Left Coast Crime Convention

A Look at the 1999 Left Coast Crime Convention

by April Henry

I had never been to a fan convention before, so I didn’t know what to expect when I went to Left Coast Crime, which was held in Albuquerque March 5-7, 1999. I ended up really enjoying myself. There were about 500 fans and 100 authors, as well as 15 or so book dealers. All the booksellers sold out of Circles of Confusion by Sunday morning, and it was fun to meet fans from other parts of the country. It still doesn’t seem that long ago that the only people who were reading my writing were related to me by blood or friendship.

Even though I am a writer, I am still star struck by other writers. It was wonderful to have a long conversation with Aaron Elkins (who is moving back up to Seattle). And to meet Jeff Deaver (who wasn’t even listed on the program) after having just been wowed by the twists and turns of The Coffin Dancer. One of the simplest pleasures was calling authors by the names they use informally, such as Jeff for Jeffrey Deaver, Judy for JA Jance and Gerry for GM Ford.

One fun person I got to know at the conference was a pharmacist whose hobby it is to advise authors on various types of poisons a character might use. She told us that while there are untraceable poisons, she advises authors not to have their characters use them, or else how would the dastardly deed ever be uncovered? A physician on the same panel said he is frustrated by continually encountering fictional characters who receive a blow to the head that knocks them out for a few minutes. In reality, he said, all such a blow usually does is make the recipient really mad. If it does cause a concussion, the period of unconsciousness might last minutes, hours, days or forever - and there is no way for person giving the blow to know.

Another panel discussed breaking the rules. Martha Lawrence, who writes books which begin with star signs and has dark hair and bangs, wore a strapless Xena costume in her job as moderator. It certainly got everyone’s attention. Most of the rules they discussed involved animals. Barbara Saranella, author of No Human Involved and No Offense Intended, said that writers can never kill off fictional dogs or cats (or readers will be very angry), and should be sure to veto any cover with a snake on it, as so many people are phobic. Penny Warner, who writes a series with a deaf protagonist, added that readers have written her letters because they are worried that her fictional character doesn’t feed her fictional dog often enough!

In another session, Jeff Deaver shared that friends in the FBI and police read his books before they published. They often ask him to change the details of such things as how a bomb timer works. As any of you who have read his books can guess, he only uses about 10% of his research.

Leslie Glass, who writes the Time series, said that while she was researching Judging Time she got a blood spatter expert to explain to her how OJ might have killed two people in a short space of time. He demonstrated in a hotel lobby - a fairly realistic demonstration that involved jerking her head back by the hair and pretending to cut her throat. She said that all this took place in a Portland hotel, and no one said anything or acted as if it were unusual. I should have told her that the people who didn’t come to her aid weren’t Portlanders, but surely out-of-towners.

Sally Chapman said that even her far out characters in her series set in Silicon Valley are drawn from real life, and that she once worked next to a guy who kept a huge snake in his cubicle and fed it live mice. Of course, she later gave a character a similar snake.

Aaron Elkins related that he was recently working on a scene where a character has his hands bound and is put into a car trunk. He had his wife tie up his hands and then he got into the trunk (with your hands tied, he discovered, all you can do is fall into the trunk). Then she drove him around while he made mental notes. When it came time to unlock the trunk, the lock mechanism was broken. She called Triple A, which directed them to a service station. While the guy got the trunk open, Charlotte told him Aaron had been trying to fix something in the trunk and had accidentally fallen in. You can imagine the man’s doubtful expression when he found Aaron with his hands tied behind his back.

I had so much fun that I’m now considering attending Malice Domestic or Bouchercon. And I’m really looking forward to 2002, when Left Coast Crime will come to Portland.