Miss Marple

I found this picture of a woman who looks so much like me!

Her name is Geraldine McEwan and she plays Miss Marple on PBS (that's where I got the picture)

Two other actresses are famous for having played the lady from St. Mary Mead: Margaret Rutherford and Joan Hickson.

Photos from PBS Mystery site.

Interview with Cheryl Hagedorn

MB: Good morning Cheryl. It is great to have an author on my site this morning. I have read your novel Park Ridge: A Senior Center Murder and really enjoyed it. I understand that you also write poetry and short stories. Have you had any of these works published?

Cheryl: When I was in graduate school at DePaul, I took a class called Narrative Shorts. I submitted one of the stories that I had written for class, "The Color of Cowboys," to Threshold, the DePaul literary magazine, and they published it in the 25th anniversary edition.

Moon Journal, a feminist magazine, published a personal essay on my participation in the Danskin Triathlon. "Mudface", a poem, was published in Off the Rocks, another Chicago-area magazine. Just this month Gaper's Block published "Strangers in Transit," a series of vignettes about riding the subway.

MB: There are flashes of humor throughout your mystery, Park Ridge: A Senior Center Murder. Do you do any humor writings?

Cheryl: I had been out of college for almost twenty years when I decided to get my master's degree. I signed on for some writing classes at Oakton Community College to warm up my slack academic muscles.
Professor David Koenig pushed me a bit to try my hand at humor. I sat down and knocked out a poem I thought was pretty funny:

Entertaining Thoughts of God
By Cheryl Hagedorn

God started his career at a carnival
Working with two dummies and a talking snake
Only to be replaced by a flaming sword act

He did six-week stint at a water show
Swore he’d never do that again

His magic act played the Palace (in Egypt)
Had a long gig in the desert (not Vegas)

Did a Top Ten list long before Letterman
Was host to several game shows:
Truth or Consequences, Jeopardy.

Last I heard was down to do a cooking show

When he got out of fortune-telling
Taught everything he knew to Nostradamus

Subject of several unauthorized biographies
Unauthorized because they couldn’t get the copy right.
Eventually became an icon

While I was still at Oakton, I entered the Skyway Writer's Festival and my humorous short story, "Lanita's Cooking," took 2nd place in the Non-Fiction category. I was pretty psyched since Melanie Rigney, who was then the editor of Writer's Digest Magazine, said:

"Lanita's Cooking" illustrates beautifully the power of the time-honored writing
adage, "Show, Don't Tell." Cheryl doesn't simply say her sister-in-law is a poor
cook--or that she forgot to cook part of the Thanksgiving meal. Cheryl describes
just how bad Lanita is, right down to those marshmallows. She doesn't just say
Lanita is southern--she illustrates her speech patterns. As a personality
profile, this piece of work is first-rate.

MB: Of all that you've written, What is your favorite?

Cheryl: Since we were just talking about "The Color of Cowboys," I guess I would choose that one. I remember clearly getting poor marks on the original AND the second draft. I got angry because I felt the professor just wasn't understanding it at all. So I turned it upside down and inside out. She was right, I think. The last version had a lot more power.

MB: You have a dog and a cat, do you think that they will ever contribute to your books?

Cheryl: Lord, no! Mienne is an overweight Australian Cattle Dog who couldn't stop a bad guy unless he tripped over her accidentally. JeSuis's only awake activity is blinking.

MB: I noticed that you have discussion questions posted on your website, and that you discussed some of the answers to these questions on your blog. Has your book been used for a book discussion group?

Cheryl: The Park Ridge Senior Center -- yes, it's a REAL place -- discussed my book in January. That's the only group that I'm sure of. But if anyone is interested, they can check the website.

MB: What review do you feel best caught the spirit of your novel?

Cheryl: The Blind Bookworm, Alicia Verlager a.k.a. Kestrell, did a super job of "getting" my novel. Can I give you a quote?

"Park Ridge is a very different mystery than the one I was expecting. It is a story full of surprises, but the most notable surprise is that the author chose to create a mystery which goes beyond cardboard cutout characters and instead chose to write a mystery which exposes many of our cultural stereotypes about people over the age of sixty. Park Ridge demonstrates one of the lures of mystery fiction: it's ability to show us how mysterious we can be to one another."

MB: Congratulations! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheryl's book is available from BookLocker or any other online bookstore. It may also be ordered from your local brick-and-mortar.

A reading/gardening vacation

Vacation starts tomorrow. I am taking a week off and get the memorial day holiday tacked on at the end. I am planning on gardening and reading. Maybe I will read some gardening mysteries. Hope to complete a book or two for the mystery challenge. I will have to visit the library to check out some authors I have never read before. (See my blog from yesterday for the mystery challenge link). When the weather cooperates I will be in my garden, when it's raining I will be reading. If I get inspired, I will take a nap or clean house. I bet the nap will win out 2 to 1. Oh, well there is nothing like a week at home to catch up on everything. I am sure it will all go by way two fast.

A mystery reader challenge

Reviewed by Liz (RBL for short) is offering a summer reading challenge for adults. "The goal of this challenge is to read six mysteries by authors whose works you haven’t read before between June 1st and August 31st and to have a place to discuss them with other mystery readers." Check out her site at RBL Summer Mystery Reading Challenge

It looks like fun and you might get some suggestions for your summer reading. I haven't checked out the prizes yet.

Maybe I will give up my excuses. Since I read about 8 a month I should be able to make the goal of reading six by August 31. I will just have to expand my author list.

Excuses

I haven't posted anything lately. I want to blame it on work. Work has been crazy but I don't read at work and don't blog at work so I really have no excuse. It would be nice if I did. Probably I am just being lazy and who want to admit to that. Oh, well. Since I don't have any excuse except that I haven't read anything worth writing about (another excuse), I guess I will get back to reading.

Dead as a Scone

Still haven't finished this one, but I am getting a little tired of tea and tea related items. I would like a receipe for the scones but there isn't one. The book does a little preaching about church and I noticed that the dedication is to their friends at the "New Spirit Community Church." Should have been a "dead give away". Oh well, as long the the preaching isn't too obnoxious and fits into the story line, I can live with that.

Mysteries with Food in the Title

I am currently reading "Dead as a Scone" by Ron and Janet Benrey. It revolves around a British tea museum (yes, a museum dedicated to tea and tea antiques - the authors assure the reader that this a totally fictional museum). I haven't learned much about scones so far but have learned a lot about tea. Other mysteries with food in the title have included cookies, chili, wine, cupcakes, but in my reading there seems to be a lot of baked goods. Do you think that is because baked goods are easier to poison?

Many of the mysteries with food in the title also include receipes. I don't generally read a mystery to find a receipe but I did find one scone receipe that was very good. The sad part is that I checked the book out of the library. I lost the receipe and don't remember the name of the book. Maybe some day I will find it again.

Name that character

I am currently reading Three Dirty Women and the Garden of Death by Julie Wray Herman. Because this is a gardening mystery, I am enjoying the read. My problem is that the characters easily become confusing.

JJ, Janey, Sarah Jane, Jett, Juanita June and Jimmy. By the time I get all the "J" names in the mix, I still have to go back to the characters list to remember if Sarah Jane is the gossip or Juanita June. Does JJ stand for Juanita June? (No, JJ is male and married to Janey). A little more variety with character names is always helpful to this reader.

Dog Star

I read an interview with Susan Waller Miccio this morning on Cheryl Hagedorn's blog. Miccio has written a book that features two Tibetan Spaniels. Like the interviewer, I don't think I've read any mysteries with dogs -- lots of cats, yes -- but dogs?

Miccio mentioned some other mystery writers who have dogs in their books: Susan Conant, Carol Lea Benjamin, and Laurien Berenson. Can anybody tell me anything about their books?

Miccio's book is called Dog Star. No, it's not about Sirius, the god/dog star. It's about dogs who are competing to be spokesperson, make that spokesdog, hence a "star."

Savoring Peter King

I just brought home Dying on the Vine from the library. The Gourmet Detective is one of my favorite sleuths. The food descriptions tantalize -- who cares about the murders and if they get solved?

For those who haven't read any of them, start at the beginning. I think the second book, Spiced to Death was King's best. When you get to number 8, skip it. I didn't care much for Dine and Die on the Danube Express. The writing struck me as rough, the story hurried along unnecessarily.