Never Before on Jungle Red: Hockey

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  From the "never thought I'd live to see the day" file--I spent last Wednesday watching--hockey. Me. Hockey. The thing is, I have no idea of the rules, which is always detrimental when watching games of any sort. But all of Boston is enraptured by the so-far-so-good (knock on wood) success in the playoffs. (Tuuka Rask!) (If you dont know who that is, don't worry.)

Anyway, beacuse the world works in mysterious ways (don't we know it!) Wendy Gager's post for today--is about hockey! I mean--it's as if we PLANNED it. And we didn't plan it!

Talk about planning..there are certain things you cannot plan. And that's what happened in Wendy's new book!

"Hockey hits the pages of my last novel--
  but the season was on ice"


 WENDY GAGER: I must confess I’m not a huge hockey fan but I’m dragged kicking and screaming into the frenetic sport, so much so that it even graces the pages of A CASE OF VOLATILE DEEDS. This season is Stanley Cup fever as the hockey champ will earn the title any day now including a game tonight.

HANK: Well, yeah. I've been watching HOCKEY. Did I say that? Anyway.

W.S. GAGER:  I’m from Michigan and Red Wing fever takes over the state for the snowy winter months and continues. When writing about an area, an author has to include local flavor and customs. My Mitch Malone Mystery books are set in fictional Grand River, the second largest city in Michigan modeled after Grand Rapids. As I was writing one part, I needed my reporter character Mitch Malone to butter up a source. Most people would talk about the weather but small talk in Michigan can be dicey because it changes so frequently. When the weather is nasty, it is just not a good conversation gambit.

The book is set during the fall which can be 80 degrees and sunny one day and a few inches of snow the next. Many people think of football as a fall sport, and it is popular in Michigan, but hockey is huge as evidenced by Detroit being called Hockeytown because of the Red Wings. The Grand Rapids Griffins are a farm team for the Wings and in lower leagues are the Muskegon Lumberjacks, Kalamazoo K-Wings, Flint Generals and others also drawing loyal fans.

HANK: See how we bring you new stuff here at JRW? I sure hope the fabulous Bryan Gruley is reading this. He'll be so proud of us. Anyway, Wendy, you were saying.

WENDY: Including real life people and events in your story is chancy because they can change. Players get traded, hurt or just retire. I also wanted something unique. I chose Justin Abdelkader. No one would ever forget that name if they heard it. Justin also is from Muskegon and returns to his roots often to encourage younger kids at the local ice arena. When I wrote the book two years ago, Justin had just been getting a lot of ice time with the Red Wings. We had watched him play for the Griffins after he helped Michigan State University win a national championship.


The irony for me was when my book was released in what should have been hockey season, it wasn’t because of the dispute between owners and players. Hockey did reappear in a shortened season that is finishing now. Since I put Justin in A Case of Volatile Deeds, he has become a valuable member of the Red Wings team. My daughter, who is a very vocal hockey fan, has referred to him as “Abby.” The culmination of the Hockey season is upon us with the Stanley Cup playoffs. Abby and my beloved Red Wings won’t be there this year having lost to the Chicago Blackhawks.

But Abby will be a Red Wing forever in my book no matter where his career leads.

Do you like to read about local things in books? Does it stop you or throw you out of the story when something has changed?


HANK: And hurray:  You don't have to ice the puck to win--or whatever they do--one lucky commenter will win a paper copy or a kindle version of any of the four Mitch Malone books!



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A Case of Volatile Deeds

Mitch Malone finally scores a weekend dinner with a cute receptionist, but true to his reporter instincts, an explosion in a high rise office building makes him stand up his date as he runs for an exclusive.

Mitch learns that much of what he knows about his date and her work aren’t what they seem. His world continues to twist when the police captain asks for his help and a city hall informant is found floating in the river. Mitch must keep his head down or a cute dog with a knack for finding dead bodies will be sniffing out his corpse.


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W.S. Gager has lived in Michigan for most of her life except when she was interviewing race car drivers or professional woman's golfers. She enjoyed the fast-paced life of a newspaper reporter until deciding to settle down and realized babies didn't adapt well to running down story details on deadline.

Since then she honed her skills on other forms of writing before deciding to do what she always wanted and write mystery novels.

Her main character is Mitch Malone who is an edgy crime-beat reporter single-mindedly hunting for a Pulitzer Prize. A Case of Infatuation, the first in the Mitch Malone Mysteries, won the Dark Oak Contest in 2008 and nominated as a Michigan Notable Book. A Case of Accidental Intersection took first place in the 2010 Public Safety Writers Contest in the unpublished category before its release. Her third book, A CASE OF HOMETOWN BLUES, was a finalist in the 2012 Daphne Du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense.

 She loves to hear from readers at wsgager@yahoo.com or on her blog at http://wsgager.blogspot.com.

Fifty Shades?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: 

Have you read Fifty Shades of Grey? Um, I haven't. But whoa, lots of people have. It's right there, all over the best seller list, and I have to say I fret for the authors who're pushed off the lists because of it.  In fact, off the record, one such author told a pal of mine that s/he considered herself three places higher in the list because s/he wasn't counting Fifty Shades. But that's a story for another day.

Anyway,  I DID read Bryan Gruley's STARVATION LAKE.  I had no choice. I was going to be the moderator of some panel--do you remember what it was, Bryan?--and since Bryan was on it, I was obligated to read his book. 

(I promise you this has a point.)

.

I say obligated--because I will admit to you I wouldn't have, otherwise. Because I thought it was about--hockey. Hockey! Until the year the Bruins won the Stanley Cup, I'd never even watched a hockey game. Fine. Sue me. I hadn't.

But panel responsibilities are panel responsibilities, so into Starvation Lake I went.

And it was life changing. First, it wasn't really about hockey.

Second--it was fabulous. Wonderful. Brilliant. So when Bryan won the Anthony and the Macavity for Best First novel, I had to say--well, of course!  

Now hes on his third novel--a copy of which we'll award to a very lucky commenter. Now Bryan is no longer a newbie, he's an award-winning mystery novelist on his way to stardom. And along the way, Bryan has been considering what that means. And the journey. And who he's met on the way. And a little bit about Fifty Shades of Gray. (See? I told you there was a point.)

If It's Not a Rhapsody

 by Bryan Gruley

My pal Matt likes my books. He makes a lot of money trading options and would love to see me make a lot of money too. He wonders if I should shorten my sentences, maybe simplify the plots a bit, so I'd sell more books and get rich and, like Matt, have Bon Jovi play at my house.

 Matt's a good guy who wants the best for me (except the Bon Jovi part). Shorter sentences and easier plots might well make me a bestselling novelist, or at least a better-selling one. But, as I told him when we talked books over after-work beers, I don't need to bend over backwards for the sake of sales.

 Is that because I'm an artiste, so deeply committed to the purity of my lyrical prose and penetrating tales that I deafen myself to the siren song of commercial success?

 Nah. I'm all in favor of my Starvation Lake novels rising to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List. I'm about as commercial a writer as you can find--just not when I'm writing fiction.

 For nearly thirty-three years, I've been a journalist, writing and editing for newspapers in Michigan, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Now I write long narrative articles for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. It's a blast. I love seeing new places, meeting interesting people, piecing story puzzles together. It pays the bills and then some. Because, from the Kalamazoo Gazette to The Wall Street Journal to Businessweek, what I do is strictly commercial.

 Each of the six publications I've worked for has its own audience. That audience has expectations. You write your stories to meet those expectations. People who pick up the Journal don't expect stories on yesterday's Chicago Cubs loss any more than Chicago Tribune readers want a 1,500-word dive into the ephemera of the Federal Reserve.

 I used to tell a fellow Journal reporter, one of the most passionate journalists I've ever known, that our newspaper's core mission was to make rich people richer. Even though it was a joke, this drove him crazy because, like all jokes, it carried some truth.

 I'm not saying we in the non-fiction world pander. We tell folks plenty of things they'd rather not hear (lots of Cubs losses, for sure). But as we choose what we're going to write about--or, just as important, not write about--we're ever mindful of the age, income, and geography of our audience, lest we lose their interest and, in turn, their subscription and advertising dollars. It's business and, for me, money-grubbing fun.

 Which means I can afford to be, if not an artiste, then a purveyor of sentences longer than See Jane Kill  and a creator of plots and characters more textured than those in The Hardy Boys. I see certain trendy books dominating the bestseller lists and I feel for the authors who've been bumped off the list as a result, especially those who truly need that big break, who aren't as day-job lucky as I've been.

At the same time I admire them and all the writers who put words to paper because a story is burning a hole in their hearts. And I remind myself that even those mega-selling authors, at least most of them, are doing the same, writing what they need to write, writing because they must, because it's as important to them as eating, because no amount of fame or money can outweigh the knowledge that you have done your very best.

 I'm lucky that I don't need to write novels to stay current on our mortgage. Still, I wake up each morning and feel that essential need to sit down and make stuff up. If fortune follows, okay with me. But if it ever does, I'll be inviting Alejandro Escovedo to play at my house. You're all invited.

HANK: So I said to Bryan: who's Alejandro Escovedo? And he said: 

 Escovedo is an old ex-punk rocker turned alt-country artist who mixes 'em all together in songs with lyrical stories. And he can rock. For harder stuff, try Real Animal or Street Songs of Love. For mellower, try A Man Under the Influence. My favorite lyric (perfect for writers):

 If the melody escapes me,

 I will stumble upon it soon,

                                                               If it's not a rhapsody,

                                                               It'll just have to do

Wonderful, huh?

So, reds--a commenter will win a copy of Bryan's newest--so let's discuss: Have you /will you read Fifty Shades? Or--if someone said: "write this way, and I'll guarantee you get big bucks"--how would you feel about that?
 

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Bryan Gruley is the award-winning author of three novels set in Starvation Lake, a fictional town in northern lower Michigan. His new book, THE SKELETON BOX, debuts June 5. The Detroit native lives with his wife in Chicago, where he is a reporter at large for Bloomberg News.

March Madness

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: March means many things to many people. "In like a lion, out like a lamb." Lent. St. Patrick's Day (also my sister's birthday! Happy Birthday, Barb!) If you're a high school junior, SAT prep classes. If you're marrying in the summer, last chance to nail down those rentals. In my household, however, March means one thing and one thing only:

NCAA College Basketball Championships.

I did not grow up a devotee of March Madness. My father is one of those rare men who has no interest in sports. When in high school, I dated a basketball player, but I met him at District Choral competition. All my college boyfriends were artsy guys who took me to experimental theatre and foreign film festivals. I had a vague tribal loyalty to Syracuse hoops, but unless I was hanging out with friends who had the game on, I never followed the season.

Then I met Ross. A Georgetown grad, on our second date he took me to a GU-Arkansas game. "Our place" was a sports bar in Georgetown with five-inch-thick burgers and TVs on every wall. I learned terms like "Big East" and "three-pointer" and "zone defense." Ever the romantic, the first gift he bought me, as we walked back to my house on a chilly March evening, was a navy-and-gray scarf. With a picture of a bulldog on it.

Reader, I married him. Since then, I've learned to love Saturday afternoons in front of the television, roars of approval that frighten the cats, and family room decor that includes a giant polystyrene finger that reads HOYA SAXA - lovingly preserved for over twenty-five years. I've learned to never assume Ross will be available without first checking the game schedule. Fortunately -- or was it planning? -- none of the children were born this month. Given the choice between the delivery room and a Final Four game, I'm not sure Ross would have gone with the kid.

How about you, Reds? Are you fans? Married to fans? Waving fans?


HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well, I'm from Indiana. There's that. And now live in Boston. There's that. And my husband is from New York. There's that. So no way to we escape sports. Once, dear Reds, I even watched a WHOLE hockey game, and enjoyed it.

And do I get to say: What the hell's a Hoya?

JULIA: It means "What Rocks" in Latin and Greek. Don't ask me why.

HANK: As for March Madness..let me just say Jonathan and I have dueling brackets. And I'm not gonna tell you who I picked. Even though I do it by "a bear could beat an eagle" type of decision-making, as of this instant, they are still contenders. By the end of Sunday, who knows. Crossing fingers.

LUCY BURDETTE: Oh we're crazy for March Madness--but in Connecticut we're basketball crazy all year. We follow UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma's recruiting efforts and start mourning the graduation of our favorite stars when they begin their sophomore years. We couldn't get over how one of our future stars, a recruit from Delaware, bailed out of the UConn machine and went home to play for Delaware. (She's making news there now--traitor.)

One year not too long after John and I were married, I cut out a full-sized photo of Geno and taped it on the wall over our bed. Honestly it took him 2 days before he noticed it, but then we laughed for days. He could understand a crush like that--after all, Geno shapes our FAMILY every year!

(PS we like watching the guys too, with Coach Calhoun, but those players rotate off the team so quickly, it's hard to get too attached.)


HALLIE EPHRON: March Madness? Not so much. Basketball games make me nervous. Too much running back and forth too fast... to put a technical spin on it. I'm more a baseball fan. I watch the first two innings of every Red Sox game and sleep through the rest.

I do have a soft spot for college hockey. My husband and my first date was a semi-finals college hockey game between Cornell and I can't remember who in New York's Madison Square Garden. I went to see a pro game a few years later and it seemed like an entirely different sport.

What I REALLY can't understand is why anyone would watch a golf game. Playing golf I can just barely get my arms around. But watching one? Can someone 'splain me that? Lucy??

JAN BROGAN - My son was a high school basketball player, so I spent a LOT of time watching him and loving it. I've also been to a lot of Celtics games, especially in the 80s, but in March, my mind turns to spring training and my true obsessions, BASEBALL. I'm a die-hard Red Sox fan and that leaves precious little time for anything else. Except tennis, which I also love to watch. So just finished with the Indian Wells tournament and waiting for the French Open... And Hallie, I don't get the watching golf either. Or Monster Trucks, for that matter.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: My father watched golf, horse racing, and football, in that order. I stuck with the horse racing. I'm with Hallie on the golf... But my daughter played both girl's softball and soccer, and in the process I fell in love with baseball. (One of these days the Texas Rangers are gonna win the Series, they really are!) I like watching soccer but have trouble keeping up with who's who. Basketball totally confuses me. I don't think I've ever even been to a basketball game. All my friends, and my daughter, are basketball crazy, so I'm sure I must be missing out.

My husband, by the way, doesn't watch any sports at all. He likes camping videos on You Tube. Go figure.

I, however, to uphold my sporting reputation, will be watching the Summer Olympics obsessively.

And the Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race. (That's rowing, as you might have guessed:-))

JULIA: Camping videos? Camping videos? And I thought "What Rocks" was strange. How about you, dear readers? Have you filled out your bracket?