Seattle Shakedown Newsletter
March 17, 2024
Seattle Shakedown Schedule
Welcome to our new registrants!
Starting to plan your days at Left Coast Crime 2024? The Seattle Shakedown Schedule is online, along with links to the daily panel schedules. A recent addition is a Dance Party hosted by Toastmaster Wanda M. Morris on Thursday evening, beginning at 8:30 PM. Pick up a drink at the bar and wear your dancing shoes!
Those of you have joined us recently might want to check out the previous Seattle Shakedown newsletters.
Seattle Shakedown Events
At Left Coast Crime 2024 we are offering our usual four opportunities outside the normal panel and book signings for authors and readers to interact.
Author Speed-Dating
Author Speed-Dating hosted by Les & Leslie Blatt will take place Thursday, April 11, from 9:00–11:00 AM, before the panel programming begins, and is a fun way for authors to connect to a new set of readers.
Authors: All Speed-Daters have been confirmed and a Wait List established.
Fans: First come, first seated!
Meet the New Authors Breakfast, sponsored by Sisters in Crime
Debut Authors who have a first mystery, crime, thriller, or suspense novel first published between January 1, 2023, and April 14, 2024, and who did not present at LCC 2023, are eligible to present at our 2024 Meet the New Authors Breakfast on Friday, April 12, hosted by Mike Befeler, assisted by Les and Leslie Blatt. If you have not yet received an invitation from Mike Befeler, please contact him at
mikebef@aol.com.
Fans: All LCC registrants are welcome.
Author-Hosted Tables
Authors are invited to partner with another author to host a table at the Lefty Awards Banquet on Saturday, April 13. Convention attendees will sign up to sit with you at dinner. There is no fee for hosting. Table favors and decorations optional.
Author-Hosts: Information has been sent to author partners interested in hosting a table together. There are still tables available, so email Lucinda.LCC@gmail.com with BOTH of your names and email addresses to receive a return email with more information.
Fans: After you pick up your registration materials, look for the Author-Hosted Table nearby to sign up. First come, first served.
Author-Reader Connections
One of the best things about Left Coast Crime is the chance to get to know your fellow readers and writers. Author-Reader Connections provide an easy forum for readers and authors to enjoy some time together in a small group. These Author-Reader Connections are free, and in some cases may include some special benefits from the authors.
Fans: Only registered attendees may sign up for Author-Reader Connections. Fans may sign up for
no more than two Connections and
no more than one per Author.
(Authors, we understand you are also fans of other authors, but please refrain from signing up yourself, saving the spots for non-author fans.) New Connections are added weekly. View and sign up for Author-Reader Connections on our Connections page:
https://leftcoastcrime.org/2024/Connections.html
Authors: Requests to set up Connections will be accepted through Saturday, March 23.
Email <connections@leftcoastcrime.org> for all the information about setting up a Connection.
Seattle Shakedown Needs You!
Thanks so much to everyone who has already volunteered! You should have received a response confirming your volunteer job. If not, please send another email! There are still plenty of volunteer opportunities for everyone. To volunteer for any of the opportunities listed below, please email <volunteer4lcc@gmail.com> with the Volunteer Job(s) you would like along with some times you are available.
No experience needed! If you are new to Left Coast Crime, volunteering is a great way to meet people.
Registration
Sign up for a two-hour shift helping Registration Captain Dotty Morefield manage the registration table. We need both experienced Registration volunteers and those who have never done this fun job of welcoming convention registrants and handing out the envelopes and book bags. We need volunteers for two-hour shifts on Thursday (3:30 – 5:00 PM), Friday (10:30 AM – 5:00 PM), Saturday (10:30 AM – 5:00 PM), Sunday (8:30–10:30 AM). If you would like to volunteer for Registration, please please email <volunteer4lcc@gmail.com> and note some time blocks you would be available.
Panel Room Timekeeper/Monitor
Sign up for a shift managing a panel room. We need just 7 more volunteers for this fun and important job! Responsibilities include picking up the Panel Packet and arranging the panelist name tents before the panel, holding up signs so the Panel Moderator knows how much time is left before the end of the panel, and escorting the panelists to the signing space after the panel. Written instructions will be provided. If you are interested, please email <volunteer4lcc@gmail.com> for a list of panels searching for volunteers
Book Signing Room Helper
Sign up for a shift helping with the book signings. Duties include placing signage for each panel, greeting and directing authors to their seats, and managing lines to avoid congestion. Please email <volunteer4lcc@gmail.com> with some time blocks you would be available.
Silent Auction & Hospitality Room Monitor
Sign up for a two-hour shift monitoring the hospitality room and Silent Auction items. We need volunteers for two-hour shifts on Thursday (Noon – 4:00 PM), Friday & Saturday (10:00 AM – 4:00 PM), and Sunday (8:30–10:30 AM). If you would like to help out in the Hospitality Room, email <volunteer4lcc@gmail.com> with some time blocks you would be available.
Silent Auction Donations
Each Left Coast Crime Convention raises money to support a local literacy organization with funds raised through a silent and live auction and the annual Quilt Raffle. The 2024 beneficiary is Page Ahead Children’s Literacy Program which works to close the literacy opportunity gap that too often leaves children in communities of concentrated low income behind. All proceeds from our auctions go to Page Ahead. Anyone — reader, writer, bookseller, librarian, blogger — may donate items to the silent auction. Silent Auction Chairs Scotti Andrews and Leslie Hall will be accepting donations on Thursday morning from 9:00-11:00 AM while setting up the Silent Auction Room and on Friday from 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM.
You can bring your Silent Auction donations with you, or mail them to yourself at the hotel.
Hyatt Regency Bellevue on Seattle’s Eastside
Hold for Hotel Guest: YOUR NAME Arriving YOUR ARRIVAL DATE
900 Bellevue Way NE
Bellevue, WA 98004
The Killing Rain: Left Coast Crime 2024 Anthology
The Puget Sound region is beautiful, lush with green trees, sun-sparkled waters, wide-open spaces and white-capped mountains. It’s also rich with darkness, gunmetal gray skies, rain-slicked streets, and deep shadows that give cover to its darkest secrets. Small wonder that this corner of America is a high-demand lifestyle destination — and, not so long ago, the serial killer and Sasquatch-conspiracy capital of the country. The Killing Rain captures that delicious dichotomy in all its deliciously dark glory, through short stories ranging from the cozy to the hardboiled, all charged with depicting Seattle as a real or imagined place.
The Killing Rain will be available for purchase in the Book Room, and many of the contributors will be on hand to sign your copy during the anthology launch on Saturday from 12:45-1:30 PM in the Book Room. All proceeds from sales of The Killing Rain will go to our charity: Page Ahead Children’s Literacy Program.
Sponsorship at Left Coast Crime
Our thanks to Amazon Publishing for sponsoring the Opening Reception, Sisters in Crime for sponsoring the Meet the New Author Breakfast, MWA Northwest Chapter for sponsoring our convention name badge holder and to Kensington Books and Pipeline Media for sponsoring Friday and Saturday in our Hospitality Room.
Books for Book Bags
We are grateful to the publishers and authors who are generously donating books for our book bags. You can explore their websites linked from our Sponsorship webpage.
Russell & Holmes Day
Join Laurie R. King & friends for a day-long celebration of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, April 10 at the Bellevue Hyatt. Local bees (and their keepers) will show why they so fascinated Sherlock Holmes; a security expert will teach us how to pick locks; Laurie will sit down and talk with friends Barbara Peters (editor, publisher, and bookseller extraordinaire) and SJ Rozan (author of a fun new 1920s historical series) about the mystery world and how we write. Fun & games, food & drink, and exclusive swag. Details and registration here.
Left Coast Crime 2025
Rocky Mountain High Jinks, the 35th Left Coast Crime convention, will be held March 13-16, 2025, in Denver, Colorado. Our hotel is the Westin Denver Downtown on the 16th Street Mall, a mile-long pedestrian-friendly mall, and a couple of blocks from Larimer Square, a picturesque city block of restaurants and shops dating back to Denver’s earliest days.
Registration Price is $299 through April 15, 2024 (the close of LCC 2024); our hotel rate is $199.
More information and Registration
