Let's do...LUNCH!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Lunch, lunch, I love lunch. I’ve always loved lunch. For 40-some years as a reporter, I looked forward to it every day, it was a lifesaver and a sanity saver. I do remember, though, the franticness. Once on the way back to file a story, I was so hungry, but SO late, so I ran into a sandwich place and said:

“How long for a tuna sandwich?”

And the guy said: “Two minutes!”

And I said: “Too long!” And raced back to the car and my story.

(And that’s how stressful TV news is. That's what taught me to always carry almonds.)

But now, working from home, I am still excited about lunch. I will admit, most days I have half of a turkey and swiss sandwich on rye bread with Honeycup mustard, Siete chips and a half-sour pickle. If we have arugula, all the better. SO BORING, I know, but I am in love with it. I don't usually have lunch until 2:30, yes, 2:30. But it's perfect.

How about you, Reds and Readers? Are you a lunch fan? What's on the menu?

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m a big fan of food in general, so what’s not to love about LUNCH?! Especially a fan of last night’s leftovers. Alternatively, I love any excuse to heat a pair of frozen cheese blintzes and eat them with sour cream and canned cherry pie filling. Not healthy but very satisfying.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Yes, I love lunch, especially when it gives me a chance to read. Love leftovers, especially soup, or (I know it’s a cliche but it’s so good) I’ll make avocado toast with good bakery sourdough, one of the tiny avocados from Trader Joe’s, olive oil, lemon juice, flakey salt, sriracha, and radish sprouts from the farmer’s market. Totally yum.

JENN McKINLAY: Big fan of lunch but I never eat it unless I’m meeting friends for lunch, which I do a couple of times each month. At home, I’m more of a snacker and a nice plate of cheese and crackers with pickles and olives can get me to dinner no problem.

RHYS BOWEN: Meeting friends for lunch is what keeps me sane! I have lovely friends both in California and Arizona whom I meet regularly (Jenn. Waving at you!) and escaping from work and concentration for lunch is just perfect. When I’m home alone it’s whatever I can grab. In winter I make big soups with whatever I can throw in. Summer it’s salad, or avocado plus whatever protein is left over.

LUCY BURDETTE: Gotta have lunch! And usually before noon. I don’t too often go out for lunch, although I love seeing friends, but it takes up a lot of time and I’ll often eat more than I should. The best thing is leftovers such as some of the delicious pea soup I made the other day or lentil soup or anything in that family. If I have a little cottage oat biscuit to eat on the side, that’s even better!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Count me among the lunch fans, both at home (sandwiches! With fancy mustards!) and going out to a restaurant. It’s also become a bit of a trend with my friends to do lunchtime entertaining, and I love it. You go to someone’s house on Sunday afternoon, enjoy good food and conversation, and get home before dark. You don’t have to think about whether to say yes or no to a drink, because what’s on offer is coffee, tea and fruity seltzer. Honestly, it’s an ideal way to entertain.

How about you, Reds and Readers? Are you a lunch fan? What's on the menu? Your turn to order!

It's "Tell Us A Good Thing" Day!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh my gosh, the NEWS. So we are not talking about any of that here.

Let me tell you some good things. And then we want to hear yours!

These are the animal tracks in the snow on our patio. Look at all the creatures! Birds (one of them going in circles, pretty funny), rabbits, squirrels, Jonathan filling the bird feeder. And I think a cat, although…whose cat? Mystery cat.

Also in our back yard, this is a cardinal in the rhododendron in the snow. What a perfect photo!


My adorable grandson has a big role in his high school musical, IN THE HEIGHTS and we are going to go to NY to see him. Aww. 


I made beef stew and it was delicious! I did not forget the beurre manie and that really makes a difference. I did not take a photo. 

So, Reds and Readers, with the power of positivity, tell me three good things in your life. NOT book things. Just other things in your life.

HALLIE EPHRON: I had to think awhile for this one since. I’m going to share 1, which is that I am thrilled to have been invited to teach mystery writing in Paris this spring. More details to come. Good thing 2: My grandson gave me a hug without me begging for it. Good thing 3: I haven’t yet slipped on the ice.


DEBORAH CROMBIE: Good thing 1) Watching my granddaughter and her team play soccer. (Indoors for the winter season.) Watching these ten -year-old girls brings me so much joy. They have such promise, and you can see their developing personalities in the way they play. And I love that although they play hard, they are not downhearted when they lose.

Good thing 2) I stepped out the back door for something last night and there was a blazing sunset. I had to watch in awe until it had faded to dark.

Good thing 3) Still meditating with a cup of tea in front of the new faux Christmas tree every morning. Must take it down this week but enjoying it so much for now.


JENN McKINLAY: Good things! I have an amazingly good thing to share but I can’t yet. Darn it! But I managed to get my Christmas tree and holiday decorations down. And I have plenty of work to keep me busy this year which I am grateful for given the crazy times we’re living in.


RHYS BOWEN: Jenn–teaser! No fair. Good thing number one for me is having John home after battling pneumonia, and a very scary time.

Good thing 2 is that Clare and I have finished our next Molly book and it’s ready to go off to Minotaur this week. And it’s good.

Good thing 3 is the sun is finally out again after a period of non stop rain, and the view from my windows always enchants me, especially as a lot of people still have their Christmas lights on.


LUCY BURDETTE: good thing number one, my dear old friend Yvonne has been visiting for the week and I’ve enjoyed seeing Key West through her eyes. (She thinks we are always always having fun, so don’t tell her how much time I spend working or watching television lol.)

Good thing number two: it’s the seventh anniversary of T-bone’s Gotcha day. I nearly didn’t select him because there were so many cats in the SPCA that it was completely overwhelming. He was the right cat for me and for us and besides, he’s gorgeous and very good at social media.

Good thing number three: (see number one above.) We saw the most gorgeous manatees on our morning walk the other day. I consider a manatee sighting to be a wonderful omen! 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Lucy, congratulations on T-Bone’s Adoptiversary! My pets loom large in my “good things” column as well, so for number one, I’ll put how lovely it is to sit in the comfy settle next to the kitchen woodstove, reading a good book with the Shih tzus around me.

Number two - getting daily pictures and videos of my grandson “Paulie!” His moms are rightfully shy about having his face online, so you’ll just have to take my word he’s the cutest little chubby-cheeks ever (exept when he has his mobster face on.)

Number three - I’ve already started pulling together my tax info and getting everything down on a spreadsheet for my accountant. I know, most of us don’t think of getting taxes done as a good thing, but I for YEARS I was always late and had to get an extension - which I then sometimes didn’t meet! So it’s a thrill to know everything will be in Kevin’s Dropbox as soon as I get the last 1099-R form.

HANK: Taxes, argh. SO glad you are making it a postive. This is all so great! Perfect. Now your turn, Reds and Readers! Tell us a non-book good thing!

MEM-REEEEES - What Is Your Very First?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: My new book is coming out in September, and more about that (of course) much later, but in order to write it, I needed to start thinking about things I remembered as a child. Specific things. And trying to figure out how old I was when I grasped certain concepts. (It's because in MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER something happened to a character when she was an infant up to the time she was five. Now she’s 11–what would she remember?)

And it was truly fascinating, and finding the answers was a bit elusive.

Here's a photo of me with a doll. I have no memory of this, except for this photo. I do look--determined.



I remember my artist- mother painted a big giraffe on my bedroom wall, lifesize. But do I remember seeing it? Or just remember her telling me about it? I think I remember seeing it, and I must have been–3?

Of course I remember my parents, but–really? Do I? I remember my father taking me to Lake Michigan, and we saw a whole fishkill, where dead alewives were strewn across the beach. I bet I was..five. And I was so terrified. But do I remember that? Or was I told that? Ah.

How old am I here? Hmmm. No memory of this. How did my tooth get broken? No idea.



I had a music box, pink, that looked like an old-fashioned radio. I totally can visualize that. At age...3? And another music box where a delicate ballerina popped up and twirled en pointe. It played Dance of the Sugar Plum fairy, I think…but when did I realize that?

And here, I have clearly figured out..something. (Sadly, I could not come close to doing this now.)





I definitely remember reading Black Beauty. I can see myself, in the classroom, and I completely remember, when it was finished, that it crossed my mind “wait, I think this book was about more than a horse.” I had clearly discovered the concept of theme! But by then I was–10.

And I clearly remember lying in bed and worrying about tornadoes. Someone has old me that tornadoes would demolish every OTHER house, and I would try to figure out how, if the tornado would skip our house and the hit the next one, and then skip the next one, etc, how the tornado would have to go so that none of my friends’ houses were hit.

So at some point, I started to think about the welfare of others. (My friends’, at least.) This must have been a result of being traumatized by The WIzard of Oz. So I was…again, 10?

My parents were divorced when I was six. I kind of remember that. And I remember an apartment building where we lived. Kind of.

You see where I am going here. What’s your very first actual memory? NOT what someone told you, but that you actually remember? How old were you?

HALLIE EPHRON: My first memory is of lying in bed and looking out into my childhood bedroom through wooden bars. So I must have been in a crib. Which means I must have been, what, two? Three?

That’s the whole memory. Not very exciting. And I never got to ask my parents whether I really ever was in a crib in that room. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I have a very vague memory of being in my crib–I see exactly where it is in my room in the old house. The room is blue and the light is dim, curtains drawn against afternoon sun. I’m supposed to be napping but am sitting up, having conversations with my many stuffed animals. I’m guessing I was somewhere around eighteen months or two?

JENN McKINLAY: I definitely remember my brother jailbreaking me out of my crib when I was two. It’s imprinted on my mind no doubt because we got caught and that did not go well. Lots of my memories have that hazy glow of uncertainty–did it really happen the way I remember or is this something conjured by my brain?

RHYS BOWEN: Hank, I agree that it’s hard to determine what I actually remember, versus what I was told happened. I do have some clear memories. We were looking after a relative’s cat when I was three at the oldest and the cat got away and my grandmother walked around the neighborhood calling “Beauty, Beauty.”   I do remember air raids, deep in my psyche, although I was too young to actually remember details.  But most other clear events are probably what was related to me at some point.

LUCY BURDETTE:  It is very, very hard to tell what memories come from photographs and what we were told and which ones are real. But I guarantee you I can remember I had twin boyfriends in kindergarten and one of them gave me a cone of posies. I was wearing a brown checked, drop waisted dress with a white collar. I would like that dress now!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My earliest memory is being allowed to go into my parents’ bedroom to meet my new baby sister. I have a vivid sensory impression of the white wicker bassinet, the eyelet lace, and the sun coming through the bedroom’s harvest gold curtains. I would have been three years and nine months, and it’s quite a gap until my next memory.

Hank, your mention of the music box that looked like a radio reminded me of a play radio we had - I could turn the dial and see different pictures, and, if I recall correctly, it could be wound up to play music. Hadn’t thought about that in well over fifty years!

HANK: So interesting! Part of my new book centers on what a five year old might remember. Any thoughts about that? What would an 11-year-old remember about being 5? And what is your earliest memory?