A May Yard Update

Things are moving along. We had more peonies that I’ve ever seen in one place. The iris came out at the same time.

Our little tree revealed itself as a peach tree! I haven’t treated the fruit, so I doubt we’ll eat any of these, but next year, for sure.

After the fierce rain beat the white peonies to death, some pink ones came out. Not as many, but gorgeous.

And roses! I’ve killed all the roses I ever had, so send good thoughts for these.

           

We got mulch laid in the back flower bed and it’s ready for some potted plants, I think. Next from the yard will be day lilies, just getting started now. I shot these last pictures a little too late in the day, I think. But I can't wait until tomorrow. My Wednesday blog would be late.

All  photographs by Kaye George

A Special Anniversary

(First a little boost for a review I received yesterday: http://www.examiner.com/article/kaye-george-orchestrates-a-great-mystery-eine-kleine-murder)

Now, onto my topic~~

Last week was the anniversary of a day when my efforts of ten-plus years paid off. On Monday, the 14th of May, 2012, I talked to Kim Lionetti on the phone for nearly two hours. At the end of the conversation, I had agreed for her to be my agent!

In the year since then, a lot has happened. She set me to work on a project that she and her partner, Jessica Faust, had come up with. I hadn’t even finished it, though, when a chance for a work for hire cozy came to her from Berkley Prime Crime. It was a mystery set in Minneapolis, featuring an overweight cat name Quincy, and his mistress, Chase Oliver, the co-owner of a dessert bar shop. (A work for hire is written to the publisher’s idea, and the publisher will own the copyrights--but I’ll get paid normal royalties, etc.)

This was right up my alley for a couple of reasons. (1) I am a long-time cat owner and my most recent cat, Agamemnon, was a clever rascal, also slightly overweight. I would model the cat after him, although I’d change his coloring. I thought an orange tabby would look better on the cover than a black shorthair with extra long fangs. My cat had been a rescued feral and I swear he was reverting to saber-tooth tiger. You could see his fangs when his mouth was closed! He could be very sweet, but was exasperatingly smart. On several occasions, I saw him climb onto something next to a closed door and attempt to turn the knob. If he’d had a thumb, he could have done it.

(2) I once lived in the Minneapolis area for a little over 3 years. I’ll admit, it is my favorite place I’ve ever lived, and I’ve lived in a lot of places. My puzzlement was--how to set a cozy in the place where the darkest noir crime novels take place. Should I put it in Minnetonka, where we used to live? Hopkins, the next-door suburb, a bit closer to the Twin Cities themselves? My husband came up with a place he remembered from our stay there: Dinktytown. The name was perfect, but would it do?

I googled it extensively, a cute little area of just a few square blocks on the edge of the U of M campus, nestled between the campus and the Mississippi River. It’s on the east side of the river, where St. Paul lies, but this portion is technically Minneapolis--I checked. I got in contact with the president of the Dinktytown Business Association and he was supportive and kind, even sent me an excellent map of the area done cartoon style, highlighting the local businesses.

The upshot of all this is that I got a workable outline put together, wrote the first three chapters, and sent them off. I was in shock after I landed my awesome agent, but even more shocked when my proposal was accepted!

I got to meet Kim at Malice Domestic this year and she’s just as awesome in person as by email and phone. I can’t believe what a whirlwind this last year has been. (Plus we moved twice--yikes!)

This news has all been announced previously, but, for this anniversary, I thought I’d give some details on the background. I’m now about 3/4 (or maybe a little more) finished with the first draft of the as-yet-untitled first in the three-book FAT CAT series. It’s going well and I love the characters, especially that rascal, Quincy! (Look for the book sometime around the fall of 2014.)

Photo from Dreamstime

Malice 2013

What a fun time I had! I got to meet new people and connect with ones I already know, mostly from Malice in previous years.

The Malice Go Round was worthwhile, but soooo tiring! Picture by Greg Puhl.

The Guppy Steering Committee met (in the bar, of course).

 

That’s me, Karen Duxbury, Elaine Douts, and Teresa Inge. Jim Jackson was also there, but behind the camera for this shot. 

Here’s a shot of him from Teresa: Teresa, Maria Hudgins, Shari Randall, Jim Jackson, Jan (with Jim). and me

Here’s a picture of me, Tracy (don’t have her last name), Larissa Reinhart, and Diane Vallere. 

My panel early on Sunday was well-attended and went smoothly. Larissa (on the right) is from the same area where I grew up and where EINE KLEINE MURDER (the book debuting at his conference) is set. Karen MacInerney (next to Larissa) was in the first face-to-face critique group I joined in Austin. And Peter Lovesey was just fun to sit next to, listening to his British accent. C. Ellet Logan (on the left) ran the panel with aplomb. (Picture from Larissa’s friend)

At my signing, Harlen Cobin was wandering around and Daryl Gerber jumped up to talk to him, then got her picture with him. So, I did too.

After Malice, Sherry and her husband zipped me to Baltimore for a signing at Kim Gray’s Gift Cellar which she kindly donated for a signing by Sheila Connolly, James M. Jackson, me, Edith Maxwell, Kimberley Lynne, and Barb Ross.

I'm probably the last Malice attendee to post pictures, but here they are!

Another new book!

Every book I write is dear to me in some way. They’re my children and I love them all. DEATH IN THE TIME OF ICE is no exception. I’ve just learned that it will be released in June, but don’t have an exact date yet.

If you haven’t seen the cover on Facebook yet, here it is! It’s also on my Neanderthal page at the tab above. 

If you’re wondering what this book is about, I’ll first give you the teaser: Enga Dancing Flower knows her tribe is in trouble. The dark seasons are becoming longer and the mammoth herds are fleeing south. When the tribal leader is found stabbed to death, the new leader thinks Enga did it. Expulsion and certain death looms. Enga must find the murderer to save her tribe -- and herself.

The book opens in the fall (which, of course, is not what Enga’s tribe calls it). The cold season approaches and the leader, Hama, a wise old woman, beseeches Dakadaga, the Spirit of Mother Sky, to give the tribe her blessing. The wind blows cold and stirs sparks from the fire. Hungry bellies growl audibly. Something must change, and these are a people who do not change rapidly or without great cause. Their way of life has continued, mostly unchanged, for 200,000 years.

Here’s a bit about the background and a tiny smidgen of my research: http://kayegeorge.com/research.html

I’m so excited about the birth of this book! I hope it’s not too awfully long before I get the sequel done!

Celebrating Spring

We’re so pleased with our new yard! We like the house, too, but the yard is spectacular. When I looked at the house in October, and again in December for the closing, I thought it was a mess. The fact that the lot backs up to some woods, and the fact that the street is not a through street and is a good one for walking outweighed the fact that the yard would have to be gutted and redone. But wait!

First, a host of golden daffodils sprang up. A host in the front yard, another host in the back yard, and several on the side of the house. I had to leave for a month, but some were still blooming when I got back.

Next, an ugly, black, mold-ridden stunted gnarly tree (I know, too many adjectives) burst into brilliant flaming flowers.

I think the tulips may have been next. They bloomed one color at a time. First red, then yellow, then white. Eventually some pink ones appeared also.

Violets sprang up all over the yard.

Another ugly tree that I thought we’d have to take down became a splendid weeping cherry, a tree I had never heard of, but which abounds in Eastern Tennessee.

For sure, we would have to take down this horrible huge stump in the back. 

Until…bluebirds started nesting there.

As an aside, a forsythia (one of several) and a crabapple (I think) joined in the blossom fest. In the gnarly tree picture above you can see the sun room and the screened-in porch beside it. Those are our vantage points, depending on the temperature. Lovely!

My Playlist for Eine Kleine Murder

Since my new series, the Cressa Carraway Musical Mysteries, features a composer and keyboardist, you might think that music plays a large part in the book. And you’d be right! In fact, Cressa, like me, lives her life with background music. Like Cressa, Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring is always looping in my head unless something else has taken over. In fact, many of the happenings in the book recall different pieces to her.

A fellow author, also published by Barking Rain Press, is Ricky Bush (http://www.barkingrainpress.org/ricky-bush/), a blues musician and fan. He put his plaulist on his blog and inspired me to create one for my novel. I had once thought it would be cool to include a CD of the pieces with the purchase of a book. That turned out to be not feasible, however. It’s true that the copyright on most classical music has run out (or was composed before the process was invented). However, the recordings of the pieces belong to the groups who have performed them, or to the labels that produced the albums. I decided it would be much simpler to merely provide links to performances.

My publisher has put my playlist at http://www.barkingrainpress.org/products/eine-kleine-murder/. If you page down, you’ll see the tab called Playlist. She’s taken the links I provided and gone one better--she’s also provided links to information about the composers. Very cool! 

Below is a list I put together that links the pieces with a snippet of the text in my novel that refers to the composition. I tried to use versions that don’t include advertising at the beginning, but in a few cases I thought the performance worth the hassle of sitting through the ad, or couldn’t find another suitable one.

These are the links to online performances of all the pieces mentioned in EINE KLEINE MURDER (unless I missed one--in which case, let me know!). If you’d like to get an idea of the mood suggested by them, you can just listen to a few measures. But if you have the time, they’re all worth hearing in their entirety.

(If you’d like to sample the first 4 chapters, you can sign up to do that here:

http://www.barkingrainpress.org/products/eine-kleine-murder/.)

1 Chapter 1

“Moussorgsky’s ominous Night on Bald Mountain”

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu970EXXGzQ

London Symphony conducted by Leopold Stokowski

2 Chapter 2

“the merry strings of the beginning movement of Mozart’s, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,”

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKhH2hRa-WQ

New Trinity Baroque, playing on instruments from Mozart’s time, called “period instruments”

3 Chapter 2

Debussy’s La Mer

“As I stroked through the dark lake she had grown up with, hoping to see her soon,

the ripples of Debussy’s La Mer accompanied me in my mind.”

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoRSTRwGUSY

London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev conducting

4 Chapter 3

“Chopin’s ponderous Funeral March, the stark the stark piano version.”

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgw_RD_1_5I

Officially, this is a movement from Piano Sonata Op.35 No.2, played by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.

Here’s a snatch of an orchestra version, performers not given.

            http://www.last.fm/music/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric+Chopin/_/Funeral+March

5 Chapter 6

“Gounod’s comic Funeral March of the Marionettes, the song Alfred Hitchcock used as the theme song of his television show.”

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eIk5DWUx_E

The TV theme music starts at 45 seconds

I can’t determine who is performing this recording.

6 Chapter 8

“the sad, sweet ballad, ‘Scarborough Fair,’ set in the ancient Dorian mode, with its allusions to the medieval Black Death”

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr8v55Tet7o

Old English ballad performed by Simon and Garfunkel

7 Chapter 10

“It was so homey at the Harmons’ home. Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring by Bach was

even returning to me.”

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwWL8Y-qsJg

Again, the performers are not given.

8 Chapter 13

“I could hear the frantic rhythm of Leroy Anderson’s Plink, Plank,Plunk as the knife hit the wood.”

            http://vimeo.com/23932634 - nicepictures, piece repeats over and over

Arthur Fiedler conducting the Boson Pops

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08rghxefwDA - amateur group, but only 1 repetition, by Musik Siesta, a young Japanese group

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNs_vzs5HMk- nice mandolin and guitar version

Lugano's junior mandolin orchestra (Ticino, Switzerland) conducted by Nicola Bühler, arranged by Mauro Pacchin

9 Chapter 16

“Richard Strauss’ Thus Spake Zarathustra, the piece that was used for the opening of the move 2001: A Space Odyssey”

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9QxaJLt7EA

The beginning gives me chills no matter how many times I hear it. You have to turn the volume up a bit at first, but not for long.

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Mariss Jansons

10 Chapter 17

“a popular melody stuck in my head. Not that popular, actually, but very catchy. And very stuck. The Chicken Dance. Now, how did that get there?”

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UV3kRV46Zs

I can’t resist posting this hilarious version, from the Lawrence Welk Show, performed on accordion, which is so appropriate. Be careful, you might end up like Cressa with this ear worm implanted.

11 Chapter 19

“The theme from Jaws kept rhythm with my wildly thumping heart.”

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-sX2Y0W8l0

I’ve tried to avoid links with ads, but this one is the composer himself, John Williams, conducting the Boston Pops, and you can skip the ad fairly quickly.

12 Chapter 23

“The Song of the Volga Boatmen,” the version I had played in grade school, the one we always sang “Yo Ho Heave Ho” to, thrummed with the waves of pain in my head.

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88gLWwq5G5M

The famous Russian Army Chorus, Leonid Kharitonov as soloist. This is in Russian, with shots of the Volga River. If you click the little “cc” at the bottom right of the screen, you can get the English subtitles.

13 Chapter 43

“The ethereal part of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture,” the part with flutes and trills”

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6gzgcGrE2M

This link also has an ad, but another short one. The very beginning might tell you why I think cello is the most beautiful sounding instrument. The part I refer to is at 5:20. The part you’re probably familiar with is at 7:48. Hi ho, Silver! Away!

Gioachino Rossini conducting the Neponset Valley Philharmonic Orchestra

 Music Notes Background by Vera Kratochvil

He Who Waits

I waited long enough for this! My Neanderthal mystery, DEATH IN THE TIME OF ICE, will be published by Untreed Reads this year! They will also publish my brand new short story, “A Fine Kettle of Fish”. To see a little more about this series, The People of the Wind series, see my webpage.

You know the phrase, “All Good Things Come to He Who Waits”, don’t you? Have you ever given it much thought? I don’t mean whether it’s true or not (although I like to think it is), but the wording.

Is it correct? Of course lots of neat sayings aren’t. But should this be him who gets the good things? Not he? This gal says it’s definitely him. She gives her reasons here. She’s talking about strict grammar, but she uses the word whomever, which--to me--makes her reasoning a tad suspect.

This site says it was French first, in a poem by Violet Fane, and translates the questionable word as those. Good grief!

Another source quotes the same French poet and translates the saying very loosely, using she, they, and he. You might notice that, in this case the things aren’t necessarily good. It’s just “All things come

to those who wait.”

Just to be thorough in my research, I’ll mention that a game, Assassin’s Creed, uses the phrase as “All things come to he who waits.” Another vote for he.

I do wonder why he sounds better to our ears. I think it’s because we’ve heard it that way so many times. It also may be that the saying, whose origin is lost in antiquity, was formed before grammar rules were formed.

Here are some parting shots from the world of music. Good grammar would ruin these songs.

I Can’t Get No Satisfaction, Rolling Stones

I Gotta Feeling, Black Eyes Peas (an editor would hyphenate the group’s name, I’m sure)

Lay Down Sally, Eric Clapton

Conversate, Case (OK, that’s bad!)

All photos from morguefiles.com