A Madness of Pumpkins

DEBORAH CROMBIE: When I was a child (back in the dark ages I admit) I remember having one autumn pumpkin, and that was for carving a jack-o-lantern on Halloween. I don't remember my mother ever festooning the inside of the house with orange squash, nor were there any pumpkins decorating porch or driveway. Times have certainly changed! I give you my daughter's porch as an exhibit! 

Those mums are almost as big as Wren!! They didn't cart all these pumpkins home themselves, by the way. There are pumpkin decorating services! (What I'm wondering is whether the service will also come and take them away?) This makes the two tiny ones I put on my front doorstep this year look a bit sad, but that little pop of orange color is still cheerful.

I debated buying more, and bigger, ones for the front steps, but then did the calculations–not only would I have to carry them from the car, but also back to the trash bins at the end of season. We don't have a big compost pile and I never much like putting a bunch of rotting vegetables in the landfill.

But it's not just Americans that have gone pumpkin mad. I run across ex-pat Brits who will tell me that the British don't do pumpkins, or Halloween, but I beg to differ. Look around anywhere in London, where gourds abound, or at this shot of Tulley's Pumpkin Farm near Gatwick Airport just south of London. Check out their link above--it's atonishing.

Those are some serious pumpkins!

This started me thinking about the economics of the pumpkin craze, and what a boon it must be to farmers, whether here or in the UK. I just read in my Dallas paper that this summer's drought in the Texas Panhandle reduced the pumpkin crop by about a third and the farmers are suffering.

I have to say I do love all the displays, they are so bright and cheerful, and I'm all in for anything that gives our farmers a cash crop. How about it, fellow Reds, do you go all out for the seasonal squash?

LUCY BURDETTE: I love looking at the displays as well! We were so sad this year because the pumpkins did not come up in John's garden. Last year we probably got 20, put a bunch out ourselves and gave the rest to the neighbors. This year we have two tiny mini pumpkins on the dining room table and that’s it. But I think yours are adorable!

JENN McKINLAY: I’m more of fake headstones on the front yard decorator than pumpkins on the porch. When the Hooligans were young, we carved pumpkins and put them out, saving the seeds for roasting, natch. But once they outgrew it, I was over it. The headstones and skeleton come out every year, unless I’m traveling during Halloween. I do love other people’s pumpkin displays, however!

HALLIE EPHRON: My neighborhood goes mad for Halloween, but not so much for pumpkins. It’s more blow-up plastic tarantulas and skeletons sitting on roofs or leaping out of attic windows.

My Jerry was a master pumpkin carver and every year we’d set one that he’d carved in our front window. And I’d wash and roast the seeds that got came out of it. One year I even rescued the pumpkin the day after and made a pie. 

This year I have 2 smallish pumpkins on my front steps, courtesy of my lovely daughter who is now living part time with me. (Lucky me!!) I’m hoping she will opt to carve it as we approach the end of the month.

RHYS BOWEN: My pumpkin carving always left a lot to be desired. Triangle shaped eyes and mouth at best. Since the kids left home I have two ceramic pumpkins I put out with candles in them, but that's about it. We have so few children in my neighborhood that it hardly seems worth decorating.

 

But this year, now that I have my daughter Anne living with me and she is creative and enthusiastic, we may even carve pumpkins and put out a ghost or two.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’m a harvest-time/Hallowe’en/Thanksgiving decorator, so I like my pumpkins, mums and gourds. I have several big ones on my porch steps; I like the way they look on the stone, with the last daisies and asters. After Oct 31, I’ll add a few gourds and, if necessary, replace the mums with decorative kales. Happily, I DO have a compost pile, so everything goes back to the soil one way or another.

When my kids were young, of course, we did jack o’lanterns, and sometimes I’d supplement them with uncut (and therefore longer lasting) pie pumpkins. I’ve had many a pumpkin pie in my time, but made fresh from the squash is the most delicious!

DEBS: I love your display, Julia, and now I'm a bit sorry I didn't do my steps as I usually do, alternating pale blue and pale pink pumpkins. I love the weird colors!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Ah. Um. No. Nothing. I am more a huge basket of mums person. Should I get a pumpkin? I will never make a pie of it, so maybe I’ll stick with the flowers? I am fond of Halloween but more as an observer. I’m not the Halloween Grinch, I promise!

DEBS: Hank, everyone should have at least one pumpkin, even if only a tiny one for your dining room table! I've put a little one on my coffee table and and also on my dining table, and they make me smile every time I look at them.

How about it, dear REDs? Do you have a plethora of pumpkins? Or do you save the squash for pumpkin pie?

No Regrets? by Lucy Burdette

LUCY BURDETTE: last week Rhys had us talking about books. What we do when we have too many of them and how we make decisions about culling the herd. I’ve also done some “ridding out“ as my friend Yvonne would call it, of clothing and shoes. Already, I wish I could call a few things back that are long gone. We don’t have a lot of call to wear corduroy pants in Key West, but this winter we’re also going on a trip to a very cold portion of Europe. There was a pair of black wide wale corduroys that I hadn’t worn in years. They were ankle length, with a band around the bottom, almost a barrel shape. I wore them often, and I loved them, but I gave them away thinking I wouldn’t have opportunities to wear them again.  But now that it’s too late to summon them back, I miss them!

I also regret recycling my overalls. (See the photo at the top of me with my friend Carolyn.) I was in my late 20s when I moved from Tennessee to Florida to start graduate school. I wore those overalls nonstop which no doubt struck others in the clinical psychology department as peculiar. As I advanced farther along in the program, wearing overalls was less appropriate, and I gave them away. But now I see fashionistas wearing overalls everywhere. I miss that pair! 

I may have talked about this years ago, but I had a plastic bag of my favorite childhood stuffed animals. I collected cats that were covered with rabbit fur. They had names and lives and the games we played saw me and my sister through some unhappy times. In that bag were also several arms and legs from my mother’s Raggedy Ann dolls. Don’t know what happened to the other body parts! However, in Florida, my ex and I had a terrible infestation of roaches who ate the fur off of all those animals. I was finally talked into throwing them away. Now, the kicker…

Our local NPR station is soliciting people to bring unusual collections to their Audacious Live show and tell. They suggest things like a jar of cat whiskers—something unusual with meaning and a story behind it. I am positive that a baggie of bald stuffed animals and doll body parts would make a good conversation piece. However, they are gone and I’m filled with regrets.

How about you reds, any items that you disposed of but now regret? Or do you give things away and never look back? Do you have something 'special' you'd bring to that NPR show and tell?

A Great Month for Reading

 

LUCY BURDETTE: As you can see by the pile in the photo, I’ve had no shortage of books to read over the last few weeks. John has a new hip and is getting along famously, but in those first scary days when I was the sole caregiver, I wanted something soothing and so familiar. I was thrilled to discover the small Jenny Colgan book that serves as a prequel to her Mure series, which I adore. Hank’s book was daytime reading—full of twists and rocket fuel adrenaline, well done Hank! Now I’m finishing the new Ann Cleeves, which is a Matthew Venn book. It’s solid as always and I’m completely buffaloed about who could have killed these people. I’m sure Matthew will figure it out. I also read Ann Patchett’s Whistler for a second time (which I rarely do) because some friends were getting together to discuss it and eat cake. I loved it the second time too—such great depiction of characters. Kristan Higgins is the queen of women’s fiction, writing about four friends whose lives are upended by a terrible accident. 

Now I have to decide what’s next…what are you reading and how do you decide?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Ah, mostly it’s the book by the author I get to interview next or a book I have been asked to blurb! It’s fun to have my “job” assign me books–it lets me read some I might not have heard of or chosen. As a result, I’m just beginning Hallie Shepherd’s CALL OFF THE DARK  (a new author for me, and no idea what this will be) and just finishing the brilliant Jason Rekulak’s WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN.  It is so scary I can hardly read it! (And aw, thank you for the kind words about MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER! And it’s already in second printing, yay.) And next on the blurb list..the new LIsa Jewell! So looking forward.  

HALLIE EPHRON: YAY on that second printing, Hank! And YAY on John’s new hip, Roberta!!

I’m not doing a huge amount of book reading right now because I’m in the middle of teaching a 2-week class for the Sisters in Crime Guppies on how to write a compelling protagonist. I’ve broken it into 6 lessons and there’s a full contingent of participants and masses of homework for me to respond to.

When I’m done for the day the last thing I feel like doing is reading.

But queued up next are some books I somehow managed to miss when they came out awhile back. THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB by KarenJoy Fowler (I loved her WIT’S END.) And Elena Ferrante’s MY BRILLIANT FRIEND.

JENN McKINLAY: I’ve been reading mostly for endorsements lately, including the upcoming GIRL FROM IPANEMA by Mia Sosa and Ellie Alexander’s suspense/cozy MURDER MOVES IN. Both are excellent and I highly recommend them. I also have a book by the delightful Ang Pompano called SIMMERING SECRETS to read. Right now, I’m attending the Ashland Mystery Festival in Oregon and planning a visit to the post office tomorrow to mail back all of the books I’m purchasing at the local indie bookshop Bloomsbury Books.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I've been in and out of the hospital the last couple of weeks with some health stuff, so have definitely needed comfort reading. I ran across a series by LT Shearer about a retired Metropolitan Police detective who lives on a narrowboat in Little Venice (obviously irresistible to me) and who is befriended by a talking cat called Conrad. I never read Lillian Jackson Braun's books so I don't know how these compare. This series is a bit of an oddity, as it sounds super cozy but the mysteries, especially in the later books, are actually well-plotted police procedurals. The first book is THE CAT WHO CAUGHT A KILLER and I was charmed enough to plow through all five.

Also, I read MAD ABOUT YOU by British author Heidi Stevens. This one is set in the Cotswolds and I loved it so much I didn't want to read anything else when I finished it. Lucy, as you like Jenny Colgan you would probably love Stevens!

Now I've started Meg Mason's SOPHIE, STANDING THERE, for Kris Atomic's online book club, and I'm also reading a new biography of Charles Darwin, ORIGIN STORY, by Howard Markel.

Next up will be Ann Cleeves new Mathew Venn.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: After a bit of a dry spell, I’m finding a plethora of great, fun mysteries this fall! I just finished MURDER AT THE GRAND ALPINE HOTEL by Lucy Foley and Agatha Christie. Yes, it’s a new Miss Marple, okayed by the Christie estate. (Who benefits from that, I wonder?) It’s a stunningly scenic everyone-trapped-by-the-weather novel set in 1950. I have to admit, I figured out whodunnit about ⅔ of the way through, but it was so well-written I enjoyed the ride all the way to the end of the piste. 

Currently reading HOW TO WRITE A MURDER by Jessica Brody. Like THE ENDING WRITES ITSELF, which I raved about last time, this is a group of mystery writers gathered together in a remote place, this time for a conference. I’m only a little way in, but so far, it’s a real page-turner.

I missed Benjamin Stevenson’s latest Ernest Cunningham mystery when it came out this spring, so EVERYONE IN THIS BANK IS A THIEF is waiting in the wings. 

My total author crush Emily St. John Mandel has a new speculative fiction novel just out, EXIT PARTY. I think I’m 157 on the waiting list at the Portland Public Library, so we’ll see if my patience can outlast my desire to stick to my book budget this quarter.

Reds, what are you reading these days?

Rhys on Traveling and Musing

 RHYS BOWEN: As I write this I’m sitting at a hotel in York, England, coming to the end of a delightful trip. I started in London, with my daughter Jane and her husband Tom, then we took the train to Cornwall, picked up a rental car and drove to my sister-in-law‘s lovely 14th century Manor house.

It’s always like stepping out of the world stepping back in time there’s no pressure nothing to do at any time and we just relax. The weather was perfect all week. We went to Little fishing villages. We ate a lot of crab and fish. We saw loads of family members and it was perfect.

After this we flew from Newquay in Cornwall to Edinburgh, Scotland I had no idea you could do that until we until Jane found it out. I won’t say it’s the most comfortable flight. It was Ryan and we were only allowed a tiny under seat bag, but it got us there. After a night in Edinburgh Jane and I took the train up to Fort William in the Highlands while Tom went off to the golf tournament at Saint Andrews.  We had an Airbnb that was right on the loch and every day we went somewhere different. Of course we had to see the Harry Potter viaduct and the town of Mallaig where the ferry goes across to Skye everywhere we went was the same route that my characters had taken in the castle in the Glen so it was fun to point everything out to Jane. We also stopped at Rannoch Moor supposed home to Lady Georgie in my books. I chose it because it was the most bleak and inaccessible place in the UK that I could think of and it really is.

The weather was not very kind to us rain most days. But but it didn’t stop us. Tom loves driving on little narrow lanes and some of them were very little and very narrow, and you felt like you were at the end of the Earth. We returned to Edinburgh via two castles,  castle Doune that was the site for Winter Castle in Game of Thrones and for the castle in Monty Python and the holy Grail so that was fun. And then Stirling Castle, which was impressive and majestic

Back in Edinburgh we did some sightseeing and then I caught a train down to York to spend a few days with my college friends. We’ve been getting together once a year for the past several years. It’s always amazing to see them. I’m going to conclude the trip with a couple of days in London when I have to meet with some TV people and we hope to take in a show.

Some thoughts on this trip: English train journeys were delightful. I did pay extra to go first class, but it really wasn’t expensive and on the last trip from Edinburgh down to York they served a hot meal of choice cooked on the train plus they kept coming around every few minutes with hot and cold drinks cookies anything else you might want. I felt very pampered. I also have to say that English hotel beds have been amazing. Very comfortable everywhere I can’t say the same for English hotel bathrooms. It’s always slightly iffy when I step into that shower.Knobs are various sizes and directions. If I turn this knob to the right, am I going to get scalded with hot water or doused in freezing water, hit from a shower above my head or straight at my face or middle . Every single hotel has had a different shower configuration and one with which I’m not familiar today it was one in which you turned the bar one way and a stream comes out of the wall at your face. You turned the bar another way stream comes out  at your middle and the third way gives you the option of the shower you can hold. One thing they all had in common was the hot water could cook a turkey in 10 minutes. I’ve no idea why everybody needs hot water. It is so scalding  that you have to jump out of the way, but it was a challenge . As my son-in-law said throughout Scotland, it’s an adventure.

Suddenly facing life is a single lady. I’m facing the fact that I’m now a plus one and didn’t want to interfere with my kids vacation. But they have been so warm and loving and made me feel pampered. It’s been a bit strange I’m used to traveling with John and asking him what he wants to do today and fitting in with his request and now suddenly I can do exactly what I want to. It feels a bit scary but also rather freeing. I’m determined not to give up adventures.

KEEP OR THROW?

RHYS BOWEN: I’ve been doing a lot of weeding out at home recently. After my husband’s passing earlier this year I’ve been doing remodeling and rearranging. My daughter Anne is moving in with me so she is getting her own suite downstairs. That means John’s office becomes my media room, my media room becomes the guest room etc. it also means getting rid of an awful lot of furniture and books. I have shelf after shelf of my own books. Another book case of reference books. Two of antiquarian or valuable books. John had two book cases of his reference volumes. There were three in the family room. And this after we did some serious weeding years ago.

So the question is what do I keep? We have gorgeous coffee table books. Lots of important reference works.  It how valuable are they to me now? A pictorial volume on  Tuscany isn’t exactly necessary now I can watch a YouTube video any time I choose. Another coffee table book is Great Wines of France. And I’m still drinking Californian plonk. Antique dolls? The British Raj? The fact is that many reference books are obsolete. I can find the info quick online. 

When it comes to novels will I really read this book again? And if I do, I can read it on Kindle. My complete Agatha Christie collection is not going anywhere. But otherwise only books signed by friends and fellow authors are special enough to keep. 

So, dear Reds, which books do you hang onto? Can you easily let the others go?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I am having a very similar dilemma. Some days I feel like shouting: ALL OF THESE HAVE TO GO!  Then I think...well, except for this one. And this one. And the Agatha Christie collection, exactly. And  my own  books, in every shape and language. And signed books. But...really? What if I just tear out the signature page and keep the signature page? And donate the book? Hmmm…?

Lisa Gardner has my favorite take on this. She says books are meant to be read, not sit one a shelf. So she says she is delighted to donate books–she feels as if she is saying, “Go books! Do your job!” And I truly love that.

LUCY BURDETTE: We had a big purge this summer too, though not a dramatic renovation like Rhys’s. I know I have a book “problem”--it’s so much easier to identify which of John’s books should go.:) I tried very hard to look at each book and ask if I would really read it a second time, or if I’d need it for a research reason, or if I had an emotional attachment, like it was written by one of my dear friends, signed by the author etc. If my answers were no, it went to the Friends of the Library to be sold for another reader to enjoy.

But I have another problem–I keep buying more books. So you would never know I’d purged anything!

HALLIE EPHRON: I’ve had what Rhys is experiencing… after my sweet Jerry’s death I sold most his collection (quite a few classic illustrated children’s books) which turned out to have a nice amount of value and hopefully went on to strut their covers on eBay or Amazon and make some money for the secondhand bookseller.

Three years later (like Rhys!) my daughter and her family have moved in with me… and I’ve liquidated my office and all the books in it to make way for her taking over. I now have a cozy work space in my bedroom, with about 10 linear feet of shelf space for books. So deciding which to keep was quite an exercise. But at least it’s easy these days to find texts online. 

Keepers? Eclectic Here’s a sampling… A set of Harry Potters. THREE BAGS FULL. THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE. THE EYRE AFFAIR. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS. DEFENDING JACOB. DOG ON IT. GONE GIRL. BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE. PRESUMED INNOCENT… And about a dozen more and that’s it. 

So far I haven’t missed the missing ones.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I did a similar thing with Ross’s collection of histories, warfare, etc. after he died, Hallie. A new branch of the local community college was opening, and they were asking for book donations to help expand their limited acquisition budget. I catalogued what I wanted to get rid of, and after looking the list over, they happily accepted about ⅔ of the collection. The rest I gave to Victoria to sell online.

Now, my OWN books are a thornier problem! I’m dealing with that by ignoring it entirely, and focusing on what children’s/middle grade/YA books I can pass forward (I like Lisa Gardner’s take) to other readers. Three bedrooms, three bookcases in each one, PLUS the stuff stored in the attic… I figure I can be happily and productively weeding for a while.

JENN McKINLAY: My parents were keepers so I grew up with an aversion to “stuff.” Sorry, Pop, you are not going to find a use for that six inch piece of wood that you’ve kept for twenty years. They weren’t hoarders or anything, there was just so much stuff acquired from their families that they just couldn’t part with because it belonged to someone they loved. I do not have that sentimentality. I keep nothing. One copy of each book I’ve written and unless it’s a book signed to me by a friend, it goes to the Friends of the Library as soon as I’ve read it. I don’t collect things and my favorite hobby is sending stuff to thrift stores or the dumpster, depending on the state said item is in. 

RHYS: but Jenn what do you do with 25 copies of each of your books?  Any suggestions anyone? And who else has done a successful book purge?

JENN: I send them to my assistant to giveaway in promotions!

How about you, Readers? Any suggestions for authors drowning in copies of their own books?

Tick Tock Tick Tock

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What a blustery and rainy weekend we had–and just like that, whoosh, it’s autumn.

Look at these sparrows, who so politely lined up on the window sill under the eaves of our garage to get out of the deluge of  rain. I love the special sparrow spacing, it's quite mathematical!

The leaves are wildly turning, and the sedum are darkening red, and the weary tomatoes have given up the ghost for the year. As I have whined in this space, worst tomato year ever.

Jonathan has gone to  the basement to turn off the irrigation system. The pool guy is coming to close the pool. Our window air conditioners are looking forlorn and out of place.  My little summer dresses suddenly are  gaspingly out of season and upstairs they go,  into the third floor storage.

I got new sweatshirts and a new sweater with a duck on it that I love but you will never see me wear it in public. And I am trying to figure out what I did with all my coats. I put them somewhere…

How about you, Reds and readers? What changes do you see where you live? And how do you know fall is here? What do you to prepare welcome it?

And ohh, when do we change the clocks?

(And did you say rabbit, rabbit today?)

THE SECOND TIME AROUND

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: In the dearth of summer TV, Jonathan and I were  looking for something engaging entertaining and relatable and fun, possibly a little bit life-changing. I saw that Lucy and her husband were watching West Wing, and that seemed like a good idea. So we started at the very beginning, season one episode one and Reds and readers, we are hooked.

We watched it before, when it was on the air the first time in the early 2000s, and I remember loving it, and thinking it was wonderful and groundbreaking and intelligent and powerful, but I have to say, watching it again, it is all of those things and even more.

The writing is astonishing! It is still timely, how can that be? Sometimes hilariously so, one episode recently talked about wacky people coming to the White House, and one of them wanted to convince the president that we should use the map of the world that’s actually accurate. That shows geography in the real size, which makes the United States very small and Africa very big. The way it really looks. (Thank you to Equal Earth and Correct the Map)

The Mercator type maps, the one we are so used to, also  puts the Arctic circle at the top of the globe. Who’s to say that’s right side up?

Anyway, it was incredibly thought-provoking, and what do you know, just recently, a week or so ago, that was one of their proposals before the UN. (Only the United States voted against it.)

There are episodes about patriotism, and extremism. About racism and healthcare and women’s rights and inside politics. About Air Force One, and ballrooms, and dealing with the press.Truly. And I just love the character Donna.

It’s amazing. Reds and readers, do you watch West Wing, have you, would you, do you?

The last episode we watched made us both cry. When was the last time TV did that?  Putting it this way –when was the last time the television rerun made you cry?  Have you gone back and watched anything on TV that’s different-better-worse the second time around? 

LUCY BURDETTE: So glad you are enjoying it the second time around Hank! We feel a little ridiculous watching something so old, but it’s very good writing and television! We are also re-watching Nashville in honor of the death of Hayden Panatiere. It’s so sad how her life mirrored the show. But this is another excellent series. Unfortunately, it just left Netflix, but you can purchase it through Amazon prime or Apple TV. Since we are hopelessly hooked, we are doing that now! 

HALLIE EPHRON: I watched West Wing regularly waaaaay back when. Seems like the one (oops two things) thing I remember is Allison Janney. And Martin Sheen. At the time I thought it was a bit preachy… but then so was Star Trek which I can rewatch endlessly, and a little preachiness is refreshing right now.

I’m going to queue it up on my tv. Between new episodes of Great British Baking Show which restarts in a few days. Weirdly that’s another show with old episodes I can rewatch and be just as surprised at the outcomes as I was the first time around.

JENN McKINLAY: The most recent show that Hub and I rewatched was The Office. If you’ve ever worked with a small group of people, it absolutely holds up. I’m afraid to rewatch West Wing because I’ll get depressed, you know, because there’s no East Wing anymore, so is it truly a West Wing? *Jenn wanders off muttering under her breath*

HANK says: That's what I worried about, too, Jenn. But it's more inspirational than depressing. Really!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I never watched West Wing the first time around, so if I dig into it, it’ll be a premiere for me. But I have been doing a rewatch of sorts. You may remember I was working my way through the ITV Poirot series, and I naturally segued to the ITV Marple series. I’ve now seen all the Geraldine McEwan/Julia McKenzie episodes (including several that I KNOW weren’t Marple mysteries - what’s up with that?) 

I decided I had to give the Joan Hickson version of Miss Marple a try, and am working my way through those episodes with great pleasure. What’s next? You guessed it - the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple movies. So I’m seeing the same stories, but with different casts and production values.

RHYS BOWEN: I can never understand why they have to keep rehashing Miss Marple. To my mind Joan Hickson was perfect. Exactly as I imaged her. Others were too twittery and lacked her natural breeding and grace

And Hallie, I’ll also be starting the British baking show as soon as I get home. 

Right now it’s family dinners and lots of entertaining in Cornwall.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We loved THE WEST WING, back in the day. The writing and acting were amazing, but I've been afraid to rewatch because I thought it would be depressing. But if you say it's more inspirational, Hank, maybe we will give it a try. It would be good to remember how things were supposed to work.

Meanwhile, we are halfway through season 6 (of 7) of ELEMENTARY, which we did not see first time around. I'd say the first four seasons are terrific. I'm flagging a bit in season 4 and now 5, but kind of hate to give up.

HANK:  How about you, reds and readers? Have you watched re-runs of anything recently? Have you been tempted?

Is it different from re-reading a book?

And what do you think of the map of the actual world?

Janet Skeslien Charles's specialty: Fearless travel & turning poorly paid jobs into bestselling novels."

 

HALLIE EPHRON: One of the great pleasures of the teaching I get to do is the talented authors I meet.

When I was teaching a week-long class this summer on mystery writing in Paris for WICE (Where Internationals Connect In English), I got to hang out with fantastic writer and all-around delightful person, Janet Skeslien Charles.

She's the New York Times international bestselling author of The Paris Library, as well as Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade, The Parisian Chapter, and Moonlight in Odessa.

Janet grew up in Montana but now she's living in Paris, speaks fluent French, and writes and teaches in English. It was so much fun getting to hang out with her, and I never got to ask her how, on earth, has she done something that I could never imagine doing: traveling widely, living abroad, and learning to think and breathe (and write!) in another language?

First thing I'm dying to know: How did a girl from Montana end up writing living in Paris and writing a HUGE international bestseller??

JANET SKESLIEN CHARLES: It was wonderful to spend time with you, Hallie! Thank you for your kind words.

I became interested in France because as a child my neighbor was a war bride from Normandy. In 1998, I got a job teaching English in France and meant to live there for a school year, but ended up staying in Paris… for 25 years!

In 2010, I was writing a novel set in Ukraine at home in my apartment. Unfortunately, my building underwent massive construction, so to escape the hammering, I got a job at the American Library in Paris.

On my first day at work, I knew the place was a novel.

I researched the librarians who defied the Nazis in order to hand-deliver books to Jewish readers.

After painful rejections from my first agent and the publisher of my debut novel, I queried 75 agents and was accepted by Heather Jackson. After ten looong years, The Paris Library was finally published and became a New York Times bestseller. The follow-up book The Parisian Chapter was finally published in 2025, after fifteen years.

I mention this in case fellow writers are reading this. Keep writing! Keep going!

HALLIE: And how does that [spirit of adventure?] imbue your characters and your storytelling?

JANET: At heart, I’m interested in journeys and the way that we react to changes in circumstances, whether it be marriage, divorce, widowhood, a new job, getting fired, having children, not having children, becoming an empty nester, breaking up with a friend, having cancer or Covid, or moving to a new country.

My debut, Moonlight in Odessa, is about the booming business of email-order brides. Several of my Ukrainian friends – talented, motivated, intelligent women – married foreigners to escape poverty.

In my second novel The Paris Library, a librarian who has made a terrible mistake flees France by marrying a G.I.

Though the books are set in different countries and eras, the themes and plight of the main characters – one an email-order bride, the other a war bride – are essentially the same. I describe people out of their elements as they deal with loss of the familiar or loss of loved ones. At some point in our lives, most of us usually have to start over.

My books are about and for people who struggle.

HALLIE: I'm fascinated to hear about the travel and research you did to write that debut novel, Moonlight in Odessa.

JANET: Growing up in small-town Montana during the Cold War, I was a voracious reader of books, magazines, and newspapers.

As a teen, I noticed that color photographs taken in France or England featured young people having fun on the beach or dancing, while photos taken in the Soviet Union featured old women in headscarves waiting in line for bread. These pictures were always in black and white.

I knew those images didn’t tell the whole story, and so I wanted to see for myself. I took Russian classes at the University of Montana with the intention of working in the (then) Soviet Union.

At this time, I translated letters from lonely Montanan men to Russian and Ukrainian women, who the men had found through catalogues. International Matchmaking Organizations: A Report to Congress (1999) notes that, “Mail-order marriage is not a new phenomenon—it is an inseparable part of North American history and the settlement of the United States.” My home state was in part populated by mail-order brides in the 1800s and early 1900s.

I interviewed dozens of women, women who took a chance on love and moved across the world to marry someone they didn’t know very well. I’m interested in war brides and email order brides because of their courage and grit.

HALLIE: Your novels tend to be set in the historical past. How have you chosen the backdrops for your stories? Or have they chosen you?

JANET: I feel lucky to stumble onto the stories. When I was thinking about working in the former Soviet Union, I opened an atlas and pointed to a spot, which is how I ended up in Odessa. (After Montanan winters, I aimed for someplace warm.)

Odessans are incredible people, and I wanted to write about the city and its people, through the experiences of one woman. That novel was interrupted by construction on my apartment building. The hammering drove me out of my comfort zone and into a job that led to other stories.

So there’s an element of chance, and element of making the best of things, and paying sharp attention and asking questions.

HALLIE: I love the way you described your own special approach to writing: "If I have a specialty in writing, it is taking poorly paid jobs and turning them into novels." Tell us more, please!

Janet: Oh my goodness! My first professional job was teaching English in Odessa, Ukraine.

Thanks to a fellowship from the Soros Foundation, I received an airline ticket, travel insurance, and a $100 monthly stipend. The contract stipulated that I earn 120% of a head teacher’s salary. Fresh out of college, I would earn the same amount as an experienced teacher. Not bad!

Imagine my surprise at receiving my first pay and learning that my monthly salary was $25.

Young and inexperienced, I didn’t know which questions to ask. Despite the very low wages, I loved my job and my time in Odessa.

At the library, my contract was for minimum wage and fifteen hours a week. My colleagues and I all worked overtime. The boss promised “comp time” that never materialized.

I wish I’d had better boundaries. I’m proud of today’s generation, who are standing up for themselves on the job. Still, it worked out because I published a library trilogy about real-life American librarians who worked in France during world wars.

Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade features Jessie Carson, a Pittsburgh librarian who joined the American Committee for Devasted France. This all-woman aid organization worked just forty miles from the Front and helped civilians who had lost their homes and livelihoods.

Jessie Carson created the first children’s libraries in France during World War I. After the war, she founded libraries in Paris and Northern France. She paved the way for an international library school, which French authorities dubbed “The Wild West Library School.” It was housed in the library where I worked.

HALLIE: Can you tell us a little about of your newest book and the spark that got you hooked writing it?

JANET: My latest novel is The Parisian Chapter, which is set during dark moments in the City of Light in the 1990s. I took copious notes while working at the American Library in Paris as the programs manager. My coworkers, trustees, and library members fascinated me. When people from different walks of life cross paths – it creates friction.

In the novel, the main character Lily meets an extraordinary cast of characters—including her favorite writer, struggling students, haughty trustees, and devoted volunteers—each with their own stories...and agendas.

My favorite review of the book calls it “The Devil Wears Prada, set in a library.”

The novel is an ode to libraries. It’s for anyone who's ever chased a dream, lost a friend, or found a place that feels like home - even if it's across the world.

HALLIE: Where should readers be looking for you to hear firsthand about you and your storytelling?

JANET: The Parisian Chapter came out in May, and I’m excited that my debut Moonlight in Odessa is being re-issued on December 1st.

My favorite place to connect with readers is my website jskesliencharles.com or my Substack newsletter, where I write about the women who inspire me, books I love, and life in Montana and Paris. My favorite post is about the similarities of writing and wheat farming (my parents’ profession). A Golden Harvest - by Janet Skeslien Charles https://jskesliencharles.substack.com/p/a-golden-harvest

Thank you so much for having me on Jungle Red Writers! 

HALLIE: THANK YOU!!

Janet will be hanging out here at Jungle Red today, checking in possibly from Paris... so please, share your reactions and questions... please, pile on! 

Looking forward to the spin-offs?

HALLIE EPHRON: There’s never been a better time for finding TV shows/movies that ably channel Agatha Christie’s or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic detective novels. I’m slowly working my way (again) through SHERLOCK (with Benedict Cumberbatch and the sublime pair, Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington.) And looking forward to watching Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence novels (there were 5).

But, thinking outside the box… what other oldies would you like to see revisited? Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason? Dick Francis’s jockey Sid Halley? Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey? Margery Allingham's Albert Campion? Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski??

My #1 pick, and we should be seeing it soon at the movie theatres (supposedly February of 2028!): a revival of Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote with Jamie Lee Curtis (count me a JLC fangirl) picking up where Angela Lansbury left off.

When I was writing the Dr. Peter Zak mysteries, I was definitely channeling Dr. Kildare -- even though he was not really a “sleuth” he was a doctor.

Is there a classic sleuth or literary or pop culture personality that influenced a sleuth you created?? Or have you always truly started from scratch?

LUCY BURDETTE: I’d be okay never seeing another Murder She Wrote, except…I adore Jamie Lee Curtis! I was more in the camp of Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames as a kid, rather than classics. I wonder if The Pitt would be considered a modern day Cherry Ames:)?

RHYS BOWEN: when I look back at the oldies like Perry Mason, I feel what they were lacking was the complex character and humanity of the sleuth. Everyone seemed a bit cardboard. I like Benedict Cumberbatch’s interpretation of Sherlock as it’s a real person. 

I really feel we’ve overdone incarnations of Miss Marple when Joan Hickson was so perfect, although I confess St Mary Mead was the inspiration for my Welsh Llanfsir ( which means St Mary’s)

There are so many good sleuth around now. I don’t think we should keep rehashing the past— how about a Duncan and Gemma or Claire and Russ?

JENN McKINLAY: I’m in the camp of I like the Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot in my mind better than any screen adaptation, although Hickson is stellar. As for Jamie Lee Curtis, I love her, I just hope they keep the iconic tv theme music. I see her being more slapstick than Angela Lansbury, who did have excellent comedic timing. 

I second what Rhys observed–why not use some amateur sleuth novels from this century? We are 26 years in, after all. I did hear that Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jessie Q Sutanto is being adapted and I am excited for that one.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Count me as third for more contemporary cozies on TV/streaming. One of my gripes with Acorn and Britbox is that their original stuff tends to be much more hard edged. Which is why I’m also excited about the Tommy and Tuppence remake. Did anyone else watch the first 12 minutes on YouTube? I was hooked.

In the same vein, I can’t be the only one who’d love to see a Nick and Nora reboot. Whether done again set in the 1930s, or a modern-day version, those books are well overdue for a remake.

I’d also be fascinated to see a remake of Earl Derr Biggers Charlie Chan mysteries. Biggers intent was to great an admirable and heroic Chinese character in a time when American culture was full on “Yellow Peril.” 

For his time, he did pretty well, but the stereotypes really didn’t age well, not to mention all the white actors in yellow face. Wouldn’t those stories be great with an all-Asian cast and all the racist stuff washed out?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well, I would always do with another Morse, although the original was perfectly perfect. And I think Magpie Murders (and etc. ) blends old and new wonderfully well. 

I’m terrified that there might be a Kinsey Millhone series, because we all know Sue Grafton did not want that. And thinking about it, I don’t either. It just–can’t work. And Julia, you have me musing over NIck and Nora. I first thought, ooh, genius. Then I thought–nope, leave them alone in our hearts and minds. 

Rachel Eckstrom Courage took The Golden Girls and made them amateur sleuths in a cozy mystery series–it is so wonderful! But would it have worked the other way? Well…maybe….

My final thing–many of those old series, which we loved at the time, were all about men telling women what to do. Hmm.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I was actually never a big Murder She Wrote fan (ouch) but I’d be willing to give Jamie Lee Curtis a go.

I’m a little over the Christie adaptations, although I do want to see what they’ve done with Tommy and Tuppence. They were always my faves of the Christie sleuths and it’s nice that they were not, as Hank says above, about men telling women what to do. I think Tuppence was always the brains of that duo! 

And maybe because I loved the detecting couple, those stories planted somewhere in my subconscious the germ of what became Duncan and Gemma. 

Thanks for the shout out, Rhys! You know I’d love to see them adapted, and also Julia’s Russ and Clare!

Speaking of Christie-related TV, it occurred to me that Amanda Chapman’s MRS. CHRISTIE IN THE MYSTERY GUILD LIBRARY and its upcoming sequel, MRS. CHRISTIE AND THE MYSTERY IN THE MEWS would make fabulous TV with the glamorous present day New York setting and Agatha Christie’s ghost (possibly!)

HALLIE: What great ideas!? Hollywood, are you listening??

What spin-offs and inspired-bys are you looking forward to or have been enjoying lately?? And what makes a character so intriguing that writers can hang mystery plots on their backs? Is there a niche sleuth/personality that hasn't yet been "taken"?