I'm starting the blog today by quoting Wendall's blog from yesterday. Her feelings on Left Coast Crime are expressed beautifully, and echo my own sentiments for Bouchercon.
"But I might love it even more as a person alive in the world right now, because it’s a place I’m guaranteed to see some of my dearest friends, a place to get to know some authors better, and a place I know I will meet even more lovely, generous, decent, inspiring people, accidentally or on purpose."
Crime writers are just so wonderfully weird and being weird myself, it's good to get back to the tribe.
But the world at the moment is a strange place. And a dangerous place. And the most dangerous place of all is between the ears of the orange one.
Reading Kwei's blog yesterday? I totally understand that, well as far as I'm capable of understanding it as I've never walked in those shoes, still living within 6 miles of where I was born. And that place, this place, I hope, will always be safe.
I am thinking hard about Bouchercon, but tending to think it's not for me this year. Too much uncertainty. The script seems to be that authors will be safe as we are not 'working'. I'm not convinced by that. Working is more than paid work. Acts of Parliament take ages to pass in the UK, so the legal document in the end tends to be very clear and not open to interpretation by any particular individual. We're hearing stories of Europeans travelling in the US and issues at passport control that are quite scary.
But as yet, I am undecided.
Anyway, I was going to blog about this house I found in a village near me. I've had the idea before but the MIE could club together and buy it and live there for the next 4.5 years. Stan, Annamaria, Jeff and Barb spend a fair amount of time on this side of the pond. Kwei? You can fly into Glasgow for £50 from Spain (why you would want to is another matter but hey...) Craig's an hour away.
Seriously though, a tough year for many reasons- Alan's mum passed last month, and for 5 weeks we are in the big cancer hospital in Glasgow taking a relative for their radiotherapy. We are very grateful for our NHS.
Oh here's a funny story. Alan and the patient were shown upstairs to the wellness suite at the hospital. Tea, coffee, paints, sofas, musical instruments... a drum kit, an electric guitar. So of course Alan and the patient ( 55 year old male) start jamming... with....Stairway to Heaven.. in a hospital!!! People laughed and gave them a wee round of applause. We are weird indeed.
The new book is underway and while searching for properties for the book I found this --- "fill your boots" as we would say,
Anyway, here's the house. 20 minutes from the airport, 20 minutes to Loch Lomond, 60 minutes to Glen Coe and the gateway to the Highlands. It's 800K. Oh, and across the road from 2 very good golf courses. 8 bedrooms! 11 bathrooms! A pool! And a recording studio.
Just a thought. I think it might have been designed by the same person who designed mine. Build in 1872, mine is 5 years later but the features are exactly the same. But tidier than mine...
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If MIE passes on this property, maybe the JWG could pitch in together. We're looking for a new permanent base. Set it up as a writers' retreat the rest of the time.
ReplyDeleteIf I was a few years younger I would. Hey, you are few years younger.....
DeletePart 1: I think we could all do with a haven these days. I just hope that neither of the courses belongs to (name obliterated).
ReplyDeleteThey absolutely do not! One is the course that Jamie perfected his skills on. Thought you might like the wine collection in one of the pics...
ReplyDeleteLooks like a wonderful place for 800K. Well... that's what I thought until I got to the room that is white and peach/persimmon/salmon with a 'wave' through the rug. THAT room would drive me to drinking (well, no, I'm ALREADY there...).
ReplyDeletePart 2: For the past month or so, I've been experiencing something that is not a feeling, not a thought - more like an intuition or premonition - about Bouchercon. Trying to align this thing with the part of me that is rational, such as not wanting to go to a red state in these tumultuous times or not wanting to go to the home of the hypocritical Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. I've also wondered it is because I've just come off an 8-week road trip around South Africa and am very tired. However, none of these explained what I'm experiencing. Over the years I've slowly learnt to pay attention to these niggles, so I decided a couple of days ago not to go to Bouchercon. I'm sad because I'll miss all the friends and buzz of the conference. As of now, I'm in for Calgary, if I-refuse-to-say-his-name doesn't bankrupt us all or blow up the world.
ReplyDeleteI hope to see you in Bristol, Caro.
I'm coming to the same conclusion. I'm just uncomfortable thinking about travelling in the US at the mo. And Calgary is superb. It has a district called Ramsay......
DeleteAck. You're "uncomfortable thinking about traveling in the US at the mo," think how those feel who have to LIVE here at the mo... Ack. :-( We'll be attending a "Hand's Off" protest this afternoon.
DeleteA very good turnout at the St Paul 'Hands Off' - I thought about 10k but some estimates were as high as 25k. All public transport was so packed that hundreds were turned away from the light rail I was on.
DeleteThat sounds pretty proportional. I estimated around 2K people at ours, in a city about 1/5th the population of St Paul. My ears are still ringing from all the horn honking from the cars and trucks flowing by the protest. I thought it interesting that the attendance 'age' skewed HEAVILY older, and we wondered how many of today's protestors were involved in the early 70s anti-war protests. :-)
DeleteI am one of those old people. We stopped a war by protesting, when the crowds grew and grew. It will work again.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the gatherings of mystery writers and fans, I love them (some more than others. But to me they are a gathering of my tribe.) It's where I feel like I belong. Wendell and I were the only MIE writers at LCC this year, and it was such a treat to be together. Also, I had long talk with a lang time fan who was remembering Leighton, and what a loss his death as to all of us.
Where else would that happen?