by Linda O. Johnston
Hey, it's March 7 already. My InkSpot blogs appear on the first Monday
of each month. This month Leap Year Day,
February 29, was a Monday, and March 1 was therefore the first Tuesday of the
month. So here I am.
I happened to be flying home from
Phoenix on
February 29. I spent a day with some
family there after Left Coast Crime. It
was good to see them, and I loved the conference!
For one thing, I was on a panel
with other mystery writers who have pets in their stories. It was called Four-Legged Sidekicks. The animals in our mysteries weren't
necessarily sidekicks, but they were definitely important to each of the
stories. I enjoyed my fellow panelists
and our moderator--and even ordered a copy of our panel to listen to and
critique myself. It hasn't arrived yet,
though.
In addition, it was great fun
seeing quite a few other Inkers there in addition to friends from all over the
country, not just the area comprising Left Coast, which is defined on the
website as "Western North America, as defined by the Mountain Time Zone
and all time zones westward to Hawaii."
Those Inkers included Catriona McPherson, who was the conference's Toastmaster. I attended her interview, and she mentioned
me as one of those attendees who was busy.
I wonder why...
I also had a chance to chat with
my wonderful MI editor Terri Bischoff.
It's always great to see her, and I'll see her again soon at Malice
Domestic.
Speaking of the area comprising
LCC, I was also very happy that one of the people there recruiting attendees
for next year's conference in Hawaii
was a very nice woman who happened to have a service dog with her. The dog happened to be a Cavalier King
Charles Spaniel, my favorite breed! I
was away from my own pups but at least wasn't totally dog-lonesome thanks to
Koa, whose name is a type of Hawaiian wood.
Anyway, I'll be attending the
Sisters in Crime in Hollywood
soon, before I head to Malice Domestic at the end of April. That's just before my second Barkery &
Biscuits Mystery To Catch a Treat
will be published, and I expect to have a great time there, too.
Do you get the impression I'm a
conference nut?
--by Linda O. Johnston
Hi, InkSpot fans,
Last month I wrote my last post
of 2015. And now--it's January. This is my post for the first Monday of the
month, in the first month of 2016.
I'm planning a fun, busy and
productive 2016. As I mentioned last
month, my second Barkery & Biscuits Mystery, TO CATCH A TREAT, will be a
May 2016 release, and my third Superstition Mystery, UNLUCKY CHARMS, is
scheduled for October 2016.
And on the last day of 2015, I received
some wonderful news. My first Barkery
Mystery, BITE THE BISCUIT, is a finalist for the Maxwell Award in the fiction
category of the Dog Writers Association of America's annual writing competition! I've got some stiff and excellent competition,
including Midnight Ink's Sheila Boneham, but I'm thrilled just to receive the
nomination, whether or not I win.
So... Happy New Year! May you each have a wonderful 2016, filled
with happy surprises, lots of fun mysteries that you read and/or write, and everything
else that you hope for.
