Hello, Deathly Hallows

I can't call this entry "Goodbye, Harry," since it's more like "Hello, Last Book." But it's the beginning of the end. I won't say goodbye to Harry, Hogwarts, the wizarding world and all the other memorable characters J.K. Rowling has created until I've reached the last page. And I can't even put it off. There are too many people out there who will trumpet the news of how the series ends. Some way too soon. There have already been possible spoilers, even the whole text, supposedly, laboriously photoed and uploaded to the web.

But eventually people will feel free to talk about the book, assuming (correctly) that everyone who cares will get and read the book as quickly as possible. Since there's no escaping the end, I may as well read on. At my own pace though; not too fast, not too slow.

As I'm sitting here typing, the parties are about to get underway at bookstores. I'll be heading out in about an hour. I don't want to get there too early, since I'm too old to join in the games and trivia. I'll give myself time to shop around a bit. They start lining people up at 11:30.

Since I was in the area earlier today, I picked up my "place in line" bracelet. They go by colors. I'm silver -- the second group which will assemble. But I don't know how many constitute a group.

They're also having a couple of prizes: the chance to be first in line and a chance to win a poster of Deathly Hallows book cover, signed by the artist. I'd rather have the latter; I'll get the book soon enough being there at midnight.

This is probably the last time I'll head out at this time of night to get my copy of a book as close past midnight as I can. There's one other series I would do this for: The Destroyer. But a book series has to be phenomenal for the demand to be so great that book stores stay open for a midnight release. And The Destroyer, as good as it is, will never appeal to such a large cross section of people.

Big Brother Hits Our Taste Buds

They're on the march again. The PC police. The "we know what's best for you" brigade. The "government must legislate for your own good" crowd.

First it was the anti-smoking laws which grew from mandatory non-smoking sections in restaurants to outright banning of smoking. Then new laws extended the no smoking areas to in and around schools and finally in all public buildings.

Then some states decided fireworks should not be sold to private citizens. They were too dangerous, they reasoned. Some people were blowing their hands off or burning themselves and others.

Then some state Supreme Courts decreed it was okay for the local government to snatch private property "for the good of the majority."

But now, they've finally gone too far. Though New York is a liberal state, residents of NYC are a diverse, opinionated freedom-loving group. NYC is filled with gourmets (or maybe gourmands would be more precise?).

The link is from Power Line, since the full Wall Street Journal article is subscribers only.

It seems the enlightened beaurocracy of NYC has passed a law banning artificial trans fats in restaurants and other food venues. What's the outcome? Isn't the alternative more healthy? I can hear you asking.

Yes, but at what price? According to the WSJ article, one restaurant owner remarks:

"The French fries look like they've been standing on a steam table for an hour when they have not," says Mr. Gounaris, who ditched his partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening for a trans-fat-free soybean shortening five months ago in preparation for the ban, which took effect Sunday. Fried chicken doesn't get as crispy in the new oil, Mr. Gounaris complains, and the fries are pale and limp....

Non-crispy fried chicken. Pale and limp fries.

Don't laugh. It could be your city/state next, if this abomination is allowed to go unchallenged. The health food Nazis are dancing with joy and waiting for the public to show its apathy and resignation to what it feels is the inevitable encroachment of the Nanny state. They're waiting for NYC citizens to give up without a fight. Then, they will begin to work on other city and state governments.

It'll never pass in the South. They fry everything, they own guns and they don't take kindly to Yankees pushing their ways on them.

But I can see the people in my blue, blue state rolling over and taking it. My only hope is that NH holds strong, though with so many MA residents moving up there for the beneficial tax breaks, the pussification of NH may not be long coming.

Perhaps if detractors equated the sheep like acceptance of the limp fries with a permanent flaccidity in a certain organ?

New Interview with Warren Murphy and Jim Mullaney

The Trades has followed up their review of The New Destroyer: Guardian Angel with an interview of the authors.

An excerpt:

The-Trades: We're starting with a renumbering of the books, so let's fill in the new readers: Who is Remo Williams -- or, more to the point, why is Remo Williams?

WARREN MURPHY: Dick Sapir and I decided we wanted to do an adventure series starring an American hero. But we were just getting our feet wet for the first time -- neither of us had tried a book before -- and, believe it or not, Remo started out as a guy named Bernie, who was a crime-fighting psychiatrist in New York City. It didn't take us long to figure out that that this was just el stinko, so we splashed around and finally decided to do blue collar and cop, and the pieces came together and it turned out to be Remo.

Check out The Trades for much more about the past and, more important, the future of The Destroyer.

The New Destroyer: Guardian Angel Review

We're getting down to the one month mark to Guardian Angel publication. This first review, by The Trades website, should be joined by others soon.


Lee Goldberg has also linked there. The more sites and exposure, the better.

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

In 1886, Lady Julia Grey's husband dies suddenly of heart disease which runs in his family. His cousin, Simon, is similarly afflicted and not expected to live much longer either. Lady Julia quickly settles into the life of a widow, but then she receives a visit from Nicholas Brisbane, a private detective who tells her that her husband Edward had been getting threatening notes and had hired him shortly before his death to look into the matter. He hints that her husband's death may not have been natural, prompting Julia to begin an investigation that uncovers things about her husband and her life that make her realize she never really knew him -- and herself -- at all.

When I picked it up, I was a little leery of beginning a 500+ page book by a first time author, but Ms. Raybourn's writing style is clear and flows well. Her main characters are interesting and well fleshed-out and she fills her story with secondary characters who are strong enough to be main characters in their own books. I loved how Julia moves from wanting a conventional life, in contrast to her wildly eccentric family, to becoming a little more her own person. And I like how Ms. Raybourn does it without making Julia a true eccentric -- just a mite more unconventional than she envisioned herself wanting to be at the beginning of the book. I'll be interested in how her budding romance with the moody, secretive Mr. Brisbane develops.

It's a great start to a great series, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Odd Thomas is 20 years old. He lives in a small California town where he's content to work as a fry cook and lives very simply. He has to live an uncomplicated life with the things he can control -- job, car, money, ambition -- because the gift that he can't control would otherwise drive him crazy. Odd sees dead people and believes that with his gift comes the responsibility to use it to help them. He can also see creatures he's dubbed bodachs -- malevolent spirits who feed off violent death.

The book gets off to a quick start with Odd running down a rapist/murderer but that's only the beginning of a really bad day. While at his diner job he spots an odd-looking stranger who's being followed by more bodachs than Odd has ever seen together in one place. He realizes that something very bad is about to happen in the town and that only he, helped by a few people he's told about his gifts, can prevent disaster.

My favorite so far of the books I've read this year. I don't care much for horror. H. P. Lovecraft's stories give me the creeps and I've enjoyed several of Stephen King's books although they don't scare me. Supernatural beings don't frighten me because I know I'll never really be threatened by vampires, zombies or ghosts and ghouls. A few mystery books have scared me. Psychotic killers and mass murderers do exist and it's mostly a matter of luck whether you'll cross one's path. But horror and mystery stories that have human murderers tend toward the bloody with gross descriptions that depress more than frighten me.

Dean Koontz's books are all in the horror section. I guess that's the only way to classify them and it's probably better for Mr. Koontz; if all his books are together it makes them easier for people to pick up. But I don't consider this book horror any more than I do Stephen King's The Green Mile. Supernatural fantasy? Not exactly a mystery though Odd has to find out who the killer(s) are and the location of the violence in time to prevent it. Suspense definitely.

But why try to categorize it. Odd Thomas is a wonderful story -- suspenseful, sad, funny -- set in a small town full of eccentrics whom I came to care about and hoped wouldn't die (except Elvis, who is already dead as the story begins). And of course Odd himself, with his simple narration, determination to do right and sad backstory.

The Haunted Rectory by Katherine Valentine

The St. Francis Xavier Hookers (they're a rug hooking group -- get your minds out of the gutter) begin work on their new rug for the church's spring raffle, not realizing that with the death of the old pastor, the evil he contained in the rectory has now broken free. It will be up to the new priest, Father Richard Mello, and Jane Edwell, who is hiding her psychic gift, to exorcise the demon once and for all. But they can count on the help of the Hookers, who unite against the threat.

I enjoyed this, though it was a bit odd, kind of a combination of Jessica Fletcher from Murder, She Wrote meets the Exorcist. Ms. Valentine has a tendency to tell to much instead of show. For example, Jane acts nervous about the ladies working at the rectory, but instead of revealing Jane's gift gradually through her actions as the plot goes along, the whole thing is explained up front. One of the women becomes possessed, but it's wrapped up quickly at the end and she suffers no lingering trauma, although a young girl who is mentioned in Father Mello's back story, who has also suffered possession, had to be committed to an institution even though the exorcism was successful.

In spite of this, I'd recommend it. The camaraderie amongst the ladies rings true and the bits of humor ("Now Vera, don't tease the demon") make it worthwhile.

Script Frenzy

The same people who run NaNoWriMo have planned something called Script Frenzy. The first in what should turn into an annual event launches next June. I decided to participate since I first heard about it, but it didn't occur to me until the last few days why I ought to do it. Visuals and descriptives are a problem for me.

In my first novel, most of the time you couldn't tell what season it was (kind of important to know when your novel is set in New England) or anything that made one city distinct from any other city or setting.

I tried to do better in my last NaNo novel, and I did improve. But I think by working on a script, it will force me to think more visually and -- hopefully -- cross over to my novel writing.

My contemplations on imagery began with a book I read recently, a book with great visuals, but one that has elements difficult to convey in a screenplay. I began thinking of all the books I'd read and how some of them had been turned into movies and how sometimes I wished they hadn't cut certain parts, or shot scenes differently. And I began thinking about ways I would shoot the opening of this book, how I could condense the beginning into a sight-dependant form that, while different from the novel's, still have the same impact.

Script Frenzy has to be totally original. We're not even allowed to use anything we've written as a novel or short story. But I'm considering writing an adaptation of that book for practice, even if I don't do a complete script.

Of course, I have to find time between finishing my 2006 NaNo novel, collaborating on a novel which is in the plotting stages right now, and working on my blogs and web site. If only I didn't need so much time for my procrastination...

The Black Sun by James Twining

Tom Kirk an ex-CIA agent and art thief who, in this sequel to The Double Eagle, has gone into the legitimate antique business. When a series of bizarre robberies and murders that point to the Kristall Blade, a group of neo-Nazi extremists, the British Secret Service (MI6) tries to recruit him. But he isn't interested until he learns his old enemy, Harry Renwick, is involved.

I'm so-so about this book. On the one hand, it is an interesting topic: the search for a treasure that was hidden by a group of Nazis at the close of WWII. But the main characters really didn't hold my interest. Tom spent too much time agonizing over the past; his business partner wasn't that well-fleshed out; and Dominique, Tom's possible love interest (if he ever allows himself to get close to her) even less so. She's beautiful, poised, and intelligent, but there's nothing that makes her memorable.

There's one character who comes in toward the end: Viktor -- the Russian crime boss -- who makes the last third of the story come to life. She (yes, Viktor's a she) has an interesting background and made me care about her. Which made it harder when Twining used her for cliche fodder.

The book kept the action moving briskly, but not so briskly that I didn't wonder how they seemed to solve mysteries that people had been looking into for sixty years so quickly. Also, about halfway through Tom realizes that Renwick's following him, letting Tom solve the riddles for him. And yet, Tom doesn't take any more precautions once he knows this, just keeps trying to pinpoint the location of the treasure.

Not a bad book, but I don't recommend it.

A Christmas Secret by Anne Perry

Dominic Corde and his wife Clarice are elated when he becomes the temporary vicar of the small village of Cottisham while Reverend Wynter is away on vacation. Everything seems perfect at first. It's a beautiful rural area with warm and welcoming villagers. The couple even entertain hopes that the situation might become permanent. But then Clarice discovers that Reverend Wynter isn't on holiday; something more sinister has transpired.

This is the fourth in Anne Perry's Christmas-themed mysteries, which feature minor characters from her other series. My only problem was, with this one, remembering who Dominic Corde was (he's Charlotte Pitt's former brother-in-law, widowed when her eldest sister is murdered in The Cater Street Hangman -- the first Pitt mystery). He did turn up in another of the series, but it's been almost ten years and it took me awhile to get enough info from this book to remember him.

Not an overly complicated plot, since these Christmas mysteries are more novelettes, but not overly thin either. She manages to give readers several strong suspects and a plausible reason for the murder. Anne Perry has a way with characters. Even her minor ones are fully realized, interesting, and sympathetic people.

Perhaps this won't be as enjoyable to those who have not read the main series first. On the other hand, it serves as a good introduction to her style and, at 208 pages, is a quick and entertaining read.