Paranormal & Art Forgery Mysteries

Thanks to M is for Mystery! SoCal, here we come...

2010-06-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came to M is for Mystery yesterday! I loooove that store, and it's so much fun to meet readers face to face! Here's a shout out to Maureen, and Milene, and Brian, and Hannah, and ...drat that rotten memory of mine! There were lots of folks, and it was lots of fun. Of course, I wasn't the only one there -- Carola Dunn was speaking as well (the woman has more than fifty novels to her name -- I feel like such a newbie!) and of course my tour pal extraordinaire, Sophie Littlefield.
(the glamorous life of authors -- thanks to Shay Demetrius for the photo)

Sophie and I are headed to San Diego to speak at Mysterious Galaxy on Friday at 7, and then to Thousand Oaks on Saturday at noon, and Mystery Bookstore Saturday at 3. Hope to see some of you there! (Details are on the "events" section of my website)

Oh, and check out this great review of A Cast Off Coven by one of my fave librarians/reviewers, Lesa Hostene http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/ thanks Lesa!

Yay! New website, new blog, new book...

2010-06-11T07:18:00.000-07:00

Okay...not exactly a new blog, since we cheated and brought in the old ones. But...sort of. I can't manage to write multiple blogs, and post on Facebook, and Twitter, so I'm going to combine my art forgery and witchcraft blogs from now on.

I'll try to make it clear which series I'm referring to, so if you're allergic to art or witchcraft you won't be exposed ;-)

Right now I'm excited because A Cast-off Coven is a National Bestseller! Woo-hoo! Thanks to everyone for all your support. It's been amazing.

If you're interested in hearing me blather on about the series, my research, and switching from writing traditional to paranormal mysteries, check out these new interviews:

http://www.literaryescapism.com/10471/interview-juliet-blackwell

and http://biting-edge.blogspot.com/2010/06/juliet-blackwell-and-her-magical.html

And thanks again for reading! Remember: read early, read often ;-)

Annie Will Be Back...

2010-01-07T09:57:00.000-08:00

Arsenic and Old Paint has a release date! September, 2010 -- though the publisher says it will be available in stores in August. Neat trick -- available before it's published. How does that work, exactly?

NEWS!! GOOD NEWS!!

2009-11-10T18:36:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't become a fan on the facebook page, you might not have heard the good news.

Just said "yes" to an offer for Books 3 and 4 of the Witchcraft series...is the world ready for more witchy mayhem and mystery? I sure hope so because book two is with the publishers.

Also, I gave a little interview about Secondhand Spirits over here. Check it out!

Did I mention that I am also going to be starting a new series? Not sure who will be signing her name to that one... check me later on that one. More details to come.

Guess What?!

2009-11-10T18:35:00.001-08:00

Just said "yes" to an offer for Books 3 and 4 of the Witchcraft series...is the world ready for more witchy mayhem and mystery?

[This is as Juliet Blackwell, of course.]

Don't despair, Arsenic and Old Paint is with the publishers!!

Also, I gave a little interview about Secondhand Spirits over here. Check it out!

Feeling the love on Facebook...have you become a fan yet?
Juliet Blackwell's page
Hailey Lind's page

Sometimes it's easier to update over there...

Geliebter der Kunstgeheimnis-Reihe

2009-07-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

Feint of Art may be in print again, only it will be in German!

I used Babelfish -- so I am not sure if it is correct but Art Lover's Mystery Series might be on shelves in GERMAN soon.

Had some interest from a German publisher -- keep your fingers crossed.

For now, still working away at Book 4!

More on Salem

2009-07-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

National Geographic has an interesting and informative interactive site on the Salem Witch Hysteria.

Now that you know all about the Salem Witch Trials, try your hand at Salem Witchcraft Trials Jeopardy.

Find more information on the Salem Witch Museum here.

Salem Witch Trials

2009-06-30T07:03:00.000-07:00

For some of us, the closest we get to the Salem Witch Trials is an episode of Bewitched where Samantha gets spirited back in time by some jealous witch (male or female). Others may have learned about the trials through Arthur Miller's The Crucible or the more recent movie of the same name. The truth is much more sinister than any Bewitched episode could convey; but the jealous portrayed may not be far off the mark. There is also the small matter of usurping land thrown into the mix.
Called the Salem Witch trials probably because the most famous happened in Salem Village, there were actually trials in four towns in the province. Salem Village had the distinction of being a town in turmoil. Only recently allowed to have their own church, there seemed to be some struggle for leadership.

So, take a town in the middle of a province with changing leadership, hostilities with the natives and a growing shortage of land with a growing population and mix in some religious fervor and a mysterious affliction and you get the Salem Witch Trials. Frenzy usually feeds on the baser of human emotions like greed and jealousy. It just may be that land, deeds and inheritance motivated the witch hunting more than a desire to expel the devil.

At the center of the drama is the Parris family. Reverend Samuel Parris is the newly elected minister of the new Salem Village. He wasn't the unanimous choice and there were those who were not pleased that he was given the deed of the parsonage as part of his compensation. Just a few years later, his daughter and niece were the first to be afflicted with some sort of bewitching.Given the laws and a propensity to general anxiety in the province it is not difficult to understand how the most vulnerable became the first accused. The majority of "witches" were unmarried or recently widowed land-owning women. If a land owner died, his/her land passed back to the previous owner. If that owner could not be determined, it passed to the church.

The first three women accused were women with few defenders: Sarah Good, a poor woman known to beg for food; Sarah Osbourne, a woman marked for having sex with her indentured servant and for not attending church service; and Tituba, a slave of undetermined ancestry. Sarah Good's daughter is also one of the accused. Her testimony is used to convict her mother even though Dorothy Good was only four years old. Someone had to be blamed for the affliction of the minister's family.

After the frenzy started, it didn't take long for the land-owning citizens (male and female) to become targets. Of course, there were those that were just named due to the hysteria. Anyone who didn't quite fit in would be a perfect target. Being a witch could explain any oddity or non-conformity with the rest of society. Either people believed these men and women were really witches or they participated in the naming in order to not be named. It was a good way to rid yourself of an annoying neighbor as entire families were named as witches.

In a relatively short period of time, from March 1692 through July 1692, over 70 people were arrested or warrants for their arrests were issued. The accusations and trials lasted through May 1693 with the last cases resulting mostly in acquittals. All in all over 150 people were accused, twenty nine were convicted and nineteen of those were hung. One man who refused to enter a plea was crushed to death. At least five more died while in custody.

As for the four mentioned above: Dorothy Good, the four year old, was released on bond; her mother, Sarah Good, was found guilty and executed on July 19, 1692; Sarah Osbourne died in custody; and, Tituba was never indicted.

O Christian Martyr Who for Truth could die
When all about thee Owned the hideous lie!
The world, redeemed from superstition's sway,
Is breathing freer for thy sake today.

Words written by John Greenleaf Whittier and inscribed on a monument marking the grave of Rebecca Nurse, one of the condemned "witches" of Salem.

Sources:
Wikipedia's Salem Witchcraft Trials Page
University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law Professor Douglas Linder's site: Salem Witchcraft Trials 1692
Salem Witch Museum

Tunnels under San Francisco's Chinatown???

2009-06-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

I'm spending the summer touring for my new series, starting with the release of Secondhand Spirits on July 7.

But I'm also writing the fourth in the Art Lover's Mystery Series, Arsenic and Old Paint (due out in 2010 from Perseverance Press -- I think I'll even be doing the cover art for it myself!!!)

In Arsenic and Old Paint, Annie happens upon some tunnels that happen to be connected to an exclusive men-only club atop Nob Hill...were they once hooked up to Chinatown, and could they be hiding a terrible secret?

Most people say any tunnels under Chinatown in San Francisco are a product of overactive imaginations, though there are known tunnels in other cities like Portland, Oregon and Red Bluff, California.

But recently, I came across this fascinating clip concerning supposed tunnels under San Francisco's Chinatown. I was also treated to a tour of the Donaldina Cameron house, where there is an entrance to one of the tunnels used to hide girls and young women rescued from brothels and slavery.

Check it out!

Guesting, guesting, guesting...

2009-06-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

When did "guesting" become a verb? As in "to guest"? My guess is around the same time as "to blog" became part of everyday parlance...

Anyway...I'm guesting on two different blogs this weekend! (Which explains, in part, why I haven't written a new post for my own Witchcraft blog!)

Please stop by Poe'sDeadlyDaughters to read a bit about haunted houses and world-building in Urban Fantasy....and drop on by MakeMineMystery to read about hopping vampires!

And on Wednesday, as always, I'll be blogging on PensFatales.
This week's topic is Summertime, and I'll be writing about a cabin in the woods, where I'm not, but I'd like to be....

more fun

2009-06-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

My good friend, Pamela, is guest blogging at Pens Fatales, please check her out! We're still talking about characters and gearing up for next week's topic.

Um... still need to get my blog posts for this blog out of the drafts pile.

But, in other news, in lieu of a release party for Secondhand Spirits, I will be signing books on the release date (July 7, 2009) -- get your advance copy today! The signing will include Rhys Bowen and Ann Parker at M is for Mystery in San Mateo (California). Rhys and Ann are also releasing books this summer.

Details will be up at the Facebook fan page by Monday. Hope to see some of you there!

Did I mention that there is another review of Secondhand Spirits out there? Take a look.

Planning ... Isn't Doing

2009-06-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

The promised blog posts are still drafts waiting to be finished and published... however, I have been blogging over at pensfatales and I was featured here.

Maybe three blogs, two facebook fan pages, guest blogging and two manuscripts due at the end of the summer is catching up with me.

The book tour is shaping up: SF Bay Area, Arizona, Southern California so far. You can find all the info here or over at the FB fan page.

More SOON!

Oscar the Familiar

2009-06-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

I believe I’ve mentioned, once or twice, that my neighbors’ black cat, Oscar, started hanging around me just as I started writing my Witchcraft mystery series. There are some who would claim that Oscar’s timing had more to do with the fact that my beloved mutt Sam died a few weeks before, rather than anything witch-related.
Still, I had never before known feline love. Oscar doesn’t take to just anyone, and though some of his love and devotion may have been rooted in the little bits of smoked ham I started feeding him, I choose to believe that he came into my life for a reason.
Interestingly, in the book Secondhand Spirits I had already named my character’s familiar Oscar. Now does that seem like a coincidence as well?
One major difference, though: Lily’s familiar in Secondhand Spirits is a goblin/gnome-like critter who transforms himself into a miniature pot-bellied pig.
Who ever heard of a piggy familiar?
Three witches riding a pig (The Witches of Northamptonshire 1612)

Pigs have been identified as powerful witches’ familiars throughout much of the world. Pigs are smart, live close to homes in traditional villages, and “go wild” easily even if raised in captivity.

Also, pigs “root” in the earth, turning over dirt, rocks and sod to find their treasures. According to Judika Illes’ Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, root-working is an ancient form of magic associated with great botanical knowledge:

The term “root-worker”…implies power and knowledge and a special relationship with Earth and her protective spirits…once upon a time, it was not considered safe to disturb the Earth, unless one knew proper rituals and had received permission to dig.
In Greek mythology, Circe lived on the island of Aeaea and was known for her knowledge of botanical potions. She was fond of transforming her enemies, or those who had offended her, into animals. Notably, she turned Odysseus’ men into swine.

Part 2: Witches’ Familiars, Naguals, and Tonallis (Oh my!)

2009-06-10T06:49:00.000-07:00

According to Dr. Jorge Klor de Alva, the Nagual is like an alter ego, some other entity that represents one’s being. This is usually but not always an animal of some sort. The Tonalli, on the other hand, refers to the animal associated with the day one is born, rather analogous to one’s astrological sign. This animal may or may not be associated with your Nagual. This spiritual link between human and animal is common to many cultures, and is often referred to as a totem.

The Nagual, then, can be an animal familiar that lives a parallel life to your own. In Rodolfo Anaya’s beautiful novel Bless Me, Ultima, the elderly curandera character named Ultima has an owl as her “guardian spirit” that was born at the same time, and who will die when she herself passes over.

Interestingly, the nagual is often a creature of the night: the owl, the toad, the coyote. Some believe that when one dreams, it means one’s nagual is traipsing about on adventures.

Things can take a sinister turn, however: some communities believe that powerful (and maleficent) practitioners of witchcraft can transform themselves at will into familiar animals or spirits and adopt forms such as donkey, turkey, or dogs.

Nahualism is linked with ancient pre-Columbian shamanistic practices through depictions of humans with animal features, found in the surviving art and books of the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec peoples.
Emergencia del Nagual (the nahual coming out). Códice Nutall

In some parts of modern rural Mexico the position of the Nagual is an integrated part of society, as the local “witch doctor” or curandera. The community tolerates or fears and respects them, sometimes hiring their services in healing, spellcasting, or to remove curses from other naguals.

In other communities the accusation of nagualism may result in violent repercussions-- a modern example of the religious bigotry and hysteria that begat the witch-hunts of renaissance Europe. The 'nagual' is often considered synonymous with 'witch' or 'brujo', because they are thought capable of shapeshifting into animals at night. They are sometimes accused of sucking blood from innocent victims and livestock (see also Chupacabras), stealing and causing disease and disharmony.

[Dr. Jorge Klor de Alva is my ex-husband as I mentioned in yesterday's post!]

Guest blogging on Killer Hobbies

2009-06-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hi! I'm guest blogging today on Killer Hobbies (www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com) about what it takes for someone like me to develop a hobby!

Check it out, and while you're at it scroll through posts about all kinds of hobbies... from knitting to miniatures to murder.

Guest blogging on Killer Hobbies

2009-06-08T11:41:00.000-07:00

I know I barely have enough time to post on THIS blog, but now I'm spreading myself around a little thinner...please check out my guest blog on www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com tomorrow, June 9. While you're there, scroll through the collection of posts by some clever handicrafters, who write about everything from knitting to miniature-making to murder and mayhem!

Witches’ Familiars, Naguals, and Tonallis (Oh my!)

2009-06-08T07:37:00.000-07:00

A witch’s familiar is a companion animal thought to enhance and support a witch’s magical powers. Because animals are closer to other spiritual realms, they also assist witches to communicate with spirits on other planes. Or so it is said.

A black cat is the typical image that pops into one’s mind when discussing witches’ familiars. Oscar, my neighbor’s cat, came into my life around the same time as I started writing the Witchcraft series. Coincidence?

It has been pointed out that old women—those most likely to be accused of witchcraft—tend to be fond of cats and often live on their own with only feline companionship.

But cats aren’t the only candidates for witches’ familiars. Some of the common familiars are pigs, toads, owls, dogs, and even mythical creatures. Below: two witches and a familiar.

The concept of companion animals assisting their magical masters is not unique to Europe. In what is now Mexico and Central America, the concept of the Nagual or Nahual (both pronounced [na'wal]) remains powerful, as does the idea of an animal associated with one’s birthdate, called the Tonalli.

When in need of arcane information about Mesoamerican beliefs, I did what I always do: I dialed my ex-husband.

Find out what he said tomorrow!

Burning Witches

2009-06-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

1533 account of the execution of a witch charged with burning the town of Schiltach in 1531.

Burning witches ... or putting them on trial is not just a thing of the past. This week, I am going to take a look at the historic witch trials in Salem, but let's take a look at what's going on right now. Here are some news items from last month.

From the Bay Area News Group on May 15, 2009. Two women were arrested for ritual sacrifice of chickens. Here is what one professor at Berkeley had to say about it:

"Rory Little, a San Rafael resident and law professor at the University of California, Hastings, said religious belief is usually not a defense for a "generally applicable crime," but that the issue gets more complicated based on the specifics of the case.

'It's a controversial area,' he said. 'It is not a simple question.'

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1993 that animal sacrifice is a constitutionally protected religious freedom in a Florida case involving practitioners of Santeria, a blend of Catholicism and African and Caribbean faiths."

Read the whole article here.

From ABC News and Nightline on May 22, 2009. They visited the Congo where poor children are suspected of using witchcraft. Pastors are exploiting the villagers by taking money for exorcising the children. Unfortunately, the government is doing nothing to protect these children. See the video here.

When I went to search for that video, I found that it wasn't the first time in the past year that ABC News had covered the issue. For more witch burning, see this video about a young man who tried to burn his teacher who he accused of being a "witch" in Detroit last year.

Also, last March, in this video a woman was attacked in India after being accused of using witchcraft.

These are just a few modern day examples of witchcraft on trial. Tomorrow, we return to Salem for the infamous witch trials.

Helen Duncan

2009-05-27T17:44:00.000-07:00

Helen Macfarlane was born into a poor family in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1897. She fled the village and settled in Dundee after becoming pregnant out-of-wedlock in 1918. Soon she married a soldier, Henry Duncan, and had five more children.In a Europe still reeling from the ravages of World War I, séances came into fashion as thousands reached out to lost loved ones and sought solace in alternative belief systems. Helen MacFarlane Duncan, by all counts a gifted woman, became a well-known spiritualist. By the 1930s Helen took her traveling séance on the road, calling up spirits for incredulous (or perhaps too credulous) audiences.

In 1931, psychic researcher Harry Price invited Helen and her husband Henry Duncan to come to London in order to have her skills “scientifically” tested.According to David Edwards in an article on “Britain’s Last Witch Trial” in the UK edition of the Mirror, 6/12/2006, Harry Price wrote: "She was placed in the curtained recess. In a few seconds, the medium was in a trance. The curtains parted and we beheld her covered from head to foot with cheese-cloth!

"Some of it was trailing on the floor, one end was poked up her nostril, a piece was issuing from her mouth. I must say that I was deeply impressed - with the brazen effrontery that prompted the Duncans to come to my lab, with the amazing credulity of the spiritualists who had sat with the Duncans and with the fact that they had advertised her 'phenomena' as genuine."In a bid to reveal the contents of Helen's stomach, Price asked if she would undergo an X-ray. "She refused. Her husband advised her to submit. But that seemed to infuriate her and she became hysterical. She jumped up and dealt him a blow on the face.

"Suddenly, she jumped up, unfastened the door and dashed into the street - where she had another attack of alleged hysterics and commenced tearing her séance garment to pieces.

"Her husband dashed after her and she was found clutching the railings, screaming."

Despite Harry Price’s alarming account of the séance, Helen Duncan continued with her successful practice into the forties.

On November 25, 1941, HMS Barham, a 29,000-ton battleship in the Mediterranean was hit by three German torpedoes. The ship went down and 861 lives were lost. Already reeling from the Blitz, the British government decided to keep the news under wraps – believe it or not, they went so far as to forge Christmas cards from the dead to their families.

But just days after the attack, Helen Duncan held a séance during which she saw a sailor with the words HMS Barham on his hatband. According to Helen the apparition said: "My ship is sunk."

Two years later, in January 1944, amid fears that Helen would somehow reveal plans for the upcoming D-Day landings, Britain’s Admiralty arrested the psychic and charged her with witchcraft, alleging that she intended "to exercise or use human conjuration that through the agency of Helen Duncan spirits of deceased dead persons should appear to be present".

The trial lasted seven days. Mediums and believers of all sorts rallied to her defense and set up a defense fund which allowed her barrister to call 44 witnesses to testify she wasn't a fraud.
Ironically, it was precisely their fear that she was NOT a fraud that led to her conviction and sentencing.

Years later, in 1956, Helen Duncan gave a seance in Nottingham. Though the Witchcraft Act had been repealed five years earlier and spiritualism had been recognized as a bonafide religion, Helen was once again arrested and subjected to a strip search.

She never got over the shock and remained hospitalized for the next five weeks, until passing over to the next dimension on December 6.

Was Helen Duncan a gifted seer able to communicate with other realms, or a skilled charlatan who exploited grieving families? Whatever she was, she scared the British government enough to become the “unfortunate victim of Britain's last witch-hunt”.

You can find more information here and support the call for Helen's pardon.

Britian’s Last Witchhunt

2009-05-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

When would you guess the last witch trial in Britain? As the witch-hunting hysteria in Europe was finally waning? 1780? 1820?

Guess again.

In 1944, professional medium Helen Duncan, affectionately known as “Hellish Nell”, was arrested during a séance in Portsmouth, Hants, and charged under section four of Britain’s 1735 Witchcraft Act.

Examination of a Witch, by T.H. Matteson 1853. Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum

The jury deliberated only half an hour before declaring her guilty. Happily, though the court used a law written in 1735 to convict Duncan, at least the punishment for witchcraft had been reformed. Her sentence was nine months in London’s Holloway prison…a step up from the traditional Scottish burning or hanging of witches.

But how in the world did Helen Duncan end up on trial for witchcraft as recently as 1944?

More tomorrow...

Checking in...

2009-05-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

I am busy at work -- finishing the book 4 manuscript, drafting a second Juliet Blackwell manuscript, planning book signing events and in general preparing for the July 7th release date of Secondhand Spirits. That is the first in Juliet Blackwell's A Witchcraft Mystery series!

I will get some new posts up here VERY SOON.

In the meantime, my new blog, under the name Juliet Blackwell, is up and running.

I have also started fan pages for both Hailey Lind and Juliet Blackwell on Facebook!

Please check them all out -- become fans/friends and follow the blogs.

First Review for Second Hand Spirits

2009-05-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

Posted by Harriet Klausner at May 7, 2009 at 10:08 AM at Genre Go Round:

Lily Ivory is a bona fide witch; a powerful mage who can feel the vibrations emitted from old clothing, can smell and sense auras, and can cast spells through brewing. She has been on the run for most of her life; hiding her “witchiness” skills by never allowing anyone to get to close to her so that one would think she is a freak. However, now thirty-one Lily feels a need to settle down so she moves to San Francisco assuming she can fit in best in the City on the Bay. There she opens up a vintage women’s clothing shop Aunt Cora’s Closet.
Her friend Maya takes Lily to the home of Frances Potts who has a ton of beautiful vintage clothing. Lily senses evil directed at Frances by the demon La Llorona. Late that same night Lily returns to Frances’ home to cast a protection spell against La Llorana. The next day the woman is dead and a child is missing presumably by La Llorona who feeds on the souls of children. The magical community rallies around Lily who uses her skills to hopefully bring the child back and send the demon back to the Texas/Mexico border where she came from.

Readers who anxiously await the next works of Victoria Laurie or Madelyn Alt will appreciate SECOND HAND SPIRITS, an enchanting mystery that enables the audience to believe in the supernatural. A mysterious male witch Aiden welcomes her to the neighborhood by giving her a familiar, a goblin disguised as a pot bellied pig. Lily is a great character; a strong woman who believes in doing what she feels is ethically right though it might cost her. Juliet Blackwell provides a terrific urban fantasy with the opening of the Witchcraft Mystery series.

Secondhand Spirits
Juliet Blackwell
Obsidian, Jul 2009, $6.99
ISBN: 045122745X

What the Heck is a Witch, Anyway?

2009-05-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

I love research. It gives me an excuse to spend big chunks of my day reading, following leads, and talking to people about… say… the intricacies of binding spells or the difficulties of practicing witchcraft in the modern world.

But anyone who’s ever done research for a book knows that only a tiny fraction of the fascinating stuff you dig up ever makes it onto the printed page. This blog is my forum to share some of the interesting history of witchcraft; an occasional spell or book review; some specialized terminology; and occasional excerpts or deleted scenes from my Witchcraft Mystery Series, the first installment of which, Secondhand Spirits, will be released July 7, 2009, from Obsidian (a Penguin imprint).

I invite you to correct me when I’m wrong, elucidate further on subjects of interest, ask questions about my posts or my books, and fill us all in on anything witch-related that you might know about.
Soooo, What the Heck is a Witch, Anyway? According to the third edition of the American Heritage Dictionary:

Witch [wich] n.

1. A woman claiming or popularly believed to possess supernatural powers and practice sorcery, and often believed to be aided by spirits or a familiar.
2. A believer or follower of Wicca; a Wiccan.
3. A hag.
4. A woman considered to be spiteful or overbearing.
5. Informal A woman or girl considered bewitching.
6. One particularly skilled or competent at one's craft: "A witch of a writer, [she] is capable of developing an intensity that verges on ferocity" Peter S. Prescott.

Dontcha just love the juxtaposition of #5 with numbers 3 and 4: A charming woman might also be a spiteful hag….

But as Walt Whitman would say: Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.

Women in general and witches in particular are no stranger to the concept of duality.

Throughout history and across the globe, witches have been treated with reverence and adoration for their skills in physical and mental health and healing, as well as their talents for “seeing” into the future or other realms. But those very same witches have also inspired fear and loathing, often rooted in fear of their rare abilities. In a later post I will discuss the direct link between the suppression of witches as lay healers in Europe and the creation of the male-dominated medical profession. For now, suffice it to say that powerful women are scary to many male-centered social structures, especially during times of social and economic stress and upheaval.

Most recently, followers of the Wicca religion have taken on the moniker of “witch” in an attempt to reclaim the label so often association with the negative. As is the case with most religions, the practice of Wicca has many different interpretations and I wouldn’t presume to try to define the various belief systems here. But in general, Wiccans may or may not lay claim to particular supernatural powers, but they do tend to practice a pre-Christian, female-centered tradition that worships nature and the seasons, pagan goddesses, and the beauty of humanity. Their coven meetings might include rites such as drawing pentacles, casting a cone of power, and invoking the Lady and Lord – but they are in no way Satanists, and typically do not even believe in the concept of Hell or the Devil. Their beliefs are pre-Christian rather than anti-Christian,

From Secondhand Spirits:

In the old days –the burning times—there was a distinction made between sorcerers and witches. It was said that a sorcerer learned magick through training, while a witch was born with innate talents and connections to the spirit world. The latter was true in my case, to an extreme degree. I hadn’t chosen this path; it had chosen me. One of the many curses my status bestowed was a near-perfect memory, and I could recall every alienating episode, every isolating incident, of my thirty-one years.

FBI top ten art crimes

2009-03-06T07:20:00.001-08:00

•	Iraqi Looted and Stolen Artifacts
•	Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft
•	Theft of Caravaggio's Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco
•	Theft of the Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius
•	The Van Gogh Museum Robbery
•	Theft of Cezanne's View of Auvers-sur-Oise
•	Theft of the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Murals, Panels 3-A and 3-B
•	Theft from the Museu Chacara do Céu
•	Theft of Van Mieris's A Cavalier
•	Theft from E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich

FBI Art Squad -- It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!

2009-03-06T07:09:00.000-08:00

Check this out -- from the website of the FBI art squad (and you thought I made them up!):

Art and cultural property crime - which includes theft, fraud, looting, and trafficking across state and international lines -- is a looming criminal enterprise with estimated losses running as high as $6 billion annually.

To recover these precious pieces--and to bring these criminals to justice--the FBI uses a dedicated Art Crime Team of 13 Special Agents to investigate, supported by three Special Trial Attorneys for prosecutions...and it mans the National Stolen Art File, a computerized index of reported stolen art and cultural properties for the use of law enforcement agencies across the world.

Please note: U.S. persons and organizations requiring access to the National Stolen Art File should contact their closest FBI Field Office; international organizations should contact their closest FBI Legal Attaché Office.uad

Arsenic and Old Paint -- the Fourth in the Series!

2009-03-05T20:35:00.001-08:00

I'm so excited to announce that the fourth book in the Art Lover's Mystery series, Arsenic and Old Paint, will be published in 2010 by Perseverance Press. I know 2010 seems like a long time from now, but after all, we have to finish writing the book, and then our wonderful new publisher has to do all their publishing magic!

Arsenic and Old Paint finds Annie Kincaid on the trail of a forged, and stolen, piece of erotica that turns up at auction, and may have been used in an insurance scam. She winds up working in an exclusive men's club on Nob Hill, investigating tunnels under Chinatown, and tracking down a stolen 600-pound statue of Hermes with the dubious assistance of her new business partner, Michael-the-ex-art-thief, and her landlord Frank DeBenton-- who may hiding something from his own past.

Another New Series!

2008-09-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

I have TWO new series coming out over the next two years: Secondhand Spirits (the first in the Witchcraft Mystery series) and If Walls Could Talk (the first of the Sophie Tanner House-Flipping Mysteries). Both will be released under Penguin’s Obsidian label, and under the new pseudonym, Juliet Blackwell.

Secondhand Spirits will be released next summer (July, 2009). This is the first in a new paranormal mystery about a misfit witch, Lily Ivory, who runs a vintage clothing store in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco:

It wasn’t easy growing up as a (super)natural witch in a small Texas town. The other children, the teachers, even my own mother was afraid of me. If it hadn’t been for my grandmother Graciela, herself a talented midwife and witch who taught me to harness my considerable powers, I wouldn’t have known a moment of tenderness. One of the many curses my status bestowed is a near-perfect memory, and I could recall every alienating episode, every isolating incident, of my thirty-one years.

I hoped to put an end to feeling like a perpetual outsider by settling down and opening my vintage clothing shop on Haight Street. After years spent traveling the world, I landed in San Francisco a month ago and discovered so many beloved local lunatics and cherished iconoclasts in this open-minded metropolis that I fit in quite nicely. Or at least I hoped to. Picking a fight with a child-stealing demon might make that more difficult.

My other new series features an anthropologist-turned-general contractor, Sophie Tanner, who “flips” historic houses in the San Francisco Bay Area. If Walls Could Talk, the first in the new series, will be released in 2010, and a second book in the series will come out in 2011. Sophie is a slightest older, wiser, and more jaded heroine:

Shortly after my thirty-fifth birthday I had come to the conclusion that, in general, people seemed kinder, more intelligent, and more interesting when you couldn’t actually comprehend what they were saying.

Here was my plan: I would move to Paris and crawl into an obscure, anonymous pied a terre to indulge myself in licking the still-tender wounds from my divorce. From time to time I would emerge to eat my fill of glace de cerises, stroll along the Champs de L’Eysees, loiter in the galleries of the Louvre, and maybe even take some handsome, monolingual French man as a lover. But otherwise I would return to my Left Bank refuge to continue my exquisitely solitary pity-party. With the money I received from my divorce, this kind of behavior could go on for years.

Here was the problem: my recently widowed father tricked me into staying “for a few months” to help him out with his construction business. That was four years ago. I was still trying to get to Paris, but I kept getting talked into “flipping” just one more historic home.

I love old houses with the kind of passion some women reserve for bad men: you know the effort’s probably not worth it, and yet there’s an irresistible belief that with enough sweat, tears, and devotion you’ll be able to fix them. Thing is, with buildings, you’ve got a shot. As far as men went…well, that’s another story altogether.

Since both new series will be published under the Juliet Blackwell moniker, I’ll be setting up a new website and blog. Please do check in, though, to see what’s new with Annie Kincaid and the gang, and to follow links from one site to the other.

Again, I love to get mail and I respond to every letter I receive. Write me at hailey@haileylind.com with questions, comments, or to be put on my mailing list (I’ll never add you to that list unless you give me permission!)

What's in a name?

2008-08-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

Juliet Blackwell is the pen-name I'm using for my new Witchcraft series (Secondhand Spirits, the first book in the series, will be released July 2009).

So, what's in a name, and why do I keep changing mine?

I wrote the Art Lover's Mystery series together with my sister, Carolyn. We wanted the books to read with a single voice, and thus decided to put a single name on the cover. Hailey Lind is a pseudonym my sister and I came up with over a three-hour phone conversation (she lives in Virginia, I'm in California). I swear, it was more difficult to decide on a name than it was to write the *$%#@) book in the first place! Lind is my middle name, and an old family name on our father's side (ever hear of Jenny Lind?). Hailey comes from my mother's side of the family.

But I'm writing the new series solo, and wanted to come up with a new moniker. It's taken me a while to get used to answering to Hailey (which I now do, so feel free to call me by any name when you see me!) and I thought it would be too much for my wee brain to introduce yet another first name. Juliet seemed slightly more formal than Julie, my real name...and I figured I'd be able to remember it even after a couple of drinks in the bar at the convention hotel.

The last name was harder. I ran through lots of options, but as I was researching the history of witchcraft, I came upon the story of Elizabeth Blackwell. Elizabeth was the first real-life, official, female doctor, graduating with an M.D. in 1849.
"Her application to Geneva Medical School (now Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York) was referred to the student body. They accepted with great hilarity in the belief that it was a spoof perpetrated by a rival school." --National Women's Hall of Fame

The joke was on them, as their first woman student quickly outstripped all the young men in her class. Blackwell was by all accounts a remarkable woman, who went on to found her own infirmary (at one point working with Florence Nightingale) and then to establish a Medical College for Women.

And what, may you ask, made me think of female doctors while researching witchcraft? Historically, many women accused of witchcraft have been traditional healers with a vast inherited knowledge regarding herbs and botanicals, bone-setting, and what we now think of as psychological problems. It was precisely this kind of knowledge and ability that made them frightening to certain sectors of society...and during times of social change and upheaval, many of these women healers have been vilified, accused of being in league with the Devil, cast out of their homes, tortured, and killed.

As fun as it is to write about a witch, the history of the theme becomes very sobering, very fast.

Anyway, I chose the pseudonym of Blackwell as an homage to Elizabeth...plus, it's just a great name. And so Juliet Blackwell was born!

Guest Blogger: Margaret Grace, author of the Dollhouse Miniature Series

2008-07-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

(A word from Hailey: This is my first guest blogger! A wonderful author, gifted scientist, and good friend, Margaret Grace is the author of the Miniature Murder series from Berkley Prime Crime, including Murder in Miniature and the new Mayhem in Miniature, coming out August 5. Check out these ideas from a master miniaturist!)

Double Strangeness

Here's what a good friend sent me as a birthday present—a pile of junk. She knows me so well!

Crafters are strange people.

I've trained many of my friends and relatives to save their bottle tops, pill containers, small pieces of, well, anything.

In the lower left hand corner of the first photo is a piece of bubbly plastic that covered a layer in a box of chocolates. It will be transformed into a mat for the floor of a dollhouse shower.

The wooden container next to it is an old stamp holder; the plastic cup in back of the dime is the cap of a liquid cold medicine bottle; the white plastic "table" is a pizza order staple, keeping the cover off the cheese. You'll see how I used them in the second photo, for different scales of room boxes or dollhouses.

The small cylinder is one of those ubiquitous moisture absorbers that come with nearly every mail order package. I'll print out food labels from the 'net, shrink to size, and wrap dozens of these cylinders for use in a miniature kitchen or grocery store. The green sheet is actually sandpaper (it comes in all colors these days!) that will be used as a lawn in an outdoor scene.

In the second photo you can see the stamp holder being used as a small coffee table; the plastic cup is a wastebasket; and the pizza keeper is a bistro table, made by removing the plastic legs and gluing on a twisted wire base. I've also added a contact paper top to it. The chair is more wire, twisted to shape; its seat is a bottle cap.

Crafts are like that. They start from "junk," like pieces of yarn or tangled necklaces, and get worked into a coherent piece of art. Hopefully.

For me, writing is like that, too. A mystery novel starts with odd pieces that eventually get shaped into a story. It can be an unusual name that strikes my fancy, an interesting interaction in a coffee shop, a view from a hotel window, or a job that no one thinks much about, like bagging in a supermarket.

Oh, the arm? It's from a broken doll. Or did I pull it off myself while building a miniature crime scene?

Mystery writers can be strange, too.

For more miniature scenes by Margaret Grace, visit http://wwwdollhousemysteries.com

Out with the old, in with the new: A New Series!

2008-07-11T08:06:00.001-07:00

Should I change the name of my blog???

I've got a new contract for a new series!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, books 4, 5, and 6 of the Annie Kincaid Art Lover's Mystery Series will not be coming out anytime soon. (This despite the fact that Feint of Art was nominated for an Agatha for Best First Novel, and is being translated into Japanese even as we speak... what can I say? Publishing is a cutthroat business these days.)

Believe me, I'm sad about it...Book 4, Arsenic and Old Paint involves a mystery at an exclusive men's club, tunnels under Chinatown, and a secret collection of paintings...not to mention lots of progress on the Annie/Michael/Frank romantic triangle. It's way too much fun not to publish!

In any case, the Art Lover's Mystery series is on haitus for the near future. We may find another publisher, or Signet may relent and continue the series at a later date. For now, the books are still available and in print, so if you're a fan please remember they make great presents for Mother's Day...and Father's Day and Groundhog Day and Christmas!

About the new series: Secondhand Spirits features a woman, Lily Ivory, who owns a vintage clothing store, Aunt Cora's Closet, in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco...and who just happens to be a witch. And no ordinary witch, at that. For one thing, her familiar is a shape-shifting gargoyle marquerading as a miniature Vietnamese Pot-Bellied pig. For another, Lily attracts demons and spirits like flies to honey, even though all she wants is to finally settle down, run her vintage clothing store, and develop normal human friendships...and maybe even find a man. Too bad the most interesting guys around are an arrogant male witch on the one hand, and a dedicated "mythbuster" on the other.

The new series is a bit of a departure from the world of art forgery. But I've had so much fun writing it, I hope even those of you who don't normally venture into the paranormal might give it a try! Beyond the fun San Francisco setting, the beguiling mystery, and the engaging characters, I get to delve into the history of witchcraft, the study of botanicals and herbs, the history of healing...and plenty of fascinating tales of contemporary folks who call themselves as witches. It's a truly captivating world of its own.

Secondhand Spirits will be coming out July 2009, under the pseudonym Juliet Blackwell. I'll be writing more about the pseudonym, and what's in a name, very soon. So please do check back!

My latest portrait

2008-07-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

Keeping up with my blog isn't the only thing that takes a while...gee, I'm sensing a pattern here. Could it just be that I'm habitually late? I arrive on time to dinner...

In any case, last summer/fall we ran a portrait contest in conjunction with the release of Brush with Death, the third in the Annie Kincaid Art Lover's Mystery Series. Linda Adams, of Virginia, won and decided she wanted a painting of her grandmother in the style of Monet. In the above picture, peeking out to her left you can see the black and white copy of an old photo portrait of her grandmother, Della (known as Dick). Doesn't she seem like someone you'd like to know?

Don't Blink....

2008-07-11T07:21:00.001-07:00

Most of the time I'm a true Oakland type, listening to a funky blend of classic 60s rock, reggae, newer pop folks like Macy Gray and Ozomatli, and even venture into a little hip-hop with M n' M, Kanye West and the Black-Eyed Peas.

But there's one time of the year that only country music will do: when I make my annual trek to the Siskiyou mountains in Northern California, up near the Oregon border. That's when I switch on the local country station and catch up on what's up in country music. One thing I love about country songs is that they tell stories; another thing is that the stations play them so repetitively that I am able to learn the entire current repertoire by the end of the first weekend, enabling me to croon along with them for the rest of the trip.

There's one song I kept hearing that seems particularly appropriate to this time in my life: Don't Blink. The song is about the advice of a 100-year-old man, who tells all that you blink and your childhood's over, then your children's childhood, then your own life...because "100 years goes faster than you think. Don't blink."

Lately I'm trying to keep my eyes wide open, because time does, indeed, seem to be slipping by with alarming speed.

Those of you out there who happen to stumble upon this blog (or wait breathlessly for the next instalment, never sure what will be said or when it will be said...) have probably noticed that --once again! -- I have let a good deal of time lapse between posts.

Why, one might wonder, does a writer have such a danged problem with...ahem...sitting down and writing?

When I was a kid I would start a new journal every New Year, positive that this year was the year when I would begin my deep emotional journey--a journey which I would duly note in scrawled volumes which were destined to be published one day, after I had become the world's greatest surgeon/actress/ veterinarian. Of course, I never actually studied medicine/acting/veterinary science, so the road was decidedly less sure for me than for many others. But I suppose it's just as well, since, after all, I never made it past February in those diaries. Years ago my mother presented me with an entire cardboard box full of old diaries with only the first ten pages written upon. Given the content of those pages, however, it was a blessing for all concerned that I never continued. My early life with a loving family in a ranch-style tract house in the Cupertino suburbs was safe and wonderful for a young child, but not a circumstance that would encourage a rich emotional inner life that needs to be set down for posterity on the pages of a journal.

I do have a rich emotional inner (and outer) life, now, however, which has become the stumbling block. I'm just so danged busy all the time, if not physically, then emotionally. I admire people who seem able to do it all, and get their car washed.

But I keep forgetting not to blink.

I looked at my calender to find some reasons I haven't written:

My 16-year-old son (do you remember being 16? I do. I empathize. Still, I find myself yelling a lot, and under any kind of normal circumstances I'm not a yeller.)

Personal paperwork.

Business paperwork.

Open Studios (big local art event in which we artists throw open our studios so people can wander through and, we hope, buy stuff. It requires a lot of cleaning.)

My dog. (No, I'm not still in deep mourning for my dog. But she was a truly great dog, and a member of the family, and I still hear the "click click click" of her nails on the hard wood floor at five in the morning, expecting in my sleepy state to see her coming into my study to curl up on the rug as I write.)

My 16-year-old son.

Paying bills.

Painting for money (this is connected to the last one--that pesky rent).

Painting for fun (very occasionally)

Being president of NorCal Sisters in Crime (because I didn't have enough to do)

Sick and elderly parents who live two states away.

Checking in with/visiting those parents.

My 16-year-old son (did I mention that he's 16?)

Oh yeah...and landing a new contract for a book series from Signet! (More on this in the next post)

So once again, for those of you who check in from time to time, I apologize! I am pond scum. I'm the scum that feeds off of pond scum. I'm a lazy blogger.

And I keep forgetting not to blink.

Ode to a Good Dog

2008-05-08T15:55:00.001-07:00

Sam

1995-2008

Thirteen years ago, when my son was three years old and I was a single mother who had recently moved across the country and was trying to get my art business off the ground, I decided I needed to further complicate my life.

My housemate, son, and I went to the Berkeley Humane Society, “just to see.”

Since my son was still a pup himself, I wanted him to grow up with a littermate. There were two puppies at the Human Society that day: a darling silky black collie-mix with a white chest and a jaunty air; and a curly brown dog with long lanky legs, curled up shivering in a corner. The black pup already had two admirers, but the brown dog, I was told, was the last (read: “runt”) of a litter of five puppies that were left at night on the steps of the Human Society. She was labeled as “some sort of lab mix” (I was later told that at the pound, every dog is either a “lab mix”, “collie mix,” or “shepherd mix”); and they gave her an approximate age of six weeks.

She was trembling and wild-eyed like a junkie on the second day of rehab. We fell in love.

We named her Sam after my son’s favorite book at the time, Sam-I-Am. Throughout her life people would assume her full name was Samantha, but she was really plain old Sam.

She didn’t stop trembling for two days…but she started to eat. And eat. And to grow at an astonishing, worrying rate. We had been told that Sam would be about thirty-five pounds at full maturity; at this rate, she’d turn out to be more on the scale of a Great Dane. Our bungalow was 900 square feet, with a postage-stamp-sized yard. We lived in fear.

Most days we took her to the nearby park, where a number of neighborhood dog owners gathered in the evenings to let their dogs run. Like most dogs, Sammy loved to run. She ran with wild abandon, silky wavy brown ears flopping over her velvety head, long pink tongue lolling to the side. Soon a pack of adult dogs started running behind her, chasing her around the field not in anger, but joy. And lust. Sammy was in heat.

Apparently, Sam and her siblings had been starved over a long period of time. She wasn’t six weeks old, she was six months. Her remarkable growth rate was more a catch-up than an indication of things to come. Though she grew to about fifty pounds, at least she wasn’t the horse we’d feared she’d become in those first months.

However, she never lost her love, her adoration, her deep personal longing and desire for food. Any kind of food, with the possible exception of certain vegetables and unbuttered popcorn. She loved her people, sure, but food…she had something of a doggy eating disorder.

She adored children, especially my son and his friends, because she soon learned that little boys drop crumbs with alacrity. Any possible nutritional source that hit the floor was gone. Anything left on the coffee table was gone. And once or twice, particularly tempting items –like an entire barbecued chicken—left on the table or kitchen counter…gone. Food.

Sam’s coat was a deep chocolaty brown everywhere but her white chest, and a white bullseye right under her tail. One of her nicknames was “brown dog”; she was, indeed, very brown. As she aged, she stayed curly on top but grew out long feathers on her tail and haunches, like an Irish Setter. On walks people constantly stopped and asked, “what kind of dog is that?” Some guessed Chesapeake Bay Spaniel mix; some guessed Chocolate Lab mix. As time went on, I cast my vote with “some sore of Irish Setter mix”, not only because of her longish snout and flamboyant feathers, but because she was dumb. I mean really dumb. Not a whole lot going on upstairs.

I’ve loved mutts my whole life, and they’ve always been so smart that I assumed the mixing of the breeds naturally resulted in intelligent animals. But Sam proved that theory false. She was an elegant-looking, sweet tempered, dim bulb. She would lie down, long legs pointed out regally in front of her, head held proudly aloft, and look as though she should be featured in an oil painting hung with pride of place above the mantel of an English manor. Then you would call her name and her head would loll toward you, her soft brown eyes looking up with adoration and…nothing much else. Food?

At one point a very clever dog from across the street, Max, showed Sam how to break out of our fenced yard. The two would trot happily about the neighborhood, until Max-the-escape-artist would break back into his house for dinner. Sam, though, couldn’t find her way back into the yard. We’d find her sitting on the front porch, waiting to be let in, and watching squirrels.

She may have been missing a few intelligence genes, but she got more than her fair share of personality. To be kind, she was quirky; weird might be closer to the truth. She wasn’t particularly dog-like. She hated riding in cars. She couldn’t see the point of running after balls. Frisbees were dull. She’d pull on a toy with you if you insisted, but once you dropped it, she dropped it. By and large she disdained other dogs, and though she was friendly enough the truth was that she didn’t care that much for people, either.

However, she was devastatingly, fanatically attracted to squirrels. We moved into a house with a huge yard and she was in canine heaven. She was capable of sitting at the base of a tree for hours, talking to a squirrel, tracking its movements with her eyes, occasionally trying to climb the tree herself. Squirrel! Her whimpers and whines broke out into ear-piercing shrills from time to time when she could no longer keep the excitement to herself.

She would bark fanatically when her people arrived home, for to her barking was a form of discussion. She’d hop around, still barking, and then run the other way, ostensibly to show you she was on the job, patrolling the perimeter of her territory. If you danced, or sang, or had a loud discussion, or ran, or wrestled in a playful way, she would bounce around you stiff-legged, and bark. She barked at friends and neighbors as well as the postal carrier and the UPS guy and the prowler. Few could tell her friendly bark from her fierce bark – all of which were surprisingly shrill and high-pitched for a dog of her girth.

She had one special bark particularly beloved by the neighbors: the “rooster crow”. She let out a bark that sounded exactly like a rooster crowing, usually signaling that someone was at the gate or – even worse—the front door. God forbid anyone ring the doorbell. Later she used “single bark” whenever she wanted to be let in from outside. Short and sweet, rather polite, she would let out one, single, distinct bark. Hello? If you didn’t open the door, she’d wait exactly four minutes. Another bark. Hi? Four minutes later, another bark in exactly the same tone. Let me in! She was relentless.

Another dear love was cats. I know a lot of dogs chase cats, but Sam loved cats. She loved chasing them, but she also loved just sitting and watching them. Her lifelong desire was to be able to lick a cat without it squirming away. She had an unrequited love affair with Midgie, a black and white cat from next door. She yearned for Midgie; if she would have been able, she would have written poems to Midgie. She would sit and look through the metal gate at Midgie for hours, leaving only to ride herd on squirrels. Cat.

Our next-door neighbors, Midgie’s humans, were board members of our local SPCA. I’m sure that’s why Sammy lived as long as she did. Their house was like Sam’s Funhouse. They often left their front door open, and if Sam was out of the gate she’d trot right inside, eat the cat food that was just lying there, unguarded, obviously they didn’t want it, and it was sooooooo good. Then she would chase the cats –for Midgie was one of several—up the stairs and down the stairs, through bedrooms and living rooms. One must understand that when fifty pounds of brownness is barreling through one’s home, things get broken. Food. Cat.

As she aged, her brownness mellowed, and even ceded to white in spots. Eventually her whole muzzle and her expressive, elastic eyebrows were snowy-white. She stopped chasing squirrels, and toward the end, even stopped barking. But she never lost her love for food. Laying on her side, not enough energy even to rouse herself, she was still happy to eat the expensive steak we fed her. To the bitter end, the old gal was fond of a good meal. Or three. She never stopped eating. Food.

Who says no one reads anymore? Check out the LA Times Festival of Books!

2008-05-08T06:43:00.000-07:00

I recently came back from my third L.A. Times Festival of Books, held on the beautiful UCLA campus.

It's a hard scene to describe. Tens of thousands --some say hundreds of thousands--of people from all over the country descend upon the main UCLA campus, where hundreds of tents are set up featuring all things book related: publishers (both large and small presses), authors of all stripes, reading paraphernalia, and books: children's books, travel books, art books, coffee-table books, romance books, literary books, research books...and, of course, mysteries!

It was very, very hot...but the readers and fans came, undaunted.

Here I am, looking about as hot and sweaty as I felt (and I don't mean that in a "she's soooo hot" kind of way...!) Many thanks to Mark Coggins for the photo...why do I NEVER remember to bring a camera?
I signed all three of my books, Feint of Art, Shooting Gallery, and Brush with Death, at several booths: Mysterious Galaxy, Book 'Em, and LA Sisters in Crime. I also sat the Mystery Writers' of America table at the LA Mystery Bookstore, where I was quite literally shoulder-to-shoulder with the charming Catherine Coulter.

All in all, it was an inspiring, though sweaty, weekend. Wonderful to be around all those lovers of the written word in its myriad forms. And we even got out of Westwood for an evening, traveling to Koreatown to eat many kinds of meat cooked at our table. It was great fun...especially the
Soju (otherwise known as Korean saki).

The festival takes place every spring around this time. If you're around next year, I'll see you there!

Sloth resting in Phoenix

2008-04-06T20:24:00.000-07:00

Karen Thompson, of Archetile, her husband Tom, and I went down to Phoenix to install Sloth, at long last, in her garden. Below are a few shots of her temporary resting spot...she may well have to move when the other sins are complete.

Medusa

2008-04-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

Medusa is a fascinating figure. In Greek mythology, she was a beautiful woman who was ravished by Poseidon, which enraged Athena. The goddess transformed her into a monstrous woman and replaced her fine locks with snakes. It was said that she was beheaded by Perseus, who then used her head as a weapon, for anyone who gazed upon her would turn to stone.

Medusa, by Caravaggio

Typically depicted as a horrific vistage crowned with snakes, recently some have re-interpreted Medusa as a strong, fierce woman. I was commissioned to paint a portait of her to be used as a logo for the Memoir Journal.

That's her up in the left-hand corner. In this version, she seems quite serene despite all those snakes where her hair should be.

Spring begins...and brings the Popular Culture Association to San Francisco!

2008-03-21T08:33:00.001-07:00

(At left: Phoenix in two guises. A gorgeous natural setting...and what we've done to it. Hmm.)

I just returned from Phoenix, where I installed Sloth (see earlier posting about the first of the seven deadly sins) for a wealthy client. She looks lovely lounging by a fountain...I'll post pictures soon. Phoenix was warm and breezy, and our hotel had FOUR pools, plus what they claim to be the biggest jacuzzi in Arizona. I don't care much for golfing or driving around in air conditioned cars, but I do love swimming!

But now I'm off to speak at the Popular Culture Association along with Simon Wood and Mark Coggins. This time the conference is at the San Francisco Marriott on Fourth Street.

Above: the Art Deco-inspired facade of the San Francisco Marriott

Simon, Mark and I will be chatting about mysteries...after all, what could be more popular? If you happen to be in the area Friday, March 21, at 8:30, look for us on stage...or in the bar!

Off to Left Coast Crime!

2008-03-05T18:46:00.000-08:00

I'm off to Left Coast Crime, a great mystery convention, held this year in Denver.

I've only been in Denver once, and that was passing through as I went to an anthropology conference in Boulder, years and years ago (another lifetime....)

This time I look forward to the Tequila bus tour of famous Denver murders, led by the invincible Mario Acevedo. I've got my salt shaker ready, Mario...

(Mario writes vampire novels...can you tell?)

On Saturday morning, early (8:30, which will be 7:30 to us West Coasters--someone bring Peet's coffee!!!) I'll be on a panel entitled "Kick Ass Women on a Mission," along with Nancy Pickard, Carolyn Hart, and Roberta Isleib. I always wanted to be thought of as a "Kick-Ass Woman"! (Apparently this is in reference to our heading up local and national chapters of Sisters in Crime, but I like to think I give off that vibe anyway.)

So if you happen to be near Denver...stop on by!!!

Sisters in Crime

2008-02-29T11:00:00.000-08:00

Did I mention that I was elected President (that's Madame, if you please...or Goddess, if you prefer...) of Sisters in Crime Northern California Chapter?

Since no one actually ran against me, there wasn’t a whole lot of tension surrounding the election results--nothing quite so dramatic as the Clinton vs. Obama match. Nonetheless, it was exhilarating to receive an actual vote or two.

Sisters in Crime, for the unitiated, is a national organization whose stated mission is:

"To combat discrimination against women in the mystery field, educate publishers and the general public as to inequities in the treatment of female authors, raise the level of awareness of their contributions to the field, and promote the professional advancement of women who write mysteries."

My first book, Feint of Art, was published just two years ago last month (though it seems much, much longer ago). Since then, I’ve learned a great deal about the publishing business and the craft of writing; attended professional conferences from Arlington to Boise to Anchorage; spoken at libraries and schools and bookstores and mausoleums; and launched two more books in my series (Shooting Gallery; Brush with Death). All of this was done with the generous advice, friendship and support of my fellow mystery writers.

Few writing genres can boast such open camaraderie as the mystery field. I hope to build on that openness in the coming year. NorCal Sisters in Crime has a wonderful, newly energized Board of Directors busily working on the 2008 schedule, which includes meetings the first Saturday of each month. Upcoming events include a talk –and possible face-to-face pitch sessions—with a San Francisco-based literary agent; a luncheon-discussion with a publicist-turned literary agent; and presentations by a retired homicide detective, a 911 director, and private investigators. We’re also talking about possible trips to Alcatraz and the Winchester Mystery House, and workshops on how to write a great query letter and develop an agent packet.

Sisters in Crime is open to everyone from the most established published author to the newest mystery fan. That diversity of membership offers certain challenges, but also great strength and interest. While continuing to offer published authors professional opportunities through our Speakers Bureau, in 2008 NorCal SinC looks forward to offering more constructive events for not-yet-published writers, as well as mixers and presentations of interest to readers and fans of the genre.

If you find yourself in the San Francisco Bay Area on the first Saturday of the month -- Join us!!!

Big Art Heists: What do they do with the art that they steal?

2008-02-25T07:59:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago there was a big art heist in a private museum in Zurich, Switzerland. Three gunmen in ski masks and dark clothes burst into a museum just before closing time, yanked a few paintings off he walls, and sped off with works by Monet, Cezanne, Degas and van Gogh valued at $163.2 million.

Check out the full story here:
http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2008/02/11/robbers_steal_100m_in_art_from_zurich/
But people keep saying that such big art heists don’t make any sense: after all, the robberies are reported so widely and the artworks are so well known that they can’t be sold, even on the black market, right?

(Above: Stolen Monet)
Why do people bother to steal highly recognizable artworks? Are they just stupid amateurs?

Sometimes they are. Unfortunately, most art collections aren’t exactly rolling in the dough, and few can afford the kind of high-tech security systems featured in movies like “The Thomas Crown Affair” (I liked the one with Steve McQueen best, myself…) In fact, lax security probably explains a whole lot of theft, which is often perpetrated on the spur of the moment. Ultimately, most of these artworks are found by the police, left in bus stations to be “discovered”, or destroyed by the thieves when they realize they have no idea how to sell them.

But they’re not all amateurs…

Here are a few reasons to steal big-name art:

Paintings are “ransomed” back to the insurance company for less than the total insurance payment. Thus you might steal $163 million dollars worth of virtually un-saleable paintings and get a few million from the insurance company to give them back. This type of story is kept under wraps. Typically one reads that the police received an anonymous tip to the location of the paintings; the insurance pay-offs are kept mum.

Paintings are occasionally stolen by order. This seems to be a motivation more common in Hollywood than in real life, but the truth is that museum security is sometimes shockingly lax, and a big-name underworld figure might increase his/her status by owning a notoriously stolen work of art. Or maybe they’re huge Cezanne fans…one never knows.

Perhaps the most typical reason, recently, is to be used as “chips” in drugs/arms smuggling deals. Art crime is now the third most common international crime, and is often linked with organized crime (called “criminal enterprise”). Once an item is stolen, headlines proclaim its worth. Thus criminals have a number to start with: they can use the painting as a “chip” to hold while awaiting payment on drugs, arms, or other smuggled merchandise.

(Above: Stolen Cezanne)

For lots more info on theft and forgery in the art field -- or to offer them a lead if you have any about lost or stolen art-- check out the great website of The FBI Art Squad --http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/arttheft.htm

Portraits

2008-02-20T18:28:00.000-08:00

Portraits are my favorite thing to paint. To be able to capture a sense of personality and mood on canvas is miraculous...and I've never quite succeeded to my satisfaction. But isn't that part of the definition of art -- always striving for better? I adore the work of masters like Caravaggio and Bronzino...but I'll never come near them in terms of skill or beauty. Ah, well...

Ok, I'm not dead yet!

2008-02-20T17:53:00.000-08:00

Hello to any and all my blog readers out there! One really distressing thing about these blog posts is that they are automatically dated, so everyone can see exactly how long it has been since I last posted anything on my blog. Doh! Mental slap on this writer's wrist. Somehow life managed to intervene...first the holidays, then a few family health issues, then a busy painting season.

But now I'm back, pledging to at least check in with some frequency.

First things first: The fourth instalment of the Art Lover's Mystery Series (featuring our intrepid heroine, Annie Kincaid) has been put on hold...temporarily. Arsenic and Old Paint, as it is tentatively titled, is nearly complete, but you'll have to wait to see exactly who Annie will wind up with, and how. Not to mention all those goodies about art forgery, art theft, and the wild and wacky art world in general.

In the meantime, I'm busily writing a new series about a failed anthropologist running her father's exclusive home remodel business in San Francisco. Sophie Tanner, is a little older and --probably--a bit wiser than Annie, but still a whole lot of fun. It's a blast getting to create a whole new cast of characters: a 16-year-old ex-stepson who won't go away, an ex-husband on his third wife, a curmedgeonly but loving dad, two unrepentant strippers, and several anthropologists and historians who get in on the act. I'll keep you posted about If Walls Could Talk, maybe even post a teaser now and then...

I'll post again soon...and this time, it's a promise!

Gold Gilding made simple!

2007-10-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

At the end of Shooting Gallery, second in the Annie Kincaid Art Lover's Mystery Series, I feature a small guide to gilding in the back of the book. Recently I was gilding some curtain rods, finials (the decorative rod ends), brackets, and 64 rings for a San Francisco-based designer I work with often. I thought I'd take some snapshots so readers could have a visual of the gold gilding process.

First thing to know: It's messy! Gold gilt gets everywhere!

Below: the crucial supplies

Pictured above are water-based sizing (glue), a roll of gold gilt, a "book" of gilt, soft-bristled brushes, rags.

No, I am not working with genuine 24-carat gold in this instance. Instead, in most cases we use something called "composition gold" -- which means, essentially, that it's fake. Though it has a different feel --real gold is actually easier to work with-- the composition gold metal looks great. I'm usually "distressing" items to make them look older than they are, anyway, and there are very few who can tell the difference between real and fake under such circumstances. Of course, Annie Kincaid would probably spot it from 10 feet away...!

By the way, in this case I did not paint the rods because they already had a mahogany finish that I was happy to let come through the gold, here and there. The traditional underpaint is clay red, which is usually mimicked with red oxide paint.

In process: the glue has been applied to the rings, which are laid out until they reach the correct level of "tack." Determining when they are just right is the hardest part of gilding for many craftspeople. If you rush it, the gilt will "sink" into the glue, creating a muddy, dull finish. The gilt should sit "on top" of the glue, lending it brilliance.

To be sure the sizing is ready for the gold, try this gilder's trick: using your knuckle, press into the glue slightly. When you pull away, you should hear a distincitve "snick" sound. If you do, you're ready to gild.

Above: the rods in process. Gilding is a messy job -- flakes fly everywhere. Don't be afraid to make a mess and you'll do fine.

After applying the gold to all sized surfaces, you start to rub away the excess gilt. This is the fun part -- be ready for gold confetti everywhere! Very gently, using a soft brush, cloth, cheesecloth, or even steel wool for a more distressed finish, leave a smooth finish behind.

Leave the items for 24 hours to be sure the size is dry, then distress with steel wool, sandpaper, or even nails (depending on how "old" and "banged up" you want your item to appear), and then use an oil-based glaze to tint the metal. Burnt Umber gives a mellow, antique look, while a little flake white can catch in crevices to make an item look "dusty," as the finials below.

Above: finials after applying gold gilt but before burnishing.
Below: the burnished, rubbed and glazed finials.

Hooper Bay, Part III: Yes, I tried eating seal (and moose, too...!)

2007-10-07T05:05:00.000-07:00

From Brush with Death:

My sophomore year in college I had briefly flirted with abandoning art for anthropology when the professor of a required course explained the importance of eating local cuisine. One of my special talents was the ability to eat just about anything, and in truly astonishing quantities, so I figured I was a natural for fieldwork. Fried grasshoppers and whale blubber? No problem. The secret was in the seasoning. The flirtation came to an abrupt halt with the unit on genealogical charts: patrilineal, matrilineal, affinal, fictive…. I don’t do charts (p.88).

It's true what they say about much of writing being autobiographical. I actually do have a Masters degree in anthropology (never quite finished that darned PhD...) and I always loved doing my fieldwork among different ethnic groups. I have eaten some wonderful things...and managed to nibble on some dubious items, as well. Here's a picture of me putting those skills to work again, trying seal in Hooper Bay:

Esther and I, eating seal

The Yup'ik people of Hooper Bay continue to practice a subsistence way of life, which includes hunting and gathering the great majority of their food. Seal, Beluga whale, all kinds of fish, berries, and greens are gathered during their appropriate seasons, and then are dried or frozen and eaten all year long.

Above: sunset over the dunes on the beach

Above: The bumpy road to the airport

Before I knew it, it was time to go home. Scott, the vice-principal at Hooper Bay School, gave me a ride to the airport, which is a fancy name for a single landing strip. For a town of 1200 people, Hooper Bay has a lot of flights: at least two in the morning, and two in the evening. There are no roads across the tundra, so all goods and people have to come by plane or boat...and the boats are limited to the summertime.
Below: my ride back to Bethel

As we flew low over the vast tundra of the Yukon Delta Wildlife Sanctuary, I reflected upon my visit. I had spoken with three or four classes a day, learned a few words of Yup'ik, strolled through the village, chatted with townsfolk in the native store, gone out berry-picking on the tundra, raced along the beach on the Honda 4-wheeler, feasted on native delicacies, made a lot of new friends, heard ghost stories, fishing stories, and hunting stories...and now it was time to return to my other life.

Among so many other things, I have to get back to writing Book 4 in the Art Lovers' Mystery Series, tentatively entitled Arsenic and Old Paint. I wonder whether Annie will wind up in a native Alaskan village somehow...?

Hooper Bay, Part II: A Walk Through Naparyarmiut Village

2007-10-06T05:35:00.000-07:00

Little girl playing in a puddle, not feeling the cold. It was 40 degrees outside and yours truly (a Californian through-and-through) was wearing a wool coat with hood, three layers of shirts and sweaters, a fleece cap and gloves.

Walking through Hooper Bay, it's hard not to be impressed with the friendliness of the residents. The only way into the village is by boat in the summer, or airplane. Since there are no connecting roads, no one comes here by accident.

People smiled broadly at me as I wandered, taking pictures. In the native store, several people stopped me and asked who I was, what I was doing in Hooper Bay, and whether I was a new teacher. They gave me a warm welcome to their town.

Above: Cousins "fishing" in a puddle

Above: The "Native Store" offers everything from Coca Cola to wireless keyboards -- all at a steep price. Outside food and products have to be shipped or flown into town.

The town suffered a terrible fire in the summer of 2006, which destroyed the old school along with many houses. FEMA and a number of other programs have helped to build new homes for those who lost everything. Above are some new houses with a great new advantage: they're actually winterized, complete with insulation and weather-stripping.

A sister and brother pretending to be pirates

Path through town.

There are no trees on the tundra, but villagers collect driftwood -- and there's a lot of it-- from the beach and stockpile it to use in building and for fires. They need firewood to heat the "steambaths" --small shacks that contain a 55-gallon drum for a fire, upon which they sprinkle water to create steam. Especially considering the lack of running water, the steambaths provide a relaxing cleanse.

The green National Guard building, above, has been empty since the soldiers were sent to Iraq
Path through town. There are no "yards," since nothing grows in the ground due to permafrost. Homes and pipes are lifted off the ground for the same reason: the ground is frozen past the first few inches throughout the summer, and immediately freezes over in the winter

View of houses "uptown", with a water pipe in the foreground. As yet, only the teacher housing and school building have running water (and thus toilets and showers); everyone else makes due with "honey buckets" and by hauling water and waste to and from collection stations. The town is working on bringing running water to all of the residences. Children mugging for the camera on their way home from school. The children all have English names like Florence, Emmanuel, and Sharon; their Yup'ik names are hard for English-speakers to pronouce: Qassayuli, Quakaaq, and Tan'giigak, for example. They found my attempts at Yup'ik pronunciation to be hilarious.

Boardwalks provide a dry path in a muddy land. The town is built over what might be considered a marsh or a swamp -- the tundra is full of water.
Above: the Catholic church

There are very few public buildings in town, but Christian missionaries established themselves throughout the native villages years ago.

Above: Fish drying on rack above front door

Yup'ik families spend much of their time hunting, fishing, and gathering seasonal berries and greens. These subsistence activities allow the families to survive harsh conditions of chronic unemployment and poverty, but the hunting, fishing, and picking "parties" are also great fun, bringing families closer together and helping to maintain yuuyaraq, the Yup'ik way of life. The children told me many long and entertaining stories of searching for food with their families out on the tundra during the warm season, and hunting all year long. Any overabundance of fish, meat and berries are then dried or frozen and eaten throughout the winter.

Entrance to a typical home, complete with stash of driftwood.

A visit to Hooper Bay School, in the Alaskan tundra

2007-10-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

A third grade class at Hooper Bay School, aka Naparyarmiut Elicarviat

When I signed up to go to Bouchercon 2007 in Anchorage, I expected much of what I have experienced at other great mystery conferences: to meet up with fellow readers and writers (mystery-lovers, all); to participate in and listen to fascinating, lively panels; and to reunite with old friends. In this case it also involved a few evenings of karaoke with an unlikely cast of characters who shall remain nameless – but their initials are Brian, Cornelia, David, Alexandra, Ingrid, Ken, Michelle, Jason, Lukas… I’m sure I’m missing a few, but there was a fair amount of liquor involved. I'm only sorry that I didn't have my camera with me...!

But when I agreed to take part in the Authors in the Bush program, I wasn’t sure what to expect. My first inkling that this would be a real adventure came from the questionnaire sent to all the authors who agreed to participate:

How do you feel about traveling by very small boats or bush planes?
Would you eat wild game such as caribou or seal?
Do you mind sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag?
Are you willing to use a “honey bucket”?

(Use your imagination on that last one.)

I might mention that in a past life I was an anthropologist. I’ve tromped through jungles in Central America, visited rural Mexican villages, and spent six weeks in a Vietnamese refugee camp in the Philippines. Becoming the visiting author to a native Alaskan village sounded like an adventure far too intriguing to miss.

Right after Bouchercon ended I boarded an Alaska airplane for Bethel, where I dragged my suitcase down a dark road until I found the small “bush plane” bound for Hooper Bay, in the Yukon Delta, right on the coast of the Bering Sea.

A lone landing strip constitutes the Hooper Bay "airport." I was picked up by George, a maintenance man from Hooper Bay School, and one of the few people in the village with access to a vehicle with an enclosed cab (more on that later.) A lovely sixth-grade teacher, Cate Koskey, welcomed me into her home. Originally from Indiana, Cate has lived and taught in the village for several years. Her apartment, like all the teacher housing and none of the rest of the village, has running water (eating wild game is one thing, but I wasn’t really up for the “honey buckets”.)

Cate, little Esther, and Tuluk: my hosts

After a devastating fire in August, 2006, a huge new school building was constructed to serve over 400 children – more than a third of the town’s total population.

Above: The new school building, which was luckily already under construction when the old building burned. By village standards, this is a massive structure. Though there are only about 1,200 people in town, more than 400 of these are school-age children, so the school plays a large part in the lives of all the villagers. The building is used for a multitude of community events, and is truly a center of village life.

Below: The school at dawn, which was when school was starting, about 8:45 am.

Over the next few days I spoke with several classes, from first grade to twelfth, about all sorts of things: spooky native legends, what Oakland is like, how to find an agent and get published, what “mouse food” is (it’s the contents of the mouse’s secret cache of food for the winter. Apparently it’s quite tasty.)

Hooper Bay School also has a Yup'ik language immersion program for the youngest children, and the native tongue is witnessing a resurgence after several generations of being cast aside in favor of English. The children told me all about yuuyaraq, the Yup'ik way of life, which includes love, responsibility, respect, bravery, and self-discipline.

We also discussed the elements of a classic mystery: a crime, a victim, a bad guy, a detective, red herrings, alibis, evidence, clues, modes of death. The children especially enjoyed coming up with weird ways to kill someone. The younger ones related to "Scooby-Doo", the older ones to "CSI". Even in the remote reaches of the Bering Sea coast, there are satellite dishes and whatever shows Hollywood serves up.

Above: Rambunctious third-graders in class

Above: First graders in their "reading corner"
Below: A teacher aide with Helen; and more fun classes, making me feel welcome

Basketball is a favorite sport. This outdoor court is rarely dry enough to use, but the kids love being outside. Plus, there's an ocean view!

The roads are so pitted --and the weather so extreme--that cars are unknown and only a few have trucks. Nearly everyone uses 4-wheeled ATVs, or "Hondas".

Above: The school parking lot--everyone headed home after school

A group of teenagers--it's common to see four or five, or more, people on each ATV

As one might expect, these Hondas provide vital transportation -- as well as entertainment. My new friend Tuluk took me on a wild ride along the beach to see "Old Hooper Bay" -- the remnants of the ancient village.

Below: Tuluk stands in Cate's "fish camp" -- a structure ready for tenting whenever the fish are running. Cate has learned a great deal about the subsistence ways of the native Alaskans, and enjoys taking part. Check out her blog at http://hooperbaytundra.blogspot.com/. The hills in the background are all that's left of "Old Hooper Bay."

On another day, Tuluk, Cate, and Esther took me out to experience the tundra. It's a landscape unlike anything I've ever seen: completely treeless; full of water, puddles, and ponds; and entirely covered with a spongy layer at least six inches deep -- I never could find the ground-- of lichen, tiny berry plants, herbs, and even mushrooms! Above: Gassing up for the trip

Below: The landscape, looking back toward town

Mushrooms!

Two-year-old Esther was a champion berry-finder; we ate little round "cranberries" and "blackberries" -- unlike the one we know by that name in California. The compelling landscape made me wonder what everything must look like in its more typical guise: covered in snow.
To be continued in Part II!

North to Alaska!

2007-09-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

I'm off to Bouchercon, a big mystery conference held in a different city every year. This year, it's in Anchorage, Alaska. Sure, I thought, how bad could it be...until they told me there might be snow! We Californians (at least those of use from the Bay Area) aren't used to weather with a big "W" -- we tend to whine when it rains, much less snows...

Still, there's a chance I'll get to see Aurora Borealis or even a moose, so what could be better than that?

Fellow Sister in Crime (or is it Mister in Crime?) Simon Woods is nominated for an Anthony Award, so I'll be rooting for him. After the conference, I'm taking part in the Authors in the Bush Program, which sends unsuspecting souls like me and Simon (and several others) off to different remote villages to teach writing in the schools for a few days. We have a whole curriculum having to do with a mystery surrounding the murder of a rabbit...there's a fingerprinting exercise, and we'll conduct interviews of the suspects including a wolf and a bear. Should be great fun!

My assignment is Hooper Bay, a village that suffered a terrible fire last summer. I'm anxious to see their new school building, and visit the surrounding area.

You can find more information about Hooper Bay here: http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/dca/commdb/CF_CIS.htm http://www.city-data.com/city/Hooper-Bay-Alaska.html
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=5758635 http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/rural/story/8510114p-8403180c.html

Check back for photos upon my return October 4!

Portrait Contest Press Release

2007-09-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kristin Lindstrom
September 19, 2007 Art Lover's Mystery Series
lindlitgrp@aol.com
703-522-4730

Hailey Lind Releases Portrait of Contest Winner!

Second Portrait Deadline Extended to October 15

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Hailey Lind, who writes the Art Lover's Mystery Series, has released the first portrait won under the 2006 Portrait Contest to winner Barbara Hussey of New Orleans, selected from the hundreds of readers entered. Ms. Hussey, a Katrina survivor who lost everything in the storm including all family photographs, wanted a

Julie Goodson-Lawes holds the finished portrait of Lillie Richoux and the
church directory photo from which she worked.

portrait painted of her late mother, Lillie Richoux, along with the pink roses that she loved. The only surviving photograph was located in an old church directory. Coincidentally, the portrait is due to be delivered to Ms. Hussey on her birthday.

Hailey Lind is the pen name for two sisters, Carolyn Lawes, an historian, and Julie Goodson-Lawes, an artist. Ms. Goodson-Lawes painted the custom portrait for Ms. Hussey.

A portrait contest is held for the release of each mystery in the series, and the current contest coincided with the launch of Hailey Lind’s third book from Signet, Brush with Death, in July. The winner of the contest will receive a portrait of themselves or a loved one painted in the style of an Old Master -- such as Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, or Raphael -– from a photograph. Readers, booksellers, reviewers, and other interested parties can register for the contest at the author’s website, www.haileylind.com or by mailing a postcard with their name, email address and phone number to Art Lovers Mystery Series Portrait Contest, 871 N. Greenbrier Street, Arlington, VA 22205. The deadline for the current Portrait Contest, originally September 30, has been extended to October 15. The winner will be selected October 25.

In order to enter, readers must answer a question taken from Brush with Death: What religion did little Louis Spencer's family practice? No purchase is necessary. The contest is open to legal U.S. and Canadian residents ages 18 and up. There is a limit of one entry per individual and e-mail address. The winner will be selected at random from all entrants and notified by email or phone. (Employees of Penguin Putnam and its subsidiaries are not eligible to enter.) More information on how to enter and on contest rules is available at www.haileylind.com.

This is my dog, Sam. This isn't part of the Press Release, I just think she's adorable

The First of Seven Deadly Sins: Sloth and Adventures in Sculpting

2007-09-10T06:29:00.001-07:00

Personally, I'm rather fond of sloth -- I like to imagine I look a little like the woman above while I'm being slothful...though the reality is probably not quite so lovely. She's likely to wake up with a crick in her neck, anyway. But I digress.

While pondering themes for a series of garden sculptures for a client, I happened upon the idea of rendering romantic sculptures depicting the 7 deadly sins. Sins are such fun, especially those spelled out in other times -- they seem so relatively innocent now, in comparison to modern evils like genocide and fomenting environmental disasters.

The Seven Deadly Sins are Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, and Pride. I'm not sure of the order, but I don't know if it matters. They're all nasty, just the same, and according to medieval scholars, deserved particular punishments in hell.

Above: The Seven Deadly Sins

Below: The punishment for Sloth was eternity in a snake pit.

I am first and foremost a painter -- I love the sensual feel of paints and brushes, the building up of the pigments, the layering of tones and shadows. But along with San Francisco mosaic artist Karen Thompson of Archetile , I've been venturing into the exciting world of sculpture.

3-D art can be accomplished in two basic ways: by taking away (as in chipping away at a marble slab) or by adding (as in clay). Karen and I wanted something that would endure in an outdoor setting, and since I don't really trust myself with sharp objects --and have had zero training in this area-- we decided to steer away from expensive stone carving. Instead, we began with a rebar structure, added wire and styrofoam, and sculpted out of cement and sand. Afterward, Karen and her assistant Mary added the mosaic blanket.

From concept to reality

The fun part of making seven sculptures of beautiful women representing the seven sins is that it would take the viewer a while to realize what the figures represented, if they ascertained it at all. From early concept drawings, we considered certain engineering difficulties and the steep learning curve. Finally, we decided to begin our adventures in sculpture with Sloth...in particular, Sloth as depcited by a beautiful sleeping woman.

This was the original small clay concept, or "maquette", and the wire frame we thought we would need contstructed in rebar to support our slothful type -- in concrete, our girl's a bit hefty.

Above: On the rebar frame, we wrapped styrofoam and steel wool in chicken wire to hold the cement.

Below: Building up the cement/sand mixture. The working time is limited, as the cement goes through a chemical trasformation as it dries. We scratched the surface so that the next layer would adhere.

After her first body dried, we wrapped her in a silk sari to study the folds for the mosaic, to be applied later:

Above: Nearing completion in Karen's mosaic studio! (And she's still asleep, I might add.)

Below: The in-progress and nearly complete Sloth, from the rear. With each layer of cement, our Sloth fills out and becomes more vuluptuous.

A couple more shots:

I'll post pictures of lovely Sloth when she's installed in her new home in a pecan grove in Phoenix, Arizona. We hope to have the beautiful Gluttony join her soon.

Yreka...just because!

2007-09-07T07:37:00.000-07:00

Good to know:

at a rest stop just beyond Shasta Mountain, you can still find espresso.

This summer has been full of travel and talks for the newest release in the Art Lover's Mystery Series, Brush with Death.

Oakland-based artist half of Hailey (aka, Julie) spoke all around the Bay Area, including the San Francisco Mystery Bookstore and M is for Mystery in San Mateo, then trekked down to San Diego and Los Angeles to appear at Mysterious Galaxy and the Los Angeles Mystery Bookstore. I also spoke at several libraries, especially in San Jose, in support of the Adults' summer reading program.

The summer whirlwind came to a close with a trip up to the northernmost region of California, in what is known as Jefferson State (see below!) . My parents own 20 acres on a mountain bordering Scott Valley, and I've been visiting the area since I was four years old.

The Cabin

Two views from the cabin

In the Bay Area things change so quickly it's hard to recognize much from one's childhood; but the Scott Valley area has always seemed nostalgic to me -- it looks virtually the same as it did when we used to come into town to use the laundromat, buy Jolly Ranchers from Willard's General Store, and ooh and aah over the two-headed calf in Fort Jones' charming town museum.

Last July I went up to the cabin for a brief retreat with some friends, and dropped by the Yreka Bookstore located on the town's charming, old-fashioned Miner Street -- largely unchanged from its days as a Gold Rush center. The store was closed (it was the 4th of July, after all) but I left a note and some bookmarks. Upon my return home to Oakland, I received the sweetest phone message from Mary Ellen Rock, owner of Yreka Bookstore. "You're our very favorite author!" Mary Ellen declared in a soft south Carolina drawl. She may have been stretching the truth just a tad, but I'll take what I can get....

She invited me to visit the store to do a signing when I went north again to close up the cabin for the winter. On August 30 I arrived to find a table decorated with balloons and beautiful lilies, and homemade cookies and punch. Over the next few hours I met old friends and new -- the Heskett clan, the Enos clan -- and chatted with Pat, Michelle, and Mary Ellen of the bookstore. We were even featured on the front page of the Siskiyou Daily that Friday, complete with a color photo! (Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me--so no photos of the Bookstore Gang!)

Mary Ellen Rock has a wonderful motto (which is in reference to a popular author whose name I won't mention): "I will not stock hatemongers." Words to live by!

Ah, the beauty of a small town. I met so many wonderful people --Annette, Trina, another Mary Ellen, Dori, Deborah-- signed a lot of books, talked art and writing and local memories. Thanks to all of those in Yreka and the surrounding area for the warm welcome. See you next summer!

Brush with Death Release Party

2007-07-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

On Friday the 13th of July (such an auspicious date!) 120 friends, readers, and architectural history buffs gathered at the Chapel of the Chimes Columbarium in Oakland for the Brush with Death launch party. The setting was entirely appropriate, since Brush with Death is set in the columbarium and the cemetery next door.
We began with a ghostly tour of the locale, designed by Julia Morgan in the 1920s -- Morgan is the famous Berkeley architect who designed Hearst Castle, among hundreds of other distinctive gothic-romanesque buildings throughout the Bay Area. A columbarium is similar to a mausoleum, but holds the urns and boxes of cremated remains. The building itself is rife with mosaic, murals, stained glass, lush gardens, and gorgeous historical artifacts brought over from Europe.

Here are a few of the motley crew who came out on a beautiful summer night to hear me natter on about two of my favorite subjects: art and mystery! From left to right: Celeste, Mary, Sergio, and Jorge:

And a few more, Debra, Kaye, One-Half of Hailey Lind, Anthea, and Shay. Debra, Kaye, and Anthea came all the way from L.A. for the party! Or maybe it was the free wine...

It looks a lot like I'm leading a prayer service, but in fact the columbarium opens its doors --and the non-denominational chapel-- to all sorts of community events. Today it just happened to be me, reading short excerpts from Brush with Death and answering a barrage of friendly questions from inquiring minds.

The party was a great opportunity to meet new people, both readers and fans of the Chapel of the Chimes. New friends and readers enjoyed the evening, including MySpace pal Brian and his daughter.

Allison Rodman, with Lifemark Group (owner of Chapel of the Chimes and several other lovely sites) supported us throughout the writing of Brush with Death, and served up some delicious snacks at the party (or so I'm told...I didn't manage to get any, myself!) She is a charming tour guide and a font of historical information.

Diane Kudisch, owner of the wonderful San Francisco Mystery Bookstore, came to sell Feint of Art, Shooting Gallery, and Brush with Death. She sold out!

My friend Chris said he felt awkward coming to the party alone, so he brought his stuffed bunny. Only Chris could walk in to a party with a bunny under his arm and not look foolish. Jace tried to make him feel more at home...

My friend (and native San Franciscan fact checker) shows off her "favorite book":

From Brush with Death:
The rooms of the columbarium were lined with thousands of small compartments which, to an apartment-dweller like me, resembled nothing so much as glass-fronted mailboxes. In each compartment were urns or decorative containers –often cast-bronze in the shape of a book, as in “the story of one’s life”-- holding human remains. Here and there larger and more richly decorated “feature niches,” which were glassed in on two sides, created “windows” between the alcoves.
Chapel of the Chimes Columbarium’s labyrinthine floor plan had been designed to create a series of intimate spaces, each unique and elaborately decorated, to allow family members to visit their lost loved ones in solitude. Alcoves and passageways branched off into more alcoves and passageways, some opening onto a cloistered hallway or a courtyard garden, others leading to dead ends. When I started working here I had spent the first twenty minutes of each painting session wandering through the chapels and gardens, turning this way and that, ducking down one blind alley after another until stumbling, seemingly at random, upon the Chapel of the Madonna where Mary and I were restoring two water-damaged lunettes. I now had the route memorized, and only took a wrong turn when distracted.

Brush with Death on sale now at bookstores everywhere! Or try Powell's, Seattle Mystery Bookshop, San Francisco Mystery Bookstore, or Mysterious Galaxy on-line!

The quiet before the storm…

2007-07-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

Forty years ago my parents built --with their own two blistered hands-- a little cabin on twenty acres in the Siskiyou Mountains in Northern California, just about an hour south of the Oregon border. The cabin was meant to be a temporary structure while they built their real retirement home, but plans change. They now live within reach of handy things like electricity and city water, rather than dealing with the vicissitudes of life on the mountain. But some of my happiest childhood memories are of lounging on the screened-in porch with a book, or sitting by the river with a book, or snuggling in my sleeping bag…with a book.

As an adult I can begin to understand the legacy my parents left me: the quiet, the sweet-smelling air, the lack of city craziness. Glimpses of deer, wild turkeys, black bears, quail, fox, rabbits….even emus (residing on a nearby farm). For the past several years I have dragged my hapless son (and some duped friends) along as well. It’s amazing to see what happens to children when deprived of video games, television, and other electronic devices. We swim in the river by day, cook over the campfire, and play cards and board games well into the night. Occasionally there is actually some civilized conversation!

I went this time with my friends Mary and Anna, and we drank a toast to the release of Brush with Death on July 3. It seemed somehow appropriate that I would be in the quiet of the woods when the book came out, since it was there that I developed and nurtured my dearest love of reading.

On our way back to real life we stopped by the charming Yreka Bookstore, in Old Town on Miner Street, but like many sane people they were closed on the 4th of July. Still, we spotted Brush with Death on their rack of new books. I left a note for Mary Ellen Rock, the owner, and she called back to tell me that I have a lot of fans in the small town of Yreka! She invited me to sign later this summer, and I’m really looking forward to it!

How amazing to think that, after all those years of reading paperbacks in the wilds of Jefferson State, our book would be on those very bookshelves!

Chapel of the Chimes

2007-05-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

In the NY Times yesterday, there was a fascinating article about historic cemeteries as tourist attractions. The article, titled Cemeteries Seek Breathing Clientele, features the Chapel of the Chimes:

Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, Calif., a columbarium designed by Julia Morgan, architect of San Simeon, recently started “Jazz at the Chimes” concerts to reach culture enthusiasts who might be potential customers.

They forgot to mention that the Chapel of the Chimes is a character in Brush with Death (available July 3rd!). Apparently no one told them about the RELEASE PARTY we have planned for July 13th.

SoCal Adventure

2007-04-24T23:04:00.000-07:00

Heading south, again... for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: April 28 and 29th.

It is a huge undertaking housed on the UCLA campus. The event is free, there will be thousands of booksellers, exhibits and AUTHORS on hand.

Saturday, April 28
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books:Mysterious Galaxy Booth—11-12 noonBook ‘Em—1-2 pm

The Los Angeles Times has a great spread on the Festival today!

Check out the program guide.

Famous Forgers Part III

2007-04-16T06:31:00.000-07:00

Tom Keating:
A real character, this cockney house painter was imprisoned for fraud when he tried to pass off 13 of his drawings as the work of British painter Samuel Palmer. He later confessed to having painted 2,000 "Sexton Blakes" (fakes).

Here's an article that discusses how Keating and others became famous for their fakes! You will find all of our famous forgers get mentioned in the article.

Page 69 Test

2007-04-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

Got an invitation to participate in the Page 69 Test for Shooting Gallery a couple of weeks ago from Marshal Zeringue.

Here's how Marshall describes the test:

Is it representative of the rest of the book? Would a reader skimming that page be inclined to read on? The fact is, p 69 may well not be representative of the book, but the answer gives you an opportunity to say something about what your book really is about and how that page fits in or ... whatever you like.

He has over 160 books tested so far.

How could I resist that offer?? It was an interesting and difficult experience. It felt a little like an English composition assignment, but it was fun, too.

Check out the Page 69 Test for Shooting Gallery. How does your other favorite book fare?

Famous Forgers Part II

2007-04-11T23:43:00.000-07:00

John Drew:Drew was imprisoned for commissioning fakes from artist John Myatt (see below), and then forging documentary “proof of provenance”. He slipped the papers into art library collections for investigators to find while researching the forged works of art.
Original Picasso:

Faked Picasso:

John Myatt:
Prolific forger in a profitable partnership with art dealer, John Drew.

Mystery and Independent Bookstores

2007-04-09T05:28:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't caught the links on my website for some of my favorite independent bookstores, I thought I would list them here...

Green Apple Books
Powell's

Here are a few where I have done readings/signings in the past:

San Francisco Mystery Bookstore: I have truly enjoyed my readings/signings at this hometown favorite, plus this bookseller sold books at my Shooting Gallery release party! Thanks again Diane!
Mysterious Galaxy--one of my favorite, not just because I made it to their top selling paperback list! I really enjoyed my signing for Shooting Gallery there...and looking forward to more signings for Brush with Death!
Seattle Mystery Bookstore: a new favorite since my trip there in February!
M is for Mystery: great place to look for specialty (first edition, signed, etc.) items.

Send me links to your favorite hometown bookseller! Let me know if they are carrying my books. I would love to send them a poster in time for the latest release in July!

Stay tuned...more to come as I make my way around the country!
Support your local bookseller!

Where will Hailey be??

2007-04-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

Well...all over, actually...
you can always check here to see if I have added more appearances, but for now, this is what I have booked.

April 28, Saturday -- Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: I will be at the Mysterious Galaxy (booth #614) —11-12 noon and at Book ‘Em (booth #441) —1-2 pm; at UCLA

May 3-6, Friday to Sunday -- Malice Domestic Conference, Arlington, VA; I will be at a Meet the Authors breakfast on Saturday, May 5th at 9:00 am in Salon III.

May 12, Saturday: I’ll join Joel and Christy Harris for the Grand Opening of their new bookstore, Clayton Books : 5433 D Clayton Road , Clayton, CA 94517, (925) 673-3325

May 22, Tuesday at 7:30 pm, I will be at Castro Valley Library with Camille Minichino: 20055 Redwood Rd.Castro Valley, CA 94546; 510-670-6280.

June 7-10, Thursday to Sunday -- Murder in the Grove Conference, Boise, ID:Boise Centre on the Grove, 850 Front Street; more information to come.

June 30, Saturday at 2pm -- I will be at the Kensington Library with Diane Chambers, Priscilla Royal, and Mark Coggins: 61 Arlington Avenue, Kensington, CA 94707; 510-524-3043.

JULY 3RD -- BRUSH WITH DEATH HITS THE BOOKSTORES!!

July 11, Wednesday at 6:30 pm -- I will be speaking at the Rose Garden Branch of the San Jose Library with Vinnie Hansen: 1580 Naglee Ave., San José, CA 95126; (408) 808-3070.

July 13, Friday from 7-10 pm m-- release party for Brush with Death at the Oakland Columbarium! Full details to come... check out the preliminary details here.

July 26, Thursday at 7 pm -- I will participate in a Sisters in Crime panel at the Lafayette Library with Camille Minichino, Ann Parker, and Peggy Dulle: 952 Moraga Road, Lafayette, CA 94549; (925) 283-3872.

July 28, Saturday at 2 pm, I will participate in a Sisters in Crime panel at the San Jose Cambrian Library: 1780 Hillsdale Ave., San José, CA 95124; (408) 808-3080

August, B&N Book Fair, Dublin, details TBA

October 13, Northern California Sisters in Crime Writing Conference, All Day event, Stockton, CA. Further details TBA

Never fear, I will remind you as we get closer to these dates!!

Famous Forgers Part I

2007-04-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

Han Van Megeeren:
Imprisoned and accused of selling a Vermeer to Goering under Hitler’s reign –which amounted to treason—Van Megeeren produced an exquisite forgery while in jail to prove that he had sold Goering one of his own copies. The charges were commuted to forgery.Elmyr de Hory:
A prolific and versatile forger, de Hory claims that ninety percent of his fakes have gone undetected and hang on museum walls.
You can learn more about Elmyr de Hory in Clifford Irving's book, Fake. Speaking of Irving, the movie detailing his HOAX will be out April 13th, and if you need an excuse to see Richard Gere looking fabulous, well, there's one for you!

More famous forgers to come...happy weekend!

SAVE THE DATE

2007-04-03T23:53:00.000-07:00

I am working on putting together the Release Party for BOOK 3: Brush with Death... ( available for pre-order at Powell's).

Here's what I know so far... July 13th (Friday the 13th) at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland. We are hoping everyone will get a chance investigate the place. Maybe we can set up a tour of some of the key action spots from Brush with Death.

You may recall I participated in the Ghost Walk with Sisters in Crime there last October. We are having the book release party at a resting place for the dearly departed, and beautiful architectural treasure, because it is a major CHARACTER in Brush with Death.

You can read a teaser for Brush with Death.

We had a blast at the last release party at Varnish. I hope you will mark your calendar and join us to celebrate the release of Brush with Death! I will post more details as I get them.

For Art Crime Lovers

2007-04-02T23:22:00.000-07:00

March was full of author panels! Many of the people who came to the panels were aspiring writers. Invariably, one of the questions is how do we research for our mystery writing.

So, I thought I would share with you some of the places I go to find out about art crime. Here are a few of my faves.

The FBI Art Squad and their list of the Top Ten Art Crimes

Interpol’s art site, with their own Most Wanted List!

For updates on thefts, forgery, and antiquities trade, plus plenty of resources regarding forgery and theft, the Museum Security network can’t be beat this.

Lots of information about art crimes, forensic art, illegal antiquities trade here.

Let me know if you turn up anything I should include in book FOUR!

The latest Spielberg thriller: Art Theft?

2007-03-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

The FBI recently disclosed that Steven Spielberg had a stolen Norman Rockwell painting hanging on his wall, in plain sight. Apparently Spielberg bought Rockwell’s "Russian Schoolroom" in 1989 from an art dealer he assumed to be legitimate.

How was he to know it had been stolen?

The word on the street is caveat emptor – “beware, buyer”. These days missing and stolen art is tracked by a variety of on-line services, including the Missing Art Registry. In fact, Spielberg realized he was holding ill-gotten gains when an employee checked the FBI Web site last month, and discovered that the painting had been listed as stolen from a gallery in 1973.Though Spielberg won’t be charged with wrongdoing– it was determined he knew nothing of the theft when he bought the piece – he has to surrender the painting to its original owners. He is one of the many unfortunate collectors who have been burned intransactions that appeared to be legitimate.

Authorities say the higher online visibility of missing and stolen art is not only resulting in artwork being turned in, but also has inspired more people to come forward to claim title to the works. This is especially true in the case of artwork lost during World War II under the Nazis. For example, last year, the FBI recovered three works by 19th century painter Heinrich Burkel that disappeared from a German air raid shelter during the closing days of World War II. The paintings' rightful owner contacted authorities after seeing the works offered for sale on the Web by a dealer from Pennsylvania. It turned out that a New Jersey man had bought them in the 1960s. They were kept in the family with no idea that they were stolen until they were put up to auction. They were subsequently returned to the museum in Germany, from whence they came.

For more on Norman Rockwell and his art, visit his museum website.

A love of libraries…and librarians!

2007-03-22T23:00:00.000-07:00

Lately I’ve been lucky enough to be spending time in libraries…and remembering how much I love them. There’s something about the unmistakable scent of thousands of books; kids sprawled on the floor, reading; adults milling about, searching, and dreaming. Whether learning English, looking for a good novel, or researching tax laws, the library is a hushed hermitage, tucked away from the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives.

It is too easy to assume that with the advent of our new millennium, the old style library is no longer vibrant and necessary. We hear of one county after another slashing library budgets, or threatening to cut off funding altogether. One of my best friends is a teen librarian in Princeton, New Jersey. She sees the library as one of the last true community spaces – and in particular, an alternative locale for teenagers to gather not only for homework help and research, but also to socialize in a safe, sane, fun setting.

Libraries have changed a lot since I spent much of my own childhood haunting their shelves – especially memorable are long, sweaty summer afternoons where the cool library offered a special sanctuary. These days access to the internet is a big draw, and there’s a tendency for book-lovers like me to look upon the infernal computer terminals as the end of civilization as we know it…and yet, a computer can be a great democratizing tool. Despite numerous obvious drawbacks, the internet has made it virtually impossible to stifle access to information.

Ultimately, that is a great thing.

The other day I was on a “Sisters in Crime” panel at the South Branch of the Berkeley Library, and it was heartening to see the little building packed with people of all ages and ethnicities on a summery Thursday evening. A couple of weeks ago I led a discussion of Sue Grafton at the South San Francisco Library, and there was a great turn out of Friends of the Library as well as others interested in mystery writing and reading in general.

My upcoming book, Brush with Death (July 3, 2007) has a special dedication to librarians and schoolteachers, who do so much to better the world. And it is now my personal mission to get my books onto the shelves of libraries across the nation. If anyone knows of libraries hungry for books, please tell them to contact me. I am happy to donate signed copies of the Agatha-Award nominated Feint of Art and bestselling Shooting Gallery to any public libraries who are willing and able to add them to their catalogued collection.

I would also love to hear your library stories.

Triple the Suspense in San Leandro

2007-03-19T22:19:00.000-07:00

THREE MYSTERY WRITERS =
TRIPLE THE SUSPENSE!
March 31, 2007 at 2:00 PM
At the Main Library
300 Estudillo Ave, San Leandro
For more information, call (510) 577-3971

Three local authors (two former San Leandro residents) will discuss their latest exciting novels - all filled with intrigue, plot twists, and suspense.

At this free program, they will entertain you with insider stories about the publishing industry (things you wouldn't believe!), and their experiences of the research and writing processes. They encourage a lively discussion and welcome lots of questions and interaction with the audience.

Featured Authors:

Hailey Lind
Shooting Gallery is Hailey's newest mystery. New Mystery Reader calls her series "Delightfully different...Annie Kincaid is a fun and fascinating new sleuth...a series to watch." Hailey's first novel, Feint of Art, has been nominated for an Agatha for best first novel. The latest in the Art Lover's Mystery Series, Brush with Death, will be in bookstores in July.

Camille Minichino
The Oxygen Murder is the eighth novel in her periodic table mystery series. With 111 elements, she has a long way to go. Booklist Says "plenty of humor enlivens an engrossing story."

Ann Parker
Ann's Silver Rush series, beginning with Silver Lies, has received parise from national reviewers. Publisher's Weekly called her newest, Iron Ties, "outstanding" and notes "many nice twists in this appealing adventure."

Sisters in Crime Panel -- BERKELEY, CA

2007-03-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, March 15, at 6:00 pm, I'll be speaking on a panel with three other local authors at the South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library.

1901 Russel Street (at Martin Luther King Jr)
510-981-6260

Hailey Lind is an artist as will as a writer and brings this experience to Shooting Gallery, her new book that explores the world of art fakes. Her first book, Feint of Art, has been nominated for an Agatha best first novel award!

Here are some details on the other authors:
Diana R. Chambers is the author of the topical thriller, Stinger, involving a CIA officer, a daring journalist and an elusive Afghan chief.

Peggy Dulle's new book, Death is Clowning Around, was inspired by the strange behavior of her computer at work.

Priscilla Royal has a degree in world literature where she discovered the beauty of medieval literature. Her medieval mysteries included Sorrow Without End, Tyrant of the Mind, and Wine of Violence. Her newest, Favas Can Be Fatal, take on modern life in the restaurant business.

Hope some of you can make it.

Panels, Signings and Sightings

2007-03-02T07:44:00.000-08:00

Hailey Lind will be out there reading, signing, and hopefully, selling some books this month!!
You can always find details on upcoming events at the website. I will post more details on each appearance here and on myspace blog, so check back for more info...

AAUW Authors Panel and Fundraiser -- Pleasant Hill

2007-03-01T22:06:00.000-08:00

I will be joining the Pleasant Hill Branch of the American Association of University Women for an Author's Panel and Fundraiser on Saturday, March 10th, at 7 p.m., Hillcrest Congregational Church, 404 Gregory Lane, Pleasant Hill, 94523.

Fellow Sisters in Crime authors FRAN WOJNAR and PEGGY DULLE will also be there!

The Pleasant Hill Branch of Am. Assoc. of University Women is celebrating the Branch's 50th anniversary in the fall of 2007. This event is a fundraiser for the AAUW Educational Foundation in Washington, DC. This year, 2006-2007, we (the Foundation) have given grants of over 3.3 million to women for graduate study and community grants. The Pleasant Hill Branch sent in $6,000 toward this wonderful opportunity for women.

Hope you will join us to support a great cause and some local Bay Area authors.

The Agatha

2007-02-25T18:32:00.000-08:00

Wow...we just got notice that Feint of Art has been nominated for an Agatha best first novel award.

You will remember a while back, we posted about attending the Malice Domestic Conference in Arlington, VA in May. Well, the Agatha is presented at this conference.

It is quite an honor to be nominated, but, of course, we do want to win! You can join us there or become a Friend of Malice.

Find out more about the Agatha here. Here's the complete slate of nominees for the best first novel, best novel, best non-fiction, best short story and best young adult novel.

You can see the entire list of nominees on Lesa Holstine's blog as well. Thank you, Lesa, for your congratulations and support!

Radio Sugar

2007-02-21T22:18:00.000-08:00

I don't know if any of you were listening to Sarah and No Name on 97.3 RadioAlice this morning, but we got a special shout out.

Ah networking, what a wonderful thing. Honestly, you just never know what it will do for you.

Remember back in November I attended a Sisters in Crime conference in Hollywood? Well, I met an author, well actually many authors, on that trip named A H Ream. She writes mysteries based in Los Angeles. I told her about my series based in San Francisco/Oakland. She decided to send a set of my books to her best friend who lives in San Francisco. [Why yes, they do make a great gift for your friends!]

Her friend, Janice, read the books, and loved them! Janice noticed that I mentioned the radio show Sarah and No Name. She wrote the radio station an email and today they read it on the air!

Thanks to Janice, AH Ream and Sarah and No Name for the shout out! It's nice to be appreciated.

So, if you get a chance, check out AH Ream's blog and share your thoughts with your favorite radio station.

Book Fodder??

2007-02-20T17:48:00.000-08:00

Perusing the local paper online today, I came across some interesting developments in the Bay Area art scene.

This definitely sounds like an inside job. Well, at least, it doesn't have the Michael fingerprint. He would have left some forgeries in their stead, and it would have been a while before it was discovered!

Any ideas on how to incorporate this amateur lifting into the series??

50 Ways to Catch a Killer

2007-02-19T16:02:00.000-08:00

Another fabulous opportunity from Sisters in Crime!

Those of you who love forensic science books and shows, and writers who want to learn more about forensic science and police procedure have a terrific opportunity to hear from experts, thanks to Sisters in Crime.

The St. Louis Chapter is organizing the first Sisters in Crime Forensic University of St. Louis, "50 Ways to Catch a Killer," which will be held November 1-4, 2007.

The event will provide many hours of presentations on forensic science and police procedure, cover both the basics and give you choices for programs on a wide range of specialized topics -- and it will be a lot fun, too! You'll also get a useful handbook that will provide additional information and resources. We've already got some fantastic speakers lined up, including one of the best medical examiners in the country and a top-notch forensic anthropologist.

The event is at the St. Louis Airport Hilton; the size of the conference is limited to 200. Register quickly as the spaces are limited. Check the website for more details.

MY Favorite Things

2007-02-14T01:14:00.000-08:00

Oprah's not the only one with favorite things. My favorite things end up all over the books... here are a few.

"He snorted in a most un-Mr.-Darcy-like fashion."

"Flor de Cana rum really packed a punch."

"Humming to myself, I took the whistling kettle from the stove and poured boiling water over a coneful of freshly ground Peet's French Roast coffee."

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY -- I hope it's full of your favorite things!

Oakland, aka HOME to Annie

2007-02-13T01:11:00.000-08:00

Hopping into my truck, I drove across the Bay Bridge to Oakland, exited at Grand Avenue, and veered right toward Lake Merritt.
The meandering lake was highlighted by a necklace of romantic white lights, and even at this hour its two-mile path was crowded with energetic joggers, strolling lovers, and cranky Canada geese.

MALICE

2007-02-12T06:48:00.000-08:00

Still recovering from the Left Coast Crime Conference, but already preparing for MALICE DOMESTIC in Arlington, Virginia in May.This is a great place for mystery readers to meet mystery writers...and of course, for authors to meet and hopefully woo new readers!

Here's what the conference planners say:

Malice Domestic is a fan based convention so programming is selected to enhance the fans' experience with new authors, favorite authors, and the mystery genre exemplified by cozy mysteries in the style of Agatha Christie.

If you have always wanted to visit Arlington, already live there, and/or love mysteries, please join us! I would love to meet you.

Pre-Valentine's Day

2007-02-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

Joan Swan needs a tagline for her latest book, and she's willing to repay someone's ingenuity and wit with CHOCOLATE.

I was browsing Romance Worth Killing For, an industry blog that Joan shares with four other writers, when I found her contest.

Here are some of the details from Joan's post:

Here are a few kernals of direction from the class:"...your brand expands outward to encompass what you write. Your genre, your character types, etc. For example someone who writes about redemption through love is not sticking to their brand when they say all relationships are painful during an interview. You are trying to point to the things that redemption brings: hope, trust, love, etc. and hopefully show how you support those things. When Christina Skye says to people "Life is an adventure" she's conveying not only support for the genre in which her books are slotted (romantic suspense), but also to the very core of her brand being about the need to discover the inner potential in all of us or,
boiled down, discover sustains us. "
So, here are some parameters:
-I write romantic suspense -- about 50/50
-My heros are from law enforcement backgrounds
-My heroines are intelligent and strong with a soft core
-My plots involve murder (sometimes multiple murders)
-My theme always seems to involve trust as a core issue with one or both characters
Messages I want to convey to my reader about my work: Unique, rich characters, deep intruigue, sexy sex, sexual tension, emotional, satisfying
And, I'm planning on (someday over the rainbow) expanding my heros and heroines into firefighting careers

Sisters in Crime Survey

2007-02-07T21:34:00.000-08:00

Mystery lovers (readers and writers) have your say.

Sisters in Crime, with the help of Zoomerang, is conducting a survey about mystery readers. This link will take you directly to the survey.

Book Discussion - South San Francisco

2007-02-04T11:03:00.000-08:00

Saturday, February 24th, 12noon, South San Francisco Library: Women of Mystery discussion of Sue Grafton. This is part of So. San Francisco Library’s Women of Mystery Program.

South San Francisco Library is located at 840 West Orange Avenue, So. San Francisco, 94080.

So good, it had to be in the book

2007-01-23T00:58:00.000-08:00

From Shooting Gallery:

Le Cheval was on Clay between Tenth and Eleventh, a brisk fifteen-minute walk from my apartment. During the weekdays the streets and sidewalks of downtown Oakland were clogged with hordes of government employees and businesspeople, who crowded into the coffeehouses, sandwich shops, and supply stores. After five o'clock these folks disappeared into the suburbs and Oakland's formerly grand downtown felt more like a ghost town. The Merchant's Association has been working hard to change that, so as I crossed Broadway's faded glory and hurried past Old Oakland's renovated Victorian town
houses, I was not surprised to hear the strains of a rock band at the Washington Arms pub competing with a jazz trio at Jesso's Seafood Cafe. San Francisco was chic and Berkeley was funky, but Oakland was down-t0-earth and friendly, and its fierce partisans, like me, were sure it was on the cusp of rebirth.

Le Cheval was mobbed, the cavernous space sufficient to accommodate only a fraction of those in search of good Vietnamese food served in a lively ambience, and as a regular I had known to reserve a table as soon as the restaurant opened this morning. A tiny woman in black jeans and a sparkly red top led me to a table in the center of the room where my mother waited, dressed in a navy blue linen suit and matching Hermes scarf.

Try it. You'll love it. I promise

Research

2007-01-17T17:38:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I went with my friends Anna and Suzanne to visit Donaldina Cameron House, “a Chinatown-based multi-service agency serving Asian communities in the San Francisco Bay Area…serving individuals, immigrant families and youth since 1874.”

The day started with Suzanne guiding us off the freeway and across the sometimes confusing Market Street and Financial District areas. Suzanne’s family came to San Francisco from China several generations ago, and she still has strong connections to the Chinatown community.

Also, since she spent much of her childhood riding Muni around the City, she has a much better sense of urban direction than I, and makes brutal fun of Annie Kincaid’s travails making her way up and down one-way streets (Annie, quite coincidentally, shares my knack for getting lost).

We were a little early for our scheduled tour of Cameron House, so we stopped off in a tiny Stockton Street bakery for a snack of tea and char siu bau, or steamed buns stuffed with barbecued pork. I’m not a pancake-and-eggs kind of gal, so this was just my kind of breakfast.

I am interested in Cameron House because in Book 4 of the Art Lover’s Mystery Series – (yet to be named…any title ideas? Send them on over!)--I wanted to explore some of the tunnels that are rumored to criss-cross parts of Chinatown and Nob Hill. Suzanne told me she had heard whispers about such things, but assumed the stories were myths. Anna said she had seen tunnels under parts of L.A. A little research on the web turned up discussions (and sometimes pictorial evidence) of similar tunnels in Vancouver B.C., Portland, and…Red Bluff, of all places (a small city in California’s Central Valley.)

What were the tunnels used for? As Suzanne’s cousin Jon told us over a delicious meal of dim sum later that day, “they were used for anything you didn’t want people to know about.” Hmm. To a mystery writer, those words are just begging for a little more explanation… perhaps with a judicious application of artistic license, just to make things really exciting.

Suzanne’s cousin Shellee works at Cameron House, so she gave us a little history of the place and a tour. The building is a beautiful brick structure on the corner of Sacramento Street and . One of the first things we noticed as we walked toward building were the unusual, twisted bricks that speckle the walls in a pattern. Shellee told us these are called “clinker” bricks because they were partially melted from the heat of the flames and explosions during the 1906 earthquake. Apparently Cameron House survived the initial earthquake (amazing for a brick structure) and rampant fire that spread through the city, but was then dynamited to provide a fire break in an attempt to save the nearby Nob Hill mansions (this turned out to be a futile effort – all but the Flood Mansion were destroyed.)

According to legend, Donaldina Cameron braved the National Guard with “shoot to kill” orders in order to rush back into the building for the papers that gave her guardianship to dozens of girls. Without these documents, the Presbyterian missionary feared the girls would be taken out of her control and given back to their “employers.” Donaldina Cameron spent much of her life rescuing immigrant girls, mostly from China, who had been brought to the United States under false pretenses and forced into lives of prostitution or near-slavery as house servants.

As Shellee showed us around, she told us about the wonderful summer programs and youth programs and after-school programs offered at Cameron House, and showed us the elevated basketball court with a great view of San Francisco recently used in the movie, the Pursuit of Happyness. Finally, we descended the basement stairs, wound through several elders packing grocery bags in the pantry, and Shellee opened the doors to cabinets full of sports equipment. As she said, it didn’t really look like much. The ends were capped with wallboard, but according to Shellee, these were once entrances to the tunnels where Cameron had allegedly hidden her rescued girls from their captors.

Hmm. Were they really tunnels? Are there other tunnels? Are any of them still connected? What are they used for? Perhaps Book 4 will tell all….

more sights - THE MISSION

2007-01-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

The Mission District of San Francisco shows up in Shooting Gallery a number of times. Here are some quotes and a little visual tour. ENJOY!

I rushed across town and found Bryan tapping his foot on the sidewalk outside his Mission District apartment building.

I knew of no easy way to get from the Mission to the Avenues, so I skirted Laguna Honda Hospital, passed through the Forest Hill neighborhood, and went up Noriega to Thirty-first.

See you in Seattle

2007-01-14T09:02:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Feb 3, from 12-2pm,
I’ll be signing at the Seattle Mystery bookstore:
117 Cherry Street in Pioneer Square,
Seattle, WA 98104 [(206) 587-5737].

I will be there with a “cavalcade” of other authors in town for the Left Coast Crime Conference–

Megan Abbott signs her new hardcover, The Song is You.
Cara Black signs her Parisian mysteries.
Robert Gregory Browne signs his new hardcover
Denise Dietz
Jo Dereske signs Bookmarked to Die.
Naomi Hirahara
Hailey Lind signs her art mysteries.
Claire Matturo signs her new hardcover, Bone Valley .
Jana Oliver
S.J. Rozan signs her new hardcover In the Rain.
Theresa Schwegal, last year’s Edgar winner, signs her new hardcover, Probable Cause.

Hope to see you there!

CONFERENCE CRAZY?

2007-01-13T12:18:00.000-08:00

Just in case you have a lot of free time and unlimited frequent flier miles (and a love of mysteries, of course), here is a list of upcoming conferences.

Making Tracks North by Northwest

2007-01-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

I am thrilled to be headed to Seattle to participate in the Left Coast Mystery Conference, February 1-4, 2007.

Saturday, February 3rd at 9:00 am I will participate in a panel discussion. Here's the description from the program:
TRACK A - AND THEN THERE'S CHICK LIT: "Hip, modern, stylish women's Mystery" or whatever It's being called Why do so many of us identify with it? Is it the way to reach the younger reader? Do younger women find VI, Carlotta, and Kinsey boring and want women with job and footwear challenges?
M - Claire Matturro
Panel: Leann Sweeney, Hailey Lind, Deborah Donnelly, Susan Slater

If you would like to join in the fun, here is the registration info.

Not Michael's Heist

2007-01-11T22:10:00.000-08:00

My Michael X. Johnson (aka Michael Collins, Colin Brooks, David, Patrick, Bruno, etc), if that really is his name, would never pull a heist such as this.

In fact, his specialty is stealing famous paintings without the owner realizing that it has been stolen. That is to say, he sweetly replaces the paintings with fabulous reproductions.

Well, and if Michael has a mother-in-law with whom to get into this kind of trouble, we haven't heard about it YET.

Hailey's Tourist Tour

2007-01-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

From Shooting Gallery:
I braked quickly to avoid plowing into a gaggle of bewildered tourists attempting to cross the street. Burdened with cameras and totebags, sweating in heavy fall clothing, and clutching mangled street maps, they were out of place in this industrial area of the City. San Francisco's economy was heavily dependent on tourist dollars, so I muffled my impatience, plastered a welcoming Tourist Bureau smile on my face, and waved them across. Had I more time I might have directed them to the attractions they were undoubtedly seeking: the cable car station on California, Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, the Embarcadero, and the Depression-era murals at Coit Tower.

Cable Car

Chinatown Gate

The Embarcadero

Fisherman's Wharf

Pier 39
Coit Tower

Depression Era Mural

We have a winner!

2007-01-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

Barbara Hussey, of New Orleans, is the lucky winner of a portrait to be painted by Julie, the Oakland-based-artist-half of Hailey Lind (some examples of Julie’s work).

Barbara and her husband were forced from their home last year because of the Katrina disaster – and have been forced to move another four times this year! While living in a FEMA trailer outside of Baton Rouge, Barbara happened upon Feint of Art, the first book in the Art Lovers Mystery Series, and said reading the novel allowed her some respite from her overwhelming troubles.

What better praise for an author? Barbara has requested that the portrait be painted of her late mother. Unfortunately, many family photographs were lost in the flood, but Barbara is gathering copies from friends and relatives. With a little artistic license, Julie hopes to create a beautiful portrait honoring Barbara’s mother.

Check back to see periodic updates on the portrait as it develops!

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

Hailey Lind's Top Ten Reasons Why It's Great To be an Artist:

10. You get to wear comfortable, paint-splattered clothes all day.

9. When you're young, it drives your parents crazy.

8. When you're an adult, it drives your children crazy.

see the rest of the reasons here.

Murder I Write

2006-12-31T18:55:00.000-08:00

Check out the latest interview we did with April Star, author of the Wanderlust Mystery Series.

We will also be featured on April's other site, Writer to Reader in January. We'll let you know when it's posted.

A Favorite

2006-12-30T10:17:00.000-08:00

If you haven't been wandering around our author website, you may have missed this piece on one of our favorite artists, Caravaggio.
Maria Magdalene1596-1597, Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome

Check out more of his work.

Who loves you San Diego??

2006-12-07T23:54:00.000-08:00

Mysterious Galaxy, fabulous independent book store in San Diego, sent a note saying that I was on their best seller list for November!

I already had a soft spot in my heart for Mysterious Galaxy from the great time I had at the reading in early November.

Check out Mysterious Galaxy's myspace.

Here's their list of best-selling paperbacks:
1) SHOOTING GALLERY by Hailey Lind *
2) COOKING UP MURDER by Miranda Bliss
3) BUBBLES ALL THE WAY by Sarah Strohmeyer
4) ASHES AND BONES by Dana Cameron *
5) MRS. MALORY AND A DEATH IN THE FAMILY by Hazel Holt
6) HIGH HEELS ARE MURDER by Elaine Viets
7) NAIL BITER by Sarah Graves
8) THROUGH THE DARKNESS by Marcia Talley *
9) WHO'S SORRY NOW? by Jill Churchhill
10) DEATH OF A MUSKETEER by Sarah D'Almeida

* signed first editions available while supplies last

The DEADLINE for the PORTRAIT CONTEST is TOMORROW! Don't miss out on this great opportunity. Just send me an email with your contact info!! Also, check in at http://www.haileylind.com/.

Picasso

2006-12-01T22:31:00.000-08:00

The story of Steve Wynn's unfortunate elbowing of a masterpiece has certainly gotten around. I am not sure that this is the kind of story that will make it into book 4, but you never know.

My favorite part of the story:

"Everyone had agreed to take what one participant called a “vow of silence.” (The vow lasted a week, until someone leaked the rudiments of the story to the Post.)"

Just in case anyone was wondering about the safety of telling or keeping secrets. Well, where would all us detectives, professional or not, be if everyone kept secrets??

Read the article that got this story so much coverage here.

The DEADLINE (12.8.06) for the PORTRAIT CONTEST is fast approaching! Don't miss out on this great opportunity. Just send me an email with your contact info!! Also, check in at http://www.haileylind.com/.

THANK YOU READERS!!!

2006-11-30T16:44:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all you loyal readers, Shooting Gallery made the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA) October BESTSELLER list. Check it out:

Paperbacks:
1) GREYWALKER by Kat Richardson
2) DOLLED UP FOR MURDER by Deb Baker
3) SHOOTING GALLERY by Hailey Lind
4) A DANGEROUS MAN by Charlie Huston
5) THE DEATH AND LIFE OF BOBBY Z by Don Winslow
tied with THE MOURNFUL TEDDY by John Lamb
7) DEADLY YARN by Maggie Sefton
8) CHINA BAYLE'S BOOK OF DAYS by Susan Wittig Albert
9) A FATAL APPRAISAL by J.B. Stanley
10) A PEACH OF A MURDER by Livia Washburn

The DEADLINE (12.8.06) for the PORTRAIT CONTEST is fast approaching! Don't miss out on this great opportunity. Just send me an email with your contact info!! Also, check in at http://www.haileylind.com/.

Radio Daze

2006-11-27T10:05:00.000-08:00

I just got off the air with a fellow who goes by the moniker of “Crazy Dougie” – a radio personality, of course, who turned out –despite the silly name!-- to be a charming man, an avid reader, and a wonderful interviewer.

His station is WANB AM (Pennsylvania), and he taped the show for a later broadcast. Here's a picture of Crazy Dougie with a country music artist:

Crazy Dougie paid me a wonderful compliment: apparently his wife snatched his copy of Shooting Gallery off the nightstand when she wasn’t looking, and then wouldn’t give it back. Now she’s hinting broadly for him to buy her a copy of Feint of Art, and wondered if there were more to come in the series (of course there are! Brush with Death is in production and will be released this summer; Book 4 is currently being written).

Stories like that just warm my heart!

I think the interview went well, though I may have been a bit over-caffeinated because I awakened at 4 am for a live 5 am (8 am in New York) interview on the Frank Truatt Morning show on

As many of you may know, I try to get up at 4 most mornings to write, but last night I wound up staying up until midnight so the pre-dawn wake-up came right in the middle of a REM cycle. Frank Truatt had more than one person asking me questions…I had a sense that there were several people in the recording booth with him, but I couldn’t be sure. Might have been that I was half-asleep.

Last month I spoke with Baron Ron Herron from KZSB, Santa Barbara, and had a nice long half-hour chat with Megan Willingham on the satellite station, AdviceRadio.com Writers, Authors, n' More. I am working on linking the interview here so you can listen in.

And next Thursday, December 7, I’ll be taping The Two O'Clock Show with host Ken Johannessen on KPQ radio. I’m told KPQ is broadcast in parts of Washington state, including much of Seattle and Spokane.

It’s always tough to decide what to talk about on the air. Sometimes there are only a few minutes to get the ideas across. Mostly I try to give people a sense that art doesn’t have to be boring—I can’t tell you how many people’s eyes glaze over as if I were talking about history, for heaven’s sake—and give them a little tease about the books. Then I try to mention my website address a few times, , and invite them to enter the free drawing for a portrait, to be painted by Yours Truly….by the way, the deadline is coming up! December 8 is the last day! Enter today!!! It only takes a minute to send me your information.

Anyone out there have any advice for what to talk about on the radio or (gasp!) TV?

Ripped from the Headlines...

2006-11-24T16:39:00.000-08:00

If you ever wondered where I get the inspiration for all the fascinating tidbits about forgery, stolen art and restoration, wonder no longer.

It seems like every day there is another incredible story dealing with art, art theft or forgery. Yesterday, I came across another fabulous tale of an art work, missing for 25 years, that not only was stolen and nearly destroyed, now it has been restored and is back on display. There are so many interesting plot turns, it could be a book in itself; but I usually just keep the techniques in my back pocket to use in my novels.

For instance, this news piece highlights the plight of art stolen from small unguarded churches.
This one is in Italy, but it could be anywhere in the world. This story certainly makes finding "lost" art plausible. More fodder for future books! But, perhaps the most exciting part for me is the importance of the restoration process for this piece. Here is what it looked like before it was restored.

Here is what it looked like after the restoration.
Even though it was cut in half, the restorers were able to put it back together. Once again underscoring the importance of copiers. 25 years after it was stolen, it's nearly good as new, maybe better. Georges would have been so proud.

Here is what it looks like installed at the temporary exhibition in London. Just wanted you to get a sense for the size of the work.

You can read all about it. I just may have to include a crazy art fan/mystery lover in one of my upcoming books! I think Arsene would make a wonderful addition to my cast of characters!!

Just another Thursday?

2006-11-23T11:54:00.000-08:00

"I'm working in a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving morning and going to my sister's house in Concord for dinner. But I'll be home after that. Or, if you don't have plans for Thanksgiving, you'd be welcome to join us."
Shooting Gallery, said by Josh, otherwise known as hunky contractor.

May all your holiday weekend be full of thanks and giving, and hunky contractors, if appropriate.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Holiday Giveaway

2006-11-20T22:02:00.000-08:00

Mystery Lovers Corner is sponsoring a holiday giveaway called In the Spirit of Christmas. Along with many other wonderful titles, you could win Shooting Gallery or Feint of Art.

All you have to do is send an email with your mailing address and how you want your book signed! See contest details for a list of all possible giveaways. Enter as soon as possible, though, because the last day to enter is December 3rd.

Speaking of deadlines, the Portrait Contest deadline is December 8th. If you haven't sent me an email, you still have a few days to get that in.

CANCELLED: Spellbinding Tales

2006-11-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

CANCELLED: We will be rescheduling this book discussion for a later date!

Thursday, November 16, 7pm, Alameda: Book Discussion and signing at Spellbinding Tales, 1910A Encinal Avenue

Don't forget to enter the PORTRAIT CONTEST. It only takes a minute to send me an email!! Also, check in at http://www.haileylind.com/ for all the latest and greatest news. We are adding links and fun stuff regularly!

Feint of Art

2006-11-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

Just in case Shooting Gallery was your first Annie Kincaid experience, I thought I would post some info on my first book, Feint of Art.

Summary:

Annie breaks the news to her curator ex-boyfriend Ernst: his museum's new $15 million Caravaggio is a fake. Then the janitor is killed, Ernst disappears, and a dealer makes off with several Old Master drawings. If she breaks the case using her old connections, Annie can finally pay the rent. But doing so could also draw her back into the underworld of forgers she swore she'd left behind.

Here is a round up of the reviews we posted on our www.haileylind.com.

Julie Lewis also reviewed Feint of Art on allreaders.com.

You can read Dawn Dowdle's Mystery Lovers Corner review from October 1, 2006.

Rachel Hyde also reviewed the first book on myshelf.com.

Don't forget to enter the PORTRAIT CONTEST. It only takes a minute to send me an email!! Also, check in at http://www.haileylind.com/ for all the latest and greatest news. We are adding links and fun stuff regularly!

Fall Fest of Books

2006-11-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 12, 2pm, Corte Madera: Reading/Signing (A Sisters in Crime Event) at Fall Fest of Books at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., (415) 927-0960. Directions here.

Don't forget to enter the PORTRAIT CONTEST. It only takes a minute to send me an email!! Also, check in at http://www.haileylind.com/ for all the latest and greatest news.