[Donna Moore]

Dec - it was great to finally get to meet you. Sorry about your flight delay - I bet you were dying to get home and give Lily a hug. Helena kept you SANE? Jeez-o - there's no hope for you man.

[Declan Burke]

Hi Donna - T'was terrific to see you too. Flight home was delayed at 10pm Sunday night, and only 100 pages of Helena Handbasket kept me sane. Much obliged, ma'am ... Cheers, Dec