When I walked into the middle of Bouchercon 2008 at the Sheraton City Center, I was greeted with smiles and books. It was heavenly. Co-chair Judy Bobalik told me that they had roughly 1300 registered attendees, and every one that I talked to was friendly, helpful and very, very talkative.

A typical exchange at the mystery convention sounded like lines you'd hear at a family reunion -- "I haven't seen you in a while," "Yes, I was so sorry to miss the last one," "You look beautiful! Even better than last year!" -- these people clearly relish each Bouchercon and the friends they make at them.

Even an interloper like me was welcomed.

I noticed that the attendees were mostly authors themselves. At the horror mystery panel, I sat next to an aspiring legal thriller author from Florida. Afterward, Leigh from Orlando, Fla., explained his motivation for attending.

As a new writer, "I've learned how much I still have to learn," he said. "This is a great place to come to to pick up hints on my writing." He then pointed to his friend, James, from Los Angeles, who he said introduced him to this world of mystery.

James has attended Bouchercon events for the past 10 years, and he says there's no better place for comraderie. "Essentially, we only have one type of plot: Someone dies, and then you have to figure out who did it," he said. "So we help each other out with the details."

Local author Charles Colley, whose novel Sister Baby's Monkey was recently released, summed up the appeal of Bouchercon nicely: "Writers here are very accessible. You'lll be sitting next to someone, they're chatting with you ... and then it turns out they're a best-selling author."