For those of you who have never been to a mystery conference, you might want to start thinking about joining us in Bethesda, Maryland, from April 28 through April 30, 2017, for the 29th annual Malice Domestic convention. The annual gathering attracts about 500 people each year, with about 200 of them being authors of traditional mysteries and the remainder being mystery readers and fans. There are panels, lots of conversation and general schmoozing, and the Agatha Award banquet.
Why next year? Here are six good reasons: Malice's honored guests for next year's convention have just been announced:
Guest of Honor will be Elaine Viets, the author of at least four different mystery series;
Popular author of the Sookie Stackhouse series, among many other books, Charlaine Harris will receive a lifetime achievement award;
Toastmaster will be Marcia Talley, who writes mysteries featuring "Maryland survivor and sleuth" Hannah Ives;
Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author Martin Edwards, the president of Britain's prestigious Detection Club, will be presented with Malice's Poirot Award, "to honor individuals other than writers who have made outstanding contributions to the Malice Domestic genre. The award is bestowed by the Malice Domestic Board of Directors and presented at the Malice Domestic conference."
The "Fan Guest of Honor" will be Luci Zahray, "the poison lady," who has been a regular contributor to these events with her lectures on fascinating ways to do in fictional characters with some really nasty poisons;
And "Malice Remembers" the late Bill Deeck, a regular at these conventions for many years.
There will be a lot more reasons cited in the next several months - but if you're interested, just be advised that the earlier you register, the better the price. I'll have more to say about it as we go through the year together, but I'm already registered for 2017, and I hope to see you there!
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