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Left Coast Crime report

04/19/2012

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In March I went to Left Coast Crime, the annual mystery conference--in Sacramento this year. Among other adventures, I was interviewed by Lorie Lewis Ham of Kings River Life magazine. Considering she recorded it on her cell phone, it came out amazingly well. You can see and hear it at I was interviewed by cell phone(!) at LCC. You can see the result here:
http://kingsriverlife.com/04/18/mystery-author-video-interviews-from-left-coast-crime/
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I drove down to Sacramento from Eugene with a friend, passing Mount Shasta on the way. My friend had never seen the mountain before-- She got a terrific view. Often as not, it's hidden by clouds.
This is one of the panels I was on. Our subject was 20th Century History. My fellow-panelists--Ken Kuhlken, Bill Seil, Rebecca Cantrell, Kelli Stanley--all write mysteries set in various periods between 1900 and 2000.

Here I am saying something intelligent... I hope!
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We saw some interesting buildings in Sacramento. This is the Crocker Art Museum
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This appears to be a sparrow condo!
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And here is Darth Vader looming over the city.
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This is my favourite train at the wonderful California State Railroad Museum.
Back to the conference:
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The other panel I was on was called Anglophilia, but we rechristened it Britophilia, as one of the panelists was Catriona McPherson, a Scot.

The others on the panel were Jacqueline Winspear, Rhys Bowen, and Michael Kurland. Four British women living in the US against one American male--Michael was outnumbered. We were supposed to talk about the American fascination with British mysteries, but it seemed to me that it was the audience who ought to explain it to us.
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What I enjoy most at mystery conferences is not the panels, but meeting and talking to readers and fellow-authors.

This is LJ Sellers, another Eugenean and author of--well, I lose count! She's a prolific writer of mysteries and thrillers.
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 Here's a reader who came up to the table at the end of a panel just to have a quick word before I dashed off to a signing.
On the way home--so exhausted the madrone had to hold me up...
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Picnic stop in the Rogue River rest area/park
All photos courtesy of Linda Cummens
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Gone West covers

04/10/2012

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The latest Daisy--cover art. Which do you prefer?
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US large print edition
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US hardcover
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UK edition
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What I do when I'm not writing...

04/05/2012

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Believe it or not, I don't actually spend every minute of every day writing, though I spend nearly that thinking about it. Also, it's been a busy month, what with signing tours north to Seattle and Portland and south to San Diego and the Los Angeles area, followed by Left Coast Crime in Sacramento. In between all the running about, I paused to play in a recorder concert.
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All photos courtesy of Dennis Galloway

If you think of recorders as those things elementary kids play--well, you're  half right. They do, but so do a large number of musicians, a few professional and many amateur.

Recorders come in several sizes, from the 6 inch garklein to the double contrabass (large and elusive, like the Sasquatch--I've never met one in person).

The most commonly played are the soprano/descant and the alto/treble, while tenors and basses are not uncommon. I've played the descant since I was seven years old--with long periods of not playing--and still play my original instrument. I've also learnt to play the treble, but the fingering is different and I don't have time to practise, so I haven't actually played it in a while.
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Sometimes we're joined by viols, also known as violas da gamba, or even viola da gambas!
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We play music ranging from medieval to modern. Recorders went out of fashion by Classical times (Haydn, Mozart). A revival began in the early 20th century, with renewed interest in "ancient" music. My favourite period for recorder music is the Renaissance, especially the English Renaissance from mid 17th century to early 1700s, composers such as Gibbons, Byrd, John Johnson, Anthony Holbourne, Orlando Gibbons, and the all time best, Anon.
This is the group I play with, the Eugene chapter of the American Recorder Society, aka EARS. We meet once a month for a couple of hours, just for fun, about as much as I can manage. There are other more serious groups in Eugene, but we do play serious music.

These pictures are of the Play the Recorder Month concert in March. We played Vaughan Williams' Come Away Death, John Dowland's Now I Needs Must Part, a tango by Astor Piezzolla, Palestrina's Nigra Sum sed Formosa, and others.

It's a lot of fun, exhilarating and exhausting, as making music usually is, and it makes a change from sitting at the computer or behind the wheel.
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