Friday, May 11, 2018

Embracing My Senior Sleuth by Nora Page

JENN: My agent never asks me to endorse anyone because she knows I'm usually in one stage of deadline hell or another. So, when she mentioned she had a librarian sleuth that she thought I would enjoy, I was all in and I am so glad I was because I adored Better Off Read by our guest author today. And don't just listen to me, this is what Publisher's Weekly had to say: "Funny [and] fast-paced… A dynamo of a lead in Cleo, who drives with a lead foot and refuses to back down from anything or anyone, including bullies and murderers."


Nora Page Many thanks to Jungle Red Writers and Jenn McKinlay for inviting me to guest post! I’m a huge fan, so right after celebrating the invite, I got down to dithering. Namely, what to write about? Do I have Jungle Red–worthy advice? Doubtful.
Nora Page, aka Ann Myers
I’ve never overcome procrastination or found joy in decluttering. I have poor writing posture (I take the “lap” in laptop seriously), and I don’t have the secret to producing five-thousand words a day or even a few hundred. I kept on dithering.

Then I recalled some memorable writing feedback: You write old.
To backtrack a little, last year I returned to college. It wasn’t like those movies, where—let’s say, hypothetically—a mid-forties, white-haired, work-from-home wallflower discovers her inner party girl. No. It was terrifying, but also enlightening.
The class was a senior fiction seminar at the college where my husband teaches. Classes there run as blocks, three-and-a-half-week sessions taken one at a time. A friend—a professor and writer—invited me to sit in. It was kind and generous, and remember how I take laptops literally? I took the sitting-in part at word value too.
I imagined I’d be sitting back, soaking in the brilliance of the professor and another award-winning novelist. There was brilliance all right, but no relaxing. The students had signed up to write entire novels. Big, meaningful, edgy, fabulous, full-length works of fiction they’d crank out by the end of the semester. Senior fiction seminar was the starting block, the sprint to get down words and dissect them daily in class.

Yikes! I’m a shy sharer, let alone with bright college students half my age. Adding to my terror, I was between projects and floundering for ideas, any idea.  

Under the next-day deadline, I made up something fast. I had a homeless, college-age heroine. She was good with scalpels in a med-student way. I got about 10,000 words down but shelved the idea after the seminar, mainly to start a new project but also because of a seminar participant’s critique: You write old.

The student who said this was being kind and constructive. She thought my main character seemed more aged than her years. She was onto something. The problem wasn’t just a matter of age or slang. It wasn’t the character’s fault either. As characters go, she had fine elements: flaws and noble goals, conflicts and a traumatized backstory. It was me. The seminar student was right. I am drawn to more senior characters, and that’s who I was writing.  
Previously, I wrote a culinary cozy series (the Santa Fe CafĂ© Mysteries written as Ann Myers). My favorite character was the bold octogenarian sidekick. She reminded me of my grandmother. She had spunk and experience and said and did what she wanted. I missed her most when that series ended, and I was still hanging on to bits of her.  

Available: June 12, 2018!!!
The Bookmobile Mysteries got the green light from Crooked Lane Books the day the seminar ended. I was thrilled and ready to embrace a new heroine, a senior sleuth! Librarian Cleo Watkins has the starring role in the Bookmobile Mysteries. She’s seventy-five, adores her job, and resists retirement, so much so that she’s wary of crossing into nearby Florida. Together with her feline sidekick, Cleo hits the road in a school-bus bookmobile and rolls into trouble, including murder.  

I have a blast with Cleo. I connect with her, and that’s a key, isn’t it? It’s the broader message behind the student’s critique. Stitching together a handful of traits and troubles won’t cut it. As both readers and writers, we want to feel for the people on the page.
I spend a lot of time with Cleo in my head. She’s also someone I’d want to hang out with in real life. I imagine we’d read quietly on her porch or mix up some biscuits in her kitchen. Maybe we’d do a little sleuthing, although I’d probably stay back in the bookmobile. I’m not as brave as Cleo, not even in writing seminars.

I am glad I sat in, though. I learned a lot from the students, and I hope if they got to critique Cleo, they’d feel her senior spirit. What a compliment that would be. 

What about you, Reds and readers, do you find that you write characters in a certain age demographic better than others? Do you have a preferred age for the characters of the books you read?

60 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the new book, Nora. Cleo sounds delightful and I’m looking forward to meeting her.
    I can’t say that I have a preferred age for the characters in the books I read. As long as the character is believable and comfortably fits into the story the author is telling, I’m happy . . . .

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    1. Thanks, Joan! As a reader, I enjoy characters of all ages too, although sometimes my age-disbelief kicks in if characters seem too young for their fabulous jobs. Youngsters! (That does make me sound old, doesn't it?)

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  2. Nice to meet you, Nora, and your new book. Congrats! Age doesn't matter to me in a character, but I do like it to be somewhat logical. I know that I was annoyed with V.I. Warshawski leaping over tall buildings and outrunning the baddies many years her junior until I read that Sara Paretsky was well aware that her character's age in real-time years would be significantly older than she is in the books -- and she didn't care; Paretsky said something like 'V.I. is my creation and I want her to be the way she is, even if Mr. Contreras would really be about 102 by now and V.I. would be well into her 70s'. Once I knew that the author *knew* that she was setting aside reality for the sake of the story, I totally calmed down about it and now just enjoy V.I. and her adventures.

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    1. And then, of course, there is Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone, who is perpetually about the same age through almost the entire alphabet of stories.This totally works for me, too.

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    2. Hi, Amanda. I'm glad to hear about Sara Paretsky's rationale for V.I. I might use that line! I went back and forth about what age to make Cleo in the first book so she could get older and still run around solving crimes for many years (I hope!). Sixties and early seventies didn't seem "senior sleuth" to me. I'm thinking I'll have her age slowly, not in real time. Then she also won't have to wait around for me to finish drafts.

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    3. Amanda and Nora,

      And remember that Nancy Drew remains 18 years old through 80+ years of Nancy Drew books.

      Diana

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  3. Congrats on the new book!

    I don't know if I have a preferred age for the characters I read. I suppose as long as it makes sense, I'm generally willing to go along with any needed suspension of disbelief.

    I mean Spenser should be in his dotage by now if the character aged realistically. But he doesn't and I'm in the front of the line each time a new book comes out in that series.

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    1. Hi, Jay. I'm trying to picture Spenser in his dotage. That might be a really fun book! But I agree, for characters like him, we love them because they stay pretty similar from book to book.

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    2. Hawk would probably still be a badass in his dotage too!

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  4. I'm glad your found old sleuth, Nora! I'm also always falling in love with the older sidekick in the books I write. And now that my own age is not so far from theirs, maybe my next series will feature an ass-kicking granny, too!

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    1. Thanks, Edith! Yes, write that kick-ass granny and I'll be first in line to read!

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    2. Edith, I'll be second in line to read after Nora.

      Diana

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  5. I think what you say is completely fascinating--when I first wrote Charlie McNally, my very enthusiastic agent (not my current one) said--I love Charlie! She's smart and successful and savvy and a woman of the world. But she asked, how old is she? I said: I made her my age, 55.
    My then-agent said: Oh. That's too old..
    SO I made her 46, which , according to the agent, was NOT too old.
    But turned out , that was a good idea, because then I could have her turn 50 later. Yeah, the main character gets older is a difficult deal.
    But yay, sister. You and me. And congratulations!

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    1. Thank you so much, Hank! In my first series, my protagonist was in her early forties, and I got a few comments that she was unusually mature. I might be missing them, but it seems like there aren't a lot of female protagonists in their forties and beyond. I'm sure I would have loved Charlie at 55 , but it's also great that she got to start at 46 with many years of reporting ahead of her.

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    2. Hank, you are 55?? I thought you were younger since you can still walk in high heels. I remember seeing you walk in high heeled boots at Malice. And how old was your then-agent? I am reminded of a conversation I had in college. A friend told me that when she was a kid, she thought 21 was old. I never thought 21 was old. I thought maybe 50 or 60 was old when I was a kid. As I get older, I notice that many people are still going strong in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s. I think age is just a number. It is more of a lifestyle and state of mind.

      Nora, does it depend on how many people there are in a certain group? For example, there is the baby boomer generation so I wonder if there are more people in that generation than in other generations?

      Diana

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  6. 'You write old.' I love that--First of all, kudos for sticking it out past your comfort zone in that seminar--and to the student who saw something not quite fitting about your character and was able to articulate that constructively. Coming from a line of feisty grandmothers, great-grandmas, and aunts and great-aunts, I say can't wait to meet Cleo!

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    1. Thank you, Flora! I sometimes wonder if my professor friend secretly likes to terrify me. In years past, he's gotten me into other workshops and public readings, always by kind, generous invitations I can't possibly refuse. I need to be more like Cleo. Here's to our feisty female inspirations!

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    2. Flora and Nora, I love feisty characters. I come from a line of feisty women too.

      Diana

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  7. It sounds like you reached inside and found the perfect character in Cleo! I can't wait to read about all of your exploits with her.

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    1. Thank you, Judi! I do have a lot of fun with Cleo and her adventures.

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  8. Congratulations on the new series! I write middle-aged and old. In fact, in 2014 I heard Hank speak at the MWA workshop in Chicago about the age of her character. I picked 47 for mine. I've defended the choice several times by using Hank's example.

    Recently I received a critique that noted it was so refreshing to read about a character who wasn't 25.

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    1. Hank is so inspiring! Yay for your 47-year-old! (I say, as a 47-year-old...)

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  9. Congratulations on your new book, and I don't care how old the protagonist is. My tastes run from Flavia to Miss Marple with a hefty dose of middle age tossed in. As I said yesterday, middle age is five years older than I am, so that covers a lot of territory!

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    1. Thanks, Ann! I like your range, from Flavia to Miss Marple. It's true, age doesn't matter as long as we connect with that character.

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    2. Ann and Nora, I agree that age does not matter as long as we connect with that character.

      Diana

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  10. Nora, this series sounds right up my alley - I love reading AND writing older women who aren't dithering and uber-cute. I think the contrasts between generations is fun to mine.

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    1. Thanks, Hallie! Yes, Cleo has take-charge traits (I could learn some things from her). It's been a lot of fun to write her.

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  11. Thanks so much for visiting us, Nora! I love your heroine Cleo - she really is a person I want to hang out with, which is always a grand plan for a series. The closest thing I’ve ever heard at a signing is a reader who said to me, “Wow, you’re tall, but you write short.” I didn’t think that was possible! LOL!

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    1. Thanks so much for inviting me, Jenn! It's fun to be here! I'm loving the 'you're tall but write short' comment. That's quite a mind-bender.

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    2. Jenn and Nora, that is a funny comment. I was reminded of a comment that Vincent Price made on the PBS Mystery tv show about Lady Antonia Fraser's Jemima Shore. He mentioned that Fraser wanted to create a character that was the opposite of the author.

      And I was thinking that when you create a character, you can pick which traits you want for your character, right?

      Diana

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  12. Congratulations on the book! You are right - you really have to "feel" the character to be able to write him/her well.

    Mary/Liz

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    1. Thanks, Mary/Liz! Yes, I think so, especially if we're going to be spending so much time with characters.

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  13. Welcome Nora, I just reserved 'Better off Read'. I don't mind the age of characters, I do question language that is not 'age appropriate'. Teen age speak coming out of a septuagenarian will usually crash me out of the narrative. Older characters have usually resolved the 'mother' issue, which I find refreshing.

    I hope Cleo will not have as many mechanical problems as my bookmobile friends encountered. Among them, ordering a new book mobile, but forgetting to order the tires. If Cleo does get lost and wanders into FL, I will be happy to share my biscuit recipe with her (or you.)

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    1. Thanks, Coralee! I hope you enjoy Better off Read. Ha! I love the story about your friends forgetting to order tires. I may have to use that... If Cleo ends up in Florida, I'll have her drop by for your biscuits. I'm getting a bit better at mine but still always in search of the ultimate recipe (this allows me to test and eat more biscuits).

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  14. Hi Nora, and congrats on the new series. I like writing older characters--one of my series favorites is in her nineties--but I also like writing teenagers and everything in between. I think of my series as "moving outside real time," so the characters are aging very slowly. Now, I especially don't want the kids to grow up, so am trying to put shorter gaps between the books!

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    1. Thank you so much, Deborah. I like the idea of series moving outside real time. As a reader I prefer that too. Real time goes by too fast! It's comforting to have favorite characters aging more slowly.

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  15. Welcome, Nora! Congrats on your new book! I admire your courage in taking the seminar; it can be so scary to share your early ideas with other people, but it definitely sounds like it was worth it. I like writing and reading all ages. My one bugaboo is when writers get kids wrong. For instance, a twelve-year-old character that doesn't sound at all age appropriate. It always makes me wonder if the author ever actually met a twelve-year-old!

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    1. Thanks, Ingrid! I know what you mean about some kid characters. If I'm confessing, that's probably the age that scares me most to write, but young characters can also be so much fun and make observations adults might not.

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  16. When I was in high school ( you know, a hundred years ago!) I read in Seventeen Magazine that teenaged girls liked reading novels and short stories about girls who are a little older than they are. I wonder at what point that supposedly changes? I don't mind reading about protagonists who are younger than I am but I also enjoy the ones that are my age or older, assuming they are not caricatures.

    What can annoy me are characters who own four or five businesses, work full time in at least two of them, and still have time for hobbies and to run (and train for) marathons!

    DebRo

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    1. DebRo,

      Whenever I see characters like these, I remind myself that this is FICTION and not real. I laugh because it seems so over the top! I would prefer that to a character who is boring and does not seem to have anything to do. I have stopped reading a novel when the characters do not seem to have anything to do or are boring.

      Diana

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    2. I wonder when the age preference does change, DebRo. College maybe? My preteen nieces still want to read about older girls. Most of the college students in the workshop were writing characters their age or in high school. The interest in the younger, high-school characters kind of surprised me.

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  17. So many cozies have the same age range of main characters. I enjoy seeing some variety in the age ranges.

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    1. Thanks, Mark! I agree...it's fun to read (and write) a wide variety of characters.

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  18. Welcome to Jungle Reds! I had a few questions that I would like to ask you.

    1) when you were born, did you have young relatives close to your age? I asked because when I was born, most of my relatives had been born before the Second World War. I had one relative who is three years older than I am.

    2) Are you an only child or the youngest child among your siblings?

    3) Is Cleo a nickname for Cleopatra?

    I thought the comment about writing old was interesting. Because I read a lot of books published before the current slang, I think my language would be "writing old". LOL . Since I joined Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, I am starting to catch up on current sayings. I think it is wonderful to have senior sleuths because they often have interesting things to talk about. In some societies, older people are revered, while in other societies, they are "invisible".

    I have a penchant for historical fiction. Once in a while I enjoy contemporary novels, though I notice I prefer stories set in an English village or London, Scotland or Europe.

    Look forward to reading your books,
    Diana

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    1. Hi, Diana, Great questions! The answers might explain a lot. In fact, I am an only child and didn't grow up with many relatives my age or younger. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, great-grandmother, and great-aunt--a lot of greats. Cleo is simply Cleo. The name comes from another great-relative (my great-grandmother's sister...what does that make her? Is that a great- or great-great aunt?). And, oh, the slang I learned from the college students. I took stacks of notes!

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  19. So happy to see you here today, Nora, with a new series that I'm definitely on board with. I have a fascination with bookmobiles, from the regular to the horses and camels of necessity, and I love the history of bookmobiles, tracing their changing styles. I'm also a fan of older characters, especially since I'm getting to be an older character myself. Starting with Miss Marple, I enjoy seeing the younger characters realize just how wise and savvy the older person can be. Debs' Erika Rosenthal and Lucy's Miss Gloria are two of my favorite characters, and Hallie's Mina Yetner at ninety years old is "still a sharp observer of human nature and her community" (from my review). I look forward to adding Cleo to my list of favorites.

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    1. Thank you, Kathy! It's such a thrill to be here today. I've loved learning more about bookmobiles and their history too. Like those Depression-era librarians delivering books on horseback to rural Appalachia--what great heroines they'd be in a story!

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    2. I love Miss Gloria! And Hallie's Mina is one of my favorite characters ever.

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  20. Oh no! I'm so sorry the Santa Fe Cafe series ended! I really enjoyed them. Being a retired librarian (I once drove a bookmobile), cat lover, and cozy mystery-aholic, I look forward to reading this new book. As far as characters, age doesn't matter. I love Flavia de Luce but spunky geriatric characters are a hoot! (such as Jenn McKinlay's Marty in her Cupcake Bakery Mysteries).

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    1. Aw, thank you, Sue! I'm sad the Santa Fe series ended, but Cleo has helped me keep a little bit of Flori's spirit going, and I do love having her as the star sleuth.

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  21. Oh, how I love this post and peek at your workshopping self. And Better Off Read is so charming...I love Cleo and the community and the bookmobile and EVERYTHING. ❤️ You write beautifully and your characters feel like instant friends. -- Cynthia Kuhn (I added my name because I'm having such a hard time leaving comments here...I put in all the wordpress info it asks for, then it says anonymous on the preview if it lets me comment at all! Dear Reds: any chance a name/url option could be added, pretty please? xoxo)

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    1. Ha ha! And that time it worked.

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    2. Thank you so much, Cynthia! You're the sweetest! I'm sure you remember some of my workshopping shock...

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  22. Hi there, Nora, and I'm so pleased to know about your new series featuring Cleo and the bookmobile. I have fond memories of the bookmobile that parked by our house a couple of summers before the Austin Public Library had branches out near us. Think I might have read almost the whole adult section one summer.

    As to the age of characters, well, I'm game for reading about any age. And I think my definition of 'old' has certainly changed over the years. I'm 60 now and that doesn't seem at all old, though my grandmothers seemed old when they were 60. However, in thinking about it, I love Miss Marple and Emily Pollifax (who wouldn't want to be a spy after retirement?) and I'm reading Jane Willan's new book, The Shadow of Death, with Sister Agatha (who is about my age). Sister Agatha is way cool. So, I'll be seeking out your Cleo, the librarian who is happy to resist retirement. I no longer work for pay at my library, but I spent the morning shelving books for them today - and loved it! Good luck and best wishes!

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    1. Oops, Kay, I tried to reply to you but ended up leaving a new comment below. :)

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  23. I like all ages of characters. If an author chooses an older one, they need to slow time down. Ngaio Marsh's inspector was in his 40's and solved several mysteries before he married. The last book he was still working with a grown son!

    I had a similar experience with work training many years ago, where I was put in my parents' age group after a quiz. My parents were slightly older, and I spent a lot of time with older people.

    Your new series sounds great. I'll have to look up the Santa Fe one.

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    1. Thanks, Sally! The Santa Fe series has a culinary theme, which gave me a wonderful excuse to taste-test recipes. Even though Better Off Read isn't a culinary cozy, I couldn't resist adding a recipe for hummingbird cake at the end.

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  24. Thanks, Kay! I'll have to check out sister Agatha. She sounds great. So does a bookmobile parked by your house. I agree about shifting perceptions of age and feeling age. When I think of the youngest-spirited people I know now, some are Cleo's age or older. Enjoy your time at the library! That sounds fun.

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    1. Thank you, Dru! Cleo had such a wonderful time talking about her day on Dru's Book Musings on Tuesday! Thanks again for inviting us!

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