Hawaiian Eye: Mark Troy on Crime Fiction

New Review of Game Face

2011-12-30T08:42:00.000-06:00

The marvelous Helen Ginger just posted a great review of Game Face on her blog, Straight From Hel. You can read it here:
http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com/2011/12/book-review-game-face.html

Helen is a writer, editor, and speaker without equal. Her newsletter is a must read for every writer. Check out her blog and leave a comment.

Game Face now on Amazon

2011-12-23T08:33:00.001-06:00

Game Face is now available on Amazon.com in both the paperback book store and the Kindle store. The paperback price is $9.95 and the ebook price is $2.99.

The Huffington Post recently had an article about e-book prices and the 99¢ controversy. The article is here. The gist of it is that authors cannot make money from the 99¢ price. The problem is that e-books are not cheap to produce. They might be cheaper than paper, but they are not free. The biggest cost is probably the cover, but other costs figure in. The ISBN costs a hundred dollars and if the book comes out in paper, epub (iPad and Nook) and Kindle, it needs three ISBNs for a total of $300.

I had a professional cover design because, frankly, I suck at design. Since I also published each of the stories separately (at 99¢ each) I had covers made for each of them. I included those covers in Game Face as interior art. (The short stories have not been flying off the shelves, by the way) The total cost for the art came to $1,500. I think it was worth it because they look great.

A 99¢ book earns 35¢ in royalties, so the book would have to sell 850 copies just to cover the cost of the ISBNs. When I add up all of the costs of producing Game Face, I would have to sell over 5,400 copies to break even (assuming most of the sales are ebook sales.)

Most ebooks sell around 200 copies, according to the Huffington Post article.

Readers, however, believe ebooks should be cheap. They are not likely to buy an expensive one when there are so many for 99¢. At 99¢, a reader can simply discard a book that sucks.

So, when I figured out the price, I had to find one that would allow a reasonable return on investment but still be low enough to attract readers. I decided that the paperback needed to be under $10. At $9.95, my royalty would be about $2 per book. After some calculation, I discovered that an ebook price of $2.99 would also give me about $2 per book. At that price, I would need to sell only 900 books to break even—far less than the 5,400 under the 99¢ price, but still 4.5 times the average sell rate. I still have a lot of work ahead to break even, but I think readers will get value for their money.

PIMPED!

2011-12-20T14:58:00.000-06:00

Bil Crider pimped Game Face on his popular culture blog.
http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2011/12/pimpage-occasional-feature-in-which-i_20.html

Thanks, Bill!

GAME FACE is here!

2011-12-15T09:19:00.002-06:00

The definitive Val Lyon story collection is here. GAME FACE has been released as an ebook in Smashwords here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/112677. It is also being released in paperback. The publisher is Ilium Books. You can order it directly here: https://www.createspace.com/3725108 It is distributed through CreateSpace Direct and will soon be available at Amazon. It will also soon be available on iPad, Nook, Kobo, Kindle and others. I'll let you know as those become available.

Here's a deal. You can have the ebook for free until Feb. 14 by going to the link above. After selecting your format for download, go to the checkout and enter this coupon code: HB57R.

The cover and interior art were created by David Shackelford of Austin.

This volume contains seven previously published Val Lyon short stories and one story written exclusively for this collection.

Home Wreckers

2011-11-01T14:26:00.001-05:00

My first attempt at a hard-boiled story, Home Wreckers, is now available at Smashwords and soon on Kindle. The idea for this story came from the title of an article in Sports Illustrated, "Home Wreckers," about the Purdue women's basketball team beating the Lady Vols of Tennessee on their home court. The title suggested more than basketball, however. It suggested cheating and adultery. It was published in the inaugural edition of Nefarious: Tales of Mystery, edited by Bob Forster. Nefarious looked like a winner at a time when a lot of webzines were starting up. Unfortunately, it has had an on-again/off-again history, so not many people know about it, and, sadly, not many people got to read Home Wreckers. It is probably the least well-known of my stories. A word of warning, this story contains strong language.

This cover is my sexiest. It would be downright dirty without the strategically placed title.

Horns

2011-10-01T10:02:00.000-05:00

Horns was originally slated to be published in Sex, Lies and Private Eyes, edited by Michael Bracken. But, when that project was cancelled, I sent it to The Thrilling Detective where Kevin Burton Smith and Gerald So took a chance on it in 2009. It can now be had in ebook from Smashwords and soon from Kindle. The genesis for this story came from a short article in Sports Illustrated about unsung champion athletes who earn high pay but get little recognition. One of them was a rodeo bull.

Help a Friend

2011-09-26T12:22:00.000-05:00

Kevin Tipple, a fellow writer and a reviewer from Plano, Texas is experiencing extremely difficult times. Life keeps delivering him and his family body blows that have cost them their health and income. Without help, they will soon be homeless. They have encountered numerous roadblocks in their attempts to get assistance from the State of Texas. Friends from all over have donated generously, but it is still not enough. Now we are taking his case directly to Governor Rick Perry's office. Many of us have sent the email below. If any readers of this blog would join in the campaign, you help would be very much appreciated. We hope it will do some good. It can't hurt to try.

You can contact the Governor's office here:

http://governor. state.tx. us/contact/ assistance. aspx

For more on Kevin's situation, please visit his blog:
http://kevintipples corner.blogspot. com/

Here's the message I and others have sent to the Governor:

Kevin R. Tipple, a native Texan in Plano, is in such pain he is barely able to sit up or stand. His wife is bed-ridden and needs knee surgery. Neither is able to work and have no income or insurance. For months they have received a bureaucratic run around from SS, Medicaid, and state agencies. Within DAYS, they and their two sons will lose their home due to inability to pay their rent. They have nowhere to live and no hope unless you intervene and get them assistance so desperately needed. PLEASE HELP!

Teed Off

2011-09-21T10:09:00.000-05:00

I met Alexandra Sokoloff at Bouchercon and she said, "Publish your backlist." So here, continuing with her advice, is my favorite short story, Teed Off. It is now available at Smashwords and soon to be available on Kindle.

Teed Off was originally published in Michael Bracken's anthology. Fedora, Private Eyes and Tough Guys. Otto Penzler and James Ellroy considered it worthy of honorable mention in the Best American Mysteries of 2001.

I'm afraid not many folks read it in Fedora, so I hope this gets a wider audience. Of all my stories, I believe this one deserves to be read.

I wrote this with an eye to exploring some hardboiled themes. It features Val Lyon. Moon Ito also has a large role. It's the only short story in which he appears.

Mom's Birthday

2011-09-21T09:54:00.000-05:00

Mom was 90 last week. We had a party in St. Louis, but none of her grandkids, except for Sadie, who is the only one still in St. Louis, could attend. Ted got them all to send video greetings and put them into a video for her. Here's the video.

Kill Leader is now available for download

2011-09-04T11:09:00.000-05:00

The latest story in my campaign to republish my backlist is now available at Smashwords and on its way to Kindle.

Kill Leader is probably my most successful short in terms of the number of times it has been reprinted. I love the cover.

Drop Dead Zone is now on Kindle

2011-08-25T10:25:00.000-05:00

Drop Dead Zone was my first published story. It appeared in Mystery Buff Magazine in 1998. DDZ was in the second issue and Mystery Buff died with the third issue. I am sure that not many people read Mystery Buff, much less my contribution, so I am pleased to announce that it is now available on both Smashwords and Kindle.

The story came about when a group of us, family, friends and skydivers, were drinking beer after my first jump and Laura, the woman who later became my daughter-in-law, said that now I had to write a story about it. The title came quickly, a combination of drop zone, drop dead, and dead zone. It took a lot longer to write it. I didn't want to have sabotaged equipment or other things that seemed trite (although there are less than a handful of skydive murder mysteries so nearly everything is original) and I wanted the murder to occur in the air. Finally, it was a Superbowl Mountain Dew commercial that gave me the idea.

With a new cover by David Shackelford, I'm hoping DDZ in ebook will pick up a few more readers.
The publisher is Ilium Books.

The Shamus Nominees for 2011

2011-08-19T17:02:00.000-05:00

From the Private Eye Writers of America. The awards will be presented at the Shamus Award Banquet at Bouchercon in St. Louis in September.

Congratulations to all the nominees.

Best Hardcover P.I. Novel:

No Mercy, by Lori Armstrong (Touchstone)
The First Rule, by Robert Crais (Putnam)
Voyeur, by Daniel Judson (Minotaur)
If the Dead Rise Not, by Philip Kerr (Putnam)
Naked Moon, by Domenic Stansberry (Minotaur)

Best First P.I. Novel:

In Search of Mercy, by Michael Ayoob (Minotaur)
One Man’s Paradise, by Douglas Corleone (Minotaur)
Rogue Island, by Bruce DeSilva (Forge)
Random Violence, by Jassy MacKenzie (Soho)
City of Dragons, by Kelli Stanley (Minotaur)

Best Paperback Original P.I. Novel:

Hostage Zero, by John Gilstrap (Kensington)
Nightshade, by Tom Henighan (Dundurn Press)
Mister X, by John Lutz (Pinnacle)
The Panic Zone, by Rick Mofina (Mira)
Asia Hand, by Christopher G. Moore (Grove/Atlantic)
The Little Death, by P.J. Parrish (Pocket Star)

Best P.I. Short Story:

“The God of Right and Wrong,” by Steven Gore (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, January/February 2010)
“The Lamb Was Sure to Go,” by Gar Anthony Haywood (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, November 2010)
“The Girl in the Golden Gown,” by Robert S. Levinson (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2010)
“Phelan’s First Case.” by Lisa Sandlin (Lone Star Noir, edited by Bobby Byrd and Johnny Byrd; Akashic Books)
“A Long Time Dead,” by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (The Strand Magazine, June-Sept. 2010)

The Big Dance With Death

2011-08-16T15:41:00.000-05:00

Old story, new life. The Big Dance With Death was first published in FUTURES in 2001. It is available once again as an ebook through Smashwords.com and in the Kindle store. It will soon be available for other e-readers such as iBook and Nook. This is the first of eight Val Lyon short stories that will be released in ebook formats. For those who like the printed page, I have plans to put all of them in a collection.

This story began when Mary Fran said I should write about the NCAA women's basketball tournament. It was first published the year that Notre Dame won the championship and, fittingly, is re-published in the year that the Aggie Women beat Notre Dame for the championship. WHOOP!

Who?

2011-07-10T18:41:00.000-05:00

At first, I was not so sure about Matthew McConaughey as Michael Connelly's Mickey Haller, but I'm coming to accept it. I think he rises to the role. I'm also not sure about Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum, although I think she's an excellent actress. I've been hoping for the rumored Honey West movie with Reese Witherspoon, but that seems to have been shelved. Now comes word that Tom Cruise will play Jack Reacher in Lee Child's One Shot. I'm sorry, but I just can't see that. I'm not sure who could play the part of a six-five, two-fifty pound, quiet drifter, but I don't see Cruise.

Drop in Crime

2011-06-22T10:28:00.000-05:00

The BBC reports on the amazing drop in U.S. crime that began about 1990 and continues to today. Read the article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13799616. This phenomenon has been noted by many people before, so this is not news. The Freakonomics authors attribute the drop to the effect of legalized abortion. The BBC article lists abortion as one of ten factors that could cause the drop, but does not include illegal immigration in that list.

Why illegal immigration? In 1989, immigration laws were reformed to allow millions of illegal immigrants to obtain citizenship. That was followed by a huge wave of illegal immigration as the newly minted Americans brought their families here to join them. That wave coincides with the downturn in crime rates. If the crime rates are broken down by city (go to Wolfram Alpha and look up the rates for different cities), the results are striking. The cities closest to the Mexican border have the lowest crime rates. As you go farther north, the crime rates increase. The safest cities in the U.S. include San Diego, Phoenix, and El Paso. These are the very cities that see the most illegal immigration.

There are three reasons for illegal immigration: jobs, to unite families, and bureaucratic incompetence or delay. People who come for these first two reasons are not criminal types. They want a stable, crime-free place to live and raise their families. Nor do they want to call the attention of law enforcement to themselves. In fact, throughout American history, first generation immigrants have been the most law-abiding.

It has been estimated by the Texas Comptroller, that immigrants contribute $17 billion to the Texas economy, after subtracting the cost of health, education and social services. I, for one, believe these new immigrants, whether legal or illegal, not only make us richer, they make us safer.

Kokua wanted

2011-06-22T08:29:00.000-05:00

Aloha,

I am looking to you for help in coming up with a title for a short story collection that I plan to publish at the end of the summer. The collection will be published as an ebook and will feature eight of my previously published Val Lyon mysteries. Val is a Honolulu-based private eye. She is an ex-cop and an ex-professional basketball player. All of the mysteries have something to do with sports. In some of the cases, Val is involved as a participant; in others, she is a hired investigator.

Here is my offer. Everyone who suggests a title in the comments section will receive a copy of the ebook when it is published, which I expect to be in September. Here are the eight stories and a short summary of each.

Wahine O Ka Hoe. Val is part of a team of paddlers participating in an open ocean canoe race. When one of the team is killed during a treacherous channel crossing, Val must determine if it was an accident or murder. The setting is the channel between the islands of Molokai and Oahu.

Drop Dead Zone. Val's first skydive is lethal for her instructor who suffers a horrific double malfunction of his parachute. Was it an accident or did someone plan the malfunction? Setting–Honolulu.

Home Wreckers. A professional women's basketball team beats their opponents on the opponents' home courts. Off the court, they engage in bed-hopping. Their winning streak comes to an end when one of the players is murdered. Setting–Los Angeles.

Kill Leader. Val is guarding a champion beach volleyball player who has received death threats. When the threats escalate to an attempt on the player's life, Val must find the attacker before he or she strikes again. Setting–Oahu.

The Big Dance With Death. When an assistant basketball coach of Val's alma-mater is killed in a car wreck, Val steps in to take her place and help the team reach the NCAA tournament. She finds that March Madness is more than basketball fever. Setting–Northern California.

Teed Off. When a young woman plunges to her death from a hotel balcony, Val is hired to determine if she jumped or was pushed. The woman's brother believes she was hounded to her death by a wealthy distributor of golf equipment. Setting–the island of Kauai.

Horns. A breeder of champion rodeo bulls wants Val to find out if someone is hijacking prized bull semen. The victim is a seventeen-hundred pound bag of aggression named Terminator and the primary suspect is a rodeo clown. It seems like a cut and dried case until Val becomes enamored with a bull rider and the clown dies. Setting–the island of Maui.

Ripper. A teenage surfer disappears leaving only a surfboard that was bit through by a shark. Val must find out what happened to the girl. Setting–North Shore of Oahu.

So, to repeat my offer, suggest a title for this collection and I will send you a copy. The book will be available in September.

mahalo in advance for your suggestions.

Mark Troy

Radio Interview

2011-05-18T06:18:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, I was interviewed by Ann Preston on her show, "Our voices, ourselves," a weekly show heard on KEOS FM 89.1. Also on the show were Bill Harper, Nancy Stebbins, and Rhonda Brinkman. We talked about Brazos Writers and our own writing. You can listen to the interview here:
http://www.ourvoicesourselves.com/interview-with-members-of-brazos-writers-

Hardboiled quote # 17

2011-02-11T10:47:00.000-06:00

Chinn Ho Kelly to Kono Kalakaua on Hawaii Five-O:

There's still a lot I can teach you, cuz, but ass-kicking isn't one of them.

Update on Ballsy, Kick-ass Babes

2011-01-20T13:50:00.000-06:00

I posted the following story two years ago. At the time, Lanae, the subject of the post, was a student worker. I predicted that, after graduation, she would be wearing tailored suits and carrying a leather briefcase.

Boy was I wrong! Lanae graduated and today she sent word that she is officially a Peace Corps Volunteer as a Community and Organization Development Facilitator in Albania. She leaves in March.

It's enough to give you chicken skin.

Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps passed away this week. You can read my post about him on Make Mine Mystery. The idea behind the Peace Corps originated in the writings of the American philosopher, William James, who proposed a moral equivalent of war. Throughout human history, young men have gone off to prove their manhood waging war. Why can't there be an equivalent way to prove their manhood waging peace? Sending young men (and women) off to wage peace was the moral equivalent of war.

It took 55 years for the idea to turn into reality. Now that idea, the Peace Corps, is celebrating 50 years of sending men and women to wage peace. Over 200,000 volunteers have served in 139 countries. Lanae is the latest one. If anybody can wage peace, she can. She has nothing to prove to me.

Best of luck, Lanae.

Originally posted on

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Women's Rugby, Texas A&M University, September 27.

That's right, Rugby. This is the sport that was the violent precursor to American Football. It was deemed so dangerous that American players needed pads and helmets. My image of the typical rugby player is a large, loutish fellow with broken nose and missing teeth, whose breath smells like the floor behind a bar. Most girls would cringe at the thought of bringing a rugby player home to meet the parents.

What if the player IS a girl?

The blonde on the right, putting the hurt to the other girl is a student worker in my office. Her name is Lanae. She is a junior marketing major and when she graduates she will be wearing tailored suits, carrying a leather briefcase and leading focus groups. Maybe that's what she's doing now. Focus, group!

Lanae is attractive. Most people would say she's cute. The male student workers say she's a babe, a chick, a hottie. But those are words you normally wouldn't use for people who play a sport such as rugby, a sport even most men are too chicken to play.

Monday morning conversation in our office sometimes goes like this:

How was your weekend?

Good. I broke a girl's nose.

Lanae is a product of Title IX, the Federal Education Act that leveled the playing field for men and women. She played soccer and basketball as a kid, even hoped to get a basketball scholarship. When that didn't work out, she came to A&M where she joined the Rugby team.

Rugby is a non-varsity sport. There are no scholarships, no locker rooms, no training facilities, no team bus or plane. They don't play in front of 85,000 screaming fans. In fact, there are hardly any fans at all. Unlike football, there is no future full of signing bonuses and ESPN highlights. No Madden 2009, no fantasy leagues.

The players practice just as hard, play just as hard, but when they get hurt they have a team mate drive them to the emergency room. No team physicians for them. They have to come back to class on Monday and they are still expected to keep up their grades.

So why do women play sports like this? Why put your body at risk for so little extrinsic reward? Lanae likes the excitement, the competition and the other players. The team is like family, she says.

Billie Jean King, in an interview about Title IX, said that the best thing about the act was the effect it had on team sports. There had been plenty of women athletes before Title IX, but they were mainly individual sports like tennis, golf, swimming and figure skating. They were certainly not contact sports. The picture above is exactly what a lot of opponents of Title IX feared--women engaging in acts of violence, delivering pain, and enjoying it.

It is no surprise that women can deliver violence, but the traditional view of women is that they are violent in defending their family. Men, on the other hand, can be violent in defense of the group. Thus, women stayed home while men went to war. Title IX and the opening of team sports to women, changed that. Now women could be violent and could sacrifice themselves for the group, not just the family. Or, as Lanae says, the team becomes the family.

Title IX was important to me because most of my stories have a woman protagonist. I admit that I had a hard time understanding my characters until I gave them a team sport background. Val Lyon was a college and pro basketball player. Ava Rome, my newest detective, plays volleyball and paddles. Playing a team sport adds a dimension to their character and motivation that I can readily understand. I think a lot of recent women detectives have had some background in team sports and that makes them believable protagonists when the story demands that they put their bodies on the line for someone who is not family. The intrinsic motivation of playing for pure pleasure and comradeship makes a character much more likable. It's hard to like an over-paid professional athlete, but easy to root for someone who plays for the love of the game.

When I began writing Val Lyon, I drew inspiration from Jennifer Rizzotti, a point guard for the U Conn Huskies who played in knee pads because she wasn't afraid to throw herself on the floor after a loose ball. Another source of inspiration was Sheila Tighe, who, at 35 years of age tried out for the WNBA after having been a star in college years before. Tighe worked so hard that she painted her toenails black to match the bruises on her toes. More recent inspiration came from Stacy Sykora, the US Olympic volleyball player who chest-butted her team mates when she came on court and kept them fired up.

Lanae, putting the hurt to an opponent on the rugby pitch, is now my inspiration. I hope Ava is ready for some rugby

New Book Published

2011-01-11T11:57:00.000-06:00

Well, actually, it's a new translation of a book I co-authored and was published in 2009. The book is Clarifying Some Myths of Teaching and Research. The new translation is in a simplified version of Chinese. You can read more about it here. If you can read Chinese, that is. It will set you back 29 Yuan for the paperback edition. Maybe if I do a book trailer for it, I can boost sales.

Happy Birthday Sargent Shriver, 95

2010-11-09T09:34:00.000-06:00

I think one would be hard pressed to find anyone who had greater influence on the U.S. in the last half-century. Many of the iconic institutions of our time were his brainchildren. How many can you name? I would have said two--the Special Olympics and the Peace Corps, which wasn't his brainchild, but as its first director, he put an indelible stamp on it.

Here is the list of what we owe Shriver.

Head Start,

VISTA,

Job Corps,

Community Action,

Upward Bound,

Foster Grandparents,

Special Olympics,

Legal Services,

the National Clearinghouse for Legal Services,

Indian and Migrant Opportunities,

Neighborhood Health Services.

He directed the Peace Corps and ran the War on Poverty during the Johnson administration. He was a candidate for vice-president in 1972.

Happy birthday Sargent Shriver.

Hawaii Five- O, Nov. 8

2010-11-09T09:09:00.000-06:00

The title for this episode, Mana'o means thought, idea, belief or concept. An HPD detective is found dead in a lua'u pit in an obvious execution. His fellow HPD officers believe him to be a mole for a drug gang. Danno, who was good friends with the dead man, believes otherwise. He sets out to find the real mole and vindicate his friend. In one scene we learn that Chinn Ho experienced the same kind of suspicion when he was with HPD. Maybe we'll get some vindication for him eventually.

What was that with the supposed HPD department? It looked like a combination of sets from Barney Miller and Gone With The Wind. HPD is housed in a new, high tech building.

Locations: Not sure where the beach scenes were shot. The lunch wagon looked like it was shot near the Hilton Lagoon or Fort DeRussey. The Christmas Tree farm is located in Wahiawa, high up on the plateau between the Koolau and Waianae mountain ranges. This is sometimes known as the saddle. A lot of pineapple fields are located near there.

Mary Fran was skeptical about the Christmas Tree Farm because there were none when we lived there. Apparently there are now two, but they haven't been in existence long. Christmas trees were always an issue in Hawaii. The container ships arrived from the Northwest in early December and everybody rushed to get their tree. They had probably been harvested months earlier so most trees were dead and dry by Christmas.

Where are the writers for the show? Arizona? As in a previous episode, a character says the temperature is 110 degrees. It has never been that high. 92 is the highest ever. Not only that, but the character says this while in the tree farm in Wahiawa, which, because of altitude, breezes and distance from the concrete of Honolulu, tends to be a lot cooler than the rest of the island. This week the forecast for Honolulu is for temperatures between 64 and 86, while for central Oahu it will be 60 to 80.

Suits. A lot of people in this episode wore suits and/or sport coats. Only once or twice did I have an occasion to wear a sport coat and I rarely saw other people wearing them.

This was one of the better episodes so far. Danno showed a willingness to break rules if necessary to get the truth about his friend.

Hawaii Five-O on Nov. 1

2010-11-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

I haven't seen this episode yet, because of a conflict with the World Series. However, it's on my DVR and I plan to view it tonight. I hope it's better than the World Series.

Book Trailer for Pilikia

2010-11-03T06:58:00.000-05:00

You can see a new book trailer for Pilikia Is My Business on YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikP583W1-uY

You can find the book on Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/25474.

Aloha Danno! James MacArthur R.I.P

2010-10-29T08:42:00.000-05:00

James MacArthur who starred as Danny, "Danno," Williams on Hawaii Five-O died at 72.

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/james-macarthur-original-hawaii-five-0s-danno-dies-at-72/49728.

Hawaii Five-O on Oct 25

2010-10-26T07:00:00.002-05:00

This one opens with a surf contest at Pipeline on the North Shore although the waves are not very high and the surf is not tubular. Kono is surfing with her mentor, the CEO of a successful surf business, who gets shot on the waves. So, for Kono, this murder is personal.

This story goes into some true Hawaiian themes. There's conflict between local (native Hawaiians) and haoles (whites). McGarrett needs the trust of a Hawaiian leader but has to work to gain it. Even though he was born and grew up in the Islands, he's a haole and the subject of suspicion. Danno is a fish out of water and clueless about how to handle the conflict. Native Hawaiians might be one of the most economically disadvantaged minorities in the U.S. There is still a lot of resentment over the haoles overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and U.S. annexation.

There is conflict between people who want to commercialize the islands (not all of them are haoles) and those who want to preserve the natural beauty and life style. Some folks are living in a tent city at Kawela Bay, one of the most isolated and beautiful spots on Oahu near Turtle Bay Resort. Some developers are trying to drive the squatters out. The camp is makeshift and populated by people who cannot afford the high cost of a home in Hawaii. As one of the members points out, there are businessmen and professionals with jobs living there. There are a lot of beach people in Hawaii living in semi-permanent camps. In some places the authorities turn a blind eye and allow them to stay longer than allowed. The irony is that the camps are often trash laden and as destructive of the local beauty as any developer could do.

Kono meets an old flame in the camp and things get hot between them until he becomes the prime suspect.

There is a third conflict between the "pure" surfers and the people who want to commercialize the sport.

Danno doesn't want his daughter to surf, but Kono waxes philosophical about it. Maybe that will be a subject of a future episode.

Locations. Most of this takes place on the North Shore near Pipeline and Waiamea Bay. Some of it takes place on Pupukea, the mountain that dominates the North Shore. We have a brand new HD TV and the scenery is gorgeous. The final scene is a memorial service by surfers who form a circle with their boards out on Waiamea Bay, not far from Pipeline, to say goodbye to the man who was killed. The bay is glassy calm where only a few days before the waves were large enough for a surf contest.

By the way, the original Five-O headquarters was in Iolani Palace. This one is set in the Judiciary Building, which is recognizable by the statue of Kamehameha in front.

Kono watch. Surfing scenes at the beginning and end give Kono opportunities to wear bikinis. She does a spin kick that drops a guy off a motorcycle.

This episode was more like a straight mystery with no over-the-top high tech spies or international terrorists/criminals. My favorite so far.

Pilikia update

2010-10-23T19:04:00.001-05:00

Now you can get Pilikia Is My Business in the Barnes & Noble store for Nook and in the Sony ereader store.

Rangers are in the World Series

2010-10-22T22:28:00.000-05:00

Wow!

What more is there to say?

Political Demagoguery

2010-10-22T10:12:00.000-05:00

I'm angry at Bill Flores, the Republican candidate for U.S. representative from the 17th congressional district in Texas. Flores is running against the incumbent, Chet Edwards, a Democrat. Flores is running an ad that says Edwards voted with Nancy Pelosi 96% of the time. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to Edwards doing that, if he did it. However, this is clearly an attempt to inflame passions in a conservative district. What really gets me is that I'm a stat guy and he's inflaming the passions with statistics.

As the old saying goes, there are lies, damn lies and statistics. Flores is lying with statistics.
First, the 96% is not how Edwards voted with Pelosi but how he voted with his party. It implies that he voted with the Dems 96% of the time and with the GOP 4%. Wrong! Most votes in the House of Representatives are non-controversial. They include votes for naming a post office after somebody. Since those things pass with a majority of votes and since Edwards is in the majority party, he will have voted for most of the issues passed in the House. Those issues are also likely to get a majority of the votes of the other party, So on a large number of issues, Edwards voted with the majority of the other party as well as the majority of his own party. Although, Edwards did vote the way the majority of his party voted 96% of the time, most of those were unimportant votes. How many times did he vote the way the majority of the GOP voted? A lot more than 4%

Does that mean he voted with Pelosi? No! The Speaker of the House does not vote on most bills. He or she will vote only on the critical and/or controversial issues. The minority leader, John Boehner, does vote on most bills, so, Edwards probably voted with Boehner more than he voted with Pelosi.

That still doesn't get to the real issue. What we really want to know is, of the bills on which all three (Pelosi, Boehner, and Edwards) voted, and of which Pelosi and Boehner voted differently, how often did Edwards side with Pelosi and how often with Boehner?

The Washington Post maintains a database of how members of congress vote on key issues. I looked up Edwards's record on these issues. You can find it here:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/e000063/key-votes/
On 31 key issues, the Ds and Rs had the same position on only 2. That leaves 29 votes which the Ds (presumably Pelosi) and the Rs (presumably Boehner) voted differently. How did Edwards vote? He voted with the Ds 58.6% of the time and with the Rs 41.4% of the time. Clearly, Edwards is a Democrat and a supporter of most Democratic positions. The argument that Flores is trying to make, that Edwards does not vote independently of the party line, is plain demagoguery. Flores is lying with statistics.

Skydive Murder

2010-10-22T09:24:00.002-05:00

Here's a story about a woman who sabotaged the main and reserve chutes of a fellow skydiver who was a rival for the man she loved.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101021/ap_on_re_eu/eu_belgium_parachute_killing

It's tragic that someone would go to that length, but passion drives so many people. Where would mystery writers be without that kind of passion?

As a mystery writer, my interest is in the method. This is a terrible way to die so that makes it interesting from a story standpoint. On the other hand, from a story standpoint, I think this is a cop-out. I considered a method like this when I wrote Drop Dead Zone, which you can read on my website--http://www.marktroy.net. After thinking about it for awhile, I decided it was a trite method (even though there are very few skydiving murder stories). Trite, because it's so obvious and clearly points to another skydiver as the culprit. It would also be clear that the death was no accident, but was premeditated.

It took awhile, but I finally came up with a method that could be construed as an accident, which did in fact happen in the skydive, and which required the murderer to actively lure the victim into a dangerous situation and then precipitate his death.

I won't give it away, but it was a crime of passion.

Last Night on Hawaii Five-O

2010-10-19T07:02:00.001-05:00

The episode opens with a great hook, tourists on a submersible discover the body of a woman in Waikiki Bay. The body is the daughter of the US ambassador to the Philippines. His other daughter is also missing. The 50 team has to find her.

The episode title is "Nalowale" which means missing or disappeared.

Backstory. McGarrett is in bed with a gorgeous woman. I didn't recognize her at first. It turns out she is the naval officer who re-tasked a surveillance satellite for him in a previous episode. She does it again for him in this episode. I hope he can maintain this relationship, otherwise things could get complicated. Something like this.

McGarrett: I need to you to get a video on the abductors.
Former girlfriend: Get it yourself, you two-timing son of a bitch.
McGarrett: But they have the President's daughter.
Former girlfriend: Too bad. Get your new little Barbie to do it.

McGarrett's sister, Mary, shows up inconveniently. This time she meets the girlfriend leaving McGarrett's bedroom, which results in a lame joke.

Mary: Old house, thin walls.
Girlfriend: Oh, God.
Mary: I heard that a lot.

Mary seems to have nothing to do except watch TV. When she goes looking for the batteries for the TV changer, she finds the box of evidence McGarrett's father had left behind. You would think McGarrett would conceal it more securely, but no, it was under a table. Mary gets into it and begins photographing the evidence.

Locations: The daughter appears to have been taken by people in the sex-trade who use date-rape drugs to abduct young women from clubs. The girl is taken to a place on Kuhio Ave. in Waikiki, which McGarrett refers to as the red light district. There's some truth to that. It's a main street in Waikiki where street walkers congregate. The scene, however, appeared to have been shot in a studio, not on location.

Kono watch. Kono goes undercover as an abductee. She looks great in a party outfit. Competently takes down the guy who supposedly abducted her and then gets tough with the madame, forcing her to tell where the ambassador's daughter is being held. No surfing.

Pilikia Epub Update

2010-10-18T11:14:00.000-05:00

Smashwords accepted Pilikia Is My Business for premium distribution on 10/11/2010. On 10-14, Smashwords shipped it to Barnes and Noble, Apple, and Diesel. It shipped to Kobo and Sony on 10-15. According to Smashwords, the book should appear in Apple about 1 week after shipping and 2 to 8 weeks for the others. In fact, Pilikia appeared in the Apple iBook store almost immediately. You can now read it on the iPad. Search for Mystery and Suspense or Women Sleuths. Now I have to get the book trailer up and watch the other stores for its appearance.

Hawaii Five-O on Monday night

2010-10-14T10:26:00.000-05:00

Didn't get to post right after the show, but here are some observations.

Now we get some of McGarrett's backstory with his sister arriving. She seems to carry a lot of baggage, but not much is done with it. Mostly she get put in a corner and nothing develops, though we're led to understand that their father was not the most loving guy.

A scene at the end shows brother and sister at the father's grave in Punchbowl cemetery. The name on the tombstone is John McGarrett! Wasn't he Steve last episode? Doesn't anybody check the scripts for continuity?

Settings for the show:
This episode begins in the Halawa correctional facility with a prison escape. Halawa is located west of Honolulu near Aiea, Salt Lake, Moanalua, near the H3 freeway and Aloha Stadium. To get to Honolulu from Halawa, you would take the H1, which follows the coast past the airport and Honolulu Harbor, downtown and then on towards Waikiki. Waikiki is the destination of the escapee, but he doesn't take the H1. Instead, he goes up Tantalus. Why? Because it allows a scenic shot of Waikiki. Tantalus is a mountain behind Punahou School. It's an area of narrow winding roads past expensive homes with a view. It is not on the route from anywhere to anywhere else. To get up Tantalus, you go up Makiki Street to Round Top Drive and follow it around until it becomes Tantalus Drive which comes back down to where you started.

Magnum used to do similar things with the geography. Never let geography interfere with a scenic shot or a story line.

Later in the show, the bad guy commandeers a tourist helicopter and demands that the pilot take him to Molokai. Instead they go to Chinaman's Hat, an island off Kualoa Beach Park, the other direction from Molokai. The copter crashes in a rain forest and we're to believe it's Molokai.

Kono watch. No surfing in this episode.

Kill Leader in ebook

2010-10-05T14:56:00.001-05:00

My short story, "Kill Leader," originally published in Plots With Guns, is now available in Killer Fiction, an ebook anthology from Sniplits on Smashwords. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/26002

Last night on Hawaii Five-0

2010-10-05T09:29:00.000-05:00

Last night we learned that Steve McGarrett, played by Jack Lord in the original, was the father of the current Steve McGarrett. In the pilot, we were told that McGarrett's father was John McGarrett. We learned that both McGarrett and Chin Ho were quarterbacks in high school. Do all action heroes have to be quarterbacks? The father-son connection was revealed in a scene of the team watching a tape of McGarrett quarterbacking and his number is 50. McGarrett explains that as coming from his father who was the head of 50. He also states that the number came from Hawaii's status as the 50th state. That was the source of the original title of the series, but I don't know if that was ever explained in the show.

This show gave us some of Chin Ho's backstory with HPD. For such a small island and the way extended families work, the revelation that the cousin Chin Ho thought was a gang banger turned out to be an undercover cop seemed unrealistic.

McGarrett and Williams try to infiltrate an upscale gambling parlor by pretending to be whales. They're no good at it and they get made quickly by the bad guy who looks them up on his iPad. Gotta find that app in the app store.

We get to see Kono in a bikini and a flimsy neglige-like cocktail dress, but not much ass-kicking from her.

Danno's back-story about his daughter and visitation rights gets some play. We're likely to see more of that. In this one, the ex-wife wants to curtail all visitation rights, but McGarrett steps in and gets the governor to apply some pressure. Danno gets put out about McGarrett's intervention. More friction between the top guys.

Pilikia Is My Business is available once again

2010-09-30T06:42:00.000-05:00

Pilikia Is My Business, featuring Honolulu sleuth, Val Lyon, is not available in multiple ebook formats. Published by Ilium Books, you can sample it or buy it here:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/25474

Update on the ebook repub

2010-09-29T13:47:00.000-05:00

One of the things I learned in the book business is to read the guidelines carefully, whether it's agent, editor, or publisher you are dealing with. To that end, I downloaded Mark Coker's Smashwords Style Guide and have been going through it page by page while reformatting Pilikia Is My Business. If you're considering publishing with Smashwords, you will find this invaluable.

After going through the whole manuscript, I finally had it complete, so I saved it (or thought I did) and went to the Smashwords site to load it up.

Loading was easy, just a click of a button. There were a few items to check off, such as what format(s) to publish in and distribution systems. Then I got a message that the mss was received and was 47th in the queue. A few hours later, I had a message that it was published. A link was included. The message suggested downloading Stanza and Kindle in order to check the format. I already had Stanza, so I downloaded Kindle and then downloaded the epub and mobi versions of the book. Good thing I did, because I discovered I had sent the wrong version of the mss. It was missing the end-of-book information such as my bio and links to my websites. Otherwise, the book looked great.

Fortunately, Smashwords allows for corrections. I simply went to my dashboard where I canceled the publication and then reloaded the correct file. That was this morning. I was 306th in the queue. It is still grinding away as I write this, so I don't know how long it will be before republishing. Oh well.

I caught the mistake before it was reviewed for the premium catalog, which is what I want, so this should not affect that catalog. I'm not sure what would have happened if it was already in the catalog and the Apple store. Would I be able to make changes then? Don't know. I'm glad I caught it when I did.

An interesting feature of Smashwords is that you can purchase an ISBN from them for $9.95, a tenth of what Lulu charges. I did and received it in a matter or minutes. See my post below about the Lulu delays. The one catch with Smashwords, is that they won't sell you the ISBN until the book is published. So you can't include the ISBN in the front matter of the book unless, like me, you cancel and republish. It seems odd to me, but maybe it doesn't matter where the ISBN appears on an ebook as long as it appears in the catalog.

Last night's Hawaii Five 0

2010-09-28T08:59:00.000-05:00

Last night was a big improvement over the pilot, which was loaded with cliches. This one, not so many. The highlight was a fight between Kono and a blonde member of some Eastern European gang. It ended up in swimming pool with Kono taking quite a licking but holding her own. At one point, after having been captured and bound with duct tape, she taunts the blonde into backhanding her to the floor so that she can pick up a nail with which to cut the tape. Guts!

The goofs: McGarrett is giving Danno grief for wearing a tie. Okay, not many people wear ties in Hawaii. You can tell when lawyers are heading to court because they're the ones wearing suits and ties. I recall only once wearing a tie. Kamehameha Schools had founders day, which was a big, formal event at the school, and a notice was sent to all staff saying men should wear jackets and ties. Everybody knew what was meant by a tie, but nobody was sure what was meant by a jacket, because the only jacket anybody ever had was a windbreaker. Anyway, McGarrett says a tie is stupid when the temperature is 110. What? It has never been 110 in Hawaii unless you record the inside of a volcano. The average temperature is 73, the highest ever recorded was 93 in 2003.

In both episodes, there has been a scene with Danno and McGarrett in a car with the windows up. This isn't Texas where you need air conditioning when you drive. This is Hawaii where the average temperature in 73. People drive with their windows open. In fact, a lot of people leave their windows open all the time, which causes a different problem--cockroaches getting into the car. It's not unusual to find somebody with a roach trap under their car seats.

More adventures in epub

2010-09-27T09:28:00.000-05:00

The cover update to Pilikia is coming along. The one snag was in getting an ISBN for the book. I looked at Bowker and then at Lulu. Lulu was cheaper ($98) and faster, so I ordered the number from Lulu. It turned out that Lulu wasn't faster. I immediately received an email that the order had been received and that I could track it. When I went to the tracking, I received a message that the order had been shipped. Great! 24-hour turn around. Well, it might have been shipped, but it didn't arrive.

I thought the number would arrive by email. After all, it is only a number. When it didn't, I looked for it in snail mail. Maybe, since it's an official document, it needed to come by regular mail. After 10 days, I checked with customer support, but all I could find was a link to track my order, which continued to say it had been shipped. Finally, I found a customer service request form on the Lulu site and filled it out. A day later I heard from somebody in support saying I should reply to the email he had sent on August 19.

There was no email on Aug. 19. The only emails were the order received and the order tracking email which arrived on Aug. 18. I replied to that and to the support guy's email but still didn't hear anything.

Finally, I sent another customer support form and this time I heard from Shauna S. She included a link in her email to an online form I needed to fill out. That form asked for book and author info. Just the type of stuff I would expect to supply for an ISBN (and which I think I had supplied earlier.) This time, it seemed to work. Two days later, I received the new ISBN, about a month after requesting it. Next time, I'll go with Bowker.

The ISBN is one thing. I also want a barcode on the cover of the book. Getting the barcode, I discovered, is easy. I went to Wolframalpha (www.wolframalpha.com), entered "isbn barcode" followed by the isbn into the search window and it produced a barcode instantaneously in the form of a GIF that I gave to my cover artist.

The only hurdle now, is one last edit on the inside front material and the book will be ready.

Tonight's Da Night!

2010-09-20T15:23:00.000-05:00

Hawaii Five-0 returns to TV. Okay, I'm stoked. I've been waiting for this all summer.

I admit to some anxiety. Some things have to change. Grace Park, as Kono Kalakaua, being one of the changes, and maybe the best change. Who doesn't want to see Grace Park in a bikini punch out a bad guy?

I know Honolulu has changed. For one, the restaurant that gave its name to McGarrett's arch enemy, Wo Fat, is no longer in operation. Here's picture of the restaurant on the corner of Hotel and Maunakea Streets. It is one of the most recognizable buildings in Honolulu along with the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and Iolani Palace. This picture was taken off of Google street view, so it is apparently still there, but not operating as a restaurant.

The restaurant is named after Ting Wo, who was a Chinese prince of the Shang Dynasty (1767 BC - 1122 BC). When Hawaii's local Chinese came to Hawaii, they chose to honor their ancestry and Chinese family roots by starting a restaurant in his honor. 'Wo' is the prince's name and 'Fat' means 'to send forth.'

The restaurant occupied the second floor of the building. It was as close to a Hong Kong-style restaurant as you will find outside of Hong Kong. The dim-sum was traditional and excellent. I have been told that gambling went on above the restaurant, but I was never up there.

One of my best memories there was one evening when Ted was about two years old. Ted was in a high chair and not in a good mood for some reason. Across the room from us was NFL star Franco Harris of the Immaculate Reception. Ted was having a tantrum and threw his sippy cup at Harris, whose hands, I'm sad to say, failed him on this occasion. It would have been so great to see him make another spectacular catch. As it was, we left soon after without the sippy cup.

Maybe Wo Fat will return in the series. If so, perhaps the new McGarrett can recover the lost sippy cup.

Messing around with Wolfram Alpha

2010-08-25T15:03:00.001-05:00

I suppose it's no secret that I'm a numbers guy. When I bought my iPad, one of the first apps I downloaded was the Wolfram-Alpha app. Wolfram-Alpha is a computational database. If you can pose a quantitative question, W-A can probably answer it. If you don't have an iPad, you can use the database online at http://www.wolframalpha.com/

According to the book, Freakonomics, we have experienced a precipitous decline in crime since 1990. I was skeptical, so I looked up crime rates in W-A. Sure enough, the Freakonomics guys were right. It appears from this, that we are about as safe as we were in 1970.

So what caused the decrease? Levitt and Dubner attribute it to the effects of Roe v. Wade. Suddenly, a lot of people who would have grown up in poverty and single-parent homes did not exist and, thus, did not commit crimes.

Could that be true? I went to the CDC's Abortion Surveillance website where I found this chart of abortion rates from 1974 to 2004. The upturn in abortions, which peaked about 1990, does seem to mirror the decrease in crime beginning about 1990. Note that the rate of abortions drops off after 1990, which suggests, if the abortion/crime hypothesis is correct, that the crime rate will begin to increase this year, if it hasn't begun already. By 1995, we were back to the 1974 level of abortion, which means we should soon be returning to the 1990 crime rate.

However, I think there might be another cause for the falling crime rates--immigration. I'll explore that in another post.

Updates

2010-08-16T12:37:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in awhile, although I was surprised at how long it's been.

So what has happened?
First, we began remodeling the kitchen. We are entering week four. The cabinets are in and the painters are here. The cabinets look great. next come the counter tops, the floor and the appliances. We're getting anxious to have this project finished. For three weeks we've been living in our bedroom and bathroom. Furniture and kitchen stuff is stacked in the other rooms. The toaster, coffee pot, and microwave are in the bathroom. We're eating out a lot.

Second, I got myself a personal trainer to help me lose some of this weight and get me ready for the White Rock Marathon in December. I meet her for two sessions each week. That's in addition to my four times a week running schedule. Talk about getting a workout from her. She's blonde and cute and she doesn't yell like a drill sergeant. Instead, she says, "You did that so well. I'm so proud of you. Let's add more weight and do another fifteen reps." It's working on me. I'm too tired most evenings to do anything but crash.

I've been working with a cover artist, David Shackelford, on a redesign of the cover for Pilikia Is My Business. Here is the most recent concept.

The Corpse Flower

2010-07-21T15:47:00.000-05:00

Lois, the corpse flower at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, is beginning to open. You can watch the live feed here:

http://www.hmnsmedia.org/CorpseFlower/

The Amorphomphallus titanum or corpse flower is a gigantic flower native to Sumatra. It flowers only once and gives off an odor of rotting flesh to attract flies and other such creatures for pollination. There are very few in cultivation. The flower at HMNS stands 5'9" and the bloom watch has been going on for about two weeks.

The Latin name translates into giant, misshapen penis.

Great Days in History July 5

2010-07-05T16:08:00.000-05:00

What would Hawaii be without SPAM and bikinis?

On July 5, 1937, Hormel introduced SPAM and changed the culinary habits of the Islands forever. Hawaii has the largest per capita consumption of SPAM of any state. It is sometimes called the "Hawaiian steak." It's so popular, you can find it on the menus at McDonald's and Burger King restaurants.

A popular SPAM dish is SPAM Musubi.

Musubi Ingredients:


   5 cups of cooked rice
·   1 can of Spam, sliced
·   5 or 6 sheets of nori
·   Furikake   
Teriaki Sauce Ingredients:
·   1/2 cup brown sugar
·   1/4 cup soy sauce
·     1 clove garlic, crushed (optional)

   Instructions:   Mix all sauce ingredients and stir until sugar is dissolved. Set aside. Fry spam until crisp on both sides. Pour sauce into the pan with the Spam, and turn spam several times to coat thoroughly. Simmer until sauce thickens, and remove from heat.   Place a sheet of Nori on a board, place a musubi maker in the middle of the nori, fill the musubi maker with rice, and press. Top with 2 pieces of Spam. Remove the mold and wrap nori tightly over the Spam and rice. Repeat with remaining nori and Spam. cut each musubi in half with a wet knife, and dip the ends of each half in furikake.

  
Would Hawaiian beaches be beautiful without bikinis? Of course. But the bikini is what we in the assessment business call "value added." Do bikinis make Lanikai beach more spectacular? You be the judge.

On July 5, 1946, Louis Reard unveiled his swimsuit creation, the bikini, in Paris. Why don't we have a day of celebration and statues in his honor? Here is Micheline Bernardini modeling the first bikini. When asked how the bikini differed from other two-piece swimsuits, Reard explained that it's a bikini if it's small enough to pull through a wedding ring.

The Limoncello Martini

2010-07-02T09:09:00.000-05:00

This turned out to be quite nice. I was surprised.

3 oz. Vodka (I use Tito's)
1 oz. Limoncello
1 tsp simple syrup

Shake with ice, pour straight up and garnish with lemon peel.

Wacky Summer Drinks

2010-07-01T16:11:00.000-05:00

Last summer I wrote about the Mai Tai and how to make it, which got some nice notice from Trader Vic's who invented it. It was also a great way to get through a hot Texas summer--not the writing about it, but the testing of it. So, I'm going to take up the challenge again this summer.

First up is Limoncello, an Italian liquer with a lemon flavor. Mary Fran brought some home because she was watching Giada De Laurentiis's cooking show and some Travel Channel show about Italy and got the idea that she needed Italian booze. I'd have bought Grappa, but she doesn't have a taste for Grappa.

The Limoncello looks good. It comes in a tall, thin bottle and is bright yellow in color. We tried it straight up in a cordial glass with coffee after dinner. It tasted like a lemon drop soaked in medicine.We both agreed that Limoncello needs to be mixed with something.

I looked up some recipes and found a surprising number, which I intend to try, especially the Limoncello martini, but for our second go, I improvised with some ingredients at hand--half of a fresh peach and some cranberry juice. The result was a very refreshing concoction. I don't know what to call it, but here is the recipe. It makes two servings.

Limoncello
1/2 fresh peach
4oz. cranberry juice.

Puree the peach half and the cranberry juice in a blender.

Fill two old fashioned glasses with ice, pour 1 1/2 oz Limoncello into each glass. Divide the peach puree between the two glasses, top off with more cranberry juice.

The peach mellows out the Limoncello and complements it.

More epub

2010-06-23T09:54:00.000-05:00

The new edition of Pilikia Is My Business will need a new cover. So I did some thinking about covers. Here's the cover of Piikia as it appeared on the first LTDBooks edition. The two elements are the face of a woman, presumably Val Lyon, the main character, and a late model sedan. Such a car does play a role in the story.

What do I like about the cover?

1. It contains elements that actually appear in the story.

2. A character figures prominently.

I like covers that show something about a character. I'm not a fan of covers that show inanimate objects. Robert Parker's Hundred Dollar Baby has a picture of a semi-automatic pistol and a red garter belt. I get that it's a mystery with a woman, but I would rather see the character holding the gun and a woman wearing the garter. In short, I like to see not only a character, but something of the character's plight on the cover. The kind of covers found on vintage paperbacks by artists such as Robert McGinnis and Robert McGuire met this ideal

What I don't like about my Pilikia cover is that there is no story. Val's plight is not evident anywhere on the cover. In fact, you can't even tell it is a mystery.

So, my first two requirements for a cover are 1) character, and 2) story.

Another feature of vintage paperbacks is that they stood out on the drugstore racks where they tended to be sold. There was nothing subtle about them. They were designed to catch the attention of shoppers across the store. Subtle covers are fine for books sold in bookstores where customers browse leisurely and up close through the offerings. When you have only a small item that must stand out, color and a striking image become important.

Have you seen how books are sold in the iBook, Kindle and Nook stores? They are displayed by thumbnails, with eight, ten or twenty thumbnails per page. The iBook thumbnails are smallest, measuring three eighths of an inch wide and five eighths high. The Kindle thumbs are twice that size and the Nook thumbs are slightly larger. They are being sold like drugstore books. They are arranged on the page, the way paperbacks were displayed on racks in the old days. Most of the bookcovers currently in the online stores are full-size covers shrunk down to tiny size. Most of them fail to grab your attention. To get attention in an online store, I believe, a cover must show a character in some kind of danger. The image must be clearly visible and striking, not subtle, with vibrant colors.

So now I have three requirements for a cover:

1. character

2. story

3. striking enough to grab attention when shrunk to 3/8" by 5/8" size.

In a future post, I'll show my top choices for the new edition of Pilikia Is My Business. What do you like in a book cover?

Adventures in ePub

2010-05-31T21:02:00.001-05:00

I decided that I need to get Pilikia Is My Business into the ibook store. It's already available in Kindle, but I'm betting the iPad is the reader of the future. Even though the iBook store is limited right now, I think it will be a big market soon. Now is a good time to get into it. When LTDBooks closed, all of the rights to Pilikia returned to me, so there's nothing to keep me from making it available.

Apple's requirements for indie publishers are:

Requirements for Distributing Content on the iBookstore

Technical Requirements:

An Intel-based Mac running OS X 10.5 or later

At least 1 GB RAM

QuickTime 7.0.3 or later. This is so you can encode and deliver content using our dedicated software.

Book Content Requirements:

ISBNs for all titles you intend to distribute

You must be able to deliver your book content in EPUB format, passing EpubCheck 1.0.5.

Financial Requirements:

A US Tax ID

A valid iTunes Store account, with a credit card on file

Apple does not pay partners until they meet payment requirements and earning thresholds in each territory. You should consider this before applying to work directly with Apple as you may receive payments faster by working with an Apple-approved aggregator.

I've got the first three requirements. I need new a new ISBN (I think). I just downloaded the ePub application. I'll let you know how it goes.

Top Beaches

2010-05-28T11:32:00.000-05:00

The Honolulu Star Bulletin reports today that Duke Kahanamoku Beach in Waikiki made Dr. Beach's top ten list. Duke Kahanamoku is located in front of the Hilton Hawaiian Village and Fort DeRussey.

Here is Dr. Beach's list:

SUPERB SHORELINES

Here is the list of top 10 beaches for 2010 from Stephen P. Leatherman, director of Florida International University's Laboratory for Coastal Research, also known as Dr. Beach:

1. Coopers Beach, Southampton, N.Y.

2. Siesta Beach, Sarasota, Fla.

3. Coronado Beach, San Diego

4. Cape Hatteras, Outer Banks, N.C.

5. Main Beach, East Hampton, N.Y.

6. Duke Kahanamoku Beach, Waikiki

7. Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod, Mass.

8. Beachwalker Park, Kiawah Island, S.C.

9. Hamoa Beach, Maui

10. Cape Florida State Park, Key Biscayne, Fla.

Kailua Beach, shown here, is still my favorite.

New Blog Link Added

2010-05-26T17:15:00.000-05:00

I've added a new blog to the Holoholo list. Sarah Cortez will be featuring military or ex-military writers in all genres. Here is the link: http://www.poetacortez.com/

Book 'Em, Danno

2010-05-18T13:01:00.002-05:00

Is this the new McGarrett?

Big News! According to today's Honolulu Advertiser, Hawaii Five-O is set to return on CBS.

Network executives were so enthralled with the recently completed pilot for a "Five-0" series remake that they gave the green light to the modern version of the beloved crime series, said Georja Skinner, administrator for the state's creative services division, which oversees the Hawai'i Film Office.

Filming is expected to begin in the Islands in July.

The characters we all loved will be back. McGarrett will be played by Alex O'Loughlin (above).

Scott Caan gets the part of Danno Williams.

Chin Ho Kelly will be played by "Lost" star, Daniel Dae Kim.

Kono Kalakaua will be played by Grace Park. It's not known if she will get a female first name. Maybe it will be Kona, which means "Lady."

I can't wait for this show to start. I just hope they keep the Ventures' theme song.

Update on Fresh Kills panel

2010-05-02T21:05:00.000-05:00

Brazos Writers and Barnes and Noble had our Texas Mystery Month event yesterday. The event was a panel we called "Fresh Kills" because we featured three authors with new books. Jim Hime (Where Armadillos Go to Die), Susan Rogers Cooper (Shotgun Wedding), and Stephen Banister (The St. Charles House) comprised the panel. They answered questions and read from their books. About thirty people turned out for the event. Unfortunately, B&N wasn't able to get Susan's books, despite assuring me they would have them. I was embarrassed by that. Susan was a real trooper, however, and talked about her books and answered questions like a real pro.

Texas Mystery Month Schedule from Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas Chapter

2010-04-24T18:23:00.000-05:00

Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas Chapter is pleased to announce the
Twelfth Annual 2010 Texas Mystery Month in May. Texas Mystery Month is a community service project of Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas Chapter. The purpose of Texas Mystery Month is to spotlight Texas Mystery Authors. All Texas Mystery Authors are invited to participate.

Texas Mystery Month events include panel discussions, book signings, author presentations and more. Austin, College Station, Houston, San Antonio and Seguin are celebrating Texas Mystery Authors with activities in May, Texas Mystery Month.

2010 Texas Mystery Month events currently scheduled include:

February 16-May 16 - Barbara Burnett Smith Aspiring Writers Project, Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas Chapter and the Barbara Burnett Smith Mentoring Authors Foundation - Contact Sarah Ann Robertson <hotxsinc@yahoo.com>

May 1, Saturday, 3:00-5:00 pm - Mystery Author Panel: Fresh Kills - Stephen Banister, Susan Rogers Cooper, James Hime, Mark Troy, Moderator metroy@mac.com . Barnes & Noble Booksellers , 711 Texas Avenue, College Station, TX 77840, Kerre Cole, Community Relations Manager, 1-979-764-8969. crm2875@bn.com

May 8, Saturday, 1:00-3:00 p.m. - Author Panel - Contact "Nancy Glass West" <intrigue101@sbcglobal.net>, Twig Book Shop, San Antonio

May 10, Monday, 6:40 p.m. - Author Mitch Haynes - Sherlock Holmes Society of Austin aka Waterloo Crossing, Contact Sarah Ann Robertson <sherlockholmessocietyaustin@yahoo.com>   Mangia-Mesa Drive Mesa Crossing Shopping Center 8012 Mesa Drive Austin, Texas 78731 1-512-349-2126

May 12, Wednesday, 7:00 p.m. - Author Panel - "Nancy Glass West" <intrigue101@sbcglobal.net>, Barnes & Noble-San Pedro Crossing, 321 NW Loop, #104 San Antonio, Texas78216   Debra Castanon, Community Relations Manager, 1-210-342-9426 crm2802@bn.com

May 15, Saturday, 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. - Author Panel - "Carolyn Banks" <cbanks@austin.rr.com>, The Book Basket 913 Main Street Bastrop, Texas 78602
Carol Pennell 1-512-332-0777   cepennell@hotmail.com

May 15, Saturday, 2:00-4:00 p.m. - Author Panel - "Nancy Glass West" <intrigue101@sbcglobal.net>, Hastings-Seguin

May 16, Sunday, 2:00-5:00 p.m. - Barbara Burnett Smith Aspiring Writers Event - Contact Sarah Ann Robertson <hotxsinc@yahoo.com>, Barnes & Noble-Westlake, Austin

May 22, Saturday - Mystery Author Extravaganza: Dave Ciambrone, Byron Riddle, F. J. Schaak, Ph.D, Sylvia Dickey Smith, Marcia Spillers, Moderator <spillersal2@att.net> Barnes & Noble-Arboretum, Austin 10000 Research Blvd. Austin, TX 78759     Janice Langlinais Community Relations Manager 512-418-1013  crm2536@bn.com

May 23, Sunday, 3:00 p.m. - Mystery Author Panel:  "Destination: Idea-ville --Where Novels Come From." Eight mystery authors discuss where they get their ideas: Dave Ciambrone, Laura Griffin,   Russ Hall, Mitch Haynes,  Jim Parker,   Sylvia Dickey Smith,  Nancy Glass West, Joan Upton Hall (moderator).      Contact "Joan Upton Hall" <JMUHall@aol.com>, BookPeople, Austin

May 29, Saturday, 4:30 p.m., "The Variety within the Genre" - Laura Elvebak, Mitch Haynes, Caroline Shearer, Gayle Wigglesworth, Moderator <gaylewigg@embarqmail.com>,Murder by the Book 2342 Bissonet Street Houston, Texas 77005   David Thompson, Manager 1-713-524-8597   <murderbk@swbell.net>

Texas Mystery Month

2010-04-18T17:15:00.000-05:00

Brazos Writers and Barnes and Noble are hosting an author panel for Texas Mystery Month on May 1. Here are the particulars.

Fun with iPad

2010-04-16T06:50:00.000-05:00

Ebooks I purchased.

Michael Connelly's Nine Dragons, a Harry Bosch novel. I bought Nine Dragons to test the iBook reader on the iPad. It's a real page turner, or, in the iBook metaphor, a real page flinger. Of course a Harry Bosch book is a page turner regardless of the medium, so maybe it's the wrong choice. This one comes with a brief video of Connelly himself talking about the book in Hong Kong.

James Himes's Where Armadillos Go To Die. This is Himes's third book, but my first, I bought it to read on the Kindle app. After side-by-side comparisons, I have decided I like the iBook better. Although I haven't finished it yet, I highly recommend this book.

I searched the Apple store for Lee Child books and found eight or nine. I downloaded one I hadn't read yet, but when I opened it, discovered it didn't have paragraph marks making it nearly impossible to read. So, I deleted it and wrote a one-star review in which I complained about the formatting. Maybe somebody read it. When I returned to the store today, there were only four Child books and they were all formatted well. I'd like to think someone read my feedback and diode something about it.

iPad

2010-04-05T06:56:00.002-05:00

I got in touch with my inner geek this weekend. I bought an iPad. On Saturday morning, I stopped by Best Buy about 10 o'clock. I expected lines for the iPad, but there were none. Instead, a clerk was passing out tickets. They had thirty on a truck from Houston that was due in fifteen minutes, he said. It turned out to be more like an hour and a half before they had the truck unloaded and the boxes unpacked. There were about twenty of us waiting around and trying out the one demo unit on hand.

While I waited, I bought the Snow Leopard upgrade for my Macbook and the Beatles' Rubber Soul. That only shows I should not be allowed to spend time in Best Buy unsupervised.

I'm not particularly geeky and don't rush into new tech things, although I have on occasion bought things because they were new. The first time I saw an electronic calculator with a square root function, I bought it. It was in Singapore in 1975 and it cost $50. It might be the most expensive electronic device I ever bought, not only because 50 1975 dollars would be a lot more now, but because I was only making $90 a month in the Peace Corps.

In 1984, I bought one of the first Macs. It had 256K of ram and had a single 3.25 disk drive. I paid about $2100 for the computer and printer. I've had many Macs at home or at work since and none have been as expensive.

My iPad is the 32 gig model. It cost $599. It will probably cost half of that in a year and have 5 times the memory. Oh well.

Macs are easy to set up and this was easiest of all. Usually when you open a computer there will be a pamphlet on how to set it up. My first Mac had a manual. My Macbook came with four or five pages. The iPad came with a 3 X 5 card that had a picture of the device with an arrow pointing to the on/off switch and another arrow pointing to the cable and an outline of another computer. I turned it on and the screen lit up with a picture of the usb cable and the iTunes logo. Hook the usb to a computer and open iTunes. I got it.

That's when I ran into the first glitch. It wasn't Apple's doing. I simply had not yet installed the latest update of iTunes, the one Apple had released a few days earlier in anticipation of the iPad. Once I installed the upgrade and hooked up the iPad, the operating system downloaded in a minute and the iPad fired right up.

While I spent the next hour setting up the iPad apps and exploring the device, I installed Snow Leopard on my Macbook. The installation actually took a couple of hours. In the meantime, I had discovered that the iPad had synced my calendar but had not loaded any of my music. As soon as the new operating system was installed, I hooked up the iPad again. It came with an iPod app, but the iTunes on my Macbook wouldn't sync with it. I went online to Apple and found a manual that said to click on the iPad icon in the device menu in iTunes. The icon wasn't there. I did some searches on how to sync, but found nothing helpful. I was getting frustrated and considered taking the device back to Best Buy.

Sunday morning, I tried again. Same result. Then, all of a sudden, I had a brain flash. I had installed a new operating system on the Macbook. Sure enough, there was an upgrade for Snow Leopard that allowed it to recognize the iPad. I installed the upgrade and all the songs in my library downloaded just fine.

I don't know yet how I'm going to use the iPad. It comes with an ebook reader, so I immediately downloaded Michael Connelly's Nine Dragons. Reading on the iPad is easy. I'll write more about that later. The device doesn't do multi-tasking, but it does play music while reading. What could be better than that?

Girls will be girls?

2010-02-26T17:44:00.001-06:00

I'm an Olympics junkie, especially the adrenaline sports like downhill racing, snowboarding, sledding and speed skating. I can't say I have ever been much of a hockey fan, but after the criticism the Canadian women have received, I am on their side. What did they do? They celebrated the crowning achievement, the pinnacle of their career, a win over their arch rival in the contest that matters the most. They won Olympic gold and they celebrated like. . .like. . .OMG, like HOCKEY players.

They broke out the cigars, the beer and the champagne and cavorted on the ice in their uniforms with their medals in front of their fans.

That's bad? It's HOCKEY!

What did people expect when they made hockey an Olympic sport? This is not the sport of gentlemen aristocrats anymore. This is a sport that Canadians take seriously, that fans watch religiously, and that brings out the highest level of competition in its participants. These women worked hard and sacrificed much to achieve this goal. They earned their celebration.

I think the furor arose because these are women and women aren't suppose to behave this way. This is exactly what opponents of Title IX feared. Women acting competitively. It was fine for women to compete in sports such as figure skating in which competitors wear abbreviated, sequined outfits and perform graceful movements to music. Team competition was something else. I don't mean to belittle figure skaters. The athletes are as dedicated and hard-working as hockey players. The athleticism required for figure skating is extraordinary. In fact, I think figure skaters should be allowed to celebrate raucously, though I don't think we will see any. Figure skating competition is more artistic and the celebrations are more subdued.

Back to HOCKEY. What did people think they would see when women put on pads and took up sticks in a fast-moving, violent game? This is HOCKEY!

Congratulations CANADA!

Oh, and those guys aren't women. Those are the Hanson brothers from Slapshot. I think the IOC ought to chill out and watch that movie.

New Agent

2010-02-19T07:02:00.000-06:00

I finally signed with Roger Williams of Publish or Perish Agency. It took longer than I expected it too. Leaving Gina and Talcott Notch was not a simple matter. The termination clause in my contract required thirty days notice. Moreover, any pending sales belonged to Gina. It turned out that at the time of termination, five publishers were reviewing the Splintered Paddle manuscript. That caused further delays while we waited to see if any of them would make an offer. Talk about a frustrating wait. I was torn between wanting the publishers to reject it and wanting them to make an offer. Since I'd already notified Gina I was leaving Talcott, what would happen if one of the five made an offer? Gina would be the agent, but how would our relationship be?

Fortunately, there was no acrimony in leaving Talcott. I think Gina is a good agent and I wish her well. She helped me a lot in making Splintered Paddle into a publishable manuscript. When I was searching for agents, Gina first requested the manuscript and then rejected it. However, the rejection came with a two-page, single-spaced critique. Wow! I'd never received anything like that from an agent. I wrote back and thanked her for it. She responded with another page of thoughts on it and said she'd be willing to look at it again if I revised it. Revise, I did. Three drafts later, I sent it back to her and she agreed to represent it.

Gina represented the manuscript for three years. I left because I became frustrated at no action in that time. I don't know if the lack of action was due to the book being not quite right for publishers or if Gina was contacting the wrong editors. I wish she had given me more reports. I still don't know how many publishers considered the book in that time. At any rate, after three years, I decided I needed a change. First, I revised the book once again and then sent it to Helen Ginger for editing. Helen did a great job. If any of you are looking for an editor, talk to Helen. She is prompt and thorough. I can't say enough about her. You want informative tips about writing? Visit her Straight From Hel blog.

I did send the revised manuscript back to Gina, but seeing no action in nine months, decided to look for another agent.

Roger's agency impressed me with the straight talk to writers on his website and with his blog in which he lists his query queue so you know where the things stand with him. He was enthusiastic about the book and gave me a lot of great advice. He strikes me as very knowledgeable about the industry. I'm looking forward to working with him.

Where I'll Be

2010-02-19T06:18:00.000-06:00

This weekend I'll be in Madisonville, Texas signing books.

Madison County Writers Guild Meet the Authors Book Sale & Signing
on February 20, 2010

Madison County Writers Guild in partnership with the Madison County Arts Council invites you to participate in Meet the Authors Book Sale & Signing on Saturday February 20, 2010. The event will be held at the Truman Kimbro Center on the Square in downtown Madisonville at 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

Madison County and the city of Madisonville is a pretty are with plenty of history. The town bills itself as the Mushroom Capital of Texas. You can find out more about Madisonville here.

Word verification

2010-02-12T08:48:00.000-06:00

I really like it when people comment on my posts. However, lately, I have been receiving a lot of spam postings from what I suspect are robots. So I have changed the settings on this blog so that word verification will be required. I really hate to do that because I don't like those things. It always takes me two or three tries to get the word right. However, I don't see any other options. This is not directed at you kind people who have posted insightful comments. I hope it won't discourage you from posting. If you are a robot, however, this is directed at you. So readers, please be bear with me on the word notification. It seems to be the only way to stop these pesky bots.

The Superbowl

2010-02-08T15:48:00.003-06:00

I watched the Superbowl yesterday along with millions of other people. I thought it was a good game. I'm happy the Saints won, but I'd have been just as happy if the Colts had one. These were two good teams, with good people and coaches on both. The Saints ran some gutsy plays, especially the onside kick to start the second half. Overall, I think they had a little more intensity than the Colts.

The halftime show. I like The Who and have always liked them. Their music was exciting and edgy forty years ago. The Who should have performed in Superbowl IV. Last night, it was just nostalgia time and the song "Teenage Wasteland" was more irony than anything. Why doesn't the NFL bring exciting acts? I'm tired of television specials that feature geezer rock or American Idol winners. I'd like to see new faces, new voices, and cutting edge entertainment.

The ads. Most were boring with a noticeable tone of mysogyny. The really creative ad came from Google. It was a novel about an international romance told in Google searches. Very good. Hats off to you Google.

Top Ten Sidekicks

2010-02-03T13:23:00.011-06:00

I put up a post on Make Mine Mystery about the function of sidekicks in fiction. You can read it here. Here now is my top ten list of favorite sidekicks. Let me know who your favorites are:

Main character: Sherlock Holmes, sidekick Dr. John Watson. Watson was portayed as something of a buffoon in the movies, but that does a great injustice to him. He is every bit the equal of Holmes in some respects. He is a scientist and a surgeon, a former military man who distinguished himself in Afghanistan. He is athletic and good with a gun. He might be a step behind Holmes in solving the mysteries, but it is a small step and he is always way ahead of everybody else.

Main character: Han Solo, sidekick: Chewbacca. Chewy is the reincarnation of Hanuman, the monkey god from the Ramayana. Who wouldn't want a Wookie for a sidekick? He doesn't speak English so you don't have to listen to him complain and with those bandaleros, he's never out of ammo.

Main character: Encyclopedia Brown, sidekick: Sally Kimball. Sally, the prettiest, toughest girl in fifth grade, is an intelligent character, though she doesn't have Encyclopedia's storehouse of facts. She's also tough. When Encyclopedia needs a bully punched out, Sally does it. I imagine Sally grows up to be a lot like my main character, Ava Rome.

Main character: Spenser, sidekick: Hawk. Hawk is sometimes called a sociopath. He doesn’t have Spenser's moral center, but he does have one. He's a former mob enforcer, though his criminal activities are never shown. The difference in ethnicity is the source of banter between them.

Main character, Modesty Blaise, sidekick: Willie Garvin. Willie was sprung from jail by Modesty and became her right hand man, first in her criminal organization and later in her spy adventures. His sense of right and wrong is governed by morality rather than laws. There is no sexual tension between Modesty and Willie. Although Willie is a lady's man and Modesty is attractive, Willie feels he owes her too much to consider a physical relationship.

Main character: Elvis Cole, sidekick: Joe Pike. Sometimes I wonder why these two are friends. Elvis is a smart mouth and Joe seems to barely tolerate his jokes. If you're in a fight, however, Joe is the guy you want on your side.

Main character: Rick Hunter, sidekick: Dee Dee McCall. Dee Dee was a police detective with the rank of sergeant. She was one of the first truly professional women police detectives on television. She knew what she was doing and she could take care of herself. She was more likely to do things by the book than Hunter, but she wasn't afraid to do what was necessary to stop the bad guys. There was always some smirking sexual tension between them, but their relationship didn't get physical until the end of the series. And look at that hair. Who's her stylist? A Wookie?

Main character: Xena, sidekick: Gabrielle. Gabrielle started out as a chronicler of Xena's exploits but developed into a warrior in her own right. She had to rescue Xena on several occasions. Did their relationship go beyond trust and loyalty to something romantic? Most people think so. This is a family blog or I'd show you a picture of "the kiss."

Main character: Hap Collins, sidekick: Leonard Pine. How did these two get together? Leonard and Hap are opposites in many ways. Leonard is black, Hap is white. Leonard is a hard-headed conservative, Hap is a bleeding-heart liberal. Leonard is gay, Hap is straight. What they both like to do is fight. They banter constantly about sex and race. Somehow, it all works together.

Main character: The Cisco Kid, sidekick Pancho. Cisco liked women and Pancho liked food. Both were likely to get them into trouble. Pancho was no slouch when it cam to action. His weapon of choice was the bullwhip. At the end of every adventure, Cisco would say, "Eh, Pancho," and Pancho replied, "Eh, Cisco," and they would ride off laughing into the sunset.

Who are your favorites?

Haiti relief

2010-01-28T20:21:00.004-06:00

Sniplits is making a generous offer to help Haitian relief. Anne Stuessy had this announcement yesterday:

Sniplits joins Haiti relief effort

Like people all over the world, we've been heartbroken by the devastation and loss caused by the earthquake in Haiti. So Sniplits is joining the entertainment industry in doing what we can. From now through Valentine's Day (February 14, 2010), Sniplits will be donating the net proceeds on all story sales to Hope for Haiti Now.

If you like great short stories, go to Sniplits where you will find great stories by such authors as Libby Fischer Hellman, Michael Bracken, O'neill De Noux and others. You will be treating yourself and contributing to an important cause.

While you're looking for good stories, check out Kill Leader. It costs $1.08. If you buy it between now and Feb. 14, I'll donate $10 to Haitian relief. Just post a comment on this blog or send me an email to metroy at mac.com.

Robert B. Parker

2010-01-20T10:01:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, we lost one of the pillars of detective fiction, Robert B. Parker. I posted my thoughts on his passing on Make Mine Mystery and don't have much to add to what I said there. One of the points I made, however, is that Parker blew life into a fading genre with his Spenser series. Spenser is a tough guy, romantic who is in a long-term, committed relationship with Susan Silverman. This was an innovation in the genre, and even though many readers hate Susan, and even though their relationship is sometimes overly cute, it changed detective fiction forever. No longer are detectives loners, unable to commit to anyone, hopping from bed to bed with a succession of empty-headed women. Now we find them in complex relationships with strong intelligent men and women.

Spenser met Susan in 1974's God Save the Child. It probably didn't seem like much at the time, but 36 years later, the romance is still strong.

Here is the scene that started it all.

"Why don't you take off your coat?" she said.
"Well, it's supposed to make me look taller," I said.
"Sitting down?"
"No, I guess not," I said and stood up and took it off.
"I don't think you need to look taller, Mr. Spenser," she said. When she smiled, the color of her face seemed to heighten. "How tall are you?"
"Six one," I said.
"Really? That's surprising. I must admit you don't look that tall."
"Even with the raincoat?" I said.
"Even with that," she said. "You're so wide. Do you work with weights?"
"Yeah, some. How could you tell? Your husband lift?"
"Ex-husband," she said. "Yes, he played tackle for Harvard and stayed with the weights afterward."

God Save the Child. Robert B. Parker

Robert B. Parker was a master of stories that are always readable and entertaining. He died at his desk. We'll miss him.

It's cold in Texas

2010-01-09T17:09:00.003-06:00

How cold is it? This is the tiki god fountain on our deck this morning. You know it's cold when the tiki god freezes.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2010-01-02T14:19:00.007-06:00

Christmas in New York City. Mary Fran and I decided what could be better than to spend Christmas in the Big Apple. We left on Dec. 20, the day the big blizzard hit the eastern seaboard. Because we were coming from the center of the country--Dallas by way of Chicago--none of our flights were affected by the weather. We arrived about 4:30 in the evening. It was cold and the ground was covered with snow, the streets with slush.

Our hotel was the famous Algonquin, the oldest hotel in New York, where they greet you with an apple when you arrive. Each door in the hotel has a quote from one of the round-table members. Ours, from Dorothy Parker, was,

"You can lead a hoticulture but you can't make her think."

The Algonquin is located on 44th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, a block and a half from Times Square and about 5 blocks from Rockefeller Center.

Times Square

Radio City Music Hall

The Christmas Tree
at Rockefeller Center

Team Troy

2009-12-19T09:26:00.003-06:00

On Sunday, I ran the Dallas White Rock Half-Marathon with my son, Michael. It was his first race of any great distance. The weather was great--about 50 degrees and overcast the whole way. I've run the Rock before, but always the full marathon which goes around White Rock Lake. The half doesn't get out to the lake and takes a different route on the return. The last six miles follow the Katy Trail, a hike and bike path through Dallas. I have to say the Katy Trail is beautiful. Dallasites should be very proud of it. I hope they appreciate it and put it to a lot of use.

About the race. It was fun and well organized. Michael beat me by four minutes. His time was 2:27, very respectable for first race. I finished in 2:31. Here's Michael about mile 7.

And here's Team Troy at the finish.

Update on Kill Leader

2009-12-09T15:08:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I received my check from Sniplits for Kill Leader, which only proves that reprints can be profitable. I didn't make anything on the story when it was first published. Now I've made more on this story than any other short story.

Eddie Would Go

2009-12-09T15:01:00.002-06:00

The Eddie Aikau surf competition was held yesterday at Waimea Bay. The Eddie is the mother of all big wave contests and is only held when conditions are right for gigantic waves. Yesterday was only the eighth time it was held in the event's 25-year history. The waves were 30-40 feet with occasional waves reaching 50 feet. Are these guys nuts? A four-story wall of water falling on you will hurt. But man the pictures are great!. Look at the photo gallery on the Star Bulletin page or play the video. Talk about power! Hat's off to the guys who rode those monsters.

Pearl Harbor Mystery Cleared Up

2009-12-07T15:22:00.001-06:00

After sixty-eight years, an enduring mystery surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor has been cleared up. The Honolulu Star Bulletin reports that the remains of a Japanese midget submarine, believed to have sunk the USS Oklahoma, have been found.

Audio Story Released

2009-11-27T11:12:00.002-06:00

My story, "Kill Leader," originally published in 1999 in Plots With Guns is now available in audio format from Sniplits. The story is read by Rebecca Gallagher, who did a marvelous job with it. It's one of the featured stories this week. If you have a chance to listen to it, let me know what you think about it.

Interview with Lono Waiwaiole, Part II

2009-11-19T05:00:00.003-06:00

This is the second part of an interview with mystery writer Lono Waiwaiole. The first part appeared yesterday on Make Mine Mystery. If you missed it, you can catch it here. Lono's latest book, Dark Paradise, tells

I took part in a panel at Bouchercon where everybody but me said you couldn't have a hardboiled/noir novel set in Hawaii. It needed to be in a rust-belt setting, Is that possible or is Dark Paradise an aberration in that respect?

If your vision of Hawai`i can be reflected in tourist posters, I think you can advance the idea that noir fiction cannot be supported very well by the Hawaiian environment. The deeper your understanding of the place is, however, the better you can support the view you advanced on your panel. If you look at the major works of fiction that have come out of Hawai`i, you will see a lot of darkness--the place has the kind of dramatic tension below the surface which typically attracts novelists.

That's looking at the argument through the lens of society. If you look at it in terms of setting, I can say the same thing. A tropical paradise is brilliant color and lush flora on the surface, but the primary action one level down from that is decay and rot in which countless creepy creatures flourish.

You were right and the rest of your panel was wrong. Dark Paradise is an aberration so far, but only because not many writers have decided to mine those depths so far. There is most definitely a there there.

The most compelling characters in Dark Paradise are Geronimo, an adulterous cop with a gambling problem (he's the good guy) and a teenager named Nalani who becomes an effective player because of the abuse she's suffered from her father. The big question in this reader's mind is, "Will Nalani be all right?" Even at the end, we're not sure. What do you think? Can you say without giving the ending away?

The answer to that question is the same as the answer to this one: Will the Hawaiian Islands be all right? I hope so in both cases. Certainly both have the potential to go either way.

Sonnyboy, the drug dealer, is like a rock star to the locals. Is he based on anybody you know?

Yes and no. He's like a lot of smiling warriors I have met from Polynesia, essentially good-natured but quite capable of beating your brains out (and actually inclined to do so for entertainment from time to time). To totally beat down the Hawaiians, you have to go through all the Sonnys. I tried to suggest in this book that doing so would be difficult.

How did you develop your ear for Hawaiian pidgin and dialect living in Portland?

This is one of many reasons this book could not have been written before I moved to Hilo. I had been exposed to these sounds and rhythms by encountering some of the many Hawaiians living in the Portland area, but I didn't have it down until I was immersed in it for a couple of years. (Assuming I have it down now, of course.)

I did some word counts and found 1.4 variations of the f word per page, which works out to 434 instances. Comment?

My comment on this score is the same as the one above. The incidence of the f word reflects my reading of the language spoken by these characters. Some writers try to minimize the appearance of some words, but I let my characters speak however they speak. It costs me some readers, I know, but I prefer that to having my characters turn on me for unwarranted censorship.

Coming tomorrow

2009-11-17T13:44:00.002-06:00

I interview Lono Waiwaiole on Make Mine Mystery in the first of a two-part interview Then, on Thursday, come back here for the second part.

In his varied career, Lono Waiwaiole has been an editor, sports information director and professional poker player. He currently teaches english and social studies in Gaston Oregon and writes hard-boiled, noir mysteries.

Lono's debut novel, Wiley's Lament, was named a finalist for the 2003 Oregon Book Awards for fiction and an Anthony award for best first novel of 2003. It was followed by Wiley's Shuffle (2004) and Wiley's Refrain (2005). The three books feature a tough, cynical poker player named Wiley. The first two books are set in Portland, Oregon and the third is set part in Portland and part on the Big Island of Hawai'i. The Wiley books are known for being as noir as they come. The body counts are high.

In 2009 Lono stepped away from the Wiley series with Dark Paradise (Dennis McMillan Publications.) Dark Paradise is set on the Big Island. It is a modern day crime story whose roots lie deep in the imperialism and "internal colonialism" practiced by the United States on this island culture. The body counts are just as high.

Part I tomorrow on Make Mine Mystery.
Part II, here on Thursday.

Smoke and Fire.

2009-10-21T22:23:00.007-05:00

Last weekend, I went with a dozen friends, most of them writers, to Art and Helene Burnett's place in Bremond, Texas, about forty miles from College Station. Art Burnett, is an avid gun collector and firearms historian. He had prepared a hands-on demonstration of some antique weapons along with some discussion of their history. The guns included a replica of a fifteenth century matchlock, some flintlocks, a caplock, and various old West shotguns, carbines, and revolvers. After the lecture and demonstrations, the day concluded with a pumpkin shoot where we all dispatched an army of squash to the great pumpkin patch in the sky. Check out the Great Pumpkin Shoot on his website

We fired them all. Here are pictures of me firing a .45 Winchester 1874 rifle, a .45 Colt single action revolver, and a 12 guage double-barreled shotgun, a copy of a Greener manufactured in England in the 1870s.

Winchester 1874 .45 long Colt

Colt single action, .45 ACP

Copy of a Greener 12 guage shotgun.

We shot a Sharps 1874 model .45-70, ths same gun Tom Selleck used in Quigly Down Under. and a modern .45-70 bolt action. The difference between the two is that the Sharps fired a black powder cartridge and the modern one loaded hotter. I though the Sharps had a recoil, but the modern one nearly took my shoulder off, but talk about pumpkin stopping. This is why squash fear me.

Sharps 1874, .45-70

Nothing compared to firing that matchlock. It was about 2/3 replica of a British model and fired a .50 musket ball. You load it by pouring black powder down the muzzle, wrapping a lead ball in paper and ramming it home. Then you fill the firing pan with powder and attach a match to the mechanism. The match is a slow-burning fuse with an ember on the end. Here's a video of me with the matchlock. Talk about noise, smoke and fire. It's like grabbing a dragon by the tail.

Firing the matchlock

If you're a writer of any genre and need some authoritative information on weapons, modern or historical, contact Art Burnett at HomeplaceEnt@aol.com. And if you want a great learning experience, sign up for one of his events.

Some Friday Humor

2009-10-16T10:00:00.001-05:00

The New Yorker has a great satire on book promotion. Check it out here.

Father Damien Sainthood

2009-10-09T06:00:00.002-05:00

Fr. Damien will be elevated to sainthood this week, an event that has everybody in Hawaii excited. You can read the reactions here. Nobody is celebrating more than the remaining residents of Kalaupapa, the infamous leper colony of Molokai.

The history of leprosy and the policy of quarantine that brought Damien to Hawaii is sad and tragic. A recent book by John Tayman documents that horrible experiment in social engineering.

The Colony begins with a man and his family in a desperate flight for freedom that led to a military standoff in the mountains of Kauai. The man's crime? He had leprosy. Leprosy, now known as Hansen's Disease, reached the islands in the 1860s and the government responded in Biblical fashion: anyone suffering from the disease was pronounced "utterly unclean" and exiled to a peninsula on the island of Molokai.

The peninsula, Kalaupapa, was bounded at one end by sea cliffs so high and steep that goats fell off. It jutted out like an overturned flat iron into seas so rough that ships couldn't land. Instead, the exiles were rowed close to shore and tossed overboard with their belongings and forced to swim to the rocks. When they got there, they were greeted with the chilling words, "In this place there is no law." They had been tracked by bounty hunters, taken from their families, and forced to this place where all manner of crime and brutality awaited them. The colony had little food and little medical care.

Talk about injustice! Most were not contagious and many did not have the disease. A case of psoriasis was enough to send a man, woman or child into banishment. It was the longest and deadliest instance of medical segregation in American history. There are a lot of villains in the story, not the least of which are the doctors, public health officials and government servants who carried out and enforced the practice. Mostly the story is about the eventual triumph of the human spirit over ignorance and prejudice.

The elevation of Fr. Damien to sainthood is a fitting way to close this chapter.

Blow up doll

2009-10-08T05:00:00.000-05:00

From Hard Ticket To Hawaii, 1987.

When the chips are down, go for that four-barrel bazooka, hit the clown with your jeep to send him flying and blow him out of the sky. Who writes this stuff?

The snake is gone!

2009-10-05T05:00:00.001-05:00

Hard Ticket To Hawaii, 1987

This might be the worst movie ever set in Hawaii. Why?
Let me count the ways:
1.The dialogue is as wooden as a totem pole and not as interesting.
2. The main characters: I can't tell these blondes apart, except that one wears blue and one wears white.
3. The snake is really a hand puppet because there are no snakes in Hawaii. They couldn't even bring one in to film a realistic
scene.
4. Is that a woman in that stocking mask?
5. Wait until you see the next clip.

Charlie Chan Aphorism

2009-10-02T13:11:00.000-05:00

Coincidence like ancient egg - leave unpleasant odor.
-- Charlie Chan, Murder Over New York

Hard way to die

2009-10-01T11:16:00.003-05:00

From Hard Ticket To Hawaii, 1987.

When you've got beautiful beaches and beautiful women you've got to find inventive ways to kill people. But why not just shoot the guy? And why did the guy put down the machine gun? Polynesian paralysis, maybe.

I think the line "Great ass," deserves to be a hardboiled quote. I don't think there are any other memorable lines from this movie.

I wouldn't want to be in this family.

2009-09-25T09:11:00.002-05:00

Mackenzie Phillips's revelation of an incestuous relationship with her father, John Phillips, didn't earn her any sympathy from her brother. According to CNN,

Mackenzie's half-brother, Tamerlane, the follower of an Indian guru, is having none of it.

"My family is and always will be a decrepit bowl of dog urine compared to Nityananda of Ganeshpuri. That is how great Nityananda is," he told the New York Post's Page Six. "Worship Nityananda, not the Phillips family."

Summer Reads

2009-09-23T05:00:00.001-05:00

It's the end of summer and time to take stock of what I read. Here they are, in no particular order.

Shutter Island
The Night Gardener
Dogtown
Soultown
The Last Coyote
Bloodwork
Paper Doll
The Hard Way
The Enemy
Indigo Slam
L.A. Requien
Dark Paradise

Here are summaries of some of them. You can read the rest on MakeMineMystery.
The Night Gardener, George Pelecanos. Pelecanos never fails to deliver. A teen age boy is found shot to death in a community garden. The circumstances are eerily similar to some murders years earlier and bring an old cop out of retirement. There are none of the usual Pelecanos characters, but there is Washington D.C., stripped of it's marble and granite facades to reveal the people who live and work and die there.

Paper Doll, Robert B. Parker. Spenser is trying to solve the murder of a socialite and finds an entire Southern town against him. Vintage Parker.

Indigo Slam, L.A. Requiem, Robert Crais. Elvis Cole is hired by some latch-key to find their father who has fled the witness protection program in Indigo. Elvis and Joe Pike are a formidable team. Pike is such a controlled, laconic character, it's hard to imagine him as the protagonist of a story, yet that's what we get in L.A. Requiem when Pike's former girlfriend is murdered. Lot's of gunplay and wry wit in both.

The Last Coyote, Bloodwork, Michael Connolly. My favorite Connolly novel is usually the one I'm reading at the time, but put some distance between me and the stories and I'll say The Poet, The Narrows and Void Moon. Now I'll add Bloodwork to it. Just when I thought I had it figured out, Connolly kicked the chair out from under me. In Bloodwork, heart recipient Terry McCaleb tries to find the killer of the woman whose heart he has. Why can't I come up with ideas like that? In The Last Coyote, Harry Bosch tries to solve a decades old cold case, the murder of a prostitute--his mother.

The Hard Way, The Enemy, Lee Child. Does anybody plot better than Lee Child? In The Hard Way, Jack Reacher tries to find a mother and daughter who have been abducted. The story takes him from New York to London where he single-handedly wipes out the entire armored division of the US Army. Wait, scratch that. That's the other story. The Enemy is a flashback to when Reacher was an Army MP Major. The Berlin Wall is coming down and Noriega is on the run from the U.S. Army in Panama. Reacher is trying to solve the death of the general who commands the Army tank divisions. How does Child, a Brit, know so much about the workings of the U.S. Army. In the end, Reacher, armed with a Beretta, faces down a squadron of battle tanks.

Who Reads What?

2009-09-17T13:37:00.002-05:00

Lee Child's favorite books are Sophie's Choice by William Styron and Derailed by James Siegel.
Jan Burke's favorites are Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey and Trouble is My Business by Raymond Chandler.
Robert Crais's favorite is The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.

How do I know? The Gardiner Public Library, in Gardiner, ME, publishes a Celebrity Reading List, sponsored by Thomson Gale publishers.

Check it out and pass it on. It can only help to inspire others to read if they see the famous, the beautiful, and the cool reading.

R.I.P. Mary Travers

2009-09-17T13:09:00.002-05:00

Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary, passed away of complications following a bone marrow transplant for leukemia. She was 72.

Peter, Paul and Mary were the group that inspired me to take up the guitar. At one time, I think I was able to play all of their songs. My wife has all of their albums.

Mary's ringing voice on "If I Had a Hammer" and "Leaving On A Jet Plane," were as inspiring as the group's championing of social causes.

She will be missed.

Adios Amigo, R.I.P Patrick Swazye

2009-09-17T12:48:00.003-05:00

Sad news about Patrick Swazye passing away. Most women probably remember him for Dirty Dancing. My favorite Swayze movie, however is Point Break. I never pass it up when it comes on television. It ostensibly starred Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah, but the movie really belonged to Swayze as zen surfer, bank robber Bodhi (Bodhisatva).

Bodhi and his gang of ex-presidents are adrenaline junkies. Nothing is more adrenaline spiking than the skydiving sequences. They were totally unrealistic. No first time jumper is going to get trimmed up to fly like Reeves did. And how high long did that jump last? It seemed like that first jump went on forever, but if they jumped at 10,000 feet and screamed through the sky at 1,000 feet every ten seconds, they had, at most, 90 seconds of free fall before opening at 1,000 feet. That second jump where Utah leaves the plane without a parachute to catch up to Bodhi was an impressive stunt, but believable, for a jumper with one dive under his belt? No way! Still, it was exciting and I can't turn away whenever it come on.

Swayze did his own stunts for that. Awesome!

As Bodhi said when he exited the plane, "Adios Amigo."

Mai Tai Update for August

2009-08-25T20:24:00.003-05:00

It's official, the city of Oakland has proclaimed August 30 as the 65th birthday of the Mai Tai. Read about it here.

And this from Mano Thanos, owner of the Conga Lounge:

Mahalo Mark,
Your article on the mai tai campaign was the first mention on any blog or publication.
It helped having your blog appear when googling, mai tai campaign.
Since then we have been in the San Francisco Chronicle, Diablo Magazine and on Sunday
both Channel 2 news from Oakland and Channel7 news from S.F. are gonna be at
the Conga lounge for the Mai Tai Day proclamation.
See what you've started?
Mucho Mahalos from the mai tai campaign and the Conga lounge.
Mano.

Are you ready to skydive?

2009-08-25T08:40:00.004-05:00

Mystery and skydiving. Is there a better combination? There was my short story, Drop Dead Zone, then there was Vicki Hendricks's Sky Blues. Now comes Rachel Brady's Final Approach (Poisoned Pen Press.)

According to Publisher's Weekly, it has smart dialogue and a skydiving protagonist. That's enough for me. Not only that, Rachel is giving away your choice of 1) a copy of the book, 2) a copy of some other mystery, 3) a skydive, 4) a subscription to a skydiving magazine. Go to her site and check out the details.

Sounds like an adrenaline rush.

Hardboiled quote # 16

2009-08-24T09:34:00.001-05:00

And the boobs tend to give people the wrong idea about me. Weaker sex and all that shit.

Bo Fexler, PI in Hit Women on Beat To A Pulp.

New PI Discovered

2009-08-24T09:25:00.002-05:00

Beat To A Pulp has a new story up by Clair Dickson. It's called Hit Women and features a PI named Bo Fexler, who is one tough chick. This is the first Bo Fexler story i've read, but it is not the first Bo Fexler story. I've added a link to Clair's (and Bo's) blog where you can find more of her stories.

The hardboiled quote tells you all you need to know about Bo.

The 2009 Shamus nominees

2009-08-24T05:53:00.002-05:00

The nominees for the 2009 Shamus awards have been announced. The awards will be given at Bouchercon in October. Congratulations to all the nominees.

Best Hardcover
Salvation Boulevard by Larry Beinhart (Nation Books)
Empty Ever After by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House Books)
The Blue Door by David Fulmer (Harcourt)
The Price of Blood by Declan Hughes (Wm. Morrow)
The Ancient Rain by Domenic Stansberry (St. Martins Minotaur)

Best First PI Novel
Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer (Doubleday)
Swann’s Last Song by Charles Salzberg (Five Star)
The Eye of Jade by Diane Wei Liang (Simon & Schuster)
In the Heat by Ian Vasquez (St. Martins Minotaur)
Veil of Lies by Jeri Westerson (St Martins Minotaur)

Best Paperback Original
Snow Blind by Lori Armstrong (Medallion)
Shot Girl by Karen Olson (Obsidian)
The Stolen by Jason Pinter (MIRA)
The Black Hand by Will Thomas (Touchstone/Simon &Schuster)
The Evil That Men Do by Dave White (Crown/Three Rivers Press)

Best Short Story
“Family Values” by Mitch Alderman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 2008)
“Last Island South” by John C. Boland. (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Sep/Oct 2008)
“The Blonde Tigress” by Max Allan Collins (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, June 2008)
“Discovery” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Nov 2008)
“Panic on Portage Path” by Dick Stodghill (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2008)

Hawaiian Eye/Adventures in Paradise

2009-08-21T09:36:00.004-05:00

1959 brought Hawaii statehood and two of the best mystery/adventure shows to appear on television.

Hawaiian Eye starred Robert Conrad as detective Tom Lopaka and Anthony Eisley as his partner Tracey Steele. They operated out of an office in the Hawaiian Village Resort where Connie Stevens, as Cricket Blake, ran the gift shop and sang in the lounge. They were frequently assisted by Kazuo Kim, played by Poncie Ponce who ran a one-man cab company but had hundreds of relatives.

Adventures in Paradise starred Gardner McKay as Adam Troy, a Korean War vet and captain of the schooner Tiki, which he sails around the islands of the South Pacific in search of cargo or passengers (preferably female). The story was based on the book by James Michener who sold the idea to 20th Century Fox. Michener worked on some of the scripts in the first season.

50-50

2009-08-21T09:19:00.002-05:00

Fifty years ago today, August 21, 1959, Hawaii was admitted to the union as the 50th state. Congratulations and Aloha.

How to Shaka

2009-08-19T13:04:00.002-05:00

Don't know what shaka is? It's the universal greeting in the land of Aloha. Here you see some people in downtown Honolulu giving a shaka. So hang loose and shaka, brah.

Les Paul RIP

2009-08-14T11:07:00.004-05:00

Sad news from the entertainment industry. Les Paul, musician and inventor passed away at 94. He invented the Gibson solid body guitar and multi-track recording. Without him, there would be no rock-n-roll.

His latest recording was "Les Paul and friends: American Made, World Played" in which he traded hot licks with some of the greatest guitar heroes.

Rock on, Les.

True Crime

2009-08-12T23:33:00.003-05:00

Here's a jail experience if you want to know what it's like in a holding cell. How is this related to Hawaiian crime? The guy lived in Hawaii for ten years. I should know, he's my son. It's a proud day in the Troy family. Read it here.

Podcast update: Why do we like thrillers?

2009-08-06T14:21:00.003-05:00

Lee Child advises writers not to listen to advice. He also disses the Mets and proclaims his fondness for the blues. Jeff Rutherford caught up with Jack Reacher's creator at Thriller Fest and interviewd him on The Reading and Writng Podcast. I listen to it on iTunes, but you can also listen to it here. Lee talks about Reacher and why people love thrillers.

Charlie Chan Aphorism

2009-08-06T14:05:00.003-05:00

Always harder to keep murder secret than for egg to bounce on sidewalk.
Charlie Chan The Black Camel

Oklahoma City Marathon Update

2009-08-06T13:48:00.007-05:00

Here are some pictures from the Oklahoma Cit Marathon which I ran with Ernie Wright, my training partner, in April. The first picture shows us at the site of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The location is now a monument to all those killed or injured in the explosion. The marathon begins there and ends nearby. Ernie and I are with the legendary Bill Rodgers, 4-time winner of both Boston and New York marathons in the 1970s. Ernie is on the left, Bill in the middle and me on the right.

The second picture shows Ernie and me about a mile and a half from the start. What I don't like about running pictures is that I've never had one of myself where I appear to be running. In all the pictures I appear to be walking or standing still with both feet on the ground as here. The woman just behind Ernie's elbow, on the other hand, is clearly running.

Podcast report for July 31, 2009

2009-07-31T13:05:00.001-05:00

Jeff Rutherford's Reading and Writing Podcast has an interview with science fiction writer Kevin J. Anderson, author of more than 100 novels. 010 Reading and Writing Podcast – Kevin J. Anderson interview

If you are not familiar with the podcast series, it is worth checking out. This is the tenth interview in the series. Previous interview subjects have included James Reasoner and Joe R. Lansdale. All of the past interviews are archived. You can listen to them on the web or iTunes.

Hardboiled quote # 15

2009-07-29T10:09:00.002-05:00

"You p'licemens," she said scornfully. "Gamblin' an' carryin' on an' whippin' innocent folkses' heads with your big pistols."
"Not if they're innocent," Grave Digger contradicted.

Mammy Louise and Grave Digger Jones in All Shot Up, by Chester Himes, 1960.