If You Hadn't Married Harry...

HALLIE EPHRON: My man went to work the other day carrying an empty wine bottle and telephone wire. He teaches physics and the bottle and wire were 'equipment' for a lab he was teaching. He also had his binoculars, just in case a woodpecker he'd heard but not seen from his office showed up again.

I know if I hadn't married him, I wouldn't be such a good cook (because he's such a great eater). I wouldn't be an adventurous traveler and birder. I definitely wouldn't know a thing about baseball, which this year I'm sorry I did (oy vey, those Red Sox).

So what about you, Reds -- if you hadn't married Harry, how would you have been (for better and for worse, richer and poorer, saner and...)?

LUCY BURDETTE: Oh I love that snapshot you drew of Jerry! John just went off to the salt mines (tennis courts) with a backpack full of balls and rackets, wraps on both aging knees, and a bike helmet. Looking like he was 12 years old, which is the way he feels...

I don't even know if I'd have been a writer without him. Which means I wouldn't know any of you! Because my career began with trying to figure out what to do with too much time spent playing bad golf. And the only reason I set foot on the golf course was because I'd fallen for him...

Maybe I would have come to it from another angle, but maybe not. Great question Hallie!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well, Jonathan just went off to  work with a big leather briefcase, a tiny container of raspberries to put on his Cheerios at his desk, and the goal to finish his brief in which he's representing a guy who has confessed to five murders. The interesting part about that being that it was impossible that he actually committed any of them.

So, sisters, I have lucked into a primo source of mystery plots, as well as in-house counsel and Thursday night cook. (And you know we met when I was feeling particularly bleak about life.)

If I hadn't married Jonathan? Oh, I would not have had this success as a writer, I KNOW that, he's so patient and so encouraging and so enthusiastic (and such a good chauffeur.) Would not have had step-kids and grandchildren--can't beat that!  (Oh, Lucy, the only reason you set foot on a golf course was because of John? That's FABULOUS.)  I love it when the world works.

JAN BROGAN: Bill is an entrepreneur and a risk taker. If it weren't for him, I would never have set foot in a sailboat and weathered some of the conditions that I did.  I  would never have developed this fascination I have for the wives who went on three to four year whaling voyages with their husbands - which is the historical novel I'm working on.  He has also been my go-to guy with pretty much any scene I've ever written involving either a lot of action or equipment. 

He doesn't drive me anywhere, but he can and does fix any computer glitch I have, and believe me, there are A LOT of them.

RHYS BOWEN: Interesting.... I just watched Letters to Juliet with my daughter and she asked if I had any lost love I'd want to find again. I decided that I don't regret parting with any of my former loves. There's certainly no one I'd go in search of again.

John has given me the ability to travel all over the world, taught me how to make curries, and best of all attached me to a family full of weird and wonderful characters for my Royal Spyness books.

And I would never have had those four wonderful, funny, talented children and those delightful grandchildren with whom I've been laughing and playing over Christmas.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Rhys, I did marry my lost love (Long story short: next door neighbors, teenage sweethearts. After seven years together we went our separate ways. He introduced me to my Scottish first husband. A good many years and a divorce later, we got back together. We'll be celebrating our nineteenth anniversary in May. Eeek.)

If I wasn't married to Rick, I'd probably be writing my books on a legal pad:-) He's fixed every computer problem, helped me figure out how to murder countless people in nefarious ways, and has NOT made me a better cook--although I have perhaps made him a slightly less picky eater.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I agree, Rhys - the first thing I think of when I think of marrying Ross are our children. I mean, I would have had kids if I had married someone else, but they wouldn't be the weird, wonderful, tight-knit Hugo-Vidals.

I, too, have to say I probably wouldn't have a writing career if I had married one of those other guys, because my young lawyer husband was the first man I dated who has his feet on the ground, money in the retirement account, and his shoulder to the wheel. I suspect if I had gotten hitched to one of those impulsive, artistic, impoverished men I dated before Ross, I would have had to be the sensible, benefit-carrying, money-earning one in the marriage. Ross's practicality, organizational skills, and ability to plan ahead freed me to be the creative dreamer in our partnership.

Plus? He bakes pies. Really, who can ask for more?

ROSEMARY HARRIS: This reminds me of the scene in It's A Wonderful Life where George Bailey sees what life would have been like in Pottersville (not Bedford Falls) if he hadn't lived.

I'd be an eccentric, single woman with cats. I'm convinced no one else could ever put up with me and I've gotten bored with every other man I've ever met after 2-3 months.

I'd probably have done everything else the same but without my best pal, staunchest supporter and the best travel companion on the planet. So it would all be...less. Gee...I really have had a wonderful life!

HALLIE: And there you have it. We are a pretty contented lot.

What about you? What would be different if you hadn't (or had) "married Harry"?

JAN BROGAN -   So this, the day after Thanksgiving, there are really only two things to talk about:  What to do with leftovers  - which we did yesterday, and Black Friday Christmas shopping.

Let me begin by saying, I am the world's worst shopper.  I am also the world's worst planner. This has always made Christmas difficult.  I could never get it together to start shopping today. Basically, I developed a holiday system that goes like this:  

1. No matter what the date, pretend Christmas is months away
2. When daughter complains it's getting late, allow her to do all the Christmas decorating.
3. Mean to send cards, but put it off so long that it becomes beside the point.  If someone I haven't heard from in years from sends me one, rush to store and buy one single Christmas card to send in reply.
4. Ritualize Christmas tree shopping so that it is always done on daughter's birthday. This way she either reminds me or offers to do it herself.
5. Agree to make Christmas candies at the very last moment at daughter's urging.
6.  Wait until the week before Christmas to start shopping. Thus run out of time before running out of money.
7. Recover from the materialism of Christmas by cooking a lot on Christmas day. For some reason it seems the perfect balm.


The system is not for everyone,  but it works for me.  But as you may imagine, this system does not allow for Black Friday shopping.  

So my question for you all is twofold: 

Have you every gone Christmas shopping on Black Friday and if so, why and was it worth it?
 Or do you have an alternate holiday system you'd like to share? 

LUCY BURDETTE: Oh Jan, your system would make me so anxious! What a lucky thing to have such a daughter to take over:). We are often traveling to see family or going to Key West or somewhere around the holidays, so that my preparations have contracted. One thing I can count on to help with the shopping list is the annual RJ Julia Booksellers member sale in November. I love this bookstore and love this sale, so a lot of presents are taken care of then! And I do collect stocking stuffers all year.

Black Friday shopping? Never! Hate those frantic crowds...

JAN: Yes, Lucy, I am extremely lucky to have such a daughter, for many reasons. Not least of which - besides her love Christmas and willingness to carry much of the burden, she is insanely organized all year round. (still trying to figure out how that happened.) 

HALLIE EPHRON: Shopping, sigh. Did you have to bring that up (she said, after returning from four trips to the grocery store and still needing to go back for another pint of heavy cream for Thanksgiving)?

Black Friday. I have never, will never ever shop it. First of all, I hate crowds. If I have to go to the mall, ever, I go on a Monday morning when the place opens. And I'm home no more than an hour later. 

Plus our Christmas exchange is very modest -- mostly stocking stuffers which I try to pick up through the year, though this year I have almost nothing in reserve. My husband told me what he wants and sent me the link. It's purchased. And like Jan, I make candy.

My son in law, whose family does exchange gifts, has a great system. He waits until Christmas eve and then heads out at dinner time to blitz it. It's like that old game show Beat the Clock -- what happens happens.

JAN: He sounds sounds like my kind of guy.

RHYS BOWEN: Life is much smoother since I discovered online shopping. Not only is it painless but they ship the presents to the right address. But I do send cards, around 100, since I like keeping in touch with friends around the world, and I love decorating. I have to confess that we finally got a fake tree. It looks wonderful but I miss the smell of fresh greenery. 

I also usually collect stocking stuffers all year but this year I have nothing! And it really bugs me when people want gift cards as presents. Nothing beats unwrapping a strangely shaped package, does it?

And John is one of those who can't get into the holiday spirit until about December 23. Then he asks "What does everyone want for Christmas?" and by then it's too late to buy it at a good price online.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Here's my 9-step system.

1. Buy Christmas cards. 
2. Plan to mail them.
3. It's too late.
4. NO! They can be New Years cards, all the better.
5. Missed that deadline, too.
6. Look on bright side, now I have cards for next year.
7. Put cards in safe place.
8. Forget where safe place is.
9. See number one. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: You mean it's Christmas already??? I'm not ready! I'm never ready! And I never never never ever shop on Black Friday. I can't think of many things I would less rather do. I don't go in department stores very often under ordinary circumstances--they make me feel overwhelmed by STUFF--so I can't imagine doing it on that day. I like to shop online or in my small local stores, and we don't usually buy big gifts.

The Christmas cards are the tradition in our house.  I think Rick and I have made our own cards every year since we've been married. (There was the year I'd had dental surgery and, totally snockered on Vicodin, hand-stamped a gilded pear--from a handmade woodblock--on a hundred cards...) Then we started doing photo cards, and not the family grouping, but really beautiful photos. The last couple of years we've moved the photo card tradition to digital and are using Paperless Post.  I still buy a few paper cards to send to friends who don't have email.

Who knows what we'll do this year?  Maybe take up Hank's system?  

JAN: Hank, except for actually buying the cards, I totally endorse this system. 
Anyone else willing to share the holiday system that works for her/him?  And whether it includes  Black Friday shopping?

B.A. Shapiro: The highs and lows of publishing

JAN BROGAN - This may be one of the happiest interviews I have ever posted on this blog.  Today, I am welcoming Barbara Shapiro, who I first met 23-years ago in a novel writing class.  We were both aspiring authors and we formed a writer's group. In the years that followed, we have beaten up each other up over structure and prose,  drank champagne over successes, (it became a rule) cried over disappointments (involuntary) and stuck together as others came and left our group. 

Barbara was the first to get published, but after five novels, she hit a  dry spell. For eight years, she couldn't get published and even with this last manuscript, The Art Forger, she heard a lot of rejection.  Inexplicable rejection. The book was terrific, which made the rejection worse. Editors kept saying it didn't fit neatly into one of their genres. After being insanely persistent, Barbara started talking about retiring from this crazy, nonsensical industry.  How much rejection, she asked me, can one person take?

But she had a wonderful agent, Anne Collette of the Rees Agency, who wouldn't give up and one day Barbara got the call we all wait for.  Algonquin Books wanted to publish The Art Forger.  Not much later, it became an in-house favorite. They started to view it as a big book. The publishers planned to send her on a 30-city tour.  Publishers Weekly named The Art Forger as  one of Ten Promising Titles of the 2012 BEA (Book Expo of America), Amazon chose it as Editor's Pick for fall;  The Art Forger was named the number 1 Indie Nextpick for November.

 The Art Forger, which Booklist praised as   “an entrancingly visual, historically rich, deliciously witty, sensuous, and smart tale of authenticity versus fakery," is about down-and-out Boston artist, Claire Roth who subsists on painting reproductions until she gets her big break.  Her big break arrives in the form of an offer from a Newbury Street galley owner and kingmaker who will give her her own show, if she agrees to forge a painting for him.  The painting he wants her to forge is Degas' After The Bath - one of the paintings stolen in the storied Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum heist. 

JAN:  How did you come up with the idea for The Art Forger?

B.A. Shapiro: I started with the idea of writing a novel about Isabella Stewart Gardner, which led me to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist in which $500 million dollars of art was stolen – the largest unsolved art robbery in history – which led me to art theft and art forgery. I suddenly had a book about many things at many different points in time, but no real story nor any idea of how to weave it all together. So I started playing with the idea of a contemporary character who might interact with all of the things I was so fascinated by, and after many iterations I came up with a working outline that became the skeleton for The Art Forger.

 JAN: The novel also interweaves the story of Isabella Gardner's procurement of the Degas painting. How did you handle the  historical and the contemporary stories?

B.A. Shapiro: There actually are three stories in the book: the present story about the eponymous Claire Roth, Claire’s backstory which takes place three years earlier and the story of Isabella Stewart Gardner and Edgar Degas which takes place in the late nineteenth century. I developed each story separately, using charts and diagrams and other such obsessive tools, and then pulled each one apart and put them back together as a whole in which one story pushed the next story forward which pushed the next story forward. It was really fun.

JAN: How much of your own experiences with rejection helped inform the creation of Claire, your struggling protagonist?

B.A. Shapiro: It’s funny, when I was writing the novel, I wasn’t really thinking that Claire’s struggles were mine – I’m a writer after all and she’s an artist – but in retrospect, I’ve got to say that there are strong similarities. So much so that when I was doing the final edits for the book – once it had become clear that my publisher was getting behind it in a major way – I realized that I was experiencing the same emotions Claire had under similar circumstances. I guess I was being a wee bit thick.

JAN: How much do you think moving to Boston from the suburbs may have shaped this novel?

B.A. Shapiro: A lot. In two different ways. The first is that I could suddenly walk to hundreds of museums and art galleries, which I took great advantage of. I visited as many as I could, multiple times, took classes at the MFA and joined a group that wandered museums and galleries with an artist/art historian who opened my eyes to everything art. The second is that we moved to the South End of Boston, home to many artists, which is where Claire lives and works.

JAN: How did you survive the eight years you went unpublished? What kept you going and what advice would you give other authors struggling in this tough market climate?

B.A. Shapiro: The support of my family and my friends as well as a driving desire to tell stories. It wasn’t easy – and I’m not sure “survived” is even the correct term – after five published novels I wrote four more that couldn’t find a home. I was thinking about a career change when The Art Forger was acquired by Algonquin Books after many, many rejections by other publishers. I immediately bagged the change idea and started writing a new novel. As far as advice goes, all I can say is that sometimes – not always – but sometimes when you want something badly enough, it can happen. You’ve just got to get your butt into the chair so that you’re there when it strikes.

JAN: The Art Forger doesn't hit the shelves until mid-October, but you can pre-order it online today.  Barbara will be stopping by to ask any questions you have about the book or how to stay positive in this grueling business. 

One name will be chosen at random from the comments page to receive a free copy of The Art Forger, stop by with your questions or comments for Barbara.

And please come back  tomorrow when John Barylick talks about why he had to write Killer Show, America's Deadliest Rock Concert, a narrative non-fiction account of  The Station Nightclub fire that killed more than 100 people in 2003.  It's like Christmas around here at Jungle Red, three free copies will be given away.

Are appliances the new handbags?

ROSEMARY HARRIS: If you blindfolded me in my own kitchen I could not tell you what brand of refrigerator, stove or microwave I have. The only reason I know I have a Bosch dishwasher is because I hate it and I'm about to replace it and its fellow appliances. And I have been drawn into uncharted territory.

First off, who knew these #$%^ things were so expensive? I certainly didn't. Like airline tickets, I think they all should be under $1000. You can stop laughing now.

Apparently August is a good month to buy. There are lots of sales and they like it if you buy a bunch of appliances at the same time. After all, one salesman told me, "you want them to go." I had never given much thought to whether or not my appliances "went." One got food cold, the other got food hot. That was pretty much all I asked of my appliances.
Suddenly I found myself eyeing a stainless steel Viking as big and slick as an Airstream. Talk about sticker shock. I recognized a few of the other names and had a general sense of where they were in the appliance pantheon, but dang...who knew there were $15,000 refrigerators? And why? Other than size, cold is cold, right?

I thought it all faintly ridiculous until Alberto, the installer came to measure the weird (of course) space where the fridge went. "It's not standard, but we can shave the cabinets. You could fit a SubZero in here." Who said I wanted one of those? And then I felt it. The twinge of..what...appliance angst? Pride in my porcelain? Was my self-worth tied to my SubZero?

Will someone please stop me before I buy the Wolf stove or the Northland custom side by side?

JAN BROGAN: Having once fallen for the expensive Meile dishwasher - because it had a hard water filter I thought I needed -  I can tell you, it's a waste of money. It was designed for small little German plates and cups and you couldn't fit anything in it. I hated that thing so much I pulled it after five years and am happy to be back with Kitchen Aid or whatever low-rent brand I actually have.
It's all about status. Especially the subZero thing. We all fall for some kind of status whether we want to believe it or not, but I choose not to fall for the appliance one - it feels so housewifey.  Don't believe the resale argument either. We were looking at various condos we wanted to buy and as the real estate agent was pointing out the Subzero refrigerator, I was thinking GOD I WOULD NEVER HAVE THAT THING IN MY HOUSE.  (Mostly because it had clear see through doors and who wants to see what's inside your refrigerator ALL THE TIME.) 

HALLIE EPHRON: We buy the cheapest appliances and are never disappointed :-) -- When we went to our local appliance store, which was roughly the size of Rhode Island, to replace our stove, EVERY STOVE in the showroom was $2,000 or more. My budget was, ahem, a LOT less.
So I asked the sales guy What's the deal? All I want is four burners and an oven. He led me to a door in the back corner of the showroom (really), opened it, and VOILA there was another football-field's worth of appliances. Felt like I'd stepped through the wardrobe in the Lion, the Witch... A sea of white, all white, basic, and priced at hundreds not thousands.
As you all know, I LOVE to cook, but seriously. How many of those fancy "features" do you actually use? AND magnets don't stick to stainless steel.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: If you saw our appliances, you would laugh. They are from the dark ages.  Jonathan keeps saying--don't you want a new oven? The broiler only works intermittently and the oven is unreliable and so coated with decades of stuff that it would take a blaster furnace to clean it. (Its not really that bad, I HAVE cleaned it. But it's not a gleaming paradise.)
But I keep saying no. I love our oven. Why? It's red, from the fifties, maybe, and how cool is that?
Our stove is an equally unreliable gas thing that I have to keep making sure still has a lighted pilot light. But I know how it works and I understand it.
As for the dishwasher. Ah. Another story. Ours flat out broke, no recourse but to replace it. And the ONLY replacement that would fit in the space is a..oh, I forget the brand. It's fabulous. Instead of a flip-down door opening, it has two drawers that pull out. So you can use both drawers, or just one. I admit. I am in love with it. It makes a lite beedle-beedle noise when you open the drawer, an it makes me so happy.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: No appliance envy here.  When we remodeled our kitchen in 2007, we replaced everything except the fridge, which we'd just had to replace the year before. (Hank, I have the same dishwasher.  Just wait until you have to work on it.  Ha ha.) We didn't go for the Sub Zero price range, though, thank goodness. And I agree with Jan--who would ever want to have people looking at what's IN your fridge?  And a fridge without magnets? Please. I do love my Jenn-Air gas stove with gas oven. I like to cook and you can't beat a good gas range.  We've got a little drinks fridge (clear door okay on that one) and a Sharp drawer microwave.  I love the microwave, but unlike the dishwasher, we haven't had to do repairs yet.  I suspect it will be a nightmare.

RHYS BOWEN: Sorry, I'm a Kenmore girl. All our appliances come from Sears. I have friends with Sub Zero fridges and they look lovely, but so what? And my brother has a stove that belongs in Gordon Ramsay's kitchen but it uses the same gas that I do. I do love my Cuisineart which is the big one, but apart from that I'm content. We did just buy a lovely new washing machine, front loader, huge capacity and it really does get things clean.
However, I do confess to twinges of car envy sometimes. I buy a new Camry every four years. Reliable, good solid transportation, but part of me wants that low sleek sportscar with the rag top, or better yet the Mercedes sports car with the top that folds at the press of a button. I suppose I could afford one but the sensible side of me says WHY.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Rhys, I am totally with you. When we need to replace something, we walk into Sears, pick the Kenmore that got the best rating from Consumer Reports and buy it. Sears has really reasonable delivery rates in our area as well. 

I have to confess, I love reading shelter magazines (Traditional Home, House Beautiful, Southern Living) and I often fantasize about having one of those fabulously retro kitchens, where all the appliances have rounded '50s corners and come with cool pastel paint jobs and chrome trim. But OMG, have you seen how much those things cost? The frugal Yankee in me can't take it. I'm not willing to pay an extra $1,000 for pretty.

LUCY BURDETTE: We do have a fancy dishwasher because of the size it has to fit in, but Debs is completely right--repairs are a nightmare! We went through this recently--had to wait a month (washing by hand, mind you!) and then it ended up costing about the price of a regular new dishwasher. Hopefully, we have learned our lesson. I do adore my Maytag washer and dryer though--was completely sucked in by the lonely maytag repairman commercials:)

ROSEMARY: Tell us your nightmare appliance story and you'll be entered to win a free copy of Slugfest!  http://tinyurl.com/6mdovca

On Lying

JAN: Because I believe some things never change, I've reposted this 2009 blog.

"And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but The truth in masquerade"

Lord Byron

JAN: Do people really lie three times within 10 minutes of meeting someone new? That's a popular statistic circulating the web. Even as a journalist, always searching for lies, I found this tough to believe.

But then I realized. Hey, It's true. I probably lie a minimum of three times within the first ten minutes of a cocktail party. At least by the way the study defines lying.

Included in the definition are things like falsely agreeing with others and the misrepresentation of feelings. Ever choke back the way you really think?? I do it all the time.

Let me explain. Politically, I'm probably to the left of 80 percent of the country. Personally, of course, I think I'm dead center, with some surprising views on various issues that keep both the conservative and the liberal action groups sending me mail. But I live in Massachusetts, so by local standards, I'm a raging conservative. And because I'm a writer, people take it for granted that I'm liberal. They make statements presuming I agree with them. Do I jump into it?

It would mean a verbal fist fight, and because I believe that no one has ever really swayed anyone's political beliefs by cocktail conversation, I smile and say nothing.

For me, it's politics. For others it's religion, music, or whether they actually enjoy the ballet. I know people who have to lie to stop people from shoving a cocktail into their hands. Sometimes we just keep our mouths shut because it just doesn't seem right to tell your best friend her new hairdo looks like straw or that her new drapes are making you dizzy.

So come on, fess up: What do you LIE about??

HALLIE: Here's what I don't lie about. My age. Or what I paid for the outfit you just complimented me on, bless you.

But yes, if someone starts in on anything political, I don't so much lie as refuse to engage. My politics are my personal business, thank you very much. Besides, it seems like I rarely meet anyone who is genuinely interested in engaging in a discussion on issues--they just want to be clever and dismissive and yell. So I shut down. Is that lying?

JAN: Yes, according to this study's definition: You are lying about your feelings, God forbid.

RO: My first instinct was to protest that I never lie, but reading your definition of lying I guess I do. I went to a reunion recently...and definitely dropped a few omissions/lies there. And Bouchercon is coming up...oooh I'll probably do a bit of fibbing there. (e.g., "It's an honor just to be nominated!") I try not to make a habit of it, though, because I'm really a terrible liar. My mother always used to say that and I think she did it just to spook me into always telling her the truth. She said she could always tell when I was lying and now I think everyone else can too.

So Hallie...where did you get that wonderful black shoulder bag you have...the small one with the metal clasp? Was it fabulously expensive? (This is a test.)

HALLIE: Ooooh,isn't it great? Italy! At a factory outlet...gorgeousness for less than $50.00. Unless you count the cost of the trip. Those Italians really know how to make gorgeous handbags.

HANK: I guess...I do...I always feel SO GUILTY,though. Social excuses, mostly.(Oh, so sorry we can't make it, because...but most often I don't give a reason.) And I actually do lie about the cost of things. Actually, I don't lie, I just don't tell. And in political discussions, I generally just try to prevent the other two guys from fighting.

There's a person I see from time to time, and if you ask her a question, she'll often begin her answer with "I'm not gonna lie to you, but..." I just instantly decide whatever she's saying is not true. (And RO, it IS an honor to be nominated for an Anthony. No lie. Congratulations!)


JAN: Okay everyone, what do YOU LIE about? 

Under the sheets...???

ROSEMARY HARRIS:  No, this is not really a naughty post. And it's not about bridal shower or sweet sixteen minutes or saying the words "under the sheets" after you read your fortune cookie fortune. (Haven't done that? It's fun.)

Last month, while on vacation in a tiny cabin, horizontal, next to my happily snoring husband - I desperately wanted to keep reading. I fumbled around, found the flashlight (it was that kind of trip) and finished my book by flashlight, Under the Sheets. Like a kid, sneaking a few more minutes after lights out.  The book in question was Lee Child's The Affair. Get your guffaws out now..Lee Child ... Under the Sheets.
The Affair..Under the sheets. I'm with you. Pretty funny. But seriously, the book was just too good to put down.
So - What was the last book that was so good you would have read it with a flashlight under the sheets?
And, okay, let's be a little naughty - add the words Under the Sheets to some book titles. Hallie's are perfect - Never tell a lie under the sheets and Come and find me under the sheets!

JAN BROGAN:  I hate to admit this, in part because I was totally  manipulated by my Kindle and the author, who didn't completely wrap up the story but left it hanging. But I actually finished book II on night at about 1 in the morning, ordered the third and final book in the series, and kept reading until three a.m.   My husband was away on business, but really..... I am not proud of my behavior. I mean, I might as well be staying up late shooting heroin because that's a little what it felt like.
Teaser ...under the sheets?

RHYS BOWEN: I've finished re-reading Connie Willis's The Doomsday Book and you'd think that because I'd read it before I wouldn't be so caught up in the story. But I was. I knew, in theory that the heroine would be rescued and wouldn't die of plague but I had to keep clicking that Kindle page turner, eating up large chunks of valuable time when I should have been writing or eating or cleaning house. And when it ended I found I was crying. Good book if it can do that to a reader twice!
And I should just mention that my next Molly book, due out in March, is called Hush Now, Don't You Cry..... under the sheets!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I can't tell you, because its going to win the Edgar. And it'll be pretty funny to add under the sheets after the title.  I'm now reading Val McDermid's The Retribution (under the sheets) and Charles Todd's The Confession (under the sheets). Hooked, absolutely, on both!  (And I agree about The Affair!)
(My new book is The Other Woman. The Other Woman Under the Sheets is a MUCH better title...) Ro, you are too funny...xoox

LUCY BURDETTE: Can't wait for HUSH NOW, DON'T YOU CRY, and THE OTHER WOMAN, and NO MARK UPON HER--which is on my nightstand. I know I'll be under the sheets with those! But I'm reading a lot of novels with food and cooking in them--loved loved Barbara O'Neal's HOW TO BAKE A PERFECT LIFE and Julie Hyzy's White House chef series and Meredith Mileti's AFTERTASTE. And THE HELP rates right up there with GONE WITH THE WIND in my life list.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I stayed up WAY too late the other night reading a very advanced copy (as in PDF of typeset pages) of Marcia Talley's new book, The Last Refuge (under the sheets.) That's a good one! As is the book! And we Reds who were at ALA in Dallas scored big. Although I didn't have a chance to get a copy of Val McDermid's Retribution, I've got Charles Todd's Confession, Cara Black's Murder at the Lanterne Rouge, and Denise Hamilton's Damage Control. Temptation under the sheets! I think Hank and Hallie are tied for the best "Under the Sheets" titles, but No Mark Upon Her (under the sheets) isn't bad, either.
(Rhys, all my Brit friends keep telling me I must read Connie Willis. Now I really MUST read Connie Willis...)

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Ro, one summer when I was doing a massive multi-week book tour with Denise Hamilton, I picked up Lee Child's THE PERSUADER (under the sheets!) I got so wrapped up in it, that I couldn't stop reading when it was time for lights out (Denise and I were sharing a hotel room.) I took the book into the bathroom, threw a towel against the door to keep the light from spilling into the room, and stayed up 'til 3 finishing it - sitting on the john! Obviously, Lee knows how to keep a reader under the sheets...Recently? I read Linda Rodriguez's upcoming
EVERY LAST SECRET (under the sheets) in order to blurb it, and it kept me up way too late in bed, despite being in an unwieldy manuscript form. I think some of my titles would work.
I SHALL NOT WANT..under the sheets. ALL MORTAL FLESH...under the sheets. Which reminds me of the way I learned to play the game: with hymn titles!

HALLIE EPHRON: Hey, we can take all of Ro's mysteries and have a little DIRTY BUSINESS under the sheets. Hmmm. Sounds like fun. I couldn't put down Sara Henry's Learning to Swim ... I would have taken it under the sheets except I go to bed WAY earlier than my husband. And some of Deborah's titles are so perfect: Now May You Weep under the sheets, Dreaming of the Bones under the sheets, Mourn Not Your Dead under the sheets
And what about Prime Time Under the Sheets.

ROSEMARY: Or..(she blushes)..Face Time under the sheets? What's YOUR favorite...under the sheets?

How Ya Doin'?

ROSEMARY HARRIS:

Holy cow - one month down and eleven to go. Where did the month go?? I'm still putting Christmas back in the closet and we're already looking at February. I don't usually make a big deal out of  New Year's resolutions - I make them every week, every morning really. No matter what I've done that day I go to bed every night thinking that tomorrow will be another opportunity to do better. However I define that.

This year I did have a few specific goals. I'd been dragging my feet on my work in progress and was determined to

push that Send button by January 31.

 

Did it on January 27. YAY!

 

 

I keep promising myself that I won't overcommit this year and so far so good.

 

I want to write a short story - and Reine has given me my first line!

 

I did not lose the five pounds I hoped to this month, but I lost two and that was pretty good considering skinny margaritas, beer and nachos were on the menu in Dallas.

So how are the rest of you doing? Don't worry if it's not so great...tomorrow's the first and that's another clean slate.

 

 

PS(Come back tomorrow for Under the Sheets....and aren't you curious to know what THAT means?)

Jan Brogan Turns Back TIme!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: YAY Jan! Our very dear blog sister, Red Jan, has entered the e-world. We've been talking about turning back time this week--are you humming Cher in the background?--and our Jan has managed it! She's taken her first book, which came out---well, let her tell it. (And if the fonts look funny, what can I say. I lost the battle with Blogger.)

JAN BROGAN: So if you could go back to 1991, what would be different?

Not that much, was what I thought. I'm not the most aggressive marketer, and I had allowed my first novel, Final Copy, to sit on the shelf for four years before I sold it to Larcom Press, a small New England publisher. Before publication, it needed to be updated.

In the early and mid 1990s, fax machines weren't standard in newsrooms - and although laptops existed, they were still expensive. Cell phones were practically the size of a shoebox and still pretty rare. In fact, when my husband, who was then in the cell phone business tried to convince me that someday even stay-at-home-moms would carry cell phones, I laughed and told him he was dreaming.

So since clearly, my talents did not lie in predicting the future, I decided to head to the past.

Instead of updating Final Copy to 2001, when the book would be published, I traveled backwards and set the novel even earlier - in 1991.

Remember 1991?

George Bush, the senior, was president and he launched Operation Desert Storm.

Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested after 11 dead bodies were found in Milwaukee.

Terminator II, The Silence of the Lambs, and Thelma and Louise were big movies.

And the Internet was just beginning to take off.

But the reason I chose 1991? Final Copy, and the main character, reporter Addy McNeil, starts off with a venture capitalist plunging to his death at a biotechnology conference on the waterfront, and a lot of the story has to do with the rough and tumble world of fledgling entrepreneurs that needed millions and millions of dollars to invent sexy new drugs. I wanted to choose a year when this industry was particularly desperate.

And I might have been stuck in 1991 forever if it hadn't been for some bad luck and some good advice.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What was the bad luck?

JAN: Larcom Press, an incredibly supportive publisher that put out quality New England mysteries, went out of just as I was finishing the sequel, A Confidential Source.

HANK: What did you do?

JAN: I cried for a while, and then I called my agent.

HANK: AW. And we can all relate, no question about that. So all worked out nicely, as things often do. SO what was the good advice?

JAN: Well, my agent thought A Confidential Source could still be sold to a bigger publisher, but wanted to call it "first in a series," which he said would generate a lot more interest from the New York publishers - so he asked me to change the man character's name.

HANK: Whoa. That's kind of weird. I mean--you'd written the entire book, heard Addy be called "Addy" again and again, and --you know, when you name a character, and there she is in print, it must be difficult to undo in your brain.

JAN: . It was remarkably hard to contemplate, sort of like renaming one of your children. But I realized that if I made that change, at least I wouldn't be stuck in 1991 forever. And my agent was right, two different New York publishers bid for the new series.

HANK: So for your reader fans--there's one little secret that may make FINAL COPY a bit of a, well, mystery. The protagonist of this book is named Addy McNeil. Your other mysteries have a protagonist named Hallie Ahern. But I must say, she reminds me just bit of Addy. What gives?

JAN: Well, yeah, now it can be told! Addy McNeil IS Hallie Ahern.

It did cause some confusion from reviewers who had liked Addy McNeil and couldn't help but recognize the similarities when Hallie Ahern made her appearance. Before I put the e-book up, I considered whether I should rename Addy McNeil and all those characters in Final Copy to be consistent with A Confidential Source.

HANK: Oh, no, talk about confusing!

JAN: But to tell you the truth, Final Copy has always been my favorite book, the one closest to my heart, and even all these years later, I still couldn't go in and change Addy's name. She was Addy McNeil in 1991, and she's Addy McNeil now.

HANK: SO, back to the future. You've written four very successful novels, all via traditional publishers. Why are you putting out Final Copy in digital yourself?

JAN: Larcom went out of business, the rights reverted to me. I sat on those rights for a long time. But now as epublishing has taken off, it seemed like the time - and an opportunity to reach more readers.

HANK: Clearly, from the amazing numbers, epublishing and self-publishing is a juggernaut. Even so, it's--still a bit cutting edge. What were the pros and cons for you--and what have you learned about the self-publishing world?

JAN: What I've learned about e-publishing so far is that there are a lot of different opinions about it. But one thing is for certain, the author has to get out on the Internet and promote it. Also, pricing was baffling me, I had no idea what to charge for the book - so I went with suggestion I found on the web, at $2.99 per E-book - which is a huge bargain compared to what my other E-books cost.

The big controversy simmering now is about whether authors should join Amazon Kindle's new Select program, which makes a self-published e-book part of a "lending library." Amazon promises authors a percentage of a pot, but to take part, you have to make the book available exclusively on Amazon Kindle. That seemed a little bit like strong-arming the author to me, so I didn't opt in.

HANK: Let me ask you: How are you different now from when you started? How do you see the mystery world now? And your place in it?

JAN: Hmmm, let's see. When I wrote Final Copy, I was more experimental, but as I got into the Hallie Ahern series, I think I began conforming to certain perceived rules of mystery writing. Now after four books, I care less about getting a book published and more about creating a new and interesting work.

HANK: What did you learn on your recent adventure in France (besides acquiring the fabulous leopard dress)?

JAN: It's only taken like....twenty years....but now I'm into the process of writing and stretching myself. And in part, I learned some of that on my adventures in France. My friends there are all writers and artists, ex-pats who lives in southern France because they live and breathe art. A friend who is the director of the art school there always makes the connection between literature and the visual arts and he was really able to penetrate this sometimes-thick head of mine.

But you cannot blame any of these friends for the inappropriate leopard dress decision - that was actually two years before that when I was in Provence with my daughter. I haven't worn that dress ONCE at home, and I didn't even bring it back to Provence last summer so I could wear it there.

Anyway, one thing I've learned about my role in the mystery world is that I'm definitely not mainstream. I'm more fringe -- and I'm really much more comfortable on those edges.

HANK:. And now, Where can people find you? Besides here, of course!

JAN: Final Copy is available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com right now and soon with smaller distributors. Here are the links, since you asked :-)

http://www.amazon.com/Final-prequel-Hallie-Ahern-ebook/dp/B006JEE8K4/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1323896627&sr=8-1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1004534461?ean=2940013814394&itm=1&usri=final+copy

HANK: And since it's all about time here this week--just tell us when you'd rather be living--French revolution? Civil War? D-Day? Restoration? Roaring Twenties? Or--what's your choice of another time? (And one lucky commenter will win Jan's new/old/new book! )