MAYHEM ON MONDAY

Road trip!

I am very excited about a rampage of three women Crime Writers from Ontario to North Carolina, Maryland and Pittsburgh.

Vicki Delany, Elizabeth Duncan and I have a whirlwind series of activities scheduled in the Raleigh, NC area, all organized by mystery book loving dynamo Molly Weston. In our lighter moments we call it The Older, Hotter, Deadlier Tour.

Then we’re off to the Malice Domestic Conference which is back in Bethesda, Maryland after years in Arlington. This excellent conference celebrates the traditional mystery. After Malice, while Elizabeth jets home, Vicki and I will head out to Festival of Mystery in Oakmont, PA, an intense and amazing book event that draws readers from at least four states.

Vicki, Elizabeth and I will hitting the road on Wednesday. It will be good-bye Dad and Doggies and off on the 14 hour trip. Look out below the 49th parallel!

As for now, the office is full of packing paraphenalia. There’s still a lot to do.

Passport? Check!
US dollars? Check!
Gadzillion bookmarks for The Busy Woman’s Guide to Murder. Check!
Business cards? Check!
Five jackets for different events? Check!
Clothes for cool weather? Check!
Clothes for warm weather? Check!
Donation basket contents? Check!
Notes for Malice panels? Check!
Maple syrup for gifts? Check!
The right shoes? Check!
The wrong shoes? Almost certainly.
Comfy slacks for long drives? Check!
Phone number, maps, addresses? Check!
Vote in Federal election? Done!
Conference file? Check!
Copies of my Agatha nominated story? Check!
Tribute to my friend, Lyn Hamilton for Malice Remembers? Keep polishing!
Summer tires on car? To do list!
What have I forgotten? Car registration renewal? Eeep! On the list!

This trip represents weeks of planning and organizing and maybe a bit of obsessing. It has been a lovely dream to keep me going when winter became tiresome and to do lists long and dreary. North Carolina and the DC area will be way ahead of us in weather. Flowering shrubs should be in their glory. Boots can be shed and sweaters ditched. Friends will be hugged and readers connected with. Bars will be filled with laughing colleagues and fun will be had. Room mates (including our own mystery maven Linda) will be gossiped with and many laughs will be exchanged. The car will be filled with new books, our heads with new information and our hearts with the joy of meeting readers and other writers. For a full list of the book events, visit my website www.maryjanemaffini.com and click on the events button.

What a wonderful reading world we’ll be traveling to. Hope some of you can join us for some of it. If not, watch for updates here.

I can’t wait! Stay tuned.


Mary Jane Maffini rides herd on three (soon to be three and a half) mystery series and a couple of dozen short stories. Her thirteenth mystery novel, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Murder, which hit the bookshelves this month, is brimming with names, no two the same.