2010 Debut Authors
Saturday morning came early with the 2010 Debut author’s breakfast. Their mentor this year was Andrew Gross. The 19 excited authors sat on a raised dais and each had one minute to extol the virtues of their new book. Some were fun and some were emotional, but only one sang. Brad Parks decided to spend his one minute in the spotlight serenading guest speaker Brad Meltzer. The result was a tribute from a fan to an idol all done to the tune of Maria from West Side Story. It was so funny and delightful, that I talked Brad Parks into reenacting it for a Drive By Video™.
Barbara and Ken Follett
This year’s Thrillmaster was Ken Follett. Personally, I was thrilled. I’ve been reading Ken’s books for years and loved Eye of the Needle, Key to Rebecca and Lie Down With Lions. Pillars of the Earth was one of the few Oprah picks I actually agree with. Starz television sent me the 16 hour mini series that will air later this month and I can’t wait to dive into it. I did ask Ken if Oprah called him directly and he admitted that when he was asked to give all the phone numbers he could be reached at for the day, he thought something big was up. And sure enough, Oprah called him to let him know that his book was chosen for her book club. I wanted to know if he asked her if it was really Oprah he was talking to and he assured me it was. How cool is that? Then Ken asked me if we had met before. I wish.
Anna DeStephano, Shane Gericke, Erica Spindler, Jennifer St. Giles, Rebecca York
I sat in on the panel, “What’s Love Got to do With It?” and it seemed that moderator Andrew Gross wasn’t sure where to go with this, but Anna DeStephano started things off by declaring that “Romance isn’t sex.” Touting the statistic that 75% of mass market books sold are romances, the panel agreed that most books have some kind of romance and romance can come in many forms. While the authors seem to take different approaches in their books, they all said that the books need strong human emotion and caring between people for the story to work and adding romantic tensions is a very popular and successful way of accomplishing that.
Barbara Vey and Lisa Scottoline
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I finally caught up with Lisa Scottoline for a quick picture. She remembered a write up that one of the WW Ladies did for her and was very grateful. Just another reason why I love her. She also told me that she read in my blog that I was looking for her and she was glad we finally got together. Me too. She charmed the crowd during her spotlight interview.
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I wish everyone still would wear their nametags to the Awards Banquet. I realize that they are dressed to the nines, but I really need to see the name to go with the face. When they’re all snazzy, they just look different. But I just fall back on, “Umm, who are you again?”
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Michael and Daniel Palmer
Daniel Palmer and Michael Palmer entertained the crowd with Daniel on the guitar and Michael on the accordian playing “The Writer’s Prison Blues.” I wish I had the words to the song because it was all about the authors who were there.
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Now, here’s my favorite part of the banquet. They give awards for the Worst Amazon Review. These are hysterical and here’s the 2010 Top 5 WORST REVIEWS:
5) Karen Dionne
FREEZING POINT
“This is one of the dumbest books I have ever read. Dumb, dumb, dumb. If Dionne is the new Michael Crichton, then I am the Pope.”
4) Linwood Barclay
BAD MOVE
“I’ve never read a novel where I was actively HOPING the main character would get killed.”
3) B.J. Kibble
LEGION
“Reading KIBBLE’s latest thriller could be likened to watching paint dry through swollen eyes . . . it’s hero, a so called PI might as well have been a one-legged bike salesman with tourettes syndrome who couldn’t tear a piece of paper in two without major trauma. Thankfully, everyone dies.”
2) Sandra Brown
SMOKE SCREEN
“This was just a hodge podge of word diharrea.”
THE WINNER:
1) John Gilstrap
NATHAN’S RUN
“The glue boogers in the binding were more captivating than Gilstrap’s torpid prose.”
John’s winning prize was a beautiful box and inside was what was described as a “fossilized turd.”
If you’d like to see more reviews, check out Douglas Preston’s website.
Doug Lyle, Twist Phelan, Gayle Lynds
And the Awards went to:
Best Short Story – A Stab in the Heart by Twist Phelan
Best First Novel – Running From the Devil by Jamie Freveletti
Best Paperback Original – The Coldest Mile by Tom Piccirilli
Best Hard Cover Novel - The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner
Ken Follett received his Thrillermaster award and told the audience that love scenes should have drama. The same rules apply to sex scenes as fight scenes. You have to care about the people, they need to yearn for one another, let the readers think about it for a couple hundred of pages and it should gon on for a long time in literature as it does in life.
Enjoy these additional pictures I took.
Kathleen Antrim's Shoes
Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear and F. Paul Wilson
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C.J. Lyons and Hank Phillippi Ryan
Robert Dugoni, Barbara Vey and Jeff Ayers
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Bottom Line: I asked Brad Parks if the CD of his song would be available any time soon, but he’s still looking for an agent.
Barbara, you are amazing! You seem to be everywhere at once. I’m glad you blogged all this, allowing those of us with slower feet to catch up on these fun moments. And I’m so grateful for your warm welcome, your kindness, and your words of advice. You were one of the highlights of ThrillerFest for me!
Barbara–so wonderful to see you! Wasn’t that an amazing array of talented, brilliant and generous people? Great blog–as always…
Great ThrillerFest recap, Barbara! I smiled all the way through it. And brilliant you, to get Brad Parks to sing for us again. ThrillerFest just keeps getting better and better!
Barbara,
Wow, thanks for the great reporting on Saturday’s events–I sooo wish I could have stayed to see it all in person!
Already looking forward to next year’s TFest!
Until then, I’ll continue living vicariously through your blog!
CJ
Oh,hysterical! I’ve missed your Drive By Videos!
I loved the song by Brad Parks – too funny! Great line up of debut authors. I got the chance to spend time with debut author Allison Leotta, a DC prosecutor who writes about…a prosecutor. Sounds like a great book. So many wonderful authors this weekend – Ken Follett, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Brad Meltzer, Steve Berry, CJ Lyon, Harlan Coben (he was a hoot), Carla Neggars, Alan Jacobson…the list goes on and on.
So nice to come here and catch anything I might have missed.
Nuts! I knew I should have done a song and dance instead of talking about my book:)
It was great to meet you and thanks for the recap Barabara!
Great piece about Thrillerfest Barbara – it was a fantastic conference as always. Hope to see you next year and thanks for the Thrillerfest recap.
Thanks (I think) for posting this Barbara. My many enemies are already crooning that they now have blackmail on me for life.
On the positive side, Brad Meltzer was a great sport about this when I sang it to him in real life. He even let me rub his bald head…
Thrillerfest was terrific, and Brad’s song was certainly one of the highlights of the breakfast. Of course, the other Brad’s speech was pretty good too. (All I can say is I’m glad I got my 60 seconds BEFORE the golden-throated Mr. Parks.)
Barb it seems you are having a fabulous time. I love reading all about what you are doing and the many people you are meeting. It is as if I am there with you. Have fun!!
Great to see you at Thrillerfest, Barbara! What a fun few days. Now I can’t wait for next year.
Barbara, you look like you are having way too much fun. I’m so jealous. I’m going to Thrillerfest one of these years!!
That song was hilarious. I can imagine that people will remember Brad Parks’ name. Sounds like you went to another fabulous conference.
Great writeup, Barbara! Next year we should issue designer nametags for the banquet, so everyone will wear them with their killer threads. We could have all the great designers submit bids and then, pow, killer nametags that go with anything, including Kathie Antrim’s shoes!
How did I miss you at this conference? Loved seeing you at the Historical Novel Conference last year, but ThrillerFest is always great. Love your blog.
It was great catching up with you at T-Fest, Barabara. Can’t wait to hear about Comic Con. I’ll be looking for you (and your costume ;o) at Dragon Con in September!
Anna
pretty cheap prices.. check it out at
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