Events that bring us together: Celebrating CRIME BAKES

 HALLIE EPHRON: Every year, one conference in particular feels like a homecoming. This year it was especially sweet -- the 25th annual New England Crime Bake.

I was "in the room" ages ago (1999?) when we were arguing about whether an annual conference sponsored jointly by the New England chapters of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America was even feasible.

Where would we hold it?

Could we coerce a strong enough name headliner to draw the crowd size we needed to (at a minimum) cover our costs? 

Our first Guest of Honor was Jeremiah Healy who, among other things, gave a brilliant and much needed talk, covering everything a crime fiction writer needs to know about guns and ballistics (from pistols to Glocks). Along with potent warnings to GET IT RIGHT because people who read crime fiction know from guns.

A scary thought.

I took notes and promptly set about revising the manuscript I had underway. (Ballistics 101: Glocks don't have bullets.)

This year the conference featured with TWO guests of honor: Joseph Finder and Lisa Gardner.

It was a full house. And I was on a panel (with Hank and Crime Bake founder Kate Flora...) and we got to reminisce about memorable early Crime Bakes...

The first Crime Bake was notable because it was in a lecture call at a college somewhere north of Boston, and no one had told maintenance to turn the heat on. It was COLD. And the forensics expert who was supposed to give a talk failed to show up... I like to think that was because they were at a crime scene. 

We'll never know, but it was early days and we were still new at pulling off such a complicated endeavor.

An early guest was Janet Evanovich! She came despite having a wicked cold and, as she shared with us from the stage, she'd just undergone a facelift. She was and is the ultimate Stephanie Plum, a Jersey girl. And just as hilarious as you'd expect.

I shared my memory of Lee Child, GoH at an early Bake. He drove himself to the conference which was then at the Hilton in Dedham, MA, and arrived in a red Jaguar with the license plate REACHER. He was accessible, hanging out in the bar at night with all of us wannabees. A consummate gentleman and all-around sweetie-pie.

And a big contrast to Robert B. Parker who came. In a limo. Surrounded by what felt like protective guardians who whisked him away after his talk and book signing. That we were lucky to have him at all was probably due to our working closely with Kate Mattes who ran the legendary Kate's Mystery Books in Cambridge.

The memories are always tinged with sadness because the then-chapter president of Mystery Writers of America Al Blanchard died in the middle of a Crime Bake. He's much missed and the Crime Bake has given a short story award in his honor every year since.

This year's winner: Claire Rounkles!

There was the year we had a November blizzard....

Already I'm looking forward to next year's Crime Bake... Ace Atkins will be the Guest of honor!!

Hopefully it won't snow.

Were you at this year's Crime Bake? Please, share!!

Is there an annual-ish event you try to go to faithfully. Maybe a family reunion? Maybe a labor union meeting? Maybe just old friends staying in touch? Share!

He Made It So...

HALLIE EPHRON: I’ve been a fan of Star Trek – all the series, all the movies, all the actors – for ages. When I saw the sad news that Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Pickard of the Starship Enterprise in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION) had died and that in 2023 he’d published an autobiography (MAKING IT SO), I had to read it.

I’m about a third of the way through, in the part where he’s shed his Irish accent and working-class, hardscrabble home, devoted mother and difficult father, gotten himself trained as an actor, and has a gig traveling with a repertoire group with Vivien Leigh. He’s bummed out because he’s been cast as an understudy for a character with an 8-line role.

It’s a lovely read, especially suited to drowning out this moments’ cacophony of politics. Patrick Stewart sounds like he was a really nice human being as well as a hunk... what can I say, I have a thing for kind, smart men with bald heads.

Are any of you fans of Star Trek, and if so which iteration? And if not, is there a series (movie? Tv?) that intrigued you enough so that if one of the lead players wrote an autobiography, you’d read it? Who piques your curiosity??

RHYS BOWEN: I remember the first shows of the original Star Trek (how that dates me!) I didn’t think I was a fan of sci-fi but I was staying with friends in New York and they had to rush home to watch the show. How stupid, I thought Then I watched and I was hooked. Even though the scenery was paper mache rocks in those days and the special effects were… not too special.

When my oldest daughter Clare was a teenager she and her friends were obsessed. They taught themselves Vulcan and greeted each other with weird signs. I’ve enjoyed all the incarnations but none as much as the original.

I’m trying to think which other series have hooked me enough that I’d want to read autobiographies. I’ve read Carol Burnett’s. She always impressed me so much. Maybe Judy Dench. I’m a big fan.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hallie, what a great post.

I got hooked on the original series when I was in college and it first went into syndication. I watched every episode multiple times, and then I watched every incarnation of ST from then on. Of them all, I think The Next Generation was my favorite. Such a great cast, not least, of course, the great Patrick Stewart. 

I have to admit to having watched hours of the tributes to him last week. What a remarkable man, and such a good one. He was also, apparently, wickedly funny.

We have liked the newer series, ST Discovery, and also ST Strange New Worlds, but we are behind on the latest of that. (Ethan Peck as Spock!) But overall I think the ideals of Star Trek have gone a long way towards shaping my world view.

LUCY BURDETTE: Not a Star Trek watcher here. 

John and I have been re-watching Nashville and so John has been listening to Hayden Panatierre’s autobiography, published shortly before her overdose death. He’s reporting to me what he learns as I don’t have time to read it right now. Hearing her real-life story is so sad, and it actually mirrors some of the worst twists in the TV show. I was disappointed to hear that she didn’t enjoy the filming of that series–we want all our fictional friends to have gotten along in real life!

JENN MCKINLAY: LOVED the original Star Trek. Caught it in reruns after school in the 70’s. Such a great show. Way ahead of its time but when I learned Lucille Ball was a producer, it made sense as she, too, was way ahead of her time. 

I fell away from some of the franchise offshoots but did love The Next Generation and especially Patrick Stewart. I’m glad to know he was as good of a man as he seemed. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Ah, yikes. I am not sure I have ever seen a Star Trek .::Ducking:: I must have, right? It all feels very familiar, but ..it might just be all the references that make it feel like I’ve seen it. Should I start now? And if there were an autobiography of Aaron Sorkin, I might read that. The West Wing is so brilliant.

LUCY again: Hank, speaking of Aaron Sorkin, we saw the revival of A FEW GOOD MEN at Lincoln Center last week. I worried that it would seem dated, but it was wonderful. By the way, Bradley Whitford was the evil military man in the show, and he plays Todd Penn, the president’s husband, on THE DIPLOMAT. All that to say yes, I’d read Aaron Sorkin’s autobio!

HANK: Oh, lucky you! I’d adore to see that. Brad Whitford as Jack Nicholson! Amazing.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’ve been a Trek fan since I discovered there was a show in local reruns that had the same kind of science fiction stories I loved reading. I’ve been a Patrick Stewart fan since I had the pleasure of seeing him at the Barbican for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s ‘82-83 season - he was in Tom Stoppard’s play Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, and in A Winter’s Tale and Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. Stewart played Leontes in the former and the eponymous king in the latter.

So unlike most American viewers, I was stunned when I first saw The Next Generation. What’s that Shakespearean actor doing in a body suit? (TNG was arguably the best of all the Star Treks, but those were the silliest uniforms.)

Rhys, Judi Dench wrote a delightful book, SHAKESPEARE: THE MAN WHO PAYS THE RENT. It’s half memoir, half commentary on the various plays. You would love it!

HALLIE: So are you fascinated by the real lives of theatre folk? Is there a theatrical autobiography you'd love to get your hands on? 

And if you were "into" Star Trek, what do you think has accounted for the way so many of us are still "engaged"?

What is your go-to bad mood song?

JENN McKINLAY: Occasionally, I get into a MOOD for no good reason at all. It’s more than just the blues, which can be alleviated by a snack. No, this is a much deeper darker sort of mood. I believe Truman Capote called it the “mean reds” in Breakfast at Tiiffany’s. When this darkness comes upon me, there is usually only one cure. Music. I mean I could take a nap but then I risk not getting my work done, so music it is! While most 80's tunes can cheer me up, yes, even a good Rickroll (as a prank, of course) my go-to tune is: There She Goes by the The La’s

How about you, Reds? What’s your go-to song for mood elevation?

 

RHYS BOWEN: The sound track of Mama Mia is my go-to for driving and mood improving. And singing along loudly!  But I can’t have music on when I’m writing. I have to have silence.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I put on Defying Gravity. That ALWAYS works. And Nessun Dorma. Sometimes Warren Zevon’s Lawyers, Guns and Money, because it always makes me laugh. Nobody's Side from Chess. (It’s so nice and bitter and cynical!) And I Can Do That, from A Chorus Line.

There are SO many!

HALLIE EPHRON: What a great question! Top of my list would Paul Simon Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes. And then anything on my ancient album of Harry Belafonte gets me dancing around the room. (And I’m with Hank on Defying Gravity. I heard it first at the show on Broadway and it brought the house (and the curtain) down.)

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: No doubt for me, it’s Tubthumping, by Chumbawamba. I don’t know if they did anything else, but really, after recording that masterpiece, why would you need anything else?

If I have to get up early in the morning and I’m dragging and play 9 to 5 by the one and only Dolly Parton. Just the first bars with that heartbeat bass line and I’m dancing across the bedroom floor. And speaking of 1980s movies about New York, the best overall mood lifter in the world is Carly Simon’s Let the River Run. Just hearing it makes me want to put on a teeny-tiny skirt and a blazer with big ole shoulder pads and dance my heels off.

LUCY BURDETTE: Lots of good ones here already–for me it would be something Motown. Maybe Your Love Keeps Liftin’ Me, or My Girl, or You Keep Me Hangin’ On. It’s not that they’re all cheerful songs, but I they call for lip-syncing and dancing and I answer the call!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hallie, I LOVE Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes–that was going to be one of my top picks. I had my musician characters do a cover of it, along with another pick, Chuck E.’s in Love by Rickie Lee Jones. Which segues right into Corrine Bailey Rae’s Put Your Records On. I dare anyone not to perk up after those three! Sunday Morning by Maroon 5 will have you smiling and tapping your feet even on the first few bars. (And look at thirty-year-old Adam Levine in the video!) Last but not least on the pop/rock front is Crosby, Stills, and Nash’s Suite Judy Blue Eyes–singing along to that has got to release massive endorphins in your brain..

And for something more 2026, Olivia Dean’s Man I Need. She’s so good.

For classical, any Bach chamber music, or a rousing sing-along to the Hallelujah chorus from Beethoven’s 9th.

This might be the happiest post I've ever put up -- the songs had me GROOVIN'!!!! How about you, Readers? What's your go-to happy tune?