We Heart the Magazine Stand

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Once or twice a month, I pop into my local Barnes and Noble and peruse the magazine racks. I'm usually going for the British home magazines, the things I can't subscribe to, but I often pick up something completely unexpected. And I love looking at all the variety of things that interest people. Entertainment, sports, music, fashion, electronics, cars, writing, journaling, gardening, cooking, quilting, the list goes on and on. There are even magazine devoted to a single subject, like this one celebrating twenty years of Harry Potter.

 (I was tempted, but resisted.) Or what about this one for airbnb?

Doesn't that make you want to pick it up? I had no idea there was such a thing.

The bookstore tells me that they don't make any money on magazines, that they serve merely to get people into the store. And I have to admit that, having gone in for a magazine, as often as not I'll end up buying a book, too.

We subscribe to several, too. THE ECONOMIST (which Rick reads cover to cover), ROLLING STONE, and REAL SIMPLE. But the magazine business is suffering in the digital age. Just last week the news broke that Conde Nast is selling three of its imprints, GOLF DIGEST, BRIDES, and W. And they are downsizing their operations and staff on their remaining publications. VOGUE is producing very successful YouTube videos, which is hoped to make up some of the print losses.

I know you can get digital subscriptions for most publications these days, and I don't want to sound like a Luddite, but for me the experience is just not the same as opening up a glossy magazine and turning the pages to see what's inside. That's physical, visceral, and it always feels like a little mini escape to me, something pleasurable I can lose myself in for a slightly guilty half an hour. Here's one I discovered on last week's outing--isn't it gorgeous? You should see the inside, I'm swooning every time I open it.

What about you, REDS? Do you still read magazines, and if so, which ones?

LUCY BURDETTE: Oh how I love magazines, though I'm afraid I don't subscribe to any at this point other than my alumni mag. I used to get cooking magazines, golf magazines, LADIES HOME JOURNAL, MS, and more. They are perfect for times when you can't commit to a book. However--living in two places, it's too hard to keep up with the mail. These days mostly I buy them in airport bookstores.

HALLIE EPHRON: I used to read PEOPLE magazine in the dentist's office, buy it at the airport, but now I don't recognize anyone in it so I pass. I don't even read it it while I"m waiting the checkout line.

But I subscribe to THE NEW YORKER and read it regularly. Invariably it has an article on some arcane topic that I didn't think I'd be interested in, and more than once an article in it has inspired a story idea. Like one about how people can be trained to read facial expressions to tell if someone is lying. And the series by Ronan Farrow on Hollywood sexual misconduct has been riveting. Nowadays you not only get the magazine delivered, every other week or so, there are a ton of in-between stories that come via email. 

DEBS: I am so tempted to subscribe to THE NEW YORKER, and I do read lots of articles digitally. But I'm afraid if it arrived in my mailbox every week, I'd never do anything else...


INGRID THOFT: I love, love magazines!  One of life’s small pleasures is opening my mail box and finding the latest PEOPLE, NEW YORKER, REAL SIMPLE, VOGUE, VANITY FAIR, IN STYLE, I could go on and on.  Digital mags just aren’t the same; you can’t curl up on the couch with your tablet and experience the same relaxed state!  One of my magazine secrets?  Mags for Miles is constantly sending me notices to trade in some of my frequent flyer miles for subscriptions.  What better use of the 1,000 miles from JetBlue, and the 2,500 from United that will never add up to even the shortest flight? 

RHYS BOWEN: Count me in as a fan of magazines. We still get NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC which is my go-to bedtime reading, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER, another travel magazine, CONSUMER REPORTS, but when I'm at an airport I always pick up a trashy women's magazine. You know, the sort that promise you can lose ten pounds by eating popcorn.  Sorry, but I can't stand PEOPLE. Maybe it's because everyone featured is a sort of pseudo-celebrity and they are all showing their baby-bumps!  My absolute favorites are when I am in England and my sister-in-law subscribes to COUNTRY LIFE and I drool over all those fantastic properties for sale.... "Look John, we could afford this one. Twenty acres, ten bedrooms, and only one million pounds. But it is in the Outer Hebrides."

I really miss TIME and LIFE. READER'S DIGEST used to be a lovely slice of Americana, but has become so slight in content that it's not worth it... if it even exists any more.

JENN McKINLAY: There is an embarrassment of riches of magazines in my house. Between us, Hub and I subscribe to NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER, VANITY FAIR, THE NEW YORKER, ESQUIRE, SURFER, CIVIL WAR TIMES, YANKEE, ALL RECIPES, and VOGUE KNITTING. And then there is our monthly excursion to B & N where we buy MOJO, UNCUT, and KNITTING MAGAZINE (all of which are British periodicals) and various guitar magazines. So, yeah, small magazine problem, here.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I understand that digital media is superceding print, but I've never seen images on my laptop that are as good as those in print magazines. I subscribe to HOME AND GARDEN and just got HGTV magazine as a birthday gift. (Yes, I am a basic white woman. #NoShame.) The Smithie gets DOGSTER, CATSTER (both either Christmas or birthday presents) and received MONEY magazine from her grandmother right before she died. The Smithie told me every time she sees the magazine in the mailbox, it's like a message from her Grammy.

That's the thing about actual print magazines - they make the best gifts. A bit of entertainment and education once a month, and then you can recycle it - nothing to sit around the house cluttering things up.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Ingrid, Mags for Miles is a real thing? I thought it was some sort of scam. Thank you! As for magazines,I  Iove them. LOVE. Because you can pretend you are really learning something, when really you are often just looking at photos. I always read THE NEW YORKER, though, and it's incredibly fascinating and always educational in the best of ways.  And MYSTERY SCENE, which I love, and CRIMESPREE, and THE STRAND.  But, Ingrid, can I come to your house? I love REAL SIMPLE, and VANITY FAIR, and VOGUE and IN STYLE.  Exactly my faves. In fact, you have enticed me into subscribing. Huh.  I read PEOPLE in the doctor's office, no matter if it's new or not, it's the  only way I ever hear of some people.  And I miss MORE, which used to be great.

(And Julia, please. Throw them away? I can never do it, until the stack of NEW YORKERS gets out of hand. But some I will never give up.) 

DEBS: I LOVE seeing what other people read! Jenn, I hearby declare you the MAGAZINE QUEEN, and your hub the MAGAZINE KING. But, really, tell us, which of you reads CIVIL WAR TIMES and which reads YANKEE? And is there a household battle here?

READERS, are you still in love with print? Tell us your faves!

Nancy Martin Confesses

Jan Brogan:   As most of you already know, Nancy Martin is the highly successful and prolific author of nearly fifty popular fiction novels, including the Blackbird Sisters mystery series and the Roxy Abruzzo mysteries.   Publisher's Weekly called her  latest release, No Way to Kill a Lady,"a fizzy, entertaining adventure."  Margaret Maron says:  "Nancy Martin knows the inner workings of blue-blooded Philadelphia and she lets us in on the fun with style and panache.”


And if you are the lucky commenter today, chosen at random, Nancy will send you a free copy of her new book!  The one lucky winner will be announced tomorrow!

NANCY MARTIN: At the risk of offending the Reds, I’d like to talk about . . . pink

Specifically the idea of posting 50 Shades of Pink on my Facebook page every day for the 50 days leading up to the release of the new Blackbird Sisters Mystery, NO WAY TO KILL A LADY.  I am always scrambling for something to post on Facebook, but one day I realized I had exactly 50 days, and of course 50 Shades hit me right away.  I mean, who hasn’t heard of the 50 Shades of Gray?

C’mon, now.  You can ‘fess up.  Have you read it? Any of it?  Even a few pages? Tell Aunt Nancy everything.
Shy?  I’ll get back to you in a minute.

Let me confess:  
The biggest mistake I made when I created the Blackbird sisters was the couture. (You thought I was going to confess something else?)  I knew Nora Blackbird was broke when she took her new job as a society columnist for a Philadelphia rag, and I also knew she’d need great clothes to wear to the parties she attends every night. After considerable stewing, I hit upon the idea of Nora using her late grandmother’s collection of fabulous designer clothes.


Only thing was, I knew ZILCH about designer clothes.  Honestly, the people who make fun of middle-aged ladies who wear yoga pants all the time?  That’s me they’re laughing at. So the research to create a vintage wardrobe for Nora Blackbird has been daunting from the get-go.  I finally hit upon the idea of only using dresses that actually existed, which has made my task slightly easier.  I have books about Chanel, and I adore Diana Vreeland’s autobiography, DV. My subscription of Vogue is now tax deductible, and I scour the Metropolitan Museum’s fashion department often. 


Over the last ten years (since the release of HOW TO MURDER A MILLIONAIRE, the first book in the series) I’ve become surprisingly good at identifying the work of top designers.  I don’t wear it, mind you, but I can identify it.


My readers really enjoy Nora Blackbird’s clothes—more than I expected. I get fan mail from around the world about the duds. So during the final 50 days before the release of the new book, I have posted 50 pink dresses to whet the appetites of the readers who have been rattling my cage for a new Blackbird book. (I put the series on hiatus back in 2008.) If you want to see the pink dresses, go to my Pinterest page:  http://pinterest.com/nanmart1/50-shades-of-pink/


Another confession:  I love Pinterest.  It feeds my urge to make ideas visual.  I wish I could paint or take decent photography, but I can’t.  I know what I see in my head, though, so Pinterest http://pinterest.com/  has become my latest addiction.

Third confession:  Back in the day when I wrote romance novels (almost 40) I read a lot of erotica so I could keep things . . . er . . . fresh.  I still have Anais Nin here on my shelf, and the Nancy Friday SECRET GARDEN book about female fantasies is around here somewhere. (I got creeped out, though, in the chapter about German shepherds.  I think I have a relatively open mind, and I believe people should do whatever floats their boats as long as nobody gets hurt, but the dog thing . . . nope, I couldn’t see it.)



Surrender the pink?  Sure, if that’s the way you roll, why not? Bondage, though, weirds me out. I have a true shrieking abhorrence of anything resembling torture, so bondage is outside my comfort zone. Which is why I’m really not going to buy 50 SHADES OF GRAY.  (I did download the sample on my iPad.  But for the first 50 pages nothing happened, and if there’s anything I learned from writing romance novels it’s this: Stuff has to happen and happen fast or your reader gets bored.)

My daughter points out that her generation feels differently about bondage.  To those young ladies, getting tied up may be a welcome rest after a long day.  They have high-pressure careers, maintain long-distance friendships and take care of family, too—so they are relieved that somebody else takes charge in the bedroom. (Nancy Friday’s theory was that women fantasized about bondage because if they were tied up, they couldn’t be blamed for enjoying the sex forced upon them.  Back then, good girls felt guilty about having fun in bed. Boy, have times changed, or what?)


Another lesson learned from writing romance? Women like their sex in print, so when I set out to write the Blackbird Sisters Mysteries, I knew I had to appeal to my longtime romance readers with a few racy bits. (Which is probably why my books have never really been embraced by diehard mystery readers.) Now--even more than the clothes--readers write to me about Nora’s love life. There’s definitely pink in Nora’s world.

So tell me.  What’s your opinion about sex in mysteries? Yea? Or Nay?
And if you’ve read 50 Shades of Gray? Tell me your theory of its appeal, but here’s absolutely the most hilarious review of it:  http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/340987215 Don’t have a mouthful of coffee when you watch, trust me.

Pick your favorite pink dress, too, would you? Dior? Givenchy? Versace? Or Michelle Obama’s simple sheath dress from Banana Republic? How do you roll?



NO WAY TO KILL A LADY, the 8th book in the Blackbird Sisters Mystery Series, will be released next week, on August 7th.  A few years ago, Jennifer Crusie said, “Great clothes, great mystery, great fun.”  A blurb that still makes me happy!
Find Nancy Martin on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authornancymartin 
Her website:  http://www.nancymartinmysteries.com 

On Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/nanmart1/ 
But not on Twitter, because the whole tweeting thing just isn’t sexy. 

Are You a Closet Fashionista?

ROSEMARY: I have a confession to make - I'm a closet fashionista. Chalk it up to all those summers of waiting for the September issue of Seventeen Magazine to arrive on the newstands. (I'm showing my age here, but what the heck.)

Thick as a brick, inside its covers all my schoolgirl fantasies came alive, in living color - coordinated, of course. The cute outfit I'd wear as I climbed the stage in the school auditorium to receive an award (in the daydream it was never clear what my particular area of expertise was.) The fetching ensemble my football hero boyfriend would see from the field as he carried the ball into the endzone, me cheering in the stands like Ali McGraw.

Needless to say, that's not what happened. By the time I got to high school I didn't care what I wore as long as I looked thin and my hair was straight. (Mercifully I had good skin.)
That said...call it "the memories" or the ancient rituals of primitive tribes, but, every fall I'm once again drawn to the fat,glossy magazines filled with pictures of gaunt young girls wearing clothing I will probably never wear. Why do I do it?

The editors breathlessly announce leather,tweed and boots will be in fashion this fall and winter. And animal prints. What concepts! Brilliant! Camel hair coats! Who knew? So why do I keep plunking down cash for these things every year? Is it the promise that maybe this time I'll be one of the cool kids? Not really. I'll resurrect the few things I already own that are temporarily in fashion, and then either forget to wear them or feel stupid for trying to be "in fashion."

As anyone who's ever seen me knows, nine times out of ten I'll be wearing a black jacket with jeans or black pants. A friend called last week to ask what I was wearing to the funeral of another friend's mother - I thought about it.."Oh, I'll probably wear black pants." We both burst out laughing. Last year there was a flood in my apartment and I had to take everything out of one closet. The stuff just kept coming..like clowns out of a tiny car. I had forty-seven black jackets (that's not counting the ones I bought this year.) And nothing noticably fashionable. Almost everything could have been bought twenty years ago and much of it was. So what's up with the fashion magazines? Is there a name and a support group for this? Please tell me I'm not alone.

HANK: Oh, me, me. The big fall VOGUE? Irresistible. (I read it for the articles, of course.) It's so glossy and gorgeous. INSTYLE, too, now that Rosemary is getting me to confess.

ROSEMARY: I can top that - LUCKY MAGAZINE? I can't miss an issue. Love it.

HANK: VOGUE is essentially incomprehensible, clothes-wise, because there is NOTHING in it a real person could ever wear. But you know, my mother taught me about it, yes, sitting at her knee. I remember saying--but Mom, this stuff is so weird! She said honey, you're not supposed to wear what's in VOGUE, you're just supposed to get ideas. (She'd be so embarrassed if she heard that's what I remember of her advice...sigh.)

RO: What IS Audrey wearing on her head? She should have listened to your mother.

HANK: And this time of year is so wonderful for clothes, sweaters and scarves and, yes, boots. Talk about confessions. I just got grey suede ankle booties with really high heels and a ruffle around the ankle. Will I EVER wear them? Well, actually, they go with everything...
(And oh-oh. I bet this is gonna illustrate how we JRW's do not all think alike... :-) )

ROSEMARY: I don't think so...I just bought black suede booties with a ruffle on the top. For the grey ones I kept it simple, just a side zip. Your mother was (is)brilliant.

JAN: Rosemary, I am definitely guilty as charged as a fashionista. New clothes and especially boots are my vulnerability I used to love Fashion Dos and Don'ts in Glamour magazine. I loved the part where they had to put a black stamp over the person's face to protect their identity because they had committed such a fashion faux pas.

But I'm afraid that as soon as I had my daughter to raise, I started to view all fashion magazines, and pretty much all fashion designers as the enemy. After I once saw a Prada ad in In Style, that featured an anorexic teenager in a bra and a FREAKING diaper (I kid you not) under a trench coat - I threw the magazine across the room. I still hiss at it whenever I see it at the hairdressers and won't buy anything from Prada - not even a knockoff - to this day.

HALLIE: I truly detest clothes that look like 'fashion.' As long as it comes in black, is machine washable, fits, doesn't make me look like a blimp, and is at least 30 percent off, I'm good to go.
So why am I addicted to Project Runway? It's so not the clothes. I guess it's my version of Vogue.

RHYS: Okay, confession--I'm another Project Runway addict. What I do is go for a look I like and about every ten years what I like is fashionable. I just watched the fall collections from Europe and they said neutral colors, beiges, flowing, soft... and I thought hey, that's me. And last year I found an incredible camel coat on sale so I will be so fashionable this winter. But I refuse to wear dresses with a waist at my boobs and a hemline at mid thigh. I think one reaches an age at which knees should not be shown, however cute they are. As long as Ralph Lauren stays alive, I'll be okay.

ROSEMARY: Yes, black and on sale. I've never watched Project Runway but I did have a brief flirtation with What Not To Wear. I was flying from San Francisco to NYC one and the guy from WNTW got on the plane..I swear I th0ught he was coming for me..I had a friend who was threatening to stage an intervention because she said I wore too much black. Rhys..there's always opaque pantyhose for those knees.

So we can be serious writers and still want gray suede booties...I feel so much better!

Stop by tomorrow for True Crime Tuesday when I recall the time I met the chimp responsible for the horrific attack on a Connecticut woman last year.