Santorini.

I just returned home to Mykonos after three storied days on its sister Cycladic island of Thira.  That’s its official name but it’s known to most as Santorini.  I can see your heads nodding in sympathy for what I must endure to practice my craft. 

Santorini is said to have inspired the legend of the lost island of Atlantis.  I can’t say whether or not that’s true, but I can say Santorini’s inspired me to place my 2016 Andreas Kaldis mystery there, and that, dear readers, requires a lot of research.   

Admittedly I’m a little late for catching the Atlantis show, as it stopped playing more than thirty-six centuries ago when one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history devastated the island, sending forth a mammoth tsunami toward Crete ultimately contributing to the destruction of the Minoan civilization.

But that’s all in the past. Or so we hope.

Today the only tsunami in the area of Santorini is tourism.  Santorini and Mykonos rank as the two most popular tourist islands in Europe (their tourism boards can argue over which ranks #1 this year :)).

Tourists in Fira

The unique call of Santorini is undoubtedly the breathtaking views from the northern part of the island, looking out from the rim of the caldera (crater) across the sapphire blue lagoon formed within the crater. It is a view truly worthy of a wonder of the world. 

Santorini is a place for staring hypnotically off into the middle-distance for hours while you contemplate the meaning of life.  Mykonos is more about the beauty of its old town, its fabled beaches, and 24/7 nightlife.  In other words, you come to Mykonos to find the person you want to spend time with on Santorini.

But enough words.  Let me show you Santorini in photographs, courtesy of my faithful photographer Barbara Zilly.  We stayed north of the island’s capital city of Fira, just before now famous Oia—the town on the western tip of Santorini featured in virtually every Santorini advertisement.

First, I have to say about our hotel (Csky) that it’s hard to imagine more spectacular views anywhere on the island, sitting as it does on the crest of the narrow caldera rim, with the lagoon in front and the broad blue Aegean to the rear.

Csky Hotel, Imerovigli, Santorini

Our View

 Our 3+ kilometer hike to Oia

The Promised Land

Oia

My photographer on break

Proprietor of Atlantis Bookstore

Goodbye to the port of Santorini

Jeff—Saturday

The Writers' Habit.

I have a deadline coming.

It's very close now and my book is so out of focus with half edited bits here and there I think it might be quicker to press delete on 95000 words and start again.

                                   

I’m working on it in 16 hour bursts and after a while – 1 hour – 30 mins – 2 milliseconds, my energy gives up and I am left confused by a plot that I have created. I am let down by characters that will not do as they are told. Staying dead seems to be a problem for my victims. They will insist on popping up for pizza or to tell a secret that they have inadvertently taken to the grave with them.

                                  

Then I start to stare into space and think weird thoughts. Why does my dog constantly wag its tail. All the time. Even when it’s asleep. I think it has a neurological disorder.

Then  I start to consider the weird contents of my fridge; there is something in there that grows, mutated like a new strain of something. Is there a thriller based on this?

And then I think about stuff getting more expensive; a cup of coffee, ice cream, weddings and plumbing. Yet other stuff like fridge freezers, divorces, Yamaha organs are getting cheaper. But before I go on to contemplate what this means for the planet here is the blog;

I am an Agatha Christie writer for defo laptop sitting anywhere. I’ll write anywhere. At the moment the laptop is under the dog.

I wonder if anybody has ever stapled each chapter then thrown all the chapters in the air and just put them together again in whatever order they land. It would be a sort of unreliable timeline novel the reader will know the who the what and the why but the real mystery will be in what order. The idea is warming to me.

                                                 

I have been dipping into The Daily Rituals by Mason Currey which is a book about how great minds make time, find inspiration and get to work.

I do not have a great mind. I have no time.  I have more perspiration than inspiration. I get to work in a fifteen year old Fiat with questionable steering.

But the book is interesting to peruse. Some very famous and incredible minds belonged to extremely normal people who had cups of tea and walked the dog. Others had lives that were so bizarre (or substance enhanced)  it was a wonder they ever managed to do anything.

As a wee aside the photographs in the book of writers typing on mechanical typewriters makes you wonder why there is so much RSI nowadays with our lovely flat, ergonomic keyboards.

                                       
  The following is a quote from Patricia Highsmith’s biographer Andrew Wilson.  Highsmith seems to be fond of her own company and distrusting of humanity as a race and that shows in her writing I suppose.  Her daily regime of words on the page, two thousand in a three or four hour period in the morning, was a compulsion and she said that she would have been miserable without it. Substance use, abuse is a  common thread in the book.

                                    

 Highsmith was a chain smoker all her life with a very high tolerance to alcohol – she reputedly kept a bottle of vodka on her bedside table and had a mouthful the moment she woke up. But to her credit she thought a lot more of animals than she did of people. Cats and snails being her pets of choice.

There is a story that when she moved to France it would have been unlawful for her to take her live pet snails across the border so she simply smuggled them in trip by trip hiding the creatures in her bra.  I think she sounds a bizarre and rather enchanting character.

Her  biographer Andrew Wilson says...

"Her favourite technique to ease herself into the right frame of mind for work was to sit on her bed surrounded by cigarettes, ashtray, matches, a mug of coffee, a doughnut and an accompanying saucer of sugar.  She had to avoid any sense of discipline and make the act of writing as pleasurable as possible.  Her position, she noted, would be almost foetal and, indeed, her intention was to create, she said “a womb of her own.”

My beloved Agatha never used the word 'writer' when she was filling out a form which asked for her occupation. She always just put 'married woman' – inset beat here for intake of feminist breath and gnashing of teeth.  She lived a very ordinary life and just wrote.  She would be here, there and everywhere writing.  Her only requirements were a steady table and a typewriter.  Any table would do dining, kitchen, her desk, table in the hall..

                                              

She was quoted as say. 'Many friends have said to me, 'I never know when you write your books, because I've never seen you writing or go away to write.' I must behave as rather as dogs do when they retire with a bone; they depart in a secretive manner and you do not see them again for an odd half hour. They return self consciously with mud on their noses. I do much the same. I felt slightly embarrassed if I was going  to  write but once I could get away however, shut the door and get people not to interrupt me, then I was able to  go full speed ahead, completely lost in what I was doing.'

                                    

That last quote of Agatha made me feel a lot better as I too am 'Completely lost in what I am doing.'

Caro Ramsay 12/06/2015

The Kingdom of North Sudan

Those of you who read my blog here at Murder is Everywhere know that I am extremely critical of what ‘civilized’ Europe did to ‘uncivilized’ Africa during the period of colonization. 

I came across an article the other day that indicates that the scramble for Africa hasn’t stopped.  Now adventurers from the USA are getting involved.

Apparently, a farmer, Jeremiah Heaton, from Virginia, had a daughter, Emily, who wanted to be a Princess.  Obviously, this is not easy to do in Virginia, or anywhere else in the United States, for that matter, unless it is just a nickname.

A devoted father, Jeremiah decided to make Emily’s wish come true.  So—guess what—he headed to Africa.  After a lot of research and travel, he found a piece of land between Egypt and Sudan, in an area called Bir Tawil, that wasn’t claimed by anyone – just over 2,000 sq. kms (800 sq. miles) of uninhabited desert.

Last year, on June 16 – Emily’s birthday – he planted the flag of the Kingdom of North Sudan, proclaiming himself King and, of course, Emily, Princess.  The new country has applied for observer status at the United Nations and has an embassy in Denmark, which I’ll have to visit when I’m there later in the year.

King Jeremiah I planting the flag

Location of Africa's 55th independent country

Flag of the Kingdom of North Sudan

• The gold star in the flag represents Heaton's wife, Kelly,the mother of his children, who is 'the top of everything that happens'.

• The three stars represent the children Justin, Caleb and Emily, and their white colour represents the purity of their hopes and dreams.

• The crown represents the monarchy created in the Kingdom, and the rays of light their hopes for improving the world.

• Finally the blue symbolises their commitment to their dreams of what their new Kingdom can achieve. 

Princess Emily

The royal family: Jeremiah, Emily, Justin, Kelly, and Caleb

When asked what they should do with their new country, Heaton’s three children said they wanted to grow a garden to feed everyone in the world.

Not to think small, The Kingdom of North Sudan has now set up a crowd-funded project to create the ARC (Agricultural Research Center), where scientist from all over the world can work, free of the hassles of having to apply for research grants, on ways to feed the world with a limited water supply.

Jeremiah had this to say:

On the surface it seems like an un-doable idea, but if you look at what we are facing worldwide, the 'bread basket' areas are getting drier and drier. It's getting harder and harder to grow food, and very little research is being done into the problem. If you can make food grow in the desert, you can take that same technology and apply it to other climates. This project is the first project on earth that will have one nation dedicated to deal with climate change.

How we use water is untenable and a different approach has to be taken.

Our development goals are shared by Egypt – it is investing heavily in renewable energy, and water supply is something that the government of Egypt is struggling with right now. This type of innovation fits in perfectly with their aims.

Building a brand new country from scratch will create employment – there's a lot of folks that are unemployed in Egypt and if we can help them that's going to be tremendous.

I have not spoken with Sudan – because I am an American. I have a lot longer road to travel with Sudan because of the economic sanctions that are in place.

He said hundreds of scientists from around the world, have already expressed interest in working at the ARC.

When I checked out the crowd-funding website, already $8,000 of the needed funds had been raised.  The budget is $500,000 for Phase 1 – Planning; $3 million for phase 2 - Planning; $2 million for Phase 3 - Design; $50 million for Phase 4 – Infrastructure; and $150 million for building the ARC).  The project would like to raise another $250 million for associated activities.

Heaton told MailOnline that he has been supported by the Egyptian authorities in his quest to set up a new community in the land, which only has around 290mm of rainfall a year. London, by comparison, has around 600mm.

The North Sudan monarchy clearly takes its responsibilities seriously and is already becoming involved in international affairs.  In April this year it recognised the new nation of Liberland, only 7 sq. kms in size.  You can read about Liberland here.

The perks for supporting the construction of the ARC are mouth-watering: you can name the capital city for $1.75 million.  If that’s too pricey, $50,000 gets you your face on the national currency and for $300 you can become a knight.  I suspect Sirs and Ladys are less expensive.

I think we all should donate.  I really like the sound of Prince Jørn and Prince Michael, and Duke Jeffrey, and Princess Caro – that should go down well in an independent Scotland, Princess Cara, Princess Zoë, Princess Susan, and Princess Lisa, and, of course, Grand Duchess Annamaria. These titles should increase the readership of our blog.

Go for it!

Stan - Thursday

PS.  Disney has bought the film rights to the story.  Stephany Folsom will write the script for The Princess of North Sudan, and Morgan Spurlock will produce it.

Iceland, Norway and Finland come to the Bay Area Book Festival

 Or subtitled: Yrsa, Yrsa and more Yrsa, our former blogmate.

 So we had our first ever, and wildly successful, Bay Area Book Festival this weekend. Yrsa heralded the Scandi crime trio with Thomas Enger, above from Olso, and Antti from Helsinki. Yrsa came with her 18 year old daughter Kristine who took many of these photos. Above there's Yrsa and I snapped by Kristine at lunch pretending we were in Sicily.

 I can't believe Yrsa's a grandmother.

 Here we are with Thierry Maugenest who'd flown in from Aix-en-Provence and sold out of his books.  I forgot the Gallic component.

 Here Yrsa puts up with me in BART because we had to wait for dear David Corbett to return and bring back the notes and questions for my panel - which I stupidly put in David's bag.

 More of our pretend Sicilian trattoria luncheon.

Yrsa, Thomas and Antti...I moderated and you'd never know from the serious looks that the Nordic trio had the sold out room laughing most of the time. Of course, we know Yrsa and everyone loves her Icelandic stories and how she thinks Icelandic bad guys do the stupidest crimes.

Cara - Tuesday
PS Yrsa sends love to everyone xoxo

All in the Valley of Death Rode ...

I don’t know how many of you have noticed that for some time now I’ve refrained from writing about the situation in Greece. Yes, there’s been the occasional allusion or throwaway line, but never a solid on the mark effort at saying what I think is going to happen over here.

It’s not been for a lack of caring or concern. I’m immersed in it all, besieged virtually every moment of every day with stories, rumors, flash, and dance.  The New York Times runs several stories every week focused on Greece as its lynchpin, a far cry from the days when one only heard about Greece in the international news when its forests were burning.  There’s a sort of moth to the flame attraction to the mess: Will Greece default or won’t it?  And if so, what disasters might follow? 

Schadenfreude?  Perhaps, though to use that word loads the debate for it is German.

To some it’s a Grand Kabuki performance with predictable players doing predictable things toward a predictable outcome, drawing speculators, speculation, and waiting profiteers.

To others it’s utter chaos—unchecked, unguided, unknown—unleashing despair, depression, Nero-fiddling, and resignation to the fates.

Most here no longer want to talk about it, think about, or hear about it. They’ve lived with it for so long the marinade is complete.

What marinade is that you ask?  Germany and Greece, together again.

Prime Ministers Merkel and Tsipras

Siger, are you mad?  They hate each other!  Greece blames Germany for its ills, and Germany faults Greece as unappreciative.  The words between the two nations are harsh, the anger between their citizens relentlessly rising, their futures clouded by past history.

All true.  It’s a great conflagration, a battle of classically conflicting cultural attitudes pitting the grand practitioners of the laissez faire Mediterranean lifestyle against a nation epitomizing Northern Europe’s precision mentality. 

But guess what folks; they need each other.  The two nations have a tangled history far beyond Greece’s first king after its 1821 Revolution being German, and their opposition in two world wars.  Their economies and peoples have been inextricably linked for decades, despite the indelible memories of World War II. 

King Otto of Greece

They are going to fight, they are going to scream, they are going to fume, but ultimately they will return to normalized relations—though never in a marriage made in heaven.  The big question is, when is ultimately?  For now tempers are far too short, trust too low, and each side expects any concession by one to be greeted with braggadocio by the other rather than thanks. 

I think it’s safe to say that many on our planet are uneasy at the moment, wondering who is charging like Tennyson’s Light Brigade into a valley of death. Is it a government leader, a political party, a nation, the EU, the world?

Alfred Tennyson

There will certainly be casualties, but with time and a renewed appreciation of what each nation has to offer the other, Germany and Greece will find their way back to mutual respect.  

As for how things will shake out until then, let’s just say I’m working on that as a subject for my new Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis book for 2016 publication.

See, I’m learning from headline writers how to create suspense.

Jeff—Saturday