Michael Z. Lewin
 Michael Z. Lewin, Liza Cody and Peter Lovesey were also "Wanted for Murder". Our last tour with this show was in 2003 - see below - when we also put together a CD. For information about Take-Outs, click the title at the bottom of the column on the right of this page. "Wanted for Murder" was in Indianapolis on in 2003, presented by the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library in association with the Butler University Visiting Writers series.
Then we went in Edmond, Oklahoma - in the Oklahoma City area - at Edmond Library. Finally we hit Las Vegas where we did the show as part of the 2003 Bouchercon mystery convention. After which my colleagues returned to damp and gloom in England while I stayed in the US for another week so I could attend Muncie's Magna cum Murder mystery conference. In 2005 I did a bit of a tour with my shows "Murder You Write" and "What Happens Next?" Most of these programs were in the Midwest but I started off in Wallingford, Connecticut, where the audience divided into detective agencies to write endings to a story called "The Truth." As so often happens, they came up with things I'd never have thought of for myself. Writing stories is so much a matter of picking what interests whoever's writing, and each person is interested in different things. Then I was off to the Indiana where I did "What Happens Next?" in archtecturally unique Columbus. So few cities or towns in the whole country have paid special attention to how their centers look that Columbus, with buildings from a dazzling array of internationally known architects must be unique. I was treated very well and I hope the folks in the audience in the lovely red room had a good time too. I'm hoping to post a picture of Columbus's jail once I get home (I'm writing now from my sister's in Connecticut.) Then I went to Missouri to visit the impressive Central Methodist University in Fayette. A substantial and diverse audience got its mental teeth into "Cigarettes" and a few had the opportunity for extra credit for writing reviews of the program. I may post exerpts from them. On the other hand, I may not... After an interlude at the Magna cum Murder mystery conference in Muncie - friendly and efficiently run as ever - I headed for a Halloween lunchtime program in Terre Haute, Indiana, and a lovely, sociable dinner the evening before. The program on November 1st was in Evansville's fabulous new library - which includes a cafe called "Cup and Chaucer" and books for sale on the honor system. After lunch on the 1st I followed the advice of my hosts and walked through the old town to the Ohio River. The weather was sunny and warm (as it always is in Indiana in November, right?) and read my way through the historical plaques at the end of Main Street. Another generous crowd made the evening a very warm one. And finally I launched myself in Anderson, Indiana, on November 2nd, where again there's been recent development of the central library. The whole ethos of getting people into the library almost for any reason is one that's only coming slowly to Britain. the product is a series of wonderful places for people to read, learn and compute. The program again threw up a variety of suggestions for the development of "Cigarettes" that I'd never considered before. Do yo think that Prince Charles might use the word "grub" for food? It was mooted. Thank you everyone for making this tour such a friendly and memorable one. |
EventsBouchercon 2009 - October 15 - 18 in Indianapolis.Bouchercon is an annual convention that brings together writers, readers, publishers, agents and everyone else with connections to the mystery genre. The biggest such convention in the US and is held in a different city each year. This time it was in Indy.
I was there throughout and surfaced for "Dirty Rotten Liars: the game show" with Liza Cody and Peter Lovesey, as well as a panel on the mean streets of Indianapolis with Ron Tierney, Tony Perona, Brandt Dodson and Brenda Stewart. The big event, however, was a 90 minute bus tour covering many places in Indy that have featured in Albert Samson novels as well as others of my books. I'd never done such a thing before but a full, supportive bus made it a pleasure.   From inside the bus... Those on the bus tour saw many sights - the area of Samson's current office and is mother's luncheonette, Powder's neighborhood, and many places in between. They were treated - if that's the word - to stories from my own family history that have affected elements of many books.
But one theme - and I've touched on this in newsletters before too - was how whenever I mention a café or restaurant in a book, that place seems to close. It's happened several times. There have been exceptions but... Oddly, when I got home after the trip I found that the same had happened to a restaurant I like here in Bath. And, yes, it has been mentioned in Lunghi books and stories. So my curse lives. Which I don't like. And here's something sonnetlike on the subject: I’ve closed another restaurant, it seems. Where staff all knew my name and favored foods. What is this gift, this curse, I have? I opt To like a place, to mention it, and then I turn my back for just a week and when I return, whoosh, zip, boom: all gone. I’m bopped, Pow! on the head of my routines and moods. It’s like it wasn’t real, just some dreams. OK, p’raps the gaps were more than a week. So maybe I didn’t go in that much. But still… It’s change, and for the worse. As such I’m entitled to complain: bloody cheek! All the eateries I choose to frequent Should stay the same – like me. It’s how it’s meant. Autumn 2008 saw me venturing to Indiana once again. I was at Magna cum Murder October 24-26 where I took part in two panels. One was about what - if anything - is too much to put in a book. Quite a lot, if we're talking about mine in which you'll go a long way before you actually see a body, much less anything gruesome. The other - which got quite lively, despite being at 9 on Sunday morning - was about writing stories set in Indiana. In it I was reminded of how "we" pronounce Hindostan - a town that vanished in the first part of the 19th Century and features in my Cutting Loose. Make the o sound like a u and you'll have it. At 3pm the afternoon of Sunday, October 26th, I spoke with a small but distinguished group of readers at the wonderful newly modernized Kennedy Library in Muncie. On Monday, October 27th, I was at another amazing library - Hussey Mayfield Memorial Public Library in Zionsville. I did a version of my program, Murder You Write. People in the audience divided into detective agencies and were retained to solve a case - set in one my short stories. Prizes were given - as you see above. The audience even included a former private detectve. Earlier in the week I was at The Mystery Company, the wonderful mystery bookstore in Carmel. It was a lively crowd and, unusually, I was asked about my father's best-selling book from the '60s, Report From Iron Mountain. |
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