This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend Malice Domestic for the first time. I’ve wanted to attend this Cozy Mystery conference for a few years, especially after hearing so many good things about it from my friend Bill Aguiar. However, I’d been stymied for the last few years because it’s been held the same weekend as RavenCon, an SF convention where I’ve been on Programming.
While fans are welcome, Malice Domestic is very much a professional conference for writers, editors and publishers. Panel sessions were varied, with many of them focused on the craft of writing, the business aspects of writing, or various books available in sub-genres (like ghost-related mysteries). They also had a very nice Dealer’s Room, with books for sale by all of the professional writers in attendance (including me). Oh, and a whole long table devoted to Author Signings.
Not having attended before, I didn’t know many people there. Fortunately, Bill Aguiar was there, as he usually is, working as a volunteer. In thanks for his volunteer work over the years, he was actually the Fan Guest of Honor for the event. He helpfully introduced me to a bunch of people, so I had some delightful conversations with a good many of my fellow writers. Good times!
While most of the books in the Dealer’s Room were, of course, mysteries, there were two dealers carrying science fiction. One of them was John Gregory Betancourt, who was downsizing and thus selling off a fair amount of his book collection. So, surprisingly, I ended up buying a fair amount of used SF/Fantasy books, including some Jack Vance books I was missing, and a bunch of the Zebra edition Robert E. Howard books from the 80’s.
Another stand-out for me was the annual Malice Domestic Banquet (a real banquet for which people dressed up) on Saturday. As Fan Guest of Honor, Bill was told at the last minute that he had to give a speech from the stage. He absolutely killed it with his impromptu humorous remarks when he and the other guests were introduced. Later, with his official speech, he killed it again, leaving the crowd in stitches. The best speech of the night, honestly. Truly unexpected, but delightful.
As Bill said later to me, “I’ve volunteered at a lot of events, but nobody else ever made mea Guest of Honor.” It’s a designation that clearly meant something real to my friend. I’m glad I was there for it.
I had so much fun, I’ll definitely be back next year (it no longer conflicts with RavenCon because that con moved to October).
Oh, and I even managed to sell some books in the Dealer’s Room.
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