The Fanciful Twist 2nd Annual Mad Tea Party and My Friend Sissyfriss Sockmonkey

You might remember that I invited you to join us for The 2nd Annual Mad Tea Party being hosted by Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist.



You can read about Vanessa's First Annual Mad Tea Party here. AND see pictures -



Well, I hate this, but Donald and I have a conflict, so I won't be attending this lovely affair.

June 27th is also the 18th Annual Heritage Day Wood Kiln Opening at Bolick and Traditions Pottery. This is a fun event that we try to get to as often as we can. We don't make it every year, but are planning on making it this year, for sure. In addition to the kiln being opened and and unloaded, there's music, good food and mountain craft demonstrations of all kinds.

But, I'm happy to say - The 2nd Annual Mad Tea Party will go on as originally planned.

My friend Sissyfriss Sockmonkey has agreed to step in and act as hostess. It just so happens that Sissy's bookgroup is meeting on June 27th, and it's her turn to have the meeting at her house. Unfortunately, that's also the day her husband Marlon scheduled their new wood floors to be installed, so she can't have her meeting there as planned. Marlon said no no no absolutely not. But he would be at home that day and able to oversee the floor installation. Just not with a house full of people getting in the way of the floor folks.

As luck would have it, just as I was about to bow out of my tea party commitment, Sissy called and asked if she could move her book group here.

Serendipity!!

So we now have a joint book group/tea party happening right here at Meanderings and Muses on June 27th. Sissyfriss Sockmonkey asked me to let you all know she would be tickled pink to have you all, and if you would like to participate in the book group discussion, that would be loverly.

It's a different kinda book group.

No one in this group seems to be able to come to an agreement about what to read. So, everyone just reads what they want, then they get together every couple of months and tell one another about what they've read, and what they recommend. And, as a bonus, everyone brings something yummy to eat. oh boy.

It's the perfect excuse for everyone to just get together and enjoy one another, nibble some tasty treats and talk about books. What could be lovelier! Toss in a bit of a mad little tea party, and it turns into something pretty special, I dare say.

We shall see.

So allow me please, to introduce you to my gal pal, Sissyfriss Sockmonkey - -




Come back on June 27th and make her feel welcome, okay? It's just another of our little virtual get-togethers. Leave a comment letting us know what scrumptious little treats you've brought, AND what book you're reading that you're dying to squeal about.

Sissyfriss and her friends are going to take pictures so we can post them here after the party, along with a "post party recap." That way, those of us who can't make it will get to see what we missed.

Shirley Wetzel's Version of William Carlos Williams' "This is just to say"

I was born in Comanche, Texas, but I soon got bored and hopped a train bound for Key West three weeks later, accompanied by my mother and big sister. My dad was in the Navy, and we bounced around the country, finally settling back in Texas. I started writing as soon as my fingers could hold a pencil, and have never stopped. Most of what I wrote was for my own amusement, but a few years ago I decided to get serious and started submitting personal essays, historical stories, and such to magazines, newspapers and anthologies. To my amazement, I sold most of them. My first love, though, is mystery. Last fall my first mystery short story was included in A Death in Texas, published by L&L Dreamspell. I love to travel, and have seen a lot of the world,
including Thailand, where I lived for two years, Guatemala, where I worked on a Highland Maya archaeological excavation, Turkey, Peru, and various parts of Mexico. My current work in progress is a mystery titled A Death in Comanche, and it's been in progress a loooong time. I write book reviews for overmydeadbody.com, and sometimes for Mysterious Morgue. My blog address is http://swetzel.wordpress.com


Our darling Kaye has politely asked me to talk a little about a writing/yoga retreat I attended a couple of weeks ago. You can quit twisting my arm now, Kaye :-) The retreat was in Belton, Texas, run by a wonderful lady named Patricia Lee Lewis, who conducts similar retreats all over the world.

Here’s the link to Patricia’s website: http://www.writingretreats.org/About/

If you click on her Wales retreat, you'll see St. Davids Cathedral - for those of you who know me, you'll know the importance of that. In the far right corner of the photo you can see Carn Llidi Mountain, where my mother's first husband lost his life in a plane crash in 1943. Patricia and I discovered we had many other things in common.

But that's not what Kaye asked me to talk about. One of the exercises Patricia assigned us was to use the model of the poem by William Carlos Williams, which will be familiar to many of you - Bill Crider said he used it to torture generations of his students. It's the kind of note you'd paste on the refrigerator ....


This is just to say

That I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
so cold
William Carlos Williams

And here's my version - it's totally fiction, I have no idea where it came from, I just put my pen to paper and it wrote itself down. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!:

This is just to say

That while you were away
I slept with the pool boy
in our marriage bed

I know this may upset you
but he was so sweet
so delicious
so HOT

Forgive me, or don't
I don't give a rat's ass
Ever since I saw you
screwing the maid
in the pool house
Shirley Wetzel May 29, 2009

You can have a lot of fun with this! There's even a wikipedia entry for it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Just_To_Say

I've written several more since the retreat, about people I work with, for example, and some of my friends have even commissioned me to write some for their particular situation, but it's more fun to write your own. Try it, you'll like it!

How Does an Old Lady Like You Presume to Write Police Procedurals?

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over twenty published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, the latest Kindred Spirits from Mundania Press. Under the name of F. M. Meredith she writes the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series, No Sanctuary is the newest from Oak Tree Press.

She is a member of EPIC, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. She was an instructor for Writer’s Digest School for ten years, served as an instructor at the Maui Writer’s Retreat and many other writer’s conferences. She makes her home in Springville CA, much like Bear Creek where Deputy Tempe Crabtree lives. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com


Trailer for No Sanctuary -

Trailer for Kindred Spirits -

Blog: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

Website: http://fictionforyou.com


HOW DOES AN OLD LADY LIKE YOU PRESUME TO WRITE POLICE PROCEDURALS?
by
Marilyn Meredith

No one has actually come out and put that question into words, but I have seen it several folks’ eyes. I have been asked if I was in law enforcement at one time. The answer to that one is “no.” And I am not writing about me in any shape or form.

What first got me interested in writing about people in law enforcement was my son-in-law who was an officer for the Oxnard CA P.D. My daughter didn’t like hearing his stories, so every morning after he got off the night shift, he’d come to our house for coffee and tell me his exciting stories. I went on a ride-along with him after promising not to mention to anyone that I was his mother-in-law. This was in the days before seat-belt laws and riding with him was not only enlightening it was a bit on the scary side. When he chased after a burglar he made me come along with him, because, as he said, “How’re you going to know what it’s like if you don’t come along?”

When we moved to the foothills, I went on a couple of more ride-alongs with the Porterville P.D. The first was with a brand new officer he forbade me to get out of the car. The second was with the only female officer at the time and she was great. It was Saturday night and she did bar checks and let me follow her around. When she was through in a bar, she’d holler out, “Did anyone see the little old lady who came in with me?” Everyone always pointed at me. (Not so great for my ego.) She also went to a family dispute—I stayed in the car for that one. Her Sergeant showed up and asked me if I’d heard anything. He listened at the door and all was quite. He told me she did a wonderful job calming down volatile situations. From about 2:30 a.m. until 6, she didn’t get a single call. As we patrolled the streets, she told me so much: the difficulties of being the only woman in the department as well as being a single mom.

I interviewed the female resident deputy for our area and she told me many of the same problems she had being the only woman working with so many men.

When I met a lovely Native woman who told me all about growing up on the reservation, I began to get the idea for my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries. Tempe, a Native American, is the resident deputy of Bear Creek which bears a striking resemblance to the foothill community where I live. We are located close to the Tule River Indian Reservation which also makes several appearances in different Tempe books as well as those who reside there. In the latest, Kindred Spirits, Tempe travels to Crescent City to learn more about a murder victim and finds out a lot about the travails of the Tolowa people.

Coming in the fall, Dispel the Mist, Tempe has a close encounter with the Tule River Indian legend of the Hairy Man who bears a close resemblance to Big Foot..

Rocky Bluff P.D. is located in a fictional beach community on the coast with a slight resemblance to Carpenteria CA and Oxnard in earlier times. The characters in the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series are law enforcement officers and their families. Though the same characters appear in more than one book, the focus changes for each one. A romance began to develop in Smell of Death between Detective Doug Milligan and Officer Stacey Wilbur. In the latest, No Sanctuary, things between the two heat up a bit as Stacey helps Doug investigate the murder of a popular minister’s wife.

My goal in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series is to show how the job affects the family and what goes on in the family also affects the job.

In both series, each book stands alone and it’s not necessary to read them in order. Some of the earlier Rocky Bluff P.D. books can only be ordered from my website, http://fictionforyou or through Kindle. The Tempe books are available from me, on the Kindle, Amazon, or the publishers’ sites.

Back to the main question, how do I presume to write police procedurals? Besides what I’ve told you, I also belong to the Public Safety Writers Association http://www.publicsafetywriter.com and many of the members are active or retired law enforcement and quite willing to answer all my questions. And the bottom line is, I’m writing fiction—and stories that I hope will entertain the reader.

A Meanderings and Muses Milestone

Meanderings and Muses tipped the counter with 10,000 visitors this morning. (o.k. - yes, I did have to click a couple times to get it there. I'm not really a very patient person) .

Since I'm one of those people who thinks a little bit of celebration to mark an occasion (any occasion, really) is important and fun, it's only fitting I throw a little mini virtual celebration for this. Don't you think?!

Join me!


10,000 visitors.



Who would have ever guessed?!

Not me.

For real.

You'll remember that it was attending my first Bouchercon, and feeling the need to write about it, that kicked off the Meanderings and Muses blog. You'll remember, I'm sure - since I'm STILL squealing about it - I was over the moon goofy about what a great time I had in Baltimore.

The on-going experience since then of finally meeting people face to face who I've gotten to know over the internet, meeting writers I've admired for a long time, being welcomed into a community that is so special and so full of heart, has been one of the most gratifying experiences ever. The whole experience has extended into this blog. Many mystery/crime fiction writers and fans have already been guests here, with many more lined up for the rest of the year. I thank you all for taking the time to participate.

Meanderings and Muses has 59 posts to date. Some by me, and some by others. The two earliest posts were written by me, but were published originally at other places before M&M was "born." The first at The Stiletto Gang Blogspot at the invitation of my friends Marian & Rhonda of Evelyn David about my smoking. The second at Murderati at the invitation of the lovely JT Ellison about the virtual watercooler of the internet. I am extraordinarily proud of those pieces and will always feel quite honored to have been asked by those women to write them.

The other Meanderings and Muses participants have been writers - published and yet-to-be published, quite well-known writers and soon-to-be well known writers, readers, fans, and friends. We've chatted about hats. We've seen a new president step in. We've talked about Cambridge, and Boone, and girlfriends, and tears, and smoking and quitting, and Donald and Harley Doodle Barley. We've talked about creativity and the importance of red in our lives. We've been to see Willie Nelson in concert, and we've been on vacation at Topsail Island. I've had a revised version of one of my pieces here accepted for a regional anthology, and we've collected a few lovely little peer awards of which I'm quite proud. It's been a journey full of fun and it's been a learning experience. And I've made some mistakes. But you know - I've always been of the mind that if you don't make mistakes then you're probably just not doing anything. So, hopefully, those particular mistakes won't be repeated, which means I can just make new ones, but maybe not too many. And (again, hopefully), you'll understand that they're unintentional and accept my apologies and we can all move on and enjoy the good things.

Meanderings and Muses has become a huge part of my life. A part I'm quite proud of. And to those of you who have encouraged me in my efforts, thank you.

This was all going to be experimental, with concerns about who might actually want to participate and contribute and little niggling worries that no one would want to play. And that no one would drop by to chat. All those things are now things, I guess, I can quit fretting about. 'Course, I'll just find something else to fret about 'cause that's just me. But. The frettin' won't be about Meanderings and Muses. I'm feeling quite safely and happily positive about it. With the help of all of you, I feel it's been accepted and validated. Thank you.

My original goal was to have a guest a month. The response when I started asking people if they would join me was overwhelming, and I ended up with a guest a week. Then it grew to where we've been lucky enough to sometimes have two guests a week. You could just knock me over with a feather when I open my email and it's a note from someone telling me they would enjoy contributing. I love that and welcome each of you.

So. Join me please in this "Virtual Celebration" of who we are today, and the adventure it's been getting here in a few short months.

You folks who are DorothyL members are very much aware of "Virtual Parties." Honeys! I have been to some of the virtual parties thrown at DorothyL and they are amazing. A hoot, a holler, tons of fun, and lots and lots of good food. So, let the party begin. Come on in, have a glass of champage, tell me what this is that you've brought to share - it looks lovely!! Chocolate, you say - you've brought chocolate . . .

A Morning in Boone, North Carolina

You know how some days are just perfect? Just so sweetly perfect that it makes you remember to say "thank you."

We started today with one of those mornings.

Our house has become "bunny central" and is sort of like living a scene of "Watership Down," which Donald and I both enjoy. We don't have a spot flat enough to try to have a vegetable garden, so all the bunnies grazing don't upset us. I have to admit to being a bit provoked by the oldest and largest resident bunny the year he ate all my geraniums right down to the dirt.

Five pots.

Flowers, leaves, stems. gone. AND the little dickens sat right there and finished the last pot as I was walking towards him to shoo him away! Then, bless his heart, he was so fat full from his meal he didn't even "hop" away - but just slowly sauntered. Scared to death of me he was not. pfft. We call him Grampy Bunny. He's been with us for years, and he just gets bigger and bigger. And is now patriarch over a large family. The best time to steal a look at them gathering for their family meal is early in the mornings, and again around dusk. And it's not unusual to see a gathering of about 15, from big ol' Grampy Bunny, to the teeniest little babies imaginable. And that's how we started our day today. Taking the time to watch this little event is well worth being a bit late for work.


Then when we got to the end of our driveway in time to watch a huge wild turkey sauntering across the road into the woods. Usually when we see a turkey, it's in a group, or at least walking with a partner, so I'm not sure if this one was just out for a morning stroll, needed some time alone, or what.

After we turn left out of our driveway, we're always greeted with the incredibly peaceful sight of horses grazing on the mountainside. Big Belgians, next to small Shetlands. Lovely. So lovely it brings tears to my eyes, morning after morning. It's a small slice of peacefulness that I will never ever tire of.

About two months ago, one of the Shetlands gave birth. If that is not the sweetest - just eat 'em up sweet - baby ever, I just don't know what is. We like to drop by to check on baby's progress, and feel her soft as cotton mane.



see how teeny she is?!! Don't you want to just kiss her little nose?!!

And then there was still one more surprise waiting for us before we got off our road. Deer romping around the last field before hitting the main road. Majestic, proud, playful.



All this makes me wish I could pick a winning lottery ticket. I don't know that I would do anything any more outrageous than quit my job, and try to convince Donald to quit his so we could just drive around these beautiful mountains and snap pictures. Where on earth else could I possibly want to be?

Well . . . . maybe six months here and six months living on the water?? It for sure couldn't get any more perfect than that. In the meantime, I have to think we're living in our own version of heaven on earth.

(Note: I have not been lucky enough to snap any pictures of any of these little bunny meal times yet, but I haven't given up on that. In the meantime, are y'all familiar with "photobucket.com?" It is very cool - check it out. That's where this bunny and this wild turkey photo came from. I have got to learn to be quicker with my little camera for our little wild life photo opportunities! and I'm gonna. Starting immediately!)

See - I just knew it was gonna be a good day!

Janet Rudolph, self proclaimed Chocoholic, and Mistress of the Dying for Chocolate Blog, tells us that blogs.com has announced its Top 10 List for All-About-Chocolate Blogs on the Web. Thanks, Janet!!

AND. speaking of Chocolate. Chick-fil-A serves the yummiest chocolate milkshakes. Scrumptious. It's all I can do to say "no" to one - and of course - I'm not gonna say "no" every time we go there, but at the same time, I surely can't say "yes" every time we go either! Anyway. I meander. Donald and I went to Chick-fil-A for lunch today. While we were sitting in the drive-thru line, a nice lady came by with little free samples of their newest summer milkshake. Peach. oh my. Y'all. Do go to Chick-fil-A and get yourself a fresh peach milkshake. Or chocolate. Or live on the wild side and have one of each. You'll thank me. for real.

In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina . . . by Nikki Strandskov aka Auntie Knickers

Nikki Strandskov was born in Maine and lived in several U. S. states as well as three German cities before settling in Minnesota, where she lived happily (mostly in Minneapolis) for 32 years. In 2005 she and her husband, Henrik, "retired" to Brunswick, Maine, near her brothers and sister and many other relatives. She and Henrik have one son and two daughters, plus one daughter-in-law and one daughter-outlaw, all of whom live too far away. At home, they have a tricolor English springer spaniel, Rusty, and a calico cat, Heidi.

Besides reading 100 or more mysteries a year, plus other books, Nikki enjoys genealogy, collecting Christmas music and stories, collecting hymnals, watching movies and blogging. Henrik writes hymn and sometimes song lyrics (two so far with North Carolinian George Keck), takes photographs, and also enjoys reading mysteries and books on Polar exploration -- a great interest to have when one lives in the home of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum. Nikki blogs at http://auntieknickers.blogspot.com/ and at http://queuingup.blogspot.com/ (the latter is all about movies), and also posts book reviews at http://www.goodreads.com/ as Auntie Knickers and on DorothyL as "Nikki in Maine." She is awed to find herself in the illustrious company of Kaye's guest bloggers on http://meanderingsandmuses.blogspot.com/.
--



“In my mind I’m goin’ to Carolina….” (James Taylor)

…North Carolina, that is.



And, except for two brief drive-throughs (one on a train) when I was 2 or 3, that’s the only way I’ve ever been to North Carolina. Yet, it’s one of my favorite states, and except for the odd politician, I’m predisposed to like anything that comes from there. Why is that?

Well, of course there’s the folklore. As an old folkie (non-performing variety), I’ve been enjoying the music of Earl Scruggs,



Doc and Merle Watson,



and James Taylor



for many years. Appalachian folklore – music, storytelling, handicrafts –



doesn’t take much account of state lines, but I do know that the famous Jack Tales, collected and published by Alabamian Richard Chase, came from the Ward family in western North Carolina. As a native and resident of Far Northeast Appalachia – Maine – the Scotch-Irish basis of much North Carolina culture is part of my culture too.

The land itself is beautiful, as I am reminded nearly every day in Vicki Lane’s blog – her photographs make you want to be there. I’ve been to the Rockies, which are majestic and amazing, but – I’m afraid of heights. The Appalachians are good enough for me – beauty and awe without the paralyzing terror. Kaye, my hostess for today, takes some great photos too, most recently giving us a taste of the Carolina coast on Topsail Island. Every description I’ve read of the Outer Banks has reinforced my belief that I’d like it a lot.

And then, there are the books. You knew I’d get to the books, right? At 10 or 11 it was Inglis Fletcher’s The Scotswoman. I had become a staunch Jacobite from reading Sally Watson’s Highland Rebel and then found Fletcher’s book on my mother’s shelves of historical novels.

A few years later, I discovered Thomas Wolfe – Look Homeward, Angel and You Can’t Go Home Again. Anne Tyler is now best known for writing about Baltimore, but she too is a North Carolinian, and I “knew her when” – having read her first two, North Carolina-set books, A Slipping-Down Life and The Tin Can Tree, shortly after their publication. Reynolds Price is a fine novelist, and his memoir of disability, A Whole New Life, gave my church Faith Exploration group much to discuss, as did Kate Vaiden. Clyde Edgerton, Lee Smith, Charles Frazier, Jan Karon, and Tony Earley are also favorites of mine and all North Carolina authors. I mustn’t forget to mention a publisher – Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill – whose imprint has proven to be a guarantee of good reading.

Now, since I “met” Kaye through the DorothyL list, I need to say a bit about mysteries. What a rich crop of writers have been born in or adopted North Carolina! From Sharyn McCrumb’s Ballad Novels (and I am thrilled to hear that a new one is on the way, featuring Nora Bonesteel), to Margaret Maron’s series featuring Judge Deborah Knott and her large, loving, and sometimes eccentric family, to Kathy Reichs’s books about sometime Tarheel Tempe Brennan – I’d thought maybe that was all there was and then Vicki Lane started publishing her Elizabeth Goodweather books. She not only writes a charming blog and takes great photos, she’s a heck of a mystery writer, and I’m impatiently awaiting her next, The Day of Small Things. Looking back a bit, do search out the stories and novels of Manly Wade Wellman, which are also deeply informed by Appalachian folklore.

But – what is it I really love most about North Carolina? The people. The first Tarheel I recall meeting was Sunnie Strauss, the wife of my 10th-grade social studies teacher. Jack Strauss was one of those stellar teachers who still influences me after 40+ years, and not least because he and Sunnie opened their home to me and my friends with a warmth that seemed natural then. Only as I have grown up, been a teacher’s wife, and had kids of my own in school, have I realized how unusual they were. We had great, deep discussions, a lot of laughs, and enjoyed their unique blend of Jewish and Southern hospitality. Jack is gone now, but – thanks, Sunnie.

In my junior year, I was in a different school, a Defense Department-run high school in Germany. I know I met many North Carolinian students, but what I remember most is my U.S. history teacher, Jerry Pierce. For someone who was taught Union marching songs in my Maine first grade class, his Southern take on the Civil War (oops, I mean The War Between the States) was a salutary lesson in the different ways one can view history. He also was brave enough to be faculty advisor to a weekly “journal of opinion” that I and some other students started. We’re talking about an Army high school in 1964-65 – need I say more?

One summer in college, one of my flatmates was Cathy Haas from North Carolina. It was a pleasure living with her and I still remember that she knew James Taylor and had a great recipe for whipped cream pound cake. A couple of my old friends from various high schools now live in North Carolina at least part time (both being somewhat peripatetic professors) and seem very happy there.

And last but not least, there are the cyberfriends. Kaye Barley in particular. Yes, I know Kaye is originally and always a Marylander, but she does live in and appreciate North Carolina now. She’s the unofficial social secretary and cheerleader for DorothyL, and, I suspect, of any group she’s involved with. I’m glad to know her. I’ve also had some nice email exchanges with Vicki Lane and Margaret Maron. Reporter Allen Breed, who’s writing a book on Malaga Island, Maine, where some of my ancestors lived, has helped me with my research and I, I hope, with his. I’m pretty sure some of my RevGalBlogPals are in North Carolina too. I’m just going to have to go there some day!
--
Nikki Strandskov
Bayberry Hill Genealogy
auntieknickers.blogspot.com
nstrands@suscom-maine.net

Alexandra Sokoloff - Lessons from the Back Seat

As a screenwriter, Alex has sold original mystery and thriller scripts and written novel adaptations for numerous Hollywood studios. Her debut ghost story, THE HARROWING, was nominated for both a Bram Stoker award and Anthony award for Best First Novel. Her second supernatural thriller, THE PRICE, was called “some of the most original and freshly unnerving work in the genre” by the New York Times Book Review, and her short story, “The Edge of Seventeen” is currently nominated for a Thriller award for best short story. Her third spooky thriller, THE UNSEEN, is out now, and is based on real-life experiments conducted at the parapsychology lab on the Duke University campus. She is currently working on a fourth supernatural thriller for St. Martin’s Press and a paranormal thriller for Harlequin Nocturne, and is writing a book on SCREENWRITING TRICKS FOR AUTHORS, based on her popular workshop and blog. http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/

Lessons from the Back Seat
By Alexandra Sokoloff

Since I am on the road touring for my new book, THE UNSEEN,
http://alexandrasokoloff.com/unseen.html and I will be doing God only knows how much driving in the next month, including today (from Virginia to New York, for Book Expo America, with several dozen bookstore drop-ins along the way)… I thought for my guest post I would be extremely faithful to the title of Kaye’s great blog, here. “Meanderings and Muses.” That just says it all. That’s maybe the story of my life – inspiration from traveling. Only, as you’ll notice, I changed it around to suit my own, um, tendencies and got: “Lessons from the Back Seat”.

I know that there are other life lessons generally associated with the back seats of cars. And okay, I’ve had a few of those, too. But for me, I really believe that the back seat was where I learned how to write.

My father is a peripatetic kind of guy. Because of various revolutions and natural disasters and immigration restrictions, his family moved from Leningrad to Tokyo to Mexico City before he was three years old. (We think we live exciting lives - but if you ask me nothing we do holds a candle to what our parents have lived through.) That sense of movement never really left Dad; he got into the U.S. when he was 15 and rode the rails all over the country before he was 18, and I’ve never seen him happier than when he’s behind the wheel of a car (“King of the Road” is one of our family songs).

Though when he married and started a family he put down roots in California, Dad and my mother are both educators, and at the time my siblings and I were growing up, schools still had those three-month long summer vacations. And we spent those long summers on the road, driving all over the country, different routes every year, because Dad and Mom thought that we should see the country. All of it. Intimately. You might even say, would definitely have said if you had seen how grimy we all got after two months on the highway, that we became one with it.

So some of my earliest and most enduring memories and sensations are – movement. Perpetual movement. Constantly changing scenery and huge contrasts: endless brutal deserts turning into palm oases. Towering craggy mountain ranges with pockets of ethereal fields of wildflowers. Geysers and glaciers… and grizzly bears trying to claw their way into the car.

I don’t think it’s any surprise, then, that I’m a sucker for big visuals in my reading and my writing, or that I crave stories that have a constantly moving pace and surprises around every bend. I definitely picked up those rhythms and preferences on the road.

But as everyone knows, road trips aren’t necessarily a thrill a minute. Especially in portions of, say, Oklahoma and Texas, where the same kind of flat landscape seems to go on for days. Oh, right, that’s because it DOES go on for days. So I did a hell of a lot of reading along some of those stretches, and sometimes would read the same book several times in a trip, which was great training for writing, because with multiple readings you start to see the mechanics of it all. I could recite whole sections of my favorite thrillers and mysteries to my family. I also learned to make up stories to entertain myself. What if that car following us was full of CIA agents? (Oh, right – the car behind us sometimes WAS full of CIA agents. My father is a scientist, and Russian, and that was a suspicious combination when I was a child).

But what if they kidnapped us? What if I was the only one who could get free?

What if those dinosaurs in Dinosaur World suddenly came to life? (Okay, Michael Crichton beat me to that one)

What if there were real ghosts in that ghost town?

You have a lot of time for those “What ifs” on the road.

And God knows all that traveling – the national parks, the different cities, the museums and art galleries and reservations and ghost towns along the way, gave me a whole lifetime of fodder for different stories.

I’m eternally grateful for the traveling because it’s made me not just unafraid about doing research traveling, but eager for it. I write supernatural thrillers and the PLACE of a ghost story is sometimes the most important part of the whole deal. I always want to visit and explore the city or region I’m writing about, because it’s the best way to give a reader a true and complete experience. I need you to believe in the reality of the story - to feel and smell and hear things - so I can sneak in there and scare the pants off you.

And the traveling was especially good preparation for THE UNSEEN, interestingly enough, because it gave me an angle on how to write realistically about the South (the book is set in North Carolina) even though I’ve lived in California my entire life and wouldn’t begin to pretend that I could speak from a Southerner’s point of view.

But I sure can write from the point of view of a transplant, a fish out of water, because I have been that, in so many places, for so much of my life.

In THE UNSEEN my main character, Los Angeles psychology professor Laurel MacDonald, has a precognitive dream that makes her aware that her fiancé is cheating on her. It shatters her life, of course, but also her whole sense of reality. She decides to take the “geographic cure” and moves to North Carolina to take a professorship at Duke, where she becomes obsessed with the long-buried files from the Rhine parapsychology department there.

Laurel is so out of place in the South that she’s a good observer, which makes her a perfect person to solve a mystery – but also, being in a strange new place with people who look at her as an outsider contributes to her sense of alienation and disorientation – a great undercurrent for a supernatural thriller.

All that traveling also prepared me for the author’s life – although I never would have known that going in. I don’t think anyone can possibly realize how much traveling is required of an author: the conventions, the book signings, the workshop gigs. It’s a wonderful gypsy life – you go to different cities every year for Bouchercon, Left Coast Crime, Book Expo America, the Public Library Association conference, Thrillerfest, Malice Domestic, Romantic Times – and all your friends are there, including your agent and editor, so you end up doing business in all these different cities. It’s a huge traveling circus, really.

And it helps me with dreaded book promotion that I have no problem jumping in the car and driving all over the state – any state – to stop in at bookstores and sign stock. I’d prefer to be driven, but driving itself is relaxing to me, and a welcome break from writing, so I find it a great balance – exhausting, I won’t lie about that, but also rejuvenating.

I don’t panic if I get lost, I don’t worry when little things go wrong, and I really do end up enjoying the ride. And I never, ever forget how lucky I am: I always wanted the kind of life that would take me to new places all the time, and now, well, I’ve got it – in spades.

Thanks for having me, Kaye, and I hope I see you all on the road!

Alex

http://alexandrasokoloff.com