What a difference a coast makes…

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Last weekend I had the great pleasure of being guest of honor (along with William Kent Krueger) at the California Crime Writers Conference. Culver City where planes are landing at LAX just outside your window.

At Logan (we got off 30 minutes early, arrived an hour early: how bizarre is that?) I was the only one who cracked up at the announcement from TSA on the loudspeaker: "Please return to security if you left an I-Pad and  eyeglasses..." which of course I heard as I-glasses... A writer's joke.

As the plane landed, the sun was shining and I could see ocean one way and mountains the other. Mountains I never knew were so close by, growing up there because the air was so much more polluted. Back in the 60s your plane descended into an impenetrable brown haze.

 

The fun started when I got picked up at the airport by TammyKaehler (now blond!). Not in a race car, sadly. Driving utterly sanely if a bit, um, fast.

What a conference! Two hundred and fifty authors, editors, agents, publicists, rubbing shoulders and sharing tips. They pull it off magnificently every other year. All overseen by an incredible board headed by the indomitable and uber-competent Rochelle Staab. From one control freak to another, I tip my hat.

The conference opened Friday night with a twist: an event dubbed MISCAST, held in the only appropriate place, a dark wood-paneled bar that needed smoke to feel authentic. Authors switched places and read each other’s work. Hardboiled writers read softboiled excerpts and vice versa. Glen ErikHamilton, Harley Jane Kozak, Matt Coyle, Elaine Ash, Jeri Westerson, KateCarlisle, SW Lauden, and Daryl Wood Gerber. It was a hoot!

I'm not sure if these guys were photographed before or after: John Edward Mullen, Dave Putnam, Matt Coyle, Beth Yarnall. In the bar.

I knew we weren’t in Kansas any more when (Matt Coyle, maybe... someone correct me if I've misremembered) read an excerpt from Foxe Tail (by Jerri Westerson writing as Haley Walsh), a bawdy mystery starring a gorgeous young gay man (think Tab Hunter) on the make in old timey Hollywood. To say it was blue would be an understatement. Got me thinking: Do we even write sex in New England?

Saturday and Sunday were packed with outstanding writing, marketing, and forensics panels and there was a crime scene room with an FBI expert. I came away determined to create my own podcasts (thanks Laura Brennan – dialing into DestinationMystery to hear some), and a new appreciation of swag (Thanks, Ellen Byron, Cajun Country Mysteries).

A real pleasure of this conference was the many screenwriters who are now writing crime novels. They are SO SMART about plot! Ellen Byron, Craig Faustus Buck, Wendall Thomas, and more… I could listen to you guys talk the ins and outs of the 3-act structure all day long.

All of which is to say once again, I pinch myself. Crime fiction writers are the best, most generous, hilarious, and smart people you could ever hang out with. I am so lucky!

Morning after the conference I went out to breakfast… don’t you love this place, Dinah’s Diner? (Me cracking up because here in Boston, the way we say Diner is Dinah.) A relic of the 60s. I could have hung out here with my high school friends, drinking coffee and, yes, smoking cigarettes. And the hash browns with my eggs were the kind I grew up with, shredded and crisp. Yum.

So when you think Los Angeles, do 60's diners or crispy hash browns, mountains or beaches, noir or California cozies come to mind?

Time After Time

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: We've been talking about traditions and family rituals and time this week--the end of the year and the holidays always make us a bit nostalgic, and joyful that we can link past and present a future a bit. And maybe it's time to add some new traditions.

Today we welcome the always-fabulous Rochelle Staab--who I met by magic (we'll tell you the story when we see you)--and who continues to have a magical and wonderful rise through mystery world. Talk about a magical mystery tour!

More on that later...but now Rochelle continues this week's theme of tradition and time. (Don't you love it when the theme emerges? As so often happens, it wasn't planned.)

The Comfort of Ritual

by Rochelle Staab

One of the benefits of being a writer is the carte blanche we are given to explore wherever imagination takes us. My latest research stack is piled with books and articles on superstitions, magick, taboos, fetishes, and ritual.

Part routine, part habit, and part hope, but never rational—our rituals and traditions generate stabilizing threads of comfort. I’m not very superstitious, but the holidays bring up sentimental rituals I learned to cherish. Simple yearly traditions, like drinking eggnog while decorating my tree, or spending Christmas day at the movies with friends. One of my favorite rituals waits inside a plastic CVS bag tucked in the back of a brass-hinged chest in my living room. In the bag is a dry branch clipped from last year’s Christmas tree. I’ll use the branch to kindle the fire on the night I decorate this year’s tree.

I learned the custom years ago at a Winter Solstice party. Twenty multicultural neighbors gathered to celebrate the coming holidays: Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Epiphany, and the day after Christmas sales. A psychic read Tarot cards in the den, a local witch stirred mulled Wassail punch in the kitchen, the host’s dog Peg trotted through the house wearing felt reindeer ears, and It’s A Wonderful Life played on TV. A typical west coast holiday party? Not really, but it was one of the more interesting.

Winter Solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year. Our host explained that, centuries ago, there was a fear the nights would continue to grow longer until the sun disappeared completely. Evergreen trees, mistletoe, and holly—the only foliage to remain green through the bleak winter months—epitomized the triumph of life over death and were said to hold special powers. In our first ritual of the evening, to symbolize hope for spring, we joined as a group to bring in the evergreen tree from the local tree lot.

Once the tree was in place in his living room, we gathered to perform rituals established long before Santa, the Macy’s Parade, holiday cards, candy canes, “White Christmas”, and the annual L.A. Lakers Christmas game. First our host burned a clipping from his last year’s tree in the hearth to honor continuity. Then we circled strings of lights on the new tree to light the night and encourage the sun to return, bringing longer days.

Each guest received a red ribbon and a piece of paper. We made a wish for the coming year and tied our ribbons on the “magical” tree. On the papers we each made a list of things from the past year we hoped to leave behind. And in our final ritual, tossing our goodbye lists onto the Yule log burning in the fireplace, we bid farewell to dark days.

The traditions we honored were a mixture of European and pagan customs, and perhaps our host’s imagination, but the symbolism of the evening charmed me enough to carry on burning the previous year’s tree branch and tying a “wish” ribbon on my new tree. Comforting. Hopeful.

The Winter Solstice is December 22 this year. Each day thereafter is a step toward spring. My warmest thanks go to Hank and the Jungle Red writers for inviting me to guest at Jungle Red today. I wish you all long happy days, warm sunlight, lasting traditions, and dreams come true!

HANK: Oh, my dear Rochelle. You are unceasingly amazing. All our wonderful wishes for you in the coming year--and may you revel in your national best-sellerness...and perhaps, have another!

So, Reds, what would you put on your goodbye list? And how about what you would wish? (Rochelle will have to let us know if it's okay to reveal that part...)

A copy of Who Do, Voodoo to one lucky commenter!

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Rochelle Staab, a former award-winning radio programmer and music industry marketing executive, blends her fascination with the supernatural and her love for mystery in Who Do, Voodoo? the bestselling first novel in her Mind for Murder Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime. Who Do, Voodoo? features no-nonsense Liz Cooper, a Los Angeles psychologist forced to embrace the occult to clear her best friend of murder. Bruja Brouhaha, the second novel in the series, will be released in August 2012.
http://www.rochellestaab.com/

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