In about three weeks I’ll be on the way to Indianapolis and my third Bouchercon. I can’t wait!
CITY OF DRAGONS got the push off from goal to paper after my first Bouchercon in Anchorage, in 2007. I now have the thrill of going to my third Bouchercon, knowing the book will be coming out February 2nd from Thomas Dunne/Minotaur Books, and that it is dedicated to my family and the friends I met in Anchorage.
I’ve also released the trailer for CITY OF DRAGONS … and am proud to say that the footage is genuine 1940 San Francisco film, in color.
I hope you like it … and hope to see you at one or more of my stops along the way to Bouchercon … and maybe even at the conference itself. Thanks for reading Writing in the Dark!
Can you believe August is over, pfft, gone? Here we are, September 1st, suffering all the endless and aged puns on back to school. Back to Cool? School Daze? Ouch. Where’s Lulu when you need her?
I’ve been absent … not, with apologies to Shakespeare, in the spring … but throughout the month of August. Unfortunately–in the middle of the month, and while I was in the middle of setting up my new computer and reorganizing the messy but beloved room I write in–I can’t call it a home office, that gives me hives–I came down with what the doctor thought was an upper respiratory infection. It soon migrated to my throat and probably became strep, after which he doused me in antibiotics and I emerged, Lazarus-like, about ten days later.
That took care of the middle of the month. Fortunately, my mom was staying with me on a visit, and she took care of me. My mother’s chicken soup is at least as salubrious as antibiotics.
As soon as I became ambulatory, I plunged into going over copy edits for CITY OF DRAGONS. I just finished the process a few days ago, and that takes me to the end of the month. See what I mean? I’ve had Augusts that crawled by, but this one really flew.
Now I’m getting ready for Bouchercon in October (my panel is Saturday) and preparing to launch the book trailer video for CITY OF DRAGONS next week. And finishing up a much-delayed Noir Bar article for Pop Syndicate, and getting ready for an interview on one of my favorite blogs, Jen’s Book Thoughts, and working on about a thousand other things–videos, podcasts, website stuff, articles, the Poisoned Pen Virtual Conference on October 24th–and oh, yeah–the CITY OF DRAGONS sequel. The working title is COUNTRY OF SPIDERS.
I’ll be back next week with more news … and maybe my mom’s chicken soup recipe. 😉 In the meantime, stay safe–and thanks for reading!
It’s been crazier than usual–and it’s usually crazy! 🙂 All good stuff–just a lot of it! We have so many cool plans for the website that require a certain mastery of technology and video software, I feel like I’ve enrolled in an intensive video-editing course.
We’re working on the book trailer for CITY OF DRAGONS, and will be launching a cool web map of San Francisco highlighting places mentioned in the book — locations we’ll explore in more detail through videos. I’ll also be launching a series of podcasts about some of the historical and thematic aspects to the novel.
All this by way of saying that I’m late to the gate with Writing in the Dark … but if I’m tardy, at least you’ll know where I am. 😉
Friday, though, I was somewhere unexpected. And fun! I ventured out of foggy San Francisco to the 95+ degree weather of Davis (home of U.C. Davis and some of the best farm produce in California). The occasion? An invitation to speak to the national conference of the National Junior Classical League. About 1,300 junior and senior high school students from around the country converged at the university for a full week of colloquia, talks, and presentations, culminating in an outdoor Roman banquet that was strictly BYOT–Bring Your Own Toga.
These are some of the brightest young people you’ll meet anywhere. They all share a love of antiquity, history, literature. The NJCL was established in 1936–the ’30s saw a big resurgence in fascination with the ancient world, not all of it sanguinary (i.e. Mussolini). It’s now the largest classical organization in the world. And given the daunting problems facing our ever-shrinking, ever-warming little planet, meeting these young men and women and their tireless, devoted teachers certainly made me feel more optimistic about the future. I could insert any number of quotes about being doomed to repeat what we don’t learn from the past, but hey–we already know that.
I had a great time. And knowing that a writer I admire tremendously–Steven Saylor–spoke to the kids earlier in the week made it all that more special for me.
To top off the day in the sun, we returned via the Napa-Sonoma Highway to pick up the dog at his B&B. Yeah, I know, you’re thinking “California!” But if you can let your dog romp outside and have a great time in the (wine) country, why not? And the B&B owners are a wonderful French couple who take care the very best care of your dogs–but still let them be dogs. Anyway, across the street and just down the road from Bertie’s vacation getaway, we spotted a new/old diner. An ancient landmark drive-in hamburger place closed down about a year ago, and finally–even in the middle of The Recession–a new business opened up in the same spot.
And we found …
The best hamburgers in California. I’m talking absolute bliss, and I don’t eat much beef. The place is called the Fremont Diner, and it’s like comfort food except gourmet and healthy. I know that doesn’t sound possible, but honestly–what else can you call a fried pie with no sugar added organic apricot filling? Or grass-fed Napa Valley beef burgers? Or milkshakes thicker than the blush on a Zinfadel grape?
To top off the feeling of nirvana, they have a wonderful sense of design and simplicity in the interior, preserving the 30s/40s feel, sell homemade jam (Santa Rosa plum!), and have two sweet senior dogs who wander loose, accompany you to your car, and beg politely for food.
It was so perfect that I’m beginning to wonder if it really does exist. Fortunately, I found evidence that they do on Facebook. So … if you’re up in wine country, between Sonoma and Napa, and you get lost along the Carneros Highway … don’t worry. It’s not the Twilight Zone–it’s the Fremont Diner!
We’re thinking of letting Bertie take more vacations …
Not marble, nor the gilded monumentsOf princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
Back in high school when I first read these lines I was struck by the poet’s confidence in words. His cocky self-assurance that the gift of a few words will grant a more everlasting memorial than, say, the graveyard called the Pyramids or the love note known as the Taj Mahal.
But you shall shine more bright in these contentsThan unswept stone, besmear’d with sluttish time.
Of course, that was the poet’s persona–a brashly confident young man who, like many a poet before and since, used metaphors and rhythm and rhyming couplets to woo his lover of choice.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,And broils root out the work of masonry,Nor Mars his sword, nor war’s quick fire shall burnThe living record of your memory.
The living record of memory. Something all authors contend with, have struggled with, and it’s a memory that has only become shorter and more overloaded with each passing century, decade, year, month. The young man who wrote this sonnet bravely wielded pen like sword against the aggregate forces of time and anonymity, seeking solace in the pursuit of affection and immortality in his attempt to win it.
‘Gainst death, and all oblivious enmityShall you pace forth; your praise shall still find roomEven in the eyes of all posterityThat wear this world out to the ending doom. “Choose me,” he whispers, “and you will live forever.” Such is the potency of words; such is the power of poetry.
Funny thing is, the young man who wrote this had no idea that 400 years later his words would be available 24/7, broadcast freely to a global market, translated by machines, not priests or scribes or scholars or his somewhat bitchy friend Ben Johnson. The poet’s name was Shakespeare, and he was whistling in the dark.
Y’see, “sluttish time” is on my mind today, though I consider her more of a flirt. NOX DORMIENDA turned one on July 18th.
Now, those who know me know I like to celebrate as much as possible … but I’m kind of quietly humbled right now, amazed at how blessed I’ve been that this tiny little book from a tiny little publisher is still attracting readers and will hopefully be available from a larger press in paperback (with the sequel coming out next year). Stay tuned for further news …
In the year since NOX debuted, I’ve learned that the greatest gift of being a writer is the community I’ve met–readers, writers, book stores, publishers, editors, bloggers, reviewers, journalists, publicists, agents … people. That is the sweetest blessing of all, and I am so, so lucky to be here and with them and on the road I’ve traveled!
And what else has happened in the last year?
Bruce Alexander Award. Macavity nomination. Foreign rights sold in Italy and Greece for NOX. In January, in the midst of the publishing freefall, moving to Thomas Dunne/Minotaur with CITY OF DRAGONS, finding my dream editor and publisher thanks to my dream agent.
And now, after a fabulous and incredible Thrillerfest, where the news was first announced, I can add that “Children’s Day”, my short story prequel to CITY OF DRAGONS, will be in the next ITW anthology–publishing June, 2010 by Tor. It’s called FIRST THRILLS, and will feature 12 “bestselling authors of today” with 12 “bestselling authors of tomorrow”. More details later, but how humbled I am to be keeping such company!
It’s been a year of bounty and profound gratitude, of feeling at home and like dreams really do come true if you wish upon a star, like living a Disney movie directed by Gary Marshall.
Last October, I thought NOX would be a bare blip on the radar screen, long forgotten a year later. And while I don’t make any claim to it outlasting either monuments or someone’s new marble countertop for the kitchen, the fact that I can celebrate its year-old birthday with the strong hope of continuing the series at a major publisher is, well, a miracle.
Add CITY OF DRAGONS–what I hope will be a true breakout novel–and I just might break into song at any moment. 😉
Thank you all for helping me get here, on this road and at this moment … I’m lighting a candle … and in the years ahead, hoping for a few more. 🙂
No time to write about Vertigo, unfortunately–gotta save it for next time. I haven’t had much time to do anything but work on some deadlines for the website relaunch, which we wanted to have happen before Thrillerfest, but looks like will happen the week after. And speaking of Thrillerfest …
New York awaits! The conference is always exciting, and it’s in the most exciting city on the planet, so … I’m gearing up. Meetings. Parties. Panels. Non-stop, “city that never sleeps” fun! I leave early Wednesday, and will probably not be back to my Writing in the Dark post until the following week, though I’m hoping to squeeze in a blog or a tweet or two.
What else? Well, we just got word that the Greek rights to NOX DORMIENDA have been sold, so Roman Noir will be available in Athens and all over the remarkably beautiful country of Hellas.
I’m a bit emotional over the fact that my first foreign rights sales have been Italy and Greece–the foundations of western civilization, the countries and cultures I’ve spent so much time in, physically and mentally. From my first D’Aulaire’s Greek Mythology (checked out of a Tallahassee, Florida library when I was in the second grade), to now seeing my first book published in modern Greek … it’s like an affirmation. Efcharisto!
Friday was photoshoot day … we need new head shots for CITY OF DRAGONS, so ventured to the sunny side of the Bay and Berkeley, over to Lisa Keating, photographer extraordinaire. Lisa makes you feel immediately comfortable, in a beautiful, airy, naturally lit studio, complete with a black lab named Happy, who makes you feel exactly that.
Despite a TV movie-like mishap–my dry cleaner didn’t give me my entire order, and so I arrived in Berkeley without a shirt and had to fight through horrendous 4th of July traffic to get back to San Francisco and then turned immediately around so I could make it back to Berkeley in time–the shoot was a dream, and makeup artist Tricia Turner and Lisa just the best people anyone–particuarly writers with nerves–could ever hope to work with!! I can’t wait for the photos … and yes, I wore one of my fedoras. 🙂
Today was Sunday Breakfast with Friends time, a wonderful opportunity to see pals and brilliant writers Laura Benedict (who lives in Illinois, so I never see her enough) and Sophie Littlefield (who lives in the Bay Area, but whom I still don’t see enough!) We had an old-fashioned breakfast at an old-fashioned restaurant and I only wish I could spend more Sundays doing this … So, until next time, thanks for reading Writing in the Dark, thanks for checking out our new grog Criminal Minds, and I will do my best to convey some of the madness, fun, and exultation of Thrillerfest in New York!
I’m a big believer in serendipity. You know, those chance encounters and opportunities that come your way and (as long as you’re not actually starring in a noir) can lead to fabulous fun.
As a writer, I like to let serendipity guide me sometimes, through plot points and character development … and this weekend, a bit of research fell into my life the same way.
I was in Tiburon Saturday–one of Marin County’s most beautiful towns–visiting my brilliant and wonderful agent. And it just so happens that Tiburon was hosting a one day Classic Auto festival at the same time. Now, I love classic cars–you know, when American cars were truly special, built to last, and featured rumble seats or (a bit later) some truly amazing fin work. These cars are wonders of engineering, and at the Tiburon show, many were lovingly restored or sported full ownership histories posted on the window.
An event like this gives me the chance to really develop a feel for a period car model–a tremendous research opportunity for my 1940 series …
I’m not in Tiburon very often, but last year, when I was writing CITY OF DRAGONS, I happened to stumble in to Tiburon on another warm day. And–you guessed it–they were hosting the very same car show. The odds of me being in Tiburon on the day they host a day-long annual car show–twice, in consecutive years–well, that’s just serendipity for you.
Of course, inspiration struck. I’ll be starting the sequel to CITY OF DRAGONS very soon, and it was both lucky and wonderful, lighting upon the chance to see
a glorious 1940 Packard Station Wagon (Wood Sides)
Or a 1940 Cadillac Convertible
Or Gertie, a 1939 Chevrolet “Master Deluxe Business Coupe” Or a 1934 Pontiac … or even a 1918 Pierce Arrow. What car was my favorite? Well, I love the rumble seated 1934 Pontiac …
but I liked the idea of driving this 1967 Jaguar convertible. In a word … classic. And serendipitous!! 🙂
BTW, we launched Criminal Minds, our group blog and virtual panel, last week–and traffic has been brisk! Come by and comment in the month of June, and you could win a $50 Independent Mystery Booksellers Association member gift certificate, a $50 Barnes and Noble, and signed copies of our books! I post on Thursdays.
Back soon, with photos of San Juan Bautista … and a talk about Vertigo.
It’s been an eventful few days! Ever feel like the days pass too quickly for you to grab–that they blend and weave, and before you know it a week has gone ahead of you? Yup. Just happened to me. Here’s why:
Last week, I finished revisions to MALEDICTUS, and the manuscript is now with my wonderful agent. First step on the road to seeing my first series picked up and moving ahead–complete!
I posted my first Noir Bar column for Pop Syndicate … on Gilda, naturally. Who wouldn’t want to launch a project with Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford? I’ll be writing these columns once a month, and liberally sprinkling Writing in the Dark with a few noir reviews, too. Thursday was my birthday. According to astrologers, this is a “Solar Return” year–the sun was in the same spot in the sky as it was when I was born (lo, those many years ago!). My mom visited; we took a trip in pilgrimage down to San Juan Bautista and its mission, where Hitchcock filmed Vertigo. I’ll post pictures from the trip in a later post on why Jimmy Stewart’s character is so creepy. What else? Ate garlic ice cream in Gilroy, the Garlic Capital of the World. Yeah, I know it’s weird, but what else are you going to do on a warm June day in Gilroy? We ate fresh farm cherries, too, Ranier and Bing, and bought a pack of the largest, freshest and most delicious strawberries I’ve ever tasted … organic and locally grown in Watsonville. These are a few of the reasons I live in California … the produce can be worth the insanity. 😉
Took a trip to Chinatown, shot some photos for the new website, which is coming very soon. I can’t wait!
We launched a grog–that’s a group blog, but you already knew that–on Monday. Criminal Minds is a brainchild (actually a dreamchild) of mine, and it’s really special to see it come to fruition and so successfully. But with a lineup that includes CJ Lyons, Rebecca Cantrell, Sophie Littlefield, Shane Gericke, Tim Maleeny and Gabriella Herkert, you know it will be fun, fascinating and never a dull moment. 🙂 Check us out–I post on Thursdays (it’s the Thursday Child thing).
Today, Becky Cantrell and I were visiting authors over on the fabulous Barnes and Noble Mystery Book Club. You can check out the conversation and see how we harass one another. 😉
Last–but not certainly not least–I received my CITY OF DRAGONS cover yesterday …
Wow.
It’s sublime–haunting–beautiful. Thrilling!! All the things I want my book to be.
David Rotstein is a Senior Art Director at St. Martin’s and a design genius. He’s nominated three times over for an Anthony this year, and the breadth and depth of his work is amazing. I feel like I’ve won the Lotto, or beat James Bond at baccarat! Like I made a movie, and got Saul Bass to do the titles. I’m just humbled by this gorgeous, gorgeous work, and dancing the happy dance of cover love. 🙂
What’s next? Preparation for Thrillerfest in NYC, where I’ll be a Panel Master with a great team and a great topic: Now What? Keeping Readers Turning the Pages. The panelists are James Scott Bell, Robert Ellis, Heywood Gould, Steven James and Charlie Newton.
Much work ahead on the website. New postcards, new bookmarks. Preparation for a Litquake Fundraiser in San Francisco later in July that’s going to be a lot of fun!
And always back to the cover. I stare … and I smile. Louise Ure, one of the wisest women I know (and a supreme talent in crime fiction), is so right–a cover like this makes you want to get everything color coordinated. Figure on seeing me in some gorgeous browns and warm tones next year, with a splash of red!
Meanwhile … have a wonderful week, and as always … thanks for reading! 🙂
This is late and will be briefer than normal … especially for me … but for all good reasons!
I’m on several deadlines at the moment, leading up to Thrillerfest in New York. I‘ve been running so hard, I’m getting flashbacks of Marathon Man and Logan’s Run! (Reminds me … I’ve got to make a dentist appointment).
So not much time left over for anything interesting, and I didn’t think zzzz made for a good blog post. 😉
I’m also not writing much in the Dark this week because I’ve been working hard over a grog dream come true! No, silly, not the grog you drink, the grog you band together to save the world with! No, wait, that’s the Justice League. Well, a group blog, anyway … and I literally dreamed of it about a year ago.
It’s a very special grog … more like a virtual conference panel! Seven crime fiction authors in a variety of subgenres will be answering questions every week about all kinds of things–the writing process, crime, life, etc. We hope YOU will send us in questions you would like to read ruminations about!
We call it Criminal Minds, and we’re launching on June 15th. Next week, you’ll be able to read about us and find out just how criminal our minds are. Then the 15th starts the panel rolling, with a new question to follow every week.
We’re also giving away prizes for the first month–signed books, gift certificates. So if you’re a fan of Writing in the Dark, please stop by!
I’ll also be appearing soon at Pop Syndicate, a terrific website about everything pop culture. Pony up to the Noir Bar, my monthly column … we’ll be dishing about–what else? film noir. Gilda, my personal favorite, is what we start with. Over virtual cocktails, too! I’ll still post noir reviews at Writing in the Dark when the mood strikes, and Pop Syndicate will give me the chance to wax eloquent in a comfortable speakeasy setting. No such thing as too much noir!
So I’ll see you next week … gotta go finish that marathon! And thanks for reading! 🙂
Last week I received my ISBN number for CITY OF DRAGONS, an occasion for much celebration–which I did as a guest blogger on Working Stiffs, through the generosity of the wonderful Joyce Tremel and other friends on that fabulous grog.
Becky had a SRO launch party at one of my favorite places, M is for Mystery–and if you haven’t had a chance to pick up her book, you should. Historical noir at its finest–and at its darkest (the setting is 1931 Berlin).
And I’ve been chugging away at various deadlines, editorial and non-editorial, with nary a moment left over for noirish indulgence. But soon, soon … particularly as I’ll be blogging over on Pop Syndicate about my favorite film noir flickers.
Today, however, I want to talk about Memorial Day and San Francisco. Beyond the normal tourist sensations of Fisherman’s Wharf–the ode to consumerism that is Pier 39, the gimmicky restaurants, the cheap t-shirts, the always-real and welcome barks of the sea lions and smell of sourdough bread–behind the wizard’s curtain is another chapter of The City’s history.
I’m talking Pier 45.
Just a short stroll down a working pier–yet miles away from the silver men and the keyboard players in the parking lot–is the Jeremiah O’Brien. One of two remaining fully-functional Liberty ships surviving from World War II.
The Jeremiah, though, isn’t part of the park. It stays afloat–and takes full-throttle cruises, particuarly during Fleet Week and for special commemorative occasions like the anniversary of D-Day–solely through memberships and volunteers. Think of it! A living, breathing, working ship, one of only two remaining of 2,710 built–iron and steel, history in the water. And all through the tireless efforts of volunteers who love her, who maintain her, and who make sure that the Jeremiah will live over Memorial Days past counting.
I’ve had the honor of sailing on her–for the 60th anniversary of D-Day. And while most of the world knows her–if they know her at all–from the engine room of James Cameron’s Titanic (yup, she doubled for the tragic White Star liner), her legacy, her courage, and what she stands for touches us all.
The Jeremiah O’Brien is a Liberty ship. She is the last unaltered example of her kind. A floating museum of a war that was not predetermined, that was not a foregone conclusion. She and her sister ships ferried supplies and cargo to the front lines, and were a core part of the lend-lease program to Britain before the US joined the war. Roosevelt said this class of quickly built and aesthetically plain ships would bring liberty to Europe. And so they did. In 1994, the Jeremiah O’Brien journeyed from San Francisco to the beaches of Normandy, revisiting her part in Operation Overlord. She was the only large ship to return for the 50th anniversary.
If you ever have a chance to see her, I hope you do. She–and the Pampanito–are floating Memorial Days, 365 days a year.
Next: More film, more San Francisco and more news!
That could’ve been the tagline for the MGM (yes, they made dark stuff too, not just glossy musicals) noir High Wall (1947).
Y’see, High Wall is a terrific example one of a fascinating film subgenre … the damaged vet/re-establish life and family noir, sometimes with amnesia thrown in as a sideline (others include The Crooked Way (1949), The Blue Dahlia (1946), Somewhere in the Night (1946), and last week’s Cornered (1945)).
Amnesia was a staple of films, particularly with war veteran heroes — check out Random Harvest (1942) for a quintessential example–but in the hands of the noir masters, these films weren’t about amnesia as much as they were about wiping the slate clean.
Think about it: after the cataclysm and upheaval of the world’s biggest and bloodiest conflict–one that forever reshaped this country, overthrew Empires and remade the Superpowers–redefining one’s place in the New World Order was imperative … and frightening. Dramas like William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)–which certainly possessed a few noirish touches–helped reestablish normalcy in a forever changed and abnormal world. But noir … well, it tackled the anxiety head on. Wartime marriage? Afraid you married a slut? Get in line, bub. Having trouble sleeping? Nightmares? Head injury? We know just how you feel. And thanks to the era’s fascination with and confidence in psychiatry, we’ve got a cure, too, and she sometimes looks like Ingrid Bergman (Spellbound, 1945) or Audrey Totter (High Wall).
These films said it was OK if you got hurt and you can’t remember and nothing is what it seemed like in 1942. They said it was OK if you married in haste and she’s been cheating on you with a black market 4-F. Don’t murder the bimbo–just divorce her and move on to Veronica Lake. The films typically offered cures, either through therapy or a dame or both, and ended with the vet establishing a new family, location in a dislocated environment.
And that brings us to High Wall. Directed by the under-appreciated Curtis Bernhardt (Conflict (1945) Juke Girl (1942) and Possessed (1947)), it stars Robert Taylor as a brain damaged flier who suffers black-outs … and who has apparently strangled his greedy, adulterous wife (Dorothy Patrick). Enter Audrey Totter, in a rare non-femme fatale role, as devoted and caring psychiatrist Dr. Ann Lorrison, who treats Taylor while he’s locked up in the looney bin. The once sleek and sophisticated Herbert Marshall plays the bimbo’s boss (he’s a publisher of a religious books) with a certain degree of both debauchery and pathos, and even H.B. Warner (It’s A Wonderful Life, 1946) shows up in a small role. Taylor turns in an able performance, proving he was more than just a pretty face. Like John Payne and Dick Powell, who made successful second careers playing tough guys in noirs, his film roles had been light comedies or romantic melodramas like Camille (1937), and High Wall gives him something sturdier.
Totter, however, steals the show–as she usually did. And this time without being the bad girl! Paul Vogel’s stunning cinematography (he filmed the Chandler adaptation Lady in the Lake (1947), also with Totter, and a little gem with Marsha Hunt and Van Heflin called Kid Glove Killer, 1942) makes me wish he shot more noir and less films like Jupiter’s Darling (1955).
Sydney Boehm worked on the script, which is crisp and fast-paced, if not at the deliriously baroque levels of his masterpiece, The Big Heat (1953). He later wrote Rogue Cop (1954), another noir vehicle for Taylor.
All in all, High Wall is a terrific film, and a magnifying glass on the very real anxieties and social issues of the immediate post-war era. Unfortunately, you can’t find it on DVD, but watch for it on TCM or try The Danger and Despair Knitting Circle, the best source for noir on the planet. So … what have you been watching lately? 😉
