Date: Fri, 03 May 2002 20:41:08 -0400
From: Kit Mason <kit at hers.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Convention this weekend
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

N Lynch wrote:
>
> --- "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at keithlynch.net> wrote:
> > There's a convention called Malice Domestic this
> > weekend in Crystal
> Wow, and you can get a membership at the door for only
> $150!  As far as programming goes, it runs roughly 9
> AM to 6PM and is pretty thin compared to SF cons.
> It's not listed, but with the number of authors, I
> would guess they have a lot of book signings.
> Compared to a regional SF con, SF cons are dirt cheap.
>
> I love mysteries and have been reading them probably
> longer than SF, but it's not worth going.

It was, actually, fairly affordable while it was located in Bethesda,
until it outgrew the hotel and moved to Crystal City.  And it's a good
con.  There are a lot of panels, not just
writers-talking-about-their-books-for-publicity, but about criminology
and detection and the challenges of historical research and all sorts of
interesting topics.  If it goes the way it used to, when there were, say
400 people attending, about a third to half of them were authors, and a
very few agents (usually attached to the authors; it's not that kind of
con.)  Fans get to talk with authors all the time at this one, have
dinner with them or coffee or just say hello and chat.  There is always
a guest of honor and a toastmaster for the banquet, and also a ghost of
honor.  Past guests have included Patricia Highsmith (who wrote the
book,"The Talented Mr. Ripley") and Dick Francis; this year I think it's
Rita Mae Brown.  Past ghosts have included Shakespeare and Poe.  Phyllis
A. Whitney, at about 90, drove up from Charlottesville a few years ago
to talk; she's been publishing mystery novels since just after WWII.

Malice gives the Agatha Awards, for the best "cozy" (no explicit sex or
gory violence) mystery in short story and novel, also the St. Martin
Press Malice award for best first novel ($10,000 plus a publishing
contract with St. Martin), plus grants to authors working on their first
books.  It's not just the little con down the street, as if there were a
lot of others.  It's international.  It is the second-largest convention
of mystery writers on the globe, and one of the con's co-founders was
Mary Mormon, who used to host WSFA.  (I wish it was still affordable,
too.)

Kit