Jennifer. J. Chow

A First Time for Everything

Last weekend, I participated in the inaugural Ashland Mystery Festival. It took place in Ashland, OR (not to be confused with Ashland, OH—as one reader pointed out to me). Anyway, I had a wonderful time there!

Unlike most mystery conventions, which happen in the same hotel, this one (organized by the amazing Ellie Alexander) spread out the activities. There were loads of things to do: mystery dinners, mystery-themed shows, author pop-ups, all over town. Attendees even got to solve an overarching mystery by going to various businesses and picking up clues.

Not only was it was my (and everyone else’s) first Ashland Mystery Fest, but I experienced a lot of neat firsts:

Mystery dinner, where the entrees and drinks were unknown to us. We authors also had diners guess fun facts about us, along with which passages belonged to our respective books—five talented readers scored a copy of our (unintended but happily) color-coordinated books.

Clues for the meal and wine pairings
Gigi Pandian with our books (top to bottom: from Ellie, Kate Lansing, me, Kyra Davis, and Gigi)

Walking panel, which involved the audience following Kate Lansing and me around town as we acted like suspects, including dropping red herrings and real clues—though we took a quick break to take a shot of our books!

People lined up in front of the library for the panel. Note the mustaches that Emmeline Duncan gave out to participants.
Kate Lansing, who was super excited by our display of books!

First anniversary, a celebration of the local Japanese garden; they offered bonsai displays and free tea-tasting as part of the celebration.

What have been exciting firsts in your lives?

42 thoughts on “A First Time for Everything”

  2. This looks like so much fun! My first was attending Malice in 2013 after winning a Malice grant. I had no idea mystery cons existed. Now I’m a regular at them!!

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  4. Oh, wow, that looks like it was so much fun! Kudos to Ellie for organizing such an imaginative event!

    Like Ellen, I’d have to say my first mystery event–the California Crime Writers Conference in Pasadena back in 2013–was one of the most exciting firsts for me. What joy to discover the marvelous crime writing community and all the amazing and generous folks associated with it!

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  5. That looks like a fabulous time, and I loooooooooooove Ashland.

    I’ll never forget my first time at a mystery con: Malice Domestic. I was a terrified baby writer and was so grateful for the incredible kindness of every single person I met. ❤ As Leslie says, what a joy!

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    2. That’s where you and I met, Kathy! One of the highlights of my life!

      I looooooove Ashland too. In fact, it’s the site of many firsts for me. I had just driven my firstborn daughter (1) to her first day of college (2) in Oregon, and I stopped on my way home for a few days in Ashland where I’d never been before (3) for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (4) where I saw five or six shows I’d never seen before (5-10 or 11), on a road trip by myself (12). It was such a fantastic trip. I have such fond memories of Ashland. And if this event becomes a regular thing, I’ll be there with bells on! How cool you were one of the inaugural authors!

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  7. I so happy you had a great time, Jen! A recent happy first for me was when younger kiddo graduated in May. Definitely a proud papa moment. Cheers!

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  8. My first mystery con was Bouchercon, in Raleigh NC in 2015, near where I live. I had no idea what it was and found out it was here by pure happenstance. The first Natalie McMasters Mystery, Stripper!, was three years from publication. I don’t remember any specifics. I know that I came away with a big bag full of books and I wanted to go again. Now I have a personal goal of attending one book-related event a month.

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  9. Jen, I loved your photos from Ashland on social media, and I’m so glad we all got to learn more about the weekend here on Chicks. It sounded amazingly fun and unique. I bet the readers had a great time, too. Prediction: Clamors for more! My first conference was a New England Crime Bake. I had the best time (first ms. for grown-ups still a twinkle in my eye) and came home thinking, I wanna do this!

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  12. Okay, this is totally not book related, but my first that I loved was when I got to go to a farewell conference for my favorite soap opera “Guiding Light” here in Atlanta. It was the longest running soap on TV at the time. I got to meet all of my favorite characters and talk to along with photos with some. It was a great three-day event. We did not get out of the hotel, but it was well planned with great events and lots of memories. I am thinking of going to Nashville since it is closer to me.

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