A Few Good Books

By Pat Browning


From my personal blog, Morning’s At Noon, March 26, 2009, and an update:
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Jean Henry Mead tagged me for one of her blogs, asking me to name 25 authors who influence(d) my writing. It was tough, and either I can't count or some names floated off into the ether.
I ended up with 22, many of them golden oldies. Here they are, good writers and good books all.
My list of 25, give or take a couple:
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1. Writers of the Bible, King James Version – for spellbinding stories and beautiful language, imagery and cadence, this is … well… er, um …the Bible.
2. William Shakespeare, all plays – everything I said about the KJV, plus humor. Shakespeare relieved tension with levity, which nevertheless had meaning.
3. Charles Dickens, all novels –master of characterization. He reportedly said he got his villains from himself because there’s a little bit of every man in each man.
4. Edna Ferber (CIMARRON)– master of the sweeping saga, celebrating the early days of this country.
5. John Steinbeck – (THE MOON IS DOWN, THE PEARL) simplicity of writing in novellas, beautiful beyond words.
6. Phyllis A. Whitney (DAUGHTER OF THE STARS) – amazing writing. In five pages the story spans 100 years, from three points of view.
Pages 1-2,omniscient POV: two Union soldiers fight a duel at Harper’s Ferry.Pages3-4, present time, third person POV: an old woman writes a letter to her niece. Page 5, first person POV: niece picks up letter at the post office and is drawn into a web of family secrets.
7. Helen MacInnis (THE SALZBURG CONNECTION) – timeless thriller, turning the screw from paragraph one right up to the end.
8. M. C. Beaton (LOVE, LIES AND LIQUOR) – through many Agatha Raisin novels, Beaton’s theme never varies: Agatha wants the elusive James.
9. John M. Daniel (PLAY MELANCHOLY BABY) – place and time preserved in a story of a lounge pianist whose past catches up with him, with song titles as chapter heads.
10. Thomas B. Sawyer (THE SIXTEENTH MAN) – provocative story told from two viewpoints in alternating chapters, without ever using a signature tag.
11. Rebecca Rothenberg/Taffy Cannon (THE TUMBLEWEED MURDERS) – begun by Rothenberg before her death, completed to perfection by Cannon. Haunting story of an old murder and a reclusive country singer known as The Cherokee Rose.
12. Richard Barre (BLACKHEART HIGHWAY) – California’s Central Valley comes to life on a business trip that turns deadly, complicated by a country singer who went to prison for murders he didn’t commit. Barre wrote the lyrics for the title song.
13. Craig Johnson (THE COLD DISH) – deft use of back story and history in a rugged Wyoming setting, with one of contemporary fiction’s great sidekicks, Henry Standing Bear.
14. Robert Fate (BABY SHARK) -- unforgettable characters, likeable in spite of a high body count, in a story of revenge or die trying.
15. Lonnie Cruse (MURDER IN METROPOLIS) -- great examples of introducing a character or dropping in a bit of back story in a sentence or two.
16. Diana Killian (SONNET OF THE SPHINX) – graceful writing, intriguing plot and a prologue that dazzles.
17. Austin Davis (SHOVELING SMOKE) – pie-eyed look at a small town law office, one of the funniest books I ever read.
18. Brad Smith (BUSTED FLUSH) – another funny look at human nature, this one of a man besieged by collectors, history buffs and media types because he may have found a recording of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
19. Fred Harris (COYOTE REVENGE) – pitch-perfect story of an accidental sheriff in small-town Oklahoma in the 1930s.
20. Vicki Lane (SIGNS IN THE BLOOD) – beautifully written story of a widow coming to terms with life in Appalachia, her chapters interspersed with an old legend about a child bride who disappeared.
21. Beth Anderson (NIGHT SOUNDS) – memorable characters in a story of obsessive love set against a backdrop of Chicago's Gold Coast and the jazz scene.
22. Peggy Fielding (SCOUNDRELS’ BARGAIN) – echoes of Cinderella in this story of a hard-working woman, a rich old villain and a handsome stranger in Oklahoma Territory, 1889.


I’ll update my list to add:
23. Hank Phillippi Ryan (PRIME TIME) – creates a protagonist I can identify with – Charlie McNalley, veteran newscaster staring down middle age. I felt right at home in Charlie’s fictional newsroom at Boston’s Channel 3, beginning with the opening lines: “Between the hot flashes, the hangover and all the spam on my computer, there’s no way I’ll get anything done before eight o’clock this morning. I came in early to get ahead, and already I’m behind.”
24. James R. Benn (BILLY BOYLE) – puts a human face on World War II in a tale of a cop who joins the army expecting a desk job and ends up facing down a spy in the middle of top-secret invasion plans.
25. Timothy Hallinan (SKIN DEEP) – resurrects a PI named Simeon Grist from out-of-print oblivion by putting him on Kindle at $2.99, making him accessible to a whole new group of readers. Simeon is cynical, with a built-in BS detector but a soft spot for women and children. What I like about him is his wicked sense of humor, a wry way of looking at himself and the rest of the world.


And for lagniappe (for good measure) –


26. Chester D. Campbell (A SPORTING MURDER) – features a woman, Jill McKenzie, who’s an equal partner with her husband Greg in McKenzie Investigations. They have matching desks in the office as part of the agency’s “equal opportunity policy.” Greg is a retired air force officer; Jill pilots her own Cessna. Together they do “basic gumshoe work” to solve a murder involving NBA basketball and NHL hockey.
27. Lillian Stewart Carl (THE BLUE HACKLE) – a magical ending to a series, if that’s the case. Carl’s dedication reads: “For Anjali Ravi Carl, The last but far from least book of the series for the last but far from least member of the next generation.” The two principals – journalist Jean Fairbairn and Scottish detective inspector Alasdair Cameron, retired – plan a wedding on the historic Isle of Skye, but murder, ghosts and assorted hanky-panky at moldering Dunasheen Castle could derail their plans.

The Katrina Bag

By Pat Browning


I live in Tornado Alley but it took a hurricane that devastated New Orleans to make me think about what I need to survive. Pack a bag, the local Red Cross representative said. Keep it handy.


That was in 2005. Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans the morning of 29 August 2005, the most destructive hurricane ever to hit the U.S. A month later I dragged a duffle bag into my walk-in closet for safekeeping, per instructions from the Red Cross.


It’s still there. The problem is that it doesn’t hold a single survival item. It bulges with VCR tapes and manuscripts. It’s so heavy if I try to drag it out of the apartment I’ll probably pull my arms out of their sockets. My most precious books are in a separate cardboard box. So much for being prepared in case of a tornado or earthquake.


So what’s in that bag I can’t live without?


*Original manuscript of FULL CIRCLE, my first mystery.
*Original printout of ABSINTHE OF MALICE, the revised, reissued edition of FULL CIRCLE.
*2007 Red Dirt Anthology, with my short memoir, “White Petunias.”
*Copy of manuscript of Richard Barre short story, “Wind on the River,” sent as a Christmas present in 2000, a magnificent story, never published.

*VHS tapes, including:
The Fundamentals of Knife, Hawk and Axe Throwing – an instructional video on how to throw a knife and make it stick anywhere; old episodes of Magnum PI, Simon & Simon; old PBS programs of rock and roll music; Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, Vol. 1; Roger Miller’s life and music; Grand Ol’ Opry Stars of the Fifties.


*Old movies, including:
Out to Sea, All of Me, Good Will Hunting, The Philadelphia Story; The Winds of War, a gift from Beth Anderson.


It’s all good stuff, but with all the floods, fires, tornadoes and thunder storms going around this year, it’s time to re-think my survival bag.


I found the following article on being prepared while going through old files. I first posted it on my personal blog, Morning’s At Noon, and it's as timely as ever.
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Sunday, October 09, 2005
THE KATRINA BAG


A Red Cross rep who spoke in El Reno recently said: “YOU are your first responder. YOU are going to rescue you.” So pack a bag. The kind of backpack kids haul to school will hold what you need. DO NOT stick it in the back of the closet. Put it by the front door if you can’t think of a handier place.


Tips that could save your life and/or your sanity:


1. Make sure somebody knows where you will go in case of a disaster. If you live in Oklahoma and have a storm cellar, register it in Oklahoma City.


2. Make copies of documents you will need to establish your identity and rebuild your life – birth, marriage and death certificates, wills, healthcare directives. We live in a world of numbers. Copy them from insurance policies, credit cards, driver’s licenses, Social Security, bank accounts, ATM cards, names and phone numbers for your doctors and pharmacy.


3. Send the copies to a friend or relative in another state so you will have them if you need them. Your safe deposit box will be useless if your bank is destroyed. Your home and office files will be useless if a tornado blows them away, or buildings are bulldozed after flood, fire or quake.


4. Stash in a pouch you can wear around your neck if necessary at least three days’ worth of medicines and cash.


5. Into your ever-ready Katrina bag or "tornado bag," put:
*A whistle;
*Flashlight, with extra batteries;
*Plastic rain poncho;
*Pocket-size radio with batteries;
*First aid kit (Band Aids, aspirin or something else for pain);
*A $20 bill;
*Dried food, a liquid meal such as Ensure with pop-top; Power Bars;
*Collapsible water jug, and packaged water;
*An emergence or space blanket that folds to about 6 in. x 6 in.;
*Work gloves;
*Duct tape;
*Drop cloth;
*Nose mask;
*Light sticks;
*Diaper wipes;
*Extra shoes, extra clothes, extra underwear;
*Old eyeglasses, or your extra pair if you have one;


SPECIAL NOTE: Pack something small and irreplaceable. Be it a bit of jewelry or a souvenir key ring or something else that can be tucked into a corner of your bag, it may be the only thing you have left to hold onto, a memory you can cling to. Find a place in the bag for it!
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Tornados come in all shapes and sizes, and they come to Oklahoma. Of 18 tornado photos on the National Severe Storms Laboratory page at the NOAA web site, 13 were snapped in Oklahoma and 5 in Texas, mostly in the Panhandle area. Here in Central Oklahoma we take cover and hope for the best when the sirens go off. While any damage means trouble for someone, when a tornado blows a town right off the map it usually happens in western Oklahoma.


Famous last words.
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Public domain tornado photo, Mayfield, OK 16 May 1977. National Severe Storms Laboratory photo courtesy of NSSL archive online at the *NOAA tornado photo library.
*National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.