Stop me, before I volunteer again
Mario here:
It's over. Left Coast Crime 2008 is history. What a great time. The weather was almost perfect. The authors and fans were friendly and enthusiastic. The drinks were plentiful and wet. Can't say that the conference went off without a hitch, but once the first problems were ironed out, if you didn't have fun, it was all your fault.
BIG kudos to the queen bee of the conference, our own
Chris Goff. I need to mention Suzanne Proulx and
Pari Noskin Taichert and of course, the many, many other volunteers who helped make LCC 2008 as memorable as a perp walk (of the bad guys).
The Mile High Murder Machine was as advertised: ghoulish fun as we toured Denver murder sites in a prison bus. Stocked of course with cold margaritas and Brekenridge beer.
I met lots of wonderful authors to include
Anthony Bidulka, author of the only world-traveling Ukranian gay private detective living in a small town in Saskatchewan,
Laura Benedict,
JT Ellison, and
Mark Schweizer.
LCC 2009 will be in Hawaii and we awarded a conference registration to the winner of our Aloha costume contest. Among the entries:
To liven things up during the banquet I animated a roll and bread sticks into this creature that rampaged across the table:
Which Jeanne promptly destroyed using her Ana Strong mojo: