Murder is Everywhere: Pavlos Fyssas

Saturday, September 28, 2013

My To Do List.

Bouchercon is over. Back to real life.

I have to prepare to teach a course in January. A full semester in one month.

I have to finish the next Kaldis book by December.

I have to launch a two-month book tour in November for my just released book.

I have to go back to Mykonos to pick up my laundry.

I think a triage level decision is in order. Okay, I’ve decided. One must respect priorities. Clean shorts count. So, it’s back to Greece. Today, in fact.

Pavlos Fyssas

I was going to write something about Chrysi Avgi, aka Golden Dawn, aka Nazi thugs in Greece’s Parliament, but I thought I’d wait until I’m back in Greece to do that. After all, a pack of them stabbed to death a young Greek hip-hop singer overheard criticizing their fascist movement—branded the most violent in Europe—in an Athens-area coffee shop. The eavesdropper contacted his lead jackal who put out the word for the pack to attack him, and so they did. Pavlos Fyssas (aka Killah P) is not the first to die at their hands, but he is the first Greek, and that seems to have galvanized the people…into to doing precisely what, we shall see. Stay tuned.

Albany NY, in part

I also thought of writing something about my time at Bouchercon in Albany, but thought that might seem BSP or rather BBP— Blatant Bouchercon Promotion— as I was elected its national vice-chairman. (Yes, there’s “vice” in the title so I naturally qualified). Frankly, I’m excited about it. The new Chairman, David Magayna, has a lot of good ideas, is easy to work with, and most important, hails from Pittsburgh. Should be fun. To tell the truth—hopefully not in photos—Albany was a blast from breakfast coffee to bar closing. But how could it be otherwise with Cara, Yrsa, Lisa, Annamaria, and Stana all in their best form. [Note to Caro, we missed your vowel self.]

Perhaps I should extrapolate on the state of the world because since returning from Albany to NYC it’s been nothing but up close and personal views of the UN in action: massive traffic jams blocking everyone’s efforts to get anywhere any time soon. Much like Athens…or Washington, DC.

Pause.