Bouchercon here we come!

A week from now, Vicki Delany, Barbara Fradkin, Mary Jane Maffini and I will be loading up my car and heading south of the border to Indianapolis for Bouchercon 2009. The fifteen hour drive promises to be quite the adventure. No doubt we will be hatching many a murderous plot to while away the long hours. Killing off drivers who cut us off, waitresses that refuse to smile or truck drivers that rumble up and nudge the back bumper, all harmless fun from our writers’ imaginations. But we will be oh so kind to the nice men and women in blue that control the gate at the border.

And of course we will be fine tuning our ‘O Canada’ panel on Thursday, Oct. 15 at 4:30 pm, which in addition to us will also include another Canadian writer, Anthony Bidulka. We’ve added a sub-title to it. “A Criminal Romp Through Canada’ to tie in with the theme of our silent auction item, a basket of Canadian crime. Although our settings don’t quite go from sea to sea, they do include almost half of Canada’s provinces and territories, from Quebec, Ontario, Saskachewan, British Columbia, Yukon and Nunavut. So you don’t have to hop a plane to these far flung places, just come to our panel and if you are intrigued, finish the journey with one of our books.

To add to the theme, we’ll be decked out in stereotypical Canadian head gear, including the de rigeur hockey helmet, a moose hat complete with antlers and I must not forget the Grenadier Guards hat. This one I’m dying to see, since it’s handmade by no less than Barbara’s skilled fingers. And we’ll give you a sample of Canadian cuisine, including moose droppings, Saskatoon berries and Nanaimo bars. It promises to be a great time.

I hope to see you there. And by the way that's our mascot, Bucky. He'll be there too.