On the road again: Bouchercon, day 3

Despite going to bed extremely late, I dragged my sorry ass out of bed at the insane hour of 7:00 a.m., pulled on exercise shorts, shirt, socks, and shoes, and headed to the hotel workout room for some time on a stationary bicycle. The reason for this crazy action? An 8:30 a.m. panel I wanted to attend.

Amazingly, the panel was worth it. The panelists were great: Laura Lippman, John Connolly, Mark Billingham, Chris Mooney, and Karin Slaughter. Billingham, a professional comedian, was the moderator, and he did a lovely job.

What really made the panel work, however, were two things: the gimmick, and the talking skills of the panelists.

The gimmick was simple: The moderator would ask the panelists questions, each (including the moderator) would answer, and in the course of their answers each would tell three lies. No one other than the panelist would know when she or he was lying. Anyone in the audience could challenge a panelist for lying. If the challenger was correct, the panelist had to put ten bucks in a bucket on the table behind which they were sitting. If the challenger was wrong, the challenger had to put two dollars in a bucket that some runners brought to folks in the audience. All proceeds went to charity.

The panelists were good talkers, funny, and full of enough odd stories that it was genuinely difficult to spot the lies.

Everyone laughed, frequently and deeply, and the event was both fun and a nice way to raise a little money.

I would love to moderate this panel at any convention. Con organizers, are you listening?