VIDEO: Allison Leotta & the booty call of interviews

It's not much of a secret that I've been friends with novelist Allison Leotta for the past few years.  I met her at Thrillerfest in New York a few months before her debut novel, Law of Attraction, was published.  (IIRC, she approached to ask me about the embroidery I was stitching on.)  Over the course of the next few days, I discovered that she was a delightful lady.  That is often enough to inspire me to sample one novel, and so once it was published I did check out Law of Attraction.  I've been a fan ever since.  Ali has been described as "the female John Grisham" in the Providence Journal, and I can't do better than that. 

So, the video above has been dubbed "the booty call of interviews."  I've been meaning to shoot a video interview with Ali for the past couple of years, and it just never happens.  We kept trying to schedule time during the most recent Thrillerfest in July, but somehow it still never happened.  Time was running out.

As it happens, Ali and I share a tradition with several friends.  On the last night of Thrillerfest we get dressed in our best and have a night out on the town before heading back to the Grand Hyatt for a long night of socializing well past closing time in the bar.  Here's a photo of the group of us at dinner earlier in the evening:

For those who are curious, in the front row from left to right is Randi Morrison, me, Allison Leotta, and Paul Kemprecos.  The second row is Graham Brown, Christi Kemprecos, and Boyd Morrison--all great friends.  Oh, and yes, that's a two-story Buddha in the background of this hip, Midtown eatery.

Sometime a bit past midnight I realized that another year was about to pass with no interview.  I was determined.  I was, as you'll hear, 84% of the way through her forthcoming novel, Speak of the Devil, and was very caught up in the story.  I'd been sort of harassing her about torturing her protagonist all weekend.  So, throwing caution to the wind, Ali and I set our cocktails aside and filmed the very casual conversation above.  The, uh, scotch might explain my filming in the first moments of the video, but it settles down reasonably quickly.

I hope you enjoy this interview.  We were having fun.  Ali is as poised as can be and I sound incoherent, but it was late, okay?  Ali's third Anna Curtis legal thriller goes on sale this Tuesday, August 6th.  I can't recommend this series enough--and friendship has nothing to do with it.  My review of Speak of the Devil will be posted to this blog early next week.

NOTE:  OMG, the Kindle edition of Ali's debut novel, Law of Attraction is still on sale for $2.99!  Grab this bargain by clicking on the link in the novel's title ASAP. It's too good a deal to last.

Thrillerfest VI: Thursday

So, I don’t participate in the first part of Thrillerfest. That consists of “Craftfest” and “Agentfest,” and since I’m not trying to learn how to write and I’m not seeking representation, there’s no point. The Thrillerfest part of the conference officially kicks off late Thursday afternoon. Happily, I didn’t need to accomplish too much on Thursday before the festivities began.

This was good, because I was experiencing “cascade failure” with my body. It had started the previous day. My contact lens was bugging me early in the day, so I took it out. The previous night, while sitting quietly in a darkened theater, suddenly my eye went nuts. Tears were gushing out of my left eye. I’m dabbing with a Kleenex, and Elle is wondering why I’m crying in a comedy. Soon enough, my nose is also dripping and my throat was sore. I had a head full of salt water. I woke the next morning feeling like I’d been pickled in brine. A week later, my eye is still slightly wonky, though much, much better than during the conference when I was surrounded by cameras and couldn’t put any makeup on my face. *rolls eyes* My throat no longer hurts, but my voice is, if anything, worse. You’ll be glad to know, I’m never speaking again. But I was lucky. Symptom-wise, I was kind of disastrous all weekend, but I never felt sick. I kind of hurt and I felt tired, but there was a reason for that.  No sleep.

So, my first agenda item for Thursday was move into the Grand Hyatt, Thrillerfest’s host hotel. Unfortunately, the Hyatt was not so grand this year. The lobby is being redone, and not to put too fine a point on it, it’s a train wreck. This is disappointing, as the lobby has traditionally been prime mingling and meeting real estate. There was literally no place to see and be seen. Potentially even more disastrous, our bar had been turned into office space! Now, those that know me IRL will attest that I am a girl of moderate habits. So, too, on the road, actually, but when in Rome… What I mean is writers spend a lot of time in bars, and when I’m with them, so do I. Even more than the hotel lobby, it is the place to be. Our old bar at the Hyatt was a sort of dim, intimate Hernando’s Hideaway of a bar. The new bar is a long, stretched out glass and chrome hot house on the lobby’s mezzanine level. It’s a lovely, sunny spot for breakfast or lunch, but how many extramarital affairs or other scandals are going to start in a glass house? (I’ve been hanging with these people for seven years. You haven’t seen the things I’ve seen.)

I met up with Elle in the non-lobby of the Hyatt, because we were going to be rooming together for the long weekend. I was already looking and sounding pretty pathetic at check in, and Elle was having issues of her own. Consequently (?), we scored a fairly nice double room with a small attached seating area. That is where our luck with the Hyatt ended. I am not going to go into excruciating detail, but we had issues, many issues in the next 36 hours. I’m a calm girl, but at one point I threatened to shoot “someone” at the hotel. The next time we came up to our room, there was a bottle of wine chilling on ice, a selection of non-alcoholic beverages, a fruit basket, and cookies. In addition, over the course of three days, we were comped four breakfasts, $200 in hotel credit, and two room nights. I’m pretty sure they lost money on our stay, but things were handled very, very badly. And then once they finally got their act together, everything was fine. So, enough about that.

Reviewer extraordinaire Jeff Ayers

After checking in and getting the lay of the land, I headed down to the Conference Level and picked up my T-fest badge, tote bag, and other random items. This is, of course, where you start greeting friends. The awesome book reviewer and librarian Jeff Ayers was one of the first people I saw. Jeff is… he’s a shiny, happy person. I have never seen that man without a smile on his face. He is the very definition of likeable, and I admire him in so many ways. I also wish I could spend more time with the guy, ‘cause I think I could learn so much from him. Suffice it to say, if Jeff Ayers is the first person to greet you at T-fest, you’re off to a good start.

I’ll admit that I was killing time. I’d connected with several friends, but meetings with agents and the like were happening at the bar. It wasn’t quite social hour yet. There was a welcoming cocktail reception at 6:30pm. Having nothing better to do, I wandered back up to the Conference Level. It occurred to me that for the first time in six years, I might listen in on M.J. Rose and Doug Clegg’s Buzz Your Book session. It’s sort of the transition between Craftfest and Thrillerfest each year, and I haven’t sat in once. I approached with the best intentions, but as I neared, I saw novelist Alan Jacobson enter the room, camera in hand. Alan’s been the official T-fest photographer since forever. Why? He has skills. Skills beyond writing a fine thriller. Anyway, I was lurking outside when the flashes had stopped, and I grabbed Alan for a nice catch up. He lives right in the Bay Area like me, but I hadn’t seen him since Bouchercon. So typical. Happily, Alan and I generally do manage to carve out some one-on-one time wherever we are, and it’s a pleasure for me, because he’s a lovely, lovely man. Seriously, a favorite in the industry. And I’m a bad lady, because I still haven’t read any of his Karen Vail novels. He gets all these starred reviews in the publishing trades, but I’ve been reticent to jump into an ongoing series. I’m going to remedy that soon. He’s got a new one coming out with the enticing title: Inmate 1577. Hear me now, I will read Alan soon.

Let me address something… I speak very highly about a lot of people in these circles. See Jeff Ayers and Alan Jacobson above. This is because I think very highly of these people. I’m super lucky to move in some very, very cool circles. Ironically, what I’m famous (or infamous) for in these circles is speaking my mind. So, sorry if I’m boring everyone talking about how totally awesome these people are. There are a lot of unbelievably awesome people at Thrillerfest. That’s why I’ve made and kept so many friends over the years. Not everyone is awesome, and I don’t mind naming names. I don’t know him personally, but I’m sorry to say that no one has a nice word to say about Stuart Woods. The consistency is stunning. But I don’t know him. I choose to surround myself with amazing, cool, beautiful people. And that leads us right into the opening cocktail party…

Me with Paul & Christi a couple of years ago.

OMG, so many good people that I haven’t seen in a year! ITW Co-President and all-around good guy Doug Preston; my buddy Bob Liparulo who I haven’t seen for two or three years; Paul and Christi Kemprecos who I love sooo much, but I can’t do more than wave at because I’m trapped by my own social circle! The frequently teasing David Liss gave me a warm hug. I connect with my dear friends Boyd and Randi Morrison. I’m chatting at length with Lissa Price, about whom you’ll hear much, much more later. Elle’s here too. Boyd, Lissa, Elle, Jimbo, me, and several others all go back to the very first T-fest in Phoenix, six years ago. We all bonded, and that bond has really held. It’s a wonderful, special friendship. And the nice thing is, as we each make more friends over the years, we share them. I met hunky novelist Graham Brown through those guys, but unfortunately our good friends Graham and equally hunky Chris Kuzneski had bailed at the last minute to meet their writing deadlines. Do you readers understand that you’re negatively impacting my social life? Another friend I’d met through Boyd Morrison is another Bay Area writer, the lovely and delightful, and very sociable Sophie Littlefield. Yes, I know everyone who reads this blog is very familiar with all of these names. It’s a combination of me reading my friends, becoming friends with the people I read, writing about my friends, and my friends being imminently newsworthy.



Mike Cooper & Margery Flax of the MWA

 Back to Sophie. She pulls me over and introduces me to her brother, Mike Cooper, about whom I’ve heard much. He’s a lovely friendly fellow, and pretty soon I’m introducing him to half the party as “Sophie’s brother.” It’s not that he’s not a talented and successful author in his own right, but as I explained to him, he just happened to be in a quadrant of the room that was essentially the Sophie Littlefield fan club. Me, Boyd and Randi, Elle, Lissa, Allison “Ali” Leotta, even Sophie’s editor Adam Wilson wandered by and joined the conversation. There were others, but I can’t even remember anymore. Is there anyone who doesn’t love Sophie?

I’d forgotten to eat all day, so I was snarfing up food while socializing. But eventually we started to talk dinner. God bless Lissa for practicality. But then my attention was caught by a very recognizable stranger, the debut author of one of the best novels I’ve read this year. I walked right up to him and said, “Dr. McEuen, I’m a big fan of yours!” In general, I’ve found this to be an acceptable way to begin a conversation, and it worked like a charm. Paul McEuen is not only a brilliant, world-renowned physicist working in nanotechnology, he is also the author of the uber-smart thriller Spiral. I think I was gushing when Lissa walked up and said, “Come to dinner with us.” (God bless you, Lissa, for being cool and assertive!) And he did!

The final contingent was me, Lissa, Elle, Ali Leotta, and Paul. We’d gone looking for Mike Cooper to extend an invitation, but couldn’t find him. Poor Paul, he was stuck with four ladies. Our concierge directed us to Avra, an upscale Greek seafood restaurant a few blocks away. We had a reservation, which worked out great. The ambiance was lovely, and I was feeling very New York chic. We were given this fabulous semi-circle booth, and I was seated smack in the center, with Paul and Elle on one side, and Lissa and Ali on the other. We had plenty of room, but this had the unfortunate side effect of fracturing our conversation in two. At one point, someone had the bright idea of us all smooshing closer together. It was unbearably adorable, all of us taking up about 2/3rds of our booth, but it worked like a charm! Conversation was vastly improved! There’s a photo in existence somewhere, and if I can ever get my 

Ali back home in DC

hands on it, I’ll post it.  For now, you'll have to make due with stock photos of everyone.

Now, let me tell you a little more about my girlfriends. They’re all beautiful and wildly accomplished. It’s enough to give a lowly blogger a complex, but I’m working on my issues. Ali Leotta is a Harvard Law grad who spent 12 years as a federal sex crimes prosecutor before writing her first legal thriller, Law of Attraction. She's also the married mom of two little boys aged two and four. Oy. I call her "The Underachiever." We met at Thrillerfest only last year, but have kept in touch since. I was so looking forward to introducing her to “the rest of the gang” this year, and she just hit it off with every single person I introduced her to. I didn’t even have to join the conversation.

Lissa Price, the Next Big Thing

You haven't heard of Lissa Price yet, but you will. As I said earlier, she's been my friend since the very first T-fest, and her forthcoming futuristic thriller, Starters,  will be Random House's lead YA title for Spring 2012. (Check it out, it's available for preorder now--cool!)  They're going all out for her, and it sounds like they're positioning her to be the Next Big Thing. So many of our good friends have achieved big success in the years since we’ve met that at times it seems astonishing, but there’s always room in the pool for one more. We're all very excited for her!



Sophie Littlefield & Elle Lothlorien

 And lovely Elle Lothlorien hasn't been traditionally published. She's had several near misses. She's another friend who I've known since the very first T-fest six years ago. After her thriller failed to sell, she decided to go in a completely different direction. She wrote a chick lit novel called The Frog Prince and posted it to Amazon. Without any name recognition or platform, she's selling steadily at a rate that would impress any publisher. The reviews and word of mouth have been stellar, and fans are clamoring for her next novel, Sleeping Beauty, which should be available soon. At this point, she holds all the cards with her career.

Paul McEuen, my new favorite person

And, as mentioned earlier, Paul McEuen will probably be, like, a Nobel Laureate one day. I mean, can you imagine the honor of just being allowed to sit at that dinner table? The conversations were FANTASTIC! At one point, Paul looked around and said, “This table is so not typical of America.” I think it was because Elle and I were totally geeking out over the science, like the geeky science nerds that we are. Anyway, by the end of that dinner, basically all of us girls (married and single) were crushing on Paul. Jimbo (Rollins) later dubbed us "techno-sluts" because we wouldn't shut up about him all weekend, LOL. (And relax, Mrs. McEuen, it was all very innocent and intellectual, I swear.)  But he is kind of a hottie.  Am I right?  In a brainy, mountain man kind of way?

After dinner, we found ourselves back at the Hyatt’s bar, where we reunited with our other friends. I saw Jimbo for the first time since our cab ride into the city. After greeting him, he was like, “When did you become Brenda Vaccaro?” The voice truly was awful, and the worst part is the people who were only just meeting me don’t know that I don’t (in the words of David Liss) sound "like a 90-year-old smoker." I had fun introducing Paul to Jimbo and Boyd and so many others over the course of the weekend, leading him to believe I’m a Yenta.

My friends are always trying to propose an actual paying job for me in the publishing industry. That should be it. I’m a Publishing Yenta, a matchmaker. It really is what I do best, just ask anyone. The phrase I heard over and over all weekend is, “Susan knows everyone.” Clearly that’s not true, but of the people I do know, I like to get people who should know each other together. And I’m quite good at that.

I’m not sure how late we were out that night, but Elle and I were among the last to hit the road. I seem to recall us being among the last of the women, and at some point that night, we met these two guys, Ethan and Jeremy. It turns out they were sharing a room a few doors down the hall from us, and I seemed to see them constantly all weekend. Ethan Cross has just published his debut novel, The Shepard, and Jeremy Burns is still working on getting published. Now watch, he’ll probably become the next Lee Child or something. Seriously, everyone I meet at these things becomes wildly successful. Just a heads up for you, Jeremy. Anyway, these two were good fun, and we saw a lot of them as the weekend progressed, often late, late at night. Ah, to be that young again. Alas I’m not. I slept in the next day.

More soon…

All the real action takes place in the bar...

So, I continue to drag my feet when it comes to blogging about T-fest. It will be a periodic series. I shall try to be done by next July.

As I mentioned in the last installment--and anyone who's ever been to Thrillerfest (or any writer's conference, I'll venture) knows this--all the action takes place in the bar. It is the place to see and be seen, and in my case, the place to see all your buddies. I checked in with Jimbo upon exiting the theater, and he confirmed things were in full swing, so I zipped over from Times Square to Grand Central. Jimbo was easy to spot, ensconced on a central couch with novelist Grant Blackwood and reviewer Hank Wagner. Discussion was mellow. I joined them. At some point, Grant posed a veterinary question to Jim, as that was his career for lo those many years. So we all talked about Grant's elderly dog. It was very sweet. (I told you these gatherings were wild.)

Eventually, Grant and Hank departed--wisely opting for bed, I think. Jimbo and I sat quietly chatting and spying on our friends. Boyd Morrison was talking to a bunch of people at the bar, and had yet to look over at us. Jim had seen him earlier, but I hadn't had a chance yet to congratulate him on his book deal in person. Finally, we went to say hello, and found our friends Chris Kuzneski and Elle Lothlorian at the bar as well.

Jim, Boyd, Chris, Elle, and I all know each other from the first T-fest in Phoenix. That's true of so many other people, but this is the group of friends that I really bonded with at that first, insular conference. Upon reflection, I think this year's conference was the best since that first for several reasons. First, we were all so happy about Boyd's good news. It was truly something to celebrate. But another thing was the return of Chris and Elle. They didn't attend last year, and having them there just felt like, "the gang's back together!"

BTW, if Chris's name sounds familiar, it's because he's the author of a series of bestselling thrillers featuring Jonathan Payne and David Jones. They're great, action-packed buddy thrillers with excellent banter. Chris is at an exciting point in his career, too. His latest novel, The Lost Throne, is his first to be published hardback. And guess what? It goes on sale this week! You should totally buy it.

Elle is still working towards being published. She had written what was, by all accounts, an exellent thriller around the time of the first conference, but confessed to me somewhat sheepishly that she was now working on... chick lit. "You go girl!" I say. I'll be the first in line to read it.

While I was catching up with this group of friends, the Cussler crew was laughing boisterously nearby. Namely, it was Jack Du Brul, Paul Kemprecos, Christi Kemprecos, and some couple I didn't know. I don't remember who eventually spotted me, but there was much hugging and kissing and How long have you been there?-ing.

Jack and I haven't been in touch much this past year. The man doesn't believe in email. And I'd had no contact at all with Paul and Christi. So, it really was so great to see them. It's a funny thing, we see each other once a year, but I absolutely adore Paul and Christi. Those two are the life of the party. (And little do they know, but they may see me again sooner than they think. More on that later.)

You know, now that I stop and think of it, I had seen Paul and Christi briefly at the cocktail party earlier in the evening. It's all coming back now. They were off to see Jersey Boys. And it was the two of them that had informed me that Jack was having a Boys' Night Out with friends. Well, I could believe that. Jack was a little--what's the word I'm looking for?--inebriated. Ah, I love a drunken Du Brul. He's just a hell of a lot of fun. We had a most excellent literary discussion, he and I, in which I learned that he'd read a book I'd recommended, Fragment. Now, Jack and I have been discussing books for many, many years. Or perhaps I should say arguing about books for years. The man doesn't like anything! But he did like Fragment, with reservations. He said it would stick with him for a long time. We both laughted about baby-killers. You had to be there.

Come to find out, his big Boys' Night Out was watching a ballet from the wings of the Met! His friend is marrying a ballerina or something. I was like, "You were backstage at the Met and didn't invite me!" There may have been hitting involved. I suppose bringing me would have defeated the purpose of the BNO, (but I would have appreciated the experience a hell of a lot more than he did). However, his lovely wife Debbie was arriving the next afternoon, so I guess he deserved a night out.

Me, Jack, Paul, and Christi closed the bar--not for the first time, I might add. I got back to my hotel after 2:00am. You may recall from the last installment that my day had started at 5:00am. Long day. Excellent start to a conference. Almost all the photos I took in NY were on the final night, and I look shockingly dreadful in all of them. Nonetheless, I'm sharing photos of me with Christi, Paul, and Jack from Saturday night, because it makes me happy to look at my friends and remember what a great time we had that weekend.