Sleuthfest: A different kind of conference
by Oline H. Cogdill
March 1st, 2009There must be a dozen or more conferences for those interested in mystery fiction.
For me, the top four in the U.S. are Bouchercon, Malice Domestic, Left Coast Crime, (this year in Hawaii where Kate and Brian are now) and Sleuthfest.
While the others are geared toward the fans, Sleuthfest focuses on the craft of writing. It’s designed to help unpublished authors, new authors and those with a few books to their credit improve their writing skills. Panels focus on devising plots, shaping characters, crisp dialogue as well as crime scene detection and insiders’ views of the publishing industry.
Sleuthfest is organized by the Florida chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. Being from Florida, naturally I’ve been to every Sleuthfest since it was first organized in the mid-’90s.
I admit that a few of those Sleuthfests didn’t resonate with me. Maybe because so many conferences meant hearing the same thing over and over. Maybe I was just burned out on conferences for a while.
But the past three or four Sleuthfests have been spot-on. It seems a new kind of energy has been moving through Sleuthfest making the panels and discussions seem new. Sure, we are hearing the same topics on panels as we did before, but there’s a spark that has made them seem fresh.
This year’s Sleuthfest featured two guest speakers, John Hart and Brad Meltzer (at left), in addition to a group of quality authors.
My compliments to the organizers of Sleuthfest who are probably taking a long nap about now….before they start planning next year’s Sleuthfest.
I will frequently be posting blogs based on Sleuthfest panels both at this Mystery Scene magazine blog and at the Sun Sentinel’s Off the Page blog.
If you attended, post your comments here, please.
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