FIELD TRIPS

by Steven Steinbock

I haven’t unpacked, so excuse the mess. I’ve been on the road for the last ten days. Bouchercon was a blast. If you haven’t already, you can read more about it on James Lincoln Warren’s, Melodie’s, and Robert’s columns from earlier this week.

Plenty of light debauchery with my mysterious friends. Terrie Moran and other Criminal Brief regulars were kind enough to attend the “Bouchercon 2010 Short Story Panel.” I’ve said it before umpteen times, and I’ll say it again, people who write mysteries and the people who read them are the nicest people in the world. (My theory is that we get so much violence, greed, and murder on the printed page that there’s nothing left but goodness when we interact socially).

Rob was quite correct in his column. Bouchercon is a good place to meet friends, learn stuff, and engage in light debauchery. But as a motivational experience it is without equal. Before I’d even checked out of the hotel I was craving time at my keyboard full of ideas and inspiration. It’s like that for me every year.

After Bouchercon, I spent two days in Stockton, an hour and a half east of San Francisco and forty minutes south of Sacramento. I visited with some old friends, ate, and hung out at The Blackwater Cafe, a Bohemian rat-hole that was once my home away from home and continues to inspire me.

I spent part of the day Tuesday and all of the day Wednesday driving up I-5 to Seattle. It was a long trip (around 800 miles that took about 15 hours), but the weather and the scenery made it painless.

A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES

Last week I wrote to you about my field trip to Riverside Cemetery. (I apologize for the big blank space that was supposed to be a map of my village). In the satellite photo below, you can see how the cemetery (at the center of the image) overlooks the Royal River and the harbor and boatyard, as well as a fair amount of undeveloped wetlands. What the image doesn’t show is how high the cemetery is and the steep dropoff to the shore below.

Riverside is not the oldest cemetery in my town. But it’s old. Filled with markers, monuments, and obelisks. Not only did it turn out to be a good spot to capture the mood and the details of the scene I was writing, but I also found it to be a great source of names. I spotted a group of stones with the name “Stoddard” and was reminded that on the old Gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows,” a branch of the Collins family were the Stoddards. (I couldn’t find the crypt of Barnabas Collins, which is probably a good thing).

That’s all for today’s Bandersnatch. But a reminder, Halloween is just around the corner. Consider taking a field trip of your own to an old cemetery near you.