Sunday in New York

There’s something special about a Sunday in New York. So much to choose from, everybody enjoying themselves. So here’s how we spent our Sunday.

We started the day with a hearty meal in the hotel's book-lined breakfast room

And then made our way to the site of the World Trade Center. The area is fenced off and difficult to see but just being there gives you a feel for the size of 9/11. We imagine the streets filled with people trying to escape, fire fighters and police running into buildings that others are running out of, choking air filled with ash and debris…It was jarring and distressing to see smiling tourists posting for photos as if they were at Disneyland.

America rebuilds

Construction continues

The site has been under development for years

Looking professional

At 34th Street station we met this NYPD officer and his dog. When we saw them, the dog was resting comfortably. When I asked if I might their their photograph, the officer kindly agreed and then told his dog to “sit up and look professional.” Which he did. Two of New York’s finest!

Then it was off to Broadway to see a show. Yes, that Daniel.

And then dinner at the world famous Carnegie Deli.

Share? I think not.

Lucas ordered a Woody Allen which was about the size of a wooly mammoth.

Here it is again, in all its meaty glory.

Portion control is not on the menu at the Carnegie Deli

I ordered an egg salad sandwich. I think I’ve gone off them for life.

Two giant scoops of egg salad!

Lucas bought a T-shirt at the World Trade Center that says it all.

I still love New York

New York is a confident city. Not only is it bursting with energy but it has an undeniable sense of itself. When you’re in New York, strolling down Fifth Avenue, say, there is no where else on earth you could possibly be except in the one and only New York, New York.
I have come to New York to attend the memorial service for the late Ruth Cavin. It was she who called me on the blustery March day back in 2008 to tell me that I had won the Malice Domestic/St. Martin’s Press award and sadly, she died earlier this year. So Lucas and I decided to come to New York for the Victoria Day Weekend.
The trip started off Awesome! We met Neil Pasricha, author of the wildly successful The Book of Awesome at Toronto’s City Centre Airport. He was on his way to Boston with his dad, I was on my way to New York with my son.
We arrived at our hotel in the Upper West side and look who managed to find her way to New York with us!Cross at being left behind on the last few trips, I think Eleanor found some space in Lucas’s luggage at the last minute and stowed away.

I should have known Eleanor would want to come. She loves shopping.

Leaving Eleanor happily sill sitting, I spent a few hours strolling the neighbourhood. Exploring the surrounding streets is part of the fun at staying at a new hotel.

Here are some photos from my walk.

A pet store on Columbus was trying to find new homes for some dogs.

I found this little red merle mix quite adorable.

West 78th is a quintessential New York street.

The TV show Damages is going to be filming here next week.

Displays of spring flowers, including lilacs and peonies, in a sidewalk display

Here's a nice refreshment stand for a thirsty dog.

New Yorkers love their dogs. Saw lots of them being walked, sitting on benches and enjoying a romp with canine friends in the dog run outside the American Museum of Natural History.

I finally reach my destination.

I didn't come here for mini cupcakes. I want the real thing! And six of them.

I take a different route back to the hotel and make my way down 72nd Street.

Do you know why these wrought iron gates became world famous on Dec. 8, 1980?

Because on this spot, about where the doorman is standing, Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon. This is the Dakota apartment building.

Gas flames flicker in the old fashioned lamps on either side of the entranceway. I don't know if they were burning that night.

A large planter outside the Dakota

The Dakota is surrounded by a dry moat. This figure is one of many on the moat railing.

The Dakota has a long and fascinating history but it’s primarily remembered for that one night. A few tourists were stopping to take photos today, as I’m sure happens every day, and I’m so glad people remember him.

And then I made my way back to the hotel along Central Park West. Eleanor was very curious to see what I’d brought.

"I think good manners dictate that you take the one closest to you."

For me?

From North Carolina to Malice

We wrapped up the last couple of days of our North Carolina book tour in style.

With Cary librarian Karen Kiley

This was a fun event held at the Page-Walker Hotel, also known as The Page-Walker Arts & History Center, in Cary. The building has been beautifully restored. One can look out the window on the second floor and see the railroad tracks that run by the town. Someone told me that when the civil war ended, Confederate soldiers walked home from the war along those tracks. You could picture them, their wounds wrapped in tattered, dirty bandages, stumbling along mile after painful mile.

There was a great turn out of about 50 people, and we were happy to talk to them and sign copies of our books. We appreciated that the Canadian consultate in Raleigh chipped in for refreshments. Our tax dollars at work!

The next day we had some time for shopping and visited a few book stores. The paper back version of A Brush with Death is out now and available at Barnes and Noble.

A Brush with Death at Barnes and Noble

The last event of our tour was held at my favourite venue, the Carolina Club. One of the people who attended is a Canadian and she had a flag she wanted us to sign.

It was great to see a Canadian flag in N Carolina

Signing the flag

Mmm. Fried chicken

After the Carolina Club event we went for dinner at Mama Dips in Chapel Hill for traditional Southern fried chicken. The food was authentic and fantastic!

Fried green tomatoes

Light, delicious buttermilk biscuits

Vicki Delany gets ready to tuck in

Mary Jane Maffini liked her chicken

Finally, we went back to Molly’s to catch up on our e-mails and pack. We leave in the morning for Bethesda, MD for Malice Domestic. It’s one of my favourite weekends of the year and my favourite conference.

Molly Weston and Raggs

Mary Jane and Vicki finalize arrangements for Malice

With heartfelt thanks for a wonderful time in North Carolina, we set off the next morning for Bethesda, MD. Saw a couple of interesting billboards. The first one promoted a “Gun and Knife Show”. The next one urged us to “Transform a life! Become an organ donor!”

So it’s on to Malice.

Easter lunch in North Carolina

Canadian mystery writers Vicki Delany, Elizabeth J Duncan and Mary Jane Maffini are on a book tour of North Carolina, under the direction and guidance of media escort Molly Weston.

Here’s what happened today, Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011.

A beautiful day in North Carolina. Bright blue sky, very warm. You might say hot, as temperature reached 90 degrees this afternoon.

Molly treated us to the most beautiful buffet at the Carolina Club in the George Watts Hill Alumni Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

It’s a beautiful campus, with quite a few celebrated alumni.

Smith Hall, the UNC theatre where Andy Griffith, of Mayberry fame, got his start.

Flowers bloom on campus

Another bank of flowers outside the Alumni Center

Pretty North Carolina girls in their summer dresses on their way to Easter lunch

An unusual table in the lobby of the Alumni Center

From left, Mary Jane Maffini, Molly Weston and Vicki Delany about to enter the dining room

Ladies who lunch

Vicki Delany tries to work out where to start

The seafood was delicious

As were the desserts

This is my red velvet cupcake

The tapestry in the dining room is late 16th century

Some of the artwork is based on old postcards

The Alumni Center features an attractive members' library

Check out the end table

After lunch, we drove out to the day lily and koi farm operated by Molly’s husband.

A basket of cotton. It represents so much to the south

North Carolina, Day 4

Day 4 of the North Carolina book tour was a good one. Today, we did an authors appearance at McIntyre Books in Fearrington Village. This is an interesting village, created by the Fitch family, with lovely restaurants, gardens, spa, and a well tended housing development.

The village is also home to two interesting kinds of critters: Belted Galloway cattle and Tennessee fainting goats.

Here are some photos taken at the village.

There's always someone who hasn't figured out the parking thing.

The spring gardens are in full bloom

A garden walk

A Belted Galloway cow. The village site was originally a dairy farm.

McIntyre's lists authors like a restaurant would list menu items

Saw the paperback of A Brush with Death for first time today

A three-month-old border collie/lab cross called Jasmine came to our presentation

Mary Jane Maffini and I meet the goats. Our turquoise look was a clothes coincidence.

Tennessee fainting goats. When frightened or threatened, they fall to the ground.

After the bookstore event we drove to a Barnes and Noble to see if our books were in stock, and then home to Molly’s place in Apex. For dinner we had fantastic panini sandwiches made with pimento cheese and videlia onions.

I’ve enjoyed learning about North Carolina. That the state economy used to be based on tobacco, that the singer James Taylor’s family comes from Chapel Hill where his father was dean of the school of medicine at UNC, that cotton is making a come back in the Southern states and that college basketball is big in these parts.

North Carolina, Day 3

After a great breakfast at Molly’s, we set off for our event at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The event was a small, intimate lunch with conversation.

An interesting selection of books

With Molly Weston

Lunch and mystery talk

Inspired by yesterday’s visit to Gettysburg, I wanted to buy a basic book about the American civil war. Land, one of the three owners of Flyleaf books, showed me a selection and I chose A Short History of the Civil War by James L. Stokesbury. Prior to his death in 1995 he was a professor of history at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. So it’s true that the traveller takes himself with him. My son, Lucas, is an Acadia graduate.

The lunch was catered by Sara Harris Markets and was absolutely wonderful! Happily, Sara Harris is located right next door to Flyleaf Books, so after saying our good byes to our new book friends, we all went next door to buy some fabulous seven pepper jelly.

We returned to Molly’s home to re-group and then went out for Southern barbecue for dinner.

This is, after all, the South, and good food is a big part of everyday life.

North Carolina, Day 2

We had arrived in Gettysburg in the evening after a long day on the road, so were too tired to look around. But after a good night’s sleep we wanted to see something of the famous civil war site, so visited the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. Here at Gettysburg, more than 10,000 died at the famous battle, fought over three days in July, 1863. It is the largest battle ever fought in the Western hemisphere, was the turning point for the American civil war, and it was here, at a dedication ceremony to mark the cemetery which became the final resting place for about 3,500 Union soldiers, that President Abraham Lincoln gave one of history’s most famous speeches — the Gettysburg Address — on Nov. 19, 1863.

In a profound testament to the power of brevity, the president followed another speaker who spoke for two hours. President Lincoln delivered his address to the crowd of about 15,000 people in two minutes.

The sign says it all.

Cannons were the weapons of the day

Rows of unmarked graves of unidentified soldiers

Visitors leave Lincoln pennies on the Gettysburg Address plaque

The Soldiers' National Monument honors the fallen

Mary Jane Maffini, left, and Vicki Delany walk through the cemetery

After our visit to the cemetery we walked around the town.

A Gettysburg window with bunting

Arson poster

Got the message?

At mid-morning, we left on the last leg of the journey. We passed through Virginia, and at night fall arrived at the book-filled home of Molly Weston, in Apex, North Carolina, near Raleigh. After a delicious, welcoming supper we fell exhausted into our comfortable beds.

North Carolina book tour, Day 1

One year ago, at Malice Domestic, I was invited to join fellow Canadian authors Vicki Delany and

Mary Jane Maffini on a book tour of North Carolina, organized by media escort and mystery maven Molly Weston. On Wednesday, April 20, we set off. I took an early Via train to Brockville from Toronto where I met up with my partners in crime.

The wifi on Via rail is great

We set off in heavy rain bordering on freezing, crossed the border into the United States and headed south. About an hour after we crossed the border the rain let up and the sun came out. The trees were bare with skeletal black branches. But at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, spring arrived. The trees were in full leaf and flowering trees, like magnolia, were in full bloom. The pinks, purples and whites were absolutely delightful and the vivid, fresh greens of the foliage and grasses were so welcome after our long, cold Ontario winter.

We stopped for the night in Gettysburg and after settling in, went out for an Italian dinner.

Mary Jane Maffini and I check our email.

Vicki Delany enjoys a glass of wine at dinner. I liked the name of it. Goats do Roam.

On the disappearance of books and bookstores

The American bookstore chain, Borders, has apparently decided not to try to restructure its debt and will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. When I was in Chicago last week, the Borders store on Michigan Avenue had gone dark. On the outside of the building you could see the outline and shadows of the letters where its name used to be. Sad. And perhaps a symbol of things to come.

In the not-to-distant future, we may live in a world where all books are electronic, bought online, and read on e-readers. But is the technology gain enough to justify the loss of so many other things?

How will we know what to read? How we will hear about new books? Will we only know about the ones that benefit from massive amounts of PR and advertising? Will technology mean the end to browsing?

One of the great pleasures in life for bookish people  is visiting a bookstore and just browsing the shelves and tables to see what’s available.  Attracted by the title or cover art, you pick up a book, hold it in your hands, turn it over, flip through the pages, open it to page one and read a paragraph or two. You think about it for a moment or two. Maybe you set it down and move on. But you keep thinking about it, and return for it. Or maybe you know instantly it’s a keeper. My bookshelves are groaning with books I’ve acquired that way: Script & Scribble – The Rise and Fall of Handwriting, Molson, The Birth of a Business Empire and Dr. Johnston’s Doorknob, to name just a few. I probably never would have heard of those books had I not just spotted them.

With online browsing you have to have some idea what you’re looking for. You can’t just wander around looking at everything and nothing in particular. Online, I feel I’m missing something whereas when everything on offer is all laid out in front of me, I can see exactly what there is. (I feel the same way, too, about reading newspapers online versus having the pages spread out on the table in front of me.)

Browsing may not be the only thing to disappear. What about cover art? Does an electronic book need a cover?

And at mystery conventions, our gift bags are stuffed with books. I guess that’ll be a thing of the past, too.

Stacks of books at Malice Domestic to be stuffed into convention bags

And what about the fun — for both author and reader — of signed books? In the e-book world, what can an author sign?

At book signing, Sleuth of Baker Street, with Percy, companion of store owner Marian Misters

It may be that once the entire book industry has been revolutionized and digitized until books and bookstores are gone, people will realize too late all that has been lost.

What would you miss most about a world without books?

Wales again, Week two

Week two of my winter visit to Wales is going much better than Week one. I seemed to have intense jet lag, chased by a nasty cold that came on very quickly. Energy level very low and wanting to sleep much more than usual. But I’m all better now and feeling right at home. I’ve been based in Llandudno and spending most of my time here,  and in Conwy and Llanrwst. I had lunch last week with my friend Eirlys Owens in Llanrwst and an interesting American ex-pat, Sylvia Jones, who married a Welshman about seven years ago. Sylvia and I had been corresponding by e-mail, so it was great to meet her in person over a lunch of brie cheese and cranberry sandwiches at Badgers.

On Sunday, Eirlys invited me and her neighbours, Lois and Glyn Jones, to lunch at the Eagles Hotel. Lois is an ex-pat Canadian who married a Welshman many years ago. (That’s two, so far!)

From left, Eirlys, me, Lois at Eagles Hotel lunch

That same evening, Sylvia Jones invited several of her friends and neighbours in for a get together. Of course, by the time we remembered to take a photo, almost everyone had gone home. (And she and her husband, Peter, met at Camera Club!)

One of the interesting guests was 86-year-old Mary Williams, who lives down the road. Mary published her memoirs this year, called A Cluster of Feathers. Sylvia, too, has published a book called No, I Live Here, about how she met and married Peter Jones, with lots of detailed descriptions of their travels around Wales. They have two delightful dogs, Jockan and Pip.

Jockan enjoys a snooze in front of the fire

They live in a house that Peter built, just outside Conwy, on a rural lane. In the kitchen is a Rayburn cooker. These are cousins of the Aga and are the neatest things. They burn coal, so they heat the kitchen. They have two or three ovens to cook in, they heat the water tank, and can boil a kettle faster than electric. Very British country house. I want one!

The Rayburn also dries clothes. There's a rack above it.

By the end of the evening there was just, from left, Mary, me, and Sylvia

Sylvia and I got together again a few days later for a walk near her home.

Dog walking in Wales with Jockan and Pip

You'll see sheep on any country walk in Wales.

We passed these pretty doors on our walk.

We ended our walk at Mary's charming 17th century cottage.

The fireplace in the cottage has a side oven where you can bake your bread.

So the days here in Wales have been filled with beautiful scenery and really nice people. But I’ve been doing other things, too. My agent sent a long list of suggested changes to the newest manuscript, due at the publishers at the end of January, so I’ve been working on that and keeping on top of my Humber duties, too.

Today I had a meeting with my new friend PC Chris Jones in Conwy police station. Chris gave me a behind the scenes tour of a modern UK police station. On the outside it’s a Victorian police station, inside, it’s a 21st century high-tech marvel.

Tonight is my last night in Llandudno. Tomorrow I go to Llanrwst to spend my last few days here with Eirlys. I have a surprise for her. It involves sausages.