Walk with me into a mostly empty Walmart Supercenter a little while before it begins to get crowded on a Saturday afternoon. There's one or two people looking at produce. Two or three people are in the clothing section. You can't see how many people are in the health and beauty aisles because we entered closest to the food aisles, but there's probably four or five people there, spread out amongst those aisles.
We'll go into the cereal aisle because it's one of the widest in this part of the store. In a second, you're going to see one of three things happen: A few people are going to pass by one end of the aisle, or a few people are going to pass by the other end of the aisle, or a few people are going to come into this aisle that you didn't think this store had right now what with how empty it looked when we walked in.
It's not you. It's me. It's always been me, or, rather, me and my family. We always attract people. The line's been empty at Chronic Taco and we walk in to order, and as we do, six people walk in behind us. We take an empty checkout lane at Ralphs or Pavilions or Sprouts or Trader Joe's (which doesn't seem possible because it is Trader Joe's after all), and three or four people line up behind us with their carts. I don't know why this happens. I don't mind it, but do we have something in our personalities that people sense as something good to be near? It's never that other checkout lanes are crowded. There's a few open at a time. But they always line up behind us. It's not coincidental. It happened when we were in Henderson too. I bought a toy food truck at Smith's (hot dogs, burgers, and sodas, with four little hot dogs lined up on one counter, three drinks lined up on the other counter, and two burgers and fries lined up on the back counter), and three people lined up behind us to check out. In fact, I said to Mom and Dad that we could go to the Strip at that very moment, and help Las Vegas's economy recover quickly. I would have suggested testing it, but we had a lot to do in Henderson. But I do think the Henderson economy benefited from us visiting.
I don't seek this. It just comes. And I don't mind it, except when it impinges on what I like to eat.
Last Saturday, we went to the Walmart Supercenter on Carl Boyer Drive to do some food shopping, and I remembered that I needed the Starkist chunk light tuna salad pouches that I like for lunch during the week. In the tuna aisle, I found a crowd (though not caused by me or Mom or Dad or Meridith), and none of the pouches. They'd all been taken, along with what seemed like all the Starkist chunk light cans.
It's a sign of the economy, I know. People are looking to get protein more cheaply. I also know that this Walmart doesn't restock quickly, but on a Saturday afternoon, this was inexcusable.
I kept looking through the shelves, hoping that the regular chunk light Starkist pouches I found might also have a few tuna salad pouches. Nothing. Meridith dug through the bottom shelf and found a few of the chunk light cans, so that was a relief since I needed more and I was not going to go without tuna in any form.
Mom then saw the lunch kits Starkist has. The tuna salad pouches are in there, sealed with a smaller foil pouch of crackers, a napkin, a spoon, and a mint. Nearly $2 for this, so I took one since I wanted at least one pouch.
I had the kit today, putting the tuna salad pouch in the fridge after breakfast because I wanted it to be cold, and I really want to know what the thought process was in putting this together. Because whoever did, whether it was one person with a marker and a dry erase board, or a group of people that should be paid more because they deserve it, really knows lunch.
During the week, breakfast gets the body going. Cereal, juice, toast, fruit, a quick egg concoction, whatever it is, it makes you more awake than you already are and pushes you to the entrance of the day ahead.
I've always seen dinner as the heaviest meal of the day, with more time to experiment, order takeout, try a new recipe, or just heat something up in the microwave. There's usually nothing pressing that comes after dinner, so there is that ease of going for what you want, even if it's a few hundred extra calories.
Lunch is that bridge between both. You have to eat, and if you're at work, you have either 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or an hour for it. It can't be too heavy because you have to go through the rest of your workday, nor can it be too light because your stomach's going to distract you from your work.
The Starkist lunch kit knows that balance. There's the protein in the tuna, some grain in the crackers, and I guess a little sweetness in the mint, though I wish they'd change that. A mint is not an entirely neutral candy. I don't like mint, but if they changed it to a butterscotch candy, which I like, not everyone likes butterscotch. Easy to see that you can't rely on a decent dessert with this kit, but that's probably not the point. The point is the convenience of lunch in such a lightweight kit.
The tuna salad is as I've always known it to be, with bits of water chestnuts to give it crunch. Open the cracker pouch and you'll find that they've got a plastic compartment of their own, six crackers sitting in two stacks of three next to each other. The little plastic tray is as flimsy as it gets, in keeping with the correct belief that lunch isn't about deep concentration. You have to eat and move on.
The plastic spoon, which has an opaque smoky look when you peek through it, and the napkin are why I wonder about who decided what to put in this package, namely because I want to know who made the napkin and the spoon. The napkin is exactly what you'd expect a lunchtime napkin to be. It'll pick up a little mess, but not everything, because that's all anyone really expects to make at lunch. The spoon is not the kind of clear plastic that'll snap if you bend it back far enough. When you bend the spoon back far enough, the handle bends with it.
I really want to know how much thought was put into this, if lunch habits were studied, and how many meetings went into creating this kit for production. I don't think Starkist would ever tell me, but they accurately pinpointed the feeling of lunch with this kit. My sole beef remains with the mint, but not only because I don't like mints. Open the blue foil and you'll find a blue mint trying so hard to become a teal color. It looks like a sample toilet freshener, too small to use for an actual toilet, but the same kind of shape. Meridith said that this kit used to have a striped mint, which seems more appropriate for this, but it looks like they wanted to keep with the blue the packaging has.
Having only bought the kit for the tuna salad pouch, I wouldn't buy it often. I never have crackers with tuna. I only eat the tuna, either out of the pouch or the can, and then I usually have a rice cake with peanut butter after. But Starkist is doing something right. I never thought any company thought hard about lunch beyond providing the necessary products for it, but here is proof.
[Note: Starkist didn't pay me in any way for this entry, nor provide a coupon to get the kit for free. This was all me, another example of how my mind will go anywhere for a topic.]
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Stuck. Here's a Link.
It's 11 minutes past 11 right now, and I've got the perfect tonic to the Teachers Tournament on Jeopardy! (I saw the first game and the only use I got out of it was finding out that there'll be an American Experience documentary on Bill Clinton on PBS next week. Finally. Took them long enough to get to the decade I grew up in): Episodes of Jeopardy! from 2005, Tivo'd off of Game Show Network. They run them every night during the week at 11, and 6 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday. I've got seven episodes stacked up and I can probably roll through five of them before I head to my room for the night.
Yet, I finished Buffalo West Wing by Julie Hyzy this afternoon and immediately started Affairs of Steak, the latest in Hyzy's White House Chef Mystery series. The bad news is that it looks like the next one will come out next year (Unless she wrote a Christmas-themed one, which would be nice so I don't have to wait as long). The good news is that I'm only on page 42 and have 235 more pages to savor.
I really really want to continue reading it, but then I also have those Jeopardy! episodes I really want to watch. I did enough research tonight, searching for a few other people who were part of the Airport movies, so I can take the rest of this time to do what I want. So now it's a competition.
While I wait for that indecision to sort itself out, over at Bloggerati, G posted the interview questions that I answered and sent back. My guest post, which I sent with my interview answers, will be up tomorrow.
And the winner is Jeopardy!. I can blaze through 60-70 pages before I go to bed, so both work out for me tonight.
Yet, I finished Buffalo West Wing by Julie Hyzy this afternoon and immediately started Affairs of Steak, the latest in Hyzy's White House Chef Mystery series. The bad news is that it looks like the next one will come out next year (Unless she wrote a Christmas-themed one, which would be nice so I don't have to wait as long). The good news is that I'm only on page 42 and have 235 more pages to savor.
I really really want to continue reading it, but then I also have those Jeopardy! episodes I really want to watch. I did enough research tonight, searching for a few other people who were part of the Airport movies, so I can take the rest of this time to do what I want. So now it's a competition.
While I wait for that indecision to sort itself out, over at Bloggerati, G posted the interview questions that I answered and sent back. My guest post, which I sent with my interview answers, will be up tomorrow.
And the winner is Jeopardy!. I can blaze through 60-70 pages before I go to bed, so both work out for me tonight.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Disappointment on Jeopardy!
Before the Final Jeopardy clue that ended the College Championship tonight, there was a commercial for the Teachers Tournament, which begins tomorrow.
Great. Another tournament.
The College Championship took up the first two weeks of the month. I was hoping that the regular games would return. And now I've just found out on the Jeopardy! website that the Teachers Tournament will take up the rest of February.
I don't like the tournaments. Sure, the Teen Tournament is useful if I've been feeling particularly dumb watching the regular episodes preceding it, but the tournament contestants all come from one age group or profession. They've got the same shot as the players during the regular games, but it's the commonalities I don't like, especially in the College Championship where some of the students believe that they're so funny at their respective universities, their undeniable wit will carry over to the real world on Jeopardy!. Those quirks tend to be vastly annoying, and they probably exaggerate them even more because of the prestige of being on Jeopardy!.
I respect how far these college students and teens and teachers have come to make it on Jeopardy!, but I have greater respect for the players who are on the regular games. They come from different states, they have different jobs and different skill sets. It's more interesting to me because you don't know where the champion is going to come from. On Monday, January 23, there was a poker dealer named Kirby Burnett who won $27,600 in his first game. He lost on his third day with $27,600 (The guy who beat him had $28,000 and was the new champion). When he first appeared in the introductions, you wouldn't think he would be the one who would win. Generally, we expect these champions to have a bright look about them, like Ken Jennings and many others who have won weeks at a time. I liked Kirby because he had this slightly grizzled look about him, like he had seen a lot in his lifetime and being a poker dealer, I have no doubt. Here was a guy who had clearly taken a lot of time in his life to read and learn a lot. It was a lot of fun to watch him for those reasons.
I make an exception in my dislike of tournaments for the Tournament of Champions, which collects the highest-scoring players who have played for a great number of days or won their respective tournaments, such as I think it will be with Monica Thieu, a sophomore at the University of North Texas who won the College Championship. But there's the difference. Most of the players for the Tournament of Champions come from the regular games. They still come from different states, and still have different jobs and different skill sets, but the stakes are much higher. They have to work harder because of their opponents. I doubt Monica can be as quirky in that group as she was in the College Championship.
With February gone, I hope March has room for the regular games. I'd like to see more Kirbys for hopefully a long time before they decide to do whichever tournament comes next.
Great. Another tournament.
The College Championship took up the first two weeks of the month. I was hoping that the regular games would return. And now I've just found out on the Jeopardy! website that the Teachers Tournament will take up the rest of February.
I don't like the tournaments. Sure, the Teen Tournament is useful if I've been feeling particularly dumb watching the regular episodes preceding it, but the tournament contestants all come from one age group or profession. They've got the same shot as the players during the regular games, but it's the commonalities I don't like, especially in the College Championship where some of the students believe that they're so funny at their respective universities, their undeniable wit will carry over to the real world on Jeopardy!. Those quirks tend to be vastly annoying, and they probably exaggerate them even more because of the prestige of being on Jeopardy!.
I respect how far these college students and teens and teachers have come to make it on Jeopardy!, but I have greater respect for the players who are on the regular games. They come from different states, they have different jobs and different skill sets. It's more interesting to me because you don't know where the champion is going to come from. On Monday, January 23, there was a poker dealer named Kirby Burnett who won $27,600 in his first game. He lost on his third day with $27,600 (The guy who beat him had $28,000 and was the new champion). When he first appeared in the introductions, you wouldn't think he would be the one who would win. Generally, we expect these champions to have a bright look about them, like Ken Jennings and many others who have won weeks at a time. I liked Kirby because he had this slightly grizzled look about him, like he had seen a lot in his lifetime and being a poker dealer, I have no doubt. Here was a guy who had clearly taken a lot of time in his life to read and learn a lot. It was a lot of fun to watch him for those reasons.
I make an exception in my dislike of tournaments for the Tournament of Champions, which collects the highest-scoring players who have played for a great number of days or won their respective tournaments, such as I think it will be with Monica Thieu, a sophomore at the University of North Texas who won the College Championship. But there's the difference. Most of the players for the Tournament of Champions come from the regular games. They still come from different states, and still have different jobs and different skill sets, but the stakes are much higher. They have to work harder because of their opponents. I doubt Monica can be as quirky in that group as she was in the College Championship.
With February gone, I hope March has room for the regular games. I'd like to see more Kirbys for hopefully a long time before they decide to do whichever tournament comes next.
Monday, February 13, 2012
The Soon-to-Be Second-Time Guest Blogger Watches Where He Puts His Feet
For the past two days, besides more research and preparing for a phone interview that I'll write about after it happens, I've been answering a set of interview questions and writing a guest post for G, who occasionally comments on this blog. After writing a guest post for Janie Junebug's private blog (Janie's given me permission to repost my entry on my own blog, so I'll do that once I'm done writing everything I want about Henderson, since it falls after coming back from there), I read that G was looking for guest bloggers. I went back and forth on it for a few minutes, wanting to write one, then asking myself if I really wanted to commit time to someone else's blog. Then I thought I should because how else is my blog to become more widely known, as I want it to be while I'm writing Mayday! Mayday!: The Making of the Airport Movies so potential agents and publishers can see that I've not sat back and let time pass since my first book was published. Then yes, I should. What's a few days of making sure that my writing is readable for others?
When I first wrote reviews for Film Threat, I was careful and very cautious. I wanted to make sure every thought was expressed clearly, that there weren't any sentences that sounded like they were written in a rush, that there was enough attention to grammar and punctuation that I didn't sound like I had a half-formed brain. Therefore, my early reviews expressed what I wanted to say, but they were stiff, more concerned with looking good than being lively. It's a reasonable reaction to being in a new position like that one, and as I wrote more and more reviews and months with Film Threat became years, I loosened up. I had fun with some of my reviews. I enjoyed writing interviews because most of it was a copy-and-paste job, straight Q&As except for the introduction, which was easy to write.
I spent three days writing my guest post for Janie Junebug. One day was for the writing, and the other two days were making sure I wrote well everything I wanted to say, and that every word and punctuation mark was in the right place. Reaction to my guest post on Janie's blog shows that my writing didn't read like I was nervous, but I was a bit nervous. With Film Threat, I knew who read the site: Movie buffs, independent filmmakers looking for reviews of their movies and short films, people who love independent film, people who hate independent film, and people just curious about what independent filmmakers have produced. In short, everyone who read the site was there for the reviews and the columns offered. That never changed.
With guest posts, I'm reaching different readers every time. I don't know who will be there. I hope they'll like me. But I have to make a decent impression every time because I'm there behind those words. I'm giving myself to those different sets of readers every time, telling them to see all of me right here. I'm letting it all out.
I'm not done yet with my guest post for G's blog. I haven't even gotten to the crux of it yet. Many more paragraphs to go. But even as I begin to feel for the end of my post, I keep scrolling up to the top of my Word file, reading my answers to G's interview questions. Does this read well? Have I said what I wanted to say in this answer? Can I leave this answer as it is or is there some word that has to be added to the third sentence? Letting go of these answers and this guest post is a little more difficult than letting go of this entry because this is my blog. I can put my feet up wherever I want. I do read other blogs, but I don't know the layout all that well. I have to be polite, make sure my hair is combed, and don't act like I can just put my feet up on the coffee table on top of the magazines.
It doesn't stifle my writing. Janie can attest to that. But I do admit that I put a little more effort into those guest posts because I'm in someone else's house.
You'd think I'd be nervous about the phone interview I have at 11 this morning. But I don't get starstruck. Reviewing movies since I was 15, up until I was 25, and having lived in Southern California for eight years, actors have jobs to do just like I have my job to do whenever I'm a substitute campus supervisor. We do the work and we get paid.
The interview is for Mayday! Mayday: The Making of the Airport Movies, and this actress was an extra on the fateful Trans Global flight, the interior 707 set on stage 12 at Universal. It meant five weeks of solid work for the actors chosen. You might be surprised about who it is, considering her place in television history, but that's all I'll say until the interview is done.
And G, I promise not to put my feet up where they don't belong.
When I first wrote reviews for Film Threat, I was careful and very cautious. I wanted to make sure every thought was expressed clearly, that there weren't any sentences that sounded like they were written in a rush, that there was enough attention to grammar and punctuation that I didn't sound like I had a half-formed brain. Therefore, my early reviews expressed what I wanted to say, but they were stiff, more concerned with looking good than being lively. It's a reasonable reaction to being in a new position like that one, and as I wrote more and more reviews and months with Film Threat became years, I loosened up. I had fun with some of my reviews. I enjoyed writing interviews because most of it was a copy-and-paste job, straight Q&As except for the introduction, which was easy to write.
I spent three days writing my guest post for Janie Junebug. One day was for the writing, and the other two days were making sure I wrote well everything I wanted to say, and that every word and punctuation mark was in the right place. Reaction to my guest post on Janie's blog shows that my writing didn't read like I was nervous, but I was a bit nervous. With Film Threat, I knew who read the site: Movie buffs, independent filmmakers looking for reviews of their movies and short films, people who love independent film, people who hate independent film, and people just curious about what independent filmmakers have produced. In short, everyone who read the site was there for the reviews and the columns offered. That never changed.
With guest posts, I'm reaching different readers every time. I don't know who will be there. I hope they'll like me. But I have to make a decent impression every time because I'm there behind those words. I'm giving myself to those different sets of readers every time, telling them to see all of me right here. I'm letting it all out.
I'm not done yet with my guest post for G's blog. I haven't even gotten to the crux of it yet. Many more paragraphs to go. But even as I begin to feel for the end of my post, I keep scrolling up to the top of my Word file, reading my answers to G's interview questions. Does this read well? Have I said what I wanted to say in this answer? Can I leave this answer as it is or is there some word that has to be added to the third sentence? Letting go of these answers and this guest post is a little more difficult than letting go of this entry because this is my blog. I can put my feet up wherever I want. I do read other blogs, but I don't know the layout all that well. I have to be polite, make sure my hair is combed, and don't act like I can just put my feet up on the coffee table on top of the magazines.
It doesn't stifle my writing. Janie can attest to that. But I do admit that I put a little more effort into those guest posts because I'm in someone else's house.
You'd think I'd be nervous about the phone interview I have at 11 this morning. But I don't get starstruck. Reviewing movies since I was 15, up until I was 25, and having lived in Southern California for eight years, actors have jobs to do just like I have my job to do whenever I'm a substitute campus supervisor. We do the work and we get paid.
The interview is for Mayday! Mayday: The Making of the Airport Movies, and this actress was an extra on the fateful Trans Global flight, the interior 707 set on stage 12 at Universal. It meant five weeks of solid work for the actors chosen. You might be surprised about who it is, considering her place in television history, but that's all I'll say until the interview is done.
And G, I promise not to put my feet up where they don't belong.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
My Biggest Regret in Eight Years of a Southern California Existence
In early April 2009, my family and I went to San Juan Capistrano for the day, where I would either live or retire if I loved Southern California, which will never happen. And I would have to be wealthier than I am now for that to happen. A lot.
I was so smitten with the everlasting peace of the area, a sense of history that will never fade, that I wrote an amteurish poem about my feelings. I looked up that poem today to make sure I had exact what I saw in San Juan Capistrano before I sent a message to author Kate Buford on her website about a few things dealing with Burt Lancaster that I'm seeking for my book.
Mom, Dad, Meridith and I walked around that downtown area, next to railroad tracks, passing what looked like many historical houses. Then we walked through Antique Row, which bears many antique shops, and we stopped at what looked like the largest one there.
I love antique stores. I don't collect them, but it's that deep, abiding respect for history in those stores that I feel so strongly in my own work, that'll keep me in nonfiction for years to come, continuing to explore the history of various things. At that antique store, I went into a small room off the main floor at the front of the store which held old issues of Time and Life magazines, along with other magazines that I don't remember because there weren't as many of them as those two. On a small table in front of me was a carefully wrapped set of envelopes for $12. I went back and forth on whether I wanted them, because in the upper right-hand corner, "Burt Lancaster" was stamped in blue. I e-mailed Buford because I thought that the envelopes were stamped "Burt Lancaster Productions," but he started Hecht-Lancaster, one of the first production companies run by an actor, and one of the very few to last in that time period, which then became Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, and after that ended, he started Norlan Productions (A combination of his wife's name, Norma, and his surname), but nothing in Buford's biography indicated in later years that he started a production company called "Burt Lancaster Productions." I think those envelopes indeed said "Burt Lancaster," but I wanted to make absolutely sure with Buford that that was probably the case.
I didn't buy those envelopes. And sitting on the couch today, finishing Buford's biography, I thought about those envelopes. I don't know if Burt Lancaster ever touched them or even saw them, but surely he had to have ordered them. I didn't need that kind of proof, but I think I just wanted a piece of the history of an actor who figured so largely in my teenage years by being in the first Airport movies, minor as that history might have been.
There is one thing that sort of makes up for it. At the Academy library in Beverly Hills, you're given the option of requesting photocopies of pages of documents you're poring over, whatever you need. You pay 50 cents a page, plus a mailing charge, and you receive the documents within a few weeks after your visit.
I requested that 10 pages be photocopied, and with a 75-cent mailing charge, that came out to $5.75. My visit to the library was on January 10, and I received a gray catalog envelope containing my photocopies on January 25. A few pages pertain to special effects production for Airport, especially about snow effects. But the document that made my heart flutter were call sheets for The Concorde: Airport '79, detailing the production schedule for Tuesday, January 30, 1979, the sets to be used, the actors required along with times for them to be in makeup and then on set (George Kennedy, Alain Delon, and David Warner weren't needed that day because the Concorde flight deck set wasn't being used), and call times for various crew members, including the cameraman and the camera operator, air conditioning on stage 12, and a dialogue coach. On the first page, there's a "special note" that states: "Cold weather gear for the Utah shoot will be handed out today. See Lambert Marks." That was for the crash sequence at the end of the movie. Utah stood in for Patscherkofel in Austria.
I've still got so much to do for this book that'll give me many thrills, but the biggest thrill thus far was getting the photocopies of these call sheets. All the years I watched the Airport movies, and I have part of its history. I could never imagine such a thing when I first watched these movies over and over on videotape. I noticed the effort that had gone into them with actors and special effects and all that, but not to this extent, not to pull apart each movie and see what's inside. I've kept these photocopies in their original envelope and I'm keeping it safe. I may want to use the call sheets as photos to be included in my book, but those are rights to seek much later, once I'm well into writing it.
I wish I had those envelopes, and I think it'll always remain my biggest regret of these eight years. Which goes to show that if you find something that relates to a major part of your life, grab it. Don't think about it. Just grab it.
I was so smitten with the everlasting peace of the area, a sense of history that will never fade, that I wrote an amteurish poem about my feelings. I looked up that poem today to make sure I had exact what I saw in San Juan Capistrano before I sent a message to author Kate Buford on her website about a few things dealing with Burt Lancaster that I'm seeking for my book.
Mom, Dad, Meridith and I walked around that downtown area, next to railroad tracks, passing what looked like many historical houses. Then we walked through Antique Row, which bears many antique shops, and we stopped at what looked like the largest one there.
I love antique stores. I don't collect them, but it's that deep, abiding respect for history in those stores that I feel so strongly in my own work, that'll keep me in nonfiction for years to come, continuing to explore the history of various things. At that antique store, I went into a small room off the main floor at the front of the store which held old issues of Time and Life magazines, along with other magazines that I don't remember because there weren't as many of them as those two. On a small table in front of me was a carefully wrapped set of envelopes for $12. I went back and forth on whether I wanted them, because in the upper right-hand corner, "Burt Lancaster" was stamped in blue. I e-mailed Buford because I thought that the envelopes were stamped "Burt Lancaster Productions," but he started Hecht-Lancaster, one of the first production companies run by an actor, and one of the very few to last in that time period, which then became Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, and after that ended, he started Norlan Productions (A combination of his wife's name, Norma, and his surname), but nothing in Buford's biography indicated in later years that he started a production company called "Burt Lancaster Productions." I think those envelopes indeed said "Burt Lancaster," but I wanted to make absolutely sure with Buford that that was probably the case.
I didn't buy those envelopes. And sitting on the couch today, finishing Buford's biography, I thought about those envelopes. I don't know if Burt Lancaster ever touched them or even saw them, but surely he had to have ordered them. I didn't need that kind of proof, but I think I just wanted a piece of the history of an actor who figured so largely in my teenage years by being in the first Airport movies, minor as that history might have been.
There is one thing that sort of makes up for it. At the Academy library in Beverly Hills, you're given the option of requesting photocopies of pages of documents you're poring over, whatever you need. You pay 50 cents a page, plus a mailing charge, and you receive the documents within a few weeks after your visit.
I requested that 10 pages be photocopied, and with a 75-cent mailing charge, that came out to $5.75. My visit to the library was on January 10, and I received a gray catalog envelope containing my photocopies on January 25. A few pages pertain to special effects production for Airport, especially about snow effects. But the document that made my heart flutter were call sheets for The Concorde: Airport '79, detailing the production schedule for Tuesday, January 30, 1979, the sets to be used, the actors required along with times for them to be in makeup and then on set (George Kennedy, Alain Delon, and David Warner weren't needed that day because the Concorde flight deck set wasn't being used), and call times for various crew members, including the cameraman and the camera operator, air conditioning on stage 12, and a dialogue coach. On the first page, there's a "special note" that states: "Cold weather gear for the Utah shoot will be handed out today. See Lambert Marks." That was for the crash sequence at the end of the movie. Utah stood in for Patscherkofel in Austria.
I've still got so much to do for this book that'll give me many thrills, but the biggest thrill thus far was getting the photocopies of these call sheets. All the years I watched the Airport movies, and I have part of its history. I could never imagine such a thing when I first watched these movies over and over on videotape. I noticed the effort that had gone into them with actors and special effects and all that, but not to this extent, not to pull apart each movie and see what's inside. I've kept these photocopies in their original envelope and I'm keeping it safe. I may want to use the call sheets as photos to be included in my book, but those are rights to seek much later, once I'm well into writing it.
I wish I had those envelopes, and I think it'll always remain my biggest regret of these eight years. Which goes to show that if you find something that relates to a major part of your life, grab it. Don't think about it. Just grab it.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Returning to the Love of the Work
Today I returned to my research full force. I'm nearly done with Burt Lancaster: An American Life by Kate Buford, and though I'm still questioning if I need to read all the pages of all the books I bought for research, I'm beginning to see the value in certain circumstances, such as it is with lead roles, like Lancaster's in Airport.
I decided to read the entire book not because of the research, but because I wrote an essay about the 1968 masterpiece The Swimmer for a collective Online Film Critics Society book that never happened. That was my first time doing research for anything of mine that was going to be put into print, even though it didn't happen, so being completely new to researching for a purpose way beyond getting a good grade in a history class, I overresearched. I tried to watch all of Lancaster's movies, and read all of John Cheever's works. I checked out a collection of Cheever's letters, and also watched every other film directed by Frank Perry, who directed The Swimmer. I had no idea what I was doing, but I thought this was the way to do it. I ended up framing the essay as a memory of when I first saw the movie in 2002 on Turner Classic Movies not long before I graduated high school, and how it affected me so, looking at a life so clearly squandered when I was just getting ready to figure out what I wanted to do with mine.
Having seen a lot of Lancaster's movies for that essay (which I still have and am deciding what to do with it, either find another outlet for it or post it all here), I wanted to see what Buford had written about them, because when I first checked this out from the library, I only went into the section about The Swimmer, nothing else. Ironic, considering what I had done for research, but this was only an essay.
The keyword that comes to mind a lot for Mayday! Mayday!: The Making of the Airport Movies is "context." I can't just say that Ross Hunter bought the rights to Arthur Hailey's novel, then hired George Seaton, hired the actors, hired the crew, and then they made the movie. I have to know what interested Hunter enough to turn Airport into a movie. I have to know what made him want to hire George Seaton to adapt the novel and direct it. I have to know why these particular actors were cast and if there was anyone else considered for Lancaster's role of Mel Bakersfeld, Dean Martin's role of Vernon Demerest, Jacqueline Bisset's role as Gwen Meighen, and so on. Moreso, why did Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster, Jacqueline Bisset, and all the others want to do it? To give just a little bit, I found out on my research visit to the Margaret Herrick Library that Bisset was under contract to Fox at the time and was loaned out to Universal for this. From the Q&A transcript of the screening that the Academy had in 2006 as part of its "Great to be Nominated" series, I also learned that Bisset doesn't remember much about the production. Actors' lives are indeed very busy.
In Buford's biography, I found out that the cinematographer of Airport had worked with Lancaster on two previous movies, one his directorial debut, The Kentuckian, and the other a six-week stint for Judgment at Nuremberg, though it doesn't sound like Lancaster had spearheaded that project as he did with The Kentuckian. He was fulfilling an obligation. So I wondered: Was that cinematographer suggested by Lancaster for Airport, or was that producer Ross Hunter's decision? Furthermore, Hunter wanted to have the major actors wrapped in three weeks' time, so perhaps Hunter was the one who had decided on Laszlo. Lancaster didn't sound all that involved, particularly because he didn't like the movie, calling it "the biggest piece of junk ever made." And yet, Hunter's power at Universal had severely dwindled because of costly failures like Sweet Charity that found Universal spiraling toward bankruptcy. So either he had decided on Laszlo and had to seek the approval of higher-up executives, or one of those executives thought of Laszlo, though that seems doubtful. But wouldn't you know it, Airport became the biggest hit of 1970 and saved Universal from ruin.
Then there's Whit Bissell, who worked with Lancaster on Brute Force, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and The Birdman of Alcatraz, who was in the Airport cast, yet didn't work with Lancaster. He was the passenger seated next to Helen Hayes' Ada Quonsett on the fateful Trans Global Flight 2. Was Bissell put forth by Lancaster or was this Hunter again? I'm inclined to believe this was Hunter because Buford gives barely three paragraphs over to Airport, and if Lancaster had been slightly more involved, I think Buford would have found it because this is a very thorough, meticulous, detailed biography of Lancaster.
Reading a healthy chunk of Buford's biography wasn't all I did today. I spent some time in happy disbelief of what I was doing. David Warner played flight engineer Peter O'Neill in The Concorde: Airport '79, so I contacted the L.A.-based management company that oversees him, requesting an interview, figuring also that he might be surprised to find someone not interested in talking about Titanic, as it might very well be for him when the 3D rerelease comes out in April, being that he played Billy Zane's henchman.
I also contacted The Gage Group, which handles Stefanie Zimbalist's career, to confirm that she received my phone number as was requested. I need to interview her father, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., about his role as Captain Stacy in Airport 1975, so I thought it best to contact that agency and seek her out, since her father has no contact information online.
Then came one of the biggest steps I will ever take for my book, one of the two most crucial: I contacted the publicist at Hal Leonard who oversaw the release of Trust Me, George Kennedy's memoir, requesting an extensive interview with Kennedy. I need an extensive interview since he was in all four movies and I have a lot I want to cover, especially about producer Ross Hunter and director George Seaton since they're long gone, as well as director Jack Smight of Airport 1975 (Tomorrow I'll contact the company that manages director Alec Smight, his son, but many perspectives are always interesting), and countless others. He's as important to me as Monica Lewis, who's the widow of the late Universal executive Jennings Lang, who shepherded the three Airport sequels, and I learned while skimming the pertinent parts of Lewis's memoir that Lang was thinking about a made-for-cable-TV Airport sequel, but that never panned out. I have to know if he left behind any records that indicated what that would have been about. I think that would be as much a revelation to me as it was to read the ultimately rejected Airport 1976 script at the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library. I also really really need to compliment Monica Lewis on her performances in Airport '77 and The Concorde: Airport '79. It didn't matter that her husband was the executive producer on '77 and the producer on '79. She fashioned two completely different roles, one as the caring flight attendant and the other as a well-known jazz singer going back to Moscow for a homecoming concert, acting opposite Jimmie Walker. She's been a singer since the 1940s, so she knew how to make that voice float, brief as her singing was in that one.
I've still got so many more people to contact, including Erik Estrada and Walker, who I found out has a website, so that'll make it easier. And there's the Vizcaya in Miami, which served as the exterior of the Stevens' mansion at the beginning of Airport '77, that I have to contact to see if they have any historical records of that particular shoot, and I've also got to contact the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum in Fort Worth, Texas because I didn't get an answer from them via e-mail about whether they have historical records of Charlton Heston and Jack Lemmon training on the 747 simulators for their roles in '75 and '77, respectively. I know that both of them did it (Heston talked about it in his published journals, and Lemmon talked about it in a featurette made to promote '77 at the time of its release, the script of which I read at the Herrick Library), but I'm hoping to find more details. Oh, and Boeing too! I've got to contact them because producer William Frye went to them before '75 and '77 went into production, asking for advice and insight. They told him, before production on '75, that the mid-air transfer was crazy, but Frye, Smight, and company did it. He went back to them before '77, and they asked him, "What are you doing this time?," prefacing that by saying, "I'm not sure Boeing is always happy with me."
That I have to contact the manufacturer of the 747, my favorite plane, is a huge honor and one that still stuns me, which is probably why I haven't done it yet, also because I've got other calls to make first. I was reminded constantly today of why I want to write this book, why I'm doing all this research. It's pure love of the work, of delving more deeply into what still fascinates me after all these years. And to think that this all started from renting the first Airport on videotape (Yes, VIDEOTAPE, young ones) from a Blockbuster in Coral Springs on a rainy night when I was 11, which led to owning all four in a four-tape set with its own box to house all of them. This just makes the movies even better for me.
I decided to read the entire book not because of the research, but because I wrote an essay about the 1968 masterpiece The Swimmer for a collective Online Film Critics Society book that never happened. That was my first time doing research for anything of mine that was going to be put into print, even though it didn't happen, so being completely new to researching for a purpose way beyond getting a good grade in a history class, I overresearched. I tried to watch all of Lancaster's movies, and read all of John Cheever's works. I checked out a collection of Cheever's letters, and also watched every other film directed by Frank Perry, who directed The Swimmer. I had no idea what I was doing, but I thought this was the way to do it. I ended up framing the essay as a memory of when I first saw the movie in 2002 on Turner Classic Movies not long before I graduated high school, and how it affected me so, looking at a life so clearly squandered when I was just getting ready to figure out what I wanted to do with mine.
Having seen a lot of Lancaster's movies for that essay (which I still have and am deciding what to do with it, either find another outlet for it or post it all here), I wanted to see what Buford had written about them, because when I first checked this out from the library, I only went into the section about The Swimmer, nothing else. Ironic, considering what I had done for research, but this was only an essay.
The keyword that comes to mind a lot for Mayday! Mayday!: The Making of the Airport Movies is "context." I can't just say that Ross Hunter bought the rights to Arthur Hailey's novel, then hired George Seaton, hired the actors, hired the crew, and then they made the movie. I have to know what interested Hunter enough to turn Airport into a movie. I have to know what made him want to hire George Seaton to adapt the novel and direct it. I have to know why these particular actors were cast and if there was anyone else considered for Lancaster's role of Mel Bakersfeld, Dean Martin's role of Vernon Demerest, Jacqueline Bisset's role as Gwen Meighen, and so on. Moreso, why did Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster, Jacqueline Bisset, and all the others want to do it? To give just a little bit, I found out on my research visit to the Margaret Herrick Library that Bisset was under contract to Fox at the time and was loaned out to Universal for this. From the Q&A transcript of the screening that the Academy had in 2006 as part of its "Great to be Nominated" series, I also learned that Bisset doesn't remember much about the production. Actors' lives are indeed very busy.
In Buford's biography, I found out that the cinematographer of Airport had worked with Lancaster on two previous movies, one his directorial debut, The Kentuckian, and the other a six-week stint for Judgment at Nuremberg, though it doesn't sound like Lancaster had spearheaded that project as he did with The Kentuckian. He was fulfilling an obligation. So I wondered: Was that cinematographer suggested by Lancaster for Airport, or was that producer Ross Hunter's decision? Furthermore, Hunter wanted to have the major actors wrapped in three weeks' time, so perhaps Hunter was the one who had decided on Laszlo. Lancaster didn't sound all that involved, particularly because he didn't like the movie, calling it "the biggest piece of junk ever made." And yet, Hunter's power at Universal had severely dwindled because of costly failures like Sweet Charity that found Universal spiraling toward bankruptcy. So either he had decided on Laszlo and had to seek the approval of higher-up executives, or one of those executives thought of Laszlo, though that seems doubtful. But wouldn't you know it, Airport became the biggest hit of 1970 and saved Universal from ruin.
Then there's Whit Bissell, who worked with Lancaster on Brute Force, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and The Birdman of Alcatraz, who was in the Airport cast, yet didn't work with Lancaster. He was the passenger seated next to Helen Hayes' Ada Quonsett on the fateful Trans Global Flight 2. Was Bissell put forth by Lancaster or was this Hunter again? I'm inclined to believe this was Hunter because Buford gives barely three paragraphs over to Airport, and if Lancaster had been slightly more involved, I think Buford would have found it because this is a very thorough, meticulous, detailed biography of Lancaster.
Reading a healthy chunk of Buford's biography wasn't all I did today. I spent some time in happy disbelief of what I was doing. David Warner played flight engineer Peter O'Neill in The Concorde: Airport '79, so I contacted the L.A.-based management company that oversees him, requesting an interview, figuring also that he might be surprised to find someone not interested in talking about Titanic, as it might very well be for him when the 3D rerelease comes out in April, being that he played Billy Zane's henchman.
I also contacted The Gage Group, which handles Stefanie Zimbalist's career, to confirm that she received my phone number as was requested. I need to interview her father, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., about his role as Captain Stacy in Airport 1975, so I thought it best to contact that agency and seek her out, since her father has no contact information online.
Then came one of the biggest steps I will ever take for my book, one of the two most crucial: I contacted the publicist at Hal Leonard who oversaw the release of Trust Me, George Kennedy's memoir, requesting an extensive interview with Kennedy. I need an extensive interview since he was in all four movies and I have a lot I want to cover, especially about producer Ross Hunter and director George Seaton since they're long gone, as well as director Jack Smight of Airport 1975 (Tomorrow I'll contact the company that manages director Alec Smight, his son, but many perspectives are always interesting), and countless others. He's as important to me as Monica Lewis, who's the widow of the late Universal executive Jennings Lang, who shepherded the three Airport sequels, and I learned while skimming the pertinent parts of Lewis's memoir that Lang was thinking about a made-for-cable-TV Airport sequel, but that never panned out. I have to know if he left behind any records that indicated what that would have been about. I think that would be as much a revelation to me as it was to read the ultimately rejected Airport 1976 script at the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library. I also really really need to compliment Monica Lewis on her performances in Airport '77 and The Concorde: Airport '79. It didn't matter that her husband was the executive producer on '77 and the producer on '79. She fashioned two completely different roles, one as the caring flight attendant and the other as a well-known jazz singer going back to Moscow for a homecoming concert, acting opposite Jimmie Walker. She's been a singer since the 1940s, so she knew how to make that voice float, brief as her singing was in that one.
I've still got so many more people to contact, including Erik Estrada and Walker, who I found out has a website, so that'll make it easier. And there's the Vizcaya in Miami, which served as the exterior of the Stevens' mansion at the beginning of Airport '77, that I have to contact to see if they have any historical records of that particular shoot, and I've also got to contact the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum in Fort Worth, Texas because I didn't get an answer from them via e-mail about whether they have historical records of Charlton Heston and Jack Lemmon training on the 747 simulators for their roles in '75 and '77, respectively. I know that both of them did it (Heston talked about it in his published journals, and Lemmon talked about it in a featurette made to promote '77 at the time of its release, the script of which I read at the Herrick Library), but I'm hoping to find more details. Oh, and Boeing too! I've got to contact them because producer William Frye went to them before '75 and '77 went into production, asking for advice and insight. They told him, before production on '75, that the mid-air transfer was crazy, but Frye, Smight, and company did it. He went back to them before '77, and they asked him, "What are you doing this time?," prefacing that by saying, "I'm not sure Boeing is always happy with me."
That I have to contact the manufacturer of the 747, my favorite plane, is a huge honor and one that still stuns me, which is probably why I haven't done it yet, also because I've got other calls to make first. I was reminded constantly today of why I want to write this book, why I'm doing all this research. It's pure love of the work, of delving more deeply into what still fascinates me after all these years. And to think that this all started from renting the first Airport on videotape (Yes, VIDEOTAPE, young ones) from a Blockbuster in Coral Springs on a rainy night when I was 11, which led to owning all four in a four-tape set with its own box to house all of them. This just makes the movies even better for me.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
A Potential Addiction Grows
It started with my desire to find a few mystery novel series that I could relate to. I bought a few last year, including The Case of the Missing Books, a Mobile Library Mystery series by Ian Sansom; Dog On It by Spencer Quinn, first in a series about a boozy private detective and his faithful dog, the story told by the dog; and Everywhere That Mary Went by Lisa Scottoline, the first in her "Rosato & Associates" series, which, despite my most fervent love for her books of essays, didn't click with me. Meridith won a paperback copy of The Ritual Bath, the first in the Decker/Lazarus series by Faye Kellerman, but I still haven't read any of those, save for Scottoline's.
I'm not likely to read Michael Connelly or anything in that mainstream vein. I've been looking for mystery novel series that have something I can latch on to, that I could think of as being my series, one or more that I would go back to over and over as new installments are published. I have many favorite books I can go back to for the deep connections I enjoy (I've got a yen to reread Angelina's Bachelors by Brian O'Reilly just to absorb the gentleness of his prose again), but I want characters who last through many books, and as I saw when I began searching, there's a lot of mystery novel series. Whatever interests you, you can probably find it as a mystery novel.
So far, I've found one series, which is Julie Hyzy's White House Chef Mystery series. The White House aspect grabbed me right away, and I know a bit about the history of White House chefs (Not as much, and probably never as much, as Hyzy), so I naturally started with her first one, State of the Onion, which I had bought much earlier last year, but which sat in a stack in my room for months. I pulled it out because I wanted something different, something related to one of my passions in life.
I read State of the Onion in one day. Same with Hail to the Chef, the second installment. Eggsecutive Orders took a day and a half because we were out on errands that particular day, though I did bring it into the Golden Valley Target with me and read some of it while we were sitting at the Starbucks there.
I love this series because Hyzy introduces Ollie Paras as the assistant White House chef, in line to become the new Executive Chef upon the retirement of Henry, a really good man. Ollie knows the importance of serving the First Family, tending to whatever they need, and she doesn't lust after the power that comes with such a huge promotion. I relate to her because she works hard at what she does and is dedicated to it, and treats others equitably, no matter what transpires, such as President Campbell hiring the stuck-up, conceited, nasty Peter Everett Sargeant III as the White House Sensitivity Director. She gets frustrated with that one, but doesn't let it show, nor justified anger, which doesn't happen with her. The job is the highest priority and it must be done with excellent professionalism, which she exudes at all times.
Today in the mail, I received Affairs of Steak, the fifth book in the series and the newest one to be published. I'm still waiting for Buffalo West Wing, which is where I need to continue, and I won't read this series out of order.
As I read Hail to the Chef, I found out that Hyzy has been writing another series, about Marshfield Manor, a stately home turned into a museum, and the main character, Grace Wheaton starts out as an assistant curator, just like Ollie was the assistant chef in the first book. I have great respect for people who reach high positions, yet retain the kindness that they've always exhibited. That's how it is with Ollie, and that's how it sounds with Grace, though I've not yet really gotten into the first novel, Grace Under Pressure, save for the sample pages I read on Amazon which made me order it because it reminded me of the calmness and tranquility of the Nixon Library, Hearst Castle, the Getty Center, and other museums I've been to. Plus, Hyzy is obviously doing something right in her writing since I read her novels in one day.
Lately, I've read Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke, the first in her Hannah Swensen Mysteries series, the center being Hannah's shop, The Cookie Jar, which sells all kinds of cookies, made from some inspired recipes. Fluke's writing is considerably weaker than what Hyzy offers, with some slow-going character development, but I decided to order Strawberry Shortcake Murder, the second novel in the series, after reading Hannah conspiratorially joking with the maid of the society matron of Lake Eden, Minnesota. I get along with anyone, no matter who they are, no matter what their job is. I relate to this completely. I'll try Strawberry Shortcake Murder and see how it goes, whether I want to read the other books in the series. Maybe the writing will get better. I think I was spoiled by State of the Onion being so strong right from the first page.
It appears that Berkley Prime Crime is the chief supplier of my new interest. Fluke's books are published by Kensington, but Hyzy's books are published by Berkley. Plus, there's another series I decided to try by Avery Aames, a Cheese Shop Mystery series, with The Long Quiche Goodbye the first of three books so far. The latest, Clobbered by Camembert, is being released this Tuesday.
On the Prime Crime website, the novels they offer are divided into numerous categories, including "Culinary," "Hobbies," "Private Eye," and "Cozy." Through this, I've found that there's a Fresh-Baked Mystery series by Livia J. Washburn (I read the first page, and the writing doesn't suit me), a Memphis BBQ Mystery series by Riley Adams (Possible, based on the first few pages, but not one I'm going to dive for right away), a Farmer's Market Mystery series by Paige Shelton (I've never been to an honest-to-Organic farmer's market yet, but I want to, in a search for real blackberry jam, so this series interests me), and a Haunted Souvenir series by Christy Fifield, which begins on March 6 with Murder Buys a T-Shirt. This one interests me because it's about a woman who has "inherited her uncle's Florida souvenir shop," according to the copy on the website, and I still have many soft spots for my native state. I'm not sure yet if I'll pre-order it on Amazon, but I want to try out that one.
And there's also the Country Cooking School Mystery series also by Paige Shelton, and two book-themed mystery series: Cat in the Stacks by Miranda James, and Library Lover's Mystery by Jenn McKinlay.
It's fortunate that not all the books listed on the Prime Crime website interest me, though I'm also curious about private eyes, and that opens up another list. It's a near certainty that over the next few months, I will be a resident of Henderson, so, armed with Henderson and Clark County library cards, exploring all these mystery series will be a lot easier on my bank account. Just as I've been writing this entry, I found a series called Maternal Instincts by Diana Orgain, the first novel called Bundle of Trouble. It's about a first-time mother who becomes a private investigator, and I couldn't let that one sit, so I ordered it. That's all I'm going to do right now for this newfound interest until I read the latest two novels in Hyzy's White House Chef Mystery series and her Grace Under Pressure, start on The Long Quiche Goodbye, which I bought last week, and try out Dog On It and The Case of the Missing Books. I don't have any desire to write any type of mystery series (I'm not that brave, and I've got seven nonfiction books to write after I'm done with Mayday! Mayday!: The Making of the Airport Movies), but this is a lot of fun. I'm just hoping there's more enjoyable writing to be found through many of these authors.
I'm not likely to read Michael Connelly or anything in that mainstream vein. I've been looking for mystery novel series that have something I can latch on to, that I could think of as being my series, one or more that I would go back to over and over as new installments are published. I have many favorite books I can go back to for the deep connections I enjoy (I've got a yen to reread Angelina's Bachelors by Brian O'Reilly just to absorb the gentleness of his prose again), but I want characters who last through many books, and as I saw when I began searching, there's a lot of mystery novel series. Whatever interests you, you can probably find it as a mystery novel.
So far, I've found one series, which is Julie Hyzy's White House Chef Mystery series. The White House aspect grabbed me right away, and I know a bit about the history of White House chefs (Not as much, and probably never as much, as Hyzy), so I naturally started with her first one, State of the Onion, which I had bought much earlier last year, but which sat in a stack in my room for months. I pulled it out because I wanted something different, something related to one of my passions in life.
I read State of the Onion in one day. Same with Hail to the Chef, the second installment. Eggsecutive Orders took a day and a half because we were out on errands that particular day, though I did bring it into the Golden Valley Target with me and read some of it while we were sitting at the Starbucks there.
I love this series because Hyzy introduces Ollie Paras as the assistant White House chef, in line to become the new Executive Chef upon the retirement of Henry, a really good man. Ollie knows the importance of serving the First Family, tending to whatever they need, and she doesn't lust after the power that comes with such a huge promotion. I relate to her because she works hard at what she does and is dedicated to it, and treats others equitably, no matter what transpires, such as President Campbell hiring the stuck-up, conceited, nasty Peter Everett Sargeant III as the White House Sensitivity Director. She gets frustrated with that one, but doesn't let it show, nor justified anger, which doesn't happen with her. The job is the highest priority and it must be done with excellent professionalism, which she exudes at all times.
Today in the mail, I received Affairs of Steak, the fifth book in the series and the newest one to be published. I'm still waiting for Buffalo West Wing, which is where I need to continue, and I won't read this series out of order.
As I read Hail to the Chef, I found out that Hyzy has been writing another series, about Marshfield Manor, a stately home turned into a museum, and the main character, Grace Wheaton starts out as an assistant curator, just like Ollie was the assistant chef in the first book. I have great respect for people who reach high positions, yet retain the kindness that they've always exhibited. That's how it is with Ollie, and that's how it sounds with Grace, though I've not yet really gotten into the first novel, Grace Under Pressure, save for the sample pages I read on Amazon which made me order it because it reminded me of the calmness and tranquility of the Nixon Library, Hearst Castle, the Getty Center, and other museums I've been to. Plus, Hyzy is obviously doing something right in her writing since I read her novels in one day.
Lately, I've read Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke, the first in her Hannah Swensen Mysteries series, the center being Hannah's shop, The Cookie Jar, which sells all kinds of cookies, made from some inspired recipes. Fluke's writing is considerably weaker than what Hyzy offers, with some slow-going character development, but I decided to order Strawberry Shortcake Murder, the second novel in the series, after reading Hannah conspiratorially joking with the maid of the society matron of Lake Eden, Minnesota. I get along with anyone, no matter who they are, no matter what their job is. I relate to this completely. I'll try Strawberry Shortcake Murder and see how it goes, whether I want to read the other books in the series. Maybe the writing will get better. I think I was spoiled by State of the Onion being so strong right from the first page.
It appears that Berkley Prime Crime is the chief supplier of my new interest. Fluke's books are published by Kensington, but Hyzy's books are published by Berkley. Plus, there's another series I decided to try by Avery Aames, a Cheese Shop Mystery series, with The Long Quiche Goodbye the first of three books so far. The latest, Clobbered by Camembert, is being released this Tuesday.
On the Prime Crime website, the novels they offer are divided into numerous categories, including "Culinary," "Hobbies," "Private Eye," and "Cozy." Through this, I've found that there's a Fresh-Baked Mystery series by Livia J. Washburn (I read the first page, and the writing doesn't suit me), a Memphis BBQ Mystery series by Riley Adams (Possible, based on the first few pages, but not one I'm going to dive for right away), a Farmer's Market Mystery series by Paige Shelton (I've never been to an honest-to-Organic farmer's market yet, but I want to, in a search for real blackberry jam, so this series interests me), and a Haunted Souvenir series by Christy Fifield, which begins on March 6 with Murder Buys a T-Shirt. This one interests me because it's about a woman who has "inherited her uncle's Florida souvenir shop," according to the copy on the website, and I still have many soft spots for my native state. I'm not sure yet if I'll pre-order it on Amazon, but I want to try out that one.
And there's also the Country Cooking School Mystery series also by Paige Shelton, and two book-themed mystery series: Cat in the Stacks by Miranda James, and Library Lover's Mystery by Jenn McKinlay.
It's fortunate that not all the books listed on the Prime Crime website interest me, though I'm also curious about private eyes, and that opens up another list. It's a near certainty that over the next few months, I will be a resident of Henderson, so, armed with Henderson and Clark County library cards, exploring all these mystery series will be a lot easier on my bank account. Just as I've been writing this entry, I found a series called Maternal Instincts by Diana Orgain, the first novel called Bundle of Trouble. It's about a first-time mother who becomes a private investigator, and I couldn't let that one sit, so I ordered it. That's all I'm going to do right now for this newfound interest until I read the latest two novels in Hyzy's White House Chef Mystery series and her Grace Under Pressure, start on The Long Quiche Goodbye, which I bought last week, and try out Dog On It and The Case of the Missing Books. I don't have any desire to write any type of mystery series (I'm not that brave, and I've got seven nonfiction books to write after I'm done with Mayday! Mayday!: The Making of the Airport Movies), but this is a lot of fun. I'm just hoping there's more enjoyable writing to be found through many of these authors.
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