Thursday, May 21, 2009

Pennwriters Conference Recap

By Paula Matter

Knowing Annette would probably post about the conference, I hesitated at first in doing this. But, I had such great photos, I couldn't resist.

The reason I have great photos is because I had my husband's digital camera. To me, it's just another camera. After several people exclaimed what a good camera it was, I admit I became nervous. And paranoid. I didn't let that sucker out of my sight.

I wanted to use his camera 'cause I could easily (!) upload photos for today's post. I ended up taking fifty-seven photos with this wonderful little camera. And, no, I won't be posting all of them.

I arrived about 3:45 on Friday and immediately ran into a few of my favorite people: Annette in the hallway; then David Wilson, Terry Friedman, and Lucienne Diver in the bar. Colleen Lindsay soon joined us and much laughter ensued.



Lucienne Diver


Colleen Lindsay


Lisa Scottoline was the Friday night keynote and she was fabulous! My only complaint was when I woke up Saturday morning, the Patty Duke show theme song was running through my head. Lisa had led us in a sing-a-long the night before. She had us in the palm of her hand, she was that good.

Timons Esaias as the Saturday lunch keynote was brilliant. One piece of advice from him: Instead of facing a blank page, at the very top of that page type: "This is no longer a blank page." I laughed, then saw how helpful that could be.


Timons Esaias


Our bookseller for the weekend was the phenomenal Mary Alice Gorman, owner of the Mystery Lover's Bookshop.






Buyers and browsers at the bookseller tables



Author and really nice guy Brian Butko



Standing is Susan Meier
Denise Myers, Nancy Schiller, Jamie Saloff



VP Carol Silvis and Nancy Schiller


Annette at 4:30 PM Saturday
Still looking good!
All in all, a truly great weekend. Annette and her volunteer staff did a fantastic job.
Oh, I did have one problem and that happened on Saturday. I read the back of the program book and saw my name listed. Apparently, I was the keeper of Annette's sanity. Can anyone who knows me see the irony in that?

7 comments:

Joyce Tremel said...

Heh. Notice how I escaped all those photographs?

Annette said...

Joyce, that's because you vanished every time a camera appeared!

Is it just me, or does Carol and Nancy look like they're plotting something?

Anonymous said...

Hehe, Joyce. Not sure how that happened.

Annette, thank you! Yep, I thought the same thing about that photo.

Paula

Ayleen said...

Must be all the final planns for the murder and mayhem that was floating around on the listserve before we left. Nice blog, Paula. Glad to see the pictures turned out despite the blinking red light!

Wilfred Bereswill said...

Looks like I missed out.

Maybe next time when I have a few vacation days.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Ayleen, 2010 Pennwriters Conference Coordinator!

(That sound good to you, Annette?)

Someone mentioned the person who started all that murder and mayhem talk years ago wasn't there this year.

Or last year.

Hmmm...

I've no idea what that little blinking light was. I played with the camera in my hotel room--got a few nice shots of the carpet.

Paula

Anonymous said...

Will, can you put in your vacation request early? Ayleen could tell you the dates for next year's con.

James Rollins will be the Friday night keynote!

Paula