Happy New Year!

 RHYS BOWEN:  Happy New Year! 

I hope it's a stellar one for you in every way.

New hopes. New dreams. It's lovely to start off with a clean slate, isn't it?

Yesterday I asked what we'd like from Society this year. Overnight I thought about it and decided what we wanted was a new form of government. No more left and right, hating each other, striving to destroy the other side. We'll have a new political party. I'll call it the SPP.

Short for Sensible People's Party. Those elected to office would be ordinary folk who were not given a million dollars to start them off. Women and men who had balanced a budget during tough times, paid their mortgage on time, put off buying a new car until they could afford it, taken camping vacations nearby when times were hard. They would be ethical, decent people who paid their taxes, supported their places of worship, brought up their children to tell the truth and respect their fellow men.

They would look through a Pentagon wish list and decide what was really necessary and what was frivolous or too expensive.  They would not pass bills that added pork to sensible topics. They would help those in need but keep an eye on those who wanted an easy hand-out. Every bill would be weighed for its benefit to the good of the whole country.

We'd balance the federal budget in no time at all. There would be no more talk of war because it would be more women in office than men. We'd have a sane immigration policy that allowed a guest-worker program with temporary visas.

We'd combat climate change, encourage innovation in things like alternative energy and stop mega corporations from fleecing the US public. Everyone would be forced to pay their fare share of taxes, including corporations. There would be no more lobbyists. Election spending would be capped at a modest amount and no negative ads allowed. 

Guns would be regulated and licensed like we do cars. Licenses renewed with a test every five years.

Oh, and any media spreading lies or hatred will be immediately removed. News channels would have to live up to a high standard of unbiased reporting.

So this is my dream for the New Year. If it came to pass we'd live in Paradise.

Do you think any of it is possible?

Political Intrigue with Mike Lawson

INGRID THOFT

A few years ago, I went to Portland, OR to receive the Spotted Owl Award for the Best First Mystery by a Pacific Northwest Writer, compliments of the Friends of Mystery.  It was lovely to get the award, of course, but equally exciting was the opportunity to meet writer Mike Lawson who was accepting the Best Mystery award that same year (for the second year in a row).

Mike lives in the Seattle area and is also a member of the Seattle7Writers organization.  Our paths have crossed in the ensuing years, and it's always a treat to catch up with him.  Mike writes two series, both of which are set in the halls of power amid the political intrigue in Washington, D.C.  His latest book, House Witness, came out in February, and I'm thrilled to have Mike give us the scoop.

INGRID THOFT:  Tell me about your main character, Joe DeMarco.  What inspired you to write a character who is a fixer for a corrupt politician?

MIKE LAWSON:  Actually, the DeMarco series started with the setting as opposed to the character.  I wanted to write a thriller series using Washington D.C. as a launch point for the novels because D.C. is a “target rich” environment for a writer.  There’s always something going on there that’s intriguing, criminal, and convoluted. (Now more so than ever.)  With that in mind, I wanted a protagonist that wasn’t a cop or a detective—there were already too many good cops and detectives in fiction that I couldn’t compete with—so I came up with DeMarco, a fixer for a powerful politician.  Making the politician a corrupt one wasn’t a stretch, obviously, since it seems as if one gets indicted about every other day.
 

IPT:  Where do you find inspiration for your plots?  Do you draw on your experience working as a nuclear engineer for the Navy?
  
ML:  Almost all my books have been inspired—not sure “inspired” is the right word—by some real-life event or circumstance.  The idea for House Rules came from an article I read in the "Washington Post" about the no-fly zone around D.C.  House Blood was sparked by a story in "Vanity Fair" about drug companies doing so-called clinical trials in third world countries.  House Justice was based, in part, on the reporter who outed the CIA agent, Valerie Plame, and was jailed for refusing to name her sources.  

My latest book, House Witness, came to me when I heard a guy on the radio talking about a man being arrested for murder and then tried four years later.  Four years!  It occurred to me: Gee, what can possibly go wrong when it takes four years to bring a case to trial?  My next thought was: What if someone made it her job to make things go wrong? 

Only one of my books was has had anything to do with the navy job I used to have, and that was The Second Perimeter.  The story was actually based on an incident at Los Alamos where the Chinese were accused of stealing a classified computer disk.  I’m a little leery, by the way, about writing about my experiences having to do with navy submarines and aircraft carriers; I don’t need NCIS agents showing up at my door asking why I’m writing about classified matters.  My navy/government background, however, has been very helpful when dealing with the D.C. institutions I often write about.

IPT:  I also love your series featuring former DEA agent Kay Hamilton.  Can you explain the inception of that series?

ML:  The Kay Hamilton series came about in a really odd way. There’s a television producer in LA who loves the Emma character in my DeMarco novels, and he called me one day and asked if I’d like to develop a script with a strong female protagonist for a TV movie.  I said sure, wrote the screenplay, which never got produced, but after the screenplay was finished it was really easy to write my novel, Rosarito Beach.

Rosarito Beach was intended to be a one-and-done stand alone, but when Penguin saw it, they said they wanted a series.  Which, of course, I agreed to; no writer turns down a two-book deal.  Rosarito Beach was also optioned for a television series—a long, sad story I won’t go into.

IPT:  What has surprised you most about being a published author?

ML:  I love writing, and there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.  And I’ve been extremely fortunate when it comes to my agent, my various editors, and to have been published by great houses like Doubleday, Penguin, and in particular, Grove Atlantic.  So although I really have nothing to whine about, I’ve been surprised by, and somewhat dismayed by, the amount of time, effort, and money that has to go into self-promotion.  My fantasy has always been to become a famous author-recluse like J.D. Salinger—but, of course, no one cares if you’re a recluse unless you’re really famous.

  
  
IPT:  Is there a wannabe book lurking in the back of your brain, something you would write if you didn’t have to consider agents, editors, and fans? A romance?

ML:  Yes, there is.  Right now I’m working on a book that’s unlike anything I’ve done before.  Not a thriller, not a mystery.  It’s sort of a comedy—I’m thinking Tom Hanks in the lead role—Are you listening, Tom?—and it deals with today’s divided, caustic political environment.  I’m not sure the book will ever see the light outside my laptop, but I’m plugging away at it in between my other books.  

Mike will be stopping by today to answer your questions.  He's also giving away a copy of House Witness.  Just comment to enter!

In House Witness, the twelfth novel in the Joe DeMarco series, Mike Lawson puts his likable protagonist on the trail of a different kind of fixer―one whose job is to influence, and sometimes disappear, witnesses in seemingly airtight criminal cases.

Minority Leader of the House and DeMarco’s long-time employer John Mahoney has kept more than one secret from his wife over the years, but none so explosive as this: He has a son, and that son has just been shot dead in a bar in Manhattan. Mahoney immediately dispatches DeMarco to New York to assist prosecutor Justine Porter, but with five bystanders willing to testify against the killer―rich-boy Toby Rosenthal―the case seems like a slam-dunk. That is, until Porter begins to suspect that someone is interfering with those witnesses, and that this may be connected to a pattern of cases across the country. Is there someone who is getting witnesses out of the way when the fate of a wealthy defendant is on the line?


Mike Lawson is the award-winning author of fifteen novels.  He has been nominated five times for the Barry Award and has twice won Friends of Mystery Award.  The twelve books in his Joe DeMarco political thriller series revolve around a character who is a fixer for a semi-corrupt politician.  The first of the three books in his Kay Hamilton series, "Rosarito Beach", was optioned for television.  Prior to turning to writing full time, Mike was a nuclear engineer employed by the Navy and he lives in the Northwest.

Our dis-united states...

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Does anyone remember the "Six Californias" story from this summer? Billionaire Timothy Draper

(I'm picturing someone who looks a lot like Lex Luthor) proposed divvying up the Golden State into six new states that sounded a lot like the single-enterprise districts in THE HUNGER GAMES: the technology state, the agricultural state, the Hollywood state, the flat hot boring state, etc, etc. 

Well, that got shot down, but evidently he's back with a more equitable "Three Californias" idea that's ready to enter the signature-gathering phase. If he can get 365,880 registered voters to agree that Fresno ought to be somebody else's problem, it will go up for a public vote. (Interestingly, in both the first and second proposals, Draper's evil lair, or residence, would be in the most affluent state.)

This has got me thinking if some of the states I know and love might want to consider carving themselves up. Maine, for instance, is basically three states existing in rough belts running from the Atlantic to the Canadian border: the beautiful, very expensive coastal regions (Vacationland), the failed mill towns, small farms and gun shops of the interior (Stephen Kingdom) and the uninhabited, wood-covered wilderness to the north (Uninhabited Wood Covered Wilderness.)

New York, the state of my birth, could simply split into two parts: New York (the counties of New York City, Long Island, and Westchester) and the Adirondack State Park (everything north of Westchester.) The Park would support itself by charging everyone entering its borders $70 per car load ($30 for those on foot or bicycle.)

How about you, Reds? Can you see your states shifting boundaries? Or is it an idea best left for mustachio-twirling billionaires?

HALLIE EPHRON: VERY interesting politics in Maine right now. Just for example  that referendum on whether to overturn the Governor's decision not to take funding to offset insurance costs? And you've got Senator Susan Collins and Governor LePage: talk about a state of contrasts. 

Massachusetts?  We gave birth to Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren. For sure. East and west. Just look at how they vote politically. But maybe that's a reason to keep the halves together. Disagreeing isn't a reason to divide.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Yes, agreed about Massachusetts.  East and West are --well, wait. Not necessarily. But I wonder if the Cape and Islands would like to secede? It's bursting with tourists in the summer, and bleakly (and beautifully) empty in the winter. So there could be the State of Boston, and surrounded by the state of  Hightechistan, bordered on the West by Appleachia (Orchardia?) and the Cape and Islands could be Touristiana.   Still. I think we should stick together. Not that, ahem, it generally matters on national election days.   

RHYS BOWEN: Julia, there have long been proposals to divide California into North and South. I'd have no problem with that as long as Silicon Valley and San Francisco and Monterey were clearly in the North where I live! Actually a more thoughtful proposal these days, which I believe has been gathering signatures, is for California to leave the US and become its own country. I believe we are the 5th wealthiest country in the world on our own. Normally I'd chuckle at such a suggestion, but given the current political climate and white nationalist marches, it's beginning to sound more appealing!

JENN McKINLAY: I'm originally from CT. I don't think we can carve that sucker up much more or there won't be anything left. But now I live in AZ, where eighty percent of the population is in the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas. There is vast desert that is uninhabited here, there are mammoth national parks, and twenty plus Native American tribes that are self-governed, mostly. The urban centers and the outlying areas definitely have differing political philosophies but I think, as was observed by Hallie, that we do better together than we would apart. The one thing about all the wide open space is that there's room for everyone. Truly.

INGRID THOFT: Washington State already feels like two states with the Cascade Mountains serving as the dividing line.  Seattle and Puget Sound lay west of the mountains, which accounts for our rainy, gray weather.  Once you traverse the mountain passes, which close frequently in the winter months, you find yourself in dry, sunny eastern Washington.  It’s not just the geography and weather that separate us—it’s the politics.  Seattle and its environs are blue state territory, but the rest of the state is red state.  

I agree that we need to stick together though; ideally, our differences make us stronger.  Another reason?  All the wonderful wineries are in eastern Washington.  Who wants to secede from that?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Texas is its own special case, as it is so big that we have everything. Well, almost everything, as our highest mountains are only half as high as Colorado. We have north Texas Prairie, where I live (really lovely once you get out of the cities, not that different from parts of southern England), the Cowboy Plains of west Texas, the Piney Woods of east Texas, the Swampy Gulf of the southeast, the Borderland south, and mountainous high plains of the southwest. I'm sure I've left out something... Oh, yeah, the Hill Country, west of Austin, which is absolutely gorgeous. Especially in the spring, with bluebonnets. 

Politically, we are just about as diverse, although you wouldn't know it from our senators and representatives. Every major metro area in Texas votes blue, so I'm not sure exactly how the silly secessionist  trolls would divide us up.  We are better together. 

LUCY BURDETTE: Florida is huge too, it takes us two days to drive down the length of the state! All I can say is that the Keys tried seceding from the rest of the state in response to a US Border Patrol blockade up in Florida City. The new entity was called the Conch Republic and the natives are still referred to as conchs. 

Florida is such a funny state–tons of retirees along the southern coast on both sides of the state, and probably a lot more native people along the center. We have a senator from each party, so we're mixed up in many ways! Probably better to simply leave things as they are…

SO WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF YOU? Are you in a state that could feels dis-united, and is that a good or a bad thing??

Politics Past

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My mother taught me there are three things polite people don't discuss in public: politics, money and sex. While the internet at large has made this standard hopelessly obsolete, we at JRW still hew to the older, more genteel ways (with the exception of white after Labor Day, which seems to be falling fast.) So fear not, dear readers, we're not going to delve into proselytizing or predictions for the most interesting primary season we've seen in years.


We are, however, going to reminisce. The votes of young people - those 18 to 24 - are going to be critical again this year, and that makes me think of my own first forays into democracy. Right after my eighteenth birthday, I registered in the state of New York. This is how I decided my political affiliation: I asked my mother what she was registered as, and then ticked the opposite box. (We had had quite a few clashes during my college search and I was still feeling rebellious. Sorry, Mom!) But my first political crush wasn't a Democrat or Republican, it was independent John Anderson. I'm embarrassed to say I can't recall a single thing about his campaign or positions except that he was a good-looking silver-haired guy and almost everyone on my campus, except the Young Republicans, who were swooning over Ronald Reagan, supported him. I was not what you would call a high-information voter.

Ah, youth. I emerged from college a full-fledged Bolshevik who honestly believed we would  be better off  handing over all means of production and letting a benevolent government take care of us. Then I moved to DC, saw the benevolent government up close and personal, and started paying taxes. The next election I  voted for George HW Bush. My shifts weren't as seismic as Ross's, though. He went from being a Political Science major at Georgetown who interned with National Conservative Political Action Committee to a Jerry Brown delegate in 1992!


In '92 (gosh, that makes me sound like a middle aged Victorian reminiscing during the Jazz Age) we went to hear as many candidates as we could. Maine, being a caucus state with a small population, rarely gets the big hitters to show up and speechify - we usually see the outsiders and the underdogs. The only one I remember - and vividly! - was Bill Clinton, who, regardless of what you think of his policies, has got to be the most charismatic speaker I have ever heard. I was mesmerized. I literally whipped out my checkbook and dropped a donation into a collection box in the lobby. And Ross, "Mr. Jerry Brown," agreed to it!

The one thing that has remained constant through my left-right-left-right swings has been showing up to vote. My grandmother was eleven when women achieved suffrage through the 19th amendment. She remembered how her mother, a woman in her late thirties, was incredibly excited to go to the polls for the first time in her life. She impressed on me what a privilege and honor it was for women to vote, and my feminist mother encouraged me to never miss the opportunity to let my voice be heard. I'm happy to say my daughters are carrying on the tradition: The Smithie hasn't missed an election - national or local - since she turned eighteen, and Youngest ran for student office as a freshman in high school!

How about you, Reds? What were your first forays into politics?

RHYS BOWEN: I've shied away from politics all my life, mainly because I seem to fall right in the middle between extreme left and extreme right. I've always voted based on personality rather than party, much to John's horror. Voted for both Diane Feinstein and Jerry Brown!  If I had more time on my hands I'd found the Sensible People's Party , one where the aim was to make good decisions that benefit all people and not be behooven to special interests (is there such a word as behooven?) .

My closest brush with democracy at work was when I was part of a committee to stop the local education board from closing our high school. The rest of the board put tremendous pressure on me to run for city council. Luckily they found another sucker, uh worthy candidate.

HALLIE EPHRON: I hate getting into political discussions because these days people just talk past each other. Then they yell. And any time people are yelling at each other I'm out of there.

When I was in high school, I used to tell my parents that I was going to a Young Democrats meeting when I was really going down the block to meet my boyfriend whose motorcycle I was not allowed to ride on. My parents were old lefties. Loved FDR and Stevenson. My mother voted over and over for Norman Thomas, Socialist party candidate for president. So it won't surprise you that the first political campaign in which I was actively involved was Eugene McCarthy's failed bid. I was in college in NYC and election eve I helped get out the vote - it was a very sad night. It's no fun losing.

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm embarrassed to say that my first vote was for Richard Nixon. Honestly, I was Daddy's girl at that point and since he voted for Nixon, I did too. Four years earlier in high school, I temporarily got absorbed into the Young Republicans. I wasn't informed on any of the issues, but I wanted to go on their bus to Washington for the inaugural parade. Which I did! I was interviewed on the street by a famous TV journalist whose name I might remember eventually, and I'm sure he found me a poor subject.

"Tell the TV viewers across America why you're here to support President Nixon?"

What was I going to say, it looked like a fun trip? Utterly mortifying...

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, my  parents were the only ones in the neighborhood who backed  Adlai Stevenson. So I proudly wore my Adlai button while everyone else Liked Ike.  In college, my roommate Ann and I hitch-hiked from Oxford Ohio to Cincinnati to go door to door handing out campaign flyers for Gene McCarthy. We got in a lot of trouble for it. The hitch-hiking part, I mean.  After college, I  was filled with the desire to change the world, and went to work for several political campaigns, as a staffer to the state committee (my desk-mate was Jane Pauley)  and then for several candidates.

Sadly, every candidate I worked for lost, so I figured it was time to start a new career. So I applied for a job as a reporter, and the rest is... . 

And I still have my McGovern/Eagleton button! How about that for a forgotten story...





DEBORAH CROMBIE: I want to join Rhys's Sensible People's Party!  Can we get buttons made, please? I've actually been contemplating an I LIKE IKE button. Eisenhower, the Republican who nowadays would be considered a rabid liberal...

My parents were committed Republicans. And disagreeing with my father on politics was considered tantamount to treason in my family. So I didn't. But I didn't have to tell them how I voted!!

Julia, I wish I'd heard Clinton speak! I did hear both George H and George W. George H was a surprisingly charismatic  speaker considering that he didn't come across well on television.

The first campaign I actively supported was Obama in 2008, but even then we didn't put up signs. Where we live, that's just asking for trouble.

JULIA: How about you, dear readers?What are the buttons and bumper stickers in your past?

Politics anyone?

Breaking news: Karen Dubrinsky and Deb Romano are winners of Sally Goldenbaum's giveaway. Please contact her at sgoldenbaum at gmail dot com to claim your books!


LUCY BURDETTE: This winter in Key West I participated in the Key West Ambassador program. For sixteen weeks, a class of about 25 people interested in learning more about the city attended classes every Thursday afternoon. We visited the waste treatment plant, the fire station, the police station, the Navy base, and the town's offices, and heard presentations from every department you could imagine. We also had to attend at least one City Commission meeting, featuring the mayor and six commissioners. The final class was a roundtable with the commissioners, where we were encouraged to ask all the hard questions we could think of. I learned so much about how the city works.

Unfortunately over the past six months, the papers have been loaded with stories about conflicts between several of the elected officials. This peaked in a six-hour marathon that only ended because Key West statutes don't allow a meeting to go on after midnight! The meeting featured one of the commissioners telling the mayor to "man up," and the only female commissioner scolding the rest of the gang for lack of civility.

Great stuff for a mystery writer, right? But it also got me thinking about what kind of person runs for political office, from a town position on up to United States President. (Which seems like the worst job in the world to me.) And I decided I would be a dreadful politician. I don't like fighting with people. I despise long meetings. And my skin is too thin to take a lot of public criticism. (A crummy review is bad enough!)

How about you Reds? How would you be as a politician? Ever been tempted?

HALLIE EPHRON: I am forever grateful that there are people in this world who want to go into public service. Talk about thankless -- someone always disagrees with you. Loudly. And the pay is usually meager. Somebody's got to do it, and fortunately there are  takers.

RHYS BOWEN: The only time I was involved in any kind of politics was when the local council tried to close our high school. It was a stupid move, with all kinds of underhand political implications (like the chairperson was best friends with the real estate developer who would have been given the sale of the land) and it would mean our children would have faced a difficult commute on a crowded freeway to a school of 3,000 plus. So we assembled a committee and fought it. During that time we had to attend every local council meeting. It was suggested that one of us needed to run for local council. "You" they said to me. But fortunately we had some heavy hitters on our team, including an environmental lawyer and a D.A. We managed to change the city constitution so that no school could be closed without a referendum from the voters and WE WON.

But it made me see how awful those meetings are and how I would hate to be involved in any kind of politics. Most politicians I have met are not doing it for the public good (some are) but because they have big egos!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: My first real jobs were as a staffer in various political campaigns..I loved it, and really thought that was the way to change the world. And I still think it is. (Sadly, no one I ever worked for actually won.) I also spent almost two years as a staffer on a subcommittee of the US Senate Judiciary committee--that was during Watergate and Nixon's resignation. It was fascinating, life-changing and educational.  It makes you realize how important it is to have kind, thoughtful, compassionate, open-minded, unselfish and incredibly smart people running the place.  When we get self-centered blowhards, that's when it all collapses.

LUCY: Hank and Rhys for office! Wouldn't they make a formidable slate? What about you, Red readers, would you make a good politcian?

On Lying

JAN: Because I believe some things never change, I've reposted this 2009 blog.

"And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but The truth in masquerade"

Lord Byron

JAN: Do people really lie three times within 10 minutes of meeting someone new? That's a popular statistic circulating the web. Even as a journalist, always searching for lies, I found this tough to believe.

But then I realized. Hey, It's true. I probably lie a minimum of three times within the first ten minutes of a cocktail party. At least by the way the study defines lying.

Included in the definition are things like falsely agreeing with others and the misrepresentation of feelings. Ever choke back the way you really think?? I do it all the time.

Let me explain. Politically, I'm probably to the left of 80 percent of the country. Personally, of course, I think I'm dead center, with some surprising views on various issues that keep both the conservative and the liberal action groups sending me mail. But I live in Massachusetts, so by local standards, I'm a raging conservative. And because I'm a writer, people take it for granted that I'm liberal. They make statements presuming I agree with them. Do I jump into it?

It would mean a verbal fist fight, and because I believe that no one has ever really swayed anyone's political beliefs by cocktail conversation, I smile and say nothing.

For me, it's politics. For others it's religion, music, or whether they actually enjoy the ballet. I know people who have to lie to stop people from shoving a cocktail into their hands. Sometimes we just keep our mouths shut because it just doesn't seem right to tell your best friend her new hairdo looks like straw or that her new drapes are making you dizzy.

So come on, fess up: What do you LIE about??

HALLIE: Here's what I don't lie about. My age. Or what I paid for the outfit you just complimented me on, bless you.

But yes, if someone starts in on anything political, I don't so much lie as refuse to engage. My politics are my personal business, thank you very much. Besides, it seems like I rarely meet anyone who is genuinely interested in engaging in a discussion on issues--they just want to be clever and dismissive and yell. So I shut down. Is that lying?

JAN: Yes, according to this study's definition: You are lying about your feelings, God forbid.

RO: My first instinct was to protest that I never lie, but reading your definition of lying I guess I do. I went to a reunion recently...and definitely dropped a few omissions/lies there. And Bouchercon is coming up...oooh I'll probably do a bit of fibbing there. (e.g., "It's an honor just to be nominated!") I try not to make a habit of it, though, because I'm really a terrible liar. My mother always used to say that and I think she did it just to spook me into always telling her the truth. She said she could always tell when I was lying and now I think everyone else can too.

So Hallie...where did you get that wonderful black shoulder bag you have...the small one with the metal clasp? Was it fabulously expensive? (This is a test.)

HALLIE: Ooooh,isn't it great? Italy! At a factory outlet...gorgeousness for less than $50.00. Unless you count the cost of the trip. Those Italians really know how to make gorgeous handbags.

HANK: I guess...I do...I always feel SO GUILTY,though. Social excuses, mostly.(Oh, so sorry we can't make it, because...but most often I don't give a reason.) And I actually do lie about the cost of things. Actually, I don't lie, I just don't tell. And in political discussions, I generally just try to prevent the other two guys from fighting.

There's a person I see from time to time, and if you ask her a question, she'll often begin her answer with "I'm not gonna lie to you, but..." I just instantly decide whatever she's saying is not true. (And RO, it IS an honor to be nominated for an Anthony. No lie. Congratulations!)


JAN: Okay everyone, what do YOU LIE about?