The August conference season is going to be sweet, with both KILLER NASHVILLE and BOUCHERCON taking place within days of each other in the same city.

Even sweeter… Poster Girl’s been named a Killer Nashville Top Pick.

Sweetest? All the writers who travel great distances to swap stories, strategies and support. I’m especially thinking of Carmen Amato, whom I loved interviewing for Mystery Review Crew and whose Revenge at the Galliano Club is also a KN top pick.

Carmen is a retired Central Intelligence Agency officer and an award-winning mystery and thriller author. With experience as the head of a U.S. national intelligence tradecraft school, Carmen also led an intelligence collection program responsible for the Western Hemisphere. She has received the National Intelligence Award and the Career Intelligence Medal in recognition of her contributions to the field.

She is fascinating. Look her up.