Tuesday, October 09, 2012

What they said on my Bouchercon 2012 panel

The panel was "Murder Is Everywhere," the moderator your humble blogkeeper, the place Bouchercon 2012 in Cleveland. The stars:

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, on the lack of crime in Iceland:
"Now we have Hells Angels. Three of them, and they are on trial for pulling out somebody’s hair extensions.”
Lisa Brackmann on the Chinese taxi driver, “an older guy,” with whom she commiserated on the dizzying pace of change in China:
“He felt that in some ways I had more in common with him because at least I knew what the city was like that he remembered and that younger people didn’t know at all.”
Tim Hallinan:
"There's an enormous invisible stratification. Classes are very rigorously separated. ... When you learn to read degrees of the wai, you begin to get a sense of just how stratified Thai society is. Foreigners largely move outside the stratifications like the traditional detective in a detective novel. He can talk to almost everybody, but he can't talk above a certain level.”
Jeffrey Siger:
“My books discuss issues confronting contemporary Greece in a way that touches upon its ancient roots because it’s hard to discuss Greece without looking back at its history.”
Stanley Trollip:
“We like good food. We like good wine, and so we eat and drink with abandon and enjoyment, and we thought that maybe if you write about what you know, Kubu should do the same thing.”
© Peter Rozovsky 2012

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18 Comments:

Anonymous Jeffrey Siger said...

Any wit or wisdom expressed by the panelists came at the instigation of our fearless moderator, who went with his questions to where no man had gone before.

Thanks, Peter.

Jeff

October 09, 2012  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

ευχαριστώ και μπράβο!

October 09, 2012  
Blogger seana graham said...

A very scintillating crew. I've read two of them and know whereof I speak.

October 09, 2012  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Seana, a company called VWTapes recorded all the panels for sale on CD at the conference. Last year the same company made the panels available as CDs and MP3 files. The Web site doesn't have information yet about Bouchercon 2012, but I could send you a copy of the CD if you'd like. I think you'd enjoy what the panelists had to say.

October 09, 2012  
Blogger Dana King said...

Peter, it was a pleasure to see and chat with you again, as always. Reading your post-conference reports are always a pleasure, as they not only tell me of some things i missed, but manage to remind me of things i did you did not mention, so well do you invoke the atmosphere.

Next year in Albany?

October 09, 2012  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I've just registered for Albany.

Thanks for the kind words. Little did I dream when we met in Baltimore that I'd be reading your work with so much pleasure years later. Charlie Stella was right, and anyone reading this ought to read your Wild Bill without delay.

October 09, 2012  
Blogger Other Lisa said...

ALBANY!!!

A pleasure, as always, being on one of your panels, Peter. Hope to do it again in the Empire State! And I'll do my best to not go flat.

Lisa Brackmann

p.s. Captcha sucks. And the voice version is even worse.

October 10, 2012  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

You may think that CAPTCHA has been getting worse. And you’d be right. I don't know the voice version, though. What does it do? Sing you "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and make you repeat the lyrics accurately?

Hasta Albany!

October 10, 2012  
Blogger John McFetridge said...

I don't want to be 'that guy' on the internet, but it's "Hells Angels" - no apostrophe. It's oddly important to them.

It was great to see everyone in Cleveland and I'm looking forward to Albany.

Seana, 2014 is is in Long Beach, will you be able to make it?

October 10, 2012  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Icelanders pronounce it with an apostrophe.

October 10, 2012  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

John, I think I once knew it was Hells Angels, but I'd forgotten in my post-Boucheron fog. But thanks. You can disrespect his colors, trash his bike, or steal his woman, but use incorrect punctuation around a biker, and you're dead meat.

October 10, 2012  
Blogger seana graham said...

Hells Angels. Like Finnegans Wake. I'm pretty sure that's where they came up with the idea.

Long Beach does sound doable, John, but as I'm the kind of person who has a hard time planning through the end of the day, I make no promises. It's good to know, though.

Peter, yes, I'd love to hear the panel if a CD becomes available.

October 10, 2012  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I just got ideas for two titles: Hell's Wake and Finnegan's Angels.

Upcoming convention cities after Albany and Long Beach the next two years are, in order, Raleigh-Durham, New Orleans (maybe), and Toronto.

October 10, 2012  
Anonymous solo said...

Have you ever looked at Hells-Angels.com, Peter? It has an FAQ that asks the question:

Isn't the apostrophe missing in Hells Angels ?

And provides the answer:

Should the Hells in Hells Angels have an apostrophe, and be Hell's Angels? That would be true if there was only one Hell, but life & history has taught us that there are many versions and forms of Hell.

Unfortunately, life & history doesn't seem to have taught them much grammar. Taking them at their word, they should be Hells' Angels.

October 10, 2012  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I bet they all like to read Howards End.

October 10, 2012  
Blogger Nan said...

These passages are just great. I loved them, and the comments were incredibly witty. What a fun post to visit this morning.

October 11, 2012  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Thanks. It was good fun to be up on stage with that gang, and good fun to listen to the recording of the panel.

October 11, 2012  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Nan, recordings of all Bouchercon panels, including mine, should be available by the weekend. Keep your eye on this space for more news.

October 11, 2012  

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