tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55547564758420459262024-03-14T04:14:45.406-05:00And Sometimes She Writes...A Blog by an Author, a Teacher, and a MomSusanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-8752486802643381732014-07-11T09:54:00.004-05:002014-07-11T09:54:32.336-05:00We're Heading in a New Direction<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Recently, I made a major change in my website at </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">www.susanvankirk.com</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My blog has now been combined with that website. So, if you are following or enjoy reading my blog, please head on over to the new site and continue to stay with me!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thanks!</span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-44799414511976442342014-05-30T11:23:00.000-05:002014-05-30T12:03:06.654-05:00How I Met the Coroner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Please enjoy this guest post from a fellow writer and Sisters in Crime member:</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Guest Post by Donnell Ann Bell</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You've heard of How I Met Your Mother? Well, today I'd like to talk about How I Met the Coroner. If you're a mystery writer, chances are you need knowledge of bodies now and then, and perhaps you need to know how to bump somebody off. When I began my fiction career in 2001, I wasn't particularly versed in either. I thought experts such as coroners, police lieutenants and FBI profilers were akin to God.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> What I learned later is that they're just people and some actually like to talk to writers. But stuck in that I-could-never-contact-an-expert mentality, I started off by annoying my pharmacist--actually he was quite nice. It's the customers around us who were rather shocked. They seemed to take exception to my questions like </span><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">how do I get my hands on a controlled substance?</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">or </span><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I need something that would trigger a heart attack but don't want it to show up in an autopsy.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i> </i>I wasn't having any luck. One day I picked up the phone and dialed the El Paso County (Colorado) Coroner's office, and a booming--and I mean booming, female voice answered. I, on the other hand, did a fine imitation of a mouse. "I'm a writer," I squeaked. "I wonder if you could answer a few questions."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> I'll never forget her response. "You're who? You want to do what?" But when she finally answered my question, I thought, oh, my gosh, this woman knows EVERYTHING. Still, she had a job to do and I didn't want to make a pest of myself. I went back to writing, and because the pharmacist now had a restraining order against me, I decided to not overdo it with my new contact. I would only ask questions that I absolutely couldn't find out on my own.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Every once in a while, though, I was stuck and I called her. After all, I was completely anonymous, and once you realize that these coroners (and experts) possess the knowledge of the world, you can't go back. You realize things on CSI or Criminal Minds aren't accurate. You take on a zombie-like persona with arms outstretched, mumbling...<i>must get it right.</i></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tom Adair, Kris Herndon, and her husband Karl</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The addiction wasn't going away. In fact it became stronger. So, I enrolled in my first Citizens Academy. (I've completed three, including The Writers Police Academy.) But I loved my first two so much, and appreciated what these people do for a living, that I volunteered.Then one day, our coordinator announced, "Today, our speaker is Chris Herndon, Deputy Coroner for the El Paso County Coroner's Office."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> I slumped in my chair. This was the woman. It was fine as long as she didn't know who I was. But what if she recognized me? What if she put two and two together that I was that crazy writer?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> My curious nature isn't always my friend, and as she talked, I naturally had questions. The moment I asked, however, she zeroed in on me like a torpedo from a destroyer. Her eyes narrowed and she knew. And later when she asked, "Don't I know you from somewhere?" I had to tell the truth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Turns out, she didn't think I was <i>that</i> strange. In fact, we've become good friends. But I couldn't keep a goldmine like Chris to myself. Soon, I invited her to talk to my writers' groups. She and I wrote a mock coroner's inquest, presented by my local Sisters in Crime.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Recently, Chris and her husband Karl (a former depuy sheriff), and CSI expert Tom Adair presented a workshop for Pikes Peak Writers Conference on how to process a crime scene.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> If you're looking for accurate research, don't be afraid to contact a professional. What's the worst that can happen? They're too busy? They'll hang up? Since 2001 very few people have hung up on me. Most enjoy helping writers. As for me, I'm still hooked on getting it right. That's why I co-own Crimescenewriters with Veteran police officer Wally Lind (retired), a Yahoo group dedicated to writers who love to ask as many questions as I do.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Have questions for an expert? Pick up the phone, volunteer, and get involved. When it comes to getting it right, you'll never go wrong by going to the source or better yet getting hands-on training.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Donnell Ann Bell is the author of three best-selling novels brought to you from Bell Bridge Books. THE PAST CAME HUNTING, DEADLY RECALL and BETRAYED. Her next book will be released September 2014. Check out her website on www.donnellannbell.com or follow her on TWITTER @donnellannbell or find her on Facebook.</i></span><br />
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<br />Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-55820657128827270612014-05-22T15:09:00.000-05:002014-05-27T15:49:20.233-05:00Expert Interviews: Suzy Owens, Detective in the Ames, Iowa, Police Department<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mom, college counselor, teacher, zookeeper, police detecive</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the mid-1980s, when I was teaching high school English, I formed a friendship with a remarkable woman who had four daughters. I used to think of her girls as Louisa May Alcott's <i>Little Women</i>, except none of them died young like Beth March, thank goodness. I taught all four of them, and they were all intelligent, interesting, strong women. My friendship with their mother survived my teaching time with her daughters, despite reading their essays about how all four teenagers shared a bathroom, and the family's junk closet, whose door kept in a multitude of items just dying to fall out. Because their mom is so strong, all four of her daughters are amazing, grown-up moms and professionals in various jobs. All graduated from college and all went in four different directions (an eventuality I could have predicted since they were all so different.) They became a college counselor, teacher, zookeeper, and police detective.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Notice that last profession? Ah ha! I </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">haven't needed the other three professionals as experts yet, but if I ever have a mystery set in a college, a private school, or a zoo, I'll be set. The fourth daughter, Suzy, became a policewoman and, later, detective in Ames, Iowa. I guess this didn't surprise me since her father was a detective in Illinois during his professional career. But, strangely, Ms. Owens didn't attribute her interest in the criminal justice system to her father. What also surprised me was that Suzy was the youngest, tiniest, and most freckles-on-her-nose daughter. I have a hard time seeing her in a Kevlar vest, toting a gun. But she is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Recently, I wrote a crime scene for my second mystery, and I passed it by Detective Owens so she could tell me how a detective would look at it versus how an author might write it. This resulted in two weeks and four re-writes. I would like to think she got no satisfaction whatsoever in asking her former English teacher to </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"re-write until it's perfect," a phrase I seem to vaguely remember from my teaching conversations with her years ago.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I interviewed Detective Owens for my blog, and these were her answers:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Q: How did you happen to get into this line of work?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A: I didn't plan on being a police officer when I graduated from college. I thought I wanted to work with at-risk children. But I did an internship at the police department, loved it, and loved the people. They happened to be going through a hiring process and I was encouraged to apply. But I would really like to make this clear: I went into this work to make a positive difference in peoples' lives, not to drive fast cars and shoot guns.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Q: What are your credentials?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A: I have a BS in psychology with minors in criminal justice and Spanish from Iowa State University [1999.] I also graduated from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy with peace officer certification [2000], and I have a Master's in criminal justice from Simpson College [2012.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Q: What is your typical day like, or is there a typical day?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A: On patrol, I had a lot more variety in my day. But now, as a detective, I make and receive a lot of phone calls, do computer work and report writing, make</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">more phone calls, and have occasional </span><br />
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interviews. Sometimes my job entails search warrants, testifying in court, or processing a crime scene such as a recovered stolen vehicle or a burglary scene.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Q: What is the most frustrating part of your job?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A: I guess the most frustrating thing </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gug9P4p4WV0/U35Yj2txxaI/AAAAAAAABIw/rpfgVUtnIvM/s1600/crimescene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gug9P4p4WV0/U35Yj2txxaI/AAAAAAAABIw/rpfgVUtnIvM/s1600/crimescene.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">might be the fact that many times there is not a doubt that the suspect has committed the crime, but I don't have the </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">evidence to charge. This is especially true in cases of sexual violence, for both women and children, where the public opinion can lead to stereotyping and doubt toward the victim. If I do have probable cause to charge, it will be another frustrating road trying to get the victim's story told, with no real protections from the law. The defendants get all sorts of protections, while the victims have very few.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Q: How do you do this work--homicide and sexually-based crime work--without getting emotionally upset?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A: I make sure I have healthy outlets for stress: exercise, talking to others, stepping away from it all as needed. Sometimes I get emotional, but realize I'm just a small part in the whole process, and I have to tell myself to do the best in my role.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Q: What kinds of crimes bother you the most?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A: Sex offenses, with domestic violence a close second. These cases have such a stigma, and it is so hard to move forward with judges and juries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Obviously, I couldn't go into great detail with Suzy about the various cases she's worked, but from her answers I find it clear that she is neck-deep in the kind of work with which I have no experience </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ofGnZvDPkBk/U35XIJbgw6I/AAAAAAAABIo/-oPF0RH44bs/s1600/Murder+she+wrote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ofGnZvDPkBk/U35XIJbgw6I/AAAAAAAABIo/-oPF0RH44bs/s1600/Murder+she+wrote.jpg" height="200" width="128" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">from my own career. This makes her a sensational expert for my mysteries. I can reseach, read cases, and check out books from my local coroner, but having first-hand experience nearby is a wonderful consequence of teaching for so many years. Thank you, Detective Suzy Owens, for being there when I have questions, and especially for not laughing when they are stupid questions.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-13453015966436097112014-05-03T12:05:00.003-05:002014-05-10T08:36:21.751-05:00Expert Interviews: Bill Underwood, Warren County Coroner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The third expert I interviewed for my book, <i>Three May Keep a Secret</i>, is Bill Underwood, Warren County Coroner, who works out of our town, Monmouth, Illinois. Monmouth is a college town in west central Illinois with a population of 10,000. Bill and I met in a local restaurant over coffee. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">[I should mention that this post is a reworking of an earlier post when I was still writing that book.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> My interview with Bill involved learning answers to my quesions about shootings, stabbings, and fire deaths. He is highly qualified to answer these </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">questions. While he is not a doctor, he did study mortuary science so he knows his way around death and bodies. It became apparent, as I questioned him, that he has seen some amazing events during his time on the job.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Underwood is the gateway for laying people to rest in Warren County. Usually he has 140 cases a year and 250 deaths. He signs both death and cremation certificates, and both are filled out and filed electronically these days. No one can </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">be buried or cremated without a signed certificate, so if there is a question, the certificate is held up until the death is investigated. The coroner can also order an autopsy even if the family does not agree. Whenever there is any suspicion about a death, the coroner has the legal ability to keep a body from being disposed of until the suspicion is satisfied.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Underwood can order tests, or the medical examiner can order them when he does an autopsy. Usually they do toxicology tests and tissue blocks, and they always keep sample tissues. The best test, especially for a DUI, is from the vitreous fluid in the eye (I don't even want to think about that one.) The medical authorities also save samples of tissue from the brain, liver, lungs, and other organs.</span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bill is called out to home deaths, ER deaths, hospital deaths less than 24 hours old, suicides, homicides, and sometimes hospice deaths.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> When he is called out to a death scene, Bill takes photos or has the Illinois State Police take photos, say, in a gunshot death. He talks to the authorities at the scene and, in the case of a fire, waits for the Fire Marshal. The coroner has two jobs at the scene: (1) get the </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">body removed once photos and an exam are done; and (2) notify the family. The latter is very important and, because scanners can be bought by private citizens, that notification sometimes becomes a nightmare.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Several examinations determine cause and manner of death. At the scene the coroner checks for the time of death, which might be determined by rigor mortis and lividity. Sometimes a temperature is taken, particularly in the death of a child. In adults the core temperature goes down one degree per hour, and in children two degrees per hour after death.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If the death is suspicious, Underwood accompanies the body to an autopsy or one of his deputies does. He has four deputies scattered through local funeral homes. A forensic pathologist does the autopsy, and the coroner and state police attend the postmortem. In our area that is done at the Peoria County Morgue. It is </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">really important that the "chain of evidence" be protected, so this is why the coroner signs a card saying he has checked the body at the scene and accompanied it, or caused it to be accompanied, by qualified personnel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> I asked Underwood about inquests because I remember reading about them in the past. In fact, I read a newspaper account of an inquest concerning a fire that happened years ago, resulting in a fatality. Inquests used to always be held because the law said they must be held in all deaths. But recently the law was changed to say an inquest "may" be held. Rarely are they held now except in the case of a suspicious death. The coroner can call the inquest and he has a jury pool of six people. He calls in witnesses and uses depositions to indicate the cause of death and how it will be labeled. There are five causes of death: homicide, suicide, natural, undetermined, and accidental.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hmmm...as an author, I only concentrated on the first one. And talking to Bill determined an important decision about my research: </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have decided to draw the line on ever seeing an autopsy as part of my book research. Ever. </span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-43901372282155790802014-04-14T21:50:00.000-05:002014-04-14T21:52:54.973-05:00Expert Interviews: John Cratty, Former Monmouth Fire Chief<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Following the interview with our local Police Chief, I next went to the fire department. I use a lot of book research in my mysteries, but talking with experts is really helpful in getting the details right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I interviewed Chief John Cratty in 2011 when he was the Fire Chief of our little town of 10,000. His work in fire departments encompasses 33 years. Before coming to Monmouth, he began his career in my home town. There, in Galesburg, Illinois, Chief Cratty worked for 31 years as a firefighter, captain, assistant chief, and fire chief (the latter from 1994-2009.) In 2010, he was named Fire Chief in Monmouth, and he held that post for two years before he went on to the position of City Administrator. It's obvious that public service is in his blood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was particularly interested in the fact that Chief Cratty had been an investigator with the fire departments because information about why fires start and how they spread was central to writing my mystery, <i>Three May Keep a Secret</i>, coming out in November, 2014.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Besides asking Chief Cratty for specific information, I also had him read a description in my mystery and tell me if it sounded accurate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We met at the north fire station in town, and I was able to see the forty pounds of equipment the firefighters wear, and the facilities and trucks they use.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I asked Chief Cratty about three areas that were crucial to getting the facts right in my novel: (a) What happens when small towns like Monmouth have house fires in the country? (b) How would such a fire-fighting scene look? (c) What are some of the basics of fire investigation?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He explained that small fire departments cooperate when a fire breaks out in the </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">country on a farm or in a family home. The various departments have mutual aid agreements and the dispatcher who receives the call about a fire will know what district the fire is in and "drop" the alarm. Volunteer firemen and off-duty firemen have cell phones that get automatic texts or audio pagers that alert them about such a fire. Each department responds to the location, but the first department that arrives takes charge. Then the Chief of that department can continue being in command or he can let the Chief whose jurisdiction the fire is in take charge. A "box card" is also available for the fire location so the Chief can check what equipment is coming and what is available. The various departments have quarterly meetings to share training and update information.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because my mystery takes place in the small town of Endurance, I needed to know how this works. In my mystery, a fire breaks out in a home a few miles from town. TJ Sweeney, police detective, goes to the fire, and I needed to be able to describe what she saw when she arrives that night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Chief Cratty told me that, when going to a fire, life safety is the number one concern. Their second concern is saving </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">property. They set up the trucks with the engines going, water hoses on the fire. Then the firemen go inside, trying to "push" the fire out. Pushing the fire includes cooling it with water while trying to drive the fire out openings like doors and windows from the inside of the house. This makes more sense than pushing the fire from outside the house to other areas of the house that are not on fire. If it's a highly offensive fire, they try to save property. If it is a defensive fire they try to contain it from other "exposures" (buildings.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He gave the example that if they get to a fire and see flames in the first floor rooms, and the front and side windows are in flames, two people can go in with one hose and push 150-200 gallons of water per minute on the fire. They work in teams and the Chief keeps track of who is where and which team is at which location. Sometimes they need to call the gas company if they need to disconnect gas, and then they can lose minutes of time waiting for that disconnection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The individual firefighters' masks have transmitters so they have radio </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">communication to the command center on one channel (dispatch frequency) and communication to the other men on another channel (fire ground frequency.) In the end, the Chief has to decide whether to "salvage" (use tarps to cover furniture and keep out water damage), or "overhaul" (cut into the walls and ceilings to check the electrical switches and see if there is smoldering.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once the fire is contained and secondary flare-ups are put out, an investigation begins to determine the origin and cause of the fire. This can take days or weeks. The Monmouth Fire department can pinpoint</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D5OP34FhZAk/U0yZdjlGBgI/AAAAAAAABGQ/MkxSJ-cqKDo/s1600/fire+investigators.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D5OP34FhZAk/U0yZdjlGBgI/AAAAAAAABGQ/MkxSJ-cqKDo/s1600/fire+investigators.jpg" height="232" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> the origin. If there is a fatality, they notify the local and state police and the state fire marshal's office. In all fires, the MFD does the initial investigation and then shares the information with the insurance company. As far as the cause, they rule out many potential causes first. Lightning? Was the electricity off or on? Propane tanks? candles? Cigarette smoking? The origin is often easy to spot because of a vee ("V") pattern, sometimes on wood trim. The deepest char has burned the longest, and so that may be the start of the fire.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I asked specifically about arson. Chief Cratty said that this kind of fire is usually very aggressive, and if it has multiple spots of origin, it is often from a gasoline pour. A reverse pour means the arsonist puts gasoline in various spots and lights one or more, hoping all will catch fire eventually. The heat from the fire can cause carpet fibers to melt, and if some of the spots with fuel don't ignite it leaves a melted fiber pattern on the spot, and the odor of gasoline is still present for sampling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All of this information was important to me because fire is a huge ingredient in my novel. Fire is a key part of both character development and the plot. Before speaking to Chief Cratty, I had done quite a bit of book research on fires and arson, but I didn't know exactly how small town fire stations operated. Former Chief Cratty was an excellent source of information to make sure my novel's fire details were accurate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-72324348296322184882014-04-03T10:34:00.001-05:002014-04-03T14:23:01.327-05:00Reviewing James Montgomery Jackson's "Cabin Fever"<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm taking a brief break from interviewing my expert sources today to add a review of a great thriller I just finished called <i>Cabin Fever</i>. I was honored to receive an Advanced Reader Copy of Jim's book which is coming out April 8, 2014. I would strongly recommend it for people who enjoy thrillers and ridiculously cold weather.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">James M. Jackson’s new thriller, <i>Cabin Fever</i>, grabs you in the first chapter and </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wPHg0KVxkX4/Uz18rpNIGrI/AAAAAAAABFQ/WDfuOqCqxL4/s1600/Cabin-Fever-Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wPHg0KVxkX4/Uz18rpNIGrI/AAAAAAAABFQ/WDfuOqCqxL4/s1600/Cabin-Fever-Cover.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">never lets you go.
It is the second Seamus McCree book but it can be read as a stand-alone. His
earlier book, <i>Bad Policy</i> (2013), is the first in the McCree series. <i>Cabin Fever</i>
has many wonderful qualities, but I’d like to describe three: the setting,
McCree’s character, and the non-stop plot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You will shiver as you read this book because it
is set in the upper peninsula of Michigan, a place Jackson knows well. Three
feet of snow, minus four degrees, thick mud, your breath crystalizing in the
wind, no cell phone coverage, and ten hours of daylight all add to the
atmosphere of the novel. It is not a place for the faint of heart and it is
quite isolated, a characteristic Seamus McCree desires. Added to the weather
are gorgeous constellations in the night sky, black bears, loons, moose, wolves
howling, snowmobiles, snow shoes, cross country skiing, and you have the world
of Seamus McCree. But the isolation is top on the list. This setting works well
with his plot because there are times McCree could use help, but the elements
are working against him.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why would a character go to a remote cabin in
Michigan? Seamus goes there for peace and quiet after the thrilling, but scary events of his life in Cincinnati in <i>Bad
Policy</i>. Now he just desires to be alone and figure out why he can’t keep
love alive in his life. He just lost his girlfriend and is skittish about
commitments. Part of this isolation comes from his father dying when Seamus was
young and his mother turning into an emotionally remote parent. McCree is a
problem solver, a very intelligent guy, a former financial examiner, and a
great dad. He’s also physically tough when he needs to be. But right now he
just wants peace and quiet.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yJ4wj_Wo3rU/Uz17rnqNMSI/AAAAAAAABFI/VCpx2O9xxvQ/s1600/9e0788cca1740ad8986c0c.L._V182666311_SX200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yJ4wj_Wo3rU/Uz17rnqNMSI/AAAAAAAABFI/VCpx2O9xxvQ/s1600/9e0788cca1740ad8986c0c.L._V182666311_SX200_.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Montgomery Jackson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p> </o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is not to be. Into his life comes a naked
woman, unconscious on his front porch, in the middle of a blizzard. She is
practically frozen, has an erratic heartbeat and shallow breathing, and she is
suffering from hypothermia, frostbite, and a high fever. Once conscious, she has
amnesia. To make matters worse, she has fresh rope burns on her wrists and
ankles. Who is this woman and where did she come from? He can’t leave the cabin
to ski for help because she might die while he is gone. He has no cell phone
coverage so that won’t work either.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Meanwhile, a crazy paramilitary organization with
a smart leader and keystone cop followers is looking for an escaped female
prisoner. By the time Seamus does get help, the police suspect him, the
paramilitary thugs are after him, and dead bodies begin to pile up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is a thriller of a plot with an amazing main
character and a setting that works well with the plot and also parallels the
inner life of Seamus McCree. I’d highly recommend it for people who love page-turning
thrillers.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-41735468872631034292014-03-25T14:45:00.002-05:002014-03-25T14:45:26.822-05:00Expert Interviews: Police Chief Bill Feithen<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">While writing my mystery, <i>Three May Keep a Secret, </i>I enlisted the help of several experts who could teach me about dead bodies, guns, autopsies, and murder investigations. In all my years of living in Monmouth, Illinois (pop. 10,000), I've only talked once, briefly, with a police chief. For my murder mystery, I screwed up my courage and made an appointment to see the current Monmouth Chief of Police. I didn't want to waste his time or come across as an idiot when asking questions. So I prepared in advance with facts I specifically needed to know for my book. In this post, I will leave out a few of those facts. No spoilers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because I was interviewing experts, I needed to know they were, indeed, experts. Police Chief Bill Feithen has been the head man at the Monmouth Police Department since February, 2012.Chief Feithen not only has academic degrees in his chosen field, but he also has in-depth, applicable experience. He holds an Associate Degree in Law Enforcement from Kishwaukee College; a BA in Sociology and Criminology from Northern Illinois University; and a Masters in Public Administration, also from NIU. Prior to coming to Monmouth, he worked his way up from patrolman to sergeant to lieutenant and, finally, chief of police in the Dekalb Police Department. He held these various positions from 1975 to 2012. Feithen has had experience in patrol, investigations, and administration. The Police Chief has been heavily involved in community activities, and he belongs to so many professional organizations that I'd have to write another post just to list them all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When I interviewed Chief Feithen in August, 2012, I was half done with my book, but I needed to find out information I didn't know and verify details I'd already written. I asked for his expert advice in four areas: cold case files and evidence, identification of bodies, gun identification, and police procedure. Here is an abbreviated version of some of those questions and his answers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>What is the diference between case files from the past and case files from today?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i> (</i>It was important for me to know this because of plot details in my book.) Chief Feithen said evidence today is better preserved than it used to be. Evidence bags in the past were often paper, while </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">today police use both paper and plastic. Sometimes evidence has to "breathe;" hence, plastic. Today, blood evidence is dried before packaging. Since DNA is now a tool for law enforcement, envelopes with flaps someone has licked are put in an evidence bag. Today, handwritten notes are bagged so they can be checked for fingerprints and the contents examined. Sometimes handwritten notes are "fumed" to bring out the fingerprints. Older cold case files have black and white photos, and some might have Polaroids that have deteriorated over time. Lab tests would be included both today and in the past, but today's tests are, of course, much more sophisticated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I had done some online research before I asked him about the old cold case files in my novel. I had included the medical examiner's report, witness interviews, task force meeting notes, detective notes, newspaper articles, photographs, lab reports, and objects from the scene.He verified those contents and added a few additional items. He also added that cold case files would have to be preserved well.Maybe they were in a basement and got damaged in a flood, or they were in an office and somehow got misplaced, perhaps during a move to a new office. Back in earlier decades, evidence wasn't always well preserved, especially in smaller town police departments.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Years ago police departments were not required to keep evidence beyond a certain point, and they routinely purged</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> when a case was done. They didn't have as much guidance from the courts as departments have today. In Illinois, today, the evidence in certain cases, expecially in major crimes, is kept forever. This is always true of Class X or higher cases. But once the statue of limitations has ended for more minor cases or all appeals are over, evidence is routinely purged. The courts, as well as the State's Attorney's office, give guidance today on the status of cases and when to throw out evidence. In my book, my cold case file was kept because of the nature of the crime.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>How are bodies identified?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today it's much easier because we have DNA and fingerprint databases and a huge </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">amount of material at our fingertips. But decades ago, they didn't have DNA, and they had fingerprints on hard copy cards. Often there were no dental records. The police would have gone to the relatives of a victim and asked them for doctors' names or operations the victim had in hospitals. Often broken bones, scars, or deformities would be markers for identification. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>How do you identify gun owners? </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today the police trace gun ownership from the manufacturer to the retailer to the customer. Current retailers are required to keep records for ten years on </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">gun purchases. Even private sellers must keep a record of buyers. If a gun is used in a crime, the police can often trace the serial number. The number is on different parts of the gun, depending on the gun maker. And what if a criminal tries to destroy the identification number of a gun? Labs can sometimes raise numbers if a criminal tries to grind them down.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Police Procedure: In a homicide, who would be called in to assist?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Usually a state evidence team and additional detectives from the state police, Galesburg, and Macomb. Also a CSI team would be called. They would form a homicide task force or major case squad. If a bomb is involved, the ATF, or another federal agency, might be called in. Chief Feithen was police chief in Dekalb, Illinois, during the multiple shootings at NIU which killed five students and injured twenty-one more on February 14, 2008. He said that crime involved a student from the University of Illinois. The Dekalb Police Department was assisted by the Champaign police as Dekalb detectives spoke to individuals in the Champaign area whom they wanted to interview about the suspect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">[I have a feeling being Police Chief in Monmouth is a bit less stressful than being Chief in Dekalb.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then I asked him...well, no, I can't tell you that because you might figure out whodunit in my book. You'll have to wait until it comes out in November. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Chief Feithen is an intelligent, experienced person, and he answered my questions about murder with a directness and frankness that would do my fictional Endurance Police Chief proud. I think the Monmouth community is fortunate to have him in this office, and I look forward to asking him more questions down the road. This is one of the great advantages to living in a small town, writing a small town murder mystery, and having helpful experts just a few blocks or a phone call away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-88675938602982181612014-03-10T10:43:00.000-05:002014-03-10T10:43:15.092-05:00Do You Want to Use a Lifeline and Call an Expert? Here's How<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My first mystery, <i>Three May Keep a Secret</i>, is coming out this November from Five Star Publishing. Notice the word "first" in that sentence. Over the past two years, I have had many "firsts" in writing this mystery. One of those was getting up my nerve to call and make an appointment to talk with experts whose professions involve crime, dead bodies, and fires. After all, I really didn't have a mystery published yet. At the time I needed their help, I was a retired English teacher dabbling in the world of crime. What did I know? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm lucky to live in a small town of 10,000 in west central Illinois, and my book takes place in just such a town. Talking with experts who deal with small town crime is much more helpful than speaking with someone, say, who works in urban areas. This made it a little less scary to call for that appointment. However, if you're a "big city" person, the same interview basics apply.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you are contemplating expert inteviews, just keep in mind that the worst these experts can say is "no." However, none of mine did. People seem to love talking about their work, and it is always flattering when someone asks you for advice. So, screw up your courage and call or email. Then, once they've said "yes" and your legs have stopped shaking, start thinking about the interview. Perhaps my thoughts can help you with this process.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Preparation. In preparing for the interview, I try to remember I am a writer interviewing experts. So first I need to act in a professional manner. I do my homework by choosing the professionals I need and researching their credentials for experience and expertise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Do I interview the expert while I am writing my novel or before the area where I need expert help? I've done both, and sometimes after I've written a scene, I take it to the interview and ask the expert if it is realistic. This was true, for example, when I wrote a scene about being in a fire. Fortunately, I've never been there, but the Fire Chief said I imagined it quite realistically.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I call early or email, and set the date, time, and place that will work for both of us. In the case of the Police Chief and Fire Chief, I met them at their offices. My coroner and I met at a local coffee shop (love living in a small town!) My police detective and I email, and we continue to do so every time I have a question. Also, I make sure to leave a contact number in case the designated interview falls through. After all, with these kinds of experts an emergency might develop quickly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's very important to go to the interview </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">with questions I want to ask so I won't waste their time or mine. Let's consider the Police Chief. First, I want to ask general questions. For example, I asked about cold case files. What might be in them? Would the contents be different in the 1960's compared to today? I also ask very specific questions about weapons, procedures, or criminal thinking. I asked about destroying the number on a gun. My questions might also verify plot points I've written or am thinking about. I asked my coroner about post mortem lab tests. Who orders them? Is there always an inquest? How has the law changed regarding inquests? I can also ask my expert if a particular plot twist or fact is possible or realistic. Often they have amazing stores of their own that are true but sound stranger than fiction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The day of the interview, I arrive early. Believe me, you can cut down on anxiety if you plan to arrive early, covering all possibilities including traffic. I bring my questions with plenty of room to take </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HYs5fxoKBmc/Ux3ae6ppm5I/AAAAAAAABCM/BD_ZTW9OPSk/s1600/recorder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HYs5fxoKBmc/Ux3ae6ppm5I/AAAAAAAABCM/BD_ZTW9OPSk/s1600/recorder.jpg" height="200" width="145" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">notes. I also like to take a small recorder, but I always ask the person being interviewed if he is fine with being recorded. Usually, he appreciates the fact that I am trying to be very accurate. I like recording an interview because if I'm writing down answers I'm not thinking as quickly about follow-up questions. I write down something I want to go back to or information I need to emphasize. I take brief notes but mostly I listen and think. Often my source will give me other resources--people I can interview that might be helpful. My coroner also loaned me books that explained crime scenes, procedures, and the condition of the victims' bodies in various kinds of deaths. Made for great, late-night reading.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Listen carefully during interviews. Many of the answers will lead you in new directions. Don't be afraid to throw in a question you hadn't intended to ask.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The last thing in the interview is an </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xuHBH5ZEnzg/Ux3a8uB7ldI/AAAAAAAABCU/h9WjNdFieT0/s1600/business+card+exchange.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xuHBH5ZEnzg/Ux3a8uB7ldI/AAAAAAAABCU/h9WjNdFieT0/s1600/business+card+exchange.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">exchange of business cards. I always ask the expert if I may call or email if another question comes up. Often I need to clarify one of his answers or my understanding of it. This works quite successfully.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After the interview, I type the information, along with my thoughts and reactions. I do this immediately while the ideas are fresh in my mind. I also generally write a "thank you" note or email to thank the expert for his time and help. If he has given me a great deal of help, I acknowledge him in my book.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Coming up next: A discussion of my interview with our local Police Chief, Bill Feithen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-90327893801922563032014-03-03T16:47:00.000-06:002014-03-03T16:47:32.666-06:00Expert Sources: The Often Unsung Heroes of Mysteries<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's hard to believe that three weeks ago I was sitting in The Sugar Bowl in Old Town Scottsdale having lunch with Annette Mahon, enjoying the blue Arizona skies, and loving the mid-seventies temperatures. Annette is the author of five quilting mysteries about the St. Rose Quilting Bee group. Now, in early March, I'm looking out my living room window at the snow blanketing my Illinois yard and contemplating the zero temperatures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At least the sky is blue. Today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It always stirs my thoughts when I talk with other writers. Something Annette said caused me to consider the expert sources I use for my mysteries. She explained that the Scottsdale Police Department has a public relations person whom writers can call for answers to their police procedure questions. That thought stayed in my head for several days. The entire Phoenix/Scottsdale area is so huge that comparing it to my little town is ludicrous. I don't think we have a specific public relations person designated as "the one most likely to return calls to authors."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Annette and I are members of the Sisters in Crime Scottsdale chapter called Desert Sleuths, and at a recent meeting we heard a Phoenix police detective discuss the procedures used for arresting people in the metro area. The scenarios were quite different from those used in our little town. Needless to say, the severity </span><br />
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of the crimes differs considerably between Phoenix (pop. 4.3 million) and Monmouth, Illinois (pop. 10,000 on a good day.) One trip walking past the waiting room of a Mesa, Arizona emergency room told me that. Gun shots, stabbings, and domestic violence aside, those scenes are rare here in our little hamlet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I remember thinking, "Gosh, I have such great experts I can call and have a sit-down, face-to-face, interview. It might cost me a cup of coffee, but I come away with amazing information that finds its way into my mysteries. While most of my experts have worked earlier in more populated places, they now deal with small town crime and police procedures. That's what I'm writing about, so I'm really fortunate to have these resources at my fingertips." Every expert I've interviewed in the past year has been pleasant, funny, professional, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I also have secret weapons. Over my many high school teaching years, I came into contact with some 4,000 students. Many of them are now in positions where they have information I need. A quick </span><br />
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phone call: ("Really? You got a 'D' on that <i>Moby Dick</i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i> </i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">paper twenty-five years ago? What </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">can I say? I was young and inexperienced. On the other hand, can you tell me...") The internet has made it speedier to contact these former students when their areas of expertise collide with information I need to know. Believe me, I'm not beneath calling in a few favors, just like my protagonist, retired teacher Grace Kimball.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Back in our town I must admit that as a first time mystery novelist I was a little worried about calling these "expert" people. What if they didn't want to talk to me? After all, I don't really have a murder mystery published yet. I'm just writing it and maybe I won't find a publisher. Then I had one of "those talks."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"What's the worst thing they can say?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"No."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"So, they say 'no.' That just means you go to Plan B, right?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Right. And Plan B is?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As it turned out, I discovered that people are very pleased, enthusiastic, and flattered to talk about their work. Here I </span><br />
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am, a novelist who used to be an English teacher, and who knows nothing about bullets, dead bodies, or arrest warrants, but I'm learning fast. Yes, I've done my research from books on these topics, but the real expert is so much more informative. Believe me, people who are police officers or coroners are happy to fill me in on those details--especially the grizzly ones--and I'm happy to give them credit for doing so. Readers today call authors out when they see errors in crime procedures so it pays to be accurate. So far no expert has turned me down, and each has been amazing at clarifying answers to my questions and making suggestions that I might not have considered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">These unsung heroes are going to be the subjects of several blog posts over the next few weeks. I plan to begin with a post about how an author might go about preparing and doing an interview when working with expert sources. Then I'll follow up with descriptions of the experts I used and the kinds of information I gained from talking with them. I'll discuss "my" police chief, fire chief, coroner, and police detective. I know it doesn't have quite the lilt or alliteration of <i>Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,</i> but it works for me.</span></div>
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Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-89368438976816405082014-01-28T12:51:00.003-06:002014-01-28T16:19:05.728-06:00Annette Mahon: Mystery and Romance Writer, Quilter, Book-Lover, Mom<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">During this winter in Arizona, I've had the pleasure of meeting a fellow member of Sisters in Crime, Annette Mahon. On a beautiful Arizona day, we enjoyed a fabulous lunch at The Sugar Bowl in Scottsdale. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NjvPqMD1DBU/Uuf2IM2K6-I/AAAAAAAABAE/O-gb4ywAyG0/s1600/Annette+Mahon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NjvPqMD1DBU/Uuf2IM2K6-I/AAAAAAAABAE/O-gb4ywAyG0/s1600/Annette+Mahon.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Annette's <br />
Author Facebook Page</td></tr>
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Annette has a new book coming out this September, and I plan to interview her for this blog prior to her book launch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Like me, Annette has been interested and passionate about books since she learned to read. She is retired from her earlier career as both a librarian and the host of a library cable show called "The Children's Room." Her educational background includes a Master's Degree in library science from Syracuse University.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Annette is married, and she and her husband raised three daughters. Although she is retired these days, she continues to write novels, especially mysteries. Her earlier books were romances published by Avalon, and many of those are now available online as e-books. Montlake Romance published two of those online recently--<i>Holiday Dreams</i> and <i>The Secret Santa</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Growing up in Hilo, Hawaii, she has used that knowledge to create a strong Hawaiian presence in her romance novels. Her latest published book takes place in Hawaii when her fictional quilting bee group travels there. Readers interested in that locale will love her romance novels and also her latest quilting bee mystery. But you don't have to be a quilter to enjoy her novels.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of Annette's biggest passions is quilting, so it is no wonder she has written a series of mysteries around the sleuthing of the St. Rose Quilting Bee friends. In <i>A Phantom Death</i>, her protagonist, Maggie Browne, becomes involved in a murder investigation when a young man, Jonathan Hunter, is murdered on land near Maggie's son's ranch. Maggie knew Hunter when he was a young boy, growing up with her son and in and out of her home. Now he has had great success playing the lead in a group of actors who are doing <i>The Phantom of the Opera</i>. Unfortunately, Scottsdale was his final stop.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Maggie and her friends wrestle with the clues and relationships that lead them to speculate on the murder. It also helps that one of Maggie's sons is a police officer. All the while they are quilting together or volunteering at Gammage Auditorium where the musical is playing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Along the way, the reader also hears about quilts and quilting. Currently, Annette has written three more books in this series. The most recent is <i>St. Rose Goes Hawaiian</i>. The cover features an <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gMQN1336gVk/Uuf6UFy25xI/AAAAAAAABAY/v2vsD-m5EJs/s1600/plumaria+flower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gMQN1336gVk/Uuf6UFy25xI/AAAAAAAABAY/v2vsD-m5EJs/s1600/plumaria+flower.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The plumeria flower</td></tr>
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original Hawaiian quilt wall hanging based on the plumeria flower. Prior to this fourth quilting mystery, her books were all set in Scottsdale. They include <i>Bits and Pieces</i>, <i>An Ominous Death</i>, and <i>A Phantom Death</i>. In September, she will be adding <i>Bright Hopes</i>. The title is, of course, the name of a quilt pattern. All of these mysteries have been published by Five Star Publishing, the company that is currently producing my first mystery for publication. Annette has been an invaluable help since she is far along the publishing road compared to my beginning efforts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you would like to check out Annette's books, you can do so on her website <a href="http://www.annettemahon.com/">here</a> or go! to her Facebook Author Page, Author Annette Mahon, and, while you're there feel free to hit the "like" button. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to talking to her again in August. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-7462019167143112992013-12-31T12:10:00.001-06:002013-12-31T12:10:05.889-06:00Time to Shove 2013 Out the Door<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Sjo30BvGb5k/UsMAvm-XVrI/AAAAAAAAA_A/XKK15LhzptY/s1600/goodbye+2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Sjo30BvGb5k/UsMAvm-XVrI/AAAAAAAAA_A/XKK15LhzptY/s200/goodbye+2013.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've heard very few comments from people about their desires to keep 2013 going forever. They seem to be more likely to say it would be wise to move forward.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After looking at a review of huge news stories I can certainly see why. It probably doesn't help that the news media business realizes that strife and conflict sell advertising. We witnessed bombings, floods, fires, typhoons, property and life destruction, continued strife in the Middle East, chemical weapons, and a Congress at home with the lowest ratings in history and no statesmen in sight. Those are only the top seven on my list. Of course, we also saw miracles too: children pulled from the rubble alive, acts of kindness, a royal baby, and a new Pope who seems to resemble the humility of his faith.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And, let me repeat, very few people have told me they </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">enjoyed this past year and they are ready for 2014.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If I could put in my own two cents' worth, at the risk of sounding like a grumpy senior citizen, I would add that I hope the world becomes a little warmer in 2014. No, I'm not talking about the weather or global warming. When I think about the past year, I remember so many situations where it became obvious to me that both technology and huge corporations are contributing to our lack of humanity and our increase in coldness. Trying to find anyone who will help you with a problem has become almost impossible. No one really seems to care.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_8AhFf7oyac/UsMDE704dvI/AAAAAAAAA_Y/-k80WBsEg7U/s1600/Corporate+profits_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_8AhFf7oyac/UsMDE704dvI/AAAAAAAAA_Y/-k80WBsEg7U/s320/Corporate+profits_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Corporations are reaping tremendous profits at human costs. People are laid off because a streamlined company means lots more profit for those at the top. Downsizing leaves remaining employees to pick up the slack in the familiar 24-hour window with no pay increase and a lot less sleep. And if you have a problem with the phone company or the power company or your internet provider or your insurance company, good luck. You are simply one of millions and your problem is not their concern. This is especially true if they have no competition where you live.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Despite the new laws that govern cell phone use while driving, drivers continue to text and have accidents. Restaurants and homes are filled with families sitting around tables using their cell phones rather than having conversations. Go to any public park or </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y4676mxfPLk/UsMDt5fGZ4I/AAAAAAAAA_g/hCnOtbdwTBY/s1600/cell+phones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y4676mxfPLk/UsMDt5fGZ4I/AAAAAAAAA_g/hCnOtbdwTBY/s1600/cell+phones.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">children's play area--like Discovery Depot back home in Illinois--and you will see parents sitting with their cell phones while their children play alone. An opportunity to learn together is once again thwarted. Please, don't get me started on video games and college students.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Oh, yes. Grumpy senior citizen emerges in this post. Time to tuck her away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Instead, at the end of 2013, I will be grateful for the things over which I have some control that soften the whole first half of this post: children and grandchildren who continue to amaze me in so many ways; friends I have had for over thirty years who have given me gifts beyond imagining; the supportive colleagues with whom I have worked; a small town I love and enjoy returning to after the deep freeze of winter; the warm weather in Arizona that keeps my vitamin D level up; </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">my last aunt who died recently, joining a whole generation who raised me and is now gone but fondly remembered;<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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the people who have helped me along the way on this new writing career; the publishing company that said "yes"; and the authors who have inspired and taught me throughout my life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There. I feel better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yes, perspective helps.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bring on 2014 and may we all help make it a little warmer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-80500612598878467502013-12-03T19:00:00.000-06:002013-12-07T08:19:36.630-06:00Seeking Mr. Connelly<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's been four years since I set out to see crime writer Michael Connelly at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale. The creator of Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller, Connelly has generally launched his new books from here. Since he's written twenty-six novels, you'd </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">think I would have caught him sometime. But no. He's always here when I'm not. This year I laid my plans to be here ahead of him, and I succeeded.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Connelly has a new book called<i> The Gods of Guilt</i>. It's a Lincoln Lawyer (Mickey Haller) book and he's just </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-feIlRdUnzxA/Up5y-ea75eI/AAAAAAAAA90/5tEaDUOVtio/s1600/Connelly1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-feIlRdUnzxA/Up5y-ea75eI/AAAAAAAAA90/5tEaDUOVtio/s200/Connelly1.jpg" width="131" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">starting a tour to discuss it and sign copies. He spoke to an audience of several hundred people at the Arizona Biltmore last night (12/2) and was interviewed by Robert Anglen of the Arizona Republic. If you'd like to read an extension of that interview, check out this site: <a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/cbs_this_morning/video/MHPbQV5BS37ycvYKhjvn97rfu4lCAP_a/michael-connelly-wants-his-movies-to-be-shot-only-in-los-angeles/">Anglen Interview</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The first Connelly book I read, years ago, was <i>The Poet.</i> I loved it. The story of a serial killer using clues from Edgar Allan Poe's writing, <i>The Poet</i> was a product of Connelly's crime reporting days working for newspapers. After that job in the early 90's, he became a writer full time and has written books primarily about two men: homicide detective Harry Bosch and defense lawyer Mickey Haller.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">His new book, <i>The Gods of Guilt</i>, is the fifth Lincoln Lawyer book and it could be described as a character study. Mickey Haller is usually able to bend the law and use it to his advantage, but now, through a set of circumstances, he's dealing with an unhappy look back at his often shady legal career and what it has cost him. An attorney friend of Connelly's referred to a jury on a case he was discussing as "the gods of guilt" and it stuck with the author. But it refers to more than the jury in his new book. According to Connelly, lawyers leave law school with lots of noble ideals about the law, but Haller's stories show how lawyers handle cases and what really happens when they go to court. Not always a pretty picture.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">An earlier Haller book, <i>The Lincoln Lawyer</i>, was made into a film starring Matthew McConaughey. Connelly was very complimentary about the job McConaughey did, but said the actor did not really resemble Heller physically, nor did Heller have a soft Southern accent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Connelly's more heroic character is Harry Bosch who is easy to like because he is a good guy--a light going after and into darkness. I've always loved this character because he isn't perfect; he has his flaws and his darkness, much of it beginning as a tunnel rat in Viet Nam. Bosch is due to retire in 2015, but Connelly says that will not be the end of his stories. Yay!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The author is working on an exciting project with the Bosch series. Like Netflix with its new original programming, Amazon Prime is going to start creating its own original programming that you will be able to <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MV0EQMTKwyU/Up510y6nhVI/AAAAAAAAA-M/a-5XXRAgjqo/s1600/Connelly5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MV0EQMTKwyU/Up510y6nhVI/AAAAAAAAA-M/a-5XXRAgjqo/s200/Connelly5.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Titus Welliver</td></tr>
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see streamed on your computer. The new film, just shot, is being edited and stars Titus Welliver as Bosch. <i>CBS This Morning</i> did a story on this project and you can see it <a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/cbs_this_morning/video/MHPbQV5BS37ycvYKhjvn97rfu4lCAP_a/michael-connelly-wants-his-movies-to-be-shot-only-in-los-angeles/">here</a>. The new film is based on <i>City of Bones</i> and is being shot exclusively in Los Angeles. Connelly has total control over the project and he promises that Bosch fans will love this pilot. He enthusiastically described a scene where the camera pans across the hills of LA and focuses on Boschs' house while the jazz piece, "Lullaby," plays in the background. The film is currently being edited.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the more unique stories of the night concerned how Connelly's interest in cops, police stations, and crime began. When he was 16 years old, he was working as a dishwasher in a restaurant. Driving home one night, he stopped at a red light and watched a teenager on the sidewalk take off his shirt and fold an object in it. He placed it in some bushes. Then, wearing his tee shirt, he left, and an intrigued Connelly followed him by car to a biker bar. Once the boy went inside, Connelly doubled back and checked the bushes: the object was a gun. He called his dad from a pay phone and asked him what he should do. His father advised him to call the police and then he met Michael at the location. Connelly spent the night at the police station looking at mug shots and listening and watching.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He was hooked from that night on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The audience asked several questions about Connelly's writing process. The author said that usually he wrote three or four early books about each man, concentrating on plot, before he was able to delve more deeply into their psyches. It generally </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e23PbOOTooU/Up58VeW0IiI/AAAAAAAAA-c/UT2DQhCcP38/s1600/Connelly6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e23PbOOTooU/Up58VeW0IiI/AAAAAAAAA-c/UT2DQhCcP38/s1600/Connelly6.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">takes him ten months to write a book and it is a long process and a solitary one. He can't write books about LA in Florida, where he lives much of the time. So he has to return to LA when it's time to write.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-De0wSfh72uM/Up58v_SCJUI/AAAAAAAAA-k/k3Y3cWxVYsU/s1600/003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-De0wSfh72uM/Up58v_SCJUI/AAAAAAAAA-k/k3Y3cWxVYsU/s320/003.JPG" width="262" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Connelly had already signed hundreds of copies of his new book before the night began, but he was willing to personalize signatures and so I stood in line for quite some time with lots of others who are Connelly fans. He was very gracious, allowing anyone to take photos while he signed books.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was a wonderful night, definitely worth the trip to AZ a little early so I could finally meet this author I've so admired. It's good to know he doesn't see me as a stalker.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-1370561601255083602013-11-11T08:13:00.004-06:002013-11-14T13:49:40.000-06:00November 22, Fifty Years Later<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FZ9hmuKE8dM/UoDZn764VAI/AAAAAAAAA8U/1vNbWaLOyuY/s1600/Kennedy7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FZ9hmuKE8dM/UoDZn764VAI/AAAAAAAAA8U/1vNbWaLOyuY/s320/Kennedy7.jpg" width="287" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">National Geographic Channel recently aired the first of several documentaries and movies about November 22, 1963. I'd like to say that </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">date seems like yesterday, but in actuality it seems like long ago. At the time I was seventeen, a junior in high school, on the way to a debate tournament at Bradley University. We heard of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's death on the car radio.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As I watched those documentaries today, I thought about how ill prepared we were for such a tragedy. And now we have lived through so many more in the </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sFUYz3Jf1Po/UoDcXJn2s6I/AAAAAAAAA9Q/vysO_D1wo7I/s1600/Kennedy1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sFUYz3Jf1Po/UoDcXJn2s6I/AAAAAAAAA9Q/vysO_D1wo7I/s200/Kennedy1.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">intervening fifty years. I also considered how much life has changed all around us, but those images have stayed frozen in time in our heads and in our hearts. Watching the horrified faces and tears of people outside Parkland Hospital in Dallas brings back the same feeling of grief and dread, even after fifty years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The black and white footage shows immense changes</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> in media coverage. Without the technology we have today, information was sparse and often inaccurate. The President was reported to be receiving blood transfusions and his eventual death was actually disclosed by one of the priests who gave him last rites. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was reported to have had either a heart attack or been shot also. Neither report was true. Long after Lee Harvey Oswald (often called "Lee Harold Oswald" by reporters), left the Texas Book Depository, the Secret Service was still looking for him in the building because he was reportedly still there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Besides so many inaccuracies, the way the 1963 news media operated is also startling from a 21st century perspective. The local Dallas news station shows reporters on camera smoking cigarette after cigarette and interviewing people while holding telephones to their ears--often both ears. No unseen ear phones here. The news anchor actually explained that they would have an update on Texas Governor Connolly's condition the following morning since the news went off the air at night. [Why, oh why, did they have to invent the 24-hour news cycle?]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The news footage told me things I didn't know. I thought that people leaving massive flowers in someone's memory was a phenomenon of more recent times like Princess Di's funeral. But many people left memorials for Kennedy outside Parkland Hospital and at the location where he was shot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_8s4qSWJMVE/UoDhDSIhr-I/AAAAAAAAA9g/hy1A-TNn8b4/s1600/Kennedy9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_8s4qSWJMVE/UoDhDSIhr-I/AAAAAAAAA9g/hy1A-TNn8b4/s200/Kennedy9.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> I also learned that a casket was brought to the hospital to transport the body, and the funeral home's employee reported that the First Lady took off her wedding ring and put it on the President's finger before they closed the casket. During these early hours no one knew where Lyndon Johnson was. He had been whisked away to "an unknown location" to keep him safe and he would soon be sworn in. It was ironic to hear Mrs. Rose Kennedy talking on the phone to LBJ on <i>Air</i> <i>Force One</i> and telling him how much she knew he loved her son. In the intervening years the truth of the Kennedys/Johnson relationship would say otherwise. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-szlKReAD3a8/UoDbspzg_jI/AAAAAAAAA88/R8-xmNAvJCk/s1600/Kennedy4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-szlKReAD3a8/UoDbspzg_jI/AAAAAAAAA88/R8-xmNAvJCk/s200/Kennedy4.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
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Finally, I didn't realize that Lee Harvey Oswald's funeral was held in secrecy in Fort Worth with only the family attending. News men acted as pall bearers since there was no one else. It was not open to the public.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Even now, after fifty years, the images persist. It was mayhem when Kennedy was shot and his car left the motorcade and rushed him to the hospital. We have watched the home video of that scene over and over. Also seen and remembered is the footage of people waiting outside Parkland Hospital for word of the President's condition, tears streaming down their </span><br />
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Even the Secret Service men were in tears, as was the judge, Sarah Hughes, while she performed the oath of office to LBJ on <i>Air Force One</i>. I saw the shooting of Oswald by Jack Ruby live since the television station covered it as he was transported to Dallas County Jail. I remember my total disbelief as I rose from a chair in our family room.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That same day we learned a new vocabulary of state funerals: the rider-less, black-draped horse with the </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H7DqSbRTE60/UoDbzzHP8nI/AAAAAAAAA9A/yCWQE8B8dHo/s1600/Kennedy5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H7DqSbRTE60/UoDbzzHP8nI/AAAAAAAAA9A/yCWQE8B8dHo/s320/Kennedy5.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">boots on backwards; the casket lying in state in the Capitol rotunda; the mournful notes of the funeral dirge; Mrs. Kennedy in black with her young children, and,of course, John's salute; and the internment at Arlington Cemetery near the Eternal Flame. So many of the participants that day are now gone too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm not sure my children or grandchildren will ever understand the shared grief of my generation over what we lost that day. Oh, I know we're baby boomers and prone to re-examining and whining over the memories of our lost youth. But on November 22, we shared the total disbelief that this could happen in our country to a young, vibrant, and handsome president, leaving behind a grieving widow and two small children. We shared the loss of innocence from those three shots fired that day. We shared the loss of what might have been.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mprMI2zxDaY/UoDb-psTIGI/AAAAAAAAA9I/_M9jToY5tOo/s1600/Kennedy6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mprMI2zxDaY/UoDb-psTIGI/AAAAAAAAA9I/_M9jToY5tOo/s320/Kennedy6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And we will always share the images of that dark procession down Pennsylvania Avenue when the world and its leaders came to Washington, D.C., and shared our loss too. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-47112331557059615812013-10-14T14:21:00.000-05:002013-10-14T16:45:32.138-05:00A Review of Thomas H. Cook's "Sandrine's Case"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Seldom has a book moved me to tears, but <i>Sandrine's Case </i>did because of the beauty of its prose and its exquisite ending. Do NOT read the ending first!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Professor Sam Madison is on trial for the murder of his wife, Sandrine, who was found dead, naked, in their bed in a posed position. But did he murder his 46-year-old wife, who was also a professor at Coburn College in their small Southern town, or did she commit suicide?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">While this book might be called a mystery, it is </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3Bter_zyy2U/UlxCjGY2dZI/AAAAAAAAA7w/ev6_2uiR-_A/s1600/wedding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3Bter_zyy2U/UlxCjGY2dZI/AAAAAAAAA7w/ev6_2uiR-_A/s200/wedding.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">actually more of a character study of Sam Madison. It is also the story of a marriage, an institution best understood by the participants and largely judged or misjudged by those on the ouside observing the marriage. This is especially true in the small town of Coburn. At one point his daughter, Alexandria, tries to define marriage. She says, "Maybe that's why married people try so hard to make things work. It's not that they love each other every day, right? It's that they love each other enough to stay through the days they don't." The Madison's marriage and their history are tightly wound around the outcome of Sam's trial.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Through Sam's thoughts and seamlessly perfect prose journeys back and forth in time, we learn the story of Sam and Sandrine's marriage and their history together. Hardly dead in the true sense of that word, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3MyxLzWk6Jo/UlxCuioQ2lI/AAAAAAAAA74/2uQxwcAKPKc/s1600/mysterious+eyes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="108" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3MyxLzWk6Jo/UlxCuioQ2lI/AAAAAAAAA74/2uQxwcAKPKc/s200/mysterious+eyes.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sandrine is a living presence in Sam's mind and in the story. She was lovely, vivacious, brilliant, utterly dedicated to her students, and kind. So what had attracted her to Sam Madison, who is so cold that she calls him a sociopath shortly before her death? What are we to think when he begins to suspect that his dead wife has actually put into motion a plan that will frame him and lead to his own execution and his loss of their daughter's love?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Each chapter of the novel is another day in the short murder trial of Sam Madison, a trial seen through his eyes. Despite Cook's flawless prose, Madison is hardly a narrator we can like. Cold and cynical, he has always thought of himself as far superior to other Coburn inhabitants. As each neighbor, lover, or co-worker testifies, we actually hear his/her testimony from Sam's point of view. Sam's dark thoughts seem to lend credence to the theory of the police detective sworn to pin the murder on him. Cook creates suspense as only he can, and the reader is turning pages quickly to find out whether Sam will be found guilty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As the trial plays out, the reader goes back and forth. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BsXnDwBy78c/UlxC5jC_X_I/AAAAAAAAA8A/P5v0U5Z0Jhs/s1600/jury-verdict.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BsXnDwBy78c/UlxC5jC_X_I/AAAAAAAAA8A/P5v0U5Z0Jhs/s200/jury-verdict.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Did he do it? Did she do it? Who is guilty and who is innocent? How do their past and their marriage play such a significant role in the final outcome of the trial? In the end this beautiful novel is a story of redemption. I loved Thomas H. Cook's <i>The Chatham School Affair,</i> but his lyrical prose, his flawless movement back and forth in time, his utterly surprising ending, and his masterful use of suspense put <i>Sandrine's Case</i> at the top of my list.</span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-10625329307039782632013-10-09T12:31:00.001-05:002013-10-09T12:37:15.289-05:00Upstairs at the McCullough House<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After my sojourn across the pond, it's back to the </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">McCullough House, a Victorian home that will be an 1893 setting in my second mystery. We've explored the public rooms downstairs. Now it's time to take the broad staircase to the second and third floors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The wealthy of the late 1800s generally had sparsely furnished bedrooms. These were private areas of the house so ostentation wasn't necessary. Usually the bedrooms on the second floor contained an easy chair, table, washstand with pitcher, bureau, and chamber pots.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The beds were made of brass, iron, or woods such as</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KVFU_szGrMY/UlWMOThjPzI/AAAAAAAAA6k/s6brzwmtJY4/s1600/1800+bed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KVFU_szGrMY/UlWMOThjPzI/AAAAAAAAA6k/s6brzwmtJY4/s200/1800+bed.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> mahogany, oak, cherry, or ash. I imagine the McCulloughs had high-posted beds because the ceilings were high and the floors cold. They probably had feather beds since the wealthy could afford such luxury. The walls in the rooms were painted or wallpapered in a hardly memorable pattern. They may have had three or four bedrooms on the second floor, but the master bedroom was in the front with windows looking out over the street. At some point the owners also added a bathroom in the 1800's sense of the word.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A bathroom was separate from a water closet. Let's consider first the lowly water closet. Through most of the 1800s, the privy was outdoors and was called an outhouse, a house of office, or a necessary house. In fact, there was much resistance to bringing this whole unsanitary business inside the house. Not until WWI did "bathrooms" become tubs, sinks, and toilets. In 1910, Sears, Roebuck sold the three together as a "suite" with standard parts put out by, appropriately, the American Standard company. So perhaps the McCullough house began with an outside privy that was later moved into a small closet on the second floor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Also on the second floor was the bathroom. This was strictly for bathing and when we lived there in the late 1960s, the second floor did have a large bathroom that accommodated a claw-foot tub. But in the late 1800s, this tub was made of wood, zinc, or painted tin. Often a bathroom had a fireplace and might have started as a small bedchamber. The Victorians avoided wallpaper or wood paneling in their bathrooms because of roaches. Instead, they used glazed ceramic tile in white, gray, or buff colors. The more expensive--I'd like to think the McCulloughs fit this category--used pearl, gold, or rose hues in their tiles. Can you imagine, as a domestic, making multiple trips carrying water up the back stairway from the kitchen to fill this tub and keep it warm so the owners could bathe? You would probably have been thankful people didn't bathe as often in the 1800s.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HLHeABJTGCc/UlWOSRxROBI/AAAAAAAAA6w/xxQSPSsle74/s1600/ballroom+restoration.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="254" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HLHeABJTGCc/UlWOSRxROBI/AAAAAAAAA6w/xxQSPSsle74/s320/ballroom+restoration.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Probably a bit larger than the McCullough House,<br />
but you get the picture!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The second floor is not as interesting as the top floor of the house--the ballroom. It's possible the third floor also had a couple of small, lackluster rooms for servants' quarters too. But the top floor was a ballroom with windows overlooking the main street, Broadway. Refreshments would have been available in the ballroom and possibly they had a midnight supper on the first floor followed the dancing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All young ladies were given a dance program and </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">gentlemen wrote their names in for specific dances. Never would an unmarried woman dance more than twice with the same man. Until the late 1880s, husbands and wives never danced together in public (disregard what you see from Hollywood.) The favored dances were the waltz, polka, quadrille, gallop, cotillion, and Virginia Reel. But young ladies were warned against overexertion in <i>Godey's Lady's Book. </i>This was probably prudent since they were in corsets that cut off their lung capacities. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The finest evening wear would have been essential for the McCullough's dance invitations. </span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hSwnIlnJxCk/UlWPuEiPf3I/AAAAAAAAA7I/nbYnrZj6NdA/s1600/fan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hSwnIlnJxCk/UlWPuEiPf3I/AAAAAAAAA7I/nbYnrZj6NdA/s200/fan.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Gloves and fans were required. The fans were made of silk, tortoise shell, lace, or ivory, and often had beads, hand-painted designs, or feathers. A lady suspended her fan on a chain from her waist while dancing. She also learned the "language of fans" so she could flirt with young men.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It would be easy to imagine the evening promenade of</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> men and women in fancy dress walking up the main staircase of the McCullough house to spend a pleasant evening dancing in the ballroom and drinking punch. Tightly enforced social codes required the unmarried to move through their regulated lives under the watchful eyes of the married adults. (Egads, another reason marriage was the ding dong bell of doom.) And, when the dance ended, the ladies would obtain their evening wraps, be escorted down the staircase once again, and climb into their conveyances to go home through the quiet streets of Monmouth. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-45277920021552182872013-09-21T11:02:00.001-05:002013-10-03T07:47:35.447-05:00Travelling with Ghosts, Mysteries, and Murders<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm taking a little time off from 19th century Victorian architecture and furnishings to write about a recent trip to Europe, but be advised that even a trip back into history has an effect on my thoughts about past, present, and plots. Sixteen of us went on a tour to England, Wales, and Scotland sponsored by a local bank. It was a whirlwind tour, with 7 to 8-hour plane rides included in the ten-day schedule. One day we had breakfast in Wales, lunch in England, and dinner in Scotland. Whew! The pace was a killer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My favorite day, of course, was our visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon, seeing all the Shakespeare sites that I've taught about for so many years. The most impressive was Anne Hathaway's cottage with its extensive flower gardens. Trinity Church, where </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Shakespeare was baptized and buried, was steeped in timelessness, more ancient than I could have imagined. What a stately and appropriate setting for the resting place of the genius of the ages. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Other sites we visited included Stonehenge; Edinburgh, with its Harry Potter architecture; Ruthin Castle in Wales; York, with its cobblestone walks and medieval city walls; Gretna Green, (where I looked for Wickham and Lydia); the Welsh countryside, the Cotswolds, and the Lake District (I think God must live there); and, of course, London.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And, despite all of these amazing places and people, my favorite night of the trip remains the evening spent in London with a former student and his partner, Emmanuelle. Rick Kellum, one of my students from the 80's, is just on the cusp of becoming a published author. </span><br />
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We had so much fun thinking about what's coming for him. I don't exaggerate when I say it was </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">a magical night at a charming French restaurant--wonderful food and great conversation--along the Thames River with the London skyline lit up in the background. This is a special memory tucked away forever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I also noticed that my thinking about places has changed. As I experienced the UK, I saw mysteries, thrillers, and ghost stories lurking everywhere. The </span><br />
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history of these countries is filled with darkness, violence, executions, ghosts, "Out damn spot!", brooding on the moors, and murders for power. This is a good sign. I've begun to think about what could happen in real life that might become part of my writing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, is a military installation--lots of barbed wire, military equipment, and signs that say "Keep Out." [Mind: What could be </span><br />
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lurking behind those closed walls? Military secrets? Plots? And could they connect with a murder at Stonehenge with lots of blood on one of the bluestones?]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In Scotland,Edinburgh Castle is one of the first places where we were told that ghosts walk. I imagine, since many of the sites we saw went back to 1000 A.D., that ghosts are more plentiful there than in our upstart, 350-year-old U.S. history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We were told that a particular ghost walks the passages at Ruthin Castle in Wales where we spent a night. Built in 1277, this castle dates back to the time of King Arthur and also has a part in the Robin Hood legend. It was owned by King Edward I, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Charles I. An officer in Charles I's army had an affair with a village girl and his wife found out and killed the hapless wench with an axe. Because of that crime of passion, the murderess's body was not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground. Now she roams the castle battlements and is known as the grey lady. Needless to say, I did not get up in the middle of the night to get a glass of milk from the castle's refrig. [Note to self: could lead to a great plot where the tragedy is repeated in the present.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">While we were in London, the Queen was unexpectedly visted by a thief who managed to get </span><br />
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past Buckingham Palace's security. Because of her Jubilee, the Queen's apartments had an unusual display of royal jewels. The intruder was caught, but not before my imagination considered some thriller scenarios [Think: possible film rights.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">York is a medieval town with cobblestone streets, city walls, and beautiful cathedrals. One of the most</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: center;"> impressive is the York Minster (building begun in 1291.) This town has more ghosts per square foot than any town in England. It could certainly become the location for a mystery with modern day ghost hunters or a double plot with the past and present colliding. [Possible future trip as a tax write-off to do research?]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: center;">A visit to Oxford and the yard at Christ's Church would not be complete without a pint lifted in honor of Inspectors Morse and Lewis from "Mystery" on PBS. It was a sleepy Sunday when we set foot in Oxford, but </span><br />
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it wasn't hard to imagine Morse's red and black Jaguar driving through the narrow streets with Lewis beside him, quietly tolerating Morse's criticism with a look of pain on his face. [Note to self: chemistry between main characters needs to be clear and can be humorous at times.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: center;">Coming back to the tiny town of Monmouth after seeing all of these old, historical sites makes me think about the role of setting and history on a plot. My fictional, little town of Endurance is modeled after Monmouth, which, coincidently, was the name of a town in England where a diminutive ship called the <i>Mayflower</i> set sail to start a new adventure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: center;">It's time to rest up a bit after that intense road/air trip, but while I get my sleep straightened around, my mind is continuing to sort through all those interesting possibilities for my writing.</span></div>
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Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-2941583515793721382013-08-24T12:06:00.000-05:002013-08-24T12:31:56.902-05:00Researching the Setting for "Marry in Haste"<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> My second mystery, <i>Marry in Haste</i>, will have a </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oFD_zMak5qU/UhjeETl5ZiI/AAAAAAAAA2w/LcOmb2Jmhhs/s1600/Allen+House+jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oFD_zMak5qU/UhjeETl5ZiI/AAAAAAAAA2w/LcOmb2Jmhhs/s200/Allen+House+jpg.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">secondary plot that takes place in 1893, and its setting is a Victorian house I used to live in when I first moved to Monmouth, Illinois, in 1968. My previous post described the front two rooms and today I'm imagining the remainder of the first floor.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g7RiNJq55W0/UhjetOU2jpI/AAAAAAAAA24/C8O-c1nB730/s1600/godeys.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g7RiNJq55W0/UhjetOU2jpI/AAAAAAAAA24/C8O-c1nB730/s200/godeys.jpg" width="140" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Visitors to the McCullough House in 1893 saw the public hallway and the front parlor. But beyond that parlor was a second family parlor that was used as a sitting room for family-oriented activities. It was considered a private part of the home, used just by the family. Often furniture in this parlor consisted of castoffs from the front parlor as furniture was replaced. The north wall held a fireplace that probably had a small clock and china or candles on the mantle. Perhaps copies of <i>Godey's</i>, <i>Peterson's</i> and <i>The Househ</i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>old</i> graced a small table next to a rocking chair or easy chair. These magazines printed monthly columns on decorating, furniture, floor coverings, and other household hints. As time went by, the family might have turned this second parlor into a nursery. When we lived in the house in 1968, this second parlor was combined with the front parlor into one massive living room with no dividing wall.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> In 1968, the west side of this family parlor had a door that went into a bedroom and small bathroom. It is likely that in 1893, this room was a library/office for the owner of the house. It was a gentleman's retreat with an outside entrance on the west side of the room. The large closet and the bathroom, both there in 1968, were probably areas in 1893 that held only occasionally needed books and articles. It is possible the small bathroom was a water closet in 1893. The occupants of the house were wealthy enough to have inside plumbing. But bathing back then was done in a larger room on the second floor.</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The office was very masculine with hunting or nature scenes on the dark, painted walls. Built-in bookcases held both books and files of information from the </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">businesses he owned. In fact, he probably had a safe to hold important documents. A low table for books and magazines and an easy chair and footstool added to his comfort. The largest item in the room was a heavy mahogany desk. Even now, it is easy to imagine the owner of the house, sitting at his desk or reading in his chair, while all the activity of the household is only a hum beyond his inner sanctum. The huge, formal staircase that rose from the front hallway went partly over this room. Occasionally, he might hear his wife or children walking up the front staircase.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">North of the second parlor was the dining room, a pleasant room separated from the parlor by pocket doors and from the kitchen on the west by a doorway whose opening was probably hidden by a free-standing screen. With the kitchen so close, this room would have been very hot, especially in the summer.The dining room had its own entrance on the east side of the house. This room was used for breakfast, afternoon teas or luncheons for the lady's friends, and evening dinners. A large dining room table sat below a hanging light. A built-in or standing china cabinet was on the north side of the room, used for the myriad pieces of flatware, stemware, and china. Still lives of fruit and a chair railing lined the walls, and a sideboard sat against the west wall near the kitchen entrance. In 1893, the family ate large meals. Breakfast, for example, consisted of cooked potatoes, bread, cooked or raw fruit, and beef, fish, or ham. Meat was a huge staple of any meal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The kitchen was west of the dining room. In 1968, it seemed a tiny room to sustain such a huge household. Somewhere in the past, someone had divided the kitchen into two rooms, the smaller area on the north being a breakfast nook with a built-in table and benches. But in 1893, the breakfast nook was probably a pantry with an outside door and small porch which held the ice box. This made it easier for the ice delivery since it was outside. The kitchen also had an outside door on the west side. If you turned left at that door you walked up the servant's stairway to the upper two floors. Turn right and a set of stairs went outside. Inside the kitchen were a coal or wood-burning stove; two tables (one </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">for food preparation and one for service); one or more wet sinks; and a tall, cylindrical, hot water heater for boiling water for laundry and cooking. It is very likely this household would use the "latest gadgets" in the kitchen--things like meat grinders, butter churns, and coffee grinders. A shelf containing cookbooks, home manuals, and all-purpose household encyclopedias with the latest advice was within arm's reach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The kitchen was a beehive of activity. The servants did washing or sent it out to be done on Mondays. (Even when I was growing up in the 1950s, the law said you couldn't burn anything outside on Monday because it was "wash day" and people hung clothes out to dry on clothes lines in their back yards.) Bread baking took a full 24 hours between rising and punching down and baking. Besides cooking, the mistress and her servants canned food in this room, an activity leading to aching backs on hot, humid afternoons. It is likely that the two influential families who lived in this house (see earlier post) had several servants who had rooms on the third floor. They would have spent a great percentage of their days in this kitchen.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Alas, we had no servants in 1968 to cook or do the laundry. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-54532515079694782212013-08-04T16:10:00.000-05:002013-08-07T08:48:36.811-05:00Victorian Homes: Public Spaces<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nrCj0AjK4Mw/Uf6t7nGz4qI/AAAAAAAAA0g/zKVroqRJvFc/s1600/Victorian+hallway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nrCj0AjK4Mw/Uf6t7nGz4qI/AAAAAAAAA0g/zKVroqRJvFc/s200/Victorian+hallway.jpg" width="155" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Part of my second mystery, <i>Marry in Haste</i>, will take place in a large Victorian home in 1893. I lived in such a house when I first moved to Monmouth, Illinois in the 1960s. In my last post I discussed the history of the W.W. McCullough house, and now I'm continuing that thread with a post about two of the rooms in the house: the front hallway and the front public parlor. Both were meant to impress because the worth of a woman and the wealth of a man back then were measured by the state of their home. After extensively researching the houses and furnishings of that time, I can imagine what the McCullough house might have looked like in 1893.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">W.W. McCullough's house at 402 W. Broadway would have been </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">impressive. It contained three floors and a full basement with a staircase in the front going up to the bedrooms and a ballroom, and stairs in the back for the servants. [Besides the front entrance, this photo shows an entrance on the west side of the house that went into a library/office. The entrance was gone when I lived there in the 1960s.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">At the main entrance, visitors, facing north, walked up the six porch steps to a large, wooden front door with a round, brass bell knob. They first brushed the dirt and dust from their shoes since the streets and sidewalks were not yet bricked this far west of the Square. Then they pulled on the knob to ring an inside bell, summoning a servant. According to the city directories of that time, servants were of various ethnicities, some of their last names being Blusma, Martin, McCleary, Quinlan, and Wennerstrom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The front hallway--designed to impress--had a high ceiling, which afforded the opportunity to use fashionable, leaded windows high on the west wall and a hanging light fixture. The visitor faced a wide staircase whose carpeting continued the same dark, richly colored Brussels carpet on the floor of the hallway. Walnut railings and woodwork with ornamental carvings decorated the staircase. At the first landing, a large vase sat in the corner with tall ferns. A family member reached the landing, turned right, and followed another set of stairs to the second floor. The walls of this front hallway were painted a light color with wooden wainscoting and a chair rail dividing the tall walls into thirds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the hallway were three critical items: a hall tree, a chair, and a card receiver. The hall tree had curved arms to hold canes, umbrellas, and walking sticks. Also, a space for hats and coats surrounded a mirror on the hall tree where a caller could check her appearance before meeting the family. A chair was placed nearby so a visiting servant might sit and wait for an answer to a message he'd delivered. Sometimes the chair was actually part of the hall tree.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The card receiver was often silver-plated and sat on a small stand. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">From 1870-1910, calling and card leaving rituals were crucial for women "of society." Ladies would "call" in the afternoon. If the owner was "at home," the visitor left two of her husband's cards on the receiver but kept her own. If the lady of the house was "not at home," the visitor left all three cards. The response might be an actual visit from the lady of the house or a written note delivered by a servant. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A set of beautifully carved pocket doors opened to the visitor's right and led into a front (or public) parlor. In the late 1960s, when I lived in this house, the downstairs was a massive room that went from the front to the back of the house with no barriers. But in the late 1800s, the downstairs contained a wall across the middle of the living room, separating a public parlor and a private, or family, parlor. Let's consider what the front parlor might have looked like.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Victorian parlor in Galena, Il.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">First, it was designed to make a strong impression of wealth, health, moral values, and happiness, and it was cleaned daily. It had a chandelier--probably gas-lit by the late 1800s. Gas lighting was in use during this decade and the wall sconces were still apparent when I lived in the house in the 1960s. Other lighting came from south and east windows that were draped in large-patterned lace curtains. The walls would have been painted in light tints--cream, pearl, olive, or gray--or might have been wallpapered in a delicate scroll or vine pattern. On the floor was a combination of Brussels carpet with colored rush matting around the edges of the room.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NMpz9Wqvyz8/Uf64bCu_I9I/AAAAAAAAA2I/u9hd4UIVS2s/s1600/Victorian+family+bible.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NMpz9Wqvyz8/Uf64bCu_I9I/AAAAAAAAA2I/u9hd4UIVS2s/s200/Victorian+family+bible.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">A table generally graced the center of a Victorian parlor and on it was a leather-bound, hefty, family <i>Bible</i>, along with other treasures. A corner etagere displayed artifacts the family had collected: shells, figurines, and dried flowers. As for the furniture, the front parlor held gentlemen's chairs (high backs with arms) and side chairs. Ladies' chairs had no arms and, thus, no back support. This allowed women to position petticoats and skirts and encouraged the female posture requirements of that day. Gender defined by furniture! Often the chair backs would be covered with </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9VzVsmbAOW4/Uf668uq7PSI/AAAAAAAAA2k/0NtADee18uk/s1600/Victorian+chair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9VzVsmbAOW4/Uf668uq7PSI/AAAAAAAAA2k/0NtADee18uk/s200/Victorian+chair.jpg" width="160" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">washable doilies and antimacassars to keep them free of hair pomade. They placed the furniture symmetrically against the walls with small and large works of art hung just above them. This helped balance the high ceilings. Mirrors, portraits, and family photographs decorated the room and also free-standing easels or pedestals held paintings and prints. The chairs were made of mahogany and the tables topped with marble.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The east wall of 402 was rounded outward about halfway to the dining area on the north end of the house. This was probably the point at which a wall divided the front and back parlors in 1893. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My next post will imagine the rest of the main floor in 1893: the back parlor, dining room, kitchen, and library.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-87316788222275670972013-07-09T17:02:00.000-05:002013-07-11T08:13:51.112-05:00The Manderley of My Dreams: This Writer's Research<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...secretive and silent as it had always been, the gray stone shining in the moonlight of my dream, the mullioned windows reflecting the green lawns and terrace. Time could not wreck the perfect symmetry of those walls, nor the site itself, a jewel..."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">These opening words by the second Mrs. de Winter in Daphne du Maurier's <i>Rebecca</i> are some of the most famous in literary and cinematic history. I thought of them as I did novel research over these past weeks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My second mystery, </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Marry in Haste </i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">[working title], needs a Victorian house for part of its setting. Did that come from my subconscious memories of a house I lived in, or did it appear out of plot necessity? As usual, it is a question of the chicken or the egg.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This huge Victorian house was my first 'home" when I moved to the small town of Monmouth, Illinois in 1968. My husband and I lived on the entire first floor for the next three and a half years, and the upper two floors contained five apartments. What fascinated me was the idea that this huge mansion was a one-family home during the late 1800s and well into the 20th century. Alas, the house was razed in 1990, and only lives on in my imagination and this photo. I heard it variously called "the McCullough house" and "the Allen house." [Even small town memory today calls houses in Monmouth by their earlier occupants.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Regardless of whose house it used to be, I decided to delve into its history, a past highly entwined with that of the town. I have been digging away at its "mysterious long ago" at the Warren County Genealogical Society and the Warren County Courthouse, and interviewing Jeff Rankin (local historian), Dale Unverferth (another past occupant of the house), and Marcum Spears (attorney.) While my fascination might seem like a detour in my book research, it isn't. The folks who lived in this house have provided me with many ideas about the mysterious, imagined characters who will occupy my novel's fictitious house.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Two houses sat on the lot at what began as 400 and became 402 West Broadway. The Victorian was preceded by a smaller house and that's where I began my search.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The earliest mention of a lot at the corner of West Broadway and Pine Street (currently North "C" Street), is 1863. Once the land was organized into subdivisions, an attorney and local businessman sold Lot 5 to Amanda Jerome, a widow, in 1865. Either they or she built a house on that corner since it is visible on the 1869 town map. But it is not the Victorian house of my dreams. Across the street, on the east side of North "C" Street was a Weir factory, built in 1863. Fortunately for Mrs. Jerome, it moved to South 4th Street in 1865. The house at 400 West Broadway was a boarding house, not at all unusual for a woman back then.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Alas, Mrs. Jerome did not stay there long. She sold <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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the early house to a Miss Sarah McBroom in 1886. Sarah had two sisters--Jennie (a teacher, I'm happy to say), and Mattie, who moved with her from a boarding house "between North Boston and Clinton."</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is where things begin to get murky (enter confusing music.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Someone built the huge Victorian mansion during this time period and now I must do some guessing. In 1893, Sarah sold the house and lot to Charles L. Barnes who was a building contractor living a block east at 308 W. Broadway. It appears that he financed the deal through an attorney named Almon Kidder. However, this is speculation on my part, based on the block and lot descriptions. Whether Barnes built the Victorian house or simply razed the McBroom house, I don't know. However, now W.W. McCullough enters the picture, one of two important men who would live in this house.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">W.W. McCullough owned a lumber yard and he most likely supplied the boards for "402" West Broadway. He was living in "my" huge house with his family in 1896, but never actually owned the mortgage, according to the property description. The house is called "the McCullough House" in an 1899 city publication. This means my house was probably built between 1893 and 1899. McCullough and his family lived there until June 19, 1902. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">W. W. McCullough was a wheeler and dealer who had his hands in lumber, coal, implements, and the interurban railway. He resigned as secretary of Weir Pottery in 1902 (wisely holding on to his shares), to devote his time and money to the electrical lines and power station that would provide an interurban cable car/train between Monmouth and Galesburg (12 miles to the east) and eventually Monmouth to Rock Island (44 miles to the north.) </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An ad for John C. Allen's dry good store from the 1905 Monmouth College Ravelings yearbook.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br />John C. Allen, the second amazing house occupant and actual owner of the house, came to town in 1896 from Nebraska where he had been a merchant and</span></div>
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Nebraska's Secretary of State. By 1905, he owned a huge dry goods store at 55 S. Side of Public Square and also at 105 and 107. It had an entrance on both the Square and on South 1st Street so it occupied almost a block. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: left;">He also became president of the Board of Education in 1917, and president of the People's Bank. That same year my house acquired something new: a phone<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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number--4407. Allen ran for Congress and served two terms in the House of Representatives in Washington, DC. All the while he and his family were living in my house. Imagine the social gatherings they must have had, especially with a ballroom on the third floor. He or his widow, Eudora, owned the house until 1944 when she deeded it to her son (or he inherited it.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: left;">In 1948, Mr. and Mrs. Mell Moody bought the house. When they died in a car crash, their three daughters came into possession of the house in 1967. They sold it to Bruce Langford of Roseville in 1970, and he was our landloard during the last two years we lived in the house.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: left;">When the house was subdivided into apartments is a good question. The city directories show only Widow Allen living there when her son came into possession of it. My guess is that it was subdivided after that by either the Allen son as an investment, or by the Moodys.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: left;">And so this brings us to the end of the recoverable history of the painted lady at 402 West Broadway. Like Mrs. de Winter and her musings about Manderley, I often think about this house and its splendor back in the late 1800s, wondering what it would have been like to live in the entire home. In my next post I'll describe the house's interior as I remember it. Then it is a short jump to imagining the fictitious people who will inhabit it in <i>Marry in Haste</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-28298763533740567012013-06-27T12:11:00.003-05:002013-06-27T15:15:34.240-05:00Murder as a Fine Art<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"> Murder as a Fine Art</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">, by David Morrell, is part historical novel, part mystery, part thriller, and wholly enjoyable. It contains real people--essayist Thomas de Quincey--and fictional counterparts, like his ahead-of-her-time daughter, Emily de Quincey. The atmosphere of fog-shrouded Victorian London in 1854 is researched down to the last weapon and sewer detail, and we are steeped in the atmosphere of that time with tidbits like the 37 pounds of clothing women wore with their corsets and pantaloons. But, most importantly, Morrell has based his plot on a real set of ghastly East End murders called the </span><a href="http://ladydewint.blogspot.com/2012/01/ratcliffe-highway-murders.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Ratcliffe Highway murders</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> of 1811. If you look on the internet you can even hear a folk song about those murders.</span></div>
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It is 1854 in the East End of Victorian London and a series of murders has occurred that exactly duplicates the Ratcliffe Highway murders forty-three years earlier. Unfortunately for Thomas de Quincey, his writings described those murders down to the smallest detail and now someone is using them as a blueprint for murder. De Quincey wrote the memoir <i>Confessions of an English Opium-Eater</i> which was so scandalous that everyone read it. Now he becomes the major suspect in these 1854 murders.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The killer seems to be using de Quincey's essay, <i>On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts</i>, as a manual for the killings. (De Quincey's essays influenced such classic mystery writers as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, and Edgar Allan Poe.) This sets up a superb plot involving two intrepid Scotland Yard detectives, de Quincey, and his daughter, Emily. They struggle to prove his innocence and find the real killer. Time is of the essence because the vicious murderer is set to strike again.</span></div>
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David Morrell is known for his Rambo novels and his thrillers, but he has taken a totally new turn in writing historical fiction. However, his research is meticulous and the reader feels like she is in the streets of London dashing through the fog; watching the police department of that time; seeing the work of fledgling detectives; speaking to the prostitutes who know the streets; learning about the opium trade, whalebone hoops, and corsets; visiting prisons with horrible living conditions; and seeing how the lower classes live. All of this is told in dramatic style and is never pedantic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The point of view is actually one that is prized by Victorian novelists: an omniscient narrator who can give us background on the details of the plot. And Morrell does this in a masterful fashion. Obviously, this was a deliberate choice on his part to echo the books of that time. It reads like spun silk.</span></div>
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I have always liked novels with "spunky" heroines who figure out how to solve problems head on. <i>Murder as a Fine Art</i> has one of the best in the form of Emily de Quincey. She took off her corset, wears bloomers so she can keep up during the chases, and does not act at all in appropriate Victorian female style. While others raise their eyebrows at this behavior, her father supports her unflinchingly. She is ahead of her time. She acts in defense of her father and literally saves the day on many occasions because she uses her wit, feminine wiles, and intuitive empathy to figure out what has to be done. She is a wonderful creation.</span></div>
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Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-34243374078565278582013-06-08T17:21:00.001-05:002013-06-08T17:21:09.289-05:00The Bookman's Tale is for Book Lovers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I picked up <i>The Bookman's Tale </i>by Charlie Lovett at the library and had no idea it would be one of the best books I've read in a long time. It reminded me of <i>People of the Book</i> by Geraldine Brooks. Her novel is about a book that was saved through many centuries by people of various religions and cultures who loved beautiful books. <i>The Bookman's Tale</i> is a love story about books as valuable in themselves: their beauty, history, bindings, and covers. It is a novel of suspense and intrigue that traces both a literary mystery and a personal mystery down the centuries. I could not put it down!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Peter Byerly, a young antiquarian book dealer, leaves </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">North Carolina in 1995 for a cottage in Kingham, England, hoping to escape the grief of being suddenly widowed. He finds a book about Shakespearean forgeries in a small bookstore in Hay-on-Wye, and a painting falls from the pages. It is a Victorian watercolor of his recently deceased wife. How could this be? The painting appears to be from the late 1800s and she just died--young--in 1995. He searches for the answer and ends up in the literary hunt of a lifetime.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The novel moves back and forth seamlessly between three time periods with smooth plot connections. Lovett is an expert when it comes to structure and transitions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In 1995 England, Peter is tracking down the Victorian </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">painting. In doing so, he stumbles onto yet another mystery about the identity of the writer of Shakespeare's plays. [Yes, much debate has gone on over the centuries about that.] Peter finds a copy of <i>Pandosto</i> written by Robert Greene in the 1500s with notes in the margins by none other than the Bard himself. Shakespeare based his play,<i> A Winter's Tale</i>, on Greene's romance. If this copy of Greene's work is authentic, Peter may have stumbled onto one of the greatest finds in literature: a connection proving that Shakespeare did, indeed, write the plays attributed to him. He becomes obsessed with proving the authenticity of the book.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In 1983, Peter and Amanda--his future wife--meet at a college in North Carolina. Peter is socially introverted, totally unsure of himself, but definite about his love of books. He works in the Special Collections area of the college library and learns how to mend sadly broken books. He loves every aspect of their history. The learning curve ensures that he will understand the worth of an antiquarian book that connects to Shakespeare. In these 1983 passages, Lovett details Peter and Amanda's shy and unfolding love story and courtship. After her death, Amanda appears to Peter in brief moments, but the paranormal aspect of the plot is minor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The third set of passages is from Southwark, London, in 1592. In these pages we see the robust drinking lives of Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, Robert </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Greene, and Shakespeare himself. Peter follows these clues through an unscrupulous, fictional 1500's bookseller, Bartholomew Harbottle, who is a link in the mystery of <i>Pandosto</i> and Shakespeare.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Before all is done, Peter chases the <i>Pandosto </i>manuscript and the painting through London, the countryside, tombs, and dark passages, trying to evade a present day murderer who is also searching for <i>Pandosto</i>. On his quest, Peter uncovers some truths about his own early life and also that of his wife.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The characters are vivid, the structure of the plot is amazing, and the focus never leaves the hunt. Lovett's pacing is spot on and I had a tough time putting this book down. I found the ending a bit contrived, but the story was so exciting I could forgive Mr. Lovett for that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> If you are a book lover, a Shakespeare enthusiast, a reader, a book collector, or a mender of books, you will love <i>The Bookman's Tale.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-34060124781596906232013-05-13T16:05:00.002-05:002013-05-14T19:48:17.043-05:00An English Teacher's Review of The Great Gatsby (2013)<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Over the weekend I saw the new Baz Luhrmann 3-D interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's <i>The Great Gatsby</i>. Having taught that novel for twenty+ years, I know most of its lines by heart. Did I mention it's one of my favorites? I've also viewed the '74 film starring Robert Redford probably forty times in my classroom. Make no mistake--I love Robert Redford. That '74 film, however, is ponderous and, at times, poorly directed, but it stuck with the book and its 1920's music is haunting..."What'll I do when you are far away and I am blue---what'll I do?" Love that music. So it was with great skepticism that I watched the new film version.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> I won't summarize the story since you probably know it if you're reading this post. I will say that the English teacher in me has mixed feelings about the film, but the movie-goer in me would still recommend it as intriguing entertainment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you can survive the frenetic, high-on-steroids, </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">first half of the film, you'll like the second half better as a reader of the book. Luhrmann is giving us a 2013 interpretation of the novel and that means a modern soundtrack that will appeal to the 20-something crowd. I didn't mind the music. His take on 21st century consumerism, invasive media, and scandal-worshipping masses is in-your-face obvious and certainly true of the 20's also. But he would have been wiser to cut back on the parties and concentrate more on the human tragedy at the core of the story.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The film has two parts and the mood totally changes with the dinner party at the Buchannan's. Where Luhrmann truly succeeds is in showing the illusion and artifice Gatsby has created to win Daisy Fay Buchannan back. His entire life, his false history, and his house are stylish conjurer's tricks, as fake as the unread and uncut books in his library. I wasn't sure I'd like Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, but I thought he was amazing. He captured both the self-confidence and swagger of the character and also his desperation as he sees his dream falling apart. He is a glittering illusion and a handsome and charming one at that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">George and Myrtle Wilson are well done and definitely capture the characters as I pictured them. Daisy, played by Carey Mulligan, is the glittering embodiment of Gatsby's dreams--but other than that, she fades into the scenery. In the novel and earlier film I found her annoying, but she didn't strike me at all in this film. I was not impressed by Tobey Maguire as Nick, but he drew a difficult part to play. He is too muted. His joy at believing in Gatsby and his eventual disillusionment with the whole situation are played on a middle scale without sharp edges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Three key points were left out--pieces that would have made the tragedy more compelling. Two scenes done with great tension are the dinner party at the Buchannan's and the following scene in a New York City hotel.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hewqYQbQ220/UZFRS_8DyaI/AAAAAAAAAvY/JyYfbrFwe54/s1600/Patsy-Kensit-and-Mia-Farrow-in-1974-1869895.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hewqYQbQ220/UZFRS_8DyaI/AAAAAAAAAvY/JyYfbrFwe54/s200/Patsy-Kensit-and-Mia-Farrow-in-1974-1869895.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The '74 film</td></tr>
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In the novel, Daisy introduces her daughter, Pammy, at the dinner. This is Gatsby's first indication that perhaps he can't erase five years. A child is a concrete example of why his dream is doomed. Pammy never appeared at the dinner in the Luhrmann film.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The second disappearance from book to film was the visit by James Gatz's (Jay Gatsby) father from Minnesota. In the novel Nick has to make all the funeral arrangements because there is no one else. Gatsby's father shows up and confirms for Nick that all of Gatsby's story about his real past is true, including his childhood yearnings to be successful and rich. Henry Gatz accompanies Nick to the funeral where only a few people--mostly servants--attend, revealing how lonely and superficial Gatsby's life really was. It was all about his quest for Daisy. Luhrmann chose instead to eliminate this scene and emphasize the paparrazi pushing each other around Gatsby's casket at the funeral home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The last scene--a pivotal one--Luhrmann left out was Nick's meeting on Fifth Avenue with Tom and Daisy the following October after Gatsby's death. Nick finally realizes their shallow lives, their egotism, and their carelessness, and he can't forgive them for their parts in the death of Gatsby and his dream.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> All three of these omissions would have made the tragedy deeper, but Luhrmann chose to leave them out. They bring the reader to Gatsby's side with Nick, but Luhrmann's film is devoid of emotional ties with the characters and is filled instead with the Hollywood version of the 20's.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Luhrmann added a frame that bothered me at first. Nick is telling--then typing--his story from a sanitarium. While I'd dispute the doctor's diagnosis that Nick is an alcoholic and suffers from mental illness, I did eventually like the reminder that he--Nick Carraway--is truly the narrator of the story. We see it through his eyes. Even Fitzgerald's words occasionally appear and fall off the screen as Nick types them. It is through Nick that we understand the tragedy of Jay Gatsby, and although it's a controversial aspect of the movie, I liked the frame.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Overall I'd recommend <i>The Great Gatsby</i> as a 21st century re-telling of the story. Even as an English teacher who loves the novel, I found the new film entertaining.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-47557031972398212052013-05-08T10:02:00.003-05:002013-05-20T08:26:16.556-05:00Revisiting The Great Gatsby<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> A little over a year ago I published a post on Fitzgerald's book, <i>The Great Gatsby</i>. This weekend a new film version of the book is coming out to much fanfare and hype. Yes, I plan to see it with some skepticism since I have seen so many wonderful classic books totally demolished by Hollywood. But I will give it a chance. I will even give Leonardo a chance despite my memory of Robert Redford in that title role. In celebration of the new interest in Fitzgerald and Gatsby, I am reprinting the blog I wrote with a few tweaks. Next week I'll post my review of the new film. <i>Warning: if you are one of the few people who didn't read this book--or the Cliffs Notes--in high school, this blog post has spoilers.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">March 12, 2012:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">... A classic novel with layers of meaning, <i>The Great</i> <i>Gatsby</i> is well worth an adult read because it beautifully describes the human yearning to make dreams come true, often at a terrible price. It also examines the nostalgia for a time remembered and the desire to repeat that long ago memory. And-bonus- it contains only nine compact and enchantingly written chapters.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> In his novel Fitzgerald attempts to answer two questions about the nature of humans: Can you repeat the past? Can you plan and work hard-no matter what means you use-to make your dreams come true?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The very first time narrator Nick Carroway observes the mysterious Jay Gatsby, he actually sees a shadow, a silhouette of a man, arms stretched out in the darkness toward a green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan's dock. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MsX8aeLRnZc/UYpeXoQodiI/AAAAAAAAAtw/Vc5x2O2rY2Y/s1600/gatsby-blog-jpg_215538.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MsX8aeLRnZc/UYpeXoQodiI/AAAAAAAAAtw/Vc5x2O2rY2Y/s200/gatsby-blog-jpg_215538.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Beyond that dock live Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchanan, members of the inherited money class, careless people who smash their way through life with total ambivalence toward the feelings of others. Nevertheless, Gatsby remembers Daisy as the golden girl, the love of his life when he first left for WWI. Gatsby believes it is their destiny to be together. Can they repeat the past and make life again contain the innocent love they once had? Can Gatsby climb up those stairs to the world of wealth and privilege to attract Daisy's attention?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QOIsDKKK-kQ/UYpmLryVLFI/AAAAAAAAAuM/CeXmynS6qwc/s1600/Gatsby+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="165" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QOIsDKKK-kQ/UYpmLryVLFI/AAAAAAAAAuM/CeXmynS6qwc/s320/Gatsby+photo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meyer Wolfsheim, Nick Carroway, and Gatsby<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Piece by piece the truth of Gatsby's background comes together in a story woven of fairy dust. He actually came from nothing but had the enormous imagination and determination to remake himself into a glamorous image of weath in order to catch the attention of his former love, Daisy. The story constantly juxtaposes the question of whether, in the corrupt 1920s, a person can actually follow the American Dream of lifting himself up from a poor past to become a success.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ty-2JsXEzGY/UYpgWXsfV0I/AAAAAAAAAt8/UxTTFgrfl88/s1600/leonardo+dicaprio+the+great+gatsby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ty-2JsXEzGY/UYpgWXsfV0I/AAAAAAAAAt8/UxTTFgrfl88/s200/leonardo+dicaprio+the+great+gatsby.jpg" width="134" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is that dream still possible or has it been defiled by what America has become by the 1920s--a world of gangsters, corrupt politicians, and people of influence with dubious values? Gatsby's will alone pushes him relentlessly on his quest for his lost love. In that plan he surrounds himself with the new rich of the Twenties, scandalous people who had been in prison, bootlegged alcohol, and killed people. But they aid him in his climb to reach the rich, well-guarded plateau that is Daisy's world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Can innocence be regained in the morally corrupt world that is America in the Twenties? Can Fitzgerald's rapturous descriptions of perfect love and wonderous dreams live again? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> In the end, Nick Carroway--the narrator of the story--is left to explain that America was a dream of the old sailors who first discovered her pristine, green, untouched world, and they realized that this New World could become a place of great promise and dreams. By the Twenties, however, reality has changed that dream into a place of moral corruption and hopelessness beneath its Coney Island facade. Gatsby did not realize that sometimes the very best of human yearnings get smashed in the very worst of human nature.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> <i>The Great Gatsby</i> is a literary classic and, as such, causes the reader to consider the nature of his own time. "Classic" means a reader also sees new ideas he didn't discern with the first reading. If you haven't picked up a copy of Fitzgerald's book lately, think about doing so. It's well worth your time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-92215939904268696552013-04-14T12:51:00.001-05:002013-04-14T13:05:58.708-05:00...and Back Again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e9TZ-vDjh9I/UWri9mKvCGI/AAAAAAAAAsY/87arUFomYiQ/s1600/driving+down+the+road.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e9TZ-vDjh9I/UWri9mKvCGI/AAAAAAAAAsY/87arUFomYiQ/s200/driving+down+the+road.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"You drive twenty-six hours? Are you crazy?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> This is the universal reaction of people who hear that I spend the winter in Phoenix, the rest of the year in Illinois, and drive instead of fly. I generally rent furnished houses in Phoenix, and I drive so I can load up my car with my three-month necessities (especially books) and have that car to drive while I'm out there. The bottom line is really this: an unremarkable trip back and forth is important. Rarely has that happened, especially when you can't trust Mother Nature.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The first year, two friends and I drove through a massive dust storm between Tucson and Phoenix that resulted in a 28-car pileup just ahead of us with multiple injuries and several deaths. The decision to stop for lunch caused us to avoid that horrible accident. Those friends, strangely, have not volunteered to drive with me again. I've also driven in the mountains in sleet storms and across Kansas in wind, rain, hail, and snow (I am trying to avoid Kansas in the future. Sorry, any Kansas residents, including my friends Dave, Sue, and former resident, Ruth.) Usually I drive with a friend or with one of my adult children. Frankly, having a friend to talk with and help drive (or an adult child that you don't get to see very much because he has children responsibilities) is wonderful.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aSEwThgcW9k/UWrkX7amEjI/AAAAAAAAAsg/NOIQr8U9qGk/s1600/Mesa+Airport.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aSEwThgcW9k/UWrkX7amEjI/AAAAAAAAAsg/NOIQr8U9qGk/s200/Mesa+Airport.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> This year one of my friends--Eileen--agreed to the ultimate sacrifice: she flew into Mesa, got off the plane, into my car, and we left--just two senior citizens with twenty-six hours of road time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> I used to drive through Flagstaff to get out of Arizona but it's iffy in the spring for snow. I've also driven to Tucson and across Texas because of bad weather to the north. This year the weather was encouraging. That rarely happens.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Leaving the Mesa Airport, we bypassed Flagstaff and went north through the picturesque towns of Show Low and Snowflake. The mountain roads are twisty and the scenery is gorgeous--sheer cliffs, rivers down below, majestic rock formations, and blue skies. We stopped in Show Low for dinner and got out of the mountains before it became dark. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--eumRIJ7CJU/UWrlZb-oHiI/AAAAAAAAAso/3doxNQq12XY/s1600/Welcome+NM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--eumRIJ7CJU/UWrlZb-oHiI/AAAAAAAAAso/3doxNQq12XY/s200/Welcome+NM.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Leaving Arizona, we waved at the sign and headed into New Mexico. Now the majesty ends and the winds begin. I have never driven across this state without wind squalls blowing across me or in my wake. Gallup is just across the western border of New Mexico and we stayed there for the night.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The following day was the killer on time: four-lane clear across New Mexico, the panhandle of Texas, and the western half of Oklahoma. (I am so glad I am not doing this on two-lane route 66.) Not much in the way of towns in those areas except Albuquerque and </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KqQOvbfXeGg/UWrmCQzwPEI/AAAAAAAAAs0/Bd4QvVzEm5M/s1600/Welcome+TX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KqQOvbfXeGg/UWrmCQzwPEI/AAAAAAAAAs0/Bd4QvVzEm5M/s200/Welcome+TX.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Amarillo. Texas is the tumbleweed capitol of the world and we only crossed the panhandle. Believe me, I've driven north and south in Texas and I've seen the western half, which appears to consist of trailer parks, dust, salvaging operations, and, oh yes, high school football fields. My atlas has so many Texas routes marked in various directions that it's a mass of colored marker. Last year, my younger son and I stopped in north Texas because of tornadoes in Oklahoma. But this year all was calm and we pushed on into green, green, Oklahoma, heading for Oklahoma City for the night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G4HfJl09uag/UWrnbuRo3gI/AAAAAAAAAs4/cq04uWmDQ0s/s1600/Welcome+OK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G4HfJl09uag/UWrnbuRo3gI/AAAAAAAAAs4/cq04uWmDQ0s/s200/Welcome+OK.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We decided to take the route I had taken driving out to Phoenix, an itinerary chosen by my older son, remembering his geometry. Avoiding Kansas, we headed out from Oklahoma City the last day and turned north through Tulsa and into Missouri. That decision might seem strange, but we had good roads driving out to Phoenix. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5w69GP-Yps8/UWrn68Zqy2I/AAAAAAAAAtA/ndr2nCpuAz8/s1600/Welcome+Missouri.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5w69GP-Yps8/UWrn68Zqy2I/AAAAAAAAAtA/ndr2nCpuAz8/s200/Welcome+Missouri.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
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The interstate took us through Springfield and then we drove north to Lebanon, Missouri, where we abandoned the four-lane and turned onto route 54. That route has lots of passing lanes and it took us through Jefferson City until we picked up route 19 to Hannibal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Now we were in territory Eileen knew like the back of her hand: she grew up in Quincy, just a hop, skip, and jump from Mark Twain territory. We were on the home stretch.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tPcImvKihrs/UWrowHVEmDI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/kUApKzNnuXg/s1600/Welcome+Illinois+sign.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tPcImvKihrs/UWrowHVEmDI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/kUApKzNnuXg/s200/Welcome+Illinois+sign.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The green grass of the Midwest was a sharp contrast to the dusty desert of Arizona, but it was a green I recognized. And--bonus--it would take a few days for the humidity to catch up with my arthritis. We were back in tiny Monmouth by that evening: two and a half days and 1500+ miles on the road.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> (Sigh.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554756475842045926.post-22595566983156620882013-03-30T18:48:00.001-05:002013-03-30T18:48:41.311-05:00The Snowbird Life<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now that I'm about to head back to Illinois from Arizona, I should answer the question people ask me most about winter travel: What's it like to live away from home for three months, especially in a desert rather than in the snowy and cold Midwest?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iAvX2BK0j-w/UVdvbRGqHsI/AAAAAAAAAqw/X_px8XxvD1U/s1600/Phoenix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iAvX2BK0j-w/UVdvbRGqHsI/AAAAAAAAAqw/X_px8XxvD1U/s200/Phoenix.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aerial photo of Phoenix<br /></td></tr>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_wDUU0t4ulY/UVdwJbcAiAI/AAAAAAAAAq4/FvS-87UKfXw/s1600/Phoenix+night.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_wDUU0t4ulY/UVdwJbcAiAI/AAAAAAAAAq4/FvS-87UKfXw/s320/Phoenix+night.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It may be easier to use some photographs. Years ago when my oldest child moved to Phoenix, I'd fly via Chicago/Denver/Sky Harbor Airport to visit Arizona. It took a whole day and three difference planes. What I remember most from that trip was the first sight of the city at night, a gorgeous panorama that suddenly came into view once we flew over the mountains surrounding the Valley of the Sun. I'm not sure I will ever forget that blazing panorama. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Aee7pa3kSoc/UVdxJpZhokI/AAAAAAAAArE/t7rLbr3ajig/s1600/004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Aee7pa3kSoc/UVdxJpZhokI/AAAAAAAAArE/t7rLbr3ajig/s200/004.JPG" width="200" /></a> The most visible and memorable landmark by day or night was South Mountain because my son and his wife lived near the base of the mountain. They still do today, and on the mountain is a plaque commemorating their daughter, Gwen, who died several years ago. They often climbed the mountain together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Renting a house, learning to drive on the freeways, and finding interesting places have occupied many of my thoughts over the past four years when I actually have lived in Phoenix during the winter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> In those years I've rented three different houses. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ma1ZpXZODYg/UVdyIcb-YBI/AAAAAAAAArI/-QtO0uNarN8/s1600/IMG_0174.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ma1ZpXZODYg/UVdyIcb-YBI/AAAAAAAAArI/-QtO0uNarN8/s200/IMG_0174.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The most recent one looks like this and is located in an area of South Phoenix known as Ahwatukee. It's in a small, gated part of the city near great shopping, restaurants, movie theatres, book stores, and a library. This is what I see (below) when I leave my house in the morning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E48XWRnSy54/UVdy6oCCHfI/AAAAAAAAArY/qQZNVaYRcWs/s1600/IMG_0164.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E48XWRnSy54/UVdy6oCCHfI/AAAAAAAAArY/qQZNVaYRcWs/s320/IMG_0164.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Unlike home, I know none of my neighbors, but the whole area is racially diverse and the car license plates come from multiple states as well as Canadian provinces. It feels like a safe area and I don't worry about crime. The neighborhood has its own pool and the landscaping is handled by the homeowner's association.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The most complicated problem has been learning to drive in a city of a million and a half. Each year I've </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zx4Py0NXk54/UVdz1CBSLnI/AAAAAAAAArk/jxVY8xPRw0s/s1600/Susan%2527s+Photos+9+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zx4Py0NXk54/UVdz1CBSLnI/AAAAAAAAArk/jxVY8xPRw0s/s320/Susan%2527s+Photos+9+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">driven my own car out and back with a variety of friends and family members. I've become an expert at packing for a three-month visit and filling my car trunk and back seat. I have it down to a science. We've driven through snow storms, sleet, and a huge dust storm that almost did me in. But somehow we have made it through a variety of routes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8iOKS9nBKvA/UVd0pb-L-MI/AAAAAAAAAro/0jHaMdQdA-c/s1600/001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8iOKS9nBKvA/UVd0pb-L-MI/AAAAAAAAAro/0jHaMdQdA-c/s200/001.JPG" width="200" /></a> The first two winters in Phoenix I mostly used the surface streets, venturing out on "The Ten" only occasionally. Now, however, I'm quite comfortable using the freeways. The 202 takes me east and west and the 10 or 101 take me north and south. This is the scene (above)as I head toward the 202 from my house. It's only two blocks away. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1z1tJGEykqo/UVd1G8h4VXI/AAAAAAAAAr0/qRgZS-9msAQ/s1600/images+%25284%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1z1tJGEykqo/UVd1G8h4VXI/AAAAAAAAAr0/qRgZS-9msAQ/s200/images+%25284%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> At first the overhead ramps and traffic seemed a bit daunting. But now I'm used to driving up and over just about anything. Because Phoenix is a city of freeways, I use four times more gasoline here than I use in my tiny town. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Some of the places I frequent the most are the </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DKq5VKwoma4/UVd13h6_gnI/AAAAAAAAAsA/aZAMTlQtE98/s1600/Poisoned+Pen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DKq5VKwoma4/UVd13h6_gnI/AAAAAAAAAsA/aZAMTlQtE98/s200/Poisoned+Pen.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TsboWUzPeHI/UVd2BKm16pI/AAAAAAAAAsI/B3_qzsaP1E4/s1600/Chandler+Mall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TsboWUzPeHI/UVd2BKm16pI/AAAAAAAAAsI/B3_qzsaP1E4/s1600/Chandler+Mall.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chandler Mall</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">grocery store (10 minutes away), the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale (30 min), and the Chandler Mall (15 min.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Phoenix has wonderful restaurants, shopping, and winter weather, and it's hard to leave those joys to go back to the Midwest to a small town. However, despite missing my children and grandchildren in far off Phoenix, I feel that small town is home.</span><br />
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Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14080938779828043023noreply@blogger.com0