DEBORAH CROMBIE:-- Oh, my gosh, how much do I love this blog? This week we have gone from Austin, Texas, to Siberia, to Tasmania! Talk about armchair travelers! And maybe some of us will be tempted to do even more adventurous traveling than that. Today, however, is extra special for me, as I have family in Hobart, Tasmania, and have dreamed of visiting. But in the meantime, I think I need at least a Tasmanian Tiger bumper sticker while I travel along with Wendall Thomas's Cyd Redondo. (And, yes, Wendall, I am an emotional hoarder.)
Endangered Everything
by
Wendall Thomas
When I
first decided to set the second Cyd Redondo mystery in Australia, and
specifically Tasmania, I wasn’t sure whether I would continue the “endangered
animal” theme that had been so central to the first book. I knew I needed a psychic
break from snakes, at least.
Then I
came across the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger. This fabulous marsupial has the
body of a wild dog, the stripes of a Sumatran tiger, the gaping jaws of a wolf,
the coughing cry of a human baby, and the pouch of a kangaroo—males too, to
prevent their privates from catching on bushes...thistles can be murder!
At the
moment, the thylacine is “functionally extinct.” What the hell, you might
wonder, does that mean?
It means
they’re not entirely sure. Although the last verified tiger died in Hobart,
Tasmania’s Beaumaris Zoo in 1936, five minutes on the internet turns up dozens
of video clips of potential paw prints and sightings. And the hold the creature
has on the Tasmanian imagination is
profound and ubiquitous—landing it on the Tasmanian government logo, the Hobart
Police Station door, countless murals, beer bottles, coffee blends, magnets,
playing cards, and oven mitts in every market and souvenir shop.
I loved the
idea that there might still be Tasmanian tigers out there and that Cyd might be
involved in “un-endangering” them, with the use of her irreplaceable vintage
Balenciaga bag.
And then I realized what the whole series was really about for
me—not just animals or accessories—endangered everything.
I long for
so many things that seem to have disappeared or are fast disappearing—corded
phones, Go-Go boots, Jello 1-2-3, cassette mix tapes, handwritten letters,
picking up your own take-out food, manners, the Oxford comma, and
democracy.
Am I just
afraid of change? Am I an emotional hoarder? Or is that the human
condition—longing for what we’ve lost? Cyd clings to old Fodor’s Guides and Orient Express posters, the ancient compass her
late father left her, her brousins’ Linda Ronstadt albums, and her profession.
Let’s face it, travel agents are on the endangered list for sure.
And what
about us? Readers and writers? Popular wisdom says that we are “functionally
extinct” too. The internet is always declaring that bookstores are dead, the
novel is dead, print is dead, no one reads, etc. But here we are. We’re not
extinct. Yet. Functioning? Depends on the day. So while I’m still here, I want
Cyd to fight the good fight to keep the best things (and creatures) alive, and
I’m determined to do the same.
What
endangered or “functionally extinct” things do you treasure or miss the most?
What objects/traditions/habits are you still trying to keep alive? Or are you
embracing the present and future, full steam ahead? I’d love to know.
Wendall Thomas teaches in the Graduate Film School at UCLA,
lectures internationally on screenwriting, and has worked as an entertainment
reporter, script consultant, and film and television writer. Her novel Lost
Luggage was nominated for both a Lefty and Macavity Award for Best Debut
Mystery of 2017 and her short fiction has appeared in the crime anthologies Ladies
Night (2015) Last Resort (2017), and Murder-A-Go-Go’s (2019).
Drowned Under is her second Cyd Redondo Mystery.
DEBS: I want to know what Wendall wants to know. What do you hang on to, dear REDS and readers? (And I adore this photo of Wendall!)
