YARMPHF: Murder and Mayhem in Ghostwriting (and Muskego)

Ladies and gentlemen, we have another great guest blogger for you today. Alison Janssen is not only one of the premiere editors out there today, she's also one of the coolest people you'll ever meet. So, without further ado, allow me to present, my FF, One-L Alison:


Hi!

I commandeered Marcus's post. Marcus is incapacitated at the moment, me having drunk him under (several) tables.

Ok. So, that's a lie. He's right here next to me, and challenging that assumption. Point is, I'm in control of the keyboard and he's busy smoking a cigarillo (aka tiny cigar), so we'll go with my perspective of events.

Anyway:

We're about to attend Murder in Muskego, one of the fastest-growing, most-awesomest conferences in the Midwest. Tomorrow legions of folk will descend upon the Muskego Public Library (and the Mobile station across the way) for several hours' worth of wisdom from varied and experienced crime writers. But more than that, as with most conferences, this is a chance to celebrate the community of mystery writers and readers, and that's what we're here, right now, at the Jordans' palatial estates, doing.

I don't know if you ever stop to think about how amazing the mystery community is. No, seriously. In all earnestness. This isn't one of those "OMG, I'm so drunk and I loooooooove you!" statements.

This community supports its authors. This community's authors care about its readers. There are not a lot of areas of industry in which there's such a connection between producer and consumer. I mean, really. You can bid, at an auction, for your name (or the name of your loved ones) to appear IN a book that you will later purchase and read.

Talk about meta.

In any case, we're really excited about tomorrow. You should really make it out, if you're in the vicinity.

And if you're not, that's cool, we still love you. But we'd ask you to think about this. I mean, really, think about it. You are a part of something, by being part of the mystery community. You have ownership of the genre you read. On some level, you get to tell the stories that most move you.

So, tell us. What do you want to see? Where do you want this community to go? And ... how will you help it get there?

(p.s. We had ought to talk about how these conferences seem to go better with beer ... Jon and Ruth have provided a bathtub ... yes, a BATHTUB ... full of different beers. So, bonus question: What's YOUR favorite social lubricant? I vote Ale Asylum's Ambergeddon, but that may just be because I'm halfway though a bottle and it's right here in front of me right now ... )