Nancy Drew 2012 Convention Clues Wrap Blog #3

NANCY DREW 2012 CONVENTION

GOLD CANYON, AZ

March 19-25, Part III

Thursday, March 22:

After leaving the Rockin' R Ranch Wednesday night, Sleuths Gina, Kelly and I headed off to my house to prepare for a very early visit from the local Phoenix NBC TV News Channel 12. They were coming out to the house to set up around 4am for the local morning show. They planned on having several live shots throughout the morning show. So we had a few (or in my case a couple) hours of sleep, drug ourselves downstairs and tried to be perky :) They arrived a little after 4am and set up the lights and camera. Morning news anchor Jaclyn Schultz did 2 segments with Gina, Kelly and I and they also did some highlights several times.

Here's the second segment they have online:

A little after 7am, we headed out to the resort to begin our first day of presentations a the Gold Canyon Golf Resort which started at 9am. We set up the room and people set up their tables. James and Kim Keeline had several tables of series books and Tom Swift items plus some of the new items from Palmer Street Press, his imprint at Lulu.com like the new Victor Horton's Idea which some in paperback and hardcover with dust jacket. He had copies of his Tom Swift Guide to Life and his Edward Stratemeyer calendar. Chums helpers set up the raffle tables and we decided to raffle off new items each day to keep it fresh. Leone set up her sales table area and had some fabulous deals going of $5 and $7 dollar books out of bins. Some people scored Penny Parkers, Penny Nichols, Madge Sterling, Ruth Darrow and many more. I managed to find a Brownie Scout, Cub Scout, and Girl Scout book I didn't have for my collection of Mildred Wirt Benson books and series.

Our speakers for the day were Lindsay Stroh, daughter of Margaret Sutton, whose presentation was Judy Bolton--Mysteries and Memories and she gave a very nice talk about the Judy Bolton series and her mother Margaret Sutton.

Following Lindsay was James D. Keeline whose presentation Mr. Carolyn Keene - The Men Behind Nancy Drew & The Dana Girls focused on the various men who have written under the Keene pseudonym. It was very informative.

After a lunch break, our next speaker was author Nancy Lauzon who writes the Chick Dick Mysteries. Her presentation, Anatomy of a Mystery Novel, was about writing and she used our Nancy Drew theme books as a backdrop.

Our last speaker of the day was Sleuth Kelly Boettlin who gave a really neat talk and power point on Lost But Not Forgotten Series Book Heroines and she inspired many who attended to try some new series. 

FollowingCrafters took a plain photo mat and added images and scraps to create a nifty frame.

That evening we held a 2nd meet and greet for all the new people who had shown up fro just the weekend portion of the convention and had some meet and greet activities. Then everyone was given their clues booklets and the weekend mystery was explained to everyone. They would be looking for clues in skits and some that were hidden around the resort to try and solve a murder. There were also clues to treasure hidden around the resort. The mystery was based on our theme books, The Secret of Shadow Ranch and The Kachina Doll Mystery. Famous teen sleuths had come to the resort to help round up the villains at Shadow Ranch and at Kachina Resort, hoping to find the treasure and get part of the reward, when one sleuth was found murdered in her casita--Nancy Drew! Everyone attending got to play detective in trying to solve the mystery, some members played specific roles in the mystery and performed in clues skits throughout the weekend:

Jenn - Ghost of Nancy Drew

Kelly - Judy Bolton

Christine - Vicki Barr

Meredith - Cherry Ames

Gina - Bess Marvin

Mary - George Fayne

Elizabeth - Penny Parker

A.B. - Frank Hardy

James - Tom Swift

Kim - Trixie Belden

Everyone walked by flashlight (thanks Janis!) down a dark walkway up to an area of casitas where the first skit was performed and then the 2nd skit took place at the crime scene set up in my casita complete with crime scene tape across the door. Little evidence markers were placed by 10 clues for people to record in their clues booklets after the 2nd skit took place. Some clues included fingerprints, footprints, Tom Swift's Wizard Camera, a Hardy Boys book (Desert Giant), and some creepy crawly critters plus a warning note.

Stay tuned for part 4 tomorrow...

Jenn:)