Latest / Reality Writes / Four Years of Mystery Fest—Highlights and What’s Next

Transcript

Four Years of Mystery Fest—Highlights and What’s Next · Reality Writes

0:05
Ellie Alexander: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to Reality Writes.
0:09
Ellie Alexander: I am author Ellie Alexander.
0:11
Ellie Alexander: This is the podcast where we talk about all things writer-ish, bookish.
0:15
Ellie Alexander: We go behind the scenes of the writing life, and I am here as always with the Tech Guy.
0:20
Tech Guy: The Tech Guy, same Tech Guy, new space.
0:23
Ellie Alexander: Same Tech Guy, new space.
0:26
Tech Guy: Yeah, exciting, exciting news on the Reality Writes home front.
0:29
Tech Guy: Um, I am in the process of setting up my new creative space, my my new old new creative space uh back in this room.
0:40
Tech Guy: And it's kind of messy behind me right now for those watching, but we are in the process of putting together a podcast studio.
0:49
Ellie Alexander: So exciting.
0:50
Tech Guy: And Reality Writes is about to get real.
0:53
Ellie Alexander: Reality Writes is about to get real, real.
0:56
Ellie Alexander: We've been on hiatus for a few weeks because of the Ashland Mystery Fest.
1:01
Ellie Alexander: And I am um pointing to my merch that I'm wearing from the Ashland Mystery Fest that says, I like my mysteries cozy, and I do.
1:11
Ellie Alexander: So today we're gonna do a recap of the festival.
1:14
Ellie Alexander: We're gonna talk about some highlights, give you an overview, a little sneak peek of 2027, and sort of talk about what makes the Ashland Mystery Fest so unique and different than a lot of other book events.
1:26
Ellie Alexander: And I I gotta say, I'm still sort of riding high from those four days.
1:30
Ellie Alexander: It was incredible.
1:32
Tech Guy: Yeah, it was it's always such a great time.
1:35
Tech Guy: And this year was even better than last year, which was better than the year before.
1:40
Tech Guy: It just keeps getting bigger and better.
1:43
Tech Guy: It can't get much bigger, uh, just because of what we'll get into that, but um, but it is definitely getting better.
1:52
Tech Guy: And the people are always amazing.
1:56
Tech Guy: Um a lot of, you know, we we get new people, uh, some of the repeat visitors are just incredible.
2:03
Tech Guy: It's just, it's such a good time.
2:05
Ellie Alexander: It's such a good time.
2:06
Ellie Alexander: The vibes are high.
2:07
Ellie Alexander: Okay, well, let's start with uh to your point, what it is.
2:12
Ellie Alexander: So, for any darlings out there who might be new to the Ashland Mystery Festival, this was sort of the brainchild of me over the years getting so many messages, DMs, emails from readers saying, Hey, I'm coming to Ashland.
2:26
Ellie Alexander: Give me some ideas of where I should visit.
2:28
Ellie Alexander: That eventually snowballed into what is now the Ashland Mystery Fest.
2:32
Ellie Alexander: But the ultimate goal and mission of the festival is that we want you to feel like you are stepping into the pages of a cozy mystery from the moment you arrive in Ashland until the time you leave.
2:46
Ellie Alexander: And the real gift and experience of this particular festival is that it takes place throughout town, multiple places, not just one location.
2:58
Ellie Alexander: Um, and I think by nature that just makes it so unique because you're bumping into people at coffee shops and all over the plaza in the park.
3:08
Ellie Alexander: Um, yeah, it's great.
3:10
Tech Guy: Yeah, I am going to read a list of words for you here.
3:17
Tech Guy: Um, and I just want this this is for you and for the darlings out there listening, but um, but these are some of the things that people I shot video of a bunch of people just on the street, um, asked them about Mystery Fest and and everything.
3:35
Tech Guy: Um, and I asked them to use words to like three words to describe it, and these are just some of the words kind, inclusive, yeah, fun, energetic, community, caring, friends, and probably my favorite, dream of a lifetime.
3:59
Ellie Alexander: Oh no.
4:00
Ellie Alexander: Okay, I'm not crying.
4:02
Ellie Alexander: You're crying.
4:05
Tech Guy: I was crying a little bit actually when I was talking to the woman that said dream of a lifetime because that was pretty incredible.
4:12
Ellie Alexander: So incredible.
4:12
Ellie Alexander: And I think um, I think that's what makes the energy so gorgeous and authentic.
4:18
Ellie Alexander: You know, like it it doesn't feel like you're stepping into this like fake Hallmark mov Hallmark movie.
4:24
Ellie Alexander: It feels like everybody wants to be there because they do want to be there and they've traveled near and very far.
4:31
Ellie Alexander: So this year we had over 90s, we had readers, darlings, you traveling from over 90 cities throughout the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia.
4:44
Ellie Alexander: Our girl Mandy came all the way from Australia, which is a giant flight just in and of itself.
4:50
Ellie Alexander: And Ashland is not exactly then easy to get to, even when you're here in the United States.
4:56
Ellie Alexander: So that's just incredible.
4:58
Tech Guy: Absolutely.
4:59
Tech Guy: Um, and it it was it's funny that you say authentic because that was a word that people used, a few different people used uh when I was doing my interviews.
5:11
Tech Guy: And it is so true.
5:13
Tech Guy: Um, and that goes authentic authenticity goes for the authors who attend Ashland Mystery Fest, the readers who are at the Mystery Fest, and all of the uh people from Travel Ashland, the local business community, and all the volunteers that help.
5:30
Tech Guy: Like this is the most authentic festival that you will ever attend in your life if you're ever lucky enough to come to Ashland Mystery Fest.
5:40
Tech Guy: It is just you just meet the real people.
5:44
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, which is the goal all along, because I want you to get to know the real Ashland behind the books.
5:49
Ellie Alexander: Obviously, you can go on a tour and you can see where Pucks is and you can see where Tort is, and maybe you even catch a glimpse of the terrible Richard Lord in the plaza.
5:59
Ellie Alexander: But the whole idea is to get to experience Ashland as a community.
6:04
Ellie Alexander: And I feel like we have really succeeded in that mission, and it's so incredible to watch the festival evolve and grow and change.
6:13
Ellie Alexander: Um, I thought it might be fun to go over some of my favorite highlights being on the other side of it.
6:20
Ellie Alexander: So I am always responsible for the content piece of the festival.
6:26
Ellie Alexander: That that's the piece that I own.
6:27
Ellie Alexander: So I invite all of the authors and then I come up with the schedule, which I don't know how I landed with that job because that's definitely not my forte in terms of actually scheduling things.
6:41
Ellie Alexander: My office looks ridiculous.
6:43
Ellie Alexander: It's just like a mad scientist for weeks in like early February, once we start actually mapping out the panels and the workshops and the events around town.
6:53
Ellie Alexander: And every year I want to make sure it stays fresh.
6:57
Ellie Alexander: And and the authors who participate are also a big part of that too.
7:00
Ellie Alexander: And that's that's really fun because we'll have some Zoom brainstorming sessions and everyone brings ideas to the table.
7:07
Ellie Alexander: So for me, I have known for a while that I have wanted to do a mean reviews panel.
7:14
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
7:14
Ellie Alexander: And it is by far my favorite panel that I've ever done.
7:18
Ellie Alexander: And I'm not just talking about Ashland Mystery Fest.
7:20
Ellie Alexander: I'm talking about any conference, festival, convention that I've been to in my professional writing career.
7:26
Ellie Alexander: It was so hilarious and cathartic.
7:31
Tech Guy: Absolutely.
7:32
Tech Guy: That was one of the most fun panels that I've experienced at the fest.
7:39
Tech Guy: And it was great because all of the authors who participated got so into it.
7:44
Tech Guy: And there seemed to be no lack of content uh to share with the audience.
7:51
Ellie Alexander: No lack of meanness.
7:53
Ellie Alexander: And I was talking to a darling after the fact uh who is not a writer, but said this is just true for any service industry, like any industry that you're in, you're going to get negative feedback.
8:03
Ellie Alexander: So the cathartic piece of that, not only are they funny, um, and I will share this here with you, darlings, for anyone who wasn't at the festival.
8:11
Ellie Alexander: We the from the author side, we all went through and culled through our mean reviews online on like Amazon and Goodreads, which is not something that I do, I never try to seek out looking for mean reviews.
8:24
Ellie Alexander: And in fact, we've had multiple episodes of Reality Writes where I strongly suggest that you don't do that.
8:30
Ellie Alexander: Um, but it was really funny to go back and read some.
8:34
Ellie Alexander: So my favorite one is from Killing Me Souffle when our reader was like, you know, who should die in this book?
8:40
Ellie Alexander: Andy.
8:40
Ellie Alexander: I hated him.
8:41
Ellie Alexander: And it just goes to show, like, you know, I have darlings who are in love with Andy and want to marry him and have Andy tattoos.
8:49
Ellie Alexander: But um, after the fact, I was talking to Hannah Dennison, who was on the panel with me, and she shared some brutal like trade reviews early on and just mean things.
9:00
Ellie Alexander: And we were saying, this would have been so helpful earlier on in our careers to know like this is something that is universal.
9:10
Ellie Alexander: It is shared.
9:11
Ellie Alexander: If you are putting yourself out there in any way, shape, or form, you're gonna get negative feedback.
9:16
Ellie Alexander: And that's okay.
9:17
Ellie Alexander: Like, that's part of putting yourself out there.
9:20
Tech Guy: It is okay, but it's also kind of um well, that we're we're out on the live public thing for the after party.
9:28
Tech Guy: You could you could show up if you're a patron over at Ellie's Patreon, you'll hear what I really think about people who write meme reviews.
9:35
Tech Guy: But I digress.
9:37
Tech Guy: I digress.
9:38
Tech Guy: They were some of the funniest stories.
9:40
Tech Guy: I will tell you this, darlings.
9:42
Tech Guy: When you write, if I I know no darlings out there ever write mean reviews, but I'll tell you, if you do write a mean review, it doesn't have the impact that you think it's going to.
9:54
Tech Guy: You will end up the laughing stock of somebody out there.
9:58
Tech Guy: Well, it is always a good time.
10:01
Tech Guy: So it was fun hearing that this is just something that all writers experience.
10:06
Tech Guy: And I think that's a like you said, that's an important lesson, right?
10:09
Tech Guy: It it is just something that's going to happen naturally, and you can laugh about it and you can learn and move on.
10:17
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, exactly.
10:18
Ellie Alexander: And it's always, we talked about this on the panel, but it's always the one you can have 50 glowing reviews, and one person hated it, and for whatever reason, our human brains are wired to hold on to that one.
10:28
Ellie Alexander: Um, and so the goal is to shift away from that one.
10:31
Ellie Alexander: Also, don't engage with that one, just let it be.
10:34
Ellie Alexander: Like that's not for you, and move right along.
10:37
Ellie Alexander: Okay, so that was a big highlight for me.
10:39
Ellie Alexander: The other favorite thing that I have loved and we've done every year, and this has just gotten bigger and better is the Build a Mystery Live, where a panel of authors and everyone in the armory, it's just this free-for-all, almost like shouting match of ideas and concepts and victims and killers.
11:01
Ellie Alexander: And somehow the panelists bring that together for a story, a mystery, a short mystery that gets read live at the dinner on Saturday night.
11:13
Ellie Alexander: And I literally don't know how they do it.
11:16
Ellie Alexander: It's amazing.
11:18
Tech Guy: It's an amazing talent, honestly.
11:20
Tech Guy: And uh this year's mystery included animals, which were including two bitchy geese.
11:27
Ellie Alexander: Two bitchy geese, a pet psychic.
11:31
Tech Guy: Which were amazing.
11:32
Tech Guy: So it was hilarious as always.
11:36
Tech Guy: Um, so for those who didn't attend the uh four authors that put this mystery together on the fly, uh, then end up performing it, re-reading it in in front of everyone at the at the uh the main dinner Saturday night.
11:52
Tech Guy: And um just an outstanding job.
11:55
Tech Guy: Um, I think people's cheeks hurt.
11:58
Ellie Alexander: Mine still hurt just thinking about it.
12:00
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
12:00
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
12:01
Ellie Alexander: And um Travel Ashland posted it on the Ashland Mystery Fest site.
12:05
Ellie Alexander: So if you want to go read it now, you can read it um and get a taste.
12:09
Ellie Alexander: So just imagine that this was one hour of live brainstorming, and then a few minutes later, I was downstairs in the green room and I see Aaron Scott and Lee Hollis and Ellen Byron and me and mom and Salah.
12:23
Ellie Alexander: Erin's got her laptop out, and they're just frantically trying to pull this into anything that resembles a mystery.
12:29
Ellie Alexander: It was Chef's kiss.
12:32
Tech Guy: Totally.
12:33
Tech Guy: Um, this year we actually got to see a movie, right?
12:40
Ellie Alexander: This year we got to see a movie.
12:41
Ellie Alexander: Jen McKinley was so nice to be able to do a screening of a few episodes of Paris is always a good idea.
12:50
Ellie Alexander: People came in PJs, they brought popcorn.
12:53
Ellie Alexander: She and Allison had a lot of MC, had a little chat about the process before, which was fabulous.
13:02
Tech Guy: That's awesome.
13:03
Tech Guy: Um, and then of course, one of the Ashland Mystery Fest traditions, and I can call it that now because this year was the fourth annual Ashland Mystery Fest, is uh you and I take the all the participating authors out to dinner.
13:20
Tech Guy: And this year it got a little wild.
13:23
Ellie Alexander: Got a little wild, yeah.
13:24
Ellie Alexander: So we we have the kickoff reception that's from four to six, and then our um new like tradition, like you said, is that we take all of the participating authors out for dinner directly after.
13:37
Ellie Alexander: It'd be great if we had more time, like if people were arriving like Tuesday or Wednesday to do that.
13:42
Ellie Alexander: But just with the nature of the festival and how people are traveling and work schedules, not all of the authors arrive until Thursday and a lot of times right before the kickoff reception.
13:53
Ellie Alexander: So it's sort of the only window where we can make this happen.
13:55
Ellie Alexander: So we go out to dinner and sort of give everyone an overview of what to expect for the festival, answer any last-minute questions, go over, you know, any of the logistics, and then it turns into a raucous party.
14:14
Tech Guy: Well, to say that the this year's group of authors was hyped for this festival is an understatement of maximum levels.
14:25
Tech Guy: Like it was just it was super fun.
14:29
Tech Guy: Um, we gave the venue we were at a large tip.
14:35
Ellie Alexander: No, well, and it's like, what happens when you get like 14, 15 mystery writers together?
14:40
Ellie Alexander: Everybody's just like talking, we're laughing, my cheeks are hurting.
14:44
Ellie Alexander: I'm also sort of having an out-of-body experience because I'm like, oh my gosh, all of these people are here in Ashland.
14:49
Ellie Alexander: Like, how is this even possible?
14:52
Ellie Alexander: And then um the rest of the outdoor space was very subdued.
14:56
Ellie Alexander: So we'd like, you know, be joking about dead bodies and all the things.
15:00
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, yeah.
15:01
Tech Guy: So although the the murder mystery authors would have been the ones murdered, so that would have been a little irony there.
15:09
Tech Guy: Yeah.
15:09
Tech Guy: Um, it was interesting for me, not being an author myself, to sit back and kind of watch because I did notice that a few of the first year participating authors, you could tell at first we're kind of like, okay, what is this going to be like?
15:27
Tech Guy: And then, you know, and this for the darlings out there to understand, there is a tremendous amount of work that goes into setting up the Ashland Mystery Fest throughout the year.
15:37
Tech Guy: So Ellie is meeting with the authors, you know, each month, uh uh, you know, in the run-up to the festival getting ready.
15:44
Tech Guy: But this is the first time everybody's in person together.
15:47
Tech Guy: And so there was there's always a little trepidation of like, okay, you know, is this going to be fun?
15:54
Tech Guy: And that melted away in like five minutes.
15:57
Tech Guy: And it was just like everybody was then just telling stories and laughing and hugging.
16:04
Tech Guy: And it was, yeah, it was really fun.
16:06
Tech Guy: And again, really fun to see.
16:07
Ellie Alexander: From the writer's side, I think it's so important because we live in our own little separate caves and we don't recognize going back to the reviews, that everybody else is experiencing all of the same anxieties or struggles that we are, and then to be able to share space and those stories together makes a huge difference.
16:26
Ellie Alexander: And having attended many of the conferences over the years prior to starting the Ashland Mystery Fest, it's not true for all of them, but some of the big conferences that you go to are not necessarily welcoming, especially for a new author.
16:42
Ellie Alexander: And so my intention from the get-go is that every reader and writer who attends, I want you to feel like, hey, I am supposed to be here.
16:51
Ellie Alexander: This is my place, these are my people.
16:53
Ellie Alexander: Um, and that just happens naturally because the people who come are the best.
16:58
Ellie Alexander: I'm not even biased.
16:59
Ellie Alexander: It's true.
17:00
Tech Guy: Absolutely.
17:01
Tech Guy: Um, I'm looking in the show notes and I see that you left out a highlight that I'm going to add as one of my highlights.
17:11
Tech Guy: Actually, I have two highlights.
17:12
Ellie Alexander: Okay.
17:12
Ellie Alexander: I I wonder if I can guess what your highlight's gonna be.
17:16
Tech Guy: Well, first is each year at Ashland Mystery Festival, there is an overarching mystery for attendees to solve.
17:25
Tech Guy: And it changes every year.
17:27
Tech Guy: Sometimes it's more of a scavenger hunt, sometimes it might be like looking at a crime scene and trying to deduce, you know, who done it.
17:36
Tech Guy: Um, and each year, the for the first couple of years, we you did it, you and I uh put the mystery together.
17:44
Tech Guy: Um the first year maybe it was a little too hard.
17:48
Tech Guy: I don't know.
17:50
Tech Guy: But um uh way ahead of ourselves.
17:53
Tech Guy: Yeah, we learned some things.
17:55
Tech Guy: But uh, but you know, live and learn.
17:58
Tech Guy: Yeah.
17:58
Tech Guy: Um, and this year's mystery, you'll have to remind me who all wrote it.
18:05
Ellie Alexander: Yes.
18:05
Ellie Alexander: Okay, so it was a collaborative effort, and that's one of the best things as the festival grows, and one of the reasons that every year we invite, or I invite a few returning authors because then they take the lead on things.
18:16
Ellie Alexander: So for this year's mystery around town, we had Esme and Rick and Ellen, and then um looped into that were you and I, Matthew and Gretchen.
18:30
Ellie Alexander: So it was definitely a team effort.
18:34
Tech Guy: And it was amazing.
18:36
Tech Guy: There were scripts, people.
18:37
Tech Guy: There were scripts.
18:39
Tech Guy: I I we had to, and Ellie and I had to film a couple videos.
18:43
Tech Guy: Um, it was, and then I ended up, Rick Lee Hollis was uh who had uh wrote the thing.
18:52
Tech Guy: He kind of directed it all and he was going to film it.
18:55
Tech Guy: And I was standing there, and he he's like, Oh, he looked at my phone and he's like, Oh, you have a really nice phone.
19:05
Tech Guy: I just have an iPhone SE.
19:06
Tech Guy: So this like you should just film everything because it's not gonna look good on this.
19:10
Tech Guy: And I was like, What?
19:11
Tech Guy: Now it's all of a sudden I'm filming all the videos, uh, because there were videos that were were clues that went with the the whole mystery that was going on.
19:20
Tech Guy: But talk a little bit about uh the the main actor in the mystery.
19:27
Ellie Alexander: Yes, and so we uh we've had the pleasure of getting to work with a number of regional actors in the Rogue Valley.
19:35
Ellie Alexander: And Alex Boyles was kind enough to come participate again this year.
19:41
Ellie Alexander: He's the artistic director at the Oregon Cabaret.
19:44
Ellie Alexander: And so Rick and Esme and Ellen wrote this script for him where he is a thriller author who's coming to crash this cozy mystery weekend and you know, disparaging remarks about cozy mysteries, and he ends up dying at the opening reception.
19:59
Ellie Alexander: Now, they wrote and did all of this unbeknownst to us, and then it turns out that one of us ended up being the killer.
20:06
Ellie Alexander: We weren't we didn't we weren't even gonna be part of this.
20:09
Ellie Alexander: Thanks a lot, guys.
20:10
Ellie Alexander: No, I'm just kidding.
20:13
Tech Guy: No, that that's right.
20:14
Tech Guy: But the the reason I wanted you to talk about Matthew was the or sorry uh about Alex was uh that um I had to be in a couple of scenes with him.
20:27
Tech Guy: Right.
20:28
Tech Guy: And yes, the the so okay, so this is the artistic director of the Oregon Cabaret Theater.
20:35
Tech Guy: Yeah, and you know he this is what this man does for a living, and he's good at it.
20:40
Tech Guy: He is a professional actor.
20:43
Tech Guy: Yes.
20:44
Tech Guy: Uh so when he talks and he's in character, it sounds like he's mic'd up.
20:49
Tech Guy: Like somehow his voice just projects naturally in the room, and his his emotions get amped up to like 10 automatically, just like you know, just a switch.
21:03
Tech Guy: And so I was he I got a little directorial uh a couple of times, which actually I think elevated things.
21:11
Tech Guy: Yeah, but it was it was I I was nervous.
21:15
Tech Guy: I gotta say, I was sweating.
21:17
Tech Guy: Like I I here I am, like I am having to act with this guy, and they turned out really, really well.
21:23
Tech Guy: And spoiler alert, darlings, I was the killer.
21:27
Ellie Alexander: You were the killer.
21:28
Ellie Alexander: And again, you can go to the Ashland Mystery Fest site and watch all the fun videos that the tech guy recorded with everyone else.
21:34
Ellie Alexander: And yeah, you really did get thrown to the wolves because Rink and Ellen wrote professionally for television, Matthew's written screenplays and regular plays of playwright.
21:45
Ellie Alexander: In addition to this, you're just the tech.
21:47
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, you should get a gold star for that.
21:50
Ellie Alexander: That was a a plus.
21:53
Tech Guy: No, it was super fun.
21:54
Tech Guy: They uh again, the nicest people to work with.
21:58
Tech Guy: Um, uh and And he brought so much to it.
22:02
Tech Guy: It just, you know, how about if we shoot this one in the stairwell here?
22:06
Tech Guy: That will be perfect.
22:06
Tech Guy: And I was like, wow, that that's just little things like that that just he could see instantly.
22:12
Tech Guy: And it just it helped.
22:14
Ellie Alexander: Uh well, and it's so fun for me because they all, you know, went off and did this on their own.
22:19
Ellie Alexander: And Esme came up off with came up with all these clues that were also phenomenal because a few days before, right when we got to town, we went and delivered them to all the participating businesses.
22:29
Ellie Alexander: And again, talking about leveling it up, then it's like a receipt for someone's coffee and a poison plant and a job.
22:36
Ellie Alexander: And I mean, they were it was next, it really was like solving a mystery this year.
22:41
Ellie Alexander: So props to that team for making that happen.
22:45
Tech Guy: Yeah, definitely.
22:46
Tech Guy: Um, and second highlight, and then we can move on here was each year at Ashland Mystery Fest, I host a happy hour, uh, the Tech Guy Happy Hour.
22:56
Tech Guy: And, you know, it the you you made me do this.
23:00
Tech Guy: I didn't think you did.
23:01
Tech Guy: I will say this is not something that I was like, yeah, I need my own event.
23:06
Tech Guy: Um, no, this was you you said, Oh, you need to, some people want to meet you, and I was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.
23:13
Tech Guy: And the first year, like four or five people showed up, and and it was, you know, it was it was fun because I got to meet people who I'd been chatting with during live streams and stuff face to face for the first time and and everything.
23:27
Tech Guy: And uh this year I was blown away.
23:31
Tech Guy: I mean, I was a little, I was it was embarrassing.
23:34
Tech Guy: Uh there were like 40 people showed up at the tech guy happy hour.
23:38
Tech Guy: I was like, yeah, I'm just thank you.
23:42
Tech Guy: For those of you who came, thank you.
23:44
Tech Guy: That just it was it was awesome.
23:46
Tech Guy: It's so fun to to see everybody.
23:48
Tech Guy: And now I'm stupid.
23:50
Tech Guy: Now I'm getting all teary.
23:52
Tech Guy: Um but it was uh cry, cry.
23:54
Tech Guy: No, it was it was just so great to to uh meet people for the first time and and to see people that that I've seen over the years and everything, um, but only get a chance to see at Mystery Fest and um and share a beer or wine or whatever, juice, whatever they were drinking with them.
24:14
Tech Guy: Um it was a lot of fun.
24:15
Tech Guy: So I hope to see everyone back again next year.
24:20
Ellie Alexander: That's right.
24:20
Ellie Alexander: We're gonna have to get a bigger venue for happy hour, man.
24:23
Ellie Alexander: I love it.
24:25
Ellie Alexander: I think that's such a highlight for me, too, is that we like every year, then it's like meeting up with the best people and old friends, and there's just never enough time.
24:35
Ellie Alexander: That that's my only con because there's so much more that I want to do just as a participant when we're not like running things.
24:44
Ellie Alexander: Um but you know, yeah.
24:45
Ellie Alexander: Uh oh, go ahead.
24:48
Tech Guy: Oh, I was just gonna say, every every year we try to add new things to a festival.
24:53
Tech Guy: So talk a little bit about what some of the new favorites are.
24:59
Ellie Alexander: We had so many new favorites, and this is all um ideas that have come off the author zooms and brainstorms collectively over the years, too.
25:08
Ellie Alexander: Um, so this year we added escape rooms.
25:10
Ellie Alexander: So Darlings went and escaped with authors, which I didn't do one, but the photos coming out of those are so great and hilarious.
25:19
Ellie Alexander: And I did love hearing from the author side, like, oh my god, I was terrible at escape rooms.
25:24
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, I know.
25:26
Tech Guy: I was gonna say, I I talked to a few of the authors as well, and and they were like, I have never sweat that much in my life.
25:32
Tech Guy: I'm a professional, and I I'm supposed to like everybody went into this thing thinking, oh, well, she's gonna get me out right away.
25:39
Tech Guy: Right.
25:40
Ellie Alexander: I'm gonna solve it.
25:40
Tech Guy: I couldn't solve anything.
25:42
unknown: Exactly.
25:43
Ellie Alexander: That was great.
25:44
Ellie Alexander: Uh, we did book bedazzling this year, which was a giant hit.
25:48
Ellie Alexander: That was uh Michelle and Ellen's suggestion on one of the Zooms.
25:52
Ellie Alexander: And uh I don't think the venue was prepared for how many people came to bedazzle, bedazzle.
25:57
Ellie Alexander: And now I want to bedazzle a book.
25:59
Ellie Alexander: So that's coming back next year for sure.
26:01
Ellie Alexander: Both of those.
26:02
Tech Guy: Yeah, there were some uh there were some amazing book covers.
26:06
Tech Guy: I think you shared some of them on your social.
26:08
Tech Guy: Yeah.
26:08
Tech Guy: So impressive.
26:10
Tech Guy: It's incredible.
26:11
Ellie Alexander: And people did it really quickly, like within an hour or two.
26:14
Ellie Alexander: Uh, one of the other fun highlights this year is I did sort of like a TED talk style.
26:19
Ellie Alexander: I mean, think like don't don't set your sights as high as a TED talk, but like it was a it was a NED talk.
26:26
Ellie Alexander: It was a NED talk, exactly.
26:27
Ellie Alexander: What's lower than Ned?
26:29
Ellie Alexander: It's a dead talk.
26:32
Tech Guy: No, it wasn't.
26:33
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, because I talk murder.
26:33
Ellie Alexander: It's a dead talk.
26:34
Tech Guy: Okay, all right, it's a dead talk.
26:36
Ellie Alexander: Uh just sort of about the craft of writing, marketing, building a community.
26:44
Ellie Alexander: And I thought that was just gonna be a small group of maybe writers who were attending the festival, and it was a packed house too.
26:51
Ellie Alexander: So that was really fun and unexpected.
26:53
Ellie Alexander: And it does have me thinking for future years, like, oh, how do we incorporate a little bit more of that into the festival as well?
27:00
Ellie Alexander: While still always making sure first and foremost, it is a reader forward festival.
27:08
Tech Guy: Reader forward festival.
27:09
Tech Guy: Um, that's definitely what sets it apart from other, you know, author festivals that are out there for sure.
27:18
Tech Guy: Um and the authors get involved in things.
27:22
Tech Guy: Like you said, there were authors doing escape rooms, there were authors bedazzling books, um, you know, uh Rick and Esme and Ellen uh and Mia writing the um uh uh the mystery live with uh I think Aaron was in on that too, right?
27:39
Tech Guy: Yeah, um yeah, and and then the the the mystery around town.
27:44
Tech Guy: Um, but there were you had other authors that were involved as well, too, because now we have panel moderators.
27:54
Ellie Alexander: Now we have panel moderators.
27:55
Ellie Alexander: Also, Hannah Dennison wrote um the mystery plays.
27:58
Ellie Alexander: So every year we do two immersive dinners.
28:02
Ellie Alexander: We didn't get to go to it this year.
28:03
Tech Guy: We didn't get to go, yeah.
28:04
Ellie Alexander: Last year we went.
28:05
Ellie Alexander: Um, and Hannah did it this year and set it at like a um neighborhood meeting, uh, like an HOA meeting in a tiny little British village, and she brought props all the way from the UK, and I heard nothing but fantastic things about that.
28:21
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, and then this year, as we continue to grow and like think about how we can continue to just make the festival feel so polished and seamless.
28:33
Ellie Alexander: We added Allison, um, who is our MC and she's phenomenal and such a warm welcoming spirit, too.
28:40
Ellie Alexander: Like, you're not gonna get away from her without getting a hug.
28:43
Ellie Alexander: Like she's gonna know your name and she's gonna remember your face, and she's gonna make sure you have somebody to go to lunch with, all those things.
28:50
Ellie Alexander: Uh, she gets the crowd hyped before panels.
28:53
Ellie Alexander: And then moderators, too, were able to use some previous debut authors who now have multiple books out to come back and moderate panels, which was so nice because I really think that leveled it up.
29:07
Ellie Alexander: We had screens this year so you could have audio visual.
29:10
Ellie Alexander: There was a um slideshow playing in the background of photos from this year and previous year.
29:15
Ellie Alexander: So yeah, I know.
29:16
Ellie Alexander: I was like, oh, this is so legit.
29:18
Ellie Alexander: Look at us growing up.
29:21
Tech Guy: Yeah, for sure.
29:22
Tech Guy: They the Allison making sure that you had somebody to go to lunch with it reminds me.
29:28
Tech Guy: Uh that's another thing when I was interviewing people on the street about uh Ashland Mystery Fest, when I saw people out with their badges out and around town.
29:37
Tech Guy: Um, I can't tell you the number of people that I talked to who met at Ashland Mystery Fest, either this year or in a previous year, and now they are like lifelong friends.
29:49
Tech Guy: And they that is just wild to me that you know essentially we've created something that like is bringing all these people together.
29:59
Tech Guy: And I just love that about I do too.
30:02
Ellie Alexander: That makes me teary every time, which is like the best part of the book community, right?
30:06
Ellie Alexander: Is that I think people feel like, oh, I've I have a safe space here.
30:09
Ellie Alexander: And um, yeah.
30:11
Tech Guy: Especially when at its core it is a mystery, it's a festival about mystery books that involve killing people.
30:20
Ellie Alexander: Right, I know.
30:21
Ellie Alexander: I know it's true.
30:21
Ellie Alexander: But mystery people like we are the most fun for sure.
30:25
Ellie Alexander: I've been to all the big conventions, I've sat through, I mean, I'm not gonna throw shade at other genres, but I'm just saying they're usually bad people.
30:33
Tech Guy: So right, right, yeah.
30:34
Tech Guy: Yeah, yeah.
30:37
Tech Guy: Yeah.
30:40
Ellie Alexander: Uh the last sort of like highlight, I think, for me is just how the community partnerships have grown.
30:45
Ellie Alexander: You touched on the team at Travel Ashland.
30:47
Ellie Alexander: I mean, they have just done a phenomenal job in terms of the beautiful merch and the event flow and the program and social media and all everything that you don't see behind the scenes that again we're working on all year long.
31:04
Ellie Alexander: Like already I'm working on 2027 and we've only been back for a couple weeks.
31:09
Ellie Alexander: So um there's that piece, but then all of the businesses Paddington Station, Bloomsbury Books, all of the participants for Solve a Mystery, the Websters.
31:22
Ellie Alexander: I mean, people just want to be part of it, um, which is so fun to see that little spark ignite all around town where people are like, oh, what can I do with its mystery theme?
31:32
Tech Guy: Yeah, we uh, you know, because I shoot a lot of the social media photos and videos during Mystery Fest.
31:41
Tech Guy: And and I was going around uh in the days leading up to Mystery Fest, and then once it started and and shooting videos inside the businesses that were participating and the sponsors and stuff and and talking to some of the business owners, and they were they were pumped.
31:57
Tech Guy: They were they they love Mystery Fest.
32:00
Tech Guy: Not not just because it brings more people into the shop, but the the people themselves are what they talk about over and over and over again.
32:09
Tech Guy: I heard, I just love it, they're so nice, the people are so fun, I get to meet all these great people, and they're from all over the place.
32:17
Tech Guy: And you know, it's just it all of that is just so great to hear.
32:22
Tech Guy: So I I just can't wait to see what the future brings for Ashland Mystery Festival.
32:27
Ellie Alexander: I know, me too.
32:28
Ellie Alexander: No, when I got home, I'm still slowly working my way through email, but I was flooded with messages from Ashland locals just saying, like, everyone who comes into town is so nice.
32:40
Ellie Alexander: I'm like, okay, yes, I told you.
32:42
Ellie Alexander: I knew, I knew, but thank you, darlings, for uh proving it.
32:48
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
32:49
Ellie Alexander: Well, I can tell you that we are going into year five.
32:53
Ellie Alexander: 2027 will be the fifth annual Ashland Mystery Fest.
32:57
Ellie Alexander: I already have some fun author announcements that we'll be making soon.
33:02
Ellie Alexander: Plans are rolling already.
33:05
Ellie Alexander: Some of the things that we talked about are coming back.
33:08
Ellie Alexander: We've got some new stuff in store.
33:10
Ellie Alexander: I cannot wait.
33:12
Ellie Alexander: The dates October 14th through 17th, 2027.
33:18
Tech Guy: That is right around the corner.
33:20
Ellie Alexander: Mark it on your calendars now, darlings.
33:22
Ellie Alexander: Get ready.
33:23
Ellie Alexander: Come to Ashley.
33:25
Tech Guy: I say, I say it's right around the corner because planning for the fifth annual Ashland Mystery Fest has already started.
33:32
Ellie Alexander: That's right.
33:33
Tech Guy: So, this is for all of you out there who are like, oh, I could put on an event.
33:39
Tech Guy: How hard could it be?
33:40
Tech Guy: It's a lot of work.
33:41
Tech Guy: It's a lot of work.
33:43
Tech Guy: It's so worth it.
33:45
Tech Guy: It's so worth it.
33:45
Tech Guy: 100%.
33:46
Tech Guy: Yes.
33:46
Tech Guy: It is worth it.
33:47
Tech Guy: But it is a lot of work and it takes a long time, and it takes a lot of people willing to put in the hard work and effort that it takes to pull it off.
33:58
Tech Guy: And it's only going to get better from here.
34:01
Ellie Alexander: That's the goal.
34:02
Ellie Alexander: All right.
34:03
Ellie Alexander: So circle those dates on your calendar and uh let's get ready for year five in a big way.
34:13
Tech Guy: That's right.
34:13
Tech Guy: Fifth annual Astral Mystery Festival, October 14th through 17th, 2027.
34:20
Ellie Alexander: See you there.
34:22
Tech Guy: All right, until next time.
34:24
Ellie Alexander: Till next time.