Birds and Books

Sunday's for the Birds: The "Good Luck" Crane

2012-01-29T05:00:00.000-08:00

One Smart Bird (the following is an excerpt from my upcoming book, The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert Porter Allen Story.

It could have been abandonment issues, an aggressive gene,or a loose screw, but when number 10-08 from Operation Migration's Class of 2008 pecked away at his shell and enteredthe world, he was a force to be reckoned with. His parents were from the2003-generation nesting for the first time at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. In their inexperience,they abandoned the nest. Their two eggs were collected and transported to thePatuxent Wildlife Research Center. Number 10-08 and his sister 11-08 wereincubated and added to the ultralight cohort. When 11-08 was shipped to NecedahNWR, printed on the side of his box were the words, GOOD LUCK. The teamisolated him for a couple of days to observe his behavior. Feeling that he’dadjusted to his new home after a few days, they introduced him to the membersof his cohort. Within three hours, he had fatally injured one crane andseriously injured two others (one was his sister 11-08). Number 11-08experienced mental and physical stress, resulting in her feathers developingimproperly. Sadly, she had to be removed from training and was sent to theMilwaukee Zoo. The other injured crane was removed as well.

Number 10-08 was isolated again and then placed in Cohort One with theolder chicks whom the team hoped would keep 10-08 in line. The strategy workeduntil it was time to combine Cohorts One and Two. The aggressive crane wastedno time in grabbing the beak of number 13-08 through a chain-link fence. Theyounger bird was rescued before any serious injury resulted. The next morning,10-08 attacked several other youngsters from Cohort Two. He was again placed inconfinement.

The WCEP team held a conference to decide what to do with the rebelcrane. He was too genetically valuable to remove from the flock, but tooaggressive to continue to train with the other chicks. The Class of 2008 hadalready dwindled to fourteen and could not afford another loss. Ten days beforethe scheduled migration, the WCEP team decided to release the five-month-oldchick on the Necedah NWR, hoping he would take up with older cranes and followthem south.

On the evening of October 22, number 10-08 was given hisfreedom. His flock mates had left on their maiden voyage five days earlier. Thetraining crew left a pumpkin as a goodbye treat, gave the bird a pat on theback, and walked away. A few days later, as if knowing exactly what he wasdoing, he had taken up with two older cranes, numbers 18-3 and 13-3, who justhappened to be his natural parents.

Number 10-08's photo is from OM's website:

http://www.operationmigration.org/index.html

Writer Rob Harrison Shares a Special Moment

2012-01-27T07:46:00.000-08:00

Rob Harrison is a fellow writer. I am amazed how he turns his memories into these vivid stories. Here's his latest.

A Ranch Boy's Memory

By Rob Harrision

I remember a night where nothing out of the ordinaryhappened. Pete, his father and I took shifts checking the cows. Pete shook meawake and made sure I was out of bed. I stumbled down steep stairs. The warmkitchen smelled of a banked wood fire smoldering in the cook stove and strongold coffee simmering in a pot. I put on insulated coveralls, largefelt-insulated boots, and a heavy hooded wool coat. I swallowed a few sips ofbitter coffee and headed for the barn. The snow squeaked underfoot, punctuatingthe frozen stillness.

In the dusty old log barn, the sturdy gray mare turned herhead toward me as far as the halter rope would allow. The whites of her eyesshowed in the dim light of thesingle flyspecked bulb. She was already saddled. I slipped on the bridle andtightened the cinch. Outside, it was tricky getting on the horse with theclumsy boots on my feet – they wouldn't go into the stirrups, but a fence railhelped me get aboard. From there, I did nothing; this little horse could walkthe circuit of the calving field in her sleep.

The night was a dimly lit Arctic still-life – ten below,maybe twenty – no wind at all. I felt the hairs in my nose freeze as Iinhaled. The stars shone as a milky blanket of lights, not close enough totouch as is often written, but tiny pinpoints far away like they get when it’sthat cold. The foothills of the Rockies lay half a mile away and, after my eyesadjusted, I could make out individual trees without moonlight.

The cows stepped aside as Irode through, wet noses lifted to me with only mild interest. This time therewere no cows in labor and no calves to deal with. If there had been a new calf,I would have herded the cow and calf into the lean-to. If something seemedwrong with the calf, I would have taken it, across the horse in front of me, tothe house where there was a big box with blankets next to the kitchen stove.The cow would follow and be put into the milk cow corral. None of thathappened.

In three months, these cowsand their calves, along with the bulls, would be taken to summer pasture on theforest grazing allotment. I liked to think of the bulls as smoking cigars andplaying poker all winter in the bull pasture. When the bulls were let out withthe cows, this cycle of life would begin again. I thought it marvelous that twohundred cows needed only five or six very busy bulls for procreation. Happilyworn out in the fall, they would go back to their cards and cigars.

I sat the horse, feeling her muscular stride under me,listening to the crunch of her steps in the crusted snow. When the snow was off,she would join the other horses. I remembered the joy of their nickering whenthey met in the summer pasture, how they ran, their necks pushing against each others',turning suddenly as one, then running again, finally stopping to sample the newgrass.

It became clear as thecrystalline air that this winter, this sleepy waiting, was giving way to aseason of feverish, joyous creation. I was sixteen then and could feel theageless forces welling up in me. Nature would have her way and I would relishthe reckless spring of my life.
Take a look at Rob's story posted on December 30.

Mystery Trivia Tuesday: Your Favorite Holmes

2012-01-24T13:53:00.000-08:00

I've recently added a new life goal to my list: accumulate as few possessions as possible. But I couldn't resist purchasing the Benedict Cumberbatch BBC Holmes series. I just watched A Study in Pink and loved it. Two weeks ago, I went to the real movies and saw Robert Downey, Jr. in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and loved it, too. It's no surprise to say, I used to lay in wait for the Granada TV series with Jeremy Brett as Holmes. So, that got me to thinking. Who is my favorite Holmes, and what is it about this guy that has captured so much of my attention, be it on TV or feature film, or in a book?

All of you Holmes fans are probably thinking, "silly question."

So, I'm curious. Who is your favorite Holmes?

A. Benedict Cumberbatch

B. Robert Downey, Jr.

C. Jeremy Brett

D. Basil Rathbone

E. John Barrymore

F. Christopher Lee

G. Peter Cushing

H. William Gillette

I. Roger Moore

K. Christopher Plummer

L. Other

And tell me why, if you can?

My book, The Sherlock Holmes Triviography and Quiz Book, has been updated and will be reissued this April, along with The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book and What's Your Agatha Christie I.Q? (new title, The Agatha Christie Triviography and Quiz Book.) Stay tuned.

Sunday's for the Birds and the Birds Have the Right Idea

2012-01-22T12:50:00.000-08:00

While my husband and I were on our 19-month road trip, we planned to avoid the worst weather. During our 47,000 miles, we migrated with the birds, going south in the winter and north in the summer. Now that we're sedentary, I miss those perpetually glorious days. Needless to say, after a week of snow and ice, this Texas gal is more than ready for her trip to the Texas Coast. I look forward to seeing my family and friends, but I also plan to spend some time with fellow birders and my avian pals. The 16th annual Whooping Crane Festival is taking place on February 23-26 in Port Aransas, and I will be there to hear Dr. George Archibald, cofounder of the International Crane Foundation, talk about his lifelong experience in working with cranes. Oceanographer Tony Amos, founder of the Animal Rehabilitation Keep, will educates us on the identification of shorebirds. To top off my visit, a friend has arranged an up-close and personal trip to see my favorite bird, the whooping crane, which migrates to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in the winter. By the time they get the itch to head north, I'll also be ready to return home.

Below are the festival highlights. Hope to see you there!'

Lecture Series Speakers FREE
Brown Bag Lunch Lecture Series Guest Speaker, Lowell Schake presents "On the Wings of Cranes" Wednesday, Feb. 22 at noon during the Festival. Bring you lunch to the Port Aransas Civic Center and and enjoy some 'birdy' talk!

Also during the festival, an evening lecture will take place on Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7:00 p.m.in the auditorium at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute. As an ongoing Laura Randall Schweppe Endowed Lecture Series, Dr. Juan Bahamon will share his experience, knowledge and photographs from South America. Join us as Dr. Bahamon presents "Humans & Hummingbirds."

Don't miss the Birding Field Trip at the Port Aransas Nature Preserve
Join our birding experts Joan and Scott Holt for a tour of the Port Aransas Nature Preserve. The newest addition to nature sites in Port Aransas, this trip will explore the trails within the park that provide feeding areas and important habitat for shorebirds and endangerd and threatened species...learn from the local experts!!!

Butterfly Tent FREEJoin South Texas Botanical Gardens & Nature Center as they present the Butterfly Tent inside the Bird's Nest Trade Show. Enjoy viewing several different species of these beauties!
Children's Corner FREE
Bring your children to visit the Children's Corner at the Birds Nest Trade Show in the Civic Center on Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., courtesy of the Port Aransas Parks and Recreation Department. On Sunday, join us from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for a special presentation of Not So Creepy Critters.

Commemorative T-Shirts & Optical Equipment
The Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce is selling the 2012 Commemorative Festival T-shirts and Raffle Tickets at the Chamber Office at 403 Cotter. Beginning on Thursday, Feb 23 at 1:30 p.m., you can purchase your T-shirts at the Civic Center. The raffle tickets are $2 each, 3 for $5, 8 for $10 and give registrants the opportunity to win a Vortex Skyline ED 20-60X80 angled spotting scope, Summit Series Tripod, Day at Fennessey Ranch, HEB gift certificates and more!

Art Center for the Islands Int'l Children's Art Exhibit   FREE
Plan to view the incredible artwork created by children from the International Crane Foundation's "Bird of Peace" World Art Exhibit. This traveling art exhibit features fine art by children from several countries, including Russia, China, Vietnam, Sweden, and the United States.
This free exhibit can be viewed at the Art Center for the Islands, 323 N. Alister.
February 16 - February 26 Mon. - Sat. 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and Sun. noon - 4:00 p.m.

8th Annual Kiwanis Club Beach Dash
The Port Aransas Kiwanis Club is sponsoring a Beach Dash with a 10K run, 5K run, 2 mile walk and a kid's 1/2K dash. Awards and prizes will be given out and all proceeds benefit Port Aransas youth. Entry fee is $25 for all events on race day.
Sat., Feb. 25 at 8:00 a.m. on the beach at Horace Caldwell Pier.

Optics Presentations   FREE
Friday, Feb. 24 and Saturday, Feb. 25 at 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. at the Bill Ellis Memorial Library.

Guided Tour of the Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK)
Tour the Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, a facility dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of injured and sick sea turtles and aquatic birds.

Guided Tour of the Wetlands Education Center (WEC) FREE
The Wetlands Education Center, occupies 3.5 acres between the MSI Visitors Center and the South Jetty. It is a marsh/seagrass pond landscaped and planted with various seagrasses and appropriate coastal vegetation nourished by water from the Aransas Pass Ship Channel.

http://www.whoopingcranefestival.org/

What is Voice? by Ryder Islington

2012-01-21T07:00:00.001-08:00

Mystery writer, Ryder Islington, has created a memorable protagonist. Trey Fontaine spoke to her, and thank goodness, Ryder listened: the result, her first novel, Ultimate Justice.
Ultimate Justice, A TreyFontaine Mystery is receiving rave reviews from readers. http://www.ll-publications.com/ultimatejustice.html

The small town of RavenBayou, Louisiana explodes as old money meets racial tension, and torturedchildren turn the table on abusive men. FBI Special Agent Trey Fontaine returnshome to find the town turned upside down with mutilated bodies. Working withlocal homicide detectives, Trey is determined to get to the truth. A believer in empirical evidence,Trey ignores his instincts until he stares into the face of the impossible, andhas to choose between what he wants to believe and the ugly truth.

A graduate of the University of California andformer officer for a large sheriff’s department, RYDER ISLINGTON is now retired and doing what she loves: reading,writing, and gardening. She lives in Louisiana with her family, including avery large English Chocolate Lab, a very small Chinese pug, and a houseful ofdemanding cats. She can be contacted at RyderIslington@yahoo.com or visither blog at

http://ryderislington.wordpress.com

Read what Ryder has to say about What is Voice?

When I first started writing with an aim toward publication,I read and heard about ‘keeping your voice.’ No one ever explained what thatmeant. I needed someone to dumb it down for me. I just didn’t get it. It took along time before someone finally explained it in a way that made sense to me.

Voice is more than how the writer interprets her story. Itincludes word choice, sentence structure, description, style, and so much more.Voice is why ten authors can write on the same subject and create ten differentstories. Voice is why one history teacher is considered boring and whileanother is entertaining.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of mystery authors, andmany have a following of avid readers. It’s the author’s voice the readers arefollowing. Developing your own voice and keeping it, is essential to becoming asuccessful author.

When my debut novel, UltimateJustice, A Trey Fontaine Mystery, went through the editing process with thepublishing company, voice was the one thing the editor and I agreed on. UnlessI made a grammatical error, sentences weren’t changed. Unless I had a plotproblem, story was not changed. The editor worked with me to keep my voice. Ifsomething needed to be changed, it was my job to choose the words, narrative,dialogue, etc. Even the amount of white space on a page contributes to voice.

I like to write short paragraphs. Yes, it uses more paper,or space, but I’ve found that when I’m reading for pleasure, I’ll read a lotmore in one setting if the paragraphs are short. I can take in the informationeasily, and I always have time for one more paragraphs. Or two. This is part ofmy style, and therefore part of my voice.

When I go to critique group, suggestions are made for how tofix problems. I take those suggestions home, and determine if there is aproblem, and if there is, how I can best revise in my own words. Voice getsmore distinctive over time. By the time you’ve written a million words, you caneasily see your voice in your work, if you’re looking for it.

One thing that builds voice is developing vocabulary. Idon’t mean learning big words when small ones will do, but finding differentwords that will avoid repetition and still maintain your voice. Do you usemetaphors? Or Similes? Do you prefer on over the other? Do you avoid questionsin narrative? Use colons and semi-colons? (I hardly ever use colons orsemi-colons in fiction). Do you usually use beats instead of tags in dialogue?Read through your works and ask questions like these. Your favorite themes,your choice of punctuation and sentence length, every decision you make as youwrite, is about voice. Losing your voice is as devastating to a writer as anopera star. Don’t let anyone take it from you. Maintain voice at all costs.It’s what makes you unique.

Mystery Trivia Tuesday: Three Detectives Walked into a Bar

2012-01-17T15:13:00.000-08:00

Surley You Know Them

Threedetectives walked into a bar. One ordered a crème de menthe, twisted hismustaches and told the bartender to put it in a clean snifter. Another orderedtwo beers and a glass, and the tall, thin guy ordered absinthe.

“Ain’tgot no sugar cubes,” said Frank the bartender.

Theman pulled a small cellophane package from his coat pocket and handed it to Frank.

photo from flick.com/goolge images

The bartender opened it to find a slightly chipped lump of sugar. Frankshrugged, he thought he’d seen everything working in this midtown dive, butthese three take the cake.

“Hey,Frank.” Louie shouted,holding up his empty martini glass. “One more for the road, if you please.”

“Notnow, Louie,” Frank warned. He scooped ice into the fountain, added water, andset it aside to drip over the absinthe, then he walked to the other end of thebar where Louie Fritz was empting his bowl of nuts faster than Frank could fillit. His martini glass now sat upside down on his napkin, the toothpick balancedon the bridge of his nose.

Frankhated Louie; he hated his juvenile antics. He wished the jerk would just askfor another drink like the normal deadbeats who kept the vinyl-coveredstools warm.

“Hey,”Louie called over the sound of Frank rattling gin and ice in the shaker. “Youguys new in town?”

“Knockit off,” Frank said.

“Mustbe a weirdo convention going on.” Louie picked up his glass and walked over tojoin the threesome. The tall guy sipped his cloudy drink.

Louie stuck out his hand, “I’m Louie Fritz.”

Iknow," Absinthe said. “You come in here everyday after your shift at the shirtfactory. You drink four martinis, stumble home to your apartment in HellsKitchen, feed your gray cat, heat up a can of beef stew for your dinner, thenfall asleep in front of the TV. You own nothing whatsoever of value.”

“Don’tforget about that gold watch in his right pocket,” the guy drinking the beersaid.

“Hey,you guys some sort of psychos?”

“Thatpsychics, Louie,” Frank said.

“No,no, mon ami, that family heirloom is no longer is his pocket. It is gone,” said the dapper little man.

“You’reright,” Absinthe said. “He lost it a few days ago.”

“Sothe little Frenchman and the fat guy think they know what’s in my pockets,” Louie huffed.

“Donot insult me, monsieur. I am certainly not French. Is it not most obvious I amfrom Belgium?”

Louiedowned his martini. “I’ve heard enough.” He grabbed his hat and left.

“Thanksfor getting rid of that guy,” Frank said. “He’s in here every afternoonannoying anyone who comes in the door. But how did you guys know all aboutLouie?”

“Elementary.His coat was covered with white lint, hence spending all day across the streetat the Levine Shirt Factory. One only needs to walk by the factory when someoneopens the door, and one will see the lint bellowing out. He had threetoothpicks lined up on his napkin and since he asked you to make him one moremartini, that makes four. He wobbled over here and surely he will wobble home.The nearest apartments are a couple of blocks way in the Hells Kitchen districtand a man who indulged in that much gin would not bother to frequent abar too far away from where he lives.”

“YouEnglishmen are such show offs,” the beer drinker said.

“Lethim finish, Monsieur, you will have a chance to, how do you Americans say,strut your stuff another day.” The Belguim said. “You were saying, MonsieurEnglishmen. Zee gray cat, beef stew, and zee TV.”

“Ahyes, his tie was covered in fine gray hairs that could only come from adomestic feline creature. The brown and red stains on his threadbare shirt hadspread into an oily smear from his attempt to clean them. A man of his caliberdoes not spend his evenings at the theatre or reading a book, and not manyfemales would bother with a sloppy, untidy fellow like him. That leaves theAmerican TV as his sole form of nightly entertainment, that and cuddling his cat. Since clothing factoriespay very little, he would not have enough left from his paycheck to purchase expensive steaks for dinner. A can of stew, after filling up on bar nuts, would satisfy hisbelly. Nor could he afford to buy the finer things in life. The pocketwatchyou mentioned had to have come from a close relative.”
The beer drinker merely grumbled.

“Buthow did you know he used to carry it in his right pocket before he lost it?”Frank asked.

“Wouldyou care to finish the tale?” the Englishmen said to the beer drinker.

“You’redoing such a fine job, continue.”

“Verywell. Your Mister Louie reached into his right pocket several times and came upempty handed. He then glanced at the clock over the bar since he no longerhad his watch to tell him the time. Old habits are hard to break.”

“That’strue,” Frank said. “But he could have pawned the watch.”

“Thehole in the bottom of his pocket leads me to believe otherwise.”

“I’veheard enough,” the beer drinker said. “I must get back to the nursery. This outing is a waste of my time.”

TheBelgium reached for his money purse.

“Keepyour money. Let the stingy fat man pay this time,” the Englishmen said.

Sunday's for the Birds: Nice Try

2012-01-15T16:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all of you who responded to my plea and signed the petition allowing Operation Migration to continue escorting the Class of 2011 whooping crane chicks to Florida. The FAA granted the pilots a waver.
The good news: all the chicks are healthy and eager to fly.
The bad news: today's attempt was aborted.
This was the first morning this week that the weather cooperated and a migration takeoff looked promising. The pilots revved their engines, the chicks were released, and up they went. Soon after becoming airborne, the cranes scattered. The pilots did their best to round up their wards, but after four chicks dropped out, the flight was aborted and they returned to the pens. As migration day 77 comes to an end, the best thing is that all nine cranes are safe and they had a chance to exercise their rusty wings. In the words of Scarlett O'Hara, "After all, tomorrow is another day."

This information came from the OM website: http://www.operationmigration.org/

Read more about the Class of 2011 by going to the website's "In the Field." You can also purchase whooping crane merchandize on the website: jewelry, T-shirts, greeting cards, etc. And you can sponsor migration miles. There are more than 500 left for this year.

Update on Mystery Trivia

2012-01-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

My 3 mystery-trivia books were updated and will be reissued by LL-Publications this April!
What's Your Agatha Christie I.Q.? (renamed The Agatha Christie Triviography and Quiz Book)
The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book
The Sherlock Holmes Triviography and Quiz Book.

Mystery Trivia Tuesday: Nero Wolfe Leaves Home

2012-01-10T11:59:00.000-08:00

After Igraduated college, I packed my bags, and with my dog in tow, moved toManhattan. I found an apartment on 30^th and Madison and began mylife as an urban explorer. Except for growing up in a small Texas town andreading too many Nero Wolfe mysteries, there was no reasonable excuse for notlooking for a real job and beginning a life of responsibility. After almost ayear of visiting jazz clubs and museums, and elbowing my way through throngs of humanity, I missed seeing sunrises over natural horizons and I headed back toTexas.

AlthoughNero Wolfe rarely left his midtown Manhattan brownstone, it was not beyond himto travel to other parts of the country. Here are three Nero Wolfe mysteriesset outside of New York City. Can you identify them?

Whatmystery takes place in Montana, causing Wolfe to leave the comforts of hisbrownstone in the Big Apple?

What is thename of the mystery that takes place in Upstate New York where Archieaccompanies Wolfe to an orchid show?

What is thename of the mystery where Wolfe travels to West Virginia to address a conclaveof chefs?
Share your own favorites by posting a comment.

Look for my 3 mystery-trivia books. All 3 have been updated and will be reissued by LL-Publications this April!

What's Your Agatha Christie I.Q.? (renamed The Agatha Christie Triviography and Quiz Book)

The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book

The Sherlock Holmes Triviography and Quiz Book.

Sunday's for the Birds: Whooping Crane Class of 2011 Update

2012-01-08T06:20:00.000-08:00

Although all the chicks and crew are safe in Franklin County, Alabama, they have been grounded since December 11. The problem this time is not the weather, but FAA issues concerning flight regulations in regards to the ultralight pilots. In other words, governmental red tape has tethered the program until further notice. It was hoped this issue would be cleared up during the holidays, but still no word. The latest report came from OM director David Sakrison on January 5. http://www.operationmigration.org/Field_Journal.html
You can post your supportive comments on the OM guest page. They will be collected and forward to the FAA.

In the meantime, there's good news coming from Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. OM's crew chief Walter Sturgeon reported that twelve pairs of whooping cranes are nesting and beginning the incubation process on the refuge. One pair, #9-03 and #3-04 are nesting for the fifth time. Looks like # 9-03, the rebel female, has settled down. She was the little crane who wandered offtrack on her first migration home to Wisconsin in the spring of 2004. After flying all over Eastern North American for three years, she was captured and returned to Wisconsin where she hooked up with a mate. Since then, they've had a few failed nesting attempts, but in 2010 they migrated south with a youngster in tow. As of today, they have contributed three little whoopers to the Eastern Flock! To read Sturgeon's complete history of #9-03, go to "In the Field" January 5.

Keep your fingers cross that at least by this time next week, the whoopers will be doing what they are meant to do—migrate!

Meet Romance Novelist Denise J.B. Morrow

2012-01-06T06:57:00.000-08:00

I learned a long ago that with challenges come opportunities, and opportunities often lead one down new and exciting roads. I met Denise a few months ago at the newly formed a Fidalgo Island Writers Guild. A short time later, she signed up for my writing class, which is designed to jump-start beginning writers who need that extra push. I soon discovered that Denise's writing engine had been humming along for sometime, having written several romance novels. What she found instead, was a new outlet to her writing.

Denise Morrow, an Anacortes native, has lived on Fidalgo Island all her life. After college she married her husband Brent, and here they raised two daughters, Leah and Linnea. For decades Denise’s job has been in Mini Storage development and operation in Anacortes and Oak Harbor. Finally figuring out what she wanted to do when she grew up, she began writing romance novels. Fast-forward two year, and four books are ready for editing. Denise has now found a new love, the short story.

TheCrush

By Denise J. B. Morrow

I expected him to evoke a strongerfeeling inside of me. I had been so captivated by the mere thought of himdecades earlier. In fact, he dominated my thoughts in the early 70’s. It was a painful longing with no chanceof requital, and yet the feeling had persisted.

Ona warm summer day a lifetime ago, I stood perusing the magazine counter atCitizens Pharmacy. I was ecstatic to see, nestled between the pages of thelatest edition of Tiger Beat, a mega poster of his smiling face. In livingcolor, a giant head and shoulder shot that would take up half the wall above mybed.

Thestrong yearnings grew as I listened to his treble timbre emitting from the 33spinning on my portable, plastic record player. Surrounded by the lavenderwalls of my bedroom, imagining him singing directly to me, I rolled over on aloud purple floral bedspread to gaze at his glossy image. His signature coloredshirt matched my room and his soft brown eyes and feathered hair generated asweet fervency in my adolescent heart. I sighed deeply and fantasized aboutwhat I was sure would be our fated meeting someday.

Aslong as I could keep my little brother from surreptitiously penciling in amustache above the shiny white teeth of my dreamy, would be lover, life wasgood.

My feelings cooled along with theweather that fall as I began my Jr. High years. All my energies were now takenup trying to fit in and interact with real life boys, some with interestingpotential. The poster was eventually taken down, carefully folded, and storedaway. I never could bring myself to toss it.

Threeand a half decades later the harsh lights of sin city reflected off the hotelwalls. Part of nostalgic, old Las Vegas, hot pink and orange dominated thedecor of this establishment. I wondered where the time had gone. This trip wasa pilgrimage of sorts. On the verge of a significant birthday, I was hopeful torecreate the mood and sensibilities of my youth. I ran headlong into the pastwith the expectation of fulfilling an antiquated fantasy.

Nowhere I stood, at long last, inches away from him, time had been kind to hiscountenance; he was still a strikingly handsome man. We were both dressedcompletely in black. My 5-inch patent leather platform sandals put us at eyelevel. I mumbled something about his poster hanging on my bedroom wall in the70’s as he put his arm around me and smiled for a photo. But too much time hadpassed. No longer did I feel the deep, burning hunger of a pubescent preteen. Histouch did not create in me the thrilling sensation that I had anticipated. Heturned towards me and I looked expectantly into his brown eyes, as he openedhis mouth to speak. His only words, “Sorry I’m so sweaty.”

Mystery Trivia Tuesday: More Nero Wolfe

2012-01-04T05:52:00.000-08:00

Notmuch ever changed in Nero Wolfe’s life. His daily schedule, sedentary habits,attitudes, opinions, outlooks, eccentricities were all predictable, yet formore than nine decades readers have continued to turn the pages of Rex Stout’smysteries. Do you know the following Wolfe trivia facts mentioned in the veryfirst Nero Wolfe mystery Fer-de-Lance?

1. What was the name of Nero Wolfe’s bank?

2. What was Wolfe’s phone number?

3. What was the name of his favorite radioprogram?

4. How much did Wolfe weight?

5. Archie Goodwin referred to the occasional changes in Wolf's behavior as "relapses." What were these and why did they occur?
Here are the answers to my first Nero Wolfe trivia quiz.

1. What is the title of Rex Stout's first Nero Wolfe mystery? Fer-de-Lance

2. What is the British title of the 1952 Nero Wolfe mystery Prisoner's Base? Out Goes She

3. A victim is murdered by a cyanide soft-drink cocktail—a puzzle that proved difficult even for Wolfe to solve. What is the name of this Nero Wolfe mystery? And Be A Villian

4. What is the title of the Nero Wolfe mystery in which a wealthy woman claims she is being stalked by the FBI? This book is considered one of Rex Stout's best. The Doorbell Rang

Sunday's for the Birds

2012-01-01T06:47:00.000-08:00

Meet the Youngest #12-11!

I'm not sure which birth order is the most advantageous. Being the oldest of four girls, I often attempted to dazzle my three younger sisters with my wisdom only to be taken down a notch by theirs. Over the years, I've come to regard them as my role models for various reason. The moral of this story? Don't underestimate the young.
With Christmas falling on Sunday, I ran out of Sundays in 2011 with one whooping crane chick left to report on. Number 12-11 entered the world with difficulty, requiring assistance during her hatching—not a good sign. Described as weak and puny, she was closely observed for the first several days until she gained strength and vigor. Early during flight training, this youngster showed signs of courage by standing up to the older chicks who attempted to throw their weight around. Then she grew submissive and let the others steal her grapes. Once migration began, she proved to be a strong and eager flyer—sometimes. So the jury is still out on this little girl. However, when I look at her baby picture, I see determination in those big, dark eyes and feel certain that she will develop into a role model for chicks in years to come. Operation Migration makes it easy to keep track of all the cranes' progress by going to their website and searching under Whooping Crane Photos and Bios. http://www.operationmigration.org/sitemap.html
Right now the Class of 2011 has been in Franklin County, Alabama since December 11, waiting out bad weather and the holidays. This information and the chick's photo came from the OM website.

Read more about the Class of 2011 by going to "In the Field," then "Site Map," and scrolling down until you see the bios for the various classes. You can also purchase whooping crane merchandize on the website: jewelry, T-shirts, greeting cards, etc (great for Christmas gifts), or sponsor migration miles. There are more than 500 left for this year.

Tune in next week for migration progress on the entire flock.

Meet Guest Blogger: Writer Rob Harrison

2011-12-30T06:19:00.000-08:00

Rob Harrison is a Montana native living in Anacortes, Washington. He writes about his Rocky Mountains in a his cross-genre Eavesdropper series, almost equal parts romance,
mystery and historic fiction.

Prologue
August, 1894
by Rob Harrison

These two had more than blood between them; they had suffering. Many years ago, the brother of the Lion had abandoned them on the long journey and left them to their own devices; but they had endured. Now they met for what would be the last time.
The breeze that fluttered the lace curtains brought the smell of salt water, not the clean scent of the ocean, but the warm, fetid odor of the brine marshes. The woman in the bed was frail and very old, eyes closed in sleep, hair steel gray and thin, pulled back in a tight bun, a few escaped strands moving with the air. Her finely wrinkled face was twisted, a permanent frown on the left side, the result of a stroke.
The woman in the chair was younger, the same face minus the paralysis. Her hair still showed the black of youth along with the gray of middle age. Her leathery face told the story of frontier life. She sat still, her hands folded over a handbag, seeming ill at ease in her fitted dress and buttoned shoes. As she looked back from the light of the window into the dusk of the room, she found the old woman’s eyes open now, fastened on her.
"Maria, how are you, daughter?" She didn't try to smile; it made her face even more crooked; she smiled with her eyes.
"It's terribly hot in here, mother."
"Willard talked about taking me to Bear Lake. I would so love to feel the cool air."
Persis had been of fragile health all her life, but had steadfastly refused to allow that to slow her down. Several years ago, she had stayed with Maria’s family in southern Utah, but when they were called to move to the cattle station in Arizona, Maria was concerned it would be too hard for Persis and had insisted she return to Salt Lake. Now she feared that her mother had changed for the worse; she was not used to seeing her in bed, “Have you not been well?”
“I’m as well as can be expected, dear. I walk with a cane; but I don't move about too much now. I get so tired in this weather and I sleep to help the time pass."
“You know Guernsey and I are back in Kanab now. He bought us a big red brick house. It has a big cellar with a dirt floor that I can wet down to keep it cool. I’m going to can and store food down there. Do you think you will visit?”
Maria already knew the answer, “No dear, I won’t travel that far again. I shouldn’t even go to Bear Lake, but the heat is so hard on me here. You didn’t come to talk about that.”
“No, Mother; this is a happy occasion. I came to Salt Lake especially to visit you, but also to tell you that your granddaughter, Jennie, will be married to Brother John Riley’s son Lyman Eugene. They met while we were living at Pipe Springs. Gene was herding cattle for his father. He’s a bright and rather bookish young man. They are very much in love – and they want your blessing.”
”Of course they will have my blessing. I remember Eugene as a boy. Oh my, has it been so long? When?”
“Next fall, after the cattle come off the Kaibab.”
“I’ll not come, but think of me." Persis thought sadly of her own wedding in New York more than fifty years ago, so far away in time and distance. Unlike her family, Maria's would stay together. "How is your husband? How are your sister-wives?”
“Guernsey is such a good man. The years in Pipe Springs were hard on him and he is happy to be home. You probably didn't know, Esther died a few years ago, but Sister Lovina still lives in Kanab. Now that we’re in the same town again, Guernsey keeps up his visits with her and she spends time with me. I do love her. Her children are grown now, but she is quite attached to her little old house and won't move in with us.”
“Will he marry again? I know it’s not allowed now, but I heard it’s being done.”
“Some men still take plural wives down in Arizona. Guernsey says he can barely manage the two of us, although I would dispute that. Speaking of which, have you seen father?”
The old woman’s head turned to a framed photo on the wall, a sepia of a seated man with a full Old Dutch beard and a stern expression. For a minute, only the dull ticking of the Regulator clock on the mantel could be heard. “No . . . no, Lorenzo is old now too. I hear Sister Ellen takes good care of him. I can wait. I was first wife, sealed by the Prophet. I would like to be buried near him though.”
“I’m amazed you can be so forgiving; you suffered horribly.”
“He did what the Prophet asked. Your family and others like the Stewarts suffered much more, for less reason.”
“What do you mean?”
"Back in the seventies, it was said the Lion scattered the Danites. I think it was too dangerous for the church to have men living that close to Salt Lake who might know anything about that unfortunate business at Mountain Meadows. Some, like your husband, had successful businesses and farms here and had to leave them. What a shame! It seemed to me like they were cursed.”
"I understand scattered, but cursed?"
"Certainly a curse followed Brother Levi Stewart; remember the fire in the fort that took Sister Margery and five of his sons?"
“Yes, I remember. Was Brother Levi a Danite?”
“I don't think so, but his best friend, John D. Lee, was no doubt one of them.”
“Do you know if the two kept up their friendship?”
“Brother Levi secretly took supplies to him down at the ferry, but the risk of it troubled him."
Maria beheld her mother with awe. She lay sunken into the feather mattress in the brass bedstead, so small, she barely raised the lace-edged coverlet. Propped up on pillows, her eyes, soft and gray moments before, now shone as hard obsidian, pinned on Maria. How many dark secrets in that deep well? "How do you know these things, Mother?"
"I cannot tell you that . . . I've said too much already."
"I heard gold was found in Brother Lee's cabin after he was executed. People are still searching for his mine down in the Grand River Canyon.”
“They will look a long time. I know where that cursed mine is . . . and it will die with me."

Break During the Holidays

2011-12-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

To all my bird and book followers,
I will be back to my blog on Sunday with an update on Operation Migration's progress. The following Tuesday, I will resume my mystery trivia questions. In the meantime, have a Happy New Year!

Sunday's for the Birds: Merry Christmas - The Perfect Tree

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

The Perfect Tree

I follow my dad’s trek through the woods,

his black work boots trampling

fallen leaves and snapping twigs

on our mission to find the perfect tree.

His hand-saw, with the orange handle,

rests on his shoulder and I look around

to see the birds and squirrels scatter

in his wake, chattering in annoyance

over the removal of yet another dwelling

in their paradise we call the acreage by the creek.

The selected tree seems small standing alone

and I peer between its branches

checking for nests and worm holes

and other signs of life.

Seeing my slight frown and pursed lips

my dad kindly reminds me

that it is the wrong time of year for

building nests and raising young;

the birds have gone elsewhere for the winter.

Yet, I can’t help but wonder about their

return home in the spring only to find

a stump where once stood their perfect tree.

But Christmas traditions hold strong and

aluminum trees are something for city folks.

We have our acreage by the creek and like my

grandparents who brought the land,

we keep the tradition steadfast and certain.

Now I live in the city and have a small pine tree

in a pot of soil that came from the grocery store.

My dad is gone, his boots resting in his workshop.

But I still make the annual hike to the family farm,

carrying with me an object much smaller than a saw

And when I find the tree, I hang on its branch,

a tiny red ball with a bird painted on the side,

a welcome home gift for the field sparrows

when they return in the spring.

A Christmas Eve Story by Betty Wright

2011-12-24T04:56:00.000-08:00

My Christmas tree is loaded with ornaments from past years. Most special of all was a gift to me in about 1930 when I was 7 years old. It was a small 4-inch wooden penguin with hollow insides, which let his wooden feet dangle so that when there is an uneven surface on which he stands, his feet move and he literally waddles on the slanting surface. Playing with it was such fun. It was in the days before batteries; just an uneven surface and the penguin performed its miracle.

In 1942 my future husband joined the navy and was away in Seattle at Christmas time. Mother and I pondered over what to give him for Christmas. He really didn’t need anything, and as he would be transferred from ship to ship, he needed something small to carry with him or something he could dispose of after a few days. What could we give him? I thought of my little 14 year old penguin. It would be an un-essential gift but something he might enjoy as the ship rocked back and forth on the uneven seas. I knew I’d never see my beloved little penguin again as Jim could hardly carry it with him in his sea bag when he moved from ship to ship. But it seemed important to give him something with which he could entertain himself and the crew for even a few minutes on this lonely Christmas away from family. And so with some misgiving, that was what we gave him.

And lo and behold, 4 years later when Jim returned from the navy, what should appear out of his sea bag but this little wooden penguin, safely brought home again. What a special surprise. That penguin had traveled in Jim’s sea bag to Florida, back to Seattle, and many trips to Alaska and the Aleutians and. back again. That penguin has since resided under Jim’s and my Christmas tree every subsequent year. He’s now about 81 years old and still performing on uneven surfaces to the delight of any audience. His battery never quits!

Meet Karla Locke and Louisiana Pryce

2011-12-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Writer and e-book publisher Karla Locke read this story to our writing class recently. She had us hooked from the very first sentence.

LouisianaPryce comes from a family of hunters. Not your typical hunters, no sir,Louisiana and her family hunt what they refer to as Lost Souls. Louisiana, afierce 5-foot bundle of energy, was raised in a family of men; out of a senseof self-preservation, she developed a tomboyish look and attitude. Her shortunruly brown hair just barely framed her petit round face. Short hair was easyfor Louisiana, why bother with all of that fru fru stuff; who has time for that, was her motto. For her line ofwork, jeans and t-shirts (sweatshirts when the weather was cooler) was thepractical attire. Ladylike stuff was just too much work. She was sure that insome past life she was most definitely not a refined southern lady.

Louisianaliked things uncomplicated and unattached. Since her work was centered aroundwhat some would refer to as, ghost hunting, there wasn’t much need for talking.Nope, she was pretty satisfied being a loner and not having to deal with theemotional baggage that came with dealing with live people. The dead could taketheir emotional baggage with them once she sent them on their way. Yep, she was satisfied with her life.

Pawas retired from the family business. And Ma decided now that the kids were allgrown that she would prefer to talk to live people, grown-ups in particular.Her brothers, Natchez and Beauregard (Beau for short), are married now and havea passel of kids. They’re kind of cute and everything, but Ma could only takeso much of those noisy little people before she had to get away. When thebrothers weren’t hunting in the family business, they were out hunting gatorsand other wildlife. They said it balanced things for them, whatever that meant.More than likely it was because the money was better. After all, they had somelittle ones to feed now.

Louisianaliked the hunt. She felt a sense of pride and peace once she found the lostsouls and helped them move on. Not sure why, but she had a knack for it. Theysay it’s because her great great grandma Lila could talk to the spirits. Therewas even talk of one her ancestors being a voodoo priestess of some sort. Nowthat was something to be proud of.

SinceLouisiana took over the family business, and with a little help from that T.V.show, “Ghost Hunters,” the business has grown over the last five years. Shehired her best friend, Emily (Em) Trudeau, three years ago. They’ve been bestfriends since the first grade. Em was the opposite of Louisiana. She was alittle taller, pretty even though she wore those large wired glasses that coveredup most of her lovely face, had beautiful shiny red hair and was quiet andreserved compared to Louisiana’s outgoing and sometimes loud personality. Shekept Louisiana grounded. Em set the appointments, kept the books, dealt withthe customers (the live ones) and kept everything orderly, including Louisiana.

WhenEm hired Mitch Weston, things really started moving. Mitch is California boy.Not sure how or why he ended up in Lafayette but she was glad he did. Mitch isa techno geek and Louisiana discovered that she was made for technology. It wasthis love of the gadgets that has helped grow her business over the years.Hunting for lost souls just got a whole lot easier thanks to some of Mitch’sinventions.

In Karla's words: I am someone who is fascinated by this technology, so fascinated I have decided to make a career out of it. Currently I love to produce events centered around the arts, especially photography. I enjoy social media and I am a Social Media Consultant My personal blog was started as a 'practice' blog, but it is developing into an outlet for my musings, my ideas, somewhere to place and gather my thoughts and express myself. And last but not least - I love to read and tell stories, so that is why I love working with writers to help them publish their stories.

Check out Karla's website and blog:

http://armchair-epublishing.weebly.com

http://expressmyself-ramblings.blogspot.com

Mystery Trivia Tuesday:

2011-12-20T05:55:00.000-08:00

Four Quick Questions about Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe

Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, and Mickey Spillane were just a few of the classic writers of noir fiction who were an inspiration to me when I began writing my Sydney Lockhart mystery series.

1. What is the title of Rex Stout's first Nero Wolfe mystery?

2. What is the British title of the 1952 Nero Wolfe mystery Prisoner's Base?
3. A victim is murdered by a cyanide soft-drink cocktail—a puzzle that proved difficult even for Wolfe to solve. What is the name of this Nero Wolfe mystery?
4. What is the title of the Nero Wolfe mystery in which a wealthy woman claims she is being stalked by the FBI? This book is considered one of Rex Stout's best.

Sunday's for the Birds: Today's Whooper is #10-11

2011-12-18T07:31:00.000-08:00

I See Wonderful Things Ahead

I after reading through the whoopers' bio several times and scanning the many months of field notes, I couldn't find anything astonishing about #10-11. In his first few days of life, he was praised for not getting into mischief or lapsing into la-la land. When poked by a cage mate, #10-11 turned the other feather and went back to his nap. Being one of the youngest in this year's class, he was a reluctant flyer, but soon after migration began, he stepped up to the runway and soared. A few days before the ultimate takeoff, intern Geoff Tarbox found a bald spot on the side of the chick's neck; an indication he'd been in a scuffle; never a good sign. However, #10-11 seemed to take the incident in stride and went about his daily birdie activities as if it were no big deal.
I feel that this little crane is just getting warmed up and that we will see great things from him in the future. Right now, he's flying below the radar and doing what is expected of him.
Currently the cranes are waiting out the bad weather in Franklin County, Alabama.

This information and the chick's photo came from the OM website: http://www.operationmigration.org/

Read more about the Class of 2011 by going to the website's "In the Field," then "Site Map," and scroll down until you see the bios for the various classes. You can also purchase whooping crane merchandize on the website: jewelry, T-shirts, greeting cards, etc (great for Christmas gifts). And you can sponsor migration miles. There are more than 500 left for this year.
Next Sunday, I'll feature spunky little #12/11, the youngest chick in the flock.

A Poem Good Enough to Eat

2011-12-16T07:01:00.000-08:00

During a recent writing class, I brought in a plate of chocolate chip/walnut scones to start off the day. Later, I asked the group to write about what it was like to eat one. Here's writer Mary Anne Berkbigler's delicious poem.

Salt, butter, walnuts

Even these three sound great

Throw in sugar, eggs, chocolate

I'm chomping at the gate

I'm running right toward them

I will not wait

They're just like a magnet

My hungry tummy can relate

Ahhhhhhhh_______scones!!!!!!!!!!!!

When Characters Run Amuck

2011-12-13T07:43:00.000-08:00

What do youdo when a character takes over and develops a mind of her own?

This articleis part of the Rolling Mystery Blog Tours. For another article on this subject,see Ryder Islington’s blog: http://ryderislington.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/characters-run-amuck-what-do-you-do-when-a-character-takes-over-and-develops-a-mind-of-her-own/

Thelast time Sydney and I saw Ruth was in her kitchen. She’d attempted to makebreakfast, since her housekeeper had the day off. She rooted around in herrefrigerator, pulled out a mysterious green-gelled mass floating in a bowl, andsat it next to a plate of vanilla wafers. As she poured weak coffee into her Wedgewoodchina cups, she ticked off reasons she should accompany Sydney to Hot Springs,Arkansas. Sydney dodged Ruth’s plea with evasion and a few lies and left hercousin’s house in Dallas before she could worm her way into the car. So when wesaw Ruth setting in the lobby of the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansasthe next day, drinking a martini and looking like she’d just stepped off thecover of Vogue, I was shocked. Sydneywas mildly surprised.

“Ihad not planned on her being here,” I told Sydney. “What am I going to do withher?”

“Well, you created my dear cousin and you have to deal with her,”Sydney chuckled. “But I must warn you, she won’t go away.”

Atthis juncture, my first mystery Murder atthe Arlington, in fact my entire series, took a difference path. RuthEchland, my protagonist’s wealthy, socialite-cousin, became a major player andpartner in Sydney’s crime-solving exploits, and I quickly learned that when acharacter demands my attention I’d better listen. Like Sydney said they, “won’tgo away.”

I've come to enjoy, and even eagerly await the arrival of these surprise characters. I'm not sure where they come from, but they're all necessary to my stories, and most often entertaining. When Marcella Wheatly arrived at the Luther Hotel in Sydney's next story, Murder at the Luther, I noticed a resemblance I couldn't quite place. When Ruth told me who Marcella really was, I couldn't have been more shocked had my own long-lost sister arrived on my doorstep. Then there is Ramsey Strump, Wilson Matthews, Reverend Tallwood, Emma Fogmore, Brewster Fallow, Buddy Leech, the list is endless. In fact, I envision a huge room filled with characters just waiting for the right time to make their appearance in my stories. They arrived, complete with name tags, quirky personalities, dossiers, and full cases of clothes. And I love 'em all, even the mischievous ones.

William Shepard's New Mystery!

2011-12-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

Mystery writer William Shepard shares his story behind the writing of his latest Robbie Cutler mystery. It's available on Kindle.

Murder On The Danube was a story that I wanted to tell. The heroicdays of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 had thrilled the world, and I wantedthat story to be known by a new generation. When I was assigned to the AmericanEmbassy in Budapest as Political Officer in the early 1970s, however, thecountry was still under a Communist regime, and research into the period wasimpossible. It was even dangerous for Hungarian citizens to be seen talkingwith Western diplomats, let alone telling their story of this famous uprising.

Years later I left the Foreign Service and became a writer. I began toplan the novel, which would incorporate the Hungarian Revolution as a backdropfor a present day murder. I must confess that the film, “The English Patient,”had made quite an impression on me. I wanted also to have a memorable loveaffair in the back story of this novel set in Budapest.

The initial problem was how to portray the Revolution itself. Those whoknew it knew those thirteen days from October 23 to November 4, 1956,intimately, every detail remaining etched in their memories. Would I haveflashbacks from time to time? That struck me as confusing for the modernreader. At the same time, I had to give enough detail so that the reader whodidn’t have knowledge of those days would acquire it. The problem bothered mefor several months. Finally, an inspired comment from a high school student ina seminar on creative writing that I was giving provided the answer. Hesuggested that at the end of each chapter, I set forth what happened in one dayof the Revolution itself. With this insight, the structure of the novel beganto take shape.

Those chapter end segments would, of course, have to be tied together tothe main plot line. Why not have their development parallel what was going onin the main story? Then it occurred to me – the best way for both the currentstory and the background to fit together would be for the same characters tofit in both. If I told the story of a small group of Freedom Fighters, forexample, one traitor on the group could also be the murderer in the present daystory – he or she would kill to avoid the truth coming out.

This is where the plotting came in, and it lasted for months. I didcharts and time lines for each character, when he or she was with other membersof the resistance group, and when alone. And then, with a good time line in theform of a memoir by the group’s leader, I couldn’t resist having him mistakenon several key details! Unlocking those unplanned errors would be the job formy diplomatic sleuth, Robbie Cutler.

Of course, clearly I would have the final manuscript vetted by a veteranof that heroic street fighting. But I had to master the details, and so withthe assistance of the Hungarian Embassy in Washington I visited Budapest andwent to the 1956 Historical Institute, where I held a seminar on the period,and in turn received a thorough, day by day briefing on the street fighting.

And so the novel began to take shape, the backstory developing nicely,and the contemporary story gave me an opportunity to have the reader discovertoday’s Hungary – with even a peep over the Romanian border for a scene or twoin Transylvania! For fun, I also introduced a ranking Australian diplomat whoescaped Hungary in 1957, became a distinguished Australian citizen, and has nowreturned to Budapest – to find who murdered his brother during the 1956uprising!

All was now ready for the conclusion, when the entire process ground toan unexpected stop. How was I going to have Cutler find out who was the traitorin 1956, when all of the records from the period have been officially sealed? Ichecked this out with the Hungarian Embassy, and found that this policy hadbeen rigidly followed. They did not want the murders and cries for vengeancethat had followed when other former communist nations had opened their recordsfrom the period.

For a month orso I was stuck. Then the solution occurred to me out of the blue – I rememberedEdgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.” Sometimes the solution to the mostdifficult of problems is really right in front of you, in plain sight!

Sunday's for the Birds: Meet Whooper #9-11

2011-12-11T08:14:00.001-08:00

Picky eater, doesn't like change, is easily annoyed (reminds me of some people I know). Number 9-11 is one of the youngest birds in this year's class and to say she is a bit peculiar is putting it mildly. The OM crew learned not to approach her from the back, surprises irritate her, causing her to stomp her feet and engage in threatening behavior. When the crew received the same response from frontal approaches, they realized that this little chick needs a rather large personal space. Her favorite activity is playing with sticks and roots. She likes tossing them into the air, but this game is played by her and her alone. Flight training is something she preferred not to bother with. The first couple of weeks on the road, #9-11 migrated in a crate. But by October 29, those migratory genes turned on, and she flew like the wind. What will the future holds for this "I'd rather be alone," whooper? Too early to tell. Follow her progress on the OM website.

This information and the chick's photo came from the OM website: http://www.operationmigration.org/

Read more about the Class of 2011 by going to the website's "In the Field," then "Site Map," and scroll down until you see the bios for the various classes. You can also purchase whooping crane merchandize on the website: jewelry, T-shirts, greeting cards, etc (great for Christmas gifts). And you can sponsor migration miles. There are more than 500 left for this year.
Next Sunday, read about chick #10-11, a mellow little birdie, who has no qualms about stealing grapes.

Writer Betty Wright Shares

2011-12-08T07:50:00.000-08:00

Last week I had the privilege of teaching a writing class to a group of talented, budding writers from Anacortes. I must admit that I learned as much, if not more, from them as they did from me. They all have a story to tell, be it fiction on nonfiction. Below is a short piece from Betty; a moment from the past that had everyone in the room in tears.

"Mr. Bob Remembers"

It was 5:00 p.m. and my owners arrived home exactly on time tofind me eagerly awaiting my long expected walk. I had slept most of the day, asno one was home. I stood at attention awaiting them at the door. When theyentered the house, and I gave them my usual vigorous tail-wag, jumpingup and down, signifying I was glad they remembered me. My owner reached down and gave me a strong pat on my back and the usualquick scratch under my front legs. Oh how I loved that attention. Then my owner grabbed my 30-foot long leash, and I knew we were going for that walk. Istood still while he clipped the leash onto my collar, but I beat him to the frontdoor. I waited to see which direction we would head today. Would it be right tothe yard with the big dog I didn’t trust, or left past the old walnut tree whereI could root through the fallen leaves in search of a perfect walnut to bringhome and chew? He let me choose, and soon I was rooting though those leaves for a walnut I could proudly carry home. I was the highlight ofmy day.

Betty Wright was sailing at age ten in her first boat, an 8-foot sabot sailboat, where she raced with several others in Alamitos Bay, Long Beach, CA. Her future husband, Jim, was commodore of the Junior Yacht Club in the bay and Betty was his secretary. She sold her boat to crew for Jim on his 17-foot National One Design sailboat. After college, World War two, and marriage, they moved to Portland, OR., spending 30 years with a variety of boats, the first one being that 16-foot outboard boat in which they cruised 3 different years in the 1950's from Anacortes, WA to Princess Louisa Inlet in British Columbia. They had a wealth of cruising information having started two different boating clubs, taking several different Power Squadron classes, and leading cruises to Puget Sound for years. Taking early retirement from their positions in Portland, OR, they moved to Seattle and later to Anacortes to be closer to their Hans Christian sailboat and their beloved Salish Sea. Her first book was The Expansion of Chandler's Square. Betty's apartment overlooked the addition being built for Chandler's Square retirement community right outside her apartment windows. She spent countless hours peering out her windows photographing and recording in an unprofessional way all that went on. It's a masterpiece of construction details for the lay reader, showing each phase over the 9 months of giving birth to the 25 new apartments in the community. Her biggest endeavor is the completion of Adventuring to Princess Louisa Inlet in 2012. It's a virtual resource for boaters as they travel with Betty and Jim from Anacortes, WA to Princess Louisa Inlet in British Columbia, traveling 438 miles in 2 weeks. Only accessible by boat and floatplane, Betty stresses the importance of using real marine charts, a supplemental Cruising Guide, the necessary use of tide and current tables, and a study of weather as they photographed and recorded each place they visited. Emphasis is on Sechelt Rapids, near Egmont, B.C., which is the second fastest salt water rapids in the world, a visit to Young Life Malibu Camp for teenagers, and impressive Princess Louisa, one of the most beautiful places in the entire world. She even tells how to visit these places without a boat of your own. You'll enjoy arm chair cruising with a vast array of 238 photographs and extensive Bibliography and Appendix. After reading the book, you will want to do it for yourself. As Betty states, "Princess Louisa Inlet is basically in our own back yard. The dangers of cruising are still there but with an understanding of safely cruising, the beauty should not be missed."

Agatha Christie Contest Winner Announced

2011-12-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

Below are the correct answers, which arrived within a few days of the contest post. The winner is Victoria. H. from Pennsylvania.

1. Several of Christie's mysteries were published under alternate titles. Which other title was given to Murder in the Calais Coach?

C. Murder on the Orient Express

2. In which mystery was the heartless Mrs. Boynton murdered? Hint: Hercule Poirot uncovered the truth.

A. Appointment with Death

3. Midge loved Edward who loved Henrietta who loved John who loved Veronica who was not his wife. What's the title of this Poirot mystery?

A. Murder After Hours (I know it by "The Hollow" was confused for a minute!)

4. What is the title of the first Agatha Christie mystery?

B. The Mysterious Affair at Styles

5. Probably one of the most intriguing and unsolved mysteries involved Dame Agatha herself when she disappeared in December 1926. For how many days was she missing?

B. 11

6. Which mystery begins with the line: "In my end is my beginning . . ."

C. Endless Night (my copy actually starts with a William Blake quote, but I guess that doesn't count, just read this for the first time a few weeks ago too, one that I had missed for years! loved it)

7. Which character said, "I'll kill him before I give him up to you?"

C. Mrs. Crale in Murder in Retrospect

8. Which mystery featured the ancient monument Abu Simbel?

B. Death on the Nile

9. What was the name of Christie’s play, which was known as the longest-running play in theatrical history?

A. The Mousetrap

10. What pseudonym did Christie use in writing her romance novels?

B. Mary Westmacott

Mystery Trivia Tuesday

2011-12-06T06:21:00.001-08:00

Today's trivia questions are all about the "Birds." Hitchcock's birds, that is.
1. What author's short story was the Hitchcock movie based on?
2. Where was the movie set?
3. Who was the male actor who played opposite Tippi Hedren?
4. What toy did Mattel model after this movie?
5. What watchful organization was on the set during the filming?

Stop by on Thursday. I'll announce the winner of the Agatha Christie Trivia Quiz Contest. See November 22's post.

Visit my website to purchase signed copies of my 3 mystery-trivia books, or leave me a comment here on my blog page.

http://www.kathleenkaska.com

What's Your Agatha Christie I.Q.?

The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book

The Sherlock Holmes Triviography and Quiz Book.

Sunday's for the Birds: Meet "Bev"

2011-12-04T06:42:00.001-08:00

I usually post the whooping cranes' baby photos, but this photo of #7, nicknamed Bev, as a juvenile, gives you an idea of the personality of the Class of 2011's star attraction. After hatching, she was the one who had to be coaxed to eat, but once she got the hang of it, she wouldn't stop. To keep her from blowing up like a Thanksgiving turkey, her feeding was closely monitored. During flight training, she balked at becoming airborne until her instincts kicked in and then, "birdie bar the door." Now she's one of the two best flyers. When bully bird #1 challenged #7, she chased him around the pen a few times. But the endearing thing about this whooper is that she is a happy and content bird. Wouldn't it be nice if all our kids were like Bev: happy, healthy, and born leaders? Rereading her bio taught me something about attitude and confidence, so I've decided to make Bev my role model this week.

This information and the chick's photo (taken by OM crew member Geoff Tarbox) came from the OM website: http://www.operationmigration.org/

Read more about the Class of 2011 by going to the website's "In the Field," then "Site Map," and scroll down until you see the bios for the various classes. You can also purchase whooping crane merchandize on the website: jewelry, T-shirts, greeting cards, etc (great for Christmas gifts). And you can sponsor migration miles. There are more than 500 left for this year.
Next Sunday, read about chick #9-11. She into roots and sticks: go figure.

Mystery Trivia Tuesday: Sherlock Holmes Titles

2011-11-29T07:13:00.000-08:00

What is your favorite Sherlock Holmes story?
Can you give the titles of the following Sherlock Holmes stories?

1. In which adventure did Conan Doyle kill off Holmesin order to end the series?

2. What was the title of the firststory after Conan Doyle resurrected his Great Detective?

3. In whichstory does “the woman” Irene Adler appear?

4. In which story is the Ku Klux Klan mentioned?

5. Which story takes place duringChristmas time?

Visit my website to purchase signed copies of my 3 mystery-trivia books or leave me a comment here on my blog page.

http://www.kathleenkaska.com

What's Your Agatha Christie I.Q.?

The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book

The Sherlock Holmes Triviography and Quiz Book.

Sunday's for the Birds Meet Whooper Chick #6

2011-11-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

For his early-training report card,chick #6 received As in following, flapping, running, and lifting off.Comments: fresh out of the egg, chick #6 showed fast progress in eating anddrinking on his own; he displayed self-reliance, but became frightened uponhearing the trike engine for the first time. Being a big bird, he shows promiseof becoming a leader.

Flight-schoolreport card: A for completing J-shaped flight path, A+ for high flying, A+ fordistance flying. Comments: concern when he faked a sore leg during flighttraining and had his teachers worried for no reason. Then in mid-September, hedeveloped an affinity for dirt and was often seen carrying clods around in hisbeak. Not sure if these are attention-getting behaviors, but that will have tobe watched.

Departure-weekreport card: C for effort, C for paying attention. This could be pre-migrationjitters, too early to tell.

OctoberMigration report card: C- for following the ultralight; C- for altitude, B forshows improvement. Chick #6 had to be crated for several of the first stopsafter turning back. On one instance, he convinced two other birds to turn backwith him. The crew is concerned about #6 becoming a bad influence. However, heended the first month’s migration with “flying” colors. On October 29, he flewand completed the entire trip. There is hope!

Report card complied from notes andobservations by Geoff Tarbox.

This information and the chick's photo came from the OM website: http://www.operationmigration.org/

Read more about the Class of 2011 by going to the website's "In the Field," then "Site Map," and scroll down until you see the bios for the various classes. You can also purchase whooping crane merchandize on the website: jewelry, T-shirts, greeting cards, etc. And you can sponsor migration miles. There are more than 500 left for this year.
Next Sunday, read about chick #7-11 a/k/a Bev.

Where's Waldo Whooper: Update on Missing Crane

2011-11-24T11:59:00.001-08:00

Whooping crane number 2-11 went missing early in the migration. On November 21, she was spotted in Georgia. Check out this fabulous photo which was posted on OM's webpage. At least she's flying, migrating, and now in a warmer climate. Her class mates are still in Piatt County, Illinois waiting out bad weather and entertaining themselves by stabbing pumpkins when they are not trying to stab one another. http://www.operationmigration.org/Field_Journal.html

Mystery Trivia Quiz: Agatha Christie Quiz Contest

2011-11-22T07:00:00.001-08:00

Be the first to answer thefollowing Agatha Christie trivia questions correctly and I'll send you anautographed a copy of What's Your Agatha Christie I.Q.?

1. Several of Christie's mysterieswere published under alternate titles. Which other title was given to Murderin the Calais Coach?

A. The Mystery of theBlue Train

B. Passage to Frankfurt

C. Murder on the OrientExpress

2. In which mystery was theheartless Mrs. Boynton murdered? Hint: Hercule Poirot uncovered the truth.

A. Appointment with Death

B. A Murder is Announced

C. By the Pricking of MyThumbs

3. Midge loved Edward wholoved Henrietta who loved John who loved Veronica who was not his wife. What's the title of this Poirot mystery?

A. Murder After Hours

B. The Moving Finger

C. Cards on the Table

4. What is the title of thefirst Agatha Christie mystery?

A. The Secret Advisory

B. The Mysterious Affairat Styles

C. Murder on the Links

5. Probably one of the mostintriguing and unsolved mysteries involved Dame Agatha herself when shedisappeared in December 1926. For how many days was she missing?

A. 29

B. 11

C. 18

6. Which mystery begins withthe line: "In my end is my beginning . . ."

A. The Murder of RogerAckroyd

B. Murder She Said

C. Endless Night

7. Which character said,"I'll kill him before I give him up to you?"

A. Jane Wilkinson in Thirteenat Dinner

B. Mrs. Burton Cox in ElephantsCan Remember

C. Mrs. Crale in Murderin Retrospect

8. Which mystery featuredthe ancient monument Abu Simbel?

A. They Came to Baghdad

B. Death on the Nile

C. Murder in Mesopotamia

9. What was the name ofChristie’s play, which was known as the longest-running play in theatricalhistory?

A. The Mousetrap

B. Black Coffee

C. Spider's Web

10. What pseudonym did Christieuse in writing her romance novels?

A. Agatha Mallowan

B. Mary Westmacott

C. Joan Scudamore

Send me your answers via e-mail:kathleenkaska@hotmail.com by Monday, December 5. The winner will be announcedon Thursday, December 8.

To be eligible you must be willing tohave your first initial and last name posted on my December 8 blog.

I agree __________________________.

Name

Cut and paste the above paragraph inthe body of your e-mail when you send your answers.

Have fun!

Sunday's for the Birds: Meet Whooper Chick #5-11

2011-11-20T07:33:00.001-08:00

Loves to sleep, loves grapes, very friendly, but a reluctant flyer. When #5-11 hatched, he spent most of his time napping. Once he became used to life outside the egg, he turned his attention to treat time, often the first in line to nab the grapes from the handlers. Although he shows promise of being a great flyer, he's been one of the first to turn back after migration take-off. On migration day #20, he spotted two sandhill cranes and decided to land and pay them a visit.

Due to bad weather, the Class of 2011 has been on the ground for a recording-break 16 days. Hopefully, when they return to the air, #5-11 will be ready to spread his wings and get down to Florida where days are nice and warm.

This information and the chick's photo came from the OM website: http://www.operationmigration.org/

Read more about the Class of 2011 by going to the website's "In the Field," then "Site Map," and scroll down until you see the bios for the various classes. You can also purchase whooping crane merchandize on the website: jewelry, T-shirts, greeting cards, etc. And you can sponsor migration miles. There are more than 500 left for this year.
Next Sunday, read about chick #6-11.

The team is still in Livingston, IL, waiting for the weather to improve.

Answers to Tuesday's Mystery Trivia Questions on Alfred Hitchcock

2011-11-18T16:52:00.001-08:00

1. D - Psycho
2. A - North by Northwest
3. B - To Catch a Thief
4. D - Death on the Nile
5. A - Evil Under the Sun
6. C - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
7. C - Four
8. C - Tobacco
9. A - Women
10. D- Kathleen Kaska

Mystery Trivia Tuesday

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

See how well you can do on this mystery-trivia quiz. How many Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes trivia questions can you answer correctly?

1. In which Hitchcock movie did the filmmaker make his cameo appearance wearing a 10-gallon hat?

A. The Birds

B. The 39 Steps

C. Frenzy

D. Psycho

2. Which Hitchcock film takes place on Mount Rushmore?

A. North by Northwest

B. Dial M for Murder

C. Notorious

D. Number Seventeen

3. Which Hitchcock film featured Grace Kelly and Cary Grant?

A. Rear Window

B. To Catch a Thief

C. Rebecca

D. Rope

4. Which Agatha Christie mystery takes place in Egypt?

A. Come and Be Hanged

B. Murder with Mirrows

C. Murder on the Orient Express

D. Death on the Nile

5. Which of the following mysteries featured Hercule Poirot?

A. Evil Under the Sun

B. The Body in the Library

C. At Bertram's Hotel

D. Murder at the Vicarage

6. Which Agatha Christie mystery was told from the point of view of the killer?

A. Mystery on the Blue Train

B. Murder on the Orient Express

C. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

D. Partner in Crime

7. How many Sherlock Holmes novels did Conan Doyle write?

A. One

B. Eight

C. Four

D. Eleven

8. What did Sherlock Holmes keep in the toe of his Persian slipper?

A. Gun

B. Knief

C. Tobacco

D. Poison

9. What type of people did Holmes not trust?

A. Women

B. Americans

C. Scotland Yard Detectives

D. Those who did not touch alcohol

10. Who is the author of the following mystery-trivia books: What's Your Agatha Christie I.Q.?, The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book, and The Sherlock Holmes Triviography and Quiz Book?

A. George Washington

B. Bruce Springsteen

C. Charles Dickens

D. Kathleen Kaska

Stop in on Thursday and see how well you did. http://www.kathleenkaska.com/trivia.php

Sunday's for the Birds: Today's Bird is #4-11

2011-11-13T07:31:00.000-08:00

Loves to swim, loves to fly, loves grapes, hates smelt; meet whooping crane chick #4-11.
Looking at her, scrunched down under a heat lamp, it's difficult to see her as one of the best flyers in the Class of 2011. She's still shy and often the last one to leave the pen, but once in the air, her true sense of self emerges and she flies like the wind.
Soon after hatching, she preferred to drink water out of her gold bowl rather than the ordinary water jug. When the deworming meds were given in the cranes' favorite food, smelt, #4-11 turned up her beak at the fish treat. She took hers in a grape instead.
Just like people kids, the young cranes develop their own personalities, which change as they get older. Follow #4-11's progress; she may become leader of the pack.

This information and the chick's photo came from the OM website. http://www.operationmigration.org/

Read more about the Class of 2011 by going to the website's "In the Field," then "Site Map," and scroll down until you see the bios for the various classes. Next Sunday, read about chick #5-11.

The team is still in Livingston, IL, waiting for the weather to improve.

Morris on Sundays

2011-11-09T12:34:00.000-08:00

The Fidalgo Island Writers' Guild now has a blog page. Read my short story: Morris on Sundays and Jared McVay's award-winning story, Melinda.
http://fidalgoislandwritersguild.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/morris-on-sundays-by-kathleen-kaska-shortstory-ww-fridayflash/

Mystery Trivia Tuesday: Alfred Hitchcock

2011-11-08T05:04:00.000-08:00

Why did actress Tallulah Bankhead refuse to wear underwear on the set of the film Lifeboat?
How was the casaba mellon used as a sound effect in Psycho?
Which of Hitchcock's own films did he remake 22 years later?
These questions and more are answered in my trivia book
The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book.

The master filmmaker had a bizarre sense of humor and even stranger method of perfecting scene shots. During the filming of The 39 Steps, Hitchcock handcuffed his leading man and lady together for several hours, claiming he'd lost the key. This was an attempt to prepare them for a particular scene.

Visit my website to purchase signed copies of my 3 mystery-trivia books or leave me a comment here on my blog page.
http://www.kathleenkaska.com
What's Your Agatha Christie I.Q.?
The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book
The Sherlock Holmes Triviography and Quiz Book.

Sunday's for the Birds: Whooping Crane Chick #3-11

2011-11-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Meet chick # 3-11 of Operation Migration's Class of 2011. His hatch day was May 4 and when he was fresh out of the shell, his favorite thing to do was drink water. Once he gained his bird-legs, he fretted around his pen, stirring up the other chicks into a nervous frenzy. This behavior earned him the nicknames "squeaker" and "worrywart."
As he grew, he often challenged #1-11 for the dominant position. During early days in flight school, he ran nicely along the runway, but refused to get airborne. By September, he discovered his wings and became one of the first to take off. Once migration began, he seemed to revert back to his ground preference. However, by the 3rd flight day, he got the hang of it and flew the entire distance. The Class of 2011 is currently in Livingston County, IL waiting for the weather to improve.

This information and the chick's photo came from the OM website. http://www.operationmigration.org/

Read more about the Class of 2011 by going to the website's "In the Field," then "Site Map," and scroll down until you see the bios for the various classes. Next Sunday, read about chick #4-11.

Tuesday Trivia: Alfred Hitchcock

2011-11-01T05:45:00.000-07:00

AlfredHitchcock Trivia: The Funny Man

Just Whistle a Happy Tune: Did you knowthat Alfred Hitchcock was a practical joker and possessed an odd sense ofhumor? To entertain his guests atcocktail parties, Hitchcock, on occasion, would paint a sailor’s face on hisbelly, it’s lips in the shape on an “O” around his naval. He would then whistlea tune while shaking his belly and making it appear as if the painted sailorwas whistling.

Come As You Are: Distinguished actor Sir Gerald duMaurier was often the victim of Hitchcock’s pranks and practical jokes. On oneoccasion Hitchcock told Sir Gerald that he was giving a costume party and todress appropriately. The unsuspecting actor arrived in costume only to discoverthat the affair was black air. Sir Gerald fled the party in embarrassment.

Visit my website to purchase signed copies of my 3 mystery-trivia books or leave me a comment here on my blog page.

http://www.kathleenkaska.com/

What's Your Agatha Christie I.Q.?

The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book

The Sherlock Holmes Triviography and Quiz Book.

The Scariest Book

2011-10-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

My article is the second stop on the Rolling Mystery Blog Tour. If you haven't already visited Nancy Lauzon's site http://chickdickmysteries.com, please stop by and have a look.

Since I prefer reading cozy and noir mysteries,I haven’t read many books of the subgenre “horror.” But of the few I’ve read, The Shining outshines them all. I love agood old-fashion ghost story, one that has me checking under the bed, leaving alight on, and feeing extra thankful that my husband is beside me when I go tosleep at night.

You have probably read the book or seen themovie, but if not, here’s a brief summary. An unemployed, troubled writerwho’s fighting writer’s block, money problems, and alcoholism, takes his wifeand child to the haunted and isolated Overlook Hotel where he hopes to escapehis demons and get back on tract. We know from this beginning this willnot happen.

I love the foreshadowing in the story. When themain character, Jack Torrance, is interviewed for the position of hotel’scaretaker, he is told about the previous caretaker, a man who also had adrinking problem and went mad and murdered his wife and two daughters. Jacksmiles and jokes that that will not happen to him. When asked how his wife,Wendy, feels about staying at the hotel for the entire winter with hardly anycontact from the outside world, Jack responds that, “Wendy is an incrediblewoman.” While touring the hotel, Jack is told to keep a close watch on theboiler in the basement, the pressure can easily build up. If that happens, itwill explode, destroying the entire hotel. By this time, we know that Jack hasa violent, explosive temper.

Jack’s five-year-old son, Danny can read mindsand see things other can’t. He has a frightening premonition about their stayat the hotel. Then during the tour, he meets the hotel’s chef who sensesDanny’s abilities and warns that bad things happen here.

Finally, the Torrance family is left alone.It’s snowing. The roads are closed. There are no neighbors around. No place torun or hide. So, we get a big clue as to what the family is up against. I’llnot give any more details. Read the book!

Now that I’m finished writing this, I’m headingover to my bookshelf to find Mr. King’s scary novel. What a better way to spendHalloween.

Now see what Ryder Islington has to say about her scariest book at http://ryderislington.wordpress.com

Sunday's for the Birds: Swamp Girl #2-11 Found!

2011-10-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

In last Sunday's blog, I wrote that I hoped to have good news about chick #2-11 (nickname swamp girl) of Operation Migration's Class of 2011. On October 21, she went missing soon after the migration take-off. Number 2-11 is one of the oldest birds in the class and early on proved to be a good, strong flyer, but this migration stuff is new to all the chicks, and in the early days of flying south, they often spook and attempt to return to the previous night's stopover. This is what happened to #2-11. The pilots are prepared to pick up the stragglers whenever they fall back. On this particular day, they lost sight of the crane when she went down in a brushy area. To make matters worse, her transmitter failed and within a few hours, all signals were lost. Six days later she was discovered with a flock of sandhill cranes. OM has never lost a bird while flying them to Florida on their maiden voyages, and although, 2-11 is alive and well, the crew has not yet decided what to do about her. So, this saga continues.
The other nine cranes have 120 miles under their belt, or in their case, "wings" and as of yesterday are now in Illinois and doing well.
This information and these chick photos came from the OM website. http://www.operationmigration.org/
Read more about the Class of 2011 by going to their website: go to "In the Field," then "Site Map," and scroll down until you see the bios for the various classes. Next Sunday, read about chick #3-11.

Mystery Trivia Tuesday: Agatha Christie

2011-10-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

See if you can name the murderer, motive, and victim of these 3 most popular Agatha Christie mysteries.
1. In Murder on the Orient Express, the victim was killed in his sleep. His body was riddled with multiple knife wound. Many felt he deserved to die lest his sins go unpunished.

2. Mrs. Boynton ruled over her family like a tyrant in Appointment with Death. Emotional abuse was her weapon. Every member of her family had a notice for her murder. But when the desert dust cleared, Hercule Poirot knew the truth. Who killed this heartless woman?

3. There were two murders in St. Mary Mead, and Miss Marple hated murder. In The Body in the Library, she set a trap and caught the killer. Who were the two victims?

All 3 of my mystery-trivia books can be purchased through my website:
http://www.kathleenkaska.com/
What's Your Agatha Christie I.Q.?
The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book
The Sherlock Holmes Triviography and Quiz Book.

What do Readers Want?

2011-10-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to today's Rolling Mystery Blog Tour. I'm the 3rd blogger on the list. See what Mollie, Nancy, and Ryder have to say about our subject. Leave us a comment and tell us what you want in a book.
http://www.molliecoxbryan.com/2011/10/what-do-readers-want/
http://chickdickmysteries.com/2011/10/24/what-do-readers-want/
http://ryderislington.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/what-do-readers-want/

If there were a definite answer to thisquestion, all the mysteries would be pretty much the same. There would be nosubgenres, and writers would use the same formula and plug in the information.
But I believe that readers have reasonable expectations. I know I do. When I pick up a mystery, or any novel asfar as that goes, I expect the first sentence to hook me. I don’t necessarilyput the book down if it doesn’t, but it better happen soon. I don’t expect abody on the first page, and if the plot is intriguing, but the characters areless so, I’ll stay with the story. (see Rolling Mystery Blog Tour 10/17/11).

Ipay close attention when my readers tell me what they like about my mysteries,and what they don’t. Fortunately, most readers who take the time to contact me,have encouraging things to relate. They like my zany characters, as well as the humor, thehistorical settings and accurate background information, and the romance developing between my protagonist (picture a redheaded Lauren Bacall) and her detective (picture Leonardo DiCaprio in a fedora). For instance, in myfirst mystery Murder at the Arlington,I write about Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1952 and the couple of decades prior.Readers who are familiar with the area can relate to the history lesson. Thisis true with all my books. Murder at the Galvez (out soon) takes place inGalveston, Texas in 1953. I learned from reading old newspapers, that thedevelopment of nearby Pelican Island was a hot topic. I used this controversialissue as a basis for the crime in my mystery. I'm sure however, that readers of different subgenres have different expectations. I write cozies and here's a list of what cozy readers don't and do want.
They DON’T want:

1. Graphic violence against women

2. Reading the point of view of the killer

3. Static, unchanging protagonists in a series

4. Predictable plots or convoluted plots.

Here’swhat they DO want:

1. Light romance

2. Twists and turns and a surprise ending

3. Feeling good after reading the entire book
4. The discovery of something new.
However, if I had to answer this question in a few words, I say that readers want to connect with the characters and the story, no matter what genre.

The Great Migrator

2011-10-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

I just listened to Bird Note on NPR and learned something about 2 whooping cranes I've known for many years. While spending time in Rockport, Texas, I make a point to visit the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. Almost every year, I see the Lopstick family feeding on the refuge. The male is now 33 years old and he and his mate have produced 17 whoopers during their time together. That may not seem like much of an accomplishment. But since whoopers' lifespan is around 30 years and they don't reproduce until around the age of 4, this guy is prolific. He has also successfully migrated more than 200,000 miles.
http://www.birdnote.org/

On another bird note: Operation Migration is now in the 14th day of migration. All but 2 of those days have been spent on the ground due to bad weather.
Here's an updated profile on the first whooper to hatch in this year's class. Number 1-11, was labeled a bully because he took toys (sticks, frogs, even mud clumps) alway from his flock mates. He'd poke them in the butt when they were resting. On September 11th of flight training, he took off in another direction while the other 9 birds followed nicely behind the training trike. He ended up tangled in brush and became so exhausted that he allowed himself to be carried home. It took a few days before the soreness left his wings and he could train again. Good news: on October 10, the second migration day, #1-11 was the only whooper that flew the entire distance! Upper right is 1-11's baby picture and below is what he looks like now. This information and these chick photos came from the OM website.
Read more about the Class of 2011 by going to their website: go to "In the Field," then "Site Map," and scroll down until you see the bios for the various classes. Next Sunday read about #2-11 (hopefully I'll have good news). http://www.operationmigration.org/Field_Journal.html

Mystery Trivia Tuesday: Agatha Christie

2011-10-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

Stabbed in the back in the train station during rush hour–no witnesses. Strangled in a phone booth during lunch time–impossible. Stabbed in the heart during a quiet bridge game–everyone has an alibi. Agatha Christie was a master at plotting. Can you identify the following two Agatha Christie mysteries:

A huge boulder fell from the top of Abu Simbel, Simon Doyle was shot in the leg, Linnet Doyle was shot in the head. Salome Otterbourne died from a gunshot wound, and a maid was stabbed to death. Hercule Poirot gathered the clues, analyzed the chain of events, and discovered the vengeful plot that led to murder.

Suspects in the murder of Arlena Stuart Marshall included Captain Marshall, Patrick and Christine Redfern, a minister, a dress designer, and an offensive Englishman. While on vacation at this seaside resort, Hercule Poirot unraveled the mystery.

Visit my website to purchase signed copies of my 3 mystery trivia books:
http://www.kathleenkaska.com/
What's Your Agatha Christie I. Q?
The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book
The Sherlock Holmes Triviography and Quiz Book.

Plot or Character

2011-10-17T05:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Rolling Mystery Blog Tour. My post is the third in today's rolling blog. Our topic is: what's more important plot or character?

That's a tough question to answer. A great mystery plot will keep me turning the pages until the end. But delightful, intriguing characters whom I can relate to make me feel as if I'm part of the story. Beginning the next book in a series is like a visit with old friends. When I reach the last page, I often don't want the book to end. Wherever those characters go, I want to go with them.

When I teach my mystery-writing workshop, I stress the need for characters in mystery series to grow otherwise readers might lose interest. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plume and her gang kept me laughing for years. Then I hit the wall around number 15. Stephanie continued to vacillate between her two hotties, continued to have financial trouble, and although I love her hamster Rex, he has outlived any hamster on the planet. But who am I to talk? Evanovich is a bestselling author whose sales number in the millions. I hope she continues to write her mysteries. She’s created memorable characters, but to hold my interested I would like to see them develop over time.

While characters are entertaining, great plotting grabs me like a chess game, pulling me into the story, blocking out all distractions. I don't answer my phone, I don't answer my doorbell, I ignore my e-mail, and I pretend to listen when my husband tells me something. Instead I find myself pondering the story even when I’m not reading the book. John Irving’s latest, Last Night in Twisted River, is such a book, but then so are all of his novels. His characters are often successful writers whose lives are in an upheaval, then he places them in awkward, unbelievable situations. He weaves a story, taking readers from past, present, and back again with such finesse, you don’t notice.

So, my answer is both. When writers create memorable characters with intriguing plot, their books receive a prominent place on my shelf. Next to Irving, sets Carl Hiaasen, Anne Perry, Elizabeth George, and Martha Grimes.

Read what my fellow bloggers have to say. We'd love to hear your opinion on this topic, so please leave us a comment.
http://www.molliecoxbryan.com/2011/10/what-comes-first-character-or-plot/
http://chickdickmysteries.com/2011/10/17/plot-vs-character/
http://sarahwisseman.blogspot.com/2011/10/whats-more-important-plot-or-character.html
http://ryderislington.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/whats-more-important-character-or-plot/

Sunday's for the Birds: Dining on the Endangered

2011-10-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

While researching my book, The Man Who Saved the Whooping Cranes: TheRobert Porter Allen Story (University Press of Florida, 2012), Allen tellsa story of locals hunting the protected flamingos in Cuba for food in the early1950s. As long as people in this impoverished country were poor and hungry,protecting the rare bird would prove futile. In cases like this, it is easy tosympathized with these people and the efforts they undertook to find food. Butwhen I read about protected or endangered animals ending up on someone’s dinnerplate in the name of “fine dining,” my blood begins to boil.

Asfew months ago I read a book by a writer/traveler/chef whose name I won’tmention. Up until this point, I’d read every book he’d ever written. The manhas a tendency to be overbearing and narrow-minded, too critical ofother chefs and even irreverent in his opinions, but I respected the guy forhis approach. He’s also an excellent writer. However, his latest book describesan event in which several chefs were treated to a course of Ortolan, a smallmigratory bird whose numbers are dwindling. The bird is part of the buntingfamily and is listed as “protected,” which means it is illegal to capture orkill the Ortolans. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop it from ending up in hauterestaurants. It is customary for a diner to place a napkin over his head before he popthe roasted bird into his mouth. This way he captures the aroma while he chews. Tradition also suggests it is a way of covering ones shame for eating arare bird.

Idon’t often pontificate on controversial issues, although maybe I should. After I read this book, I placed it on my shelf and decided that this was thelast book I would read by this author.

Whatspurred this topic was a similar instance I’d read about yesterday. Birds, suchas blackcaps, warblers, flycatchers, shrikes, nightjars, and even owls arebeing captured in mist nets and on limesticks in Cyprus are served in restaurants. Since this September,more than 900,000 birds have been illegally killed in this manner.

Read the complete article on the link below. You can also sign a petition to stop this heartless practice. And believe me, these folks who are dining on these birds are not otherwise going hungry.

http://focusingonwildlife.com/slaughter-of-birds-in-cyprus-continues.html

Mystery Trivia Tuesday: Mycroft Holmes

2011-10-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's older brother, makes an appearance in "The Greek Interpreter" and "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans." How well do you know the man whom Holmes trusted more than anyone.
1. How much older was Mycroft than his younger brother?
2. What was the name of Mycroft's club?
3. In which part of London did Mycroft live?
4. What color were his eyes?
5. How much money did he earn each year?

Sunday's for the Birds: (1 day late)

2011-10-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

This Sunday’sbird blog is one day late. I had the great fortune to present a mystery-writing program at the San Juan Island on Saturday evening. My dear friends Mary and Johnput me up, or maybe I should say put up with me, whenever I visit the island. Theyown a lovely place on Dream Lake, and I have their guesthouse all to myself.Talk about a writer’s paradise; there’s no TV or cell service and theirInternet connection doesn’t seem to like my MacBook. So, although my Sundaybird blog was ready to go, I was unable to post until this morning.

Any Day in January

On a farm road outside of town

a small stand of trees grows near

a house surrounded by plowed fields

where mice dart and nibble on old corn.

On any day in January a family of eagles,

maybe the same family, or maybe passersby,

perch on the branches like debris left

on stairs leading up to a messy room.

Along side the road, cars pull over

and tripods set up behind cattail blinds

as if the birds weren’t aware of the

shutters clicking in the breeze.

Then flying in from the field, dangling

a rodent in its talons, is the one locals

call Big Bertha and in a moment she is gone,

to enjoy her meal in peace.

Mystery Trivia Tuesday: Sherlock Holmes

2011-10-04T05:43:00.000-07:00

After an absence of almost 10 years, Conan Doyle brought Holmes back for 34 more adventures. This quiz contains questions about Holmes great hiatus and his return to London.
1. What did Dr. Watson do when he first saw Holmes after presuming he was dead?
2. Where did Holmes spend his time during his absence?
3. Who was the only person to know that Holmes was still alive?
4. What alias did Holmes use?
5. Why did Holmes return to London?

Funny Mysteries

2011-10-03T05:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Rolling Mystery Blog Tour. My post is the second in today's rolling blog. Log on to Nancy Lauzon's at: http://chickdickmysteries.com/2011/10/02/funny-mystery-novels/ and read what she has to say about funny mysteries. We'd also like to hear which authors make you laugh, so please leave us a comment.

Before I began writing today’s blog, I e-mailed my sister to make sure LOLstood for “Laugh out Loud” rather than “Lots of Luck.”

Iread to relax, to learn something new, to take my mind off of what’s happeningout there in the big, scary world. Sure, there are times when I read to educatemyself, but if you peruse my bookshelf, you’ll quickly learn what makes mehappy. My shelves contain books on birds, food, travel, poetry, writing, andeven Egyptology. My mystery collection includes Agatha Christie, SherlockHolmes, Raymond Chandler, Elizabeth George, Nevada Barr, DickFrancis, just to name a few. I read these authors because they are greatstorytellers whose settings intrigue me. Here are three authors whose gift ofhumor keeps me sane. I have their entire collection.

Mosthumorous mysteries are character driven. Put a zany character (ex-governor ofFlorida who turns his back on civilization, moves into the Everglades, lives onroad kill and what fish he catches) in a crazy situation (punishing awife-killing, environment-polluting biologist), and you’ve got Carl Hiaasen’s Skinny Dip. Hiaasen writes about thenever-ending battle between environmentalists and developers in Florida. GovernorTyree’s role is a minor one in Hiaasen’s stand-alone mysteries, but I relishthe anticipation of his appearance in every story.

InElizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody series, her characters also drive the storiesthat take place in Egypt around the turn of the twentieth century. I discoveredPeters when her catchy title The LastCamel Died at Noon, caught my eye. I don’t read her mysteries for plotstructure, I read them because Amelia Peabody and her entire entourage havebecome like old friends who have never learned to stay out of trouble. InPeters’ world of fiction, I vicariously enjoy the antics ofher characters and am thankful I’m not in the middle of their skirmishes.

MarthaGrimes’ Richard Jury series might not be considered a laugh-out-loud series,but when her eccentric cast of characters gather at in the Jack and Hammer puband attempt to help Jury solve his cases, I find myself wanting to pull up achair, order a pint of Old Peculiar, and join in on their insane conversations.

WhenI set out to write my mystery series, I focused on making it lighthearted andfunny. When a reader contacts me and tells me they enjoy my books and add thatI made them “laugh out loud,” I feel pretty darn good.
Join us next Monday when the Rolling Mystery Blog Tour blogs on what's more important "plot" or "characterization."

First Migration

2011-10-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

On a frosty morning too cold for comfort

I stand in an open field,

the steam from my silver coffee mug

rises up to warm my face.

A deep orange paints the sky,

a scene more common to a sunset than a sunrise.

I was the first to arrive, now

dozens of others quietly mill around

for the moment is too precious for idle chat.

An hour later, most have given up,

retreated to the warmth of their cars.

My eyes, burn cold with tears.

I focus on the northwestern sky.

My cup has cooled, but I stay put.

I’ve waited too long for this moment.

A radio crackles and a soft voice reports

our guests are just beyond the ridge,

slowed by a stiff headwind.

My throat constricts and I see a white v-shape

appear against the now bluing sky.

And off the ultralight’s right wing

a linear trail of ten small Vs.

Ten young whooping cranes on their first migration.

My tears now flow and warm my face with joy.

Mystery Trivia Tuesday

2011-09-27T07:07:00.000-07:00

You Can Run, But You Can't Hide—From Another Mystery Writer

Did you know that Sherlock Holmes’ creator Arthur Conan Doyle based manyof his Holmes’ stories on actual occurrences? Consider Agatha Christie’smysterious disappearance in 1926. She drove away from her home one morning. Laterthat day, her locked car was found in a ditch with the motor still running. Tendays later she was discovered in a hotel at the Harrogate Spa in NorthernEngland. A journalist named Ritchie-Calder believed that Christie had plannedto commit suicide, staging the incident to appear as if her husband and his mistresshad murdered Agatha.

Yearsearlier, Conan Doyle had been knighted and appointed deputy-lieutenant ofSurrey. Although he retired in 1921, he was called in as a consultant on theChristie case. In turn he consulted a medium who told him that Christie wasalive and would surface on the following Wednesday. The prediction came true.This incident resembles Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story “The Problem ofThor Bridge.”

Excerptfrom my The Sherlock Holmes Triviographyand Quiz Book.

Bird Champions

2011-09-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

For the eleventh year, Operation Migration prepares to take to the skies to teach a flock of young captive-raised whooping cranes the migratory route from Wisconsin to Florida. Ultralight pilots, top cover pilots, interns, and volunteers are readying the equipment, organizing supplies, servicing travel vehicles (3 motorhomes, a camping trailer, equipment trailer, 2 pen trailers, 2 pickups, and a 15 passenger van) for the 1,200+ mile trip.
In the meantime the Class of 2011 is growing stronger everyday. This year's flock proved to be one of the most "gift and talented." Their three month training was not without incident, however. Here are a few highlights of this year's training found on OM's website under "In the Field," http://operationmigration.org/Field_Journal.html
Gut-Wrenching Day:
Intern Caleb Fairfax describes his hair-raising experience with crane #1-11 who became lost and subsequently tangled in brush on Sunday, September 11. Caleb's 9/13 report details the event. Both intern and crane are recovering nicely.
When I Grow Up I Want to Be . . .
One foggy morning when training was out of the question, ultrapilot Brooke Pennypacker, wrote a funny report about how he came to work for OM as a "animal migration engineer." Scroll down to September 2's "In the Field," and read about his other career choices.
Looning Training Flight (In the words of birds):
Richard van Huevelen, also an ultralight pilot, relates what it's like learning to fly from a bird's perspective in his August 21 contribution. Working with the birds, Richard has learned to speak their language.
To read the Class of 2011 bios and see their baby pictures, search the spring 2011 notes for May 27 and 28, or read my June 17 blog "Eleven-Eleven."
The projected date for this year's departure is October 8th. Stay tuned!

Best First Lines

2011-09-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Rolling Mystery Blog Tour. My post is the first in today's rolling blog. My fellow bloggers are listed below. Please read what they have to say about their favorite first lines in novels. We'd also like to hear what your favorites are, so please leave us a comment.

"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills." Isak Denisen

This firstline in Out of Africa drew me intothe story before I could take a breath. I’m not sure why that line struck achord with me. I’d never heard of the Danish author Karen Blixen, who wroteunder the pseudonym Isak Dinesen. But I knew I was about to read a story thatwould take me to someplace I’d never been, a place I might even want to stay forever.

I grew upwith two family farms at my disposal. Never did I believe that one day theywould belong to someone else. I spent Sunday afternoons fishing, building forts in the woods,playing in my grandfather's blacksmith shop, and gathering eggs under the belliesof ornery chickens. After school, before the days grew too short to spend much time outside, my family wouldpack up a basket and head to out to my father’s family’s farm. Dad would fireup the grill and my sisters and I would run wild among the cows and cattails.Eventually the farms were sold, the gravel roads leading to them were bulldozed, and the houses that stood there were either moved or torn down.

So when Ibegan reading Out of Africa, my heartsoared with childhood memories and left me with a longing for adventure; with adaring that eventually took me to Kenya one summer. By that time, the movie had been outseveral years, and the Blixen home had been turned into a museum. Whilestanding on the lawn behind the house, I realized that Africa is more than afarm at the foot of the Ngong Hills—I write this confident Ms. Blixen wouldagree hold heartedly—for Africa is a feeling that crawls under you skin andtakes up residence in your soul.

KarenBlixen she was nominated for the Noble Prize in Literature, in 1957 and againin 1959 when she was up against Graham Greene, John Steinbeck and severalothers. Blixen was expected to win, when the committee at the last minute choseto award the prize to Italian writer Salvatore Quasimodo. Their reasoning wasthat too many Danish writers had recently won and it was necessary to bediplomatic.

I’m allfor diplomacy, but great writing should be judged on merit alone. True, I’dnever read any thing Quasimodo wrote. Reading Blixen’s memories, it is clearthat this coveted literary award was to be a consolation prize to losing herfarm in Africa. I hate to think that this deserving writer died of a brokenheart.

"If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?" Karen Blixen

Next on the list is Rdyer Islington: http://ryderislington.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/favorite-first-lines/

and Nancy Lauzon: http://chickdickmysteries.com/2011/09/18/wheres-papa-going-with-that-axe/

Sunday's for the Birds: Remember to Fill Your Feeders

2011-09-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

WANDERLUST

As I gaze out my patio window lookingfor inspiration,

I hear my computer make that growlingsound

reminding me it’s my job to tap onthe keys

and make something appear under “DailyPoems.”

The spotted towhee, staring back atme,

flashes its spots and the mourningdove

coos its sad aria, pleading forsomeone

to write the entire opera of itslife.

I think of the whooping crane——

my favorite bird——and hope the entireflock

has arrived safely to their winterhome on the Texas coast.

I should probably go there and seefor myself,

but I stay glued to my place by thedoor.

I turn my attention to the red buds’

naked limbs waiting for spring,

and the Douglas Fir budding with tinycones.

Cottony clouds roll across the bluesky in a

hurry to get to another place, andI’m thinking that

the wanderlust around me is toocontagious and

that maybe I should traipse into thewoods behind

my home to see if the banana slugsare sliming

the trail with their silvery mucus.But when

my husband and tells me the birdfeeders are empty,

I know immediately I have a purposeon this glorious morning.

Meet Stephen L. Brayton: Talented Writer with an Enjoyable Sense of Humor

2011-09-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

Stephen L. Brayton owns and operates Brayton’s Black

Belt Academy in Oskaloosa, Iowa. He is a Fifth Degree

Black Belt and certified instructor in The American

Taekwondo Association.

He began writing as a child; his first short story concerned

a true incident about his reactions to discipline. During high

school, he wrote for the school newspaper and was a

photographer for the yearbook. For a Mass Media class, he

wrote and edited a video project.

In college, he began a personal journal for a writing class;

said journal is ongoing. He was also a reporter for the

college newspaper.

During his early twenties, while working for a Kewanee,

Illinois radio station, he wrote a fantasy based story and a

trilogy for a comic book.

He has written numerous short stories both horror and

mystery. He has also written a paranormal mystery, entitled

Night Shadows, sequels to Nights Shadows and Beta are

in rewrite/revision stages. www.stephenbrayton.com

Interview with Stephen

1. You’ve had a busy, successful writing year with NightShadows coming out last February and your Mallory Peterson mystery, Beta,scheduled for release this October. Night Shadows, a supernaturalmystery, featuring homicide investigator Harry Reznik and FBI agent LoriCampisi. Your protagonist in Beta is a female private investigator whohas a Fourth Degree Black Belt. What are the challenges in writing twodifferent mysteries?

Getting my laptop to boot up and update itself. Why is thedarn thing so slow?

No, seriously, I had the same challenges in each story,namely editing, rewrites, and finding time to conduct research. I like to visitthe places I use in the books. Most of the locales you read about are real. In Night Shadows, I ran into the problem offinding the best place to have the dimensional portal for the shadows to use. Ispent hours trudging around Des Moines looking at pieces of sculpture,exploring various buildings, and peering into eerie corners in the skywalksystem. Then another writer suggested an art exhibit that might work. So Ibooked a tour and I knew immediately I’d found the last bit to the story. Youcan actually visit the ‘room’ I used.

For Beta one ofmy challenges was time. In the story, the heroine, Mallory Petersen, spends an entireday driving around the Quad Cities and checking various places in hopes offinding a kidnapped girl. I drove the route she took and discovered, evenaccounting for lunch and the time she spent checking out the variousbusinesses, she’d be done by noon. However, I wanted her to take all day. So, Ihad to add in some other scenes and time spent with the police to fill thehours.

2. In regard to Mallory Peterson, how did you prepare forwriting from a female’s point or view?

A few years ago, a Des Moines reporter spent some time as ahomeless person to do a feature from their perspective. So to answer yourquestion…well, let’s just say I have a few pairs of blouses for sale thatreally don’t fit me any longer.

Wait, never mind the above explanation. I don’t want womenemailing me wondering about colors and sizes. Actually, I just wrote Malloryfrom how I thought she should act and react in certain situations. I took mylikes and dislikes and gave them to her. I gave her the empathy and thedetermination I would want to feel in various circumstances. I also readspecific passages to critique group members and asked the women in the group ifI had portrayed Mallory correctly. I ran into only a couple problems. First,Mallory is a six foot blonde, so most of the people she has to physically fighthave to be bigger. Second, I was told I needed to add a bit more femininity toher during her interview with the mother of the kidnapped child.

3. What are your plans for the next mystery?

Trying to solve the mystery of why my cell phone companycannot track my stolen phone when everybody I’ve talked to says they can. What?Oh, you mean in my writing.

I have a sequel to Betawritten and I’m working on a sequel to NightShadows and a brand new mystery with a world weary, alcoholic, chainsmoking, technophobe detective.

4. What was your biggest challenge in writing yourfirst novel?

Blackmailing some publisher into accepting it. I’m stillworking on the Photoshop pictures of…uh, well, never mind about that.

Actually, though, getting it published is still the biggestchallenge. See, my first novel is the sequel to Beta. I had written it before the idea for Beta came to mind. When Betawas accepted, I dug out the first story, saw what a disaster it was, shook offsome of the cruddy parts, plucked out the basic premise, added a sub-plot and afew more characters, and rewrote it. So now I’m waiting for acceptance.

5. Do you have favorite mystery writers who inspiredyou to write your own mysteries?

Where do I begin? As a youth I loved Encyclopedia Brown andThe Hardy Boys. Then I started collecting Ellery Queen, Rex Stout, and ErleStanley Gardner. I’ve enjoyed Viets, Evanovich, John Lutz, Patterson, Biggers,Spillane, and so many others. I take something from each one of them eventhough I couldn’t explain specifically what. I like the characters and thesituations so when I think about my stories, I try to think of uniquecircumstances and character quirks and try to write the best story I can.

6. You run a full-time business, which involvesteaching, what is your writing routine? How do you juggle both professions?

Actually, the taekwondo classes are only in the evenings,however, I work the graveyard shift five nights a week. Afternoons, weekends,and days off are spent with family, doing research, or just loafing around withthe cat. I always think I want to write at home, but there are too manydistractions. My night job is doesn’t involved too much labor and I have hoursof free time with nobody around to bother me. So I try to schedule a couplehours for writing. I turn on NPR classical music, gather my notes, and startright in.

7. Authors today are expected to do much of their ownpromoting. How do you balance social networking and writing? What promotionswork best for you?

I used to threaten to torch somebody’s car unless theybought my book. But it got too messy every time the cops showed up, so Istopped that method.

Seriously, word of mouth, Facebook, Twitter, blogging,various blog and writers’ sites. I’m planning a book trailer for Beta and doing about five blogtalkradiointerviews. I’m looking to get on local radio and into the newspapers.

What are you reading now?

The ingredients they put into thisone brand of hair conditioner. What the hec is methylchloroisothiazolinone andhexyl cinnamal? How does one even pronounce those things? I swear somebody justthrew together a bunch of scientific sounding syllables and said, “Hey, let’sput this on the bottle. It’s sounds really neat. Yeah, I know it’s gobbledygookbut who cares? People will think it’s real.” Huh? Oh, you mean books.

Okay, it may sound corny, but youasked. I’m currently book one of a Han Solo trilogy. I know it’s not a mystery,but it was next on the list. Also I’m reading various books to review for threewebsites.

Favorite Place to Set a Scene: Do You Have Reservations?

2011-09-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

My article is the second stop on the Rolling Mystery Blog Tour. KT Wagner was firston the roll: http://northernlightsgothic.com/a-setting-i-love-to-write

If you haven’t already visited her site, please stop by and have a look. Then read what our newest member Maggie Toussaint has to say at http://mudpiesandmagnolias.blogspot.com/favorite-setting-for-my-mysteries.html

RyderIslington at http://ryderislington.wordpress.com/ 

Nancy Lauzon at http://chickdickmysteries.com/

If you like what we’ve written, please leave a comment.

It might have been the thrill of readingStephen King’s The Shining, or themany places my husband and I have stayed during our travels, but whatever thereason, I decided to set my Sydney Lockhart mysteries in historic hotels. In myfirst novel, Murder at the Arlington,Sydney is a travel writer on assignment at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs.I’ve spent so much time at the hotel it feels like my Hot Springs home. Sydney’sstay, however, was not as pleasant. After the smoke cleared, she returned toAustin with her travel article as well as a news story on the murders that tookplace there during her stay. Instantly, her position at the Austin American Statesmen evolved from asoft-news reporter to a full-blown journalist. Her second assignment put her atthe Luther Hotel on the Texas Coast, another familiar place where we have adesignated room when we travel to that part of the state. Murder at the Luther takes place on New Year’s Eve. This timeSydney finds herself dancing with a dead man. She is arrested for his murderand spends the next week traipsing over Matagorda Country, trying to find thereal killer while attempting to stay one step ahead of a crazy Cajun and aninsane woman who want her dead.

If you’ve ever visited Galveston, Texas, youare aware that a string of motels and hotels line Seawall Boulevard, a ten-mileconcrete wall that has for the last 100 years kept the Gulf of Mexico in itsplace (except for Hurricane Ike in 2008). On 21^St Street overlookingthe water is another 100-year-old structure, the Galvez Hotel. Sydney is sentto the hotel to report on a new development project proposed for PelicanIsland. Of course, that required me staying there several times so I could getthe feel for the place. I’m currently working on book four, Murder at the Driskill. The 125-year-oldhotel is located in Sydney’s hometown of Austin. Having lived in the statecapital myself for twenty-five years, part of that time downtown, my husbandand I used to stroll over to the hotel and enjoyed a cocktail in the bar. Ihave yet to lay my head under the roof of the Romanesque-style building anduntil I get much further long with the story, I’ll have to do so.

When folks learn that I set each mystery in a differenthistoric hotel, they often give me a name of a hotel I can use. My list isalready a long one: The Menger Hotel in San Antonio, The Crescent Hotel in EurekaSpring, Arkansas, The Peabody in Memphis, The Island Hotel in Cedar Key,Florida, The Adolphus Hotel in Dallas and the Excelsior Hotel in Jefferson,Texas. Once Sydney begins to travel north, the possibilities are endless, andno matter how you look at it, hundreds of strangers sleeping under the sameroof can lead to all sorts of trouble. And for a mystery writer, I can’t thinkof a better place to stage a murder.

Sunday is for the Birds: Today the Goldfinches

2011-09-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Goldfinches

On the road to the rocky point

where the ferry passes between

two countries, my hurried walk is

stalled by the sound of birds

too anxious to let me go on my way.

I pull my mind from thoughts of

chores and duties and scan the sky.

Perched on the telephone wire,

a family of American goldfinches

out for a morning showing.

Eleven round fluffy tennis balls

balancing on needle legs, tiny claws

grasping the wire, lift their heads

and open their tiny beaks

to let music slip forth and

travel with me on my walk—

a pace, now much slower.

I leave my must-do list there on

the shoulder of the dirt road

and whistle on my way to the beach.

Meet Writer John Desjarlais

2011-09-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

A former producer with Wisconsin Public Radio, John Desjarlais teachesjournalism and English at Kishwaukee College in northern Illinois. Hisfirst novel, The Throne of Tara (Crossway 1990, re-released 2000), was aChristianity Today Readers Choice Award nominee, and his medieval thriller, Relics(Thomas Nelson 1993, re-released 2009) was a Doubleday Book ClubSelection. Bleeder and Viper (Sophia Institute Press, 2009 and2011 respectively) are the first two entries in a contemporary mystery series. Amember of The Academy of American Poets and Mystery Writers of America, he islisted in Who's Who in Entertainment and Who's Who Among America'sTeachers.

http://www.johndesjarlais.com/

1. You have an impressive bio: a Wisconsin PublicRadio producer, journalism and English teacher, and a poet. What drew you tothe world of mystery writing?

I've always readmysteries for fun and with admiration. They are the guilty pleasure of the intellectual.They can be by turn cleverly entertaining and insightful about human nature. Mysecond historical novel, Relics, has a crime element to it. What reallypushed me into the field, though, was the failure of another historical novel Iwas writing. I planned a book with Aristotle, the Father of Logic, solving acrime. But I discovered quickly that another writer had done this, and so Ichanged direction. I imagined a modern rhetoric/classics professor who knewAristotle's works well and who would apply Aristotelian logic to solve aseemingly irrational mystery. In BLEEDER, Aristotle is a minor character ofsorts, my hero's 'mentor' who 'speaks' to him through remembered quotations.Anyway, now I'm hooked.

2. Being an active member of the Catholic Churchand a member of the Catholic Writers Guild, your religion plays an importantrole in your writing. How do you meld your beliefs with story telling?

I'm a recent convert tothe Catholic faith and I've found my imagination wonderfully baptized. There is a rich tradition here of respect for the arts and seeing life in a'sacramental' way - looking for the unseen in the seen, discerning thespiritual in the sensory, finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. It's a holisticway of looking at the world. This informs my fiction in subtle ways. It'simportant for me to be sure my work isn't preachy but tells the truthabout what it means to be human in both our dignity and our fallenness. Wehave the terrible power of choice for good or ill and the possibility ofredemption. My work may have a Catholic 'coloring' but my secularreviewers appreciate its universal appeal.

3. Describe your writing process. Do you have aschedule, set goals, etc?

I used to write accordingto a regular daily schedule but with teaching a full college load I now go inspurts. The academic year is a time to gather ideas and collect researchmaterial, and I write in a more focused way over the winter and summer breaks. Iused to write longhand on legal pads but I've turned to the computer keyboardnow to speed things up and research things on the fly. I'm not under contractso I have no external deadlines to meet. Once I begin drafting in earnest, I'llset some production goals and aim for a finish date - usually with a conferencein mind.

4. Your protagonist Selena De La Cruz is a smart,gutsy young woman who comes alive on page one. How did you develop hercharacter?

Developing a credibleMexican-American woman is the most demanding work I've tried. This requiredthorough research about Mexican American customs, families, the works. I workedhard to find out what it means to be a Latina today living in two worldsat once, meeting Old World expectations while adjusting to New World realities.There are several good books about this struggle to shape a biculturalidentity, and I browsed Latinas' blogs and websites to listen in totheir experiences. I subscribed to Latina magazine and interviewed Latinasof varying backgrounds - since this is a diverse population. Cubans,Guatamalans, Mexicans, Panamanians and so on - all unique. Selena is acomposite of all these sources. I asked a Latina in the CatholicWriters' Guild to look over the work-in-progress to make sure I was getting allthe cultural material right (and the 'woman' stuff). At one point she wrote, 'Iam SO into Selena!" and I knew then I was getting it right.

5. Your stories are fast-paced, your charactersbold and confident, and the dialogue is fresh and snapping. Do you havefavorite authors who have been influential in your writing style?

I like the noir detectivewriters - Dash Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy. And I like stylishliterary writers who can also tell a great story like Grahame Greene, MorrisWest, Frederick Buechner, William Barrett and Susan Howatch.

6. Can you give us a synopsis of your next SelenaDe La Cruz mystery and when it might be released?

It's in a very earlystage so there isn't much to talk about. Inasmuch as VIPER dealt in part withSelena's relationship with her mother, the next one will probably explore hertumultuous relationship with her father, who left his executive position withPEMEX (the Mexican nationalized oil company) under suspicious circumstances.

7. What advice would you give to someone who isbeginning his or her first novel?

Learn the craft and teachyourself something about the business. Read "The Writer" and"Writers Digest" magazines and find books about the craft of writingin the library. Attend a writers' conference where the seminars and workshopsare appropriate for the genre you write in; groups such as Mystery Writers ofAmerica, Romance Writers of America and many others offer conferences that areaffordable and get you trained, motivated and networked. Consider a creativewriting class at your local community college; many 'continuing ed' programsinvite published authors to teach these brief sessions at a reasonable cost.

8. Authors today are expected to do much oftheir own promoting. How do you balance social networking and writing? Whatpromotions work best for you?

I've backed off from muchsocial networking since the benefits are questionable and the amount of timesucked up is considerable. Getting reviews is important to me, so I send outmany queries and review copies. I like media interviews and I've been on manyradio programs. I arrange a 'virtual book tour' via blogs each season and thisis one stop of 20 I set up for Fall. Public speaking engagements - conferences,women's clubs, book groups - work well; bookstore/library book signings don't.

9. What are youreading now?

I'm teaching a science fiction class sothat's what I'm reading this semester. But I also began a James Lee Burkemystery that is wonderful and a friend gave me a vintage Ellery Queen novelyesterday that I want to get into. I'm halfway through David Copperfield.And I read a small portion of Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth everyday.

Social Media: Ideas for Connecting Writers and Readers

2011-09-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

My article is the first stop on the Rolling Mystery Blog Tour.

See what Nancy Lauzon has to say at: http://chickdickmysteries.com/blog

And finally Ryer Islingston at : http://ryderislington.wordpress.com/
If you like what we’ve written, please leave a comment.

Once ayear I have the wonderful opportunity to attend an author/reader extravaganzaof the largest book group in the country, The Pulpwood Queens Book Group http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/ (500chapter strong), which meets in the quaint village of Jefferson, Texas. FounderKathy Patrick invites authors and members of the book group to spend three daysvisiting, talking books, and having fun. Every year I come home with a renewedsense of my place in the writing community and a satisfaction knowing I havemet dozens of readers who enjoyed my books. Needless to say, these connectionsare invaluable to me as a writer. The rest of my year is spent socializing inmy little room with my laptop. I actually enjoy it, too, but that wasn’t alwaysthe case.

I entered the world of social networking,kicking and screaming. After two years, I still throw a tantrum every now andthen when I have trouble maneuvering through the sites’ technical pathways, butI will be the first to admit the necessity of this tool for connecting toreaders. Whenever I receive a message from a fan through one of my networks, Iset my laptop aside and dance a little jig. Then I reply and add the person tomy friend list.

I firstentered this cyber network through Facebook, then signed on with LinkedIn,Twitter, and Goodreads. Each one offers something a little different, and Iapproach each one from a different prospective.

Goodreadsis one of my favorites. It’s all about books. I can post reviews and comments about the books I’ve read and enterinto discussions of these books with others who have read them. I have anauthor page, which allows me to display my book covers. Goodreads provides advice andprograms on promoting and marketing. Authors can sign up for giveaways whentheir new books are released. I tried this tool with my second Sydney Lockhartmystery and within a few days, more than 400 readers had added my books totheir reading list. I can also publicize my events, add writing samples, createquizzes, and submit discussion questions. Promo ads are available for purchase aswell. Goodreads provides a great tutorial for authors and they allow you tosend them questions through e-mail. Even better, they respond.

I viewsocial networking as a vast treasure hunt where I discover readers and theydiscover me. It allows me to connect with people whom I otherwise would nevermeet. Many of those folks have wonderful comments about my writing. Talk aboutmotivation and inspiration to continue my craft, that’s nothing else like it.Okay, maybe a hefty royalty check. Na . . . not even that.