2010-07-24 00:00:00

What could be more thrilling than romantic suspense, fantastic authors and New York City all rolled into one?!
That’s right, I was one of the lucky people who got to attend ThrillerFest this year and I’m here to give you the scoop!

First of all, if you’re not familiar with International Thriller Writers organization they put on ThrillerFest each year and are a wonderful group. They have a wide definition of “thriller” and a healthy respect for the romance genre so I felt right at home there.

I think what I like best is the fact that you can get close to authors likeKen Follett, Steve Berry, Lisa Scottoline and other best selling authors in a way that feels friendly and comfortable. There’s this openness at this convention that invites you to walk up to the authors and chat. Whether that’s at a session or at the bar, you always feel welcome to join a group or talk to someone you have always admired but never met in person.

I went to Lisa Scottoline’s session and she is a riot! I had sent her a fan email that said “Dear Lisa, it was so mean of our parents to separate us at birth like that…” and went on to promise not to stalk her. What was cool was when I saw her she remembered me and said she was looking for me. Luckily, no restraining order was needed as we hit it off, laughed and are now emailing each other. And when I asked her to sign her book for me she signed it “With love from your twin!” And that is a perfect example of what ThrillerFest is really like.

I met Ellen Clark, the Borders buyer for thrillers. We both know Sue and we hung out for most of Friday. Ellen gave me some great suggestions on thriller writers to check out and we talked about cross genres. Since Ellen didn’t know many people there I introduced her around to my friends Jon Land, Jennifer St. Giles,Deborah LeBlanc, Douglas Clegg and about 20 other people. We had a blast hanging out together!

We went to a session that talked about eReaders and the panel already knew about Borders partnering with Kobo. The panels were fun, funny and/or informative.

I heard that more of the thriller writers will be attending RT next year and I find it very encouraging to see cross-support between genres and authors and even conventions.

I did a panel with the lovely Dianna Love and Barbara Vey about social media. There are a lot of readers and writers out there looking to connect online, looking for the same things we all are happy to find; friends who love good books and good conversation.

Originally posted by sue on Jul.19, 2010 on the Borders True Romance Blog 

View the post HERE