tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post3978578305264065618..comments2024-03-28T17:39:34.611-04:00Comments on Jungle Red Writers: Carl Vonderau--MURDERABILIAJungle Red Writershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16646429819267618412noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-74341222135315905832019-07-12T18:37:03.954-04:002019-07-12T18:37:03.954-04:00Funny, I thought you said your wife was Deaf. Now...Funny, I thought you said your wife was Deaf. Now I understand. Are your children Deaf too? Or the only deaf people in your family are your wife's parents?<br /><br />Your story about ASL reminds me of when I met deaf people from other countries. There are some signs like "baby" that is universal. Made up signs or "home signs" can be difficult to understand anywhere. The kids at the oral school would have benefited from cochlear implants, IF there was a team updating the mappings regularly. These are very expensive and I do not know if the deaf oral school in Mexico had the money.<br /><br />Until the telephone was invented, Deaf people had professions like teaching. There was a Deaf architect who designed the State Capitol in ? TN or Minnesota ? After the phone was invented, unfortunately, it became harder for deaf people to find careers unless they went into the printing industry, which may or may not exist now.<br /><br />The thing about my classmate's friend is if the Mexican police killed him, the family would not care. Everyone was surprised when the Mexican police released him! Sad to say there are families like these.<br /><br />Glad I did it! I find the cochlear implants very helpful! The hearing aids never helped, which means that I was pleasantly surprised by how much help I got from the cochlear implants. It is NOT for everyone. It takes a lot of time - listening to books on tape for an hour in the mornings. I saw the cochlear implant team every month or two during the first year. Luckily, my insurance paid for everything!<br /><br />DianaBibliophilehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07764234701385787238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-38321032095561291932019-07-12T17:31:09.234-04:002019-07-12T17:31:09.234-04:00Thank you, Marla. I had many once-in-a-lifetime ex...Thank you, Marla. I had many once-in-a-lifetime experiences in Colombia. I worked in Bogota for a summer after I graduated from high school. Then I studied for a college semester in Medellin--before Pablo Escobar rose to power. It is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever been to with mountains, jungles, plains and the sea.Carl Vonderauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01018083094166667490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-43509343676093080482019-07-12T16:48:56.900-04:002019-07-12T16:48:56.900-04:00>>>>>AND THE WINNER OF SUSAN VAN KI...>>>>>AND THE WINNER OF SUSAN VAN KIRK'S BOOK HAS BEEN CHOSEN BY SUSAN--AND IT'S Susan! <br />"I would like to send a copy of my book to "Susan" who wrote in at 7:20 about finding the mother's wedding rings after the fire. Winner Susan---email me your address! To: h ryan at whdh dot com<br />Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-39470437172417972242019-07-12T15:29:34.980-04:002019-07-12T15:29:34.980-04:00Yay! Carl, post the link!Yay! Carl, post the link!Deborah Crombiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16988750789088153601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-24655015856187925622019-07-12T15:29:02.281-04:002019-07-12T15:29:02.281-04:00Pat, I didn't know that about your husband! H...Pat, I didn't know that about your husband! How interesting! I spent a lot of time in Mexico growing up, even living in Mexico City in La Zona Rosa the summer I was eighteen. I'm sorry to say that my Spanish is very rusty, however.<br /><br />Carl, so looking forward to meeting you at Bouchercon. Will it be your first?Deborah Crombiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16988750789088153601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-67483591375448957952019-07-12T14:55:37.750-04:002019-07-12T14:55:37.750-04:00Congrats on your book! Your trip to Bogotá sounds ...Congrats on your book! Your trip to Bogotá sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime experience.Marla Bradeen/Paige Sleuth, Mystery Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01920956529695986188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-37245043631240015852019-07-12T14:41:12.185-04:002019-07-12T14:41:12.185-04:00Thank you. It's been fun to learn languages. T...Thank you. It's been fun to learn languages. They are all romance-based so they have a lot of similarities. Which means I often borrow from one language to talk in another. Which can get you into trouble. When I worked for a French bank in Montreal, I interrupted someone in a conference room and wanted to tell them in French that I was sorry to bother them. I used the Spanish word for bother: "molestar." But in French I ended up saying, "I'm sorry to molest you." Whoops. <br /><br />I hope you enjoy the book and the story.Carl Vonderauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01018083094166667490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-12757105810700230992019-07-12T14:28:27.548-04:002019-07-12T14:28:27.548-04:00Wow, Carl! You have quite an impressive resume. ...Wow, Carl! You have quite an impressive resume. Being multi-lingual must be an amazing advantage not only in business but in life. And, your visit to Bogota sounds like a brave mission for research. I am completely intrigued by your new book Murderabilia and look forward to your "Crossing Borders" short story, too. Kathy Reelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17004247271452356577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-63114524959812444212019-07-12T14:25:04.403-04:002019-07-12T14:25:04.403-04:00But-- I LOVE that book!But-- I LOVE that book!Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-66860853762132361342019-07-12T14:24:52.287-04:002019-07-12T14:24:52.287-04:00I'd love to meet him. More coincidence. I also...I'd love to meet him. More coincidence. I also grew up in the Cleveland area--Rocky River. I will be at Bouchercon. Hope to see you there, Pat. And your husband. He probably has more stories than I do. Carl Vonderauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01018083094166667490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-52796299904331966562019-07-12T14:21:58.151-04:002019-07-12T14:21:58.151-04:00I just got a stunningly good review from Criminal ...I just got a stunningly good review from Criminal Element! A little hard for me to think right now. You always hope for this, but you always doubt this kind of review will happen.Carl Vonderauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01018083094166667490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-49220395613980664712019-07-12T12:58:48.493-04:002019-07-12T12:58:48.493-04:00"Junge Reds" <<<< Jungian s..."Junge Reds" <<<< Jungian slip?Annhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14187856103924954287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-51342970408487970102019-07-12T12:50:47.386-04:002019-07-12T12:50:47.386-04:00Thank you, Ang. You had the same experience I did....Thank you, Ang. You had the same experience I did. Congratulations. In my case, I think the short story works better than the book did. 100,000 words down to 5000 words. Both the short story and the old book dealt a lot with street orphans in Bogota. In Murderabilia, the protagonist's wife at one time worked with street orphans in Cartucho, the drug blocks of Bogota. Carl Vonderauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01018083094166667490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-77723036357429536162019-07-12T12:48:33.626-04:002019-07-12T12:48:33.626-04:00I'd love to put you and my husband together to...I'd love to put you and my husband together to compare notes! He is also fluent in Spanish, having grown up in Mexico way back when. His career in security and loss prevention became international when we moved back to Houston in 2006 and he worked in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and in the Mideast in Oman and other places. He has several unpublished mysteries based on his white collar crime investigations when he worked in the Cleveland Ohio area. Any chance you'll be at Bouchercon?<br />At any rate congratulations on the publication of Murderabilia. It sounds wonderfully angsty and creepy!Pat Dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12732230586783432052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-17731175232111810822019-07-12T12:46:19.013-04:002019-07-12T12:46:19.013-04:00Thank you so much for taking the time to read my b...Thank you so much for taking the time to read my book. I hope you like the many layers to the story. <br />I'm enjoying Junge Reds. This is fun and bring all kinds of things out of the memory banks.Carl Vonderauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01018083094166667490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-64428563205636108042019-07-12T12:44:46.484-04:002019-07-12T12:44:46.484-04:00Diana, of course I remember you. You even understo...Diana, of course I remember you. You even understood my terrible sign language. My wife is a hearing child of deaf parents and grew up with sign language. She teaches at University of California, San Diego. A few years ago an immigration attorney consulted her about some deaf people from Mexico applying for asylum in the US. A Mexican drug cartel had used them as slave labor on one of their haciendas. They picked on people least able to get help. We don't know what happened to their case. <br /><br />Back in the 1980s she and I traveled together to a deaf oral school near Merida, Mexico. I spoke in Spanish to the director while my wife looked around at the kids. The director described what the kids were doing as primitive gesture. She had no idea how to sign. Meanwhile the kids, who were discouraged from signing, had their own elaborate language going on behind the director's back. While I engaged the director, she looked at the sign language. Because there are more than 2000 sign languages in the world, and because Rachel only spoke American Sign Language, Rachel didn't understand what those kids were saying.<br /><br />Your friend was very lucky to get away from being kidnapped. Now the kidnappers mostly kill people who don't pay the ransoms. They often kill the victims even after the ransom is paid. <br /><br />How have you found life with cochlear implants? Are you glad you did it?Carl Vonderauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01018083094166667490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-26146140112128556092019-07-12T12:32:12.529-04:002019-07-12T12:32:12.529-04:00Congratulations on the new book, Carl. That was so...Congratulations on the new book, Carl. That was some adventure you had in Bogotá. It’s good that at least some of it made its way into MURDERABILIA. I’m sure an experience like that must in some way color almost anything you write. I agree that we shouldn’t throw away what we write. I have a manuscript that I never did anything with until I reworked some of it into a short story which made it into this year’s Malice Domestic Anthology. You never know.Ang Pompanohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06466790904206627068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-15574689170228181532019-07-12T12:12:42.600-04:002019-07-12T12:12:42.600-04:00Welcome Carl and congratulations on publication! ...Welcome Carl and congratulations on publication! I've given MURDERABILIA a place of honor in the TBR stack, and I look forward to reading it. Enjoy your day with the Jungle Reds. Annhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14187856103924954287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-6771505465567339602019-07-12T11:37:04.199-04:002019-07-12T11:37:04.199-04:00Hi Carl! I met you at Left Coast Crime in Vancouv...Hi Carl! I met you at Left Coast Crime in Vancouver and I remember you introduced yourself in Sign Language. <br /><br />Congratulations on your new novel! I read an ARC for your novel. I wrote several reviews for Bookbub, Goodreads and Netgalley. Good reviews, I would think.<br /><br />About Colombia, I remember the news stories about drugs coming out of Medellin, Colombia. Your story about Mexico reminded me of a conversation I had with a college classmate. She grew up in San Diego. She and her friends would visit Mexico for a day. She mentioned a high school friend who was "arrested" by the Mexican police for a made up traffic violation because the police often got money from American families in return for their teenagers. Well, this time it did not work. This American teenager's family DID NOT CARE. They refused to pay $$$. My classmate said that once the Mexican police knew that this American family did not care and would not pay, they released the kid!<br /><br />Wonderful that you kept notes for future stories! I am decluttering right now and finding many notes from another lifetime ago before my cochlear implants. I had interesting conversations with people I have met when travelling abroad. I lived in England for two months and attended classes at Worcester College at Oxford.<br /><br />DianaBibliophilehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07764234701385787238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-79230438793581039962019-07-12T11:33:49.689-04:002019-07-12T11:33:49.689-04:00Absolutely right. I don't know where the photo...Absolutely right. I don't know where the photos are I took at the time. But they didn't capture it either. I found it most helpful to just observe and to try to get the ambiance and feeling of Bogota down on the page as I walked the city. I had about 50 pages of notes from my one week background trip. Carl Vonderauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01018083094166667490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-19194341180259495362019-07-12T11:31:51.387-04:002019-07-12T11:31:51.387-04:00Thank you. Yes, it's the first book. It's ...Thank you. Yes, it's the first book. It's a great feeling to see your words on a page in a bound book. I look at it and it seems like someone else wrote it. Now, of course, I have other worries about reviews, sales and social media. Plus, will I be able to write a good next book? <br />Victor was amazing. So calm. Normal family life. I would ask him what the inside of the Bogota prison looked like and he drew out a detailed schematic and tell me about the organization. Complete separation of work from those he loved. His wife didn't even know some of the cases he was working on. He drove a broken-down Oltcit produced in Romania with one big wiper in the center of the windshield. He rented a very modest apartment with his family in Bogota. Incredibly long days for little money. Carl Vonderauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01018083094166667490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-7238892671176512362019-07-12T11:30:43.533-04:002019-07-12T11:30:43.533-04:00Congratulations on your debut, Carl! I think your ...Congratulations on your debut, Carl! I think your story make another important point for writers - all the information of the world is available at our fingertips on the internet, but there is nothing that compares to actually being in a place, smelling the scents, eating the food and seeing all the details that never make it into a Wikipedia page. Juliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09553268569509053159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-28165751101492073972019-07-12T11:25:01.256-04:002019-07-12T11:25:01.256-04:00It's really exciting being here. Murderabilia ...It's really exciting being here. Murderabilia was officially launched this week. So it's busy, to say the least. But this is the moment I've been imagining for 30 years. So yes, it is special. <br />Hank gave me great feedback on that all important first scene. Like everyone, I will probably write that 50 times.<br />I do know Mexico. I'm fluent in Spanish and traveled there many times for business. I've been very active with the board of a YMCA n San Diego. For the next book, I actually worked with some friends in Mexico to help me scout a place where the son of a banker could be kidnapped. <br />Midnight Ink came up with the cover. I initially thought it was too lurid, but now I think it's amazing. They also came up with the title. Murderabilia was a part of the book but not originally the title. That was The Darkroom, because of the importance of photography in the book and how it fit thematically. Carl Vonderauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01018083094166667490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-21924248796712255182019-07-12T10:46:26.278-04:002019-07-12T10:46:26.278-04:00Congratulations on the publication of your book. F...Congratulations on the publication of your book. First book, right? How does it feel to have that first book seen by the world? <br /><br />Your friend seems amazing. I grew up with two uncles working in the local county prosecutor's office, share the last name with one of them and can't imagine any of us bring danger because of their jobs. Deana Dalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09093854261937772980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-84184029090065638102019-07-12T10:03:12.544-04:002019-07-12T10:03:12.544-04:00Hi Carl! Congratulations on your debut. It must be...Hi Carl! Congratulations on your debut. It must be very exciting to be at Thrillerfest in your publication week! And how great that Hank has had a look at pages from Book #2. Hank is the best at giving writing advice. I take it you know Mexico well?<br /><br />And do tell us about your cover!<br />Deborah Crombiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16988750789088153601noreply@blogger.com