Like A Rolling Stone

RHYS BOWEN: During the past three days I have flown from Mexico where I was celebrating with our entire family to our condo in Arizona and then driven from Arizona back to our house in California. It sometimes seems that I spend my life planning what to wear in a certain place, packing, then unpacking and doing laundry. One thing is certain, I am always on the move. (Though maybe not as frequently as Hank!)

One of my great-great grandfathers was disinherited for running off and marrying a gypsy. My French great grandmother Josephine went out to Australia by ship in her eighties. I blame them for this desire to wander. It has certainly been with me all my life, ever since I waded out into the sea, wearing only my sunbonnet at the age of two and had to be rescued when the water rose up to my neck. I went across Europe on my own in my early teens. At fifteen I crossed Paris alone from one station to another to join family friends in the French Alps.

I always dreamed of going to Australia and put this plan into action when I was 24. I'd only just arrived there when I met a charming Englishman and married him. He was heading to California. We married and the rest is history. Luckily he was with an airline so we have traveled the world ever since. We've stayed in a houseboat on a lake in Kashmir. We drove in a jeep up to Ladakh. We have visited Uluru and Kakadu in the Australian Outback. And I can't see us slowing down any time soon.

Whenever I get home I swear that I will stay put for a while. I will put down roots and enjoy my surroundings. But within a week or two I spot a plane flying overhead and find myself wondering where it is headed and where I might be heading next. So it's definitely in the genes.

I've come to the conclusion that humans are divided into two types: rolling stones and moss gatherers. When I was young there were people in my village who had never been up to London. What's more they had no interest in traveling more than ten miles from their home. I suppose there are still people like that today.

There are advantages and disadvantages to being a rolling stone and moving from place to place. Life has been a succession of hellos and goodbyes. I have memories of coming out of customs at an airport and seeing a face light up when I arrive. And memories of standing on a platform, waving goodbye until the train disappears around a bend. I always seem to have people I'm missing and wish were closer to me. I spent most of my adult life on another continent from my parents and childhood friends. My parents only saw my children at the most once a year. They never had the warm satisfaction of running into Nana's house to tell the latest news the way my grandchildren do. I had to agonize when I got a phonecall to say my father was in hospital in England and then later in Australia. How serious was it this time? Did I try to farm out the children and catch the next plane? Would I regret it forever if I didn't go?

Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I'd stayed put in England and married the very suitable young man from Harrow and Oxford. Would I have been bored? Would I still have longed to travel? Would I have turned him into a traveler? Or would I have settled into the role of valuable village lady, running the women's institute and the flower show? (Somehow I can't picture this)

It is interesting that my fellow Jungle Reds all seem to do a lot of traveling too. We know that Hank is somewhere different almost every weekend, Debs is in England for part of the year. Lucy spends her winters in Key West, Julia spends most of her time driving her offspring these days but has lived in many parts of the world. So I'm wondering if the same inquiring mind that wants to see other places, other people, is what makes a good writer too? What do you think?

How about you, dear Readers? Are you rolling stones too?

I hear Music but there's..

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Okay, am I old? I mean, I'm not old. I worked for Rolling Stone Magazine in the 70's, and yes it was the political unit, not the music unit, but hey, I knew ALL about music. At that time, I swore I would always stay current with the latest "hits" (are they still called that?) But alas, that did not happen.

We just got a new car, and the salesperson said--let me pre-set your radio stations. What stations do you listen to?  I said, uh, well, NPR, whatever that is. And uh, um, well. (Jonathan and don't really listen to the radio, we talk to each other. When I'm driving by myself, I look at it as a time to think in silence. I didn't tell the salesperson that.).

 No problem, she said. Here's your satellite radio. What music programs do you want? Um, I said. Is there a Paul Simon Station?

Then she said--there's a wonderful station with music from the forties.

Ah. Oh dear.

So the other night we were watching the Grammys. Some of it was terrific, even though I'd never heard a lot of the songs before--are they still called songs? Talent is talent, and there was a lot of that there.

Questions I have: Was Pink actually singing while she was doing that act? Was Beyonce actually singing while she was doing that act? Taylor Swift's dress was fabulous, but can she sing without doing that with her hair? How come the men all had on lots of clothes, but the women didn't?

I confess we turned it off to watch Downton Abbey, then turned back at 11 (in time to see the robots and the guy in the hat) because we knew we'd fall asleep in Sherlock and will watch that today.

::Shaking head.::  Something's happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear...  (Please tell me you get that allusion.)

How about you, Reds? Music? Grammys? Radio?

HALLIE EPHRON: Oh, Hank, I am so happy to hear you say this. Pink??? I do know who Beyonce is. Ditto Taylor Swift. But that's how big they have to be to penetrate my consciousness.

Our radio is tuned to 3 NPR stations -- 2 that are mostly talk and news and wonderful weekend game shows (Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!) and the other one is classical music. That is IT. When, in desperation and I need something to listen to, I find a country and western station or even folk. I never know who I'm listening to but I love bopping around in the driver's seat.

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Am I the only Red who listens to Pandora radio? That's how I discover great new stuff. And you can choose any "station" -- so it's Pink for the gym, Tom Waits for brooding, Cole Porter for cooking dinner....

What's great about Pandora is they use an algorithm from songs you like/don't like to play songs from new artists or artists you might not otherwise know. That's how I first heard my current musical obsession, Sara Bariles -- who was at this year's Grammy Awards.

Highly recommend, and if you pay a small fee, you can rid yourself of the commercials.

HANK: Oh, Susan, we have Pandora in the house! We love it. We have Paul Simon station, and Judy Collins station, and Cole Porter station, and one I named Lido Shuffle. And lots more. That'd be good for the car!  Wonder how we could make a "stuff I should know about" station?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I do Spotify when I listen on my computer. My thirteen-year-old recommended it, so either I'm even hipper than you Pandora folks, or I'm hopelessly mired in something only middle-schoolers use. Don't tell anyone, but my playlist is 90% Kings College Choir. 

Our car radio is a real amalgam of stations and styles: NPR, of course, and Ross's sports-talk station ("The Big JAB!") and Youngest's two pop and hip-hop stations. Also WBACH, for my classical music, one country and one oldies. Ross and I don't have Sirius - like you, Hank, we generally prefer to talk to each other or, when I'm alone, to have silence - but we've enjoyed having it in rental cars over the years.

 One trip that stands out in family lore was the time we got upgraded to a very posh SUV (we have to fit five, remember) that not only had some sort of super-Sirius system, it was VOICE ACTIVATED.  Once the teens discovered that, it was all over. One would ask for "urban hip-hip" only to be immediately overruled by another shouting "modern jazz!" Evidently, too many voice commands confused the machine, because when Ross finally got them quieted down and asked Sirius for "Local sports" the machine responded, "Seeking...Detroit Metal Crunk." Then blasting the most godawful stuff you could imagine. We went back to poking its buttons after that.

RHYS: I'm a Pandora fan too--often it's the SPA selection and therefore relaxing when I'm rushing around. But here in Phoenix there is a great radio station called KAHM (as in calm) and they play all soothing background music.  So it's either that or NPR.

On long trips I play selections from my iPhone... Mama Mia or the Beatles when I need to stay awake and can sing along, comedy to make me laugh, or even audio books.

I'm sounding like an old fuddy duddy but pop music for the past ten years or more has left me cold. It's boring, repetitive and I hate the screeching that is now applauded as singing.

HANK: Yeah, and I often agree, Rhys, but what worries me is that's what my mother used to say about the Beatles. Just saying.

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  I put Downton and Sherlock on record and watch the entire Grammy show, which I thought was fabulous. (Although I do agree I'm getting tired of female singers as pole-dancers costumes.  And the Beyonce and Jay-Z opening number was definitely not my fave.  So funny--Rick didn't bat an eye at Beyonce in her skimpy-dominatrix outfit, but later on, when she was wearing the white sort of see-through dress, he kept saying, "Wow, she looks great." Sometimes less is not more, girls.

Because for the last couple of years I've been writing about a character (Andy Monahan) who is a rock guitarist, and is now in a duo with a female singer, I do try to keep up with the music scene.  And although I am not a big fan of hip-hop or heavy metal, there is a lot that I LOVE.  I do like Daft Punk (the robots) by the way--they crack me up.  And I think Lorde is very weird and interesting. And Pharrell Williams, in spite of the weird Lone Ranger hat, is really talented.

At least one of my favorite performances from the Grammys was Miranda Lambert and Billy Joe Armstrong's tribute to the Everly Brothers. Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmkZCSK3YOM

(In case you don't have any idea who they are, Miranda Lambert is a huge country star and is married to Blake Shelton, and Billy Joe Armstrong is the lead singer for Greenday.)

I do listen to Pandora, but also lots of my own CDs or downloads.  Funnily enough, I don't usually listen to music when I drive, because I find it too distracting in our heavy Dallas traffic.

But for those of you who think music has gone to the dogs since 1965, you might want to expand your horizons:-)

HANK: Debs, whoa. You are so hip! Maybe you can do a blog on what we should hear? Our own personal Pandora!  And yeah, I agree The Everly Brothers tribute was not the best--so sad, because they had some amazing songs.

LUCY BURDETTE: Yeah, not only is Debs hip, she's scolding us old farts LOL. I'm with the Paul Simon and NPR fans, plus I love the music on the TV show Nashville. Have bought all the CD's. We listen to that and music by Teddy Thompson and Alison Kraus on the way down to Florida. It's funny, I don't like to listen to the radio much when riding with John, but I like the company when alone.

HANK: Wait, wait, don’t tell me. Reds readers, can you be our Pandoras? (In a radio way, not a “letting all the bad stuff out” way.) What should we be listening to? 

(And because we're all about audio--I'll give the fabulous Macmillan audio version (on CD) of THE WRONG GIRL to one lucky commenter!)

Blogging in the City

JAN BROGAN: Here at Jungle Red, we promote writers.  Ourselves. Other mystery authors. Friends. Friends of friends. Anyone we just happen to think is interesting. I'm pushing the envelope a little today. I'm promoting my son.  

You've heard me hear talk /write about him as Spike, which is what we've called him since birth, but he writes under his actual given name, Frank Santo.

Spike/Frank lives in Brooklyn and blogs about the literary world  for PageViews, which is a new initiative by the New York Daily News. The blog, which I actually read even when my son isn't posting, isn't what you think of when you think of the New York Daily News.  Less Daily News, more New York. It's sophisticated, edgy, witty, and controversial as it covers everything from the publishing world's latest phenom to Sunday's episode about Madmen ( and exactly which serial murderer were they all talking about anyway.)

Editor Alexander Nazaryan started the blog in December with the goal of being the "best source for cultural and literary reporting on the web," and while he says it's not there yet, the blog has been getting a lot of attention.  Frank (I'm having a really hard time calling him that) started there in February, and I'm not just bragging when I say he's had great success in only two months. (okay, maybe I am bragging just a little.)

What do I mean by success? Two weeks ago, he found himself quoted in People Magazine.  His blog about literary speed dating was tweeted across the universe and got picked up by the Paris Review.  His review of Fifty Shades of Gray made its way to Jezebel before it hit People.  And last week, a post he did about the Rolling Stone expose on Dartmouth hazing went viral and got more than one thousand Facebook recommends. (the counter stops when you hit 1K)

So please welcome Frank Santo to Jungle Red.

JAN BROGAN: Tell us about Page Views:  

FRANK SANTO: I’m not really sure what the overall concept of the blog is other than that I hope it is a place that fosters intelligent discussion about culture and has its own unique voice.The key to its success is probably consistency, we have at least three posts a day, and its becoming a daily destination for people interested in the literary world (whatever that is).

JAN:  Your editor puts says the concept is to have a blog about book and culture that was both sophisticated and could laugh at itself.  And I'd say you definitely laugh at yourself when you explain in your  review of Fifty Shades of Gray by E.L. James, just how excruciatingly uncomfortable it was to be reading that book as a young male on a crowded New York subway.  But the review was also interesting because it was the male perspective of a book about female fantasy.  How difficult was it to write that review and how shocked were you to find it quoted in People Magazine? 

FRANK: Well it wasn’t as difficult to review that book as it was to read it. It was hard coming up with a way to review the book that would be more interesting than “this book is really tedious, don’t read it.” So pretty much the only unique angle I could take was to write it from a male perspective. I was pretty shocked to see my name in People Magazine. I think it was because I said 50 Shades was pornography. 

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pageviews/2012/03/its-all-porn-to-me-one-mans-review-of-50-shades-of-grey


JAN: His review was kinder than his answer would indicate, but let's say I'm still not going out to buy the book.  Back to the interview, what did you learn about your experience going undercover at a literary speed dating event?

FRANK: I learned that literary speed dating is goofy in a fun way. Everyone there was in it for the story, which was kind of nice. I think people liked it because it would have been easy for me to make fun of all of those speed-daters, but instead I kind of connected with them. They were just people seeking out a good time, like most of us.Waiting-for-a-stranger-to-roll-her-eyes-my-adventures-in-literary-speed-dating

JAN: As a Dartmouth alumni,  you took issue with Janet Rietman's expose in Rolling Stone, but not in support of fraternity life. I was really proud because you stuck up for all the students at Dartmouth trying to make it a better place, but tell us about how you approached your rebuttal piece and the reaction it's had.

FRANK: I just think Rietman relied on a false characterization of Dartmouth students in order to drum up populist outrage.  Hazing and fraternities are unneccesarry, but they aren’t the result of some kind of elitist conspiracy.  It happens at plenty of non-elite schools, so her whole 1 percent  vs 99 percent  angle was contrived. I don’t put a lot of stock in the positive reaction my post received  because it was mostly Dartmouth people who liked it, and they’re obviously going to be biased. But it was nice to have people say it meant a lot to them though.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pageviews/2012/04/confessions-of-an-actual-dartmouth-student-rolling-stone-vomits-all-over-ivy-leagu

JAN: One of the best things about the Pageviews blog are the creative story ideas. Short pieces about what we happen to be wondering about at the exact moment we are wondering. Where do the assignments come from?



FRANK:  My editor is the one who comes up with most of the assignments. He has a great feel for what kind of things will get picked up by bigger websites and re-broadcast across the Internet. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can, see where the assignments take me. It's been a lot of fun so far.

JAN: What has been your favorite blog assignment so far?


FRANK: Probably the post I wrote about an art and music program for the kids at the Homeless Shelter, where I volunteer one night a week. I had the most invested in that story because I knew all the kids I was writing about and the organization I was profiling means a lot to me,That's not the kind of post that goes viral, but it gave me a lot of satisfaction.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pageviews/2012/03/art-start-showcases-talent-of-at-risk-youths

JAN: Frank/Spike has a day job and no access to the computer until after 4 pm, but he'll check in then to answer any questions you might have.


In the meantime, if you want to find out which Springfield they really meant when they wrote the Simpsons, check out: 

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pageviews/2012/04/springfield

And come back tomorrow, when I have Jodi R. R. Smith, author of The Etiquette Book, give us tips on how to network at mystery or any other convention.

ON OUR SECRET HISTORIES

I took the road less traveled by

And that has made all the difference.
*** Robert Frost

HANK: How did you turn out the way you turned out? Was it what you planned? Dreamed of? When I was given the some multiple-choice preference test, back in whenever-it-was, the high school guidance counselor told me I had scored high in "literature" and "persuasion."

"You should work in a book store, I guess," she said.

All righty then.

But I remember, vividly, that my first job aspiration was to be an airline stewardess. Yes, that's what they were called. You got to go cool places, look chic, bring passengers whatever free stuff they wanted, and tell people what to do. (That was a key element of it, as I remember.) Then I decided I'd rather be an English teacher. Then, a geneticist. Then a radio disc jockey. Then, in college, I decided I would be the lawyer for the Mine Workers' union.

The unplanned and surprising road to TV reporter went through a stint as a legislative aide on Capitol Hill, a job I got at age 20 by going door to door with my resume. Wound up as the press secretary to a congressman from Texas. Then at Rolling Stone magazine as an editorial assistant. And then--my first job in TV, at age 25. And there I was, doing my life's work. And now writing mysteries about it.

Literature, and persuasion. Pretty funny. What did you want to be when you grew up?

JAN: I decided in first grade that I was going to be writer. When you think about it, that's actually when you learn to write, first grade. So the first thing, I learned. I stuck with.

I remember the first story I wrote: The Cat on the Moon, about a poor kitten tormented by a pack of little boys (much like the author was tormented by her three older brothers). Even at six year's old, I had delusions of being published, and was infuriated when I found a book by the same title on my second grade shelf. Those sneaky plagiarists!

RHYS: I wanted to be a lion tamer when I was a little kid, but nobody would give me a lion to practice on.

HANK: Oh, Rhys, I'd love to see photos.

RHYS: When I was a teenager I wanted to be a movie star. I have always written, edited the school magazine, wrote short stories, was invited to have tea with Iris Murdoch when she came to my school, and then edited the college newspaper. This convinced me that I didn't want to be a journalist. Too much hard work and deadline pressure.

HANK: Smart girl, even then.

RHYS: So my thwarted theatrical ambitions were channeled into the production side of BBC drama instead. It was while I was there that I decided some of the plays weren't that good and I wrote my own. As only a 22 year old can do, I took it personally to head of drama. He liked it and the BBC produced it. More followed. I might still have been there but I got lured to Australia by ABC, met my husband and wound up in San Francisco. Funny how life takes side turns.

ROBERTA: I edited the yearbook instead of the newspaper and performed some very bit parts in the school plays--no danger of reaching Broadway there! I finished college without any firm idea of what was next, having run through majors of biochemistry and art history before settling on French lit. so naturally my first job was--in a book store! Then I spent some time as a vocational rehabilitation counselor before going back to school for clinical psychology. I never anticipated becoming a writer--in fact I could kick myself now for opportunities I didn't seize when I was young. But I wasn't ready--just happy to be here now!

RO: I wanted to be exactly what I turned out to be..someone who has a lot of fun, travels, does cool things and hangs out with cute guys.

HANK: Come on, RO. Fess up. And yup, Roberta, timing is everything. Sometimes I think, gosh, I should have started writing mysteries sooner. But then, I wouldn’t be who I am now, so the books couldn’t be the same. I do think Rhys still has a future as a movie star, though. And Jan, do you still have Cat on the Moon? We’d all love to read it!

And how about you all? What did you want to be when you grew up? Is that who and what you are?

Second time around for First Efforts

The Jungle Red gang recently got a comment on our inaugural blog that was worth a second look...

Jack Bludis said...
When I saw the title, "On First Efforts," I thought it was about our VERY first efforts. At the age of 18, I sent my first story to the New Yorker ... they didn't think I was a genius. It took ten or fifteen more stories and about a hundred rejections before it got through to me that I was just an ordinary person who wanted to write.I suspect there are many others who have had a similar experience, but others who published their first and never looked back.Rosemary? Hallie? Hank? Jan? Or it just us guys who dive into it with ego and come out humble?

Ro: Maybe I shouldn't spread this around but Pushing Up Daisies is the very first thing I've ever written. Granted, I did rewrite it about 10 times - 5 or 6 times on my own and after every rejection by an agent. FYI, I didn't make changes based on any comments the agents had (only one even had anything constructive to say) I just reread and saw how I could make it better. What about the rest of you, JRs and readers? What was your first time like?

HANK:
I just looked back on that first blog--which, of course, was my first blog. Ro had practiced on her personal one, and loved it, but the rest of us were new. Now I look forward to reading it every day, checking the comments, see who's visiting and what everyone is thinking.

Anyway--to answer the actual question. The first thing I ever really wrote that got published was an essay for Rolling Stone magazine. I was the Washington editorial type at Rolling Stone for a column called "Capital Chatter" which was a compendium of cool stuff and insider stories. So I edited and collected items, fact-checked, and also wrote from time to time. (I was--23?)

And the very first was a story/essay about Susan Ford's Prom.I went to the White House, and was in the press pool that got to go to the Prom, interview guests, including Susan, if I can remember correctly, although it was more than 30 years ago. Argh.

And I remember I loved it. Writing it. Seeing it. I don't even remember who said okay, print it--Jann Wenner supposedly read everything, but we never really knew for sure.My first book is Prime Time (June 2007!!) Even though I started a different mystery in 1991 (more about the unlamented Greeskeeper in earlier posts...) Prime Time is the first I finished. But wow, I'm hunble. It was a much tougher ride than I'd ever imagined.

JAN:
Well Jack, I can safely say I was delusional at any even earlier age than you. In first grade, I wrote my first book, The Cat On the Moon, and dropped it on the street, knowing for certain a publisher would pick it up and make it a bestseller. In second grade, when I found a book on the reading shelf entitled The Cat on the Moon, I was certain I'd been plagiarized. I was too mad to actually read it, but it's a good thing I didn't have a budget for legal or I probably would have sued! Scary, huh?