My Favorite Interviews

Julia Spencer-Fleming, Thomas H. Cook, Megan Abbott, Robert Wilson, Bob Morris, Marcus Sakey, Craig Johnson, Cornelia Read, Tim Cockey and more wonderful mystery authors were the names I rediscovered while making design changes to the blog. In celebration of some of those fun conversations, I am noting them here for easy access.

Bestselling crime writer Robert Wilson chatted with me about, among other things, the beauty of Africa and his home and office in Portugal.









I talked with Tim Cockey after reading one of his books, THE HEARSE YOU CAME IN ON, and laughing out loud on every other page, mostly because of the wry observations of his hero, Hitchcock Sewell.








>Robert Fate is always terrific interview fodder because he's done so many fascinating things--most recently creating the BABY SHARK mystery series.





Marcus Sakey, a fellow Chicago-area author, has a great sense of humor, which is evident in this interview.







Julia Spencer Fleming's books are a huge success; she responds very modestly about them, suggesting that she leads a life "of surpassing dullness." :)










Cornelia Read denies looking anything like Grace Kelly in her interview.






Bob Morris is recuperating this summer from a dumbwaiter accident. It sounds funny, but it wasn't. In any case, he has more interesting things to say in our chat, in which he mentions his relationship with Dave Barry.





Megan Abbott reminds me of Dorothy Parker in this stylish photo; she suggested that the photographer was going for just that sort of New York image.










Thomas H. Cook's RED LEAVES haunted me; too bad I read it after this interview, or I would have asked more about it.










Craig Johnson's mysteries were one of my great recent discoveries. He is as charming in this interview as his protagonist, Walt Longmire, is in Johnson's western-set novels.

Deb Sharp's Book Sells Like Hotcakes

 

I went to Florida mystery writer Deb Sharp's Chicago-area signing tonight, thinking to offer her a little co-authorly support. Luckily, she didn't need it. I had to elbow my way up to her little table, and I didn't stay long, fearful that I'd block the endless line. I should be so lucky, Deb. :)

Deb's successful series, which started with MAMA DOES TIME, now continues with MAMA RIDES SHOTGUN. I'm looking forward to reading more about Mama's adventures in Florida, which inspired the TODAY show's Hoda Kotb to say that "Deb Sharp is the next Edna Buchanan!"

Deb is so used to hot Florida summers that she said she had to wear a shawl here in cool Chicago. I told her I like the shawl weather better!

And now, on to reading mysteries . . . .

Hello, Inflation

I was listening to WDRV "The Drive," the Chicago Classic Rock station, when I dropped my son at summer school today. They were doing a retrospective on the year 1967; they played The Moody Blues "Tuesday afternoon" and The Monkees "She." And then they shared this tidbit:

On this day in 1967 McDonalds test-marketed their new burger, the "Big Mac," which offered two beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, onions and pickles on a sesame seed bun--for forty-five cents.

Remembering Marjorie

My husband's mother, Marjorie, would have been 76 today. I have been thinking of her all day--about what a nice person she was, how devoted she was to her husband and her children, how she fell head over heels for her grandchildren, and how, as fate would have it, their babyhood was the last blessing of her life.

This picture was taken about eleven years ago--about two years before Alzheimer's began its evil work in the woman that we all still considered young. She had always had the tendency to jumble her words, to reverse the names of her sons (much to their anger), to pronounce things incorrectly. Her family, with that callousness that we save only for those we love, initially laughed at her, thinking it was an eccentric part of her personality.

But things got worse; she forgot important things, like the fact that she had contact lenses in her eyes, or that she had left the stove on, or that the baby's high chair wasn't properly attached. It was at that point that we had to tell her we no longer needed her as a baby sitter, which felt cruel enough. Less than a year later she was much worse, and her husband had to admit he couldn't handle taking care of her on his own, that he feared what she would do in her nocturnal ramblings around their house. She was admitted to a care facility, and he was asked not to visit her more than once a week.

"It agitates the patients," they told him.

This was true. She would pace nervously most of the time--a symptom of the disease, probably because the victims know enough to realize that something significant is gone, and they want it back. Sometimes Marjorie would trip and fall while she did this nervous pacing. Eventually they encouraged her to stay in a wheelchair to reduce the chance of injury. Little by little, she was imprisoned, mind and body.

When she lived in the Alzheimer's Ward, she clung to her husband's name as her final lifeline. We would visit and she would ask us, "Do you know Dick Buckley?"

"Yes," we'd say. "He's your husband. That's his picture on the wall."

"Oh." She obviously didn't remember, but that name rattled around in her head, tormenting her. When he visited her something in her body remembered him; it seemed to respond merely to the sound of his voice. She would ask him to please take her home, and he would cry and tell her he couldn't do that, that she was safer here.

She was; there were caregivers with her always, watching with the vigilance of new mothers, because Alzheimer's patients, like babies, do things without thinking. They eat things that aren't food because they can't remember what food is, or why we eat at all. They can't remember their own names, or the names or faces of the grandchildren they once so dearly loved.

Alzheimer's Disease makes a person die before her death. It forces her to give up everything that she loves and, most precious, to let go of the last tenuous threads of memory so that those who come to visit are merely props, things that require explanations which will not be understood.
Marjorie was a beautiful and loving person, and she would have been horrified to learn of her fate. She was a Ross MacDonald fan, and when we talked about his work, which we both admired, she would shake her head and say, "I heard he had Alzheimer's at the end." She said it as though it were a terrible punishment. Then she would shrug and go into her kitchen to make sandwiches or some delicious meal; she loved to cook, back in the healthy days.

I think of Marjorie often, but today we are all thinking of her, and wishing we could bring her a birthday cake (which she would most likely refuse, because she always watched her figure). She would mostly enjoy the children; she'd offer to play a game with them, just like always, and get right down on the floor to ponder a Stratego Board or laugh over Sorry. She would tell them something nice about themselves, or ask where they got some new stuffed animal, and then she would say her standard Grandma line: "Aren't you lucky? What a lucky boy!"

Juliet Blackwell Talks About Witchcraft, Good Cooking, and the Dual Nature of Us All

Juliet Blackwell's first Witchcraft Mystery, Secondhand Spirits, comes out today from Obsidian. She was kind enough to share her thoughts about writing and her new series.

Juliet, I just finished Secondhand Spirits and thought it was great fun! How did you come up with the idea of Lily Ivory, a 31-year-old witch who opens a used clothing store in the Haight-Ashbury district?

Hi, Julia, thanks for having me! So glad you enjoyed Secondhand Spirits. Lily Ivory, my protagonist, morphed from an undeveloped idea I had for a much darker paranormal novel. I was talking one day with my editor at Signet, and she asked whether I had a “paranormal novel in a drawer somewhere” since the genre is so popular lately (and most of us writers have manuscripts shoved, willy-nilly, in one drawer or another!). I shared my ideas with her, and then we brainstormed about how to make my character a little less dark, and to put her in a setting that would lend itself to a mystery series.

I wanted Lily to be surrounded by history; she has been estranged from people all her life, but she finds solace in the vibrations of people who have gone before. I thought of an antique shop first, but I’m a vintage clothes lover and one day in a consignment shop on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, it dawned on me: how better to feel vibrations than from vintage clothing?

The Haight-Ashbury setting was a natural–-where better to place a witch who wants to “fit in” with all the odd characters and misfits? And Lily’s age was merely a function of wanting someone old enough to have gained some wisdom and self-awareness, but young enough to still be unsure of her path in the world. That’s how I felt when I was thirty-one, anyway.

Lily is rather a loner, yet she accumulates a great many friends in the book. Will her friends’ characters continue into the next book?

Yes, I enjoyed having Lily make friends in the first book. Her personal story –being sent away from her home as a girl, then run out of her small West Texas town altogether as a teenager, then wandering the globe alone for years—-is a powerful motivation. She wants to settle down, create a sense of home, and develop friendships. But that’s not easy, for any of us--it’s always a risk to open yourself up to others. For Lily, as a natural born witch who has been despised for her abilities, it’s even more difficult. So it was lovely to surround her with characters who not only accept her as she is, but celebrate her.

Lily was an interesting character for me, as a writer. It probably sounds strange to say it, but she took a while to open up to me. As I got to know her, I came to love and admire her mix of strength and vulnerability. Her friends will certainly follow her into the next book – one of the things I most like about writing is building whole new worlds full of quirky characters, and I always enjoy them too much to drop them!

You reference many stereotypes of witches in the novel, as well as the historical realities about witches who were burned at the stake. One of your characters cites Arthur Miller’s The Crucible as an example of witch persecution (and persecution in general). Did you do a great deal of research about witches?

When I set out to write a novel featuring a witch, the last thing I wanted to do was produce a sort of warmed-over version of the old “Bewitched” television show (though I must admit I loved that show as a child!) I wanted to treat witchcraft seriously. It has been such an intense, important topic throughout the history of the world . . . besides, I love research! I couldn’t stop reading about witchcraft, not only in Europe but all over the world: Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia . . . witchcraft is, and has been, something of a global obsession. Of course the traditions are all different, but what they share is the mixed respect and fear that people have of witches.

Witches are often associated with health and healing, as in the case of “witch doctors”--this was also true in Europe, where some believe the witch hunts were at least in part a response to the desire to run women out of the health professions. But that association with health can go both ways – when epidemics occur, the local witch healer might be stuck with the blame.

In Secondhand Spirits, Lily Ivory learns to control her powers from a “curandera," which is a sort of Mexican folk healer. That character, Graciela, is based on a fascinating woman I’ve known for many years--she has an intriguing approach to the world, and especially to botanicals and health. I also interviewed any number of self-proclaimed witches, from the US, Scotland, and Mexico, and attended a few local coven meetings. Of course, I did way too much research to include everything in the books, so I write more in detail on my blog (link below).

For instance, did you know that as recently as 1944 a woman, Helen Duncan, was charged--and convicted—-of witchcraft in England? Fascinating.

That is surprising! What was her punishment?

She was imprisoned for nine months. The trial lasted seven days. Mediums and believers of all sorts rallied to her defense and set up a defense fund which allowed her barrister to call 44 witnesses to testify she wasn't a fraud. Ironically, it was precisely their fear that she was NOT a fraud that led to her conviction and sentencing.

The jury deliberated only half an hour before declaring her guilty. Happily, though the court used a law written in 1735 to convict Duncan, at least the punishment for witchcraft had been reformed. Her sentence was nine months in London’s Holloway prison…a step up from the traditional Scottish burning or hanging of witches.

That is bizarre!

On another topic, Lily manages to attract two sexy men in this book; it made me think of the Stephanie Plum triangle in the Janet Evanovich series. Will both men be significant in Lily’s life?

It’s funny, in my last series I had two interesting men in the protagonist’s life as well . . .I know a lot of people think the idea is reminiscent of Evanovich, but I think it’s a common device to show that we’re all attracted to different aspects of ourselves. In Secondhand Spirits, Aidan is a powerful witch very content in the supernatural world, and Max is a cynical “mythbuster” doubtful of magic in general and witchcraft in particular. I think the men represent Lily’s dual, contradictory desires: to be comfortable with her special abilities, but on the other hand to live a “normal” life.

In Cast-Off Coven, the second in the series, Lily meets yet another man –this one was not intended to be a love interest, but sometimes these things happen . . . he made overtures to Lily, and somehow she responded, despite my instructions to the contrary. . . what can I say? Yet another case of characters acting badly. Such is the magic of writing!

Lily has a goblin familiar who looks like a gargoyle. Was he inspired by anything in particular?

I adore gargoyles; I even have one sitting by my computer watching me all day. I used to live in Princeton, where I would walk the campus to check them all out; and every time I’m in Europe I can’t get enough of them. In New York City, 81 Irving Place, there’s a gargoyle that has big ears and feet, and a friendly expression on his face. He was my specific inspiration

Lily is a very good cook; she says, “There’s a reason that when opening one’s home to guests, the first thing you do is offer food and drink. Cooking is a kind of everyday magic.” That’s a great line; do you cook yourself?

I do love to cook! And if you think about it, it really is a sort of alchemy: taking raw ingredients and creating something entirely different. Sharing food and drink creates an aura of family, trust, and acceptance; the word “companion," for instance, comes from “one who shares bread.” I also believe that food cooked with love is better for you than mass-produced food, and not only because of the contents (my son makes fun of me when I say things like that!). The only difference between me and my character is that Lily bakes a lot, whereas I’m more of a stovetop cook. I especially like to make ethnic foods: Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese . . . . and my super-duper chicken soup is guaranteed to cure whatever ails you!

I want some. Does it cure the desire for food? :)

Lily loves vintage clothing, and you mentioned that you do. Did this inspire her love for it?

Yes! I live in an area that has great consignment shops and vintage clothes stores. The only problems are lack of time to meander (shopping vintage takes much longer, though it’s so much more fun and rewarding!) and my size—I’m no waif, and what with vitamins and good nutrition, even today’s normal-sized woman is often too big for the clothes of our smaller, older generations. But still, I love wandering the aisles and sensing the history, wondering about who wore this dress, what the occasion was, that sort of thing.

Have you ever lived or worked in the Haight?

I worked as a painter in a house just off Haight street (I am a muralist/faux finisher in my other life), but I’ve never lived there. I do have a lot of friends who have, however, and when I thought about where to set this book I spent many days just hanging out, soaking in the culture, and talking to people about their experiences. There are far too many funny, quirky local stories to include in the books, I’m afraid! I had several options for great San Francisco neighborhoods, but I finally decided on the Haight because it is just so distinctive, and has such an interesting history, both good and bad.

Lily’s witchcraft is very positive; it is focused on healing, togetherness, and positive energy. Do you think the connotation of the word “witch” is changing, or that it still evokes negative associations?

That’s a hard one for me to answer, because I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and hang around artists and the like, so around me “witch” is almost always considered positive. But I was just at a family gathering with several Texan relatives, and they all kept asking whether my protagonist was a “white witch” or an “evil witch”, so I guess those stereotypes still run deep! I think the Wiccan religion is changing a lot of people’s conceptions, since its followers often refer to themselves as witches and practice a very loving, open, nature-based spirituality.

On the other hand, I also spend a lot of time with Latinos, many of whom –especially rural folks--have a still-vivid belief in “brujas," most of which are feared. And I do think that when people think historically, they often think of witches as being outcasts and vicious. We all react with fear to the unknown.

True. You also wrote a series of books with your sister as Hailey Lind. Is she working on a solo mystery, as well? Will you be returning to the Hailey Lind art series?

My sister Carolyn is actually working on an academic book right now – she teaches history at Old Dominion University and writes about women’s associations in the antebellum period. But I’m happy to say that we’re working together on the fourth in the Art Lover’s Mystery series, called Arsenic and Old Paint, which will be coming out from Perseverance Press in summer, 2010. Unfortunately, our original publisher, Signet, decided to discontinue the series, but I’m very excited about our new publisher – they put out beautiful trade paperbacks, and I’m writing the book this summer, so my mind is very much with Annie Kincaid and art forgery!

That's great to hear! (My 2006 interview with Hailey Lind is here).

Do you think the Harry Potter books helped to create a more welcoming climate for books about witches and wizards?

I do think so, in general. Still, one of my best friends teaches third grade, and she used to read Harry Potter to her students, but some of the parents complained on religious grounds. So I guess magic is still a hot-button issue for a lot of people, even here in the Bay Area. Personally, I loved the books, in part because they do take magic seriously, as something that needs to be studied and worked at, and as something that involves politics and persecution, as does so much in the world.

I found myself envying Lily’s independence and her bachelorette apartment. It’s probably because you described it as so cozy and comforting, but it might also be because I have children.

Ha! I have a teenager myself – I love him to death, but these are long, loooooong years. The idea of having a little cozy getaway, all to myself, with no one asking for rides or food or homework help or sneering at my music or my use of the language…why yes, that WOULD be refreshing, wouldn’t it!? On the other hand, don’t we always yearn for what we don’t have? Lily feels alone so much of the time, and I think she would love to have a family, and children....

Great point; I'll remember it when my 14-year-old harasses me.

What are you working on now?

Right now I’m working on the fourth in the Art Lover’s Mystery series, Arsenic and Old Paint, which features forged erotica, an exclusive men’s club, and old tunnels under San Francisco’s Chinatown and Nob Hill. I’m also writing the second in the Witchcraft series, A Cast-Off Coven, which will be released June 2010. And next I’ll be starting my new series, which features a cynical, divorced, 40-something failed anthropologist who takes over her father’s upscale home construction company, specializing in renovating historic homes. The first in this series is called If These Walls could Talk. I’m really looking forward to developing that character--she’s snide and wicked and really funny, though basically kind and decent. She says the things I’m afraid to say.

Wow! You are one busy woman.

What are you reading these days?

Right now I’m reading Tim Maleeny’s newest, Jump, which is SO well written and fun. I also have Sophie Littlefield’s first novel, A Bad Day for Sorry, waiting for me--very excited about that one. And not long ago I re-read Evanovich’s Two for the Dough, because it’s perfect bathtub/airplane reading! When I get a few brain cells back, I’m looking forward to Richard Russo’s latest novel – I really love his prose. Oh, and I just finished Dan Savage’s account of adopting a child, fabulous; and Ann Lamott’s Plan B; and A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby; and I re-read Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time. My reading tastes are all over the map, and entirely dependent upon my mood!

What you should market, along with your books, is your energy!

How can readers find out more about Lily Ivory and the Witchcraft mysteries?

Please visit my website at www.julietblackwell.net, and check out my blogs at www.awitchcraftmystery.blogspot.net –about witchcraft and the series -- and www.pensfatales.com-–about the craft of writing in general; I write every other Wednesday on that one. And I love to hear from readers, write me at juliet@julietblackwell.net or hailey@haileylind.com.

Thanks for chatting, Juliet.

Thank you for talking to me!

Downloading Poirot

The modern age continues to amaze me, and a nice man named John Bonini, from Newvideo.com, just informed me that one can now download Poirot films on iTunes.

Check out Murder in Mesopotamia or The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

So I can purchase one now and watch it on my computer. I realize that most of the world knows this already, but I continue to be fascinated by the seemingly magical things that are now at our fingertips.

Thanks, John! And thanks, Agatha Christie.

Meeting New Zealand Writer Cat Connor

Cat Connor has a book called killerbyte published with rebel epublishers.

Your mystery, killerbyte, is an online book. What are the advantages of publishing this way?

How much time do you have? Publishing with an e-publisher is an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional presses. No carbon miles involved in publishing or distributing my books! Even the artwork is created in environmentally friendly ink etc. The other advantage is being released on a global scale immediately and not having to sell foreign rights. Plus – it’s so easy to download and read right away.
For killerbyte, the e-book made a lot of sense. It deals with issues of internet safety and use of the internet is prevalent throughout the story, so what better medium for a thriller like killerbyte than an e-book?

Your protagonists, Cormac Connelly and Gabrielle Conway, are a cop and a Federal Agent. How did you come up with their characters?

I hate to say this- but Mac (Cormac) was a stock trader, not a cop. :) (Although he does enjoy police work, and he joins the FBI after killerbyte. He holds special agent status in the next book.)

As for how I came up with the characters, they came to me. The initial idea for killerbyte evolved as the characters told me their story. Ellie came first and from thin air! Mac was a mix of imagination and a very good friend.

All of your main characters have Irish names. Is this a tribute to your Irish heritage?

It was actually unintentional, or maybe a subconscious thing. There are a lot of Irish out there . . . we’re prolific, ya know. :)

There are lots of really gross murders in your mystery, and Ellie is constantly getting hurt. Do you see this as a reality of being a special agent?

Not so much. I think it would be rare for a special agent to get into the situations Ellie does. She’s quite a freak magnet.

Ellie does have a bit of bad luck in the injury department; none of them are her fault as such. Having her throat cut by an assailant – then being drugged and slipping on a towel in the bathroom – they weren’t exactly highlights for her.

Still she’s young enough to think she’s ten feet tall and bulletproof. She’s also contrary, and that doesn’t help. She’ll learn with experience, I hope!


You tell the story from two points of view; why did you want to present the mystery from both Ellie’s and Mac’s perspectives?

The story is almost entirely Ellie’s point of view, but Mac wanted a shot at his side, and begged me to let him! Quite frankly, at the time, Ellie was unconscious and not capable of arguing. So, he has a small chapter. Since it’s a character-driven novel, it works better to let the characters take the lead.

You seem to possess some knowledge about both police and medical procedures. Do you have experience in either of these areas?

Yes to both questions. I spent five years working with police, asking a lot of questions, and going out on lots of patrols. This led to an incident whereby I was removed from a jury (and I LOVE jury service, I really do!) and invited/escorted to the judge’s chambers.– It was an accident, kinda- and led to the arresting officer (from the case I was removed from) being told off by the judge for not declaring our relationship earlier. (I was quite stunned because I hadn’t realized we HAD a relationship!) He wasn’t in court when the jury selection was made, and I didn’t recognize his full name!

We recognized each other as the trial began, and he told the prosecutor. Then it was into the judge’s chambers for a discussion on how well we knew each other… apparently me wearing his jacket, setting up checkpoints, and doing walks through hotels meant we knew each other too well for me to return to the jury box.

Lucky really, because about that point I remembered being in the tactic room when the call came in about the case now in front of the jury! I knew way more about the case than I initially thought I knew. Whew!

I wasn’t called again that week, but still had to turn up every day. I spent the week at the back of the courtroom with the bailiff and judge waving to me every morning. (I’m still sorry, Doug - but it was funny, you have to admit, it was funny!)

As for the medical facts and procedures: I’m lucky enough to be able to count an emergency department nurse as a close friend and to have access to emergency department doctors via him.

Some of the scenes in killerbyte involve firsthand knowledge, but friend Eric vetted all the medical scenes. Some scenes caused much amusement, especially the ones involving the drug ketamine. We’re looking for a human guinea pig for a small experiment involving toothpaste and ketamine; any takers?

Is killerbyte your first book?

It’s my first published book. I wrote three books prior to writing killerbyte. I think of them fondly, but they will stay hidden away on my hard drive for now! They had a few similarities to killerbyte in that the main character is a female and an FBI agent. She actually makes an appearance in a few later Conway novels as the Director. It’s great to be able to recycle. (Director O’Hare appears in Terrorbyte, Exacabyte, and Ethernet.)

Your main characters are law enforcement officials, but they also run a poetry chat room. How did you come to combine serial killers, cops, and poetry?

If you get enough death threats while running a poetry chat room, your mind starts putting things together. Probably not everyone’s mind, but mine seems to be continually asking, “What if?” and “Now what?”

It [the chat room] is quite a twisted place, where it seems quite normal to take an internet death threat (or ten) and turn it into a novel.

Poetry is a universal outlet – there are poets hidden in all walks of life. (Even cops and special agents write poetry)

You live in New Zealand. Have you always lived there? If not, how did you end up there?

I am a New Zealander, and New Zealand is my home.

What’s the most beautiful thing about New Zealand?

Me? Oh you mean scenery? Not me, then?

There is much beauty in this country. I love the Marlborough Sounds, the Southern Alps, and most of the South Island. From the north it’s the volcanic mountains in the middle of the Island, and then the rocky southern coasts with their cliffs and crashing waves – and seal colonies.

But the thing I love the most is Wellington City at night- as seen from the Ferry. Possibly because I know I’m home.

I dislike trolls, hobbits, and other remnants of LOTR. (But especially trolls)

What are you writing now?

The electronic rights to Terrorbyte sold to Rebel e Publishers on June 26th. So I’m currently working with my editor (I never get tired of saying MY editor) and have just about finished the first round of edits. Terrorbyte will be available before the end of the year.

As for what I’m writing, I’m well into the fifth Conway novel (Satellite) and am working on a short story based on Ellie’s life before killerbyte. Although it’s turning out to be not such a short story after all: maybe a novella.

How did you hook up with Rebel e publishers?

I can blame or thank Barry Eisler for that. But I think we’ll thank him! I met Joan through Barry’s forum.

It was just after Penguin NZ told me I wasn’t kiwi enough and passed on the first three Conway novels –despite loving the stories and my writing. They also suggested e-books to me, saying that there was going to be a big push toward e-books for some genres, mine included.

After meeting Joan on the forum and thinking about it for a few days, I decided to be cheeky and approach her publishing company. (I figured the worst they could say was no!) But Joan and Caroline didn’t say no! And I am so glad I did put myself out there! I couldn’t ask for a better team in my corner.

Thanks for chatting with me, Cat.

Thanks for having me, Julia!

Public Enemies and The New Film Style

My second summer movie was the darkly delicious PUBLIC ENEMIES. The film was almost ruined for me by a confusing beginning with shaky and dizzy-making cameras and barely audible dialogue. Michael Mann's style, I have read, is the new face of film-making, and there is much about this film that is undeniably beautiful. However, the close-ups were so laughably close that it made the cameraman seem obsessed with human pores.

What saves the movie, what gives it its energy, is the charm of Johnny Depp and the cool mystery of Christian Bale, and the intensity of the battle between them. A surprisingly great performance by Billy Crudup as a fussy and uptight J. Edgar Hoover gives the movie added authenticity. While I'm not a fan of gun violence, the battles between bank robbers and Feds in this flick are simply spectacular. In one particular scene deep in the Wisconsin forest, the gunfire is as loud and long as a fireworks display, and the surreal backdrop of dark and silent trees to human blood and conflict is one of the more memorable movie moments in my recent history.

Since the movie tells the story of John Dillinger and his eventual demise, it is not a happy story, but it has stayed in my mind long afterward, and for this reason I would say that Mann has been most successful.

Photo link here.

The Great Task Remaining

In honor of the day, few words are more appropriate than those of Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863). This short speech is beautiful in its parallel structure, its simple phrasing, and its heartfelt message to the people whose hearts were breaking over a war that, it seemed, would never end.

But Lincoln's words (which were not, as legend has it, scrawled hastily on an envelope on the way to the event) retain their dignity 150 years later, and can be applied to the sacrifices of any patriot, from the Minutemen of the Revolution to the veterans of any American war.

Here is Lincoln's beautiful speech:

"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

4th of July Reading

I just finished the fourth Baby Shark and am currently reading Juliet Blackwell's Secondhand Spirits--a nice diversion from reality. But I may have to make a wee trip to the bookstore to get ready for this blissfully long weekend. Send me your good reading suggestions!

Oh, and I have joined Kaye Barley on Coffee With a Canine. It was a lovely bonding experience for me and my dog. :)

Fate's New Mystery

Baby Shark is back in Robert Fate's fourth mystery, Baby Shark's Jugglers at the Border. I always enjoy Robert Fate's writing, which is spare and tough and funny, but I especially enjoy the character of Kristin Van Dijk, who ever refuses to be a victim in a world of bad men.

Thank goodness for the two good men in her life--her partner Otis and her friend Henry.

In this mystery, Otis's long-estranged wife Dixie ends up dead, and Otis wants to know who did it and why. And when he finds out, with the help of his partner, he intends to take justice into his own hands.

I love the character of Otis and he has some of the best lines in the whole book, but it's Kristin who remains front and center. The baby shark is growing up and her teeth are getting sharper.

Also there's a wonderful sense of time period here with all of the 50s era Texas details--particularly a delightful chase scene set on a train.

Loved it!

Cold July

Our weatherman Tom Skilling says that this will be the coldest July 1st in 79 years. In honor of this interesting cold July, I offer you this Dixie Chicks song which is so very apropos.

My Brother on CNN

I'm very proud of my brother, Chris, who works for Delphi Electronics in Kokomo, Indiana, and recently chatted with Anderson Cooper on CNN about the car industry and his own personal business, GREEN SOLUTIONS.

You can view his interview here.

A Woman and Her Dog

Kaye Barley (who has been interviewed on this blog--see link at right) has a cute post at Coffee with a Canine today. If you like dogs, coffee, or both, this is a fun new blog by Marshal Zeringue that you might enjoy.

Death of a Duchess

One of my favorite mysteries is captured in Robert Browning's chilling poem "My Last Duchess." You can read the poem here. In this famous work, Browning alludes to the historical Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara. It is hinted that the Duke, who speaks well of himself but not so well of the "last Duchess," who has died mysteriously and whose portrait hangs upon his wall, may have in fact killed her, which raises the question of whether Browning thought Ferrara killed his first wife, as well.

Alfonso's first wife was Lucretia de Medici, who died mysteriously within two years of the Duke's ascension to the throne. Poor Lucretia's death, though suspicious, was never linked to the Duke, and it was left to history, and poets like Browning, to surmise about her fate.

Browning's Duke is controlling and suspicious, and he hints that his first wife was unfaithful to him, which provides a likely motive for her murder. However, the most chilling part of the poem is that the Duchess cannot now speak, nor perhaps could ever speak, on her own behalf, and remains only as a painting over which the Duke has utter control.

Art link here.

Life I Love You--All is Groovy!

I heard this line today in one of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs, and it helped to put things in perspective. I am one of those people who can get caught in the rut of focusing on the negative: bills, broken lawnmower, deaths of seventies icons which suddenly remind me that I am not young. I could spend all day listing things that bum me out. And some days, I do.

But Paul Simon has reminded me that there are lots of things to love about life, and I'd better start acknowledging those if I want to reclaim the groovy feeling that was once much easier to come by.

Here are five just off the top of my head:

My sons, whose summer-blond hair makes them even handsomer than they were before.

The cooler air which is relieving a parched Chicago this evening.

The books (hopefully lots of them) that I'll read this summer.

The green, green grass in my back yard (and because of my broken lawnmower, it's really long and lush. Thanks to you, too, torrential rains!)

The writing project that is by turns enraging and inspiring me.

What's groovy in your world?

Chicago Cop's Sentence Raises Questions of Justice

You may have already seen the video of the off-duty Chicago police officer who attacked a woman half his size because she, a bartender, refused to serve him any more drinks. It's certainly a well-known bit of tape here in Chicago.



Yesterday the attacker, Anthony Abbate, was sentenced to two years probation and anger management classes. He will receive no jail time.

The verdict has shocked many people, including me, but apparently it doesn't surprise those who have knowledge of the law. You can read their assessment here.

In my estimation, the verdict sends a terrible message, not only to abused women who are afraid to leave their abusers, but to abusers themselves. Isn't a judge allowed to give some token jail time, even thirty days, so that something of significance is communicated to those who would hurt those weaker than themselves?

Shouldn't more of a strict sentence be imposed upon a police officer who has sworn to protect the public?

In light of videotaped evidence of this man's contemptible actions, I am (for once) at a loss for words.

Pelham 123 and Its Predecessor

I saw The Taking of Pelham 123 today; I am a fan of the original 1974 movie (although I have never read the Morton Freedgood novel upon which THAT movie was based).

I admired the performances of Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro. They provided a great deal of believable characterization and intensity that gave the movie its suspenseful moments. I'm not convinced that the movie was an improvement on the original, and I think the problem that Hollywood sometimes has with this sort of re-make is that they feel they must throw all sorts of modernizations at an already good story. Weird camera angles, freeze frames, lots of loud annoying music in a downright distracting soundtrack.

I would love for a director to rediscover silence and its dramatic possibilities.

Still, it was an exciting movie, and if you don't mind an endless stream of F words and lots of blood, I'd recommend it.

However, I'm asking whoever is out there in Hollywoodland to consider removing these cliches from all future movies:

--unnecessary car crashes
--chase scenes in which no one can tell who is chasing, who is being chased, and who is in between
--dialogue that implies everyone in the world is profane
--the line "We've got company," used in any context
--casting women who look twenty to play the parts of women who are supposed to be forty-something

Okay, that's my mixed review of this summer remake. If you're a fan of any of the main characters, I think you'll like their performances in this suspenseful tale.

Image here.

Crime Writer Robert Wilson on Seville's Beauty, Africa's Power, and London's Vast Unknown

Robert Wilson is the author of four crime noir novels set in South Africa featuring Bruce Medway; two thrillers set in Portugal during the second world war; and a series of four crime novels set in Seville featuring the detective Javier Falcón. He was kind enough to answer these questions after I read and liked his books.

Your novel THE IGNORANCE OF BLOOD is the fourth and last in the Javier Falcón series. Is it difficult to say goodbye to a character that you’ve gotten to know so intimately?

As you now know from The Blind Man of Seville Javier was not in a good mental state when I first met him. He was divorced, struggling with his father’s death, tending towards the introspective and not getting on well with his homicide squad. He also had this terrible sense of being on the edge of a great abyss, something in his mind that he knew but did not know, a feeling that a monstrous revelation was about to surface and break him as a human being. By the time he finishes his four book journey I believe that he is in a much better place. He has been dismantled, put back together, re-equipped and revived. So I leave him with no sadness on my part, but with a feeling of a job well done. It had always been important to me, in a reversal of the normal series character, that my protagonist would change. And he does, for the better.

Your biography reveals that you are an extremely well-traveled man, and as a result, you say that “I realised that there were other ways of thinking and doing things that were just as valid as my own.” Does this objectivity affect the way that you create characters?

That realization was just one of many steps on the road through adulthood towards growing up (I’ll get there, but only in the end). On that occasion, in Africa, it was revealed to me that the Western way of doing things wasn’t necessarily the right or the best way and I would have to change in order to survive. Changing, even at the age of 30, which I was then, is hard. In terms of my ability to create characters I couldn’t say that there was any one particular incident that led me to start looking at people beyond the surface of what they want to present. It was probably an accumulation of life (and death) experiences that contributed to the unsettling of my equilibrium. I have a tendency, possibly unnerving, of trying to get past the looks, humour, status, vanity, aggression/defence and general deception to the real person beneath. Given that humans understand the nature of deception from an early age this can be quite a task, but it’s what fascinates me in both life and my work. I’m very conscious, even in the most apparently innocuous piece of dialogue, of how the real person is operating underneath the character’s skin.

At one point you traveled around America on a Greyhound bus. Did you like America? What was your most memorable moment?

Greyhound bus stations tend to be in the less savoury areas of cities’ downtown so I could be forgiven for having a somewhat jaded view of America as a result, but I didn’t and I don’t. I was blown away by the sheer energy of New York. This was the late seventies and it seemed even more driven, aggressive and dangerous than it is now. I went up the WTC and looked out over the roaring metropolis to the lung of Central Park and could not help but be impressed. It was fascinating after a twenty-four year gap to go back in 2001, six weeks after 9/11, to find that terrible gap in the landscape and New Yorkers changed: their ambitious ruthlessness pried open to reveal the heart beating within.

I’m always interested in the naming of a detective, and yours, Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón, has the name of a bird of prey. In your latest novel you describe Falcón and his friend as “alive as hunting hawks.” Is a predator an apt metaphor for a homicide detective?
I chose the name because the intention of the books was to be all about ‘seeing’. That is: discovering the capacity to distinguish between the appearance and reality of both people and situations. The initial irony is that, of course, Falcón, and many of the other characters do not see things at all clearly. By the time he reaches the last book Falcón is as perceptive as he’ll ever be, and his friend, Yacoub, given his situation as a spy, perhaps even more so. A homicide detective is always trying to see the reality of things beyond the endless deception that is put before him. In Spanish the word for ‘falcon’ is in fact ‘halcón’, so the one audience that might miss the significance of this metaphor is the Spanish themselves.

Falcón solves homicides in Seville, Spain. What made you set your mysteries here?
Seville is recognized in both Spain and the wider world as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It also has a population who are, even by Spanish standards, uniquely friendly, inviting, passionate, animated and exuberant. When you first go there you could be forgiven for thinking that the Sevillanos had cracked the problem of being human. They live in a wonderful city, eat magnificent food and drink wonderful wine, have great music and dance and seem to be very happy. Only once you scratch the surface do you see that it is no different to any other city, that they have the same problems of social inequality, drugs, crime, racism etc. This struck me as the perfect place to examine what I consider to be the underlying theme of all crime fiction: appearance and reality.

According to one of the characters from organized crime intelligence, Spaniards are “the biggest users of prostitutes and cocaine of any country in Europe.” Why is that? Did this research surprise you, or was it one of the reasons that you made Spain your setting?


The Spanish are great believers in partying. They love night life. It’s not unusual to find ordinary Spanish families starting to eat their dinner with their children at midnight. Young people then go on to clubs and dance the night away and quite often go straight to work from the club the next day. This is, obviously, exhausting and they use drugs, most notably cocaine, to keep them going. Researchers have now found that almost all banknotes have traces of cocaine on them and that even the air in Madrid and Barcelona contains cocaine, amphetamines and other opiates. Inevitably sex becomes part of the mix and has enormous appeal to what has always been, although less obviously now, a macho society.

You have some strikingly existential scenes in your fiction. Falcón struggles with feelings of emptiness and loneliness, and at one point feels “an overwhelming sense of loss and pointlessness.” Another character, on a ship in the dark, giggles at “the hidden absurdity in everyday life." Do you think these feelings are part of the reality of working homicide (or working in some form of law enforcement)? Or are they feelings that every human being must face at some point?

Because homicide detectives and spies are dealing with life and death situations on a regular basis I think there is a tendency to be reflective in this particular way. However, I don’t think it’s exclusive to these professions and most humans are certainly introspective when it comes to thinking about serious illness and death. They have a way of putting one’s everyday life into perspective. And who hasn’t had that feeling of emptiness and pointlessness after a huge and engrossing project has been finished? I know I get it after every book goes off to my publishers.

When you and your wife fell in love, your biography says, the two of you also fell in love with Africa. What was it about this continent that attracted you both?

Once you’ve been to Africa and spent time there you never get it out of your system. There’s a part of you that always remains there. Perhaps it’s because Africa was where we all came from in the beginning, the original Garden of Eden, that the land exerts such an extraordinary power over you.

And the people, especially the ordinary folk trying to live their lives, are truly inspiring. They are so tough and yet they handle the ordeal of life with such equanimity and humour one feels embarrassed by one’s comparatively pampered lifestyle.

You are passionate about American Literature. Do you have a favorite American writer?

In terms of crime writing I admire Raymond Chandler and Elmore Leonard. On the literary side of things one of my all time favorite books, as it is of many other readers, is The Great Gatsby.

You have written four noir crime novels set in West Africa (with detective Bruce Medway); two thrillers set in WWII Portugal; and now the Falcón novels, set in present-day Spain. Would you have become a successful writer, do you think, if you had not traveled so extensively?

I would have just written different books and success is not in my hands.

Your website shows a beautiful picture of your study in Alentejo, near Lisbon. You write that “In 1992 we moved in and taught ourselves how to live on very, very little.” All of your choices, it seems, involved sacrificing one thing (like a regular job or paycheck) for another: travel, an amazing view, a career you love. Do you think that the best things come out of sacrifice?
There was never any question of sacrifice. All we did was to concentrate on how we wanted to live and the best way to achieve it.

When you write a series, do you know in book one some of the things that will happen in books three or four, or do you allow yourself to be surprised along the way?
I never know the detail, all I know is the general shape of things and the way my main character is going to develop. Surprise is an important factor in this sort of writing and if I’m surprised by what happens (and I frequently am) then it’s pretty sure that the reader is going to be spun around, too.

In your first Falcon book, THE BLIND MAN OF SEVILLE, Falcon discovers a gruesome crime: a man has been tied to a chair and forced to watch something on his television. His eyelids have been cut off so that he cannot avoid the images. These are shocking, unforgettable details. How do your fictional crimes occur to you? Do you base them on things you read in your research, or are they simply the products of your fertile imagination?

The image of the eyelids being removed to force someone to see came to me in a sudden horrible flash while I was finishing my spy novel/love story The Company of Strangers. It struck me as a potent opening image for a book about ‘sight’ and its failures in human nature. I am quite often accused of despicable violence, but if you reread the opening scenes of The Blind Man of Seville you will find nothing in the slightest bit graphic on the page. The reader has no idea what is happening or what is about to happen to the man tied to a chair, who is engaged in a titanic struggle not to watch something on a TV screen. We make the same discovery as Falcón when, later, he finds the body with what appears to be petals on his shirt front. It is profoundly shocking and the reader’s own imagination does all the work, not my writing. I merely plant the seeds and, of course, the real horror, which is: what could possibly have been on the TV screen? What could be so terrible?

How many languages can you speak?

None fluently. I went to a French school when I was six years old and was fluent then. I used it in Africa because a lot of countries are francaphone. Now I understand almost everything but I’m a little rusty in speaking it. My German was pretty good when I went on a student exchange to Hamburg at the age of sixteen. I spoke presentable beginner’s Greek when I worked on Crete for a year. I taught myself Spanish when I cycled around Spain in 1984 and I learnt Portuguese when I renovated my house, here, in Portugal in 1992. So, bits of five , but I wouldn’t want to bank on getting into university on the strength of any of them.

You have lived in many countries. Do you have therefore have many national loyalties, or do you feel primarily a citizen of one place?

I feel completely English and I’m proud to speak and write in that language because I believe it is one of the most expressive, lively and growing languages, accommodating all sorts of nationalities’ contributions. However, because I haven’t been drinking in so much popular culture from England in the last twenty years, I can sometimes feel like a tourist in my own country.

What are you writing now?

There you are. I’m working on a novel based in London. I lived in London for ten years between 1981 – 1991. It’s a great city but Londoners have a way of only knowing a certain part of their city: where they live, where they work, where they meet their friends. It’s interesting to go to London and discover the vast unknown.

I ask this often, but I have to ask it of you, because you’ve been so many amazing places: what’s the most beautiful place in the world?

Too difficult to answer. Would it be the lakes of Band-i-Amir and the vast stone Buddhas of Bamyian in Afghanistan? Or perhaps my first and only sight of the Himalayas in Nepal after the monsoon clouds lifted? Or possibly the magnificent emptiness of the Sahara desert? Or was it the highlands of Kenya? The rolling hills and cork oaks of the Alentejo in Portugal? Or, actually, was it outside my back door in the Cotswolds in England all the time?

What a beautiful answer.

You survived a near-death experience after a car crash when you were a young man. Did this alter the way you viewed the world? The way you viewed yourself?

Up until that moment, aged nineteen, I had been the invincible adolescent. I was a good rugby player and had already played first class games at a professional level, I had just earned some money and was about to embark on a trip to Australia and in the fall I was going to take a place reading English at Oxford University. The world seemed to be at my feet until the driver of that car hit a concrete lamp post and I, the passenger, ended up in hospital for three months with my hip dislocated, pelvis smashed and a couple of hundred sutures in my face. I saw some terrible things on that public ward: a man being told he had a tumour on his upper arm and they were going to have to amputate, seeing him go down to the theatre and coming back without it. We had some great laughs, too. I went through a crash course on growing up: schoolboy to adult in three months. I learnt that I wasn’t invincible, that there are bad times and you have to find a way of getting through them intact and that people are extraordinary in lots of different ways.

Robert Wilson's website is located here.

For My Father, and All Fathers

A Happy Father's Day to all fathers, especially my own dear Dad.

Even after about thirteen years of retirement, my dad is going strong. He and my mom just hosted a party for the five graduates in our family. He keeps in touch with all of his children via phone and e-mail, and when he's not helping one of us in some way (he is the handiest man I've ever met), he and my mother are volunteering their time at the local hospital and visiting shut-ins in their own parish.

I am proud to call my father a lifetime role model.

I borrow a quote from John Gregory Brown: "There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself."

Happy Father's Day to all of you undersung heroes!

The Past and Everlasting Regret

Something about summer and my driving need to accomplish a million things has me thinking of a line from a Tennessee Williams play today. In The Glass Menagerie, fading southern belle Amanda Wingfield tries to give her son a sense of urgency with this line: "You are the only young man that I know of who ignores the fact that the future becomes the present, the present becomes the past, and the past turns into everlasting regret if you don't plan for it!"

More Books, And Time to Read Them

I was thrilled yesterday to receive a copy of Robert Fate's fourth Baby Shark book, Baby Shark's Jugglers at the Border. The arrival of summer means I actually have time to read books (for a short while), and it's great when one of them simply arrives on the doorstep.

As if I didn't have enough fodder for good reading, I am told that I am about to receive a copy of Juliet Blackwell's first witchcraft mystery, called Secondhand Spirits. I'm very excited about reading this one, as well. According to its publicity material, this book "features Lily Ivory, a witch who opens a vintage clothing store in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco."

It also sounds very fun, and the cover is cute, too.

Well, off to read now. What are you reading?

Revisiting Amelia

According the New York Times, on this day in 1928, "Aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours." In honor of this achievement, and in preparation for the upcoming movie about Earhart starring Hillary Swank, I am re-running an essay I wrote about Earhart two summers ago. I called it "How We Failed Amelia." And here it is:

I've always been fascinated by the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. As mysteries go, it's certainly in my top ten of the interesting and unsolved, and I've always rather romantically connected it to the notion of the Bermuda triangle (which has been thoroughly debunked).

Friday I was listening to The Story with Dick Gordon, a show on NPR that I greatly enjoy, and he was discussing Earhart and the fact that she may, in fact, have survived her plane trouble, landed the plane, and sent distress calls, and that one fifteen-year-old girl, way back in 1937, recorded the distress signals that she heard that day on her father's short-wave radio.

The girl, Betty Klenck Brown, is now in her eighties. In an interview with Dick Gordon, she said that she recognized the voice of Amelia Earhart that day. Earhart had already been missing for a couple of days, and Brown knew that. Because Earhart was a celebrity and a hero to women and men alike, much of America knew the sound of her voice from recorded interviews. Therefore, Betty knew that the distress calls were real and important, and for three hours she wrote down everything that she heard.

Her father eventually came home and heard a bit, too, and he went to the Coast Guard (they lived in Florida) with the information (although NOT with Betty's notebook, which I find regrettable) and was told that everything was being handled and his input was not needed.

Betty was not believed, and I suppose as a young woman in 1937, she didn't have a lot of resources to tap in an effort to help Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan (who Betty describes as being "out of his head.")

Ultimately Betty's notebook, with its valuable information, simply became her burden, because no one wanted it and no one believed her. (You can view the notebook, Earhart's route, pictures of Betty and a film of Earhart's last takeoff at The Story).

What bothers me the most about this story is that anyone in charge would discount what seemed like such valid information, and that they wouldn't at least ask to see the notebook, which could have told them the frequency on which Earhart was broadcasting. In other words, based on hearing this story, I think that Amelia Earhart heroically landed her plane when it developed problems, radioed for help over several days, and never received it, and probably died on a small island in the South Pacific.

I love knowing the solution to a mystery, but this one is not satisfying, and my obsessive mind keeps thinking about what would have happened, what could have happened, if people had merely opened their minds to the possibilities.

Today the police, the FBI, the coast guard, often turn to the public and ask for help in solving crimes and disappearances. They set up tip lines and offer rewards. I wonder why this couldn't have been the case with Amelia Earhart, and why no one thought that one girl's precious notebook was worth examining.

Setting, Suspense, and Reading Satisfaction

Some kind soul at Houghton Mifflin sent me a copy of THE CROSSING PLACES by Elly Griffiths. This was such a compelling read that I stayed up late for three nights trying to squeeze in more chapters . . . and that's my favorite kind of book.

The amateur sleuth here is English archeologist Ruth Galloway, an almost-forty, likable loner who lives in a small house on the Saltmarsh, a remote area of England where Ruth is not unlikely to find the occasional treasure from the Iron Age, preserved in the marsh for thousands of years. It's a perfect location for Ruth, who loves history and the thought of ancient worlds.

Ruth is drawn into a mystery when bones are found in the marsh and Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson asks Ruth to look at them in hopes that she can determine if the victim died in the Iron Age or in the present day. If it is the latter, Nelson will have to investigate a murder. Nelson also wonders if the bones could belong to a little girl who went missing ten years before.

Ruth Galloway rises to the occasion and finds herself fascinated, not only by the bones, but by the process of the police investigation, and even by the Chief Inspector himself. Slowly but inexorably she becomes a part of the investigation until she is surprised to find that her life is in danger and that suddenly her lovely marshland home feels alive with anonymous threats.

Griffiths' Saltmarsh (a fictional location) is just as gray and moody as Conan Doyle's marshy Dartmoor setting in THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, and in both cases the setting is crucial to the mystery.

What is special about Griffiths' setting, though, is that the marsh, described as "not quite earth, not quite sea," is the perfect metaphor for the transience of life--something Ruth understands better than most, because her profession requires her to ponder that reality every day.

Ruth Galloway is a strong, funny, and wise character who will earn many readers for what I hope will be a Saltmarsh series.

The Magic of a New Day

"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning."

--J.B. Priestley

"Nothing is worth more than this day."

--Goethe

Five Future Success Stories

My son and four of my nieces and nephews graduated this year, one from high school and four from grade school. We celebrated them today at a big family gathering (my brother's arm is also protruding into this photo; we jostled for pictures like the family paparazzi).

These young people have bright futures mapped out for themselves, and it's nice to see them here at the starting line, fresh-faced and optimistic.

It also makes me think a lot about the passage of time, which made me reflect on certain songs today at PDD.

A Revealing Dialogue

My sons lost their computer privileges for today because of their shenanigans yesterday.

Now, they've finally gotten around to doing the chore list I made (it's three o'clock). They're getting into work mode and warming up to the idea of self-discipline.

My youngest presented me with an opportunity: "Mom, what if I did the very hardest chores in the house? Could I earn back computer?"

"No."

"Why not? I'm offering to do the hardest chores!" (By the way, he didn't mention what these herculean tasks might be).

"Because if you take your consequences and learn from them, it will build character. If you just whine about them and assume you have a get-out-of-jail free card, you'll grow up to be that kind of person."

He looked at me for a moment. "I'm talking about the hardest chores."

I admire both of my sons for their tenacity, although at this stage in life it's just determination to get what they want. Then again, maybe that's how adults are, too.

I continue to learn from my children, nature's little mirrors.

Anne Frank: 80 Years

Today marks the birth date of Anne Frank, the young German-Jewish girl who hid for two years from the Nazis in a room above her father's office in Amsterdam. Anne was born in 1929. During her time in hiding, she kept a world-famous diary that chronicled her hopes and fears, as well as her daily habits. The basic mystery at the root of Anne's diary notations was reflected in her disbelief of what was happening to Germany, to humanity.

Despite her fears and sadness, Anne Frank clung to hope, a tendency even she herself did not fully understand:

"It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.

It’s utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more." (July 15, 1944)

As the world knows, Anne and her family were betrayed and arrested, and nine months later, at the age of fifteen, Anne died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen.

A wonderful website is devoted to Anne at www.annefrank.com

photo:http://www.lpm.uni-sb.de/LPB/AnneFrank/bilder/anne_frank.jpg

The Intrepid Bob Morris

Bob Morris has an entertaining yet horrifying post at his blog today. Mr. Morris, author of Bahamarama, Jamaica Me Dead, Bermuda Schwartz and, most recently, The Deadly Silver Rain, is still recovering from an accident with a dumb waiter that involved the near-severing of his hand. It's true--I saw it on his Facebook page. :)

Now he tells a tale of a man, a fish, and the relentless elements.

Photo link here.

It Seemed Like a Small Job . . .

I decided to re-paint several rooms in my house this summer. Today I'm working on the bathroom. It's such a small room, I thought to myself. How hard could it be?

Well, it's not difficult, but it is a veritable quagmire in that one job keeps leading to another. I want to paint some of the shelves, which means I have to actually go through the ten years of accumulated junk on those shelves. I'm picking through the rubble like an archeologist instead of getting some valuable brush work done.

Still, the end result will make it all worthwhile--I hope. :)

Picture link here.

Compelling Reading

I just finished reading THE IGNORANCE OF BLOOD by Robert Wilson. What a compelling read. This mystery is the fourth and last in the Javier Falcon series, and now I've gone back to read THE BLIND MAN OF SEVILLE, the first book. Wilson's storylines are complex with worldwide intrigues that make Falcon's life as a homicide detective seem utterly oppressed by violence and crime. As usual, I've fallen a little bit in love with the main character, who possesses equal shares of nobility and humility.

Robert Wilson has agreed to take part in an interview, so be looking for that later in June. Meanwhile, I recommend these fast-moving but complicated mysteries.

Schizophrenic Conversations

The computer is the surest way to fragment the output of one's mind. Today, while sending e-mail missives to my job and occasionally remembering other e-mails I had to send to people regarding my son's imminent high school career, I posted blogs at Inkspot and Poe's Deadly Daughters--one regarding robots and their place in our future, and one about my weekend road trip.

If I go to Facebook or Crimespot, I'll continue conversations that I started there.

So are all of these conversations beneficial, or do they merely contribute to the growing problem (some theorists say) of people who think about many things shallowly to the detriment of their ability to think about one thing deeply?

Your thoughts?

Summer Joys, Summer Tasks

Suddenly summer is here; now that the last meetings and end-of-year parties have been attended, I have awakened to all that is summer joy. However, being me, I have made a chore list as long as summer itself which includes cleaning, painting, de-junking, wallpapering, weeding, and book-keeping. That part is kind of a bummer, especially the item on the list that says "Take everyone to dentist." My family members are all dentist-chair cowards, and that does not improve with age.

Added to all my tasks I have listed some things that I hope to accomplish in the leisure category: seeing some summer movies, reading some good books, and writing some good books of my own--or at least one, maybe. :)

Today I started on a big project that has been awaiting me: the cleaning of my sons' activity room. They made it so messy that they both felt entirely flummoxed about where to begin: the mounds of clothing? the giant stacks of action guys? the school supplies scattered here and there and dusted over with bits of cat hair?

Enter mother, determined and slightly insane. I've decided that it's a two-day job, but today's tasks have made it look far more habitable. My oldest son is cleaning out a basement room to make it his teen hangout, and so he and I were equally obsessive today in our quest to make something yucky look attractive.

There will be much of this in my summer, but I know that at the end of my two months' freedom I will have many concrete things to show for it, and perhaps even some stolen relaxation time.

What are your plans for summer?

Road Trips and Mysteries

We're taking a road trip today in the new Kia to attend my niece's graduation. We'll be in the car about eight hours round trip, so I got some books on tape from my library. I have Jonathan Gash's GOLD BY GEMINI; Robert B. Parker's WIDOW'S WALK; and Raymond Chandler's TROUBLE IS MY BUSINESS (read by Elliott Gould). I didn't mean to only grab books by men, but my library didn't have a vast selection.

I'll have three teenage boys in the car with me (pray for me), so IF they let me listen to a book on tape without drowning it out with their yelling, they might just enjoy a hard-boiled kind of story.

In the meantime, I need to go do a bunch of squats so that my legs are prepared for hours of sitting. :)

Wilde on The Simple Things

"I adore simple pleasures.
They are the last refuge of the complex."

--Oscar Wilde

Hating Photos of Ourselves

I remember that once, back when I was sixteen and weighed about a hundred and ten pounds, I looked in a high school yearbook at a picture of myself, and all I could see were my thighs. I thought they were huge. I couldn't really appreciate any other part of the picture. Now I look back and say, "What I wouldn't give for that body to go with my more mature mind."

But of course one's disapproval of one's self remains with time. We just took graduation pictures with my son, and when we looked at the photos my husband and I both spent a minute or two running ourselves down. "My hair looks like a fright wig," I said in dismay.

"I need to lose thirty pounds," he said, hurt by the betrayal of the photograph.

Neither of us were able to look at that picture and simply embrace our reflections. I have never been able to--and perhaps I never will.

Do we only like pictures of ourselves in retrospect? Will I say at 60 that I should have appreciated myself at 40, just as at 40 I feel that way about 20?

The key, I know, is to love our images as they are, but I'm not there yet. Perhaps after a summer of Weight Watchers . . . :)

Gowned for Graduation

Happy Graduation to my son Ian. How quickly those eight years seem to have passed, looking back. Now: onward and upward!

Milestones and Rainstorms

My oldest son graduates from 8th grade this evening. It's the first graduation of one of my children, unless you count the very cute kindergarten graduations which involved little children wearing paper hats and parents taking LOTS of pictures.

I'm not really a weeper, but I do wonder if I'll get teary-eyed when they read his full three names. Somehow that seems so significant, that public reading of the name on the birth certificate, that it might be the thing that gets me.

In the meantime, our graduate-to-be and his father have taken the car and gone to a movie, so I went to pick up my younger son at school holding an umbrella (it looked like rain) and a beagle attached to a leash.

Naturally, the rain came before my son even came out of school, and it was one of those rains that sprays right under the umbrella, rendering it useless. So we walked into the onslaught, my son enjoying the novelty of being soaked, the dog and I not enjoying it at all. Graham had emerged with a returned project--a pizza box decorated for a state of the union, and we didn't want it to get wet, so the pizza box got most of the benefit of the umbrella.

I wish I had taken a picture of my dog when we got home. There never was such a sad, sorry creature. :)

I will indulge in at least one full minute of making my dry family members feel guilty.

Top Summertime Songs

In honor of a new June, I recommend that you listen to one or all of these songs that will get you primed for summer.

1. Summertime Dream by Gordon Lightfoot

2. Boys of Summer by Don Henley

3. Summer in the City by The Lovin Spoonful

4. Fun, Fun, Fun by The Beach Boys

5. Who's That Girl by Eurythmics

6. Here Comes The Sun by the Beatles

7. Good Day Sunshine by the Beatles

8. Banana Republic by Jimmy Buffett

9. Our Last Summer by Abba

10. Soak Up the Sun by Sheryl Crow

Okay--these were pretty randomly selected and I could probably put 100 others here. What's the best song to get you in the mood for summer?