I'll be in attendance, Brian--wouldn't miss it, even if my
friend and fellow panelist Bill Cameron weren't going to be
there.
I'm disappointed that Ken Bruen can't come, obviously. I was
supposed to convey greetings from Declan Burke (another
friend, and highly recommended Irish writer).
And I'm looking forward to buying you that promised drink...
:)
Kelli
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Brian Thornton"
<tieresias@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Fellow Rare Birds-
>
> I've been tapped to moderate this year's Bouchercon
Noir Panel up in
Anchorage. Since I just received word from my pal Ken Bruen
that he has to drop out of B'con this year (health reasons),
our panelists this year will include:
>
> Rara Avis' own Vicki Hendricks
> Bill Cameron (author of LOST DOG)
> Sean Doolittle (most recently author of the
Anthony-nominated THE
CLEAN-UP)
> Julia Spencer-Fleming (author of a series about a
female parish
priest in Appalachia who has an affair with a married cop in
her small town. I confess that I haven't read anything by her
yet, although I'll have finished her latest by the time B'con
rolls around)
>
> This year's noir panel theme is going to revolve
around why people
write what they write (thanks for your answers to the
questionaire, Vicki. Quite illuminating), why some people who
don't consider themselves noir writers are considered "noir"
by others, how the explosion of "neo-noir" and the subsequent
hot commodity status of noir fiction has spawned an
"everything's noir now" marketing movement within publishing
itself (in just one step in the never-ending quest to
sellsellsell), with the results that the concept of "noir"
fiction has been abused so badly that the definition itself
is almost meaningless in the opinions of many.
>
> For example, I know an author with a medieval
mystery coming out
next year that she is billing as a "medieval noir." When I
asked her why it was "noirish" and not, say, "gothic," she
allowed that it was more "hardboiled" than "noirish," and I
was and remain skeptical about that. Obviously, I haven't
read it yet, but it did get me thinking.
>
> So I'll be asking some leading questions of our
worthy panelists,
some of whom consider their own work noir, and some of whom
don't. Most of whom have fans somewhere who consider their
work "noir," or at least "noirish," and then, like a good
moderator, I'll be getting out of their collective ways and
letting them shine.
>
> If you're coming to B'con I sure hope to see you at
the panel (or
afterward, maybe in the bar). Whether or not you're planning
on attending the con, I'd welcome thoughts from any of our
merry band who are interested in addressing the above
notions. Bear in mind that I'm not invested in the notion
either way, and can certainly see many sides to the question
of the status of what consitutes noir these days. I'd just
really love some input from you folks.
>
> After all, I learn so much just from being a member
of RA, a lot of
it from those worthies with whom I often disagree the most.
For that, I am profoundly grateful.
>
> All the Best-
>
> Brian Thornton
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
removed]
>
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