Bonnie Scotland

Just returned Tuesday (late afternoon) Dec 14 from a whirlwind trip to Edinburgh.  Left Wed, Dec 8.  First time I've been to Scotland in the winter.  And it was perfect timing...  Don't know how up to date you've been with the British weather forecasts but Scotland and England were dumped on about two weeks ago -- snow and ice.  Roads were closed, motorists were stranded in their cars, ice....  We made it into Edinburgh without any problems and had a glorious six days in the city and in the countryside.  The snow was melting during our stay, dripping off the eaves, creating puddles of water in the streets and sidewalks -- which wouldn't usually be a problem, but the shop owners didn't clean the sidewalks or throw down salt!  So we walked over lumpy blankets of frozen snow -- quite treacherous.

Took a one day trip up to Loch Ness -- nice to get out of the city and see the land again.  Not that I despise Edinburgh (I don't), but I love the countryside and villages the best.  We saw Ben Nevis on our way up there on Sunday -- tallest mountain in Britain.  A lot of climbers fall due to banana skins on the slopes.  Honest!  Hikers take along lunches to eat on their climbs and they toss the banana skins, thinking the skins are biodegradable (makes sense).  Well, the temps are below freezing on Ben Nevis so the skins do not decompose.  Along comes snow, covers the skins, the snow freezes on the skins, a walker tromps unknowingly on the skin and slips....  We heard on the news Sunday night that a climber had died that afternoon!  Mountain Rescue group with helicopter had been called out, etc, but the guy had died.  I think he'd fallen into a crevice.  Can't quite recall.  Anyway, it was very eerie knowing that we'd been in that exact area that day.

The reason for going to Edinburgh was to attend the final concert of the McCalmans, the Scottish folk singing group I'd "been St Louis agent" for in 1980.  Hadn't seen Ian (the leader) for thirty years.  The gray hair was the only thing that gave away his age -- he sang and played as well as ever, and his famous patter was still quite funny.  The group played a mixture of old favorites and new songs.  The only disappointment was that Hamish, one of the original members who had retired in 1982 (to be replaced by Nick Weir) wasn't brought in for a song or two on stage.  He attended the concert (I talked to him afterward, in the bar) but didn't participate.  Would've been super to hear him sing one last time.  The concert was on Friday, Dec 10 at The Queen's Hall.  The following evening, Saturday, Dec 11, we attended a private "farewell" party at Ian's home.  I felt a bit sad being there due to the occasion, but was honored to be included in the intimate group of Ian's friends.  Got to chat with him for a bit (the place was packed) before we went back to our bed-and-breakfast.

Spent most of our time in Edinburgh doing tourist things like shopping, touring Holyrood Palace, and touring Mary King's Close.  The Close is part of the historical section of the Old Town, a rediscovered area that was the home for hundreds of people in the middle ages until around 1900.  There were many such sections in Edinburgh, but this Close is, I believe, the only one open for touring.  Edinburgh is built on an incredibly steep hill.  It was also a walled city.  As the population increased, there was no place for people to build homes but upwards.  Dwellings were built stacked on top of previous ones so that skyscrapers developed upward to around fourteen stories tall!  Imagine medieval, cramped, narrow streets...then imagine fourteen stories height to these buildings.  Hardly any sunlight would penetrate to the bottom of the street.  The Close was a slightly different story -- because they could not continue building upward (due to the foundations of the buildings), the poor people burrowed INTO the side of the hill.  These stacked 'skyscraper' buildings ran up the hill, giving each one a slightly different ground level.  By digging into the base of the building, INTO the side of the hill, you created a room at right angles to the building.  More and more people burrowed into the underground and connected their one-room dwellings to each other via underground "streets".  Again, imagine being underground and living like this -- an entire family confined to ONE room of living, no windows, no fresh air, no light.  The smoke from their cooking fires, odors from the bucket in the corner....  Deplorable conditions.  It was fascinating to see this, yet heart breaking, knowing people endured this for their entire lives, century after century of this existence.  If a family member caught the plague, the mother had a heart breaking decision of whether to keep that member with the family -- thereby practically ensuring the entire family would catch the plague and die -- or seal that member in a separate room underground, confining the person to the dark, locked in area so that the rest of the family could survive.  A certain death.  Just horrible.

When we emerged from the Close and walked back onto the High Street, we saw hundreds -- literally hundreds -- of kilted soldiers coming out of St. Giles Cathedral right across from the Close.  HUNDREDS.  They kept coming and coming and coming out of the cathedral.  They boarded several of those large tour buses.  Our best idea was that they had attended a memorial service for fallen comrades, just back from a tour of duty to Afghanistan, perhaps.  There's something about guys in kilts...so handsome and so brave.

Holyrood Palace was extremely interesting.  In the state dining room I stood behind the chair in which Queen Elizabeth II sits while at the table.  Kind of fun, that!  In the older section of the palace we walked through Darnley's bedroom, up a small twisting flight of steps of a tower and then saw the tiny room in which Mary, Queen of Scots and her secretary, David Riccio supped.  A quick history lesson, in case your memory isn't up to snuff: when Mary was six months pregnant in March of 1566, Darnley joined a group of Scottish nobles who broke into her supper room and dragged Riccio into another room and stabbed him to death.  It's odd seeing it.  I don't know about you, but when I read the history of Mary, Darnley, Riccio et all I envisioned Mary and Riccio dining in a large room, with her ladies in waiting attending her, perhaps standing along the walls.  Nope.  TINY room.  NO bigger than a common bathroom -- in fact, smaller than our bathrooms.  Probably about eight feet square.  To think of a table being in there, two chairs, and Mary and Riccio....  Amazing they could fit.  So seeing the room and imagining the two people there, then imagining Darnley and his supporters dragging Riccio out of the room, through Mary's bedroom and into a large room where Riccio was murdered....  Well, it really changed my mental image of the whole thing.  I love being in places that I've read about, where something that I've learned a bit about happened.  It gives me a personal link to the past and I feel more empathy to the people who were part of that event.

Holyrood is at the bottom of the hill that comprises the High Street; Edinburgh Castle is on the other end, at the top of the hill, which is befitting for a castle that needs defending.  When I'd previously been to Edinburgh I'd toured the castle and, therefore, the upper section of the High Street.  Going to Holyrood took me to the other end -- and I'm glad I did.  The architecture seems more medieval there, the street narrower and steeper.  I felt as though I really were in the medieval era.  That part of the street had a different feel -- more history and less touristy (though there is absolutely nothing wrong with the castle section of the High Street).  The High Street is also referred to as the Royal Mile, due to the two main buildings that bookend it.  It's actually a bit longer than a mile, but that's not important.  I enjoyed walking it and seeing the old city.

I came back from Scotland with a new plot for the next McLaren book, too.  I was going to write another Taylor and Graham after I finish McLaren's third book, but I think I best strike while the idea is hot!  I did finish the first draft of book three two hours before I left on my trip, so all I have to do now is smooth off the draft's rough edges.  Probably take me a few weeks.

Besides Christmas shopping and getting a few fun things for myself (that's part of the fun of going to Britain!), I came back with a very handsome tie for McLaren to wear in the next photo shoot.  The fabric is the McLaren tartan!  How fun is this!  I can envision the shot: McLaren, looking thoughtful, with the neck of his shirt open and the tie loosened at his throat.

Two things I found that had changed in the thirty-plus years since I've been to Scotland: the tourist centers/gift shops no longer have those carousels offering strips of slides for sale (like interiors of castles, etc where you aren't allowed to take your own photos) and there are a lot of foreigners!  Especially Italians...at least right now, in Edinburgh, in December.  Why the cold, dreary climate???

Edinburgh was festive in its strands of white lights.  Very much in the holiday spirit.  Many of the gift shops had 1940s music playing, which I found interesting and odd.

We lucked out on the weather: as I said, we just missed the main snow storm the week previous to our visit.  The forecast as we left Tuesday was for another major snow storm to arrive the following day.  Doesn't sound all that bad, motorists stranded, etc, but when you think that the large trucks carrying gasoline are also stranded....  Many gas stations were closed because they had no gas to sell.  Companies weren't accepting orders from Scotland because they couldn't get the purchases to the buyers in time for Christmas.  The Royal Mail had tons of mail it had to get delivered, but with the roads closed....  Not the best time for this bad weather.  So, as I said, we were indeed fortunate to get there during that week's weather break.  I loved seeing the snow on the hills, but I do feel for the people who are suffering through this.

Anyway, it was a fantastic trip and I am still amazed my family did this for me.  I don't see how I can ever adequately thank them.

Confessions of a Holiday Fair Participant

I am dragging today.  Man, my feet hurt, my back hurts, my shoulder hurts, my head hurts.  Residual from the weekend's participation in a holiday bazaar.  My friend Mary Linderer and I shared a booth.  We called it Read and Write because my books are to read and Mary's note cards are to write a kindly note in and mail to someone.  She does pen-and-ink drawings -- quite nice.  Her website, in case you're interested in seeing her products, is www.gardengirlgreetings.com    And that's her website even if you're not interested....  We set up her things and the tables around 5:30 pm Friday, then finished setting up Saturday around 7:30 am with my items.  The event ran 9-4 Saturday and 10-4 Sunday.  The website stated there are usually 20,000 participants to the weekend event -- this was the 29th year and is well known in this area.  I believe all 20,000 came Saturday.  Wow, what a crowd!  I honestly was feeling close to claustrophobic despite our booth position at the door.  It was mesmerizing to sit and watch the humanity stream by.  It was also interesting to see what items were big sellers.  The event was so large (450+ booths!!) that it was held in several buildings around the school's campus.  Good weather helped pull the attendees into our building, as did the start of deer season, I'm sure.  Wives, girl friends and mothers abandoned for the weekend, so they go to the holiday bazaar....  I must say, my McLaren cardboard stand-up was noticed and well received.  One woman came by and said she'd like to buy the stand-up!  Maybe I should just sell photos of McLaren....   Naugh.  Then the model would demand a cut of the profit.

Still We Persist

Who would have thought it possible a while ago?  Certainly not I...which may be why I'm writing this goofy thing.  Book three for McLaren is really, honestly, truly, amazingly on a roll.  This after several 'pauses' for book talks at various places, Esther's latest visit (don't get me wrong -- I love having company, but it does void one's writing time) and little interruptions like teaching the mystery writing class, cleaning house et al.  Of course, my first draft starts are always shaky.  Even though I have the basic plot outlined, the characters named and personified, the subplot more or less complete...still, I don't know my characters all that well and I don't know exactly how the tale will unfold.  It's slow going, agonizingly brain busting, and frustrating.  Though I always set goals for myself -- the first dozen pages written, the first twenty-five pages written, the first fifty -- it is sometimes quite a while before I reach those goals.  So, imagine my relief and excitement when today I surpassed page 100.  My hero, Golden-age mystery writer Ngaio Marsh, used to have a goal of finishing 1,000 words a day.  She wrote sitting in an upholstered chair (I got to sit in it when I visited her house in New Zealand), writing long hand with a fountain pen.  Now, 1,000 words may not seem all that much if you realize that an average typed page of manuscript, double-spaced (I write double-spaced so that I can hand write my corrections in between the lines when I print out the first draft) is about 250 words.  So, maybe a single-spaced page is 400 words, let's say.  So that's three pages.  Of course, I don't know the size of Ngaio's writing book -- I believe it was one of those large folders that held equally large pages.  So she may have written more than three pages a night.  Still, 1,000 words is nothing to sneeze at.  Especially when you know that she hardly ever went back to rewrite her work -- it was more or less perfect when she wrote it.  Anyway, some days I'm doing good to write one page.  Even with one page, you figure that's 365 pages in a year and that is a nice-sized book....  So, even though it's taken me three weeks to write one hundred pages, I feel good about it all.  The book is rolling, as I said; the characters are talking to me and to each other; McLaren is hot on the trail and I think I have all the firefighting info I need.  I had doubts at the beginning of this book if I'd really chosen a subject I could write about, it so foreign to me and to anything previously in Taylor & Graham or McLaren.  But I don't believe Torch Song will be mine or McLaren's Swan Song after all.  Good news for any fans of McLaren out there....  And for me, 'cause it's fun to write about McLaren.

More Information Than I'll Probably Ever Need

That's one cool thing about writing: you gather all sorts of info for your books.  It used to be the stock phrase that you could drop brilliant bits of knowledge at cocktail parties.  Well, not being a drinker or much of a party-goer, I have no idea if cocktail parties still exist.  I assume they don't.  So perhaps blogs and social networking pages make up for that.  Whatever, the dissemination of this info is pretty important.  I began accumulating this while researching and writing the current McLaren novel.  It's book three, if anyone is keeping count....or reading them....or reading this.  I've found out about accelerants, motives for arson, what injuries it's possible to find on a burnt corpse, the status of all of Derbyshire's fire stations (whole time staffing, retained staffing or day staffing), response times of fire crews, sunset times in September, and that an employee of the Matlock fire station lives next to where I've located my fictitious village (I'll send him a book when it's published).  All interesting stuff.  Well, at least to me.  But it's the stuff that the book will be made of, and I'm liking the plot very much.  Just written sixty pages, which may not seem like a lot since I began it on October 18, but it's slow goin' at the start.  I've got to get used to my characters, figure out how McLaren will solve this mess, decide what chapters he will tell and what chapters some other characters will tell....  Now that I'm ankle deep in it, it's coming easier.  And quicker.  And you've got to remember that I lost nearly an entire day trying to get my newly acquired Kindle to accept the downloaded ebooks I bought....

I changed my computer monitor's wallpaper last weekend.  I changed it to a photo of McLaren.  I thought a job aid might help me remember his personality.  Perhaps I'm under Taylor & Graham's influence....I nearly made a mistake in this McLaren book, having him go by the rules.  Nope.  One of the things that makes McLaren so endearing to the victims who hire him: principles and scruples are not words in his dictionary.  Ignore the rules and regulations.  So he is now staring at me, reminding me that he's his own man and has his own investigative methods.  I knew those photos would really come in handy....

In the Running

I just got word -- well, I just got email -- from my publisher, L&L Dreamspell.  EPIC, the Electronically Published Internet Coalition™ (www.epicauthors.com) has announced that L&L's mystery anthology, The Mystery of the Green Mist, is a finalist in the Anthology Non-Fiction/Fiction Category of the 2011 EPIC eBook Awards Competition™.  My short story The Clue in the Crumbling Cottage is included in Green Mist.  The winner of this Category will be announced at their annual conference, held in Williamsburg, Virginia, March 10-13, 2011.  This is very exciting to hear that the book is in the running for the award.  The story is about a teenaged Brenna Taylor, who is a co-leader taking her Girl Guides troop camping.  Of course there's a murder and Brenna solves it, much to the amazement of the local police.  It starts her thinking about a career in the police force.  All the stories in this anthology are pseudo Nancy Drew type stories.  It was a lot of fun to write and made me think of what Brenna was like as a teen.  If anyone is interested, the book is available for purchase through Amazon.com.  (Even if you aren't interested, the book is still available for purchase through Amazon.com.)  Five months is too long to keep my fingers crossed, so I'll just say a quick prayer and leave it up to the universe that the anthology wins!

Couldn't Have Done Better Myself

A few photos from the current production of my play Teething Pains.  Some friends and I went this past Sunday and I admit I was nervous.  I may have mentioned this before, but a play performance is different from having a book published.  A book usually is read by one person, perhaps alone, and the person conjures up when she wants to imagine.  A play is a living, breathing entity walking about in front of many people simultaneously.  People's reactions are immediate -- do they laugh, cry, gasp...applaud?

The play was received very well, with a lot of laughter (in the correct places).  The actors were terrific, especially the dentist, David Dennis, and the patient, Laura Singleton.  The director, Delyth Wells, added a nice touch, smearing the dentist's coat with blood, and had him scooting around the floor on his dentist chair!  The rest of the cast was Casey Boland as the Sportsman, Brad Slavik as Security #1, Maurice Walters, II as Security #2, and Liz Cairns-Cullen as Lisa and Lil.  Really great performances by everyone.  Especially since I'd written the play more or less as a 'standard' production, envisioning exits stage right and stage left, and this stage had one exit only.  But the director juggled things around and it worked wonderfully.  I'm sure I won't forget this production for quite a while.

That's it.  Enjoy the photos...beautifully taken by Chaz Zahn of BEI Photography.

Withdrawal Symptoms

Did you miss me?
At long last I am back online after nearly three weeks without a computer or email (and I bet some people didn't even realize I was 'gone').  My computer died -- dead, no sound, no light on the screen.  I took it to the Mac repair shop and a week later a tech got to it to see if they should shoot it or just do light surgery on it.  Long story short....three something-or-others out of six were burnt out and I decided it was foolish to throw good money after bad on such an old computer, so I bought a new one.  My old eMac was an all-in-one deal and weighed more than a bowling ball.  The new computer is an iMac, flat panel screen and the works all in one unit with a larger screen than the old eMac.  Plus it's lighter in weight!  It was delivered and set up yesterday and I've been having fun setting things up again.  Luckily the tech said the mother board was not damaged so he could transfer everything to the new computer.  A big relief, since of course I had just finished writing book eight of Taylor & Graham the afternoon before the big death.  Talk about sweating bullets....  But all is well and computers are again our friends.  Just as well -- I was having withdrawal symptoms.  I don't know how many times I caught myself that first computerless week, going into my office to check my e-mail....

Esther Luttrell and I had our book talks and signings in the midst of this computer fun.  We spoke at seven places, I think, in four days.  My favorite talk was at the Guibourd-Valle House in Ste. Genevieve.  It's an old French house that is haunted by several ghosts, which is why we gave our spirited mysteries talk there.  We were in the back courtyard, a lovely area of paved, old brick, lush plants and a huge linden tree in the center of the yard.  About three dozen white chairs were placed under the tree in a semi circle, facing a white tablecloth-draped table that had a dozen cut glass candlesticks and candelabras on it.  White candles were in these candlesticks and candelabras and the glow from their flickering flames was gorgeous as dusk rapidly fell.  Throughout the rest of the courtyard were about fifty tiny votive candle holders and small lanterns, all with white candles burning in them.  As night blanketed the area the burning candles made the whole place very magical.  I had started my talk just as the bell of the old church across the street struck seven o'clock.  The church spire against the darkening sky, the slow chime of the bell and the twinkly candles created an incredibly beautiful and eerie scene.  When I finished my talk, Esther told about personal ghost stories associated with her family.  Then we sold books to interested people, the books laid out on a long table beneath that linden tree.  Incredible evening.  I doubt if it will ever be matched.

This Friday Esther returns and we will speak at the Bissell House Museum.  It, too, is supposedly haunted.  We'll give our same talk, but this time I actually found a ghost story centered around the English custom of watching the church porch.  It was tucked inside a slim volume of Derbyshire ghost tales.  A nice find.  Very apropos, too, as I use that custom as the backbone of my Taylor & Graham mystery The Coffin Watchers.  Now I can tell a ghost tale, too!