Robert Carter's Blog: http://novelcarter.blogspot.co.uk/, page 12

On the Other Hand ...

It is possible to take things a little far when searching for the perfect shot. Have no fear, Noble Readers, this is not your bold correspondent in the picture!

My Photography Mania Gathers Pace

Sometimes you just can't help feeling that the gap between worlds ancient and modern is finally becoming impossible to bridge.

Smile ladies ...

My Connection with the President.

Well, he's not the President now, in fact he died some time ago, but the connection is there anyhow. They say everybody is connected to everybody else by just six steps. I don't know if that's true, but it makes a person feel he's more a part of the world.

What about this: I wrote a novel called "Death Valley Scotty." Unknown to me was the fact that there was once an old TV show called "Death Valley Days". And guess who hosted it?

Ronald W. Reagan.

About as tenuous a connection as there ever was, I suppose, but interesting nevertheless. Ronald Reagan never came to visit the road on which I used to live, but another POTUS did. The 39th. I have a much stronger connection him. I won't mention his illustrious name, just pass the peanuts ...

Well, you know. Family.

Soap -- "Make the Sniff Test Yourself"

Dynamic English strikes again! Here's a word that has adopted another meaning, and one we all use. When a person tells you they've been "watching soaps," you know they don't mean to say they were in the bath all day long.

Today a "soap" or "soap opera" is a drama series on radio or TV. Originally these shows were sponsored by soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, hence the adoption of an unlikely word.

One of the early TV shows was "Death Valley Days." It made the famous "20-Mule Team" brand of borax washing crystals even more famous. That, too, is peculiar. As a name for a brand it's not one that would be recommended by any modern advertising executive.  

http://youtu.be/qycmMfmdKbY

It'll sell a million ...

Noble readers of this blog will know that I have more than a passing interest in the evolution of advertising. Well, here by way of experiment, are a couple of short sponsor ads from the "DEATH VALLEY DAYS" TV show from way back in the dark ages. Take a look, and when you've finished rolling on the floor and weeping, let me know what you make of it. What were they thinking?

http://youtu.be/qycmMfmdKbY

AND

http://youtu.be/5BVzc3ptk68

Death Valley Scotty -- Stock

In the novel "Death Valley Scotty" by - ahem - me, Scotty's association with Z. Beldon Gaylord leads to the floating of The Death Valley Scotty Gold Mining and Developing Company. Below is a picture of one of the actual stock certificates.

More on Bills

Integral to the story of Death Valley Scotty is the way our hero distributes large amounts of cash to the people of Los Angeles. Scotty was also famous for his use of large denomination bills.

When I remember back to when I was a boy one of the things that still sticks in my mind is when I used to walk home from school and call in at the local store to buy bubble gum cards. One year the cards were "American Civil War" cards, showing educational and often gruesome scenes from that great conflict. But what really stood out was that each waxed paper pack contained a genuine Confederacy bank note.

Of course they were not genuine, being cheaply printed bills on poor quality paper, but to me and the other kids in the school yard they were MONEY. They came in all denominations and part of the fun was that you never knew what you were going to get. After a while we all had huge bankrolls in our pockets and we felt like millionaires. What I learned from that experience is that people will remember something fondly if it gives them money. It doesn't matter if the money is real or not.

Los Angeles -- Stars and Cars and Refugees

"Look, I hate Los Angeles, like everybody else ... but I have to work here because
in any other part of the country I'm unemployable ..."

I recently came across this jewel quoted on the Web, and being in the middle of publishing my latest novel, "Death Valley Scotty", which is mostly set in Los Angeles, I pricked up my ears. Having visited Los Angeles several times I am well aware just how peculiar the place is. It's amazing how a town which in 1900 was pretty much on track to becoming a regular city has managed to become so irregular.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those snooty Brits who like to regard Los Angeles as beneath their dignity. I'm prepared to fall in love with just about anywhere if I find enough good people there. But I was interested in how the city got to be so unusual. My take is this. It's all down to just two evils: cars and movies.

Cars have been accommodated in L.A. like nowhere else. The rights of people who want to go from A to B have been placed above those who want to stay in either A or B. This has been a mistake. As soon as you build a good road it instantly attracts twice as many cars as can comfortably fit on it. Sprawl is what results when a city encourages cars. Sprawl means that place A and place B are so far away from one another that it's impossible to reach either of them except by car. Thus the car makes itself indispensable, and the last thing you want is an indispensable machine.

As for the movie industry, that too has distorted the city. In every bar and restaurant at least half the waiting staff are just filling in time. They are only acting at being waiters and waitresses while they figure a way to break into Hollywood. What they don't know, and don't want to know, is that Hollywood was closed long ago to all outsiders who happen to exhibit talent or charisma. Such individuals just serve to show up the well-connected but untalented and charisma-free crowd who now occupy virtually all the sought-after positions. (See Carter's Third Law: "Nepotism kills.")

The result is a wannabe wasteland where everyone hopes they're on the way to somewhere better. It's not good for a city to have so many people who are, in a very real sense, refugees from their own lives.

The Castle

There is a stylish monument to the Death Valley Scotty story just 300 miles from Los Angeles.
It's the most impressive building in America's greatest wilderness, both inside and out,
with lavish detailing and furnishings. I don't know how many people visit Death Valley each
year, but 150,000 of them tour Scotty's Castle and hear recounted some of the many
hilarious anecdotes that originate with the man.

Frank Lloyd Wright was consulted over the plans to build the Castle. It took over a decade
to construct and was never completely finished. Today it is owned and operated as a museum
by the U.S. National Park Service. It provides a lasting focal point for the Death Valley
Scotty legend, and a wonderful reminder for anyone touring the region.

Scotty's grave is on ground overlooking the Castle. The plaque which memorializes the grave
sets out his "four don'ts" . Actually, Scotty is one of the few men to have escaped his own
grave. Shortly after he was buried a flash flood carried off his coffin and he had to be
committed to the earth a second time.

It just goes to show that you can't keep a good man down.

The Spirit of Death Valley

The Indians called it "the Burnt Land". At 130 degrees, it's one of the hottest places in
the world, and at 286 feet below sea level it contains the lowest point in the Western
Hemisphere. It's a place of desolate, forbidding beauty. It's called Death Valley with good reason: its beauty is of the deadly kind.

What better backdrop could there be for those contemplative moments that point up the
amusing, touching or dramatic scenes in a busy narrative? At the heart of the novel I have
Albert Johnson and Scotty alone together in the desert. Johnson listens to Scotty talk
about the meaning of life. This is a crucial moment on which the whole outcome of the story
turns. I wanted to write it so that a reader would have the opportunity to capture scenes of rare natural splendor in his or her mind's eye.

I want readers to come away from the book appreciating what is out there waiting for them to see.