murder.booklocker.com

Luanne is currently reading The Riverview Murders by Michael Raleigh, a Chicago writer. Raised just across the Indiana border to Michigan, she didn’t think that she’d ever been to Riverview. Silver-something was much closer. (Yes, I do pay attention, but can’t recall what the something was.) Riverview was already past its prime and dying when I went with friends in the mid-60s. The amusement park died in 1967, yet somehow lives on in memory. And in Michael Raleigh’s book.

I wandered over to Amazon since the book jacket said that there were four books that had preceded The Riverview Murders in the Paul Whelan mystery series. The page I landed on was NOT the right one but hey! I found something else: “So you’d like to… Explore Chicago’s Mysteries”  - A guide by Randy Richardson “Mystery Writer” (Evanston, IL). Who knew? 

In this short piece Randy claims that “Chicago has an air of mystery about it, and I mean that in a good way. It’s a feeling that spills out of its architecture, its majestic lakefront and its incredibly diverse and varied neighborhoods. There’s a sense that it’s holding so many secrets – secrets that you want to discover in you own way. ”

Then there’s a list of 27 mystery books by Chicago writers.

The second, Who knew?, is found at the very bottom of the list. It’s a book entitled Mystery Reader’s Walking Guide, Chicago, by Alzina Stone Dale (Author), Ben Stone (Illustrator).

Description:
Around the world the name “Chicago” still conjures up images of the Roaring Twenties, cops and robbers, and Al Capone. Using this guide you can follow in the footsteps of more than 75 authors and sleuths from over 100 mysteries. Each walking tour covers a specific Chicago neighborhood, providing a map, must-see places and restaurants, all from Chicago mysteries, together with a special index of people, places and mysteries covered. Mystery Readers’ Walking Guide: Chicago won Malice Domestic’s Agatha Award (and teapot) for Best Non-Fiction.

About the Author:
Alzina Stone Dale is a freelance author/lecturer who teaches mystery seminars at the Newberry Library, and chairs panels at Bouchercon, Magna cum Murder, and Malice Domestic. Dale is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, British Crime Writers Association, Society of Midland Authors and Dorothy L. Sayers Society.

Who knew?

B.Y.O.P. Bring Your Own People
Start: Saturday, June 30, 2007 - 7:00pm

Time: Reading begins at 7:00PM
Cost: Free admission.
Location: Peter Jones Gallery, 1806 W. Cuyler, 2nd Floor, Chicago

B.Y.O.P.: Bring Your Own People

Chicago is a storytelling town. Whether through poetry or prose,
Chicagoans have plenty to say about life, the world, home teams, and
cicadas…but too often we only talk to those in our own
neighborhoods. The Guild has always stood for crossing the street into
the next neighborhood to learn where our stories intersect and differ.
Through B.Y.O.P., the Guild invites two members of Chicago’s literary
neighborhoods — reading series, individual writers, lit mags — to
partner together to offer an evening of literature, conversation and
hanging out. We’ll supply the cups, openers and ice. You bring your P
(people) and your B (beverages) and your G (gift of gab). Bring some
munchies to share too. Consider it a literary pot luck.

http://www.guildcomplex.org/?q=guild_events

[I'm happy to post this press release from fellow Chicago Writers Association member, Diana Zwinak.]

Yorkville, Illinois, June — Teen Writers and Artists Project is looking for Chicago Area teens (ages 14-18) to participate in the creation of an online literary journal for northern Illinois teenagers. The group is looking for authors of poetry, prose, fiction, and non-fiction, as well as original artwork to electronically publish on its site.

“We are hoping to give our participants the ability to express themselves in ways that they may not be able to in a regular daily setting, and those participants who are looking to find a way to take their work to higher levels will have the opportunity to work with professional authors who have published in their particular genre. This is an opportunity that I could only dreamed about as a young author and I’m glad that I can play a part in bringing it to others,” said Diana Zwinak, the group’s founder.

Zwinak, a high school teacher in Shabbona, Illinois, currently hopes to match young Chicago area authors and artists with a place to publish their work, and with on line mentors, many of whom will come from Teen Writers’ and Artists’ Projects’ partner organization the Chicago Writers Association. When enough participants have joined, she plans to create writers’ groups and classes in participants’ towns, cities and neighborhoods.

For now, starting the on line journal is enough. “We are very proud of our new Web presence and want to expand our project to include teens from throughout the Chicago area,” Zwinak said.

Contact the group’s blog and Journal at: www.teenwritersandartistsproject.blogspot.com

By Rick R. Reed

With the publication of my novel, IM, in May of this year, readers were treated to an online world inhabited by a serial killer. Many people have told me that the scenario in my novel, where gay men invite other men into their homes after just a quick chat online, is an entirely plausible one. Readers tell me this is what makes my story so frightening. Many people, especially gay men, have done just what the characters in my book do: go to an online hookup site, see a picture of an attractive stranger, read a description, and then, with nothing more to go on than the exchange of a few IMs or instant messages, invite that stranger over. Fortunately, for the vast majority of people, that contact in cyberspace is looking for the same thing: romance, sex, or just meeting someone new. The subsequent encounter poses no more risk than meeting in real-life might.

The horror of IM is that it would be very easy for a cunning person to manipulate people online…manipulate them into giving out an address. And once they’re inside your house, with no one knowing they’re there, they can be the cause of all sorts of mayhem. Below are a few precautions that have been probably said a hundred times before but bear repeating because they’re common sense and so many people (myself included) throw caution to the wind in the face of a hot pic and the promise of a hot encounter.

• 1. Never give out personal information. Things like phone numbers, addresses, even ages, can and do get people into trouble. Even if you’re not talking to a monster, this stuff can go out to other people you never intended to see. Be a little patient.
• 2. Never invite a stranger into your home. You may have developed a great rapport online through IMs and e-mails and think you know this person. You don’t. Again, be patient and…
• 3. Always meet in a public place. It’s unlikely anything seriously bad will happen to you in a café or bar. In public, you can make many common sense judgments you couldn’t make online. It’s much easier to detect a fake or a flake in person than online, when the other person has much more control over how he or she is coming across.
• 4. Never trust posted information or photos. This is why you meet up in public if you’re going to meet. It happens all the time: photos are old or are not even of the person behind the profile. There’s no one checking the veracity of any statements made online: everything could be made up. Worse, everything could be made up for a purpose: to entice like a spider luring its prey into a web.
• 5. When and if you do invite someone home, make sure that by now you know a little more about the person, such as a verifiable address or phone number. Ensure someone else knows these things in case things should go awry. And make certain the person you’re invited over knows someone else knows who he or she is.

The bottom line is there is no such thing as a completely safe encounter with a new person. Whether it’s online or in person, there’s no way to completely protect ourselves. So what do we do? Live in paranoia and never meet anyone new? Of course not, and I’m not suggesting we become hermits. Just like there is no such thing as safe sex only safer sex, there is no such thing as safe meeting of a new person, only safer meetings. Use common sense, go slow, and you’re much more unlikely to place yourself into a dangerous position.

They said it best in Hill Street Blues: “Let’s be careful out there.”

To see the worst that can happen online, order yourself a copy of IM from Amazon for 32% off the cover price. It not only will give you a fast-paced, suspenseful reading experience, it will make you think twice about doing something stupid. And thinking twice is what this blog is all about.

[In a recent post on Blooking Central I wrote about the Cat Oars Fiction Collective's blooks. I asked the publisher if he could tell me more about the online group of writers. This is the introduction to the introduction to The Banana Project.]

The Cat Oars group formed in late 2004 after someone posting with the handle Talker asked a question on the Literary & Writing forum, a board on the Craigslist Web site. He had wanted to write a story about a starving artist who was forcing a chimp to paint canvases on the street so that he could sell them to passersby. He thought his artist would come into possession of the chimp by working at the zoo and stealing the creature, but wondered if the Litfo contributors might have a better idea. A discussion followed. After several dozen postings over the next two days, a forum regular who calls himself IAA (for “I’m an Asshole”) suggested we all write our own versions of the story because it had somehow struck a chord with so many of us – the concept seemed so rich with possibilities.

I had started a new job at the beginning of that year. My previous job was so easy it gave me time to do personal writing. So I completed two collections of short stories and a novel there. The new job, well, it was and is much, much more difficult. I wasn’t sure I could keep going with my literary ambitions.

But that weekend, I decided I had to write my own version of the starving artist and chimp story. And I did. It was a rebirth. I’m not sure I would’ve started writing again if not for the discussion and IAA’s suggestion.

Along with another forum regular who goes by Sheisty, IAA and I posted our chimp stories. I quickly realized that the project was too good to be lost in the ether of Litfo history. Brimmer, another Litfo regular, had turned me on to Lulu, which offers free pre-press services, low-cost printing and a platform for Internet sales. I was experimenting with it for my own books, and decided to give it a try for The Starving Artist and the Chimp. It worked. It was a narrow theme, though, with a short deadline, so there were only a few participants.

Then someone posted something about an overweight girl longing for love. IAA responded with a story about a fat girl who wanted him in college and how his insensitivity to her has haunted him with regret. I remembered a similar story from my college days. R_Toady did, too. I suggested we all write stories with the theme of “She Wanted Me,” or “He Wanted Me” for the ladies. This time, I gave a one-month deadline. The turnout improved and several other forum regulars and newcomers contributed.

I still pick up Book of Desire & Regret and leaf through it every now and then. It’s a fantastic collection of great stories. True, I’m not an impartial observer, but if it were borderline I would say so. It isn’t. It’s wonderful.

The next project, Black & White, was born from a discussion of both racism and how we fail too see the nuances in complicated situations. I was expecting it to be more substantial than Desire & Regret, but I didn’t know how much more substantial. Desire & Regret included ten stories; Black & White twenty-two (a twenty-third was added later). As we were posting our B&W stories, I realized it was going to be an extraordinary collection. Each work was excellent on first read. Almost every one brought a new thrill of discovery. Each entry got raves and kudos or other great comments from the participants. Instead of the more common insults (yes, it’s true, the forum becomes a hostile place at times), anonymous posters left kind and encouraging comments. It was beautiful.

Even with R_Toady, GhostofMajestic and BowlOfCherries as co-editors it was a lot of work. So when contributors asked for a new theme that weekend, I didn’t think I could do it. So I turned the next projects over to R_Toady and BowlOfCherries with Minivis and Crazy Love, respectively. Minivis is a poetic form inspired by a post from Meme_in_Situ; Crazy Love was our Valentine’s Day festival. I know that both books are going to be excellent. Toady and Bowl are completing them as I write this and I’m really looking forward to seeing the first two Cat Oars books that I’ll discover as a reader instead of as an editor.

Who are we? A museum guard in Portland. A water engineer in Phoenix. A businessman in San Francisco. A mom in New York. A phantom and a former female drag performer in Seattle. (The phantom part is a joke, but he is really in Seattle; the former female drag performer is not a joke; she’s in Seattle, too.) Surprise: We’ve got a guy from Tobago participating. I could go on, but I won’t. We’re an interesting bunch, I think. The largest contingents, unsurprisingly, I guess, are in New York and Los Angeles.

Cat Oars Cat-alogue:

• Crazy Love
• Fire & Ice
• A Charlie Taylor Christmas
• The Banana Project
• Minivis
• Black & White
• Book of Desire & Regret
• The Starving Artist and the Chimp

[The headline comes from NBC's report on Friday.] 

Any attack is tragic, expecially attacks on the elderly. But this incident [does using the word incident diminish what happened?] occured in a nursing home in suburban Maywood. I admit (with some shame) that I feel a bit vindicated. I’ve mentioned other violent encounters between seniors but the feeling persists that no one is taking me seriously.

My novel, PARK RIDGE, A Senior Center Murder, has come in for some criticism based on the assumption that seniors don’t commit crime, don’t have murderous thoughts or intentions. Even Marlys Marshall Styne asked me in her interview,

Do you believe that senior citizens, or most human beings, for that matter, harbor “deep, focused resentments” that can lead to murder?I admit I’m not really a murder mystery fan, but I guess I’ve always thought of that kind of resentment as mainly the province of disadvantaged youth, a few hardened criminals, and victims of domestic abuse. I’ve always considered those of us in the over-65 or 70 group forgiving and peaceful. Am I wrong?

It appears so.

I don’t know what happened in the game of bid whist that led Mr. Jacey, 77, to leave the card game, go to his room and come back with a .22. Even after the gun jammed and his victim, Eula Gillespie, aged 73, had run to the elevator, Jacey followed and struck her on the head. He then went outside and shot himself in the chest.

Shelley Glodowski of Midwest Book Review wrote: “Take a seemingly neutral environment and add passion and cruelty, and one has an excellent plot.” She meant it as a compliment on my novel and I appreciate it. I just hating seeing it happen in real life.

I got this in the mail this morning from a psychic (don’t ask how he found me — he’s a PYSCHIC!)

I was surveying the sea of countless possibilities which is the internet when i came across the spirited expression which is your site.
 
My compliments on your palette of personal perspective. I enjoyed the genuineness and creativity of your site. The flower of your soul is evident throughout your pages. You have woven an authentic unique tapestry of inner light and heartfelt spirit.

I wish you great joy and prosperity in all endeavors. Thank you for sharing your creative inspirations. May you discover your dreams, embrace your gifts and awaken to your true self that you may inspire the sacred divine within.

I just wish I knew which site he was talking about!

I have a highly personal story which I wrote several years ago. It’s in the form of an allegory. The form came to me. I did not choose it. It seems now as if it was the only way I could myself the story (which is what writers do before they tell anyone else).

I’ve been doing so much research and writing about blooking that the inevitable finally happpened last night. I considered posting the allegory in bits and pieces as a blog, eventually to be a book or blook.

I confess I was tempted. I still am. But first, because of the nature of the story, I would have to secure anonymity. Several blog authors who went on to have their blogs/stories published have succeeded in this but many more have failed. So this is a big concern for me.

Secondly, I’m unsure of reader response. I know that I want response or I wouldn’t even consider putting my writing on line. But how would readers handle several different takes on things. More like multiple drafts. The interesting thing about this is that pointing up the differences and making statements about the reasons behind the changes is one of the things that most appeals to me! But would a reader read several iterations of the same story in a series of posts?

Thirdly, although much of it is written, it would be lot like writing in public. The few times that I took out my watercolors and began painting in public places I was nearly mobbed with people pointing and chattering. I don’t expect that would happen with a blog but am I really prepared to dialogue with readers about what I’ve written or why I chose THAT way instead of THIS way?

The idea intrigues me, appeals to me, tempts me. Also scares me half to death.

Michelle Ailene True runs two writing groups from the Indian Trails Library in Wheeling: Poetic License (poetry) which began in July 2003 and Write Your Life (memoir/lifewriting) which began in March 2007.

[Note: Michelle recently reported to the Chicago Writers Association forum "My poem, Wounds, originally published in my 2nd book was re-printed in the June 2007 (11th Issue) of Taj Mahal Review. It's cool to be published internationally!"]

Michelle runs two writing groups from the Indian Trails Library in Wheeling: Poetic License (poetry) which began in July 2003 and Write Your Life (memoir/lifewriting) which began in March 2007.

The responses to my questions were essentially the same for both groups so I’ve combined the answers.

How and when did the group start?

I started Poetry in July 2003 at my local library. I wanted to find a writing group focusing only on poetry and couldn’t find one nearby, so I started one. Memoir began in 2007

How did you choose where to hold your meetings?

I asked the library if they would add it to their Programs list and they did!

What’s an ordinary meeting like?

We pass out copies of our work to everyone in the group, settle in and then go around the table taking turns reading our work. There are a few minutes of critique time per person.

Do you have a limit on the number of folks who can participate?

There is no limit though when we have more people at a meeting the per person time for reading goes down accordingly, so everyone has a turn.

Are there expectations of participation by members?

Yes we do either writing assigments during the month that we then read at the next meeting, or just bring in any new pieces to read. Everyone is expected to participate.

Do you have a waiting list? Do you vet participants?

We don’t have a waiting list. We always provide constructive criticism of the poems.

What good things have come out of the group?

Friendships, commaraderie, a number of people go to local public poetry readings together. We’ve published a book of our poetry.

I asked Michelle if she could be more specific about the actual meetings.

Poetry:

90 minutes long, once a month, 7:00 p.m. the last Wed of the month. The library lists the group in it’s quarterly brochure and I also put a free ad in the local weekly paper, posted flyers in coffee shops, bookstores, etc. We have 25 members and average 14 at each meeting. One month, an assignment might be to write a sonnet. I will provide a format description and at least one example of a sonnet. The next month there is no assignment, we just bring in 3-5 recent or new poems to read. We alternate so there’s only an assignment every other month.

Memoir:

90 minutes long, once a month, 7:00 p.m. the 2nd Monday of the month. The library lists the group in it’s quarterly brochure and I also put a free ad in the local weekly paper, posted flyers in coffee shops, bookstores, etc. We have 17 members and average 8-9 at each meeting. An assignment might be to pick an event in our life (i.e. high school prom) and write about it. What made it important. What emotions did they feel at the time and how do they feel about it today. What other peole were at the event and what was the significance of that person? Write as much detail as they can about the event. What they wore, smells they remember or associate with the event, sounds, etc.

Neighborhood Writing Alliance

The NWA is a non-profit organization that hosts free writing groups all over Chicago. The organization also publishes the quarterly Journal of Ordinary Thought, featuring works written by workshop participants. See the website for more information. [List of places they currently meet]

New Town Writers

New Town Writers is a gay and lesbian writers’ salon based in Chicago that holds bi-weekly meetings where writers can share and critique their works-in-progress. Visit the website for upcoming meeting times and locations.