The Lady Killers

virtual tour/Blue Screen Error

I was planning a lengthy and fascinating account of my adventures on a virtual tour, guest blogging here and there, being interviewed for people's websites, getting word out  of Manna from Hades (my 50th book, if you're new here, and first of a new series of Cornish mysteries).

Then came the terrifying Blue Screen Error. My computer went blank and shut down. When it turned itself on again, without human intervention, Microsoft informed me that it Could Have Been Fatal. To avoid a repeat disaster, I must update everything in sight and especially make sure my firewall and virus protection were up to date. What was I doing, MS chided, to cause this shocking event?

As a matter of fact, O Mighty Microsoft, I was updating my firewall. So There. Now I'm pale and shaking and convinced the End of Civilization will be signalled not by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse but by a Blue Screen Error, multiplied by billions all over the world. Yes, dear reader, Microsoft will be responsible for the Fall of Humanity.

In the meantime, I'm on a virtual tour. You can read interviews at:

http://tinyurl.com/d2zcgy  and

http://mysteriouspeople.blogspot.com/

I have a feeling there  have been others, but I'm too shaken by my Narrow Escape from Annihilation to remember where. There will be more to come, for which I shall post links as they come up, if I survive.

Just to cheer you (or me) up:
Carola

Break out the chocolate and up with the bumbershoots . . .

Ann Parker here, Monday's child for the Lady Killers. Originally I was going to do a riff on Jane's post about place names, but I'll save that for another time. Instead, I'm tootling my own horn (modestly) for a sighting of Leaden Skies in Publishers Weekly. If I may be excused in my enthusiasm for quoting TWT (the whole thing):

Leaden Skies Ann Parker. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (298p) ISBN 978-1-59058-577-1

The July 1880 visit of former president Ulysses S. Grant to the mining community of Leadville, Colo., sparks Parker's third mystery (after 2006's Iron Ties), a twisty tale of murder and ambition. Saloon co-owner Inez Stannert is preoccupied with divorcing her missing husband, her affair with the local minister and her secret business partnership with the local madam when one of the madam's prostitutes is first attacked and later killed. Eager to protect her investment, Inez begins to look into the case, confronting mine owners with personal agendas; local politicians; zealous journalists; a mapmaker with a past; a determined mother with aspirations for her wastrel son; a prostitute with family obligations and hopes for a better life; and a ruthless city tax collector, appropriately nicknamed the Hatchet. Parker is proficient in showing the crossroads between civilization and the frontier, including emerging new roles for women. A cliffhanger ending sets a promising stage for the next installment. (July)

What's the name again?

Jane here, with a small but intriguing historical mystery. Not a whodunit, but...well I don't know how to define it. It's a Whatjamacallit.

I've recently introduced a new setting into ARROWS IN THE DARK, the Roman-Britain mystery I'm working on, (aka Aurelia #4.) I was going to have much of the action along the northern frontier of the province of Britannia, roughly where Hadrian's Wall would one day be built, in lovely dramatic countryside close to the barbarians. But this turned out to make my plotting too difficult; the frontier was too far away from my sleuth Aurelia's home near York, about eight days' travel from her inn. This meant she would be stuck there for the major part of the story. I didn't want that, I wanted her to go home midway. (So did she. Another example of a character pointing a writer in the direction she should be going!)

So I'm now setting part of it in the town of Catterick, much nearer York. The Romans built a fort there because there was an important river crossing, and a small
civilian town grew up around it. Even its name has Roman roots - the Latin name was Cataractonium. Now even if you don't know much Latin, you can make a shrewd guess that a name like that could be related to a waterfall or cataract, and indeed the Romans' word for waterfall was cataracta. Many people studying Catterick's history have made that shrewd deduction, picturing a Roman army scout or surveyor arriving at a river crossing and thinking, "We need a fort here. I'll tell Headquarters to build defences by the waterfall."

But there isn't a waterfall there. A river, yes; a cataract, no. Never has been.

No surveyor in any army is going to call a place after a non-existent geographical feature. So how else could the name have come about?

There are two possible theories. First, there was a native British settlement there before the Romans, so the Roman who named the fort could have picked up the native Celtic name for it; elsewhere in Roman records (but much later) the place is referred to as Katouraktonion, and I've heard it suggested that this, in the Celtic-British language, meant "place of battle ramparts". I'm trying to check whether this is true; well not personally, my Celtic- is a touch rusty, but luckily I've friends who can help. One of them has already suggested that maybe Katouraktonion wasn't a place but a person, such as a local chieftain.

The second theory is that the name does come from cataracta, but not its primary waterfall meaning. The word could also be used for a portcullis, or a sluice-gate. Could either of these have been found somewhere in the neighbourhood? My instinct is no; the fort was built in the middle of nowhere, and there's no evidence that a anything as sophisticated existed there as a landmark. But this idea, too, needs checking.

Let's face it, for my book it doesn't matter much either way. But it matters to me. I want to know, and I'll do my level best to find out, and enjoy it. It's just the kind of problem I can't resist. I'm looking forward to some fascinating research!

trying not to travel

Actually, I like wandering about.  The problem, as Rhys pointed out, is that one has to go home and work at some point.  These days home seems to be just as busy as being on the road.  All I need to do is get a deadline when, all of a sudden, relatives decide to visit, local groups remember they need a speaker and friends insist that, "you have to eat lunch anyway, so come out with me." 

If it sounds as if I'm going into panic mode, that's definitely the case.  At this point in a book I've been told by people I trust, I turn into a bitchy, nervous wreck, who can't seem to follow conversations at all.  The trouble is that I want to see family and friends or take a day off at the beach.  Someone once told me that she was so excited to quit her day job.  Now instead of working eight hours a day, she works twelve, including weekends.  This is the work I love and all I know how to do, but forcing myself to be anti-social is hard. 

I didn't post anything last week because I couldn't think of a thing to say.  Unless anyone out there is interested in the Mayan calendar or the Millerites, my communication for the next few weeks will be pretty dull.  I do love reading about what the rest of you are doing, none the less. 

Grumpy at the keyboard, Sharan

blogging from a new stool at the Seattle Mystery Bookstore

Yes, here I am on the road next to JB at the Seattle Mystery Bookstore! Blogging a quick one from the book tour. Last night I spoke at Bellevue Library and a French quartet accompanied me accordians and all. We had a real cabaret!

best

Cara

Longing for Peace

Rhys here a day late but with a good excuse. I was 13 hours in the car yesterday driving back from Arizona. I had a crazy few days, flew into LA. Signed books, attended dinner. Next day spoke to 520 people with such luminaries as Jodie Picault and Nicole Mones. I was the after lunch speaker. My job was to keep them awake after a meal, so I told a lot of jokes and got a great response. Nobody snored.

Then another dinner that night. next day spoke to 250 people at a big fundraiser called Murder Most British with fellow Lady Killer Carola and Deborah Crombie. it was a fun event and we sold a lot of books. Met with movie producer that night. Next morning flew to Phoenix where we closed up our condo for the summer. did an event at Poisoned Pen bookstore and got a great crowd (big surprise) then we drove home. Now I actually have a month at home before I go wandering again and I have to try and finish my next book during that month.

It's amazing how much of an author's time is spent NOT writing these days. I bet Gallsworthy didn't have to go on book tours. I bet Dickens didn't have to answer fan mail and send out bookmarks. The irony is that all one's life one longs for recognition and when it comes and people constantly invite one to come and speak, it comes at a price. Learning to say no may well be the next step.

I received four more invitations this past week and one of them sounded heavenly--speaking on an island off the Georgia coast. They'd pay all my exenses etc. Then I worked out it would take me twelve hours to get there and the same to get back. All for one keynote speech. And a week or more to recover!

I must definitely learn to say no!

Rhys

What is it about bright red cars?

First of all, in case you get no further in my ramblings for the week: I'm talking about and signing MANNA FROM HADES in San Diego at Mysterious Galaxy tonight, March 24, at 7 pm.

At the weekend, Rhys and I and Deborah Crombie were well-fed and feted by the Anaheim (CA) library foundation. The three of us were signing our books and speaking on a British Mystery panel in aid of the library. Rhys and I, of course, are British born. Deborah is actually a Texan, but her books are set in England. She said she fell in love with Britain at the age of 4 when she read Winnie-the-Pooh, which seems a good enough reason to me.

As Rhys once lived in Texas for some years, she and Deborah tried to outdo each other with their Taixus drawls. Don't ask me who won. I had to confess to the audience that I was frightfully sorry, I simply couldn't manage Texan. Rhys and Deborah were great companions to be on a panel with. It seemed to me we were all selling lots of books, too, so I hope the library made a good profit.

To get to the bright red car, I flew to San Diego and stayed a couple of days with my son and family. I rented a car to drive up to a couple of signings in the LA area as well as Anaheim. I'm not really comfortable driving a car other than my own, but I got one not much larger than my little Echo, so I reckoned I might manage not to hit anything with it in parking lots. And no one could fail to see me, as it was bright red. My granddaughter was enchanted. When I got back from LA, she insisted on being taken for a ride in it. Of course her brother had to come too. Not to mention my son. What is it about a bright red car? We went around the block, and even in the dark I managed not to hit or be hit.

My granddaughter decided she's going to have a car just like it when she grows up. She started figuring out how many children she could have if she had to fit them all in. 

Flying home tomorrow to get on with A Colourful Death, the next Cornish mystery. Unless I manage to think up a title I like better on the way.

Carola

Leaden Skies sighted

Ann Parker, Monday's child at the Lady Killers here.
Wow! Such good news coming from the Lady Killers bunch; I'd like to say congrats to all!

 

I'm pretty happy myself, because I've now got a semi-final cover to share ... just in time to make some preliminary bookmarks!

I'll also tootle a modest horn on a couple reviews just clearing the horizon. Some kind words from C.K. Crigger here and L.J. Roberts here.

Happy readers make my day!

Odds and Ends on a Friday

A photo from the last event...sigh...at Stacey's, the landmark 85 year old bookstore in San Francisco  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1397639&op=1&view=all&subj=598512670&id=579144385

And three reviews this week for Murder in the Latin Quarter

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2009-03-18-roundup-mysteries-thrillers_N.htm

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/books/19newly.html?ref=arts

 

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20266407,00.html

 And yesterday Rhys and Margit and I did a Sisters in Crime event at lovely Orinda Books hosted by

Kathy Kerr!

Enjoy your weekend,

Cara

My goodness, is it Wednesday already? What a hectic month March has been! I returned from Hawaii on Monday, having been living the surreal life of guest of honor at the Left Coast Crime Convention. This is something one dreams of but when it happens it's definitely weird. A little like being the queen, I suspect--so my next Royal Spyness book will have that extra ring of authenticity to it. The point is that one is on show all the time. Even in the ladies room someone will tell me that they like my books. I was on at least two panels or quiz shows or interviews per day so it was a marathon, however much fun all these things were.

Then there was the chat with fellow guest of honor Barry Eisler, who always  manages to look as if he could be a mild-mannered assassin, then the speech at the awards brunch which turned into a song, which was also well received (I had a few second thoughts and nervous moments before I san   g in front of all those people)

It was great to see so many friends from the mystery community-it's always like a high school reunion for me and I eat far too much food trying to fit in meals with all my friends. But it was a wonderful experience and one that I will treasure. Pictures should be up on my website any moment (www.rhysbowen.com) but here are a couple to make you sigh with envy.

Now a few moments of harsh reality as I realize I have to cook my own meals and do my own laundry again and then yesterday saw the launch of In a Gilded Cage, the new Molly Murphy book. So this weekend it's off on the road again--speaking in the LA area Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then on to Scottsdale on Tuesday before I can finally settle back home for a month or so. I can hardly wait.

In a Gilded Cage has received some lovely early reviews and I am delighted with the cover, so I'm hoping for good things. And forgive me if I don't write more today. Frankly I'm exhausted!

Yours tiredly,

Rhys

www.rhysbowen.com

now twittering as rhysbowen