I had a great time at the seventh annual New England Crime Bake over the weekend — about 200 writers (and aspiring writers) gathered at a Hilton in suburban Boston to talk about the state of crime fiction.
The Crime Bake is one of the best small conferences in the country and a great way for me to catch up with old and new Connecticut novelists.
The organizers of the Crime Bake included the fine Madison writer Roberta Isleib and I had a chance to moderate a panel that included Chris Knopf, an Avon mystery novelist who was new to me.
Also on my panel was Brunonia Barry, the Salem, Mass., novelist who achieved one of the year’s great publishing success stories by having her self-published novel, “The Lace Reader,” bought by William Morrow in a multi-book, multi-million dollar deal.
The guest of honor was best-selling thriller writer Harlan Coben who delighted the aspiring writers in the crowd with tales of his tough early days working on a paperback series that featured sports agent Myron Bolitar.
Coben thought then that having a 15,000 copy print run of the first Myron novel was fantastic, along with the $5,000 he was paid. The author said he likes to attend conferences and help new writers because of the gracious way he was treated a decade ago by highly esteemed crime writers such as Lawrence Block and Mary Higgins Clark.
Having attended several Crime Bakes and Bouchercons (the annual international gathering) and the ThrillerFest in New York City last summer, I can vouch for Coben’s assertion that the folks who write the most popular mysteries and thrillers and suspense novels are unusually nice and accessible.
Coben was part of a group of newcomers in the 1990s that included Dennis Lehane, Laura Lippman, Lisa Scottoline, and Lee Child, all of whom take time out of their very busy writing lives to give back to the crime fiction community (Child was the guest of honor at Crime Bake last year and Scottoline was the star attraction at the 2006 gathering).
Coben did two panels, a dinner at which he was mildly roasted and then a Sunday morning breakfast gathering. He also authorized a screening of the hit French version of his novel, “Tell No One” (above), which has been a huge art house hit in this country since it opened in the summer.
The writer spoke about the irony of his novels languishing in Hollywood — or being threatened with massive changes — until the French director Guillaume Canet decided he wanted to make a movie out of the book. Now that “Tell No One” has been a huge hit in Europe and the U.S., Hollywood is once again very interested in the writer.
While I was in Dedham I learned from Stamford mystery writer Rosemary Harris the exciting news that there will be a new two-day Connecticut crime fiction event called “Murder 203” at the Easton and Westport libraries next spring — April 18 and 19.
Details will be posted as they come in on the event’s Website: www.murder203.com.
