Oh Canada

 I'm heartbroken over this separation between America and Canada. America's stance toward our closest neighbor couldn't possibly be more abrasive. 

Years ago, I wanted to be accepted by the really cool kids who originated Type M For Murder. They were mostly Canadians. However, Donis Casey had made the cut. And although she lives in Arizona, she was transplanted from Oklahoma. I was thrilled when Donis asked me to submit a guest post. Then, overjoyed when I had to chance to join permanently. 

I've shied away from any political discourse on Type M For Murder. We try to stick to topics that will be of interest to mystery readers and writers. But this new rift does directly affect writers and in fact the whole publishing industry. 

All of our books whether self-published or a trade publication contain both American and Canadian pricing. That is a direct acknowledgement of the number of books that will appeal to readers from both countries.

 I adore Louise Penny's Three Pines series. Right now, I'm reading Barbara Fradkin's wonderful Mist Walker. It's the latest entry in her best-selling Inspector Green series. It's terrific and doubly enjoyable to me because Barbara is one of the original Type M posters. 

Books have become frightfully expensive. I recently reviewed an academic book that was priced for $75.00. Whew! Even worse was one of my granddaughter's textbooks for law school. It's $900.00. Will the prices we pay for books continue to rise? You bet. Canada is the major supplier of paper for the book industry. Paper is a huge component of publishing expense. 

If I were a publisher, in today's market, I would only publish books that were destined to make a lot of money. No taking changes on new authors. No indulging of mature authors with diminishing sales. 

What a sad situation for both writers and readers.

Murder In Space

I was working on the idea of a homicide in the cosmos when I wondered, what would make a person as well-grounded and stable as an astronaut want to commit murder?

 

AI image ChatGPT 

 

Then I remembered what happened on February 4, 2007, in what became an extraordinary, though not admirable, day in the history of the American space program. On that date, Lisa Nowak--Navy Captain, veteran shuttle astronaut, accomplished pilot and engineer--accosted an Air Force officer, her rival in a love triangle involving a fellow astronaut. Nowak was arrested with an assortment of items, including pepper spray, a hammer, a knife, black latex gloves, disguises, hundreds in cash, that pointed to sinister outcomes. She was charged with a variety of crimes, the most serious being attempted first-degree murder with a deadly weapon. As the case slogged through the judicial process, she ended up pleading guilty to felony burglary and misdemeanor battery. The Navy mustered her out with a "less than honorable discharge" and a reduction in rank to commander. It was an ignominious saga of a person who had lost her way. But it made me think about the broader implications of this sad tale. 

Candidates for the astronaut program endure an exceptionally competitive selection process to be then subjected to comprehensive psychological examinations and intense training to determine that they won't go crackers under pressure. Astronauts are probably the most cool-headed individuals in service. Consider that aboard both the Challenger and the Columbia, the flight crews attempted to gain--futilely as it turned out--manual and spontaneous unrehearsed control of their doomed craft in the short moments before destruction. Such heroics point to the exceptional caliber of astronauts on one end of the performance spectrum and now, thanks to Lisa Nowak, NASA has to seriously consider behavior at the other end of that spectrum, in this case, the possibility of a murderous love triangle in space.

The most memorable manslaughter in space depicted in popular culture was in 2001: A Space Odyssey, when the AI brain HAL decides that the human crew will compromise the mission and so proceeds to off them, three in cold-blooded assassination by yanking the plug of their hibernation capsules, and the other by staging a Mafia-style hit using an EVA pod as a murder weapon. 

Is homicide in the heavens inevitable? Hopefully not. Keep in mind that the real-life scenarios most replicating deep-space travel are the deployments aboard nuclear submarines, where male-female crews stay submerged for up to three months at a time. A fellow writer who was a Navy submariner tells me that such prolonged isolation from the natural world and sunlight, in his words, "Really fucks with your mind," but so far, no murders at sea.

Dark Shadows Lives On

 by Sybil Johnson

A few weekends ago, I attended the 60th Anniversary Dark Shadows Festival here in Los Angeles. For those of you who don’t know, Dark Shadows was an American gothic/supernatural soap opera that aired from 1966-1971 (1225 episodes). It started out as a Jane Eyre-esque gothic soap that gradually introduced ghosts and other supernatural creatures. It was in danger of being canceled, but when they introduced the vampire, Barnabas Collins, it really took off.

I was one of those kids who “ran home from school” to watch it. Okay, sometimes a bus was involved, but you get the idea. 

According to a couple sources, 800-900 people showed up at the festival to share their love for the TV show that aired so very long ago. I’ve attended a number of these festivals over the years and enjoyed every single one of them. This was advertised as the last festival for the show, so I’m glad I was able to attend.

Our very cool coffin shaped badge

I had a wonderful time. I had some great conversations with people I met there. I also attended panels, watched some rare videos and “The House of Dark Shadows” movie, and did a little shopping. 

Bought a bunch of charms. Really nice work. Left to right (char names): Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, Quentin Collins, Angelique, the year the show started, Victoria Winters, Barnabas Collins and the portrait of Josette.

It’s always fun to go places where people share a love for something, whether it’s books or TV shows or... It reminded me a lot of the camaraderie I feel at Malice Domestic.

 And it wasn’t only people who watched the initial run who attended. Probably half of the people there weren’t born then. They found it when it was in syndication or through the VHS tapes or DVDs or from streaming. (It’s currently available on Tubi, Amazon Prime and hoopladigital.) Some may have heard about it because they watched the 1991 revival series that aired in primetime. Alas, it only lasted one season, but it is extremely well done. 

I’m sure the actors and others who worked on the original show did not expect it to still be around so many years later. I think it’s rather miraculous that all 1225 episodes survived.

Dark Shadows shows no sign of slowing down. MPI has started re-releasing it on Blu-Ray. There are comic books and a podcast called Terror at Collinwood hosted by Penny Dreadful. I learned at the festival that an animated series is in the works. I’m still discovering new DS-related things.

As you might expect, a lot of the original actors are no longer with us. I was lucky to attend some of the earlier festivals and meet some of them. They were all gracious and rather astounded there were still so many fans. Lara Parker who played Angelique got her MFA many years after the show and wrote four fiction books using the characters. Those are on my TBR list. Alas, she passed away a few years ago, but I did meet her a couple times at earlier festivals. A lovely person.

Kathryn Leigh Scott who played Maggie Evans and Josette Dupres is still around and attended the festival. She’s always gracious and happy to be there. She’s written a number of books about the show plus a mystery, which is also currently on my TBR list. 

There were other actors from the original show who attended as well including Jerry Lacy, Roger Davis, Sharon Smyth, James Storm, Terry Crawford. My apologies if I left anyone out. It was great seeing all of them. Some of the 1991 cast also attended, which was fun.

The lesson we can learn from the Dark Shadows experience? Whether it’s a book, a movie, a TV show, you never know what is going to pique someone’s interest or how long that interest will last. Don’t try to “chase the trends”. Just write what you want to write to the best of your ability. Who knows, maybe it’ll be stories that will have long lives like Dark Shadows.

Living the Pajama Life

by Catherine Dilts

Can I please crawl back into my author cave now?

I participated in writing events Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Both were well-attended, fun, and fruitful.

My table at the Parker Library

The Douglas County Libraries welcome authors of all varieties, both traditionally and independently published. The Local Author Showcase on August 15^th featured fiction and non-fiction, from teen authors to seniors, and an amazing variety of subjects.

We were given five minutes to speak. I revealed the inspiration behind my first fiction sale. The audience seemed to relate. Who doesn’t dream of killing an annoying coworker?

My co-author daughter Merida Bass described her own journey from escaping teaching college-level mathematics to unwilling students, to becoming an artist, children’s storybook author and illustrator, and co-author of cozy mysteries.

We won the Colorado Authors League award in the humor category for our novel, Grandpa’s New Year’s Relocation. We think that means we can write a funny tale.

Writing and public speaking are two different things. I hope people don’t expect me to be witty in person. I’m not that interesting.

Yet when we gave our brief speeches, the audience laughed. And bought our books.

The very next day, we went to Basecamp Books and Adventure for their first annual Book Bash. We didn’t know what to expect. Neither did the shop owner, Joe. The crowds were so huge that they overwhelmed the air conditioning and the cash register.

Fortunately for us, Merida had set up a purchasing app on her phone, so we could do our own sales. She sold completely out of the children’s book, The Jelly Monster. It’s a popular picture book. Kids love it.

We gave no speeches this day. But we did pitch our books. Constantly. Over and over.

Many customers were horror and thriller fans. We pitched to them anyway. It was good practice.

Sales were respectable. We will definitely participate again.

Two days in a row were a bit much for me.

Being in public requires a certain level of decorum. Sure, I don’t have to, but I choose to dress like an adult. Wear makeup. Comb my hair. Things I don’t do when I’m writing at home.

But Monday, in the aftermath of all the excitement, I just wanted to lounge around the house.

Nope. Things to do, projects to complete, blog articles to write. I was able to partially crawl back into my writing cave. Or rather, write on the deck and enjoy the outdoors. Summer weather. The cat lunging after hummingbirds. And I worked in my pajamas.

Appearing in public is the part of being an author I have avoided. My daughter is pushing me to actually act like this is a career. So far, it’s working. We’re making progress. Getting our names and our brand out there.

As long as I can have my cave time, I guess it’s okay. Living the pajama life makes it all worthwhile.

Is that butterfly edible, the cat asks.