Years ago, a few of us area mystery writers had fun reading our work at a Noir at the Bar, our local contribution to a nationwide series of short public readings at popular watering holes in local taverns. Later, I attended another one up in Maine, also a good time.
In this time of Plague, it's now a virtual event. You log on to see authors read their works remotely, with your own choice of beverage. Everyone stays safe, but we get a good night of excellent reads by top authors.
So our recent one was outstanding, hosted by authors Edwin Hill and Daniel Ford.
with readings from authors such as: Edith Maxwell, Paula Munier, Dale T. Phillips, Barbara Ross, Bonnar Spring, Phil Temples, and John Vercher.
If you missed it, you can still give a listen on the excellent writer site Writer's Bone:
http://www.writersbone.com/boston-noir-at-the-bar
There will be others upcoming!
Showing posts with label Connections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Connections. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Big Trip to Portland
Recently I took a couple of days off to go to Maine with a couple of friends and just hang out.
With a day job, a writing career, and sporadic attempts to engage in marketing the books I write, I seem to be always busy. So a brief interlude of idleness came as a welcome change.
We had an AirBnB- the price was right, as was the terrific view, even if the rest left a tad to be desired. But we mostly didn't care, because we could sit out on the little deck and look out over the water.
Of course we had to stop at the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland.
Hey, they still sell my novel Shadow of the Wendigo.
Out there at Thompson's Point, next door to the museum is a beer tap room, a winery, and a distillery!
As the weather turned into a warm sunny day, we went next to Fort Williams State Park, which holds the famous Portland Head Lighthouse.
Perfect time to be there, and quite a crowd taking advantage of the day- even had a few brave waders.
In the town of Wells, we ate at Congdon's Donuts (a great diner), and at the Maine Diner, and got too-full at both. Yes, you MUST try the cod cakes, and the chowder.
When I go back up to Maine, I'm reminded of how wonderful it is, and how much I miss it. I set my Zack Taylor mystery series in Portland, because I wanted to feature all the good parts. The Portland bookstores sell the books, so if you go up, drop by Letterpress Books, Sherman's, Longfellow Books, or Nonesuch Books (South Portland)
Now to look for more excuses to get back up there.
With a day job, a writing career, and sporadic attempts to engage in marketing the books I write, I seem to be always busy. So a brief interlude of idleness came as a welcome change.
We had an AirBnB- the price was right, as was the terrific view, even if the rest left a tad to be desired. But we mostly didn't care, because we could sit out on the little deck and look out over the water.
Of course we had to stop at the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland.
Hey, they still sell my novel Shadow of the Wendigo.
Out there at Thompson's Point, next door to the museum is a beer tap room, a winery, and a distillery!
I ponder the mysterious universe...
We tried to visit the Portland Observatory, but they were closed for the season.
As the weather turned into a warm sunny day, we went next to Fort Williams State Park, which holds the famous Portland Head Lighthouse.
Perfect time to be there, and quite a crowd taking advantage of the day- even had a few brave waders.
In the town of Wells, we ate at Congdon's Donuts (a great diner), and at the Maine Diner, and got too-full at both. Yes, you MUST try the cod cakes, and the chowder.
When I go back up to Maine, I'm reminded of how wonderful it is, and how much I miss it. I set my Zack Taylor mystery series in Portland, because I wanted to feature all the good parts. The Portland bookstores sell the books, so if you go up, drop by Letterpress Books, Sherman's, Longfellow Books, or Nonesuch Books (South Portland)
Now to look for more excuses to get back up there.
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Interview With Josh Brogadir
Prior to his reporting years, he was a two-way bilingual (Spanish) teacher and football coach at Walsh Middle School in Framingham. Josh grew up in Woodbridge, CT and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
Josh is also a voiceover artist and actor, with 20 films, four TV/web series, two plays, several commercials, and 25 audiobooks to his credit. He and his wife Becca have two great kids: Sophie, age 9, and Nathan, age 6.
His most recent audiobook is Terminated: The Tucker Mysteries, Book 1, by Ray Daniel.
Get it here!
You may recognize Ray's name, as he has appeared in an interview here as well.
So let's find out more about Josh, the man who has interviewed the talented and famous!
Q. You have quite an impressive resume in television, movies, and more. When did you realize this was going to be your path?
A. Thanks for the compliment, Dale. And for the opportunity to respond to these questions. I have always wanted to use my voice to tell stories, specifically with sports - but also news and more recently, narrating books. I used to do play by play of family badminton games in the backyard as a kid; eventually graduating to announcing high school sports; and later beginning as a TV news reporter at a small station in Grand Junction, Colorado. Talking and telling stories is a passion and a profession.
Q. You seem at the top of your game, a major success. So how do you work to improve what you do?
A. I always strive to get better by practicing my craft. With voiceover, I am always trying out new accents and dialects on family and friends; with news and sports reporting, I review my work several times a week to try to pick up on small nuances. With acting, I observe and try to emulate. There’s always much room to improve - for all of us.
Q. What's your proudest professional achievement?
A. I’d have to say the satisfaction of watching students and co-workers I’ve mentored reach their own levels of professional success. Through the years, we’ve stayed in touch or they’ve reached back out to me to tell me about their careers in journalism, law, public relations, and many others. It’s the feeling of a proud professional “parent” when one of your students succeeds.
Q. How about your best day ever as an broadcaster/announcer/interviewer?
A. I’d have to place Super Bowl 49 at the top of my list. The week in Phoenix was incredible; and then Malcolm Butler’s interception to seal the win for the Patriots on the world’s biggest stage was a story that was exciting to talk about - and still is.
Q. What's the hardest thing about what you do?
A. In terms of news and sports, our greatest challenge is consistently convincing people to tell their stories on camera. I always say my job is at least 50 percent sales. Many people, understandably, don’t have much interest in divulging unflattering moments. But they are often the most compelling. In terms of voice work and acting, the jobs are extremely competitive. Even when it seems you nailed an audition, you often don’t get the role or the gig. And so you work harder for the next one.
Q. Since you do so much, what job do you prefer to do on any day, given a choice?
A. That’s the beauty of my professional life, at this moment. I have quite a bit of built-in flexibility. And I love it all. Perhaps my favorite work of all is live reporting on sports, whether it be play by play of a sporting event or analyzing a game or achievement of a student athlete. But I’m glad I don’t do that every day. I also like time spent in my recording studio narrating a great book.
Q. Someone comes to you with the dream job- what is it?
A. Five different jobs in five different days
1. Play by play for college hoops on a Monday.
2. Narrating compelling characters on a Tuesday
3. Playing a creepy villain in a movie on a Wednesday
4. Reporting live from the Patriots game at Gillette Stadium on a Thursday night
5. Flying in a helicopter while reporting live over a building collapse or Friday afternoon traffic jam.
Q. Any plans to write your own book?
A. I wrote a children’s book that is unpublished. It is loosely based on my daughter’s nursery school days. I have a few others started - fiction and non-fiction - but nothing finished.
Q. You also narrate a lot of books for Audible.com. What makes for a book you'd love to narrate?
A. The writing is rich and detailed and evocative; the characters are complex and intricate and larger than life. There are people of all ages from all regions of the world. It is a Mystery or thriller or coming of age drama that holds your attention from cover to cover.
Q. What can authors do to improve their chances of finding a great narrator for their audiobooks?
A. They can write compelling characters that have secrets that are revealed at the end of a novel; they can write non-fiction books that hold the reader’s attention, not just provide information.
Q. What do you look for in reading material? Or favorite books/favorite authors/recent great reads.
A. I read everything; from headlines in The NY Times and Boston Globe every morning, to John Irving novels that are comical and have vibrant characters, to sports stories about professional athletes. A recent great read is the novel Terminated, the first of the Tucker series by Ray Daniel. It’s the book I’m currently narrating. Another audiobook I’d highly recommend is The Career Manifesto by Mike Steib. It’s helping me organize my professional life and set goals for the future.
Q. You've been on TV and in films. What's fun about that? What's not?
A. It’s a lot of fun being on camera. You can really show your personality and every day is a performance. It didn’t take me long to feel comfortable and now that I do, it makes it easier. I hope to do more film in the future. The not as much fun is mostly the extreme cold as a reporter, the long days on movie sets, especially when you are an extra. But the fun far outweighs the not as fun.
Q. Although you've interviewed and hung out with celebrities, do you get the star treatment from time to time?
A. The star treatment for me is mostly getting to interact with viewers; we sometimes sign autographs for kids and that’s fun. And when I get to host or emcee events, the VIP treatment is appreciated. Having a principal role in the movie, Patriots Day, was really fun. Having my own trailer and working alongside John Goodman was an acting highlight, so far.
Q. What's the question you get asked the most/hate or love the most?
A. The question I get most often is who’s the most famous person I’ve interviewed (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Tom Brady) and it’s not a question I hate. The comment I like least when working in news is “must be a slow news day” when we cover something a person doesn’t think is or doesn’t want to be worthy of coverage. The questions I love the most are about my kids and the ability to tell my life story of how I got into this line of work.
Q. What's the one question you wish you'd get asked more? What would you love to talk about on-air?
A. The one question I wish I got asked more is the chance to explain why news is not fake. It’s a frustrating cycle we are currently in, feeling the attack of viewers thinking what we do is not real.
I would love to have more of a discussion of sports on air, a commentary show on TV. It would be more fun to give my opinion as is done elsewhere. Most of what we do is report the news of sports.
Q. Any wild stories from your career (that you can tell)?
A. Yes, the two that are top of mind are the two times I’ve been assaulted while reporting. Neither of which I got hurt, fortunately. The first was an angry and grieving relative who shoved me at the scene of a crash that claimed the life of his young nephew. The second was an inebriated college-age man who thought it would be fun to mention the unmentionable while I was doing a live report. He then tried to grab my microphone and I pushed him out of the way. A bit of a “party” ensued with some shouting, but all turned out ok in the end.
Q. What fun fact do we not know about you?
A. I am a trumpet player, mostly at this point jamming in small shows and open mic nights with friends. But I have played most of my life. I also can touch my tongue to my nose. A party trick.
Q. What's the next step in your professional world?
A. Great question - I’m hoping to raise my profile in the audiobook universe. To narrate for a large publishing company for an author I admire is a dream. On the acting end, I’d like to be in a feature film somewhere overseas. In my journalism career, I’d really like the opportunity to do some more anchoring, both sports and news.
Contact Josh:
Tw: @JoshBrogadirTV
www.joshbrogadir.com
Saturday, November 4, 2017
Interview With Warren Moore
One of the great parts about going to writer conferences is meeting the other writers.
Recently at Bouchercon, I had the privilege of partaking in Author Speed Dating, where we were paired with another author, and gave a pitch about our work to a table of folks- and then did it 20 times, to 20 different tables.
By the end, we could recite each others' pitch. His sounded good, so I got his debut novel, Broken Glass Waltzes. If you like crime novels about sex. drugs, and rock 'n roll, you'll love this one.
Q: Tell us about your latest book.
A. Broken Glass Waltzes is my first novel. It’s a noir piece, set in the Midwestern hard rock scene around 1990. Kenny Rockford is the drummer for Cincinnati’s most popular heavy metal band – the pay is enough to live on, but the benefits are even better. One of them is a girl named Jean Cassidy, who he takes home one night. When he learns she’s married, he decides to walk away. She doesn’t. Complications ensue.
Q: How does it differ from your earlier work, or from other books in the genre?
A. I think BGW is anchored in the classic noir and pulp traditions of writers like Jim Thompson and James M. Cain, but has a contemporary setting and sense of place. Dee Snider (of Twisted Sister) once told me that it really captured the rock and roll lifestyle – though not his, he added thankfully.
Q: What do you use as the setting for your novels?
A. The book takes place in the greater Cincinnati area, where I grew up, and in the clubs where I’ve seen (and played) my share of gigs over the years. It’s a place I know, and a scene I knew. Jonathan Valin’s “Harry Stoner” P.I. series showed me that Cincinnati could have mean streets like any other city, so I figured if the Queen City could handle private eyes, it could handle noir.
Q: How would your main character react to different people?
A. Kenny’s pretty much a working-class guy, but instead of working in a factory, warehouse, or carpet store, he punches the clock behind a Yamaha drum set. As such, he’s just another 25-year-old guy with a job, but maybe with longer hair than usual. He’s not looking for trouble, but has played before enough rough crowds to handle it when it comes to him. Most of the time…
Jean, on the other hand, is much more of a chaos factor. She can go from seductive to terrifying in an instant. If you try to keep up with her, you’ll need a neck brace.
Q: How was your protagonist created as a character? Where did they come from?
A. Kenny and I have a fair amount in common: We both play drums. We both like loud music, baseball, and comics. We both come across as wise-asses, but a lot of that is the shell over someone who doesn’t really know how to fit in when they’re offstage. I’m smarter than Kenny (I hope), but pieces of my life pop up in his here and there.
Jean has elements of several different women I’ve known over the years, but a lot of her, thank God, is just Jean.
Q: What were the major influences that drove you to write?
A. It’s just always something I’ve done. My parents were both strongly interested in art, music, and reading, (they met as commercial art students in high school) so I grew up in a house where doing creative stuff was just something people could do, even if they made their livings in other ways.
As to why and how I write the way I do, my influences would include Lawrence Block, Harlan Ellison, and William Kotzwinkle, along with the above-mentioned Thompson and Valin. (I was born on Thompson’s 59th birthday, so if you find significance in such things, there you go.)
Q: Are there any themes in this book, or in your work in general?
A. Not intentionally, but when I take off my writer cap and put on my English Professor mortarboard, I think a lot of my stories are about isolation and people who have to deal with who they are, or who they may have discovered themselves to be.
Q: What advice can you offer the fledgling writer?
A. Read widely and deeply. Write frequently (and with greater discipline than I have.) Learn things like grammar and spelling; the language is your tool kit, and you should know how to use those tools correctly and effectively (as well as when it’s OK to use a screwdriver as a prybar in an emergency.)
Q: What drives you to write?
A. That’s a tough one for me, because I’ve always written – there are tapes of me making up songs and stories before I could actually write. As I said, I grew up in a home where reading and writing were perfectly acceptable things for a person to do, so I did them and still do.
Having said that, other motivations along the way were to impress girls (didn’t work) and to make some extra money (which has happened here and there.) Now I find myself writing for the sake of the work itself – am I pleased with these things that I’ve made? And that’s becoming a yes more often than it once was. I’m not ashamed of the older stuff I’ve written – it’s good for what it was, I think, but I like the stuff I write now more than I do the stuff I wrote 25 years or so ago. But even so, I would have written stuff anyway; it’s just a thing I do.
Q: How has your background shaped your writing?
A. The home stuff I mentioned. I’ve told folks that I thought we were poor when I was a kid – I realized later that we were simply Bohemians living a semi-bourgeois lifestyle.
Obviously, I can write about rock and roll because I’ve played it (and still do, with the hearing loss to prove it), but I think in a larger sense I’ve spent lots of my life feeling like I didn’t really fit in. That’s probably one reason I’m an academic, because higher ed is an odd sock drawer for humanity, but it may also be a reason why I write about outsiders – I’ve always felt like one.
Q: The publishing world is a strange and scary place. Can you speak to that?
A. Heh. BGW was originally published by a small press in 2013. However, almost immediately upon its release, life got in the way of the good people at that company, and things basically imploded. That’s always a risk in the indie realm, but thank heaven for the people who try, even if it doesn’t always work. So the book was basically orphaned in fairly short order. But I was lucky enough to meet the folks at Down & Out Books, and so the novel is getting what I hope will be the exposure it deserves.
Q: Take us through your writing process from start to finish. Do you have a prescribed way of doing things, or do you have more of a "free form" approach?
A. I’m “Mr. Bad Example,” I’m afraid. I don’t really schedule my writing; generally I do it on an “as needed” basis. Sometimes the need is internal, and sometimes it’s external (as in, “Oh, yeah – I promised someone a story. Better write it, huh?”) While I may have scenes, titles, or lines that come into my head in advance, I typically “pants it,” and my main objective is to get out of the way of my story until it gets me to that scene or line I mentioned at the beginning of the sentence. I’ve written at least one published story while proctoring an exam for my British Literature class. Most of the time, though, I have some kind of music going while I write. Typically it’s either instrumental (Surf or prog rock, Bach, or the American Analog Set) or something so familiar that it keeps me from being distracted. I almost never do second drafts – because I was a magazine journalist for a number of years between my M.A. and my Ph.D., I learned to write very readable copy, editing as I type. As I said, I’m a lousy example.
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to discuss?
A. Just that I’m grateful for this opportunity to get acquainted with your audience. Also, if you or they would like to read my thoughts on a variety of issues great and small – usually small – they can find my blog at http://profmondo.wordpress.com, or on twitter as @profmondo. Finally, I want to express how important it is for writers (well, this writer, anyway) to hear from readers. It lets us know someone’s out there paying attention, and that means a lot. Thanks again!
Recently at Bouchercon, I had the privilege of partaking in Author Speed Dating, where we were paired with another author, and gave a pitch about our work to a table of folks- and then did it 20 times, to 20 different tables.
Bouchercon writeup and pics here.
So my partner was Warren Moore (Professor Mondo)
By the end, we could recite each others' pitch. His sounded good, so I got his debut novel, Broken Glass Waltzes. If you like crime novels about sex. drugs, and rock 'n roll, you'll love this one.
Now let him tell us about it!
Q: Tell us about your latest book.
A. Broken Glass Waltzes is my first novel. It’s a noir piece, set in the Midwestern hard rock scene around 1990. Kenny Rockford is the drummer for Cincinnati’s most popular heavy metal band – the pay is enough to live on, but the benefits are even better. One of them is a girl named Jean Cassidy, who he takes home one night. When he learns she’s married, he decides to walk away. She doesn’t. Complications ensue.
Q: How does it differ from your earlier work, or from other books in the genre?
A. I think BGW is anchored in the classic noir and pulp traditions of writers like Jim Thompson and James M. Cain, but has a contemporary setting and sense of place. Dee Snider (of Twisted Sister) once told me that it really captured the rock and roll lifestyle – though not his, he added thankfully.
Q: What do you use as the setting for your novels?
A. The book takes place in the greater Cincinnati area, where I grew up, and in the clubs where I’ve seen (and played) my share of gigs over the years. It’s a place I know, and a scene I knew. Jonathan Valin’s “Harry Stoner” P.I. series showed me that Cincinnati could have mean streets like any other city, so I figured if the Queen City could handle private eyes, it could handle noir.
Q: How would your main character react to different people?
A. Kenny’s pretty much a working-class guy, but instead of working in a factory, warehouse, or carpet store, he punches the clock behind a Yamaha drum set. As such, he’s just another 25-year-old guy with a job, but maybe with longer hair than usual. He’s not looking for trouble, but has played before enough rough crowds to handle it when it comes to him. Most of the time…
Jean, on the other hand, is much more of a chaos factor. She can go from seductive to terrifying in an instant. If you try to keep up with her, you’ll need a neck brace.
Q: How was your protagonist created as a character? Where did they come from?
A. Kenny and I have a fair amount in common: We both play drums. We both like loud music, baseball, and comics. We both come across as wise-asses, but a lot of that is the shell over someone who doesn’t really know how to fit in when they’re offstage. I’m smarter than Kenny (I hope), but pieces of my life pop up in his here and there.
Jean has elements of several different women I’ve known over the years, but a lot of her, thank God, is just Jean.
Q: What were the major influences that drove you to write?
A. It’s just always something I’ve done. My parents were both strongly interested in art, music, and reading, (they met as commercial art students in high school) so I grew up in a house where doing creative stuff was just something people could do, even if they made their livings in other ways.
As to why and how I write the way I do, my influences would include Lawrence Block, Harlan Ellison, and William Kotzwinkle, along with the above-mentioned Thompson and Valin. (I was born on Thompson’s 59th birthday, so if you find significance in such things, there you go.)
Q: Are there any themes in this book, or in your work in general?
A. Not intentionally, but when I take off my writer cap and put on my English Professor mortarboard, I think a lot of my stories are about isolation and people who have to deal with who they are, or who they may have discovered themselves to be.
Q: What advice can you offer the fledgling writer?
A. Read widely and deeply. Write frequently (and with greater discipline than I have.) Learn things like grammar and spelling; the language is your tool kit, and you should know how to use those tools correctly and effectively (as well as when it’s OK to use a screwdriver as a prybar in an emergency.)
Q: What drives you to write?
A. That’s a tough one for me, because I’ve always written – there are tapes of me making up songs and stories before I could actually write. As I said, I grew up in a home where reading and writing were perfectly acceptable things for a person to do, so I did them and still do.
Having said that, other motivations along the way were to impress girls (didn’t work) and to make some extra money (which has happened here and there.) Now I find myself writing for the sake of the work itself – am I pleased with these things that I’ve made? And that’s becoming a yes more often than it once was. I’m not ashamed of the older stuff I’ve written – it’s good for what it was, I think, but I like the stuff I write now more than I do the stuff I wrote 25 years or so ago. But even so, I would have written stuff anyway; it’s just a thing I do.
Q: How has your background shaped your writing?
A. The home stuff I mentioned. I’ve told folks that I thought we were poor when I was a kid – I realized later that we were simply Bohemians living a semi-bourgeois lifestyle.
Obviously, I can write about rock and roll because I’ve played it (and still do, with the hearing loss to prove it), but I think in a larger sense I’ve spent lots of my life feeling like I didn’t really fit in. That’s probably one reason I’m an academic, because higher ed is an odd sock drawer for humanity, but it may also be a reason why I write about outsiders – I’ve always felt like one.
Q: The publishing world is a strange and scary place. Can you speak to that?
A. Heh. BGW was originally published by a small press in 2013. However, almost immediately upon its release, life got in the way of the good people at that company, and things basically imploded. That’s always a risk in the indie realm, but thank heaven for the people who try, even if it doesn’t always work. So the book was basically orphaned in fairly short order. But I was lucky enough to meet the folks at Down & Out Books, and so the novel is getting what I hope will be the exposure it deserves.
Q: Take us through your writing process from start to finish. Do you have a prescribed way of doing things, or do you have more of a "free form" approach?
A. I’m “Mr. Bad Example,” I’m afraid. I don’t really schedule my writing; generally I do it on an “as needed” basis. Sometimes the need is internal, and sometimes it’s external (as in, “Oh, yeah – I promised someone a story. Better write it, huh?”) While I may have scenes, titles, or lines that come into my head in advance, I typically “pants it,” and my main objective is to get out of the way of my story until it gets me to that scene or line I mentioned at the beginning of the sentence. I’ve written at least one published story while proctoring an exam for my British Literature class. Most of the time, though, I have some kind of music going while I write. Typically it’s either instrumental (Surf or prog rock, Bach, or the American Analog Set) or something so familiar that it keeps me from being distracted. I almost never do second drafts – because I was a magazine journalist for a number of years between my M.A. and my Ph.D., I learned to write very readable copy, editing as I type. As I said, I’m a lousy example.
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to discuss?
A. Just that I’m grateful for this opportunity to get acquainted with your audience. Also, if you or they would like to read my thoughts on a variety of issues great and small – usually small – they can find my blog at http://profmondo.wordpress.com, or on twitter as @profmondo. Finally, I want to express how important it is for writers (well, this writer, anyway) to hear from readers. It lets us know someone’s out there paying attention, and that means a lot. Thanks again!
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Tess Gerritsen Rocks the NEMBF
Last night, we had superstar best-selling author Tess Gerritsen as the first big signing at the new location of the New England Mobile Bookfair (to see the announcement of this, click here).
Love the new bookstore setup, which has the ability to transform into a spacious auditorium!
Tess is s a big supporter of the store and owner Tom Lyons. She came down from Maine to greet fans new and old.
To introduce Tess, we had another superstar best-selling author, Hank Phillippi Ryan.
And then the talk with emcee Lorraine Seymourian, The Mysterious Lady, who filmed the whole thing for television.
It was an excellent and enthusiastic crowd, who enjoyed the talk and the great stories Tess told of her writing and life.
And here's Bill Wood, who in addition to getting a signed copy of Tess' latest book, found another good book, the new-on-the-NEMBF-shelves latest Zack Taylor novel, A Sharp Medicine, by yours truly.
Amy can't believe his luck at scoring such a good book.
After the talk, it was time for Tess to sign copies of her new book for fans, as the store staff set up refreshments. Amy gets her copy.
Being nice to fans is what Tess does, but it's hard work (as I can attest), so one needs a bit of pick-me-up at times...
A terrific night. Made sure to get my thanks in for her appearance.
And for someone who does so much media, Lorraine sure is shy...
Love the new bookstore setup, which has the ability to transform into a spacious auditorium!
Tess is s a big supporter of the store and owner Tom Lyons. She came down from Maine to greet fans new and old.
To introduce Tess, we had another superstar best-selling author, Hank Phillippi Ryan.
It was an excellent and enthusiastic crowd, who enjoyed the talk and the great stories Tess told of her writing and life.
And here's Bill Wood, who in addition to getting a signed copy of Tess' latest book, found another good book, the new-on-the-NEMBF-shelves latest Zack Taylor novel, A Sharp Medicine, by yours truly.
Amy can't believe his luck at scoring such a good book.
After the talk, it was time for Tess to sign copies of her new book for fans, as the store staff set up refreshments. Amy gets her copy.
Being nice to fans is what Tess does, but it's hard work (as I can attest), so one needs a bit of pick-me-up at times...
A terrific night. Made sure to get my thanks in for her appearance.
And for someone who does so much media, Lorraine sure is shy...
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
The 2017 Cape Cod Writer's Conference
Finished up a terrific weekend at the The 55th Cape Cod Writers Center Conference, in Hyannis.
What a wonderful time.
Here's the sign-in with Barbara Eppich Struna, President, CCWC Board of Directors on the left, and Nancy Rubin Stuart, Executive Director of the CCWC on the right.
Along with their staff, they did an awesome job of keeping things running smoothly and well for everyone.
Arlene Kay, fellow member of Sisters in Crime and author of some fun mysteries, who was instrumental in recommending me to the program. Don't think she was sorry...
To see an interview with Arlene, click here
The bookstore was open- check out my books displayed alongside those of Marcella Pixley and Best-seller B. A. Shapiro
Here's Bobbie Carlton, who sat in on a class of mine.
She has a PR Marketing biz that helps writers get the word out.
We had a Meet and Greet reception, with tasty snacks
Then came the gathering and introductions of award winners and faculty
Nancy takes the mic
Folks getting nice things and recognition
Next morning, I was teaching classes on Building a Mystery (here's the attendees)
And Secrets of Thriller Writing
The classes went well, with lively discussions, and folks said they got a lot from the course.
My breakfast buddy (simultaneous mealtimes, completely by accident) was Kate Klise, a children's book author and accomplished speaker
That night members of the faculty gave short readings from their works.
Let me tell you, what an honor to be among these talented writers.
I get to hang out with pros of prose!
Here's Danielle Legros Georges
Me, reading from the first chapter of A Sharp Medicine, my just-released fifth Zack Taylor mystery
Michelle Hoover, offering a prize of one of her books (I snagged it!)
Ray Field, reading from a cellphone
My other mealtime buddy, Richard Hoffman.
Ron MacLean, a fellow trouble-maker
The next night, it was the student's turn to read. I was one of the faculty offering feedback, and the talent shown by these writers was amazing. It's obvious the writer's center there is doing a tremendous job of mentoring and improving the quality of writing for that region.
Arlene was the emcee and kept the readings on time so we could finish before it got too late.
We still had time for chatting in the lounge, discovering new stories, making new connections, and winding down from the long days.
We got to sit in on other classes. Sunday brought Michelle Clark, a Medicolegal Death Investigator for the state of Conn.
She had the best class, telling us gruesome tales of death scenes, complete with pictures- all before lunch!
Here's Michelle with students from my mystery class, Carol and Gail
Other classes included another Michelle, this one from Grub Street- Michelle Hoover.
I sat in on a few others, notably the one by Lou Aronica, and wish I'd been able to listen to the entire thing.
So sad to see it end. It was an incredible experience, and highly recommended for those who want to improve their writing!
I hope to make return visits in the future!
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