Late one afternoon, a fan came to me and asked if I'd seen Barry Eisler - he had missed the earlier signing, and wanted his books signed. I went down to the bar, and found Barry visiting with a group of friends. I quietly told him about the fan, and he didn't hesitate. He literally ran to the bookstore and made the fan feel like a million dollars. The best part is that I now know that each and every author that I've met would have done the very same thing. Impressive.

Could you give us a sneak peek into this year's festivities and what a conference attendee can expect?

We've now posted a tentative schedule on the site, and I encourage everyone to check it out. Our line-up is pretty incredible. We have Sandra Brown as this year's ThrillerMaster, and James Patterson returning to present her with the award. We'll also be honoring David Baldacci as this year's Silver Bullet Award recipient, and R.L. Stine will do that presentation - and both gentlemen will be participating in panels. CraftFest has been expanded, and the classes are top-notch, and AgentFest has so much buzz that we're going to have to cap the number of agents that we can fit into the room! Of course, our Spotlight guests will be a tremendous addition - Brad Thor, Kathy Reichs, and Eric Van Lustbader - and to top it all off, we have over 100 additional authors that will be on some of the most unique panels we've seen. On the question of hospitality, we've partnered with several publishers, and our goal is to be able to offer coffee in the morning, soft-drinks in the afternoon, and cocktails in the evening, along with 2 receptions, a cocktail party, and breakfast. I'm a Southern girl, so my thought is that if the belly is happy, the person is happy. We haven't quite met our goal, but we're getting closer every day. All in all, we want to delight our attendees, and we're doing everything we can think of to make that happen.