Marilyn's Musings

Once again we rose before the crack of dawn. Daughter Lisa is driving us over to the Hanford Amtrak train station. This time I am traveling alone, but by train. I'm headed to Left Coast Crime in Sacramento. The reason I'm going on the train is because when I was looking for airline travel, if I left from Bakersfield I had to fly either to Phoenix or Los Angeles and from either place to San Francisco, then some other odd ball spot before reaching my final destination of Sacramento. This roundabout jaunt was really expensive and took all day. When I checked the train schedule, I could leave a bit after 6 and arrive in Sacramento around 12:30. And believe me the ticket was much less. And guess what? They even have a senior discount. A few years back I rode the train to Sacramento a lot when I was doing lobbying for the California Residential Services Association. It's not high speed rail. Whenever a freight train comes along, the passenger train has to move over and wait o...

(I wrote this on another blog I'm on, but I think it's important enough to repeat on my own blog.) I'm back on my soap box once again. On DorothyL, the premiere list for mystery fans and authors, they've been discussing the fact that Bouchercon has voted against discriminating against small press as far as allowing their authors to serve on panels. (They won't let self-pubbed or those who paid to be published however unless they've won a prestigious prize.) Left Coast Crime on the other hand will not allow any author published by a non-MWA approved publisher be on a panel. Though going to mystery cons is an enjoyable experience, they are very expensive. If you can't be on a panel, your books will not be in the book room. If you're not on a panel of course no one will be able to purchase your book. For an author, part of the reason to go to a con is to let people know about your book. I've decided to only attend mystery cons and writers conferences wh...