AMERICAN NIGHTS .

"Saudi Arabian prince, Husam al Saliba, hires child-finder Moriah Dru to find his missing American wife, Reeve, and daughter, Shahrazad.

The investigation begin when Husam tells of falling in love with Reeve, of turning his back on his ascendancy to the Saudi power structure for the woman he loves. He talks of his king’s disapproval of him marrying and siring an infidel.

But does he really want to return to the good graces of the royal family and marry cousin Aya and be an heir to kingship? Confused Dru thinks she’s fallen into a fairy tale. After all the prince is fond of reciting tales from the Arabian Nights.

The investigation had just begun when Reeve’s parents, Lowell and Donna Cresley were  killed. They hated their prince son-in-law. He is immediately suspected when the Atlanta police, in the person of Dru's lover Lt. Richard Lake, come into the case.

It’s soon evident infidelity abounds and everyone has something dreadful to hide.


http://amzn.to/29jOnRa
http://bit.ly/29eFsgJ

Thanks and Happy Reading!

Gerrie Ferris Finger
SHOOTING THE DEAD - New ebook
http://bit.ly/1TSL05F
http://amzn.to/1WWg7gW

THE ORIGIN OF THE PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE

There is one Christmas Carol that has always puzzled me. What do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come outof the pear tree, have to do with Christmas?


According to Wikipedia, the meaning of The Twelve Days of Christmas has yet to be satisfactorily explained. According to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, "Suggestions have been made that the gifts have significance, as representing the food or sport for each month of the year. Importance [certainly has] long been attached to the Twelve Days, when, for instance, the weather on each day was carefully observed to see what it would be in the corresponding month of the coming year. Nevertheless, whatever the ultimate origin of the chant, it seems probable [that] the lines that survive today both in England and France are merely an irreligious travesty."

On the other hand, modern folklore claims that the song's lyrics were written as a catechism song to help young Catholics learn their faith, at a time when practicing Catholicism was discouraged in England (1558 until 1829). In this catechism version there are two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of the church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
-The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.
-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
-The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
-The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
-The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
-The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.
Even if it's lore - and who's to say? - it's good lore.


Merry Christmas.

Gerrie Ferris Finger

"The Avengers" Patrick Macnee passed at 93.

I just read that one of the actors who passed away in 2015 was Patrick Macnee. He was a British actor and played secret agent John Steed on the spy series "The Avengers." He was 93 when he died in June.

Rest in Peace Patrick Macnee/John Steed.

I'll never forget you, or your famous partner, Emma Peel, played by Diana Rigg. Radio hosts often ask me what real or fictional character my series heroine, Moriah Dru, is most like. The first time I gave it a bit of thought and came out with "Emma Peel of "The Avengers."'

They both drive fast and fell their opponents with crafty martial arts moves. I did not consciously create an Emma Peel-like character, but Dru turned out to be very much like her -- without the catsuit. Maybe one day she'll don a catsuit. You never know with Dru.

However, Richard Lake -- the Atlanta police lieutenant and Dru's lover and partner in fighting crime -- is not at all like John Steed, the buttoned-up Brit who wore a bowler and carried an umbrella. Lake wears a fedora, carries a nine-millimeter in a shoulder holster and is contained but not stiff.

About Patrick Macnee: He came from an upscale Berkshire, England family where his father trained horses. He was a naval veteran of World War II. "The Avengers" premiered in 1961 on UK television. He was partnered with a couple of beautiful and talented women before Diana Rigg. They remain in the public's minds because of their chemistry. They were not lovers; Mrs Peel has/had a husband in the background. 

Come to think of it, Emma and John do have something in common with Dru and Lake. While driving the evil-doers off the streets and out of the world, they exchange quick-witted banter and fight their foes with their intellects as well as their physical talents. 

Gerrie Ferris Finger

The Dru Lake Series: 

THE END GAME

THE LAST TEMPTATION

THE DEVIL LAUGHED

MURMURS OF INSANITY

RUNNING WITH WILD BLOOD

COMING IN 2016: AMERICAN NIGHTS

DO YOU TRY TO FIGURE OUT WHODUNNIT?

In most reviews of my books, one of the important aspects is figuring  out whodunnit as the reviewer reads the book.

"I figured out who did it early in the beginning," seems to rate a negative point. 

"I didn't figure it out until the middle when such and such clue was revealed." That's gets an okay, but means I need to be more obscure with clues next time.

"I was totally surprised at who did it. Never would have guessed." This is a definite thumbs up.

And that is my goal. It's a mystery, after all. It should stay mysterious until the end.


But I understand the need to know. I was a journalist before I became a novelist. As a reader, I cast about for the villain even though I don't want to know.  (I think it's my earliest mystery reading. Agatha Christie, of course. How she could lead me away from the true killer is still a mystery.)

Does it spoil the ending when I guess right? Sometimes it does, but then, like all readers I hope for a surprise. That begs a question: do I really want to be wrong?

I've been hosted by many book clubs and the members vary in their desire to unmask the bad guys, or girls. Some just enjoy the read. One woman said, "I don't want to know." Another woman said, "I almost always figure out whodunit in the first pages." She says it's because the villain has to appear in the first pages and so it becomes a process of elimination. Well, that's her way, but in today's mysteries the villain often does not come into the story in the first pages. In some not until the last half.

Today it's all about character and character-building. If I can spot a cardboard villain in the first part of the book, I'm likely going to lose interest. Most mysteries are set in the here and now, and so to unmask a villain early is poor writing, or an overlooked clue by the author. 

For my reading pleasure, the bad guy needs to keep his killer self under wraps until he no longer can - and that's at the end.

Go enjoy a book today. It's always World Book Day.

Best to all, 

Gerrie Ferris Finger

MURMURS OF INSANITY

“The line between art and life should be kept as fluid, and perhaps indistinct, as possible.”—Allan Kaprow

Murmurs of Insanity—crossing the lines.

 

This fourth novel featuring Moriah Dru and Richard Lake dramatizes two separate cases. Running in the background is a case about a young would-be gang banger who witnesses a murder between drug lords and afterward disappears. In the second (primary) case Lake asks Dru to look into a missing art student at the University of Georgia. Lake is an Atlanta police detective and Moriah Dru is a private investigator specializing in tracing missing children.

Throughout my life I’ve had a keen interest in art—I’ve an easel somewhere in the attic to prove it. My interest extends to Performance art, too. Some think of it as avant-garde; and it certainly plays a role in anarchic art such as Futurism and Dada. Some see it as nihilistic, but all agree it’s a hop-step from genres like painting and sculpting. Kaprow, known as the father of “happenings”, was very clear that Performance art is not theater, but, to me, it certainly involves theatrics.

As action art, the artist or artists feel the need to challenge the conventions of traditional art and of society. Doctrine is tested. Brainwashed concepts mocked. In the case of the artists in Murmurs, the trail of Performance clues are meant to shake up a complacent community. What could go wrong?

I’ve tried to show in these divergent cases that societal insanity compels the thuggish and vile in the real world, while in the artist community of a college town, insanity shows up as contrived and annoying. Be that as it may seem, in the end Murmurs of Insanity is a murder mystery.

Oh, and about the cover—dolls give me the creeps. They look like the dead.

 

A Review:

This is an outstanding, complicated, complex, emotionally fraught, novel of murder, and manipulation. It requires careful and thoughtful attention to the details of the crimes, the motivations of the characters and the movement of the plot. The rewards for readers are substantial. Yes, character development and explication is important. Yes, the relationships among the main characters, and there are many, are vital, but, unlike many modern crime novels, in this story the plot is an important and sturdy factor. – Carl Brookins

 

Available online, in book stores and libraries. Ask your bookseller or librarian if it is not stocked yet.

Also in the Dru/Lake series:

The End Game

The Last Temptation

The Devil Laughed.

Running with Wild Blood – Jan. 2015

###

 

Decatur Book Festival - a Southern city goes book crazy

Dear Readers, Fans and Fellow Writers,

I will be on an Atlanta Writers Club panel on Sunday, August 31 at 5 p.m. at the Decatur Book Festival in Decatur, GA., discussing my book MURMURS OF INSANITY. A moderator and three fellow panelists will also be discussing their latest releases and experiences in the writing life.

Please come visit us and have a wonderful experience connecting with us and other book nuts across the Southeast. After the program, at around 6 p.m., I (we) will be signing books.

I invite you to read a review by Carl Brookins, an excellent reviewer of all things book.

Murmurs of Insanity
A Moriah Dru / Richard Lake Mystery
Gerrie Ferris Finger
Five Star, July 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4328-2858-5
Hardcover

This is an outstanding, complicated, complex, emotionally fraught, novel of murder, and manipulation. It requires careful and thoughtful attention to the details of the crimes, the motivations of the characters and the movement of the plot. The rewards for readers are substantial. Yes, character development and explication is important. Yes, the relationships among the main characters, and there are many, are vital, but, unlike many modern crime novels, in this story the plot is an important and sturdy factor.

Since pictographs were scratched into cave walls in the pre-modern era seven thousand years ago, art movements have been subjects for pity, scorn, adulation and ignorance. A modern phenomenon, performance art, plays an important part in this novel, which is set between Atlanta and Athens, Georgia. Some characters, Baxter, Moira Dru, Richard Lake among them, are the principal players. Each is a finely drawn, complex character whose motivations and background influence their attitudes and their actions. One of the interesting elements of the novel is the depth to which the author probes the decisions of the detectives and the way they are influenced by their training, experience and their personal backgrounds.

The other characters, some important to the development of the plot, are less well developed which might be a deficiency, but the pace of the story is at the least adequate and at times, exhilarating. The essence of the plot is the semi-automatic assumptions—several of them—made by police, family, and others about a series of circumstances. In this case, a missing student, tenuously linked to a wealthy restaurateur, is the original incident. The student’s girl friend is accusing the wealthy restaurateur who has a history of tangles with young women. Moira Dru, with aid from her lover, Atlanta detective Lake, drills down to get at the truth of the matter and discovers many surprises, some of which threaten Dru’s existence. A fine, thoughtful novel, well-written and packing plenty of action and surprise.

Reviewed by Carl Brookins, June 2014.
Author of Red Sky, Devils Island, Hard Cheese, Reunion

 

Drawing for THE DEVIL LAUGHED

I am giving away three copies of the third in my award-winning series (beginning with The End Game - Malice Domestic, St. Martin's First Traditional Novel in 2010). The contest ends Dec. 13 so I'll have time to get the books to the winners before Christmas.

Enter to win the third in the award-winning series. THE DEVIL LAUGHED

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/71741-the-devil-laughed

Check out my other books at 

https://www.gerrrieferrisfinger.com

Gerrie

THE END GAME

THE LAST TEMPTATION

THE DEVIL LAUGHED.

Who is Moriah Dru?

I am often asked, "Who is Moriah Dru?"

 

I do a lot of radio and the question is important, as important as describing the plot of the latest Moriah Dru/Richard Lake release. (This year "The Devil Laughed" was released September 1.) Since I've "lived" with Dru for years now (I'm on my sixth in the series), I know her pretty well.

 

 

 

I have to admit Dru was inspired by Emma Peel of the old TV series, "The Avengers." Like Mrs. Peel, she'll have nothing to do with a damsel in distress life. While she's as bold as that suave British spy, she's as American as Angela Gennaro -- Dennis Lehane's rugged yet compassionate heroine. 

 

Dru grew into who she is at the Atlanta Police Department where she excelled as an officer and consequently was awarded a spot at the FBI National Academy.  When she and Richard Lake became lovers, she left the APD and started Child Trace. As a child finder she is hired by private citizens and the Juvenile Justice System.

 

She’s intuitive in investigations and unafraid to pursue her investigative theories. She hones her shooting skills on a gun range and is proficient in martial arts. She isn’t the first to start a battle, but she’s capable of winning it. She has killed to save Lake's life.

Dru is what every woman thinks she is deep within herself. Inside we’re all heros. Think of the air guitar craze. Everyone can play one; not everyone can play a real guitar. Unlike the reality of most air guitarists playing a mean Gibson, Dru can defend herself and those she protects in her character's reality.

She’s no wonder woman. She has human vulnerabilities. She can assess herself with sarcastic barbs. She and Lake get into dark humorous conversations which reveal her vulnerabilities. We see Lake, her lover and former partner at the Atlanta Police Department, through Dru’s point of view. He’s handsome to the point Moriah is always on the lookout for women’s attraction to him. Jealousy is but one of her vulnerabilities.    

Happy Reading,

Gerrie Ferris Finger
THE END GAME
THE LAST TEMPTATION
THE GHOST SHIP

THE DEVIL LAUGHED -- New Release

Out and ready to be read: The latest in the Moriah Dru/Richard Lake Series, THE DEVIL LAUGHED.

Judge Portia Devon invites Moriah Dru, Richard Lake and his daughter to Lake Lanier, north of Atlanta, for the Fourth of July weekend. There Dru spots the stern of a missing sailboat. It went down in a storm when the lake was full pool. Four years later, the area is suffering one of the worst droughts in its history, thus revealing the large boat.

Four passengers were aboard the sailboat, last seen docked with the drunken boaters raising hell at the marina's restaurant. Johnny Brown's body was found the next day floating in the no-wake zone; the other three disappeared with the sailboat.  Because of their lecherous behavior and wealthy status they had been the topic of gossip ever since. When the sailboat was raised there were no bodies aboard, reinforcing the rumor that Laurant Cocineau and Candice Brown, Johnny's wife, also got rid of Janet Cocineau, Laurant's wife, and fled to Rio, a place they'd clandestinely visited before.

Evangeline, Candace's daughter by her first husband, believes her mother is alive and wants to hire Dru to find her. Dru is a child finder, and Evangeline is a precocious, demanding twelve-year-old, but Dru acquiesces because, by spotting the boat, she feels invested in the case. She'll have help from Lake, an Atlanta police detective.

This twisted tale of jealousy, greed and downright evil takes us from the North Georgia mountains to the wine country of Cape Fear, N. C. where the grapes become part of the wrath.

Happy reading,

Gerrie

At Amazon:  http://amzn.to/14cExnt
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/16SKAPT

THE LAST TEMPTATION - a Carl Brookins Review

Carl Brookins is one of my favorite reviewers; he gives books a thorough reading and honest reviews. I often post his reviews here, and I'm happy to be posting his review of my novel.

The Last Temptation
by Gerrie Ferris Finger
ISBN: 978-1-4328-2589-8
A 2012 hard cover release
from Five Star, Gale. 367 pages

Retired cop and owner of an investigative service called Child Trace, Moriah Dru, is an intriguing mix of highly aware, slightly cynical, and romantic at her core. She's in love with her ex-partner, a Lieutenant of Police in Atlanta, Georgia. She traces lost children. He, Lieutenant Richard Lake, traces murderers. When their cases intersect, mayhem sometimes ensues, sparks fly and the bad guys, if they're smart, go somewhere else.

Local brilliant academician, Bradley Whitney, has joint custody of his young daughter, Linley. Her mother, Whitney's ex-wife, is still struggling with addiction, but institutes proceedings for full custody. When the girl fails to turn up on a flight back to Atlanta from Palm Springs, the court hires Dru to find and retrieve her. In Palm Springs, Dru discovers that both the girl and her mother are missing. A lot of people seem to know parts of the story and aren't willing to talk to Dru. By this time there have been several brutal murders in Atlanta that have Lake's attention and Dru's old, Saab has been blown up. Connections? Not immediately apparent.

This is a tautly constructed, tightly written, punchy novel of horrific crime, family entanglements, love and sex, loss and reconnection. The protagonist is a fascinating, flawed, woman with substantial skills and attitudes. The story flows logically from a series of disparate violent events and the presentation of pieces of evidence that eventually all come together.Although the events described are mostly difficult, this is at its center, a life-affirming novel that will leave readers completely satisfied and waiting for the next story from this excellent writer.

Carl Brookins
www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com
Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky

Thanks, Carl!

How can someone be so HEARTLESS

FREE On Kindle May 2nd and 3rd.

Get to know Gemma Summers and the citizens of Roscommon in this novella series that features those with "less" sympathy, guts, fear, faith, sense or clues than we have.

HEARTLESS is the second in the Gemma Summers Series. MERCILESS introduced Gemma when she got promoted and headed to the north Georgia mountains and the Chattooga River to raft and celebrate her goal of becoming a Major Crime Case detective.

Her town Roscommon, a fictional place smack in the middle of Georgia close to the Oconee River, has to deal with the same problems that big cities like Atlanta do, but citizens are proud to say that cold, callous murder is rare.

But when it happens, it can happen to the best of Roscommon citizens.









Coming in August: THE LAST TEMPTATION, second in the Moriah Dru/Richard Lake Series. THE END GAME, a national award-winning novel, debuted the series.

Other Books:

THE GHOST SHIP
WHISPERING
WHEN SERPENTS DIE
HONORED DAUGHTERS
WAGON DOGS

Check them out at: http://amzn.to/nASzI0

WHISPERING - An Island Affair

I take much pride in the book because, firstly, my granddaughter, Tori Ferris, did the cover photography. The story is set on Georgia's Cumberland Island, called Sago Island in the novel. The back of the print edition is just as gorgeous as the front cover. I predict an artful future for my lovely high-schooler.

I set the love story on Georgia's gorgeous Cumberland Island, no better place for an historical romantic mystery. The late John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his fiance Caroline were married in the little African church you'll read about in Whispering. (More about Cumberland in a later essay, but much is published on the web.)

A synopsis:

It's 1921. Cleo Snow travels with her cousin, Neill Connolly, to Sago Island, Ga. to lessen the sadness of her fiance's death in The Great War (later called World War I). He'd been missing, presumed killed in France, and his body recently returned home.

America's victory celebration is in full swing. The Flapper Era has begun. Cleo is poised between her Victorian raising and post-war liberal ideas. Women got the vote in 1920. They work – Cleo’s a nurse. Hemlines are rising. Jargon is spicier. Songs are racier. The fox trot is the cat’s meow. Everyone smokes coffin nails. The great experiment, Prohibition, has ushered in an epoch of fascinating gangsters and illegal speakeasies. Drinking and dancing go together like bathtub gin and painted dolls.

On Sago Island Cleo meets fly-boy hero Graham Henry, the dazzling son of a steel magnate. They fall in love dancing to "Whispering", the rage song of the year. Complicating their love-at-first-sight is Shafer and Josie Drake. Shafer is Graham's cousin. He lost his liquor business and knows he's about to lose his money-loving wife, Josie.

The morning after the dance, Josie is missing. A note she purportedly wrote says she's leaving the island to get a divorce and marry Graham. Graham swears the note's a lie and that he and Josie were nothing more than "boozing" companions.

Where did Josie go and when? Did she return to New York where she once danced in the Ziegfeld Follies? No one saw her leave the island. But Cleo knows Graham had nothing to do with her disappearance because Cleo was with him in the lighthouse the night Josie vanished. Cleo vows she will never confess to making love with a man she's known only two days. But Will Graham compromise Cleo to clear himself?

Island resident, the enigmatic Doc Holliday, who is said to be related to the infamous gunslinger, is a veterinarian and a falconer. His falcon, Billy, captures Cleo’s severely crushed heart. Cleo captures Doc’s heart, but she’s reeling over her gullibility. Will he win her with his darkly sensuous charm?

Everyone on Sago, it seems, has something to hide, even villagers who distill homemade "hooch" - and it all pivots around Josie and Graham. With her spirit firmed by shame and outrage, Cleo vows to uncover the truth and thus keep her own secret.

Note:
After writing The Ghost Ship, partially set in the early 1920s, I'm calling this my historical writing period. The sequel to The End Game (titled The Last Temptation) will be relased in July 2012. These novels represent my contemporary writing period, which exists alongside my historical writing period. :-D

Happy Reading
Gerrie

On sale at: http://amzn.to/vnkv7u

Gerrie Ferris Finger
http://www.crimewritersblog.blogspot.com

THE GHOST SHIP - Blending history and fiction

A Review of:

The Ghost Ship
Author: Gerrie Ferris Finger

Reviewer: Paul Kendall - K3Book - U.K.

The ghost ship is The Carroll A Deering it was lost in 1921. What happened to her crew? Nobody knows. Woo, spooky, The wild Atlantic coast of the United States, North Carolina is where the ship went down and the book really does take you there.

You can hear the sea birds, you can smell sea air, you feel like you are walking down a wild wind swept beach, as the words of the kindle text to speech, appear in your head. This book is well written.

Ann Gavrion is the main character, At first, Ann seems to be a stereotypical superstitious type with a liking for gin and tonic. I thought hello, she has had a few too many (poor girl) and is seeing ghosts. we have all done it, (if we are honest), I used to see visions of Dolly Parton singing 9 to 5 at the end of my bed after a heavy nights drinking.

Anyway, then you the reader are captured by the story. Ann, as it turns out is just the opposite of what you first thought, she is not this irrational superstitious mystic, because she is not just "seeing things".

The ghost are usually in the head of the beholder, but not in this story. I don't know why, but this aspect of the book came as a bit of a surprise, a real punch in the kisser.

There is more than a hint of science in the book, the answer to the ghostly goings on? Well I am not sure about that, but may be… it's interesting. That's all I want to say, read the book to see what I mean.

If anyone asks me about the secret of this book, I grab ahold of their arm and say (in a dramatic fashion), "we don't like to talk about it round hear, OK".

The book is full of brilliant characters all very memorable. Mr and Mrs Sweeny were my favourites. But the author has also built a light house in our imagination, we see and feel the spirit of the wild Atlantic coast, the ghost ship, the bar, the guest house, the media following, Ann around like those storm chasers, it all works.

The book is a good read, it's gripping and very enjoyable. The whales beaching. (my theory is they don't want to drown, so they commit suicide by beaching themselves on land). May be desperate men in storms do the same ? The book is full of thought provoking events and encounters and theories. The history of that coast line, the storms, the names and places are all well researched. Take the place name Cape Fear for instance, (mentioned in the book), whoever named it cape fear was more than hinting at the legions of dead sailors who had encountered a horrific death there over the years. That's partly what the book is all about, lost souls that come back to haunt the living? Come back from where is the secret that I dare not tell you,, woo, spooky. Err well.. Yes it is actually.

The book has a lot of bread crumbs left around for the reader to follow, as I have said, some interesting historic references, some clues for the detectives to enjoy, some sex, some romance but not too much. Throw in the Bermuda triangle, whales, birds, a cat with six toes, the media, the ghost ship, small boats, a lighthouse and a cast of great characters, then you have it. So slug back a gin and tonic and enjoy. (Remember if you want to splice the main brace you will need some Rum for that). It's not just salty old sea dogs who will like this book (the 2 million people with boats in Europe, Australia and North America) I think the market for this book is of course much wider.

The book is highly recommended. 
Paul Kendall Leeds, UK

Print edition now available: http://amzn.to/v47bAo

Kindle ebook: http://amzn.to/r3imp5

Read and enjoy!

Gerrie Ferris Finger

http://www.gerrieferrisfinger.com

The Panty Museum - it had to be Brussels

I love museums. I've written about several, shall we say, oddball museums. There's the British Lawn Mower Museum, the Beijing Tap Water Museum and the redoubtable Mustard Museum in Wisconsin.

A couple of years ago, Jan Bucquoy, the enfant terrible of the Belgian art scene created the "Musee du Slip" in Brussels. He displays underwear of famous celebrities and politicians like those of Belgian Minister Didier Reynders. So there can be no doubt, his faded blue boxer shorts came with a certificate of authenticity. To further titillate panty fetishers, the white striped boxers are displayed next to the G-string that allegedly covered certain parts of the former Belgian porn star Brigitte Lahaie.

There rules, after all. Owners must have worn their undies for at least one day.

"I want to create poetry with everyday things by putting them in a different context," Bucquoy told Reuters. "I say underpants are art. Put them in a frame and create a new way of looking at the world."

"Alongside celebrity skivvies are artworks that Bucquoy has created over the past 25 years featuring celebrities and underwear that is admittedly not their own. For example, you can find ones of former US President John F. Kennedy and Adolf Hitler wearing underwear on their heads.

An Andy Warhol-style print of Margaret Thatcher, wearing a skin-coloured flower-patterned pair of women's underpants, contrasts sharply with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose tri-coloured Y-fronted headwear unmistakably resembles a Napolean Bonaparte hat.

Bucquoy is reported saying that if he had portrayed Hitler in his underpants there would not have been a war. "My quest as an artist is to try to get rid of hierarchy," adding that he hoped he might be able to get underwear samples for his museum from French first lady Carla Bruni, Pope Benedict XVI and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Now there's a trifecta for your fetish.

--From Reuters news reports

Submitted by Gerrie Ferris Finger
http://www.gerrieferrisfinger.com

WHISPERING - an Excerpt

It's 1921, the Great War (WWI) is over, Prohibition is the law of the land.  Women now have the vote, the flapper era has begun.

After cognac had been served and Neill and Teddy yawned themselves to their feet pleading exhaustion, she found herself next to Graham, walking down the hall to the bottom of the staircase. She swallowed the knot at the back of her throat.

“Would you like a moonlight walk on the beach?” he asked.

She stood with her hand on the banister, unable to meet his eyes. “I need sleep.”

“I bet. Traveling can give one the screaming meemies.”

She grinned at him. “More like swooning.”

He covered her hand with his. “No swooning, it’s out of fashion.”

“I see you’re a slave to fashion.”

“Absolutely. My own idea of fashion.”

“You dress very smart.” What a dumb thing to say.

“That’s because a smartly-dressed man can hide a multitude of idiocies.”

“What idiocies?”

“Ummm, I don’t confess everything to a woman I’ve just met, no matter how gorgeous. Wait until tomorrow.”

“I shall.” She placed a foot on the first step. “Time …”

“Teddy has taken to you, too, you know.”

“Teddy is fun.”

“If fun’s not included, Teddy doesn’t do it.”

“Like you?”

“I look for a little fun in my life.”

“I guess so, after that beastly war.”

“It was beastly, but there were happy times.”

“You can say that now you’re safe at home.”

“I say, Cleo, I am sorry about …”

She bobbed her head trying to see William in her mind, but his image didn’t come. How could it, she thought, with all the unfocused emotions swirling there?

He drew in a breath. “I want to see happiness in those marvelous green eyes.”

How could she forget the sharp pain of those unhappy days? “I am happy.”

“But sometimes a little melancholy?”

“What’s wrong with melancholy?”

“We at Southerness do not tolerate melancholy.” He lifted her chin with a finger. “Got that, little Bearcat?”

She was not sure if she could get the words out of her mouth to say that her mood was beyond categorizing. She drew away from his finger. “Good night, Graham.”

“Can I ask you something?”

She held her breath for a second. “Yes.”

“Promise a walk on the beach tomorrow night? The lighthouse shows best by moonlight.” He sensed her hesitation because he squeezed her arm. “I’m harmless.”

She gave him her best I-don’t-believe-that-for-a-minute smirk. “What if it rains?”

“It wouldn’t dare. What say?”

“Let’s see about tomorrow.”

“That’s not a no.”

“No, it’s not a no.”

“I’m a happy fella then.”

“Good night.”

“Golf after breakfast?”

“I shall give it my best,” she said.

He went off singing, Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning ...

Finally – she could take a deep breath.

*****

Thanks for reading. I'd appreciate your comments.

Gerrie Ferris Finger

THE GHOST SHIP hits the - uh - Kindle

...and the Nook.

Used to be we could brag that our books hit the shelves. Not so much any longer. Oh I still have a hard cover publisher, but I've come over to the (used to be) "dark" side of the publishing world. I'm a self-publisher. I've called my new company, Crystal Skull Publishing, and our first edition is THE GHOST SHIP, a paranormal seafaring suspense based on a real ghost ship: The Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals.

I look forward to sharing more with you about this venture.

Best,
Gerrie

http://www.gerrieferrisfinger.com
http://tiny.cc/aj8jt

FINDING TIME TO WRITE

       With the demands on a published author - and for that matter an unpublished writer looking to get published - to brand and promote oneself, the serious question arises: when do I have time to write?

I can't begin to name all the social and professional networks I belong to that give me a web presence, including writing blogs like this one, but I will list a few. Twitter and Facebook, of course, KindleBoards, Goodreads, Shelfari, LinkedIn, Red Room, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America; then there are the listservs like DorothyL. I've been on and off DL for ten years. Like me, book people come and go.

I don't know how many readers I've acquired through the listservs and groups like Murder Must Advertise, but I get a lot of good information and I conduct free book drawings from time to time.  It's a way to stay connected with the reading and writing community, not just for sales but to interact with friends I've met online and in person.

So, when do I write?

On weekday afternoons unless on a tight deadline. There are so many things to take care of in the morning - housewifey stuff, returning put-off calls from yesterday, reading and answering emails - that I've designated morning as taking-care-of-business time.

At one o'clock (if I'm not playing golf), I write until five with necessary breaks - for me and Bogey, the demanding standard poodle who adorns my book covers.

 Unless for research, I don't crawl the net or answer the telephone. I research, edit, write. Period.

About golf. I play on Saturday and Sunday - again, unless on a tight deadline. One day during the week, I play and usually I'm finished and back at my desk by one-thirty. Two at the latest. Then I extend my work day until six o'clock.

Writing is a demanding master (aka self-flagellation), but publication is vindication for the blood and toil. Then I have to address an even more demanding master: promotion.

Gerrie Ferris Finger
THE END GAME
THE LAST TEMPTATION released 2012
THE GHOST SHIP  released 2011
HONORED DAUGHTERS
WHEN SERPENTS DIE
WAGON DOGS
http://www.gerrieferrisfinger.com/
http://www.crimewritersblog.blogspot.com/



COMING JUNE 2011



TOP TWENTY WELL-READ CITIES

Amazon.com Names America’s Most Well-Read Cities

Is it any wonder that Cambridge, Massachusetts, which Harvard University calls home, topped Amazon.com’s recent listing of the Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities in America?

I lived in Cambridge eons ago. Residents walked along streets reading books, book stores - be they large retail outlets or mom and pop resellits - on nearly every block, citizens in the parks reading magazines or best sellers, riders of MBTA missing their stops while engrossed in Follett or Oates. Add the Kindle and residents are now ordering more books, magazines and newspapers in print and Kindle formats. The survey began Jan. 1, 2011 and was based on cities with more than 100,000 residents. Cambridge residents also ordered the highest number of nonfiction books.

The Amazon.com top 20 list:

1. Cambridge, Massachusetts
2. Alexandria, Virginia
3. Berkeley, California
4. Ann Arbor, Michigan
5. Boulder, Colorado
6. Miami, Florida
7. Salt Lake City, Utah
8. Gainesville, Florida
9. Seattle, Washington
10. Arlington, Virginia
11. Knoxville, Tennessee
12. Orlando, Florida
13. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
14. Washington, D.C.
15. Bellevue, Washington
16. Columbia, South Carolina
17. St. Louis, Missouri
18. Cincinnati, Ohio
19. Portland, Oregon
20. Atlanta, Georgia

Happy to see Atlanta, my adopted home of many decades ago, sneak onto the list. St. Louis, my birth place, came in 17.
Echoing results from Sisters in Crime’s recent Mystery Book Buyer Study, nearly half of the cities on the Amazon.com list are located below the Mason-Dixon line.

The Washington, D.C. area includes three of the top 20 cities – Alexandria, Va. (#2), Arlington, Va. (#10) and Washington itself (#14). Alexandria residents also topped the list of buyers of children’s books.

The sunshine state, Florida, has three cities in the top 20 – Miami (#6), Gainesville (#8) and Orlando (#12).

“We hope book lovers across the country enjoy this fun look at where the most voracious readers reside,” said Mari Malcolm, managing editor of Books at Amazon.com.

Submitted by
Gerrie Ferris Finger
http://www.gerrieferrisfinger.com/

SOON TO BE RELEASED: THE GHOST SHIP

HAPPY KENTUCKY DERBY DAY - and a tip of the hard hat to Dick Francis

I grew up riding horses and have a fractured L4 because of my daring-do jumping skills. Throw in a little arthritis on creaky days and there goes my golf game.

All that to admit I loved reading Dick Francis after mucking out the stable. ;-D

In honor of KDD, I'm reading NERVE about a jockey who seems to have lost his nerve. OR, could it be someone is sabotaging him through his mounts?

From 1953 to 1957 Francis was jockey to Queen Elizabeth's Queen Mother. He retired after he rode Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National race. The horse fell near the finish line. Francis wrote over 40 international best sellers before he died on February 14, 2010.

His work lives on because of his collaboration with youngest son, Felix Francis, a physics teacher who retired to research for his father and now continues the horse racing series.

Gerrie Ferris Finger

THE END GAME

THE LAST TEMPTATION due out 2012

THE GHOST SHIP, June 2011

HONORED DAUGHTERS

WHEN SERPENTS DIE

WAGON DOGS

http://www.gerrieferrisfinger.com/

http://crimewritersblog.blogspot.com/

AGATHA AND ME, WE AGREE

What would Agatha Christie say about Disney's plan to reinvent Miss Marple as a younger sleuth, played with an audacity that Miss Marple, that all-seeing, all-suspecting spinster of St. Mary Mead never had?

We can infer by her own words when Margaret Rutherford was cast as Miss Marple:

"Why don't they just invent a new character? Then they can have their cheap fun and leave me and my creation alone?"

Well said, Agatha.

Gerrie Ferris Finger

THE END GAME

THE LAST TEMPTATION release date 2012

http://www.gerrieferrisfinger.com/