Visit Greece and See the World

Jeff–Saturday

Greece is experiencing a harsh couple of weeks, what with hundreds of earthquake tremors threatening its most popular Cycladic islands region, and a tsunami of political outrage triggered by a just released expert's report on the tragic February 28, 2023 head-on train crash that claimed the lives of at least 57 and injured 80 more. 

The report was submitted last week on behalf of the families of the crash victims. A final report prepared by the National Organization charged with investigating railway accidents (EODASAM) is expected on February 27th .

Here are links to more in-depth details on the earthquake tremors and train crash.  But as neither situation appears likely to be resolved anytime soon, I thought it best to go upbeat and post a selection of photos comparing Greece to other treasured parts of the world.  They never cease to remind me of the unmatched beauty, variety, and magic of Greece.

The photographs are from diadoseto.blogspot.gr and e-fungus.gr.

Acropolis, Sounion, Mount Athos monastery

–Jeff

A Story Untold

 

This is a very welcome guest blog from my friend Andrew, fellow writer and pharmacist extraordinaire. His writing garners praise from those such as Belinda Bauer, so he's no mean scribbler. He does not write crime fiction, he writes other stuff..... like err...well other stuff.

Here he outlines the bodies of work that he may or may not have finished..... 

Stories Untold

'I'm writing a novel.'

'Yes, neither am I.'  

That Peter Cook sketch quote sums up my writing nicely.

Unlike the distinguished authors of this blog site, I've never written a book. Well, I've never written a book that's been published. Mostly, this is because I rarely complete them – the cardinal sin for any writer. My dedication to the hard graft wanes with my mediocrity (evident with sentences like that one).

Yet, despite this, I feel compelled to keep going.

I can't help myself. My imagination knows no bounds. Story ideas come to me all the time. Granted, most are of dubious merit, but I note them all down regardless.

I'd like to share some of the better ones with you for this blog. I'll let you decide on their quality. Some are little more than a title. Some I nearly finished. All are stories currently untold.

Four Funerals and an Apocalypse -. A quest to kill the Four Horsemen before they bring about the end of the world. A black comedy starring a hapless Hugh Grant-style hero set in fantasy times.

The Vegan Undead – what do zombies eat when they can't stomach flesh? The greengrocer on Supernatural Street sees a business opportunity—a new spin on getting your five-a-day.    

Murderaware.org – an anonymous self-help counselling service for murderers. Think Samaritans for Serial Killers.

The Needs of the Many – dystopian environmental sci-fi about overpopulation. And its sequel, The Land of Hand Me Downs – the story continues after fresh resources run out.

Of Lice and Men – a head louse detective and his pensioner host investigate the Suicide Bug. "A head-scratcher."

The Night Clubber – a killer is brutally murdering the city's clubbers, but the police have no clue as to his identity – no witnesses, no CCTV, no DNA. He simply vanishes into the night. Renowned internet crank Percy McSoftly claims the killer is supernatural, linking the murders to similar cases from a century earlier. But ghosts don't exist. Do they?

The Hand-Out Error – a pharmaceutical inspector investigates a pharmacy incident where a patient died after receiving the wrong medication. The processes point to human error, but something doesn't add up. Could it be murder?

Back For More – "Secrets can't stay hidden forever." Roy has everything: a loving family, a high-flying career and a secret capable of tearing it all apart. His first wife knows what it is. Now she's back for more.

Samberly Cliffs – Robert Sangster declared in his will that his property, Samberly Cliffs, be torn down after his death and the land remain undeveloped, an instruction his nephew Jeremy, the lone beneficiary, has no intention of following. Ignoring the local folklore of monsters lurking in the caves below and the proximity to an infamous cliff-top suicide spot, Jeremy intends to turn a profit. The renovations are only the start of his problems. Think "Homes Under The Hammer Films".    

From Death to Divinity: The Sacred Heart of Sagemore Hospital – Father Jack Muldoon can't find the words to pray as his mother undergoes a revolutionary heart operation. He lost his faith many years ago as an army pastor. Then, religious fanatics attack the hospital, taking everyone hostage. Can he stop them in time to save his mom's life? Think "Die Hard in a Hospital" with a bloody twist.

Then there was this one that came so close – fully outlined, half written, then I lost confidence.

                                                         
Luck be a Lady (Paisley Curse Book One) – In an alternative present-day Paisley, dubbed Britain's unluckiest town, Basil returns home, having lost his job, his girlfriend and his last living relative. Feeling cursed and all alone, except for Prince, his deceased grandmother's mongrel, he reconnects with old friend Shuggie and dreams of reuniting with his first crush, Lydia, whilst joining the local dog walkers' fight to save the local beauty spot. In doing so, he discovers that luck is not entirely a game of chance, especially when up against Council Leader Edith McKie. To save the Braes and win his girl, it's going to take Basil a lot more than 'lucky white heather' to break his Paisley Curse. Odds are he's going to lose everything.

 Finally, I give you my current work in progress, a tale so long in the telling it will be historical fiction by the time it's completed. I'm on my third draft.

School of Thought – 'a disabled teenager enrols her mind at an extraordinary school in the clouds.' Think Hogwarts meets Alice in Wonderland.  

So, why submit this piece to a crime writers' blog? I believe not writing these stories is a crime. I’m guilty as charged. Punishment: write two thousand words a day until published.

(all art generated by Microsoft's new Copilot – it likes cute – it doesn't like murder)

 

Screwballed

Wendall -- every other Thursday

At the end of last year, my local library invited me to put together a presentation on romantic comedies for Valentine’s Day. Since I only had an hour and a half, I decided to focus on some of my favorite “cute meets” from the twentieth century, particularly the screwball ones.

Hepburn and Grant in Bringing Up Baby.

I didn’t know then that I would be editing rom/com clips with “go” bags by the door while Los Angeles, and perhaps democracy, burned. I felt incredibly guilty focusing on snappy banter and pratfalls, with upheaval and tragedy all around me. 

Stanwyck and Cooper in Ball of Fire.

With everything that was going on in Los Angeles, I was prepared for turnout to be low to non-existent. To my surprise, almost all the chairs were full as everyone settled in for scenes from Bringing Up Baby, Ninotchka, and The Lady Eve, Pat and Mike and Born Yesterday, Charade, What’s Up Doc? and Starting Over, and as many others as I could get through in the time.

The first "official" romantic comedy. It won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture.

 

An early "crime" rom/com.

An early "divorce" rom/com.

The next day, I received this email from a kind attendee: “What a joy to just sit with others and laugh. I needed that. I suspect we all did.” 

It set me to thinking how screwball comedy is actually all about chaos and how love can come from grappling with and accepting it in others and in the world around us. 

Barbra Streisand IS chaos in What's Up Doc?

Some of the greatest Billy Wilder banter, ever. Love the tag line: "Don't pronounce it- see it!"

Screwball comedy was largely born out of two things. First it was a response to the Production or Hays Code which sought to  “clean up” the movies, after pressure from national political, civic, and religious groups threatened to shut Hollywood down. The code, which had a list of Don’ts and Be Carefuls was created in 1930 and was enforced in earnest by 1934.  

 

Jean Harlow's lingerie and bedroom scenes in Red Dust were out.

 

Pajamas and physical fights were in, here between Carole Lombard and John Barrymore in Twentieth Century.

Second, it rose out of the need of those who were barely surviving the depression for stories about optimism, and redemption. So, to fulfill the “code,” filmmakers sublimated the sexual content of their comedies into couples who expressed their attraction through battling physically and verbally, straight through until the happy ending the public was starved for. And this sublimation + hope gives the films an energy that, in my opinion, has never been duplicated.

 

Double happy ending in The Philadelphia Story.

Screwball comedy, in the words of Ed Sikov, author of Screwball: Hollywood’s Madcap Romantic Comedies, is ". . .a whole genre developed around the perverse idea that love could only be enhanced by aggravation. . .The mating games played within their frames were testimonials to the fact that the choice of a partner--the most important choice people ever make -- is nothing less than earthshaking, an assertion of one's deepest instincts and destiny through love, a leap of faith into the void.... For these comedies were in essence voyages of self-discovery, fed by the Protestant work ethic: to make romance palatable, men and women had to earn it, and each other....Only by going through a terrible ordeal can genuine progress be made in a screwball comedy."

 

Possibly the greatest rom/com fight ever, in Nothing Sacred.

This tradition leads to some great slaps in the 80s, including in When Harry Met Sally and this one from Moonstruck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLgMFwStTHc

The added bonus of these of the 30s and 40s films is their strong, hilarious female leads. Most of the romantic comedy heroines of the period were sophisticated, confident, and sexually and emotionally experienced. They were persuasive, impulsive, physical, and overwhelmingly fun. They embodied, in effect, the life force. 

 

Irene Dunne runs circles around Cary Grant in The Awful Truth.

 

Barbara Stanwyck is a clever con woman in The Lady Eve.

Myrna Loy detects with William Powell in The Thin Man.

If you’re looking for women with “agency,” who completely own their sexuality, I dare you to find finer examples than Irene Dunne’s Lucy in The Awful Truth, Rosalind Russell’s Hildy in His Girl Friday or Barbara Stanwyck’s Jean in The Lady Eve and Sugarpuss O’Shea in Ball of Fire.

 

Barbara Stanwyck's cabaret moll in Ball of Fire.

Rosalind Russell's ace reporter in His Girl Friday.

Writer/Director Preston Sturges created many of these women and he also understood the value of comedy. In Sullivan’s Travels he creates a film director who wants to do a “significant” film that reflects the times. 

A vital tome for anyone who wants to write comedy screenplays.

Here’s an early scene from the film well worth watching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7WmhkO_GWI

And here’s a bit of the script if you don’t have time to check out the clip: 

"Maybe they'd like to forget that."

In the end, Joel McRae’s film director learns that laughter is a crucial commodity, never more so than in hard and terrifying times.

So, if you need a break from the news cycle, or you need to see something chaotic come out okay, I’d highly suggest some screwball.   And of course, if you want to jump to the 80s, you can revisit my inspiration for the Cyd Redondo novels, Romancing the Stone.

Watch this space, since I'm inspired to put together a Rom/Com webinar for the spring.

-- Wendall