Our bucket lists, our bodies

ROBERTA: Last week we had great fun chatting about our bucket lists. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm a little worried about keeping my mind and body chugging along so I can keep checking items off my list. To that end (and because my dad suffers from the disease,) I've become a fan of Vincent Fortanasce's THE ANTI-ALZHEIMER'S PRESCRIPTION. He maintains that while you can't control your genetics, there is much you can control--diet, exercise, stress, sleep, social support, brain boosters... Doesn't this all sound familiar? Anyway, I'm chipping away at my bad habits and adding these: pilates or yoga three times a week, walking as often as I can make myself do it, blueberries and flax seed on my cereal, a mostly Mediterranean diet. And my hub and I have been trying to work on our faded memories--practicing phone numbers from memory rather than hitting redial and so on.

HALLIE: (who didn't have much time to ponder as she's off on one of her dream trips!)Eat well but not too much. Exercise. Spend lots of time with friends and loved ones (nourishment for the soul). And have extraordinarily good luck.

JAN: Roberta, I'm a big fan of both Pilates and Yoga - which work on brain and importantly, posture. I also meditate every day, eat well, walk a lot, weight train, and play way too much tennis. But I lost a friend this week to a massive heart attack, and he did all the right things, so I can't help but think that the real benefit of any of this stuff is to calm yourself by THINKING you have control. The lesson I've learned is: have fun NOW.

RO: I try to exercise - hiking and kayaking when weather permits and weight training, rowing machine and boxing when it doesn't. Just as important I try to sing, dance, laugh, see friends, play with my dog, work in my garden, and not take it all so seriously.

More specifically...calcium, flaxseed, lots of fruits and veggies, not much red meat (except for pepperoni pizza which I indulged in at Mystery Lovers Bookshop!)

ROBERTA: Okay, Ro you've hit upon a real weakness for me: Pepperoni pizza. My stepdaughter now lives in Wooster Square (New Haven, CT), home of Peppi's Pizza, home of the most amazing pepperoni pie ever. Irresistible!

HANK: What was the question again? There was a hilarious button some people were wearing at the Malice Domestic convention--it said something like: "Don't worry, I don't remember your name, either." I wish I could wear that every day. I can NEVER remember names, and no matter what tricks I try, they don't work. SO, so much for that.
But as for self-preservation: I try to keep moving. I don't eat white food. And I try not to agonize over things--most things we worry about don't actually happen, right? SO I try not to worry in the first place.
Sometimes it works.

ROBERTA: Now it's your turn to dish special secrets about keeping mind and body in top form! Or as Jan put it more succinctly, how to have fun now... And then, don't forget to check back in on Wednesday and Friday, because it's guest "hunk" week on Jungle Red! (And thanks to diamondmountain and the pizza review for the photos)

Small pleasures in time of Recession

RHYS: I've just been traveling around the country, attending two big mystery celebrations--the first, Malice Domestic, honors the traditional mystery as written by Agatha Christie (hence the Agatha awards for which both Rosemary and I were nominated, but unfortunately didn't win this time). The second was the festival of mystery in Oakmont, PA. This wonderful event brings together readers and writers and it's so good for a writer's ego. One sits surrounded by large stacks of books and signs copies all evening as the stacks get lower and lower. I was interested to see that the number of attendees was not down this year, however I sold fewer hardcovers than usual. Readers told me they are getting their hardcovers from the library this year and only buying paperbacks. So it's hard to know how much the recession will affect our sales. In past recessions book buying was up because it was an affordable escape. But now, with Netflix and all the things one can do with a computer, we have stiff competition.

It's interesting that one of my series (the Royal Spyness books) is set in the Great Depression, and shows people making similar economies in hard times. My heroine's sister-in-law, the duchess, has been reduced to toast at tea time instead of crumpets but still has to have her Fortnum's jam on it. Of course there is no comparison between the level of hardship during those years and what we are going through now--unless we are the unlucky ones who have lost our jobs or homes, of course. Then this time is every bit as bleak. My own daughter has been unemployed for over a year, and a large chunk of her unemployment money goes on Cobra, trying to keep up her health insurance. Let's hope that health reform comes quickly as this is ridiculous.

I've been lucky enough that my books are still selling well, but I believe I could live very simply if I had to. We eat healthily but my husband loves to shop for weekly specials so we have a freezer full of things that were on sale. I don't buy many clothes. I could actually live for many years with the clothes I already have (but I wouldn't want to do that, of course). I don't use many cosmetics. We have Netflix and rarely go to the movies. However we do love to travel. That would be the one thing I'd hate to give up--and of course there are fabulous travel bargains at the moment.

So what have you cut back on, or given up? What are you unwilling to give up? What small pleasures do you still allow yourself? Are you still buying books or getting them from the library? Have you invested in a Kindle yet?

ROBERTA: We don't have a vacation planned for this summer--we'll see if that holds! And we've bandied about the idea of a new car--that's been put on ice, too. I know plenty of people run their car's mileage up over 100,000--I just don't like the idea of having to rely on a guardian angel in case the thing breaks down. In general, we're thinking more and buying less. Trouble is, my husband is convinced this is exactly the kind of behavior that will keep the country's economy from really picking up. What do you all think of that? (And by the way, one thing I refuse to cut out is shopping at our local farmer's market. I've been waiting all winter for that to open back up!)

HANK: So interesting! Well, okay, confession. I still buy lattes. I still buy my perfume (Hermes 24 Faubourg). However: Our car is from 2001! And I'm not really interested in a new one. I, too, am shopping in my closet. I'm hoarding my Jo Malone bath gel. And every grocery shopping trip, I pick up the 4.99 a pint blueberries...think about them longingly...and put them back. And then I get so annoyed. I miss the blueberries.Hmm. Does that make any sense? Perfume yes, blueberries no?

JAN: I'm not sure how we economize ever makes a lot of sense. I'm really big on shutting off lights, and sometimes if you heard me talking to my kids, you'd think this WAS the great depression. But I'll spring for a totally unnecessary cashmere cardigan - I mean, I had to... it was just exactly the right coral color....

So how about it, dear blog visitors--are you cutting back or doing without?

Katherine Neville chats about The Fire

RHYS: I am thrilled today to welcome my dear friend Katherine Neville to Jungle Red Writers. Katherine is best known for her wonderful sweeping historical thriller THE EIGHT. It's one of those books that can't be categorized but is completely compelling. Finally, after years of pleading, she has written the sequel, THE FIRE.

RHYS: Katherine, you are known world-wide for your blockbuster, The Eight. When you wrote it did you ever think it would take off in the way it has?

KATHERINE: THE EIGHT never really "took off" in the way we usually think of bestsellers. The phenomenal thing about the book is that it has sold consistently for more than 20 years--and in nearly 40 languages--without ever appearing atop any major bestseller lists.
The other unique phenomenon I ought to mention, is that I have never met a person of any age--in any country--who has read THE EIGHT only once. It's the kind of book that people go back to over and over and get more from with each visit, and that they pass along to their relatives, friends and loved ones. I'm very fortunate to have written a book that has been cherished, more than it has ever been "marketed."

RHYS: What drove you to write a sequel--your fans or unfinished business with your characters?

KATHERINE: Well, given what I've just said above, it's a miracle that I was ever able to bring myself to do a sequel at all! My husband keeps telling people it's the bravest thing I've ever done--and in hindsight I'd have to concur. I had discovered how to do the sequel in 1992, and I tried to write it several times--but "Life just kept on happening" and events threw many detours in my way. Once I actually got going on THE FIRE, I immediately that it was the kind of challenge I really needed. I'm not the kind of writer who can just "recline on her backlist," as we say. And I always recognized that I couldn't "just" do a sequel. I never thought in terms of the book being "as good as" or "better" than THE EIGHT. But I realized that whatever might follow the story of THE EIGHT, despite being a continuation, at the same time had to be completely new, fresh, and different. The thing that readers have always loved most about THE EIGHT was that it was unique. It is still unique. I knew that I had to be unique again.

RHYS: Tell us a little about The Fire.

KATHERINE: We step onto the page thirty years after the events that we lived throughout THE EIGHT--both in the historic and modern plots. Right off the bat, we learn that an important piece of the chess set that was buried at the end of THE EIGHT has just--impossibly--surfaced (in Albania and Russia, respectively.) The children of the earlier characters have no idea what happened in the "Game" that had provided the previous plot. Alexandra Solarin arrives at her mother Cat's retreat in Colorado to learn that her mother has vanished and has left scattered clues for her, as to the underlying mystery. So far, we are in familiar territory: puzzles, encryption, chess, improbable characters, exotic locales...

RHYS: How would you describe the genre you seem to have created?

KATHERINE: Well, it's true that everyone like Publishers Weekly is now giving me the credit for creating the genre or "paving the way" for books like Da Vinci Code and other "esoteric thrillers" as they are calling them. But when THE EIGHT was first published no one could describe it--it was reviewed as history, modern, mystery, thriller, romance--even as sci-fi/fantasy by Locus magazine, and I was dubbed the female Umberto Eco, the female Alexandre Dumas, CHarles Dickens--even the female Stephen Spielberg!
However, I myself have never been confused about what I'm writing. It's the oldest genre of literature that we have in print: the Quest Novel. Just think of how familiar the quest is: Jason seeking the Golden Fleece, Parsifal's quest for the Holy Grail, Odysseus and Dorothy of Oz seeking "home" in their own ways. And the grandfather of them all: Gilgamesh, king of Sumeria in Mesopotamia--seeking the elixir of life! I'm very proud that my publisher put on the inside of THE FIRE, as the book category: "Quests-Adventures." It's time this wonderful kind of story made a comeback.

RHYS: How did your background prepare you to write this kind of epic novel. I know you were a computer whiz and you'd worked in North Africa, but do you also have a background in world history?

KATHERINE: I actually got terrible marks in history--and world geography too. And I never liked traveling very much--I still hate timetables and living out of a suitcase. The only way I ever learned about places was by going to live and work there. Luckily, (though it didn't always feel so lucky at the time) I had to work at a lot of jobs to support myself, which took me to live in a lot of places. I always tell young writers that the two bset ways to gather material for research: get a job and get a Eurail pass. "Being there" gives you a real sense of verisimilitude--like what you first smell when you enter a city--each city and quarter has its own unique aroma--tobacco or jasmine or hashish or diesel fuel or baking bread--and of what ingredients are in the foods, what the music is like, the clothes on the streets, the trees and plants.

RHYS: As a person who writes two books a year, it must be lovely to bring out one book every few years and have time to relax in between. Tell us how you divide that time (oh and mention the adorable Karl)

KATHERINE: Relax? What's that? Actually, it's been more like every TEN years per book, for me--though that absurd self-indulgence really must stop. (Ask my publisher.) My excuse: Life just keeps on happening. For instance, I live with the world's most famous brain scientist--Karl Pribram--who is an extremely distracting fellow. Karl is always taking off for some remote scientific conference in the inaccessible regions of "you-name-it." That's how we just happened to be living in northern Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, and in Moscow when the "oligarchs" were running things and the Chechen mafia did a "mob hit" at the table next to ours in a restaurant, and other unique episodes that I've managed to toss into my books over the years.
But the only way to write a book, as we quickly learn, is to stop running around, and to sit on your bottom at a desk all day--and WRITE.

RHYS: What is next for you?

KATHERINE: This incredible thing happened: just before THE FIRE was published (October 14, 2008) I was asked by my publisher to pull all my press clippings from THE EIGHT to use for publicity--so I did, and I read a few of them. And I thereby learned that I had told Publishers Weekly--in my first interview as an author, more than 20 years before--that this would be the next book I would be writing! (Which perhaps goes to show that it really takes me TWENTY years to write a book instead of ten. Luckily, I have lots of partly-finished books in my drawer.)
It's about painters in the early 1600s, a time of great ferment in the art world, because the Dutch had recently invented oil paints, a revolution in technology that obviated the politics of vying for large commissions on the walls of buildings--and which soon permitted artists to travel, to view each other's works, and also opened the door to women painters on an international scale. An extremely interesting era for someone, like me, who used to be a painter.

RHYS: and a couple of silly questions that we always inflict on our guests:
Which Hepburn are you Katherine or Audrey?
(Actually it's Katharine, not Katherine!) That's a good question! Both were feisty but glamorous when young, and productive yet elegant when old. I wish I could be BOTH.

Make Dinner or Make Reservations?
Again, it's both. I make reservations--then I go back in the restaurant kitchen and find out how the chef did it! Then I go home and do it too!

RHYS: Katherine, thank you for stopping by. I always enjoy our chats and I love the little gifts that arrive from you, out of the blue. I have the owl with the sapphire eyes staring at me on my desk as I write!

(Photo Credit for Katherine's photo: Kelley Campbell Photography)