I wish I could tell you I packed it in after dinner and went to bed Thursday night. Really. But that’s not what happened.

At 8:00 PM I attended the Toastmaster Interview with S. J. Rozan and discovered there was one more incredible author I didn’t know about and must read.

Then, at 9:00 PM, I followed the trail of convention attendees over the crosswalk and through the corridors and up the escalators and around the corner and up more escalators and suddenly we were in Gameworks in the Circle Center Mall. The Indy Bouchercon Thursday Night Extravaganza was underway with food, music, games, and a talent show that only a crowd of mystery writers could conjure up in their wildest creative moments. There were several bizarre performances (think songs with lyrics like “With her head..tucked..underneath her arm,” or “Open with an autopsy scene,” and you can imagine the tone), a little stand-up comedy which was pretty good, and even a couple of folks with real talent. You notice I’m not naming names.

You’d think one would be finished for the day after that. But roommate Beth Groundwater and I decided to take one spin around the game room. We stopped to drive Indy cars, then put out fires, and finished up with shooting games, first the zombies and then the soldiers or drug runners or whatever they were. I think it was the zombie game that kept me awake all night, which was a problem since we were scheduled to attend the Sisters in Crime Breakfast at 7:30 this morning. We made it, but it wasn’t easy.

At 9:00 AM, I attended the 2009 First Novelists Round Robin Event (or Speed Dating as some called it) where readers spread out at tables around a big room and the newly published authors are forced to move from table to table giving a three-minute pitch to sell themselves and their books. You’ll be hearing more about this later, as I’m going to give you a big treat by listing these authors and their books, and giving you links to their websites and to amazon.com. I had marked quite a few as books I’ll be wanting to read. So much talent, so many books, and so many really nice people. I will note for those readers who know Gayle Carline from the blogbooktour class, that she was one of the new authors present and she delivered an excellent pitch.

For those of you who commented on all that energy I displayed yesterday, here’s where it all caught up with me. I admit it, I skipped Michael Connelly’s interview just so I could go to the room and take a power nap. It was great.

I’ll give you the rest of today’s events in the next post. For now, I’m heading to bed. I’m hoping the zombies do not make an appearance tonight.