Exit laughing! Three Agathas and a Boffo Game Panel with Charlaine Harris!

Jungle Reds Malice Domestic 2015 game panel...
with LOTS of help from our friends!
Photo by Robin Templeton

HALLIE EPHRON: What a time we had a Malice Domestic 2015! 

Lucy and I met in the airport and took the Metro to the hotel. Here's us decked out in our Jungle Red pashminas, our READ RED buttons, and armed for bear...

We had dinner with Rhys and Hank, and we were laughing like crazy about how fun it would be, and secretly worried that the audience would be smarter than we were… And then we realized, that's exactly what we hoped! Where else could you play a game where knowledge of the Mystery  world makes you a star!
 

The next morning we pow-wowed with Charlaine Harris whom we'd inveigled to be our moderator. You want me to what? she said when she realized what she'd signed up for. She was completely amazing. And having Dru Ann Love and Nikki Bonanni to help calm us. (HANK adds: We needed pals who could keep score under pressure. And a moderator who could wrangle us. Good choices, huh?)


HALLIE: And then, like a great party where you're the host, whoosh it was happening. Everyone was screaming with laughter as we brought up audience members to join us in humiliating ourselves. Bluffed answers. While Charlaine got off some of the best one-liners.

HANK: You remember the game, right? We chose two members from the audience (they had to be wearing Jungle Red buttons)
 to join Hallie and Rhys versus Lucy and me--and name, in twenty seconds as may examples of a mystery category given by Charlaine! It was awesome. Here's a photo taken by the fab Kristopher Zygorski--who joined me and Lucy for one of our (many :-) ) winning rounds! 

HANK:  So we're hoping that many of you were there--say hi in the comments, and let us know, okay? It was absolutely standing room only! Wow. SO happy to see you here! 

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HALLIE: Pause to catch our collective breaths, get gussied up for the banquet. Hank and I had to honor of sitting at the head table with Sara Paretsky who is just exactly as nice and opinionated as you imagine her to be. Here's us and a very glamorous Dana Cameron.

And then, TA DAH! They started to announce the Agatha Awards. Hank! For

best nonfiction (editor of SinC's WRITES OF PASSAGE.) Rhys! For best historical for QUEEN OF HEARTS. And Hank (again!) for best contemporary novel TRUTH BE TOLD.  We were all over the moon.

HANK: Whoo hoo. May I just say. Rhys and I were beaming all the rest of the weekend. And we are so grateful!

HALLIE: Below, here's Hank with some of the wonderful writers (including me!) whose essays are in WRITES OF PASSAGE.

Handing it over to Rhys...

RHYS BOWEN: My memories... Apprehension about looking a complete fool during the game. Brain going blank.but I think it was a big hit and we all knew enough and bluffed in a funny way.... I mean B. F. Goodrich wrote books?

HANK: Hey, it was a perfectly good idea. I mean--the category was "authors who use their initials." And after we'd used PD, and JK, and GH and SS and JJ--I was--under pressure. And then I realized--Charlaine never said MYSTERY authors! Right? And  BF might have written a tire manual.   And I still insist that Beowulf is a  fine  good answer for a mystery  that takes place before 1915.   I mean--am I wrong?

HALLIE: My favorite was Rhys' bluff for a Scandinavian author... and Lucy and Hank got off some great bluffs, too.

RHYS: Charlaine was the perfect MC.
 
Malice for me is meeting and reconnecting with so many lovely people. It's like high school reunion only better. And winning the Agatha with my editor and agent there was the icing on the cake.  Speaking of which the dessert was to die for.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Even though I spent the whole next day today thinking of authors who use initials. (And my wonderful agent was there, too. It was such a joy to win with her! We stayed up way too late celebrating.)

LUCY BURDETTE:  I sometimes feel a little lost at conferences, but not this time. Spending two days with friendly writers and readers and planning that zany game show with the other Reds--I had a blast. Though I'm going to be honing my bluffing skills for the next 12 months...

Thank you planners of Malice Domestic--we know how hard you work to put this conference on. And it was terrific!

HALLIE: And boy did we get to see old friends from Jungle Red. Here's Keenan Powell who won a Malice grant! Karen from Ohio was there with proverbial bells on. Edith Maxwell who was nominated for an Agatha for best short story served time on Hank and Lucy's team and distinguished herself. Kristopher (waving) from BOLO Books. Molly Weston (with her signature flowered purses). Brenda Buchanan with her new book QUICK PIVOT! Robin Templeton (writer/photographer!)

And loads more.

As a final question on shoes at Malice, and YES there will be a prize given...How well do you know your reds? Rhys, Lucy, Hank, Hallie - whose shoes is whose? 

Coronation Day for QUEEN OF HEARTS!

Hank Phillippi Ryan:  All this week we're peeking into your bedrooms--to see your TBR piles! And today, see below, we have even more of your wonderful stashes.

And here's a new book that we think--just saying--ought to be on ALL of them very soon!

Happy Book Day to our dear darling duchess, Rhys Bowen!  Her brand new QUEEN OF HEARTS already has two starred reviews

 

RTBR gave the Queen 4 ½ stars! And when a review starts “Climb aboard the crazy train…” and ends with “Bowen’s delightful royal is as charming and feisty as ever…the supporting cast of characters will charm new fans into discovering Bowen’s superior sleuth,” you know you’re in for a treat.

You know about the Royal Spyness books, right?  In this one, Lady Georgiana, 35th in line to the throne of England but penniless, finds herself dragged off to America in this 8th book in the Royal Spyness series. Her much married mother now wants a quickie divorce and Reno seems to be the place. On the Transatlantic crossing they encounter a jewel thief and a movie mogul who persuades Georgie's mum to appear in his new movie. Life among Hollywood's glitterati seems like a dream for Georgie, but is about to turn into a nightmare in which she might star in her own death scene.

So, yay for Rhys! She’s done it again. And in honor of QUEEN OF HEARTS, I did my best to get the scoop from our own queen of mystery, the hilarious and wonderful Rhys Bowen.  

Title of your autobiography?

   “Been There, Done That.”

Whoa. Wonderful. Why?

  I’ve had quite an eclectic life and the opportunity to live in different parts of the world.

So---what would you still like to do?

A safari is still on my bucket list. And I’d like to write that one definitive book, like To Kill a Mockingbird. Oh, and I wouldn’t mind winning an Edgar either.  (Only modest ambitions, as you see.)

Very Rhys! Book you wish you had written?

     The Lord of the Rings.

Movie you would see again and again?

     Out of Africa

Why?

It’s so beautiful and so sad, and reminds me that I never experienced that great and doomed love. Also Robert Redford washes Meryl Streep’s hair in one of the sexiest scenes ever.

Exotic drinks--yes? No?

  When I’m somewhere exotic. Sangria when I’m in Spain, Mai Tai when I’m in Hawaii, Margaritas in Mexico. At home I’m sensible.

When in history would you choose to visit?

I’ve always been fascinated by ancient Rome.

Why?

 They were so modern in many ways. Central heating, lending libraries for novels! Of course I’d stay away from the gladiators.

  

Very sensible. Pizza or chocolate?

No contest. Chocolate. Dark chocolate. After 8 mints.

Spouse?

 Does that mean do I want one or have I got one? The latter. Doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t want to trade him in sometimes.

Kids?  Pets?

Four kids and now 5 grandkids. The latter are much easier because I can send them back. Actually they are all wonderful and adorable. I love them to pieces and we have great times laughing together.

No pets. We travel too much.

  

Hobbies?

We travel a lot. I hike once a week with friends (saved a fortune in therapy bills). I sing. I paint (not very well) and I play the Celtic harp. All of the above only when I have time, unfortunately. With 2 books a year it’s not easy.

Yeah. Seriously, how do you do that?

  It’s part insanity, part not being able to say no.

Garden?

 Well, we have a lot of land, but we live on a hill and there are deer so it’s impossible to grow much. Mainly citrus and lavender. Actually I have no free time for anything more right now.

  

Fear or phobia?

Hate spiders. Hate ‘em but I’m civilized enough not to kill them. I trap them in a glass and carry them outside, which I think is very noble of me.

What someone might not know about you.

  I used to sing in London folk clubs with Al Stewart and I knew Simon and Garfunkel.

Dish, please! Just tell us ONE cool thing about that.

I had been singing with Al Stewart. We were in a café late one night when Paul and Artie came in. They said they’d come to say goodbye because their manager wanted them to come home to the US. It seemed a record they had made, called The Sounds of Silence, was doing quite well. The rest, as they say, is history.

Paul and Artie, huh? Oh, Rhys, I bet you have SO many stories! But let’s see…

Do you have a recurring dream? What is it?

  I’ve had several. The one I have most often these days is rushing to catch a plane and trying desperately to pack but can’t find my clothes.

I also dream I’m in a play but don’t know my lines. Sound familiar?

Had that one myself. Last night, I dreamed I was supposed to find the cello player for the concert, which I did, and was so proud of myself. But then I couldn’t find him again, and the concert had started. Shaking head. DO you think we’re all a little...stressed?  Anyway. Relaxing.  Do you watch TV? What?

  Mostly PBS. Masterpiece and Mystery, and travel and Nova and British comedy.

I also like watching sports, especially tennis.

Can you sing?

I’m Welsh. All Welsh people can sing! But the answer is yes. I’ve sung all my life, from folk clubs to the local opera chorus.

Best concert you've ever seen?

Hard to think of this one. Harry Connick was terrific once. So was Pavarotti.

Secret talent?

I’m good at boogie boarding!

That I’ve GOTTA see! Thing you always say to yourself when writing?

   For the first half of the book it’s usually that this one will be a hopeless failure and I’ll be revealed as a fraud. Then by the second half I can see it’s going to be okay after all. But the one mantra is “Nothing is written in stone.” You mustn’t love anything so much that you’re not willing to axe it.

So—today is your pub day! Yay. Tell us about QUEEN OF HEARTS!

   It’s the 8^th Royal Spyness book. Georgie is dragged across the Atlantic by her much married mother who wants to get a quickie divorce in Reno. On the way they meet a jewel thief and a movie mogul who persuades her mother to do a cameo role in his movie.

Of course I had to research this well, including taking the Queen Mary 2 across the Atlantic. (How one suffers for one’s art…)

But such fun to satirize Hollywood in the 30s.

Whoo hoo! Does it ever get old—pub day? What are you thinking RIGHT NOW? 

    Never! It is still always a thrill to see one of my books on a shelf and to get fan mail. And to do a book tour and see expectant faces waiting for me.

As to what I’m thinking—I always worry that this book won’t do as well as the last one.

Tell us one more thing about that.

   What can I say—I’m a born worrier.

Are you working now? On what?

   The ninth Royal Spyness book called Malice at the Palace.

Are you…enjoying it?

   I’m still in the first half. But I’m beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel, and these books are fun to write.

Can you believe how amazingly your career has turned out?

  I still remember my first mystery with a first printing of 2500 and I realize what a big part luck plays. I think I’ve learned how to craft good books, but so have many people whose books have gone unnoticed. Being a friendly person has helped with all those fan-based awards. Paying my dues in writing and travel and outreach have certainly contributed.

But things like being an Audible bestseller—that was pure luck for me. Right place at right time.

Right place at the right time, sure. But with a terrific book, and a terrific attitude, and a lot of hard work. Right? Do you have a motto? (What is it?)

   No pressure, no diamonds. (I borrowed it from someone else, and now I don’t know who that was.) But I have it on my bulletin board.

HANK:  Terrific.  And readers, the Reds want to award a copy of The Royal Spyness book of your choice to one lucky commenter!  So---in honor of QUEEN OF HEARTS, what’s your favorite old Hollywood movie? I dibs…what’s the Preston Sturges movie where he plays the director, and it has Veronica Lake? That one. And Adam’s Rib. And Desk Set. (Which Hallie’s parents wrote!)

How about you?

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(And talk about contests, check this out! http://hankphillippiryan.com/newsletters/newsletter-7-14.html)

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Here's Pamela Stiehler! (very literary.)

Let's see nightstands!

Debbie Treadway Lyvers Krenzer (optimistic!)

Charlotte Gruber (elegant!)

Kathy Crowley Ahern (perfect!)

Laurie Evans (is it always this nicely stacked?)

Ellen Bird (so lovely!)

Erika Gustavsen Robinson (with guard cat!)

Victoria Scott (with Tab Hunter!)

Katie Kunsman (I spy THE OTHERWOMAN! xoxo)

Tomorrow, more photos of your night stands! And a fabulous insight from the amazing SJ Rozan.

Bedtime Stories

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: No matter how tired I am, I have to read before I go to sleep. This is a wonderful and lifelong habit, and I embrace it dearly. 

This is Melissa Jones Ragsdale's nightstand 

(I had thought we'd post photos of our own nightstands for this blog--with our piles of books. But then I got curious. Wonder what YOUR nightstands look like? So I asked my dear pals on Facebook to send me photos and Wow! Wait til you see them all.)

Anyway, back to reading at night.  Although it is wonderful for me, I am not sure it is wonderful for the book. I’m so excited to read when I start. Then, a few, well, I was going to say pages, but actually, often it’s paragraphs later, I feel my eyes fluttering and my attention evaporating.

I am, I have to say, able to persevere longer than Jonathan, who has just taken three months (exaggerating, but not much) to read Greg Iles fabulous Natchez Burning. He loved the book, loved it, but read about two pages a night before he fell asleep. I’d look over, and there he’d be, this huge book propped on his chest, eyes totally closed.

Wake up honey, I say. You’re sleeping. (Only wives can say this, even as I type it, I hear how absurd it sounds.)

I wasn’t sleeping, he insists. I’m reading.

Sure you were, I say. How’s the book?

And then I’d get the ‘look’. I don’t exactly remember, he admits. But I know it’s good. (He adored it, in the end. And one day spent hours reading it. “Wow, he said, “I can read so much more when I’m awake. And the book makes so much more sense.”

The best reading-at-nights for me are the ones where the book is SO GOOD it propels you through, far longer than is prudent. The Stand, I remember almost staying up all night to read. (I called in sick the next day, I guess I can admit all these years (32?) later. I did the same with Lisa Unger’s In the Blood. And Joe Finder’s Suspicion. And now, The Demonologist. (It’s very scary.)

Do you read before you go to sleep? Successfully?

This is Eleanor Cawood Jones' nightstand

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm with Jonathan. If I try to read in bed, it's a few pages and I'm out. Middle of the day, though, I LOVE to read as a break from writing. In the winter I make myself a hot cup of tea, in summer ice water, and lie down on the couch for a nice, if brief, vacation in someone else's book. I also love to read on airplanes. Now that's the test of an author's storytelling, if the book can make the trip "fly" by.

I used to listen to lots of 'books on tape' while driving but sadly I drive so little it would take me about a year to finish a book these days. And I haven't gotten the hang of putting a book on my iPhone and listening on the run. Why won't earbuds stay in my ears? Worse, having all that noise in my head makes me accident prone and forgetful... and dangerous.

This is Karin Carlson's nightstand 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I can't read at bedtime; not because I'll fall asleep with a book on my nose, but because I'll stay up until 2am. If the book is really good, I'll keep going on chapter after chapter, and if it's bad, I'll put it down and try another book until I hit something I like! So at bedtime, I do the Sunday NYTimes crossword puzzle. Not only is it engaging but still put-down-able, it also makes an auto gift for the kids: every year on Mother's Day or Christmas, someone gives me one of the Sunday Crossword Collections books. And yes, I do them in ink. Without looking at the solutions.

My favorite reading times? Early evening, after dinner. Holidays and vacations. Traveling in the car, either by audiobook or with a print book if I'm not driving. And am I the only person who relishes flying because it gives me a stretch of uninterrupted reading time? When my kids were small, my best (only!) reading place was the bathroom. I went through a lot of short story collections.

This is Vicki Berger Erwin's nightstand

 DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am a life long dedicated read-in-bed-er. No matter how late it is, how tired I am, hotel or flat or home, I read something. I'm trying to think of some occasion when I HAVEN'T read. Even the night my mother died last year, I read. If that sounds callous, it wasn't at all. I had just spent six days with Nigerian hospice nurses, and I pulled up an Alexander McCall Smith book on my Kindle. I wanted to keep the rhythm of those African voices in my brain a little longer, because they had been such a comfort. And I needed something to take me out of myself, even for just a few minutes.

I don't allow myself to read often during the day, because I'd never get anything else done. And every day I look forward to the end of the day when I can get in bed and pick up that book--whatever that book happens to be. Some nights it's just a few pages and I have to reread them the next night, but I don't mind. Other nights I manage to get to bed early enough to read for an hour--or even two. Bliss! I'm not sending a photo of my to-read pile, because I'd have to decide which one:-) But as soon as I finish this fabulous non-fiction book on British undercover cops, I'm reading the galley of Rhys's new Georgie (can't wait!) and then the galley of Tammy Kaehler's new Kate Reilly, and then Kent Krueger's Ordinary Grace... and so it goes on. And I firmly believe it's better to have too much to read than too little.

This is Alyssa Renae White's nightstand

LUCY BURDETTE: I just finished Rhys's fabulous upcoming book--

(HANK: And more on that here tomorrow!)

LUCY: As well as MRS. HEMINGWAY and almost done with THE STORIED LIFE OF AJ FIKRY (so charming!) I read in bed every night. Who cares if I have to read a page or two over again because I was nodding off--makes a great pleasure last a little longer.

I have trouble giving myself permission to read during the day because it feels like such a guilty pleasure. But I read eight books on vacation--oh the heaven!

HANK: I guess we all read in bed right? Love that!

  

Here are a few more nightstands courtesy of the friends of Jungle Red!

Marianne Bowes

Kathi Gorecki Voskull

Michelle Tucker Reed

DFOJRW Mary Garrett! (very subtle, xo.....)

Fascinating, huh? And I'll post more all his week!

And our own dear Reine--also subtle!

Tomorrow we'll hear all about Rhys's new book, and Wednesday S.J. Rozan, and Thursday, Nancy Martin...and Friday, well--he's just amazing, so you'll have to come visit. And Saturday And Sunday--more surprises!

SO--do you read in bed? Let us know--and you'll be entered for an ARC of my new TRUTH BE TOLD!
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And talk about great contests: check this out! http://hankphillippiryan.com/newsletters/newsletter-7-14.html