Mollie Cox Bryan's Blog, page 20

Digging for Ancient Treasures: Agatha in the Middle East By Kathleen Kaska

Welcome Kathleen Kaska to my blog today!

What’s Your Agatha Christie I.Q?, originally published in 1996 by Citadel Press, has been updated and is being reissued by LL-Publications. The new title is The Agatha Christie Triviography and Quiz Book. If you enjoy mystery trivia, check out Kathleen’s other two mystery-trivia books The Sherlock Holmes Triviography and Quiz Book and The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book, also updated and just out.

It is easy to imagine Agatha Christie at Greenway House, sitting in the morning room, plotting a Hercule Poirot mystery while sipping tea. However, there’s another side to Agatha Christie that might surprise you. This English lady spent many seasons in the deserts of the Middle East with her husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan. Christie writes with humor and affection about their adventures among the ancient ruins in her 1946 memoir, Come, Tell Me How You Live.

In 1928, after her divorce from Archie Christie, Agatha boarded the Orient Express and headed for Baghdad. Little did she know that this exotic journey would lead to two life-long love affairs: one with the man who would soon become her best friend and second husband and the other with the enchanting land which would become the setting for several of her mysteries. The following anecdotes provide a light-hearted glimpse of life in the Middle East as Agatha Christie and Max Mallowan successfully go about the business of writing mysteries and excavating tells, respectively.

“A most agreeable person and a pleasing prospect.”—Max Mallowan

The couple met on her second trip to the Middle East. He was the assistant to archaeologist Leonard Woolley, who was excavating near the biblical city of Ur. At the end of that season, Woolley’s wife Katharine arranged for Max to give Agatha a tour of the countryside. When their vehicle became stuck in the sand in an isolated desert spot, Agatha made the best of the situation by napping in the shade of the car until help arrived. Impressed by her willingness to take life as it came, Max realized at that moment that he wanted Agatha for his wife. After a short courtship, they were married in Scotland of September 11, 1930.

“Once you are asleep, none of these things will worry you.”—Max Mallowan

On to Syria. Agatha describes her first night in their newly rented adobe in Amuda as an experience that she would never forget. She and Max arrived to find their home still inhabited with its previous occupants (men, women, children, and livestock). After much heated discussion, hordes of people and animals fled from the courtyard. The house had also not undergone the repairs as arranged. Unable to remedy the situation, they decided to leave it until the next morning and bunked down for a fitful night.

Waking to the sound of a mouse munching her hair, Agatha switched on the light only to see the wall moving. Upon a closer look, she saw that cockroaches had covered the walls. Max suggested that if she would go back to sleep, she would not notice their marauding roommates. Being a good sport, Agatha took his advice only to be awakened by a second mouse dancing across her face. In a rare display of temperament, she threatened to return to England. Max dragged their beds out to the courtyard and they spent the rest of the night under the stars. The next morning, Max instructed his foreman, Hamoudi, to hire an exterminator. A rented cat was brought in, and with a few hours, the house was free of pests.

“Michael murmurs that a mule will be very expensive.”—Agatha Christie

One of Agatha’s favorite staff members was their bookkeeper Michael. He had an uncanny ability to remember accounts in his head, never making a mistake with the books. Michael was also a master negotiator, his main priority in any purchase was ecomonia. Agatha sent him to purchase a mull to carry supplies to the dig site. Michael returned with a very economical buy—an old woman. True, she was not a mull, but she was strong, willing to work, and the price was too good to turn down.

“Your Khatun’s white powder was a worker of marvels last season!”—Abu Suleiman

The Sheikh, who owned the property upon which their excavation house was built near the Chagar Bazar dig site, noticed Agatha working a crossword puzzle. He asked Max if his wife’s knowledge extended to healing women. Having been successful with dispensing headache medication for pain and boric acid for inflamed eyes to the locals, the author gained an honored reputation as a Khatun (doctor) and a worker of miracles. On one occasion, having misunderstood Agatha’s instructions for bathing the eyes, a woman drank the boric acid and water and soon afterwards gave birth to twins. The woman’s husband credited Agatha with his gift of two strong sons. The Sheikh now wanted her to work her magic with his many wives.

During the years she spent in the Middle East, Agatha Christie wrote more than two-dozen mysteries. Her love of the desert life is best described in Come, Tell Me How You Live. “These autumn days are some of the most perfect I have ever known,” she wrote. “Here, some five thousands years ago, was the busiest part of the world. Here were the beginnings of civilization, and here, picked by me, this broken fragment of a clay pot, handmade, with a design of dots and cross-hatching in black paint, is the forerunner of the Woolworth cup out of which this very morning I have drunk my tea.” And here in the sand, sun, and heat, Dame Christie wrote some of her best work.

Kathleen Kaska is the author of the award-winning Sydney Lockhart mystery series set in the 1950s. Her first mystery, Murder at the Arlington, won the 2008 Salvo Press Manuscript Contest. This book, along with her second mystery, Murder at the Luther, were selected as bonus-books for the Pulpwood Queen Book Group, the largest book group in the country. Before bringing Sydney into the world of murder and mayhem, Kathleen published three mystery-trivia books: (What’s Your Agatha Christie I.Q.? (newly titled The Agatha Christie Triviography and Quiz Book), The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book, and The Sherlock Holmes Triviography and Quiz Book. All three books are being reissued in May 2012 by LL-Publications.

Kathleen also writes nonfiction, travel articles, and stage plays, has just completed her most challenging endeavor. The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: Robert Porter Allen’s Odyssey, a true story set in the 1940s and 50s, is about Audubon ornithologist Robert Porter Allen whose mission was to save the endangered whooping crane from extinction. Published by University Press of Florida, the book is scheduled for release in September 2012.

She was a staff writer for AustinFit magazine from 1997-2002. Her articles have appeared in Cape Cod Life, Marco Polo, Agatha Christie Chronicle, and Home Cooking Magazine. She is a frequent contributor to Texas Highways magazine.

 







Forty-nine and Still Alice

“It was much pleasanter at home, when one wasn’t always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and rabbits.” —Alice in Wonderland

I often feel like Alice in Wonderland these days. I had always thought that with age came some kind of clarity and maybe a little more control over my life. But the older I get, the more I realize that control is just an illusion. Even things that are planned meticulously have blips. So I’ve decided to try to be open to change—even last minute ones, as best I can.

And we really must be.

Because things in this life are strange.

During a recent business trip, I found myself overwhelmed, pleasantly surprised, and often not where I wanted to be, which ended up being the perfect place for me at that moment. Follow that? heh.

One place I was happy to be was across the table from a good friend and colleague, drinking sangria and eating tapas. She is another cookbook author and food writer. We weren’t exactly bemoaning the state of things in publishing, just sort of witnessing them and wondering what’s next.

A few years ago, I stopped pitching articles because many of my editors were just gone. Publications disappeared as well. So it seemed a waste of my time. Now, there is starting to be a little more opportunity—but for exactly the kind of article a writer would make say $2000 for a few years back, many publishers are offering to pay $100—this for a well-seasoned pro, someone whose copy needs little editing, whose facts have been researched impeccably, and someone who will meet deadlines.

And so it goes.

This is not how it’s supposed to be. But it’s often those “supposed-to-be’s” that get us into trouble.

So I am back to feeling like Alice and the wondering if anything goes according to our own plans. The world is nonsensical. And none of us could have predicted this crazy economy or the fact that many magazines and newspapers would not make it.

But for many of us the problem is deeper than that.

It’s also the belief system that forged us. We’re told if we get our education, pay our dues, make our plans and stick to them, we will succeed—at least in providing for our families. Suddenly, our hard work and education is not exactly enough anymore. Or not enough in the way we had imagined it would be.

My friend and I still have no answers, even after a few hours of sangria and tapas in Bethesda. We are survivors—both of us. But we have been shaken to our core. This is true for many of us, not just writers. Many people have it worse than we do, believe me.

But the reverse of that is that we are both being stretched to find a new way—and we will. Here I am, writing novels and loving it, learning to write apps, (which they did not have when I was in college, heh), and self-publishing an e-book. All things I never dreamed about in my youth (except the writing a novel bit.)

You just never know where life will take you. Embracing change is not as easy as it sounds on a Hallmark card. But you can only move forward. Never backwards.

Expectations can be a trap. The best I can do is to be as flexible as I can. The business trip sort of became a metaphor for where I am in my life. You can only plan so much. Try to be prepared. Make good connections with a few good people. But always be open to unexpected possibilities.

Radio Essay on Scrapbooking

In honor of National Scrapbooking Day, which is Saturday, May 5, my radio essay on scrapbooking aired today on WVTF, our local NPR-affiliate. Here’s the link. Enjoy! http://www.wvtf.org/index.php?option=...

Upcoming Travel and Events

Tomorrow, I take off for College Park, Md. where I’m staying with good friends so that I can attend Malice Domestic in Bethesda this weekend. Friday is chock full of events for mystery readers and writers. But Saturday, I’ll be at the New Author’s Breakfast at 7 a.m, where all 24 of us will be interviewed and will meet with readers who are interested in our books. Later that morning (9:40), I’ll be on a panel “Cozy and Loving It: The Allure of Cozy Mysteries,” then signing books at 11:30. The rest of the day I’ll be attending sessions with some of my favorite mystery writers, both as audience member and as presenters or interviewees—I’m most looking forward to the Elizabeth Peters interview. For more information on Malice Domestic, click here.

After attending more events on Sunday, I will be heading to Pittsburgh to the Festival of the Mystery, once again, I’ll be signing books and hobnobbing with some of my favorite mystery authors. The organizers hold a tea for us. Then we head over to sign books and be interviewed by local media. For more info on the festival, click here.

So I’ll be taking a bit of a hiatus from the blog for a week or so. I’ll be updating Twitter and Facebook regularly, should you choose to follow along there.

Five things I thought about during my morning run:

1. It’s getting harder and harder to run in the gym. I much prefer outdoor running, but my joints hate it.

2. Malice Domestic, a mystery conference in Bethesda. I’ve not been to Bethesda in years, but I’ve always liked it. Great restaurants. I remember a hole in the wall pizza joint and I remember that pizza. I wonder if it’s still there.

3. So I’m on a panel, which should be interesting and I’m signing books and so on. I can’t wait to meet writers and readers.

4. Getting ready. Oh man.

5. So it may be awhile until I update my blog. It WILL be until next week that I write my five things.

Five things I thought about during my morning run:

1. There’s certain chemical people put on their lawns that I’m extremely sensitive to. As I run around the corner, I smell it and my throat actually spasms and my nose starts running.

2. Okay. So I should really be running at the gym, but these mornings have been so perfect for an outdoor run.

3. Family is gone for the weekend. I planned to go with them, but I’ve so much to do that my plans would have affected their plans and it was just best for me to stay home.

4. One of the “luxuries” I look forward to is grocery shopping without the family. Heh.

5. Oh yeah, I can take as long of a shower as I want. It just keeps getting more subversive…;-)

Five things I thought about during my morning run:

1. It’s a nice morning for an outside run. Cool.

2. Our new car. We’ve not had a car payment in a long time. But our van was getting to expensive to keep up. And the gas mileage on this thing is great. But it makes me so nervous to take on a car payment.

3. The PTO meeting yesterday afternoon. Hmmm. Made me realize I don’t miss meetings at all.

4. Got a lead on an interesting job. I might apply. I’m not sure how I’d manage a full time job and writing all of my books…

5. Going to C-ville today to record radio essays and be interviewed about my book. Sweet.

Killer Hobbies and More

Today is my posting day at Killer Hobbies. I’ve written a little about radio essays. Check it out here.

Also, I found out today that if you have an e-book of SCRAPBOOK OF SECRETS and want me to autograph it, I can do it digitally through Kindlegraph.com. If you go on to their site, just follow the directions to request my signature. Pretty groovy, huh?

Forty-nine and Still Dancing

Some people are funny about their age. I can understand your Hollywood-types being mysterious about their ages. But I am as far away from Hollywood in my personality, my values, and so on as you can get.

A few weeks ago, I celebrated my 49th birthday. It feels like a hallmark to me of a sort. So I thought I’d start blogging about being 49. I’m actually heading into my fiftieth year.

Do I have regrets? Hell, yes.

Would I do some things differently? Absolutely.

But mostly I’m happy to be here in this space and time and I’m extremely grateful to be writing fiction these days. After all this time, I think I’ve found the place in my work that feeds my spirit. Funny that it’s not poetry, which is what I would have said it would be had I been asked twenty years ago.

One of the best things about life is that you never know what’s going to happen next. I think it’s great to have expectations and goals—but being flexible might be just as important.

At one point in my life, I wanted to be a dancer. I was a serious ballet student and danced into college. But back then, being so short was holding me back. (It’s not quite like that anymore.) All through my dancing years, though, I wrote. I had already written my first novel in high school, even as I was choreographing the senior tribute to A Chorus Line. I’m a storyteller—whether it’s through dance or words—it is a compulsion in me.

Also, my compulsion extends to patterns—patterns in dance choreography, in poetry, in fiction, in quilting and scrapbooking. Do you see the links?

Unlike dance, which in order to really master you have to be a performer, writing has allowed me to explore and reach beyond what I thought my limits were mostly in private and through classroom and online classes and workshops. (So being short has never been a problem. Heh.) I am still learning, of course. I hope that I will never reach a point where I say there’s nothing more to learn about writing.

But you know what? I’m also still dancing. Zumba, three times a week and everyday at home every time something I like comes on the radio or stereo. The women I Zumba with? Most of them are a good bit older than me and they are still moving. At 49, I hope that when I’m 59, 69, and even 79, I’ll be in the gym shaking my thang.

Five things I thought about during my morning run:

1. Man what a night, up and down with these crazy headaches. Finally, the medicine kicked in and I feel a huge relief.

2. Tess went back to school After a week of Spring Break, she became sick on Saturday night. Took her to the dr. yesterday. Strep.

3. Saffron.

4. Malice Domestic. I am excited, nervous, but I can’t wait to see my friends that I’m staying with.

5. Scrapbook of Shadows. What’s up with that? I need to check in with my editor today. I turned it back in. I’m not sure he’s had a chance to look over it yet. I feel like I should be getting copy edits soon.