Guest Post: BACK TO LIVE CONFERENCES by Nina Wachsman

Please welcome back author Nina Wachsman back to the blog today as she shares her recent experience at New England Crime Bake. After you read her guest post below, make sure to check out her post from earlier in the month regarding an excerpt from her short story, “Laundry After Midnight”, published in the anthology, Justice for All: Murder New York Style.

 

BACK TO LIVE CONFERENCES

 

It was the last day of the conference and we were looking at bodies. Dead bodies. Murdered bodies. On a big screen at the front of the room, from a presentation by the medical examiner of the state of Connecticut. It was ghastly, but it was great. 

For the first time in more than a year, I got to sit next to real live people, to whom I could whisper, groan, or giggle with. Not a Zoom connection with an artfully organized background, but schmoozing while clinking wine glasses or coffee cups, going on and on about ourselves, our past year, and great ways to murder someone in our stories. Where else can you do all that?

Not that I haven’t appreciated all the great Zoom conferences I’ve attended in the past year. To name a few favorites: Historical Novel Society Annual Conference (my favorite), Summer Festival of Writing (Jericho Writers out of the UK run it), several sessions from Manuscript Academy and InkersCon, and of course, Tri-State Sisters in Crime monthly meetings. I still was able to meet and connect with people on those online conferences, including agents, but it was still great to get out and engage with real people.

In March 18, 2020, I contracted the corona virus, after going into my office at WeWork, and so we moved out and have been working from home ever since. This means that for more than an entire year I almost never had to wear heels, put on a dress, or wear makeup. Many days, I never had to leave my apartment, or even wear shoes.

Going to Boston and New England Crime Bake was the opportunity to put on all those nice clothes I ordered but never wore, and get all gussied up. The bonus was meeting new authors and buying great new books to read. Now, settled back into my cozy leggings and my overheated apartment, I can get back to writing.

Nina Wachsman ©2021 

Nina Wachsman is the author of “Laundry After Midnight”, published in the anthology, Justice for All: Murder New York Style, and a novel of historical suspense, The Gallery of Beauties, to be released in 2022 by Level Best Books. She lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.