Fast Five - Coronaversion!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: The birds are chirping (loudly), the sun is shining, it’s a great day to put on your most fetching mask and go for a walk, but first - a Fast Five! 

1. What’s the food item you want most that you can’t find? Bread! Nowhere on the shelves, and though I have lots of flour and yeast, I’m still intimidated about making my own. I’ve been making “sandwiches” out of tortillas, but a ham, cheese and cucumber wrap just isn’t the same.

2. What’s the craziest homesteading/Depression Era/Victory garden activity you thought about trying? I was saving the inside of bell peppers, with the thought of using the seeds. I had quite a pile going when the ants arrived on the counter and I realized waiting for my seed order to arrive would be better for my mental health and the kitchen hygiene.

3. First place you’ll go when your state’s stay at home orders are (safely, and in line with medical consensus!) lifted?  The movie theater! I know, we can see almost everything we want to from the comfort of our own sofas, but my kids and I LOVE going to the movies. I’ll be so happy to see them reopen, I may even buy my candy there, instead of sneaking it in at the bottom of a commodious purse. 

4. Don’t tell anyone, but since we’ve been stuck at home, I’m considering…adopting another dog. I really shouldn’t say this, because my daughters will be all over me with pictures of pound puppies.

5. Every cloud, even one laced with aerosolized droplets of virus, has a silver lining. What’s something you love about our new reality? The reduction in traffic along the county highway that runs past our house. I mentioned this last week, when we talked about the view from our windows. I love being able to take a walk without feeling like I’m a potential speed bump for commuters racing to and from work. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN

6. What’s the food item you want most that you can’t find?  Huh. We are fine so far, but you know? There’s no birdfood, and I worry about the ducks. I agree, though, I worry about bread all the time. And milk. We either have too much, or we are running out. And I am panicking a tiny bit about food shortages, and actually looked up what happened in WW2.

7. What’s the craziest homesteading/Depression Era/Victory garden activity you thought about trying?  I put the bottoms of green onions in a little glass, and they grew gorgeous roots! (They were smelly, though.)  Now they are in a pot. But--I KNOW this is crazy-- I often have egg whites in the morning, and just--in the past--threw away the yolks. Now I can’t bear to do that. So I have these little plastic bags of egg yolks in the freezer  with a bit of salt so they stay okay. Now I’m worried about using too many freezer bags,and what can I do with egg yolks? There's only so much mayo and bearnaise one can make. (Plus, I am worried about adding new egg yolks to the frozen egg yolks, somehow that  can't be good.) (It’s easier to worry about this than about real stuff.) (But I still can’t throw them away.) 

8. First place you’ll go when your state’s stay at home orders are (safely, and in line with medical consensus!) lifted? Hair colorist. NO question. Boom.

9. Don’t tell anyone, but since we’ve been stuck at home, I’m considering…Truly? I cannot bear to think about any projects. But--I usually don't eat carbs, and I am considering pasta, and that makes me so sad that I can’t stand it and I know it’s ridiculous but it feels like giving up. And once, for about five seconds, it crossed my mind that I could fly to Georgia to have my hair colored. THAT’S how nuts this is. 

10. Every cloud, even one laced with aerosolized droplets of virus, has a silver lining. What’s something you love about our new reality?  Ah. I had been running and traveling like CRAZY, and I’d thought--gee, I worry I am not with Jonathan enough, I wish I could just stay home and hang out with him.  So, truly, I am trying to remember this is what I’d hoped for. 

LUCY BURDETTE:

11. What’s the food item you want most that you can’t find? We have been lucky so far with food, though I never thought I’d be craving disinfectant wipes. Hank, I have whites in my freezer, would you like to arrange a swap?

12. What’s the craziest homesteading/Depression Era/Victory garden activity you thought about trying? That’s easy, everyone has got a new puppy and I want one too. Except John doesn’t want one, and T-bone’s on the fence, having never met a dog and being certain he’s the one and only. So the jury is out...

13. First place you’ll go when your state’s stay at home orders are (safely, and in line with medical consensus!) lifted? To the bookstore! More than one if possible. And back in Connecticut, we have a brand-newly renovated library and I am DYING  to see what it looks like. And honestly, I really miss going to church in person. Oh and Hank reminds me, definitely hair...

14. Don’t tell anyone, but since we’ve been stuck at home, I’m considering…dying my hair purple. What do you think?

15. Every cloud, even one laced with aerosolized droplets of virus, has a silver lining. What’s something you love about our new reality? I really really miss seeing people in person, but I do feel like people are more available online these days. And we’ve been Facetiming with our grandkids 3 or 4 times a week so that’s been great. And it’s been great to see that little family under enormous stress really rise to the occasion.
    
    

RHYS BOWEN:

16. What’s the food item you want most that you can’t find? Lasagna noodles! I ordered, by mistake, a huge package of grass fed ground beef. I have pasta sauce, grated cheese but can’t find the lasagna! 

17. What’s the craziest homesteading/Depression Era/Victory garden activity you thought about trying?  I have no garden here in Arizona, just a patio surrounded by bougainvillea which is lovely but …. I wanted to grow veggies so I have 2 pots with zucchini and peas in them. I’m sure they won’t mature before I can return to California but it is satisfying to watch them grow.

18. First place you’ll go when your state’s stay at home orders are (safely, and in line with medical consensus!) lifted? Easy - swimming pool. I miss my swimming so much.

19. Don’t tell anyone, but since we’ve been stuck at home, I’m considering… I fantasize about a dog but John would go apoplectic. I’m considering writing another book ( as well as the ones I’m supposed to write). I need to be busy and have purpose.

20. Every cloud, even one laced with aerosolized droplets of virus, has a silver lining. What’s something you love about our new reality?  Having time to sit and enjoy meals, listen to birds and my fountain. ( I’m so blessed that John bought me a fountain for Christmas. Now it makes the patio perfect.) I’m also so happy that my kids have a Zoom chat every weekend and I can see everyone at once.

JENN McKINLAY:

21. What’s the food item you want most that you can’t find? It was eggs,but I found those and my neighbor gave me some, so now I have enough for breakfast for dinner, which is always a mood elevator for my subversive crew! Food was restored here about two weeks ago. Still, no TP, though! 

22. What’s the craziest homesteading/Depression Era/Victory garden activity you thought about trying? Chickens. Our hardware store was selling baby chicks for $4.99. When I couldn’t find eggs I was seriously contemplating chickens...still am.

23. First place you’ll go when your state’s stay at home orders are (safely, and in line with medical consensus!) lifted? You stole mine, Julia! MOVIES!!! With a ginormous bucket of buttered popcorn and some Snocaps. I might not leave for a day or two.

24. Don’t tell anyone, but since we’ve been stuck at home, I’m considering…cutting my hair! I know, I know, I know...but it’s already 100+ degrees in AZ and I’m over it.

25. Every cloud, even one laced with aerosolized droplets of virus, has a silver lining. What’s something you love about our new reality? I’m such an environmental nut that I am just thrilled to see the earth healing a bit. I’ve planted two new citrus trees and a sunflower garden and I’m enjoying them so much. It’s incredible when you think about how much destruction humans do on a daily basis. Hub even told me that the planet has stopped rattling (I didn’t even know it did that) with the lessened movement of planes, trains, and automobiles.

HALLIE EPHRON:

26. What’s the food item you want most that you can’t find? Ice cream! It’s literally all sold out. And for a while olive oil until my wonderful neighbor scored a bottle for me. She also brought me 12 rolls of toilet paper. I have the world’s most lovely neighbor. (Thanks, Jane!)

27. What’s the craziest homesteading/Depression Era/Victory garden activity you thought about trying? Making my own starter for yeast. Rachael Ray says you need raisins and sugar and filtered water and then time… it doesn’t seem hard, just complicated and it takes days and days and you have to keep it going. I also thought about buying mung beans and making my own bean sprouts -- haven’t done that since my hippie-dippie days in the 60s. 

28. First place you’ll go when your state’s stay at home orders are (safely, and in line with medical consensus!) lifted? I’ll stay home and have my kids and grandkids come and stay for as long as they can stand it. I miss them terribly. And we’re going to go out together for dim sum!

29. Don’t tell anyone, but since we’ve been stuck at home, I’m considering…  hang gliding. 
    Just kidding.

30. Every cloud, even one laced with aerosolized droplets of virus, has a silver lining. What’s something you love about our new reality? Blue blue blue skies and the Milky Way at night. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE:

31. What’s the food item you want most that you can’t find? I miss all my regular stuff from Trader Joe's., especially their 3 layer hummus, and ...would you believe, goat's milk. I love it in my coffee in the morning because it's so creamy.

32. What’s the craziest homesteading/Depression Era/Victory garden activity you thought about trying? I bought arugula seeds to sprout my own microgreens. I was addicted to the ones sold at the farmer's market. Haven't done it yet, however. It turned out to be more complicated than just sprouting seeds. On the other hand, I did buy sprouting trays and am making my own bean sprouts. And I activated my dormant sourdough starters.

33. First place you’ll go when your state’s stay at home orders are (safely, and in line with medical consensus!) lifted? The farmer's market. The Saturday morning market is normally the highlight of my week, and I was so looking forward to the April opening.

34. Don’t tell anyone, but since we’ve been stuck at home, I’m considering… That maybe I don't have to get my hair cut every five weeks! I know it's getting shaggy but I'm kind of liking it.

35. Every cloud, even one laced with aerosolized droplets of virus, has a silver lining. What’s something you love about our new reality?  I really like the empty calendar. If it weren't for coronavirus anxiety, I think it would be really nice not to be rushing from one appointment/event to the next.

Now it’s your turn, dear readers! Just copy and paste the questions below, and share your own Fast Five in the comments!

1. What’s the food item you want most that you can’t find?

2. What’s the craziest homesteading/Depression Era/Victory garden activity you thought about trying?

3. First place you’ll go when your state’s stay at home orders are (safely, and in line with medical consensus!) lifted?

4. Don’t tell anyone, but since we’ve been stuck at home, I’m considering…

5. Every cloud, even one laced with aerosolized droplets of virus, has a silver lining. What’s something you love about our new reality?

Rhys on What We're Reading

RHYS BOWEN: Well, we’ve made it through another week, haven’t we? I wonder if it will get any easier if we’re in isolation for a month, for two months?


Please email me if you’d like me to answer any of your questions or concerns like “IS it normal to want to put a pillow over your husband’s face while he is sleeping because he’s driving me crazy?” Okay, only some of the time. Most of the time he’s being really good. Except when he brings in a package and PUTS IT ON THE JUST CLEANED AND DISINFECTED COUNTER!


Earlier in the week I talked about the gift of time, which should translate into time for reading all those books I’ve meant to read but never did. But you know what I find? I find it hard to concentrate. So no complicated mystery stories, nothing too dark, and certainly nothing too sad. It has to have a happy ending (except that for some reason I’m finding Harry Potter just fits the bill. Maybe because he’s battling against terrible odds and finally wins … unless you are Dobby).


So I find I’ve been re-reading things I’ve enjoyed before. Kate Morton’s The Forgotten Garden. Some of Louse Penny’s early Gamache books, and now Laurie King’s The Beekeeper’s Apprentice which I must have read when it first came out and I didn’t know who Laurie King was.


Unfortunately I’m at my Arizona winter retreat so I don’t have access to all my library of children’s books and old favorites which I’d normally read in times of stress. My entire collection of Agatha Christie for example. So I’d like to hear from you:


What are you reading right now? Any suggestions for books in the time of plague?


LUCY BURDETTE: Ha ha on the pillow over hub’s head. I texted with friends yesterday and we agreed (1) maybe we’d have more time to write in jail, and (2) we’d look good in orange.


Bad jokes aside, I feel very lucky to have my hub holed up with me! I’m reading an unusual book called THE GULF by Belle Boggs. It takes place at a rundown motel in Florida, where a poet and her ex-boyfriend are trying set up a writing seminar for inspirational writer wanna-bes. I wanted something other than a murder mystery for once, and this is very different!


I’ve also started THE MOTH CATCHER, a Vera book by Ann Cleeves. I’d say this is comfort reading because I know and love the characters. And I also pre-ordered Julia’s new book, coming VERY SOON--HID FROM YOUR EYES. Let’s all do that and then we’ll have a virtual book party!





JENN McKINLAY: LOL, Rhys. Yes, quality time with the fam has begun to feel more like doin’ time. Thankfully, I have a plethora of ARCs to read for endorsements and for once I actually have time to savor them instead of wedging the reading into every spare minute I can find. So, that’s nice. Let me just say there is some really terrific fiction coming out this year and next like our Lucy’s KEY LIME CRIME (July), Devon Daniels’s MEET YOU IN THE MIDDLE (Sept), and Lauren Elliott’s A PAGE MARKED FOR MURDER (Oct). Other than that, I am trying to write, catching up on my Netflix backlog, and doing a lot of procrastibaking. I’m on a shortbread bender at the moment.


DEBORAH CROMBIE: I thought I would do so much reading! But, like most everyone else, I’ve been very distracted. An advance copy of Lucy’s THE KEY LIME CRIME helped get me through the last couple of weeks! Now I’m missing being in her fictional Key West--virus free! Now I’m reading an ARC of Cara Black’s WWII standalone, THREE HOURS IN PARIS, which comes out next week, and I can tell you that it’s gripping! And so looking forward to our Julia’s book, HID FROM OUR EYES, out next week as well. I’ve been waiting SO long! This is my big anticipated read of the spring!


Rhys, you’ve tempted me to go back to Harry Potter. I’d started the Jim Kay illustrated edition with Wren a few weeks ago, but we are not co-reading for the time being… Or I might pick up one of my all-time favorite reads in times of stress, a Dick Francis novel.


HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, gosh, my brain is having such a difficult time focusing. Luckily I have the new Kate White HAVE YOU SEEN ME and Roz Nay’s HURRY HOME--both sinister and twisty. The new Samantha Downing arc just arrived, hurray, called HE STARTED IT. I am sure it’ll be wonderful--she’s so talented. I cannot wait for Cara Black--you are all so lucky to have read it--but mine will arrive on pub day.


I am loving SOMETHING WONDERFUL, a bio of Rogers and Hammerstein by Todd Purdom. (I appeared with him on one of my last book tour events, sigh.) It’s wonderful, and a fascinating examination of how those geniuses worked together. ANd has a lot of the discarded lyrics, which are fascinating. (Can you believe So Long, Farewell with a verse that says something like: “So long, farewell, and now we must aloha; I know it’s sad, but time for me to go-ha.” Isn’t that hilarious?


I’ve been very tempted to read all the Agatha Christies, I must say, but suddenly my life is all about decontamination and dinner-making, and worrying that I am not writing. Books all seem to have a weird subtext now, like when you see old movies on TV where people are standing too close together. My mind is still searching for a new normal, so I’m thrilled to see all these suggestions.


HALLIE EPHRON: I”m reading Wendy Corsi Staub’s heartstopping THE BUTCHER’S DAUGHTER - the finale of her The Foundlings Trilogy. You’lll have to wait until the end of August to see how it all comes together. I also have Raymond Chandler’s FAREWELL MY LOVELY, just to remind myself what an amazing writer he was.

And I’m reading PRIVATE INVESTIGATIONS - an anthology of essays by mystery writers on the real mysteries they’ve experienced in real life. Both Rhys and I have essays in the collection, edited by Victoria Zackheim. It comes out in a few weeks, y’all will be hearing much more about it then.


JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Comfort reads for me. I’m re-reading Lucy’s Key West Food Critic series because it has everything my life does not right now - solvable problems, delicious food I don’t have to make, beautiful settings and warm weather. I’m also rereading in my usual favorite genre, science fiction: the more recent books of Lois McMaster Bujold. I’m not usually a big rereader, and I think I’m enjoying it precisely because I know what’s going to happen. Unlike here in the real world.


Side note: The Maine Millennial and I were talking about this sense of uncertainty, and I realized the next week, day, hour has always been uncertain - it’s just when things are trundling on as normal we can forget that inconvenient fact.

Back to books - I’m really excited about some books I’ve ordered from one of my local independent bookstores. I’m getting THE LAST EMPEROR, third in an amazing series by John Scalzi, the SF author even people who don’t get SF can read and love. Also Tessa Wegert’s DEATH IN THE FAMILY, because murder on an isolated island is irresistible now. And finally, I’m looking forward to Deb’s current read, THREE HOURS IN PARIS, by Cara Black. Did you know it’s on Amazon’s Editor’s Pick for Best Books for April? I think it’s going to be a BIG book.




NOTE FROM RHYS: Cara will be our guest on Sunday, sharing her favorite sites in Paris. And I LOVED the book. It's brilliant.




















So, dear friends, what are you reading? Can you read? Is it old comfort reads or fun new books?