A Step Back in Time by Brenda Chapman

This week's question: If you could time travel, which era would you to back to and how long would you stay there?

An intriguing question this week! My first thought was that I'd go back to the Renaissance era in the 14th century and land in Florence, Italy, to be part of the cultural and social revolution underway. Imagine watching Michelangelo at work painting the Sistine Chapel or talking flying machines with Leonardo da Vinci ...

But upon further reflection,  given my druthers, I'd transport myself to Paris during the Roaring Twenties, the brief, exhilarating period of economic prosperity after World War One, before the 1929 stock market crash. Also called the Jazz Age, this was a time of  dance clubs, the Charleston and flapper; Al Capone, prohibition and speakeasies, where illegal booze flowed. The first automobiles were produced as well as moving pictures, although sound wasn't available until the end of the decade.

For women, attitudes were beginning to change with the vote being bestowed and the idea of women working outside the home gaining momentum. Glamour and sexiness became the trend -- sequins and feathers, shorter, loose dresses and bobbed hair, fashion that marked an end to the Victorian era. Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby is a symbol of this changing society and the hedonism of the time.

“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

This period of modernity was a time of experimentation in the arts and architecture, and creativity soared. Georgia O'Keefe's paintings are emblematic of this shift, and the Chrysler and Empire State buildings in Chicago and New York City are examples of the Art Deco that flourished in this era with minimalist and streamlined designs.

It was also a fertile time for fiction, and many authors and artists frequented the coffeeshops on the West Bank in Paris. France had adopted much of America's social and cultural changes during this period. Faulkner, D.H. Lawrence, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound are but a few of the writers producing works such as, The Sun Also Rises, The Waste Land, and Lady Chatterley's Lover - all works I've read and thoroughly enjoyed.

“Sex and a cocktail: they both lasted about as long, had the same effect, and amounted to the same thing.” 
― D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover

Once I'm done hanging with the writers in the Left Bank cafes and Paris speakeasies, discussing the writing craft with all the luminaries of the time, I'll listen to some great jazz, dance the Charleston in my flapper dress and drink in a speakeasy before transporting home to my life in 2018. As for how long I'd stay in the Roaring Twenties -- a month ought to be enough to soak up the era and give me some whopping good stories to tell my grandchildren.

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right.”― F. Scott Fitzgerald

Website: www.brendachapman.ca
Twitter: brendaAchapman
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Too Much Distraction

We live in a world of TVs at the gas station, split screens, crawl lines, sound notifications, personal message alerts and a thousand other pipes feeding information direct to our over-stimulated brains. What's the place of books in all of that clamor? Do you worry about the future of reading?

by Paul D. Marks

Personally, I hate all those screens everywhere you go. I hate them at the gas station, I doubly hate them in doctors’ offices where I want to read but can’t because I can’t concentrate cause some stupid show is on. I hate them everywhere but at my home where I can choose what to watch and when.

I hate people talking on their cell phones, always looking down. What important business are they talking about? You ever listen in? They ain’t saving the world.

I like computers, I like the net, I like being connected and having access to all sorts of information and videos and friends and other things. But I also think there can be too much of a good thing.

And as it relates to books, I do worry very much about the future of reading. Do you think all those people looking down at their screens are looking up Sartre or the history of the French Revolution? Or are they just glaring at themselves in selfies the way Narcissus glared in the pond?

And, of course, I want people to read. I want them to read in general. And I want them to read my books in particular. Like the recently released Broken Windows, sequel to my Shamus Award-winning White Heat.

I wrote about my thoughts on my fear for the future of books and reading on SleuthSayers about three years ago, but I think what I said there is apropos to this week’s question, so I hope you don’t mind if the rest of this piece is a rerun of that:

One of the things that scares me most as a writer is an illiterate society. Not only illiterate in the sense of people being unable to read and write. But “illiterate” in the sense that, as a society, we have touchstones that everyone or at least most people are familiar with. Or I thought we did at one time. I’m not so sure anymore.

Let’s start with plain literacy on a personal and anecdotal level.

When my wife and I were looking for the house prior to our current house we noticed something odd, at least odd to us. We’d go in various houses in different parts of Los Angeles. But, unlike some of the shows on HGTV, you could still see the real people’s stuff in their houses. Their junk, ugly sofa, hideous drapes and kids’ toys strewn all over, laundry baskets, cluttered closets, etc. One thing we didn’t see much of were books. Sure, a house here or there had them, but the majority didn’t. And if they did they had a coffee table book or two of some artist they thought would make them look chic or intelligent or maybe a book of aerial views of L.A. One place we expected to see lots of books was in kids’ rooms or a potboiler on their parents’ nightstands. But, alas, the “cupboards” were bare.

This was twenty or so years ago, so well before smart phones, Kindles and e-readers. So, it’s not like all their multitudinous libraries were in e-form. No, there just weren’t many books to be seen.

We found this odd, as we have books stuffed to the rafters, as do most of our friends. Here, there and everywhere, in the living room or the dining room, library, the hallway, and even shelves upon shelves in the garage.

Flash forward:  Cultural Literacy

When we went hunting for our current house, about ten years ago it was more of the same. By then there might have been some e-books and the like but the real revolution still hadn’t hit full bore yet.

Again this seemed odd. But more than odd, it’s scary. Especially for a writer. Because a writer needs readers. And if people aren’t reading, I’m out of a job, and maybe likely so are you. Even scarier though is the fact that, imho, we are becoming a post-literate society. And we are losing our shared background, some of which is gotten through books. Aside from the greater implications of that in terms of the country, it makes it harder as a writer because when we write we assume some shared cultural background. And we make literary or historical allusions to those ends. We mention composers or songs or symphonies. Books, authors, “famous” or “well-known” quotes that we assume most readers will be familiar with, some foreign phrases, even biblical references. Hemingway and even Bob Dylan songs (and I’m talking those from the 60s before he found religion in the 70s), as well as other writers, are filled with them. But often these days readers are not familiar with these references, so they miss the richness of the writing. So then we begin to question whether or not to include these references and sometimes end up writing to the lower common denominator. And that diminishes our works and our society, even if it sounds pompous to say that.

Maybe people won’t know who Rudy Vallee is, but many don’t know who Shakespeare is in any meaningful way.

When I would go to pitch meetings in Hollywood I would often have to dumb down my presentation. I would try to leave out any historical or literary allusions. Hell, I’d even leave out film allusions because while these people may have heard of Hitchcock, few had seen his movies. And they were mostly from Ivy League type schools, but they didn’t have much of a cultural background. So when you have to explain basic things to them, you’ve lost them. They don’t like to feel stupid. And sometimes they’d ask me to explain something to them about another script they were reading by someone else. One development VP asked me to explain to her who fought on which sides in World War II, because she was reading a WWII script someone had submitted. The writer of that script already had points against him or her since the development VP didn’t even know the basics of the subject matter. And I would have thought before that incident that just about everybody knew who fought on which side in WWII. And this is just one example. I have many, many more experiences like this.

After college, the stats show that many people never—or very rarely—read another book. Literacy rates in the US are down. A lot of young people aren’t reading, but they think they’re smart because they look things up on Google. But looking something up on Google isn’t the same as knowing, though it’s better than nothing, assuming people do look things up. See: http://www.salon.com/2014/10/12/google_makes_us_all_dumber_the_neuroscience_of_search_engines/

I’ve seen several authors, some very well known, ask on Facebook if they should include X, Y or Z in a novel because their editor says no one will get the references, even though the references aren’t that obscure. But even if they are, what’s wrong with using them and having people (hopefully) look them up. Isn’t that how we expand our knowledge? But nobody wants to challenge anyone in that way anymore. We’re dealing with generations now that have been told how wonderful they are without having earned it. So when we unintentionally make them feel stupid by using references they’re not familiar with, they turn off. Is it just me or does our society seem to have no intellectual curiosity, no interests or hobbies other than texting or watching the Kardashians? They don’t have the will to look further than the screens of their smart phones?

I know I’m generalizing and that there are pockets of intellectual curiosity (like the readers of this blog!), but I feel like we are becoming a minority.

And when you do a book signing or a library event, do you notice the average median age and hair color of the audience? More times than not they’re older and grayer. And where are the young people? That’s scary.

I wish more people would make New Year’s resolutions to improve their minds as well as their bodies, to exercise their brains as well as their muscles. So maybe we should do yoga for the brain as well as the body.

At this point I’d even settle for grownups reading comic books or graphic novels as long as there’s words in them.

All of this scares me, not just as a writer, who might not have an audience in the future. But for society as a whole. We need to have a shared background, a common knowledge, a literate society of people who are engaged. Not everybody can know everything, of course. But there should be some common background that we can all relate to.

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

I’m honored and thrilled – more than I can say – that my story Windward appears in The Best American Mystery Stories of 2018, edited by Louise Penny and Otto Penzler, which just came out this week. I wrote a blog on that on SleuthSayers if you want to check it out: https://www.sleuthsayers.org/2018/10/the-impossible-dream.html .

I’m doubly thrilled to say that Windward won the Macavity Award at Bouchercon a few weeks ago. Wow! And thank you to everyone who voted for it.




And I’m even more thrilled by the great reviews that Broken Windows has been receiving. Here’s a small sampling:

Kristin Centorcelli, Criminal Element: 

"Although it’s set in 1994, it’s eerie how timely this story is. There’s an undeniable feeling of unease that threads through the narrative, which virtually oozes with the grit, glitz, and attitude of L.A. in the ‘90s. I’m an ecstatic new fan of Duke’s."

"Duke and company practically beg for their own TV show."

John Dwaine McKenna, Mysterious Book Report:

"This electrifying novel will jolt your sensibilities, stir your conscience and give every reader plenty of ammunition for the next mixed group where the I [immigration] -word is spoken!"

Betty Webb, Mystery Scene Magazine:

"Broken Windows is extraordinary."

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Shakespeare picture: Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hw-shakespeare2.jpg#/media/File:Hw-shakespeare2.jpg

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Beautiful Boredom

Reading - We live in a world of TVs at the gas station, split screens, crawl lines, sound notifications, personal message alerts and a thousand other pipes feeding information direct to our over-stimulated brains. What's the place of books in all of that clamour? Do you worry about the future of reading?

By Catriona

I wish I could say that my reading isn't affected by the jingle and spangle all around, but I know it is. I started reading Wild Fire - Ann Cleeves' final Shetland novel - earlier this week and by page 35 I could feel myself wanting to look up houses for sale in Shetland, the better to immerse myself in . . . well, a daydream of Shetland life. Not in Ann's wonderful treat of a book.

I do my best, keeping my phone on silent and in another room from where I read, switching my laptop off when I'm not using it so that there's a delay in gratification if I turn to it (to look at houses for sale in Shetland, for example). But the very fact that this works distresses me. Shouldn't a small delay while a computer boots up be something I can deal with?

In the distant past, pre-smartphone, even pre-internet, and when there were four television channels with nothing much on any of them, I think I had a greater number of completely immersive reading experiences. I read Gone With The Wind in a day, in my jammies, cold and hungry but unable to stop. I read We Need To Talk About Kevin in the same way, except not cold because I stayed in bed. A whole day in bed, not ill - just reading. 

The alternative was boredom. The day I read GWTW, there were no other books I hadn't read in my house and the telly was broken. I can't imagine that now. (I can imagine the telly being broken. Neil dropped ours, moving it off the coffee table and we had to glue it back together.) But no other unread book? My current TBR pile could be fashioned into a functioning igloo if I knew a bit more about physics and compression stress.

These days, it's only at the beach in the summer with phones left behind in the hotel room or on the couch at Christmas with vacation responders on email and hiatus notices on social media that I get anywhere close to that kind of red-eyed, hay-haired, manic reading. And it's got to be the right sort of book. Familiar, dependable, accessible . . . Stephen King, Kate Atkinson, Anne Tyler, Lisa Scottoline.

Boxing Day Bliss. (That's turkey dripping on toast, btw.)

One of the reasons I love moderating panels (and I do) is for the enforced discipline of reading four or five books, no option to stop, no skimming, and on a deadline. More often than not there turns out to be treasure there. Kenneth Wishnia's The Red House, for instance. Or Terry Shames' A Killing At Cotton Hill. I discovered Ausma Zehanat Khan that way and Triss Stein too. 

But even while I acknowledge my luck in getting to read books and call it work, I still despise myself a little for having to trick myself into attentive and adventurous reading of the kind I used to do automatically every day. 

Is anyone else finding their attention diminishing and their patience fraying? Don't leave me hanging here thinking I'm the only one. And if anyone has hot tips for how to get that beautiful boredom back again, I'm all ears. Well, I'm half ears. The rest of me is checking Facebook. Gaahhhh!

Calling all creative types... by Cathy Ace

Reading - We live in a world of TVs at the gas station, split screens, crawl lines, sound notifications, personal message alerts and a thousand other pipes feeding information direct to our over-stimulated brains. What's the place of books in all of that clamour? Do you worry about the future of reading?

This is an interesting question, because I get the chance to answer it as both a reader, and an author. 

First of all, as a reader I know that books play an important and unique role in my life – yes, I enjoy watching TV, movies, and following the news etc, but books? They take me to a different place than anything I can watch on a screen, or listen to as I drive. They transport me to the worlds the author has sketched, which I then complete for myself. 

For me, that’s the main difference between books and any other form of entertainment – I get to participate…I am part of the creative process as I read. Yes, I know that listening to a play on the radio (which I often do, thanks to BBC Radio 4, a radio station I still listen to avidly, despite the fact I no longer live in the UK) means I am still using my imagination to complete the experience, but the voices of the actors mean I have more input into their character than simply the words on the page and my involvement…something also true of listening to books, vs reading them. Not bad, but different.

I also very much enjoy watching TV and movie versions of works by authors I love to read. Again - a different experience entirely. 

 

Bearing this is mind, I have to assume that other readers become equally involved in bringing my work to life for themselves – so I believe each reader’s experience of my written work will differ slightly. And THAT’S what breaks through the clamour…the fact that readers choose to focus on my words and my characters and my worlds for themselves…not allowing other distractions to intervene. 

It’s also why I don’t worry about the future of reading; I believe every thinking person will always want to read, as opposed to enjoying other forms of entertainment. And I don’t believe that human beings will cease to want to think for themselves, nor stop enjoying being part of the creative process – by reading.

I'd be honoured if you'd consider reading my work - you can find out about it, and me, here: cathyace.com

 

The Place of Books

Terry Shames answering our question of the week:  We live in a world of TVs at the gas station, split screens, crawl lines, sound notifications, personal message alerts and a thousand other pipes feeding information direct to our over-stimulated brains. What's the place of books in all of that clamour? Do you worry about the future of reading?

“Information direct to our over-stimulated brains.” For me, the key word is, “information.”  The kind of information we get from most media—TV, radio, print, message alerts, social media—consists of reports on “what’s happening, what just happened, or what is about to happen.”  I admit I’m hooked on the immediacy of it. It’s almost like a drug. But this has only been  true in the last few years, since politics has become a blood sport. I’m not going to do a political post, but I’ll leave it at that—I’m alarmed and I’ve become obsessed with “what’s happening.”

I read the paper version of the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as on-line versions of the Washington Post, the Atlantic Monthly, and read the on-line versions of the New Yorker. In addition, I read a lot of on-line media such as Salon.com, Medium, and various things I get directed to from others.

I also read non-fiction books. It used to be I read a lot of science, but these days it’s mostly political. And still, it seems endless. The amount of “what’s happening” information can overwhelm me.

Reading fiction books gives me a different kind of information than the other media affords. It doesn’t tell me “what’s happening.” Instead, helps me make sense of what’s happening. It helps me understand people and the world. The best fiction reveals who people are on the inside, how they feel, how they act and react to life. It shows me how they became who they are. Good crime fiction it tells me what might happen if…

Good fiction also can be a respite from the busy-ness of the information world. I can read books that take me to quiet places, to places of serenity and joy. There are books that make me laugh out loud (thank you, David Sedaris). Good books introduce me to people and ideas I may never have a chance to know in everyday life. They can help me make sense of people and ideas I don’t understand. They can soothe, and entertain, and alarm. It’s hard for me to imagine a world without books.

I remember years ago going into the beautifully decorated penthouse condo of a very wealthy and successful man. He had art on the walls, sleek modern furniture, an enviable kitchen. But I was puzzled, because the place felt somehow empty, as if no one really lived there. Something was missing.  I realized it was books. There was not one book in the place. I couldn’t even begin to fathom that. He was generous and friendly, enjoyed travel, and had a good sense of humor. But his conversation was mostly about the getting and spending of money—not particularly satisfying as conversation. The woman who was dating him soon grew tired of him. “He doesn’t read. He doesn’t have any ideas,” she remarked.

By contrast, the first time I went to my husband’s house, I was thrilled because he had books everywhere. He had as many books as I did. He and I both still read everything we can get our hands on. And yes, there are books stacked everywhere in our house.

I don’t know if I can say anything definitive about the future of books. I suppose I should worry about the future of reading, but when I’m on an airplane or in the subway, or in public places, I often see people absorbed in books. I have no idea whether it’s more or fewer than it used to be, but I do think books still have a solid place in the world.

There’s one more personal anecdote I can share. Recently I told my 31-year-old son that I was going to a reading by Lisa Brackmann for her new book. He said, “Oh, she’s that writer whose books I like.” He doesn’t have much time for reading since he works non-stop—but he knows a writer whose books he appreciates. I take heart in that.

Guest Blogger Rick Homan

I'm happy to welcome guest blogger, Sisters in Crime Norcal member, and debut author Rick Homan. 

Rick's a generous writer, an enthusiastic SinC attendee, and has worked hard on the three novels he's unveiling. He is a member of the writing community at The Mechanics’ Institute Library. He is also  a member of the Guppy chapter of Sisters in Crime. Prior to taking up the craft of crime fiction, he performed as an actor and guitarist in San Francisco and in Philadelphia. He was a professor of theater arts for thirty years. He writes the Nicole Tang Noonan mysteries. Dark Mural and Dark Exhibit were published as e-books in September. Dark Picasso will be published in winter, 2019. As someone who likes - and writes - art-related mysteries, I'm excited to see a colleague tackling the subject from his own perspective. And I love the cover! - Susan

A Sleuth is Born: The Nicole Tang Noonan Mysteries

By Rick Homan

I was a professor for thirty years, so of course the amateur sleuth in my debut novel, Dark Mural, is a professor. “Write what you know” is a call for authenticity; it’s also a way to avoid months of research. Why should I go out of my way to make my sleuth an optometrist?

Beyond that, I think a professor is a likely choice for an amateur sleuth. Throughout my career, when tracking down facts to challenge the common understanding of a historical event or the conventional interpretation of a play (my field was theater history), I often felt, “The game is afoot.” Scholars and sleuths have a lot in common. 

During my academic career I unlocked a few scholarly secrets, but none of them rewrote the history of my university, and none of them ever solved a murder. So the plot of Dark Muralinvolves some wish fulfillment. 

My sleuth, Nicole Tang Noonan, is an art historian from San Francisco, who gets her first teaching job at a small college in rural Ohio. In the oldest building on campus, a Civil-War-era chapel, she finds a mural that depictss the college’s origins in the religious communes of the 1800s. At the very least, she thinks, this discovery could yield a publication in an academic journal. 

Throughout the novel, she forges ahead with her study of the mural, digging ever deeper into its history and symbolism, until she unlocks a dark secret, which turns out to be the key to identifying the murderer.

Of course, I couldn’t just have her show up and solve the crime. Along the way, she had to suffer. Since she is the daughter of a Chinese-American mother and an Irish-American father, her appearance is unusual: an Asian woman with freckles. She finds out on the first page that someone doesn’t like seeing strange-looking people on campus or in town.

Also, she faces the bane of academics everywhere, colleagues who long ago made up their minds and stopped listening. Her innocent questions and comments regarding her courses and her department are not appreciated. 

Worst of all, the murder victim is one of her students, and another becomes the prime suspect. When the local sheriff narrows his investigation too quickly in Nicole’s opinion, she decides to investigate on her own. She does so partly to spare the student if he is innocent, but mostly to make sure the real murderer is caught.

Throughout the outlining, writing and rewriting of Dark Mural, I admit I was pleased with the elegance of its premise: a historian solves a crime by studying history. But, as we say in show-biz, what are you going to do for an encore? I couldn’t have Nicole discover something about the history of her college in every book. 

For the second Nicole Tang Noonan mystery, Dark Exhibit, (published simultaneously with the first), Nicole again solves the crime by looking at art, but this time she studies the paintings of a contemporary artist that include symbolic references to what is going on in the world today. I won’t tell you what she discovers, but, I promise you, the book was researched and outlined before the 2016 presidential election.