Thank You Once Again, Reader's Digest Select Editions

 

Jeff–Saturday

 

A little over a year ago I had the distinct honor of announcing that my eleventh Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis novel—A Deadly Twist—had been selected by Reader’s Digest to be one of four novels included in its January 2022 bi-monthly volume of Select Elections (#383)—published from 1950 until 1997 under the name “Condensed Books.”

 

As I wrote back then, that might not seem a big deal to many, but to this kid who grew up in working class Pittsburgh, where there was always a Reader’s Digest magazine to be found lying somewhere around the house, and most assuredly in every doctor’s and dentist’s office, that was a bigtime bucket-list achievement moment.

 

The big kahuna for Reader’s Digest fans was the hardcover “Reader’s Digest Condensed Books,” and whenever I saw one of those, the authors whose names appeared on the binding appeared like gods to me. To learn that my name would be on the cover of a Select Edition had me feeling as if my game jersey was about to hang in the rafters alongside some of my writing idols.

 

At that moment I felt as if I’d won an Oscar.

 

I later learned that Reader’s Digest would also publish A Deadly Twist in Australia/New Zealand and in Finland!  Both major pinch myself moments.

 

But wait, there’s more.  

 

My publisher has informed me that my latest book in the series, One Last Chance (#12), will also be published by Reader’s Digest Select Editions!

 

I’m beyond excited, and well into the realm of tingling all over.

 

Thank you, Poisoned Pen Press, Sourcebooks, and RDSE, for making childhood dreams come true.

 

Καλο Μινα, y’all.

 

–Jeff

 

Jeff’s upcoming events

 

Friday, November 18, 2002 @11am

ICELAND NOIR

Reykjavik, Iceland

Where is My Mind? Madness and Obsession
AUTHORS:  Louise Mangos, Paul Cleave, Jeff Siger, Thomas Fecchio
MODERATOR: Ewa Sherman

A Message From the Island of the Mykonos Billionaire

 

Jeff–Saturday

 

There’s a new club on Mykonos called the Billionaire. For those of you who can’t begin to imagine what a place with such a name could possibly be offering its clientele, perhaps the above photo will kickstart your imagination. 

 

And for those of you interested in the bigger picture, one that shows the common road traveled by Billionaire and Backpacker alike, the below photo might just give you the perspective you’re looking for.

 

Frankly, I’m tired of all this high season madness, so much so that Barbara and I are taking off for a four-week jaunt around the Cyclades, expecting that by when we return home, normalcy will have returned. That’s normal by Mykonos standards.

 

But enough about glitz and gory.  This about a more upbeat topic.  Me.

 

Six months ago, I wrote of how thrilled I was to have achieved a childhood dream by seeing my eleventh Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis novel, A Deadly Twist, included as one of four abridged novels appearing in a bi-monthly volume of Reader’s Digest Select Editions.

 

As I noted in January, I grew up in working class Pittsburgh, where a Reader’s Digest magazine could always be found lying somewhere around the house, and most assuredly in every doctor’s and dentist’s office.  To me, authors whose names appeared on the bindings of its Condensed Books (as they were called between 1950 and 1997) were like gods to me. Seeing my name on the binding of volume #383 had me feeling as if my game jersey now hung in the rafters alongside some of my writing idols.

 

New developments now have me flying up among those rafters unassisted by old jersey #44, in a moment of childhood-dream-come-true déjà vu that has me pinching myself.

 

The news is simply this.  My 2022 entry in the series, One Last Chance (#12)–set on the Greek island of Ikaria–also has been chosen to appear in an upcoming volume of Reader’s Digest Select Editions! And on top of that, A Deadly Twist will be appearing in a Reader’s Digest volume for Australia and New Zealand.

 

I’m beyond words at these incredible honors. It makes this guy who maneuvers a 15-year-old Suzuki Jimny in the land of the Billionaire happy and deeply grateful to all who made it happen for me.

 

Thank you.

 

–Jeff

Jeff’s Upcoming Events

Bouchercon 2022   Minneapolis, MN

Thursday, September 8th  11:30-12:15 

"Odd Jobs: Writers Write What They Know."

Alan Gordon AKA Allison Montclair (Moderator), Julie Holmes, Donna Andrews, Linda O. Johnston/Lark O. Jensen, Annelise Ryan, Jeffrey M. Siger

 

Revisiting the Magic of Greece

 

Jeff–Saturday

Today, I want us to return to a magical place that represents the sort of inspirational magic that perpetually draws me home to Greece.   I sadly haven't visited Hosios Loukas Monastery in a half-dozen years, a common admission in these how-quickly-time-flies years.

It’s perched on a western foothill of Mount Helicon, twenty miles east of Delphi, a mile and a half from any sign of modern times—aside from the narrow paved road that winds through hillsides covered in fir, cedar, myrtle, arbutus and pine; high above a broad green valley filled with cultivated olives, almonds, and patches of grape, all running off toward distant limestone mountain slopes.

Mythology describes this place as a favorite haunt of antiquities’ Muses, and from the way it still looks today, who am I to disagree?

1743 Woodcut of Monastery

Hosios Loukas

But the history that drew me to this place is of more recent vintage, only eleven centuries ago.  In the early 10th Century, a holy and pious hermit (osios in Greek) Loukas (896-953), born in what is today modern Delphi, endured a life marked by raids by Slavs, Arabs, Saracens, and Bulgarians, before finding his way into this valley of awe-inspiring natural beauty.  There he began construction of the only church built on mainland Greece in the tenth-century. That Church of Panaghia (the Virgin Mary) still stands today within the walls of Greece’s largest extant monastery from Byzantium’s second golden age, and adjacent to Greece’s oldest existing dome-octagon church, the Katholikon (big church) of Hosios Loukas.

Courtyard with front of Church and Katholikon to right

Front (west side) Katholikon

Rear (east side) Katholion (left) and Church

Beneath the Katholicon is the Crypt of Saint Barbara, the monastery’s oldest church and a place of massive stone pillars erected to support the domes of the Katholikon above—and to which it is said monks once chained psychopaths until cured of their madness [Ed Note:  Please refrain from suggesting there's a modern day Saint Barbara confronting her own live-in madman.]  

Here, too, lay the tomb of Hosios Loukas (sainted as Luke of Steiris) beneath an oil lamp kept burning for ten centuries by monks devoted to him.  But don’t take for granted the answer to, “Who’s buried in Hosios Loukas’ tomb?” for in 1011 his remains were removed, and now reside in a glass-enclosed reliquary beneath its own perpetually burning oil lamp in a place of honor off a passageway between the naves of the Church and Katholikon. 

Crypt of Saint Barbara

Crypt of Saint Barbara and Tomb of Hosios Loukas

Saint Barbara

In keeping with the teachings of Greece’s ancient temple builders, the monastery sits in harmony with its natural surroundings. Terra cotta roof tiles, above classical Byzantine cloisonné-style masonry walls of marble, brick, and limestone, enclosed frescos and mosaic masterpieces set upon backgrounds of gold.  But only a fraction of the monastery’s legendary lavish decoration remains, the balance of the place’s precious gold and silver plate, murals, icons, and furnishings lost to time and plunderers.

Come here at sunset, when shadows are long and light practices its magic upon the monastery’s rusty earth-tone architectural jags and juts, contours and edges.  You’ll soon lose track not only of time, but of centuries.  A thousand years old, the Monastery of Hosios Loukas remains an isolated sanctuary of tranquility, one of the Mediterranean’s most impressive monuments, and a World Heritage Site.

A wave from another saintly Barbara

Perhaps because I’m a mystery writer, each time I visit places of such sustaining great beauty, I can’t help but think of what haunting secret intrigues, betrayals, bloodshed, and accommodations to the times through which they passed allowed them to flourish while others vanished from the earth.  Sure, there’s a bit of luck involved in averting disaster, for in 1943 Nazi planes tried to destroy the monastery but failed. Or maybe it was answered prayers.

But to me, Hosios Loukas brings a very specific memory of unanswered prayers to mind, one that I and many Greeks will never forget.  To reach the Monastery, you first pass through the farming villages of Distomo and Steiri.  Distomo is a name known to every Greek of a certain age.  A place of execution, of massacre, where for two hours on June 10, 1944, Nazi SS troops went door-to-door, murdering 214 civilians, bayonetting babies in their cribs, beheading the local priest.  Slaughter haunted this place…and is remembered—as it should be—so that no one forgets how brutal can be the results of unchecked political myopic madness. 

And so, permit me to close on a more upbeat note...and great deal for you.  I'm pleased to announce that through Tuesday, June 28th, my 11th Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis novel, A DEADLY TWIST, is available across all e-book formats for US$2.99. Just click on this link and voila, you can buy it. It's the unexpurgated version of the novel Reader's Digest included in its January 2022 Select Editions volume 383.

https://preview.mailerlite.com/i6o9h0q6p6

Jeff—Saturday

My Secret on How to Write About Place

 

Jeff–Saturday

 

One of the magical things about creative writing—and no doubt other arts as well--is how often we do things instinctively, never quite focusing on why we do them the way we do, let alone questioning how we fell upon those methods in the first place.  Then, one day out of the blue, something happens that makes us sit up and say “WOW, that’s why I do it that way,” and what we’d once accepted as just part of the mysterious alchemy of the creative process suddenly makes vivid sense in real world terms. 

 

This isn’t some artsy-fartsy way of saying that my post-knee-surgery-anesthesia days gave me a vision of the mundane in all its splendor.  At least I don’t think so.  Rather, I now realize that techniques I use every day in writing are honed from skill sets I’d developed over the course of my life in endeavors far removed from authoring mystery-thrillers.

 

I’m not talking about unique life experiences that consciously and otherwise find their way into our work, giving it depth and drama. It’s how we use the nuts and bolts of writing, such as structure and frame of reference, that sparked my recent epiphany.

 

Cue the trumpets and cornets.

 

It all transpired in the context of my new Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis novel (#12), publishing on April 5^th. It’s titled ONE LAST CHANCE and centers on the Greek Aegean Island of Ikaria a fascinating venue with a worldwide reputation for the longevity of its people. 

 

On Monday I learned that Publishers Weekly had given it a terrific review saying (among many nice things), “Once again the scenery steals the show.”

 

My biggest concern in writing that book during Covid times was that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to visit all the locations I wanted to include. I’d been to Ikaria several times, but not with an eye for the detail I demand of myself in selecting the setting for a book.  To me, place is as important as is my protagonist, and I dared not risk destroying my credibility with my readers by seeming less expert than they on locations they knew well. I struggled with how to overcome my limited access and spent many a long day reading, viewing, talking, and aggravating with anything and anyone I thought might help me gain better knowledge of Ikaria. 

 

According to Publishers Weekly, I’d met that burden. Whew.

 

Later in the week, my brother mentioned to me that a friend who’d read my last book (A DEADLY TWIST, set on Naxos Island), asked him whether I now lived on Naxos, because I knew it so well.  I told him to reply that I’d visited it many times, and truly love the island and its people, but no, I still live on Mykonos. 

 

That’s when Alan (also known as Bro), asked me how I came to know as well as I did the places I wrote about.  I laughed and told him about my reaction to the Publishers Weekly review and how concerned I’d been over my somewhat limited in-person grasp of Ikaria’s many facets when…

 

BOOM it hit me! 

 

In all my books I’d followed one simple directive: GO NARROW AND DEEP.  If you try to broadly describe everything about a locale, you risk turning the work into a travelogue, but if you stick to the superficial, you’ll likely end up offering the reader little more than a postcard.

 

Narrow and deep keeps the interest building, your credibility intact, and lessens the likelihood of providing a “gotcha moment” for those knowing the area far better than you.

 

I realized then that I’d been relying as an author upon litigation skills I’d practiced as a lawyer.  In this case, I was employing a seminal technique for cross examining an adversary’s expert witness. Back in the day, there was no way I could come close to matching the witness’s mastery of his or her field of expertise—no more than I could a local’s knowledge of his or her home island. But what I could do is drill down deep and narrow into specific areas of the expert’s knowledge base relevant to the trial, in a manner intended to make me (appear) at least as knowledgeable as the expert on the points I sought to make.

 

This might all seem obvious to you, but trust me when I say it wasn’t to me.  And yes, I’m off the pain pills.

 

Now, about that bit where Publishers Weekly writes that ONE LAST CHANCE “will appeal to fans of Donna Leon and Louise Penny”…nah, I’ll save that bit of BSP for another time.

 

–Jeff

  

A Lot's Happened This Week.

 

Jeff–Saturday

 

We in the mystery community have suffered another communal disappointment with the cancellation of Bouchercon 2021, set to take place in New Orleans at the end of August. This is the second year in a row that this granddaddy of mystery conventions has been derailed by Covid.  But with the indefatigable courage and determination of its all-volunteer Local Organizing Committees, Bouchercon shall move on and prosper.  The New Orleans Convention has been rescheduled for New Orleans in 2025, as planning is already well underway for BCON 2022 in Minneapolis, 2023 in San Diego, and 2024 in Nashville.

 

The disappointment we all feel at the cancellation is real, but it was done for the selfless purpose of protecting us all from the threat of a horrible pandemic.

 

I’m certain we all join in thanking the many BCON 2021 volunteers for their hard work and dedication to our community.  After all, there would be no Bouchercon without you!

 

But there is a second pandemic raging across our world.

 

Fire. 

 

As I type this on the Greek island of Mykonos, I see smoke drifting across the Aegean from fires on the mainland and island of Evia. Though it could also be from fires on the Peloponnese.    It’s reported that yesterday in Athens, the Acropolis was nearly obliterated from some vistas by the drifting smoke, and ancient Olympia remains threatened by fires.  But as bad as it is here, it’s said to be far worse in Western Turkey. And America’s West Coast is suffering once again. Our thoughts and prayers are with all at risk.

 

Now on to a bit of good news.  Condensed for sure—in more ways than one.

 

I’ve been informed by my publisher I may announce that my latest Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis novel (#11)—A Deadly Twist—has been selected by Reader’s Digest to be one of the four novels included in its January 2022 bi-monthly volume of Select Elections—published from 1950 until 1997 under the name “Condensed Books.”

 

That may not seem a big deal to you, but to this kid who grew up in working class Pittsburgh, where there was always a Reader’s Digest magazine to be found lying somewhere around the house, and most assuredly in every doctor’s and dentist’s office, this is a big time bucket-list achievement moment.

 

The big kahuna for Reader’s Digest fans was the hardcover “Reader’s Digest Condensed Books,” and whenever I saw one of those, the authors whose names appeared on the binding appeared like gods to me. To learn that my name shall now be on the cover of a Select Edition has me feeling as if my game jersey is about to hang in the rafters alongside some of my writing idols.

 

Unquestionably, there are far greater honors and accolades to achieve in this writing life, but at this moment, I’m experiencing a childhood dream come true; one that has me tingling at the thought I’m about to join a pantheon of my heroes…albeit an abridged one. 

 

If only Mom and Dad could see me now.

 

–Jeff

 

Jeff’s upcoming events

Wednesday and Thursday, August 11& 12
Fish & Olive Gallery—Halki, Naxos Island, Greece
European presentation of A Deadly Twist on the island where it is set
Learn more

Start Your Engines, the Summer Is Upon Us

 

Jeff–Saturday

 

I think it is evident from my blogmates’ posts this week, that we’re all anxious to put Covid behind us and enjoy the summer in a vaccinated state of swashbuckling security.  All of which seems appropriate, considering the myriad invisible word balloons of joy I sense springing cartoon-like above so many newly unmasked heads.

 

By the way, is it just me or are you having trouble recognizing people you’ve interacted with regularly on an in-person basis for over a year, but never knew unmasked?

 

Just asking.

 

So, here’s my agenda for my wife and I breaking out of sixteen months of near isolation in rural New Jersey. In less than a week I jump on a plane (for the first time in eighteen months) and head to Texas to see my son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren.  Yes, that’s one of the states where positions on the pandemic and vaccinations are treated more as political statements than public health concerns. Thankfully, all in the proudly Texan contingent of my family have been vaccinated, despite how far the rest of the state lags behind the national average, both in persons vaccinated with at least one dose (45.3% TX / 51.7% US) and among the fully vaccinated (37.2% TX / 43.0% US).

 

I’m hoping that despite the vitriolic pandemic politics raging across America, the country achieves herd immunity before this fall’s flu season hits us.  Sadly, that’s not looking likely, but rather that those parts of America heavily immunized will achieve a “community immunity,” while other areas of the country will face what is yet to come, unprotected.

 

Then there’s the international aspect of our escape from New Jersey, one that may keep us away until October (aside from a return to New Orleans in late August for Bouchercon). Two weeks from today, I depart for Greece, to be soon followed by she-who-must-be-obeyed.  YAY!!

 

To those of you who would point out that Greece is under a US State Department level 3 warning to “reconsider travel,” I have two points to make. First, it was just lowered on June 8^th from a Level 4 warning “not to travel,” and I take that as a strong sign that the situation is moving in the right direction.  Second, the islands (where I’m headed) are rushing to vaccinate all inhabitants by the end of June.  What’s generally keeping vaccination rates down in other parts of Greece is an absence of vaccines, not a lack of desire or political posturing over public health measures.

 

Greece's Prime Minister takes his jab

But what’s my bottom line reason for going?  Simple, I miss my friends and the creative fire that burns brightest for me only in Greece.  In addition, I’m being honored on the island of Naxos, a Cycladic neighbor of Mykonos.  My just released A Deadly Twist is set on Naxos amid its enchanting history, locales, and characters.  The presentation will be held in the dreamy neoclassical village of Halki, at what many consider the most beautiful gallery in all the Aegean, Fish & Olive.

 

Katharina Bolesch & Alexander Reichardt

The event has been planned for a long time, and I could not possibly miss this extraordinary show of friendship. After all, when you get right down to it, a loving family, loyal friends, and good sense is what keeps us going through the darkest of times.

 

Take care, stay safe, and enjoy your summer responsibly.

 

 ­––Jeff