Revealing Our Musical Crushes

 LUCY BURDETTE: A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated music Sunday at our church. Our music director is incredible, and he’s infused amazing life into the choirs. Plus he’s a fantastic organist, and tons of fun besides. He often brings in guest musicians for special occasions. I read in the Sunday bulletin that the drummer he’d engaged to play for us tours with Mickey Dolenz and the Monkees.

This was such a blast from the past! Mickey Dolenz was my very first crush. Somehow, I persuaded my parents to let me attend a Monkees concert when I turned 13. My first (terrible) short story was about a jilted teenager who runs up the steps of the Hatteras lighthouse and finds Mickey Dolenz at the top! Trust me, if that had really happened, onlookers would have witnessed a major freak out. Apparently, Mickey and the Monkees band are still touring and this visiting drummer was going out on the road with them in several weeks. I introduced myself and asked him to say hello from Roberta.😂

So Reds, there is the question for the day. What do you remember about your first musical crush? How old were you and what drew you to him or her? Are they still alive and kicking? If you didn’t have a crush (really?), what was your first concert?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: That’s an easy one, Lucy! I was eleven when the Beatles hit the US airwaves. I fell madly in love with Paul McCartney and I have to say I never recovered. Paul just turned 84 on June 18th (of course I know his birthday) and he’s still adorable and is still performing and still writing great music. His new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, is terrific. I did the Beatles tour in Liverpool a couple of years ago with my pal Kate Charles and now I know the places he’s singing about.

And the first concert was The Beatles, in Dallas. We had seats on the 12th row, can you believe it? Of course you couldn’t hear them for the screaming, but it was still a life-marking experience. I’ve seen McCartney live twice over the years since, and they were the most joyous concerts  vvvI’ve ever attended. We love you, Paul!!

LUCY: So jealous of that concert Debs–Paul was my guy as well:)

RHYS BOWEN: In school my friends were all into Elvis in a big way. We’d listen to Heartbreak Hotel and they’d all swoon. Not me. There was something about his looks I didn’t like. I think my first crush was Gordon McCrea in Oklahoma and Carousel. I had the records of both and played them non stop. But when the Beatles came along— well, who wouldn’t love them?

JENN McKINLAY: First crush was Shawn Cassidy! He had a singing career, I guess, but I crushed on him because he played Joe Hardy on The Hardy Boys Mysteries every Sunday night! This is likely where my love of amateur sleuths began. My first concert was RUSH in the New Haven Coliseum! We all packed into a friend’s ancient Datsun B210 and drove 45 minutes to get there. No cell phones, GPS, or AAA. Can’t believe we survived – LOL. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: My first musical crush..well, definitely not Elvis, I agree, Rhys, there was just no spark for me. But oh, absolutely, the Beatles. I sobbed, watching them on Ed Sullivan, and I was the vice-president of the Midwest Chapter of the National Beatles Fan Cluub. It was an actual thing! Paul, and John, oh, they were so cute, and so talented! I saw them at the Coliseum at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, and fairly levitated. Was that my first concert? No, I’m sure I went to many with my music critic (for the Chicago Daily News)  father –I do remember having a huge crush on Roddy McDowell who I saw playing Mordred in the musical Camelot, gosh, that was in 196-something?(The bad-boy thing, I guess. I never liked Lancelot.)  But the Beatles was the first concert on my own, and soon after that  I was all about Paul Simon. Still am. 

HALLIE EPHRON: My first concert was at the Hollywood Bowl: Joan Baez with an unknown rumpled male singer. She was terrific. He mumbled his way through a set and I, with my great prescience about musical talent, wrote Bob Dylan off as a never-gonna-be.

I’m a big baby when it comes to crowds, so concerts have never been my thing. If that weren’t the case I’d have haunted Paul Simon. Also Buddy Holly. Also LIttle Richard. Hmmm, also Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash.  

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Jenn, my sister and I were absolute devotees of THE HARDY BOYS, and agreed she would get Shaun Cassidy and I could have Parker Stevenson. I understand he’s Episcopalian, so maybe I’ll run into him in a church one day…? Both those men have aged VERY nicely.

My first strictly musical crush was - don’t laugh - Barry Manilow. No, the fact he played with Bette Midler in the Baths did not tip me off. He came to Syracuse for a concert and my BFF and I got tickets. My first show, and WOW it was so good. I’m happy he’s out and proud and living his best life, and I’m happy to have listened to “Barry Manilow II” and “Tryin’ to Get the Feeling” so many times I had to replace my record player’s needle.

PS, Lucy, my Monkee was Peter Tork. Somewhere out there, there’s got to be a personality quiz that reveals who you are based on which of the Monkees or Beatles you crushed on! 

LUCY: I’d be surprised if that quiz doesn’t exist Julia! Red readers, tell us about your first musical crush…

The Agony or Joy of Anticipation.

RHYS BOWEN: How  many of you have enjoyed The Other Bennet Sister? I am. In fact I don’t think I’ve been invested in a series since Downton Abbey. Maybe it’s because I’m a huge Jane Austen fan and whoever wrote this has given it the exact feel of the Austen novels, and many similar scenes (when Mary faints and Tom Hayward sits outside her room is a replay of Marianne Dashwood and Colonel Brandon). So even if she has borrowed heavily from the original, nevertheless it’s enjoyable. Mary is such an identifiable character–unsure of herself, feeling lesser than her sisters, awkward in company.  I’m sure today we’d suggest she might be on the spectrum!

One of the things I’ve enjoyed is having to wait a week for the next episode. Every week Britox tries to tempt me. Upgrade to Premium and you can binge the whole series. Very tempting BUT the wait and the anticipation is one of the things I’m really enjoying. Thinking “In three days I get to see another episode.”

I’ve always been a person who loves anticipation. I spent my childhood telling myself : In a month it will be my birthday/Christmas/Vacation. Counting down to the event made it even more delicious. I suppose I grew up in the lean years after WW2 when treats were few and far between. Turkey, tangerines, nuts only at Christmas. Ice cream occasionally in summer. And the going without made the treat even sweeter.

My daughters went to an expensive private school where most of the girls were richer than we were. They had a snack bar where the girls could buy treats. Clare’s friend Sabrina had money for an ice cream every day.  I could just about afford to give Clare money for an ice cream on Fridays. “Sabrina has one every day,” Clare pointed out.  “Do you think they are as special to her as they are to you?” I asked. “You look forward to Friday, don’t you?”

        She thought about this and agreed.

And so I am still one who enjoys the anticipation. In two months I’ll be flying to England…That’s why it has been hard during the last couple of years. With John’s declining health I had to cancel so many things at the last minute that I did not dare to look forward too much. Now I can again. And it’s great.

What about you, Reds. Do you binge whenever you can? Do you find yourself counting down to big events?

LUCY BURDETTE: I’m an anticipator too, Rhys. I love planning vacations way ahead and figuring out where we’ll eat and where we’ll go. I had a sister-in-law who loved to travel but never made reservations ahead of time and couldn’t imagine why I was wasting my time. I’m sure I do miss out on some spontaneous decisions, but the anticipation is truly one of my greatest pleasures! And ps, I do not binge either:). 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, this is so fascinating. I love anticipating! But I’ve never really thought about it.  Counting down, yes, absolutely. And when the thing happens, it’s over, you know? In the anticipation part, absolutely anything is still possible. 

And during anticipation, there is still time to get ready–oh, I’ll think, plenty of time to pack/write/plan/prepare. I love it.

And yes, in TV, I definitely do not mind waiting for the next episode. It gives us time to discuss and predict! 

HALLIE EPHRON: What an interesting question. Jerry was a great travel planner and what I loved was NOT knowing a thing about where we were going or what we were going to do until we got there. I didn’t even want to see pictures. 

I think he’d have liked me to have been more onboard with the planning, right up until I started having opinions. 

He never took me somewhere I wouldn’t have wanted to go. And seeing without knowing what was coming next was a special pleasure.

JENN McKINLAY: I’m not a binger. I prefer to watch one episode at a time – good thing because I’m always on deadline and couldn’t binge if I wanted to. I do like anticipation but then I also find it comes with anxiety. Example: Anticipation: I’m really excited to go to (insert place). Anxiety: What if the hotel loses your reservation? I never used to feel like this. I think it’s a post-Covid thing where everything was cattywumpus all the time. When the anxiety spikes, I have to remind myself that everything goes my way, and it usually does, even if it’s not how I expected it to go. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I love anticipation, although this winter was SO long in New England I went past anticipating spring to getting ready to ask to speak to the manager…

We’ve talked about the pleasant anticipation of watching streaming shows the new old-fashioned way, but my mind goes to books! Is there anything more delicious that learning one of your favorite authors has a book coming out, with the date set, and getting to pre-order it. Back in the day, you had to show up at the local bookstore, but now, of course, it pops up in your e-reader or arrives on your doorstep like a present. 

Youngest taught me the Dutch have a word, Voorpret, which describes the feeling of excitement and anticipation you experience when you’re getting ready to go out. I wish I had known the word back in my single days, when one of the best parts about going out with girlfriends or on a date was the sense of anticipation while picking out an outfit, putting on my face, and dancing around my room to Duran Duran. So much voorpret!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am definitely an anticipator. I was the kid who didn't want to open Christmas presents early, and even on Christmas morning would save mine until everyone else had opened theirs. I think planning trips is half the fun–although I am open to a little bit of travel spontaneity. Like Julia, I love pre-ordering and looking forward to books, and I am happy to watch TV shows once a week. Of course, Rick is just the opposite, and doesn't want to start a series until every episode has dropped.

RHYS: I'm anticipating lots of things at the. moment. All good things: a week in San Diego, England and Scotland at the end of September, oh... and my new stand alone, THE CASTLE IN THE GLEN, comes out on August 4. 

Who else is good at anticipating? Who hates it?

Escape or Staycation?

 RHYS BOWEN: When you read this I’ll be on my way to the airport, flying today to Canada. My son Dominic, his wife Meredith and I have rented an AirB&B on Vancouver Island–actually on a small island off the coast of Vancouver Island. It’s on a beach, surrounded by trees.  The perfect escape, actually.  It’s what we all needed… to be in the middle of nature with time to decompress, to think, to journal and for me to adjust to a new way of life. 

A vacation with them will be perfect. They like to experience everything… so they’ll find the best artisan bakery in the area, fresh seafood, craft shops, farms where you can pick your own blueberries and with plenty of down time too.  This will be quite different from vacations with John, who would have planned out in advance what we were going to see every day. His idea of Vancouver Island would be driving several hours up the coast until we had circumnavigated the whole thing.  And if I saw a sign to a craft fair along the way it would be ignored because it interrupted his plans and we had to reach the motel he had booked by four PM check in.

So one of the things I’ll be learning to do is to go with the flow–to sit and do watercolor if I feel like it, to realize I have nobody to please but myself. Dom and Mer are so easy-going and get delight from the smallest things. They are definitely foodies so there will be a lot of trying nearby restaurants ( poutine at least once).  I can’t wait.

So how about you, dear Reds? Any plans for this summer? What is your ideal way to decompress?

LUCY BURDETTE: we will be spending lots of time with the grandchildren over the next two weeks! The family has already been to New York City (with three kids under 10 in tow) and then to Montauk to visit relatives, and next stop Connecticut. It is always a busy and fun time to have them here. After that, I can’t think of any trips on the docket this summer. So I should be able to get my work done and also do some relaxing and I hope extra reading!

JENN McKINLAY: I’m glad you’re finding a new rhythm, Rhys, and doubly glad you have Dom and Mer to ease you into it.

I just got back from a trip to Connecticut and Massachusetts and South Carolina. The trip broke down into a book thing in CT, a family barbecue in MA, and checking out my college roommate’s new home in SC–hard to believe we’ve known each other for 40 years! We spent hours on the beach in SC and I am ready to move. Seriously! 

I’ll be headed to Canada in a few weeks to our summer place in Nova Scotia and I’m looking forward to that. More beach time! But in the meantime, I have loads of work to do–revisions and proposals and promoting the streaming series based on my book Paris is Always a Good Idea, the first two episodes of which air on Hallmark Plus on July 30th! Yay!

HALLIE EPHRON: July 30 for PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA! Hallmark Plus… We’re all writing it down. 

I’m just back from teaching in Paris… there for 10 days and could easily have spent another ten. And I’m missing my Jerry who, like Rhys’s John, did the trip planning so I could just relax and be surprised. We shared the same priorities (he traveled with a little pad filled with menu translations, along with a list of where we were going and the culinary specialties in each place.)

The summer will be quieter than usual. 

Mid-June I’ll be teaching a master class on harnessing voice and viewpoint at Book Passage’s Mystery Writer’s Conference in Corte Madera, CA. Hobnobbing with Cara Black, Tim Maleeny, Elizabeth George, Lisa Scottoline, Rachel Howzell Hall, and more! I love this conference. So much heart and professionalism. 

For any aspiring mystery writer who’s never been there, write it down!! 

Then things slow down for some medical procedures (ick) and visits from my daughters and grands (yay!) Hoping I’ll be able to take a low-key week with my family on Peak’s Island in Maine. Beach. Hiking (flat!) Lobsters!

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: Absolutely, on July 30 I will be at my TV, cheering! This summer is wild–no vacations, because Jonathan has a murder trial (he’s the lawyer, come on!) so he’s preparing But my days are super-full, because  I have a book DUE August 1, AHHHHH because then the paperback of ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS comes out  August 11, so I will be on a mini-tour …in preparation for the launch of MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER  in September! When I will be on the road again.

So it’s interesting–I have cut way back on events for the next two months to be able to focus on the writing. It’s terrific to be able to really buckle down.Okay, well,  I am interviewing some fabulous authors in person at local bookstores though–Hannah Selinger, and then Robyn Gigl, and then Riley Sager! Very exciting.

Rhys, your escape plans are perfection. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hank, Riley Sager is going to be signing here in McKinney, and Kayti and I have tickets! CJ Box was here, too, a couple of months ago–maybe McKinney, Texas is becoming a literary destination! We also have a great indy bookstore, so if anyone wants to come here and do an event… Kayti and I are also seeing Jo Piazza at the DMA (Dallas Museum of Art) Arts and Letters Live–has anyone read her? And then, I think, Karin Slaughter, so sometime between now and mid-August I need to read some of her books!

Those are my big summer events. Otherwise I am doing loads of catch up and edits, which is all fine. Oh, and watching Jenn's Hallmark movie! So exciting! Do we have to sign up for the Hallmark Channel streaming, Jenn, since we don't have cable or satellite?

RHYS: Now it's your turn, Reddies. Who has exciting plans this summer? Who is planning on a relaxing time at home?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I also want to know how to watch PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA while streaming! Jenn, you have to do an announcement for all of us who are your fans.

My summer plans were ALL stacked up in June: the visit from Youngest and VOC, my son flying in, two weeks of non-stop activities, several professional events and then a five-day writing retreat. Now I have nothing on my calendar until the end of August, when a dear friend’s daughter is getting married. I’m actually thrilled - this is the least scheduled summer I think I’ve ever had, giving me lots of time to enjoy Maine in its best season and get a whole bunch of writing done for my next book!