Book Groups

I belong to three book groups Two of these read a variety of books, and one is a mystery book group for which we each select a book to report on. I have had the opportunity to speak to a number of book groups both in person and through conference calls or Skype calls.

On Thursday March 5, I’ll be speaking to a book group at the Foothills Ranch Library, 27002 Cabriole, Foothills Ranch, CA, at 10:30 am. The title of my presentation is, “Becoming an Author Has No Expiration Date” about my experience starting to write later in life and writing about older characters.

A Story for Our Time

Once upon a time, there was a guy who wanted to be king of his country. He thought he was perfect, and he thought everything he did was perfect, but he also hated people who were different, and he especially hated anyone who disagreed with him. Now in this country, there were three groups of people who supported this guy. One group hated those who were different or felt they had been taken advantage of. A second group comprised rich people getting richer. A third group was made up of people scared they would lose their jobs if they disagreed with this guy. Some other people wanted to limit the power of this guy, but the third group did nothing to prevent this guy from doing whatever he wanted.

What’s the end of this story? Stay tuned for November 2020

Writing Older Characters Panel at The Left Coast Crime Conference

It’s always an honor to be selected for a panel at mystery conferences. I will be on the panel, Writing Older Characters: The Pros and Cons of Writing Senior Sleuths, on Friday, March 13, at The Left Coast Crime Conference (LCC2020) in San Diego. This is one of my favorite topics because the majority of my mystery novels feature older characters. This all began with my first published mystery, Retirement Homes Are Murder, which takes place in a retirement community with a protagonist, Paul Jacobson, who is in his mid-eighties and suffers from short-term memory loss. Even though he can’t remember the day before, he becomes an amateur sleuth and even has a romance with a young chick in her seventies. Thanks to fellow author, Christine Goff who introduced me to the term geezer-lit, I affectionately tag most of my novels as geezer-lit mysteries.

This panel at LCC2020 will be moderated by Rochelle Staab. Rochelle and I have worked together for a number of years to host The Meet the New Authors Breakfast at LCC, The panelists include Barbara Barrett, Janet Finsilver and Lisa Q. Matthews. I look forward to an interesting and entertaining panel.

American Dirt

The recently published book, American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins has created a firestorm of opinions, both positive and negative. Full disclosure. I have not yet read the book. My comments here refer to the reactions to the book and author. My main concern is the author being attacked because she is non-Mexican writing about a Mexican migrant. People rightfully can have widely different reactions to any book. Even the most popular book will receive one-star ratings from some readers. Why? Because all readers are different. The thing I object to is that opposition to this book has reached a level of threats being issued. As a writer, I can appreciate the advice of writing what you know. Equally important is to write what you don’t know. This entails research and learning. Most of my books have male protagonist, but I have also written female protagonists. As a man should I not write about women? No. In my case, I received excellent suggestions from my wife and women in my critique group about improving my female protagonist. Many women mystery writers used to use initials to disguise that they were women authors. I like reading good stories no matter the sex, race or political persuasion of the author. The beauty of fiction writing is to explore characters, situations and stories. Writers should not be chastised for tackling difficult issues and writing characters different than they are. Valid criticism can be given about inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the writing.