Moose in Boots- Page Two

Page two is ready to show you, but I have to say that this is about all I did today. However, it is one of the more complex illustrations.

Do you want to see some of the process? I only took one picture of that, and it was early on- really I was just doing background washes and the balsam branches.

This might be fun. This is my test page where I was trying out things to get the look I wanted on the final copy or getting rid of excess paint.

I may get away with only having to do this one once. I'm fairly happy with it. (I may redo the first one- we'll see.)

I did pick up my car from being fixed, washed the dishes, and did tiny amounts of other things. But this project takes serious concentration. Layers have to dry completely, or sometimes just a bit before you do the next step. There's not much time between chunks of working on a page.

Maybe I'll also share the concept pages. I did spend some time looking for the original computer files. Can't find them. That was so many computers ago, they may be lost. I have 2 printouts, so they aren't totally lost. And I'm sure I have the original sketches, but I didn't even try to find those today.

And now I have a computer issue too. I'm posting this from my old computer. Sigh.

See Moose in Boots- Page One

A Troop of Tropes

More about writing today. It seems like I'm on a bit of a roll.

What's a trope, you ask? A trope is a recurring theme. If this were an afghan or a work of art, you'd call it a repeating motif like a granny square, or triangles. Or in a piece of music, the recognizable bit of melody that you hear over and over.

In writing, it's a brief and familiar summary of the plot. For example, you might think all the Perry Mason books have the same trope- they all have Mason taking on some case that looks impossible, and then he pulls a rabbit out of the hat in the courtroom and wins the case. But that is more of the genre. Like "courtroom drama," or "police procedural," or "amateur sleuth."

Books with the same trope might be everything from Oliver Twist, Lord of the Flies, or the Harrison Ford movie Firewall, to The Boxcar Chldren, which are all the trope of the endangered child. However the first two are in the literary fiction genre, the movie would be a thriller, and the last is a children's mystery. A trope cuts across genres.

My general mysteries are all in the "amateur sleuth" category, technically the cozy mystery genre. (Side note... cozies have sort of slid off into talking cats, quilt shops and bakeries with female sleuths and a touch of romance. But what cozy classically means is that the violence and sex happen "off stage." They are not gory, steamy, or thrillers. So I don't like to call them cozies. I say they are "light traditional" or "classic who-dun-its.")

But what are the tropes of my books? I pose this question because I've been asking myself this for quite a while. People ask me what the books are about and I want to be able to give a swift and short answer for each. Today, I decided to get serious about nailing down the couple I hadn't yet identified.

News from Dead Mule Swamp is a "Cover-up." The cover-up trope involves hiding past illegal actions through deception, destruction of evidence, or conspiracy, often driven by fear of exposure, scandal, or protecting someone. News is a novella.

The Hollow Tree at Dead Mule Swamp is "the Endangered Chld." The endangered child trope involves placing a defenseless minor in immediate physical or emotional peril to raise stakes, evoke sympathy, or prompt heroic action. Hollow Tree is a short story.

Just FYI, the two are separate as ebooks, but are combined in one volume in paperback because they serve as a great intro to the whole series, introducing the characters and the location, even though they are not long, and thus not very complex.

Paddy Plays in Dead Mule Swamp. This is a "Cold Case." A cold case is a criminal investigation that has been rendered inactive and unsolved due to a lack of evidence, witnesses, or suspects to form a solid lead. Paddy is a little bit longer. It doesn't quite have a sub-plot, but it's not quite as linear as the first two.

Bury the Hatchet in Dead Mule Swamp. This one is "Revenge." Revenge is a driven, emotional response to injustice or harm, compelling characters down a path that often blurs the lines between right and wrong. It's one of the most common tropes in fiction. Hatchet and all the rest are full length novels- I finally got the knack of weaving in a subplot.

Dead Mule Swamp Druggist. This one has totally defied categorization. I struggle constantly to explain it to people in a couple of sentences. I just tried to look up some ideas. Maybe "Ambiguous Deaths?" - not exactly. Maybe "Connect the Deaths?" - I like this one better. Connect the deaths is where a series of seemingly unrelated murders or deaths are revealed to be connected by a pattern, such as forming a specific shape, timeline, or message. Although in my book, there are a series of seemingly related deaths and the question is "are they murders?" or "are they even related?" Hmmm. Did I actually come up with an original idea? I think I'll start calling it "Connect the Deaths."

Dead Mule Swamp Mistletoe. This one is clearly the "Closed Suspect Pool." This is the cornerstone of classic mysteries. It is defined by a scenario where a crime occurs within a restricted, isolated, or clearly defined group of people, ensuring the culprit is among them.

Dead Mule Swamp Singer. This may fit into two tropes with the main and sub-plots weaving in and out. But The murder is "A Stranger Comes to Town." This is another classic narrative where a mysterious outsider enters a community and forces change, exposes hidden truths, or resolves conflict. This visitor disrupts the status quo.

And- how about the one I'm working on- Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp? Well, the setting is unusual, but it's probably a straight up "Payback" which is simply a form of the revenge trope. Dang. I thought I was trying to make every story different. The setting- within a Live Action Role Playing game- makes it very different in some ways, but I guess the underlying theme is revenge.

And here's a reminder of the cover for the one I'm trying to finish.

Maybe I'll talk about covers another day. Had you noticed that I changed them all from the originals?

I was partly good and partly naughty today. I edited, I worked on the prayer shawl, I figured this stuff out, which counts as working on marketing. I gave in and ate chocolate and crackers while reading more than my usual rationed time. I may try to write a few actual words yet this evening.

I also started working on something else that is part of one of the goals I've had for the past several (many?) years, but MAYBE it will get moving again. Stay tuned.

See The Skeleton of a Plot

The Skeleton of a Plot

Subtitle: Unlikely Plot, or Not?

This could also be titled, is truth stranger than fiction? Tonight you get some more of my thoughts about writing mysteries.

We've often heard someone disparage a fictional plot as so unbelievable it ruined the story for them. But, I'm here to tell you that there are plenty of strange stories out there that are absolutely true.

The mug shot is Herbert Mullin. He was aprehended in 1973 after killing thirteen people. He claimed to be following the voice of God who told him that human sacrifices would save California from the big earthquake. He claimed the victims volunteered to die for the cause. He was diagnosed as schizophrenic and insane.

I tend to think that insanity is a cop-out for a writer to use as a motive, however, I did use it in one short story.

Here is a true tale from Texas in 2018. Someone was placing flyers laced with fentanyl on windshields of law enforcement vehicles. They warned of "satellite microwave weapons." There were no deaths- one officer became ill, but fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin, and can be fatal. That would be a great basis for a plot.

Another true story is the possibly unbelievably simple means by which a woman realized there was an intruder in her house. The toilet seat was up, and there was no male who lived with her. If that were put in a book, readers would say, "No burgler would be that stupid." Guess again.

Recently, there have been two Michigan scenes that seem to stretch the limits of belief. The first one, very local to me, wouldn't serve as a basis for an entire plot, but as a scene it would be great. But again, people would think it too outlandish. A driver took off as police attempted a traffic stop and led law enforcement on a 4-county chase.

The most gruesome is this story, and it has been in the news a lot in Michigan. The mother and step-father of a girl who was nine-months pregnant apparrently killed the girl and cut the baby out of her body. The baby has not yet been found. I have to use the word "apparently," because this one has not been through the courts yet, it's so recent. Even in a thriller, can you imagine trying to put that one in a book?

Anyway, I guess my point is that various implausible plots can work if the writing is good.

Here's a fictional example. I have mentioned that I'm re-reading the Joe Pickett books. My least favorite in the series is Trophy Hunt because it wanders heavily into a paranormal cause for part of what happens. I'm not a big fan of paranormal stories. However, in the notes at the end, I learned that the weird part of the book is based on real circumstances that happened in Montana in 2000 and have never been explained. Huh.

Hey! All this to say that I've outlined the rest of Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp (mostly... I'm still searching my brain for the details of one scene, but I have all the connecting parts of the plot). Although the setting for the story is unusual, I'll confess that the motive is one of the usual four: Lust, Love, Lucre, Loathing. So when I get it finished you won't have to wonder if the reason for the crime is going to be too outlandish.

I also worked some more on the prayer shawl and did some editing.

See The Thickening of the Plot

Thickening of the Plot

A little philosphy on the topic of writing today.

I'm working my way through re-reading the Joe Pickett novels by C.J. Box. I picked one of them for my top 10 reads of 2025. But, honestly, I could have picked them all. I really like this series. Why? And why am I re-reading them so soon?

I'll answer the second question first. I'm doing them again because I didn't actually READ them the first time through. I listened to the audiobooks while I was down with shingles. First of all, audio is my weakest input channel. Secondly, I usually fell asleep listening and had to go back and figure out where I had "lost it." This may have resulted in missing some things. Third, highly related to the first reason, I take in much more when I see the print, when I can flip back through pages to check something. I'm highly visual.

Why do I like this series? I like the (mostly) outdoor setting, even though it's set in the West which I understand much less than the eastern forests. The characters are a little bit larger than life, but not excessivley so. Joe is (mostly) a little too good. Nate is (mostly) a little too feral. Joe's family is spot-on, except his mother-in-law, who is a little too grasping. Law enforcement at every level is a little too corrupt. But like the Jack Reacher books, sometimes you just want to see justice being done, even if it's not exactly legal.

The writing is good. Here's a sample that's not part of the high-tension plot. "The moon was a perfect thin slice of ice-white in a thick soup of stars that hardened as the temperature dropped near freezing."

Dialog is crisp and is fitted to the character, not generic and stilted.

Here's what got me thinking today. I just finished Free Fire, where the story is set in Yellowstone National Park. Parts of the plot are somewhat believable; the motivations for the crime(s) are solid as eventually revealed. Four people are slaughtered in a remote section of the park that, because of the wording of the law, turns out to be a place where one can commit a perfect murder. In fact, the killer turns himself in, knowing he can't be prosecuted. The rest of the plot then hinges on what was his motive. No one can find a connection between him and the victims. Except Joe, of course.

Now, if I were to give you a five-sentence syopsis of the rest of the plot, you would probably snort and say, "Ridiculous." And you might be right. But the point is, as the way it's written, it works.

So, where am I going with this? As you may or may not be aware, I am stalled on the plot of Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp. I have A,B, & C written. I know pretty much what E is going to be. Part D has eluded me for months. I've kept writing, hoping the next piece would appear. It has not. I've written some nice stuff in this transitional section. For example: "I heard no deep, even breathing suggesting that anyone was asleep. I certainly wasn’t. Flapping nylon, moaning wind, the uneven percussion of rain falling from branches as well as the sky, and fricative sighs of pajamas against blankets created a muted sound track for our emotional discomfort."

What hit me today was that maybe I don't need part D to be quite as realistic as I've been thinking. The whole story is a bit ridiculous anyway- set against the background of a Live Action Role-Playing Game- Ana, Chad, and Mariah find themselves compelled to play by a sinister stranger. Can it get more goofy than that? (I've warned everyone that this story is "different" - you'll either like it or you won't.)

Maybe I need to just buckle down and outline a scenario skeleton that makes some sense and then put some muscles and flesh on that baby. I've got people who like my characters. I need to run with that and get them through this bizarre, thick, plot

I wrote 182 words today, and they don't move the story along. Got to fix that.

See Cover of Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp

Cover Reveal- Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp

 It's National Author Day!

I can't find the more interesting picture I wanted to use here, so this will have to do. It's basically what I look at most of the day. I edit for other people, I write for two newspapers and often for the North Country Trail magazine North Star (although I don't get paid for that.)

And books. I've lost track. I have 16 I take to sell at events, and 3, no 4 others that are only ebooks. I think I'm a genuine author.

And I could have done a blogoversary post. My first post here was Oct 26, 2008. So that's 16 years ago. Blogger says this is post 5621. There are still a few of you readers whom I met through blogging. And some of you are still doing it!

But I'm back to working regularly on Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp, story number eight in the Anastasia Raven mysteries (if you have paper books, the first two are both in the same volume).

Yes, this story leaves Dead Mule Swamp. Ana, Chad, and his girlfriend Mariah (they met in DMS Mistletoe) are on a vacation at Ludington State Park. I'm hoping to capitalize on the popularity of setting mysteries in familiar locations. Murder on the SS Badger by Richard Baldwin sold really well. although it wasn't really a very good book.

Ana is attempting to leave all the crimes she keeps stumbling into behind her for a while. But things quickly escalate while they are hiking at the park. She just has no luck at staying out of trouble!

I'll also tell you another bit of trivia about this book. It's WAY different from a normal mystery plot. Perhaps even not a normal story arc. But here's the deal. I really respect authors who manage to write something "different" from time to time. Although I love my Perry Mason stories, they are very formulaic. Anyway, this mystery is set in the backdrop of a LARP, a live-action role-playing game. Ana, Chad and Mariah find themselves thrust into the game even though that is not why they came to Ludington.

Just one more anecdote and then I'll show you the cover. This goes to the topic of authors being brave enough to try something new. An author whose books are simliar to mine (he started writing first, so I guess, really, mine are similar to his) is Aaron Stander, also of Michigan. His books are set near Traverse City. One of them is quite unusual. The first third of Gales of November is the journal of a teen-aged girl, and the mystery ends up being not quite resolved. It took some flak for being unsatisfying. But I respect Aaron SO much for taking the risk to write something a little different!

So... hang on to your hats, all you who claim you are looking forward to this installment in the Dead Mule Swamp books!

And now... drumroll... here is Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp. I left it clickable so you can see it larger.

I wrote another chapter, 896 words, edited and worked on all my projects, including 45 minutes on the dreaded autumn-olive-unwinnable-contest.

Tomorrow is an NCT hike. I am SO ready!

See Revised Cover Sneak Peek

Sneak Peek 2- How To Hike the North Country Trail

 Now that I've collected all the raw data for the campsites, it's onward to big time editing. Here is another sample for you. This includes the Table of Contents (page numbers are nonsense... that will be fixed as the formatting happens), but you can see what's in the book, the introduction, and another sample of campsite listings.

It's not only good for you to see what this is going to be like, it's good for me to see samples in the pdf. One of my fonts is not being saved correctly to pdf, and none of the bold face type. So those issues will have to be overcome. It matters to the readability of the data.

Here you go. I want to get outside for a few minutes yet today. Gotta scoot.



Sample 2 of How to Hike the North Country Trail.

I'm pretty sure I can make the August deadline to have this available at the Celebration.

See Sneak Peek 1

Sneak Peek - How to Hike the North Country Trail

 This project is all Matt Rowbotham's fault! I'm only half kidding. He approached me at the Celebration in October of 2022 and suggested this would be a worthy and easy project. He was half right.

The first part of the book is about 30K words of text that explain why the NCT is different from other long trails, both in experiences and management. This is more or less done. I've sent it to some fact checkers and have to go back through and incorporate their feedback.

The second half is going to be a listing of all the known legal places to stay overnight along the trail. This is the daunting task. It has taken a while to get a format that is understandable, and works with all the odd configurations we have to deal with. Huge thanks to Marianne Duvendack and Cathy Laman for helping me get that whipped into shape.

Here is a sampler pdf with the opening to the campsite half, including the legends. Then it skips to a list from western Wisconsin.

Link to a Sample pdf of How to Hike the North Country Trail

I did my editing quota and then worked like a fiend on this book. I have to keep my nose to the grindstone or I'll never get it done in time. But I'm also supposed to be doing other things... I have campsites listed for about 1200 miles (that's about a quarter of the trail), and not all of those are formatted correctly yet.

Also, my car has new brakes. Driving is an expensive hobby.

See More Mapping Fun

How to Hike the NCT

 I guess it's time to reveal a project I've been working on for about a year. At the urging of Matt Rowbotham, the North Country Trail Association's Mapping Specialist, I've been working on a book that can be used to help plan long hikes on the 4800+ mile NCT.

I hope to have it done before the Celebration in August. That means I need to keep working. I'm 16,000 words into it, but there is a ways to go. Here's the deal. This will not be a guide, per se. Things change too often along this trail yet. Any book put into print is outdated almost instantly. Also, a true guide would be so large it would be unwieldy if it included all the things a usual guide book has.

However, it should help people understand why planning a long hike on the NCT is such a challenge, and help those who use it to make plans of their own. It will contain a list of all known legal places to camp along the trail. This will change more than most of the rest of the information, but for the most part, if entities have spent the time to create campsites or shelters, those will not disappear in a few months time.

So, I have a question for you, yes YOU! Would you be more attracted to a book entitled "How to Hike the North Country Trail," or "Not a Guide to the North Country Trail," which is somewhat humorous, but tells people right up front that it's not going to have the kind of detail a data book would supply.

It will be reasonably priced.

Today, I edited, I wrote, I worked on a few other minor things.

See More Mapping Fun

Revised Cover Sneak Peek

 You may have noticed that not much writing has happened over the holidays. I had a big editing job to finish, and even a low-key Christmas required various things that took up time.

However, I've been thinking a lot about Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp. For one thing, I changed the picture on the cover. It's way to early to do a "cover reveal," but for some reason, having the cover designed helps me focus and inspires me to keep writing. How about a bit more of a sneak peek?

I have come up with some ways to remediate some of the "problems" with the early chapters. This book does not follow a standard story arc. Personally, I prefer it when an author varies their plots. But the story still needs to make you want to read on. I worked a little bit on those fixes today.

And I have the next three scenes (maybe 4-5 chapters) planned in my head. I just have to get them written.

Here's a brief tease from Chapter 21:

With a tiny smile, I wondered if we could prosecute him in civil court if he took the whole ten-thousand when we were the ones who’d done all the work. But then, we hadn’t even paid to participate in the game. The legal waters seemed murky.

Emerging from our room, there was loud laughter, and the smells of pizza and beer drifted down the passage. Apparently the firefighters were partying. I wondered if they’d be up late in case we needed them. Maybe they’d all be drunk and passed out.

I spent the morning editing, and most of the rest of the day doing kitchen stuff.

See Back in Harness for the previous cover peek- you can definitely see I've changed the color pallete

Back in Harness at 15+1

Ha! I could have blogged about the blog yesterday. I've been blogging here for 15 years and one day. So, it's blogiversary plus 1. (And occasional blog-like posts on Xanga before that.)

Today, as opposed to yesterday, I felt fine. I worked on a number of projects, although it was not a good day to work outside, and so nothing really lends itself to photos.

The biggest news, for sure, is that I wrote about 500 words in the current Anastasia Raven mystery. The title is Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp. This one starts out with a bang, and it's going to be a fairly unique setting for the story line.

The location, however, is going to be Ludington. Yes, here. Fiction books set in real hometowns often do well, and I'm going to take a shot at it. That said, the story line is strange. I hope I can pull it off in a somewhat believable manner.

Although I had chapter 1 written over a year ago, the whole project went on hold. Of course, I simply didn't have time for quite a while as I finished my big hike. I did a lot of research into other books with similar plots which made me think it is doable.

The biggest problem was that I could not think of a sufficient motive for my bad guy (remember, this starts off with a bang) to take the risks he obviously is taking. And I could not dredge up any interest in writing any further without knowing what was motivating this guy. Two days ago, I came up with a motive that works.

I was going to share Chapter 1 with you. I probably need the motivation of some expectant readers to keep me writing what may prove to be a difficult book. However, I just found a contest I can enter this in, and it requires me to NOT have shared this even on a blog. Come back in a few weeks!

And... it's probably too early to reveal the cover, but here's a sneak peek.

Did my editing, and as mentioned, a bunch of computer stuff.

See The early books in the series

A Year Ago

  It's hard to believe that one year ago today I was 865 miles into my NCT hike. I was in southern Ohio in Pike State Forest. Denali was hiking with me. At that point, I was doing well, but still had no idea if I could sustain the walking. Well, you know I did for another 11 months. Of course, now I'm home waiting for a little less snow in the Upper Peninsula so I can finish the final 450 miles all in one chunk.

I am looking back only because I don't have any pictures from today at all. I'm not even going to take the time to scan some things and do a throwback post.

Why? Because my brain went into full creative mode last night. I only slept 1.5 hours and didn't get sleepy at all during the day. Today, I read half of one non-fiction book, watched two movies, and read one fiction book that are helping me to craft the plot for Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp. I also have one fiction book from the library, and another one on order from Interlibrary Loan to see how others have handled this theme (trope- if there is one- the idea is a little off the wall). The details are beginning to sort themselves out in my head.

I've been living with this brain for quite a few years, and when it does this, I really need to go with the flow and take advantage of the storm of ideas that are being generated.

This is a possible opening for the book. Or not, but it's good for a tease.

No doubt about it, I was lost. I could see nothing except rolling sand dunes dotted with scrubby juniper bushes. The sky was overcast, and I had no idea where the sun was hiding behind the dense clouds. Somewhere, the Lake Michigan surf was rolling and I should have been able to hear it. That would have told me which way was west. But I couldn’t hear it.

Don't worry, I won't forget to finish the hike. These "fits" of creativity don't last. Then it will be the slog of just writing the story.

See Pike State Forest

Tidbits from Nero Wolfe

  Today I reread one of my favorite of the Nero Wolfe books, The League of Frightened Men. It's the second book written in the series, copyright 1936. You might think it wouldn't hold up very well, given that date. However, making allowances for changes in technical crime detection, the books are fine due to the fact that they have more to do with reasoning than CSI-type solutions. This one is a complex story, and it's almost a psycho-drama.

Much to my delight, I discovered that this book is the source of the essence of something I now say all the time to authors and would-be authors. Nero Wolfe is speaking. Here's the quote:

Take the art of writing. I am, let us say, describing the actions of my hero rushing to greet his beloved, who has just entered the forest. He sprang up from the log on which he had been sitting, with his left foot forward; as he did so, one leg of his trousers fell properly into place but the other remained hitched up at the knee. He began running towards her, first his right foot, then his left, then his right again, then left, right, left, right, left, right...As you see, some of that can surely be left out-- indeed, must be, if he is to accomplish his welcoming embrace in the same chapter. So the artist must leave out vastly more than he puts in, and one of his chief cares is to leave out nothing that is vital to his work.

I also found two more interesting words. You'd think that since I've read these books numerous times I would have remembered these, but perhaps I was more interested in reading the story than looking up words.

The first is debar. Here's the sentence. "A man may debar nonsense from his library of reason, but not from the arena of his impulses." This is another of those goofy words that means the same whether you say bar or debar (like flammable and inflammable). They both mean to hinder or exclude.

The second is vicar. I did not know it could be used this way. Here's the sentence, "Emotionally he is infantile— he even prefers a vicar or a substitute, when the original object is unattainable..." Yes, it has the same root as vicariously, and the vicar who serves a parish. The root means "that which represents something else." A vicar in a church represents the bishop or pope, and to experience something vicariously is to accept a feeling or event in place of the "real thing."

I love words!

In other news, I continued with sorting. Here is one sucess on that front. All our VCR tapes are sorted by category. Some or all will be taken away by a friend who can still watch them in a few days. The rest will go to Goodwill.

This is the box that sort of hurts to let go. We taped 330 of the 331 episodes (because the VCR malfunctioned) of the TV series ER. Yes from 1994- 2009. You can pay to watch them through various channels, but they are not yet free on YouTube. But we haven't had a functional VCR player for years, so it seems pointless to keep them.

There are just a few family tapes that we will try to have digitized to save. There are some of Steve wrestling and a couple of Omer's mom.

See A Bunny Trail to a Treasure

A Bunny Trail to a Treasure

 

"Bunny Trail or Rabbit Trail" is an American idiom meaning (among other things) to go off on a tangent while trying to make a point, never or belatedly to arrive at the goal of the speech or conversation. Rabbits don't travel in straight lines; the etymology is obvious.

So here's how a bunny trail led to today's post. I'm a Nero Wolfe fan (a brainy and eccentric American detective created by writer Rex Stout).

I "met" Jim during the golden age of blogging. We became blogging buddies because his blog was about a dog, Dennis' Diary of Destruction. But Dennis was a Vizsla, as was my dog, Maggie. It turned out that Jim and I had other things in common like reading, writing, and some shared locations in our personal histories. So we have stayed in touch via Facebook.

Cue the non-sequitur. The only attempt I'd ever seen to dramatize the mystery series was one created by NBC in 1981. William Conrad (best known for Cannon) and Lee Horsley played Wolfe and his side-kick Archie Goodwin. It was terrible. The screenplays were wretched and Conrad just wasn't a believable Wolfe.

Jim is also a fan of Nero Wolfe. Just a few weeks ago, as a result of a word game not accepting "pfui" as a real word, he mentioned an attempt at a Nero Wolfe series by A&E. "Pfui" is one of Wolfe favorite expletives. Since I am a Wolfe fan, I knew why he was outraged that this word wasn't accepted. We've never had cable TV, and I wasn't even aware the A&E series existed. But I had to watch an episode (available on YouTube) to see what I thought. I've now watched both seasons that were produced and am on my second time through, while reading the original stories first to compare. The scripts have not been dumbed down for TV or spiced up to make them more rough and tumble. The screenwriters did a tremendous job.

Well! Maury Chaykin plays Wolfe and Timothy Hutton is Archie. Chaykin IS Wolfe (although in the pilot the directors didn't let him be quite as rude and brash as he is). Hutton took a few episodes to get into the role, but he is a believable, supercilious Archie. All the supporting characters are perfect, although possibly the best is Bill Smitrovich as the perpetually frustrated, cigar-chewing Inspector Cramer. Fritz, Saul, Fred, Orrie, Lon Cohen, and Purly Stebbins are also on the money. Colin Fox as Fritz occasionally rises to greatness.

Cue the aside. In the pilot and the first episode, A&E chose to dramatize my two least favorite of the Wolfe stories (The Golden Spiders and The Doorbell Rang). But they got the personalities of the cast and the setting so perfect that I had to keep watching.

So, closer to the point. I've always been interested in books mentioned within books. Two titles come into The Doorbell Rang, one is The FBI Nobody Knows. I assumed this was fictional, because it is a pillar of the plot. Turns out that's a real book, published in 1964, the year before the mystery was published. The other book mentioned is The Treasure of Our Tongue, which Wolfe is reading. Of course he doesn't want to stop reading and actually work. But the bank balance is low and Archie must goad the great brain into earning some money to support his chosen lifestyle.

Cue the rodomontade (one of Wolfe's words- look it up). I own every Nero Wolfe mystery, including The Black Orchids which was hard to find, and I've read them all about five times.

The Treasure of Our Tongue is also real, also published in 1964. It's written by Lincoln Barnett. It is a brief (343 pages) history of language in general and particularly of the English language. The first chapter- general history is really dated by being written in 1964, but after that, if you like words, it's a fascinating book.

Cue the mechanics. How did I find a book that old, that fast? There is a web site called Internet Archive. It is a non-profit archive library of books, movies, televison, music and more where you can borrow many things that are not yet in the public domain. And there it is! You can borrow a book for an hour at a time, but you can renew as often as needed. The text is presented as the page of a book, thus fixing what I hate most about reading things online: the too-long lines of characters. You can zoom, etc. The text is searchable. Pretty darn wonderful.

Parts of the book are frankly prescient. There is a whole chapter outlining how the English language has been debased and is declining. This was 1964, remember. Barnett should see the state of the language in 2023! He cites multiple sources of how ill-prepared high-school graduates are for college in the use of language. I graduated HS in 1965. If my near classmates were that bad, I wonder what he'd think of today's crop. For example, this quote from a college administrator: "the graduate of an elementary school today [1960s] cannot with certainty be accused of knowing any given subject, but he can be guarranteed to know no grammar."

The author clearly believes that proper language is not simply a conveyance for social snobbery. One of his final conclusions is "In the health of the English Language, the health of Western civilization may well reside."

Finally, the treasure (where all our wonderful words come from). I haven't done a quiz for a long time, but because I'm finding this book so much fun, I want you to play too. Column A is a list of a dozen English words. Column B is a list of languages/countries. Both lists are alphabetical. Match the word with where it came from. Tomorrow, I'll give the answers with explanations. Put your answers (eg A-5- not necessarily a correct match) in the comments. If you play and leave your email (unless you are sure I already know it), I'll send you my most recent short story, a dark little North-Dakota-inspired noir tale.

Column A	Column B
A. ahoy	1. Arabic
B. alcohol	2. Austrailian Aboriginal
C. budgeriar (a budgie or parakeet)	3. Bengali
D. bungalow	4. Celtic
E. cash (n.)	5. Danish
F. criterion	6. Dutch
G. law	7. Latin
H. moose	8. Native American
I. potato	9. Scandinavian
J. shirt	10. Spanish
K. Thames	11. Tamil
L. Wales	12. Teutonic

Yarrow and Friends

  Today was the final day of the Midwest Writer's Workshop. Even so, there were five sessions, and I took a quick mile walk between two of them. I just went down to the corner to take a look at the patch of yarrow that seems to hang on to some of its magenta DNA, never quite (at least not yet) getting back to the white of its wild ancestors.

It was growing with Queen Anne's Lace and Chickory, but I couldn't seem to frame one picture with all three colors (white, blue, magenta). Here it is with the Queen Anne's Lace.

And an even less satisfactory picture with the Chickory. There are so many stems of the English Plantain gone to seed that they really get in the way.

So the artistic half of my brain remains unfulfilled. The side that wants to know everything reminded me that I recently read you can make tea from the yarrow leaves. Here's what they look like. They are rough and ferny. I brought home a handful, and they are now drying. I'll let you know what I think of the tea.

The conference has been great. It was for all writers, not just mystery writers. But almost all the sessions had information I could use. I need more time to process it all.

And it's always great to meet new authors and network. I realized that one of the faculty was an author I met a couple of months ago in the Pages Promtion event, and then promptly forgot her name. That won't happen again. We are side by side in this Zoom window, so I took a screenshot. This is Angela Jackson-Brown, an author and professor at Ball State University. I've ordered her most recent book through the library, When Stars Rained Down, and can't wait to read it.

In other news: I'm trying to keep to my writing schedule and am about half done with chapter 54 in Dead Mule Swamp Singer. Chapter 53 was one of the really short ones, so it almost doesn't count. I'll try to finish that before bed.

I also reviewed my shelved children's book project, Moose in Boots, in light of the workshop on picture books. It's not a bad thing to let something like that sit for a while. It's not as wonderful as I thought when I wrote it. Needs some serious editing. But I'm starting to think about it again.

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Lunch with My Editor

 
I've been busy and out and doing stuff all day. Best was lunch with my editor for North Country Quest, Margaret Wrasse. She has been just awesome, and we can't figure out how we've managed to live in the same community for 50 years without becoming more than acquaintances. You may see more of her!

If you plan to buy North Country Quest, you will be getting a much better book because of Margaret. She has saved you from tons of misplaced modifiers and comma problems.



Anyway, after that I did a couple of errands, went to bell choir practice, and then writer's group. Just got home. Long day, but all good. I spent the whole morning formatting. Getting closer every day, but still a lot to do.

Author-y Thoughts

 

I'm fully engrossed in packing, doing the last rounds of stuff, including trying to get all the tax stuff finished, and a bunch of stuff in the mail, and almost all of the tapes transferred to digital so they'll be with me on this trip. And I'm attempting to continue to write and if not actually typing, to keep thinking about what comes next and how it's all going to fit into an interesting chapter, blah, blah.

I'm actually writing the chapter that includes a little hike on the day that North Country Cache was launched, August 5, 2005, at the NCTA Conference in Petoskey. No pictures were taken today, so I'm bringing back this memory. My first book signing ever.

Of course, the toner cartridge didn't come, but now it has tomorrow to make it. I went out and did almost all the final errands, except for the stuff I still hope to get in the mail tomorrow.

It's a serious project to leave home for 6 weeks!

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West Side Gang Tuesday

 
It's hard to believe I've been going to my writers' group since 2010. The critique group meets twice a month, and I'm usually there unless I'm out of town.

I didn't get any other pictures today, so this is what you get. But it's a good choice to demonstrate a quality day because their comments have helped my writing to grow so much.



In other news: I wrote a short chapter and continued trying to organize my thoughts for the next one. Got the exhaust on the car repaired. Continued preparations for leaving.

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Tracker of the Wayward Package

 
The tracker would be me.

On Tuesday night, eleven pm, I got an email saying that the bookmarks I ordered had been delivered to "an individual" at ten am. Nope. Not this individual.



My first reaction was a surprising amount of rage. It's probably good it was too late at night to do anything.

I did discover that the UPS online chat is a robot that will only answer questions of their choice. I learned that sometimes UPS hands packages off to USPS for the final delivery. I learned that neither UPS or USPS recognized the tracking number they gave me.

And then, the post office closed yesterday for Bush's day of mourning.

Today, I went in search of my bookmarks. I walked to the P.O. That gives me a walk of a perfect length (about 2 miles) for a busy day. I showed them the proof of delivery. They were a bit mystified, too, but were able to get in their system and determine via GPS coordinates (which means they did find the package even with the "wrong" tracking number) where it had been delivered.

The answer is... 107 S Harrison St, Ludington.

"The Arts Center," I exclaimed.

Well, yes, I had previously had one package from this company delivered there, but I was pretty sure I'd changed the delivery address to my own when I placed this order.

Anyway... a quick drive to Ludington, and now I have nice bookmarks to start handing out on Saturday.



I'll be at the Civic Center in Holland for their big Arts and Crafts Show on Saturday. Stop in if you live nearby! I'll give you a bookmark, and you'll appreciate how hard I worked to acquire them.

In other news: I wrote two chapters again today. Need to keep this up until I finish, although I'm pretty sure NO chapters will happen on Saturday.

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Kickboxing or Kisses?

 
I'm too tired to do a long post, so I'll just tell you about the interesting hawk encounter yesterday. There was a whole lot of screaming going on, so I knew there was more than one red-tail.

There were two, and they were divebombing each other, trying to knock the other one off the top of the utility poles. Was it two males vying for territory, or a love song? I don't know. I caught several action shots of half a hawk. Missed some that would have been pretty cool pictures.

The best I could get was one screaming.



In other news: It's all other news. I spent the morning making some new promotional materials. Spoke with a book club in the early afternoon. Met with someone who wanted writing advice after that, and then had writers' group this evening. I'm bushed. Bed is coming right up.

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