SleuthFest Adventures by Martha Reed

I don’t think we’re ever going back to the way it used to be before COVID-19. What we get to do is to figure out a way to keep moving forward and living our best lives even as the virus continues to mutate under our feet, prickly little SOB that it is.

Despite being double vaccinated with two boosters, I involuntarily joined the COVID-19 so-not-a-fan club on June 26^th while doing my bit to support our local St. Pete Pride Festival. It was a membership I didn’t seek, but as we know, no good deed goes unpunished.

The ticking time bomb about testing positive was my very great fear that I’d still be testing positive and that I’d need to cancel my plans for attending SleuthFest, the annual conference sponsored by the Florida MWA for writers and fans of mysteries, thriller, and suspense fiction. I’ve been hearing about and looking forward to attending SleuthFest since I moved to Florida four years ago. This year I made plans to share a room with Annette Dashofy, my Pittsburgh SinC-based running buddy and overall good sport. (There are a whole bunch of stories there that will need to be covered in a separate blog.) My positive COVID-19 status forced me to double check my calendar daily since I needed a negative test to get the green light and to go. I wasn’t thrilled with my 5-day COVID-19 illness experience, and I sure wasn’t going to knowingly spread it around.

It was a race to the finish line. Thankfully, on Wednesday, July 6, I tested negative. Whew! Tossing my suitcase into my SUV, I picked up St. Pete based writer Cheryl Hollon on Thursday the 7th. We headed south for Naples, FL before taking a sharp left down Alligator Alley.

I’ve been fortunate in my life travels. I’ve seen many natural wonders. Take it from me, you need to see the Florida Everglades at least once in your lifetime. It’s a surreal space. The landscape is literally as flat for as far as the eye can see. That blank flatness does something odd to your head. You come away with a very real sense of just how small you – and your human problems – are against that all of that immense and open sky.

The fun bit about attending SleuthFest or any writer’s conferences are the odd little happenstances that occur just by being there. I was sitting in the bar lounge (go figure) with Annette Dashofy, Gail Massey, and Cheryl Hollon, and the next thing I know we’re being swept into the restaurant to have an intimate dinner with Guest of Honor Jeffrey Deaver, Tracy Clark, and Tori Eldridge. It was one of those “huh, what, me?” moments of how did I get here?

Everyone sitting at the table was a talented writer. I kept wondering how I ended up sitting at the grown-up table with them. I sat in complete fan-girl awe with the whole company, but I have to note that Jeffrey Deaver was as authentic and down-to-earth as I could ever imagine a Guest of Honor to be. He is obviously intelligent. I had the feeling he was deliberately lowering his intelligence wattage to 20% to keep the dinner conversation friendly. I also had the keen feeling that if he ever cranked his intelligence up to 100% and turned it loose that it would be like sitting across the table from an open microwave oven, and I was the potato.

In case you can’t tell, I had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The best takeaway from the SleuthFest conference was the “How to Write a Mystery” handbook I received for volunteering to work at the registration table. The handbook was edited by Lee Child and Laurie R. King and produced by MWA. The topics are insightful and inspirational. I’ve been steadily dipping into it whenever I need a quick break from writing to keep on feeling like a part of the writerly scene.

What are your plans for attending in-person conferences this year? Are you going to Killer Nashville or Bouchercon?