Our Bucket Lists

RHYS: On my Fiftieth birthday I sat down and wrote out a list of things I still wanted to accomplish in the rest of my life. My own bucket list. It ranged from learning to play the harp to winning an Edgar to going through the Panama Canal or on safari.
I'm delighted to say that I have checked off quite a few items on that list. I bought a Celtic harp and have learned to play it. It sits in my office and gives me a great excuse to turn away from my computer when I should be writing. (I have bought a Navajo flute for the same purpose at our Phoenix condo). I was an Edgar nominee once, which is probably as close as I'm going to get, but I have won an Agatha with is almost as satisfying.

Of the many travel items on the list I have accomplished only a few: I've been through the Panama Canal, though not the Midi canal in France in my own boat. I have been on elephant shikar in India but not safari in Africa. This year we have planned a trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock) but I still need to see the pyramids and Petra.

So here is my list of places I still need to see:Egypt, Jordan Peru African Safari Crete, Turkey (although I did spend three months bumming around the Greek Islands when I was a student. You've seen Mama Mia, haven't you, so you get the picture)The South of Spain and Portugal

That's about it. I have no wish to ride the TransSiberian Railway or go anywhere else cold and dreary. I like sunshine too much. And the problem is that I love returning to my favorite places. We talk about Spain then rush back to Italy or France. We mention Peru then go back to Mexico. And as I get older, I find there is a dilemma between going on adventures and not being too uncomfortable. I don't like the bathroom down the hall, or, God forbid, out back any more. I need a comfortable mattress. I'm still a good hiker but my husband is a lot older than me. Can he handle 13,000 feet?

So how about it, Jungle Reds? Do you have a bucket list of things to do and places to see before you die? What about our blog visitors?

And a couple of notes before I stop: when you read this I'll be on my way from the Malice Domestic convention in Crystal City VA to the Festival of Mystery in Oakmont PA. I'll blog about the experience later in the week.

And one item I notice is still on my list and laugh Have a clutter-free house.Still working on that one!

RO; This will take a while..I've been lucky enough to do a lot of the things on my original bucket list, made years ago when kicking the bucket seemed light years away.
I'd still like to visit Antarctica, snorkel The Great Barrier Reef and ride horses in Mongolia (not on the same trip) but I too have so many places that I love and keep returning to - Yosemite, Utah, Montana, Tanzania. Jost van Dyke. I will also go to Rome at the drop of a hat. Someone, please drop a hat.

I'd like to see the northern lights, climb Mount Rainier, live on a houseboat for a few weeks, ride the Orient Express (is that still operating..I may have missed my chance).. I'd like to really learn how to ride a horse, not just get on and hang on..but mostly I want to go Arlington and Oakmont, so that's what I'm doing.

HANK: I've never done this. I've never had a list. Hmm. Yes, the northern lights, that would be wonderful. I'd love to live in Paris, really live there and not have to hurry away. Be absolutely fluent in another language, not just stagger my way through. I'd like to see how my grandsons turn out. I'd like to write a fantastic smashing NYTimes bestselling novel. (An Edgar, yes yes yes, but I'm with ya about my precious Agatha.) Not care about how I look. Understand my mother. (Maybe Antarctica is easier...)

JAN: I don't have an official list, but I've always wanted to experience the midnight sun, preferably in Sweden or Norway. I'd also like to go to Red Sox Spring Training and the Australian Open. On the career front, I just realized one of my bucket list items by finishing a movie length original screenplay! And of course, there's that NYT Bestsellers list Hank mentioned.

HALLIE: Honestly, not to sound like a Goody Two Shoes (though I know I do), the things that matter most to me I have--a cozy little house, a sweet husband, and two adorable daughters who keep me in stitches. Yeah, I'd love to have a novel hit the NYT best seller list, but the ride I've been on with "Never Tell a Lie" has been spectacular. The Northern Lights, Alaska, Greece are on my wish list. But really, my bucket list begins with *slow down and enjoy.*

ROBERTA: I don't have a literal list either, but I do suffer from the "problems" you guys already mentioned--I love to go back to the places I'm familiar with, like Paris, Paris, and Paris. (I'll see you there Hank!) But a couple years ago my hub insisted we go to Barcelona, and my gosh, it was incredible. So I have to combat the middle-aged creep of complacency and love of creature comforts and keep trying new things. Like India fascinates me--or it did until the Mumbai bombings and the poverty shown in Slumdog Millionaire. And Japan, that's on the list. And New Zealand. One other problem is that my dear husband loves the idea of going places where you carry everything on your back and see no people for weeks on end. He went to the Alaskan hinterlands with the Sierra Club and I passed on that one. And in the end, there's really no place like home:)

RHYS: You're right about no place like home. But reading this I can picture us as adventurous, daring and fun old ladies! So, Jungle Red Readers--do you have a bucket list?

On sales pressure

When my husband read aloud the lead to this story from the Boston Globe, I could picture it immediately. A Lawrence school principal, ecstatic about her first romance novel being published, knocked herself out trying to sell her staff on it. Infuriating everyone.

I felt for the principal, poor Beth Gannon. Authors get a little giddy when their first novel is published. She had learned what we all suddenly had to learn: the objective isn't just about getting our work into print -- as we originally thought -- but into our reader's hands.

They tell you, in new-author-school, that it all starts locally. So even if we have a more sophisticated media campaign, we still begin by telling our friends when our new books will be out, alerting our local papers and making a big deal of our book's launch date.

But I also felt for Beth Gannon's faculty. The first time I went to Bouchercon, the mystery world's largest and most prestigious conference, I found myself trapped on an elevator with some author I'd never met before who immediately gave me the hard sell on his new mystery. He practically whipped out his credit card swiper. It took all my creative skills to politely decline.
So despite the official reason Gannon was put on leave --apparently her self-published romance novel , Crazy Fortunes, has steamy sex and illegal drug use -- I don't think that's the real reason she's being rebuked. Or at least, that's not the reason I'd scold her. So far, no one has actually charged her with trying to sell her novel to the elemetary school students. I think her real crime was crossing the sales etiquette line. Pressing a little too hard, a little too often, and just a tad overzealously.

You could argue that she was using her principal position to make staff feel they had no choice but to buy her book -- there's an issue about her reassigning to a different school a teacher who complained about her sales tactics - but maybe that was just cooincidence. Maybe Gannon was just an overly enthusiastic new novelist going overboard trying to promote her work.

(Then, again, maybe this IS a sophisticated media campaign. Behaving badly and getting media coverage for it, might just be the ticket she needs to promote her book. The Boston Globe article keeps mentioning that steamy sex...and here I am, blogging about it.)

So what do you think? Should this woman lose her job over this? And have any of you every found yourself her staff's position, or my spot in the elevator? I, for one, really can't stand it when the supermarket clerk hits you for a charitible donation when she gives you your grocery bill. Even if it's my favorite charity, I resent the do-gooder pressure coming from the supermarket chain.

So are there sales etiquette rules that just shouldn't be breached? Any tips for Gannon when the sequel comes out?

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2009/04/29/mass_principal_who_wrote_racy_book_put_on_leave/

Catch the Lie

JAN: We know Peter Abrahams can pull off a fib. First, he convinced us he was Spencer Quinn, the author of the bestselling new mystery, Dog Gone It. And as Spencer Quinn, he managed to thoroughly convince us he was inside the canine mind, as Chet, the K-9 Academy dropout.

But can he fool us with his personal lies??Only one way to find out? Make him take the Jungle Red Quiz!

JR:Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot?

PA: Neither.

JR: Sex or violence?

PA:The former.

JR:Pizza or chocolate?

PA:The former again.

JR: Daniel Craig or Pierce Brosnan? Who makes the better Bond?

PA: Sean Connery

JR: Katherine Hepburn or Audrey Hepburn?

PA: They both drive me crazy.

JR: First person or Third Person?

PA: First..JR:Prologue or no prologue?

PA: Nope.

JR: Facebook or MySpace or Twitter?

PA: Facebook

JR: Your favorite non-mystery book?

PA: Crime and Punishment (certainly a crime novel, but not a mystery).

JR: Making dinner or making reservations?

PA: Making dinner.And now, of course, for your readers: The Jungle Red Quiz:Tell us four things about you that no one knows. Only three can be true. We'll guess

1. I drowned once.

2. I took a few points off Jimmy Connors.

3. I never cheated on a test or exam.

4. I had a phone conversation with a Manson family member.

Make your best guess, we'll get the truth out of Peter by the end of the day.

And if you want to know more about the storytelling Chet, himself, can come up with, check out http://www.chetthedog.com