‘On the Town’ a frisky, energetic romp
Pittsfield, Mass.
If the Broadway original of “On the Town” was anything like the production at Barrington Stage Company, then it’s no wonder the baby boom coincided with the hit’s 1944-46 run.
Sassy, sexy, energetic and fun — it’s a hell of a musical. Continue reading →
My dessert is famous
March 20, 2013 in Delmar, NY
With the arrival of all the mystery and crime writers and their fans to this year’s Bouchercon, we thought we’d pull out the welcome mat via a Map of Fictional Murders.
While big cities often get to be the settings of various crimes, murders and mayhem, the Capital Region holds its own, thank you very much.
William Kennedy’s “Legs” — from 1975 and the first novel in his acclaimed Albany cycle — fictionalizes the very real murder of the gangster “Legs” Diamond at 67 Dove St. in downtown Albany (in spitting distance of the Dove & Hudson used book store).
Theodore Dreiser’s 1925 classic “An American Tragedy,” set in the fictional Adirondack locale of Big Bittern Lake, was also inspired by a very real murder in 1906 at Big Moose Lake in Adirondacks.
Those two books, however, don’t necessarily fit the genre mold of crime, mysteries and thrillers. So here are but a dozen of the countless fictional murders in and around the Capital Region.
Click for a map of the fictional murders.
VICTIM: Mary Pat Sheehan, a convenience store clerk in her late 20s who, the autopsy reveals, was secretly pregnant
Location: In a car crash off Harkness Road in the fictional Adirondack town of Trout Run
Novel: “Swallow the Hook” by S.W. Hubbard (2004)
Of note: The second in a series of books set in a fictional Adirondack town featuring the detective Frank Bennett; the author lives in Morristown, N.J.
VICTIM: Edward Maranville, an art expert who specializes in Georgia O’Keeffe
Location: A summer cottage a few miles north of Lake George Village
Novel: “An Affinity for Murder” by Anne White (2001)
Of note: The first of a five book series, all based in Lake George and featuring writer-turned-sleuth Ellen Davies; White is a graduate of The College of Saint Rose
VICTIM: The young mother of an abandoned baby
Location: Payson’s Park, Cossayahaire, Washington County (fictional location)
Novel: “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Julia Spencer-Fleming (2002)
Of note: The first of eight novels featuring Clare Fergusson (a priest of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church) and police Chief Russ Van Alsyne set in the fictional Millers Kill in the real Washington County; the author was born in Plattsburgh and lives in Maine
VICTIM: Lew Ackerman, a wealthy stable owner, is gunned down during a routine swim
Location: Saratoga Springs YMCA swimming pool
Novel: “Saratoga Swimmer” by Stephen Dobyns (1981)
Of note: The second book in the 10-novel mystery series featuring ex-cop Charlie Bradshaw, all with Saratoga in the title with some or all the action in the Spa City. Dobyns is also an acclaimed poet.
VICTIM: Donald Penn, a frustrated writer
Location: Madeline’s, 350 Broadway, Saratoga Springs
Novel: “Breakfast at Madeline’s” by Matt Witten (1999)
Of note: The first novel in the Jacob Burns mystery series includes real settings in the Spa City, including the now-defunct Madeline’s. Witten lived in Saratoga Springs when writing first book, but now lives in California and writes for TV. He has a film, “Drones,” now in production.
VICTIM: Francis Xerxes Ryan, a Troy businessman who owns stationery stores
Location: Ryan’s office in Troy
Novel: “The Heat of Lies” by Jonathan Stone (2001)
Of note: In this second novel featuring Julian Palmer, the police lieutenant now works in Troy; in the first novel, “The Cold Truth,” she worked in the fictional upstate town of Canaanville
VICTIM: Mrs. Kravett, a retired high school teacher
Location: Carlton, a fictional suburb of Albany
Novel: “Death and Faxes” by Leslie O’Kane (1996)
Of note: Leslie O’Kane is a Colorado-based author of four mystery series, including seven books featuring Molly Masters, a cartoonist and greeting card entrepreneur, in the suburbs of Albany.
VICTIM: Sam Tindell, poet and lover of Suzanne LaFleshe
Where: Humanities Building, University at Albany, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany
Novel: “Flesh” by Hollis Seamon (2005)
Of note: College of Saint Rose professor Hollis Seamon’s “Flesh” features the sexy deluxe-sized graduate student in literature turned sleuth; Seamon is also the author of the young adult novel “Somebody Up There Hates You”
VICTIM: Scarlet Montana, wife of Albany PD Detective Jake Montana and lover of P.I. Dick Moonlight
Location: Apartment in Albany
Novel: “Moonlight Falls” by Vincent Zandri (2009)
Of note: Zandri lives in Albany, the setting of his Dick Moonlight series of hard-boiled detective novels. His first novel, the thriller “As Catch Can,” was also set upstate. Zandri is also the drummer of the punk band the Blisterz.
VICTIM: Jonah Lee, the leader of a nonprofit housing organization
Location: Neighborhood Housing Association office, Second Street, Albany
Novel: “The Long Stair: An Albany Mystery” by Kirby White (2005)
Of note: Adirondack-resident Kirby White’s novel is both a murder mystery and about inner-city development. The title refers to a real staircase in Sheridan Hollow that is “at the bottom of a ravine where the city and state have been content to leave it to deteriorate … a dramatic symbol of what is wrong with a society that” ignores the poor, he writes.
VICTIM: Steven Kleckner, 24, who worked at Truckey’s Disco on Western Avenue
Location: Apartment on Hudson Avenue, Albany
Novel: “Death Trick” by Richard Stevenson (1981)
Of note: “Death Trick” introduced the gay private investigator Donald Strachey, who lives and works in Albany, and solves crimes with the help of his lover, Timothy Calahan, a legislative aide for a New York state senator. “Death Trick” is the first of 13 acclaimed Strachey mysteries. The author lives in Pittsfield, Mass.
VICTIM: An unnamed woman
Where: In the woods near the home of Charly Poisson, co-owner of La Fermette, outside the fictional Klover, Van Buren County (30 miles from Albany)
Novel: “Appetite for Murder” by Cecile Lamalle (1999)
Of note: The first in a series of three books set in Van Buren County featuring chef-owner-amateur-slueth Charly Poisson and recipes.
Sources: C.J. Lais; Casey Seiler; Times Union archive; Dan Wedge, Dove & Hudson Books, Albany; Alissa Maynard, adult services librarian, Bethlehem Public Library; Stopyourekillingme.com
Vía Michael Janairo stories http://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/article/A-landscape-of-murder-4824360.php
Sue Grafton is one of six guests of honor at this year’s Bouchercon, which begins Thursday and runs through Sunday, Sept. 22, at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany.
What is Bouchercon?
The full name is the Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention, a meeting of authors of mystery and detective fiction — and their fans — that has been going on since 1970. The man the event is named after was an author, editor and New York Times critic of both science fiction and mysteries. He died in 1968, and a memorial for him in 1970 has turned into the annual convention.
Registration costs $175 for all four days; more information can be found at http://bcon2013.com.
The convention includes panels on topics such as breaking into writing; the craft of writing; various aspects of crime and the law; book signings; interviews with the guests of honor; and the announcement of the Anthony Awards, which are given for novel, first novel, paperback original, short story and nonfiction critical book.
Guests of honor
Sue Grafton: lifetime guest of honor. She’s best known for her Kinsey Millhone series. Her events: 11:40 a.m. Saturday, book signing; 7 p.m. Saturday, interview; 10:20 a.m. Sunday, panel with all the guests of honor
Anne Perry: international guest of honor. The British author is best known for two series set in Victorian England. One features policeman Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte; the other features private detective William Monk and nurse Hester Latterly. 11:40 a.m. Friday, signing; 7 p.m. Friday, interview; 3:10 p.m. Friday, panel on historical crime fiction; 12:30 p.m. Saturday, panel on writing multiple series; 10:20 a.m. Sunday, panel with all the guests of honor
Tess Gerritsen: American guest of honor. A physician-turned-author, Gerritsen has written numerous romantic suspense novels and medical thrillers, but is perhaps best known for her series of novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles, the inspiration for the TNT series “Rizzoli & Isles” with Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander. 11:40 a.m. Friday, signing; 8 p.m. Friday, interview; 1:50 p.m. Saturday, writing as therapy; 10:20 a.m. Sunday, panel with all the guests of honor
Steve Hamilton: toastmaster. The author of the Alex McKnight series works at IBM and lives in Ulster County. 4 p.m. Thursday, interview; 9 a.m. Saturday, creating the perfect villain; 10:20 a.m. Sunday, panel with all the guests of honor
Chris Aldrich and Lynn Kaczmarek: fan guests of honor. That’s right, even fans of the genre get special treatment. 9 a.m. Friday with Louise Penny, author of the Armand Gamache series of murder mysteries. 10:20 a.m. Sunday, panel with all the guests of honor
Other panels of note
This is just a sampling of some of the panels. For a full list, go to http://bcon2013.com/schedule.
Noon Thursday: “She’s Got a Way,” on methods of murder, just sounds interesting
1:20 p.m. Thursday: “Close to the Borderline,” on pulp fiction, includes K.A. Laity, novelist and Saint Rose professor
4 p.m. Thursday: “An Innocent Man,” on making the law thrilling, includes Albany Law grad and former Westchester County DA Jeanine Pirro (author of the Dani Fox series of legal thrillers) and former L.A. County prosecutor Marcia Clark (author of the Rachel Knight legal thrillers)
9 a.m. Friday: “Worst Comes to Worst,” on tragedy as entertainment, includes Albany novelist of hardboiled fiction Vincent Zandri
3:10 p.m. Friday: “Running on Ice,” on adrenaline-filled stories
10:20 a.m. Saturday: “You May Be Right,” on law enforcement and crime fiction, includes Albany novelist (and former NYPD cop) Robert Knightley
10:20 a.m. Saturday: “Money or Love,” on sleuths not getting paid, includes Schenectady novelist Joel Gomez-Dossi
12:30 p.m. Saturday: “Just the Way You Are,” on the confines of writing historical fiction, includes Saratoga Springs novelist M.E. Kemp
3:10 p.m. Saturday: “Modern Woman,” includes Louise Penny, a 2013 Anthony Award nominee who has won the same award for three years in a row
9 a.m. Sunday: “Pressure,” on being an author, includes Frankie Bailey, novelist and University at Albany professor
The Anthony Awards
The Anthony Awards will be presented at 8 p.m. Saturday. Here are the nominees:
Best novel: “Dare Me” by Megan Abbott; “The Trinity Game” by Sean Chercover; “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn; “The Beautiful Mystery” by Louise Penny; “The Other Woman” by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Best first novel: “Don’t Ever Get Old” by Daniel Friedman; “The Professionals” by Owen Laukkanen; “The Expats” by Chris Pavone; “The 500” by Matthew Quirk; “Black Fridays” by Michael Sears
Best paperback original: “Whiplash River” by Lou Berney; “Murder for Choir” by Joelle Charbonneau; “And She Was” by Alison Gaylin; “Blessed are the Dead” by Malla Nunn; “Big Maria” by Johnny Shaw
Best short story: “Mischief in Mesopotamia” by Dana Cameron, EQMM, Nov 2012; “Kept in the Dark” by Sheila Connolly, Best New England Crime Stories: Blood Moon; “The Lord is My Shamus” by Barb Goffman, Chesapeake Crimes: This Job is Murder; “Peaches” by Todd Robinson, Grift, Spring 2012; “The Unremarkable Heart” by Karin Slaughter, MWA Presents: Vengeance
Best critical nonfiction work: “Books to Die For” by John Connolly and Declan Burke, editors; “Blood Relations” by Joseph Goodrich, editor; “More Forensics and Fiction” by D.P. Lyle, M.D.; “The Grand Tour” by Mathew Prichard, editor; “In Pursuit of Spenser” by Otto Penzler, editor.
Vía Michael Janairo stories http://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/article/What-to-look-for-at-this-year-s-Bouchercon-4809622.php
Jonathan Lethem is a serious writer who has blended genres (sci-fi and mainstream literary) and garnered major awards: a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2005; the National Book Critics Circle award for “Motherless Brooklyn” in 1999; and World Fantasy Award for best collection of short stories for 1996’s “The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye.”
His latest novel, “Dissident Gardens,” is a multigenerational family tale about communists and radicals living in Queens, from the 1930s to the recent Occupy Wall Street movement, and is the biggest canvas Lethem has every worked with. Central to the novel is the tale of two women struggling to follow their dreams: the mercurial Rose, known as the Red Queen of Sunnyside, Queens, who torments anyone within reach; and her daughter Miriam, who, much to her mother’s chagrin, embraces Greenwich Village counterculture.
The novel comes out Tuesday; on Wednesday, Lethem will open the fall season at the New York State Writers Institute.
As fans of Lethem’s work know, his mix of high and low is often leavened with wonderful touches of humor. And that’s something the Library Journal points out in its starred review of “Dissident Gardens,” saying the book is “a moving, hilarious satire of American ideology and utopian dreams. … Lethem enthusiasts may find this to be his best yet.”
In an interview earlier this year at Book Expo America in New York City, the 49-year-old novelist spoke about the lack of similarity between his novel and his life. He grew up in Brooklyn (not Queens), and though his parents were countercultural (his mother was an activist, but more of a “Yippie,” he said, and his father was a painter), they were far from the card-carrying communists in his book.
In addressing a question about the explicit political content of “Dissident Gardens,” Lethem didn’t shy away from seeing a higher purpose in his — and all — artistic work: “I think that art is helplessly political. … When you make art, it occupies some sort of implicit political space. It either shores up the status quo and people’s assumptions or it interrogates them. At some level, it just can’t help do that.”
Lethem will present an informal seminar at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday in the Standish Room, Science Library, on the University at Albany’s uptown campus, followed by a reading at
8 p.m. in the Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center.
Lethem is just one of many notable visitors to the Writers Institute this fall.
Some of the other literary names of note:
Short story writer and UAlbany professor Lydia Davis, on Oct. 1. She recently won the Man Booker International Prize.
Bill Bryson (Oct. 5), who has written about travel, history, science, and the English language in such books as “A Short History of Nearly Everything” (2004), “I’m a Stranger Here Myself” (1999) and “A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail” (1998). He has a new book, “One Summer: America, 1927,” about American history,
T.C. Boyle (Oct. 8), whose novels include “Drop City” (2003), “The Road to Wellville” (1993) and “World’s End” (1987), and whose latest collection, “T.C. Boyle Stories II,” is slated for publication in October.
Ayana Mathis (Dec. 3), whose novel “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie” (2012), about a family’s struggles during the “Great Migration” of African-Americans from the South to the North. It was the second selection for Oprah Winfrey’s new book club.
All events at the Writers Institute are free. For more information, call 442-5626 or visit http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst. In addition to visiting writers, the institute offers screenings of classic films. More information about the film series can be found on the institute’s website.
The fall season of visiting writers:
Sept. 11: Jonathan Lethem, novelist. 4:15 p.m. seminar, Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus; 8 p.m. reading, Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus.
Sept. 17: Marie Howe, New York State Poet, and Sydney Lea, Vermont Poet Laureate. 4:15 p.m. seminar, Standish Room; 8 p.m. reading, Huxley Theatre, State Museum, Cultural Education Center, Albany.
Sept. 26: Gilbert King, nonfiction author. 4:15 p.m. seminar, Recital Hall; 8 p.m. reading, Recital Hall.
Oct. 1: Lydia Davis, short story author and translator. 4:15 p.m. seminar, Recital Hall.
Oct. 5: Bill Bryson, nonfiction author. 7:30 p.m., Clark Auditorium, State Museum, Cultural Education Center, Albany.
Oct. 8: T.C. Boyle, fiction writer. 4:15 p.m. seminar, Standish Room; 8 p.m. reading, Recital Hall.
Oct. 9: William Kennedy lecture on “William Rowley: Journalism and Social Justice,” celebrating the 40th Anniversary of UAlbany’s Journalism Program. 4 p.m., location TBA.
Oct. 18: Luis Gutierrez, U.S. congressman and author. 7 p.m. reading, Main Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
Oct. 22: Roxana Saberi, journalist and screenwriter 7 p.m. film screening of “No One Knows About Persian Cats” (Iran, 2009) and commentary, Recital Hall.
Oct. 23: Ava Homa and Kaziwa Salih, writers of the Kurdish diaspora. 4:15 p.m. seminar, Recital Hall.
Oct. 24: Goli Taraghi, Iranian fiction writer. 4:15 p.m. seminar, Standish Room; 8 p.m. reading, Standish Room.
Oct. 25: A Celebration of Swedish Author Stig Dagerman (1923-1954) with his daughter Lo Dagerman and translator Steven Hartman. 7:30 p.m. reading and film Screening, Page Hall, 135 Western Ave., Downtown Campus.
Oct. 29: Douglas Bauer, fiction writer and essayist. 4:15 p.m. seminar, Standish Room. 8 p.m. reading, Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus
Nov. 7: American Shakespeare Center performance of “Othello,” featuring Rick Blunt as Iago and Fernando Lamberty as Othello. 7:30 p.m. performance, Main Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus. $15 in advance, $20 day of show. Box office 442-3997
Nov. 14: Robert Orsi, religious studies scholar. 7:30 p.m., keynote lecture of the Researching New York 2013 conference, State Museum, Cultural Education Center, Albany.
Nov. 15: Ben Coccio, filmmaker, screenwriter. 4:15 p.m. seminar, Science Library, Room 340. 7 p.m. screening of “The Place Beyond the Pines” followed by a discussion, Page Hall.
Nov. 21: David Treuer, Native American fiction and nonfiction writer. 4:15 p.m. seminar, Standish Room; 8 p.m. reading, Standish Room.
Dec. 3: Ayana Mathis, novelist. 4:15 p.m. seminar, Assembly Hall. 8 p.m. reading, Page Hall.
Vía Michael Janairo stories http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Jonathan-Lethem-launches-New-York-State-Writers-4789665.php
Last weekend, I almost walked out of “World War Z” before the movie even began because a young couple rolled in a stroller with a toddler in tow.
I didn’t because, I thought, why should I leave? I wanted to see the movie, despite some so-so reviews. After all, I had read the book and had even had the chance to interview Max Brooks a few years ago before his Sage Colleges visit.
The toddler hadn’t really done anything too intrusive anyway, though he did almost get stepped on as he ran into the aisle at the same time another patron was getting out of his seat. The little boy yelped and fell to his bottom, and the man, seeing the toddler there, exclaimed, “Oh, Jesus, I didn’t see you! I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” The boy bounded up and his parents, from their seat, also apologized. Continue reading →
