Research, Diversity, and Writing the Not Me
When I was attending a regional middle school in rural Maine, I wanted to work for the United Nations. It seemed cool—the building’s international design, the New York City setting, the languages, the people of different colors from diverse countries, the mission. At the time, I was enduring mean-girl culture. Snip-snap, realign, re-friend, repeat. Maybe…
Read MoreHeroes, Alfred Hitchcock, Pandemics, Cary Grant, and Formulas
That crop duster. The cornfield. Watch it. Isolated at home during the Covid-19 pandemic and a dreary rainy spell, I watched in Technicolor glory Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 film North by Northwest. Its lumens were intensified by the star power of Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason. Cinematic thrills when my day was…
Read MoreBack to School with the Craft of Writing: Lessons from Charles Baxter, Elizabeth George, Ben Percy, and Richard Russo
I can write. I can write a statement like “Where’s the coffee?” and realize that it is not a statement but a question fraught with suspense. Then I can write “We’ve run out” and realize that a crisis will ensue. Conjuring up a fat novel out of thin air, however, is not a basic Reading-Riting-Rithmatic…
Read MoreFairy Tales, Lake Superior, Minnesota Writer Leif Enger, and a Fish
I happen to read VIRGIL WANDER, by Minnesota writer Leif Enger, at the same time I was reading about fairy tales in The Sleeping Beauty and Other Essays, circa 1955, by Ralph Harper. Harper was a reverend, a theologian, and a philosopher so his thoughts run deep. Harper led me to review classic illustrations in…
Read MoreWhite Death and Hot Coffee: Minnesota, Frankenstein, Norway, Poe, Erdrich, and Fargo
MURDER BY WEATHER The Deception: the sun gleams on luminous snow and makes the rimed trees shimmer. The sky is bright blue. Chickadees flit at the bird feeder. How welcoming! Step outside and you and your pathetic goose-pimples will die. Maybe not immediately if wrapped in dead fur and feathers. But heed the warnings because…
Read MoreMysteries, Farms, and the Incidents of Dogs in the Nighttime
FARM MYSTERIES Animals went missing. Those were the first mysteries of my life. When I was growing up in rural Maine during the 1960s, dogs and cats were free range to do their jobs. The dogs chased down rabbits and woodchucks, meaning fewer holes in the field to snag cows, ponies, and farm machinery. Cats…
Read MoreAdolescence, Social Media, Cyber-bullying, and Scene Stealing
The internet seems a custom fit for the adolescent brain: it is instantly receptive to impulses, secrets told beyond the hearing of adults, silly truth or dare games. Adolescents can find through social media the paradoxical assurance that a) no one has ever felt the way they do, they’re special; b) someone else has felt…
Read MoreBook Launch: Publication and Party
This is the week when my family and friends gather to celebrate the publication of my mystery, Where Privacy Dies. It is a celebration of the community support it takes for a book to come forth from an author’s hand, and there’s nothing like the feeling of holding the actual thing in hand—joy. And the tremendous…
Read MoreBranding, Public Relations, Reputation Management, and Mysteries
What is your brand, and is it protected? I grew up believing my brand was “me” and I didn’t have to do much about it except be “me.” The “me” brand can change: the photo shows an old one. But everyone’s experienced how being yourself can be challenging and people around you might see, or…
Read MoreFood: What Do Sleuths Eat
Fight and flight requires fuel. The pursuit of murderers requires strength. Those who investigate must feed their appetites. What will my detectives Erik Jansson and Deb Metzger consume so they can dodge death’s harvesting? Noir private eyes, the Sam Spades and Philip Marlowes, survive by downing hard liquor and bad coffee. Hardboiled doesn’t refer to…
Read More