Category: Mashed Potatoes

Things that are important to me, personally.

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This is… Maya’s Book Shop

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Welcome to my new website. My God, it’s full of books!

Specifically, MY books. Books that contain characters and places I have loved and nurtured from a dream or a feeling or a sudden sense that a story just tapped me on the shoulder through all the stages of their evolution until they appeared in pixels or print in what we call the Real World.

In these books, you’ll hang with all sorts of people: A lost-in-space amnesiac with unsettling abilities. A pint-sized PI who carries a baby blue .357 magnum and rides a Harley blessed with Holy Water by a perhaps-too-anxious mum. A young man from Philly who watches ghost baseball games and wonders if he really has to marry a cockroach named Svetlana. A Jedi named Jax who thinks he may be the last of his kind, and his droid bestie, I-5, whom Jax is pretty sure is the first of his kind. A NYPD detective who worries about being yanked into the misty past at any second. Did I mention Han Solo? He’s in one of these books, too.

You’ll also visit a lot of very different places in these books, from the familiar present-day San Francisco, to a very different future-San Francisco peopled by Ohlone ghosts and a wizard named Chickpea. From Philadelphia, circa 1955, to a past Poland where magic lives in the elements and contains the seeds of vast ruin, to places that don’t exist in this world, or exist only in this or that book.

You can travel in space with an intrepid xeno-anthropologist who’s the best trade negotiator the Tanaka Corporation has to offer. In fact, you could find yourself time-traveling in a variety of ways with a bunch of different folks.

And wherever you go or whomever you’re with, there’s always a chance you might save a people or a world or the entire universe … or maybe just your best friend.

So, let’s make Reality behave together, I invite you to step into my bookshop and choose an adventure.

(We’re open, though the rest of the site is a work in progress.)

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It’s a LABYRINTH

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Well, we’re at the midway point or thereabouts with the Kickstarter for our newest all original music album, LABYRINTH.

Yes, I know, it’s the first I’ve mentioned it here because I am woefully bad at self-promotion event though I have been schooled by the best (Kevin J. Anderson, I’m looking at you).

But here’s the deal: Jeff and I are especially excited about this album for a multitude of reasons, some musical and some not.

What can I say about the music? I love it. especially the final track, “It’s Quiet Here.” That song was a late entry into the lineup which we decided to record when we pulled another song from the album because Jeff was unhappy with the lyric. “Quiet” was one of those songs (I think there may be one on every album) that was written, composed and recorded in a matter of days.

I fell in love with the song while I was working out the melody lines for it. I love the way it builds up with every verse and how the vocal turned out AND (as a big old bonus) the fact that Steve MacDonald happened to be here recording a selection for another project. So I did what any red-blooded singer would do: I begged him to put a harmony on the track. He also sings on “Don’t Look Away,” which is another favorite of mine.

Most of the reasons I’m excited about the album involve the work done by our incredibly talented friends who contributed their awesomeness to the mix. Stevie Mac and Vixy Dockrey on vocals, Mary Crowell and Jared Norris on keys, Chris French on sax, Betsey Tinney on cello and, of course, the absurdly perfect bass lines of Mike Mallory. Each of these extraordinary folks did signature work on this album, bringing elements to it that sometimes redefined the songs for us.

My non-musical reasons for loving this album include the stunning art and design work of Beckett Gladney on the cover and the campaign premiums and the love and support of friends and family in this effort. There is no end to the number of people we have to thank. (Remind me to tell y’all about the photoshoot we did in Seattle with Beckett and Taunya Gren on the hottest, steamiest day of the year … well, it sure seemed like it to me. And then there was our fab lunch at the Blue Star Cafe in Wallingford that we spent brainstorming premiums.)

Right now, I’m getting into TLDR territory, so I’ll wrap it up by saying thanks to all the folks that are contributing to the campaign.

We’re just $2,066 short of our goal!

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How I Got Suspended from Next Door

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This week, I had the singular experience of being suspended from our Next Door online neighborhood group for allegedly breaking the following guidelines:

Those of you who know me may be surprised, nay shocked, by this and you may well wonder what happened to the usually mild-mannered person you thought you knew. What, you may well ask, did Maya say that got her tossed out of her neighborhood chat site?

I happened to stumble across a thread about San Jose’s attempts to house the homeless, focused on finding stable living situations for those who have contracted Covid-19. Authorities formulated a project to build tiny homes on an available piece of property so these folks could shelter in place like those of us who have a place in which to shelter.

After being NIMBYed out of at least one neighborhood, our officials had found a piece of property with good road access but more toward the fringes of the community and after a series of public hearings, went forward with the project. This caused some of the homeowners in the area to panic.

The posts I responded to spoke of filth and drugs and how “those people” would destroy property values. They suggested camping on the mayor’s lawn and other forms of retaliation against named public officials, including lawsuits. Some waxed political and called those officials names.

So what did I say? Here’s the most characteristic example, written when someone with whom I was having a companionable and solutions-oriented discussion made a comment about looking at underlying issues rather than trying to solve the problem with a bandaid (the tiny homes):

I’m not suggesting that we don’t look at underlying issues, which are legion. In fact, I’d argue that we are where we are with this because of our tendency to focus on individual symptoms of the disease our society is riddled with, without considering those underlying or related issues. It’s not just mental illness or addiction. It’s also the vast disparity in wealth and poverty, the lack of a cohesive safety net—including social services and healthcare, the underlying philosophy that each American should be self-subsistent and sovereign with its companion ideal that everyone ought to be able to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps—regardless of whether they actually possess boots. Our educational system is involved, our lack of social cohesion, our partisan political system, even our disregard for the fundamental imperatives of faith.

A huge part of the issue of homelessness is that a significant portion of the American public believes that if you are homeless you must have done something to deserve it. If you’re that poor, it’s your own fault.  This creates a deeply ingrained reluctance to consider systematic means of helping these people. Because in this philosophy, everyone is responsible only for and to themselves. This, too, is rooted in fear, because if we acknowledge that homelessness for a great many people (such as the families that live in RVs along streets near my home) is circumstantial, we must acknowledge that it could happen to us.

So, yes, this is a multi-faceted symptom of deeper issues. If we are to address those issues, we need to come to a point of unity about their causes and the responsibility we share in solving them. Otherwise we (and our elected leaders) will endlessly argue from self-interest, fear and political rationalizations, and not consult—frankly but respectfully and compassionately—about how to work toward a solution. Having said that, when a patient is brought to the ER bleeding from a gunshot wound, the ultimate solution maybe to remove the bullet. But the first task is to simply stop the bleeding.

That was not the mildest thing I said. Nor was it the strongest. But it was the most succinct. The strongest thing I said was that it made me sad that we were more concerned with our property values than with what these souls were suffering.

In the backlash, I was told I was a “dominant supporter” of the project itself, though I’d never once made any statements about it other than that we might treat it as the fruit of honest concern for the homeless rather than a plot by our officials to harm us for Reasons and view it as a health crisis rather than a pitched battle against the forces of evil.

I was asked if I’d be willing to have tiny homes in my backyard (I would, if it were part of a larger plan), and I had the usual insults to my intelligence and motives that I’m well-used to hearing and which ceased to bother me long ago.

And then, I got suspended.

I will admit that my arguments may have caused some folks in the group to feel shame. Most human beings react to shame with anger and protest that they should never have to feel it. But in my experience, I’ve found shame to be a very instructive emotion. One that can be the seed kernel of positive change and the cultivation of valuable virtues. Shame has made me a better person than I was before I experienced it. It’s made me less selfish and more patient and careful of other people’s feelings, especially when I’m trying to engage them and get them to think about something—like which is more likely to effect change—anger and fear, or reason and compassion.

Am I ashamed of anything I said in the dialogue? No, but I do regret having once resorted to sarcasm when, in response to a call to get out and whip up more fear and anger, I said: “Wow. So is it time to get out our torches and pitchforks?”

I made that comment back at the very beginning of the discussion and never said anything remotely like it after that. Ironic, that the one sarcastic comment I made wasn’t what got me in hot water.

One heartening thing was that while, in the beginning, I was the lone voice asking for compassion for the homeless and the possibility that our officials were doing their best to solve a difficult problem, I soon started receiving privately messaged “thank yous” from people. Then some of those people cautiously began to comment themselves.

Sometimes the people you’re speaking to aren’t actually the people you’re speaking to. 😉

I did get blocked from a comment thread once long ago on a different forum when I suggested that there are things that transcend politics and issues—like homelessness, poverty, healthcare, and immigration—that should be sacrosanct from politics. If they aren’t, they will be with us forever.

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A New Parable of the Good Samaritan?

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A while ago, I witnessed an exchange between two members of a panel discussion on the ”caravans” of refugees from South America that had once dominated the 24 hour news cycle.

Panelist A described watching a report in which a child fell prostrate from heat exhaustion. For her, she said, it would always be ”humanity first.”

Panelist B retorted, in direct response: ”We are also a nation of laws and borders, which is part of my problem with the way some of this is being spun.”

Both of the panelists identified as Christians. This allegedly means they believe that God is revealed through Jesus Christ. One would assume, therefore, that they 1) believe in God and 2) believe Christ’s teachings to be the Word of God and any commandments he gives to be divine Law. At least, this was my understanding of the faith I grew up in.

Leaving aside the fact that these refugees are repeatedly referred to as ”illegal aliens” when they have as of yet done nothing illegal, and have expressed no intention of doing anything illegal, I had to wonder what sort of ”spin” one might put on human suffering that a professing believer would find problematic.

Is stating, as Panelist A did, that she put humanity first merely ”spin?”

As it happens, there is a lesson from Christ’s ministry that applies directly to this situation. It’s in the book of Luke (chapter 10, starting at verse 25), and in it Christ reveals—in answer to a direct question—the core of his teaching about the salvation of the human soul. Most Bibles label this passage The Parable of the Good Samaritan. I’ve written of it before in different contexts because it is unique in the way Christ uses it to quadruply emphasize what he identifies as God’s primal Law. He does this through

  1. verbally establishing primacy
  2. repetition
  3. illustration, and
  4. direct instruction.

The question Christ answers is pivotal to Christian belief. It is: “What must I do to have eternal life?”

Christ’s answer is to ask the petitioner—a scholar of religious jurisprudence—what is written in Jewish law.

The young lawyer answers: “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

Christ’s response is direct and clear: ”You have answered correctly. Do this and you shall live.”

With this response, Christ unambiguously links eternal life with what we do with respect to our fellow human beings. In so doing, he establishes the primacy of these two laws originally given by Moses. In other instances, Christ repeats these laws and stresses their primacy yet more by adding, ”On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:40)

Of all God’s laws, these two take precedence.

But the young legal scholar isn’t satisfied. He asks a second question: “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke indicates he thinks this question is an attempt on the lawyer’s part to justify his own beliefs about this.)

In response, Christ tells the story of a Samaritan who saved the life of a severely wounded Jew when a Jewish priest and a Levite would not. The Samaritan not only takes personal responsibility for this man, despite their religious, ethnic, and cultural antipathy, but he pays someone to care for him by proxy.

At the conclusion of the story, Christ asks the young lawyer: ”So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”

The answer is obvious: “He who showed mercy on him.”

Christ then puts the finishing touch on his lesson; he gives a second direct commandment: ”Go and do likewise.”

The Parable of the Good Samaritan applies directly to the disagreement between the two Christian panelists over the refugee crisis because it is both a story of humanity and a story of laws and borders.

Laws and borders were why the priest and the Levite refused to help the dying man, though he was a countryman and a fellow Jew. They “passed by on the other side” of the road out of a fear of crossing boundaries of ritual purity imposed on them by Jewish law.

The Samaritan was also bound by laws and borders—specifically, borders between Jew and Samaritan that were ancient, abiding, and rooted in theological differences. His religious leaders had set strict boundaries between Samaritans and their despised neighbors, the Jews, whom they regarded as heretical, apostate, unclean. They were not to cross through Jewish territory, nor consort with Jews in any way.

The hatred was mutual; to the Jews, the Samaritans were heretical ”dogs”—vermin who pilfered scraps from the table of their betters.

Unlike the two Jews in Christ’s scenario, the Samaritan acted on God’s word that love of his neighbor was a primal commandment. The Samaritan’s act was not one of defiance, but a recognition that God’s commandment to put humanity first took precedence over any other laws.

One more observation about that dual law: By binding the commandment to love Him and love one’s neighbor together, God put love for our fellow human beings on a par with love for Him. The two laws are inseparable. He also makes eternal life dependent on the observance of this law.

So, this is the context of the disagreement between the two panelists. Panelist A advocated for the behavior of the Samaritan in Christ’s illustration, which Christ unequivocally endorsed when he said, ”Go and do likewise.” Panelist B endorsed the behavior of the Levite and the priest. In her version of the parable, the two co-religionists of the dying man were in the right, practicing a higher virtue by upholding their laws and borders over God’s command to put humanity first.

As I read and prayerfully meditate on Christ’s lesson in Luke, I must ask if he is not demanding more of us: That we see ourselves as a people obedient to the Law upon which all others depend—to put humanity first.

O Children of Men! Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory. —  The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, Arabic vs. 68

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CSI (Your City Here) vs Real Forensics

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I did something really cool a while back. I went to a seminar sponsored by  Mystery Writers of America (MWA), an organization I joined after the publication of my first Gina Miyoko Mystery, THE ANTIQUITIES HUNTER (from Pegasus Crime). The seminar was entitled Finding Evidence: CSI vs. Real-Life Forensics.

This was a day-long affair on on how real Crime Scene Investigations differ from the Hollywood versions we all know and love. It was fascinating, dare I say riveting. I still haven’t typed up all my notes.

There were about 30 mystery writers at the free event (which included a delightful lunch) and filled the community room at Diablo Valley College to capacity. A life-size cutout of Edgar Allan Poe presided over the talks, which were given by Julie Jaecksch, a retired crime scene investigator from Oakland PD, and Oakland District Attorney Michael O’Connor.

They did not disappoint. We received a host of useful and fascinating information about how real CSIs operate. Julie detailed evidence collection processes and  flow-charted the process of how evidence makes its way through the various working groups to finally be used to crack a case and/or prosecute a crime. She spoke about the many ways evidence can be mishandled, and how a CSI coming across a key piece of evidence can cause the big break in a case. She gave an example of a case she personally solved by choosing to fingerprint an item others had overlooked as being unlikely to yield evidence.

I bet you want to know that that was, huh? It was a coffee cup that had been sitting on a ledge above a rape victim’s bed. Logic dictated that the fingerprints on it would be the victim’s. Julie dusted the cup for prints anyway and found that the prints on the cup belonged to the rapist. Yessiree, Bob. That guy was so supremely confident (read: obtuse) that he got himself a cuppa and enjoyed it at some point during the commission of a crime.

Mike used the Golden State Rapist case to walk us through how the forensics teams, detectives and DA’s office cooperated in the solving of the crime. This was a case in the 90s involving an ex-police officer who ultimately raped 50 women and killed a dozen people. The DA enlightened all of us as to how real courtrooms operate in contrast to how they’re portrayed on Law & Order. They are far more … well, orderly, and rarely hang on a single piece of OMG evidence.

Can you imagine any happier bunch of people than a couple of experts talking about the work they loved (and hated) and two dozen or so writers scribbling away in their notebooks, iPads and computers? (I was one of the notebook scribblers; I’m taking my laptop, Monroe, with me next time.) This was mystery writer heaven. Research junkie Nirvana. It was chocolate, baby. It was better than chocolate—it was bangers and mash, cottage pie and a good pub curry all rolled into one.

During his talk, Mike O’Connor discussed the real-world dark side to Hollywood’s fixation with law and order. The way that forensics is portrayed in both fiction shows and (allegedly) true crime shows is not quite the way the real world works. Hollywood’s portrayal of both CSI and courtroom drama have made the jobs of both CSIs and prosecutors—more difficult.

How so? Evidence, especially that collected by crime scene investigators, is usually ”quiet” and incremental rather than immediate and explosive. It builds up layer by layer and requires that the CSI establish connections between the various layers. It also requires that the jurors have the mental acuity and patience to understand those connections. Without the capacity to comprehend how each new layer changes the ultimate whole, juries may acquit simply because they fail to see the final picture the evidence paints. If it doesn’t make you gasp, it can’t be THAT important, right?

Prosecutors now routinely encounter juries so jaundiced by TV shows that many have started asking prospective jurors if they watch CSI shows during the jury selection process.

CSI shows also affect how savvy criminals commit their crimes by tailoring them to outwit the sort of investigations they see on TV—which may include tech not really available to Law Enforcement. Of course, it’s also caused some criminals who showed extraordinary care in one aspect of a crime to completely bungle something else. One perpetrator took the expedient of using duct tape both in the murder of his victim, and in faking his own attempted murder. He forgot one of the very qualities of the stuff that makes it a useful restraint: everything sticks to it, from fibers to skin cells. The murderer was literally exposed by a roll of tape.

All I can say is MWA-Ha-Ha!

oOo

If you like mystery and high adventure, check out THE ANTIQUITIES HUNTER, from Pegasus Crime. It’s available in hardback and eBook from your favorite bookstores and is coming out in February in trade paperback. And to read about how my diminutive detective became a PI, check out  my novelette, TINKERBELL ON WALKABOUT—available from Book View Cafe and Amazon!

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Today is Ray Bradbury Day

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Today is the 99th anniversary of the birth of a man who filled me with the love of words, of sentences, of stories, of ideas, of possibilities.

A man who gave me the best advice on writing I’ve ever gotten (Don’t think, write.)

A man I wanted to name my daughter after. (The fam objected, alas.)

A man who looked out at a group of book-clutching, fannish outsiders at an environmental conference and said, in tones of wonder, “Oh, but you’re all my children” and brought us all to tears.

The man who wrote Something Wicked This Way Comes, the love of my literary life. I think it is one of the most beautiful and powerful works in the English language and I often read passages from it aloud just to hold the words and sentences in my mouth.

I love you Ray Bradbury, now and forever. Thank you.

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This is … My Rewrite of Emma Lazarus’s Poem

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I regret that it’s time for this again.

Some of you may have heard a song I wrote for the Möbius Street album entitled “Mother of Exiles.” This phrase—Mother of Exiles—was immortalized on a tablet installed in the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor that, to this fraught day, carry the words of the poet Emma Lazarus in a work she entitled “The New Colossus.” This work was once believed (by my great-grandparents, no less than the society that put it there) to exemplify the “American Dream” and the “rags to riches” stories of immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany, Asia, and Russia and Poland, where most of my forebears came from.

Lately, number of very public people have suggested implicitly or explicitly that we ought to rewrite parts of the poem to reflect the idea that America has always been and should always be only for immigrants who come here, not fleeing cruelty or oppression or persecution or seeking a better life but seeking to endow America with their personal wealth and well-established enterprise.

I ask anyone reading this to consider where they would be today (or if they’d be here at all) if this had been true when their own ancestors crossed Ellis Island.

“Mother of Exiles” is my rewrite of the Lazarus poem. If my lyric sounds ironic, sarcastic, satirical—even angry—it is all those things. It is also born of the intense sorrow of watching a country you love sicken with a self-inflicted disease of the soul.

First, the original Emma Lazarus work, followed by my lyric.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

—Emma Lazarus, 1883

oOo

Mother of Exiles

Not like the copper giantess of fame,

With sandaled feet upon Atlantic sand.

Here at our sea-washed sunrise gates are banned

Those the woman with her torch once claimed.

Those souls imprisoned, those who cried her name:

“Mother of Exiles,” from whose beacon-hand

Glowed world-wide welcome. Now her eyes command

the ne’er-bridged walls along which rifles aim.

“Keep, broken lands, your harried poor!” cries she

With smiling lips. “Give me your trade. Your poor,

Your huddled masses, matter not to me,

Nor wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, to some other lee.

I douse my lamp; just send your gold ashore.

Mother of Exiles lives here no more.

My lamp lies shattered on the shore

And blind, I seek the shards. 

Mother of Exiles—weeping in the bone yards.”

— Maya Bohnhoff , 2008, from the Möbius Street album

The song is on Bandcamp, CDBaby, and iTunes. We also perform an acoustic version of it in our live concerts.

Post script:

“The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 19:34

“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ – Jesus Christ, Matthew 25:37-40

“Act in accordance with the counsels of the Lord: that is, rise up in such wise, and with such qualities, as to endow the body of this world with a living soul, and to bring this young child, humanity, to the stage of adulthood. So far as ye are able, ignite a candle of love in every meeting, and with tenderness rejoice and cheer ye every heart. Care for the stranger as for one of your own; show to alien souls the same loving kindness ye bestow upon your faithful friends. ” – Abdu’l-Bahá

Amen.

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This is … How a Cancelled Championship Became a Celebration of Perseverance

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Amanda & Drum

So, we drove four hours down to Bakersfield Friday night (November 15) for the Western Bands Association State Marching Band Championships. Our daughter, Amanda, is a member of the Oak Grove High School Marching Band. She plays bass drum in the OG battery, as you can see in the photo to the right.

The air quality had been iffy, but within tolerable levels for several days, so we were hopeful. Saturday morning, we awoke in our hotel to a text from Amanda saying the WBA had canceled the event based on a forecast that the AQI was going to get much worse—above 150. I was bummed to the point that catching sight of Morgan Hill’s Emerald Regime semi parked outside their hotel brought on sniffles.

But wait, there’s more! Thanks to the perseverance of several intrepid band directors, including our host—West High School—an exhibition was quickly assembled and, in the end, five amazing, rebellious high school bands were scheduled to take the field in exhibition. They were King’s Academy, Branham, Valley Christian, Oak Grove, and West.

We assembled at West High School around noon to do show prep, watching the air quality index. The bands ate, warmed up, drilled and got costumed and, by the time the first band took the field a little after 4PM, the AQI had fallen to 83—clearer than it had been in days.

We waived much of the usual exhibition decorum—everyone’s props were assembled in the end zone and there was no time limit on setup or retreat. The kids for once got to watch other bands perform  from the front stands and could spend a few moments at the end of their show pieces, soaking up the applause and adulation. They had a blast.

Below is a photo album of the day from the point of view of one Oak Grove Band Mom. If you hover your mouse pointer over the image, it will display a caption. Enjoy!

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Sixteen Things Update

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A while back there was this meme-thingie on the Interwebs in which you tagged someone and asked them to tell 16 random things about themselves. I published my list here about four years back, came across it today and thought I’d update it.

So, here are my sixteen things.

1. I’m a Baha’i.

2. I’m married to a rock star (well, okay, he’s a seriously talented guitarist/songwriter/music producer who looks like a rock star and whose hair was longer than mine when we got married).

3. I love ships—both tall ships and classic ocean liners—and am fascinated by shipwrecks. One of my favorite books of all time is THE ONLY WAY TO CROSS, which is about said classic ocean liners. (I have a favorite ocean liner. She was the Normandie.)

4. I have three mind-bogglingly amazing children who are the best things I’ve ever done. Since I once thought I didn’t want children at all, this is a Big Deal to me. One teaches middle school physics and is a talented songwriter. One has Bachelors degrees in Anthropology and International Area Studies and is a baking phenom. One is a junior in high school, marches bass drum in the Oak Grove Marching Band, and plays tenor sax and trombone in other musical configurations.

5. My favorite color is the color of fire … and pumpkins … and curry powder.

6. I am addicted to archaeology. Mummies rule!

7. I was torn between being a musician, a writer, an artist, and an archaeologist when I was growing up. I’m a musician and a writer and occasionally draw something. I also have used my archaeo-fu in my most recent novel, THE ANTIQUITIES HUNTER. I figure that gives me a solid 3 out of four.

8. I LOVE the process of writing and get depressed when I finish a novel.

9. I just had my first mystery novel published by Pegasus Crime.  THE ANTIQUITIES HUNTER stars the tiny but irrepressible Gina Miyoko. The photo is from our local Barnes & Noble.

10. I was desperate to play the oboe when I was a kid, but they were too expensive, so I played clarinet.

11. I play Taylor guitars. I have two—a gorgeous jumbo curly maple named Clancy and an amazing grand concert made of Tasmanian Black-heart Sassafras. His name is Cisco Ramon.

12. I prefer to drive Volvos. I have owned four of them. Their names were Falda, Kelpie, Serenity and Selkie (who alas, has left this mechanical coil). I now drive a Prius named Baldric. His companion vehicles in our driveway are my daughter Kris’s blue Prius (Mrs. Miggins) and husband Jeff’s blue Volt (Edmund). If you get those references you are delightfully nerdy.

13. The smell of Indian food and basmati rice makes me Snoopy dance.

14. I owned and trained horses when I was a teenager and actually enjoyed mucking out stalls. Very meditative. I now meditate by designing book covers. Less smelly.

15. Desserts I can’t resist: flan, creme brulée and pumpkin anything. I recently discovered a panoply of things that come in pumpkin spice—lattes, perfumes, skin cream, shampoo, and many food items.

16. Cambridge, England and Hamburg, Germany are my two favorite cities in the world. I got to visit both of them and would love to go back.

Why sixteen things? Who knows. But there it is, not totally random.

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Announcing THE ANTIQUITIES HUNTER Blog Tour

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I am doing a new thing with this novel—a blog tour!

So, please do check my calendar here for tour dates and follow along. Currently confirmed dates are:

09-25-18  @4:00 pm – Science fiction author/blogger Juliette Wade will interview me live on her Dive Into Wordbuilding website. The interview will also be on YouTube.

10-03-18 – Fellow BVCer Deborah Ross will interview me on Book View Café.

10-08-18 – Sandra Lopez will feature a review of the book and an excerpt on her Sandra’s Book Club review site.

10-12-18 – Elizabeth Spann Craig, author of a popular series of cozy mysteries, will feature a my guest blog on “Research and (Plot) Development” on her cozy website.

Stay tuned for more tour dates! I’m working on a guest blog for CrimeReads as we speak.