Very good event yesterday at the Public Library Association conference. We had a panel discussion with mystery and thriller writers and drew an estimated 600 people into our room at the Oregon Convention Center.

Meg Gardiner and Karin Slaughter had the funniest anecdotes. Jo Nesbo’s Norwegian tales had people on the edges of their chairs. (He’s a rock star. I don’t mean that as a colloquialism, he was literally a rock star before turning to fiction writing.)  Cara Black and Ted Dekker told tales of living and working overseas that were fascinating.

Then we signed books. The line circled the second floor of the convention center. It got so bad that Jo and Karin had the smart idea to start dashing down the line, signing books before people got to the table. I joined them and we turned a book signing into an aerobic event. It was hilarious.

I must have signed more than 300 advanced reader copies of “Crashers” today. Understand: I had three paperback mysteries published by Bantam, many years ago. In total, I doubt I signed 300 of those things over the years.

Yesterday was a hell of a lot of fun.

We have 7,000 librarians in town, folks. If you run into them at happy hour, give ‘em a shout-out.