Category Archives: New York City

More Adventures in Writing: Dusty’s Christmas Surprise

1940s mystery, 1948, Barbara Struna, cats, Christmas, Christmas Noir, Cloisters, fashion 1940s, Holiday Noir, Jessica Minton, Joan Bennett, mystery, Mystery writing, Natasha, New York City, New York films, Sharon Healy Yang, Skating in Central Park, The House Across the Bay, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , ,

Previously, I blogged on the complexity and hard work behind developing Memories of You.  Well, now that draft #2 of Memories is marinating on my D drive, I’ve plunged into turning the outline for my fifth Jessica Minton mystery into an actual book.  However, Dusty’s Christmas surprise has not flown easily from my pen, despite the detailed outline crammed into a stack of variously sized, lined pages, all written down at multiple points over the past two years.

First, there was the background research for 1948, and not just December of the year when the story unfurls.  My general research started with an interesting little tome called Live It Again 1948. Lots on politics, the economy, home life, and domestic and international events.  Harry Truman’s hard-fought presidential victory, the Soviet Blockade and resultant Berlin Airlift, and Citation winning the Triple Crown were just a few important events. Did you know that Kitty Litter and Scrabble as  we now know it both came on the market that same year?  Dusty will certainly delight in the former. With Liz’s penchant for mangling the English language, I’m sure she’ll make some intriguing contributions to the latter.

You can see the notes I’ve been taking from this book above. Also observe that the picture to the right shows how I made up a calendar for December 1948 with room on the squares for each day to write in events occurring in the story – but written in pencil!  Once you start actually writing, you find that events may notconnect in the ways you’d expected or fit the order you’d originally planned.  Hence, a little erasing and a little rewriting, in pencil, enables you to make adjustments, so that you are always looking at the big picture over the weeks the story covers. It helps me to see the plot in a linear layout.

Another big help was a stack of movie magazines from 1948 that my fellow author Barbara Struna graciously donated to me.  They gave me the lowdown on what 1948 people were experiencing – directly, by reporting on films, gossip, music; indirectly, by showing advertisements for films, consumer goods, and photos of hair and clothing fashions.   Primary texts give you a nice picture of people’s everyday life in the time period of your choice.  Closer to creating a final draft, I’ll be looking at the New York Times for December 1948, to get more depth on world, national, and city concerns – as well as on entertainment, what people are buying and the costs, and personal interest stories.

Now, I also needed help with some nitty-gritty details.  Only three chapters in and I had to figure out how one character could check whether a thirty-eight was loaded, without getting fingerprints on the gun. God bless the Internet (sometimes).  Here you can see that I retrieved and printed instructions on how to check for bullets, while also getting a picture of the gun itself to see all the parts described.  So, I was able to describe how to handle the weapon without getting pesky fingerprints all over it.

Many people tell me that they love my descriptions of my era’s clothes,  often asking how I can create those images so vividly and accurately.  Here’s my “secret.”  I draw on photos of the actual styles of the era.  As I’ve mentioned in other of my blogs, I’m inspired by classic-era actors when I create my characters.  With Joan Bennett as an inspiration for Jessica, I often turn to images of her to inspire both scenes and descriptions of what she’s wearing in those scenes.  For a Saturday morning visit to The Cloisters, I selected this number from House Across the Bay.  Now, House was released in 1940, but the longer plaid skirt and nip-waisted jacket turned out also to suit (if you pardon the pun) 1948 fashions.

You can also see in the picture at the beginning of the previous paragraph that I have a layout of The Cloisters on my writing easel.  I had planned to take a trip there to refresh my memory for recreating that setting; however, I was unable to do so before writing this passage.  After checking online articles about the layout and exhibitions of The Cloisters in 1948, I blended that map with images and descriptions from those articles to create the setting of two dangerous encounters for Jessica.  Can you guess where Jess was hiding when she overheard a telling conversation?

Before things get dicey, this faithful dog memorialized beneath his nobleman owner’s feet leads Jessica to ponder if Dusty would do her similar honors, in stone, What do you think?

Additionally, I’d planned a scene where Jessica is pursued across a skating pond in Central Park by a mysterious predator. However, Yang claimed that the skating ring in the park was an open arena that wouldn’t allow any surreptitious, threatening chases.  Again, a little research confirmed that Yang’s rink only opened in 1950, but there was, indeed, a frozen skating area called The Pond fitting my needs exactly.  Its memory had haunted me from the 1948 film Portrait of Jenny.  The hair-raising chase was back on! So, enjoy these images that I discovered.  The article that particularly helped me was “NYC in film Portrait of Jennie 1948.”

Of course these photos were all taken during the day.  Jessica’s adventure had the added threat of taking place at night by lantern light.

Lastly, I needed an expert to certify that Dusty’s catlines is fully accurate.  Here’s Natasha, exhausted after her thorough vetting of what I’ve written so far.  Yup, ’Tasha Yang gives me two paws up – but she has to lean on something when she does it or she’ll fall over.

 

Scrabble Image: https://connecticuthistory.org/scrabble-copyrighted-today-in-history/
Truman image:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dewey_Defeats_Truman.jpg
Images from The Cloisters:
-Author’s collection:  dog resting beneath owner’s feet.
– Image of the Gothic Chapel: “The Cloisters,” Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloisters
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cloisters_Chapel_(3220524245).jpg
original sources:  This image was originally posted to Flickr by Sharon Mollerus at https://flickr.com/photos/38315261@N00/3220524245 (archive). It was reviewed on 29 July 2018 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.
Images from Central Park
Aerial shot:Golden Age of Travel, Associated Press –
https://www.facebook.com/groups/811703519221774/posts/2113878869004226/
Skaters on Ice (2 images):
“Portrait of Jennie on Film” NYC in Film, Finding Movie Locations in the Big Apple
https://nycinfilm.com/2022/05/07/portrait-of-jennie-1948/

 

Christmas Noir Four: Lady on a Train

1940s mystery, Christmas film, Christmas Noir, Dan Duryea, David Bruce, Deanna Durbin, Holiday Noir, Jacqueline DeWitt, Lady on a Train, mystery, New York City, New York films, Patricia Morison, Ralph Bellamy, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , ,
Lady on a Train is more comedy than mystery; however, it possesses some nice dark touches that give its holiday setting a noir flavor.  The opening title cars starts us off with the blacks and greys, stark lines, and and dusky darkness of falling night so characteristic of noir. The essential plot gives us Nicki Collins (Deanna Durbin), a sassy San Francisco heiress, witnessing a murder from her compartment window as her train pauses before chugging into New York’s Grand Central Station shortly before Christmas.  The image through her window is perfect noir.  An old man arguing with a  overcoated and fedored form lowering over him.  When the old man angrily turns his back, the menacing figure spots a crow bar on the table, pulls down the window shade without facing the outside, and then bludgeons his victim, visible only through  silhouette  on the drawn shade.  All just before the train pulls out and rushes toward the station.

 

 

Of course, no one really believes Nicki when she tries to sound the alarm, not fussy factotum Edward Everett Horton sent to meet her at the station and definitely not the  crusty desk sergeant (William Frawley at his crustiest best) – especially when the latter sees that Nicki is holding a sensational novel by her favorite mystery writer.

 

 

So, what is our undaunted heroine’s next step? Why, track down that mystery author, Wayne Morgan, to help her solve the crime.  Played by David Bruce, the author does not appreciate her throwing this strange tale in his lap and expecting him to solve the murder – especially since she hounds him by interrupting his meeting with his fiancee and then tracking the writer and fiancee to a movie theatre – where Nicki sees in the newsreel that the famous wealthy man recently found dead from “falling while decorating his tree” is the same guy she saw murdered!  Our poor author ends up really up against it while trying to fend off Nicki’s insistence he help her while he is under the gimlet eyes of a formidable fiancee ( the elegant but indomitable Patricia Morison) and a secretary (Jacqueline DeWitt), whose dry cracks and skepticism over the writer’s capabilities would do Eve Arden proud.

 

Even with Nicki’s feisty and cheery determination to get to the bottom of things, Lady on a Train has some deliciously noir moments:  Nicki’s incursion on the murdered man’s mansion through sharp contrast of black night shadows with stark white snow; the mansion itself’s cobweb of shadows and hazy grey lighting, twists and turns of its interconnecting rooms, and the startling contrast of double doors opening from a  foyer’s gloom into a brightly lit room  filled with relatives listening to the dead man’s will – themselves an disconcerting mixture of charm and menace.  A noir staple of mistaken identity comes into play when Nicki is taken for the old man’s gold-digger girlfriend, the singer in a downtown night club that itself will contain a two-way mirror for spying, dark and twisted corridors leading to shadowy basement rooms of hidden threats.  Of course, there’s no forgetting the estate’s caretaker, who also seems to run the nightclub and have master-minded a plot to con and murder the old man – a smoothly sinister sort who slides snakelike through back ways and hidden doors, bearing a white cat – I guess I mixed a metaphor there with the cat and snake thing.

 

One particular sequence squarely fits the noir motif when Durbin inadvertently lets slip as she rides a car up an elevator in an urban garage a clue she may be wise to the killer – who likely is her companion, the murdered man’s nephew Dan Duryea (a noir stalwart if there ever was one).  What follows is a pursuit through chiaroscuro shadows and interconnected rooms, people framed or trapped in doorways, people being pursued or unknowingly spied upon, even through the dunes of sand waiting to be used against the snow outside.  Another scene finds the other nephew, played by Ralph Bellamy, addressing her with a creepy smile and revealing that  that old stiff Aunt Sarah used to visit him at night and . . . we never find out what?! Brrrrr!!!!!

 

 

The mystery author does arrive on the scene to save our heroine; however, his doing so brings chuckles as well as anxiety over the result.

So, how is this playful take on noir a Christmas movie?  Well, we did see that Nicki arrives near Christmas Eve, and there are trees all over the place in this one – including the one that allegedly did in our murder, correction, our first murder victim.  Lots of snow as well.  Maybe the best connection is the lovely version of “Silent Night” that Durbin sings to her Dad over the phone.  Check it out here. Anyway, it’s a nifty noir to drive away the holiday blues.  If you want to see Durbin do full on Christmas Noir (more noir than Christmas, though), check out her and Gene Kelly  playing against type in Christmas Holiday.

Screen shots by author from the film Lady on a Train, Universal films, copyright 1944.

Check out my other Holiday Noir blogs:

The Lady in the Lake

Beyond Tomorrow

Coverup

Tea and Mystery at Mrs. Bridge’s Pantry

1940s mystery, Bait and Switch, Bridges Pantry, Connecticut, Jessica Minton, Joan Bennett, Letter from a Dead Man, mystery, New England, New York City, suspense, , , , ,
Monday, March 26th, I had the delightful pleasure of being the guest of honor at the Tea and Book Club held every last Monday (fall through spring) at Mrs. Bridges Pantry in Woodstock, Ct.  It’s an exciting experience, where I join the book club for an evening of tasty comestibles and tea, then get to talk to them and answer questions about my writing – as well as sell some books! For good luck, I wore a beautiful navy and grey two-tone suit that Yang made for me, based on a pattern he created from a vintage outfit.  Of course, I couldn’t talk about my smart-talking gal, Jessica Minton, without wearing a pin that had once belonged to one of the original smart-talking gals, Joan Bennett!

 

 

 

 

Mrs. Bridges is set in beautiful rural Connecticut, just over the border from Massachusetts.  The tea room is in a rustic wooden building.  Every day of the week but Tuesday, you can journey there for lunch, dessert, and/or afternoon tea.  They have a wide selection of black, green, red, and herbal teas.  In fact, they are a major supplier for me!  I highly recommend you visit, as I and my husband or I and my girlfriends frequently do.  The people there are so friendly and fun, you’ll feel as if you are back with chums in no time.  As you can see in the layout for the evening’s tea, there is a homey, lovely dining room.  Further, you can find on the other side of the building all kinds of teas, china, and tea-related items for sale – including Bait and Switch and Letter from a Dead Man, the perfect accompaniment to a nice cuppa!

 

 

I had a wonderful time talking to the regulars in the club about my love of mysteries from the golden age, both on the page and on the screen, and the cinematic inspirations for many of the characters in my novels.  It was also fun to talk about how evocative settings don’t just inspire a writer; they can drive you to use that place creatively.  The folks had stimulating questions about how I found time to work, did I write by the seat-of-my-pants or did I have a fully formed plot at the start,  how long it took me to complete work on a novel, or how I researched locations and events. In answer to that last point, I had fun telling them about going to New York City to test out one of Jessica’s hair-raising escapes, myself.   You’ll have to read Letter from a Dead Man to find out how it works out. Here’s a hint – it involves the lions in front of the New York Public Library.  And speaking of Patience and Fortitude (the lions’ names), it turns out that a brother and sister there that night were descended from the man who ran the business charged with moving them to the library.  Small and intriguing world, isn’t it?
It was fun to renew old acquaintances and make new friends amongst the book club folks that evening.  It was also lovely to work with Hope, who runs the Tea/Book Club, and Amber, who was our waitperson for the evening – constantly and patiently supplying me with Irish Breakfast tea!  I have a picture here of Hope and I together, but I forgot to get one of Amber.  Shame on me!  If you live in the area, check out the Tea/Book Club.  For $15.00 you have a  delicious evening  (homemade soup, tea sandwiches, dessert with homemade jam, and unlimited tea), as well as the chance to meet and talk with interesting authors (like me!).  Or just stop by Mrs. Bridges for lunch or an afternoon snack – and pick up a copy of Bait and Switch or Letter from a Dead Man while you’re there!  Dusty would approve!

 

Launching Letter from a Dead Man

1940s mystery, Bait and Switch, Book Lover's Gourmet, book signings and readings, Jessica Minton, Joan Bennett, Letter from a Dead Man, mystery, New England, New York City, Sisters in crime New England, writing, , , , ,

Saturday, 11/18/17, Letter from a Dead Man got its official launch at The Booklovers’ Gourmet in Webster.  What a wonderful experience!  There was a nice turnout of friends, colleagues from school, fellow writers, students from WSU, and even new people I didn’t know yet.  As usual, Deb Horan had the room set up beautifully, and we all had the opportunity to partake of some yummy comestibles and beverages.  I smoothed out my vocal cords with a tasty pumpkin latte – ’tis the season!

 

We all started off by chatting about writing, teaching, and the inspirations for my 1940s-style mysteries, especially how I like to cast my characters as  favorite actors from the era: Joan Bennett and Rosalind Russell as the smart-talking Minton sisters, Lloyd Nolan as the tough-guy henchman, and Claire Trevor as the ultimate femme fatale, for example.   Interspersed with these points, I did some readings, which I’m happy to report, people found tense and intriguing.  I gave them a scene where sisters Jessica and Liz have to face off against the threats of the femme fatale’s menacing torpedo – without giving away what mysterious object he held in his hand that would prove a vital pivot for the plot.  I later read from the scene where Jessica had to flee and seek refuge from deadly pursuers behind one of the lions in front of the New York Public Library. This led to a discussion of Dead Man’s cover and the fun story where I went to New York with Yang to “test” out the scene of Jessica’s flight.

 

I was fortunate that two of my Sisters In Crime, Lisa Lieberman and Leslie Wheeler, joined me.  The three of us bounced questions and comments off one another to give the rest of the audience insights into the sources of our ideas, how we write (outliners or seat-of-our-pantsers), how we overcome writer’s block, and how good editors or writers/readers groups challenge  and inspire us to overcome obstacles in the way of getting the right words on the page and those pages into print.

 

 

Speaking of reading/writing groups, one of the posse who keeps me on my toes, my friend Judy Jeon-Chapman, was able to join us. Not only has she given me great feedback, but  there were days when she’d needle me every night to get her more chapters to calm the suspense I’d enkindled with my writing.  So, as a reward, I worked her into the third story (yet to be published)  as I was editing it!  Several of these pictures even came from her.

You can see how enthusiastic I am about talking writing here.   I also love Leslie’s “Crime Scene” scarf!

 

Maybe the best part of the day was getting to spend time with old friends and colleagues whom I hadn’t seen in a while, like Rini Kilcoyne and Jim Foley from Worcester State.  I so much appreciate how these folks support me and the good friends and coworkers they have been over the years.  I’m a lucky gal!

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a picture of my favorite supporter!

Maybe I shouldn’t be charging him for the books?

Location! Location! Location!

1940s mystery, architecture, Bait and Switch, mystery, New York City, , , ,

I recently posted a blog on the Touchpoint Publishing Web Site discussing how real life settings inspire my writing as well as how ideas for my novel inspire me to seek out real life settings.  Click here to read “Location!  Location! Location!” 

Carven (not craven) Creatures of the Big Apple

architecture, Don't Blink, gargoyles, Gothic, New York City, , ,

 On one of our several peregrinations to NYC, Yang and I were strolling around the upper Westside, near Central Park, where we were taken by the marvelous reliefs and carvings on the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century buildings.  Here’s a record of that intriguing stroll.

 I’m not sure if this is the head of a cupid or a Roman youth.  It looks like wood lacquered over  black paint.  Or it could be masonry painted over.  What do you think?  I love the sheaf of what look like cattails surrounded by scrollwork.

 

The whole side of this building was alternating Classical mythological figures and Green Men – sort of like the melange of classical and native mythos in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  I decided to include only this detail of what looks like Athena flanked by two Green Men.  I’m fascinated by the thought of who decided on this design.  Was it the architect’s idea or did the original owner order the magical artwork?  Was it a signal of the owner’s or the architect’s learning and sophistication?

 

Here, you can see swans above gryphons holding escutcheons, but with no motto or symbol on the shield.  The wider shot below illustrates the art deco design over the entranceway.  Would this building have been constructed in the 1920s or ’30s?

We photographed these reliefs of mythical beasts on one building.  I can definitely identify the creature over the entrance as a dragon.  The others I’m not so sure about at all.

 

I think this might be a form of a gryphon.  It has a lionlike head and paws in front. It is a winged critter,  Yet, are its hindquarters too reptilian?

 

 

 

These next ones have me really scratching my head.  I seem to have heard of some mythic beast with the tail of a snake, but I can’t quite remember what it was.  I definitely see a bird’s wings and claws.  However, what is the head?  A dog?  A donkey? El chupacabra?

This one completely knocks me for a loop.  The head is clearly reminiscent of what all MST3K fans will recognize as Trumpie from The Pod People.  So, is it proof of earlier alien invasions?  Interestingly, the creature doesn’t seem to have both arms and legs, but one pair of limbs that could serve both purposes – unless the wings count as arms/hands – as with bats.

 

I’m not sure if these chaps are supposed to be gods or Green Men, but the fellow in the other picture certainly looks as if he could be Bacchus.  I love the contrast of the red brick with the cream-colored carvings.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, this shot is particularly interesting for more than one reason.  First, of course, is the graceful carving of the British lions above the entrance.  Especially interesting is the cat in the window perfectly situated above the lions.  However, if you take a closer look at the cat you may exclaim, “Say what!”

That sweep of black fur across the forehead, that little smutch of black fur under the nose.  Good Gravy Train!  The cat looks like Hitler! How embarrassing in front of the other cats.