I am very excited and happy to announce I have selected a new audio book narrator for “Cradle to Grave” and “Death in Salem”. As any librarian will tell you, audiobooks are very very popular. A good narrator can really make a story shine. I am very glad to see both these titles become audiobooks for all my patrons.
Tag Archives: writers
audiobooks and more
I am happy and excited to announce I have just signed the contracts with Dreamscape for audiobooks editions of “Cradle to Grave” and “Death in Salem“. Because Cradle is already out, I hope to see the audiobook come out this spring. “Death in Salem” won’t be out until June 17, 2015 so I hope the audio will be available in the summer.
I am cautiously optimistic that I will be able to choose the reader.
Just a reminder too: I will be running a giveaway from Goodreads and my website for “A Simple Murder” through the month of March. I hope to run another for Death in Salem, maybe in May?, but that will be determined by the number of copies I will get from the publisher.
Witch Hunts after Salem
Although the witch craze in Salem ended, with many consequences as I have mentioned in an earlier post, the belief in witches did not end. With an increasing interest and belief in science, a belief in witches faded but did not disappear, either in Europe or in the Colonies – new United States. Legally, a witch trial and a judicial solution to perceived witch craft became unlikely (and I imagine that the uncritical acceptance of spectral evidence by Samuel Parris in Salem had a lot to do with increasing skepticism) hanging by lynch mobs could still happen.
In Europe women were still attacked and in some cases executed for witchcraft. In Denmanrk (1800), in Poland in 1836 and even in Britain in 1863. Violence continued in France through the 1830’s. And in the United States, as previously mentioned, Ann Lee of the Shakers was arrested and charged for blasphemy in 1783. But she was released.
In the 1830s a prosecution was begun against a man (yes) in Tennessee. Even as recently as 1997 two Russian farmers killed a woman and injured members of her family for the use of folk magic against them.
Why am I blogging about witchcraft? Well, one of the comments about one of my earlier posts talked about the influence of one person in swaying a community to hunting a witch. No matter how you look at it, most of the motivations behind witch hunts show the worst of human nature. Readings I’ve done point to class warfare and gender conflict. And while it is true that in some European countries men have been accused, in most of Europe and the United States the ones hunted have been women. There are a variety of opinions: control of a woman’s sexuality for one. The control of women’s reproductive life (and the eradication of midwives) for another. Considering what is still happening here I believe it. But some of the other motivations are equally as unflattering: greed, malice, revenge.
With all of this bouncing around in my head, I’ve decided that my next Will Rees (after Death in Salem) will look at some of these themes. You heard it here first.
The Librarians
I watched the two hour debut episode knowing I would love it. After all, I loved the three movies and Warehouse 13, to which this bears a huge resemblance. And I am a librarian so when one of the ads says: “Reading is fundamental. Zombies are slow so go for the head. Think like a librarian; it may save your life,” I knew this was the show for me.
OK, maybe the real librarian job isn’t so Indiana Jonesish. But we do look up tons of things; searching for information is a core task of any librarian. But what about the Internet I can hear you say. Well, a lot of people cannot manage even a copier, let alone a computer. Even phone numbers can be hard to find. And for those patrons who are Internet savvy and find the easy stuff, there are still questions – super hard questions – that come to us at the reference desk. Plus, although we don’t have a massive hardback copy of the Reader’s Guide anymore, we have databases that do the same thing, and that we pay for and that our patrons have just as much trouble using them as they did the Reader’s Guide. In addition to things like ancestry and consumer’s reports and so on.
Finally, although one of the prongs of a librarian’s job is information, the other is community, at least in a public library. Programs from how to dye to how to use your Kindle, how to set up email and where to find a good doctor. We are legally not allowed to offer medical, legal or tax advice, but man we sure get a lot of questions in those fields. Because my library is located near a court, we help a lot of people with family issue kind of things – referrals to lawyers and/or books and databases. And this doesn’t even include all the popular stuff like the latest bestseller or movie.
Clearly I love my job. Partly this is because being a librarian is such a clean job. We help people. And this is one of the last bastions, probably the last, where we do not expect the users to come in with a credit card. Sure, you’ll pay modest fines for overdues, generally in the area of .10 cents a day. and you’ll pay for photocopies. But you don’t have to be a member to sit and read the paper. Or to check your email on a computer. Or to ask a question.
So, although we don’t save the world by searching for magical artifacts, I feel we do our bit in saving the world a little bit at a time.
New book on amazon
I am so happy and excited to say that I just found my new book listed on Amazon. I knew, of course, it was coming out but did not know it was beginning to appear as a pre-order. I also found the release date, which I did not know until know. I am excited.
Sailor Superstitions
I got started researching superstitions when I was researching my new book Death in Salem. It turns out sailors are a superstitious lot. As one might expect, many sailors thought women on board were bad luck. I wonder what happened to the wives of the captains who sailed with their husbands. Moreover, there were women who sent in disguise as men. (Always wondered how that was possible but it did happen.)
Sailors would also not sign up if there was a Jonah, someone who had served on more than one unlucky ship. They were afraid he might be the one who had caused the bad luck. I wonder how much this affected the sailors in Salem. They were very diverse, from Africans and Indians to escaped slaves, Irish, Portuguese and more. I would guess that this very diversity mitigated some of the superstitions carried over from England, and added a few new ones.
One belief that was carried over from Europe was a belief that killing dolphins was bad luck. And it may have been. There are plenty of stories of dolphins carrying sailors in danger of drowning to shore.
The belief that the caul (the membrane that covers newborns) protected from drowning was widespread and for awhile cauls were valuable. When a sailor left the sea, he sold his caul to another sailor.
It was once customary for sailors to be tattooed with good luck symbols to ward off evil. The compass rose was supposed to help a sailor find his way back home. Later on, the tattoos became more generalized and often identified which journeys the sailor had made, whether around the cape or to China.
A note about keelhauling. I remember hearing about this when I watched Popeye cartoons. (I know, right?) Anyway, the American Navy abolished this in 1800 and the British Navy in 1835. What a brutal punishment this was! The prisoners arms and legs were fastened with a long line. The end was held at the opposite end of the ship. The prisoner was dropped into the water and dragged underneath the ship (along the keel). Invariably he drowned or bled to death from the cuts left by the barnacles on the hull. Hanging would have been more humane.
Californa – visit
California visit
While at Bouchercon, my husband and I took a quick trip to Los Angeles. I like this city and not just the weather. For one thing, Los Angeles is the home of many world class museums. On this trip, we visited LACMA – the Los Angeles Couny Museum of Art. They had a special exhibit on the armor of the samurai. It was beautiful as well as functional. I especially enjoyed the art deco textiles. As a weaver, I was astonished by the complexity, as well as the beauty, of these pieces.
A display of all the lights used in LA grace the front walk before the gates.
Because it is LA, of course, there are unique LA twists. Every place has food trucks. LA has unusual ones. Not a hot dog truck in the bunch but there is seafood, sushi and ethnic food of all varieties.
We stopped at the Nespresso store for coffee. It makes starbucks look like gas station coffee. All the staff wear black uniforms that look almost like martial arts outfits. Art work related to coffee adorn the walls and the front, where the coffee and food are served, looks like someone’s living room with sofas, little tables and comfortable chairs. (The back half is where the capsules are actually sold. And expensive coffee it is too.) More than anything, this store reminded me of a temple set up for the worship of coffee. I love coffee and am a huge coffee drinker but to my New York eyes, this looked over the top.
Bouchercon 2014
What fun Bouchercon was. And what a let down to return home. Besides the pleasure of California’s climate, the panels were wonderful.
Although it was odd to see Christmas decorations against palm trees.
Here’s another shot of the wreath. Am I the only one that thinks Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving is wrong? But I digress.
I served on a panel of historical mystery writers including Charles Finch, S K Rizzolo , Emily Brightwell, Susanna Calkins I was glad to hear that they too struggled over questions of accuracy and language. I also attended several panels. One, with Barbara Hambly, Edward Marsten, Caroline (charles ) Todd, Kim Fay and Tasha Alexander was particularly interesting in that they discussed the difficulty of balancing historical accuracy in all its ugly glory with modern sensibilities.
I’m already looking forward to Bouchercon in Raleigh, NC, next year.
Bouchercon
The annual Bouchercon is held this year in California – Long Beach to be exact. I always look forward to Bouchercon. This year, I am on a panel with other historical mystery writers. Looking forward to it. It should be fun.
Silly superstitions and more
Here are some of the superstitions I find silly. If a cow moos after midnight, someone in the immediate family will soon die. Since cows moo all the time I think we can all be glad this one isn’t true. Or maybe it is. Since a cow moos all the time, it’s bound to coincide with a death, right?
If someone places three chairs in a row, someone will die. (really?)
Opening an umbrella in the house means someone will die in six months.
If a young girl sleeps with an apple under her pillow, she will dream about the man she will marry.
If a cat sharpens his claws on a wooden fence there will be a heavy downpour later that day. In fact, there are quite a few involving cats. Perhaps this is so because cats were so often seen as witches’s familiars.
Many superstitions relate to unmarried girls seeing the face of their future husbands or superstitions guaranteeing a happy future marriage. The tradition of “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” is one of these. Not following this prescription is supposed to result in an Unhappy marriage.
Silly or not, there are quite a few old beliefs that we still sorta kinda follow today, as with the above. Another one: it’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride right before the wedding.
Poor man’s fertilizer: A snowfall in April or May means a good harvest. This one is actually true: a late snowfall puts nitrogen into the soil which is good for plants.
Speaking ill of the dead will mean someone close to you dies within the year.
The one who gets the bigger piece of a wishbone will achieve their wish.
A black cat means bad luck.
13 is an unlucky number. Some hotels still do not have a thirteenth floor.
Here’s a big one: Halloween. It may have degenerated into a candy collecting orgy but the costumes and the connection with food have a long history back to times before the Romans.
The groundhog and his shadow. With all the furor around Puxatawney Phil one would think the rodent some form of royalty.
What I find so interesting about these old beliefs is their staying power. My mother used to quote:
“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight
red sky in the morning, sailors take warning”
as a predictor of the next day’s weather. I still think of it when I see a particularly fiery sunset.
True, many of them have become celebrations for children or ones that adults enjoy with tongues firmly planted in cheeks. But I know that there are many conversations about the groundhog and his shadow so there still is some belief.