BLOGOSPHERE

by Leigh Lundin

So I’m in this Orlando bar and Terrie Moran’s there and one of her eyes isn’t quite focusing right. The bartender glares at me, mumbling, "Don’t you even think about hittin’ on her," and I go, "Hey, dude, that’s her hand on my thigh." When I go to the restroom, she totters after me in her spike heels and she’s like, "We should collaborate… Hey, where ya going, shweetie. I came from New York to shee you and I’ve got theesh notes in my car…"

Her friend, Clare, goes, "Babe, we got to get you home. You’re slopping your wine all over the man." And Terrie’s like, "Sh’not wine. I schwitcht to gin, schoooo lee’ me alone." And then she looks up at me with her big eyes and says, "You like my cleavage?"

Okay, none of this happened, but we’re fiction writers, right? Just now, Terrie Moran’s probably choking on her morning coffee while Clare Toohey is laughing her ass off. Either that, or she’s phoning their lawyers on a Sunday.

Today’s column came about partly because the lovely, charming, and extremely smart Women Of Mystery have been verrrry supportive of us^[1] and partly because the powerful photos Clare published kept coming to mind when I was trying to dream up today’s column. (This is called blogging about someone else’s blog because you can’t think of anything to blog about.)

Clare doesn’t use many words, but she finds fantastic graphics for her site. I’ve long heard that men are visual and women are verbal, but anyone who thinks women aren’t visual hasn’t been paying attention. Women like to ‘look’ just as much as males.

I started wondering about the ‘story behind the story’ in some of Clare’s selections. Tairan Zhang‘s photograph above (click it to enlarge) begs drama: scarred cats and drug baggies underfoot, a thug cleaning his knife on his victim’s shirt, a hooker bent over a trash can with her miniskirt up around her waist. What city? Pittsburgh? Detroit? Moscow? Manchester? What led denizens to these bricks and darkened doorways?

Readers, we want a poem, flash story, or even a vignette – a fiction to let us know the scene is real.

2 E or Not 2 E

Women of Mystery’s layout is conducive to showing off photography. Their offerings brought to mind another recent picture.

This photograph Clare published isn’t artful, but funny. I think it should be titled, "Whatever!" or as Clare put it, "Shuhh! No fair! As if!"

The Naked and The Dead

I could have titled today’s article A Few of My Favorite Blogs. The first mystery blog I remember encountering was Bill Crider’s. The blog of Sara Weinman has been around the block a while, too. The first group blog I remember was Murderati followed by Naked Authors– 3 guys, 3 girls– I don’t even want to think what goes on beneath the book covers.

Then there’s Sheila Curran… When most of us speak of past issues, we think of old Ellery Queens and Alfred Hitchcock. I don’t think ‘old issues‘ has the same meaning for Sheila.

Flowery Prose

This past week, Leann Sweeney had me laughing on her blog. Sorry, Leann, I forgot to lift the restraining order long enough for you to read about my own brush with the law in Courting Disaster.

High-Heeled Mayhem

Jackie Griffey sent me a nice note this week. Fran Rizer brought to our attention a new blog from The Stiletto Gang whose mission is to bring mystery, humor, and high heels to the world.

Criminal Neglect

To James’ chagrin, I only recently discovered Crime Space. He pointed out we’ve had a link to it in our sidebar since FOREVER.

À Propos de Rien

Finally, when you need a break and it comes to sheer air-headedness, there’s nothing like the blog, Overheard in New York.

^[1] And this is how we repay them.