Rhys on Mountains

 RHYS BOWEN: I’ve always been intrigued with the nature versus nurture debate. Recently I’ve read some interesting things about how we carry ancestral trauma. Fascinating, right? If my ancestor was at the battle of Hastings I still bear that arrow wound? It’s hard to comprehend but I have one aspect of my life that I can’t explain otherwise:

 I was born in Bath in the south west of England. After my father came home after WWII we moved to Kent, the garden of England. Orchards, small villages, farms. A very peaceful countryside. But my mother’s family came from Wales. My aunt Gwladys was passionately Welsh and when I was about eight she took me to North Wales because I needed to know where I came from.

 It was a long journey in those days and we reached our village near Mt Snowdon after it was dark. I fell asleep, exhausted, then woke up to bright sunlight sneaking in through the gap in the drapes. I pulled them back and found myself staring at a mountain. Moel y Gest. By Welsh standards a  small mountain. But I stared at it and something inside me said, “Yes. This is it. This is where you are supposed to be.”

 My aunt and I hiked up that mountain and had quite an adventure trying to get down again, sliding down a face of scree and loose rock. Scary but exciting. 

 But the thing was that since then I have been drawn to mountains in a way I can’t explain. I now live in two places where I look out of my window and see mountains.   This is my house in Arizona and view from my office window:

And this second one is the view from my bedroom in California. Aren't they wonderful! I rejoice in them every day.

When John was transferred to Texas I was so miserable. I’d stare out at flat land and try and picture hills. I realized I need to see mountains to feel whole. 

 Isn’t that interesting. Definitely passed along from my Welsh ancestors. Nobody told me about mountains ahead of that experience with my aunt. I must have inherited some strand of DNA that makes mountains a necessity in my life, that ties me to some sort of ancestral homeland.

 

Some of my most memorable experiences have been seeing mountains. I was a student in Freiburg in the Black Forest and spent my weekends hiking there or in nearby Switzerland. When I saw the Matterhorn for the first time I just stood and stared in wonder. John had to drag me away in the end. I hiked up the path toward it and wanted to keep on going until I could touch it.

 

I love to go to Nice and gaze up at that coastline. And this summer I’m planning to go to Scotland, where I’ve set my next book.  More mountains, although not as big.

 

So I’m interested to know whether anybody else has experienced anything like this… some sort of glimpse of ancestry, some tie to the past, some trait that has manifested itself from a past ancestor?

Celebrating Black Women Inventors

 RHYS BOWEN: Since I chose not to mention that yesterday was President's Day, I've decided that today is celebrating Black Women's achievement day, since I understand that Black History month is to be removed from the federal calendar. Also women's history month. So I'm highlighting both.

I expect many of you have been equally ignorant about the achievements of women scientists and inventors, especially if they were women of color. In the book I have just finished writing with my daughter Clare we have a female scientist working on virus research, only she has to publish her papers in her husband's name.

This makes me wonder how many inventions really were the work of a wife or a daughter. But the women i'm celebrating today did publish, did get patents and did change the world for the better. Some were born into slavery, all had to fight to even get into a respectable university, but they persevered and deserve to be recognized more broadly.

I won't dwell on the ones we do know about, those three brilliant women who made the space program possible with their mathematical callculatons. All from disadvantaged backgrounds, struggling to balance family and work, battling constant prejudice and yet achieving such remarkable feats!

There are too many women for me to mention them all so I've picked out a few you probably don't know about:

Sara Goode who was born into slavery, invented the fold out bed we now know as the Murphy bed.

Alice Ball invented an injectable treatment for leprosy

Bessie Blount Griffin, while working as a physio-therapist, developed an automatic feeding system for wounded vets from WWI who could no longer feed themselves.

Sarah Boone invented the ironing board as we now know it

Alice Parker invented the natural gas furnace that enabled the central heating system

Marie Van Brittany Brown was worried about security in New York City so she invented the home video security system

In 1928 Marjorie Joyner invented the permanent wave machine for women's hair

More recently Shirley Jackson, who received a doctorate in particle physics, invented  fiber-optic cables and touch tone dialing for phones

Dr. Marian Croak is responsible for the voice system that enables us to Zoom and holds over 200 patents

Flossie Wong-Stall was the first researched to clone the HIV virus and thus lead to testing for HIV

Patricia E Bath invented a cataract treatment--the laserphaco probe that made the experience less painful for patients.

As I said, this is just a small sampling of a remarkable number of women.  If you have daughters or granddaughters then please look up these women.  If you have sons please make sure they know what women of color have achieved, often against incredible odds.

I raise my glass to them all, and to all the unsung women

Looking Forward

RHYS BOWEN: Like many of you I am finding the news really stressful these days. From climate change to Gaza to hate and division at home the world no longer feels a safe and comfortable place. Once thing I have always liked to do, for my whole life, is have something to look forward to: Only thirty five days to my birthday when I was a child, only six months until I graduate, twenty nine days to my wedding… and for the past few years, since the onset of Covid I’ve found that I dare not do this any longer.  I have had four cruises canceled in a row. I rented a house on the beach in San Diego for the entire family and half of them got Covid. I rented a huge house for John’s 90th and almost everyone got Type A Flu. And then, a week before we were due to fly to England where I was to meet up with college friends, see my British TV people and go to stay with my sister-in-law, John was in the emergency room and most of the trip had to be cancelled.  It feels like nothing is secure any more.

So I’m trying to think happy thoughts and see what I might have to look forward to this year: the big thing is that my eldest grandson Sam just got engaged. We’ve known his fiancee for four years now and absolutely love her. She fits in perfectly with our slightly crazy family. Now they are searching for a wedding venue and have just come to Phoenix to see if they want to get married at his old high school chapel and then in a venue that could be outdoors in the spring next year.  So it’s all very exciting and hopeful.

Book wise I've got the new book with Clare coming out in March: Silent as the Grave. And, in the summer, I'm really looking forward to the launch of MRS ENDICOTT'S SPLENDID ADVENTURE.  Cover reveal quite soon. We've been playing with some spectacular scenery on the Mediterranean.

The other thing I’m just starting to plan, tentatively, is a trip to Scotland. John, who has impressive Scottish ancestry, has never been there.  I am just starting to write a book set on the Isle of Skye. I was looking into tours that might not be too demanding for my husband but then fate stepped in. Clare was annoyed when she found out we’d be going away at the end of May. She was planning to come to us in California then to work on our next book. So…. Would you like to come to Scotland and drive us around? I said. We can find time to work on the book. Of course she said yes, so now we have to do some research and plan our route. But I’m feeling just a teeny bit excited.

And before that I have Left Coast Crime in Denver–are any of the Reddies going? And then the Edgars in New York. All fun events where i get to see friends and colleagues. Will I see you at one of these?

So how about you, dear Reds? What are you looking forward to this year?

JENN McKINLAY: I think you just described life as we know it now. Last minute changes and cancellations, happy events, and a lot of holding our breath as we see what happens. This year, Hooligan 1 will graduate university! Thrilling! Hooligan 2 and I will attempt a longer race (Pat’s Run in Tempe), and my first fantasy novel will be published. Fingers crossed that these events will not change!

Otherwise, summer vacation at our house in Nova Scotia is always something I look forward to and I have some inklings of a trip to Dublin and London, but I am holding my breath and waiting to see what’s what as possible travel dates draw nearer. 

LUCY BURDETTE: The Scotland trip with Clare sounds delightful, Rhys! Fingers crossed everyone continues to feel well! John and I were hoping to take an alumni trip to Scotland and Wales, but it was canceled for this year. Boo! I think I have convinced him to go with me to Brittany and Paris instead:). I do plan to see you at the Edgars in May!

In the work realm, another Key West mystery arrives in August, which I’m thrilled about. I’m dabbling a bit in the Paris book too, though finding it hard to work on both at once. The Friends of the Key West Library season has been going so well–I had many worries about how it would all fall into place. More on that during my week for sure!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  You know, I agree– I feel as if I am tiptoe tiptoe tiptoeing through our precarious lives  these days.

Looking forward…tiptoe tiptoe…to presenting at the Edgars. Teaching at my Career Authors glam weekend writers’  retreat. Teaching a master class at Thrillerfest, and more. My grandson is graduating from UMass Amherst  with a degree in linguistics! (Adorable and brilliant.)  Oh, appearing at the Montreal Mystery Festival, that’ll be amazing.  Tiptoe tiptoe.

Eighty thousand worlds into a new book, and I'm looking forward to knowing  what happens in the plot. 

And of course ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS  will start bubbling to the surface. Tiptoe tiptoe. 

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m just back from 10 days in Key West where I got to teach a week-long class for The Studios of Key West and see Ann Cleeves get interviewed by our own Lucy Burdette at the Key West Public Library and hang out with my very best friend. And thaw out from the New England cold. 

Best of all I have not gotten sick (yet!) from the traveling (Yes, I wore a mask at the airport.) and my plane was not delayed.Mostly I stay in the moment, though Wordsworth’s line of poetry keeps going through my head: “The world is too much with us…”

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I feel like life has been smacking me lately, and I'm not sure I want to tempt it by making plans! But I'm looking forward to the first week in March, when Kayti and I are going to see La Boheme at the Dallas Opera. And, then, at the end of March we have our annual trip to Roundtop, the antiques fair down in central Texas. I look forward to this three days all year.

And I'm beginning to daydream that maybe, between finishing this book and having my knee replacement, I might just sneak in a quick trip to London. I am missing it desperately, and I'll need to be planning the next book!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’m the homebody of our group, I think, because the only travel I’m looking forward to is the book tour for AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY in November, and honestly, that feels SO far away it’s hard to imagine right now. I do also have occasional trips down to DC to visit my family, which is always lovely, but it’s not exactly Venice or the south of France, is it?

I’m looking forward to spring, and to aggressively tackling the various invasives that took over my land last summer, when I wasn’t doing any gardening because of my pre- and post- surgical knee. I’m looking forward to whatever Victoria and her new wife decide on to celebrate their marriage sometime this summer. And in March, Virginia is coming back to the US on a quick visit to pick up the Million Dollar Cat - and you had best believe I’m looking forward to waving goodbye to kitty at Logan Airport! 

RHYS: Now it's your turn. What are you looking forward to this year?