Well, the first three days here were wonderful, and then on Friday, something I ate attacked me. So, I only left the hotel room when I went to CVS. That’s OK. I wouldn’t trade the first days.

I had dinner with my friend, Anna, on Tuesday night. Anna worked with me at Velma Teague, and she and I went to New York City together. After dinner, I stopped back in the library so I could say hi to the people working.

Wednesday was so much fun. I stopped in at San Lagos, where I used to live to see Karen, the manager. San Lagos is still as gorgeous as ever.

From there, I went to the Foothills Branch Library to take a few pictures, including a picture of the Chihuly. I don’t know how many other public libraries have a Chihuly hanging in the entranceway.

After leaving Foothills, it was time to go to Nosh for lunch. I met eleven present and former staff members from the Glendale Library System, and we had the nicest visit. Then, I went to Velma Teague, talked with the staff and took pictures. Those pictures are on Facebook, but I’m not putting their pictures up on my blog.

I first ran into Margie & Mike Bunting in the registration area, but then we met up in the lobby. We went to Grimaldi’s in Scottsdale for pizza, and then headed to the Poisoned Pen. It was so good to see Barbara Peters, Rob Rosenwald, and the staff. And,  we were there for International Authors’ Night, so there were a number of authors in attendance.

Barbara started the evening by introducing Kenneth Wishnia, the editor of Jewish Noir, and two of the authors who have stories in the book, Melissa Yi and Michael Cooper.

Peters, Wishnia, Yi and Coooper

Then she asked Barry Lancet to talk a little about his books, set in San Francisco and Tokyo.

Peters, Lancet and Wishnia

The two authors from Denmark probably came the farthest. Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Frils write the Nina Borg books.

Vicki Delany writes one of my favorite series, the Constable Molly Smith mysteries. She writes the Lighthouse mysteries as Eva Gates, and the Year Round Christmas mysteries under her own name.

Peters and Delany

Jeffrey Siger and Peters said his next Andreas Kaldis mystery set in Greece will be out in September in time for Bouchercon.

Peters and Siger

Francine Matthews writes under her married name, and her maiden name. As Francine Matthews, she writes about the CIA and spies. Too Bad to Die has Ian Fleming as a protagonist. As Stephanie Barron she writes the Jane Austen books.

Francine Matthews

And, Priscilla Royal talked about her historical mysteries.

Peters and Royal

I did have the chance to see other friends such as Donis Casey and R.J. Harlick. Wednesday made for a wonderful welcome back to Arizona.