Dateline BEA: panels, parties and drinking

My thoughts about most of the mystery/suspense panels appear over at BEA Lunch. I would have liked to get to some of the author signings but alas, I seemed to have been chained in that tiny little room which had an alarming tendency to stay standing room only. Which may or may not explain the crankiness that seems to permeate the post.

Suffice to say that by 5 PM I was done. A good thing too, as the night was about to begin and there were parties to attend. First up: the launch of the International Thriller Writers over at the Algonquin hotel. After getting there early (was it 5:30 start time or 6? No one really knew) and stashing my laptop in a safe place I found C.J. Carpenter in the lobby and we made our way up to the 2nd floor. At first, it was just a healthy crowd. But not much later it was packed. Jammed. I couldn’t even begin to list the people who were there, but suffice to say that the star power was huge. Even amidst the crush I had some good conversations, most notably with St. Martin’s editor Kelley Ragland (who edits, among others, Olen Steinhauer, Stuart MacBride and Theresa Schwegel, whose excellent debut OFFICER DOWN was my train reading Friday night when it took 2 hours to get home from dinner in Queens) Barry Eisler (who has finally admitted he worked for the CIA several years ago and will no doubt be getting asked about this each and every tour stop for his next book, KILLING RAIN) and David Hale Smith, who’s just about the go-to agent for major new hardboiled voices.

If the party was anything to go by, and I do believe it is, ITW is not only here to stay, but its profile will only increase. Especially with their inaugural anthology out next year (which counteracts the sentiment stated earlier in the day that “anthologies are dying”)

Next up (after a much-needed dinner, important when you magically forget to eat and drink anything all day) was Jennifer Weiner’s

launch party, held at the Penthouse of the Parker Meridien Hotel. What a

change of pace from the ITW party, where I seemed to know a gazillion

people, to this one, where I knew about a handful if that. Never mind that the

decor was certainly different, what with all the pink-colored beds all

over the place (but damn, they were comfortable when you wanted to eat

the food — also fabulous — and rest your aching feet.) Ron was there and we got to meet Jennifer’s husband, lawyer and blogger Adam Bonin

— and blogging only came up as a subject very briefly. Later I met

Jennifer’s sister Molly, whose brief back-and-forth with her older

sister had me in stitches. As did walking around and spotting Gregg

Hurwitz (standing with Will Staeger and Leslie Silbert), giving him a

double taking and asking in a very shocked voice “what the hell are you

doing here?”

Because of the late hour I got to the Bleak House party (held at a club

in the East Village) too late to see most everyone though the word from

those still around — de facto guest of honor Reed Coleman,

C.J. Carpenter, Mary Reagan, John Connolly (who’ll be signing books at

Black Orchid later this afternoon), Billie Bloebaum and others — was

that it was an “amazing” event with tons of great food and lots of

attendees. Well, you can’t be at everything at the same time…

Only downside: having to lug my gigantic laptop bag everywhere. Lesson

learned: yes Virginia, it really is a desktop replacement. Even with

kickass wireless capability.

I’ll post a final roundup later today (including a more detailed report of Thursday’s Backspace conference) with the Weekend Update delayed to Monday. Anyone mind if I go and collapse now?