I've already mentioned the two panels in which I'll be participating at this year's Bouchercon, the world's oldest and largest conference for mystery writers and readers. I'd like to call your attention to a third significant panel. This year, to their credit, Bouchercon organizers are paying close attention to a significant question: where are today's (and tomorrow's) crime writers going to find their new audiences?
The answer, I think, is to find today's mysteries for young people - from elementary school to "young adult" - that will both entertain and intrigue them and, we hope, encourage them to find and read books by writers whose mysteries catch their imagination. So the organizers have invited my wife (A.K.A. newly-retired school library media specialist Leslie Blatt) to moderate a panel at this year's conference called "Crime for Middle Grades: Talking Pre-Teen Role Models, Crime-Solvers, and Hero(ine)s." The panelists include Keir Graff, Carol Hughes, Gay Kinman, Sarah Smith and Penny Warner. If you know (or have within your household, perhaps) a potential future reader of great crime stories, come get some ideas from this panel. It's on Sunday morning, November 16, at 10 AM.
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