HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS STORY": Patti Abbott

"THE ANGEL DEEB"
from Deadly Treats.

As some of you may remember, on our trip to Paris in May 2010 I was quite taken by this vision across the street. Wings of some sort were propped in the window and I did a flash piece about it, but it influenced a longer story even more.

When Theresa Weir invited me to submit a story to a collection she was putting together, the entire story fell quickly into place. It was to be a Halloween story for a volume she was then calling BATS IN THE BELFRY. At the time, she planned to publish it herself, probably as an e-book

I wanted my story to be reminiscent of THE METAMORPHOSIS, but lighter in tone. I soon came up with the idea of the idea of wings appearing suddenly on the shoulders of a pickpocket.

I don’t know why I was so reluctant to tell him (a doctor). Was it fear of what he might tell me or embarrassment at my…problem’s… oddity? For several weeks, I’d noticed a growth on both sides of my upper back. Felt it more than saw it, of course, because it was in one of those places hard to spot—even in a mirror.

“I seem to have some sort of… enlargement.” The word growth seemed laden with implications I didn’t want to introduce into our conversation.

My hope with the story was to make it believable but magical at the same time. So Deeb's interaction would be with a little girl.

“What’s your name anyway?”
“Deeb,” I said, without thinking.
“That’s a funny name for a guardian angel. I suppose I can get used to it though.”
“Sure, call me Deeb.” What did it matter if we never met again?
“You can call me Princess Isabella.” I nodded. “And next time you come, try and remember to bring me a greeting gift.”
I nodded again. “I’d better be off.”
“I especially like barrettes if you can’t think of something.”

I had a lot of fun writing this story. And I am happy to have it included in this terrific collection.

Barbara Stanwyck Movies?

I am going to leave her most wonderful performance for someone else to mention and remember THE LADY EVE. I just loved her versatility as an actress. THE LADY EVE is one of the most magnificent screwball comedies ever. Henry Fonda also sparkles in this Preston Sturgis comedy.

Even in her late years on THE BIG VALLEY, she could mop up the floor with anyone else. What a talent!

The Summing Up, Friday, August 19, 2011

Shakespeare Gardens, Stratford, ON







Yvette Banek, In and Out of the Garden, Sara Midda
Joe Barone, The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon, Tom Spanbauer
Paul Bishop, The Cheaters/Dial M for Man, Orrie Hitt
Bill Crider, Eddie and the Cruisers, P.F. Kluge
Scott Cupp, Anarchaos, Curt Clark (Donald Westlake)
Martin Edwards, The Crime at the Black Dudley, Margery Allingham
Cullen Gallagher, First Blood, Jack Schaefer
Jerry House, Her Last Call to Louis MacNeice, Ken Bruen
Randy Johnson, Dagger of Flesh, Richard Prather
George Kelley, The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate, Ted Chiang
Margot Kinberg, A Window in Copacabana, Luiz Alfredo Garcia Roze
Kate Laity, Mary of Nijmeghen
B.V. Lawson, Murder on the Run, Adams Round Table
Evan Lewis, The French Key, Frank Gruber
Steve Lewis/Dan Stumpf, Night of the Jabberwock, Fredric Brown
Todd Mason, In Search of Wonder, Damon Knight, The Universe Makers, Donald A. Wolheim
The Issue at Hand, William Atheling, Jr. , The Three Faces of Science Fiction, Robert A.W. Lowndes, The Tale That Was the God, James Blish
J.F. Norris, The Eliminator, Andrew York
Richard Pangburn, The Genuine Article, A. B. Guthrie
Eric Peterson, Balefire, Kenneth W. Goddard
David Rachels, Clean Break, Lionel White
James Reasoner, Jack Kirby's Jimmy Olsen, Jack Kirby
Richard Robinson, The Mouse in the Mountain, Norbert Davis
Gerard Saylor, Purple Cane Road, James Lee Burke
Ron Scheer, Sundown Leftare, Frederic Remington
Kerrie Smith, The Throtttlepenny Murder, Roger J. Green
Kevin Tipple, Early Pride, Bobby Jaye Allen
TomCat, Murder in Fiji, John Vandercook

Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, August 19, 2011

These were the links that were active with a FB at 8:30. I will be back after two to pick up the rest.


R. Narvaez was most recently published in Black Heart Magazine’s Noir issue.

THE HOLLOW MAN, John Dickson Carr

The Hollow Man would make Raymond Chandler kick a hole in a stained glass window. The book’s protagonist, Dr. Gideon Fell, is one of those idiosyncratic, overly clever characters who exist only in cozy mysteries, someone you would never want to know socially in real life — because wherever he goes someone dies. He is also exactly the kind of fellow Chandler decries in his essay “The Simple Art of Murder”: “The hero’s tie may be a little off the mode and the good gray inspector may arrive in a dogcart instead of a streamlined sedan . . . but what he does when he gets there is the same old futzing around with timetables and bits of charred paper and who trampled the jolly old flowering arbutus under the library window.”

But in trying to write my own crime fiction, I have been intrigued by the idea of clues, of leaving evidence around to engage and perplex the reader. TV’s Columbo is one of those types of clue-strewn mysteries. After Columbo, ahem, I mean Peter Falk died, I read an interview with one of the shows co-creators, William Link. Link mentioned that his writing partner Richard Levinson and he were influenced by Carr, someone I’d never heard of. Curious, I Googled Carr and found that he was quite popular in his the 1930s and ‘40s and that one of his best known works was The Hollow Man (aka The Three Coffins), originally published in 1935. I had to read it. After some legwork, I tracked down a UK paperback.

The book begins with teasing at the supernatural (vampires), but soon settles into the classic locked room mystery. In this case, a Dr. Grimaud lies dead in his locked study. There only way out is the window — but the freshly fallen snow on the sill and the ground below is untouched. The killer has evaporated. Dr. Fell deduces a suspect, Grimaud’s long-lost brother, but that person is found dead, shot at close range, in the middle of a street covered with fresh snow — and, alas, no footprints but the victim’s. Two impossible murders! Chandler would have thrown his pipe across the room. Then, Dr. Fell and his Lestrade, Inspector Hadley, volley theories back and forth, with Fell alternately announcing that he has solved it and then stating how he almost made a huge mistake. And, yes, he futzes around with timetables and bits of charred paper.

And then just before the big reveal, Dr. Fell takes time out from capturing a killer to lecture on the conventions of locked room mysteries — for an entire chapter. It’s a humorous bit of meta-narrative, and here I could feel Carr shamelessly bragging about his mastery of the genre.

Overall, I find The Hollow Man’s greatest value is as a textbook for mystery writers in what to do as much as what not to do. It is incessantly logical, gives lessons in subtle clue dropping (ah yes, the firecrackers!), and has mischievous fun with misdirection. But at the same time there is far too much exposition (complete with two diagrams) and most of the characters are merely names — Dr. Fell himself is little more than girth, unkempt hair, and a shovel hat. So, yes, it a flawed but entertaining puzzle, a diversion, of course, not for all tastes; but in it the patient student of mystery fiction will find many rewards.

Yvette Banek
Joe Barone
Paul Bishop
Bill Crider
Scott Cupp
Martin Edwards
Cullen Gallagher
Jerry House
Randy Johnson
George Kelley
Margot Kinberg
Kate Laity
B.V. Lawson
Evan Lewis
Steve Lewis/Dan Stumpf
Todd Mason
J.F. Norris
Richard Pangburn
Eric Peterson
David Rachels
James Reasoner
Richard Robinson
Gerard Saylor
Ron Scheer
Kerrie Smith
Kevin Tipple
TomCat

My Life at the Theater, The Gin Game

I saw THE GIN GAME (D.L. Coburn) in 1999 at the Music Hall Theater in Detroit. It starred Julie Harris and Charles Durning and these two great actors made for an exciting evening. It played on Broadway with the same cast in 1997 and was nominated for three Tony Awards including Best Revival.

Julie Harris came from this area and was always a real favorite here. An enjoyable evening for sure.

Magic Words

(Traverse City, MI)
A feature on NPR today on Wendy Wasserstein solved the mystery of who raised her child. Her brother took the child, but died a few years later. His ex-wife is raising the child today. A new book out, THE WENDY CHRONICLES, tells her story.
*******************



I have been thinking a lot about what makes me pick a book up and what makes me put it back down. Not blurbs but plot descriptions on the jacket.

If I see a word like elves, military, or astrology, there is very little chance I will go any further. I suppose there are some terrific books with elves in the plot but I don't know of them. War is not something I like to read about either. So a description like this would not win me over:

A group of woodland elves prepare to arm themselves when the Reader of the Stars indicates a growing threat from the River folks.

If I see a word like amnesia, a disappearance, or time travel in the description, I will likely give it a longer look. I don't know why these concepts fascinate me, but they do. I like the idea of a character finding him/herself in a new pair of shoes and trying to find the old ones.
This would make me consider:

When John wakes up and can't remember who or where he is, he must travel back and forth in time to determine what brought him to this hospital bed.

Now that I look at it, they're not so different, are they?

What turns you on when you read that jacket? What turns you off?

How I Came To Edit This Book: Deadly Treats, Theresa Weir (Anne Frasier)

Bats in the Belfry (DEADLY TREATS)

By Anne Frasier (Theresa Weir)

Two years ago I decided to start my own publishing company, and I planned to begin with a single ebook. This was around the beginning of the ebook rise. Everybody and their uncle had jumped in, but not the aunts, cousins, and kissing cousins. I settled on horror and suspense as a publishing focus, and I called the house Belfry Press. The first book would be a collection of Halloween stories, and I sent out invitations to twenty-five authors, published and unpublished, asking if they’d like to join me in my little experiment. I promised nothing but possibly a rubber bat and a free download of the Halloween anthology, which I was calling Bats in the Belfry. I thought that would be a nice launch title. The first story came in and well…it blew me away. The next story came in and, well…it blew me away. And so on, and so on.

About this time, I started releasing my backlist in digital format, and I saw that sales weren’t spectacular. And I quickly came to realize that a digital ebook by an unknown press might not be the best place for these wonderful stories. They deserved more. So I asked the contributors if they’d be okay with my shopping the collection around, and all but a couple said fine.

About the same time, one of my old Theresa Weir books was reissued by an ebook house, and less than twenty-four hours after the release it was being pirated in several places. So I suddenly wasn’t feeling all that warm and fuzzy about ebooks. I submitted Bats to a print-only house in Minneapolis called Nodin Press. Nodin Press has published a lot of mysteries and anthologies, but never a Halloween book, so I was surprised and thrilled when the owner, Norton Stillman, called and said he’d like to publish Bats. Along the way, we decided the title no longer worked because, well, it was chosen with Belfry Press in mind. After some back and forth emails, we decided on Deadly Treats. The book just came out, and honestly, this anthology is such a LOVELY TREAT, and I'm in awe of the writers and the writing. I'll think, Oh, this is my favorite. No, this is my favorite. Oh, but what about this one? And this one? SO MANY great stories! You can order a copy directly from Adventure Publications, or you can find Deadly Treats almost anywhere print books are sold.

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. What is that from?

This is the movie that contains the line "I used to love trains."
It is uttered poignantly by the character played by Candy Clark.
I put all of the commenters in a hat and came up with Kevin Tipple.

If you email me your address, I will send along the book. Thanks for playing everyone. I know the line was obscure, but I wanted anyone who put something down to have a crack at it.

*********
I saw a new cut of this at the Detroit Film Theater last week and unlike my three companions, I didn't get much out of it. I understood the plot well enough, but it seemed repetitive and nonsensical at points. It seemed to be in love with its own sense of profundity. Long scenes with nothing happening prevail in this film.

After two hours, my mind wanders, my feet turn to cement. I liked the sound track more than the movie, I think.

Any fans of the movie out there? What makes it work for you? My companions felt it was poignant, sexy, and perfectly captured the seventies.

I missed it, I guess. But boy, there was a lot of naked bodies compared to films today. Anyone read the Tevis novel? I think it was set a decade earlier, which in a way makes more sense given the sixties paranoia.

Two New Books, one e, one print

PULP INK has some of the sassiest-assed stories you're likely to read. Edited by two of my favorite gentleman, ( at least when not in print), Chris Rhatigan and Nigel Bird.
Mine is one of the tamer tales I am sure. You can find it here.

Also in print now is DEADLY TREATS from Nodin Press, wherein I write of angels.

You can find that anthology, edited by the lovely Anne Frasier (Theresa Weir) right here.
Or check here with the publisher.

Traverse City Film Festival. 2011

Originally run on Crimespree Cinema.

The Traverse City Film Festival, the brainchild of film maker, Michael Moore, takes place the last week of July. This was its seventh and biggest year with over 90 films being shown. Although there are a handful of more traditional films, the emphasis here is on foreign, art house, and documentary films. There are also free panels on various topics every morning, film lounges to discuss films with fellow viewers, a film school on aspects of film making, and a music stage. There are student films, shorts, everything you would expect to see at an event such as this. The largest outdoor screen in the world shows free films at dusk every night.

You can immediately sense this festival is more about celebrating a love of movies than in making a lot of money. The event is staffed by hundreds of volunteers with free buses transporting guests from one theater to the next every seven minutes. I cannot emphasize how much fun this festival is. Lots of the film makers and stars are there for Q and As after the film.

Traverse City is a lovely city set on miles and miles of beaches of Lake Michigan. Vineyards are minutes away; Interlochen, a community for musicians, a half hour; sand dunes, under an hour.

But let’s talk about the movies.

This year’s special events included a 100^th birthday celebration of Roy Rogers, the 50^th anniversary celebration of To Kill a Mockingbird, a tribute to Iranian film maker Jafar Panahi, and a salute to the public employees of the Great Flint Sit-down Strike.

We were only there for three days but saw four fine films and attended two interesting panels.

Higher Ground, directed by and starring Vera Farmiga, is based on Carolyn S. Briggs memoir of her life as a born-again Christian. The film gave a very balanced look at life in a close- knit religious community. It avoided the clichés that often creep into films like this by giving attention to supporting characters as well as its lead. No one was painted as all good or bad and hence the struggle of Corinne to find a place in the world was very poignant.

Black Butterflies is a biopic about South African poet, Ingrid Jonker. Carive von Hauten gives a mesmerizing performance as Jonker, who is the victim of a repressive father (Rutger Hauer), South African’s cruel apartheid years, and inner demons, which eventually drive away those who love her. I wish the director (Paula van der Oest) had come up with a methods to give the audience more of a taste of her poetry, but that’s always the problem with movies about writers, isn’t it?

Bride Flight was the sudsiest of the films. A period drama, it follows the intersecting lives of three brides who fly from Amsterdam to New Zealand after World War 2. This was another film that profited from its lush landscape. I didn’t mind the soap operatic feel of it—there was enough story, character, and scenery to divert me.

Rid of Me was the sometimes painful and often funny story of new bride (Katie O’Grady) who can’t quite measure up to a past girlfriend when she travels with her husband to Portland to meet his boyhood friends and start their married life. Portland and indie movies is a perfect fit and this film drives that home. The film’s success was largely due to the performance of O’Grady who captured her character perfectly, traipsing winningly through some startling life changes.

We attended two panels. The first was a discussion of the documentary Being Elmo. The panel consisted of the entire team that put together the movie, which really is about the puppeteer who operates Elmo, Kevin Cash. It made me very sorry the documentary was sold out.

The second panel was a gathering of many of the documentary makers with films at the festival and a discussion of their films, the problems they encountered making them, and various issues in the business. It was also terrific. Documentaries, once confined to the smallest of venues, are now some of the most interesting films of the year.

I encourage you to consider making this film festival a destination if you have an interest in films. You can find out more about it at: http://www.traversecityfilmfest.org/

Sunday Forum

4. Do most of your story ideas come from your own life, stories you read about, a flash of an idea? What?

Michael Bracken:
They come from everywhere. Lately I've been writing for a lot of anthologies so calls for submission are sparking many of my new story ideas.

P.A. I would say an overheard sentence or two. The more closely my story follows a real incident, the more trouble I have slipping into it. I try hard to find a way to make it mine when I can't pass something true up.

"I used to love trains"

I heard this line in a movie last week and it has resonated in my head ever since. I googled it and it must be the fourth most common sentiment every expressed on blogs because there it's there about 15, 000 times.

I picked up a few autographed copies of THE END OF EVERYTHING by Megan Abbott at the Borders closedown and I am willing to give one away to anyone who can guess where I heard this line. If more than one person (in the U.S.) gets it, I will draw for it.

I am blogging about this movie on the seventeenth, so you have to then to guess.

If no one gets it, I will draw among the wrong guessers. If someone finds another movie with the same line in it, which wouldn't surprise me, they go into the winner's circle too.

Pictures of Phil's Garden

I cannot take any credit at all for this. But I do point out weeds.

Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, August 12, 2011

Please check out Todd Mason's blog for links.

Happy Anniversary

My parents would have been married seventy years today. Dad died last November on his 96th birthday, my mother the year before.

This was their song. Happy anniversary to two wonderful parents. I hope you are celebrating it.

My Life at the Theater: The Heidi Chronicles

I first saw The Heidi Chronicles, written by Wendy Wasserstein, in New York at the Plymouth Theater in 1989. It starred the amazing Joan Allen. It co-starred Broadway fixtures Boyd Gaines and Peter Friedman. It knocked me off my feet. It perfectly encapsulated the past two decades--from 1970-1988.

Funny thing though, I saw it again in 1994, just five years later, at a local theater. Already it seemed dated, naive. Cliched.

And then my book group read it as a play two years ago in 2009. It seemed as anachronistic as any dusty nineteenth century play. It was also depressing to think that societal changes of two decades past were either taken for granted by a new generation of discarded altogether.

I guess plays or novels or movies that take on "issues" are likely to suffer from this. Oleana, by Mamet is another play that seems too shrill today.

Anyone else notice this?

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK: Paul Bishop

.

WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK ~

CROAKER: KILL ME AGAIN

PAUL BISHOP

When I first started writing novels, I had a tendency to run my protagonists through major character changing gauntlets. By the end of one of my early novels, the protagonist’s emotional and physical situation had changed completely. This made the writing of sequels very difficult.

As a result, when I created the main character of L.A.P.D. homicide detective Fey Croaker, I established a four book story arc even before the first book was written – let alone sold.

I knew each plot would stand alone, but I wanted to play out Fey’s personal journey across the first three books before forcing her to confront the demons from her past in the fourth novel. To accomplish this, I surrounded Fey with a squad of other detectives, whose lives and conflicts would help to expand the storylines.

Arch Hammersmith and Rhonda Lawless (known and feared as Hammer & Nails), Brindle Jones (a black female detective fighting for recognition), her partner, Abraham Benjamin Cohen (AKA: Alphabet), and Fey’s second-in-command, Monk Lawson, all get put through the ringer over the first four books in the series. So, while the books are definitely belong to Fey, the other regular characters helped to both enrich and add depth.

One reviewer assessed the series as Prime Suspect colliding with Ed McBain’s 87^th Precinct. I couldn’t have come up with a more flattering, or better, comparison for what I was trying to achieve.

In the first book in the series, Croaker: Kill Me Again, I wanted to really put the pressure on Fey. I wanted to explore the cracks in her character, and I wanted to put the spotlight in the different and specific pressures brought to bear on women in law enforcement leadership positions.

I’ve been fortunate in my own law enforcement career where all of my long-term partners have been female. Without exception, they have been motivated, dedicated, loyal, and perfectly capable of kicking butt when the occasions arose. They did this while also battling the deeply male nature of law enforcement in general and the male dominated bureaucracy.

Having worked with female partners for so long – I’m in my 35^th year with the Los Angeles Police Department, with over 25 years experience investigating sex crimes – I’ve seen firsthand all of the things women in law enforcement were forced to face – things that were non-issues for their male counterparts.

While still telling a good story, I particularly wanted to explore the reasons behind why the personal lives and relationships of females in law enforcement are often even more screwed up (if that’s possible) than those of the males on the job.

In Croaker: Kill Me Again, Fey and her crew are under pressure due to a string of unsolved, yet unconnected, murders. When a fresh homicide occurs, Fey can only hope it is a smoking gun case – something she can wrap up quickly. However, when the victim is identified as a woman thought to have been murdered 18 years earlier, it’s clear the case has taken a turn for the complicated and deadly.

Within this framework, I was able to weave in much of the material I’d experienced working with female partners, or discovered during the course of writing the novel. For me, gratification came when, after reading the book, female cops would approach me demanding to know how I knew these things.

I enjoyed the experience of writing about Fey and her crew. Being able to play out the character arcs over the larger canvas of four novels gave me something more to write about – something to say beyond who-dun-it.

I’m also grateful for the explosion of e-publishing that has made it possible for the Detective Fey Croaker L.A.P.D. novels to be available again to a new audience.

A thirty-five year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, Paul Bishop has twice been honored as Detective of the Year. As well as numerous novels, he has also written scripts for episodic television and feature films. As a nationally recognized interrogator, he appears regularly on the hit ABC reality series Take The Money And Run . . .

Paul blogs at www.bishsbeat.blogspot.com and you can follow him on Twitter @bishsbeat

From YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU

Your Favorite James Stewart Movie

This was a tough choice for me because damn, he was versatile. But I am going with REAR WINDOW. It may be my favorite movie ever for that matter.

What's your favorite Stewart film?

Forgotten Movies, Friendly Persuasion

Gary Cooper could play any role and this is a good example. Directed by William Wyler, I watched this film over and over as a teenager. Strangely, I seldom find it on TV now. In this era of hyper-religiosity, perhaps the pacifism of Quakers is too tame.

Jess Birdwell is a Quaker farmer in Southern Indiana during the
Civil War. Dorothy McGuire plays his wife with equal skill. They are very persuasive as a nineteenth century Quaker couple.

The film is based on a novel by Jessamyn West and it's about the effects of the Civil War on the Birdwell family, the parents and the children: Anthony Perkins, Phyllis Love, and Richard Eyer. The tenets of pacifism are not easy to follow, especially during the Civil War.

Each of the Birdwells feel differently about the war and Anthony Perkins (the young son and Oscar-nominated here) feels it his duty to defend his home and family.

Friendly Persuasion's popularity was helped by Pat Boone's record of the title song which was a Gold record for him. The film also oozes the integrity of its characters.

Friendly Persuasion will pleasure thee in a hundred ways.

For more forgotten movies, check with Todd Mason.