I'm on a great panel, I've never been to the South before and I have some news about an exciting project my wife, Diane (aka mystery writer Diana Killian, D.L. Browne, Josh Lanyon, etc.) and I are working on. And of course tales will be told, friendships renewed and new ones begun, and many many drinks will be consumed.

That panel will be moderated by the one and only Peter Rozovsky, the head honco over at Detectives Without Borders, who will be moderating a couple of really great panels, including one on Thursday, October 8 at 2:30 PM called "Beyond Hammett, Chandler, Spillane, and Macdonald," with Sarah Weinman discussing Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, Jordan Foster on Ted Lewis, Laura Lippman on someone or another, and me trying not to embarass myself too much as I attempt to wax poetic about Norbert Davis.

Hmmm... with Sarah, Peter and I, three former Montrealers, all there, how bad could it be? With any luck, a hockey game could break out.

And if you're wondering who the heck I am, I'm that Thrilling Detective Web Guy. Also known as that guy from Mystery Scene, that guy from Murder Ink, that book and movie guy from Barnes & Noble, that music guy from Butler's Coffee, that guy from that DVD and that guy who was "banned for life" (twice) from the DorothyL list.

And three or four of you may even know me as the two-boiled, hard-fisted crime fiction writer guy.

Okay, so I get around...

Kevin Burton Smith, a Montreal editor, author, critic, essayist, would-be cartoonist, blogger and Twittist currently stationed in the peculiar state-of-mind known as Southern California. My often rather dubious but always enthusiastic writings on crime fiction, music, film, bicycling and sundry other topics have appeared in web and print publications all over the world -- goes to show what the world knows -- including Mystery Scene, Crimespree, Details, Blue Murder, The Mystery Readers Journal, Word Wrights, Over My Dead Body, Crime Time (Britain), Crime Factory (Australia) and Musica Jazz (Italy).

I got my start in publishing working as a graphic designer and layout editor for various trade and business magazines in Montreal, such decidedly less-thrilling rags as Pulp and Paper Canada, Genie Construction, Canadian Doctor, The CIM Bulletin of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and The Canadian Mining Journal. Hoo-boy, we're talking thrilling stuff there!

These days I serve as columnist, book reviewer and feature article writer for Mystery Scene, and as a drive-by contributor to The Rap Sheet, January Magazine and Reflections in a Private Eye (the official newsletter of the Private Eye Writers of America [PWA]). Recently I've also been contributing review's to Ed Gorman's Blog, and acting as the PWA's web monkey.

I'm also the founder/editor of the award-winning Thrilling Detective Web Site, the internet's (erm...) premier resource for fans of fictional private eyes and other tough guys and gals in literature, film, radio, television and other media. I started that way back in 1998 or so, mostly as a joke and as a way to learn html, and I've been dancing in the dark ever since. Looks like the joke's on me.

I've also published a little crime fiction myself, and recently I've decided to get back in the fray. My first short stories were published years ago in Iced, an anthology of Canadian noir fiction, and Grunt and Groan, a collection of stories involving sex in the workplace. I've also co-edited (with partner-in-crime and fellow mystery writer D.L. Browne) Down These Wicked Streets, a collection of private eye tales, and like everyone else on the planet, am working on my first novel, as well as a long-delayed study of pulp-era female writers.

I currently live with D.L. out in the High Desert of California, just north of Los Angeles (Chandlertown!), of all places, but a good chunk of my soul still lives in Montreal. Please send smoked meat, some real beer and news of the Habs.

A man of many interests (and opinions to match), I can speak with a trace element of knowledge (or at least just won't shut up) on camping, hiking, bicycling, music, film, television, popular culture, North American history, Montreal, Canada and how the whole world is going to hell.

Anyone interested in my current nebulous state-of-mind can catch up with me on The Thrilling Detective Blog, my sadly neglected Crimespace page or my latest cyber-obsession, Twitter.

* * * * *

About THAT triple-barrelled name: Somewhere along the line, I went from being plain ol' "Kevin Smith" to "Kevin Burton Smith." Honest, I'm not being snooty. Unfortunately, when my writings and musings first started to appear online, some people -- a few of them none too pleasant or overly concerned with manners -- began e-mailing me, asking me if I was the &#$$^#^ film director who did the %$@&%$ film Clerks, and what Ben Affleck and J. Lo (remember them?) are REALLY like. When I started to get film manuscripts and nude photos, I decided to change my internet byline... Now some people think I'm Tim Burton pretending to be Kevin Smith...

But trust me, I'm the same old Kevin from Bachand Street in Carignan, Quebec. St. Stephen's, William Latter, Richelieu Valley, Dawson College, Le Grand Bock, L'Annexe, IVY-METS and all those places and faces in between.

Burt Reynolds, eat yer heart out!

Care to drop me a line? Go ahead, punk. Make my day.

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