Blog
As a longtime fan of mystery and thriller books I spend a fair time at mystery conferences. Among the things I have learned from authors in these genres is that if they do not get the gun right in a book they are going to get mail, lots of mail. Thus education on this topic is a must and research on this topic is important. There usually is at least one session on guns and weaponry at writer's conferences like Sleuthfest, which I attended last weekend in Florida.
I just finished reading the piece in The New York Times where Margaret B. Jones admits that her memoir, Love and Consequences, was fabricated. She was not "a half-white, half-Native American girl growing up in South-Central Los Angeles as a foster child among gang-bangers, running drugs for the Bloods."
Okay, reading this I have a few questions for Jones:
1) Have you ever heard of James Frey?
2) WHERE were you when Frey did his "called on the carpet" appearance on Oprah?
I think we need a new National Holiday --- Leap Day. I have a complete plan for this. It will happen just once every four years. There will be no presents, food, decorations or sales attached to it. Well, people whose birthdays only come every four years still would get to celebrate.
Tuesday night my husband, the boys and I are going to see Eric Clapton in concert. Confession here: I know most of Clapton's hits, but I have zero clue which are recorded with The Yardbirds, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominoes or as solo works. I have been told that this IS important. The guys have this all nailed. I have no idea where Ginger Baker figures into this though I do know he is alive and they had to tape his drumsticks to his hands when he played when he was high. This has come up a few times.
When I write email I usually bang out whatever my question or message is and then go back and add nice things like "Hi" or "Hope this note finds you well." I am not sure what that says about me, but it's a reality. When I read emails from others I think, did they too plunk in the "Good Morning" or "Hi Carol" later or do they really think of that first? I bring this up since this week I have gone back and added "Happy New Year" at the start of each email, just as last month had a lot of "I hope your holidays are wonderful" at the end.
Soooo of course I have a funny turkey story, and it's one some of you readers may remember. A few years ago I bought a frozen turkey and following my husband's instructions I put it in the fridge to defrost. After all, he is an engineer while I am the writer; I figured he knew such things. Soooo it's late the night before Thanksgiving and I am IMing with a friend and she says, well, at least my turkey is defrosted. I get thinking about MY turkey.
When I am not reading, or when I want to vege out and multi-task I love watching movies and there are a few television shows I gravitate to as well. It's interesting how much my viewing mirrors my reading choices. I like smart, snappy writing and tight plots.
When readers left off with my August 24th Bookreporter.com newsletter I was all over my plan to have four suitcases for this trip. 1. Clothes 2. Books. 3. Knitting 4. Overnight bag for the hotel. I figured this system would compartmentalize my interests and assure me that I never would be asked again to have my "big suitcase" ready first. Well, I did pack the four bags and felt like Audrey Hepburn albeit in turquoise not black as I stood outside the car poised with my bags.
This week I feel like I have a third son whose name is Harry Potter. Around our house, around the office and well, just about everywhere you look, it's all about Harry. While the news was this week was all about leaks and early shipments, I wish the focus was where it should be --- on the fact that millions of people will be spending this weekend doing what my husband has titled, "Harrybernating," reading Harry Potter.
On thelast weekend of my vacation I read Jodi Picoult's book, NINETEEN MINUTES. I always like Jodi's writing and thus I was looking forward to seeing how she handled her subject matter about a shooting at a fictitious high school in New Hampshire.
