Fiddler on the....Subway?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: You can tell she's fascinating. Just look at that photo! And when she had an idea for a novel, it was a doozy.

We'll just let Ilana tell you!

by Ilana Katz Katz: 

     My passions, friends, experiences, and clothes are eclectic. Even my name Ilana Katz Katz is unusual. (My middle name was Katz and I married a Katz… what are the chances of that?) I don't think there is a cookie cutter out there that could begin to reflect the shape of my life. It's no wonder that food for thought comes where I least expect it. 

        I would have predicted that my most interesting storytelling inspirations would come from my experiences as a musician in Boston’s subway system. I play old-time and blues fiddle to entertain passersby waiting for the trains.

        

        The subway hosts the gamut of people from the homeless to the manicured businessperson. With music bridging the gap between strangers and friends, people often talk to me in between fiddle tunes revealing the secrets of their lives. Many of their experiences stay with me, but it was a routine trip to the vet that most sparked my imagination. I would never have guessed that would be the case.

   

        “Fixed male cats have the best temperaments,” Dr. S said while examining my newly adopted rescue kitty. “Imagine if our world was run by castrated men,” she said with a laugh. I have to admit that I was initially a little horrified at her suggestion, but it did get my mind spinning. What if women ran the world? Would there really be less war? Less violence in general? Would negotiations for social rights and religion be different or any better? I looked for answers and found some pretty interesting information.

          Through the early 1900s the average age of sexual consent for girls in most states was 10-12 with Delaware weighing in at the age of seven. Really? Seven? I seriously doubt a woman declared that a seven-year old child could reasonably consent to, let alone engage in, sexual activity. But I can tell you in the late 1880s, a group of mostly women started to chip away at these laws. By 1920, most states succeeded in changing the legal age of consent to 16-18.

    

      This fueled my wonder. Nearly a hundred years later, what kinds of changes would an all-woman power structure initiate around the globe? I wonder if the similar hierarchy, values, and struggles we see today would morph out of the women over time.

I’d like to believe that having world-wide female leaders would yield a better world, perhaps a more humanitarian place. Of course we don’t know what would really happen, but I wish we did! 

        Since I doubt my lifetime will show me a women-ruled globe, I explored this by writing The Underground: Imagine a world where women rule and men must cater to their every whim… or else. The story is set in the backdrop of the futuristic dystopian America run by an iron-fisted Queen. Under the guise of ending sexual assaults against women, she requires unmarried twenty-six-year old men to be castrated. To further diminish men’s rights, women are the only ones who can legally propose marriage.

          I enjoyed coming up with this story, but the flipside of developing fictional characters is that people reading my work insert me into my books assuming it was somehow autobiographic. I find myself having to say, "No, I am not a man-hating dictatorial extremist with scalpel happy tendencies. I'm just a happily married storyteller with a dystopian bend.”

     I never know where my next story idea will come from, but enjoy pondering the possibilities of situations that stretch my imagination. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open, no matter where I am.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I hesitate even to mention it. But a world ruled by women? What if...

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In addition to being a novelist, Ilana can often be found playing fiddle in Boston’s underground subways. (Park Street, on the Green Line is a favorite station.) She lives in Boston, MA and Newport, RI with her husband Warren and adorably lazy felines Boris and Squeaky. Her debut novel The Underground is available at Amazon.com, as an ebook and in paperback. She’ll be releasing her second novel Finding Jayne later this year. For more information about Ilana and her books, see ilanakatz.com.

The Other Oymmpics

RHYS BOWEN :In a month's time I'm going to the Olympics. A giant feast celebrating the best in English sports.. or is it? One of the sports that won't be appearing is Bog Snorkelling. Neither will Toe Wrestling, nor cheese rolling. I'm not making these up. They are real British sports. They have just held the World Bog Snorkelling Championship in Wales. The contestants swim through thick filthy water of a flooded peak bog breathing through a snorkel. It attracts over 200 competitors each year.

Actually sports like this will have a chance to shine on the world stage. They will be featured at the World Alternative Games, taking place at the same time as the Olympics in Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales. I bet it's easier to get tickets there.

Britain must have more silly sports than any other country I know. Where else would you find a pancake race, or a race carrying barrels of molten tar that would fry you to a crisp if they spilled over you?  Or the famous Gloucestershire cheese roll, where contestants roll an 8 lb wheel of Double Gloucester Cheese down a hill and attempt to catch it. This event has been going on for 200 years.

In fact most regions of Britain can claim their own "alternative" (and for alternative read silly) sports and games. Hedge jumping is one of my favorites. People find a wicked looking hedge and then attempt to throw themselves over it in a sort of Fosbury Flop. One contestant claimed he did better in "your basic crucifixion position."  Keen hedge jumpers have been known to skid to a halt, leap out of cars and hurls themselves over a nearby hedge. My friend Hannah Dennison wrote about this in one of her Vicky Hill novels. Great fun.

In the flatter parts of the East Coast there is dyke vaulting. Do not comment. Contestants run at the waterway with a pole, plant it and attempt to jump across, like a pole vault but horizontal. Most end up stuck in the mud with no dry way of escape.

My next Lady Georgie novel, The Twelve Clues of Christmas (due out in November) features a made up event called "The Lovey Chase." What is it? You'll have to read the book to find out.

Jubilee Thoughts.

RHYS BOWEN: I've lived in America for many years. My children were born here. I'm a baseball fan (go Giants). A football fan. And yet last week I had a orgy of Britishness. For four days I was glued to the telly, standing with tears in my eyes to join in Land of Hope and Glory as those boats went down the Thames.

Since there is so much that drives me crazy about my native land these days it was wonderful to be flooded with British pride. And one thing it demonstrated was that England certainly knows how to throw a party. So many parts of the celebration impressed me: the vast crowd walking in orderly fashion down the Mall toward Buckingham Palace, nobody pushing ro shoving, no policeman having to turn around and use force to control them. All those people standing out in that rain, not only uncomplaining, but looks of joy on their faces as they waved flags--especially the young women singing on top of a barge in a deluge.

And above all I was overwhelmed with pride for the queen herself (and Prince Phillip) She's in her eighties and he is ninety and yet they stood for several hours on that barge, never once using the chairs provided for them. She had a packed schedule of church service, carriage procession, rock concert, balcony appearances while worrying about her husband who had  been rushed off to hospital. She remained gracious throughout a concert full of music she doesn't like. She was visibly moved by her son's speech (and didn't you love it when he called her 'Mummy'?

My husband reads the Daily Telegraph online every morning and one nameless creature had the gall to mock "Phil the Greek" and say "it would be a good job if he croaked."  I'd like to use some of my skills I have picked up as a mystery writer and murder him with no trace if I met him. Does this worm not realize what a huge asset they are to the country--how many tourist dollars they bring in, the tradition and dignity that makes Britain unique. And their schedule is one that not many of us could imitate.

I do a book tour for a couple of weeks each year. I am met by an escort and essentially I am ON all day. I collapse into bed exhausted each night and at the end of two weeks I am whacked. The queen does this schedule every day, all year and has done it for over sixty years. Always gracious, always smiling and with a terrific sense of humor.

One of the highlights of my life was when I had tea with her when I was eighteen. Just a few young women and myself alone with the queen, and after a few minutes we were all laughing together. She has that wonderful quality of making everyone feel comfortable with her. And she was stunningly pretty as a younger woman. And Phillip--well, he was a hunk, wasn't he?

And now there were William, Harry and Kate ready to back up their grandma, giving us wonderful hope for the future. Would I trade them for a president? Would you?

Do share your thoughts on the Jubilee Celebrations.Did you love it as much as I did?