News
In time for Halloween I am reposting this post from 2009 which, for reasons known only to Google, ranks consistently as one of my most popular ever.
October 31 marks the start of Maine's deer-hunting season for all hunters (Mainers get a jump on October 29). I'd say that coincidence makes this get-up the dumbest Halloween costume ever.
In my books I go to great lengths to suggest that some of my characters have Maine accents without resorting to phonetic abominations ("Hey, deah, come ovah heah.") At MaineCrimeWriters today I have a post about my use of Maine lingo and a guide to some of the more colorful expressions you might encounter Down East. Check it out, why don't you.
You get all kinds. Here's one that just arrived:
Subject: Your writing
Message: Are you unable to write books like "Trespasser" without peppering them with blasphemies? Is this a character defect?
I suppose it could be a character defect—or it might just be a commitment to rendering dialogue the way human beings actually speak.
One of the things I've learned in the magazine business is that you never know what will get people riled up.
You do have to wonder what kind of person reads a novel about rape and murder but objects to the profanities.
I have a post up at Maine Crime Writers today about crime in isolated places and how it's different from the atrocities that occur in cities. Arthur Conan Doyle identified the phenomenon in one of his eerier short stories, "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," but you can see its manifestation in contemporary criminal cases like that of Jaycee Dugard which is more horrifying than anything Sherlock Holmes ever faced.
We'll be talking about game wardens—those from the Wild Wild West and those from the Wild Wild East—tomorrow (Thursday) September 29 at 7 p.m. at the Blue Hill Public Library. I've heard the New York Times best-selling author talk about his novels before, and he's great. I'll do my best to hold up my side of the conversation!
