Are You in the Jungle Red World? CHECK IN!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Hey, Reddies, time to hear from YOU!  We were talking yesterday about being good citizens of book world, and it got me thinking about this one in particular. 

Who are the Reddies? You know the seven of us, and our  several wonderful Reds emerita, (hi, Ingrid Thoft!) but how about YOU?

WHO are our beloved neighbors in the Jungle Red world?

We know way way way more people are out there than comment every day--our viewer numbers show that.

But whooooooo are you? And where?

Let’s do a Jungle Red check in! Just tell us who you are, and where, and as much–or as little!!-- about you as you like, and how long you've been with us, and whatever else, in the comments today. (Try to hold back on the 2 P's, okay? Politics and promo. :-))

We would love to know! And I’ll give a wonderful book of my choice to one lucky commenter!

(Oh, and you DO know about the reds and Readers page on Facebook, don;t you?  We all gather there, and check it every days, and f=have special contests, AND all of us go live together  to chat with you every month! ! Our next Happy Hour is Feb 20 at 5PM ET!  But you have to join us to join the fun! Click here to join…https://www.facebook.com/groups/6835060499909032  )

But again…WHOOOOO are you? 

Cheers and Jeers (aka Check-in!)

LUCY BURDETTE: Today is check-in day--we'd love to hear how things are going for you too!

CHEERS: It’s our busy season in Key West because everyone wants to get away from winter. This week we have two special guests in town—Hallie is here teaching and Debs arrives on Saturday as she’ll be our speaker for the Friends on Monday. A mini-Jungle Reds reunion. Yay!

JEERS: I am taking a French conversation class 3-4 times a week and I wish I knew where all my French vocabulary has gone! 

CHEERS AND JEERS: I’ve gotten so many ideas for Key West mystery #14 from the police academy and from a book club at the Big Pine library, but precious few words have been added to my manuscript…

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:

CHEERS: Yay! THE HOUSE GUEST has gone into second printing! Just six days after publication. I am absolutely floating. And!  As I type this, it’s Amazon number 2 in genre new releases! SO fabulous! (Can we somehow get me to number one? Like Debs in her genre?)  I am still counting blessings like mad.

JEERS:  Oh argh. I have the edits for my next book ticking away until the due date. I love the new book, but I cannot focus until I am off of book tour. I have flown, gosh, thousands of miles in the past two weeks. Can that be? And that little nagging feeling of ‘YOUR EDITS ARE DUE”  is flying along with me. But I have time.

CHEERS AND JEERS: What do I do next? I have a title and NO PLOT for the next book, book 16.  So weird. And– I also have a great idea for something totally new. What would my world think of something totally new?  I cannot decide what to do, so maybe that means it’s not time to decide.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Hank and Lucy, those are some amazing cheers to nab! Mine aren’t nearly as exciting.

CHEERS: Youngest’s car dropped dead, throwing her into crisis, since her business - dog care - depends on her having reliable transportation. Last Friday she did her research, took the bus down to Portland, and in one long day we found a new-to-her car, test drove it, got it inspected by my mechanic, and made the purchase, title, tags and taxes before the town hall closed for the evening. She didn’t even have to stay the night! That felt like a real accomplishment.

JEERS: I've been so bogged down in taxes, grading, health insurance paperwork and more of Dad’s estate stuff, I’m getting almost no writing done. I keep feeling if I can only get these one-time-only things out of the way… but then more one-time-only things fall onto my to-do list!

CHEERS AND JEERS: My invitations to speak at conferences, libraries, etc. are starting to get back to pre-pandemic levels, which is very nice. But I’m finding planning and executing travel when there’s no one else at home is much more complicated than it was when I had the Maine Millennial or Samantha living here. So…hmmm.

RHYS BOWEN: 

CHEERS: My only cheers this week are for Hank and Debs and their brilliantly successful new books. I’ll bask in your glory!  

JEERS: This should have been my Jungle Reds week but I swapped with Lucy because I should have been on a cruise in the Caribbean. Alas John and I both came down with a horrible virus that has laid us low and we had to cancel the cruise. So I’m at home, staying away from people because we’re still infectious, coughing like La Dame au Camelias and feeling sorry for myself.

CHEERS AND JEERS: But I am making myself move ahead with the next book so I can finish early and plan a lovely vacation somewhere, sometime.

HALLIE EPHRON: 

CHEERS: I’m in Key West where I get to hang out with Lucy and go to events at the wonderful Key West Library and teach a class at The Studios of Key West to a stellar group. So good to work out someone ELSE’S plotholes!

JEERS: I’m recovering from a mysterious virus that made me itch all over. Gaaaa.

CHEERS & JEERS: Being in a warm place in February is grand, but who invited all these other people?!?

JENN McKINLAY: 

CHEERS: On the stroke of midnight last night I turned in the manuscript for FATAL FIRST EDITION (LIbrary Lovers #14) *and* the copy edits for SUGAR PLUM POISONED. Hallelujah!

JEERS: My house is a revolting wasteland of pet hair and unopened mail. It’ll take me a week to get it clean and then I’m back on deadline. Wah.

CHEERS AND JEERS: I nurtured a small black mission fig tree back to life. Yay! Now I have to figure out where to plant it. Ugh!

DEBORAH CROMBIE:

CHEERS: Lots of cheers here! I'm so looking forward to my upcoming visit to Key West, where I will get to see Lucy, Hallie, and Barb Ross, and speak to the wonderful Friends of the Key West Library. And A KILLING OF INNOCENTS is doing really well. The reviews have been lovely, it made #8 on the Wall Street Journal Bestsellers list, and it just had a fab tweet from ANN CLEEVES!

@AnnCleeves

My most recent crime read was A Killing of Innocents by

@deborahcrombie

New to the series but got pulled in immediately by the interesting plot and engaging range of recurring characters.

JEERS: I've made some real progress on the plot for Kincaid/James #20, but I still don't have a title, and very few words are getting on the page.

CHEERS AND JEERS: Loving all this promoting and travel (although not a fraction of what Hank is doing!) but it's really hard to concentrate on writing until things calm down a little.

P.S. A KILLING OF INNOCENTS is out in the UK today!

Now it's your turn Red readers!

The Reds Weekly Check-In, or, BEE Grateful

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Let’s check in on how we’re all doing, what reopening looks like in our neighborhoods, and any notable events from this past week or upcoming! Last week’s big event for me was a bee invasion upstairs - literally. My Guest Son’s room filled up with bees, much to his consternation. We could see them sort-of-swarming outside, going in and out of a crack between the main house and the addition. They were entirely peaceful honey bees, but even the most peaceable bees aren’t what you want to see inside the house - less so when you can see a hundred of them!

I contacted the Maine Beekeepers Ass’n and left a help ticket on their website, but it seems they’re more or less offline during the pandemic. Instead, we found help through Twitter! My oldest daughter, the Maine Millennial, tweeted about our...issue, and she got a DM from a beekeeper at The Honey Exchange. This led to a phone call, and within a few hours, a wonderful young woman named Thalassa Raasch was at our door, net hat and bee vacuum in hand.

With a little sleuthing, we discovered the bees were reachable via the inside wall of a kneehole closet in Guest Son’s room. We took out everything stored there (mostly old luggage, which I was happy to remove to the attic) and could see a brand new colony was trying to start itself in an uninsulated gap in the wall. (Old house - modern insulation was shoved in where workmen could reach and left off where they couldn’t. Please refer to past JRW posts where I complain incessantly about the cold.) Fortunately, we caught the bees before they were able to begin building, so it was a relatively straightforward job for Thalassa to suck them up into the bee vac. 

We got thank-you honey for saving the bees!

We opened up the windows, closed the door, and gave the room twenty-four more hours to clear out. Fortunately, when we went inside, most of the bees had escaped, leaving behind only a handful of tiny striped corpses to be swept up. Even better, Thalassa reports the bees have been successfully moved into one of her hives, meaning they, and we, can now continue to lead happy and productive lives - twenty-plus miles apart.

What’s buzzing in your life, Reds?

LUCY BURDETTE: That’s a wonderful story Julia! We are in Connecticut now, which is just opening up. I walked on the wild side and went to my favorite local bookstore, RJ Julia Booksellers. Everyone was masked up and there were markings on the floor showing us where to walk, and books! Thousands and thousands of books--definitely essential for these times! I’ve also been going to our farmer’s market on the town green. Again, masks and social distancing required. So many yummy veggies and good bread...I’m in heaven.

Bad news--we are worried about the spike in Florida and people getting crazy in Key West. Praying for everyone to stay sane and safe.

HALLIE EPHRON: The bee invasion sounds terrifying. We’ve had a swarm of thousands of bees take up residence hanging from a bush in our backyard (called the beekeepers and they were moved to safe quarters), but never IN the house. Yes, Florida looks ominous. Ditto Texas (sorry Debs). And Arizona not so good either. Time will tell.

I’ve been slowly crawling out. I went to my local grocery store for the first time, bought plants for the garden and fresh cherries and plums which, ordering for delivery, is a crap shoot.  I clipped my front hedges and the hedge clipper promptly died, so I ordered one from my local hardware store and went to pick it up. They are doing a busy busy business and had it totally under control.

Feeling like small bits of normal are creeping back. We’re in the suburbs so at least we can walk and sit out in the yard anytime we want, and I have great neighbors.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Our little air conditioning issues are very tame compared to Julia's bee story! So glad you are now happily separated, Julia--a win-win!

Yes, Texas is very worrying. I think we are just now starting to see the results of our "opening" and all the Memorial Day festivities with no masks or social distancing. I don't want to contemplate what will happen in the next couple of weeks after all the protests here.

I've had two masked trips to Trader Joe's at senior hour now--so exciting to pick out my own produce and groceries!! Also, two outings to the farmer's market. It was very busy this Saturday, but more people were wearing masks than the previous Saturday, so maybe that's an improvement. I've also had a friend (waving at you, Gigi!) over for a socially distanced happy hour on the patio, ditto morning coffee with another friend. I would really really hate to give up these small gains, but I think a lot of people here have just decided the pandemic is over, which doesn't bode well….

RHYS BOWEN: We have finally made it safely back to California after 110 degrees drove us from Arizona. The drive went amazingly smoothly. We spent the night at a Hyatt in Pasadena where they have arranged everything really well. We stopped at clean rest area bathrooms. No problems.  Now we are enjoying cooler weather and we’re back in Marin County where everyone wears masks, is polite, and only a few things have opened up… yes, and they have 17 deaths to date. None of them recently.  So I feel much safer than crazy Arizona.

We also go to Trader Joe’s for senior hour. Very well done with no stress. And I’m busy with the edits of my new Venice Stand alone. I’m also on a cleaning and weeding out jag. I’m about to Kondo my house, after my Arizona home that has no clutter. I’ll be ruthless!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh-- BEES! Oh my gosh, that is a nightmare. Just like everything else. Anyway, Massachusetts is apparently doing well, but we shall see. Reading about all of you is fascinating--truly. Jonathan and I are not budging. Not one bit. We have been home for 93 days. Not going anywhere. We have ordered groceries, ordered front porch chairs, ordered plants, planted tomatoes and basil, we have worked worked worked. Jonathan in virtual court, with the full array of personnel, I’m trying to write and be on TV (via Zoom) and it’s like--living on our own private planet. 

"Ryan could win a sixth Agatha with this one." !!!

Sometimes I actually pat the freezer to reassure it that  I am so pleased with it. My hair is awful, but I am persevering with many zooms and appearances and bookclubs, and THE FIRST TO LIE got a Publishers Weekly starred review so I am counting blessings.

I think the whole thing is horribly scary, insane, and I hope we can just all hang in.

JULIA: Check in time, dear readers! How are you doing, what are you doing, and are there any BEES involved?