You never know what news the Internet will bring. This morning I learned that Bad Little Falls is a nominee in the category of "Amateur Sleuth" in RT's 2012 Reviewers' Choice Awards. It's an interesting and diverse category. I'll be curious to see in which direction the judges go, but as is always the case with awards, it's just an honor to be nominated. (Although winning isn't bad either.)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Portlander
I have a new Editor's Note up over at DownEast.com about my high school days. Like the Hibernian author to whom I allude in the headline, I was educated by Jesuits. I attended Cheverus High School in Portland, Maine, in an era when it was still an all-boys institution. The testosterone levels were off the charts back then, and it's no wonder Cheverus dominated Maine athletics for decades. The school has changed (almost entirely for the better), as has Portland itself. A couple of years ago, I did a class visit at Cheverus and got a tour from the president of the new facilities. I was impressed but also nostalgic for the school that formed my personality (for better and worse). I feel the same about Portland. The city is so much more dynamic than the one I remember from my teens and twenties—every time I visit, I get the itch to move back there. And yet part of me always feels a little wistful walking the streets of the Old Port and thinking of bars no longer there, the friends who have moved away. I guess that's the nature of getting older: you become haunted by your past self.
So You Think You Know Sherlock
I'm not a Sherlockian scholar, but I do consider myself a devoted fan of the books (and the BBC series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman). Today at Maine Crime Writers I offer a straightforward quiz to test your own knowledge of Arthur Conan Doyle's singular detective. How do you score?
A Warm Welcome
I spent the morning recently at Lincoln Academy in Newcastle speaking to the students about my books, the magazine, and the importance of following your dreams. The kids welcomed me with this display in the hall. How could I not feel like a celebrity?
"The Greatest Maine Writer of All Time"
Over at the day job I have an Editor's Note about my nominee for the title. E.B. White is remembered today as the author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, as an important editor in the founding of the New Yorker, and as a teacher who has instructed generations of writers on how to craft better sentences through the book he co-authored with William Strunk, The Elements of Style.
In my mind, however, he will always be the touchstone I use to write about my home state. No author, before or sense, has captured Maine's landscape and people, but most of all it's culture, with the same precision. White had a gimlet eye.