Bouchercon Roundup

RHYS BOWEN: We've had three action-packed days and I'm writing this before we hear the results of the Anthony Awards, but we're crossing our fingers for our Hank, nominated for best novel.

On Friday morning at the Sisters in Crime breakfast Hank handed over the great seal of office as president to the incoming pres, Laura di Silverio.

Then on Friday afternoon was our famous Jungle Red game show panel. This year it was famous first lines. We gave the audience a book title, then we each wrote our own first line for it and read them out, with the real first line among them. Then the audience had to vote on which was the real first line. (Note the Jungle Red pashminas)

Here are a couple to see how well you'd do:
Ernest Hemmingway. A Farewell to Arms.

a.The midday sun. The heat. The sawdust scattered about the ground. And in the center, the bull.

b.There was no other way but the mountains and the ocean.

c.It was manifestly a day when the fish were rising.

d.In the late summer of that year we lived in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains.

e.The scent of a woman can carry a man a long way into battle.

So which one was it? And what about Fifty Shades of Grey?

a.I'd never looked at his hands bfore and although I knew I wasn't supposed to be looking, I was drawn, almost irresistibly drawn.

b.Looking in the mirror at my amethyst eyes, glossy hair and porcelain skin I realized the only way I'd lose my virginity was to dump Feminist Theory and switch my major to journalism.

c.I used to think there was something wrong with me.

d.I scowl with frustration at myself in the mirror

e. I tighten the laces of my trainers, then tie my golden hair away from my long, slender neck, then loop the bow of my chemise under my chin so as not to show a whisper of cleavage.

The answers are d in both cases. Did you get them right?
For some of the other books our first lines were better than the real ones, proving that we are terrific writers!!!
It's off home for most of us tomorrow, but I'm heading up to Canada and then joining some of the other Reds for some events in the Boston area. It will be fun.

AND STAY ALERT FOR BIG NEWS.... JUNGLE RED ANNOUNCEMENT COMING ANY DAY NOW!