Lindy's Lair

The Ford Test

2012-01-18T05:44:00.000-08:00

Ruth Rendell, one of my favorite writers, recommends that all who aspire to write read Ford Madox Ford’s “The Good Soldier.” Rendell says she reads this novel, which is ranked among the greats of the 20th century, annually.

Ford, an English novelist, poet and editor, was a champion of new literature and experimentation. He aided early careers of Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce and other notables.

One of my favorite quotes by the man concerns his close friend, Jack London, another of my favorites: “Like Peter Pan, he never grew up, and he lived his own stories with such intensity that he ended by believing them himself.”

Though his own work is less known today, many will be familiar with his advice to select a book by opening it and reading page 99. His conclusion was by reading that one page “…the quality of the whole will be revealed to you."

Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian scholar known for the expression “the medium is the message” and who predicted the World Wide Web three decades before it was developed, made a similar recommendation, though his suggestion was to read page 69.

I’ve tested both theories on a variety of books. Personally, I give the edge to Ford.

Here’s Page 99 from my novel, “Fallen From Grace”. Based on the Ford theory, I believe there’s enough mystery suggested for a reader to want more of the tale. What do you think?

“Could they have been…”
“No. They weren’t together long enough and they left separately. I couldn’t make up my mind should I follow him or her when they parted. I still feared for her safety, but I was curious about his identity. The man saved me the bother of deciding. As Lizzie walked away, the man came flying out of the alley on horseback. Since I was afoot there was no way I could follow him.”
“And the girl?” Lydia asked.
“She came straight back home. Who do you think she might have been meeting and why, Tilghman?”
“That’s what I’ll be asking directly,” I told him.
****
This proved more difficult than expected.
“Gone? What do you mean?”
“Just what I said,” Matilda told me. “Packed her bag and left this morning without a word of explanation.”
“Well where do you think she went?”
“She didn’t tell either of us,” Barbara said. “I think it’s all my fault.” I saw tears brimming in the girl’s eyes. She sighed heavily and plopped down on the bench by the backdoor of the boarding house.
Tillie and I both glanced at her. “What does that mean?” I asked.
Barbara sighed again and dabbed at her eyes with an edge of her apron. “We had a fight last night. She snuck out after we went to bed. I heard her go and I was afraid. I waited up until she came back. She wouldn’t tell me where she went and we had a row.”
“A customer I didn’t know about?” Matilda asked.
“No,” Barbara said, shaking her head. “Nothing like that. She would have said if that were the case. This was something secret and she didn’t like me prying. She never got mad at me like that before.”
“Humph,” Matilda said and she scowled.
“What?”
The woman stood with her hands on her hips and grunted again.
“Do you have an idea where she went?”
“He probably promised her more money, that’s what.”
“Who?”

Some Favorite Reads Of 2011

2011-12-30T05:46:00.000-08:00

Let the trumpet blare and the drums resound—Some favorite reads of 2011 (in no particular order).

Not all were written in 2011. That’s when I read them. For more information on the titles see my reviews at http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A2VTAR3P8C0LBD/ref=cm_pdp_rev_all?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview or http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1005496.J_R_Lindermuth

Small press/Indy
1.Hard Trail to Socorro—Wayne Dundee
2.Dangerous Enchantment—Margaret Blake
3.Kansas Dreamer—Kae Cheatham
4.Camp Follower—Susan Adair
5.Sugar And Spice—Saffina Desforges
6.Mediterranean Grave—William Doonan
7.In The Blood—Steve Robinson
8.Snakeskin—C J Lyons
9.Bestseller Bound Anthology No. 1
10.The Righteous—Michael Wallace

Trade mystery/thrillers
1.Feast Day of Fools—James Lee Burke
2.Nightwoods—Charles Frazier
3.The Most Dangerous Thing—Laura Lippman
4.Long Gone—Alafair Burke
5.Bad Intentions—Karin Fossum
6.Thirteen Hours—Deon Meyer
7.A Question Of Blood—Ian Rankin
8.The Snowman—Jo Nesbo
9.Medicus—Ruth Downie
10.The Way Home—George Pelecanos

Trade fiction
1.The Second Son—Jonathan Rabb
2.The Orphan Master’s Son—Adam Johnson
3.Death Of Kings—Bernard Cornwell

Non-fiction
1.Kingdom Under Glass—Jay Kirk
2.Winged Obsession—Jessica Speart
3.Finding Everett Ruess—David Roberts
4.The Unconquered—Scott Wallace
5.Bull Canyon—Lin Pardey
6.Floor Of Heaven—Howard Blum

Happy New Year and good reading.

Sans GPS

2011-12-26T05:49:00.001-08:00

Do you outline your stories?

While considered essential for most non-fiction projects, writers of imaginary works are divided on the necessity of an outline for fiction.

Some sketch out a plot so thoroughly it might almost be considered a book in itself. Others belong to the school now jokingly referred to as Pantsers (i.e., they fly the seat of their pants), those who devise as they go along.

Some create a detailed tome describing every step before they even consider starting the actual book. P. D. James, for instance, spends up to a year planning a book before writing a single page.

Others plunge right in with a mere image in mind and no idea where it will lead them. William Faulkner, for instance, claimed to put his characters on a road and walk beside them, listening to what they had to say. Despite this claim, Faulkner did outline (though he may have called it something else), as evidenced by the scribblings for “A Fable” on the wall of his study at Rowan Oaks.

John Fowles said The French Lieutenant’s Woman began with a mental image of a woman standing alone at the end of a causeway. James Lee Burke has said he usually doesn’t know what’s going to happen beyond a scene or two.

Michael Connelly says he generally knows “whodunit,” but “wings it” from there. The late Tony Hillerman insisted he didn’t want to know too much in advance, less he become bored with the story and unable to proceed.

Personally, I’m on the side of these pantsers. My idea of an outline is generally so scant—the mere jotting of a few words, comments or descriptions I don’t want to lose in the midst of the project. To someone else I’m sure it would have no more meaning than hieroglyphs in a language they don’t understand.

In fact, though they may vehemently deny it, most writers do outline—though they may not consciously realize it.

How is that possible, you ask.

Larry Brooks (see www.storyfix.com), a strong proponent of outlining, points out that stories have an architectural structure and the purpose of outlining is to insure the writer includes all the necessary elements. There’s no denying this is true. Miss one or more of those elements and you have a failed story.

Though pantsers do not incorporate all those elements into a written sort of GPS format it does not necessarily follow that they ignore them. Rather pantsers choose to integrate the elements internally, or perhaps I should say, intuitively—a kind of magic rhythm.

The story is present in the mind, sometimes for years, being mulled, considered from every angle and, eventually, our characters provide direction after conscious thought is more systematically organized in the subconscious.

Fact In Fiction

2011-11-19T11:55:00.000-08:00

Recently someone criticized one of my favorite historical fiction writers for not sticking with the facts in a novel.

Obviously the critic didn’t understand the primary function of a novel is to entertain.

In a historical novel, the writer has an obligation to make the reader accept his setting and characters as appropriate to the period. That doesn’t prevent a writer from twisting facts to suit a creative purpose.

As Alistair MacLean so aptly put it, “The key to the willing suspension of disbelief on the part of readers is a good mixture of real things and things fictional.” The formula seemed to work well for him in 28 novels, many of which were made into films.

There is a vast difference between fiction and fact. Webster defines the former as “the act of feigning or inventing; a literary production of the imagination.” And fact is clearly designated as “reality; event; truth.”

Naturally the two definitions are often confused.

Shakespeare’s dramas, for instance, are fiction. Yet generations of readers and playgoers have mistakenly accepted them as factual portrayals of persons and events. Clearly the evidence shows Shakespeare mined historical accounts for plots but doctored them with his imagination and personal impressions. That’s what we call creativity.

If it’s history you seek, then read a historian.

Then again, as Thackeray reminds us, “Fiction carries a greater amount of truth in solution than the volume which purports to be all true.” I’ll wager more people who were bored by the subject in their school days have been brought to love history through fiction than by any other means.

Carpe Diem

2011-11-07T05:50:00.000-08:00

What time is it?

Daylight Saving Time ended and we returned to standard time Sunday morning. With the change, some of us complain how these changes play havoc with our system while others accept it with a resigned shrug of the shoulders.

This business of toying with time was first proposed by Pennsylvania’s remarkable philosopher-inventor Benjamin Franklin. It wasn’t instituted until 1916 by the Germans, those connoisseurs of precision, and then by the British as a wartime measure intended to save fuel and energy.

Daylight Saving Time wasn’t adopted in the U.S. until 1918, where Congress repealed it a year later. It was an on again, off again feature in various states until Congress made it a permanent feature of our lives in 1967. Even then, the law left instituting it to the discretion of individual states.

The practice always had its advocates, but there’s a certain fallacy to the theory it actually saves energy—if darkness comes an hour later at one end of the spectrum, then artificial light is necessary at the other.

Man is the only animal obsessed by this thing called time.

As Thomas Mann put it: “Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.”

So, what time is it?

Even St. Augustine couldn’t answer that. “If no one asks me, I know what it (time) is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks me, I do not know.”

Dr. David Park, former president of the International Society for the Study of Time, confesses he has similar problems. Park theorizes there are actually two times: Time One, the invention of man, which is measured by clocks and moves constantly from past to future, and Time Two, which considers that the Eternal Now contains both the past and future. I like this latter concept, which eliminates the possibility of ever being late.

Man in his arrogance thought he had the idea of time figured out until the theorists of quantum physics illustrated the fallibility of a perception of the world based on direct experience.

What we have in the end is an invented “time” made accurate by universal agreement. It would appear the best advice of all is carpe diem (seize the moment).

The Ghost of Halloween

2011-10-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

A night of innocent fun for children, or an observance with evil origins?

However you view it, our Halloween is a long way from its beginning and—like so many other intrinsically religious observances—has been so diluted and commercialized it would hardly be recognized by its founders.

It began as the Celtic observance of October 31 as the eve of the new year. Sir James Frazer says the most important aspect of the observance was the rekindling of fires throughout the land from village bonfires, accompanied by prayers and divination to assure good fortune in the coming year.

This was the one night of the year when the “door to the otherworld” was opened.

Lacking a Christian concept of heaven, the people believed the spirits of departed relatives looked in to see how the family was doing. These benevolent spirits were welcomed with offerings of food and flowers.

At the same time, it was thought more harmful spirits were also unleashed for the night and they had to be propitiated with spells and gifts. The wearing of masks and costumes began as a means of confusing these evil spirits to help prevent their causing harm to helpless mortals.

With the introduction of Christianity, the church sought to subjugate the pagan aspects of the observance by making it a night to honor saints and martyrs (All Hallows Eve). This failed to obliterate the belief in ghosts and they remain a central feature of our Halloween.

All societies have in common this belief in ghosts. Modern cultures may deem themselves less susceptible to what is term superstition, but there is hardly an area that escapes the tradition of haunted places.

Are there such things as ghosts then?

One might turn to the Bible for guidance and—particularly in this case—find it ambiguous. “Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” (Job 14:10)

Lyall Watson (who is open to many kinds of psychic phenomena, but does not take ghosts seriously) points out we are aware of only a small portion of reality. And, as Philip Slater aptly argues, our conception of “reality” is not what actually exists but merely what we require to master our physical environment.

Should This House Be Saved?

2011-08-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

Edgar Allan Poe is an iconic figure in American literature. He invented the genre we know as detective fiction and he played an important role in development of the genre of science fiction.

Though Charles Brockden Brown is considered the “father of the American novel,” Poe is believed to be the first American who endeavored to live from his writing alone. Despite a decidedly difficult financial life, his literary output continues to influence culture around the world.

Now those of us who love his work have a challenge before us.

During his short life, Poe endured a bohemian and transitory existence, moving up and down the eastern seaboard. Four residences have been preserved and survive as shrines to his memory for scholars and students as well as ordinary tourists.

In fact, Poe never lived in the best known of these—the Old Stone House in Richmond, Va. I say this not to defame the site, which I have visited. The house does preserve his dorm room from the University of Virginia in addition to many other items and rare printings of his work. Upkeep of this facility is in the capable hands of students and staff known as the Raven Society.

The home where Poe resided with his wife, Virginia, and his aunt/mother-in-law, Maria Clemm, in Philadelphia is preserved as a National Historic Site in affiliation with the Independence National Historical Park.

His last home, a cottage in the Bronx, N.Y., is also part of a Historic House Trust administered by the Bronx County Historical Society.

But a fourth residence in Baltimore is endangered.

This small structure at 203 Amity Street operates as a museum and is home to the Edgar Allen Poe Society of Baltimore. It is also a National Historic Landmark. For some years its upkeep was subsidized by the City of Baltimore. Now, for the second year, city leaders decided they could not continue this financial assistance.

Their plight is understandable. Charm City officials are as burdened as any other community with difficult financial demands. I’m sure they see better use for scarce dollars than preserving a structure well off the tourist beaten track and not located in the most affluent of neighborhoods. I’ve been there, too.

As a working historian I realize not every structure can be preserved—or even deserves to be preserved. We have three other Poe shrines. What’s the harm in letting one go by the wayside?

I might be persuaded to that viewpoint were it not for two things. First, this is the place where Poe enjoyed his first literary success, winning a short story contest and attracting the attention of the public and editors who recognized his talent.

Second, if the public really values the legacy of Poe, there is no reason why they and not a government entity can’t subsidize the museum. I’m not going to mention names, but there are some big literary guns in Baltimore who could help support the project. I’m not saying they should contribute money, but they could certainly aid in the way of publicity.

That might attract a generous millionaire or two who doesn’t need another yacht or jet. Who knows, ordinary citizens might even be inclined to chip in a few bucks here and there if given the right example to follow.

And what about all the Poe societies out there? There’s more than one: http://www.eapoe.org/links.htm Join me in asking them to clamor for some public attention.

Interview With Douglas Quinn

2011-08-08T04:52:00.000-07:00

My guest today is mystery, suspense and historical fiction writer Douglas Quinn. Welcome, Doug. Let’s start right in with some questions: JRL: Have you always wanted to write, or was there some transforming incident led you to it?

DQ: Actually, when I was a growing up I was more interested in art. But the one other thing I liked to do, which gave me background knowledge and ultimately the interest in writing, was reading. As a kid, I got hooked on Edgar Rice Burroughs, especially his Tarzan novels. In fact, I ended up collecting all of his books, including many first editions.
Early on, my interests gravitated toward science fiction. It wasn’t until much later in life, when I began to read Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling and Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle (my personal favorite classic authors), that my interest began to shift toward mystery and suspense.

JRL: What was your path to publication?

DQ: I didn’t begin writing until 1994, when I was already 52 years old (do the math and you can calculate how old I am now–the secret is out), which was when I began working on my first novel, The Catalan Gambit. I finished the rough draft in 1997, then sent out queries to agents and to those publishers who accepted submissions without agents.
After three years of frustrating results, I laid the novel aside and didn’t write anything more until 2003, when I dragged the manuscript back out and gave it about six hard edits. Being over age 60, I wasn’t interested in subjecting myself to further disappointments. I had faith in the book. I figured if I could just get it out there someone would read it, they would like it. That’s exactly what I did. I signed up with iUniverse, a print-on-demand publisher whose primary stockholder was Barnes and Nobel. Long story short, the book received great reviews and encouraging comments from readers. So I began working on my next novel, the first book of the Webb Sawyer Mystery Series, Blue Heron Marsh. Since then, I have published seven more books, including two children’s chapter books.
In 2009 I turned to Amazon/CreateSpace, publishing under the White Heron Press imprint, for the first Adventures of Quinn Higgins: Boy Detective children’s chapter book. Since then, I have published two more books with them. I’ve been pleased with the distribution and sales results and hope to continue that relationship. I currently have three more books completed (two of them children’s chapter books, the other one being the third Webb Sawyer Mystery) and in the editing process, with publication dates on the calendar.

JRL: What was your first job, and did it have any impact on your future writing?
DQ: My first job was a four year hitch in the Air Force. After that I went into banking. Then, for almost two decades, I ran my own personnel recruiting company. Just like anything else a person has experienced during his or her life, when writing, all of it is drawn upon. I follow the old writer’s adage, “Write what you know.”
JRL: Writers are often driven by curiosity. Is there any particular subject that especially arouses your curiosity?

DQ: Human nature. While the plot and setting are important to story-telling, my novels are all character-driven. The characters are essential to my writing. I believe that if the character is unable to bring some emotional impact to the reader, the book fails. My time as a “headhunter” probably gave me the most insight into how people think and act under different situations.
JRL: We’ve both written mysteries and historical fiction. You’ve also been doing some writing for children. How difficult do you find the transition from writing for adults to doing it for youngsters?

DQ: Oddly enough, I don’t find it difficult at all. The reason being, I’ve spent a lot of time at my grandsons’ elementary schools, either volunteer reading to their classes or having lunch with my grandsons in the school cafeteria. The cafeteria is where I get most of my material. Outside of the school environment, my grandson Quinn is a very inquisitive kid and we’ve had lots of interesting conversations about every imaginable topic. Simply talking and listening to my target audience is the key.

JRL: Are you an outliner or a pantser? How do you actually go about writing a story or book?

DQ: By “pantser,” I presume you mean, do I write by the seat of my pants? I’m not a true outliner, but not necessarily a total pantser, either. When an idea for a novel or a children’s chapter book hits me, I start thinking about it. I begin playing out the scenes and the dialogue in my mind. I start thinking about the characters and what makes them tick, how they might interact with the other characters in the story. I also like to think about what plot twists I might be able to bring to the story line. By the time I sit down to write, I’ve already “seen and heard” much of what I translate to the document. Then, of course, I refine it as I go along, many times letting the characters and circumstances take me where they will. I suppose you could say I’m a mental outliner who writes by the seat of my pants.

JRL: What do you love most about being a writer?

DQ: I love the process. I love creating something out of nothing; of coming up with an idea, thinking about it, visualizing it, getting it down on paper (via the computer printer, of course), then going through the editing process. I don’t do a lot of rewriting. I pretty much know what I want when I begin. What I do is tweak what I’ve written. Only once have I actually begun a story, then started over when I wasn’t happy how it was going. That one is/was the story for the Four of a Kind anthology, which I am a contributing editor, and for which (of course) you and two others are contributing a story.

JRL: Going to the opposite extreme, what do you hate most about being a writer?

DQ: Hard question. I don’t really “hate” anything about it. What does annoy me is when someone requests a review copy, then doesn’t bother reading the book or writing a review. I mean, if they actually read it and hated it, I’d rather they just tell me. I can take it. We now use delivery confirmation receipts to track time and place of delivery, then follow up after 90 days, then every subsequent 30 days. It’s a pain in the you-know-what but, unfortunately, has to be done.

JRL: Have you experienced an “I’ve made it” moment, or are you still waiting for it?

DQ: I made it the moment I actually finished the rough draft of my first book. People don’t realize how hard it is, and how much of a commitment a writer has to make, to accomplish even that first step toward publishing. It’s hard work, and I love it.
JRL: What was the last book you read?

DQ: I don’t have as much time to read as I used to before my writing became a personal illness. During slack times in my writing and publishing schedules (meaning I only have a couple of projects going), I tend to read other authors who are either self-published or published through small independent presses. I do this because there are a lot of great authors out there who don’t get the wide name recognition that they deserve. I like to both read and post reviews of their work. My most recent read was FireSong by Aaron Paul Lazar. I like his work and I like him as a person. Prior to that it was Fallen From Grace by J. R. Lindermuth (I think you may know him).

JRL: Do you have a favorite among the books you’ve written?

DQ: Yes. It is Cornelius The Orphan. Cornelius, which is historical fiction/adventure, is a departure from my usual mystery and suspense fare, although the book does hold elements of suspense. His character is more rich and more complicated than any I have created so far.

JRL: What is the next project for you?

DQ: I’m currently working on the next book in the series that follows Cornelius The Orphan. This one is called Samuel The Pioneer, and follows the life of Cornelius’ son, who was profoundly (in a negative way) impacted by his father’s life. I’m also currently writing the 4th book of The Adventures of Quinn Higgins: Boy Detective. This one is titled The Case of Blackbeard’s Treasure and takes place in Ocracoke Village on Ocracoke Island. The third book in this series, The Case of the Haunted House, will be released this October.

I’m also working on my memoirs. This will be for publication, but not for general sale. I’m writing it for the benefit of my grandchildren and future generations, so they will know and understand who I was and what I was all about. This is something I think everyone should do.

In addition, I am currently mind-planning the 5th Quinn Higgins book, a second book in the Charles of Colshire series, a fantasy children’s chapter book series. The first book in the series, Charles of Colshire Castle: The Purple Dragon, will be released this November. In addition, I’m in the editing process for the third book of the Webb Sawyer Mystery Series entitled Swan’s Landing, which has a background in the 9/11 tragedy. It will be released in the Spring of 2012. By the time this interview appears, there will probably be something else on the list.

JRL: Who are some of your favorite writers and have they influenced your style?

DQ: As I said before, I grew up on Edgar Rice Burroughs, then moved to Poe, Kipling and Conan-Doyle. At one point in my life, I was reading 125 books a year. When I was into science fiction, I liked Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Frederick Pohl and the like. When I moved to reading mystery and suspense, I grooved on (and still do, when I can find the time) James Lee Burke, John Sandford, Robert Kellerman, Kathy Reichs, Alex Kava, Walter Mosley and others. Everything I’ve read has influenced my writing, one way or another. Even so, I’m not very poetic. I still can’t turn a phrase the likes of James Lee Burke. Hopefully, readers appreciate the way I lay out a scene and develop my characters.

JRL: What are some of the things you enjoy doing when not writing?

DQ: For relaxation, I play golf and swim. I don’t have time for much else. I walk the dogs twice a day and I really like to cook. I’m really not all that interesting. Kind of a minimalist in my lifestyle.

JRL: Is there something about you that might surprise your readers to learn?

DQ: Probably, but I’m not going to let that one out of the bag.

JRL: People seem to enjoy learning what kind of pets hold a special place in a writer’s life. Do you have (or have had) any special animal friends you’d like to tell us about?

DQ: Ah, pets. I prefer to refer to them as four-legged family members. I’ve had critters around all my life, including an baby alligator, a flying squirrel, a raccoon, a pigeon and rabbits. I didn’t have my first dog until I was 13. Smokey used to follow me around on my paper route. What a sweet guy he was. My favorite cat was Basil. Unfortunately, a fox got him. He had more personality than some people I’ve known. I honor his memory by making him a character in the Webb Sawyer Mystery books. He’s Webb’s best bud; once, he even saved Webb’s life.

Currently, I have two dogs and five and a half cats. Snookie, a mixed sheltie, was a SPCA rescue special and Gracie is a tri-colored beagle who lives for her biscuit treats. The cats are Moustaki II (that’s Moustache in Greek) who, as a kitten, was rescued from the middle of the road; Swee’ Pea, a calico who was dropped on my doorstep with a mangled tail and in a family way; Funny Face, a tortoise-shell female, who came in from the swamp; Panther, a black male (who I also call Brutus Beefcake) who also came in from the swamp; Tommy Gray, who decided he liked my house better than my neighbor’s down the street, and the half-cat is a golden tomcat I call Theo, who hangs around the periphery because he likes Funny Face. It’s never dull around the Douglas Quinn ranch.

JRL: Where can people find more info about you and your projects?

DQ: You know, I’m kind of a lazy so-and-so when it comes to marketing and on-line sites. I hate taking the time away from writing. My publicist is on my case all the time about it. I had a web site for a while. It was designed by a fan. It was okay, but it never really seemed to work for me. Also, I wasn’t much for keeping it up to date. I have a Google blog site, where I don’t post much. I’m working on a new web site at Webs, Inc, which reminds me, I need to get back to that. Darn!

So, I guess the answer to your question is go to www.Gather.com (Douglas Quinn/obxwriter), where I post reviews, interviews, announcements and excerpts from my books, or Facebook (Douglas Quinn), where I make daily entries and post links about my activities, or, better yet, go to www.amazon.com, read the reviews of my books, get excited, and buy copies. I’ll announce on Facebook and Gather when my new website is up and running–maybe by 2015.

List of Books by Douglas Quinn:

The Catalan Gambit 2004
The Spanish Game 2006
Blue Heron Marsh 2007
Pelican Point 2009
The Adventures of Quinn Higgins: Boy Detective
–The Case of the Missing Homework 2009
Cornelius The Orphan 2010
The Capablanca Variation: The End Game 2010
The Adventures of Quinn Higgins: Boy Detective
–The Case of Bigfoot on the Loose 2010
The Adventures of Quinn Higgins: Boy Detective
–The Case of the Haunted House (October 2011)
Charles of Colshire Castle: The Purple Dragon (November 2011)
Swan’s Landing (Spring 2012)

A Tribute To Frank Bender

2011-07-31T05:31:00.000-07:00

Frank Bender was a resurrectionist.

Through the magic of his fingers, he brought the dead back to life.

Bender, who died this week at his home in Philadelphia, was a self-taught forensic artist whose work helped identify murder victims and aided in the apprehension of numerous fugitives.

While working as a police reporter, I met the man when he came to my county to help in a cold case. Along with others who witnessed the process, I marveled as Frank’s skill put a face to a long-dead body fished from the river. Unfortunately, this case remains unsolved and we may never know if the young man was the victim of an accident, suicide or murder.

In his career, Frank Bender had many successes. Among them was the case of 18-year-old Rosella Atkinson, whose then-unidentified remains were found behind a city ball field in 1988. Police asked for Bender's help, and his bust led Atkinson's aunt to put a name to the face. Atkinson's killer confessed in 2005.

Bender got his start in 1976 while taking classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. A friend gave him access to the city morgue to study anatomy and, as Bender looked over a badly decomposed body, he said he knew what she looked like. A coroner overheard the conversation and challenged Bender to prove it.

Bender's sculpture of the woman helped identify her as Anna Duval, a 62-year-old from Phoenix whose body had been found near the Philadelphia airport. Years later, a man was convicted of killing Duval after stealing her profits from a house sale.

Bender also made busts envisioning how fugitives might age.

His sculpture of John List, accused of killing five family members in New Jersey in 1971, was featured on "America's Most Wanted" in 1989. The artwork led to List's arrest 11 days later in Virginia, where he had been living under an alias. List was later convicted and died in prison.

The artist sacrificed a career in commercial photography to work with law enforcement agencies around the world, a choice that often put him in danger, jeopardized his marriage and, at times, brought him near bankruptcy.

Bender didn’t originate the art, but he perfected facial reconstruction techniques of the American system pioneered by Wilton Krogman and the European system of Mikail Gerasimov.

Another intriguing aspect of his career is that Bender, along with William Fleischer, a customs agent and polygraph expert, and Richard Walter, a criminal profiler, founded the Vidocq Society, http://www.vidocq.org/index.html. Named for the founder of the French Surete, the organization of amateurs and professionals focuses on unsolved deaths and disappearances.

For more information on Bender and his art I highly recommend Ted Botha’s The Girl With The Crooked Nose, published by Random House in 2008.

Getting The Word Out

2011-06-20T05:59:00.000-07:00

Most people have an emotional reaction when confronted with the news of the latest disaster. We feel compassion for the victims. Some might be moved to contribute a dollar or two to help in the recovery. A few even rush to the scene to provide hands-on assistance.

Too often that altruistic reaction fades in a day or two as the event is superseded by other demands on our attention.

Thriller writer Tim Hallinan came up with a means for people who like to read to help victims in northeastern Japan recover from one of the most devastating tragedies in modern times.

Hallinan, author of the Poke Rafferty novels and other thrillers, wrote a Japan-themed story and got 19 of his friends to do the same. The stories have been assembled into an anthology, “Shaken: Stories for Japan,” now available as an e-book on Amazon for $3.99.

In addition to Tim’s, the book includes stories by Brett Battles, Cara Black, Vicki Doudera, Dianne Emley, Dale Furutani, Stefan Hammond, Rosemary Harris, Naomi Hirahara, Wendy Hornsby, Ken Kuhlken, Debbi Mack, Adrian McKinty, I.J. Parker, Gary Phillips, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Jeffrey Siger, Kelli Stanley, C.J. West, Jeri Westerson.

Everyone involved in the project donated their time and talent. All proceeds from sales of the book will go directly to the 2011 Japan Relief Fund. Amazon also announced it will donate its share, too.

Want to help? Here’s your chance: http://www.amazon.com/SHAKEN-Stories-for-Japan-ebook/dp/B00556WX9A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1308574657&sr=1-1

How to Feed a Hungry Detective

2011-06-09T05:07:00.000-07:00

Sylvester Tilghman likes to eat.

That becomes apparent early into my novel Fallen From Grace. Tilghman, sheriff of the small Pennsylvania town of Arahpot, is a bachelor who is never shy about accepting an invitation for a meal as he goes about investigating a couple murders that have shaken the normal tranquility of his town in the autumn of 1897.

His usual targets are his girlfriend, Lydia, and neighbors, the Mariners. But he isn’t inclined to turn down an offer of food or drink from most any of the citizens he encounters on his rounds.

Despite our difference in body structure and time period, I share Syl’s predilection for good eats. Investigating the type of food and menus most likely available in the time period and place was an enjoyable aspect of my research for the novel.

A primary resource was “The Latest And Best Cook Book,” published in 1888 by Hubbard Brothers of Philadelphia. The volume containing more than 800 “valuable” recipes had no single author but was compiled by a “skilled corps of practical experts,” according to the foreword.

The sub-title sums up the content of the volume: “A comprehensive treatment of the subject of cookery; ancient and modern cooking utensils, etc.; with abundant instructions in every branch of the art; soups, fish, poultry, meats, vegetables, salads, bread, cakes, jellies, fruits, pickles, sauces, beverages, candies, sick-room diet, canning, carving, serving meals, marketing, etc., etc.”

Hey, the Food Channel had nothing on Hubbard Brothers.

I guarantee you, it takes a good novel to match the entertainment value of a book like this one. For example:

“Dishes should suit the days of the week also. What can be furnished by one fire or wash-day or ironing-day is not the same as can be furnished conveniently on other days. The man who proposed dumplings for wash-day dessert because they could be boiled in the same kettle with the clothes was on the true line of progress, though his application was not a happy one. The idea is that harmony shall exist.”

The amount of food these people consumed at a single setting is enough to give the average diet-conscious modern person apoplexy. Consider this breakfast suggestion for summer—coarse hominy boiled; strawberries and cream; bread (fresh-baked, of course), butter, coffee and other beverages; broiled chicken, stewed potatoes, dried beef dressed with cream, radishes and muffins.

Or you might substitute oatmeal and milk, fresh currants and sugar, buttered toast, bread, coffee, broiled blue or white fish, stewed potatoes, minced mutton served on toast and shirred eggs.
Considering the lack of conveniences to which we’ve become accustomed, I can feel nothing but pity for the woman required to turn out these meals on a daily basis.

I am confident, though, if Sylvester turns up for another book (as a few readers are already urging) I’ll easily be able to come up with more dining suggestions for Lydia and others to tempt his appetite.

Interview With Thriller Writer J. H. Bogran

2011-05-18T05:31:00.000-07:00

J. H. Bográn, born and raised in Honduras, is the son of a journalist; he ironically prefers to write fiction rather than fact. José is the author of “Treasure Hunt,” the first in the series of a professional thief who goes by the handle of The Falcon. Other works include short stories, “The Outpost” and “Love Me Two Times,” published by Red Rose Publishing. He is also the author of “Heredero Del Mal,” a thriller published by Editorial Letra Negra.
He’s a contributor editor to The Big Thrill magazine; co-screenwriter for two TV serials and writes movie reviews for the Honduran newspaper La Prensa.
He’s a member of the International Thriller Writers.
JRL: Good morning, Jose. Let’s start with the question what was your biggest challenge in finishing this novel? What was your path to publication?
JHB: You mean besides writing it in a language other than my native one? :- ) I wrote the first draft back in 1998 and after the events of 9/11, I feared that a book with a hijacked plane in the opening chapter would never see the light. Eventually, it did, thanks to Whiskey Creek Press who believed the story should be told. I guess that pretty much covers the path I took, but here is the simple form for any beginner writer: query, receive rejection, study and rewrite, repeat N times. Then in 2005 a new ebook publisher took me in, only to close its doors a year or so later. Spent a few years in the limbo of orphan books but got back to the original program. I received the offer from WCP in January 2010 and last January the book went live after a through editing process.
JRL: Hmph, I know how frustrating it can be to have a publisher accept a book and then go bust. I had a similar experience early on. Getting back to your book, have you ever had the urge to do any treasure hunting yourself?

JHB: Yes, every time I see an Indiana Jones movie! I was a Boy Scout, so camping was a part of my teenage life. Treasure hunting is fun.
JRL: In addition to this novel, you’ve also published a thriller in Spanish, Heredero Del Mal. Any plans for an English version?
JHB: Although I’d love to see “Heredero” in English, I just can’t spend the time translating a book I already published. I rather direct my efforts towards a new book. However, the door is not closed either. Letra Negra, my publisher in Guatemala, has the final version and anybody can approach them about it.
JRL: Curiosity is an important factor in a writer’s makeup. What is it that sparks your curiosity or makes you wonder about a subject?

JHB: Hmmm, so authors are curious by nature…I may use this to justify the fact that I’m a “trivia freak.” I find little-known facts really interesting as they add to the greater picture. The first idea from my stories more often than not comes from a “what if…” question and they are usually prompted by trivia bits.
JRL: What do you find most rewarding about being a published writer?

JHB: The email from the unknown reader. It has happened quite a few times now, but it is still exciting.
JRL: What’s your process in writing? Do you use an outline, or are you a pantser?

JHB: This one I have to do response in a twofold: For novels I use an outline. Once I tried not to do it and ended up in a dead street that forced me to either introduce a new character or delete five previous chapters.
On short stories yes, I can work from the head to the keyboard without the outline.
JRL: What was the last book you read?
JHB: “Boiling Point” by K. L. Dionne. An exciting eco-thriller. The fact that I know the author added a new flavor to the reading of it.
JRL: Do you have any favorite books on the craft of writing?

JHB: Not in any particular orders, but these are the ones that I always keep at hand:
“Dynamic Characters” by Nancy Kress
“On Writing” by Stephen King
“The Elements of Style” by Strunk and White
“Grammatically Correct” by Anne Stilman.
JRL: A good selection. What’s next on your agenda?

JHB: I have one manuscript doing the rounds with agents and at the same time I’m writing another thriller. Definitely promoting Treasure Hunt is also on the priority list. GWE created a wonderful video trailer, you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEaG5CjDmG8
JRL: What are some of the things you like to do aside from writing? Anything in particular you’d like to tell readers?
JHB: I have the blessing of having a day-job that I also like. I work in the garment manufacturing industry. I think it is the biggest employer in my little corner of the world and I’m happy to be a part of it.
JRL: Anything in particular you’d like to tell readers?
JHB: I truly wish they can enjoy my stories and please, by all means, fell free to drop me a line when you finish reading it. Also, I have a short story giveaway, it is titled “Absolution Withheld” and it’s kind of a prequel to Treasure Hunt. To get it just email me at jhbogran@gmail.com. I can send mobi, pdf and even text only formats, so just let me know.
JRL: Thanks for spending the time with us today, Jose. More information about this writer and his work is available at:
Website: www.jhbogran.net
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jhbogran
Blog: www.thetaleweaver.blogspot.com

The Danger of Living

2011-05-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

If a man had a bit of luck it was best not to flaunt it before his neighbors in the Patch. Jake Yeager thought his father should have remembered. And it was because he apparently had not that Jake felt like a trespasser as they cut through Winchester No. 1 Patch.

The Patch was two long rows of ramshackle sun-bleached shacks on a hard-scrabble flat without a tree to shade it from the merciless sun, bisected by the state highway, a dirt track up to the mine and the dolly line that crossed one corner. The shaft passed under the village and sometimes in the still of the day or at night when the charges were fired crockery rattled in the cupboards or a window shook as a reminder to the men and their families that they and every building, including the store and the church and every other blessed thing in the place was the property of the Ragers and their mine. There was a Winchester No. 2 Patch farther up the line but the only affinity between the two was the same kind of people lived in both and all of them were the property of W. K. Rager and Sons, Inc.

It was mid-morning now and the men were either at work or sleeping after their shift. But there were women and children they knew out in front of the houses. Jake lowered his eyes and pretended not to notice them. His father, though, he loudly called out greetings and waved, calling attention on their passage. It was four months since his father had quit the mine and they’d left the Patch. Memories were long here and his father should have remembered. Yet, here he was, acting as though nothing had changed, oblivious to any thought these people might be envious and resent his coming through to remind them of his stroke of luck.

Jake wanted to berate his father, but he was only a boy of twelve and so he kept his mouth shut, held his eyes to the ground, churned with embarrassment and focused his anger on Uncle Dan who was the cause of it.

Usually they took another route to the hole. It was a mile shorter going through the Patch, and they came this way in deference to Uncle Dan who was frail from ill health and a sedentary lifestyle.

Uncle Dan was Jake’s grandfather’s brother. Born in the region, he’d escaped early in his teens to the Army without ever having worked a day in the mines. He’d come back since only on rare visits. It was hard to believe of a man born in the region, but here was one who’d never heard of a coal-hole. And that was the purpose of their jaunt this morning. Jake’s father had promised last night to show his uncle how he earned his living.

Uncle Dan shuffled along beside them, stoop-shouldered, snuffling from exertion, the summer heat and the dust raised by their boots, his eyes skittering back and forth like water-bugs on a pond. “Great God,” he said, finally, “here it is 1949 in the grandest country in the world and this looks like feudal Europe. How can they live like this?”
Jake’s father snorted. “Haint that they want to. Going to work in the dark, coming back in the dark, living like this. You think they like it?”
“You forget, boy, I was born in one of those shacks. I know all about it. I didn’t want no part of it. I got out. Why don’t they?”

“You was lucky.”

“How about you?”

“I was lucky. I got out, and I’m gonna stay out. But it haint easy. Rager keeps a tight squeeze on things. He hires a lot of immigrants who barely speak the language and don’t know the law. The rest are just plain poor and uneducated. He keeps them in debt and he makes sure everybody knows they can’t walk away from here unless their debts are paid first.”

“So, how’d you manage it?”

“Poker.”

“Huh?”

“Yep. Poker gave me a stake. We play every Friday night down at the firehall. I had a run of luck and I put my winnings aside and scrimped and scraped until I had my debts pared down.”

“But you must have had some idea what you were going to do when you left the mine.”

“Sure did. Purely by accident, Ed Dobson and me found out Rager didn’t have a hold on Turkey Ridge. Pretending we was hunting, we went up every day for a week between shifts and sunk a shaft. We didn’t go too deep before we struck coal. So we grabbed a lease on it and got a couple businessmen in Shannon to stake us to equipment.”

“So what you call ‘working a coal-hole’ is just a matter of digging the coal out of the ground on your own?”

Jake’s father laughed. “Well, it’s a little more complicated than that. But you got the basic idea. It’s a darn good hole, producing about six tons a day of good hard anthracite. It’s a hard one to work, though. The shaft is almost perpendicular. We work it by sending two men down the pit to grub out the coal and load it in burlap sacks, which the third man hauls up to the top with a winch. The top man loads the coal in a wheelbarrow and takes it down the hill to where our pickup is parked.”

“What do you do with the coal? Sell it to Rager?”

“Nah, he won’t buy from us and the other breakers don’t want to offend him. We sell some to folks in Shannon. Most of it we truck down-river to other towns and sell door-to-door. No trouble getting rid of it. We’re not getting rich. But we make a living and we’re independent. That means something after all those years with Rager on our backs.”
They sauntered along, crossing the stone bridge over the acid-wracked creek circling the Patch and started up the trail to Turkey Ridge. There were trees here—scrub oaks, poplar and elders mostly—and the air smelled cleaner now that they were above the Patch and Jake felt better. He picked up his pace, going ahead of the two men, stopping now and again to skip a stone into the trees as grouse took flight or a squirrel chattered a warning. Catbirds mewed along the track and a pair of hawks coasted across blue sky overhead.

Winded, Jake sat down on a conglomerate boulder to wait for his father and Uncle Dan. The anger had left him. He felt good up here. He wasn’t entirely certain what his father meant by independent but he sensed it must be something similar to what he felt up here, clean and free, above the muck that lay below.

They were only a stone’s throw from the hole when Jake’s father suddenly stopped and stood, listening. “What’s the matter?” Uncle Dan asked. “Shh,’ Jake’s father said, still listening. Then he took off at a run for the hole. Jake and Uncle Dan followed, the old man still demanding, “What’s the matter?”

Jake was puzzled at first, too. Then he realized what was missing. Instead of the normal, steady chug-chug of the pump there was only silence. Jake knew, but he was afraid to put it in words.

As they reached the top and broke through the scrub oak they saw Jake’s father talking to Sam Troutman, one of his partners, and a couple of shovel operators who worked for the D&Z Company that was stripping on the other side of the bluff.

“Sam called me over ‘soons it happened,” Jim Dietz, one of the operators, was saying as they came up. “We was just figgerin’ what to do.”

“What’s happened?” Uncle Dan asked again.

“Cave-in. Bill and Ed are down there.”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph!”

Jake’s head spun and he stumbled against Uncle Dan. Men were always getting caught in cave-ins, but it wasn’t supposed to happen to people you knew. It wasn’t supposed to, but it did. Only the year before one of their neighbors had been trapped. Jake remembered what Cally Ryan looked like when they dug him out. It was something the boy would never forget. Cally’s eyes had been open and full of coal dirt. His mouth had been open, too, as though he died screaming for help. The face was black from the coal, except for two white stripes down Cally’s cheeks where tears from his hurt eyes had washed him clean. Jake didn’t want to see his brother Bill like that. “Can we get them out?” he asked in a tremulous voice.

“We’re gonna try, sure as hell,” his father said, putting an arm around the boy’s trembling shoulders.

“How’d it happen?” Uncle Dan asked.

“We was just gonna quit for lunch,” Sam said. “I’d come up on top to check the winch. Ed said he wanted to place one more charge before they came up. Bill stayed with him. I heard the blast and didn’t pay it no mind till I noticed the pump had stopped. When I climbed down I saw the whole side of the slope had fallen. I don’t know whether the charge was too heavy or if it just went off too quick. It must have knocked out half the timbers on that side.”

Jake’s father was trembling now, too. He paced around the hole, trying to hide his agitation. But they could see it in his blanched face and the sweat glistening on his brow. Then, recovering his composure, he came back to them and took charge. He’d been around mines and mining for thirty of his forty-two years, starting as a slate-picker at the D&Z Colliery. He knew what had to be done.

“We’ve only opened one slope off the gangway,” he said. “If Bill and Ed got far enough back in that slope when the blast went off, they’ll be all right. If they didn’t, there’s no need to hurry. We’ll have to dig them out the same way we mine the coal. Jim, I’d appreciate if you’d go down with Sam and start the digging. I’ll see if I can get the pump to working.”

Jake knew how important it was to get the pump restarted. There’s always seepage in a coal hole. If the pump stopped for even an hour, a foot of water could collect in the bottom of the shaft. That wasn’t much, but if a man were pinned down under a rock or a timber he could drown in less water than that.

“You’d best go down and tell your Mom and Bill and Ed’s wives and see if more help can be rounded up,” Jake’s father told him.

“Let me do it,” put in Uncle Dan. “I think I can break the news better than the kid.”

Jake was grateful. He wanted to stay and help. He ran for tools and helped the other shovel operator dump bags from the winch so they could be sent back down for more dirt.

After a while, his father got the pump started. Then he found the hose was burst. The pump was useless. Jake struggled to hold back his tears. If water was coming in… but no; he couldn’t think of that. He had to focus on the work, fight to drive away the image of Cally’s face that danced before his eyes.

Time passed and Uncle Dan came back with the women. Like gas in a mine, word of the accident had drifted from Shannon to the patch. Concerned neighbors and friends, women and miners between shifts, some who were just curious, came up the hill. The miners pitched into the work. The women and men who weren’t miners stood around in nervous little groups, murmuring, white-faced, wanting to help, not knowing how.
Jake’s father sent him to join his mother and the spectators. His father said he knew Jake wanted to help but he could do it best by comforting his mother. Jake was hurt and ashamed. His father saw he was too distressed to be of help and was right in sending him to the sidelines. The boy stood by his mother, shivering, seeing Cally’s dead face.

Dark clouds scudded across the sun. A cold wind rippled like water through the leaves of the oak, which chattered as though in anguish.
****
The digging and the hauling and the hoping went on for hours. It was dark now. Some of the curious drifted away and were replaced by others. The minister and a priest who had been called for Ed came. The two men of God conferred, set aside their differences, then took charge of the little flock of spectators, offering words of faith and urging prayer. Someone started a hymn and others joined in, the words echoing over the mountains.

A rain began, a hard pelting rain that made the ground slippery under foot. Instead of Cally, now Jake saw his brother lying on his face with a prop holding him down and the water rising up around his nostrils. Jake cried and started praying, making wild promises to God.

Then.. what was that? What did that guy say?

“We’ve got ‘em. We’ve got ‘em out!”

Jake looked up just in time to see one dark form lifted from the shaft before the crowd rushed in around the hole and blocked his view. “Thank God. Oh, thank God,” his mother cried beside him.
****

“If you won’t do it for yourself, then do it for your family,” Uncle Dan was saying the next morning when Jake came down for breakfast.

Jake’s father stared into his coffee cup, took a sip, sat down the cup and spoke. “Doc Whalen says they’ll be fine. Shock and a few scratches, but with a little rest they’re gonna be all right.” His father looked tired, but not any more than after a normal work day.

“Pure luck,” Uncle Dan said. “I’ve been away too long. I’d forgotten how dangerous mining is. You’ve gotta get out of it.”

“Sure it’s dangerous, but it’s a job and somebody has to do it,” Jake’s father told him. “Me, I count myself lucky to have got away from Rager and into my own hole. I been at it too long to quit—even if I wanted to. Bill, he’s a good miner. He’ll be back in the hole in a couple days. As for that one,” he continued, pointing a finger at Jake, “he won’t be mining. He’s a bright one and he’ll be off to school and then into some other kind of work. But, wherever he goes, whatever he does, he’ll find there’s danger of one sort or another.”
“Yeah, but not like in mining,” Uncle Dan said. “For God’s sake, Joe, get your boys out of this coal country. You almost lost a son yesterday. If I can’t convince you, that should.”

“It only convinces me there’s danger in living. Danger’s a part of life. We saw one kind yesterday. You saw another last spring when you found out you had TB. Your safe job in the auto plant didn’t keep you from getting sick, did it?”

“That’s not the same thing and you know it. Don’t make excuses that won’t hold water. Get your boys out of here.”

Jake’s father took his empty cup to the sink. Then he went out the screen door onto the porch. He was done talking.

(This story originally appeared in the January 2004 edition of a little mag called Cold Glass)

Counterfeiters and Spys in the American Revolution

2011-05-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

War is expensive.

This put the fledgling American colonies at a distinct disadvantage during the Revolutionary War. With little hard currency (gold or silver) to back it up, the Americans issued steadily increasing amounts of paper money to finance the rebellion. This printed money depreciated quickly.

By the 1780s it took an estimated 600 Continental dollars to buy supplies worth the equivalent of one Spanish dollar, the silver coin on which the colonies had relied for decades.

This dollar squeeze became an important strategy to the British. As early as 1776, they began counterfeiting the Colonial paper with the aim of undermining confidence in the money and the credit of the enemy.

This strategy and the spies who carried out the work play an important role in my Kindle novel, “The Accidental Spy.”

Desiring no part in the war, Dan McCracken is a young rogue wandering around Pennsylvania and living by his wits. Wounded in a run in with the law, he flees to Philadelphia where he’s rescued and nursed back to health by the lovely ward of Benedict Arnold’s procurement officer.

Dan finds himself attracted to his nurse. But when her husband returns from the front, he flees and falls in with a band of British spies.

He switches sides when he discovers his conscience through love. Ultimately, his actions will make him a hero.

Combining mystery, adventure and romance, I think you’ll find Spy an entertaining read. Best of all, it’s only $2.99. If you’ve already read it, I’d appreciate a review, tags and/or a ‘like.’ If not, you’ll find it at http://www.amazon.com/The-Accidental-Spy-ebook/dp/B004E3XCNQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304442988&sr=1-1

Those Vital Elements

2011-04-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

What is it that makes a story memorable?

Most of us can rattle off a string of elements we consider important and—if you’ve been around the writing game for any length of time—a number of them will probably be correct.

There are a few which are classic. These would include:

A. A character (or characters) we care about.
B. Conflict and challenge for the character(s).
C. Honest dialogue appropriate to the situation.
D. Image-provoking words.
E. A satisfactory conclusion.

I thought about this the other night after watching a delightful film called “The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill And Came Down A Mountain.” It’s a quiet, feel-good film with subtle humor, good acting, excellent cinematography and a pleasant score.

Those, of course, are all good qualities. But to me what makes it truly memorable is the characters and how well they fit the above-mentioned classic elements.

As I said, it’s a simple story. Two British cartographers visit a Welsh coal-mining village in 1917. Their purpose is to measure what is considered “the first mountain inside Wales.” Their calculations determine the mountain is merely a hill. But the villagers have had so much taken away from them by the continuing war they are stunned by this insult to their pride of place.

Hugh Grant is probably the major “star” of the film. But his role is simply overpowered by that of the supporting characters, particularly the arch-rivals Reverend Jones (Kenneth Griffin) and Morgan the Goat (Colm Meaney) who are brought together by Johnny, a shell-shocked soldier (Ian Hart), and inspire the entire village to work together to increase the height of the hill and bring it back to its former glory.

Inspired by a story he heard from his grandfather, the screenplay was written and directed by Christopher Monger. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend checking it out. Monger comes from a family of writers and painters and obviously knows a thing or two about writing. Among his other work is the script for the outstanding HBO bio-pic, “Temple Grandin.”

Romantic Suspense Author Margaret Blake

2011-04-05T05:25:00.000-07:00

My guest today is my friend, multi-published author Margaret Blake. Greetings Margaret. I believe you recently signed another contract with Whiskey Creek Press. What genre is this and any idea on when it will be available?

MB: Hi John. I’ve actually signed two new contracts with Whiskey Creek Press. The first is for “A Sprig of Broom,” which was first published in hardback in 1978 and was my first novel. It is a historical romantic suspense and is set in the 1470s and seeks, as did my previous historicals, to tell the truth about King Richard. My second signing is also for a romantic suspense novel, “The Longest Pleasure.”

JL: That’s great news for your readers—two novels to look forward to. I know your late husband, John, inspired you to begin writing. How difficult was it to find a publisher for your work? What was your path to publication?

MB: I sent a novel to Robert Hale Limited in London and they did not want to take it, but said they would be interested in seeing more of my work. I decided to try my hands at historicals and “A Sprig of Broom” was born. I have always written but never believed I could be published. It was John who encouraged me to seek publication. It was the most thrilling moment of my life when I received an acceptance letter. John and I drank champagne and just floated around on a cloud of pure joy all day.

JL: How do you plot your novels? Are you an outliner or a pantser?

MB: I don’t outline. I get an idea and I go with it. I never ‘write’ a plot; I just go with what the characters want to do. They really do take me over.

JL: Obviously you like romantic-suspense. Who are some of your favorite writers in the genre? Have any influenced your style?

MB: I read Mary Higgins Clark originally (and still do), but I am not sure if she is a suspense more than a romantic suspense author. Otherwise I read either romance novels or thrillers.

JL: So you do enjoy other genres.

MB: Yes, especially thrillers. I love a good thriller. I love Michael Connelly and Harlan Coben as well as Kathy Reichs. I actually saw Michael Connelly in The Cheesecake Factory in Tampa once, but was too shy to say hello. I do regret not doing that now. I think he is super—although I am disappointed with who is playing “The Lincoln Lawyer” in the film.

JL: Any chance of a future book in some other genre?

MB: I don’t think so. I am writing in three genres—romance, historical and suspense. I guess that’s enough for anyone. Do you think I should saddle up and try a Western as you’re doing, John?

JL: I wouldn’t see any harm in it. Seriously, you’ve done a lot of books. What about short stories?

MB: I have tried short stories, but it never worked for me. I don’t know when to stop. I don’t have the discipline required. I so admire people who can write short stories and keep their plots tight. You are good at it, John. I wish I could do that, but I just can’t.

JL: What do you do in the way of promotion for your writing?

MB: I use the Internet to promote. Also, I contact local newspapers. I belong to many groups where writers can promote themselves. Recently I’ve also been doing talks on writing and these can be good for selling books.

JL: What’s your take on the future of the electronic novel versus print?

MB: When we started there was not a lot going on in e-books. Now it has really exploded. With the advent of Kindle and other gizmos it is really taking off. I don’t own a Kindle but will probably be buying one. It would be so handy if you’re traveling and you can download books without looking for a bookstore. I am always running out of things to read, so it would be splendid. However, being an old-fashioned girl, I love the feel and smell of an actual book. There is something special about that. I think they will both live on side by side.

JL: What do you like doing aside from writing? Hobbies, interests, etc.?

MB: I love to go out with my walking groups. I am fortunate in that I live close by some of the most beautiful countryside England has to offer. So I love to walk there. I like TV and the cinema and, of course, love to read. I also follow my football (soccer) team—MANU. I love to go eat out with friends, too, whenever I get the chance.

JL: I think we agree, writing is learned by doing, rather than through college or other courses of training. How do you equate life experience in contrast to educational opportunities in the development of a writer?

MB: You can’t beat ‘real life.” I left school and went to work at 15. I had a variety of jobs and was always writing and reading. Eventually I did get to college but that was after I had already published about 11 novels. Life experience and people are grist to the mill for the writer; that and imagination. Think about the Bronte sisters who lived in that parsonage in a small village. The work they produced was fabulous. Although Charlotte did travel and go to work in Belgium I don’t believe Emily ever went very far from home.

JL: Yes. A singularly talented family. We share an admiration for them. What advice would you give an aspiring writer?

MB: Don’t give up. You will receive rejections. But, if you are inspired, keep trying.
JL: Do you attend writers’ conferences? And, if so, any particular favorites?

MB: Not many. The ones in the USA are too far for me to attend, though I do come to the states to spend time with my family. I did attend one conference (I think it was the first for the Romantic Novelists Association) and found it useful and enjoyable. I am hoping to get to another, but probably not this year. I will do it again. I know I must. It might be worth mentioning that first conference was at Stonyhurst College in the Ribble Valley. Stonyhurst was founded in 1593. Tolkien was once there and it’s been said the Ribble Valley was an inspiration for his “Lord of the Rings.” I believe he wrote parts of his famous book there. There are Tolkien walks. It’s a beautiful area. The college is very old and inspirational. I loved it there.

JL: Thanks for being here today, Margaret. It’s been a pleasure. You can read more about Margaret and her books here: http://whiskeycreekpress.com/authors/Margaret_Blake.shtml

In Spirit, If Not Place

2011-03-28T05:34:00.000-07:00

Can a story set in Pennsylvania be considered a Western?

Probably not, if you want to get technical. But my publisher Billie Johnson thought Fallen From Grace met the test in spirit if not place and decided to make it the first entry in Wild Oaks, the new Western imprint of Oak Tree Press.

I couldn’t be happier, because I love the genre. I grew up (and now live again) in a house reputed to have been built by a man who rode with Buffalo Bill. My mother said she devoured pulp Westerns while carrying me and I cut my reading teeth on the likes of Zane Grey (who, incidentally, began his writing career in Pennsylvania), Emerson Hough, Jack London and others from my dad’s well-stocked library.

All of this contributed to a lifelong interest in the history of the West and desire to trod in the footsteps of those legendary characters, both actual and literary, discovered in my reading.

As I’ve said before, Fallen was inspired by a character. I had written two short stories featuring a country sheriff named Sylvester Tilghman who asserted himself and demanded a book. Characters can be like that. They pop up, sometimes seemingly out of no where, in a writer’s imagination, develop personalities and go on to lead us into stories. Tilghman’s grandfather was in my first novel, Schlussel’s Woman, and his father has a bit role in Watch The Hour. Maybe he thought it was a family prerogative to be one of my characters.

Fallen From Grace is set in the 1890s. Tilghman is the third in his family to serve as sheriff in the small town of Arahpot, a generally peaceful place. Usually, his biggest problems are lack of a deputy and the refusal of Lydia, his girlfriend, to marry him despite many proposals. But that all changes when Conrad Runkle, a stranger in town, is fatally stabbed. Tilghman questions Valentine Deibert, an obese man with a wife half his age. Runkle's widow arrives in Arahpot and informs Tilghman her husband was in pursuit of a man who had scammed him, bankrupting his business. Suspecting a connection, Sylvester pays another visit to Deibert only to discover him dead of arsenic poisoning. Sylvester is plunged into a flurry of unusual activity and danger. And Lydia is pushing her obnoxious cousin on him as a candidate for deputy. Things go from bad to worse until Sylvester finally unravels the mystery.

Fallen From Grace is available from the publisher, http://www.oaktreebooks.com/Shop%20OTP.htm, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other major booksellers.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering will I ever write a traditional Western, Oak Tree has the manuscript for another book, The Tithing Herd, set in the 19th century in New Mexico and featuring cowboys, bandits, Mormons and even an Indian or two.

Meet J. M. Dattilo

2011-02-28T05:27:00.000-08:00

My guests today are Joe and Mary Clark Dattilo, co-authors (as J. M. Dattilo) of Time’s Edge, a sci-fi/fantasy novel.

JL: Let’s start things off by your telling us a little about the book.

JMD Time’s Edge is the first place winner of the Tassy Walden Award, a literary prize given by the Shoreline Arts Alliance of Connecticut. It's a sci-fi/fantasy tale with dollops of adventure, romance and humor. The narration from the book trailer is our favorite description of the story: Imagine being a Commander in the Galactic Armed Forces and on a mission so secret that you can’t be told what it is. Imagine being thrown into another time and place with no explanation. Imagine being stuck with a smart-mouthed computer, an ultra-correct android, and a seven-foot tall monster who knows both Santa Claus and Shakespeare. Imagine being lost in time with a woman who may either be falling in love with you or trying to kill you. Imagine being in a place that sits between worlds, dimensions, and times. Imagine Time’s Edge.

JL: What was the inspiration for this particular book?

JMD Time's Edge began as an idea Joe had while in college (nearly 30 years ago!). A science class got him to thinking about time travel and he wondered how a man from the distant future would view our present-day Earth.

JL: You write as a team. How did that come about, and how difficult/easy is it?

JMD We knew each other in college. While at a party, we began discussing plot ideas for Joe's time travel story and the next thing we knew, we were writing the book together. Is it difficult? Not really. We work very well together. Our basic method is for one to write a chapter and the other to edit the chapter. Often we each write the same chapter and then piece the best bits together!

JL: What’s your process in writing? Do you outline, or are you pantsers?

JMD We work with a very basic outline. We know where the story starts, where we want it to end up and some major points along the way. For everything else we trust to inspiration. This gives us a lot of creative freedom. We discovered early on that sticking to a detailed outline resulted in a too-rigid story. It's much more fun to place the characters in a situation and then see what they will do.

JL: How difficult was it to find a publisher for your work or, what was your path to publication?

JMD We had some publishing offers but we didn't like the predictable formulas which we would have been required to adhere to. (And if we hear the words "make it edgy" one more time...! Not every piece of fiction needs to be edgy!) So we opened our own publishing company, Cilcourt Books, and published Time's Edge via Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And we'd like to take a moment to brag that our sales are consistently in the top 1 to 2 percent with Time's Edge selling well world-wide.

JL: I understand you’re working on a sequel to Time’s Edge. When will it be available?

JMD Time's Secret is the next book in the series. It will be available in the Fall of 2011.

JL: Obviously you both like sci-fi and fantasy. Who are some of your favorite writers in the genre? Have any influenced your style?

JMD We really love Douglas Adams of "Hitchhiker" fame. Many others, too many to list, but a few are: Mary Stewart, Orson Scott Card, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ray Bradbury... As far as influence??? There isn't really one author that we could say overly influenced how we write. Our style is a melding of two authors, both avid readers, so we bring a wide-range of reading experience to our work.

JL: What other genres do you read?

JMD: Everything! We're pretty eclectic when it comes to reading. Mary likes mysteries, historicals, romances, fantasy. Joe reads adventure, historical, sci-fi and a ton of non-fiction.

JL: Any chance of a future book in some other genre?

JMD Never say never! We don't have anything planned right now. However, Mary writes plays. Her first play, "Francine's Will", won a first place award in the Nutmeg Players New Works Festival and is published by Playscripts. She is currently working on a play titled "Strange Capers".

JL: What do you do in the way of promotion for your writing?

JMD We have an author page on Amazon, a Facebook page, a blog and a Goodreads page (where we just wound up a book giveaway that drew over 1,000 entries). We also created a book trailer, which is available on all our sites plus Youtube. We speak at schools, libraries and bookstores and just about anywhere else we get invited.

JL: What’s your take on the future of the electronic novel versus print?

JMD: Ebooks are going to be BIG. The ebook version of Time's Edge outsells the paperback version 3-to-1. This is going to be a rapidly growing and changing format with ebooks becoming more interactive. We think extras like sound and animation will be standard features in e-novels in the near future. Personally, we still love books and we do not prefer to read books in electronic formats. Books are not going to disappear. They're just going to become less popular, especially with younger readers.

JL: What do you like doing aside from writing? Hobbies, interests, etc.

JMD: Hobbies! Where do we begin? Joe: Historical simulation gaming, photography, short-wave radio, and repairing the house (No, wait. That's a part-time job.) Mary: gardening, landscaping, drawing, acting. Both: hiking, travel, canoeing and getting into predicaments that often serve as the basis for some of the scenes in our books.

Thanks for joining me here today, guys. For more information on the Dattilos and their work, here are some links:
Amazon kindle: http://www.facebook.com/l/0b1d3Arg1pfB63HTztzru8gC6Gg/www.tinyurl.com/timesedgekindle
Amazon paperback: http://www.facebook.com/l/0b1d3LDWI8ZNkgK4Oa7kS_hKLSA/www.tinyurl.com/timesedge
Barnes & Noble: http://www.facebook.com/l/0b1d3KYi-qLAKZwHLzsy79rHWcA/www.tinyurl.com/timesedgenookbook
Blog: http://www.facebook.com/l/0b1d3OIaMpe5DT31OVvZF2PQKbA/jmdattilo.wordpress.com

My Debt to Thorne Smith

2011-02-07T05:31:00.000-08:00

I recently spent some enjoyable time watching a film based on a memorable character created by humorist Thorne Smith.

The film is “Topper,” produced by Hal Roach in 1937, directed by Norman Z. McLeod, and starring Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Roland Young and Billie Burke. In addition to a superb cast and lots of laughs the film, nominated for two Oscars, features some wonderful music by Hoagy Carmichael. Topper is a staid and hen-pecked banker whose life is turned topsy-turvy by a fun-loving ghost couple, George and Marion Kerby.

The film reminded me of the debt I owe Smith, though his books and this film were produced before I was born. In fact, the film reminded me how many writers have been influenced by him—some probably even unaware of that influence.

Though most younger readers won’t even recognize the name, Thorne Smith influenced several generations of writers, particularly in the fields of science fiction and fantasy, and his ideas have been liberally lifted and reused in books as well as radio, television and film scripts.

I was introduced to Smith with the advent of the television series which had its debut in 1953 on CBS and starring Leo G. Carroll in the starring role. This led me to his books, which I discovered to have more depth and color than permissible on 1950s TV. Enamored of the theme, I was inspired to write a novella (my first long work) with a character I called Herkimer. Of course it was derivative and terrible. But it inspired me to keep trying and do better.

Would that have happened without Smith? Probably. But I still think I owe him a word of thanks for providing some incentive.

A native of Annapolis, Md., James Thorne Smith Jr. began his literary career as a poet, wrote a serious novel which failed, penned a mystery (“Did She Fall?) which was praised by Dashiell Hammett, and finally found his niche in humor. “Topper,” his best-selling work, inspired a film series, two sequels and a television series. Despite this success, high-living and poor money managing skills forced Smith to work in advertising to support his family. For a more complete biography and information on his career I direct you to the excellent tribute site, http://jchoma.tripod.com/THORNE.html

Interview With Wayne D. Dundee

2011-01-25T05:23:00.000-08:00

I’m pleased to have as my guest today Wayne D. Dundee. Wayne is the author of the Joe Hannibal private eye series and the founder of Hardboiled Magazine, which over the years has featured the work of many of today’s crime writers. I think you’ll find his comments interesting and informative.
JL: Wayne, You’ve signed a contract with Oak Tree Books for your first Western novel, Dismal River, due out this year. What’s the premise of the novel?
WD: DISMAL RIVER is the tale of an 1887 expedition, funded by an English lord, venturing into Nebraska's vast, untamed Sandhills. They are guided, reluctantly, by former Indian scout Lone McGantry. The purpose of the expedition is partly pure adventure, for the English lord, and partly scientific exploration for the scientists who accompany him. Of course things do not go as planned---due to natural elements, strife and ulterior motives from within the group, and a gang of ruthless marauders in pursuit of their own agenda.

The premise was partly inspired by an actual event---an 1870 expedition of Yale paleontologists who traveled to the Sandhills in search of evidence of past inhabitants. Locally, the outing came to be called "The Bone Hunt". In fact, the Yale expedition determined that the whole Sandhills region (for much of the 1800s considered by white men to be a worthless inland desert) had once been a massive lake; and they also unearthed some marvelous fossil finds from the age of dinosaurs---bones from giant rhino-like creatures, giant tortoises, mastodon remains, etc. Another inspiration was a coinciding legend from the Pawnee Indians that tells of a race of giant men created by the Great Spirit who once lived in the region. But they were so large and powerful that they defied the Spirit so he had to wipe them out with a great flood (sound familiar?) and start over with a race of smaller, more manageable beings. Giving credence to this---and a reference I include in my novel---was a story told by none other than Buffalo Bill Cody (who wasn't above embellishing things more than a little bit). Cody claimed that once on a scouting expedition for the Army he'd been brought some giant bones by the Pawnee braves accompanying him and that these bones were identified by an Army medic also in the group as being human in nature. But at the time Cody's outfit didn't have the means to transport the bones and they were never found again.

JL: For years we’ve been hearing the Western is dead. What’s your take on that?

WD: Pretty much the same way I feel when I hear that PI fiction---the other genre I write in---is dead. I stubbornly refuse (more with my heart than my head perhaps) to believe it.

As far as Westerns, I fear there were a couple of generations---those currently in their teens and twenties---who were "tuned out" from them, possibly simply due to lack of exposure. Now, however, with the recent box office success of the TRUE GRIT remake and hits like 3:10 TO YUMA and the DEADWOOD TV series, maybe that window is opening again. Hell, there's even a video game called RED DEAD REDEMPTION that is hugely popular and next they're coming out with a big budget movie called COWBOYS VS. ALIENS.

Maybe that's a little too much cross-pollination or bastardization or whatever you want to call it, but if it sparks renewed interest in more traditional Westerns then I'll take it. Hard to believe that the sweep and grandeur of the Old West and the world-renowned image of the iconic American Cowboy won't always have an appeal to some portion of the reading/movie-going public.

JL: What was it drew you to write a Western? Could part of the inspiration have been your move from the Midwest to the wilder terrain of Nebraska?

WD: I've long had a "hankering" to do some Westerns. Back in the early ‘90s I wrote a short story and a novel (not DISMAL RIVER) that were never published. But moving out here to west central Nebraska certainly re-vitalized my interest in the genre. The cowboy spirit is still very much alive out here, and the whole area is rich in the history of the Old West. The Platte River valley, where I live, was the natural highway followed by mountain men, wagon trains, the Pony Express, the Union Pacific railroad, and on and on. I can practically step out my back door and stand in wagon ruts left over from the Oregon Trail ... Oh yeah, this area is inspiring indeed. When we first decided to move out here (relocating with the company I worked for nearly four decades) both my late wife and I knew that a big reason I was keen to make the move was because the little kid in me would be coming to "cowboy country".

JL: I know you’ve written a number of short stories featuring him recently, but is there another Joe Hannibal novel awaiting publication?

WD: Yeah, the seventh Hannibal novel, GOSHEN HOLE, has been completed for some time. (And the eighth, BLADE OF THE TIGER, is already underway.) I thought I had a publication deal for GOSHEN early on, but that fell through and so far I haven't found a new home for it. I'm giving some serious thought to publishing GOSHEN HOLE as an e-book original, in conjunction with the re-release of earlier titles in the series. We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I'm continuing to keep Joe in shape by putting him through his paces in a series of short stories.

JL: How do you plot your novels? Are you an outliner or a pantser? Would you give us some insight into your writing routine?

WD: Wow, I have a number of writing quirks that I wouldn't necessarily recommend for anybody else to follow. I start with the bare bones of a premise (or plot, if you will) and a title---I can't write very far without knowing my title (quirk #1). The title, I feel, sets the tone for the story and provides a thrust and a flow that everything streams toward.
I don't outline per se`. What I *do* do (quirk #2) is write out my "cast of characters" and add a blurb telling a little about each and/or how they will fit into the story. It goes like this: Joe Hannibal - tough private eye; Abby Bridger - Joe's lady friend; Widow Hardluck - the lonely, unsuspecting old woman whose property hides a rich treasure; Snidley Sleazeball - the lowdown skunk who's out to bilk the widow out of her treasure; etc. Unless demanded by the publisher, that's as close to an outline as I come.

As far as my writing "routine" I'm afraid it's not very disciplined either. If I'm really "cooking" on a story I write almost every spare minute. Otherwise, I do correspondence, check news, etc. in the early morning; write through mid-day to early evening; write a little more after supper. Some of this "writing", when I'm not focused on a particular story, maybe in the form of blogging or book reviews.

JL: You’ve mentioned Edgar Rice Burroughs and Mickey Spillane as early writing influences. What other writers inspire you?

WD: Inspire? John D. MacDonald; Donald Hamilton; Robert E. Howard; Gordon D. Shireffs; T.V. Olson; Louis L'Amour; Jack London; Mark Twain.

There are many fine current writers whose work I admire and find inspirational in the sense that it pushes me to work harder and try to be better at the craft. But I don't want to get into a list of contemporaries due to the risk of inadvertently leaving somebody out

JL: I think we agree, writing is learned by experience; that is, doing, rather than through college or other courses of training. How do you equate life experience in contrast to educational opportunities in the development of a writer?

WD: Writing "courses" can teach you mechanics like spelling, punctuation, formatting, and so forth---but other than that I'll take life experiences, hands down. And "writing experience", by which I mean time actually spent *writing*, pounding out words, finding your voice for narration, description, dialogue, and all the rest.

If you strive to be a writer, you should automatically be a watcher and listener of the people and events around you. This accumulation of observations will eventually (sometimes subconsciously) leech into your writing and begin to give it a distinction and flavor that no course can teach you.

JL: Do you attend writers’ conferences? And, if so, any particular favorites?

WD: I attended several Bouchercons early on but then, over the past several years, had pretty much gotten away from conferences. I attended Mayhem in the Midwest last year in Omaha, however, and enjoyed it a lot. I'm sure I'll go back to that one this year, and I'm scouting for some others that, budget-wise and distance-wise (I hate flying), are feasible for me to attend.

Writing is a somewhat isolated gig (somebody once said that the word "lonely" is for other people, the word "solitude" is for writers) so it is good to get out and mingle with your peers from time to time.

JL: What advice would you give the aspiring writer?

WD: Write, write, write ... and read, read, read. Write to develop your own skills, read to study where it is you want to get to and how it is being done by others already there. Study the market, chose the right place for your work, and start submitting. Rejection slips (which you are bound to get) are learning tools and building blocks. The vast array of internet sites for fiction in all genres --- augmenting traditional publications --- amounts to a market for writers to hone their craft almost as wide open as it was in the "golden age" of pulp magazines. Dive in and swim hard to find a place for your byline!

JL: What’s your opinion on the growth of the e-novel? The state of publishing in general?

WD: I think e-books are here to stay...this coming from somebody who has always loved the physical act of holding and reading a traditional paper book. I even love riffling the pages and savoring the smell of fresh ink in a new book.
I think traditional paper publishing will continue to exist at some level.

When I first heard about e-reading devices I didn't find the concept very appealing (and probably didn't fully understand how it even worked). But, having gotten a Kindle reader for Christmas, I am now aboard as a big fan. At my age and with my tired old eyes, the advantages of holding the ultra light device in a single comfortable position, with the print set to an eye-pleasing size, and then flipping pages with a simple thumb stroke...wow, the pages fly by.

And the concept of having about a jillion books all contained in that slim device--- as opposed to all the books in all the shelves surrounding me as I write this (not to mention more piles of books stacked on every flat surface available)---yeah, the attractions of e-books are many.

As far as publishing in general? Hell, who can say. I think the big outfits will continue to struggle and the small press houses will come on stronger as long as they maintain a more personal link with their readers and treat/nurture their writers respectfully. Other than that, I don't know ... and I don't think anybody else does, either.

JL: Wayne, thanks for spending some time with us today. Readers and writers, you can learn more about Wayne and his work (including links to those new Joe Hannibal short stories mentioned above) at his website, http://www.waynedundee.com/, and his blog, http://fromdundeesdesk.blogspot.com/

Every Book Offers a Lesson

2011-01-10T05:55:00.000-08:00

I probably have more books than many small town libraries. I haven’t read them all, but that doesn’t stop me from gathering more. There isn’t a room in my house without its assortment of books. I received a Kindle for Christmas and that provides a new and fascinating means of accumulating (and reading) books.

Admittedly, I’m the exception to the modern American, based on recent dismal statistics on the decline of reading. I like reading. I share Somerset Maugham’s opinion (The Book Bag) “I would sooner read the catalogue of the Army and Navy stores or Bradshaw’s Guide than nothing at all.”

I don’t believe one can be a writer and not be a reader.

Stephen King has said he likes to read. Now I’m not comparing myself to King—just the simple fact we both enjoy reading. But we do share the belief every book has its lesson for the writer. King has also remarked in “On Writing” that often bad books have more to teach than good ones. John Fowles made the same observation.

Fowles was a voracious reader who was guided more by his own curiosity than any authority. He read and absorbed everything—from classics to trash, from psychology to mathematics. And he found value in all he read. In his diary, he noted: “A bad novel of 1857 tells one much more about 1857 than a good one.”

Mark Twain was another constant reader. In his excellent “Mark Twain, A Life,” Ron Powers says “…he read all the time, his choices as eclectic and humanistic as his narratives would prove to be.”

Some (such as Capote) dismiss Jack Kerouac as a “typist” rather than a writer. But examine his journals and you’ll see how serious Kerouac was about reading and writing. On Oct. 17, 1949, he mentions reading Thomas Merton’s confession, the Telemachus chapter of Joyce’s Ulysses in which Stephen Dadalus expounds his theory on Hamlet’s heredity, reading Hamlet “line by line” (and also considering how he would act it), Donne’s Holy Sonnets, and “…the magnificent speeches of Ahab in Moby Dick.”

Madeleine L’Engle recalls her early school years as a “dismal experience” in which she had poor teachers and learned nothing. For solace, she turned to reading and thinking alone. Though she admits having a better educational experience in high school and college, L’Engle believes she wouldn’t have written her books had she been happy in those formative years.

Francis Bacon summed it up succinctly, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

Some Recommendations

2010-12-27T05:46:00.000-08:00

Tis the season for lists. As someone who reads (a lot), I’m inclined to recommend books I enjoy to my friends and even strangers.

So, like many others, I’m offering here some of the books I read, enjoyed and reviewed in 2010. Not all were written in this year and they are a mixed assortment of fiction and non-fiction. Here they are, in no particular order:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The story of Henry VIII and his many marriages has been told before. But this is a version seen from another angle. Henry, Anne Boleyn and the stars in other depictions here become pawns of another player’s game. Though it is Henry’s and Anne’s desire for a marriage blessed, if not sanctified, by the church around which much of the book centers, it is the character and vision of Thomas Cromwell provides the driving force and interest.

The Killer of Little Shepherds by Douglas Starr
Starr tracks the pursuit of a brutal serial killer in 19th century France and parallels it with the development of the forensic sciences which aided his capture and assured his conviction. In fact, it may have set the pattern for how law enforcement would gather evidence and pursue criminals in the future.

Kings of the Earth by Jon Clinch
Clinch tells the tale through the viewpoints of a variety of characters from the present and past, painting the rural landscape and people in vivid, poetic colors. His inspiration was the real-life story of the Ward brothers told in the 1992 documentary film, ‘Brother’s Keeper,’ but this is his own retelling of that narrative. It is a tale as moving as it is bleak.

Best American Noir, edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler
If you’re already a fan of the genre, you’ll be pleased with this magnificent edition. If you don’t know what noir is, then this is a splendid introduction.

The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke
Few today write such poetic prose about such dark and horrific events. An absorbing plot, fascinating characters, plenty of suspense—what’s not to like?

The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan
You don’t have to be an old Asia hand to enjoy this book. But, if you are, it’s certain to bring back memories and an itch to revisit some former haunts.

Cornelius The Orphan by Douglas Quinn
Cornelius is based on a real person, though Quinn has used the broad brush of fiction to depict his history. If this novel whets your taste for more (as it has mine), there is a sequel in the offing involving the orphan’s son, Samuel.

The Tiger by John Vaillant
People are fascinated by monsters, be they human or other animal. If this book were simply about a man-eating tiger and the hunt to stop the beast it would have an attraction for many readers. But Vaillant’s story goes much deeper.

Heresy by S J. Parris
Building on the historical fact of Giordano Bruno’s visit to Oxford in 1583, S. J. Parris has crafted an intriguing mystery set against the religious turbulence of Tudor England.

Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell
No one explores criminal motivation quite so well as Ruth Rendell, and this novel is additional proof of her skill.

The Day After Yesterday by Wayne D. Dundee
Get set for nail-biting action when PI Joe Hannibal confronts a murderous conspiracy which puts him on a collision course with rightwing militia, a dangerous terrorist, the FBI and Homeland Security.

Talking About Detective Fiction by P. D. James
The focus is mostly on English writers. But that’s okay. Who is better qualified to comment on the subject?

The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley
Bradley has created one of the most engaging sleuths in recent years and I’m glad to see her adventures are just begun. He reveals in an afterword he is already at work on the third novel in the series.

The Adventures of Elizabeth Fortune by Kae Cheatham
If you enjoy fast-paced adventure, accurately depicted historical fiction, mysteries and/or romance, this is a recommended read. Personally I’m looking forward to a promised sequel.

The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell
Mankell has penned a riveting thriller which has its dark origins 150 years in the past and takes the reader on a wild ride from Sweden to the United States, from China to Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

A King of Infinite Space by Tyler Dilts
Haunted and guilt-ridden by the tragic death of his wife and their unborn child, Detective Danny Beckett is in limbo, taking refuge in the routine of his job and alcohol. The brutal murder of a teacher—who he eventually learns had ties to his past—gives his life a new incentive.

Passing Strange by Martha Sandweiss
Sandweiss has written an important and moving book which inspires the hope one day we might move above the minor differences which separate us, amalgamating even beyond Clarence King’s ideal to a truly “human race.”

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
Though Larsson did a commendable job of wrapping up the trilogy, this third novel in the series is not a standalone. The first hundred pages or so are an attempt to fill in what happened before, but I think reading the first two is necessary to fully understand what is going on.

Caught by Harlan Coben
Coben has crafted another fast-paced thriller displaying his superb insight into life in suburbia and a gift for realistic depiction of teen angst.

The Lost Cyclist by David Herlihy
This book had a personal interest for me since my maternal grandfather was one of those cycling pioneers and might have felt at home in company with men like Lenz and Sachtleben.

Holiday Book Event

2010-12-07T05:37:00.000-08:00

Indies (writers who self-publish) and those of us with small publishers share some common problems.

We’re not known to the larger reading public. We don’t have big-budget publicists (in fact, many of us lack both publicists and budgets). We’re constantly told we need to get our “brands” known if we’re ever to compete in the marketplace. Whatever is to be done to tempt people to try our books is squarely upon our individual shoulders.

Darcia Helle, author of The Cutting Edge and five other mystery/suspense novels, was pondering this situation one day and came up with an idea to showcase authors, thank readers who have supported them and introduce more people to a variety of books. She contacted others and had an amazing response. I was among those contacted and I’m offering a print copy of Being Someone Else, fourth in the Sticks Hetrick mystery series.

The big holiday giveaway event officially launched on Dec. 1 and continues through the month. It features hundreds of print and e-books by 47 writers. There’s an entry form at the site: http://www.quietfurybooks.com/holidayevent.html The event is international, so you can win a book no matter where you live, and there are titles sure to suit every taste.

So come on over, join in the fun and browse the selection. You’re certain to find some exciting new additions for your To-Be-Read list and you might win a free book.

A Writing Option

2010-12-01T05:32:00.000-08:00

Writers today have more options for publication than ever before. Which of them we choose to utilize is a matter of personal preference.

Rights to The Accidental Spy, a novel I published with Lachesis, a Canadian firm, recently reverted to me as the contract period elapsed. The novel was published during the period of my mother’s final illness and never had the promotion it deserved.

As I was debating whether to submit it to another publisher I read several articles about the success other writers were having with Kindle versions of their books. Whiskey Creek Press is already offering others of my books in various electronic forms, including Kindle. The dominance of the e-novel in the current economic state has been trumpeted by the press this year and Amazon claims its Kindle sales in recent months have exceeded print.

This convinced me there was nothing to lose by converting my novel to Kindle and giving it a try. I made an arrangement with Laura Givens to retain the cover she had designed for the previous edition, and which I liked. The conversion process wasn’t exceedingly difficult, even for someone as technologically challenged as me. I admit to a few minor glitches, though none make the book a difficult read. If I decide to do another, I now know how to avoid my past errors.

The book is available at the low price of $2.99 here http://www.amazon.com/The-Accidental-Spy-ebook/dp/B004E3XCNQ/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291158848&sr=1-12
I’m looking for people to tag, review and (naturally) buy it. Any of the three would be appreciated.

What’s the book about? Here’s a synopsis:

Dandy Dan McCracken is a rogue wandering around eastern Pennsylvania and living by his wits in the middle years of the American Revolution. Through circumstance, he becomes a spy, first for the British and then for the Americans.

Wounded and on the run from a sheriff, he’s rescued and nursed back to health by the lovely ward of Benedict Arnold’s procurement officer in Philadelphia. McCracken is enamored of the girl, but when her husband returns from the front, he flees and falls in with a band of British spies.

He switches sides again when he discovers his conscience as a result of falling in love, and not because he favors one side over the other. His actions now—not through choice but again through circumstance—make him a hero.

What Writers Read

2010-11-15T05:10:00.000-08:00

I recently wrote about the importance of reading for writers. That, naturally, leads to the question of what to read.

Reading preference is a subjective matter. Still I thought it might be interesting to consider the choices of some of my favorite authors and see what they have to say on the matter.

One might think a writer of mysteries would have an affinity for that genre. Yet in an article (archive article, originally published in 1987) in the December issue of The Writer Ruth Rendell remarks that she no longer reads crime fiction. Instead she said she “reads and rereads” the great Victorian classics. Her recommendation for all who aspire to write is Ford Madox Ford’s “The Good Soldier”. And Rendell says she reads this one book annually.

Though he admits to having grown up with the Hardy Boys, James Lee Burke lists among his favorite writers Faulkner, Joyce and Hemingway (see favorites of many writers in “The Top Ten, Writers Pick Their Favorite Books”, edited by J. Peder Zane).

Elizabeth George in “Write Away” identifies Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” as her favorite novel but says her greatest influence as a writer was John Fowles. Fowles himself was a great admirer of Thomas Love Peacock, Daniel Defoe, Albert Camus and Thomas Hardy.

Robert Louis Stevenson also spoke highly of Defoe, in addition to Alexandre Dumas and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Jim Harrison puts Dostoevsky, Proust, Emily Bronte and Herman Melville high on his list. John Irving also has praise for Dickens, Hardy and Melville. Another personal favorite, Peter Matthiessen, admits an admiration for Conrad, Dostoevsky and the other great Russians.

Referring again to “The Top Ten,” I was pleased to see some of my favorite books on so many of the lists. These included (in no particular order), “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov, “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville, “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte, “Tristram Shandy” by Laurence Sterne, “Candide” by Voltaire, “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes, “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare, “Dubliners” by James Joyce, “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky and “Silence of the Lambs” by Thomas Harris. I was shocked none of the writers mentioned Fowles, Matthiessen or John Gardner (author of “The Sunlight Dialogues,” not the other one).

So what books should you be reading? I’d say anything and everything. But most importantly those which inspire you to re-reading and better writing.

Reading for Profit

2010-11-01T05:46:00.000-07:00

One of the key ingredients of advice to aspirant writers is to read.

The neophyte might then ask, what am I to read? Does it mean how-to books? Books written by the advisor? What?

My personal feeling is a writer should read the types of books he or she wishes to write. Most would-be writers are already readers. Inspired by the books they read for pleasure or edification, they strive to emulate, feeding both an innate need and a desire to share their thoughts and imaginings with others.

What moves a person to become a writer or engage in other creative activities is a matter for the psychologist and not our interest here. What is obvious is not every person who loves to read becomes or wants to become a writer. What is also obvious is the person who wants to write will eventually do so, regardless of advice or lack thereof.

I’ve never met a writer who wasn’t a reader. I think most of us would agree it was a love of reading that first stimulated our desire to write. But I’m constantly surprised by the number of writers who fail to profit by their reading. Some read only for entertainment. Others read for instruction. The good writer/reader can and should do both. And there are more than a few ways to profit. Reading properly can improve your writing ability, stimulate your creativity and put more dollars in your pocket.

How, then, should a writer read? The answer, of course, is alertly. No writer worth his/her salt should ever read without a notebook at hand.

As Dumas put it a long time ago: Writing can not be taught; it can only be learned. One learns, initially, by reading. Anything you read will influence your writing style, either consciously or subconsciously. That’s why many novelists refrain from reading while working on a book. However, it has been found that reading good writing can provide the impetus for recharging the creative juices when you’re stalled or suffering a block. Even junk can be beneficial, but if you want to do creative writing, then you should read the best writing available. You can improve your style, your language and rhythm by the subconscious influence of good literature.

Robert Louis Stevenson advised, “When you read a book or a passage you admire, immediately set yourself to aping it so that you may capture the flavor of it.”

Some might frown on this as plagiarism. But that wasn’t what RLS meant. What he suggested was a concept no different than the training methods of the great masters of art and music. Art imitates nature and, it follows, art imitates art as well. Stevenson felt by copying an admired passage one gained insight into what made it work.

Charles Nodier, a lesser known writer, suggested, “A writer should read until he is filled to the brim and like a pitcher which is over-filled overflows, and then he should write.”

Positive Envy

2010-10-18T05:30:00.000-07:00

We writers are an envious lot.

It shows when a peer gets a good review. We grumble when another has a successful signing. A good contract—well, you get the idea.

It may be human nature to covet the good fortune of others. But such expressions of spite are negative envy, which is not a good thing. In its stead we should employ positive envy. Positive envy, you might ask. Is there such a thing?

Most definitely. People, however, have a tendency to envy others and pass off their good fortune as luck. Webster defines luck as a casual event or accident. A secondary definition is having good fortune or being successful.

In one form or another, luck crosses our path every day. How we respond determines the outcome of these exposures. The same applies to our reaction to the luck of others.

One positive aspect is to employ envy as a stimulus. Instead of being jealous examine what the other writer did to achieve good results. Consider how you might profit by their example.

You might also consider what I have dubbed OPW. This is a most valuable procedure many overlook. In business there’s a principle called OPM (Other People’s Money) which means you get someone to assist when you have insufficient resources. With OPW, you utilize another person’s labor to supplement or conserve your own energy.

You can start by seeking mentors, people with wider knowledge and experience who are willing to share what they have learned.

Another aspect is that of cause and effect. It may be a cliché, but we really do get what we give out. The Internet has vastly expanded opportunities for networking. But don’t forget, networking is a two-way street. Be prepared to share. If you want your work critiqued, be willing to do something in return. If you want a contact, be willing to offer something in exchange.

For example, Ray Bradbury never went to college. Instead he educated himself in the public library, spending all day, three times a week for a period of 10 years. In gratitude, he now makes a habit of organizing fundraisers for libraries.

A chance encounter with British writer Christopher Isherwood in a bookstore provided Bradbury the opportunity to put The Martian Chronicles in the hands of a respected critic who gave it a glowing review.

And—though they might not seem to have much in common—it was Truman Capote who recognized Bradbury’s talent and pulled his story Homecoming out of a slush pile and convinced an editor to publish it in Mademoiselle. In turn, Bradbury helped Hugh Hefner get Playboy off the ground by giving him copy at a price he could afford.

No Free Kindle For Me

2010-10-06T05:45:00.000-07:00

Over at Shelfari (www.shelfari.com) there was a contest going on for a free 3G Kindle. Since I want a Kindle and getting one for free would definitely be a plus, I jumped to the site to see what the contest involved.

To qualify members of the Shelfari librarians and editors group (I’m eligible) had to post contributions on the current New York Times Bestsellers lists prior to October 5. So, I took a look at the lists.

In the area of hardcover fiction I found only one book I had been interested in reading: Stieg Larrson’s The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. Now that was a book I liked and I supposed it would be possible to post some positive facts. But that probably wouldn’t be enough to win me a Kindle. The situation in hardcover non-fiction wasn’t much better. The only two books on the list I want to read are Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns and S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon.

I fared a bit better in paperback trade fiction. I’ve read and adored Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, Larrson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire and Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain. I’ve also read and liked Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and Robert Goolrick’s A Reliable Wife. Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese is on my TBR list and at some point I’ll probably also read Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls and probably could be tempted by Grisham’s Ford County or King’s Under the Dome.

In paperback mass market there were the two Larrson novels, Ford County, Dave Baldacci’s True Blue and Robert Parker’s The Professional. Mass market non-fiction offered Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential and Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink as possibilities.

The final choices were hardcover and paperback advice where I found absolutely nothing I cared to read.

I guess I’m going to have to buy my own Kindle.

Review Redux

2010-09-28T05:31:00.000-07:00

Writers like reviews. Especially good ones.

Not only do they stoke our egos (which, alas, are often in need of massaging), they attract attention and can help make the difference between success and failure for a book. Those of us who are still struggling to attract an audience rely on a corps of reviewers, some sought out by ourselves and others solicited by our publishers.

Most writers published by small press can only dream of attracting the attention of The New York Times Book Review, Kirkus or other such prominent venues. So we are always grateful when someone—anyone—takes the time to say they like what we’ve written.

What might be even better than a good review is having the reviewer call attention to the book at a later time when your public’s interest in it may have waned.

Kevin R. Tipple did that recently for Cruel Cuts, second in my Sticks Hetrick mystery series, when he highlighted it in his Friday’s Forgotten Books segment in his Kevin’s Corner blog. He called this second novel in the series “a complex and very enjoyable read full of murder, deceit and greed.” You can read the full segment here: http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2010/09/fridays-forgotten-books-cruel-cuts-by-j.html

The replay came as a pleasant surprise and I was gratified because not only is Kevin a perceptive reviewer he’s also a fellow writer and an editor. His stories have appeared in a variety of print magazines as well as on line in such sites as Mouth Full of Bullets, Crime and Suspense and Mysterical-E.

I was also pleased because Cruel Cuts introduced rookie officer Flora Vastine, who has become a key player in the series. I have a particular affection for this novel and don’t think it has received the attention it deserves.

So thanks again, Kevin.

A Lesson in Practical Magick

2010-09-13T04:58:00.000-07:00

Today, Monday, Sept. 13, has been designated Positive Thinking Day. Now I’m not about to reveal some secret here, some magick formula which is the key to success. But I do believe attitude has much to do with the achievement of goals.

The United States has been a fertile playing field for optimists and has spawned a variety of theories and even several uniquely American religions linking spiritual and material success with attitude. Science has confirmed that a positive attitude does help in matters of health. Why should not the same apply to other aspects of life?

Optimists have a tendency to face up to problems and actively seek to solve them. Pessimists, on the other hand, are more prone to give up without a fight. As Frank Lloyd Wright put it, “The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.”

Quantum theory has demonstrated what we deem reality is a transitory state and nothing is impossible. Thus life events can be influenced. Success is an evolutionary process and it isn’t necessarily measured in dollars. It can and must have a personal definition. For one person it may mean wealth and fame. For another no more than the successful completion of a project. Its validity is dependent on the individual.

I’m not talking magic here, other than the kind coming from a belief in yourself.

Asked about her success, Victoria Holt, who wrote historical fiction under a variety of pseudonyms, said, “Make up your mind that you will succeed and go all out for it.” At the time of her death in 1993 it was reported more than 100 million copies of her novels had been sold.

That definitely illustrates the power of positive thinking.

Oh, one other ingredient too often left out of these prescriptions for willing success—work. Wright, named the ‘greatest American architect of all time’ in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects, also said, “I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.”

Better Than An MFA

2010-09-07T05:10:00.000-07:00

John Grisham wrote in the New York Times recently (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/opinion/06Grisham.html?_r=1&th&emc=th) of the various jobs he held before becoming a popular and successful author.

Though always an avid reader, Grisham comes from a working class background. As he points out in this article, writing was not his childhood dream. He came to writing after a series of low-paying, dead-end jobs, a general law practice and a period as a legislator in Mississippi.

A Time to Kill, his first novel, was inspired by witnessing the testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim. It had a rocky road to publication and was not an immediate success. The Firm, his second effort, was the seventh best-selling novel of 1991 and paved the way for his new career.

In the Times article, Grisham calls writing the most difficult job he’s had.

Most of us who have come to writing—whether it was a childhood dream or not—have suffered a variety of other jobs over the years. There are few overnight successes in this business.

Personally, in my jobs resume, I can list periods as a waiter, fruit/vegetable picker, laborer on a roofing crew, clerk, warehouse worker, antiques picker, painter, chicken factory worker, among others before becoming a reporter and later newspaper editor. In the Army I went from rifleman to military police trainee, to reporter and editor.

Though I didn’t like many of these jobs at the time, I no longer regret any of them. They provide me a broad canvas of characters and knowledge. If we’re honest, I think most of us who write can be thankful for the insights into other ways of life these varied opportunities provide. It can’t be equaled by reading or in a classroom. Such knowledge is second-hand. Experience is the greatest teacher and imagination craves such stimulus.

Words of Encouragement for My Peers

2010-08-25T16:05:00.000-07:00

Fellow writers, if you’re feeling discouraged I ask you to consider the career of John Dunning.

A high school dropout, he was rejected by the Army after only two weeks service because of a broken eardrum and then spent a period working for $1.05 an hour in a glass shop and later as a stable boy at a horse-racing track.

In a biographical sketch on his webpage, http://www.oldalgonquin.com/authorPage.php,
Dunning explains his problems in school were the result of attention deficit disorder (ADD), which wasn’t diagnosed until years later. John’s life might have continued in that distressing state save for one thing—he had a dream. He wanted to write.

And he wasn’t ready to give up on his dream. Dunning persevered. He got his GED, got a job on The Denver Post and gradually worked himself up from clerk to copyboy to reporter. In 1975, Bobbs-Merrill published his first novel, The Holland Suggestions.

Since then, in addition to a slew of novels including the fabulous Cliff Janeway mysteries, Dunning has earned regard as a radio historian, taught writing and journalism at the University of Denver, worked in film and operated a bookstore with his wife. The first Janeway novel, Booked to Die, won an Edgar in 1992. Despite some recent health problems, he is reportedly back at the typewriter (yes, I said typewriter. It’s his preferred instrument, which he refers to as “an honest machine”.).

So what advice does Dunning offer most frequently to aspiring writers? You guessed it: Don’t give up.

I must credit Margot Kinberg for giving me the idea for this blog when she wrote about books as an element in crime novels in her Confessions of a Mystery Novelist blog (http://networkedblogs.com/7anTg)

Get Your Facts Straight

2010-08-19T05:06:00.000-07:00

Many writers fantasize about having their novels adapted to film. While the idea tantalizes with money and fame, there are adequate reasons to resist.

A case in point are the two cinematic versions of Ira Levin’s A Kiss Before Dying (1956, a B-grade noir drama featuring Robert Wagner and Virginia Leith and the 1991 remake with Matt Dillon and Sean Young). Both have their entertaining aspects but do little for Levin’s reputation.

Now a modern crime classic, the 1953 novel won Ira Levin an Edgar for Best First Novel in 1954. Since Levin began his career as a TV script writer and wrote several plays, including Deathtrap (1978, the longest running Broadway mystery to date), it puzzles me why he wasn’t chosen to do the script for either film. Perhaps he was asked and declined.

There are some holes in the first version scripted by Lawrence Roman. But I find less fault with it than with the James Dearden 1991 version. I’m not speaking of the acting here. My concern is with the script.

We’re talking fiction—a film based (loosely) on a novel. With fiction there is leeway; we are not bound with all the consequences of reality. But if you want a work to be taken seriously it’s important to provide a level of verisimilitude. Levin was noted for far-fetched plot twists, but he was skilled at making you accept them as believable. Dearden’s script is riddled with “huh” moments, not to mention clichés and far too many coincidences.

There’s a scene in a hospital emergency room which is almost laughable for the number of errors which would be obvious to the most doped up patient. The most blatant was having Sean Young, the heroine, give the nurse a wad of money for the patient’s bill. Since when do nurses handle billing? Then there’s the scene where Dillon and Young’s father (Max von Sydow) are discussing fishing and Sydow proudly displays a prize carp he caught in Maine. Duh. Carp are not game-fish and there’s no need to leave Pennsylvania (the film location) when the commonwealth’s waterways are teeming with these trash fish. That’s just the tip of the iceberg in glitches.

Dearden is no novice at writing. His screenplay for Fatal Attraction was nominated for an Oscar. A fact-checker was definitely needed on this script. And that’s the point I want to make here. If you’re attempting to portray reality, verify your facts. If you don’t catch your errors, guaranteed someone else will.

Don't Take My Word For It

2010-08-10T05:08:00.000-07:00

A review of a novel, film or other creative work is one person’s opinion.

And that’s exactly what it’s meant to be. As Darryl Ponicsan, a better known coal region-born writer, put it, “An honest reviewer reads a book and says, ‘I like it’ or ‘I don’t like it’ or ‘I’m lukewarm about it,’ and why.”

So what does that mean to you, the reader?

Many select a book on the basis of genre, their knowledge of the author or the suggestion of a friend or family member. There also might be the influence of advertising, an intriguing cover design or, simply, a whim. The reviewer is just another adjunct.

An honest review can help you sort out from the estimated 190,000 new books published every year in the U.S. those you might want to buy or borrow from your local library. That’s just the estimate for the U.S. Add another 130,000 for the United Kingdom. Care to guess how many worldwide?

My historical novel Watch The Hour just received an encouraging review (http://historicalnovelsociety.org/hnr-online.htm) which termed it “a page-turning yarn.” I’m not about to argue with a description like that.

My point is, don’t take my word for it. Watch The Hour is a book worth your time. The novel has received repeated good reviews elsewhere. To name a few: http://thebookbuff.blogspot.com/2010/06/j.html

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977713505

http://mindfogreviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/watch-hour-by-jr-lindermuth.html

To Be (Shelved), Or Not

2010-07-31T14:50:00.000-07:00

“Why can’t I get your books in (name your favorite chain bookstore)?”

It’s a complaint we hear from time to time. The public may not be aware of it, but not all publishers are linked with Ingram or Baker & Taylor, the distributors of choice for most of the chain bookstores. It’s not my purpose to get into the reasons here. Just stating the fact, ma’am.

My response to the complaint is usually to inform the person my books are available from the publisher, from Amazon and numerous other on line sources or directly from me.

They also have the option of going to a real (i.e., independent) bookseller who can, and will, order the book from the publisher (who offers discounts and other provisions on a par with most of the standard distributors). So why won’t the chains do this? Got me. Maybe they’re locked into contractual obligations. Maybe it’s just bad business judgment.

Until recently I sold my books in a local independent which, unfortunately, was forced to close its doors this year due to the economy and competition from the chains. Since there are no other independents in the vicinity, I made another stab at the local chain store.

Though the manager found mine in Books In Print (the essential bibliographical tool for libraries, booksellers and publishers), she said my publisher wasn’t available through her distributors. I suggested ordering through the publisher. She said they couldn’t do that.
What if I provided the books on a consignment basis with a return provision? She shook her head. “Have your publisher link with our distributor,” she urged, “then we’d be glad to carry your books.”

I find the situation frustrating. I’ve heard similar tales from others. Some say it depends on the manager and store, that some are more amenable.

I realize no store can carry every published book. But it seems to me good business sense to carry the books of a local writer with an established platform and whose books have had good reviews, a sales record and a retinue of repeat customers. But I’m only a writer. Maybe the chains think it is good business to have potential customers go elsewhere to buy.

Would I still like to be on their shelves. Sure. As long as readers can still find me, though, I don’t have to beg for it.

Fourth in Series

2010-07-15T04:59:00.000-07:00

“Being Someone Else,” fourth in the Sticks Hetrick mystery series is scheduled for release today, July 15, by Whiskey Creek Press, www.whiskeycreekpress.com.

Some people believe violence is foreign to our nature. Dan ‘Sticks’ Hetrick, retired chief and consultant to the Swatara Creek police department, knows better. We put a lid on our natural tendency to violence when we started living in groups, devising moral codes to hold it in check and allow us to live in harmony with others. But, deep down in the Id, there is always that tendency to violence.

When an out-of-state reporter is found murdered in the restroom of a disreputable bar the tendency to violence spirals in the rural Pennsylvania community, and the investigative trail keeps bringing Hetrick and his team back to the family of a wealthy doctor who has returned to his hometown in retirement.

Hetrick and his protégé Officer Flora Vastine are joined by an old friend from his State Police days as they unravel old secrets and mysteries in a tale with as many shocking twists as a country road.

If you haven’t read any of the other books in the series, now is a good time to start. Others in the series are “Something In Common,” “Cruel Cuts” and “Corruption’s Child.”

Review snippets for the series:

“Lindermuth does a wonderful job of bringing his fictional small Pennsylvania town to life by getting us into the minds of a multitude of characters. I enjoyed Lindermuth’s writing and the story itself was interesting and without a dull moment.” Judy Clemens, author of Three Can Keep a Secret, Crime Spree Magazine, www.crimespreemag.com

“J.R. Lindermuth doesn’t write fiction. He writes life! There are twists and turns in every chapter.” Anne K. Edwards, author of Death on Delivery, www.mysteryfiction.net

“Lindermuth has magnum sizzle. Reading him is like a fresh bullet fired from a newly minted gun.” Eric Meeks, author of The Author Murders.

The Secret Ingredient

2010-07-10T05:51:00.000-07:00

Name your favorite novel.

Now consider what makes that novel stand out from others.

I’ll wager for many of us the answer will be character. Your particular favorite character may differ from mine. But many will cite Emma. Or David Copperfield. Ahab. Atticus Finch. Holden Caulfield. A dozen others who have achieved immortality in our imagination.

So what is it about our particular favorite character that resonates?

Again I’ll wager the answer is because the author has created a character who is as real to us as any flesh and blood person we’ve ever met. So how the heck did he/she do it and can we mere mortals hope to emulate such talent?

The answer is simple and involves no secret ingredient hidden from the hoi polloi.

Back at the beginning of the 20th century a physiologist named Jakob von Uexkull coined the term umwelt to describe the technique of stepping into another creature’s world. What he described was, in fact, nothing new but a revival of a lost art. Hunters did it from the beginning of time. In order to hunt a creature the successful hunter becomes, in essence, that creature. He enters its world and thinks as it does.

A nifty trick. But can anyone do it today?

Writers also have been doing it for a very long time.

This secret ingredient has another name. Empathy.

Webster describes it as: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this.

Simple.

Not really. But it’s a talent which can be improved upon with practice. Do you think Dickens was capable of creating David Copperfield the first time he picked up pen to write? Of course not. Emma was not the first (or best) of Jane Austen’s creations.

All it takes is imagination and practice.

Being Someone Else

2010-07-02T05:26:00.001-07:00

Whiskey Creek Press (www.whiskeycreekpress.com) will publish Being Someone Else, fourth in the Sticks Hetrick mystery series, on July 15.

Some people believe violence is foreign to our nature. Dan ‘Sticks’ Hetrick, retired chief and consultant to the Swatara Creek police department, knows better. We put a lid on our natural tendency to violence when we started living in groups, devising moral codes to hold it in check and allow us to live in harmony with others. But, deep down in the Id, there is always that tendency to violence.

When an out-of-state reporter is found murdered in the restroom of a disreputable bar the tendency to violence spirals in the rural Pennsylvania community, and the investigative trail keeps bringing Hetrick and his team back to the family of a wealthy doctor who has come back to his hometown in retirement.

Hetrick and his protégé Officer Flora Vastine are joined by an old friend from his State Police days as they unravel old secrets and mysteries in a tale with as many shocking twists as a country road.

I’ll be posting sample chapters in the coming weeks.

As noted, this is the fourth in the Hetrick mystery series and I’m now at work on the fifth (tentative title, Practice To Deceive). If you haven’t read them, now’s a good time to start. The novels are available in print and electronic form, including Kindle. Other novels in the series are Something In Common, Cruel Cuts and Corruption’s Child.

In a review of Corruption’s Child in the summer issue of Mysterical-E, Montiese McKenzie said: “It's a well-written and short book but it leaves readers wanting more of these characters and this town. From one page to the next, you aren't sure just what's going to happen but in a good way. There is a buildup to a slightly predictable but no less exciting climax and when the mystery is solved, it's breathless and fantastic.” You can read the full review here: http://www.mystericale.com/index.php?issue=current_issue&body=file&file=book_reviews.htm

And, by the way, my short story, “An Undesirable Customer,” is in the same issue: http://www.mystericale.com/index.php?issue=current_issue&body=file&file=customer.htm

Here's to You, Dad

2010-06-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

The Christian bible (and tenets of other religions) admonishes us to honor our fathers. Unfortunately, it’s taken us awhile to get around to it.

For instance, a day to honor them was first proposed in the U.S. in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd, a Spokane, WA woman who thought fathers deserved equal recognition with mothers. But when President Woodrow Wilson suggested making it a national observance a few years later Congress balked, contending it would become commercialized. (Can you imagine Congress today missing an opportunity to commercialize anything?)

Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine chastised Congress in 1957 for ignoring fathers while paying tribute to mothers. In 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation. But it wasn’t until 1972 that it finally became a national holiday, signed into law by President Richard Nixon.

To say we have been remiss in failing to equally honor both our parents would be an understatement.

My Dad’s been gone 26 years now, but I don’t think there’s a day goes by that doesn’t remind me in some way of his character and guidance. I may not always have followed his advice. Yet, looking back on it now, I realize how often his judgment was right.

Dad was a railroader most of his working life, a rough and demanding occupation. He grow up in a tough and ethnically-mixed neighborhood in which he learned to use his fists as well as common sense and picked up a smattering of several languages. Dad also loved music and taught himself to play a number of musical instruments. He and my mother also had a local reputation as ballroom dancers. While my sister inherited some of this musical ability I missed out on that gene. I also love music, but I get static even trying to play it on the radio. As to dancing, I’m better at tripping over my own feet.

He was also one of the most creative people I’ve known. When my sister and I were young he spent many hours in his shop creating sulphur diamond jewelry and coal novelties which he sold to supplement his income. With the decline of deep mining, material for those pursuits became difficult to get and he turned his attention to ‘picking’ and restoring/refinishing antiques, an enterprise in which I joined him. We shared many happy hours attending sales and scouring the countryside for goods. This largely replaced the comradeship we had enjoyed earlier in hunting, fishing and camping and continued until I went off to the Army.

I cherish the fact we had those times together. I’m also glad he lived long enough for my children and my nieces to know him. He had a temper, never shirked saying what he felt and couldn’t stand a hypocrite. You always knew exactly where you stood with him and, if you were his friend, you couldn’t find a more loyal one.

So here’s to you, Dad. I’m not contributing to Hallmark’s bounty for a sloppily sentimental card. But I hope you know how much we love and miss you.

Coming Soon

2010-06-14T04:57:00.000-07:00

If you’ve read and enjoyed any of the Sticks Hetrick mysteries, you’ll be pleased to know Whiskey Creek Press soon will release BEING SOMEONE ELSE, fourth in the series.

If you haven’t read them, now’s a good time to start. The novels are available in print and electronic form, including Kindle. Other novels in the series are Something In Common, Cruel Cuts and Corruption’s Child.

Daniel ‘Sticks’ Hetrick is the retired police chief of rural Swatara Creek, Pennsylvania, and serves as consultant to his less experienced successor, Aaron Brubaker. Other regular characters are Hetrick’s protégés, Corporal Harry Minnich and rookie officer Flora Vastine.

As a note of interest, Hetrick—a longtime widower—has a new woman in his life in this novel and is offered a new job.

And, in case you’re wondering, I’m already at work on the fifth in the series.

Here’s the back cover blurb from Being Someone Else:

Some believe violence foreign to our nature. Dan ‘Sticks’ Hetrick, retired chief and consultant to the Swatara Creek police department, knows better. We put a lid on our natural tendency to violence when we started living in groups, devising moral codes to hold it in check and allow us to live in harmony with others. But, deep down in the Id, there’s always that tendency to violence.

When an out-of-state reporter is found murdered at a disreputable bar, the tendency to violence spirals in the rural Pennsylvania community, and the investigative trail keeps bringing Hetrick and his team back to the family of a wealthy doctor who has come back to his hometown in retirement.

Hetrick and his protégé, Officer Flora Vastine, are joined by an old friend from his State Police days as they unravel old secrets and mysteries in a tale with as many shocking twists as a country road

Understanding Backwards

2010-06-02T04:42:00.000-07:00

History too often gets a bad rap.

Students dismiss it as boring. Politicians and others with a biased agenda abuse its factuality. But the truth is out there and available to any willing to take the time to search. Since that involves time and effort, history is either ignored or perverted.

“A land without ruins is a land without memories—a land without memories is a land without history.”

The poet Abram Joseph Ryan who penned those lines recognized that history is based on memory. Though not always accurate, history is important to a society. Thucydides rightly called history philosophy learned from examples.

As Soren Kierkegaard so aptly put it, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward.”

As a writer and genealogist, I devote a lot of time to the study of history. Several recent events raised my optimism about public perception of history and its value.

Our historical society is located in the home of the last commandant of Fort Augusta, Pennsylvania’s largest provincial fort, which was commissioned for the French and Indian War and used through the Revolutionary War. Volunteers logged many hours to transform our former exhibit space into a more detailed interpretation of the importance of this historic site and the life of those who lived here.

Dedication of the new exhibit attracted more than 400 people and we have had a steady stream of requests since for group tours for families, clubs and school and scouting groups. The first of four scheduled Living History Days at the site of Fort Augusta was also successful and well attended.

Over the Memorial Day weekend my hometown of Shamokin held the fifth annual Anthracite Heritage Festival of the Arts, which also attracted larges crowds. While there’s plenty of emphasis on food and fun, history is not neglected in the mix which celebrates the mining heritage of the region and its polyglot ethnic society.

Romeo and Juliet in Pennsylvania

2010-05-25T06:08:00.000-07:00

The theme of forbidden love has been used to advantage by many writers, from ancient times to the present.

Consider Abelard and Heloise. Launcelot and the Lady of Shalott. And, of course, Romeo and Juliet. A thousand other examples might be suggested. There are many reasons for love being forbidden. The most common include social distinctions such as class, religion or ethnicity.

Probably no one has used the theme to better advantage than Will Shakespeare—most notably in Romeo and Juliet, but also in a number of other classic plays and poems.

I don’t intend comparing myself to Shakespeare, but I’ve used the theme in my novel Watch The Hour and don’t feel it would be out of line to say it might be seen as another variation on Romeo and Juliet.

Fleeing famine and brutal oppression, more than a million Irish refugees flocked to the United States between 1846-1855 in search of opportunity and a better life. They worked whatever jobs they could find and were routinely exploited. Many found their way to Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region where they encountered some of the worst exploitation and hatred.

In the 1870s, mine owners and their employees, particularly the Irish immigrants, were in conflict over working conditions. Private police forces commissioned by the state but paid by the coal companies were sworn to protect property of the mine owners. The miners knew their real purpose was to spy upon targeted agitators and intimidate and break up strikers.

My Romeo is Benjamin Franklin Yeager, a coal company police officer. He does his best to follow orders while trying to be fair to the workers whose lot he sees as little different from his own. Despite his efforts at fairness, Yeager’s job makes him the enemy of the Irish.

And that’s the crux of his troubles. For Ben is in love with an Irish girl, Jennie Teague. You’ll have to read the book to see how their love plays out.

Watch The Hour is available in print and electronic forms from the publisher at https://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=725

The Wind In His Face

2010-05-14T05:30:00.000-07:00

I’m reading David Herlihy’s excellent “The Lost Cyclist,” which recounts the story of Frank Lenz, a Pittsburgh adventurer who disappeared in the 1880s while attempting his dream of cycling around the world.

Appropriately, this is National Bike Month. And that brings fond memories of my maternal grandfather, George Lester Sears, in whose life the bicycle played an important role.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was the bicycle that first made Americans mobile. For the first time, the average person who could not afford to buy and maintain a horse and rig could travel increased distances in speed and comfort by his own power. Boundaries were extended to the distance a person’s energy could carry him. The bicycle was reasonably priced and easily maintained, requiring no feeding, stabling or cleaning up after.

The first U.S. bicycle craze, circa 1860-70, succumbed to faulty equipment and poor roads. Interest resurfaced in the 1880s with such improvements as the pneumatic tire. In the 1890s, while farm prices fell and unemployment rose, the bicycle industry was thriving. Mass production methods developed by the bicycle firms, which typically employed about 50 people each, became a model for the auto industry. By the turn of the century, the bicycle was a fixture with the public and the preferred mount of both police and the military.

A bike was my grandfather’s first major acquisition and his fascination with both its use and repair soon made him the acknowledged expert among his peers and earned him the nickname “Bicey.” It also gave him one of the several trades he practiced throughout his life. Though he was a blacksmith, farmed and worked in the silk mills, he was best known to many as a bicycle repairman. It was a skill he passed on to his sons Pete, Raymond and Walter who also operated shops to supplement their income.

Growing up, it seemed to me Pop divided his time about equally between the bike shop, the garden and fishing. I’d like to say he met grandmother bicycling. Actually, he skated across the frozen Susquehanna one winter to court her.

Even marriage failed to constrain his urge for mobility. By my mother’s tally, they lived in more than 20 locations in several counties and each of his nine children was born in a different place. Perhaps his restlessness can be traced to his British ancestors who were seafaring men. Even after his forebears turned inland they kept their feet wet as canal boatmen, a profession that was in its decline as he reached manhood. Late in life, he confided he might have gone to sea had he not married.

A quiet man full with his own thoughts he seldom put into words, the bicycle may have given him some sense of the wind in his face that his genes craved and his erratic pursuit of new horizons may have had a similar source. I believe he’d be pleased health and environmental concerns and sporting enthusiasts are contributing to a new surge of interest in bicycling.

Homage to Mom

2010-05-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

Finding a significant way to honor one’s mother isn’t the easiest task.

If you’ve been fortunate enough to have a good mother, there’s no gift you can buy sufficient to alleviate the guilt of not being able to do more. For those who haven’t had a good mother, the task is no easier because you’re exposed to a plethora of emotions in regret of such misfortune.

The second Sunday in May is the date selected for Americans to remember their mothers by some act of gratitude, a practice mirroring an earlier European custom, Mothering Sunday, where children give small tokens to their mothers. The traditional gift in many parts of Europe is a bunch of violets, the symbol of faithful love.

Perhaps such a token remembrance is the best course to follow since most of us would be hard-pressed to find anything to accurately respond to the love of a mother. Indeed, even the name “mother” can be seen as a form of veneration, since its Sanskrit root is “origin” or “source” of life.

Personally, I’m grateful to have had the kind of mother whose love can’t be repaid in ample proportion. We lost Mom on March 28, 2008, at the advanced age of 100. Even in her final years her energy belied her age and put to shame many who saw half as many summers. After a lifetime of work, both in the home and in area factories, retirement was a concept and not a reality.

The eldest daughter in a family of nine, she learned early responsibility and hard work. She possessed a multitude of talents that could not be learned in any school but life—and I don’t mean just culinary and household skills, though she excelled in those as well. She inherited a love of travel from her vagabond father and proved a boon companion on many a jaunt.

An eternal optimist with an indomitable spirit, she was always an inspiration in times of discouragement. Though distance separated us at the time, my efforts to raise two children as a single parent could not have been as successful without her constant support and advice.

She was always a liberal, open to new ideas and unafraid of change, but one guided by solid principles from which she never veered. If she had any vice it was a streak of stubbornness that brooked no interference with the goals she set for herself.

She was always the primary booster and supporter of any enterprise in which my sister and I engaged and, later, offered the same encouragement to her four grandchildren and four great-grandsons. We all miss you Mom.

This, then, is a small token of appreciation for all those mothers whose devotion didn’t end when their children left home.

Got Kindle?

2010-05-07T05:19:00.000-07:00

If you have a Kindle wireless reading device you have ready access to more than 500,000 books.

That number includes the first three novels in my Sticks Hetrick mystery series—Something In Common, Cruel Cuts and Corruption’s Child, published by Whiskey Creek Press, www.whiskeycreekpress.com

This series involves the title character, Daniel ‘Sticks’ Hetrick, retired police chief of rural Swatara Creek, Pennsylvania, who has been called back to service as consultant to his less experienced successor, Aaron Brubaker, along with Hetrick’s protégés, Corporal Harry Minnich and rookie officer Flora Vastine.

Check out Corruption’s Child, latest in the series, here: http://www.amazon.com/Corruptions-Daniel-Hetrick-Mystery-ebook/dp/B001GKWFV0/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273156510&sr=1-9

My historical novel, Watch The Hour, is also available in a Kindle version: http://www.amazon.com/Watch-The-Hour-ebook/dp/B002F7BGXG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273156510&sr=1-4

And now, three short stories which had been available in the Amazon Shorts program are also offered to Kindle users. They are:

Twin Stars, http://www.amazon.com/Twin-Stars-ebook/dp/B003KN3ZSS/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273156510&sr=1-11

Trees And Memories, http://www.amazon.com/Trees-And-Memories-ebook/dp/B003KN3ZQA/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273156510&sr=1-10

Thin Ice, http://www.amazon.com/Thin-Ice-ebook/dp/B003KRP3E8/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273156510&sr=1-12

A Question of Morality

2010-05-03T05:12:00.000-07:00

Priests and ministers condemned it from the pulpit. Newspapers editorialized against it. Physicians called it a threat to the health and morality of the young. Government bodies and businessmen assailed it.

What was this thing that outraged so many segments of society across the nation in the early 1880s?

The skating rink. Huh? Seems rather benign these days, doesn’t it? But after equipment improved and roller skating became a popular activity in the late 19th century many civic leaders raised a national outcry against the recreational arcade. One major concern seemed to be the meeting of “the virtuous girl and the woman of loose character” on a common plane.

A Belgian, Jean-Joseph Merlin, is credited as the inventor of the roller skate in 1760 and the first patent for a skate design was awarded to a Monsieur Petitbled in France in 1819. Since these early skates were not very maneuverable, inventors continued improving design and James Plimpton of Medford, Mass., came up with the first practical four-wheel skate in 1863.

The first public skating rink opened in 1866 in Newport, Rhode Island. Design improvements continued and mass production of skates in the 1880s spurred the first of the sport’s several boom periods.

The first woman to publicly demonstrate her proficiency in roller skating was Carrie A. Moore in 1871 at the Occidental Rink in San Francisco.

When an indoor roller skating rink opened in Dodge City, Kansas, on April 6, 1885—considered the peak year for the skating craze in America—the Dodge City Globe derided its patrons as “intellectual paupers.”

It’s been estimated more than $20 million was invested in roller skating rinks in cities and towns across the United States in 1885.

“Patrons would find far more rest, if not recreation,” the Globe said, “in the reading of some valuable book and in acquiring information upon current events about which they are in woeful ignorance.”

The Lowell, Massachusetts, Sun called the rink “…the resort of some of the most immoral classes of the community, prostitutes and libertines, both married and unmarried, and that it serves for many the purpose of a house of assignation; that it is in its effects the most immoral licensed institution that we have; that it is the cause of more and worse immorality—yes, ten times more—than the worst conducted rum-shop in the city.”

An editorial in the Jan. 30, 1885 edition of the Shamokin Weekly in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, called that community’s rink a “propagator of prostitution and sapper of health.”

This editorial said, in part: “The skating rink craze has become epidemic in this country, and is spreading in every direction in spite of all righteous opposition. If it were one of the silly harmless crazes that sometimes affect empty heads and light heels it might be left to run its natural course like a case of cold. But it is a demoralizing evil, injuring the health, corrupting the morals, and ruining the souls of some of the infatuated devotees of the rink. There can be no question but that these rinks have led to a great increase of extravagance and there are a great many opportunities for indiscretions and the first steps toward vice; there is no parental supervision; legitimate business is interfered with; and the craze is a direct antagonist of all religious effort.”

A Scranton, Pennsylvania, newspaper charged that the daughter of a respected railroad superintendent had eloped with a railroad brakeman she met at a rink. It was reported a girl named Ida Clayton died of convulsions after suffering an injury in a fall at a Yonkers, N.Y., rink. The Shamokin Times quoted a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, story of a seduction case resulting from a chance meeting at a rink.

A Danville, Pennsylvania, school director charged some students were forging absence permits in their parents’ names so they might spend more time at the skating rinks.

One report even made the ridiculous comment that “Supporting posts for the roof of a roller skating rink may be regarded as useful, but they are unsightly and even dangerous. Abolish them!”

The Shamokin Times reported both the Catholic and Protestant clergy were sermonizing against the dangers of frequenting the rinks. Rev. Joseph Koch, who shepherded St. Edward’s Catholic Church for fifty-one years, expressed the hope young people would seek more suitable recreation and urged parents to supervise their children on this point. He also warned continued patronage of the rinks by members of his flock would bring offenders under the discipline of the church. Rev. J. A. Flickinger of Shamokin’s Lutheran Church expressed the view that as between two evils, ballroom and rink he would choose the former as the least dangerous to social morality.

When pleas of immorality fell on deaf ears civic leaders turned to physicians for support. Prominent physicians agreed, declaring the skating rink a hot bed of disease and a source and cause of physical debility. One declared spending time and exerting oneself in an over-heated space and then going out into the cold laid the foundation for quinsy, consumption and pneumonia.

A father complained to his local newspaper, “I was puzzled for some time to account for the failing health of my daughters. They complained of languidness, fever and nervousness. The family physician ascribed it to undue exercise. I scoffed the idea, until he spoke of the rink. Investigation proved him right. My daughters were frequent visitors, wearing themselves out in misconceived recreation.”

Shamokin Borough Council took action to impose an amusement license tax it hoped would drive the owners of the local establishment out of business. These upholders of morality must have shouted with glee when it was announced at the end of January 1885 that the county sheriff was holding sale on the property since one of the three owners had defaulted on an outstanding loan.

That may have resolved their situation, but it remained an issue elsewhere. In February 1885 a grand jury was convened in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, in an effort to have the rinks condemned as a public nuisance. In recognition of the charges brought against the rinks, Judge J. W. Simonton instructed the grand jury to carefully investigate and report on the issue. Their response is summed up in a brief paragraph:

“In the matter of the skating rinks in this city (Harrisburg), we would respectfully present that with the information laid before us, we believe such places of amusement to be detrimental to the health of our young people and in a great measure destructive of the morals of the youths who frequent them. And in the opinion of this grand jury in this respect they are nuisances.”

Sample Chapter

2010-04-22T04:56:00.000-07:00

1.
Neil Kehler pulled back the sleeve of his jacket and squinted at his watch. Blurry. But it looked like past midnight. Past midnight on Friday. He should get home. Ruthie would be pissed. Shit! Nothing new in that. Lately she was always pissed. Neil swallowed the last dregs of his beer. All he’d wanted was a couple beers and a game of pool. A little sport. Nothing that had anything to do with how he felt about her. Hell, they’d been together since high school. Did she really think he was looking for someone else after all this time?
Despite the hour, the place was still packed as it always was on a Friday night. Raucous, too-loud voices droned in his head. Country music on the juke box added to the din. The floor vibrated beneath his feet. Clouds of tobacco smoke stung his eyes and the stench of spilled beer, nicotine and unwashed bodies cloyed in his nostrils.
Well, he might as well go home and face her wrath. The couple beers had turned to too many after Earl took his money again. Nothing new in that either. Bastard must be cheating. But nobody had caught him yet. And who would dare accuse the man anyway?
Neil placed his hands on the bar and pushed off from his stool. Better hit the john first. He knew he couldn’t make it all the way home without emptying his bladder. Neil staggered around to the hallway.
His shoulder bumped against the wall on one side and propelled him across to the other. Neil staggered on. Dark. Overhead light was out again and Vinnie was too damned cheap to replace the bulb. Well, he’d been back here often enough to find his way without light. The ammonia stench of the urinals was enough to guide him. He figured he was almost to the restrooms when another hurrying figure bumped against him, knocking him up against the wall. “Watch it, buddy!” Neil squawked. The other person kept on going without a word of apology.
Neil might have had another retort but the urgency of his need made that less impelling. Just ahead he saw the dim glow of the restroom lights through a crack in the doorway. Neil pushed on.
As he stepped up to the urinal Neil noticed, from the corner of his eye, someone sitting in one of the toilet stalls. Jeez. He liked privacy when tending to business and this guy didn’t even have sense enough to pull the stall door closed. Neil unzipped, flipped out his penis and breathed a sigh of release as his stream flowed. Aaah! He leaned forward, hands against the wall. “Needed that,” he said aloud. There was no response from the guy in the stall. Shit. Probably passed out.
Finished, he zipped up and moved over to the sink. As he turned on the faucet he glanced into the mirror. What the…? Oh, shit!
Neil staggered out into the hall. “Vinnie! Vinnie! Get your ass back here,” he screamed. The noise from the barroom drowned out his voice.

“In the John?”
“Yep. Shot dead while sittin’ on the pot,” Aaron Brubaker said.
Sticks Hetrick was just crawling into bed when he got the call. He was filling in for Brubaker who was down with the flu. Somehow the dispatcher on duty hadn’t got the word and contacted the chief.
“Where’d it happen?”
“Out at Vinnie’s.”
Hetrick grunted. Vinnie’s Bar was a dive out on the highway that should have been closed down long before. It was a blot on the community and its owner and his premises were no strangers to trouble.
“Who’s the victim?”
“Dunno. All I know is what Fred told me. Sorry about this Sticks. If it wasn’t for this bug…”
“No sweat. I volunteered, remember? Get some rest. Talk to you later.” It would have made no sense to be irritated with Brubaker. Hetrick, who had retired as chief, now served as a consultant to his less-experienced replacement. Filling in now gave him a taste of the old days and he was enjoying it—probably a lot more than Brubaker who just yesterday had given him a litany of the gruesome aspects of his illness.
Hetrick swung his feet out of bed, sat up and reached for his glasses. He wiped them clean with a Kleenex and put them on. Then he pulled himself erect, took off his pajamas and got back into his clothes.
Yeah. Just like the old days—getting called out of bed in the middle of the night to clean up some other person’s mess. Well, he’d asked for it, hadn’t he.
It wasn’t far from his house on Plum Street out to the highway junction where Vinnie’s Bar was located. As he pulled onto the gravel parking lot he saw two Swatara Creek cruisers and an ambulance with motors running and lights flashing pulled up close to the entrance. A scattering of other vehicles, including Vinnie Nungessor’s Lexus, were still in the lot. Not many for a Friday night. Hetrick anticipated a number of the regulars had taken off as soon as they were informed of the discovery. Nungessor’s customers included a number who might be suspect in whatever transgression arose.
Repressing the smile that thought prompted, Hetrick got out of his pickup, hitched up his trousers and entered the tavern.
Nungessor, leaning on the bar and nursing a mug of beer, glanced over as Sticks approached. “How long your guys gonna keep me shut down this time?” he asked.
A few customers, owners of the vehicles outside he surmised, lounged at tables back in the shadows. None of them spoke. Brent Taylor, a Swatara Creek officer standing watch over them, raised a hand in greeting. Hetrick nodded back.
“It’s past two Vin. Closing time anyway.”
“Yeah. I’m thinkin’ about tomorrow and the days after that. Youse closed me down for a week that time we had the stabbin’ here. And nobody died that time. Haint my fault some guy gets hisself shot.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
Vinnie chugged his beer. “Can I go home?”
“Not yet. After I talk to my people. I might have some questions for you.”
“How ‘bout us?” a raspy voice Hetrick recognized, asked from the shadows.
“Might have questions for you too, Fingers.”
“Yeah. You usually do—even when I haint involved,” Earl Schurke responded. He earned his nickname long before because of his propensity for putting his digits where they didn’t belong.
“Christ. I already answered their questions,” Nungessor said. “It was Friday night. Busy like always. Noisy. Nobody heard nothin’, seen nothin’.”
“Somebody did,” Sticks said, strolling on by him and going down the hall to the restrooms.
Standing at the doorway he saw Fred Drumheiser talking to Arnie Templin, the coroner. “Hey, Chief,” Fred said, spying him. “We’re just about to haul him out. You wanna have a look first?”
Hetrick nodded and they made way for him to pass between them and into the restroom. The corpse had been zipped into a body bag. An EMT kneeling by the carrier unzipped the bag to let Hetrick have a look at the victim. Sticks leaned over, hands on his thighs. It was a young man, mid-twenties with straight, recently barbered hair. A plump face, smooth-shaven. There was a small hole ringed by powder burns between his closed eyes.
Hetrick stood straight and waved a hand for the tech to re-bag. “Anybody know him?”
Fred shook his head. “Not Vinnie’s usual clientele. Clean-cut, wearin’ a suit. None of the regulars would admit to having seen him before.”
“Any ID?”
“Wallet with a driver’s license, press card, couple credit cards and about sixty bucks in cash.”
“Press card?”
“Yeah. Name was Christopher Bachman. From down in Maryland.”
“Any idea what he was doing here?”
Fred shook his head. “Might have been a drug deal gone sour. Course he couldn’t have bought much with what he had on him.”
Hetrick turned to Templin. “Cause of death, Arnie?”
“I expect the bullet between his eyes. I’ll know better in the morning.”
“Found a casing on the floor,” Fred said. “Twenty-two short. Wouldn’t have made much noise and with the normal commotion out there don’t expect nobody would have heard it.”
“Who found him?”
“Neil Kehler. You know him?”
“Yeah. I think so. Lives over on Cherry, near Roger Steinbauer.”
“Right. That’s the guy. Have him coolin’ his heels out front with a couple other guys. None of them claim to know anything, though. Half the crowd was cleared out by the time I got here.”
“You came alone?”
Fred nodded. “Yeah. We’re short. Half our people are out with this damned flu or whatever it is. Harry’s at the station, Flora’s out on patrol. Harry sent Brent over here in case I needed him. Don’t even have a regular dispatcher tonight. One of those auxiliary police types fillin’ in.”
Sticks frowned. The auxiliary had been formed just this year by the township supervisors. To him it indicated a lack of confidence in their police force and not any effort to be helpful. Sure crime had increased here—just like everywhere. A factor of the times and the economy. The problem wasn’t an inefficient department but rather a lack of sufficient funding to provide manpower for increased patrols. Hetrick was a big believer in both foot and cruiser patrols as a means of curtailing crime.
“You about wrapped up back here?” he asked Fred.
“Yep.”
“Good. I’ll see what Kehler and the others have to say.”
A light had been turned on over the pool table and Earl Schurke was shooting a game with one of the other customers. Kehler and another man were watching. Fingers looked over his shoulder as Sticks came up. “Haint no gamblin’ going on,” he said. “Just passin’ time waitin’ on you.”
With a little chuckle, Sticks nodded. He knew pool hustling was one of Schurke’s sources of income. “Get to you shortly,” he said. “Mister Kehler.”
Kehler turned to face him. “Yeah?” Fully sober now, the tautness of his nerves revealed by the twitch of a muscle along one cheek.
“Need a word with you.”
“Hey,” Nungessor said, “what about me?”
“In good time.”
“Whadya want me to do, Chief?” Taylor asked.
“You can head on back, Brent. Harry might have other need for you. Let’s sit down over here Mister Kehler,” he said, indicating a nearby table. “You live out by Roger Steinbauer don’t you?” he asked as they pulled up chairs and sat.
“Right.”
“Work out at the chicken plant?”
“No. That is, my wife does. I’m a USDA inspector. The poultry plant is one of my sites.”
Schurke gave a coarse laugh. “Makes you really feel secure, don’t it—knowin’ a twerp like him is makin’ sure our food is safe.”
“Shut up, Earl. Mind your game before I have to bust you for interfering in an investigation.” Schurke laughed again, turned back and racked up the balls. Sticks wrinkled his nose. Even this far away and over the other powerful odor in the room he smelled the stench of the restrooms. “Now, Mister Kehler, why don’t you tell me how you came to find the body.”
Kehler squirmed. The seat squeaked under his weight. He ran a hand over his face, his eyes darting at Hetrick. “Think I could call my wife? She’s probably worried I haint home yet.”
“In a few minutes, sir. First…”
“I already told the other fellow. Don’t know what else I can add.”
“Humor me.”
Kehler was quiet a moment longer, the only sounds in the room the clinking of the pool cues, the ticking of a clock on the wall behind the bar and the hum of the coolers. Then, like rote, he reeled off his tale.
Sticks leaned toward him, listening intently, taking a few notes. At the end, he asked, “And you’re sure it was a man bumped into you?”
Kehler shrugged. “I don’t know. It was too dark to see but—based on the weight of the body struck me—I guess I assumed it must be a man. Could have been a woman. Can’t say for sure either way.”
“Thank you, Mister Kehler. I know where you live if we need to talk to you again.”
“I can go?”
“You’re free to go.” He swiveled in his chair. “Fingers.”
“Damn it, man,” Nungessor squealed, “when’s it to be my turn?”
“When I’m ready. Come on over here, Fingers.”
Hetrick made Vinnie wait until he’d talked to Schurke and the few others who had stayed on. None of them had anything worthwhile to add. None admitted to knowing the victim and all said they didn’t remember seeing him earlier in the evening. Most confirmed they had made a trip or two to the restroom but didn’t notice anything amiss. Schurke was certain the stall in question was empty the last time he’d visited which he thought might have been in the neighborhood of 11:45. “Can’t be sure about that, though,” he said. “You know how it is when you’ve had a few. Hell no, you probably don’t Sticks. Can’t remember I ever saw you enjoying a beer.”
Hetrick didn’t reply to that. He liked a beer now and again as much as any man. It was company he was particular about.
“Bout time you got to me,” Nungessor grumbled as he finally walked up to where the owner sat.
“I don’t suppose you have anything worthwhile to add.”
Vinnie scowled. “If I did, don’t know I’d be inclined to tell you.”
“That would not be wise.”
“Yeah. Well, truth is, I don’t know that I can tell you anything helpful.”
“So you didn’t know Christopher Bachman?”
“Who?”
“The victim.”
Nungessor shrugged. “Can’t expect me to know everybody that comes in here. I know my regulars. But this is a business. My doors are open to anybody wants to come in.”
“Even the police?”
Nungessor gave him a little smile. “Even the police. I got nothin’ to hide.”
Hetrick had his doubts about that but he let it slide. “You on your own here tonight?”
“Ronnie was helpin’ out as usual,” he said. Ronnie Huber was his barmaid and lived in an apartment above the tavern. “Complained of a headache. I let her go early.”
“How early?”
“I dunno. The place was busy. I wasn’t watchin’ the clock.”
“Make a guess.”
“Maybe ten-thirty, eleven.”
“We’ll have to talk to her, too.”
“Now?”
From the corner of his eye Hetrick saw Fred coming toward him, loaded down with his evidence case, camera and other paraphernalia. “All done back there, Sticks.”
“We’ll be on our way then.” His gaze swung back to Nungessor. “You can shut down now. Ronnie can be interviewed later. We’ll escort you out and you can lock up.”
“Hey! Can I open tomorrow?”
“We’ll let you know.”

Homage to the Library

2010-04-12T04:59:00.000-07:00

Most writers would be inclined to agree the public library was one of the greatest ideas of all time.

My hometown didn’t have a library until 1953. It wasn’t that we were ignorant savages—there were school and church libraries and commercial lending libraries before that time.
Desire for a community library dates back to at least 1866 when an editorial in a local newspaper proclaimed: “A place that is lacking in facilities for gaining information can never hope to compete with other places whose influential people give their children and others the means of personal, intellectual culture. People may come here to make money, and stay for a few years; but we can never hope to have a solid, stable, attractive population unless there be opportunities for proper mental development.”

The writer of the editorial was not without a plan for meeting the goal, either. He suggested a three-story building be erected. The first floor would be rented for stores or offices, the second floor to house the library and the third would be a lecture hall. He thought rent of the stores would pay a good percentage of the library expenses and said occasional lectures by popular speakers would fund the rest. He felt a membership of 150 persons who contributed about $3 annually would keep up the supply of papers and periodicals and add some new books.

Unfortunately, his plan did not bear fruit. There was a fund drive for a library before World War II, but the war interfered with those plans. It took a major campaign headed by the local Woman’s Club and a number of other concerned citizens and organizations to realize the dream which finally resulted in the opening of the facility, which remains a vital factor in boosting the cultural and educational level of the community. It’s worth noting, women’s clubs were a chief proponent in the move to establish libraries in the U.S. after the Civil War. So, ladies, a tip of the hat to you.

Though we lacked a public library, my family had a good supply of books at home and the several independent bookstores which existed in the town at the time got a good share of my spending money.

Libraries are another of those good ideas we owe to the Greeks. And they weren’t even the first to have them. The concept existed in ancient China and the Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi in Mashhad, Iran, is more than six centuries old. The Francis Trigge Chained Library of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, dates back to 1598 and is still in use.

Benjamin Franklin was responsible for the opening of the first in my home state in 1731—one of his best ideas, in my opinion. The Quebec Library, the first publicly funded in Canada, opened in 1779. But Mexico pre-dates both in claiming the first public library in the New World. Don Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, bishop of Puebla and Viceroy of New Spain, opened the Palafoxian library in 1646 when he expelled the Jesuits and confiscated their books. This library still exists and holds some of the oldest books in North and South America.

The point of all this is, of course, is recognition of National Library Week, April 11-17.
With the advantage of the Internet and having a large personal library, I don’t frequent my public library as often as I did in the past. But I’m eternally grateful for its existence and to those who maintain it and I believe the world would be a bleaker place without the public library. Truthfully I’ve probably spent more indoor time in libraries and book shops than anywhere else. And, if I have to be indoors, I can think of few places I’d rather be.

Wanna Kiss a Frog?

2010-04-07T05:43:00.000-07:00

It seems there’s a day or month to celebrate everything under the sun. April is National Frog Month.

Some might ask why should we celebrate the frog? Well, to me, the frog is one of the most anticipated harbingers of spring. When I was a boy their singing from a nearby marsh announced the arrival of this cherished season. The marsh is gone now, paved over and sanitized. I miss that familiar herald and have to go elsewhere in search of it. Though more fond of birds, the noble Gilbert White among other naturalists had good things to say for the amphibian.

The back legs of a frog are a delicacy worthy of gratitude, and the source of an unflattering nickname for our French friends.

In many cultures the lowly frog is considered magic and symbolic of water and, therefore, life. The frog and lotus symbol is found all over Egypt and India. Frogs are also found frequently in the myths of the American Indian. If you care to go classical, consider Plutarch’s comment, “…though the boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest.”

The frog hasn’t fared so well in literature. There’s that repugnant reference in Macbeth and the sporting link in Twain’s tale. He comes off little better in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” when the shepherds are turned to frogs for having taunted Latona.

Really though, there’s a serious reason for paying homage to the humble frog. Their numbers are declining and scientists are concerned not only for the welfare of the frog but for what it might mean to us and other creatures. The National Wildlife Federation is looking for volunteers for its Frogwatch USA program which seeks means of helping the frog survive. Check out the program here http://www.nwf.org/WildlifeWatch/

Homage to the Humble Pencil

2010-03-30T05:56:00.000-07:00

Today is National Pencil Day.

Personally I think it’s an observance that should be international, maybe even a worldwide holiday.

Next to the gift of speech and the advent of reading what has been more important to the spread of ideas then the means to transcribe them? Though writers today are less apt to use a pencil, the humble instrument is still valued by artists, carpenters and craftsmen, not to mention children.

The original pencil was probably the stylus, a stick of metal used to scratch symbols on papyrus. Sometime in the early 16th century, a deposit of graphite was discovered in Cumbria, England, revolutionizing the instrument. Erroneously mistaken for a variety of lead, it was referred to as plumbago (Latin for lead ore). We still refer to the core of the pencil as lead.

Graphite was deemed so valuable ownership of the mines was taken over by the Crown and England held a monopoly on pencil making for a lengthy period. Nicholas Jacque Conte, a Frenchman, perfected the instrument in the form we know it today in 1795.

Americans imported pencils from Europe until after the Revolution. William Munroe, a cabinetmaker in Concord, Mass., is credited with the first American-made pencils in 1812. Henry David Thoreau, a more famous resident of Concord, later developed an improved pencil-making process, binding inferior graphite with clay. Joseph Dixon, another Massachusetts inventor, was the first to mass produce pencils in this country and Dixon pencils are still among the most popular.

Artists from Leonardo to Durer, from Rembrandt to masters in modern times, such as Eakins and Wyeth, have cherished the pencil. Just look at this selection by Rembrandt, http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=rembrandt+drawings&revid=2084579844&resnum=0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=y4qvS_LfA4P98Aa7-eCiDw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQsAQwAA
Or these from Constable’s sketchbooks, http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/paintings/galleries/display/constable/index.html as examples of what beauty can be created with a mere pencil.

As noted, the pencil isn’t the chief instrument of the writer today. But John Steinbeck is said to have used up 300 pencils in the writing of East of Eden. Hemingway also relied on the pencil for his first drafts and Nabokov was another advocate. There are still writers who start a story in longhand, feeling it’s more intimate; not so many as in the past, though; machines have spoiled most of us.

Still, I think it important we all recognize our debt to the pencil and pay homage at least once a year.

We're All Guilty

2010-03-25T06:14:00.000-07:00

Today is the International Day of Remembrance of Slavery Victims and the Transatlantic Slave Trade and I have seen not a single reference to it in the media this morning.

The United Nations proclaimed March 25 as a day to annually honor the lives of those who died as a result of slavery or experienced the horrors of the slave trade. It is also an occasion to raise awareness about the dangers of racism and prejudice.

What’s that? Your ancestors didn’t have any slaves, you say. Doesn’t matter. You’re still guilty.

Slavery and the prejudice which feeds such abominable practices isn’t restricted to one race, ethnicity, culture or religion. There’s enough guilt to go around and we need once and for all to rid ourselves of the stupid opinion one human being is worth less than another on the basis of race, appearance, belief or whatever excuse we can find for separating us.

An estimated 17 million people were transported against their will and held in bondage between the 16th and 19th centuries. This violation of human rights was conducted and/or condoned by whites, blacks, Christians, Jews and Muslims (as well as agnostics and atheists).

Even the U.S. Constitution—seen as a model for documents ensuring tolerance and freedom for all—is tainted by provisions which comprised on the issue of slavery and the slave trade. Luther Martin, a delegate from Baltimore, labeled as absurd that the United States should permit states to continue “…the only branch of commerce which is unjustifiable in its nature and contrary to the rights of mankind.”

It’s economic and personal ramifications are still being felt today in countries which have abolished slavery. And, unfortunately, the practice has not been eradicated worldwide.

In his message for this year’s observance, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, in part, “Slavery and slavery-like practices continue in many parts of the world. Slavery is mutating and re-emerging in modern forms, including debt bondage, the sale of children and the trafficking of women and girls for sex. Its roots lie in ignorance, intolerance and greed.”

Observing Genealogy Day

2010-03-12T05:51:00.000-08:00

National Genealogy Day will be observed on Saturday. As one who has spent considerable time on genealogy I thought it appropriate to expend a few words on the subject here.

Since retiring from the newspaper business in 2000 I have been librarian of our county historical society where I assist people with genealogy and historical research. I was doing it on a personal basis long before that and took on this responsibility partly to share what I had learned, but also because I enjoy it.

Call it a hobby if you will, but it is one pursued by increasing numbers of people around the world. I like the solving of puzzles, the detective work necessary to tracking down that elusive ancestor and discovering why he did this instead of that. It can become an absorbing addiction.

Genealogy is best defined as the study of family history. There was a time when it was chiefly the pursuit of maiden women and doddering eccentrics who sought some glory for themselves in the achievements of their ancestors.

As Plutarch wisely put it many centuries ago, “It is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.”

People now pursue genealogy for a variety of reasons. For some, like the Mormons, it is a necessary adjunct to their religion. Others are simply curious about the lives of their ancestors or need to confirm facts in order to join the Daughters of the American Revolution, Mayflower Society and similar groups. More recently, there has been an emphasis on inherited diseases and genetic influence.

In truth, we are the sum of what we inherit from our ancestors, though we make our own additions to the mix. I like to recall Edmund Burke’s comment, “People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.”

Irish-American Heritage Month

2010-03-05T05:13:00.000-08:00

March is Irish-American Heritage Month. In honor of the observance, I offer these notes:

Fleeing famine and brutal oppression, more than a million Irish refugees flocked to the U.S. between 1846-1855 in search of opportunity for a better life. It’s been estimated an amazing 44 percent of immigrants in that period were Irish.

They worked whatever jobs they could find and were routinely exploited. That exploitation was partially based on their poverty and willingness to accept whatever wages they could get. A more shocking element was religious bigotry. The majority of the immigrants were Roman Catholic and anti-Papist sentiments boiled up in tandem with economic concerns in this same period. Newspapers of the period are full of examples of anti-Catholic/Irish sentiment, including cartoons depicting them as savages and animals.

Many of the Irish found their way to Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region where they encountered some of the worst exploitation and hatred. Wayne Broehl in his excellent The Molly Maguires says “All the past hatreds and slights came welling up again, and the mining patches were quickly divided, physically and socially, along ethnic lines. Soon the Irish turned to protective societies.”

Among these societies were the Molly Maguires, still controversial today with many refusing to believe the organization existed or was guilty of the alleged crimes. It's probable more atrocities were attributed to them than did exist. But the organization’s existence is documented and people do have a tendency to strike back at oppression.

In the 1870s, an expanding economic depression pitted mine owners and their laborers, particularly the Irish, in conflict over wages and working conditions. This situation spawned a wave of violence that was not limited to the Irish. The Molly Maguires became a scapegoat for those in authority.

It’s against this backdrop I’ve set my novel Watch The Hour in a fictional patch called Masonville. Why fictional and not an actual patch? Simply because the fictional setting did not limit me to a known set of circumstances. I was able to depict my characters and their actions in a historically-accurate setting but controlled by my imagination.

Benjamin Franklin Yeager is a coal company police officer. He does his best to follow orders while trying to be fair to the workers whose lot he sees as little different from his own. Despite his efforts at fairness, Yeager’s job makes him the enemy of the Irish. And that’s the crux of his troubles. For Ben is in love with an Irish girl.

The love interest is central to the story (I prefer to call it the Romeo and Juliet element). But, as one recent reviewer noted, “There are numerous other interesting characters and entertaining subplots that not only make Ben’s life and decisions more difficult, but create tragedy and sorrow for those already suffering under the oppression of an American feudal system meant to take advantage of the masses by the rich and powerful.”

That clearly spells out the early Irish experience and not just in the coal region.

A Prologue is Just a Beginning

2010-02-25T05:19:00.000-08:00

I’ve been monitoring a hot and heavy discussion on prologues on one of the writer forums.

The contention has been advanced readers don’t like them and many editors and agents now decline to consider a novel with a prologue.

Personally I find that ridiculous. Why would an author include a prologue if he/she didn’t intend it to be read? A prologue is defined as a preface, an introduction to a story, providing background or other details essential to the tale. The narrative device has been in use at least since the time of Euripides, who is sometimes credited with its invention.

There are two valid reasons for having a prologue. One is to provide backstory without resorting to flashbacks or other devices which might bog down succeeding chapters. The other is to provide a hook for the reader and target toward which the rest of the book is directed.

Many writers will tell you both goals can be achieved in a first chapter and therefore a prologue is unnecessary. Generally a prologue relates to events before the novel begins. It’s an introduction set apart from the rest of the novel by time and/or viewpoint. To me that does not always make for an effective first chapter.

Prologues have been used since the beginning of the novel. Willa Cather begins “Death Comes for the Archbishop” with a prologue, as did Kenneth Follett with “The Pillars of the Earth.” Peter Matthiessen employs one in “Lost Man’s River” and Umberto Eco in “The Name of the Rose.”

They are most efficient in mysteries and science fiction. Some examples in the former genre might be Ian Rankin’s “Dead Souls,” Elizabeth George’s “A Place of Hiding” or Patricia Cornwell’s “Cruel and Unusual.”

Admittedly, not all prologues are equal. Many great novels dispense with them. But they are generally brief and I see no sensible reason for not reading one.

Speaking in Strange Tongues

2010-02-19T05:32:00.000-08:00

Americans have long been xenophobic when it comes to language.

This is apparent in Benjamin Franklin’s warning about German “aliens” who he feared would gain prominence over the English-speaking populace:
“And since Detachments of English from Britain sent to America, will have their Places at Home so soon supply'd and increase so largely here; why should the Palatine Boors [Germans] be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion.” (Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, 1751).
The same attitude is repeated in Teddy Roosevelt’s comment that “We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.”
And we see it now in the outcry against alleged catering to Hispanic immigrants in the use of dual language signage. Despite these fears, studies prove English is not threatened. As has been the case in the past, most children and grandchildren of immigrants do become proficient in English. What is less known is that a higher degree of bilingualism exists today than in the past. And that is a good thing.
An ironic aspect of the English-first proponents is that few of them have ever tried learning another language or, if they had, gave it up as too difficult.
I grew up in a place which was enriched by its many immigrants. In my father’s time the children learned English in school and became the translators for their parents who often only learned enough to get by on their jobs. Through socialization with these families my father acquired a smattering of German, Italian and Polish. By my generation, many of the grandchildren no longer spoke the native language of their families. Even the native German dialect of my paternal ancestors is now a dying language.
Aristotle taught language is intrinsic to man and the foundation of society. Though there is much speculation on the evolution of language, science seems to support its value in the creation of sophisticated social structures. “Perhaps of all the creations of man language is the most astonishing,” said Lytton Strachey. We who are writers should love the very fact of language, since one of its primary purposes was the telling of stories.

Samuel Johnson said, “We would not be at the trouble to learn a language, if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a translation.” True, but reading Don Quixote in translation is not quite the same experience as reading it in the language of Cervantes. As Voltaire put it: “The first among languages is that which possesses the largest number of excellent works.”

What Makes a Writer?

2010-02-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

There are some today who will say you can’t be serious about writing unless you pursue an MFA.

I believe in education. But I don’t believe it begins or ends with a certain number of years in a classroom. It’s a lifelong process, one that benefits most by experience. We—Americans in particular—have a tendency to place more stock in degrees than actual education.

Ray Bradbury once advised a person who wanted to write to stay away from college. In his opinion the only way to learn to write was to do it—everyday. His second bit of advice was to believe in oneself.

I thought it might be interesting to consider some writers who succeeded by that example.

Edgar Allan Poe tops my list. He dropped out of the University of Virginia after one semester. He later failed as a cadet at West Point. Considered one of America’s greatest writers today, he received little recognition during his lifetime.

John Steinbeck. Attended Stanford University for five years but did not graduate. A Nobel Prize winner, many of his works are now on required reading lists for schools across the nation. He was a man with a wide range of interests—from marine biology to mythology.

Katherine Anne Porter, a major voice in 20th century American literature, supported herself with journalism and hack writing. Her first book, Flowering Judas, met with only modest sales and it was nearly 10 years later that she published a second book. Her skill as a writer of short stories is beyond question. Porter’s only formal education beyond grammar school was a year at a private Methodist school.

Dashiell Hammett dropped out of school at the age of 13. He published his first short story at the age of 28, honed his skills in the pulp field and published his first book at 34. He wrote only five books but is considered one of the most influential writers of his time.

Isaac Barshevis Singer dropped out of rabbinical school after only two years and supported himself for most of his life as a journalist, translator and proof reader. Championed by Saul Bellow and other writers, he published his first novel in English in 1950, won fame and, eventually, a Nobel Prize.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, now considered the leading writer of America’s Jazz Age, was not considered a gifted writer during his lifetime. It was not until after his death in 1940 that his books won him wide recognition. He attended Princeton, but left without a degree.

Eugene O’Neil dropped out of Princeton before completing his first year. He was in his 30s before audiences responded to his genius with the 1920 production of Beyond the Horizon. Though he won a Nobel Prize in 1936 it wasn’t until after his death in 1953 that he was acknowledged as one of America’s greatest writers.

Then there’s Lillian Hellman who attended both Columbia and New York University but left both without a degree. She gained world renown as a playwright, activist and memoirist.

Theodore Dreiser. Doubleday tried to get out of its contract with him for Sister Carrie because the wife of the publisher regarded it as an amoral book. The company printed the book in 1900 but did not advertise or distribute it and it did not become available to the public until 1912 when another publisher issued it. Dreiser attended Indiana University for one year.

The list goes on and on. But I think this enough to demonstrate it is not the degree but the writing makes the writer.

History in the Novel

2010-01-21T05:50:00.000-08:00

Presenting history in a novel is not so simple as some might think. This is one place where the rule Show, not Tell definitely applies. You can’t just lump together a collection of facts and liberally drop them in as solid blocks of fact. That would annoy readers and distract from the flow of the story. Instead you must show history through the lives of your characters.

My current WIP, Fallen From Grace, involves a small town sheriff in 1897. His town is a generally peaceful place and Sylvester’s biggest problems are lack of a deputy and the refusal of his girlfriend to marry him despite many proposals. Lydia, his friend, is a new breed of independent woman. She manages the family store, serves as postmistress, heads the women’s temperance league and sings in the church choir. She contends she’s too busy to get married.

Life in Arahpot is turned upside down by the deaths of two newcomers—one by stabbing, the other by arsenic poisoning. The latter death could be murder, suicide or accident.

Arsenic and chloroform both play a part in the story. Both compounds were readily available to the public in the 19th century, as were cocaine, opium, mercury and a host of other chemicals we now know for their harmful aspects. Our ancestors were more blasé in their attitude toward these compounds for which they found a host of uses.

The use of chloroform as anesthetic became common after 1853 when it was administered to Queen Victoria for the delivery of Prince Leopold. Anyone with a quarter could buy a quantity at the corner store and it was used for such routine purposes as removing stains from carpets and quelling bees in a hive.

On the darker side, addicts also discovered they could get a “buzz” from inhaling it. And it wasn’t long before it became an aid to suicide.

As to arsenic, we know its deadly potential. But in the 19th century it was a common ingredient in over-the-counter medications and had many household uses, including as a skin cleanser and laxative. Those probably aren’t historic precedents anyone wants to continue.

Hey, Guys, We're Not Doomed

2010-01-14T05:17:00.000-08:00

First the good news—the male sex is not dying out.

Then the bad news (if you dare to characterize it as such, guys)—males are not more highly evolved than females.

Just a few years ago some researchers had claimed the Y chromosome (the thingy that make men male) was shrinking and somewhere down the road men were going to disappear.

Well a new study, reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday, has concluded it just isn’t so. In fact, Dr. David Page, co-author of the study, said the Y chromosome is evolving faster than the rest of the human genetic code. Page, director of the Whitehead Institute of Cambridge and a professor of biology at MIT, compared it to a house being constantly rebuilt.

But Jennifer Hughes, lead author, cautions that just because the Y chromosome, which determines gender, is evolving faster doesn’t mean men are more highly evolved. The researchers cited several reasons for Y being an evolutionary powerhouse. One is that it is single and not part of a pair like 44 other chromosomes. Hughes explains when there are mutations there is no need to recombine with matching chromosomes to compensate for the change.

Another factor has to do with mating. We won’t get into that here, guys. Let’s just be happy we’re not bound for extinction as soon as some of those wonky scientists were predicting a little while ago.

If you care to read about the study, here’s the link: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100113/full/463149a.html

More Learning From Film

2010-01-11T05:56:00.000-08:00

As I’ve said before, writers (particularly novelists) can learn much from film.

One of the latest to drive home that message for me is Michael Winterbottom’s 2001 release, “The Claim,” with screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce inspired by Thomas Hardy’s novel, “The Mayor of Casterbridge.” I say inspired by, because Boyce has been influenced primarily in theme rather than plot by Hardy’s classic.

The setting is the 1860s in a snow-covered wilderness in the California Sierras (it was actually filmed in Alberta, Canada, and Colorado). A wagonload of women arrive in the town of Kingdom Come, all but two of them prostitutes bound for a local bar/brothel owned by Lucia, a beautiful Portuguese woman. Drunks brawl over the younger of the other two women, Elena Burn and her daughter, Hope. They are rescued and escorted to the local hotel by Donald Dalglish, head of a railroad survey team which also has just arrived in town. Hope tells Dalglish they have come to see a wealthy relative.

The ‘relative’ is Daniel Dillon, lord of the town, who 20 years earlier had sold his wife and daughter for a rich gold claim. This is revealed to us in a flashback, the movie equivalent of back-story which can be equally effective or damning to a story. Boyce handles it deftly in this presentation. Elena Burn is dying and wants recompense for their daughter who doesn’t know Dillon is her father. Despite having achieved wealth, Dillon has been haunted by his secret. He doesn’t want to admit his sin to Hope but offers to “marry” Elena and try to make up for the past.

In order to make this change Dillon must disassociate from Lucia who has been his mistress. Since he doesn’t explain his actions and attempts to pay her for services rendered Lucia at first believes he has his eye on the younger Hope. She then tries to seduce Dalglish who has been building a relationship with Hope.

Notice how skillfully Boyce manages the conflict between characters and how each of them changes by the end of the film. There’s ample lesson just in this. The character who experiences the most change, of course, is Dillon who after Elena’s death does confess to Hope. Though she earlier voices forgiveness for an action by Dalglish she rejects her father’s plea for salvation. Distraught, Dillon destroys everything for which he had previously sacrificed his family.

It’s a remarkable film, one like we used to see from studios before they became obsessed with comic book super-heroes. Though he took a broad step away from his inspiration, I think even Hardy would have approved of what Boyce did with the theme of sacrifice for material gain. While they can’t be duplicated in print, there are some stunning cinematic moments in this film along with good acting, lovely (if cold) scenery and some beautiful music (especially the songs by Mila (Lucia) Jovovich).

The Fountain of Youth

2010-01-08T05:51:00.000-08:00

An article in today’s New York Times comments on the growth of adventure tourism among the elderly http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/us/08aging.html?th&emc=th

The poet Longfellow saw aging as a new phase of opportunity. Modern society too often views it as a time for neglect, disease and decline. The difference is solely one of attitude toward the process.

No one can deny age poses certain limitations. But the greatest of those are self-imposed.

It was Adler who first proposed civilization arose out of human physical limitations. In other words, man, despite his physical inferiority, gained superiority over the wild beasts by developing his intelligence—a capacity some in this century appear determined to relinquish.

George Bernard Shaw, a supreme example for any experiencing age defeatism, said men die of “…laziness, and want of conviction, and failure to make their lives worth living.” And, “…it was by meditating on Life (rather than death) that I gained the power to do miracles.”

That miracles of achievement are possible in spite of age has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout history and, most particularly, by practitioners of the arts. Scientists probing the mystery of longevity among conductors, composers and other musicians have found some common denominators including a joyful and optimistic outlook, resolute purpose, regular exercise and consistent intellectual stimulation.

And that recipe isn’t restricted to musicians.

Jean Frederic Waldeck was in his late sixties when he began his exploration of Mayan sites in the wilds of Yucatan and doubted he had the physical stamina to resist the dangers, disease and privation to complete his work. Yet this extraordinary man lived to the ripe old age of 109 and was described by contemporaries in Paris as a vigorous and intellectual man, a charming conversationalist and an avid girl-watcher up to the day of his death.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas, author of some of the most elegant prose ever penned in this country, began her crusade to save Florida’s Everglades when she was 80 and continued that fight and her literary efforts till she succumbed at the age of 101.

Actor-director Clint Eastwood, who will turn 80 in May, said in a recent interview he won’t retire because he learns something new everyday. “You want to do something? Just do it the best you can, whatever that is,” he said.

That’s good advice for any age, but especially for those of us on the far side of 45.

As the great Cervantes put it, “While there’s life there’s hope.”

The Power of Imagination

2010-01-02T05:36:00.000-08:00

My second oldest grandson can’t understand how I survived a childhood without television. Ethan thinks I was really deprived because we didn’t have TV until I was in high school.

There were many outdoor pursuits, of course. A major indoor solace at the time was reading and listening to radio, pursuits enjoyed then and now by many of my generation. Those who didn’t experience it can’t imagine how exciting it was to hurry home from school and tune in a favorite show or, at night, gather around the radio with family to listen to a popular program.

One of my favorites at the time was “I Love a Mystery,” which followed three adventurers, Jack, Doc and Reggie, as they went around the world fighting monsters and solving mysteries. I think it was one of the factors leading to my choice of writing genre. I was thrilled when my son found 57 episodes of the show available free on line: http://www.otr.net/?p=ilam They may not be as great as I remembered, but I’m still listening.

We also went to a lot of movies, particularly the Saturday matinees where you got a feature and a serial.

That wasn’t the last time I went without TV, either. While living in Korea I made do again with reading, radio and film when not involved in other activities. And, when my own children were young, there was a long period when we had no TV. I couldn’t afford it at the time. They occasionally remind me and their children of those days. During that same period I also made a practice of reading stories and poetry to them after dinner—both to compensate for the lack of television and in hope it might inspire in them a love for reading. Since they do read when they have time I may have succeeded in the latter goal.

While Ethan might not agree I believe people who’ve grown up with television have been deprived of something we had. Reading and listening to radio requires more use of the imagination. A lack of imagination is a prime reason why there’s so much drivel on present-day TV. Reality shows? Don’t get me started.

As Conrad so aptly put it, “Only in men’s imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.”

Shakespeare knew it even earlier:

“And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.”

Snobbery With Violence

2009-12-31T05:21:00.000-08:00

I’ve just read Colin Watson’s “Snobbery With Violence,” a classic study of crime fiction and its sociological relationship. Though originally published in 1971 and focusing primarily on British writers it remains an entertaining and interesting examination of the genre and how it reflects taste and attitudes of society.

Watson, of course, was himself a purveyor of the craft and noted for a series laced with satire. His primary purpose in “Snobbery” was to illustrate how popular crime fiction echoed the temper of the times in which it was written and he does an admiral job with examples from the beginning of the 20th century down to novels of Leslie Charteris and Ian Fleming.

This is not meant to be a review of his book. I simply intend to point out some factors which still hold true and may be of interest to my fellow writers.

For instance, Watson points out crime fiction is divided into two main categories—the mystery (detective story) and the thriller.

“The detective story stimulates, or is supposed to stimulate, the intellect because it contains a puzzle. People who cannot be bothered with puzzles do not read it. It diverts because it presents a situation outside the normal experience of the reader.” He adds, most importantly to its success, is the solution of the puzzle by the end of the book. But: “We do not like the outcome of a detective novel to be easily predictable.”

The thriller, on the other hand, need not include a puzzle. But it must have action, the more the better. Confusion and suspense add to the mix. “Just as there is no reason to doubt the assertion by some women that they like to go to the cinema to have ‘a good cry,’ one recognizes the fact that very many people feel better for a good chase or a few good murders.”

Another point which may be of interest to modern writers, who even more than those of the past find themselves in the position of having to promote themselves rather than having it done for them by their publishers, is found in the example of Edgar Wallace.

In the 1920s Wallace was the acknowledged king of thrillers. He churned out 173 books between 1906 and his death in 1932 and was responsible for 25 percent of British book sales at the height of his career. He was not a great writer, but he was a master of self-promotion.

As noted by Watson, “He took care always to be accessible, easy to interview, and unfailingly opinionated. He readily contributed articles on whatever matters happened at the moment to be uppermost in the bird-brains of Fleet Street.”

Is It Just About Money?

2009-12-18T05:42:00.000-08:00

Recently on a writers’ site people were discussing what might happen if the electronic novel supplanted the printed version. I was surprised when several suggested writing would become merely a hobby because it would virtually eliminate the incentive of making money.

Really? I won’t go into my reasons now for believing e-novels have potential for enhancing opportunities for both readers and writers. But money? Is that the only reason people write? Don’t get me wrong, I like money as much as the next guy. But if you want to make money writing fiction isn’t the best way to do it.

Like other creative people, it’s in the nature of writers to crave recognition. And money certainly compliments other forms of recognition. A few people in our own generation have become very wealthy as a result of their fiction. But many more supplement meager earnings from fiction with a day job.

And that’s been the case historically. Recognition for many, many more didn’t come until long after their deaths. Now surely all of us would prefer to have some of that acclaim and gelt while we’re around to enjoy it. But, realistically, we have to abide with the facts.

Even Poe had little recognition and lived in poverty most of his life. Joyce? He died in financial straits. F. Scott Fitzgerald, now considered one of America’s leading writers, didn’t make much money from The Great Gatsby or Tender is the Night, which are now considered his best novels. In fact, it wasn’t until after his death his books won him wide recognition.

The same is true of many others. Katherine Anne Porter, a major voice in 20th century American literature, supported herself with journalism and hack writing. Her first book, Flowering Judas, met with only modest sales and it was nearly 10 years later that she published a second book. Isaac Barshevis Singer, born in 1904, dropped out of rabbinical school after only two years and supported himself for most of his life as a journalist, translator and proof reader. Championed by Saul Bellow and other writers, he published his first novel in English in 1950, won fame and, eventually, a Nobel Prize.

I could go on and on with this analogy. But you see my point.

Few of us write fiction because we expect to get rich. We don’t write because of lack of ability to do something else. We write it because we want to—and that doesn’t demean it to the limit of a hobby. Not that there’s anything wrong with hobbies. But a hobby is something we do primarily for entertainment; a diversion from the trials and cares of every day life. Anyone who tries it will soon learn writing fiction is not always entertaining. It’s hard work and anything but a diversion.

If your goal is to make money from writing, then you’d best consider options other than fiction.

New Release Coming

2009-12-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

I just signed with my publisher, Whiskey Creek Press, for the fourth novel in my Sticks Hetrick mystery series. I don't have a publication date yet, so I can't say more about that at this point.

There are few things a writer likes more than a new contract. Need I say I'm thrilled to have a new book in the offing.

BEING SOMEONE ELSE begins with the discovery of an out-of-state reporter found murdered in the restroom of a sleazy bar. Most of the patrons scatter before police arrive on scene. Of the few who remain, none is willing to admit having seen or talked to the victim. When contacted, even the man's wife can't answer why he was in Swatara Creek.

Later the team learns of the murder of another out-of-stater in an adjoining county and the disappearance of a popular Catholic priest. Is there--as Stick's friend State Police investigator Reuben Riehm suspects--a connection between the cases?

More later.

For those who haven't read the series, now would be a good time to read SOMETHING IN COMMON, CRUEL CUTS and CORRUPTION'S CHILD.

Anybody Want to Buy an Old Typewriter?

2009-12-02T05:29:00.000-08:00

I have a cherished Remington Quiet-writer my parents bought for me way back in the 1950s. They probably intended it strictly for schoolwork. It got much more use over the years as I pounded out several novels, countless articles and short stories, a play, letters and tons of other documents.

None of those novels ever sold and the play was such a terrible mess I wouldn’t even discuss it today. Many of those articles and short stories did sell and helped me learn a bit about the writing process. Though it had its faults, I loved that quirky old machine and kept it even after replacing it in the 1970s with an electric model which cost much more and wasn’t half as good. Like most everyone else I’ve turned to a computer now (I think I’m on the fourth one as a matter of fact) and it has its virtues. But I’ll never be as fond of any computer as I am of that old Remington.

I don’t really want to sell my typewriter. I mention it only as the result of reading in the New York Times yesterday morning how Cormac McCarthy plans to sell the Olivetti he’s used since 1963. McCarthy has been much more successful at the writing trade than I ever expect to be and he’s won a slew of awards attesting to his skill. He’s replaced his typewriter with another just like the old one (no computers for him) and he’s selling the Olivetti for a good purpose.

In case you want to place a bid, McCarthy’s typewriter is being auctioned off at Christie’s on Friday and it’s estimated it may fetch as much as $20,000. Proceeds will benefit the Santa Fe Institute, a nonprofit interdisciplinary scientific research institute with which he’s affiliated.

Don’t bother making any offers for my typewriter. It doesn’t work very good anymore and its hard to find ribbons. But I still have a lot of fond memories of the service it did provide for many, many years. Come to think of it, I may still have that electric in the attic if you want to make a bid on that. Anything up to and including $20,000 will be considered.

Meet Flora Vastine

2009-11-30T05:41:00.000-08:00

Flora Vastine warranted no more than a few paragraphs in Something in Common, the first of the Sticks Hetrick mysteries.

Of course she wasn’t a police officer then and was only filling a minority role in that novel. In fact, I didn’t even see her as a recurring character at the time. In Cruel Cuts I had need of both another protégé for Hetrick and a love interest for Corporal Harry Minnich. Flora, who had expressed interest in a police career in the first novel, fit the requirements for both needs.

Hetrick was still mourning the loss of his wife Sarah and I didn’t anticipate his falling in love with some one else at that point (though he almost did succumb to the charms of old friend Melissa Kline). But I did believe a little romance was necessary to broaden interest in what I now envisioned as an ongoing series. Even in the darkest of crime novels characters need to have interest in a little more than just catching the villain in order to be fully developed. Flora and Harry were the obvious choices for my purpose.

Since then Flora has become a major player. In fact, she warrants nearly as much space in Corruption’s Child as does Hetrick. And she’s equally important in Being Someone Else (awaiting publication).

Flora is young and energetic. She has enthusiasm and genuinely cares about other people. Occasionally she makes mistakes and gets in trouble. All of which make her very human.

The Generative Factor

2009-11-21T05:25:00.000-08:00

What do Michael Connelly and I have in common?

Now I see some head-scratching as some of my friends try making the comparison. I’ll make it easy for you. We share a number of things in common.

We’re both natives of Pennsylvania. We’re both male. We both write mysteries (okay, his are better known and sell far in excess of mine). We’re both former reporters and worked the crime beat. We both knew early on we wanted to be writers. Our interest in the subject was sparked by our youthful reading.

Enough with the comparisons. I could have as easily chosen a number of other writers born in Pennsylvania—John Dickson Carr (master of the locked room mystery and a favorite in my early introduction to the genre), John D. MacDonald or the noir master David Goodis. For my purpose, I could as well have chosen a number of admirable women writers born in the Keystone State: Jane Haddam, Lisa Scottoline, Martha Grimes or even Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Place of birth is of no consequence in making a writer. Nor is gender. Those are matters over which none of us has control. What does actually contribute to our becoming writers, though, is our early reading, our life experience, our association with other people. This mix, which may or may not be augmented by educational experience, is the generative factor.

Whether we succeed depends as much on persistence as on background. There are many others with similar circumstances who set out to become writers and gave up because they weren’t willing to persevere.

That, my friends, is the telling ingredient.

Meet Aaron Brubaker

2009-11-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

Aaron Brubaker is the police chief of Swatara Creek in my Sticks Hetrick mystery series.

Though they’ve become closer in later books, Brubaker is both a little jealous and suspicious of Hetrick. Though he has more than 20 years in law enforcement, he readily acknowledges the former chief has something he lacks.

“Most of the time, Brubaker liked his job as police chief of the town of Swatara Creek. It entailed a certain amount of power and gave him respect he’d never expected to have. Normally he faced nothing more taxing than handing out parking tickets and dealing with occasional Saturday night drunks and mischievous kids.” (from Something In Common, Whiskey Creek Press, 2006)

But when it came to murder, he felt out of his depth. It was for that reason he called Hetrick in as a special consultant on their first joint case in Something In Common. Hetrick had dealt with murder, both as a police chief and earlier in his career as a state trooper. Still, Brubaker wanted the arrangement kept between them. His was a political appointment. He didn’t want those supervisors thinking he wasn’t up to the job.

Brubaker is a good, honest man; a good family man, and a good cop. He has grown in the subsequent novels, Cruel Cuts and Corruption’s Child. But even in the fourth novel in the series (awaiting publication) he still harbors a suspicion Hetrick wants his old job back.

It's All in the Imagination

2009-10-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

“And as the imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.”

That stanza from Shakespeare defines for me the act of literary creation. I would carry it another step forward to define a particular literary form—that of the horror tale. A story in the Oct. 28 edition of the Washington Post had a round up of favorite horror stories of some well known authors. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102703745.html

What constitutes a horror story is a subjective matter. What chills me might leave you cold and vice versa. I contend a central factor must be an element that is fear-inspiring. To quote Shakespeare again from that same noble work:

“Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!”

It’s all to do with the imagination, baby. Webster defines fear as apprehension of evil or danger; dread; anxiety. All conditions deriving from our imagination.

As I said, what gives me goose-bumps may bother you not a whit. I’m not afraid of snakes, but spiders give me the willies. I know others who are psyched out by clowns, monkeys and other critters most find innocuous.

It’s all in the imagination.

Frankly, I’ve had enough with the vampires. They’re too familiar to be scary anymore and few have come up to Stoker’s Dracula. And the slash and gore stuff so popular in film is (sorry fans) not horror.

Some tales that have frightened (and delighted me) would include Poe’s The Premature Burial, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and his Thrawn Janet (despite the dialect), and W. W. Jacobs’ The Monkey’s Paw.

I’m sure you have your own list.

Welcome to Swatara Creek

2009-10-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

There is a Swatara Creek, but no town of that name in Pennsylvania. The Swatara Creek of which I write is solely the invention of this author, though it is representative of many of the older Susquehanna River towns that have become bedroom communities for the more metropolitan areas of the Commonwealth.

The Swatara Creek of which I write is the fictional home of Daniel ‘Sticks’ Hetrick, retired police chief of the community and now unofficial consultant to his less experienced successor, Aaron Brubaker.

The town sits on a promontory in a bend of the stream for which it is named. What follows is from Something In Common, first in the Hetrick mystery series:

“The town owes it existence to the descendants of one Jacob Koontz who acquired the land circa 1754 after immigrating from Germany. Tradition said the rise had been the site of an Indian village at some time before the coming of Koontz and there’s evidence to support the legend since it’s still possible to find an occasional flint arrowhead if one looks hard enough down on the flats along the creek after a hard spring rain. It was said Koontz went through two wives and produced a dozen children before he decided the land was not suited to farming; the soil being too shallow and brittle with shale to produce much more than the broom grass that already covered the land when he arrived.

“So old Koontz turned his attention to providing his neighbors in that misbegotten wilderness with what was missing, and what he felt was most needed in their empty lives. He opened the first tavern in the county in a large limestone building which stands yet today on the square, though it now serves as the village municipal building, police station and library. Koontz’s enterprise flourished and led, naturally, to the distilling of whiskey.

“Thus from a simple pot still behind the tavern came the industry that gave birth to the village, which was known for generations afterward as Koontztown. His descendants grew rich and fat and complacent and Koontz Rye Whiskey became a favored brand in that area of the state and was even shipped as far away as Connecticut. By the 1800s, the distillery now located down on the flat provided employment for some two hundred men who resided with their families in the town, and the railroad even built a spur line up along the creek to service the plant. If things had continued as they were, the place might still be Koontztown. But after Prohibition closed down the distillery, the town was in danger of dying and would have had it not been for the arrival of LeRoy Finkbine who purchased the empty distillery and established his shoe factory, which provided employment for those who remained in the moribund community.”

(Next time, Aaron Brubaker)

Meet Sticks Hetrick

2009-10-23T05:53:00.000-07:00

Daniel “Sticks” Hetrick is the lead character in a mystery series named for him. Though he’s the primary, there’s a cast of continuing characters and I’ll be introducing others in coming weeks.

In the first novel in the series, Something In Common, Hetrick was introduced as the retired police chief of the rural community of Swatara Creek, Pennsylvania. His successor in the job, acknowledging his more limited experience, reluctantly opened the door for Hetrick to act as an unofficial consultant to the department. There is a continuing element of rivalry in their relationship, though they’ve become closer friends in the later novels.

In addition to his years with the local police department, Hetrick previously served with the state police. His retirement was precipitated by the illness and subsequent death of his wife, Sarah, as well as a feud between him and his political overseer. Both issues continue to haunt him and frequently result in personal conflicts.

Hetrick had been bored in retirement. The challenges of his new responsibilities and comradeship with Brubaker and, particularly, his protégés, Harry Minnich and Flora Vastine have given him a new lease on life.

In the second novel, Cruel Cuts, he renewed acquaintance with an old friend and nearly became romantically involved. Though it didn’t occur then, a new romantic possibility cropped up in the third novel, Corruption’s Child, in the person of Anita Baker. Will love change Hetrick? That remains to be seen.

I'LL TAKE 'MANHATTAN'

2009-10-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

Woody Allen. You either love or hate his work. There is no in-between.

Like most of his admirers I have my likes and dislikes in his oeuvre. I was thinking of this the other night as I watched a showing of Manhattan. The film is one of my favorites—right up there with the marvelous Hannah and Her Sisters and topping (in my prejudiced opinion) Annie Hall.

All three films have elements of the standard Allen themes and show a strong European rather than Hollywood influence. My ranking of favorites is more subjective than objective and the films, of themselves, are not the subject of this essay.

Rather I’m considering what a writer may learn from Allen. He is more than a screenwriter and director (possibly one of the best the country has produced). He has been a stand up comedian an actor and even a musician. But primarily he is a writer.

And because of that, we can learn from him. His films and other work have much to say about the importance of character development, about scenes and pacing, experimentation and the ultimate value of plot. Allen says he never titles a film until it’s finished because it may not end as he originally envisioned it.

With a repertoire of more than 50 films, two Oscars and 14 other nominations you would think the man would be confident in his expectation of success. You’d be wrong. And that’s not a reflection of his famous neurotic tendencies. As he said in a recent interview, each film is independent of the others and a new trial-by-experience adventure.

And that’s one of the most important things we can learn from him—each story, each book, each whatever it is you’re writing provides a new challenge to be met and should be treated as such.

Tempted To Idleness

2009-10-13T06:17:00.000-07:00

Despite all the devices intended to make our lives easier it never fails to amaze me how many people complain of a lack of time to accomplish all they want to do. I can’t claim to exempt myself here, for I’ve made the same complaint often enough.

Yet, when you compare our lives, it’s astonishing how much people lacking our conveniences accomplished in the past.

Take Dickens, as an example. The man was a veritable fountain of energy. In a life of less than 60 years he penned 20 novels—many of them initially produced as weekly or monthly serials—none of which has ever gone out of print. He would often start one novel while halfway through another and in the midst of continuous journalism. Add to that three short story collections, numerous other short stories, non-fiction, poetry and plays.

And, at the same time, he was heavily involved in social reform efforts, doing public readings, engaged in family and social life and having a secret fling with a young mistress. Nor was he a sedentary creature. He was an energetic walker, often going more than 10 miles a day.

Dickens is only one example of many. There are many similar cases to be found in biographies of writers, artists and other notables of the past. There are lessons to be learned from their example.

What has happened to us? Are we so distracted by our conveniences and entertainment devices we willingly surrender our creativity to their temptation?

Gift Suggestions

2009-10-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

With the holidays fast approaching, it’s a good time to consider gift ideas for family and friends (or yourself, should you be so inclined). I’d be remiss if I didn’t suggest one of my novels as a viable choice.

I’m taking a hint from my friend Margaret Blake and offering the following blurbs as enticement. (you can read Margaret’s blurbs here: http://www.larkjournals.blogspot.com/)

My blurbs:

WATCH THE HOUR
Ben Yeager is a police officer, sworn to protect property of mine owners in the 1870s in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region. His job makes him the enemy of the Irish. And that’s the crux of his troubles. For Ben is in love with an Irish girl. (Published by Whiskey Creek Press and available in both print and electronic form)

CORRUPTION’S CHILD
Retired police chief Daniel ‘Sticks’ Hetrick, still serving as unofficial consultant to his less experienced successor, has another murder to solve in rural Swatara Creek, PA. It soon develops the death of a local waitress is not the only trouble in the township. An elderly man has been seriously injured in the latest of a string of burglaries from the Amish and items are missing from the police department evidence room. (Whiskey Creek Press, third in the series)

THE ACCIDENTAL SPY
Wounded and on the run from a sheriff, Dandy Dan McCracken, a rogue wandering around Pennsylvania and living by his wits during the American Revolution, is rescued and nursed back to health by the lovely ward of Benedict Arnold’s procurement officer in Philadelphia. McCracken is attracted to the girl, but when her husband returns from the front, he flees and falls in with a band of British spies. Love will have him discover his conscience, switch sides and become a hero. (Lachesis Publishing)

CRUEL CUTS (second in the Hetrick mystery series)
When a rash of animal mutilations plague a rural Pennsylvania community and a vicious poison pen campaign targets an ambitious young lawyer, it leads to murder. Dan “Sticks” Hetrick, retired police chief, and Flora Vastine, a novice officer, team up and encounter false leads, dangerous episodes and another murder before the case is resolved. (Whiskey Creek Press)

SOMETHING IN COMMON (first in the Hetrick series)
A lonely widow finds the severed head of an unknown young woman on her front porch in a quiet, rural community. In seeking her identity, retired Police Chief Daniel “Sticks” Hetrick discovers a link to a major theft of rare ornithological books and a trail that leads from the big city to his hometown where he is forced to confront danger and the darker side of his community and residents. (Whiskey Creek Press)

ST. HUBERT’S STAG
An elderly man hoping for one last deer hunt forces himself and his family to confront secrets that have separated them from one another and the truth for years. (iUniverse)

SCHLUSSEL’S WOMAN
Early in the 19th century, expanding markets for Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal created a smaller scale prelude to the California gold rush. Many who flocked to the region were ambitiously ruthless in pursuit of this ‘black gold.’ Captain Isaac Schlussel is typical of the breed. When he’s felled by an assassin’s bullet his greed provides a multitude of suspects who are introduced in chapters which flash back and forth in time to reveal his history and his obsession with the beautiful woman who is both his wife and the unintentional source of his downfall. (iUniverse)

Don't 'Vook' Now

2009-10-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

For many of us who grew up before the days of television a book was an opportunity to step into another world. Books were entertainment, education, friends that never let one down.

Of course not everyone in that time shared my enthusiasm for reading. There were probably more readers then than now. But it would be wrong to infer everyone read just because there was no TV or other distraction. And those of us who like to read continued to do so even as opportunity for visual entertainment expanded.

As Ruskin so aptly phrased it, “No book is worth anything which is not worth much; nor is it serviceable, until it has been read, and re-read, and loved, and loved again; and marked, so that you can refer to the passages you want in it.” I’ve known books like that.

Film (which I love) and television have their value. But they’re a different style of entertainment/education and can’t replace reading for the true aficionado.

Unfortunately the visual trend and a faster lifestyle inevitably led to drastic changes in reading. People lost patience with lengthy books. They wanted everything in a hurry. We saw the adoption of speed-reading and condensed novels—a true travesty to my mind. If an author wanted us to skip words and passages wouldn’t he have written a shorter book?

Novels especially are not for speed-reading. They require attention, devotion to the beauty of words, even rare and unusual words, a willingness to accept the author’s eccentricities as a different way of looking at things. They were not meant to be fast food for the brain but a meal to be savored.

I don’t have a problem with electronic novels. I’ve even published some. They’re still books, even though they can never replace an actual tome held in the hand for the true believer.

But now I read this morning Simon & Schuster is teaming up with a multi-media partner to produce something called a “vook,” which intersperses videos with text—a nod to those incapable of visualizing. Has imagination truly been stifled to that extent?

I share the disdain of Walter Mosley, who said he would never allow videos to substitute for prose. “Reading is one of the few experiences we have outside of relationships in which our cognitive abilities grow,” Mosley said.

Endorse Your Freedom to Read

2009-09-23T05:59:00.000-07:00

Banned Books Week is being observed Sept. 26-Oct. 3.

This celebration should have the support of every writer and reader. Particularly in a time when libraries across the nation are closing because of lack of funding and schools, libraries, bookstores and, yes, publishers are being assailed with bans and challenges to our freedom to read.

The community where I grew up didn’t even have a library until I was in high school. Fortunately my father had a good selection of books and I was free from an early age to read whatever I wanted. I absorbed everything from Edgar Rice Burroughs and Zane Grey to Herman Melville and Miguel de Cervantes.

People and groups challenge books for a variety of reasons. Often those challenges are based on the slimmest foundations, on prejudice, on hearsay and other false premises. I remember when the film based on Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel The Last Temptation of Christ there was an outcry to have both the book and the film banned. It wasn’t the first time the book had been challenged. As a reporter, I did a story on the issue. I didn’t find a single person who endorsed the ban who had actually read the book.

How can you judge a book you haven’t read? If you want, any book may be deemed offensive to someone. Does that mean it should be taken off the shelves and burned? I hope not. I just looked at this week’s New York Times list of top 10 bestsellers. There are only one of two on that list I’d care to read. Would I want the others banned? Absolutely not. Tastes and choice vary.

A long time ago Sir Thomas Overbury wrote “Books are a part of man’s prerogative.” I agree and I don’t believe any man, woman or group has the right to dictate what another can or can’t read.

The national celebration was launched in 1982 and is sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores. Banned Books Week is also endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.

More information is available here http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/info.html

How to Grab a Reader

2009-09-11T06:08:00.000-07:00

A recent discussion by a writer group focused on how readers choose and read a book.

Several participants who have worked in bookstores commented on their observance of readers and noted they seldom made a judgment based on the first few pages of a book. Instead they seemed to observe the cover, read the back cover blurb and then examine pages “within” the book. Most of us were surprised to learn judgment was not based on the first few pages of a book.

There seems to be a lesson here for us writers on how to grab a reader. Presentation is important. And writing should be consistently good throughout a book.

A more important issue to me in the discussion was how readers read. Many contend they skim books, ignore the boring parts and don’t like books that are lengthy. The comments didn’t surprise me, many of the participants being from the speed-reading and television generation.

As a writer and reader, I abhor the idea of skimming. Speed-reading may allow one to get through more books in less time. But are they being enjoyed and digested? Aside from the fact the author’s hard work is being minimized, the reader doesn’t have/take the time to savor all the work has to offer.

As to the boring parts—what might they be? Elmore Leonard’s classic advice to writers is to “leave out the boring parts.” But he never defines what those might be. There is a difference between writing good narrative and padding. There are readers who don’t like lengthy description. Others do. That’s a personal choice. This does not necessarily mean one writer who uses description is less than another. I like and read both Dickens and Hemingway. I know of several popular writers who pen beautiful prose but their characters and plot leave me cold. I don’t read them. Again, that’s a personal choice.

The same applies to the length of a book. I’ve enjoyed novels that barely topped a hundred pages and others approaching a thousand pages. What they had in common was a good story.

What it all boils down to is readers (like writers) are different. You can’t please everyone. You’ve just got to do the best you can.

The Grim History of a Struggle

2009-09-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

Labor Day, which was instituted in 1882 in honor of the working man and labor movement, got me thinking about the labor movement and how much of its history connects to my home state of Pennsylvania.

One of the first unions in the U.S. was formed by shoemakers in Philadelphia in 1794. The Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers succeeded in securing moderate wage increases for its members for a number of years. But when they initiated a strike for higher wages in 1805 organizers were indicted on charges of conspiracy.

Eight union leaders were brought to trial. After three days of testimony, the jury found them guilty and they were fined $8 each (the equivalent of a week’s wages) plus the costs of the suit.

The law established by this trial, that unions were illegal conspiracies, remained in effect until 1842 when Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled in a Massachusetts case they were legal entities with the right to organize strikes.

Much of the action in the so-called Great Railroad Strike of 1877 took place here in Pennsylvania. The worse violence in that strike occurred in Pittsburgh where more than 40 people were killed. Another 16 civilians were shot down by militia in Reading. On July 25, 1877, here in my hometown of Shamokin, 1,000 men and boys, predominately coal miners, marched on the Reading Railroad Depot when it was announced they would be paid only a dollar a day for emergency public employment. A vigilante group organized by the mayor, a mine owner, killed two and injured 14 of the protesters.

Speaking of miners, Irish laborers were the core of militant union activism in response to drastic wage cuts in the 1860s and 1870s. Franklin Gowen, president of the Reading Railroad, which owned many of the biggest mines, focused blame primarily on the Molly Maguires, a secret Irish organization. Historians today disagree on the legitimacy of those charges which led to the hanging of 20 men. My novel, Watch The Hour, was partially inspired by tales of the Mollies I heard growing up in the coal region.

In 1892, a strike by Carnegie steelworkers resulted in more violence and deaths in Homestead, Pa. And on Sept. 10, 1897 a sheriff’s posse killed 19 unarmed miners and wounded 30 more in what is now known as the Lattimer Massacre near Hazleton.

As recently as the 1970s I interviewed a principal investigator of the murder of Joseph Yablonski and his family by assassins in retaliation for Yablonski’s unsuccessful attempt to unseat W. A. Boyle, president of the United Mine Workers. In the 1980s, I met and interviewed a son of Lech Walesa, who led the organization of Solidarity in Poland, one of the principal figures of unionism in the 20th century.

I’ve never belonged to a union. Both my parents did. My father worked on the railroad and my mother in the textile industry. Though I’ve witnessed many labor organizations becoming as greedy as the industrialists who fomented their necessity, I think it’s important we recognize Labor Day as more than just an excuse for the last picnic of the summer.

Does Height Influence Crime?

2009-08-31T05:49:00.000-07:00

In researching for my newspaper column on local history I came across an article about a psychological study conducted in 1934 at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania.

The article was of interest for several reasons. One, because the penitentiary involved is in my home territory. Another was because of the quirky nature of the some of the results reported in the study.

The examination involved some 800 inmates and was conducted by the Public Health Service under the leadership of Dr. Michael J. Pescor. Dr. Pescor was a respected clinician who developed a reputation as an authority on criminology and drug addiction.

The study at Lewisburg used as its basis a personality test originated by Professor R. E. Woodworth of Columbia University. To quote the report: “Every phase of the prisoner’s life before his entrance to the penitentiary is unfolded as the doctor puts pertinent questions to him which bring out his psycho-neurotic tendencies. They delve into the prisoner’s family history, his medical record, his experience in early childhood, and even ask him to what degree he can tolerate offensive odors.”

The study found that a majority of the prisoners gave answers about the same as ordinary citizens, except “…most worry easily, are irritable, have little or no sense of humor, and complain often of a bodily pain which does not exist in reality.”

Personally, I’d say those exceptions were pretty broad, though they might have been influenced by the fact of incarceration. The study also appears not to have taken into consideration the possibility the men were lying or boasting in response to some questions.

Regarding those inmates who were found to be emotionally unstable, the report said these were primarily composed of habitual criminals, chronic drunkards and men who had a disrupted home life before they were 16. Nearly all blamed their trouble on drinking.

Here’s the conclusion I found most interesting: “This group (the emotionally unstable) averages about an inch less in height than the stable group, and also average slightly more than seven pounds less in weight.”

So, does being short in height and light in weight indicate a propensity for a life of crime?

A Good Translation

2009-08-25T06:27:00.000-07:00

Some books fail in translation to the screen. The same is true of plays. One notable exception is Anthony Shaffer’s “Sleuth.”

I watched the 2005 film version last night and found it a superb bit of nasty entertainment. This was the remake of the 1972 film and I’m not commenting here on that version which stands on its own. This version’s success is primarily due to the scripting by Harold Pinter and the marvelous performance of Michael Caine and Jude Law. Kenneth Branagh's cinematography deserves a plug, also.

Caine plays the role played by Sir Laurence Olivier in the 1972 film and Law that played by Caine in the previous version.

Whether you agree with Pinter’s politics or not, no one can deny the man was a master wordsmith. He turned out 32 stage plays, 22 screenplays, numerous TV scripts and won the Nobel for literature in 2005.

There’s no denying Caine and Law are among the best of modern performers and both are in top form in this film.

In brief, Caine plays Andrew Wyke, an aging mystery writer, whose wife has left him for a younger man (Law). Law portrays Milo Tindle, a struggling actor and part-time waiter (or is it, hairdresser, as Wyke asserts?). Wyke has invited Tindle to his high-tech country mansion to discuss their situation. Tindle accepts, hoping to convince Wyke to grant his wife a divorce. Wyke is more interested in playing mind games, which become more and more dicier as they proceed.

Caine/Wyke wins the first round. Law/Tindle the second. Like the play, this adaptation is built on three acts, each raising the stakes for the protagionists. The whole is decidedly a dark and nasty bit. But, for my money, worth the price of admission.

Killer Nashville

2009-08-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity last weekend to attend the 4th annual Killer Nashville mystery writers' conference. I was fortunate earlier in winning a competition sponsored by Tony Burton's Crime and Suspense magazine, which paid my registration fee.

Accompanied by my 17-year-old grandson, Michael, we drove to Tennessee (more than 800 miles one way), not knowing what to expect. Let me say right off the top, it was worth the effort.

The event attracts writers, filmmakers, publishers, agents and fans from across the nation and Canada. It includes programs on various phases of writing and publishing as well as seminars on investigative techniques and forensics by representatives of law enforcement agencies.This year’s guest of honor was New York Times best-selling writer J.A. Jance, author of four popular crime fiction series and winner of the American Mystery Award. She gave an interview and presentation Saturday followed by a book signing and dinner in her honor.

One of the key presenters this year was Lee Lofland, nationally acclaimed expert on police procedure and crime scene investigation, who conducted six sessions. I attended several of those, had opportunity to talk one-on-one with Lee and bought a copy of his book, "Police Procedure and Investigation."I also attended seminars on blood spatter, the mind of the psychopath, poisons and poisoners and another on the state of the publishing business.

Something I wasn't expecting to do (but enjoyed) was being a panelist on The Dark Muse: Inspiration and the Mystery Crime Writer. The panel was moderated by Philip Cioffari, filmmaker and author of "Catholic Boys." Others on the panel were Radine Trees Nehring, author of the Carrie McCrite mysteries, and Dr. A. Scott Pearson, author of the medical thriller, "Rupture."

Not only did I meet some people I've only corresponded with in the past--like Tony Burton, Chester Campbell and others--I talked to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agents, attorneys, a private investigator and many other writers.

In addition to all the writerly activities, I also spent some quality time with my eldest grandson and had dinner with Becky and Rick Crow, who drove in from Missouri to meet us. Becky and I share ancestry but had never met in person.

Killer Nashville

2009-08-09T05:35:00.000-07:00

In just a few days my grandson Michael and I will be on the road to Tennessee for Killer Nashville.

Michael, a budding musician, is anxious to see the Music City and agreed to be navigator/companion for the 'Old Guy' on this road trip. Neither of us have been to Nashville before, but we're eager for the adventure.

I won admission to the conference in a competiton held by Tony Burton's Crime and Suspense magazine. It's an opportunity to promote my books, smooze with other scribes (some of whom I know through correspondence but have not met personally), pitch an agent and editor and attend seminars on various writing and forensics subjects. I'm especially eager to attend some of those seminars being conducted by Lee Lofland, nationally acclaimed expert on police procedure and crime scene investigation. Guest of honor for the affair is J. A. Jance.

I've also been invited to participate in a panel, "The Dark Muse: Inspiration and the Mystery Crime Writer."

Another plus will be the chance to finally meet in person a family connection made through genealogical correspondence.

It should be an interesting couple of days.

Another Good Review

2009-07-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

A writer can't afford to ignore reviews. True, they are merely one person's opinion. But that solitary person might be the very one whose opinion drastically impacts on the future of the writer's career.

Naturally we all crave good reviews. Who doesn't prefer a pat on the shoulder to a kick in the butt? Still even a bad review (occasionally) can be helpful--pointing out to us the fallacy of a viewpoint, an error in judgment, a mistake in grammar. It might also inspire a fan to leap to our defense and tell the reviewer his/her opinion is hogwash.

When the good reviews come we are arrogant enough to leap up and shout, "Hey, look at this. This is why you should be buying my books." Nothing wrong with that either. There are a lot of books being published today. How else are we to get the reader's attention lest we brag a bit?

So, I'm going to do that now and encourage you all to see what Chris Speakman had to say about 'Corruption's Child,' third in my Sticks Hetrick mystery series. You can read her review at http://www.freewebs.com/chrischatreviews/2009corruptionchild.htm

A Harmful Philosophy

2009-07-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

B. F. Skinner, the apostle of Behaviorism, spent much of his life preaching a doctrine proven false by his own achievements.

A failed novelist whose philosophy is best known through a novel which is not a novel, his career was in opposition to the forces he contended shaped individual existence.

A native of Susquehanna, Pa., a small community with socio-economic similarities to my own area, Skinner rose from a background of limited opportunity to achieve prominence as an educator, psychologist, writer and inventor.

Yet his theories negate free will, viewing man as a mere robot reacting mechanically to the influence of environment. His views influenced generations of students and have engendered much harm to a world sorely in need of hope and reason.

Despite his own achievements, Skinner was blind to the human capacity for change and adaptability exemplified by those who continue to overcome bleak existence and monumental obstacles through imagination and perseverance. He denied the wonders of faith, optimism and creativity which are responsible for all that is marvelous about the creature called man.

He abandoned hope of achieving success as a writer of fiction when he decided he had nothing to say. Turning to the study of psychology, he forged a radical philosophy which was as much rooted in the Calvinistic religion he abandoned as a youth as it was in the discoveries of Pavlov he championed.

Skinner’s experimentation with rats and pigeons convinced him man could be similarly be influenced for behavioral modification. He failed to grasp that man’s superior brainpower makes him less susceptible to generic gratification and more capable of eccentric resistance to control devices.

He taught that man could be reshaped for a happier and more productive life only through a tightly controlled system of rewards and punishment. Apparently he was unable to achieve the proper balance of these influences in his own life for he is remembered by colleagues as an unhappy person.

His 1948 utopian novel “Walden Two,” which quickly became a textbook in colleges across the nation, is little more than a polemic for his theories.

The thesis he expressed later in life already had been formed when he abandoned literature at age 24. This is confirmed by a quote from his journal of the period: “I feel that greatness is merely the result of a happy combination of trivial influences, that the great man cannot help being great, the poor man cannot help being poor.”

A critique of the playwright Ibsen in Skinner’s readable autobiography “Particulars of My Life” might as easily be applied to him: “Philosophy deals with or rather plays with objects of its own creation. Ibsen was essentially a philosopher in his habits of thinking. The desire for order led him, as it leads all of his ilk, to defining, to delimiting, an aspect of life into a word and hence to deal with the word rather than the aspect.”

Had Skinner contemplated Carantouan, the magic hill of the Susquehannock Indians which can be seen from his hometown, he might have been led to speculate on a people who defied the limitations of a harsh environment and the encroachment of stronger enemies to create a rich and complex society uniquely their own.

Each person chooses whether to float passively with the stream or swim boldly against the current.

Encouraging Signs

2009-07-22T04:33:00.000-07:00

I had a signing for Watch The Hour yesterday at my hometown library. While sales were less than I might have hoped, I've had worse and consider any such opportunity worthwhile.

Though I'm a frequent visitors, I'm not usually in the library on a weekday morning. It was encouraging to see so many patrons utilizing the facility for a variety of purposes. I was especially happy to note the number of mothers (and some fathers) present and introducing their children to books and reading. How could a writer not rejoice in that?

I also spoke to several people engaged in genealogy, another major pursuit of mine. One of these was a young lady who came over to introduce herself, explaining she had previously contacted me by email on a genealogy issue. She has been working for some time on an expansive genealogy project dealing with some early prominent residents of our town and is a budding writer. She gave me her card and asked that I have a look at her on line project. I may have more to say on this later. For now, just say I found much to applaud in her enthusiasm and dedication to preserving history.

Busy, Busy

2009-07-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

I've neglected writing here the past few days in favor of--what else? Writing.

I've off to a good start on a yet unnamed mystery featuring Sylvester Tilghman, the country sheriff I mentioned here previously. He is demanding my attention, and that's not a bad thing. Where exactly he'll take me over the coming weeks is a matter of conjecture. But, at least for now, I'm enjoying the journey.

On another front, I've completed arrangements for a booksigning next Tuesday at the Shamokin-Coal Township Public Library--my hometown library.

I also had a call yesterday confirming a speaking engagement in October for the Susquehanna Valley Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. They've asked that I talk to them on the Mollie Maguires, a subject past study and research for the writing of Watch The Hour has amply prepared me to address.

A Worthy Endeavor

2009-07-08T05:33:00.000-07:00

Despite their less than affluent status, many writers devote energy and financial support to charitable projects.

An example of this is my friend Bob Bomboy who, since 2005, has been operating a free model railroading program called Saturday Trains in Bloomsburg PA. He is now expanding the program with the first ever hands-on railroad layout for wheelchair-bound children and adults. The program was recognized in the May issue of Classic Toy Trains magazine.

Simply creating the program for the benefit of handicapped children and adults is worthy of praise. But Bob is also using proceeds from his writing to support the project.

He's holding a book signing this Saturday from 1-3 p.m. at Waldenbooks in the Susquehanna Valley Mall, Selinsgrove PA. Proceeds from sales of his novel, Smart Boys Swimming in the River Styx, will benefit the project.

The novel, available on Amazon and from other major booksellers, centers around the Korean War and the tragic wreck of a troop train. The wreck is based on an actual event, one of the worst in American railroad history, which Bob remembers from his childhood.

If you happen to be in the neighborhood Saturday, stop by and support the project.

A Character Asserting Himself

2009-07-04T08:18:00.001-07:00

I recently wrote two short stories featuring a country sheriff named Tilghman. The first, “Dangerous to Mess With,” is in the current issue of Mysterical-E (he’s not identified by name in this story, but it’s him). The second has been submitted to another venue and the result awaits to be seen.

Tilghman is now demanding a book and the process has got under way.

Characters can be like that. They pop up, sometimes seemingly out of no where, in a writer’s imagination, develop personalities and go on to lead us into stories.

Tilghman’s grandfather was in my first novel, Schlussel’s Woman, and his father has a bit role in Watch The Hour. Maybe he thinks it’s a family prerogative to be one of my characters.

Some people believe plot to be the essence of story. I beg to differ. Every story begins and ends with character. Plot develops from character. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (a wonderful book, by the way) defines character as “An oddity. One who has a distinctive peculiarity of manner.”

We remember Sherlock Holmes, not the plot of individual stories in the series. Long John Silver. The Count of Monte Cristo. The Three Musketeers. Ripley. The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Need I go on?

Plot is nothing more than the path a character takes and which entails us to follow. Philip Roth said he begins a novel with a character in his predicament. Or as Lester Dent says in his famous formula, “Introduce the hero and swat him with a fistful of trouble.”

Seems like a sound plan to me.

Lead on Tilghman.

Learning From Film

2009-06-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

I recently watched the film “Heaven’s Gate” and was reminded how much a writer can learn from a film—even a bad one.

I’m sure Michael Cimino didn’t set out to make a bad film and may not consider this as broad a failure as history has judged it. Nonetheless, this 1980 blockbuster has been panned by hordes of critics—both professional and amateur; was a bust at the box office, contributed to the demise of United Artists and virtually destroyed the director/writer’s career.

Few books have had such a calamitous impact on their creators.

Personally I think it could have been a great film. I believe it was Cimino’s intent to make a great film (why aspire to anything less?). It had an ambitious and worthy premise: a historical incident in which wealthy cattle barons set out to slaughter immigrant settlers encroaching on their property, with government giving nod to the intent. The film had a stellar cast, much good dialogue, some beautiful music and poetic cinematography (though there were occasions when smoke and atmospheric effects made it difficult to see what was going on).

The major flaws in the mix were a lack of clarity in some important areas, scenes that contributed nothing to the flow of the work and an exhausting length.

The issue of clarity is the first lesson for the writer. The opening of the film devotes a good 20 minutes to the graduation of Kris Kristofferson and John Hurt from Harvard. It then flashes forward 20 years to Wyoming where the former is a lawman and the latter a drunken cattle rancher who can’t decide which side he’s on. Other than citing a previous relationship between the two men there appears little necessity for the lead in. It could have been handled with a simple bit of dialogue. I suspect Cimino’s intent in this and some other places was to parallel the privileged lives of the wealthy and the insecurity of the poor. If this was his good intention, it failed and served only to confuse most viewers. That was probably also the intent of the epilogue which, again, failed.

If you’re going to say something, say it clearly enough for all to get it. Symbolism is fine provided the symbols can be understood.

And, speaking of saying something, there’s the issue of mixed languages in a work. There’s a scene in this film where the immigrants assemble to decide whether to flee or fight. Apparently Cimino sought to be historically accurate but the lengthy period of babble is more annoying than enlightening. If introducing a foreign tongue, be sure the meaning is clear. Cormac McCarthy is good at this. When he has a passage in Spanish the action generally makes clear the message.

Now we come to scenes. There are several in this film that could have been cut with no loss to the project. For example it’s obvious Cimino loved the scene where characters dance on roller skates. Poetic—yes. But it contributes nothing to the forward movement of the plot. The time spent here could have been used to better advantage expanding on the major characters, who are all too thinly addressed. If you like a scene which does nothing to advance the tale save it for another day.

As to length, a story should only be as long as it takes to tell the tale. Make every word count.

A Cure For Crime

2009-06-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

As one who writes about the subject, I'm always interested in theories for reducing crime.

Dr. Arthur MacDonald offered an interesting one in address before Congress in 1903. His suggestion: eat more meat and potatoes.

Now before you jump to the conclusion he was a crank it should be noted MacDonald was a respected criminal anthropologist in the employ of the U.S. Bureau of Education. The author of numerous books and scientific papers, he was an advocate for the creation of an apparatus combining the pneumograph, psychogalvanometer and cardiospysmograph—what became the modern polygraph.

He was also a follower of the theories of Cesare Lombroso who believed criminals were born and could be identified by physical traits—profiling to the extreme.

As to meat and potatoes, the good doctor contended one of the reasons for an increase in crime was a decrease in their consumption and a tendency toward less solid and staple foods.

“The less cost of living and the increase of wealth, with the luxuries of the table,” he proclaimed, “have tended to over-eating, which, in connection with lack of exercise, has had its evil effects and doubtless produced an additional reaction on the nervous system. When the nerves are unstrung by overpressure the will may become weak, depression and pessimism set in and loss of self-control follow with its consequent abnormal actions leading on to crime and other social evils.”

In that same address to Congress MacDonald averred automobiles, electric cars and the telephone were equally to blame for the increase in crime, insanity, suicide and other forms of abnormality. He argued these inventions caused people to exercise less and think more. This, MacDonald said, puts an abnormal strain on the nervous system as compared with the muscular system. “States having the greatest intelligence and education also exceed in insanity, suicide, juvenile criminals, nervous diseases and paupers.”

So, if we want to reduce crime all we have to do is eat more meat and potatoes and stop thinking.

And you thought it was going to be difficult.

Miracles Do Happen

2009-06-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

Milagro.

There was probably a lot of head-shaking and muttering of “milagro,” Spanish for miracle, yesterday when the U.S. men’s national soccer team humbled Spain—the best team in the world. The Yanks scored a 2-0 victory on the field in South Africa.

This is a big achievement. It’s the first time Spain has been beaten since they were trumped by the Romanians back in 2006.

Except for dedicated fans, many Americans won’t even have noticed this stunning achievement. Soccer still isn’t a big draw for sports fans in many parts of this country, at least not on a par with football, baseball, basketball and, even, golf (a boring sport). Why this should be is beyond me.

In my neck of the woods, football (American version) is THE SPORT. Personally, I’ve always considered it BORING. I mean, how can you get excited about big guys bumping into one another? If they run 30 feet it’s an achievement. And then they call a time out so officials can measure how far the ball rolled. See what I mean? Boring.

I was introduced to soccer when I went to Asia. Now here, I thought, is a sport worth watching. It’s fast, it takes individual and team skill to maneuver the ball and it’s exciting. Did you notice, they’re not all padded up either.

I was thrilled to see interest in the sport growing in recent years. I can even see it on TV now. Two of my grandsons played one season in youth leagues, then they moved on to baseball and basketball. Nothing wrong with those sports. But, I have to admit, there was some disappointment on my part that they didn’t want to stick with soccer longer.

I’m the only one in my circle of family and friends who cares about soccer. I get mystified stares when I mention Altidore, Dempsey or Bocanegra. That’s okay. I’ll keep hoping for another milagro Sunday when the U.S. goes up against Brazil in the finals.

Background For a Novel

2009-06-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

Fleeing famine and brutal oppression, more than a million Irish refugees flocked to the United States between 1846-1855. It's been estimated 44 percent of immigrants to the U.S. in that period were Irish.

They couldn't have picked a worse time to come. The nation was coming up of one economic downturn and about to enter another. The majority of the immigrants were Roman Catholic and anti-Papist sentiments boiled up in tandem with the economic panic. Newspapers of the period are full of examples of anti-Catholic/Irish sentiment, including cartoons depicting them as savages and animals.

Many of the Irish found their way to Pennsylvania's anthracite coal region where they encountered some of the worst exploitation and hatred. Wayne Broehl in his excellent "The Molly Maguires" says, "All the past hatreds and slights came welling up again, and the mining patches were quickly divided, physically and socially, along ethnic lines. Soon the Irish turned to protective societies."

The subject of the Molly Maguires is controversial today with many refusing to believe there was such an organization or that its members were guilty of the crimes of which they stood accused. There is a possibility many more attrocities were attributed to them than did exist. But the organization's existence is documented and people do have a tendency to strike back at oppression.

It's against this backdrop I've set my novel "Watch The Hour." Benjamin Franklin Yeager is a coal company police officer who does his best to follow orders while trying to be fair to the workers whose lot he sees as little different from his own. Despite his efforts at fairness, Yeager's job makes him the enemy of the Irish. And that's the crux of his troubles. For Ben is in love with an Irish girl.

You can read an excerpt from the novel here http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/chapters/WatchTheHour_JRLindermuth.shtml

A Writer's System

2009-06-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

I'm reading Michener's "My Lost Mexico," which details how he began the novel "Mexico," abandoned the manuscript for 30 years, then came back to complete what became an international bestseller in 1992-93.

Ironically, though I admire Michener as one of Pennsylvania's stellar writers and have read much of his work and love Mexico, its history and culture, I've never read this particular novel. I can't really say why I've neglected this particular book, but I expect now I will have to read it.

The interesting part of MLM is how it provides insight into Michener's writing process. He was a prodigious researcher and a hard worker. He often spent 12-15 hours a day at his typewriter. He was a genius at plot construction. Yet his lengthy, complex novels came together on the barest of outlines. The examples he gives of his outlining in this book show that the term to him might be as simple as a single word defining the 'outline' of a chapter. Other elements he refers to as 'outlining' include drawings and photographs which he used to focus his imagination.

He also talks about "the persistence of memory" and how his books tended to influence one another in symbiotic ways.

I may have more to say about this book later.

I should also note that although I've read and enjoyed much of Michener's fiction I particularly love some of his non-fiction. Some favorites in this category include "Rascals in Paradise," "The Floating World" and "Iberia."

A Successful Signing--Sort Of

2009-06-19T04:57:00.000-07:00

I suppose many writers find promotion the most difficult part of the business. That's why God created agents and publicists, isn't it?

It takes courage to face potential readers and tell them why they should choose our books from among the multitude available to them. It's not that we're not conceited enough to think our words should take precedence. The problem is many of us are more introverted than extroverted and find it easier to face the keyboard rather than people. Where is that publicist, damn it?

I shared the bully-pulpit last night with another writer at the historical society where I'm librarian. We were both to speak. He being the guest, I graciously urged him to go first. (I wasn't just being nice; I needed more time to get psyched.) A former teacher, my friend had no problem facing the audience and speaking extemporaneously about his book.

My turn came and I felt reasonably confident. Rather than focusing directly on my book I thought I'd give some consideration to the reason the Irish flocked to Pennsylvania's coal region and the exploitation and bigotry they faced, which are themes of my novel. I'd just started on my spiel when my mobile rang. I'd forgotten to turn it off. My daughter was calling to see how things were going. Well, that shot my nerves and I stumbled through my presentation.

At the signing which followed I was surprised to find my listeners didn't think I did half as bad as I thought I had. In fact, a number said they enjoyed my talk. The signing went well and we both sold books.

And, before the night was over, I had a commission for another speaking engagement.

Life is wrought with surprises.

Signing Coming Up

2009-06-16T06:44:00.000-07:00

I have a signing coming up on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Northumberland County Historical Society, 1150 N. Front St., Sunbury PA.

This will be the first for Watch The Hour and I'll be joined by Barry McFarland, author of The Northumberland Man, which is a non-fiction book about his ancestor who immigrated from Ireland and was a success in the coal business. It should make an interesting contrast with my novel, which deals with the hardships of Irish immigrants in the anthracite coal region.

Watch The Hour has garnered three positive reviews to date and I've had good feedback from a number of readers.

I'm optimistic about this event.

Finding a Fortune

2009-06-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

Rare is the person who hasn't dreamt of finding a fortune in the attic, a dusty over-looked relic destined to allay economic concerns.

Many youngsters, particularly boys, are intrigued by treasure tales. Most abandon interest with adulthood, though the dream persists in the American obsession with the pursuit of sudden fortune through lotteries and other games of chance.

I'm librarian of my county historical society and I admit we'd like to find a bonanza in our collections. Recently, members of a neighboring historical society did find one: a dusty copy of what they hoped might be an original 18th century Poor Richard's Almanac.

While many doubted its authenticity, the Berwick PA society submitted the almanac to Sotheby's in New York. On Tuesday, June 9, an anonymous bidder paid $556,500 for the 1733 relic--the second highest ever paid for a book printed in America.

How's that for luck?

Need I say we at our historical society are envious. But, with tight funding plaguing all such institutions, we also applaud their good fortune.

Curiosity, the Key to Creativity

2009-06-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

In his book 'Creativity, Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention' Mihaly Csikszentmihaly stresses the cultivation of curiosity as vital to creativity.

I'm convinced, curiosity is a major ingredient in the process.

We're born with an ample portion of curiosity. Children come equipped with a natural curiosity which enhances the ability to learn. Though curiosity got the proverbial cat in trouble, there can be no learning and, hence, no creativity without it. Curiosity is the seed from which all invention flowers.

Csikszentmihaly offers some advice on cultivating curiosity in our daily lives.

1.Try to be surprised by something every day. He suggests looking at the world around us in a new way. Being open to new experiences. Exploring.
2.Try to surprise at least one person every day. Break from routine. Don't be predictable. Try something new and see where it leads.
3.Write down each day what surprised you and how you surprised others. This is intended to provide opportunity for reflection on the new experiences and to help see where they might lead.
4.When something strikes a spark of interest, follow it. This is where curiosity comes into full play.

Curiosity provides an adventurous outlook, the ability to take chances and risk falling on one's face in the name of experimentation. That, my friends, is creativity.

Bookland Heights

2009-06-08T05:16:00.001-07:00

I'm guest today, Tuesday and Wednesday at Bookland Heights, http://www.booklandheights.blogspot.com

Information about my books is available and visitors will have an opportunity to learn more about me and my writing, ask questions and leave comments.

I'm looking forward to the interaction (I hope) with curious readers and potential readers.

Am I On A Winning Streak?

2009-06-06T05:51:00.000-07:00

While attending an art auction in March I won a drawing for an original print by French/Brazilian artist Linda Le Kinff. I like her lush, colorful work and was pleased but took the win as a once and done pleasant experience.

Then, in May, I was informed I'd won a copy of Dianne Ascroft's novel "Hitler and Mars Bars" in another drawing. The following week came an email from publisher Tony Burton notifying me I've won a drawing for admission to the Killer Nashville writers' conference in August.

Two days later I received a $20 gift certificate for Amazon as a winner in The Keeper Game, which is being used to promote my friend Natasha Mostert's new novel, "Keeper of Light and Dust," and I'm still in the running for the grand prize, choice of a Kindle or a pair of boxing gloves.

By this time I'm thinking maybe I should invest in a lottery ticket and see if I can win enough to support my writing and travel without economic concern.

By the way, if you want to try your luck at The Keeper Game, here's the link: www.thekeepergame.com

Selling Yourself

2009-06-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

Some creative people like to think they're different from business people.

That may work if you chose to live in an ivory tower and don't care about selling your product. If you want the world (customers) to value your work, then you must develop a business attitude. That's especially true in today's competitive market.

Take writing, for instance. Bowker statistics reveal 560,626 new books were published in 2008. That works out to 1,532 books a day. That's a lot of competition. The big name writers receive a lot of help from their publishers and their established reputation. If a newbie wants to compete in that marketplace, he/she must take efforts to stand out from the crowd.

How do we achieve that? We begin by producing the best product we can. Second, we seek every possible opportunity to promote our product and make it known to potential customers. Most important, we must cultivate an attitude of success.

As Cervantes so eloquently put it: "The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the son of his own works."