CFCF, held in Wilmington, NC, the weekend closest to Halloween, is a regional conference now in its sixth year. Proceeds from the keynote dinner Saturday night benefit the Guardian ad Litem program, which acts as an advocate for children in the court system. This year, the conference also pulled in forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs as a special speaker Thursday night.
Hold your horses before you blow off a regional conference like CFCF as a waste of time. CFCF 2005 was where I met my publisher. In fact, someone snapped a picture of that pivotal moment and posted it on the CFCF 2006 blog –- serendipity, what hey? — so I grabbed it for my blog. From left to right: publisher Jack Fryar, soon-to-be published author Suzanne Adair, and historical novelist Dewey Lambdin.
This year I daytripped the Saturday daytime events only. More serendipity: my publisher and I arrived at the parking deck at the same time. It was great to see him again because the last time we’d seen each other in person was CFCF 2005. While we walked upstairs to the conference floor, he told me about a panel he’d been on Friday about publishing, where he’d told everyone that I’m “out there” and finding creative ways to market Paper Woman. I don’t just schedule appearances at bookstores, but also at reenactments, teahouses, D.A.R. luncheons, museums, etc. — and sometimes I appear in costume with my family, also in costume. The challenge, he told all the aspiring writers in the audience, is competing with 200,000 other books per year, so you have to be out there selling, and you have to be creative about it. That meant a lot to me to hear his appreciation.
He introduced me to the conference coordinators and booksellers. I asked him if he’d noticed on Friday that the conference coordinators had changed the names of the rooms. He laughed and said yes. You see, each year at CFCF, rooms are named after the protagonists in attending authors’ new books, and there was a Sophie Barton room at this year’s conference. (Sophie is the protagonist in Paper Woman.) The Sophie Barton Room was, in fact, the room my publisher’s panel was in Friday and the room my second panel was in Saturday. Gosh, Grasshopper is amazed by all this serendipity. (Thanks, Dorothy, for selecting Sophie’s name!)
My first panel, with the Carolina Conspiracy, went well and had good audience attendance. Joyce Lavene, our moderator, had us all enter in the dark and take our places at the table up front with "Phantom of the Opera" music playing and a red strobe light on us -– a dramatic entry that earned us applause before we’d even sat down. Afterwards, we agreed that since we’d all dressed in black and red, the next time we perform that entry, we’ll carry flashlights to avoid an incident resembling a vehicle pile-up on the interstate during a fog.
Sister conspirator Terry Hoover, whose first novel Double Dead will be released in January, was in the panel immediately following with me, “Murder in the Past Tense: Historical Settings.” Like me, Terry is also a member of the Guppies sub-group of Sisters in Crime. Moderated by Charles Todd, that second panel was excellent, and the room was packed with people.
After lunch, I autographed copies of Paper Woman and chatted with readers as well as authors Michael Malone, Randy Rawls, Sarah Shaber, and Alexandra Sokoloff before I headed home. Whew, quite a full day.
Thanks to the Cape Fear Crime Festival committee, especially the venerable Dorothy Hodder, for the opportunity to participate in the conference.
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