A few weeks ago, I attended Killer Nashville, a mystery writers conference in Nashville, TN.

One of the benefits of attending a writers conference is that I met a lot of authors. I’m a writer. Published writers are authors.

Meeting an author whose work I’ve read is better than meeting a Hollywood celebrity. Authors have been through the grueling process of writing a book. They suffered rejections. They were finally published.

I got to meet C. Hope Clark. I’ve subscribed to her Funds for Writers newsletter for several years. She has published three books in her Carolina Slade series. I’ve read all three of this series, set in coastal South Carolina. She started a second series set on Edisto Island, with Callie Morgan as the main character. I’ve read the first book and bought the second in that series at the conference. Hope signed it for me.

Another author I met was Terry Odell. I had read one of her books and bought three more for my Kindle. A great sign of the quality of her writing. Terry has several series going as well. The one I had read was from her Pine Hills mysteries, set in coastal Oregon.

The final author I want to talk about is Maris Soule. I was unaware of her body of work until we met at the conference. She told me she had been writing a long time and has published quite a few books. I bought a book in her P.J. Benson series and read it the other day. It was great and I’m looking forward to reading more from her.

Attending a writers conference is an enriching experience. I learned about the craft of writing. Several speakers talked about how law enforcement really works. Hint: Television crime shows don’t get it right. The best part of a conference is meeting people and coming home with more books.