Back from Left Coast Crime
Terry Odell
As I mentioned in my last post, Left Coast Crime is a reader conference, where the goal for authors is to make reader connections. There’s very little how to and a lot of this is how I handle (insert panel topic) in my book.
But, before I recap the conference, I want to point out that a gentleman approached me, introduced himself as CR Foster, and said he wanted me to know how much The Kill Zone had helped his writing, and he’d just published his first novel, Dead by Monday. He thanked TKZ, and notably Sue Coletta, who critiqued his first page, in his acknowledgments. Always good to hear that we’re helping writers. 
(If you’re reading this, CR, my husband is enjoying the book.)
And on with my experiences.
I arrived a day early because … travel unpredictability. Actually, a evening and a day early, but I always prefer to have time to settle in before needed to have my brain fully engaged. I took time on that pre-conference day to wander around the hotel and the nearby streets around the Ferry Building. I didn’t bring my camera, just my phone, but I enjoyed taking pictures. If you’d like to take a look, you can find my gallery here.
(Note: someday I’ll learn to take pictures of the conference, but I took very few during the sessions.)
The first panel I was on got off to an interesting start. The moderator’s latest book had released the day before, and things were understandably hectic. She’d already broken one of my moderator “rules” which is not to use the program bio as an introduction to the panelists. Her “reasoning” was that since it was the first day of the conference, attendees wouldn’t have read the program yet.
However, when she got to me (the last one at the table), she was giving information about a book I’d never heard of, calling my writing humorous, at which point I interrupted saying “That’s not me.”
She apologized, and let me introduce myself, which was probably a better marketing ploy. I was now memorable, and I could talk about my two new releases, neither of which was mentioned in my program bio.
Our panel was called “Perils of Small Towns.” Since I don’t write thrillers or anything dark, my small town’s perils are all on the author’s end. Avoiding Cabot Cove/Jessica Fletcher syndrome. Being realistic about crime. (Another pet peeve is why when you say “mystery” everyone inserts “murder” in front of it.) There are other crimes, and in a small town, where everyone probably knows everyone else, they can be just as interesting. Mapleton, my made-up small town is patterned after the one I live in where the entire county has investigated a total of three homicides since 2008: one in 2013 and one in 2011. I’m sure the moderator was frustrated that my answer to many of her “peril-focused” questions was “I don’t deal with that.”
For me, the moderator I actually walked out on was bouncy, peppy, singing, and said, “We’re not going to clap in this panel. We’re going to chant the author’s names as I introduce them.” More than I could take.
My next panel, the one where I was the moderator, wasn’t until the last day, so I was more or less free to choose my panels, mingle, and, as has been pointed out by others here at TKZ, hang out at the bar. Not to meet agents and publishers, but to meet readers.
Then there’s the promotional materials table. It’s filled with swag from just about every author in attendance. I talked about good and not so good swag in another post. My offerings were gone before the last day. I brought lip balm (none left; sorry JSB), post-it notes and some copies of my short story collection, Seeing Red. All of those were gone, too, which left room in my suitcase to bring home books (they give away a lot of these) and swag.
The panels I attended included:
- Rural Settings
- Knives, Swords, and how to use them
- Getting the Details Right (lots of tips on things writers get wrong by using television as a reference. Also per DP Lyle, “You can’t kill a drunk.”)
- Importance of Setting
- Challenges of Rural Settings (which would have been a better spot for me)
- Law Enforcement
- Lawyers, which served as a reminder that the Supreme Court can’t go after cases; they have to be brought to the court.
- Labels: Cozy, Traditional, Suspense, or Thriller?
- Liar’s Panel, where author panelists told stories about things that happened to them, and the audience had to choose which one was telling the truth.
“My” panel, Romance, Love, Sex, & Crime was the last panel of the conference. It was Sunday morning, the morning after the awards banquet, and I was pleased that there were more than a dozen people in the room. I followed my own rules, we kept things casual, and based on comments afterward, we did a good job.
Overall takeaways. I still need to work on getting out of my introverted self, but I did manage to meet and mingle at least as much as I retreated to my hotel room.
I like Left Coast Crime. It’s small enough so you don’t feel lost. I’ve already signed up for next year, which will be in Santa Fe—an added perk is that it’s driveable, so I’ll be able to bring more swag, and donate something to the silent auction where the proceeds go to a literacy charity. This year it was the Literacy and Learning Fund, administered by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.
Your turn. Any conference tales to share?
Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings
Deadly Ambitions
Peace in Mapleton doesn’t last. Police Chief Gordon Hepler is already juggling a bitter ex-mayoral candidate who refuses to accept election results and a new council member determined to cut police department’s funding.
Meanwhile, Angie’s long-delayed diner remodel uncovers an old journal, sparking her curiosity about the girl who wrote it. But as she digs for answers, is she uncovering more than she bargained for?
Now, Gordon must untangle political maneuvering, personal grudges, and hidden agendas before danger closes in on the people he loves most.
Deadly Ambitions delivers small-town intrigue, political tension, and page-turning suspense rooted in both history and today’s ambitions.
Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”