J. H. Authors

One Woman. Three Names. Many Books.

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My Tribe

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I have a friend who is a poet. For a long time she was working on her poems, taking workshops and working closely with a mentor. But it wasn’t until she started an MFA program and met other poets in varying stage of development and all about support that she finally said to me “I get it now. I’ve found my tribe.”

As a writer, you do lonely work writing, editing, thinking. No one can help you with most of this. Sure, you get feedback. But incorporating it is another solitary activity. So you have to find your tribe. Fellow writers who “get” your work, your genre, your passion.

Years ago I was at a Malice Domestic conference with a friend. She was in a long line, shipping back a box of books (one of the challenges of conferences is how to get the haul back home). She met Dana Cameron, who suggested (invited) Regina and I to join the New England Chapter of Sisters in Crime. As very new, unpublished writers we were nervous, but we went to a meeting. And found our tribe.

Sisters in Crime‘s mission is “to promote the professional development and advancement of women crime writers to achieve equality in the industry.” Which they do. And they do so much more.

There is nothing like sitting in a room full of mystery writers learning about craft, or poison, or forensics, or investigation. There is nothing like sharing a passion with other people, and not having to explain it. There is nothing like belonging to an online group (like the magnificent Guppies) who cheer success, congratulate failure (it means you got out there and tried) and offer advice.

If you are a writer, find your tribe. If you are a mystery writer, join Sisters in Crime. (And Mystery Writers of America, though I haven’t made that leap yet). The tribe is waiting to meet you.

2010 MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS–A Rant

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I wrote my thesis on Agatha Christie, and her use of POV. One of the books I used was Murder on the Orient Express. Because of that, I have read it (over and over and over) fairly recently. I am a fan of the 1974 film.

I am also a fan of Agatha Christie. She is sometimes dismissed, but shouldn’t be. She was a master of her craft, and contributed a great deal to the genre. And 30 plus years after her death, she is still widely read. (Another blog post to come, I see.)

I will leave my rants about the recent Miss Marples to another post. This one is for the 2010 adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, starring the quintessential Poirot, David Suchet. The cast was wonderful. The production values were fabulous. But the adaptation. Mais non.

There were changes to the story (spoiler alert) like a stoning at the beginning (which Poirot seems to condone) and the seeming lack of a relationship between M. Bouc and Poirot that made me nervous about other changes, but I went with the flow. I know that a 2010 version, made in the shadow of the great 1974 film, would have changes. But where 1974 was a faithful adaptation, 2010 was more of an inspired by. And herein lies the problem. By tweaking the plot (to make it darker?), they ruined the story.

Some of my biggest problems? Colonel Arbuthnot considers murder to cover up his crime? No. Poirot doesn’t solve the case, but has it explained to him by the Princess Dragomiroff (not Caroline Hubbard? Was that because Eileen Atkins was playing the Princess?) No. The doctor is part of the conspiracy? No. And Poirot fights for the Law over Justice? No.

I will discuss what they’ve done to Miss Marple in another post, but I’ve come to expect those. But to have David Suchet play Poirot in a version of Murder on the Orient Express that I hated? Such a waste.

The End of the Season

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Thursday marked the end of my theatre going season. Well, not really. I would like to see ASP’s Timon of Athens. And there is the Gloucester Stage Company summer season to look forward to.  But all of my subscriptions have run out for this season.

Happily, the last show I saw was Speakeasy Stage Company‘s fun The Great American Trailer Park Musical, which has been extended through June 5. Such fun.

I also saw ART‘s Johnny Baseball. I saw the third performance of a world premiere, so it was still rough. That said, the ART is doing a great job at creating a baseball feel around the show (Scott Sinclair has a great blog post about this), and I plan to go  back in June and see what changes are made.

I will say it it best that the season is over. There was a woman texting at Johnny Baseball, and had a been on an aisle I would have persuaded her to stop. Likely by ripping the phone from her hand and stomping on it.

Will catch up with my thoughts on the season later, but suffice it to say, it was a good one.

The Joy of Jane

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A few years (late 1990's) back my sister and I (roommates at the time) watched Sense and Sensibility on almost a daily basis. The Emma Thompson version. That was before I bought the DVD of Pride and Prejudice, which became a yearly viewing occasion. And we saw Persuasion on PBS. And Gweneth's Emma.

Last year PBS showed a more recent version of Sense and Sensibility. And Persuasion. Never mind the movie version of Pride and Prejudice. There was also a version of Mansfield Park, but I missed it. As I had in novel form.

In fact, I'd missed a lot of Jane in novel form. I'd read P&P in high school, but not since. I'd read Persuasion in grad school, and then again just for the joy of it. I'd long considered Persuasion my favorite of her novels, but who was I to say? I hadn't read the rest, just seen them on TV. Which, lovely as some of the adaptations are (and I will write a blog about that at some point), isn't the same.

So a few friends and I decided to make this the year of Jane. We are reading all of her novels. In the order she wrote them (not the order they were published.) We met last weekend, and talked about Northanger Abbey. Not her best, but not Jane's best is still pretty good. And as a writer, reading her first work was really interesting.

PBS has been kind enough to schedule five weeks of Jane Austen movies (3 of Emma, Northanger Abbey and replay of last year's Persuasion). And the book project will continue as well. Reports on both will be forthcoming.

GATZ at the ART

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When I heard about Gatz, I will admit I was concerned. The complete text of The Great Gatsby read aloud over two performances, Chapters 1-5 and 6-9. Six hours total. My memories of The Great Gatsby were distant (high school, almost 30 years ago) and tainted by the class assignments I remembered, like writing down all the color instances and what they meant. The colors in Gatsby are interesting, and thesis worthy, but when the main thing you remember is the green light and Myrtle's yellow dress it takes a little of the joy out of the work.

Nonetheless, I was committed (as a subscriber), I decided to make it a day long affair, starting at 3pm on a Saturday. I wore comfortable clothes, brought a shawl. I reread the book in the days before, and went in with an open mind.

A note about the book–it has made me consider rereading all high school reading lists. What a stunning book. Such beautiful prose. More Fitzgerald is on my TBR (to be read) list.

The play opens in a run down office, where our narrator can't turn his computer on, so he picks up a copy of The Great Gatsby and starts reading aloud. There isn't any other dialogue than that in the book. So the office workings keep happening around the narrator, but the context of who is who, and what they are doing is implied rather than stated. For the first half hour of the show, I was thinking "I don't know if I can do this". It sounded like an audio book. Then, suddenly, the janitor says one of Tom's lines, and we're off.

And it works. The reality of the office and Gatsby's world collide, but don't superimpose themselves. In other words, the janitor stays the janitor, but he is also Tom Buchanan. Nothing happens outside of the set of the office, but everything that happens in The Great Gatsby happens on stage including the big party scene, the car accident and the funeral.

An amazing, exhausting day at the ART. And Elevator Repair Service, and especially Scott Shephard, have a new fan.

Cozy Series

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After a reading dearth toward the end of last year, I picked
up the pace throughout the holidays and into the new year. And so I visited a
few well known characters, at least to me. Did I reread classics? No. I read
the latest in a couple of mystery series. These series fall into the category
of “cozy”, which mean no gratuitous sex. The violence of the murder at the
center of the book tends to happen offstage. Typically there is a cast of
characters, and back stories, that span one book to another. I love reading
these books, and I write in that genre (though I am as yet unpublished). I
think that the term cozy gets a bad rap, with people expecting cats, recipes
and knitting. OK, a lot of the series I follow have those elements, but they
are also good stories with wonderful characters.

Rather than talking about books I don’t like, I will focus
on series I do like. In other words, the books I pre-order from Amazon (if they
are in paperback, I think twice about hardback books, but that’s another blog
entry.) The books I am talking about today are fairly recent series, each with at
least two books and new ones due soon.

The Booktown Series by Lorna Barrett. Book 3 (Bookplate
Special) just came out. The series takes place in a small New
Hampshire town where bookstores of various types are
the prime source of industry. The protagonist (Tricia Miles) is a divorcee who
owns a mystery bookstore. Great cast of characters, interesting plots (that have a little bit of an edge). Plus, who wouldn't want to live in a book town?

The Orchard Mystery Series by Sheila Connolly. Book 3 is due
in March. Meg Corey moves to a small town and begins rehabbing an old family
house while figuring out how to manage the orchard that goes with it. There is a subtext of romance (always nice), and Meg is a gutsy, interesting character.

The Domestic Diva Series by Krista Davis. A divorced
domestic diva solves crimes while trying to maintain what is expected of her
(fabulous food, elegant dining, etc). Book 3 is coming out in February. Sophie Winston has Martha tendencies with the verve of a 40's heroine.

The Charlie McNally series by Hank Phillippi Ryan. Book 4 is
due out in February. Charlie is a reporter trying to balance her career, crime solving and a lovelife. These books have thriller plots that twist and turn.

All four of these series are engaging, quick and interesting
reads. A perfect anecdote, in my humble opinion, to a gray winter day.