IS THE PEN STILL MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD? LONG LIVE THE QUEEN! Agatha Christie- Part 1- Intro By: Kimberly Thorn

No not that Queen! But the Queen of Mystery, Agatha Christie! What self-respecting mystery writer (or reader) doesn’t acknowledge the Queen of Mystery? No one! She did many great things during her prolific life. For example, she is the third bestselling author of all time, with the Bible and Shakespeare earning the first two spots! That, in and of itself, is a major accomplishment, especially considering she was a woman. Another Christie accomplishment is that she is the most popular playwright! She has had more of her plays performed than anyone else! Although, you may be surprised to know that she contributed so much more than just her writing to the world! And that her contributions are still being enjoyed by the current generation and will be around for future ones.          

First things, first though. There is an elephant in the room that I’d like to address.

 

I am sure that some have heard the big debate that has happened over the last few months involving Christie and her works. There are some that think that Christie’s work is out of date and that it contains offensive language. That her stories need to be “softened.” They also have called her true character and purpose into question. Others vehemently disagree, saying that her original works should be left alone. That she wrote what she wrote on purpose. That her works showed ALL areas of life honestly: it was the good, the bad, and she even represented the ugly. That it tells of another time, but that it CAN still be relevant today, if we are careful.

No matter which side you are on, this debate has caused Christie fans not only to be in an uproar but it also has caused much damage within the Christie community itself. What was once a very diverse set of people, from literally all over the world, who were only first unified by their love for Christie’s contributions has resulted in a major division. Some fans have left groups because of this division.  As a huge Christie fan, this is my first and foremost reason for delving more into Christie, right now. I had intended to wait and reveal another author, but I feel too strongly about this matter to wait any longer. While I enjoy a healthy debate, I am heartbroken at the anger and discord that this debate has caused within an otherwise once loving and acceptable community of her fans.  Although Christie cannot defend herself nor can she answer our questions, I am learning about her to find out the answers to our questions. Or at the very least, to seek answers to ease the tension and create a healthy debate. Do we fellow Christie fans not owe it to her, as well as ourselves, to find the truth (or at least attempt to find the truth)? Personally, I think Christie would want more from us as fans. Let’s face it, Poirot and Miss Marple would seek to find the truth and not wrongly accuse someone of anything without those facts.  I hope you will join me on this Christie adventure!   

Some of the questions I will seek answers to in the following weeks are as follows:

 

How much do we actually know about her: specifically, her life and her writing?

What motivated her to write? Especially what she wrote?

Did she write what she wrote from experience, prejudices, etc?

How did she influence the mystery genre?

Why is she considered the “Queen of Mystery”?

How did she help change the roles of women in the early 19^th century?

Is it true that poison was her favorite means of murder and if so, why?

What are the “Christie clues”?

Do you think you know the answers to these questions? Or, do you have your own questions that you just absolutely HAVE to have the answer to? Did I miss asking a major question in this debate? Drop me a comment and let me know. If I can answer your question, I certainly will!  

TO CATCH A THIEF: ART FRAUD DETECTIVES FIGHTING CRIME by Yvonne Saxon

Art fraud has been around for centuries. It’s known that the Romans copied statues and passed them off as Greek. So many Old Masters (think Da Vinci, Raphael, Vermeer, and Rembrandt, for starters) have been copied, that there’s an Old Master forgery ring whose extent even the biggest auction houses and the top art specialists don’t know. It's not just paintings that are being counterfeited, either. Artifacts, statues, books, prints, etc., are all being stolen, copied, faked, and fabricated. For example, art dealer Tatiana Khan, owner of  Los Angeles' Chateau Allegre gallery, was paid $1,000 to copy Picasso's "La Femme Au Chapeau Bleu." She then sold the copy for $2 million to a buyer. “Fake art is the third largest criminal activity on Earth after drugs and weapons” according to a source.

LEARNING FROM THE BEST WRITERS by Maria Hudgins

 There must be a thousand books on "How to Write." If you read them all you wouldn't have time to write.So what are a few really good ones? How do you know if a book on writing is good? How do you know this author's advice is right or wrong? That's easy. Read a bit of it and if you are having a hard time putting it down--the author knows what he's doing. This topic, after all, is dry as dirt. It's right up there with "How to change the duvet cover," or "How to clean a bathroom," or "Filling out your 1040 form."

The best book on writing I have ever read is Stephen King's "On Writing" which, by now, has probably gone through a dozen editions. I couldn't put it down. I've read it more than once and not because I didn't remember his advice. It's wonderfully entertaining. I can't forget his description of pretending to be a circus strong man when he was two years old.

I've been looking at a website called Master Class and I see a lot of today's top writers are contributing their best suggestions.One click gives you samples of their advice and I have clicked on a bunch of them. I would tend to favor the words of authors that are my personal favorites. If I enjoy them, I think, so would others. My taste in stories is not unusual. I'm pretty typical. It's not free, but at $120/year, it's cheap for what you can get if you really use it.

This may sound stupid, but I learn a lot from listening to a favorite author on audio. It doesn't matter if the author is doing the reading or not. Some writers are not good readers, and some are. Listening frees your mind to think only about the story. When you aren't thinking about the words on the page or how many pages are left in this chapter, you become more aware of the structure. Why is the writer giving you all these details in one chapter but not in another one? Where is the viewpoint character and what are his eyes seeing? If she parks her car, does she immediately open the door? Does she remember to pick up her purse? Why does the writer skip over all the details sometimes with a brief, "Next morning, he flew to Chicago?" Details are tedious if they don't move the story forward.

Sometimes I can just lie in bed with my eyes closed and realize that I'm working!

WHAT WE'RE READING THIS SUMMER! by the Sand In Our Shorts Gang

It’s July, it’s hot, (in the northern hemisphere at least) and it’s time to grab a good book to read at the beach, the lake, the pool, or in the front porch swing! The Sand-in-our-Shorts writers are here sharing their summer reads with you. Their picks might be your next vacation read— check it out!

Michael Rigg:

I’m not much of a beach reader. Sun and sand and sweat don’t create an inviting atmosphere for reading. (And sunscreen makes the pages stick together.)  But sitting at a beach house in Sandbridge pouring over a novel, with the roar of the ocean as background? Well, that’s a horse of a different color. Especially if there’s air conditioning involved. Next on my summer

VACATION FUN: BEAUTY, HISTORY, AND MYSTERY! By Angela G. Slevin

The throne room

      Summer always puts me in mind of vacations and travel. This year, I’m thinking of two places, one I’ve been to many times and where I have family, and the other a place I’ve always wanted to go. Surprisingly to me, they have a connection.

     The island of Crete, Greece, sits in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and is huge in comparison to the other Greek isles. Crete measures 160 miles wide from west to east, and varies in width from 7.5 to 37 miles from north to south, making its area 3,218 square miles. Crete was an independent nation from 1898 until 1913, when it joined modern Greece.

RESEARCH: A CRITICAL PART OF WRITING. BUT NO ONE SAYS IT HAS TO BE BORING! By Michael Rigg

Harriet Robin 
New Orleans School of Cooking 

Any fiction writer worth their salt will acknowledge that research is a key component of our craft. We write stories that, in the long run, are not entirely true. That’s why it’s called fiction. We ask our readers to suspend belief, at least while they read what we write, and pray they will accept our premise: “what if…” But to engage the reader, to keep them turning pages, our fiction must be plausible.

In sum, fiction—the ultimate untruth—must, of necessity, be based in truth, and supported by facts. Our written untruth must be believable. Thorough research is how we attain this believable untruth. Research is the lifeblood of good fiction. If it doesn’t ring true, the reader will soon be bored and more likely to put our novel down and, worse, add us to their “do not read” list.

STRENGTHEN YOUR SUBMISSIONS STRATEGY, Part 5 by Max Jason Peterson (aka Adele Gardner)

 Happy Father's Day, Delbo G.!

Delbert R. Gardner and Adele Gardner

Growing up, I had the time of my life sharing the writing path with my father, Delbert R. Gardner, a talented writer of poetry, fiction, humor, and essays, who during my lifetime worked variously as a professor of English literature who taught creative writing, and as a writer/editor for TRADOC who felt a special mission to improve training materials for the Army thanks to his experiences in World War II. I’m writing this on the eve of Father’s Day, so I just wanted to share how much it always went to me that Dad was my writing mentor, always encouraging me, providing feedback when I wanted it that was always on a level I could benefit from while growing up, just sharing the joy of the writing life together, and also showing me all the ropes with submissions. I started submitting my stories at fourteen and had my first poems published at sixteen thanks to Dad’s guidance. We were also writing pals—sharing writing sessions; offering one another encouragement; sending out manuscripts through the post every month; celebrating one another’s acceptances and tips about editors who might like each other’s work. (And now I’m his literary executor; and it’s in that capacity that I first began using statistics to track our submissions.) Since he helped me so much, and since I got such a lucky break having such a father (in terms of being a writer, naturally; but also, he was just simply an extraordinary Dad, so loving and wise, playing with us, sharing jokes, helping us with our homework and with life—our best friend) I feel strongly about passing on some of the things I learned thanks to Dad—things he taught me, and things I went on to find out as a direct result of his influence.