Sleuthfest 2010 - Day 2

Picture of the Day for 2/26/2010. David Morrell was Guest of Honor #1 (there's a Guest of Honor #2 - I'll write about him later) and the keynote speaker at today's luncheon. He's the author of almost 30 novels, most notably "First Blood" upon which the Rambo movies are based. He is a nice guy. That seems to be true of all the authors I met- they are all really nice and approachable. The following are key points from his speech:

-He urged all of the writers to be a "1st rate you" rather than a 2nd rate author who chases market trends in publishing.

-One technique to writing fiction is to identify your dominant fear in life and explore that.

-Writing is "dramatizing daydreams."

I attended the following sessions today:

-CSI – TV
The Negative Factor
Real Science vs. the Science Fiction of CSI.
Al Hallonquist

-Sex: It Ain’t What It Used to Be
Write sex scenes so hot your fingertips will sizzle on the keyboard.
Rhonda Pollero, Leanne Banks, Traci Hall, Amy Fetzer
(I'm kind of disappointed. The authors did NOT discuss how to write hot sex scenes. Oh well...)

-Perfect Protagonists & Vile Villains
The eternal conflict between good and evil.
Jonathon King, Caroline Todd, Terry Griffin, Britin Haller, Heather Graham

-Gummed To Death
Creating smooth-talking dialogue.
Karen Kendall, Deborah Shlian, Steven M. Forman, Michael Haskins, Phyllis Smallman

-The Short Story
The discipline of brevity: claustrophobic or mind-expanding?
Peter Robinson, Elaine Viets, Diane Stuckart, Don Bruns, Oline Cogdill
(I attended this one solely for Elaine Viets. I'm a BIG fan of her Dead End Jobs mystery series. See the picture below. Elaine is on the far left.)


I did have an interesting encounter with one of the organizers of Sleuthfest today. She came up and asked my name. She said the woman she was looking for was pregnant and since there weren't that many pregnant women in attendance, I might be the woman she needed to find. Sigh. I didn't have the heart to tell her I'm not pregnant. I've got to do something about this belly of mine.