Tips for the Travel Panicked

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  I think I am now the only one out of the Jungle Reds that has not traveled since the beginning of the pandemic. I did take a little two day jaunt to the antique show in Central Texas last March, but I'm talking about serious travel, on an AIRPLANE, and for more than a couple of days!

But in two and a half weeks I am flying off to London for a three week stay, and I am panicked! I thought I'd be prepared so far in advance, wardrobe organized, new shoes broken in, phone replaced, research planned, but–

NONE OF THOSE THINGS

Life and work intervened. I don't even remember what my luggage looks like, and those shoes I bought back in August are still in the box…

My daughter is coming with me for most of the first week, and she at least has made us some restaurant bookings. She is a super-organized person! And she bought me an absolutely gorgeous cashmere wrap to wear on the plane!!

But over what? I really don't think American will let me wear my pajamas...

I have bought this absolutely yummy coat and scarf (no one will be hitting me in the zebra crossing!)

And I picked up one little travel tip from David Lebovitz's newsletter: If you can't tolerate smelly laundry detergents (that's me) pack eco-friendly unscented laundry sheets. I don't know why I never thought of that, as I have a terrible time finding unscented detergent in London, and having to buy a big jug for a few loads of laundry is a pain, too.

Dear World Adventurer REDs, I need help. What are your tips for getting back in the travel game?

LUCY BURDETTE: L O L on the pajamas, Debs!! I don’t think the airlines care, it’s a matter of whether you do. I have a pair of habitat yoga/sweatpants that I always wear for overnight travel. 

The only other thing I can say is do wear your mask in the airport. I know 80% of the other travelers won’t have them on but it’s no fun to be sick out of town! I also kept mine on the plane except when eating or drinking. And my new theory is forget about the dinner, I’d rather get a little bit more sleep than some marginal airline food. It will be such fun to have your daughter with you for a week!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I just flew from Portland (ME) to Tampa via JFK on Wednesday, for the Novelist’s Inc. conference, and I’ll echo Lucy - I put my mask on before hitting the airport and didn’t take it off until I was out of the Uber in Florida. Travelers were dressed SO slovenly that the few who wore fitted stretchy pants and a top that wasn’t a T-shirt or hoodie (with locations and brand names on them, of course) looked like they should have been featured in Women’s Wear Daily. 

One thing I noticed from a lack of travel in the past 2 ½ years: my toiletries kit, which I always kept topped up and ready for me to simply grab and go, had been seriously depleted. Some items were well past the sell-by date (sorry, 3 oz sunscreen from 2019) and some I had raided when I didn’t have a chance to shop for replacements (Q-tips, floss, nail polish remover pads.) Check what you have and stock up on the travel sizes!

JENN McKINLAY: I have flown so much during the pandemic, truly, it’s been ridiculous (family in crisis, what can you do?). So, I don’t have much advice except… be advised that the airports are insanely crowded now (I actually liked flying during the pandemic more because the airports were ghost towns), the cost of everything seems to have quadrupled, and wear a mask, wear a mask, wear a mask. Everyone I know who hasn’t worn a mask while at the airport or flying has gotten Covid…just sayin’. 

HANK PHILLIPPPI RYAN:  Yup, mask mask mask. I went to Nashville, because when I agreed to be GOH at Killer Nashville two years ago, Covid was certainly going to be over, right? NO ONE in the airport  had on masks, or on  the plane, hardly, and I stolidly kept mine on, sneaking pretzels underneath. I felt like I was the crazy one, but I was NOT.

At the convention, again, I was one of the tiny few in masks. And one woman actually sneered at me about it!  I did not care, I kept it on except for speeches and very fast photo shoots. I did NOT get Covid on that trip.

 

And oh, yes, my pre-stocked travel kit, I realized, had items that were three years old, and my tube of toothpaste was rock hard. And my deodorant had turned from gel to gloppy water. 

A shawl/pashmina/wrap is essential. ESSENTIAL. 

I  praise the universe and am grateful, DAILY for Pre-Check and Global Entry and Mosaic.

And Debs, seriously, if you wore pajamas, you would be BETTER dressed than most. It was all I could do not to gawp and threaten to call their mothers.

RHYS BOWEN:  On the flight to London I did not mask for the first time since 2019. We were in Upper Class on Virgin , in my own little pod, and the only person anywhere near me was John. But I did wear my mask on the train and a bus. Nobody else did. London and Paris are clearly post pandemic but a man on my riverboat tested positive the first day!

As for travel kits: agree with the pashmina. Planes are always freezing. And I have to admit I had completely forgotten what items I usually travel with!  But it was fun buying new travel size toothpastes etc. One new thing for me: I’m trying a shampoo bar. Easier to carry. It seems really nice and lathers easily.

DEBS: Hank, I am laughing! I promise I will be presentable! My big question is what to do with the crazy wool coat, as I don't want to wear it on the plane and it will take up half my suitcase. And what am I thinking, taking a wool coat to London instead of my perfectly good Land's End all weather coat...

How about it, well-traveled readers? How did you get your groove back?

Terry Shames--Number 9 That Should Have Been Number 10

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am a huge fan of Terry Shames's books featuring Jarrett Creek Chief of Police Samuel Craddock. Jarrett Creek may be fictional, but I love Central Texas and I have my very firm idea of exactly what Jarrett Creek is like. And I have been missing it, so I was thrilled when I learned there was a new book on the way. 

Isn't the cover gorgeous? But I'd have been holding my breath if I'd known the journey this book had taken! Here's Terry to explain: 

Number 9 that should have been number 10

On October 4, the ninth book in my Samuel Craddock series, Murder at the Jubilee Rally, launches into the world. It was great fun to write and it’s getting terrific reviews. Set at the Jubilee Motorcycle Rally, held out at the lake at Jarrett Creek, the book is based on a real motorcycle rally that happens every other year in the town that Jarrett Creek is based on. Because of Covid they didn’t have the rally, so I had to rely on videos from past events, and some first-hand accounts from people who have attended them. The videos! Let me tell you, I’m no prude, but some of the videos of real-time attendees stunned me. When you read descriptions in Murder at the Jubilee Rally, understand that I toned down some of those scenes.

“Jubilee Rally” should have been book 10. What happened? Covid happened. Or at least that’s what I’m blaming. In 2020 I wrote a Samuel Craddock book that turned out to be horrible. I mean truly. It was not only dark, but sleazy and distasteful. But there was more. I had intended to make this a book about a motorcycle rally. At some point in writing it, the rally disappeared and nasty people took over.

When I finished it, I disliked it, but turned it over to my writer’s group just in case I was wrong. They also disliked it. Then I sent it to my agent and she said the equivalent of, “What the hell is this?”

Now this is not the first time I’ve written a bad novel. There are all those “practice” novels that never saw the light of day. But I really liked them and thought were publishing-worthy if I just did some good editing. BUT. Recently I went back to purge my files and read the old books. In almost every one, my response was, “What was I thinking?” But every, single one of them had more to recommend it than my car crash of a book. It was with the greatest pleasure that I dumped it and started over.

Thinking back, I wondered why Covid caused this? Like most people I was feeling dark and unsettled the entire year of 2020. I didn’t mind staying inside. I had a great house with lots of room to spread out. We had a student living with us who was ultra-careful not to bring Covid into the house and was fun to be around. We had our two spirited dogs. And I had friends who were also careful, so we formed a “pod” of people who could come into my backyard and have a meal—at a distance. I cooked wonderful things, I indulged myself with jigsaw puzzles, my husband and I laughed. I Zoomed and hopped around on social media. Not so bad really. It’s not as if I haven’t had other dark times in my life that I was able to write through.

But this was different. The idea of being forced to stay inside ate at me. No travel. No hugs. Worse, there was always that itchy feeling in the air that you didn’t know whether the virus was lurking outside to nail you. Pouring that angst into the book I was working on, the characters became bitter and angry and ugly.

How is this different from writing noir or violent thrillers? After all, these characters can be ugly and angry and bitter. But there’s always some kind of “romance” at the heart of these novels. Sometimes it’s love interests, but it can also be the romance of interesting settings, passionate characters, people on a mission. The characters in my bad book were just behaving badly. Period.

When I jettisoned the book, I felt nothing but relief. I started over and this time the book flowed. I don’t mind saying I was biting my nails, worried that I’d lost it for good. But I got back on the hawg and this time the ride was smooth.

One character climbed out of the original mess and sneaked into the new book. In fact, she charmed me. Her name is Hailey. She’s the daughter of Samuel’s nephew, Tom. At the age of sixteen, she is suddenly sure that she knows exactly what her life should be—and it includes a bad boyfriend, no college, and defying every adult in her life. Her parents send her off to Samuel to take a break from her, hoping that Samuel can manage her. He almost can’t!

I loved creating Hailey and I hope you enjoy reading her as much as I enjoyed writing her.

All of which makes me wonder. Was I the only writer who found herself producing awful work during Covid? Work that not only didn’t satisfy, but that made you feel like you’d dredged up some mean part of your subconscious you didn’t know existed? Did others find themselves lost in the weeds? I’d love to hear about it!

Not everyone is thrilled that the yearly Jubilee Motorcycle Rally is coming to Jarrett Creek, Texas. Some locals want to ban it. But the merchants who’ve parlayed a good deal of money from the event are happy to put up with a little aggravation. A nasty war of words breaks out between Lily Deverell, who's spearheading the campaign to shut down the rally, and Amber Johnson, a store owner whose husband was badly injured while riding with his motorcycle club, leaving her to support their family by herself. Chief of Police Samuel Craddock brokers a deal leaving no truly satisfied.

When one of the warring women is found dead on the rally grounds, Craddock and his deputy, Maria Trevino, investigate even though the case is theoretically the job of the overburdened Department of Public Safety.

Complicating matters, Craddock offers to have his nephew’s teenage daughter, Hailey, visit to see if he can straighten out her recent bad behavior. Sam has his hands full with Hailey, who alternates between acting like the sweet girl he remembers. Eventually, she takes an interest in the murder investigation and a keen observation she makes helps Craddock solve the crime.

"A neat character-intensive combo of clever police work and family angst." Kirkus

And Library Journal gave Jubilee Rally a starred review and made it one of their October picks of the month!

DEBS: Can I just say, YIKES. I know all the writers out there are cringing along with me. Throwing out a book!! Nightmare of nightmares! But obviously it was the right thing to do, and very brave, I think.

Who else has had to start a book--or a big project-- over from scratch?

Terry Shames writes the award-winning, critically acclaimed Samuel Craddock series, set in the fictitious town of Jarrett Creek, Texas. The books have been finalists for numerous awards, including The Strand Critics Award, The Lefty Award, and the Macavity Award. A Killing at Cotton Hill won the Macavity for Best First Mystery, 2013. The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake won the RT Reviews Critics Award for Best Contemporary Mystery of 2016.

Regarding the latest in the series, MURDER AT THE JUBILEE RALLY, Publishers Weekly called it an entertaining read, with "vivid secondary characters and well drawn small-town setting."

Raised in Texas and a University of Texas alum, Terry has lived in California for many years, now in Los Angeles. She is a member of t Sisters in Crime, and on the board of Mystery Writers of America.

Visit her at www.terryshames.com to see photos and to find out about upcoming events.

 

Who Read to You?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Back in August, I happened across this piece in my local newspaper, the Dallas Morning News, by the author Christopher de Vinck. (Hopefully the DMS will allow one article behind the paywall!) It was a celebration of the life of New Jersey journalist, and later educator, Jim Trelease.

In 1982, a year before my daughter was born, Jim published a little book called THE READ ALOUD HANDBOOK. While working for the Springfield Daily News, Jim volunteered to visit local classrooms to talk to students about journalism and art. Jim noticed that the children who read for pleasure came from classrooms where teachers read aloud daily. When he began to research, he discovered that children who were read aloud to also had bigger vocabularies and did better academically. 

Sharing the benefits of reading aloud became Jim's life mission. THE READ ALOUD HANDBOOK spent 17 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. It is now in its 8th edition, with an updated treasury of book recommendations. (Ordering a copy for my daughter now!)

If I hadn't already been motivated to read to my daughter, this book would have convinced me! And of course children who are read to read to their own children, as my daughter has to my granddaughter.

It's odd but I don't remember either of my parents reading to me. But my grandmother, who lived with us and had been a teacher, did, and I'm sure that had a lot to do with my having been an early reader and developing a lifelong love of books. 

The defining memory of my grade school years was my sixth grade teacher reading A WRINKLE IN TIME aloud to us. I could not wait for the end of the day and that day's chapter!

Now, I put myself to sleep every night listening to audio books, and I'm not the only one!

Michael Buble falls asleep to Matthew McConaughey every night! There is something so enormously comforting about being read to, and I think we process stories and language in a different way. We shouldn't give up being read to just because we're grown up. (And, of course we have Hank and Hannah to read to us twice weekly with their fabulous First Chapter Fun!) 

My fictional characters carry on the tradition, as you can see in this little snippet from A KILLING OF INNOCENTS:

After supper, Kincaid had overseen baths while Gemma did the washing up. Then he’d read a chapter of The Wind in the Willows to Charlotte and Toby. His mother had recently sent him the copy he and Juliet had read as children, with its original Ernest Shepard illustrations.

Kit, who was supposed to be studying, had come in quietly, removing his earbuds as he folded himself into a seat on the floor just inside Charlotte’s doorway.

“Mum read it to me,” Kit said afterwards, when the younger children were tucked up in their beds and just he and Kincaid stood in the hallway between the bedrooms. “I remember thinking that it had been written just for me, that it was my river, and that if I just looked hard enough I’d see Rat or Mole or Toad.”

REDs and readers, who read to you? Did it spark your love of reading? Do you have memories of particular books?