The LadyKillers

Out of the Box By Michael A. Black

This time of year “out of the box” most likely refers to opened presents. I guess it could also be considered a kissing cousin to “out of the bag,” which is most often associated with a cat making a frenzied escape. Of course, if a cat is thinking out of the box it might mean another unpleasant incident. There’s also “boxing day” in Canada, which I’m told has nothing to do with the “sweet science” of fisticuffs. I believe it’s some kind of gift giving holiday north of the 48^th parallel. Those Canucks are thoughtful people, aren’t they? For me, “out of the box” means not allowing restrictions to inhibit your thinking. Where would we be if not for those intrepid souls who dared to try thinking out of the box?

Think about some of the great innovators of the last century like Thomas Edison and Wilbur and Orville Wright. I used to keep one of Edison’s quotes on my desk for inspiration: I am not discouraged by failure because each one brings me a step closer to success. Just for the record, think about what this man invented: the electric light bulb, motion picture camera, the phonograph, to name three. He also suffered from severe hearing loss due to scarlet fever and a brutal beating he received as a youth. Wilbur and Orville are another good example of that old, American stick-to-itiveness. (That’s a word you don’t hear much anymore.) The Wright brothers were so certain they could get their contraption to fly that they kept trying over and over until they finally made that fateful ninety seconds in the air. Things kind of took off from there.

For all the great inventors and innovators we can point to, there are also examples of those who thought outside the box and failed miserably. I’m tempted to cite our politicians in Washington as we continue to slide toward the fiscal cliff everybody’s talking about. It’s interesting to watch them as they blame each other for the country’s economic problems. In this case, I’d like to seal them all up inside a box and not open it until they’d learned to work together to get something done. I’m hoping by the time you’re reading this the whole thing has been solved. As I write this, we’ve still got a couple days left.

But I’m being a bit pedantic, aren’t I?

As if all the world’s problems could be solved simply by a box. Still, it would be nice to be able to box up ignorance, prejudice, hatred, violence, and all those other nasty things, wouldn’t it? But didn’t they try that once? I remember reading something about this chick named Pandora . . .

NEWS (news?) and OUT OF THE BOX

NEWS? not this week

The LadyKillers, like most of you, are busy just "getting through the holidays," what with family, festivities, and travels. Still, the blog must go on, so we kick aside the wrapping paper, wade through the empty chocolate boxes, battle the drooping evergreen limbs, and get ready to emerge...

... OUT OF THE BOX

Yes, that is the topic for next week. Join us with your cuppa (with a splash of eggnog?) as the end of 2012 rolls around to the beginning of 2013.

Happy New Year to All!

Hope springs forth, even for the pessimistic...

Howdy howdy. Ann Parker here, holding down the fort this Saturday for the LadyKillers. I loved Margaret Lucke's post on solstice and her hopes for the coming here (you can read it here). However, my personal disposition is a bit darker, and more in line with that indicated by some of the other LadyKillers (such as Camille and Priscilla)... I spend a lot of time gloomily chewing my fingernails and worrying about family health issues, finances... You know. "Life stuff."

However, I thought I'd share a couple of surprises that cropped up "under the tree" this season that touched me, and made me smile and/or laugh from the sheer unexpectedness and thoughtfulness behind them.

First, was a gift basket of chocolate from one of my clients (see below). I was so surprised and touched that I actually had tears come to my eyes...

 

The second gift was from my own dear daughter. You see, one of the things I indicated would be nice to have is a "Do Not Disturb" sign to hang on my home office door. (It's disconcerting, to say the least, when on a professional conference call or in a web conference meeting to have someone come bombing in, shouting, "Where are my socks??" or "We're out of coffee again!!")

My daughter-the-marvelous-artist heard me mention my desire for such a sign, and secretly went to work. I knew something was up, but not what, when, every time I walked past her busy at her laptop, she'd slam down the screen and give me the fish eye.

So, when I opened the mystery envelope Christmas ay-em, I found a "keep out" sign for my office door... but what a sign!

Two-sided. Professionally designed. Creatively executed.

Here are my choices ... depending on my mood and level of grumpiness and/or required focus. (For those curious about the background, the sign is hanging over the Manitou Springs map currently taped to my door.):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think this constitutes "fair warning," agreed? ;-)

Wishing you a great 2013, in which your hopes become reality and pessimism proves unfounded...

Ten Things I'm Hoping for in 2013

 

MHL

By Margaret Lucke

Here we are at the darkest time of the year. I think hope must have originated around the winter solstice, way back when humankind first recognized that this was an annual pivot point; no matter how the short and dim and cold the days became, the year would turn and the days would grow longer and brighter and warmer again. With this positive shift, it became possible to believe that other positive things could occur. Goals might be accomplished. Efforts might be rewarded. Situations might improve.

January 1 hasn't always been the designated day for the start of the new year, but it seems logical to begin the year close to the winter solstice and the return of the sun. It's become a time to make resolutions for ourselves and offer good wishes to others. Here are some of the things I'm hoping for in 2013:

* * *

On a personal level:

1.   That the first draft of my novel-in-progress will (finally) be finished. I got so-o-o close to typing "The End" this year, but then came the holiday season with all of its delightful distractions. But this is one hope that's pretty much guaranteed to come to fruition very soon.

2.   That I'll see that novel happily published.

3    That I'll gain some insight into what "happily published" might mean, given the way that the publishing world is flipping itself topsy-turvy.

4.   That this will be the year when I finally get my office decluttered and organized.

5.   That I'll enjoy some pleasant travels and happy adventures.

6.   That I'll end the year thinner and fitter than is the case as the year begins.

* * *

Plus a few hopes on a larger scale:

7.   That politicians in this nation, this state, and my own little town will stop acting like kindergartners and learn how to make decisions for the greater good of people and places they serve.

8.   That we will be able to achieve enough of a consensus to move forward on important issues that affect us all, like guns and climate change.

9.   That we will move closer to making the notion of "Peace on earth, goodwill to men (and women and children)" more than just a seasonal catch phrase.

* * *

And most important of all:

10. That the coming year will be very good to you and yours.

The solstice was a week ago. Have you noticed that already the days are growing longer and brighter?

Happy New Year, everyone!

A Writer's Hope

Staci here, talking about hope today. I think most writers who want to be published survive on hope. You spend months or oftentimes years crafting a fantastic novel, sweating over every word, polishing each sentence until it shines, all with the hope that an agent or publisher will see the merit of your work and release it for the world to see.

Once you feel confident that your work is ready (or as ready as it’s going to get), you carefully create a query letter that somehow highlights all the important points of the book and why an agent should be interested while still fitting on a single page.

Unless you’re one of the incredibly lucky ones, you’re bound to be rejected at some point. When you receive that first rejection letter in the mail (or, more likely, your email inbox), you might sulk for a minute, but then you lay it to the side and tell yourself it’s just one person’s opinion. Maybe
the agent was having a bad day. Perhaps they don’t recognize brilliance when they see it. No matter. There are other agents. So you sit back and patiently wait for another agent’s reply, filled with hope that the next one will send an acceptance letter.

Even after ten or perhaps twenty rejection letters, hope keeps you going. It’s what stops you from chucking your laptop into the ocean and calling it a day. It’s what keeps you sending out those query letters time and again. Because you know that if you just keep trying, someone will respond.

Occasionally it doesn’t happen. For whatever reason, the stars don’t line up right. Your query letter doesn’t land on an agent’s desk at the right time or your book’s genre isn’t what’s selling right now. That’s when you dust off that desk chair and sit back down. Then you start to work on the
next book and hope that this is the one that makes it into print.

Hoping for the Best

 

 

from Camille

 I'm not much of a HOPEr, so I hoped I could skip this topic. But it's my last post as an official LadyKiller, so I'll do my best.

I didn't grow up with hope; a World War was raging and there was no Santa, no wish lists no matter how "nice" we were. I learned early that "hope" is passive and what was needed was action.  Not hoping things would get better, but making it happen.

If I did believe in hoping, here's what it would look like:

• that those LadyKillers who showed me so much support over the course of 70 (give or take) posts, will prosper in 2013 with a deal a minute coming their way.

• that families like those in Newtown, CT, and others who have suffered tragedies will find a glimmer of light and hope in each other in the new year.

• that hope will be turned into action, for those who look to us for leadership.

 Happy new year to LadyKillers and our readers.

 

 

Hope

To those who celebrate today: a Merry Christmas! To the many who do not, I wish you joy, for this is a month in which there are several holidays, all of them brightening what is a dark season in the northern hemisphere. 

Whatever our faith, or lack thereof, we and our ancestors found merit in celebrating when the body ached from cold and the stomach mourned the lack of food.  This suggests to me that human  creatures have always understood the need for hope. What better way to demonstrate that than placing a time of celebration in the midst of a season most often connected with despair? 

Being of a curmudgeonly nature, I often rant and grouse during the year about many things, but December is one time I choose optimism. My ancestors did not survive the Hebrides, Edward I, the Black Death, and the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands by being persistently bleak. We escape or endure because we remember how to hope.

So I raise a glass of wine on December 1^st, throw all pretense of diet out the window for honey cake and toasted cheese sandwiches, stop daily to revel in the joys of doing what I love best and having good friends with whom to share life, and remember that laughter is, after all, the best survival technique. In January I may return to being a grump, but December is my month to exercise unrelenting hope.

One Hope

 

 

I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful.   -- Bob Hope

NEWS, CHANGES, NEW BLOGGERS, and HOPE

NEWS

• Priscilla Royal's THE SANCTITY OF HATE is reviewed in this Sunday's The New York Times Book Review! Here's the link (scroll down), and if you don't feel like clicking and scrolling, here's the review itself: "Aside from the castle of your father, the king, the safest place for a woman in the Middle Ages was a well-run religious institution like the one that figures in Priscilla Royal’s enthralling medieval mysteries. Tyndal Priory has long thrived under the progressive policies of the aristocratic Eleanor, so there’s no accounting for the murder and mayhem that seem to plague this holy retreat — except for the opportunity they offer for Royal’s insights into the upheavals of the period. The vividly drawn characters in THE SANCTITY OF HATE (Poisoned Pen, cloth, $24.95; paper, $14.95) enlighten us on many details of monastic life. But it’s the harrowing scene of a Jewish woman suffering the agonies of a difficult childbirth while a howling mob threatens violence that sums up Royal’s two dark themes: the lowly status and cruel treatment of women, and the persecution of England’s Jewish population."
• Publisher's Marketplace announced Terry Shames's KILLING AT COTTON HILL and THE LAST DEATH OF JACK HARBIN, a debut mystery series featuring the only decent lawman the town of Jarrett Creek, Texas, has ever had, to Dan Mayer at Seventh Street, in a nice deal, by Gail Fortune at Talbot Fortune Agency (World).
• Rita Lakin has two Ebooks up and live this coming week on amazon: THE FOUR COINS OF THE KABBALLAH and A SUMMER WITHOUT BOYS.
• Camille Minichino (aka Ada Madison) has a launch party at Towne Center Books, Pleasanton, California, SUNDAY JANUARY 6 2 PM, for A FUNCTION OF MURDER, #3 Sophie series. -- games! prizes! food!

 

UPCOMING CHANGES

At the first of the year, we have changes a-coming at The LadyKillers...

• Camille Minichino will be moving on, but you can still find her posting at her own The Real Me and monthly at the Perseverance Press authors blog. We will miss her dearly and hope she comes back to guest-post often. Her last official LadyKillers' gig is this coming Wednesday... please stop by and leave her a bazillion comments!
• Stepping up to the open Wednesday position is author Terry Shames, whose debut book THE LAST DEATH OF JACK HARBIN, comes out in 2013. More about Terry below.
• Debut author Carole Price will also be joining our jolly group, sharing the "other Wednesday" spot with Penny Warner. More about Carole below.

Now, a little about Terry and Carole...

Terry Shames grew up in Texas, but couldn't take the heat, so now makes Northern California her home where she lives with her husband, two terriers and a long-suffering cat.  In August 2012, she received a two-book contract from Seventh Street Books/Prometheus for her series set in the fictional town of Jarrett Creek, Texas, featuring ex-Chief of Police Samuel Craddock. A KILLING AT COTTON HILL, will be released in July 2013. Terry's website is http://terryshames.com/

Carole Price is a Buckeye! Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, she attended The Ohio State University, and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. After retiring from a national laboratory, she wrote her first mystery, went through the Citizens Police Academy, and is a police volunteer.

TWISTED VINES is the first book in her Shakespeare in the Vineyard mystery series published by Five Star. Carole's website is: http://carolepricemysteries.com/

 

HOPE

Following hard on the heels of last week's topic of Best Holiday Gifts, we have HOPE. Here is a YouTube of "surpise gifts" to give you hope and make you smile along with your favorite cuppa this morning. (Watch out for the screams of joy! ;-) )

The Best Holiday Gifts By Michael A. Black

I’m probably not the right person to write on this topic. As a cop, I usually ended up working just about every holiday. I must admit, though, that I didn’t mind. The overtime was nice, but also the holidays really didn’t seem that special to me. I was once describing the way I felt to a friend and mentioned that I had to go back to the memories of my early childhood to recall my last good Christmas. It was the one when I saved my allowance for several months to buy my mom this vase she wanted. The best gift was knowing I got her something she wanted. That was a lot of holidays ago.

So much for my last good Christmas.

As I got older, Christmases came and went. I always looked forward to the extended vacations from school each year. Looking back, I should have enjoyed the rare family get-togethers that were held on those dates. At the time my cousin and I used to suffer through them in mutual, youthful ignorance, groaning because we had to listen to the retelling of the same old stories that seemed to get embellished more with each passing year. Time continued to march, and I began to realize the family was starting to shrink through attrition. The reality of the cycle of life began to dawn on me. Suddenly, the importance and significance of these get-togethers became a bit more important to me, but now they were also tinged with sadness.

My first Christmas away from home was as a young G.I. serving overseas. I can still remember standing at a guard post all night long thinking that Santa was definitely not going to make an appearance where I was. Little did I know that he actually would appear in the form of a ski-nosed comedian named Bob Hope who gave up his Christmas so G.I.s like me all over the world could have better one. When I came back to the World and entered police work, the appeal of the holidays was further diminished. The shifts had to be covered, the streets patrolled, the public protected and served. Some guys would do almost anything to get Christmas off, so many times I switched with them. Usually, working a holiday was either feast or famine: in other words, you either worked your butt off or nothing much happened. My two most vivid Christmas memories are of talking a suicidal subject out of ending his life and an officer-involved shooting at three in the morning on the last Christmas I worked before I retired.

Now I look back wistfully and remember those days when we were all crowded around a big dinner table in the midst of family members we only saw once or twice a year. I remember wishing I were anywhere else back then, but now I wish I could step back for one of them and listen to the old stories from those who have departed. Those get-togethers and the familial bonding were gifts I was given, but never fully appreciated until they were gone.

So I guess, in the final analysis, the best holiday gifts are pretty simple: spending time with family and those we hold dear in our hearts, and those special times when, for a moment, we made a difference in some small way to help someone else, lighten their load, and maybe give them joy. And the biggest gift of all is to realize this before it’s too late. Appreciate your loved ones while you can. One day, as Falstaff said, we will hear the chimes at midnight.

Post note: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the sadness I feel over the recent, senseless tragedy that occurred in Newtown, Connecticut. The best gift I could wish for this season would be to give those who lost their loved ones a bit of solace as they face this very difficult time. Remember them in your prayers.