Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Murder in the Magic City and Murder on the Menu

It's been a fabulous weekend.

I was invited by the delightful Margaret Fenton to participate in her "Murder in the Magic City" annual event in Birmingham and it could not have been any nicer!

On the way to Birmingham, we drove over Rich Mountain and had to stop and take a few pictures of the hoar frost.  It felt like we were driving through a snow globe.  Gorgeous!







The event started with a reception at the hotel.

Me and Margaret Fenton

Mike Orenduff, Flo Fitzpatrick and Lynda Fenton

Karen Cunningham, Margaret Fenton and Sheila Lawrence

Denise Swanson, Jennifer Brooks and Jennifer's sweet dad

Toni Kelner/Leigh Perry, James M. Jackson and Brenda Witchger/Brynn Bonner

Robert Dugoni, Paula Benson, Bert Goolsby


Linda McCracken, Jane Tesh, Dee Phelps

Dee Phelps, Mike Orenduff, Lai Orenduff, me


Kaye Barley, Dee Phelps, Toni Kelner




Dee Phelps
Big Day for Dee - it was pub day for her "The Disappointment Room"

me and Dee

Dee Phelps, Denise Swanson, Toni Kelner

And, of course, Harley was there too!

The next day was
"Murder in the Magic City"
in the
Homewood Library


It was a terrific event and a good time was had by all


Mike Orenduff, Don Bruns, me and Kathleen Delaney
I was moderating the panel "Murder: In Four Courses with Cocktails


Jennifer Brooks and Flo Fitzpatrick

Jaden Terrell and Ellis Vidler

Polly Iyer, Linda Lovely, Neil Plakcy, Mike Orenduff

me, Jennifer Brooks, Don Bruns, Kathleen Delaney

Kaye George and Toni Kelner

Denis Swanson

James J. Jackson and Toni Kelner

Toni Kelner, me, and Julia Spencer-Fleming



me and Brynn Bonner

Dee Phelps, Jaden Terrell, Stacy Allen, me and Jennifer Brooks

Robert Dugoni

me and Mike Orenduff

Jane Tesh, Brynn Bonner, Flo Fitzpatrick, Dee Phelps and Karen Cunningham
Murder: In Time Panel

Neil Plakcy and Polly Iyer

Dee Phelps and Brynn Bonner

me, Jennifer, Don and Kathleen



Now this was fun!
This is Susan.
Susan and friends drive to this event from Atlanta every year.
And, she recognized my name from DorothyL and wanted to say "Hey!"

This is Lynda Fenton
Lynda was responsible for putting together the gift baskets for auction and
they were incredible!




Dee and Me


The Whole Group

Steve Herring our Delightful Official Photographer

Brynn Bonner/Brenda Witchger and her husband Bob (Delightful Unofficial Photographer)


And then - - - 

Dinner!

Polly Iyer, Linda Lovely and Kathleen Delaney

Stacy Allen and husband


Kaye George and husband George

And the next day -
Murder on the Menu
in
Wetumpka, AL



Tammy and Margaret


me, Linda Lovely, Neil Plakcy, Denise Swanson and Don Bruns
"I Don't Know These People! Building Great Characters from Scratch . . .  Or Not" Panel



Jaden and Dee

Jane


Don

Dee and Bert Goolsby

me and Ellis

Jaden, Toni and Polly

me and Dee


And the final highlight of a perfect weekend

Donald's parents threw Donald and his brother Steve a family birthday dinner

and I thank Linda McCracken, Toni Kelner and Kaye George for getting me there!


My thanks to Steve Herring and to Bob Witchger for allowing me to use some of their photos.
Thanks, guys!!!!!

10 comments:

Paula Gail Benson said...

Wonderful retrospective! Thanks for sharing. So good to meet you. Wishing you happy writing.

Kaye George said...

My gosh, I think you got a picture of every single author!! What a wonderful post!

Pat Browning said...

Love the photos, Kaye. Almost like being there! Especially happy to see photos of Kathleen Delaney. We did a book signing together in Bakersfield years ago when she published her first book, but I lost track of her until I found her recently on FaceBook. Catching up with her now on blogs such as yours. Many thanks for sharing!

Polly Iyer said...

Wonderful photos, Kaye. Thanks for sharing. It was fun, wasn't it?

Linda Lovely said...

I always seemed to forget to pull my camera out--too busy chatting. So I was delighted to see all the wonderful photos that were shared. One of the best author events I've attended. Great spending some time with you.

Terrie Farley Moran said...

Looks like you had a fine time!

Jody said...

Lots of familiar faces. Looks like a grand time was had by all. Thanks for sharing!

Mason Canyon said...

Looks like you had a blast. Love all the photos.

Anonymous said...

You know what's wrong with your pictures? I'm not in any of them! I'm still crying about having to cancel out at the last minute. I hope next year we can finally get together.

Ellis Vidler said...

Kaye, great pictures! I love seeing everyone again and reliving the good times. Sitting with you and Neil at the last signing was a pleasure--you're good company, lady!
And always, hugs to Harley. :-)