My trip to Sleuthfest got off to a rough start with a reservations snafu followed by an "Oops, I forgot my suitcase." Yeah. I'm that person. I'd like to say that's never happened before (the suitcase), but I made the same mistake about 25 years ago. Let's hope it's at least another 25 years before it happens again!
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| Maggie with Nancy J Cohen |
But, everyone at the conference was so gracious and accepting of my total Space Cadet moment, that I stopped hyperventilating and enjoyed myself. I met up with Guppies, with Five Star Authors, with 3 of my fellow Booklover's Bench authors, with old friends, with my "home-team" crew from Killer Nashville, and of course, the incomparable Deni Dietz from Five Star.
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| From left: SL Menear, Maggie, Sandy Parks, Clea Simon, and Judy Knauer |
I was fortunate enough to have been placed on two panels and asked to moderate a third. In the first panel about how our sleuths were not so ordinary, I was fortunate enough to be sandwiched between two authors with pilot sleuths (Sandy Parks and SL Menear ) while Clea Simon rounded out the author line up and Judy Knauer did an excellent job of keeping the conversation moving.We were supposed to dress up as our sleuths, if you're wondering about the hats. I'm supposed to be Cleopatra Jones, my accountant and terrible golfer sleuth.
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| Neil Placky, Jennifer McMahon, Heather Graham, and Maggie T |
Panel #2 was all about paranormal mysteries, and I had the great fortune to be seated beside the wonderful Heather Graham. Other panels included Neil Placky and Jennifer McMahon, with moderator Diane Stuckart who did a wonderful job.
I moderated for the cross-promotion panel featuring author-marketing dynamos Nancy J. Cohen and Libby Fischer Hellmann, along with publicist Erin Mitchell.
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| from left: author Nancy J Cohen, librarian Judy Buckland, and author Elaine Viets from the Librarian and Author Mash up Panel |
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I attended several panels about the business side of the publishing industry and got a good vibe on what authors are doing to expand their reach. They're doing the kind of marketing they enjoy the most to maintain a consistent social media presence. They're also scrambling to write the next book!
I enjoyed meeting up with new and old friends, and I came home fired up and ready to write!
Good thing because I have a novel to finish. I'm currently at 48,000 words on Doggone It, book 3 in my paranormal dreamwalker series.
Stay in touch!
Maggie Toussaint
Gone and Done It coming in April
Available from Amazon for preorder... now!
