She Did What?

Kathleen Kaska (Fifth-Saturday Blogger)

            A few years ago, I sent a manuscript to the agent who was representing me at the time. She was appalled that my protagonist had the temerity to speed over a cattle guard on an unmarked the dirt road. There was no motive to my protagonist's wacky actions, according to her, and furthermore, this absurd incident wasn’t mentioned again in my story. And what did she have against this cattle guard anyway?

       Her comments momentarily confused me. What was the big deal about driving over a cattle guard? How in the hell else was she supposed to get where she was going? It finally dawned on me that this young New Yorker hadn't a clue about ranch life. She assumed the cattle “guard” was a person, standing sentinel over some bovines. Fighting laughter, I gently explained this contextual cattle guard. She was good-natured enough to then allow some mutual chuckling.

            In one of my writers’ critique groups, two members were confused about “she pulled the door to.” They wanted to know why I didn’t finish the action stated. “Pulled the door to what?” they asked. When I explained to them that “pulling the door to,” meant closing it without actually shutting it, they seemed unconvinced. To them, the door was either closed or it wasn’t.

            Here’s another example. A reader chastised me about an expression in one of my mysteries. My protagonist had responded to something of no surprise to her by saying, “Well, slap me silly.” The reader thought the remark a bit extreme, bordering on masochistic. She couldn’t imagine someone asking to be slapped and why there wasn’t a comma before “silly.” I demurred. The reader obviously lacked a sense of humor. 

            My current mystery series is set mainly in the South and I use a lot of Southern expressions, which come naturally to me since I’m from Texas. My new series is set in Manhattan. Fortunately, I lived there a while and some Big Apple slang stuck with me. One of my favorites is “schmear” (a small amount or smear of cream cheese added to a bagel order. Living now in the Pacific Northwest, I was pleased to see this word on a local coffee shop menu. Is the world shrinking? Are we really becoming a global village? Have we reached the point where we all understand one another? I hope not. That would be boring.

            Do any of ya’ll use similar regional slang or colloquialisms in your writing? Keep on!

National Dog Day

After spending the last week plus up close and personal with my dogs on vacation, I thought I'd give them the floor today.  They are smart cookies. They figured out how to open the back windows in the truck when they wanted some air. My husband figured out how to lock the windows. :)

This is Homer, our youngest, and a total mommy's boy. (He's in his usual spot, under my desk.

And this is the old man, Demon.

Feel free to share your own dog shots.

Lynn
MISSION TO MURDER - available now. (And of course, has a dog or two in the book.)

Going to Nashville!

I’m going to be at Killer Nashville when this posts. This will be my second trip to this conference. Someone mentioned that there is a trolley tour available a short walk from our hotel. I won’t have time to do this, so I decided to do my own tour, before I go, from the comfort of my office.

First, some history. Nashville was named after Fort Nashborough, near which it was first located. The fort is named after Revolutionary hero Francis Nash. Situated on the Cumberland River, it grew quickly.

Its nickname is Music City, mostly country music. Four major record labels and other small ones record there. It boasts the Grand Old Opry, Ryman Auditorium, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and the General Jackson showboat.

Other nicknames: Athens of the South, The Protestant Vatican (or The Buckle of the Bible Belt), Cashville, Little Kurdistan, and Nash Vegas.

Gibson guitar and Nissan North America headquarters are also located in Nashville.

Three interstates meet near downtown, I-40 (the one I’m driving in on), I-65, and I-24. This must be a mess! It’s the second largest in population in the state (Memphis is largest), but the biggest in metropolitan area, spreading over 13 counties.

The town gave rise to Moon Pies and Goo Goo Clusters. I’m going to see if I can locate any of those while I’m there. It’s been ranked the 13th snobbiest city for foodie culture. Am I the only one who sees a disconnect here?

Vanderbilt University and at least 4 other colleges make this a university town, AND it’s the state capitol.

Some local dishes are called hot chicken, hot fish, barbecue. Meat and three is type of restaurant service. I might see if I can locate some of that, too.

You know, I might have to schedule an extra day or two next time.

info from:

http://www.nashville.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville,_Tennessee

Beyond the Screen

by Janis Patterson/Janis Susan May

Sometimes our lives get so tied up with words and writing and editing and publishing and publicity that we forget there is a world out there beyond the confines of our computer screens, so today I’m not going to talk (at least very much!) about business.

This past week was my birthday – exactly which one we won’t mention – and to mark the occasion The Husband took me on a four day trip to Las Vegas. I have been so occupied with my June-October publishing blitz that he complains he never sees me anymore because I’m always locked away in my office. I wasn’t even allowed to take a computer on our trip, just my phone to check emails.

The trip was wonderful. We spent an entire day at and in Hoover Dam. I never thought of that as particularly fascinating (I had seen it before) but the trip inside was incredible. Do not go if you are in the least bit claustrophobic. The tiny little tunnels, well-lit but dank as cave passages, made me feel as if we were in the bowels of the earth – until we got to peek out a ventilation shaft halfway down the face of the dam and our perception changed immediately. 400 feet down from the dam top is still a verrrrry long way from the bottom! It did not make me feel secure when we found out that the second half our group was stuck in the elevator we had just exited, either! That made us have to climb approximately four floors to the next part of the tour, and I had morbid fantasies of having to spend hours and hours climbing out of the dam’s innards. The problem was fixed by the time of our next elevator ride, however, and we rode up with no troubles at all.

One day we spent most of the day at the Atomic Energy Museum, where you can learn EVERYTHING there is to know about the history and uses of atomic energy in stultifying minutiae. The Husband loved it. I… Personally I enjoyed the exhibit on Area 51 much more, even though the lighting was so ‘atmospheric’ and the exhibit cards print so light that reading the information was sometimes difficult. When I pulled out my pocket flash (never leave home without one!) The Husband pretended he didn’t know me.

We had planned to see a show or two, but by the evenings we were so tired out we just said ‘next time’ and left it at that. We did gamble – a little. We work too hard for our money to enjoy gaming deeply, but we did give ourselves a $25 budget for an afternoon of the penny slots. We won a little bit, which we then lost again, but had a lot of fun – a lot more than some of the players at the big $$ machines and tables seemed to be. We saw a couple of the more fantastic casinos (the Egyptian statuary at the Luxor is really quite good for commercial replicas) and walked the Fremont Experience. We also ate ourselves into a stupor – never saw so much fabulous food at such reasonable prices.

One of the high points was a visit to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop (the one from the TV series Pawn Stars). It’s smaller than I had expected, and the four stars of the show weren’t there, but as an added and completely unexpected gift I got a beautiful white gold and kunzite ring studded with teeny-tiny little chips of emerald, ruby, diamond and sapphire in a floriform design. Beats meeting TV personalities any day!

As much as I love writing and creating my own worlds, the real world has it beat.

UPDATE :

My August 15 release SHADOWED LEGACY marks the tipping point of my 30 June – 30 October publishing blitz. It’s a gothic romance set in Louisiana of the 1870s. The story is about an orphaned young woman who has survived by singing in the saloons of the Western silver camps only to be ordered by her unknown and autocratic grandfather to come to his plantation. She wants to be part of a family, he has other ideas and an unknown villain has more sinister plans. It was a fun book to write.

Highlights of the Month, So Far

Usually, I have a new Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery coming out in August. This year I was really slow getting the manuscript finished. Not sure why, but I did struggle with it a bit. I even got an email from my publisher asking where it was. I finally got it turned in and I've received my contract. An editor has been assigned to the book which I've called "River Spirits."  The proposed publishing date is the end of September. So, as I've mentioned in another blog, it's time to start planning the promotion.

I'm going to do another blog tour--yes, I know, I'm a glutton for punishment. Because I know things never quite go as planned, I'm setting it up for November. Not sure how or where I'll do my in-person launch party.

Another big highlight is the fact that I got the biggest royalty check I've ever received. The reason it was so big is because I did the free Kindle book deal. I did use BookBub which advertises free Kindle books to thousands of subscribers. It's a costly way to do it, but in my case it did pay off. Not only were over 500,000 free books downloaded, more were paid for, and many of the books in the series were also purchased. Even a few other books I've written were purchased too--ones that have been sitting dormant for awhile.

For the freebie, Angel Lost, as I write this, I have 106 reviews for the book on Amazon. Most are positive, though there are a few not so wonderful reviews--a couple are quite strange.

For a day, Angel Lost was #1 in police procedurals and hovered below #50 in mystery.

http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Lost-Rocky-Bluff-Crime-ebook/dp/B0050KBNW4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1407941117&sr=1-1&keywords=angel+lost+by+f.+m.+meredith

By the time this is online, great-grandchild #15 will be born. Her name is Priscilla Rose and I'm eagerly waiting to meet her. And of course, this will be the biggest highlight of all.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Kindle Unlimited

Rumor has it that Kindle Unlimited is really taking off. It's an Amazon program where readers can download as many books as they wish at $9.99 per month, in increments at ten at a time. Once a book over the limit is returned, the reader can pick another.

This program is a boon for voracious readers, and appears to be a boon for authors in the KDP Select program, in which authors agree to make certain books available for ninety days exclusively at Amazon, and to lend out books to Amazon Unlimited and Amazon Prime members. Lent books net the author a share of the monthly pot, which usually turns out to be a little over $2 each.

Now, that may not be a blessing for authors with books selling for $4.99 or so, but, since my highest priced books are $2.99, and the lowest one is 99 cents, I'd gladly accept the $2+ amount, with the advantage of more downloads.

So far, I've noticed an uptake in book loans for Her Handyman and A Perfect Angel, which I've been promoting a lot on Twitter lately, and I plan to start promoting my other books more.

If you're a reader, Do any of you belong to Kindle Unlimited? If you're an author, have you also noticed an uptake in book loans? 

All of my books, except for Two Wrongs, which is at multiple venues, are available to Amazon's Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime members, and can be found at my Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/author/morganmandel.

Find Excerpts of Morgan's romances, mysteries and thrillers at Morgan's Book Links:

http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com

Me & My Sleuths

I love my sleuths and have lots of fun watching them solve murders and navigate relationships. As the protagonist in a series, each of my sleuths is complex, with both endearing and irritating characteristics. They’re all clever enough to solve mysteries, spunky enough to take risks they have no business taking, and all have blind spots that occasionally lead them to wrong conclusions and into danger. As their creator, I have something in common with each and every one of them. I thought I’d say a few words about my sleuths Lydia, Gabbie, and Lexie—what they’re like and the traits and similarities I share with each.

Lydia Krause stars in A Murderer Among Us and Murder in the Air of the Twin Lakes Mysteries series. She is an attractive widow aged 58, who once ran her own company and now resides in the upscale retirement community of Twin Lakes on Long Island with her red tom Reggie. She has two daughters who give her joy and grief, a slew of new friends, and a budding relationship with Detective Sol Molina. While I live in a gated community on Long Island, it’s nowhere as posh as Twin Lakes, nor is it a retirement community, and, alas, we don’t have an indoor pool. Ironically, Lydia became a widow before I did. I have two sons, not two daughters, and one granddaughter so far, not two as Lydia has. Both Lydia and I have red toms.

In Giving Up the Ghost Gabbie Meyerson comes to the village of Chrissom Harbor on Long Island in the middle of a cold January to teach English at the local high school.
Gabbie is in her midthirties and like Lydia, starting a new life. She has recently divorced her husband, after helping to send him to prison for white collar crimes. She rents a cottage on a bluff and discovers she has a housemate—the ghost of wheeler dealer Cameron Leeds, who plagues Gabbie until she agrees to find out who murdered him. Gabbie’s students play a part in the mystery. While I never had a ghost for a housemate, I was a high school teacher for several years though my subject was Spanish. I never divorced my husband, nor did he ever commit any crimes. We writers must take liberties. <g>

Lexie Driscoll is my sleuth in the Golden Age of Mystery Book Club series. Lexie is a 48-year-old English professor at a Long Island university. Though she is very bright, she has poor judgment when it comes to choosing husbands. Her first husband left her when she was pregnant with her son, Jesse. Now father and son enjoy a close relationship. Years later, she married a fellow academic, only to learn he was extremely unstable. When Lexie told him she was ending the marriage, he burned down her house and died in the fire. In Murder a la Christie, Lexie’s best friend, now married to Lexie’s former college boyfriend, asks her to facilitate a Golden Age of Mystery book club in her wealthy town of Old Cadfield, Long Island. While discussing Agatha Christie and her novels, one of the members becomes ill and dies. Lexie is c

ertain that Sylvia’s been poisoned. More members are murdered, and Lexie fears their lives are on a parallel course of Christie’s novel, And Then There Were None. Lexie’s barrage of questions often upsets the Old Cadfield residents. She exposes old secrets and resentments, until someone tries to kill her. While I’m nowhere as intrusive as Lexie, probably because I haven’t had to, I find it ironic that just before the book was published, my local library asked me to lead the mystery book club. (I am no longer the leader, and we have not suffered any murders. ) A case of life following art.  <g>

What do you and your sleuths have in common?

Confused and Defensive about Cops

.... by Mar Preston 

I write crime fiction about a cop and his world, a homicide detective in the Santa Monica Police Department.

Detective Dave Mason has his faults, of course, but try as I might, I do not have the imagination to fit him into being a member of the Ferguson Police Department. I’ve written before about worrying that I have too rosy a view of cops because I only interact with the good ones. I know there are cops who like making DWB (Driving While Black) busts, cops who like busting heads, cops who should be kept on a chain at the back of the station.

Knowing that, I still believe there are few of them, and others in the department know who they are. The vast majority of cops still have a broad streak of protect and serve built into them.

I also know that law enforcement is set up as a paramilitary organization. Militarization of police forces has filtered down from big cities, to suburb, even small towns. Today’s riot police officers wear military-style camouflage and carry military-style rifles, their heads and faces obscured by black helmets and gas masks sitting atop an armored vehicle.

SWAT teams generally came to prominence in the 1970s as an answer to quelling urban demonstrations, but  those paramilitary tactics and equipment have spread almost everywhere in America through the 1033 program. This program makes available surplus Department of Defense equipment, meant to defend against a terrorist attack.  Not peaceful demonstrations.

The number of SWAT deployments has exploded since 1980, and the growing militarization of U.S. policing (even to make routine search warrants) seems to have overcome all the precepts of community policing. What’s happening to Officer Friendly?

I’ve read police bogs and commentary stating that this tactical equipment obtained from the Department of Justice is not accepted and used without local consideration of their impact. But not in Ferguson. I have read the statement and seen the video the Ferguson police have issued and I’m skeptical. However, this is a story that may unroll in ways that we cannot imagine now.

Yet we cannot help to form perceptions on the way things look. The military gear looks damn scary to me and to everybody else. I dread to see the day when sniper rifles are pointed in the face of peaceful demonstrators (like the people I know and demonstrations that have been part of) in Santa Monica.

I’m glad I write fiction and don’t have to decide what is truth in an increasingly complex world in which I have very little, if any, impact.

Tell me what you think about this as crime writers?

On Behalf of the Family - a Pollice Procedural

Confused and Defensive about Cops

….   By Mar Preston

I write crime fiction about a cop and his world, a homicide detective in the Santa Monica Police Department.

Detective Dave Mason has his faults, of course, but try as I might, I do not have the imagination to fit him into being a member of the Ferguson Police Department. I’ve written before about worrying that I have too rosy a view of cops because I only interact with the good ones. I know there are cops who like making DWB (Driving While Black) busts, cops who like busting heads, cops who should be kept on a chain at the back of the station.

Knowing that, I still believe there are few of them, and others in the department know who they are. The vast majority of cops still have a broad streak of protect and serve built into them.

I also know that law enforcement is set up as a paramilitary organization. Militarization of police forces has filtered down from big cities, to suburb, even small towns. Today’s riot police officers wear military-style camouflage and carry military-style rifles, their heads and faces obscured by black helmets and gas masks sitting atop an armored vehicle.

SWAT teams generally came to prominence in the 1970s as an answer to quelling urban demonstrations, but  those paramilitary tactics and equipment have spread almost everywhere in America through the 1033 program. This program makes available surplus Department of Defense equipment, meant to defend against a terrorist attack.  Not peaceful demonstrations.

The number of SWAT deployments has exploded since 1980, and the growing militarization of U.S. policing (even to make routine search warrants) seems to have overcome all the precepts of community policing. What’s happening to Officer Friendly?

I’ve read police bogs and commentary stating that this tactical equipment obtained from the Department of Justice is not accepted and used without local consideration of their impact. But not in Ferguson. I have read the statement and seen the video the Ferguson police have issued and I’m skeptical. However, this is a story that may unroll in ways that we cannot imagine now.

Yet we cannot help to form perceptions on the way things look. The military gear looks damn scary to me and to everybody else. I dread to see the day when sniper rifles are pointed in the face of peaceful demonstrators (like the people I know and demonstrations that have been part of) in Santa Monica.

I’m glad I write fiction and don’t have to decide what is truth in an increasingly complex world in which I have very little, if any, impact.

Tell me what you think about this, my fellow crime writers?

http://www.amazon.com/Behalf-Family-Detective-Mason-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00I82BFVK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408252352&sr=8-1&keywords=mar+preston

Mission to Murder Blog tour winding down...

Actually the tour ends today and it's been an amazing week (plus) to welcome my new book officially into the world.

In the California coastal town of South Cove, history is one of its many tourist attractions—until it becomes deadly…

Jill Gardner, proprietor of Coffee, Books, and More, has discovered that the old stone wall on her property might be a centuries-old mission worthy of being declared a landmark. But Craig Morgan, the obnoxious owner of South Cove’s most popular tourist spot, The Castle, makes it his business to contest her claim. When Morgan is found murdered at The Castle shortly after a heated argument with Jill, even her detective boyfriend has to ask her for an alibi. Jill decides she must find the real murderer to clear her name. But when the killer comes for her, she’ll need to jump from historic preservation to self-preservation …

Excerpt - Some people like to hear their own voice. That jewel of wisdom hit me as I filled the coffee carafes for the third time. As chamber liaison, I’d volunteered my shop, Coffee, Books, and More, to serve as semi-permanent host site for South Cove’s Business Basics meeting. The early morning meeting was scheduled to run from seven to nine but the clock over the coffee bar showed it was already twenty minutes past. With more items to cover on the agenda, we’d be ordering lunch, maybe dinner, before the end.

All because the newest committee member, Josh Thomas, owner of the new antiques store down the street, had issues. He didn’t like the agenda, the city’s promotion plan, and he especially didn’t like the fact the city didn’t have a formal animal control office. These subjects were not part of the regular list of discussion topics for the eclectic mix of owners of gift shops, art galleries, inns, and restaurants. I usually loved feeling the creative energy and listening to wacky ideas members brought to the table. Today, the meeting droned on and I couldn’t wait for it to end.

                “I wonder why he even moved here,” Aunt Jackie fake-whispered to me as she sliced a second cheesecake. “He hates everything.”

                “Hush.” I elbowed my aunt, trying to quiet her.

                “Jill Gardner, don’t tell me you weren’t thinking the same thing.” She started plating out the cheesecake.           

                A couple of the council members snickered, and Josh’s face turned a deeper red than normal. His wide girth barely fit into the black suit he wore. From what I could tell, he wore the same threadbare suit every day. Watching the buttons on his off-white shirt, I worried one would pop off each time he took a labored breath.

                “As I was saying, we must press the police department to deal with felonious teenagers running the streets.” Josh didn’t acknowledge he’d heard Jackie, a tactic I’ve often used with my aunt. She’s overbearing, opinionated, speaks her mind, and I love her to death.

                “There’s no problem.” Sadie Michaels replied, the words harsh and clipped. “There’s not a lot for kids to do around here, so they hang out at the park. They don’t cause problems for local businesses. We’ve raised them better than that.”

                “I beg to differ. Craig Morgan, the manager over at The Castle, has caught kids breaking in after-hours. They've been having drinking parties, swimming in the pools, and he’s even caught a few couples in the mansion’s bedrooms, doing heavens knows what.” Snickers from the rest of the members floated around the room as Josh wheezed in another breath. “We must stop these criminals before there’s real trouble. The antiques housed at The Castle are priceless.”

Links –

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Mission-Murder-Tourist-Trap-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00IO3QR98/

Nook - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mission-to-murder-lynn-cahoon/1118882337?ean=9781601832399&itm=1&usri=lynn+cahoon

Goodreads -http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5857424.Lynn_Cahoon

Twitter - https://twitter.com/LynnCahoon

Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/LynnCahoonAuthor

website - http://lynncahoon.wordpress.com/

Amazon author page - http://www.amazon.com/Lynn-Cahoon/e/B0082PWOAO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

Walking In Mud

As so often happens, I receive my writing inspiration during the morning walk with my dog, Rascal.

The same happened today when Rascal decided to make a detour into what yesterday had been dry dirt, but had overnight turned into mud. I could have tightened her leash and kept her away, but didn't wish to spoil her walking pleasure. I knew once she walked on the grass and sidewalk, her paws would probably come clean, and if worse came to worse, I could wipe them off on the way into the kitchen.

That little detour in more than one way reminded me of mysteries where characters figuratively walk in the mud and most often come out unscathed.

Why do they do it? Here are some reasons I've come up:

1. Curiosity - Something deadly or out of the ordinary happens and the character's mind is not set to rest until the riddle is solved.
2. Necessity - Something dire is likely to occur unless the character faces fears and obstacles and overcomes them.
3. A desire to do good - The welfare of one or more others is at stake, prompting a noble character to brave dangers. 
4. Escapism - A desire to live someone else's life for a short while, and be brave or cowardly, without suffering the consequences.

On a side note - I was employed as a legal secretary when I wrote Killer Career, the story of a lawyer who gave up her practice to become a writer, a decision which turned unexpectedly dangerous. Later, I realized the book had been inspired by my frustration at seeing no way out of the security of my longstanding job. For a while, I could live the life of someone who did escape, faced the consequences, and was able to defeat them. 

Walking in mud can also apply to mystery/thriller readers who bond with fictional characters, experience their trials, yet can breathe a sigh of relief and wipe off their feet, so to speak, after all is right again in the make-believe world.

Can you think of other instances where walking in mud might apply? Or, maybe you'd just like to comment on one of my examples.

Find all of Morgan Mandel's mysteries, thrillers &

romances at her Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/author/morganmandel 

Excerpts are all at: http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com

Twitter: @MorganMandel

 http://amzn.com/B002PDOPPG

Some more Neanderthal research

Buy at Untreed Reads

It’s been awhile since I posted the research behind DEATH IN THE TIME OF ICE.

One thing I gave my Neanderthals was speech. It’s debated whether or not they could speak, so I went back and forth, but finally decided to take a middle ground. I gave them rudimentary speech. In my fiction, they (usually the leader) use speech only for important ceremonial or decisive announcements. I did a lot of research for this, but, since I once wanted to be a linguist, it was tons of fun. I studied how babies learn to talk and the first sounds they make in different cultures, how people with speech problems are treated with therapy, and the roots of the earliest languages as far as anyone knows them. Here’s the quote I used for Chapter 15:

//

Chapter 15 – speech

Neanderthals, an archaic human species that dominated Europe until the arrival of modern humans some 45,000 years ago, possessed a critical gene known to underlie speech, according to DNA evidence retrieved from two individuals excavated from El Sidron, a cave in northern Spain.

The new evidence stems from analysis of a gene called TOXP2 which is associated with language.

The New York Times, Neanderthals Had Important Speech Gene, DNA Evidence Shows, by Nicholas Wade, October 19, 2007

//

Since they had the gene, I have to assume they had the physical equipment, even though it may have been a little different from ours.

For Chapter 16, I chose to explain how I had these Neanderthals get to North America. You know, the further and further east they find remains in Asia, the more I think it could have happened!

//

Chapter 16 – crossing and the north star

The author: It is believed that prehistoric people reached the American continents via Beringia.

Bering Strait: Strait connecting Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea (q.v.), and separating Asia (Russia) from North America (Alaska); at narrowest point 53 mi. (83 km.) wide…A drop in sea level during the Ice Age is believed to have exposed a land bridge (Beringia) connecting Asia and North America. Strait traversed by Danish navigator Vitus Bering 1728.

Merriam-Webster’s geographical dictionary

The author: The Big Dipper has been known as a guiding bear for a very long time.

The Iroquois Native Americans interpreted Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid as three hunters pursuing the Great Bear. According to one version of their myth, the first hunter (Alioth) is carrying a bow and arrow to strike down the bear. The second hunter (Mizar) carries a large pot — the star Alcor — on his shoulder in which to cook the bear while the third hunter (Alkaid) hauls a pile of firewood to light a fire beneath the pot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursa_Major#History

In ancient Sanskrit and all modern Sanskirt-based languages, the noun tara means star. One of Tara's ancient names was Dhruva, also the name of Polaris, the Pole, or North, Star. In the 108 Names of the Holy Tara, She was the "Leader of the caravans...who showeth the way to those who have lost it." (Purna)

Today, it is difficult to understand the extent to which our ancestors traveled and relied on the stars to guide them. Sophisticated astronomical systems of the early historic period, the worldwide Neolithic standing stone observatories, and the lunar calendars on stone and bone, dating to the Paleolithic and possibly earlier (from 30,000 years ago to 300,000 years ago), indicate that our foremothers mapped the heavens. Clearly, they relied on their knowledge of the stars, moon and sun for safe passage. For the native peoples of the Indian subcontinent, bordered by two oceans and the daunting Himalayan mountain ranges, and covered with dense wilderness areas, the Pole Star was a constant indicator of true north, and the heavenly bodies in relationship to it, a celestial map. Tara, star and goddess, was the matron deity of travelers.

http://www.goddessmystic.com/CoreCurriculum/Goddesses/Tara/TaraAttributesStar.shtml

Owen Gingerich, in his article "The origin of the zodiac." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 67, 1984, Pages 218-220) proposed that a bear constellation crossed the Bering Straits with ancient migrants.

//

Hoped you’ve enjoyed this peek into my thrilling prehistory research!

Branding

 by Janis Patterson

If there is a buzzword in marketing your books, it is currently ‘branding.’ Being a Texas girl the first thing I think of when I hear this is hot iron on cow buttock, but this, I assure you is different. Think soap powder. Or soft drinks. Or hamburgers. Instant identifiability.

I’m not sure, though, that I like being marketed with the same underlying techniques as a hamburger or soap powder. I’m a human being, with all my quirks, eccentricities and foibles, not a one-note product. I believe that people should be interested in the whole package, not just in ‘murder mystery’ or ‘sweet romance’ or whatever.

But that isn’t the way the world works. Most teaders may be mildly interested in the fact that you raise orchids or live on an island or don’t care for rhubarb, but they won’t be interested in you at all if they can’t find you, and that’s where the pundits say branding comes in. Usually readers who want a cozy mystery with cats will give short shrift to a writer who does glasses-melting erotica, and vice-versa, no matter who wrote it. They look for the names that are associated with what they want. Branding.

Those of us who write in multiple genres may be shooting ourselves in the foot by doing so. I write everything from traditional Regency romance to psychological horror to cozy mystery to contemporary romantic adventure to children’s. You’d think there’d be some crossover, but not from what I’ve heard from my readers. They seem to want more of the same, the same being whatever their particular niche is. I’ve even been chastised by a reader for ‘wasting my time’ by working on one genre when she wanted more of another.

I think such narrow focus is sad, but that’s their problem, not mine. If they don’t want to buy my books, it’s their loss. Variety is the spice of life. I cannot imagine writing in only one genre, just as I cannot imagine writing a gazillion books in one series with the same characters and locations. Joy to those to do it and do it well and to their readers too, but I’d die of boredom. So – I guess I’ll never be a rich and famous writer, because I cannot stand to be bored. I have been told I become dangerous when I’m bored.

And I still think branding is for cows.

UPDATE : Since my last column my publishing binge has been going according to plan. THE FAIR AMAZON, a traditional Regency romance, was released on 15 July and is doing well.

More exciting – at least to me – is THE JERUSALEM CONNECTION, a new contemporary romantic adventure suspense released on 30 July. This is a special book to me, mainly because years ago I worked in Jerusalem on a film for over three months, and some of the adventures the heroine of this book has actually happened to me in real life. (And no, I’m not saying which!)