Thursday, July 21: Femme Fatale
PEOPLE YOU MAY KNOW
by Deborah Elliott-Upton
On both Facebook and on my LinkedIn account—like everyone else—I regularly receive messages concerning people I may know to invite to join me on my accounts as friends and colleagues. Rarely do I do this, but every once in awhile, I find a name or face that reminds me I do know these people and so I send an invitation. When I received the latest Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazines, I realized the names on the covers were also some I recognized simply because they show up so often in the short stories I enjoy.
I’ve been reading Doug Allyn, Clark Howard, Bill Pronzini, Robert S. Levinson and yes, James Lincoln Warren so often that they all seem like my close friends. We share late nights, quiet afternoons and the occasional mornings together. I revel in seeing their names in tables of contents probably as much as they enjoy being listed there.
When I read Rob Lopresti, Leigh Lundin , Melodie Johnson Howe and John M. Floyd’s stories, I was happy to be in such lovely company via the Criminal Brief party line. Now that Steven Steinbock has taken over The Jury Box, I feel even more blessed to know these writers through our cyberspace connection. Jon Breen, previous author of The Jury Box, had shared a prominent space on my nightstand for quite some time. Although I’m sure he’s forgotten, I met Bill Crider long ago at a writer’s conference, but since he’s commented and been talked about so often on Criminal Brief (okay, often by me!), when I now see his column, Blog Bytes, in Ellery Queen, I feel almost like one of his buds. I’ve recently been introduced to Janice Law and her wonderful talent as a writer. and fortunately for all of us, she’s one of the best bloggers on this site. Criminal Brief readership: We are in good company.
As far as I’m concerned, this computer age is the best time in history to live. We can track down long-lost relatives and high school or college friends, make new friends and even read great short stories on incredible web sites in short time. We can download entire books in sixty seconds. We never have to be without something to read unless we choose to be.
Are there more people out there we may know we have to befriend? I’m sure there are more than a few great authors lurking out there just waiting for their opportunity to become our friends and we their fans. Life is good.
Nicely said, Deb. ive made friends with lots of people on the web before i met them, and some , like Dick Stodghill, i never met
Hey, Deb, I’m like an elephant. I never forget.
I can’t tell you how often Dick Stodghill comes to mind and I always smile at one of his comments where he said my husband must be a clod because he didn’t understand that when I was reading, it really was part of my work. I miss Dick a lot and feel priviledged to have known him via this blog.
I so agree!! I have found amazing new friends and reconnected with old friends I hadn’t heard from in years. This IS the best time!!
I love trying to contact you “guys”to give me some inspiration to pursue my dream of writing a full novel instead of short stories,,
Deb, you hit the nail right on the head. The internet has made old and dear friends out of folks I’ve never actually met!!
I also miss Dick. He added a great dimention to our internet lives.
Terrie
Funny, a friend mentioned Dick yesterday, what an asset he was.
As a ruff-tuff crimewriter, I hesitate to say that James’ picture evoked an “Aww…”
I never thought of registering a vampire trademark. The toothy ones leave such a distinct impression.
Its the title to one of my short stories that was published four years ago, so I trademarked my character,
“Jeff Baker Likes this”
(laugh) Jeff, too funny.
Vampyre®, how cool is that! Does ‘native’ mean indigenous or that the vampi®e goes nekked?
Don’t want to be a stick in the mud, but as far as I’m concerned, the computer age is a mixed blessing. Of course everything everybody has said is true, and there are myriad other benefits that haven’t even been mentioned.
That said, reading and writing emails, updating facebook status, tweeting, surfing the web, and talking on the phone at any time and any place, can be huge time and productivity burners, and it’s about as habit-forming as cigarette smoking (which I quit more than six years ago but still miss!).
I don’t know, twenty years ago, there just seemed to be so much more leisure. It was also easier to separate your private life from your professional life–nobody expected you to answer the phone after hours, or read memos after you’d gone home from the office. Sometimes I long for those days…
Well when I go to bed, I just turn it off, if its important they know where I live. And if I dont have a certain number on memory on the phone, then tough shi-take mushroom, bet u thought I was going to slip up,,lol I dont have an editor or publisher hounding me yet so life is easier, all others outside of my kid, who is 16, she is the only person that has the number on a prepaid I bought just for her phone calls,
Native refers to the fact that I am of the Wolf Clan, Cherokee Tribe, so hence my title character is also,,