Greetings from Thrilling NYC….

I’m posting this to you from NYC, where I’m currently attending ThrillerFest, right next door to the Chrysler Building at the Grand Hyatt New York.

The conference has been extremely productive so far — I’ve had some interesting chats with David Morrell (including an hour-long class on technique, based on his book Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing, which was killer), James Rollins (best career advice: “Lie, lie and lie some more, and then get paid.”), David Hagberg; Gayle Lynds and a bunch more besides. Busy, busy, busy.

My main reason for attending, the lunch with agents, was even better than I could have hoped. I was the only prospective novelist at my table, seated with two agents, a published novelist, and an Editor from St. Martin’s Press. I came away from the experience with some great contacts……and a direct invitation to submit to the agent I’d been hoping for!

So…. (ahem)….WOOT!

More when I have the time…..

The Bronx is Burning

Last night, I caught the first episode of The Bronx is Burning, an 8-week dramatic miniseries being shown, of all places, on ESPN.

WOW.

This is the sort of quality that I’ve come to expect from an HBO series — I guess that ESPN is showing it for the sports angle….but even if you’re not a huge fan of sports, you should check this out. The miniseries (based on Jonathan Mahler’s non-fiction book) is about the summer of 1977 in New York City, when the Yankees were going after their first World Series win in 15 years, with a massive amount of tension, drama and conflict going on behind-the-scenes — and while the city was gripped in the panic surrounding the Son of Sam killings. The show bounces back and forth between those two narratives, that defined that summer for New Yorkers.

Well worth checking out — the first episode is available for free online, and the regularly-scheduled episodes air on Tuesday nights, starting next week with episode 2.