If not now, when?

Sharon Wildwind

Every year, during the first week in June, the province of Alberta celebrates Seniors’ Week. Many cities have special events for older adults, and I was fortunate to attend a marvelous one last week. It was called Celebration of Creative Aging Symposium.
Here are some notes from material presented at that symposium by Susan Perlstein. She founded Elders Share the Arts in New York City, and is currently the Director of Education and Training at the National Centre for Creative Aging in Washington, D.C.

Creativity is scary as well as having a lot of positive values. The arts are deep play. Current brain research shows that as people age, both sides of the brain integrate. Younger people tend to be more right-brained or left-brained, but older people are whole-brained. One surprising thing that brain research has shown is that when the brain is stimulated with real creativity, brain tissue grows more dendrites, that is, the brain reserve gets larger. The immune system also grows stronger.

In North America, the shift from a negative, medical model of aging into what can older people offer has happened since 2000. Elders Share the Arts (New York City) started by collecting stories and transforming them into all art forms. This grew into the first landmark research on creativity and aging in the US. The research was carried out between 2001 and 2005.

What the results of the study showed was that the health of older people involved in creative artistic expression group improved significantly in all areas. They:
• lived longer
• visited the doctor less often
• took fewer medications
• incurred less health care costs
• had fewer falls
• increased their visual acuity, if they were engaged in visual arts
• had more friends and social contacts
• increased their sense of mastery and control over their lives, even in non-art areas
• had increased confidence
• increased their ability and willingness to problem-solve and locate and use resources
• experienced less depression
• appeared to have a deceased risk for entering long-term care

In addition to providing previously unavailable research data, another goal of the research was to prepare material to present at the 2005 White House Conference on Aging in order to influence the revision of the Older Americans’ Act. This included a 40-state grass roots movement to bring arts and artists to the conference. Both the research and the grass roots movement was successful and a statement that “Older people have the right to access the arts” became part of the Older Americans’ Act.

The National Centre for Creative Aging, www.creativeaging.org, also came out of that research. They continue to promote art projects for older people, and in 2007 they developed a Creativity Matters Toolkit, which is available for purchase, as well as a free Internet newsletter, and training programs for artists to work with older people. Their goal is to pair as many senior’s programs as possible to arts organizations on the local, state, and national level.

Total respect for life experiences is the base and heart of artistic programs for seniors. These are not “keep busy” projects. We are talking professional art instruction, public performances and art exhibits, and social integration into a multi-generational group.

Stop thinking of arts for older people as follow-the-dot kits, sing-alongs, etc. where all the person has to do is slap on some paint or try to remember the words to old songs. Real creativity starts with the blank page, the lump of clay, a drum, or an empty stage.

Stop using bland, non-controversial subjects, such as having older people paint a bunch of flowers on a table. Tap into the individual and cultural heritage that every older person has and allow art to grow out of the richness of that heritage.

Real artists deserve real working space, and real display space. Stop thinking of art for older people in terms of “Art Corners” furnished with second-hand furniture and third-hand, close-out-sale art supplies, where finished projects are Scotch-taped or pinned to a bulletin board with thumbtacks. Get artists into real art studios, real performance spaces. Mount the pictures, frame them, and display them in galleries. Put actors, poets, musicians, and writers on stage. Make CDs. Do desk top publishing. Organize living history festivals and present them in real venues.

Think partnerships. It’s not a matter of corporations or governments making a donation and walking away. Close the circle by taking the art back to those same organizations in the form of art displays, performances, etc.

Train people already working with older adults in the arts; train artists in working with older people.

Form intergenerational liaisons and projects whenever possible. Connect to local school curricula and build artist/school links, such as linking a seniors’ centre and a school in the same neighborhood.

If you want a look at some older people totally immersed in their art, I recommend both of these films, which were shown as part of the Edmonton festival.

Do Not Go Gently: the power of imagination in aging
http://www.donotgogently.com
2007, 57 minutes, US production, narrated by Walter Cronkite.
Explores the thoughts of older artists and others involved in creative aging. How important is imagination to the experience of being human? What are the most inventive artists expressing at a very old age? And why? This is a very powerful film, featuring:
• Arlonzia Pettaway, 84, quilter from Gees Bend, Alabama.
• Frederick Franklin, 93 ballet artist, who’s still dancing and teaching younger dancers
• Leo Ornstein, over 100, musical composer and pianist
• Several groups around the US, which offer artistic programs for their senior members

Still Kicking
www.goldenbearcasting.com
2006, 35 minutes, US production
Amy Gorman invited Frances Kandl to journey with her throughout the San Francisco Bay Area searching for female role models—very old women, still active artists, living with zest. While Amy chronicles their oral histories, Frances is inspired to compose songs for several of these women, many well past 90, culminating in concerts celebrating lives liberated by age. Artists featured:
• Frances Catlett, 95, painter
• Ann Davlin, 93, dance and piano teacher
• Madeline Mason, 101, doll maker
• Elsie Otaga, 91, ikebana artist
• Grace Gildersleeve, 95, rug weaver
• Lily Hearst, 108, pianist
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Writing quote for the week:

If you don’t have a sense of wonder, you can’t create. Wonder begins when you ask a question to which there is no clear answer. The question and answer must flow through one another. The question must be the answer and the answer must be the next question.
~Ted Blodgett, City of Edmonton poet laureate

A Day in Chicago at Printer's Row

By Julia Buckley
We braved the rain and the El today to go to downtown Chicago and the Printer's Row Book Fair; I had a signing spot in the MWA booth for two lovely hours, before the rains came. My sherpa was my husband, a veteran of public transportation since his high school days. I, however, never quite took to the El; I find it about as comforting as riding on a rocket must be. There were times--far too many to count--when I complained to my co-passengers (my husband and two sons) that the train was rocking too much, hinting at derailment.

My husband scoffed at me. "Do you want me to notify the conductor that the El is jostling my wife?"

"Yes," I said.

Somehow we made it to Chicago, despite the fright of an El ride.
This futuristic subterranean hallway smelled vaguely of the elephant house at the zoo, but the boys found it exciting. I was just glad to be using my own feet as a form of locomotion.

We soon found, upon ascending into sunlight once again, that we had taken a train which left us rather far from our destination (Polk and Dearborn). So we walked and walked. I told my husband that he was not a very reliable Sherpa, to which he responded in most husband-like style that he simply would not be my guide next time, if that was how I felt.

A man visiting from Kentucky gave us instructions about how to find Polk Street. This is humiliating because A)We live fifteen minutes from the city and B)My husband has worked downtown all his life ("Just not that PART of downtown," he insisted).

It was so humid that even the pigeons were resting.
At long last we found our wonderful MWA booth; my table mate was Jess Lourey, and presiding over the whole event was MWA Midwest President Julie Hyzy, who is doing a terrific job as our leader, due to her unending effervescence. If you've met Julie, you know what I mean.
Jess and I hadn't met since Bouchercon 2006, but she was just as lovely and charming as ever--and she sold out every single copy the bookseller had of her Murder by Month mysteries. She is, apparently, a rising star in the mystery world.
Her head hasn't gotten too big with success, however; she was still willing to pass out flyers for the MWA tent before she made her nine hour drive back to Minnesota. After the two-hour stint that Jess and I shared in a humid glare, but with an occasional cooling breeze, the rain came sweeping in on poor Sam Reeves and Michael Black, the MWA stalwarts who manned the table next. I can only hope that they and their books weren't soaked by the torrents we watched out of our El car on the jostling journey home.

And by the way, it was a successful day for me, as well: I sold all but one of the copies of THE DARK BACKWARD; a most rewarding feeling. I even decided to give my Sherpa another chance. After all, he got me there and back in one piece.
Mystery Writer Jess Lourey approaches passersby with flyers for the MWA.

Weed Words

by Darlene Ryan

A couple of months ago Lynn Viehl had a great post about weed words—words that come up over and over (and over) in our writing. Most of us are probably guilty of overusing the same few descriptive words—really, terrific, great, wonderful, exciting and probably. What Lynn was talking about were object words. Things. She admitted to what she termed “my obsession with doors. You can tell when I've rushed too much on editing one of my novels because of the thirty or more door references in the story.” She also admitted to a fondness for water and window sills.

Sharon Wildwind says if she’s not vigilant her characters tend to shiver a lot. Janet Koch confesses in her last manuscript “I had people whirling and spinning all over the place. And lots of throats were mentioned--throats being cleared, breaths being caught in throats, fear rising in throats.”

My most persistent weed words are action words; hands running through hair, walking and very weirdly, vomiting. People in my books tend to have a lot of hair and they’re always running their hands through it. It makes sense that hair would show up a lot in my writing because I am a little hair obsessed. What I dream of is hair like Angelina Jolie’s or Jessica Simpson’s. What I have is hair like Clay Aiken circa the early American Idol days. Which my mother tried to remedy with a succession of Toni home perms. Picture Clay Aiken with an afro and you’ll get the picture. No wonder everybody in my books is always touching their gorgeous hair. (Note: the results of all those home perms have nothing to do with the actual Toni home perm and everything to do with the fact that my mother believed if twenty minutes would result in soft, gentle curls then forty minutes would yield fabulous, bountiful curls.)

All the walking that shows up in my writing has a certain logic as well. I walk a lot. I always have. What I can’t figure out is why my subconscious always has to have someone heaving in a book.

I never seem to see my weed words when a book is in manuscript form. When I’m doing re-writes I’m zealous about looking for the overuse of words such as probably, slowly, a lot and really. But I don’t seem to see the all the times a character is walking along pulling her hands through her hair. Or vomiting. Or maybe the truth is that I see them but every single occurrence seems essential to the story. At least at the time.

So what are your weed words? Do your characters whirl or shiver? Do you have a thing for hair? Or doors? Or queasiness?

TRENDY???

By Lonnie Cruse



Sandra Parshall recently blogged here about whether or not people enjoy reading the really graphic stuff. She also posted about it on a list or two of readers/writers, and she got quite a bit of discussion going. Coincidentally, members of the board of Sisters In Crime met with representatives of some well-known publishers to discuss what’s hot and what’s not. Apparently thrillers are, cozies aren’t. Okay, before you burn your completed cozy manuscript and rush to your computer to write a thriller, let’s talk about this.

During the discussion about these findings, one opinion posted online that struck a chord with me (paraphrasing here) was that popular trend or not, no publishing house or bookstore was going to force that person to buy and/or read something she didn’t want to simply because it was being touted as the latest trend. To which I quickly responded “Amen, Sister!”

Let’s face it, fashion designers have been pushing trends on us ever since fig leaves went out, and heaven help anyone caught wearing something that’s gone out of style. Or heaven forbid, white shoes after Labor Day. My darling sister-in-law takes great delight in reminding me of that rule every fall, and though I love her dearly, I take just as great delight in flaunting my white shoes in front of her. But really, haven’t we all learned to hang onto our out-of-fashion clothing, so we won’t have to buy them again when the trend swings back around? Lucky those among us who held onto their pedal pushers ages ago because now they are called Capri’s. Anyone trying to buy a Poodle skirt NOW is in for sticker shock. And who would’a though some fool would have brought the color chartreuse back into style? Hated the color way back when, still hate it now. But mostly I’m waiting for Nehru jackets to come back in style for men.

Fashion trends come and go at the drop of a hat (you’ll pardon the pun?) mostly because the industry needs something new every few minutes to be sure the rest of us are busy emptying our pocketbooks (does anyone call them pocketbooks anymore?) to buy something new and keep up with the latest trend.

And so it is in publishing. Nothing can stay static, new trends must emerge quickly so the buying/reading public will buy/read what’s hot. What they have not taken into account is that most of us have minds of our own. Therefore, we refuse to wear the latest style IF it doesn’t suit our bodies or dollars and we refuse to read what’s hot if it doesn’t match our reading tastes. So while thrillers might be “in” those who read cozies will stick to cozies and those who like thrills will still read thrillers when the current trend swings the other way. And most likely, never the twain shall meet.

I’ve always been a fan of vampire lit, and no one sets my little heart to beating like Bella Lugosi. I was reading vampire lit long before it became the latest trend. I’m still reading it, and I’ll be reading it when it goes “out.” Which could happen by the time I post this, given it’s been a trend for more than five minutes. Maybe you should grab one to read now, assuming you’re interested?

My point, which I’m sure you’ve gotten by now, is NEVER write to a trend. By the time you finish typing 200-300 pages, had it critiqued/edited, sent it to the rounds of agents and publishers, you’ll get letters back stating that the trend is over and you need to write to the newest trend. The White Sock Killer Trend? (Does she wear them or kill them? You decide.) Or perhaps the, um, er, ah, frankly I can’t think of any other subject beyond white socks that has NOT been covered in mystery, try as I might. If you have an idea for a new trend, go for it.

But mostly you should write what you know and more important what you love. It may have been done, and done, and overdone again. It may be out of style. But if you love it and know it, you’ll most likely do it well, and if you’re lucky, better than anyone else. And someone will buy it. And read it. And you’ll have started yet another “new” trend. I’m saying do your own thing. Don’t try to do someone else’s. Have fun with it. And don’t forget to create a character who wears Nehru jackets. Trust me, it will sell. And trust your own instincts as to what you should write. (Pictured right, Nehru jackets worn by two rather famous models.)

Don't Go to Dayton in June, Either

Elizabeth Zelvin

This piece was inspired by Rosemary Harris’s guest blog on The Stiletto Gang, “Don’t Go to Dayton in February and Other Lessons Learned on the Road.” Like her, I will start by saying the people in Dayton were wonderful and welcoming to me and my book. The problem for both of us lay in getting there. Rosemary got ice storms. Here’s what happened to me.

The sign said, “Bridge Out—Local Traffic Only.”

Sadie the GPS said, “Continue 13 miles on Route 35.”

My husband and I decided to keep going and see what happened. New York skeptics that we are, we couldn’t quite believe the signs. I was determined to get to West Alexandria, the small town near Dayton where folks were waiting at the library to hear me talk about Death Will Get You Sober. I figured if we got to the bridge and it was indeed out, Sadie would see our plight from her satellite and direct us around it.

“They must have a man at the bridge directing traffic,” my husband said.

“This is the country,” I said. I waved a hand at the fields around us, where the only signs of life were a couple of cows. “I don’t think it works that way out here.”

We kept driving. Beautiful day. Big sky. Rows of corn no bigger than your thumb. No people. Finally we hit a crossroads. The orange sign said, “Detour.” The arrow pointed left.

Sadie said, “Continue on Route 35.”

“She doesn’t know the bridge is out,” I said.

A marital interlude followed. We turned left. At the next intersection, Sadie told us to turn right.

“She’s trying to get us back to the bridge,” I said. “She doesn’t know it’s out.”

You have to be firm with Sadie. She’s got the view, but we’ve got the wheel. We went straight.

“Recalculating,” Sadie said. One good thing about a GPS is that it doesn’t lose its temper. However, it can be persistent. “In point one miles,” she said, “turn right.”

“She sounds testy,” I said. “She’s still trying to get us back to the bridge. She doesn’t know it’s out.”

“Cell phone,” my husband said. “Call the library.”

At the library in West Alex, they didn’t know the bridge on Route 35 was out. “Really?” they said. “Now, the bridge on Route 503, we know that one’s out. We’ve got your cheeseburgers waiting for you. With fries.”

Eventually we got on the phone with somebody who could identify the crossroads where we’d pulled up to call. They gave us directions: “Turn left at the stop sign onto Preble County Line Road….” It turned out to be the fifth stop sign, but never mind. We eventually crossed a little bridge in working order over a teeny weeny creek and rolled into West Alex, where I’m glad to say they hadn’t eaten our cheeseburgers.

Twin Creek wasn’t always this small, they told us. “You’ve just met Castor,” Suzanne the librarian said. “You should see Castor and Pollux in flood.”

That must be in February, when Rosemary Harris says don’t go to Dayton.

Robert Fate: A "worthless character" succeeds in a life of crime

Interviewed by Sandra Parshall



Robert Fate has served in the Marine Corps, studied at the Sorbonne, and worked as an oilfield roughneck, a TV cameraman, a fashion model, a chef in a Los Angeles restaurant, a sales executive in Las Vegas, a fabric painter for the garment industry, a scriptwriter for the soap Search for Tomorrow, an independent film producer, and an Academy Award-winning special effects technician. Somewhere around the age of 70, he decided to try writing crime fiction, and the result was the Baby Shark series, told in the voice of a girl named Kristin, which has won rave reviews, award nominations, and a devoted following. (The second in the series, Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues, has just been nominated for an Anthony Award.)

Bob lives in L.A. with his wife, Fern (pictured with him at the launch of his third novel, Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption), their college-age daughter, a dog, four cats, and a turtle named Pharrell. Visit his web site at www.robertfate.com.

Q. Kristin Van Dijk, aka Baby Shark, isn’t the kind of protagonist readers might expect from an older male writer. Where did this remarkable girl come from, and how did you end up writing in her voice?

A. Kristin Van Dijk was the key element in the story I wanted to tell, a story of love and revenge set in a time in our history before technology played such an extraordinary role in our lives.

I’ve had a computer from the beginning. I carry a cell phone. My college-age daughter carries an i-Phone and casually chats with friends worldwide. I am okay with technology (like anyone would care if I were not). But I wanted to set my story in a time thought by many to be more innocent. However, those of us who remember the ’50s know the truth of that.

I wanted to tell about a young woman whose father was absent most of her life and then brutally snatched from her when she finally had him to herself, a young woman who experiences unspeakable violence at the hands of vicious thugs, a young woman who survives. I wanted a protagonist with the strength and resolve to come back from the worst that could be thrown at her, to rise from the ashes, to seek revenge, and exact it without remorse. And, I wanted this without creating a cartoon figure. I wanted the kind of reality that some readers would turn away from, but others would grasp as necessary to the tale.

I had no choice. I needed the strength only women have. Only a woman could be the kind of protagonist I needed, a woman in a time in our history when females were beginning to assert themselves, beginning to see that anything was possible. I wanted a female protagonist loose in a man’s world, in a hostile western environment where no matter her age she would be considered a “girl.” Well, okay, I wanted a girl who looked to the future with a gun in her hand and the will to follow through, a girl who wasn’t going to stand for it anymore. That was how Baby Shark was born.

Q. Your books are set in the 1950s, and they would fit right in with the noir fiction published back then. Are those books favorites of yours, and did they influence your writing?

A. I enjoyed the paperbacks from that time, and remember so clearly the “sexy” covers. But I favored movies over books during the late forties and early fifties, the double features that my older sister would take me to. We would see two movies in one theater, go across the street, and see two more. Watching four movies was a perfect way to spend our Saturday afternoons.

I became a reader on my own, but not until I was nineteen, in Korea, and found the base library. Through my twenties I read everything, all the books of many writers. My adoration of the crime genre came even later than that.

Q. Was Baby Shark the first novel you had ever written? Was mystery writing a long-time ambition, or a more recent interest?

A. Yes, Baby Shark was my first novel. Over the years I have written in a number of forms, but the novel always seemed out of reach. I’m not certain why that was so. Without hesitation, I wrote stage plays, screenplays, TV episodes, magazine articles, poetry—oh oh, my wife just fell asleep. The mere mention of my poetry puts her in the arms of Morpheus. So, no, I had no burning desire to write a novel. I thought I could not, so why even consider it?

Then, Bruce Cook, a friend and filmmaking associate, told me he had joined a mystery writing group and was working on a novel. He asked if I would like to join the group and try my hand at a mystery. Honestly? Since I had always written alone, it seemed like a bizarre thing to do. I said no. But, later, after meeting the writers in the group and realizing they were serious about getting published, I joined and started working in a form I had always thought I could not master. The candid give and take between honest and intelligent writers that has continued for four years now has resulted in all of us finishing novels and being published. It has been a terrific experience, one that I would encourage any aspiring writer to try.

Q. What has been the greatest challenge for you in writing at novel length? Is there any single aspect of craft that you’ve worked hard to master? What comes most easily to you?

A. Once I’d settled on a style of writing that felt natural, the challenge was to stick with it. My writing feels best to me when it races forward without adjectives and passive voice. I want to give my reader the opportunity of filling in what I am certain she or he sees and hears and understands without a lot of deadly description. And, I especially like first person. The idea that Kristin and the reader learn things at the same time, get the same information at the same time, and examine it together appeals to me. It seems like a forthright involvement to have with a reader.

Craft – well, rather than an outline, I try to “see” the story, think it through in visual terms, and then write it from beginning to end, paying particular attention to the action scenes. It’s strange about the dialogue, but the conversations seem to take care of themselves. My stories can be violent, but I see no need to offend readers with overly graphic description. In fact, I look for graceful ways to speak of criminal acts—which ain’t easy, but worth the effort. I go back to change things here and there, but normally I just write the book in one draft. Dialogue keeps a story moving, and conflict, too, of course. Funny how no one wants to get along.

Q. You had many different jobs before becoming a mystery writer. Is there a common thread among them, something that attracted your interest, or were you just restless? Do you plan to stick with mystery writing for a while?

A. Looking back, I think it was fear of commitment that kept me on the move. I think my fears were based in not wanting to look up one day and realize that I had not hitch-hiked through western Europe, been in Nice for Mardi Gras, had not gotten a tan in Ibiza or walked the streets of Paris and Heidelberg and, across the world, Hong Kong. I was entitled to a G.I. Bill after I served my time in the USMC and used every penny of it attending universities in the US and Europe, never to attain a degree, but rather to study the subjects that interested me. The different jobs paid the rent and taught me something new. I’m afraid I’ve been a worthless character most of my life, but well traveled.

Writing crime – I must say that writing the Baby Shark series is the most satisfying work I have ever done. Nothing that I have written before, no employment that I have had comes close to bringing me the joy I feel when I am with Kristin, Henry, Otis, and Jim. I am thankful there are readers for these stories. That makes it better. But be assured, I would write about these folks even if there were no readers.

Q. What’s the best part of being a published novelist? What’s the worst?

A. Actually having a story that spills from my head turn into a book that I can hold in my hand is the best part. When I realized that one hundred copies of Baby Shark had been sold shortly after it was published, I said to my wife, “I don’t know a hundred people. Who’s buying these books?” And she said, “Readers. And with a daughter in college who intends to be a doctor, you better meet a lot more of them.” There’s no rest for the wicked, I think the saying goes.

Q. How do you balance the demands of your new career—long hours of writing, book signings, traveling to conferences—with family life at an age when most people are content to take it easy?

A. I have never seen the upside of taking it easy. I guess it’s there, but keeping busy has always been more enjoyable to me. Not that a warm afternoon in a hammock with a new Joe Lansdale is something to sneer at, but that comes after a morning of writing. It’s the having your cake and eating it, too, thingy.

Q. You give away a lot of copies of your books. Is that part of a marketing plan, or simply something you enjoy doing? What are your ambitions as a writer?


A. Giving away books is a pleasure as well as a way to establish a readership. I am a brand-new-to-the-industry writer. The first book in my crime series, Baby Shark, was published in September 2006, the second, Baby Shark’s Beaumont Blues, in March 2007, and the third, Baby Shark’s High Plains Redemption, in May 2008. I have been around twenty minutes. Readers must meet Kristin or what the heck am I doing? So, my “marketing plan”—in the broadest sense—is to find and engage readers of mystery. I cannot say enough to thank the members of 4MA and DorothyL for their gracious response to my efforts at establishing an audience. They don’t pander, these tough-minded-but-fair mystery lovers. If they like, they say so. If they don’t like, they say so. But, what has been important to me is they have given me a chance in what everybody agrees is a tough market.

Q. Tell us about the movie version of Baby Shark. Is it moving forward? Who will direct? Who will play Kristin? I heard that you turned down the chance to write the screenplay. Why?

A. Thanks for asking that question, Sandy. I appreciate the opportunity to clear this one up. I am hopeful that Baby Shark will be a movie. The steps to get that done are being taken. Hollywood Producer Brad Wyman, well known for producing Monster, starring Oscar-winner Charlize Theron, spoke to my publisher and then to me about his interest in adapting the novel to the screen. I liked how he saw the story and felt comfortable with him. We are now settling the option agreement, and with luck a film version of Baby Shark could get into production later this year or early next.

The subject of who might play Kristin is fast to surface when movie talk starts. Casting will be the job of Brad Wyman, of course, and because so much rests on Kristin being able to carry the story, I must trust that the actress will be carefully chosen. Remember, he didn’t do badly when he cast Monster.

Yes, the question was asked in my meeting with the producer if I wanted to write the screenplay. I replied that I did not. I want a “screenwriter” to write the movie—a working screenwriter. Someone the producer knows and trusts to do a good job of cutting a 270 page novel down to a 120 page screenplay. I write a visual novel and I think that helps, but my books are not screenplays. The last thing I want to do is get in the way of the production. They didn’t bug me when I was writing the book—fair’s fair.

I think it’s a mistake for a novelist to think of a movie as his or hers. A feature film is the product of a group of skilled and talented motion picture specialists that work together to accomplish the director’s vision. I provide an original story, hand it to the producer, and stand back. If I am asked questions, I will help where I can, and stand back again. That’s how I see my involvement.

Am I excited by the possibility of a Baby Shark movie? You bet I am. Just like everyone else, I can hardly wait to find out who will play Kristin.

Q. What are you working on now?

A. Baby Shark’s Jugglers at the Border is coming along nicely. The publication date will be the spring of 2009. It is number four in the series and may have a little violence in it. I can’t promise, of course, but I think there may be a killing or two. You know, just another Robert Fate cozy with a few brutal murders. It can’t be helped. Kristin lives at a violent time in our country’s history, a time not unlike the present, when much is settled through gunplay.

Q. Do you have any advice for writers who are still struggling to break into print?

A. Marry wisely, someone smart and strong who keeps you honest, and never let a day go by without writing.

**************************************
Congratulations to Paul, who won a set of Ian Fleming's James Bond books last week! Thanks to everyone for your comments.

Writer’s Routine

Sharon Wildwind

For some reason, writers are fascinated with other writers’ routines. How do you do it, they ask? As if there were some magic, some ju-ju in following the exact steps. I hate to break this to you, but if there is magic most mornings, I have trouble finding it. For what’s it’s worth, here’s my writing routine:

0630 hours
Pre-flight check
Stumble out of bed. Put on long t-shirt. The one this morning says "Brat."
Turn on Go-Light and sit bathed in eerie blue glow for 20 minutes. My husband calls it my Grow Light, though at my age my chances of overachieving beyond 5-feet have severely diminished.
Log on to e-mail provider. Wonder how it's possible to get 200+ junk messages since yesterday. Clear quarantine folder.
Check weather. We’re having a high of 27. Translate degrees celsius into something meaningful. 80.6 degrees fahrenheit. I can cope with that. Remember to water plants on the balcony. Check gardening calendar over the desk. Make that remember to FEED and water plants.
Read Doonsbury. Raise blood pressure.
Read For Better or For Worse. Lower blood pressure.
Eat oatmeal while reading e-mail.

0800 hours
Instrument check
Decide how much longer I can put off doing computer maintenance and backups.
Decide how much longer I can put off working on quarterly tax report, updating my business statistics, and filing.
Decide how much longer I can put off washing dishes. Wash enough dishes so husband can have breakfast.
Eat toast. Decide if I have to make bread this morning. The answer is yes. Put oats and milk to soak for later.
Wave at husband as he stumbles to the bathroom.

0830 hours
Chocks away
Tell husband I'm running away to North Carolina for a while and does he need anything before I leave?
Make pot of tea.
Put on purple felt hat, which has a "Police Line: Do Not Cross" tape around headband.
Put yellow sunglasses on over regular glasses. Theoretically, this reduces chances of cataracts.
Wave good-bye for now to husband. Put large headphones over ears.
Wonder if anyone would—or should—trust a writer wearing a t-shirt that says "Brat," a purple felt hat, large yellow sunglasses, and headphones.
Decide I need to brush my teeth. Take off headphones, glasses and hat.
Brush teeth. Pour a cup of tea. Put on hat, glasses and headphones.
Turn on background music.
Stare at screen-saver of photographs of the Smokey mountains in spring. Try to ignore that it is summer and 27 Celsius degrees a few feet away from me. Think small wisps of new leaf-growth. Think wood smoke. Think Carolina blue sky and cool mountain breezes. Play James Taylor singing "Carolina in my Mind."

Wait for the magic.



The police came, took their statements, and told Benny he could file a missing-person report on Yianni Skoufalos in forty-eight hours. It wasn’t illegal for a grown man to leave his business unlocked, and there was absolutely no sign of foul play. Benny decided to keep the store upon until the usual closing time, just in case Mr. Skoufalos came back.

Well, okay, maybe some times there is magic. Got any writer routines of your own you'd like to share?
-----
Writing quote for the week:

Writing is like quilting. Collect the scraps. Cut them into pieces. Look for the pattern. Sew them together. Embellish. ~Sharon Wildwind, mystery writer

Find Your Favorite TV Sleuths

by Julia Buckley

Since I was a kid I've enjoyed reading mysteries, but I've also thrilled to watch them on film and television. Back before there was such a thing as a video tape, my father rented a reel-to-reel filmstrip copy of Suspicion from our library. We watched it in our darkened living room. I can still remember how much I wanted Cary Grant to be innocent, but how much I suspected him nonetheless. The rattle of the projector added tension to the complicated plot.

Nowadays, with elaborate home theatres, DVDs and high-definition everything, it's hard to imagine the impact that an old filmstrip could have, but those images are still imprinted in my mind: the way that Hitchcock captured Grant's changing personas by cleverly using light and shadow, creating a nuanced character in order to highlight the effectiveness of the film's title.

In the same way, I was greatly affected by a whole multitude of television detectives. The memorable ones were those with real human faults and foibles, odd hobbies, strange mannerisms. This is why people love Monk, among many others.

But I'm curious to know who else has fond memories of some of my favorite screen sleuths. Can you provide the answers to the following questions about 1970s era t.v. detectives?

1. This t.v. sleuth was modeled after Porfiry Petrovich in Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. Like Porfiry, he was brilliant, but didn't look the part (he wore a wrinkled trenchcoat and always seemed a bit confused), and allowed people to think that he was a fool so that he could trap them in the end.

2. This police detective was in charge of, according to the show's website, "an elite state police unit investigating organized crime, murder, assassination attempts, foreign agents, and felonies of every type." That state, of course, was Hawaii, and his most memorable line, when the evildoers were captured, was "Book 'em, Danno."

3. This man solved mysteries with his wife. She wasn't supposed to be involved, but he was the Police Commissioner of San Francisco, and she wanted to help with his cases. I suppose that, like Cary Grant, he stayed in my memory because he was so handsome, but there were many thrills in this show, which debuted in 1971.

4. This guy could really take a beating. He was a true action figure who took on all sorts of moving vehicles, burst through windows, defused bombs, scaled buildings. He had a secretary named Peggy who made bad coffee. He had a black belt in karate, but in true hard-boiled style, he preferred to use his fists.

5. This man had a cool theme song and a pet cockatoo named Fred. His character was based on a real New Jersey police officer.

6. These guys were the toughest and most dynamic t.v. cop duo. They knew the streets of L.A. and weren't afraid to get into their red and white Gran Torino and speed toward certain danger. Their signature clothing affected the style of the 70s.

7. This man was the oldest television detective, but he was spry enough to chase down a criminal when the situation warranted it. Usually he just used his gray cells to solve the crime, then had his cousin's son, Jebediah, do the footwork.

8. This man was a sort of Nero Wolfe type--a corpulent detective who solved unsolvable crimes. The two-hour pilot debuted in 1971.

9. This guy was bald and liked lollipops.

10. And I must include a woman: this tough police detective was, according to the show's website, "an undercover agent for the criminal conspiracy department of the Los Angeles Police Department." The press made much of her sexiness, but she did a great job presenting a hard-working woman in a male-dominated profession.

Get all ten and win a set of Poe's Deadly Daughters bookmarks!

I purposely didn't include a quiz question about my all-time favorite, Jim Rockford of THE ROCKFORD FILES (now available on DVD). Also, one of the above shows is available on DVD for the first time starting tomorrow! I'll identify that one later today.

Guest Blogger Colleen Collins

Missing Persons 101 by Colleen Collins

And the winner of the disguised book safe is......Jane. Congratulations! Jane, please get in touch with Colleen at cocowrites2 at gmail.com. (Change the at to @.) Thank you so much Colleen for being our guest this weekend and thank you to everyone who stopped by and commented.

[*Copyright Colleen Collins 2008. All rights reserved. You may not duplicate or distribute this article without written permission from the author.]

Are you writing a story where your fictional PI, law enforcement officer, or amateur sleuth needs to track a missing person? Or maybe you’re simply curious about how to start looking for that long-lost friend? As a PI who is often is hired by attorneys, corporations, and others to perform “locates” (a term that means to find someone), I can tell you some basic, tried-and-true steps for finding people. Because I’m also a writer, I’ve added some questions at the end of this article to ask yourself about a character (such as a PI) who specializes in finding missing persons.

And because I wanted to add some fun, I’m giving away a free gift at the end of the blog. On Sunday, June 1, I’ll throw all the names who posted a comment/question into a virtual hat--one person will be picked to win a disguised book safe (a book with a secret storage compartment).

For the rest of this article, I’ll mostly refer to how a PI does locates because that’s my profession, although as mentioned above, these steps can be used by any fictional character or real person. Also, rather than trying to be politically correct by using the combo-pronoun he/she, I’ll simply switch between he and she.

So let’s get started with an overview of PIs as finders of lost souls…

How Much of a PI’s Work Involves Finding People?

Quite a bit, actually. A large percentage of a PI's work involves finding persons whose location is unknown to the PI. For example, a PI might do a locate for the following:

· To serve a lawsuit on someone whose current address is unknown.

· To locate a debtor who absents himself from his residence with some frequency to frustrate the creditor.

· To find a key witness.

Most people who don’t want to be found do it sloppily, leaving a trail of clues in their wake. Others, however, are more careful and deliberate in hiding their tracks. For example, a father who has abducted his daughter and has taken off to another state might be more deliberate in his efforts, might travel farther, and has probably covered his tracks more thoroughly than a "credit skip.” (Originally, a “skip” referred to collection agencies’ attempts to locate a debtor who’d “skipped out” on his obligation. Today, the terms “skip” and “locate” have essentially blended into the same meaning).

What Steps Might a PI Take to Start Finding Someone?

Here’s the fun part. Finding a missing person (or one whose location is unknown) might involve one or more of the following tasks:

Checking the local telephone directory for each city in the area. Look for telephone listings under the missing person’s name or even a spouse’s name. It’s surprising how many times a simple check in the telephone book does the trick. We know a PI who was contacted by an attorney who wanted to locate a missing person. The PI looked up the person’s name in the local telephone book, forwarded that number to the attorney, and charged $75 to do so! As the PI said, “If the attorney was too dumb to look it up, then he paid me to do it.”

Calling directory assistance. After all, they’d have the most current up-to-date information publicly available.

Searching databases that contain public records and credit header information. Some of these are proprietary and require one to be a PI, law enforcement officer, government official, etc. But there are also many, many online public records than anyone can check (for example county assessor’s sites have lists of owners of real property, along with information about the assessed value of that property; privately owned cemeteries and mortuaries will have burial permits, funeral service registers, funeral and memorial arrangements, obituaries, intermediate orders, and perpetual care arrangements; Social Security Death Index provides lookup on whether a person is deceased (http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/); and one can even look up a seller/member on EBay at http://tinyurl.com/6q6ol.

Interviewing people who may have known the subject (for example, past and current neighbors as well as with relatives, past and current landlords, co-workers, and known associates).

Researching court records (In our class, www.writingprivateinvestigators.com, we discuss this in more depth. For this article, however, I’ll point you to a few links about accessing court records:

· A recent online article about public access to court records: http://www.prlog.org/10049908-public-access-to-court-records.html

· Another recent online article with tips on accessing courts and court records: http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/practical-tips-accessing-courts-and-court-records

Searching the Internet (using engines such as Google, AltaVista, FAST! and MSN Search for blogs, images, news, etc). You’d be surprised what you can find by simply typing in a telephone number into the Google search window, for example.

Checking Internet communities (such as MySpace, (www.myspace.com/, Facebook (www.facebook.com, etc). We located a missing person who was on the run, but she still found time to log into her MySpace account and blog away.

Putting an ad in the local paper (and in the papers in surrounding areas) where the missing person may reside. Some newspapers also provide the option to do an online search of their archives.

Building a simple website to advertise who you’re looking for. It’s easy to build a simple, often free, website these days. Plus, many services will host/advertise it at no charge.

Signing up with subscription-based services for alumni organizations the person may have belonged to (such as Classmates.com or Alumni.Net). Sometimes high schools have their own alumni organization, so check the person’s former high school’s website and contact the alumni listed there (who are sometimes listed by years of graduation).

Checking the Coles Directory (a handy tool found at the reference desk of many public libraries). Coles Directory publishes household directories for every major population area in the United States and Canada. This book cross-references addresses and names, and provides places of employment for many of those listed.

Conducting surveillance at locations where the subject has been known to "hang out" (everything from bars to Twelve Step Meetings to softball games).

Searching garbage (called “trash hits,” “trash covers,” and our personal favorite “refuse archeology”) for uncovering details about the missing person’s life. Trash, after all, is ripe (no pun intended) with details about people’s lives. It’s amazing how people put their most secret information, from receipts, phone numbers, personal letters, credit card statements, phone bills, etc. into the trash. We don’t recommend this as a real-life approach to finding someone because let’s be honest, not only are there different laws protecting people’s trash in different cities and you could get arrested for trespassing or worse. Also, it could be potentially dangerous for you to start lurking around someone’s home waiting to skulk away with their refuse. However, think how great this would be to use in a story. A fictional PI/sleuth might find return addresses in the subject's trash, such as that belonging to a family member, where the missing person might have taken refuge. Or imagine a humorous scene where an obsessively neat PI (think Monk) is forced to dig through somebody’s trash for evidence.

It was through such refuse archeology that we found a five-year-old who had been abducted by her father. We searched the despondent, unemployed father's garbage (he had failed to return his daughter to the custodial parent at the scheduled time) after we had gone to his apartment and learned that he had suddenly moved earlier in the day. We found shipping boxes, with Christmas labels, which appeared to have contained Christmas presents that he had discarded. Ultimately, it was one of those addresses in a mid-west state where authorities located the child with her father.

Note: As a practical matter, all of the above techniques are often used in combination. In our investigative business, we’ll typically start with Internet/database searches, then work our way up to more specialized techniques (placing ads, interviewing neighbors, etc.). If you’re writing a story with a fictional PI/sleuth, your character can employ bravado, intuition, and creativity while combining these different techniques!

What Character Traits Apply to a PI/Sleuth Who Specializes in Missing Persons?

If you’re writing a story with a PI who specializes in finding missing persons, here’re some things to think about:

· Does your fictional PI have a strong, innate curiosity?

· How tenacious is your fictional PI? This kind of research can be time-consuming, detailed, frustrating, with lots of dead-ends before finding a clue.

· Is your fictional PI a people person? Because most likely he’ll be talking to a number of people and trying to, in the course of the conversations, pull the nuggets of information he needs.

· What kind of tools does your PI use? Does she have access to a computer, different proprietary databases, an adequate vehicle to conduct surveillance? Is she comfortable/knowledgeable doing research in public libraries, courthouses, and the like?

· Does your PI like putting together jigsaw puzzles? Because that’s what locating missing persons is like—assembling varied pieces of information from disparate sources to get, finally, a clear picture.

Thank you to Darlene Ryan and Poe’s Deadly Daughters for inviting me to be their guest blogger. Feel free to post questions/comments, and I’ll be happy to respond. At the end of Sunday, a name will be picked to win the disguised book safe!

My porch or yours???

By Lonnie Cruse

When I'm away from home and need a stress-free place to go, at least in my mind, I visit a porch solidly built in the twenties or thirties or maybe even the forties. A porch where people once sat and rocked and watched the occasional car passing by, stirring up the dust covering the road that runs just beyond the iron gate. A porch where bees buzz drowesly from bloom to bloom on the climbing rosebush carefully tied to a nearby post. A porch where birds flit back and forth from the ground to a nest crammed into the eaves, carefully building it even higher or stuffing fat worms into tiny beaks.

The woman seated there waves the cardboard fan, given her at the last funeral she attended, back and forth in front of her tired face, to ward off the summer's heat and flies. The man mops his brow with a red kerchief and comments on this year's crop. His overalls need washing after long hours in the nearby fields.

I'm seated in the swing, unseen but listening in. Unseen because the man and woman are long gone and the porch sits abandoned, still attached to the old house, also abandoned, having outlived the family and its usefullness. And I'm only here in my imagination.

One of these days I'll get out of my car and go sit on one of those porches for real, tresspassing if need be. I love looking at old houses, imagining the people who once lived there.

Nearly every house has some sort of porch, or stoop, if you will. Be it a small square of concrete, just large enough to stand on while unlocking the door. If the owner is lucky, there is an overhang or awning above to keep off the rain while you fumble for your keys. Then there are porches with awnings or covers that are large enough to sit under and enjoy the view, or feed the dog and stay dry during a rain shower, or to water the plants from. And who can deny the beauties of a screened-in porch, fending off the attacks of the various summer insects who live only to irritate?

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a porch person. In nearly forty-five years of marriage, the very best gift hubby has ever given me is a sun porch. When I'm at home, I practically live there. But let me back up. When we moved to our current home eleven years ago, he had two concrete porches poured, one for the front door, one for the back, each supported underneath by brick, with three steps leading up, but no cover to protect us from the elements. There are no trees nearby, so sitting on the porches meant sitting in the hot sun, or the brisk wind, or the rain, assuming I was that hardy. I love watching it rain, having grown up in the desert, but I'm not quite that hardy.

We were planning our fortieth anniversary celebration a few years ago and decided to use what we'd saved for a trip to buy lumber for a porch instead. And windows. And dry wall. And paint. And . . . you get the picture. Hubby built most of it all by himself in nearly a year. (Yes, I helped when I could, but I'm not much of a carpenter.) Now that lovely porch sports fourteen windows and a door and a futon to sit on and watch the rain or take a nap and a dining table to feed family and friends and watch the birds and squirrels eating with us. Or the occasional deer who meanders by. And there is his tomato plot just beyond the porch to keep an eye on. And mine. I'm ahead of him so far this season, but tomatoes are fickle, so who knows which of us will harvest first?

There is a point in here somewhere. Ah, yes, there it is. Back in the day--as a friend of mine says--before air conditioning and television took over our homes and our lives, people sat on porches and fanned and watched the world pass by. I wonder how much we all miss out on now, sitting inside where it's admittedly cooler, watching a fictional world pass by.

May I invite you to join me by going outside on your porch, whatever size it is, or perhaps out in the yard, and look at life out there? Listen to the birds or the insects or the rain? De-stress? I'll be drinking a cup of cinnamon tea. Probably be wearing my favorite robe. If you'd like to join me in a toast, I'm in the mid-west, so point your cup that'a way. We should probably have some cake too, don't you think?

I wish you a lovely summer of birds and trees and breezes and rain and memories with your family. And time on a porch. Mine or yours?