Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine Podcast of "Taking Care"

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine has released a podcast of "Taking Care," one of my short stories.  It's a half-hour of mayhem, murder, and fun. I had the opportunity to record the story with Alfred Hitchcock's Editor, Linda Landrigan, and we had a great time.  Just click on the link below to hear the story...

Starting the New Year with Mystery Playground

Happy 2019! I thought I'd start the New Year off right and talk about a change we're making to Mystery Playground this year. In addition to Kerry Hammond and me (Deborah Lacy), we've added a new regular blogger & reviewer, TK Starr. She'll be joining us starting later in the month, so look out for her byline. Sharon Long, Pat Hernas and Janet Kuchler will continue to be on assignment. 

Of course, we'll still be doing Drinks with Reads on Fridays and covering our favorite authors, TV shows, mysteries, thrillers, short stories and books from all sides. We'll be adding more coverage on audio books, different TV shows, and speakeasies around the country.

You can always find Mystery Playground on Twitter @mysteryplaygrnd and on Facebook. You can also follow the blog by clicking the link on the upper right-hand corner of this webpage. 

Now that we've gotten some of the business sorted, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite mystery and book-related gifts that I received this holiday season. 

First off is The 2018 Best American Mystery Stories, edited by Louise Penny and stories curated by Series Editor, Otto Penzler, and the Book Lovers Candle by Frostbeard Studios.

I enjoy writing short stories and it's my dream to be selected for this anthology - BUT my dream will have to wait. None of my stories were chosen, but a friend of Mystery Playground -- Paul Marks -- did have his excellent story "Winward" selected. And another friend, John M. Floyd, had his excellent story "Gun Work" selected. Their stories join those of Joyce Carol Oates, Lee Child, Charlaine Harris, James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, and others. It's an awesome anthology and if you get a chance, take a read. 

Kerry Hammond, a good friend, short story writer, and fellow MP blogger, gave me this ceramic vase shaped like a book. It's so cute that I decided to put it on my desk for pens so I can see it every day. The box said there were other book vases and sizes, but mine is clearly the best. 

Ok, I may have bought the Barnes & Noble Happy Socks with books all over them for myself, but you deserve to know that these socks exist, so I'm including it. 

I also received this mystery novel called the 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It's different than anything I've read. Here's the description from the back of the book:

There are three rules of Blackheath House:

1. Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m.
2. There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.
3. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.

Understood? Then let's begin... Evelyn Hardcastle will die. She will die every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. Some of his hosts are helpful, and others only operate on a need to know basis.

I've just started this book, so I'll let you know what I think some future Monday. The excellent bookmark that you see with it also came from Kerry Hammond. 

Just a note to authors:

If you are an author and have a traditionally published book that you'd like one of us to review or your an author who'd like to guest on Drinks with Reads, the best way to contact us is by sending a message to us on the Mystery Playground Facebook page. 

Hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2019! 

Deborah Lacy

Pressed to Death- Antiques and Ghost Stories

Kirsten Weiss, author of the Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum Mysteries, is here today to talk about her thoughts on antiques and ghost stories. 

In my second Paranormal Museum mystery, Pressed to Death, the heroine researches a supposedly haunted object – an antique grape press. But can objects actually become haunted?

My heroine, paranormal museum owner Maddie Kosloski, is agnostic on the subject. But many people believe the answer is “yes.” 

Search the Internet, and you’ll find dozens of famous examples. The “Cursed Mirror of Myrtles Plantation” is supposed to reflect the ghost of a Sara Woodruff and her children, who were poisoned. The “Hands Resist Him Painting” is so haunted, that buyers are warned the figures inside it move or vanish from the painting entirely at midnight. And then there’s Annabelle, the Possessed Doll, who wandered about under her own steam until she was locked firmly away in an occult museum.

Have you ever been afflicted by chill breezes, strange smells, or items moving on their own, within weeks of acquiring something antique or used? If so, you may have a haunted object on your hands.

Objects can become haunted in two ways: either a ghost attaches to it, or it’s cursed in a magical ritual. 

Let’s leave aside the whole cursing ritual business (because some things are best left alone). Ghostly attachments tend to happen in cases where the object comes into frequent contact with the owner, for example clothing, jewelry, chairs, mirrors, and beds. It’s believed ghosts can also become attached to items that have some significance to the owner – for example wedding rings or children’s toys.

What to do if you think you have a haunted object in your hands? The easiest answer is just to get rid of it (though as delightful as gifting it to your arch nemesis might feel, that would be seriously bad karma). You could also cover the item in salt and allow it to “cure” outdoors in the sun and moonlight for twenty-four hours. Or you could bring out the big guns and hire someone to spiritually cleanse the object.

So what do you think? Can objects be haunted or not?

Pixar's Rules for Storytelling

These rules for story telling from Pixar Story Artist, Emma Coats (@lawnrocket) were first issued in 2011 when she tweeted them to the world. These rules are worth a look for any storytelling you do - fiction, non-fiction or marketing (which is hopefully non-fiction). Like everything, you need to figure out what works for you. If creating great stories was as easy as following these rules, everyone would do it. 

Here's an interesting counter point on Coats' rules from the New Yorker. 

1) You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

2) You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.

3) Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.

4) Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

5) Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

6) What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

7) Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

8) Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

9) When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

10) Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

11) Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.

12) Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

13) Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.

14) Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.

15) If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

16) What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.

17) No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.

18) You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

19) Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

20) Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?

21) You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?

22) What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine's November Cover

The November issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine has hit the newsstands and it's full of wonderful mystery themed short stories.  This issue features a story by Women of Mystery's own Terrie Farley Moran, called 'Knowledge is Deadly.'

This Labor Day weekend you can subscribe to both Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen at 50% off the regular price. Such a deal for so many wonderful short stories. 

The BlackList

There are 57 new TV shows debuting this fall. Many of these have some mystery or thriller element, but there are precious few shows I am excited about. The Blacklist, starring James Spader, is at the top of my list. The premise is this: The most wanted criminal in the country turns himself in and claims he wants to help the government find the most dangerous criminal in the world. The criminals on The Blacklist. This is further complicated when he asks for a specific handler, a female profiler, who is brand new on the job. She doesn't think there's a connection between the two of them.

Here's the trailer: 

I love the concept. I love James Spader (who didn't love Boston Legal, really?)

In the video below taken at Comic Con, the creator says this show was inspired by what might have happened if Whitey Bulger started talking and turning in all of the criminals he knew and possibly admired. Spader was attracted to the role because of the staying power and complexity of the character that he plays. He also liked the "enigmatic quality" of the story. (The good stuff in this video doesn't kick in until after the first minute.)

The BlackList premieres on Monday, September 23rd at 10pm.

Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and Set Painting

We had the opportunity to see Tom Stoppard's wonderful play, Arcadia, at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. (Shakespeare in Love fans may remember that Tom Stoppard wrote the script for that wonderful movie.)

Before the play, A.C.T. arranged a lecture on how the romantic murals were painted on the set by A.C.T. Charge Scenic Artist Jennifer Bennes. 

Stoppard's story takes place in the same English country house during two different time periods - modern day and the time of Lord Byron. The modern characters are studying history and are trying to figure out what actually happened when Byron was there. Since the set couldn't be fully changed when the years changed, a background was needed that suited both time periods to reflect the mixture of the classical and romantic in the play. 

The first step was to repurpose a backdrop from a previous A.C.T. play...

Next she showed us how they made the stencil to paint the mural. This is called pouncing and it's an ancient technique. Here's a great video from the National Theater in London explaining the technique in great detail.

After the stencil has been used to get the drawing on the background, these stamps carved from upholstery foam were used to make leaves for the trees. 

Here you can see Jennifer in action using the stamps. The large backdrop was painted on the floor so the paint didn't drip and destroy the image. Putting the stamps on sticks helps get the work done without breaking anyone's back (sorry, Michelangelo).

Once the mural was finished and dry, it is taken to the theater and hung. In the photo below our mural hangs a full ten feet away from the windows in the set. In front of the mural hangs a thin screen of made of tulle called bobbinet (bobbinet originally got it's name from bobbins and net since it was the first kind of tulle/lace that was manufactured rather than made by hand. The bobbinet helps create the illusion of glass in the windows looking out at the scenery. 

Here is the final product on stage.

Arcadia runs at the A.C.T. through the June 16th. I highly recommend it. 

Book Club: The Bartender's Tale

This month our book club is reading the novel, The Bartender's Tale by Ivan Doig. It's about the adventures and relationship of a motherless boy and his bar-tending father, told from the point-of-view of the boy. Although the boy is being raised in an unconventional environment for child, the bartender father loves his son, and does his best for him. The characters are engaging and, for the most part, endearing. The book transported me to another world. Child-based point of view books aren't my favorites, but this one was really well done. I'd say that it's the best book I've read in at least a year.

I have never read any of Ivan Doig's other books, but I will now.

I would recommend it for book clubs who like literary fiction. There's plenty to discuss and it's a fabulous book.

Farewell, Dorothy Parker

"What fresh hell is this?"

This is a first. I bought a book because of a Facebook page. It all started two years ago when my mother and I were planning to spend a pre-Christmas weekend in New York City. Do some shopping. See Book of Mormon. But I waited to long to book the hotel and the place we've stayed in the past was completely full. Now I had to start a quest for an affordable hotel in New York at holiday time. Fun.

Here's the New Yorker cartoon wallpaper from the Algonquin.

I had always wanted to stay at the Algonquin Hotel because of legends surrounding it - the hangout of Dorothy Parker, her New Yorker pals and the Algonquin Roundtable. Surely I would become a better writer just walking the place.  Luckily for us they were in the middle of renovations which made it more affordable and available this busy time of year. We reveled in the New Yorker cartoon wall paper, the wood paneling and the comfy chairs in the bar. 

Postcard from the Algonquin

After I got back, I searched Facebook for a Dorothy Parker page. Sure enough, I found one. For 18 months I enjoyed almost daily wit, snark and snippits in great Parker-style. I loved seeing these updates so much I immediately pre-ordered the pages owner's new novel, Farewell, Dorothy Parker once the author posted that it was coming out. 

Another postcard from the Algonquin

The book is about a woman who is having a bit of a personal crisis and manages to channel Dorothy Parker.  It arrived this week and two days later I was finished. It's a fun, witty, fast feel-good read (it's not a mystery). 

In the acknowledgements, the author, Ellen Meister says she was inspired to write Farewell, Dorothy Parker because she wanted to read a book where the ghost of Dorothy Parker came back to life that she wrote it. Sounds like an excellent reason to write a novel to me. 

Post card from the Algonquin

The Oscars: Getting Ready

Tomorrow night is the Oscars. In case you want to get in the spirit, we have all kinds of great resources to help you get ready. 

Need a ballot so you and your posse can vote before the winners are announced? Here you go. 

Looking for food ideas for your party? The Food Network has plenty of them, and so does Pinterest, although one of my friends assigns each of her guests a movie and they have to bring a themed dish that matches. It's a pretty creative crowd, so the results are always fun. 

Here is a cocktail recipe and review for Argo fans and an interview with Ben Affleck by Terry Gross on Fresh Air. Terrie also interviewed Bradley Cooper who starred in Silver Linings Playbook (although I remember him fondly from Alias). 

The New York Times examines the relationship between truth and fiction in the movies like Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty and Argo. 

Below Director Ang Lee talks about making Life of Pi. 

Oscar decor is as close as your printer, with these printable Oscar decorations from the Huffington Post. 

Here is a fun montage of all of the Best Picture nominees in fabulous Dolby Atmos sound: 

Bourbon French: Tales of Disneyland and Custom Perfume

Mardi Gras season has started, and so we are devoting the next ten days to New Orleans and Fat Tuesday celebrations. Today's post is on a perfume store in the French Quarter that has been in business for 164 years. I am talking about Bourbon French Perfumes. 

When I was a little girl, the height of sophistication was getting a custom blend perfume made at a little shop in New Orleans Square in Disneyland. This was not cheap so my little sister and me had to save our pennies. 

Disneyland's little shop stopped selling custom made perfume in the 80s and has changed wares many times. The shop now sells pre-made perfumes from fancy perfumeries instead of those custom made, but sometimes I just go in the shop to remember telling the lady behind the counter what I liked and what I didn't to make my perfect little girl perfume. It was one of those life changing experiences that help you grow up.

What I know now that I didn't know then, was that Walt Disney modeled the little store in Disneyland's New Orleans Square after a real store on Bourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter called Bourbon French Perfumes. And Bourbon French has remained much the same, although it has moved from Bourbon Street onto one of my favorite streets in the world, Royal Street.  It's much quieter there.

You can see the old Bourbon French signs on top of the case.

When you go in to have a custom blend made, the perfume maker will ask you all sort of questions... Do you prefer baby powder or citrus, floral or spice...and the questions go on. Once your perfume maker understands a little bit more about what you like and you don't like, they start mixing some samples. You try them on your wrists and arm (depending on how many you can handle in one sitting). There are coffee beans to clear your sniffer in between samples. You then select your perfect scent. This custom scent can be made into perfume, bubble bath and lotion.

It was a wonderfully fun process. Next time you are in NOLA, I recommend that you stop at Bourbon French.

Recycle Wednesday

It's recycle Wednesday, where I share fun posts that I've found elsewhere on the Internet. Read and enjoy. Feel free to leave a link to one of your favorite posts in the comments. 

From Mental Floss: 10 Secrets From Flight Attendants - Although some of this stuff I didn't want to know.

From Impatient Optimists: Dr. Seuss and the Seven Dwarves Fight Malaria 

From Gizmodo: Weird things people use to make alcohol with, they make it out of some strange stuff, including ketchup.

From Laura K. Curtis: Specific instructions on how any man can become a romance hero. Listen up guys.

From Criminal Element: Favorite Mysteries for Bibliophiles and Twin Peaks: Is Agent Cooper Coming Back?

Once Upon A Time: The Outsider

We started this week’s episode at the faux cricket funeral, which was hard on all of us, and then we saw Smee vaporized, which was probably harder on me that it was on you (I happen to be a big Disney Smee fan). We ended the episode with a stranger possibly running down and killing my second favorite character…Hook. Oh dear! 

You can find a comprehensive recap here. I am more interested in commentary, which you can find below. If you haven’t watched the episode yet, come back after you have.

Here’s what I liked about this episode:                                              

1)      We saw strong women characters: Mulan goes after the new fire lion thingy. Belle goes after the new fire lion thingy. Mary Margaret told David they might not want the same things.

2)      Books are weapons: Belle used books to take down Hook the first time this episode – a whole rack of them. She uses information from a book to track the monster. Most librarians I know are more worried about how to handle e-book borrowing rights and making sure there are enough terminals for the free Internet access. But as Belle re-opens the Storybrooke library, she also has to worry about the handsome Hook trying to kill her. I will ask my librarian friends which problem they would rather have. I think I know the answer.

3)      Pongo has made an excellent addition to the cast and Jiminy/Archie is alive and Emma and Henry know it.

4)      Hook referred to Rumple as "the Croc" which makes sense since the Croc took Hook's hand in the J.M.Barrie and Disney tales, and Rumple took Hook's hand here. It also means Rumple has three fairytale identities which really opens things up for the writers.

Here’s what I didn’t like about this episode:

1)      Despite all of her bookish learning and obvious intelligence, Belle still is chasing after Rumple. She needs to check out a few psychiatry books out of her own library. This relationship is unhealthy with a capital U. Belle’s back story of saving the cursed Phillip is not really helping me buy into this. Sorry.

2)      Rumple turned Smee into a rat. Smee is a pawn. Rumple is supposed to be changing. Don’t talk about a guy’s mother, play with his precious red stocking cap and then turn him into a rat, right after you use him as a human guinea pig. Hello? This is really bad behavior. Baelfire is probably super glad you haven’t found him yet, whether or not he knows that you killed his mother.

3)      Regina didn’t appear at all in this episode except for next week’s previews. I expect Evil Queen story lines in every episode, and I don’t mean 35 seconds of backstory.

4)      Everyone else in Storybrooke thinks Archie is still dead. This is kinda mean and unnecessary.

Ok, there is one more thing. The ending seemed to come out of nowhere, despite the Smee border scene or having Grumpy talking about the big bad world coming into Storybrooke, it still seemed random to me. This strange car, with the Pennsylvania license plate, 2KFL138  (I’m guessing from the close up, that it’s important) comes screeching from out of nowhere and runs down our favorite bad-boy.

Is Hook dead? I think not. Is Belle dead? I think not. Is Rumple leaving Storybrooke? I think not. Who’s the guy in the car? Not Baelfire. That would be too easy.  And I don’t have any answers yet.

If the license plate is important, I don’t know what it means, do you? You have to wonder here if "The Outsider" in the title is the guy in the car or Rumple. My vote is Rumple. 
Lots of questions this week, and very few answers. 


************* Update: June 14, 3:33pm *************

Now that I have had time to think about our license plate, I have developed my own wacky theory....2KFL138 is not that far from THX1138 (a movie about androids from George Lucas). Since, according to the previews, the next episode if about Frankenstein, I wonder if the guy in the car is his monster - some kind of next stage android/human hybrid. That's my best guess right now. 

Read about the 1/20/13 episode of Once Upon A Time here.

Lost In Green Darkness

I had another post planned for today, but it never got written. 

Mostly because I got lost in a good book. One that I had read before. It's called Green Darkness and it was written by a Anya Seton. It's about a woman in the early 70s (present day when the book was written) who winds up going back to Tudor England to right wrongs in past lives. 

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am not into past lives.  So while I do enjoy reading about the Tudor period of English history, I probably never would have picked this book up had I not loved another historical novel by the same author, a book called Katherine. That book is a historical work as well, chronicling the life of Chaucer's sister-in-law, Katherine Swynford.

A friend mentioned Green Darkness the other day, and I have it in hardback on my shelf. It was calling to me. Maybe I needed to read it because I had so many other things to read, write, do, clean. It had the lure of the forbidden.

I thought to myself, I'll just read the first page. Then I kept reading and reading and reading. The descriptions make you feel like you really are in Tudor England. The plot keeps it moving. I start to worry about the political intrigue of the day even thought I know full well what happens. The main character, Celia Marsdon, is stuck back in Tudor times, the present pulls on her as my every day life tried to pull on me while I was reading. Like Celia, I chose to ignore the real world. It's really that good.

The book was out of print for years, but now Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl, has help to resurect them so you can get paperbacks and e-book copies. If you decide to take the plunge make sure you have some quality time on your hands. If you have a book you feel that way about, go ahead and list it below. But I might have to wait for a weekend to read it.

So Happy New Year. And may 2013 be filled with days lost in good books.

Once Upon a Time Back Next Week

Once Upon a Time comes back from winter break tomorrow on Sunday, January 6th and there is so much to discuss.

The last episode established Cora (Barbara Hershey) as the Queen of Hearts further confirming that Emma is Alice in Wonderland.

Things you simply must know:

- Sleeping Beauty's heart was taken and restored (that's gotta cause some wear and tear)
- No one can take Emma's heart or Cora's.
- Regina wanted Cora dead in fairytale land because she loved her and love is weakness. Cora liked it       and is coming to Storybrook to "help" her.
- Emma and Mary Margaret's returned to Storybrook (with Regina's help).
- Regina is trying to be a better mother and turn good.
- David/Charming's rescue from the fire caves.
- Hook and Cora setting sail for modern day Maine on his pirate ship. That's some pretty good magic.(There's a full episode recap on the ABC site and a full episode here.)

I don't think Cora's return is going to make it easy for Regina to be good, especially when she was rewarded for her goodness by being left out of the celebratory dinner at Granny's.

It was a great episode, but we have so much to look forward to:

Who is Rumplestiltskin's son Baelfire in Storybrook and when will he make an appearance?
Now that magic has come to Storybrook, if Baelfire is there he knows who he is. And everyone in town knows who Mr. Gold really is. So if Baelfire is in Storybrook, then he must not want to see his father just yet. Maybe he is Neal Cassady, Emma's boyfriend and Henry's father outside of Storybrook. He definitely has ties since he was the one who got the postcard from August/Pinocchio.

Emma & Hook - There is a bit of romantic tension there. If Neal turns out to be Baelfire that would mean Emma would be caught in a love triangle between Rumple's son and worst enemy. Could be kinda of interesting.

What else is happening? (SPOILERS & SPECULATION)
- Rose McGowan (Charmed) has been cast to play Cora as a young girl, as we see further how disfunction has been passed down the generations in this magical family.
- episode 215 is called, The Queen is Dead, according to a tweet from Adam Horowitz. Is this metaphorical? Which Queen is dead?
- We've heard much talk about Ariel being in an episode this season but she hasn't made an appearance yet.
- Neal Cassady is making another appearance this season.

And here's the extended promo for the second half of the season looks like both Cora and Hook will get the battles they seek:

If you haven't watched Once Upon A Time yet, you can get caught up by watching this primer from ABC:

Be sure to enter our current contest to win a Nancy Drew photo album by commenting on that post by January 10th.