Crime Poetry: "Guilt at The Transfer Station" by Paul Hostovsky

                                                                     

April is Poetry Month, and to celebrate, every Saturday this month, we will be featuring a poem focused on crime or love of crime fiction from the fabulous crime poetry blog, THE FIVE-TWO, run by Gerald So. 

Today's poem is called "Guilt at the Transfer Station," and it was written by Paul Hostovsky. 

GUILT AT THE TRANSFER STATION

There's a lot of baggage

in the garbage

at the transfer station,

which we used to call

the dump. Someone has thrown out

all these old suitcases,

a mattress and a box spring,

and a bunch of cardboard boxes which

the recycling cop is saying

are a violation: "They should be

broken down and recycled."

In the backseat of my car

a large black plastic bag

bulges guiltily, a small slit

divulging a suspicious-looking

refulgence. Black like a thief's

black woolen cap pulled down

over the shining evil face

of my old television, old computer,

and several small appliances—

cathode ray tubes which will take

a hundred thousand years

to biodegrade. When the Danish

nose tax was imposed in the 9th century,

delinquent taxpayers were punished

by having their noses slit.

But I'll be damned if I'm going to pay

the CRT recycling fee

just to throw out my old computer and TV,

especially after paying through the nose

for my new one. The leaden stink

of the unfairness of it all rises

as I lower my bag over the edge

of the world, the slit ripping open to reveal

a gaping, damning, luminous gash.

PAUL HOSTOVSKY's newest book of poems is The Bad Guys(FutureCycle Press, 2015). His poems have won a Pushcart Prize and two Best of the Net Awards. He has been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and The Writer's Almanac. He makes his living in Boston as a sign language interpreter and a Braille instructor. To read more of his work, visit him at www.paulhostovsky.com.

You can follow The Five-Two on Twitter @PoemsonCrime The site also sells their anthologies of crime poetry. 

Drinks with Reads: Power Water and Tammy Kaehler's Red Flags

Ready, set, go! Tammy Kaehler is here today to tell us about her latest Kate Reilly racing mystery and matching it with the perfect drink to stay hydrated. If you like fast paced, mysteries with strong heroine's you'll love Kate Reilly. Check out the link to the excerpt of Red Flags below. 

Water to Power the Athlete

I know what you’re thinking. Water? Get real! But hear me out… 

Racecar drivers spend a lot of time thinking about being hydrated. In a typical one- or two-hour stint in the racecar, a driver can lose anywhere from five to ten pounds of sweat. Five to ten pounds! Taking in enough liquid before they get in the car and replacing it afterward is critical. 

Kate’s a dedicated athlete, a healthy eater, and committed drinker of at least eight glasses of water a day, if not more. As her creator, I’ll only lay claim to the latter—I might not do much else, but I drink plenty of water every day. But, honestly, there’s nothing fun about the plain, nothing taste of water day in and day out. So Kate and I add stuff to it (I even add bubbles, with a DIY contraption).

You can find plenty of recipes and suggestions for what to infuse your water with—the most popular are any kind of fruit, cucumber, and even herbs like lavender or basil. I like to stick to the basics: lemon and mint, with strawberries when I can get them. The big secret is in the steeping time. Make sure to chill the water with the fruit or other ingredients in it for at least an hour, and preferably more. That will really let the flavors blend.

Mind you, as a shortcut, you can squeeze a chunk of lemon into your water and drink it right away. But it’s a lot harder to squeeze a mint leaf or a strawberry…

Kate’s Favorites:

8-12 oz water combined with any or all of the following:

• • ½ lemon, squeezed into water
• • 2 large strawberries, cut into large chunks
• • 4-6 mint leaves

Combine in a special infuser bottle or in any container. Chill for one hour or more. Consume! (Tip: if your flavorings are loose in the container, strain the water into a glass or drink through a straw.)

In Red Flags: 

Professional racecar driver Kate Reilly arrives in Long Beach, California, to promote the upcoming Grand Prix, not expecting to identify a dead body or solve another murder—especially when the victim’s a relative she didn’t even like. Her new sponsor and the race organizers apply pressure, wanting to keep racing’s image clean, and Kate reluctantly agrees to investigate. 

From Sony Studios to Venice Beach, from Rodeo Drive to the Hollywood Hills, Kate plunges into the Southern California scene. She parties with movie stars, “takes meetings,” and shops with rich housewives, all while trying to uncover a motive for murder. At the same time, she’s negotiating the next steps in her professional racing career, including testing a new racecar on an oval track. 

In the flurry of excitement, neither Kate’s murder inquiries nor her personal life run smoothly. She discovers more about the disreputable members of her father’s family than she expected or wanted to know, and her temper frays. She publicly juggles two attractive men, drawing intense and unwanted attention from paparazzi. And worse, this ballooning media exposure generates national commentary about her career choices, talent, and femininity. 

The Long Beach race weekend begins with Kate constantly on the go, fielding questions, involved in three separate racing series, and closing in on a killer. Red flags warn her of danger in the racecar, but off-track, Kate finds it hard to heed the signs and stay out of a killer’s grasp.

Read an excerpt!

About me:

Tammy Kaehler is a lifelong reader who never thought she'd be writing mysteries or be a fan of racing. But now she's hooked on telling stories about a strong, smart, savvy woman whose day job involves walking the line between chaos and control, speed and death. Mystery fans and racing insiders alike have praised her award-winning Kate Reilly Racing Mystery Series (Dead Man’s Switch, Braking Points, and Avoidable Contact), and Tammy takes readers back behind the wheel in her fourth entry, Red Flags. She works as a freelance writer in the Los Angeles area, where she lives with her husband and many cars.

Craft Thursdays: Book Light Pouch

Kerry Hammond is here to show us how to sew a book light pouch that is great for home use or travel.

I love to pack everything away in its own little bag, so I made this book light pouch to use for travel. I had some extra book print fabric leftover from making a pillow cover, and I thought it was a great choice for this project. If you can use a sewing machine, you’ll have no problem with this craft.

Materials

Sewing Machine

Fabric

Scissors

Pins (optional)

Thread

Step 1: Cut Fabric

Cut a piece of fabric that is two and a half times as long as your book light. Cut ends of the top in a triangle (as shown) so that it resembles the top of an envelope. I kept the top of my triangle flat so that it’s not quite a pointy end once it’s sewn. You will need to cut this same shape from both your outside fabric and your lining fabric.

Then cut a rectangle of the fabric you’re going to use as your strip that the flap folds underneath. I chose the liner fabric so there was a contrast. The length of the strip should be the same width of your other fabric. The width is up to you, and just needs to be wide enough when sewn, to fold your flap under.

Step Two: Sew Two Panels Together

Sew your two pieces together, right side to right side. Leave a small opening at the bottom or side so that you can turn it right side out through the opening.

Step Three: Sew Strip

Fold your strip in half the long way and sew down the side.

Step Four: Turn Right-side Out

Turn both your strip and your book light pouch right side out. The strip can be turned from either end. For the pouch, turn through the unsewn corner.

Step Five: Close Hole and Sew Sides

Iron both the pouch and the strip so they're flat. Turn the fabric under and sew the small hole you left in the corner of the pouch. Fold up the bottom edge of the pouch to the point where your triangle starts and sew sides together.

Step Six: Sew on Strip

Folder under the open sides of your strip and sew each side to your book light holder. Leave the middle unsewn so you can fold your flap through it like a belt loop.

You’re done, now you have a handy fabric case for your book light. Mine is a nice compact book light, so if yours is larger or differently shaped, you will just have to adjust your fabric to fit, but should still be able to use the envelope type shape.

Game Review: Mystery Rummy Case No. 1: Jack the Ripper

Kerry Hammond is here to tell us about another game in her collection of mystery-themed games.

As I collect my mystery games, I mentally put them on lists. Some might strike me as more fun with four or more players. Others are best played on a big table with lots of room for all the pieces. This latest game, Mystery Rummy Case No. 1: Jack the Ripper has three great attributes: it’s great for travel, it plays like regular Rummy, so has a very low learning curve once you get the hang of it, and it’s really best played by two people. With that said, it took me a bit to get the hang of it, and I had to watch several youtube videos to help me with strategy (yes, there are youtube videos for that!)

About the Game

Another fun fact about the game is that the information on the cards is based on the facts collected in the Jack the Ripper police investigation. This includes facts about the Ripper’s victims on the victim cards, and an artist even sketched the pictures based on historic information. The suspect cards are made up of six people who may have been the killer. One is named Jill the Ripper, and this just signifies a female killer. Again, based on evidence the police collected.

The Play

Nothing starts until a body is found. Once a victim card is played, the game really begins. Players then lay down their groupings of three, also called melds. This is the Rummy part, because in Rummy players also lay down groupings of three. Also like Rummy, players with the fourth card in any grouping can play it off of the other player’s meld.

Additional cards in the game are the Wild Cards, Gavel Cards, Alibi Cards, and Letters. Each category either complements or rules out other cards in play. When cards are complimented, players earn more points. When they’re ruled out, players’ points are cancelled out.

The object of the game is, as in Rummy, to score the most points. Players preset a maximum score and the first person to reach it wins.

This is by no means meant to be an all-encompassing tutorial of how to play the game. There is a detailed booklet that explains the cards and the scoring, but I can’t encourage you enough to check out the youtube videos to supplement that information. It’s a very involved game, and because of that, it is really a lot of fun to play as you get the hang of how to strategize.