The Three Harrys: Wizard Savers of Their Worlds

Ovidia--every other Tuesday
I'm pushing through reworking the (hopefully) final, submittable draft of the next book--already missed first deadline and it looks like I'm going to be missing the second…

but I want to work through all the new wonderful stuff that decided to come to me only now (always happens doesn’t it?)

And the Mid-Autumn Festival is round the corner, so as always in times of pressure I turn to words of wisdom to comfort me—not from Mother Mary but the three wizard Harrys who all impacted me while saving their worlds in their own unique ways: Harry Potter, the boy wizard; Harry Dresden, the professional wizard; and Harry Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's socio-political wizard.
They are something I come back to whenever I need a charge up to keep on going. I discovered Harry Potter first.

I loved the magic and the message of Harry Potter for years! Yes, you can be a weird misfit but still the chosen one. You can find friends who become family. The monsters are real, and some of them are teachers and parent figures and in the government with power over you and you’re not imagining things, they really hate you and are out to get you…
But you can still make it through by not giving up.
I still love the Harry Potter world—even if the sad truth is that its creator seems to be turning into a Dolores Umbridge.
That helped me to leave Hogwarts behind along with my schooldays and come to Harry Dresden.

Harry Dresden: The Wizard Who Keeps Trying
Harry Dresden, a professional wizard in Chicago, is one of my favourite sleuths. Harry gets exhausted from overwork that pays poorly, doesn’t exercise enough, eats poorly, frequently has trouble with electronics and bills and his longest ongoing relationship is with Bob the talking skull…

This pretty much sums up a working writer’s life doesn’t it!

Harry Dresden has his personal issues, problems and (literal) demons, but he ends up trying to do his best despite feeling like the easiest thing would be to stay in bed. That’s where I am, much of the time—barely able to figure out what’s the right thing to do, let alone to summon up the energy to do it.

I also love Harry Dresden’s needing ‘energy’ to work his magic. This energy can be generated by lust, envy, rage or by joy, ecstasy and love—and the magic that emerges reflects the source of energy that fuelled it. I’ve found the same principle works when I’m trying to write or just live.
The material I absorb via reading, watching stuff online, interacting with people and dogs when I’m out or with my plants and human and animal companions at home all colour my thoughts and my writing.

Even though I feel more like Harry Dresden with his constant struggle to do good or just ‘do’, it’s Michael Carpenter, Dresden’s Knight friend who I envy. Michael, a true knight of faith who wields the holy sword Amoracchius, always acts with conviction. I have friends like that, and I envy them the same way… kind of.

Because Michael and his sword aren’t always right. And maybe a life lived without hesitation or doubt would be a little poorer. For what it’s worth, I’ll stick with Harry Dresden as a role model to keep me going. I don’t have a talking skull, but I do have these two munchkins that I discuss plot twists with.

And then there’s Harry Lee Kuan Yew, who wielded a different kind of magic—the magic of leadership.

Harry Lee Kuan Yew was, in many ways, the real-world wizard. He transformed Singapore from a small, struggling third world country into safe, stable first world nation. He made some tough, unpopular decisions with steely pragmatism, infamously saying, “Poetry is a luxury we cannot afford,” in the 60’s, when Singapore faced poverty, unemployment, racial tensions, and threats to our independence. Not the best role model for writers?

But once the slums were cleared, canals cleaned up and the people had safe drinking water he read poetry to his wife in her final years.

He did what needed to be done when it needed to be done. I owe it to the pioneering generation that I have access to my worlds of mystery and magic.

In the end, perhaps my biggest takeaway from all three is that the magic of creation often doesn’t look like magic when it’s in process. It looks like you’re plodding on hopelessly, endlessly, out of sheer stubbornness or stupidity. But then once you’ve brought all the right ingredients to the right place and infused it with the right energy, that’s when the magic happens. Good luck and Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone!

How To Make Mykonos Simple Again?

 

Jeff––Saturday

 

Some claim that tourism-focused magazines exist only to glorify their subject locales and please their advertisers. To their critics it’s all ultra-high-quality photography, glitzy design, and little else.  To those I say this: read Mykonos Confidential magazine—available both in print and on-line.

 

Yes, it bills itself as “MYKONOS CONFIDENTIAL Luxury Magazine,” and most certainly aims for its summertime annual magazine to catch the eyes and imaginations of tourists who either are mega-rich or would like to experience the vibe of hanging out in their playground.

 

That said, I’m well into my third decade of being asked to write an essay for MC telling it like it is—or at least as I see it—and never have I had a word changed or position challenged.  Nor am I alone in that experience. Many others have shared the same editorial freedom and encouragement to say what they believe is right for the island.   

 

Here’s my essay in the just published 2024 edition of MC. It’s titled, “A Not So Simple Answer” in response to a question MC sees as haunting modern Mykonos.  

 

Mykonos Confidential never fails to amaze me at how its editorial finger rests firmly on the pulse of Mykonos’ greatest challenges. I’m into my third decade of being honored by MC for my opinion on top-of-mind subjects dear to all who care for our island. This year’s topic is no different, for it seeks an answer to this straightforward question:

 

“How to make Mykonos simple again?”

 

“Simple” is a word fraught with implications.  If it means returning to past days when everything was cheap, and Mykonians were among the poorest folk in Greece, fuhgeddaboudit. 

 

So, what can be done in answer to MC’s question?

 

Plenty, if you’re willing to jump into the fray. To start, allow me to introduce non-Harry Potter fans to mandragora (aka mandrake) a Mediterranean hallucinogenic plant known for its roots’ uncanny resemblance to a complete human being.

 

I’m not suggesting those wishing for old Mykonos need turn to drugs; only that there are consequences to such a granted wish.

  

This exchange between Hogwarths Professor Pomona Sprout and the precocious Hermione Granger demonstrates my point:

 

 

Pomona Sprout: "We'll be repotting Mandrakes today. Now, who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?"

 

Hermione Granger: "Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative. It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state."

 

Pomona Sprout: "Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor. The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. It is also, however, dangerous. Who can tell me why?"

 

Hermione Granger: "The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it."

 

For those seeing Mykonos in need of “a powerful restorative,” beware of the fatal cry it may unleash.

 

To be clear, Mykonos remains a magical place. First time visitors are enthralled by its beauty. Not so much by its prices, but certainly by its action. Yes, prices are through the roof virtually everywhere for everything.  But if folks keep paying those prices, that will not change. What incentive is there for a proprietor to do otherwise? Thinking differently is akin to tilting at windmills…when they’re not surrounded by tourists.

 

Frankly, I doubt new visitors are looking for simple as much as for excitement and an experience far different from any they can find at home.  The irony undoubtedly is, weren’t we looking for the same when we discovered Mykonos? And if today’s newcomers return, they’ll likely remember today’s visit as their simpler times on Mykonos.

 

That’s not to say change isn’t in order. For example, I took a late afternoon drive to a highly popular beach I’d not visited since before Covid days.  That trip brought home that the caïque has been irreversibly replaced by the concrete mixer as a symbol of Mykonos.

 

And then there are the crowds. It’s claimed that on any given tourist season day at least 100,000 tourists are on Mykonos. That’s an interesting number because since hotel rooms are reported to number 20,000, where do the remaining 80,000 visitors stay each night? No doubt somewhere taxing the island’s already strained water, sewage, garbage, police, and housing needs. Though some may sleep on boats, the likely answer is B&B and villa rentals; in the process contributing 15,000 vehicles (including black vans) to already congested roads. For those who instead choose to walk along the island’s roads and highways, I hold them in my prayers.

 

Let’s start from this undeniable proposition: Tourism is Mykonos’ life’s blood.  Its harbor and international airport are major transportation links to the northern Cyclades and beyond.  Despite how many complain about the number of cruise ships and flights, those who depend upon volume for their livelihood will battle to protect their interests, offering in testament to their faith in numbers, the ever-increasing presence of international brand name shops along Χώρα main streets.  

 

Irreversible change is here. We must learn to live with it while vigorously preserving what remains of a treasured past. What that requires is simple: Strong Government Management.

 

Management that will fairly tax all who profit from the island’s growth and magical draw, be they tourist or service provider, and apply those sums to rethink, rebuild, and expand the island’s infrastructure in a manner showing reverence for Mykonos’ storied past.  Not repudiation.

 

That’s my simple answer.  For a more nuanced one, ask Mandrake.

 

 

––Jeff

 

Jeff’s Event Schedule

 

Bouchercon 2024, Nashville TN

Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

 

Thursday, August 29, 2024 @ 9:30-10:20 AM

Room: Canal E

Solving Crimes in Foreign Settings

 

Jeffrey Siger

Mary Monnin             

Smita Harish Jain       

Ragnar Jonasson         

Pip Drysdale

Mark Coggins - moderator       

 

Friday, August 30, 2024 @ 8:00-8:30 AM

Room: Canal CD

Megan Abbott

Lisa Black

Julie Carrick Dalton

Michael Bennett

Jeffrey Siger

Stanley Trollip - moderator

 

A Debt of Gratitude to Harry's Mom

The one on the left still rules.

I planned on taking the past week off.  Just play with my grandkids, enjoy Mykonos in July, do nothing but chill.  Not to happen. A request from my publisher for a “brief” contribution to its in-house author website on the subject of “Practical Advice on Setting up a Book Tour or Signing,” took up the weekend (check out the photo of two silver-haired MIEers headlining the post).  I’m really not complaining.  After all, it’s the least I could do now that my publisher has agreed to announce that Jeffrey Siger is actually only a pen name. My real name is Jesus Christ.

No disrespect intended, but that’s just about the only name I can conceive of possibly driving J.K. Rowling off the top of worldwide bestseller lists before Christmas.  Unless you’ve been locked up incommunicado in a cave for the past week, if you’re reading this blog you undoubtedly know that Harry Potter’s creator saw her first crime novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, published in April under the pen name Robert Galbraith. It received terrific reviews (no surprise there) but sold only 500 copies of 1500 shipped until some lawyer for Ms. Rowling (presumably her soon to be ex-lawyer) told the secret to his wife’s best friend (interesting story possibility there, Ms. Rowling) who leaked it on twitter, leading to the grand denouement in The Sunday Times this week.

It is said that Ms. Rowling is very “disappointed” at the behavior of her attorneys who swear there was no promotional motive whatsoever behind the leak and that their client was thoroughly enjoying her anonymity.  Whatever the case, and I tend to believe Ms. Rowling, mystery authors everywhere owe her a distinct debt of gratitude for several reasons. 

First, for letting the world know what it’s truly like for virtually everyone but she to be a mystery writer: Even if you publish a book that reviewers love, selling it to the public is a whole different thing.   Second (though absolutely not the situation with my publisher), for sticking a big moutza (see my post of two weeks ago) in the face of every publisher who, as a matter of routine, blames the book rather than inept or non-existent promotion for underperforming sales.  And, third, for giving many of us the satisfaction of bragging to the world that, for one small moment in time, our book sales actually out performed J.K. Rowling’s!

Which brings me to the point of all this.

I’ve tried to keep it quiet but Edward Snowden has learned that my new book coming out September 3rd, Mykonos After Midnight, is actually the secret life story of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as told to Princess Diana through Shirley MacLaine. And if you don’t believe me just ask my editor, Edgar Allen Poe.  Order now, before the rush.

 

My chance at my book appearing on the same page as J.K. Rowling's.

 Jeff­—Saturday