Rhys Bowen's Blog, page 27
March 17, 2011
Happy St. Patrick's Day
Molly Murphy wishes you all Top O' the Morning for St Patrick's Day.
But I have to confess I'm not a big fan of St Patrick's Day. it's not one of my favorite holidays. For one thing, I don't like corned beef and cabbage. Not too keen on Guiness. Also I associate it with people getting drunk and I have some less than stellar memories.A few years ago my publisher came up with the brilliant idea of bringing me to New York to launch the new Molly book on St Patrick's Day. They set up events for me including one at the Police Museum, one at the SouthStreet seaport museum.
Good idea, right? The only trouble was that sane and normal people don't venture out in New York on St Patrick's Day when the streets are full of drunken men. So great venues, but nobody came. Lesson learned--some holidays are great to tie into, others not so great.
These days Molly is launched on March 1 (which happens to be St. David's Day--a much more sober festival invoving the wearing of daffodils or leeks but with no alcoholic connotations.
My favorite St Patrick's Days have been watching our little Meghan perform outside City Hall in San Francisco with her Irish Dance troupe. Now that's positive Irish energy. So Happy St. Patrick's Day to you--however you choose to celebrate it!
March 14, 2011
How the other half lives!
This weekend I had a surreal existence--seeing how the other half lives, and by that I mean the super rich. On Saturday I attended a Giant's baseball game, using a friend's seats in a great location behind home plate in the 'friends and family' section. This meant we sat among the players wives and families. The wives could almost have had "wife" tatooed across their foreheads. They all had long blond hair, wore fashionable tight white jeans, skimpy tops, gorgeous sandals, designer purses AND on their ring finger a rock the size of Manahttan.
Then on Sunday we went to the racetrack where our next door neighbor had a horse running. I got to go into the paddock before the race, chat with the trainer and watch the horse dancing nervously (it's a very highly strung horse). Actually he's still a baby, having just turned three and therefore a teenager with all kinds of quirks and bad habits, but loads of talent. In spite of taking the final turn incredibly wide he won. So we then had the heady experience of standing in the winner's circle, having our picture taken. The jockey was a tiny English girl from my part of England so we chatted together like old friends.
Yesterday evening our neighbor showed up with the official photo of the winner's circle. He stayed, got through a bottle of our cognac and talked. He owns 6 race horses and it costs him $10,000 a month to feed and train them. But they are his hobby. What actually makes that money to feed them is that he has oil wells. He goes all over the world, looking for oil, negotiating with dubious dictators, dodging through wars. He was in Chernobyl a month after the disaster. He was kidnapped by Russian mafia and taken to someone 's room slung over a bodyguard's shoulder. He was in Ethopia and Eritrea during their conflict and tried to make both sides be reasonable in allowing the land-locked country a narrow strip of access to the ocean. No luck there.
And yes, he thinks all this is a huge joke. Fun. So would I like to live like the other half? You know, I think I'm comfortable the way I am. But I might, just might like to own a racehorse. I have to say the thrill of watching it surge to the lead was really heady. It reminded me of when my kids used to swim competitively and they won. But then they were less expensive to feed and train. Now it's Monday and I'm back to the computer, working through the next five pages of my book. Ah well. Reality ain't so bad.
Then on Sunday we went to the racetrack where our next door neighbor had a horse running. I got to go into the paddock before the race, chat with the trainer and watch the horse dancing nervously (it's a very highly strung horse). Actually he's still a baby, having just turned three and therefore a teenager with all kinds of quirks and bad habits, but loads of talent. In spite of taking the final turn incredibly wide he won. So we then had the heady experience of standing in the winner's circle, having our picture taken. The jockey was a tiny English girl from my part of England so we chatted together like old friends.Yesterday evening our neighbor showed up with the official photo of the winner's circle. He stayed, got through a bottle of our cognac and talked. He owns 6 race horses and it costs him $10,000 a month to feed and train them. But they are his hobby. What actually makes that money to feed them is that he has oil wells. He goes all over the world, looking for oil, negotiating with dubious dictators, dodging through wars. He was in Chernobyl a month after the disaster. He was kidnapped by Russian mafia and taken to someone 's room slung over a bodyguard's shoulder. He was in Ethopia and Eritrea during their conflict and tried to make both sides be reasonable in allowing the land-locked country a narrow strip of access to the ocean. No luck there.
And yes, he thinks all this is a huge joke. Fun. So would I like to live like the other half? You know, I think I'm comfortable the way I am. But I might, just might like to own a racehorse. I have to say the thrill of watching it surge to the lead was really heady. It reminded me of when my kids used to swim competitively and they won. But then they were less expensive to feed and train. Now it's Monday and I'm back to the computer, working through the next five pages of my book. Ah well. Reality ain't so bad.
March 11, 2011
Where the Heck am I going?
Celebrate with me--I've just reached the stage in my new book when the end is in sight--I can see where the story is going and I KNOW I'LL BE ABLE TO FINISH IT!! Heavy sigh of relief.
Every book is the same tortured process--panic at beginning, worry until about page 150 then gathering momentum on the downhill slope to the finish line.
All this could be avoided if I could just outline the story in advance.
The problem is that I can't. I've tried. I can come up with a reasonably good outline for a story BUT it would be nothing like the story I'd end up with if I just let the book grow and develop. And if I had an outline, I'd feel obliged to follow it. Hence the book would not be as good.
Luckily I have wonderful editors who trust that I'll be able to come up with a book in the required length of time and don't demand to see a proposal. If they did want one it would say "she finds a body and then bad things happen to her."
So I have to let my characters stumble through their world, having things happen to them, meeting people I haven't anticipated, finding bodies where I least expected them and in the end it turns out that my characters (or is it my subconscious) knew pretty well where we were going.
Today on Jungle Red Writers , the group blog I belong to, mystery icon Carolyn Hart blogs about exactly this. She can't outline either... and you know, I don't think she's done too badly outlineless.
I hope to finish my first draft by the beginning of April. I'll keep you posted!
Every book is the same tortured process--panic at beginning, worry until about page 150 then gathering momentum on the downhill slope to the finish line.
All this could be avoided if I could just outline the story in advance.
The problem is that I can't. I've tried. I can come up with a reasonably good outline for a story BUT it would be nothing like the story I'd end up with if I just let the book grow and develop. And if I had an outline, I'd feel obliged to follow it. Hence the book would not be as good.Luckily I have wonderful editors who trust that I'll be able to come up with a book in the required length of time and don't demand to see a proposal. If they did want one it would say "she finds a body and then bad things happen to her."
So I have to let my characters stumble through their world, having things happen to them, meeting people I haven't anticipated, finding bodies where I least expected them and in the end it turns out that my characters (or is it my subconscious) knew pretty well where we were going.
Today on Jungle Red Writers , the group blog I belong to, mystery icon Carolyn Hart blogs about exactly this. She can't outline either... and you know, I don't think she's done too badly outlineless.
I hope to finish my first draft by the beginning of April. I'll keep you posted!
March 4, 2011
What's Next for Georgie?
I'm nearly done with the next Molly book, so naturally my attention is turning to Georgie and what is up for her.
She has been abroad for the past two books, so I think it's time to bring her back to England, don't you? And with the King's Speech doing so frightfully well (as she would say) I'm wondering whether I can do something with Georgie that ties in to that branch of the royals.
Any suggestions on what you'd like to see happening to Georgie next?
And speaking of royal weddings--I am seriously bummed. The royal wedding will happen when I am on the East coast for a convention. I won't even get to watch the whole thing. Not fair. John will record it back at home and I'll watch it later but it's not the same.
She has been abroad for the past two books, so I think it's time to bring her back to England, don't you? And with the King's Speech doing so frightfully well (as she would say) I'm wondering whether I can do something with Georgie that ties in to that branch of the royals.
Any suggestions on what you'd like to see happening to Georgie next?
And speaking of royal weddings--I am seriously bummed. The royal wedding will happen when I am on the East coast for a convention. I won't even get to watch the whole thing. Not fair. John will record it back at home and I'll watch it later but it's not the same.
March 2, 2011
Rhys at the Poisoned Pen
Last night was my launch party for Bless the Bride at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale AZ. A merry time was had by all with champagne, fortune cookies, shamrock cookies and Rob Rosenwald's famous soda bread which is just yummy. (unfortunately the speaker never gets to eat or drink!)
If you ever happen to be in Scottsdale, then you have to stop by this fantanstic store. Exactly what a bookstore should be. Events at Poisoned Pen are a little different from the average 'here I am and this is my book' sort of thing. Owner Barbara Peters sits with the author and we chat. Sometimes about the book but the conversation wanders as all good conversations do. Last night we found ourselves discussing colonialism and missionaries in Hawaii as a offshoot of the plight of the Chinese in America--which is the theme of Bless the Bride.
I had been telling the audience what I discovered about the abuse of Chinese living in America at the turn of the last century. The US government wanted to send them home but appropriated no funds to do so. So they lived virtually in limbo--no rights at all. No right of citizenship for any child born here. But that didn't happen ofen because it was a society of men and they were not allowed to import their families. So the 1900 census shows 3000 men living in New York's Chinatown and only 30 women. Of course there might have been wives with bound feet lving hidden away, but mostly it was bachelors living in primitive dorms, sleeping on wooden planks and dreaming of the day when they could make enough money to go home. In the meantime they didn't dare cut off their tell-tale braid for in China not wearing the braid was an insult to the emperor and subject to instant beheading.
So some of the Chinese men married Irish girls, who would rather have a hardworking sober Chinese man than a drunken Irish lout. But they were also in limbo, shunned by both communities. Lots of fascinating stuff and of course I could only include a small part of it in my story. But when we shout about human rights abuses in other countries, we should think back a hundred years and realize that we were just as bad.
By the way there was a podcast of our discussion which will be available on the Poisoned Pen website and also on YouTube.
If you ever happen to be in Scottsdale, then you have to stop by this fantanstic store. Exactly what a bookstore should be. Events at Poisoned Pen are a little different from the average 'here I am and this is my book' sort of thing. Owner Barbara Peters sits with the author and we chat. Sometimes about the book but the conversation wanders as all good conversations do. Last night we found ourselves discussing colonialism and missionaries in Hawaii as a offshoot of the plight of the Chinese in America--which is the theme of Bless the Bride.
I had been telling the audience what I discovered about the abuse of Chinese living in America at the turn of the last century. The US government wanted to send them home but appropriated no funds to do so. So they lived virtually in limbo--no rights at all. No right of citizenship for any child born here. But that didn't happen ofen because it was a society of men and they were not allowed to import their families. So the 1900 census shows 3000 men living in New York's Chinatown and only 30 women. Of course there might have been wives with bound feet lving hidden away, but mostly it was bachelors living in primitive dorms, sleeping on wooden planks and dreaming of the day when they could make enough money to go home. In the meantime they didn't dare cut off their tell-tale braid for in China not wearing the braid was an insult to the emperor and subject to instant beheading.
So some of the Chinese men married Irish girls, who would rather have a hardworking sober Chinese man than a drunken Irish lout. But they were also in limbo, shunned by both communities. Lots of fascinating stuff and of course I could only include a small part of it in my story. But when we shout about human rights abuses in other countries, we should think back a hundred years and realize that we were just as bad.
By the way there was a podcast of our discussion which will be available on the Poisoned Pen website and also on YouTube.
February 28, 2011
Launch Day!
Wow,it's almost March 1st and launch day for Bless the Bride. I'm no longer nervous but I'm always excited before a launch party. I've bought enough champagne and shamrock cookies, almond cookies and fortune cookies. I only hope they have good fortunes inside. If I'd thought ahead I could have had special ones made with facts about my books in them. Too bad. I always have my best ideas too late.
And a day before launch I got a piece of good news--Bless the Bride has already gone into a second printing. Everyone at Minotaur is pleased as most hardcover sales are slumping due to e-books and the economy. So let's keep our fingers crossed that it continues to sell well.
I've got lots of great facts to talk about at my various signings. New York's Chinatown, where much of the book takes place, was a place that held fascination even at the time I'm writing about. A man called Chuck Connors used to lead what he called slumming tours. He'd take people on a tour of Chinatown, emphasizing the depravity. He'd show them an opium den (a fake one) and the young ladies would swoon into the arms of their escorts. In fact Chinatown was a peaceful place when the tongs weren't at war. It was composed almost entirely of young men and all they did was work eat and sleep, hoping to save enough money to go home again. Of course Molly has heard all the rumors about Chinatown and is worried when she has to go there. With good reason, as it turns out. Will she singlehandedly rekindle the tong wars? Will she survive for her own wedding? You'll have to read the book to find out.
And a day before launch I got a piece of good news--Bless the Bride has already gone into a second printing. Everyone at Minotaur is pleased as most hardcover sales are slumping due to e-books and the economy. So let's keep our fingers crossed that it continues to sell well.
I've got lots of great facts to talk about at my various signings. New York's Chinatown, where much of the book takes place, was a place that held fascination even at the time I'm writing about. A man called Chuck Connors used to lead what he called slumming tours. He'd take people on a tour of Chinatown, emphasizing the depravity. He'd show them an opium den (a fake one) and the young ladies would swoon into the arms of their escorts. In fact Chinatown was a peaceful place when the tongs weren't at war. It was composed almost entirely of young men and all they did was work eat and sleep, hoping to save enough money to go home again. Of course Molly has heard all the rumors about Chinatown and is worried when she has to go there. With good reason, as it turns out. Will she singlehandedly rekindle the tong wars? Will she survive for her own wedding? You'll have to read the book to find out.
February 24, 2011
Five Days and Counting
Let the countdown begin: my new Molly book, BLESS THE BRIDE, comes out in five days.
March 1, 2011.
I'll be celebrating with a launch party at Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale AZ, so anyone who is in the Phoenix area, I'd love to see you.I've already bought the champagne, but I'm still thinking about the food.Stores should have shamrock cookies in them ready for St Patrick's day, don't you think? And the book takes place in New York's Chinatown so I'm going on the hunt for fortune cookies. But what else?Since the theme is brides--are there any good wedding related cookies or food you can think of?
GIVE AWAY!
AND an added incentive: I'll be giving away two signed copies of the new book for the best comments received on this blog during the month of March.
March 1, 2011.
I'll be celebrating with a launch party at Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale AZ, so anyone who is in the Phoenix area, I'd love to see you.I've already bought the champagne, but I'm still thinking about the food.Stores should have shamrock cookies in them ready for St Patrick's day, don't you think? And the book takes place in New York's Chinatown so I'm going on the hunt for fortune cookies. But what else?Since the theme is brides--are there any good wedding related cookies or food you can think of?GIVE AWAY!
AND an added incentive: I'll be giving away two signed copies of the new book for the best comments received on this blog during the month of March.
February 21, 2011
The Prince and Mrs. Simpson
Last night I watched the new Masterpiece Theater that featured the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Simpson as part of the plot. I'm delighted to say that the writer made them quite nasty. Exactly the way I portray her! He used to be more affable, but I'm sure that being married to her,being bored and frustrated and stripped of his royal privileges would have brought out the worst in him. And that family was known for outbursts of temper. Even his likeable brother Bertie (King George VI) was prone to explosions of rage.I was puzzled that she was played with a frightfully English accent when I believe the Baltimore came through however much she tried. And I was also pleased to see that the writer brought out their loathing of the new queen (who became our beloved Queen Mum). That was because the queen never compromised her standards. She made it clear that Mrs. Simpson, a twice divorced woman and one with no concept of royal protocol, was not a suitable choice for the Prince of Wales and would do harm to the monarchy.
Mrs. Simpson loathed her in return and refered to her as the Dowdy Duchess and "that awful Scottish woman". But it was the queen who won that battle. She never forgave Mrs. Simpson for causing the prince of wales to abdicate and thus put her fragile husband on the throne. He died young, partly because of the stress of being king through the war. (He also smoked like a chimney)
So his wife made sure that they never were allowed back into Britain. As we found out in the TV play last night, they were sent to the Bahamas for the war, so that the Germans couldn't easily kidnap him and put him on the throne as a puppet king. After the war they mooched around Paris, she shopping and getting her hair done, he following behind looking bored. Serve him right!
I have to confess that the murder incident was new to me. Now I have to check whether that was real or not. If it was, then I have a great plot element waiting for me if I can bring Georgie through to thw war years.
So I do take delight in my books in making Mrs. Simpson a bit of a bitch. And making Georgie's mother her equal in banter and venom. They are going to meet again on the Riviera this September in Naughty in Nice. Stay posted.
February 14, 2011
Advice for a Royal Couple on Valentine's Day
Those of you who take the Sunday newspapers in the US will have seen the feature on Prince William and Kate in which famous people were asked to give them advice for a good marriage ahead. I suppose famous people are the only ones who can give advice to a couple like Will and Kate. Because marriage in the fish bowl of fame is very different from a normal relationship. We can only imagine the added stress of having ones every move reported in the press, of seeing the cover of those rags in the supermarket proclaiming that one of them is having an affair, is gay, is battling a terminal disease.. or any of the other completely false statements they print to sell papers.If William even smiles at another woman, there will be rumors. If Kate refuses her dessert one day, she'll be battling anorexia. It's not easy being in the public eye. So my piece of advice would be--trust each other and laugh together and you can get through anything. The dedication for my next book, Bless the Bride, that comes out on March 1st, is to my husband John. I thank him for his help in each of my books, because he is a great editor and first reader, but I thought that he needed a dedication all to himself for once. And it reads, "You are the wind beneath my wings."
So this is the additional advice to William and Kate that I would give: be the wind beneath the wings for each other. Allow them the glamor of the spotlight, the public adoration, without feeling jealous or put out. Decide that you are taking on the world as a team, not as two individuals.
What advice would you give?
February 8, 2011
A Wrinkle in Time
All I want next Christmas is a time machine.
I don't mean the H.G Wells type that takes you back into the past, although that would be useful to observe the world my characters live in. What I want is the sort of Time Turner that Hermione has in the Harry Potter series. A nice little hour glass so that I could do an hour's work and then flip it over to do another hours work in that same hour.
Because there are never enough hours in a day to get through everything. I'm sure this is a familiar lament for most of us but right now I'm really conscious of it. I'm trying to write my new Molly book, but slower than normal because I have to stop after about 3 pages because my wrist hurts too much.
And at the same time I'm conscious of all the things I should be doing to promote my books. I read other writers' blogs about what works for them in e-book promotion and Facebook and Twitter and I wonder--do these people ever sleep?
Facebook I really like because it connects me with people I consider my friends and readers. And it only takes a minute or so to read and post. Twitter I'm sure is wonderfully useful if one has a zillion followers. I don't have time to search out those zillion to follow and thus to follow me in return. And I haven't caught on to the use of hashmarks or whatever they are called.
I'm part of the fabulous Jungle Red Writers blog and have to comment daily even when it's not my turn. I try to post on my own blog at least once a week, which is not enough but it's all I can manage. Apparently I should be reading other people's blogs daily and making witty, intelligent comments on each of them, thus leading people to my blog.
Then there is Amazon. I'm supposed to comment on relevent online communities, to Tag books similar to mine, to keep up my Amazon page, even to post phoney reviews of my books under other names. (not going to do the last of these)
What I need is a full time secretary who knows me well enough to be able to comment as I would have done. Or maybe just a time turner.
I'm off to Tucson tomorrow to speak at a fabulour Brandeis fundraising luncheon. It will be a terrific event but it's taking time from my writing.
Anyone have a time turner they can lend me?
I don't mean the H.G Wells type that takes you back into the past, although that would be useful to observe the world my characters live in. What I want is the sort of Time Turner that Hermione has in the Harry Potter series. A nice little hour glass so that I could do an hour's work and then flip it over to do another hours work in that same hour.Because there are never enough hours in a day to get through everything. I'm sure this is a familiar lament for most of us but right now I'm really conscious of it. I'm trying to write my new Molly book, but slower than normal because I have to stop after about 3 pages because my wrist hurts too much.
And at the same time I'm conscious of all the things I should be doing to promote my books. I read other writers' blogs about what works for them in e-book promotion and Facebook and Twitter and I wonder--do these people ever sleep?
Facebook I really like because it connects me with people I consider my friends and readers. And it only takes a minute or so to read and post. Twitter I'm sure is wonderfully useful if one has a zillion followers. I don't have time to search out those zillion to follow and thus to follow me in return. And I haven't caught on to the use of hashmarks or whatever they are called.
I'm part of the fabulous Jungle Red Writers blog and have to comment daily even when it's not my turn. I try to post on my own blog at least once a week, which is not enough but it's all I can manage. Apparently I should be reading other people's blogs daily and making witty, intelligent comments on each of them, thus leading people to my blog.
Then there is Amazon. I'm supposed to comment on relevent online communities, to Tag books similar to mine, to keep up my Amazon page, even to post phoney reviews of my books under other names. (not going to do the last of these)
What I need is a full time secretary who knows me well enough to be able to comment as I would have done. Or maybe just a time turner.
I'm off to Tucson tomorrow to speak at a fabulour Brandeis fundraising luncheon. It will be a terrific event but it's taking time from my writing.
Anyone have a time turner they can lend me?
