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It's hard to believe the last time I wrote in this Blog was in August and it's December already.  The International Mystery Writers seems like it was last week, but it was four months ago.  The days, indeed the years, just seem to be flashing by with no time to stop long enough to enjoy the simple things.  Sometimes you don't even have the time to stop and ask those questions that have plagued your mind for years.

For example -- what ever happened to saucers.  I was drinking coffee at the Cross Eyed Cricket -- a favorite Evansvillle restaurant -- the other day and I was staring for a long moment at the mug in which it was served.  And it occurred to me that it's been a very long time since I've seen, let alone used, a saucer.  Saucers are useful for catching that ring of coffee that somehow manages to find its way to the outside bottom of your cup, and will catch the little dribble that you often do when the coffee is still very hot.  Now, you have to set your mug on a napkin, if you remember, to soak up the bottom ring --...

I'm back from the International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro Kentucky -- a week-long experience I am so very glad I have had, and want more of.

 The theme was Agatha Christie, and who knows more about mystery than the grand dame of the genre.  The organizers of the festival managed to secure the US production rights to four of her BBC radio plays that have never been presented in the United States before.  They were, Butter In A Lordly Dish, Three Blind Mice, Personal Call, and Yellow Iris.  I saw them all.  The actors were in make-up and costume, but there was no blocking -- they held their scripts and stood before microphones.  Among the real thrills for me was the Foley table -- two guys who did all the sound effects live, including such things as picking up and replacing a telephone, door openings and closings, footsteps, pouring coffee and putting the pot (and cups) down, and so on.  It was done right on a corner of the stage jsut as it was in the old days of radio.

The plays were broadcast live on public radio station WNIN, but seeing them being done on the...

Walter Cronkite was my hero -- one of them -- the top one.  It was the grim weekend of November 23, 1963, and Walter had been in the anchor chair on the CBS Evening News just over a year.  He was already the most trusted man in America, and he now had the awesome responsibility of telling us that the youngest president in U.S. history had been murdered in the streets of Dallas.

All of us who are old enough to remember where we were and what we were doing on that Friday also remember getting at least part of that horrible news from a calm, collected Walter.  I as taking a piano lesson, and I was ticked off because there had been no afternoon recess that day, it was bristlingly cold and rainy in Indianapolis.  When we heard the announcement over the school's loudspeaker that President Kennedy had been shot I raced back to my classroom where there was a spindly, cranky, cantankerous black-and-white TV, and there was Walter -- first just his voice, and then his picture, coatless but wearing his glasses, sitting in a bare newsroom and getting the information out to us as it came in.

He...

I'm pleased to announce that MURDER HANDED DOWN has entered the Editing phase.  In a few months, it will be headed to Strategic Book Publishing, which gets first refusal options on that manuscript.  I've been advised by my agent -- whose company is owned by Strategic -- that the economy has slowed everything including book-buying down, so we will hold off on submitting that manuscript at least until the fall.  I think the editing process will go much later than that.  it will undergo three rounds here -- at least -- before  going to the book editor I have chosen for a final look-see.

 As all this is going on, principal writing for THE COLOR OF DARK has begun, in fact two chapters are already in the binder.  This book will be much more adult, more stygian, moe edgy, more sexual than the other McDermott adventures, and there will be some pretty desperate perils for our heros.  I'll be adding a page for the book to this web site shortly.

I haven't written here in awhile, but since I was eased into retirement in January -- and considering the rotten economy as it's been, there has been precious little to write about.  But that is changing now.

I am delighted to have been invited to participate in a globally-known INTERNATIONAL MYSTERY WRITERS' FESTIVAL in Owensboro Kentucky in August.  Actually I am thrilled!  I've been to the festival a couple of times but never dreamed I'd be invited to join in.  I will be doing signings and two workshops, one on plot development and one on dialog as a basis for pacing in fiction stories.

 I'll also be doing a special pirate party at the LINCOLN HERITAGE LIBRARY in dale Indiana as part of the Adult Summer Reading program.  That will be one in which I'll be in pirate clothing with a real sword.

 Incidentally, I'm glad to report that principle writing on Murder Handed Down is completed and the book has entered the editing phase.  I will be submitting it to my agent this fall for transmittal to Strategic Book Publishing.

Principle writing on The Color Of Dark has also begun but it's going slowly what with my other freelance...

Yeah, this posting is a bit late in getting up here, but it took awhile to "come down" from a really great night in Kentucky.  We went into a city, and a market where no one had ever heard of me nor my books and had a successful night.  In two hours of wearing the pirate suit and that itchy wig, we sold 16 books, including three copies of Dry Terror.  Not bad.

I wanted to take a moment to specially thank Denise and the rest of the staff at the Barnes and Noble store in the Summit.  They did a sterling job of planning a pirate party that was for kids and adults as well.  Our signing was just one part of it, although a very successful part.  The store staff could not possibly have been nicer and more helpful.  They were wonderful across the board, and hopefully, they will host more signings for the Peter McDermott Adventure series.

It was a great night and a great signing and I made a lot of new friends there whom I hope will contact me through the guest book on this web site, so I can hear from them again....

February 6 was a pretty good night at the Evansville Barnes and Noble -- at least I had the home-field advantage.  That's the store that launched both of the books -- and is already anticipating launching the third one -- and we always manage to sell a few books.  What was interesting is that many of those who came to buy Code of Theophilus also wanted Dry Terror and Sunni had to bring a few copies of that titlefor the customers.  I was surprised that we sold several DT copies that night.  We always do well at the local Barnes and Noble.

We also found out that Dry Terror has sold out in that store SEVEN TIMES now!  I like that!

Now, though, we're preparing to  do another pirate party, and this time we're doing it without the home-court advantage.  We'll be at the Summit's Barnes and Noble in Louisville.  The store is having a BIG pirate party, with readings and kids' activities and things of that nature -- and I get to dress like a pirate and melt into the festivities.

It's going to be fun.  if you can be there, please come.  If not, watch this space for a...

Code of Theophilus is slowly starting to attract attention hither and yon.  It's being carried by Manteo Booksellers in Manteo North Carolina, and in a few other places I've heard about as well.  I continue to send out press releases and to do television and radio appearances.

 In fact, I am going to be on Midday with Mike on Evansville's WFIE-TV 14 on the 28th of January, prepratory to a book signing the next Friday at my favorite Barnes and Noble store.  Mike Blake and I are old friends.  I worked in the newsroom at that TV station for ten years -- almost exactly half my television news career.  I'm also working on doing the WIKY MORNING SHOW with Dennis and Diane a third time before that signing.

 I'll go anywhere to promote this book.  I'm my own worst critic, so you can believe me when I say, Code of Theophilus is a good read.  It was one of those things that just wrote itself over a total of about 15 months, and I still marvel at seeing it in print.

 I celebrated my 57th birthday on January 12.  Funny, I don't feel like a man on the down side of...

A year ago we took a family trip here that was both a get-away and book research.  Much of the action in Code of Theophilus takes place on the barrier island off North Carolina called the Outer Banks.  The home of Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills is really little more than a mile-wide sand pile with Roanoke Sound on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.

It was pretty neat, therefore, to come back here and celebrate New Years, as well as having a chance to talk up the book, hand out business cards and book cards, and let people know that their lovely resort island is featured in a major adventure novel.

Bob's Grill got a brief mention in the book.  During m very first visit here I  was struck by the humor on his business sign, that sits right out there on the "By-Pass," and carries the legend:

Bob's Grill

Eat and Get The Hell Out.

Bob was thrilled to have his place (where the food is actually quite good) named in the novel, and he and his wife Jennifer bought a book on the spot.  Look for a picture of me and Bob elsewhere on...

Tags: happy new year

How fabulous could it get??  First I want to credit Sunni Zimmer for breaking her back and working so very hard (with a broken foot, to boot) on making the launch party the smashing success that it was.  She deserves the lion's share of the credit and I want to publicly thank her for her diligence.

I'd also like to thank my friends and supporters, and also to thank those who came to Barnes and Noble in response to the radio add, just to find a book they heard about and thought was interesting.

 There was a crowd at the place nearly the entire two hours of the scheduled party, with several local dignitaries arriving to be among the first to get this new novel, and it was a delight, absolutely, for me to sign all of them.  I wrote until my wrist hurt, but I'd'a done it hours more if I had needed to, I enjoyed every single moment of it.

I'd also like to thank, personally, Mariana Mudd and the staff and management of the Evansville Barnes and Noble store.  That place has been wonderfully kind to me for my entire (short) career as a novelist, and they...