Bouchercon

the last couple of years.

Right at BoucherCon when we met.

Because we met, I think, at the tail end of another BoucherCon and then hung out.

at the following BadgerCon.

Am I right? Am I crazy about that?

I drove home that night and was like, I should probably get like a public profile on Instagram, something like that.

And I met Jack Carr at that one, talked to him for a while.

So, you know, you post a picture of Jack Carr, you hashtag BoucherCon, and a few people start showing up and you start getting the algorithm starts changing and feeding you.

I'm Erik D'Souza, and you're joining us today for another episode of Crime Rangers Canada's podcast, where we discuss all things crime fictions from authors from coast to coast.

Joining me today for this special BoucherCon interview is author Neil Turner.

Hi, Neil.

How are you?

You now have met people.

a good handful of, I feel like last BoucherCon we had like 30 people.

Now you know these people.

So now when you're walking around, you can see them, you can make plans, you can do lunch, you can do panels, go to their panels and things like that.

And we have a WhatsApp group too where we're talking about things like, oh, so-and-so has a panel, let's go to that or this is going on.

So again, we have created a community that is a mini community in BoucherCon.

So I think those are the kind of the benefits that we have.

And again, it sounds so small, but it's so important.

I've came into this knowing you wouldn't be my agent." She said, "I've been looking at getting into it." And she signed me.

It took many months, and she had me do a rewrite, but she signed me at Bouchercon in, uh, Minneapolis, Minnesota, the big, uh, international mystery festival here.

Mm-hmm.

And that's how I got my agent.

That's what I have in my mind at the moment, and I'm kind of targeting for...

So I'm gonna say this out loud, so I do have to do it, uh, for next year's Bouchercon anthology, and, um, there's another, there's another anthology, and I can't remember the name of it at the moment, but I'm, I'm kind of targeting for those little short stories that I, I feel I wanna teach myself how I can control that story and how it is told.

Um, well, and as a reminder to folks, especially, um, people who are looking for opportunities to get published-

Yeah

Thank you

... on your debut.

That's so exciting, and I will see you in, at Bouchercon, which I'm looking forward to.

Yes.

I think he had just signed at the time with his first agent, and I was looking for one, which was the reason [chuckles] why I was there, and that conference actually happens every November.

It's a smaller regional version of the bigger crime conferences that happen every year, like ThrillerFest in New York City or Bouchercon, which rotates locations annually.

But yeah, I met him, and so we stayed in touch for a couple years and then for one reason or another had lost touch.

And then all of a sudden, one day I see the announcement pop up on my Instagram, "The Killing Yards" by Jason Allison this fall, and I'm like, "Shit, this is awesome." So I reached out, congratulated him, and he was doing a Q&A downtown at The Mysterious Bookshop, which if you're from New York City, you know it's a specialty crime bookstore that's been around for a [chuckles] very long time.

I was on three different panels, and they were appropriate for what I do.

which was very different from BoucherCon last year, which was sucked because they put me on something I knew nothing about.

Your

panel sucked.

BoucherCon itself was awesome.

That's

correct.

I was about to say that.

Anyway, um, so well, okay, so your, um, book is coming out.

You're gonna be at Bouchercon.

Yes, I am, in Calgary.

In, in-