Kwei Quartey's Blog, page 17

KAMILA – Life before Darko Dawson

In the mid nineties, Vantage Press published my novel called Kamila. It takes place during the Algerian war for independence from France. Against this backdrop, a young Algerian woman is torn between the love of a Frenchman and the attentions of a fiery Algerian nationalist. For those who aren't aware, Vantage is a subsidy publisher, which means the author pays up front for the editorial and printing costs. This is probably one of the most financially ruinous ways to become a published author. What you get is a bunch of your own books delivered to you with little or no marketing and/or distribution assistance from the publisher.

The novel is now out of print, with the rights having reverted to me. By an ironic twist of technology, author's out-of-print books can now be reissued via Kindle and other e-readers like iPad, Nook, etc. All it takes is a scanned and formatted electronic version which can be uploaded to the e-reader site. Kamila can be found at Amazon's Digital Text Platform at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0049U4AIU

Obviously from the description, it's a different kind of book from the mystery genre to which Darko's stories belong: love, sex and war, some suspense, and some similarities to the film Battle of Algiers. The writing is a little green, as to be expected. One can't start at the top, and the learning never stops.

MEN OF MYSTERY

That time of the year again for the annual Men of Mystery Conference when 50+ male writers in the mystery genre gather annually at the Irvine Marriott along with enthusiastic readers for some fun, a great lunch including the now famous mushroom soup, book-signings.

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There's also a unique author self-introduction session in which the maestra organizer, the venerable, diminutive and sweet Joan Hansen (don't mess with her, though) goes around with a mike and gives each author a minute to say something about himself and his book(s). There are always some new authors every year (I was new last year), while others have been attending the event since the inaugural year of 2001. Lee Goldberg (two-time Edgar Award finalist and TV writer/producer of "Monk" and other series) gives among the most entertaining self-intros in which he actually says very little about himself while taking hysterically funny pot shots at some of his author friends in the room.

Guest speakers this year were Gregg Hurwitz with Christopher Rice, who had an onstage serious and funny chat with each other. Their mutual rapport is testament to what good friends they are.

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Both of them are super guys with well-deserved bestsellers. Gregg Hurwitz's latest thriller, They're Watching, garnered pages-long praise and enthusiastic reviews right out the starting gate. It really is a terrific novel. Christopher Rice, who had four, yes, I said four New York Times bestsellers by the age of thirty (you're making me ill, Chris) has a new thriller out called The Moonlit Earth

During the book-signing session, it was hard to catch these two busy guys in between their clamoring fans, but I managed to snag a pic with each of them.

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With Gregg Hurwitz.

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With Chris Rice

The third speaker was Don Winslow, another amazing writer with a trail of bestsellers in his wake and enviable praise from the likes of Janet Maslin, one of the toughest critics around. Don's latest is Savages. I must add that Don is an incredible speaker, one of those who is able to deliver philosophy, humor, and food for thought in the most entertaining and often hilarious way possible – all without notes in front of him. He wears good ties too.

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Sorry, Don - not the best pic. (My digital cam needs an upgrade)

Something Don observed in his address is worth echoing: the community of mystery writers cares about its own. We want to support each other whenever possible and are willing to share our experiences and knowledge – not, "let me keep this to myself as long as I can." Another thing I would say, as I've noted elsewhere in an interview, mystery readers are probably the most passionate of all the genres.

More pics:

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My inscribed bottle of wine

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The hosts of my table

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With Johanna - a faithful Men of Mystery committee member

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With Gary Phillips, one of the most versatile mystery writers around

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With Dennis Palumbo & James Preston

Twitter

Follow me on Twitter – because it's a quick way not only to get info on appearances and events, but I may tweet content that I wouldn't necessarily blog.

You can click this: www.twitter.com/Kwei_Quartey

Or you can click on the Twitter button at the top of the kweiquartey website page.

BOUCHERCON AND THE EXCELLENT MICHAEL CONNELLY

On Friday October 15, 2010, I zipped up to San Francisco for one day at Bouchercon. Boucher who? Yes, that's what I said when I first heard the name. Bouchercon, or the Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention, is an annual convention of creators and devotees of mystery and detective fiction, named in honor of writer and editor Anthony Boucher. It brings publishers, authors, booksellers and sales representatives together. It's a huge meeting held in a different city every year. It was my first time to attend, and I must confess that I had imagined it would be unwieldy, impersonal and rather daunting. Nothing could have been further from the truth. It turned out to be terrific. I saw familiar faces and made new friends.

The pic below shows me with two lovely ladies, to my left Coordinating Director of Marketing at Random House, Kelle Ruden, who made me feel so welcome and introduced me to a bunch of folks; and to my right, the effervescent Cheryl Kelly, west coast Random House sales representative. Meeting all these people, every single one of them enthusiastic about books and writing, was a thrill.

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Back in LA on Saturday, I went to a book signing at a South Pasadena venerable institution Book'em Mysteries, where the guest of honor was Michael Connelly.

In his new book, The Reversal, Defense attorney Mickey Haller and LAPD Detective Harry Bosch work together on the high-profile retrial of a brutal child murder. Naturally the bookstore was packed with Michael's avid fans, or should I say "worshippers?" It was very interesting to watch the reverent but delighted faces of readers as Mr. Connelly signed their books. By the way, he is left-handed. I've always liked left-handed people for some reason. Some readers may know what most crime fiction writers know about Michael Connelly, and that is he is a true gentleman who is generous with his support of and kindness to other writers. His easygoing low-key demeanor belies his incredible career of 22 novels and almost every possible literary award.

BOUCHERCON, MICHAEL CONNELLY, & ERNESTINA

On Friday October 15, 2010, I zipped up to San Francisco for one day at Bouchercon. Boucher who? Yes, that's what I said when I first heard the name. Bouchercon, or the Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention, is an annual convention of creators and devotees of mystery and detective fiction, named in honor of writer and editor Anthony Boucher. It brings publishers, authors, booksellers and sales representatives together. It's a huge meeting held in a different city every year. It was my first time to attend, and I must confess that I had imagined it would be unwieldy, impersonal and rather daunting. Nothing could have been further from the truth. It turned out to be terrific. I saw familiar faces and made new friends.

The pic below shows me with two lovely ladies, to my left Coordinating Director of Marketing at Random House, Kelle Ruden, who made me feel so welcome and introduced me to a bunch of folks; and to my right, the effervescent Cheryl Kelly, west coast Random House sales representative. Meeting all these people, every single one of them enthusiastic about books and writing, was a thrill.

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Back in LA on Saturday, I went to a book signing at a South Pasadena venerable institution Book'em Mysteries, where the guest of honor was Michael Connelly.

In his new book, The Reversal, Defense attorney Mickey Haller and LAPD Detective Harry Bosch work together on the high-profile retrial of a brutal child murder. Naturally the bookstore was packed with Michael's avid fans, or should I say "worshippers?" It was very interesting to watch the reverent but delighted faces of readers as Mr. Connelly signed their books. By the way, he is left-handed. I've always liked left-handed people for some reason. Some readers may know what most crime fiction writers know about Michael Connelly, and that is he is a true gentleman who is generous with his support of and kindness to other writers. His easygoing low-key demeanor belies his incredible career of 22 novels and almost every possible literary award.

Meanwhile, a world away in Ghana (which by the way got a surprising amount of play on The Amazing Race, what with two-and-a-quarter episodes transpiring in the country, including a hilarious segment where the two contestants from Princeton, sitting amongst a group of Ghanaian primary school kids, were unable to identify Ghana on a map of Africa) life is not at all easy for Ernestina Marbell. Who is Ernestina? She's a teenager I met in Accra earlier this year whom I've chosen to support financially through school in Ghana. Diamond bright (aces all her exams), serious about school and ambitious (with plans to go to postgrad level), the only thing holding her back was going to be lack of funds. Education in Ghana is not free and Ernestina's fractured and impoverished family would not be able to pay the various fees that would be required to get her into even senior high. With me solidly behind her, she's been able to begin her first year of junior high in Accra at a school with a good reputation.

Unfortunately there are some details Ernestina shared with me by phone on the weekend that I found a little disturbing. Corporal punishment (caning) appears to be common at her school, generously handed out for offenses like talking in class when you're supposed to be quiet. But the story she brought my attention most to was her being caned last week because she failed to bring her gallon of water to school. Yes, that's what I said. Ernestina told me that the school embarrassingly doesn't have running water (bad plumbing? School hasn't paid its water bill? I don't know) so all the schoolgirls are asked to bring a gallon of water to school to keep the latrine clean with each use. Ernestina said she forgot or failed to realize that the teachers had instructed the pupils to bring water to school.

Now, putting aside the whole argument about whether corporal punishment really works, it seems to me that an honest mistake and a single lapse like Ernestina's does not deserve a caning. When I was in secondary school, corporal punishment was reserved for the highest of offenses. Incidentally, corporal punishment is still legal in some states in the US. The question is whether caning in Ernestina's school, and undoubtedly hundreds of others in Ghana, is an instrument of abuse instead of its supposed (and IMO dubious) purpose: teaching a lesson, punishment, deterrence, or whatever. For a girl as serious, sincere and conscientious as Ernestina, I can assert with confidence that corporal punishment is utterly worthless and may very well be harmful. Furthermore, if teachers are lashing out and using caning as the instrument of their anger, then it's just flat out wrong.

The Amazing Race, Ghana – Part 2: "A Kiss Saves the Day"

On Sunday October 3, 2010, The Amazing Race competing teams were down to ten in number after elimination of one pair of contestants.As winners of the first leg of the race, dating couple Jill and Thomas got to leave first. They departed with the instructions that they were to fly to Accra, Ghana. To his credit, host Phil Keoghan pronounced the name "Accra" with the correct syllable emphasis, i.e. "Ac-CRA", not the way every single contestant incorrectly stated it:"AC-cra." Think of the words bazaar or catarrh with the emphasis on the second syllable

Anyway, off they went, along with the other teams who were close enough behind to all end up on the same Virgin Atlantic 3000+ miles flight from London to Accra. First task on landing was to make their way to Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, where teams would find their next clue. After a mad dash out of Kotoka International Airport, all the teams managed to grab a taxi, vehicles distinguished by standard yellow front and rear panels but not necessarily in the same state of repair. As the teams made their way into town and tasted their first flavor of the country, some of the benign, neutral comments like, "It's so cool here, it's so different," and "This place is amazing," turned gradually into utterances of amazement and even consternation: "This is unbelievable, I could never have imagined this," and "Look at all these people, [the women] with all these things [loads] on their heads." Some of these women, called "head porters," are an important part of the story in CHILDREN OF THE STREET. They are incredibly powerful women, able to carry staggeringly heavy items on their heads all day long. Not without physical repercussions however. By the end of the day, many suffer almost unbearable headaches.

There was real distress and shock for several of the teams as begging panhandlers avalanched the taxis held captive by stopped traffic and asked for money with varying degrees of aggressiveness, with Connor and Jonathan having the most disconcerting experience of them all when a panhandler groped at them and finally spat on Jonathan when he didn't give up any money.

Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park looks rather grand with manicured lawns, luxurious fountains, a massive marble mausoleum and a bronzed statue of Ghana's first president and great pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah. It's one of those monumental sites one comes across in a developing country that makes one squirm over the showy opulence that belies the struggling economy. It's always a debated issue: do you show only the pretty parts of a place, and how do you measure how well a develping country is doing? many argue that a city must have something "nice" to show.

Without too much difficulty, all the teams made it to the Park, where their next clue was waiting. This was a relatively easy part of the leg, and slowly, inexorably, the level of difficulty began to rise. Next destination: Makola Market, where the teams were to find their next clue. The extent of the market and the sheer number of people I predicted in a previous blog proved to be overwhelming. How were they to find the clue box in this teeming mass? " This is crazy," one of the female contestants said. "So many people. And it stinks." But Michael, who grew up in Taiwan, commented that the Makola environment reminded him of his childhood.

The next clue was a Road Block someone branded "Shady Business." In sunny Accra, sunglasses are popular and are typically sold on a large portable pallet containing scores of shades of all styles. One member of each team had to "borrow" a pallet from a vendor and sell 15 cedis (about $10) worth of sunglasses to passersby, but at no less than 3 cedis each. Here, blond 20-something Brook Roberts, who is a Home Shopping Television Host, showed her prowess at making a sale. Liberally hugging and kissing the hunky young Ghanaian guys who flocked to her like moths to a flame, she made her 15 cedis in no time, putting her and her teammate Claire in first place. On the other hand, Chad's attempts to use his "All-American" (read "white") good looks to flirt with Ghanaian women wasn't working. Meanwhile, left far behind, Gary and Mallory's cracked-windshield taxi stalled out and wouldn't start, ending up with Gary unsuccessfully pushing the taxi to try and get it going, leading them to having to switch to another cracked-windshield cab that finally got them to Makola.

With sunglasses sold, the teams had to find Peace Motor Spare Parts for a Detour. This gives the teams a choice between two assignments, in this case, 1) "Tune In, or 2) Check Out." In the first, they needed to get to an electrical supply store, pick up an antenna, find a marked house and install the antenna to the specifications of the owner. When I was in Accra, I bought one of these myself and after installing it I never did get a perfect picture on the set. In the second assignment, find a particular wood shop where charismatic coffins are designed and made according to the lifestyle of the occupant-to-be, e.g. a coffin that looks like a camera for someone who was a photographer. The chosen coffin was then to be transferred on a cart to a coffin showroom where they would collect the next clue. Brook and Claire, who chose the installation, again showed remarkable adaptability climbing up ladders, crawling into tight spaces and wielding tools. Katie and Rachel, choosing the coffin delivery, almost got run over in the street. The taxis carrying nerdy Princeton cappella-singing friends Connor and Jonathan, doctors Nat and Kat, and father-and-daughter Gary and Mallory all got lost.

Kaneshie Market was the final pit stop. This is an absolutely huge market where many children of the street find work and are THE subject in my novel of the same name. Brook and Claire, in a frantic but successful scramble to be the first team to make it to the market, arrived in front of several hundreds of riveted marketplace spectators who were probably wondering what in the hell is wrong with these "oburonis." The contestants who had gotten lost were hit with an impenetrable traffic jam as they tried to get to Kaneshie. Desperate Nat and Kat begged their taxi driver to try and get through. Hand firmly on the horn, he pulled out of the line and somehow carved a way through the traffic jam. More spectacularly, the Princeton boys' cab driver did the same at an even greater speed, impossibly creating a third driving lane where none existed and passing the Nat and Kat's vehicle. You know those movies where there's a death-defying, hair-raising car chase with horns blaring and vehicles dodging out the way? This was it, only 10 times more thrilling because it was real. As they almost collided with a shiny Mercedes making a left in their path, Connor gave the best line: "I'm just so proud I haven't soiled myself." The Princetons were team number 6, the doctors were right behind them. Nick and Vicky were eighth, and the final place was a battle between father-daughter Gary and Mallory and mother-daughter Andie and Jenna, both of whose hair had completely frizzed up in the humidity. Both these teams were literally praying in their taxis that they would make it. In the end it was the father-daughter team who thanked God (and Phil) that they were team number 10. With tears and hugs, Andie and Jenna were sadly eliminated, but with a new bond that they had not previously had.

Next episode, the teams stay in Africa.

Interview on KPFA

I was interviewed on September 27 2010 by Walter Turner of KPFA on his program AFRICA TODAY. He has a conversational and affable style of interview that I enjoyed very much.

http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/8901762

The Amazing Race, Ghana – Part 1

The premier episode of The Amazing Race (AR), Season 17 began on Sunday, September 26. In this CBS reality TV show hosted by Phil Keoghan, several two-person teams race to a winning destination via multiple countries in which they must complete several kinds of tasks as they pick up various set clues. The last team to reach the pit stop on each leg of the race is eliminated and sent home, with the exception of the occasional "non-elimination leg." So each week generally sees the reduction of the teams by one, until there are 3 teams left to battle it out in the final episode. The winning team receives a large cash prize. I have to say that some of the tasks are unbelievably difficult, both physically and mentally.

The team pairs always have some kind of life connection: husband-wife, boyfriend-girlfriend (there are also gay couples), parent-son/daughter, etc., and part of the drama is watching how they work together under the stresses of the assigned tasks. Last season there was a brother-brother team who in spite of their declared mutual closeness constantly got into furious arguments with each other.

However for me, the most fascinating aspect is experiencing different countries and cultures through the eyes of the AR contestants and the filming crew. In one season where the teams went to India, one or more of the contestants were brought to tears as they witnessed the brutal conditions of poverty. Before this experience, some of the AR participants had had no clue that people could possibly be that poor.

As far as Africa is concerned, AR Season 2 was in South Africa, host of the recent FIFA World Cup 2010, and Namibia, and AR-12 was in Burkina Faso for the infamous camel-milking episode. Not only did some of the camels refuse to cooperate, the team members performing the task had to fill a calabash up to the line and then drink the stuff. Yummy.

This Sunday, October 3, the AR teams will be in Ghana. At the end of last Sunday's premier episode, the brief preview of this upcoming Ghana leg of the race had Phil Keogan's voice-over saying, "Next episode, teams are overwhelmed in Ghana." I'm sure there will be some unique incidents, but I think I can predict some of the areas in which the teams will have a difficult and probably frustrating time.

(1) The sweltering weather: In the unbelievable Ghanaian heat, whatever tasks they perform, the teams are going to be drenched in sweat and may even run the risk of severe exhaustion and dehydration. From the preview, it appears at least one team will perform a involving the use of a truck-pusher's cart.

(2)The crowds: The teams will probably be in Accra, but whatever the city, they will have to navigate through and around dense collections of people.

(3)The traffic: I bet none of AR's teams has ever seen the kind of aggressive driving and razor thin margins between vehicles as in Accra's traffic.

(4) Getting directions and lack of street signs: the larger streets may be named, but the smaller ones will not be, and many locals (especially the young) will not know the names of most streets – nor will taxi drivers. Interestingly, elderly Ghanaians (in their 80's or 90's) often have a good knowledge of street names, especially in Old Town Accra. In my next novel, CHILDREN OF THE STREET, several streets are specifically named and are accurate to the best of my knowledge, but it required time-consuming poring over a map and my repeated visits to different streets to cross-check and match them to the map. Finding one's way around in Ghana may be exasperating to foreign visitors because directions to a location or landmark will almost invariably be given as "near" or "past" yet another location or landmark.

Another potential shocker for the teams will be if they must pass through a slum area like the notorious Agbogbloshie.

Whatever happens, the teams will be in for something of a culture shock. Some may also have some great moments, though, as they encounter the engaging ebullience of Ghana's people. Once this episode of The Amazing Race has aired, I will review it here on my next blog, so look out for it.

INCEPTION (the movie), dreams, and writing

While in Stockholm, I saw the movie Inception, a 2010 science fiction film written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan of The Dark Knight fame and others. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role and runs a hefty 2 hours and 28 minutes long. It is probably a movie that could usefully be seen twice, because at its peak there are three or four simultaneous movies running within it.

The briefest possible version of the synopsis: a heist type movie in which corporate thief Dom Cobb...

Images of Stockholm

A collection of random photos from the city of Stockholm, Sweden, where I'm spending a few days of vacation. (Click on images to magnify.)

Stockholm shoreline (the city is a collection of islands):

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Aerial Views from the Ericsson Globe Arena, the largest spherical building in the world, the outside of which one can ride up in a glass bubble elevator

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City Hall Exterior

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City Hall "Blue Hall" where the Nobel Prize Banquet is held

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City Hall civil ceremony marriage room and reception hall

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City ...