Train Twitter

I love riding Metrolink, and recently discovered that Metrolink is on Twitter.  So I signed on as a follower.  Frankly, I expected dull notifications.  But this is the first Twitter posting I received from them:

San Bern Line train 331 delayed 30 mins due to unruly passenger at Upland stn.  Passenger removed by local police.

And that, ladies and gentleman is the kind of thing that comes to mind when people ask me "Where do you get your ideas?"

About ten posts worth of random notes

Many thanks to Maryelizabeth Hart of Mysterious Galaxy for letting me know about this gem.

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My sister, Sandy Cvar, will be teaching "Introduction to Linocut" at the International Printing Museum on Saturday, September 13, 9:30-4:00. This will be an easy way to learn how to carve linoleum to make a print. You don't need to be an artist to have fun with this method of printmaking!

We loved our recent visit to the museum. Even if you don't want to try working with linocut, if you're in the South Bay area, stop by and visit them.

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We just subscribed to HBO. Why? True Blood, which is based on Charlaine Harris's fabulous Sookie Stackhouse series. We are also looking forward to the next David Simon project.

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Last few days have been hectic. Having finished proofreading The Messenger, I sent it back to my editor. Sandy has finished some graphics for the update of the Web site, and Madeira James is at work on the new look.

I made a trip to see my folks, was a party to -- won't bore you with the long story -- destroying the firmware on my dad's iPhone. (Yes, in their 80s, my parents are using iPhones and texting, using Maps, checking stock quotes, downloading apps for games and all sorts of other cool stuff. And yes, at that age, I hope I'm willing to take space shuttle trips or use whatever cool tech is available then.) So I took the phone into the Apple store in Costa Mesa, and with the kind and efficient help of Genius Bar genius Johnny, got it up and running again. So two trips out of town, but I got to see the parents a little more often that way, which is always a good thing.

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One of these days I'm going to have to post something about the Skeptical Inquirer. Which may sound like a strange thing to say, since I've just written a supernatural thriller. But there you have it. I don't really believe there's a city in Southern California named Las Piernas either. Sorry if I just made anyone cry. But I also saved you gas money by preventing you from driving around looking for it.

Anyway, great article in the Nov/Dec 2007 issue (yes, I'm behind on almost everything) by Denis Hamel. It's about a quotation floating around the Internet and elsewhere, lauding astrology and falsely attributed to Einstein. You might say that you don't have to be Einstein to suspect that he probably didn't believe in astrology, but the hoax persists. Hamel's article not only shows that Einstein didn't author this "quote," but shows that even given proof that it's a hoax, some folks refuse to remove it from their sites. I'm not the first person to tell you not to believe everything you read online, right?

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I'm going to do a little work for the Crime Lab Project and then get back to work on the new book. Follow me on Twitter if you want details from here.

Have a good one! And thanks, Vgan -- I'm also glad the world did not implode when they fired up the black hole machine today. Not that I was really worried.

That's our super gator!

Those of you who read my post in May about Reggie the Gator, then our most famous local wild thing, may already know that he was captured shortly after that, and taken to the LA Zoo. I had nothing to do with it, but on the list of why I love LA: The motorcade was actually televised.

On August 10, he made his first public appearance at the zoo, all cleaned up and greeted by 150 cheering fans, according to this story in the LA Times.

Less than a week later, our remarkable Houdini gator has shown that he is no slave to celebrity! Read this story by Donna Littlejohn in today's Long Beach Press-Telegram -- "Reggie makes a moonlit run for freedom."

I'll get back to the vampire story ...

but in the meantime, enjoy this story of effective Oklahoma police work.

Living Wild in Los Angeles County

You've all been patient while I've been working on the Elaine Viets "Tour by Proxy" Project, and I appreciate that. If you are in the San Diego area, I also hope you'll join me, Randy Hicks, and other authors as we do our part to support Elaine on Saturday, May 12, at 10:30 AM at Mysterious Galaxy Books 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Suite 302 San Diego, CA. And if you can't show up, consider ordering a copy of Murder With Reservations from your own favorite bookstores.

So I am still putting in a lot of time for the project for Elaine and writing and getting ready for the grand opening of the new Los Angeles Regional Crime Lab and all kinds of other stuff. Today I also found time to walk the dogs in our local park. (They usually get night walks.) It was a beautiful day to be outdoors.

For those of you who think the LA area is nothing but concrete and cars -- well, mostly, you're right. But we have our enclaves of wildlife here, too -- both local and imported. And we make celebrities of our wildlife. Yesterday both Reggie the Alligator and the Three Bears of Bradbury made the local evening news.

Reggie isn't a native, but we are an area that enjoys a population with roots from just about any place you could name. Reggie's living in Lake Machado, a place you'll hardly recognize as LA County if you click on that last link. There are those who want us to believe Reggie is blogging and selling his own "official" (puh-leeze!) gear. But the blog is a nice way to keep up with the news on this LA-based gator.

Black bears (even ones that look brown) are native to California. And bears in Bradbury shouldn't be such a big surprise. It's been hot, the people in Bradbury have ponds and pools, and put their trash out today, all of which makes it really attractive if you are foraging in a fur coat. Which should not be unexpected in Bradbury, because it's in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. Which could get me talking about how much wilderness is actually part of the big county of Los Angeles, and that could lead me to talk about why I decided to set Nine there and make the protagonist a member of the LASD.

I won't do that just now, but I feel so much better actually bringing all of this around to talking about books again....


Photo above is clearly neither an alligator nor a California Black Bear. But global warming going unchecked, I fully expect to hear any day now that someone in LA has found a polar bear in his backyard pool. This photo is used courtesy of Monica Mueller, from morguefile.com.

Abuse of fiction

From the Drug Enforcement Agency's March issue of the Microgram Bulletin:

PAPERBACK NOVEL LACED WITH METHAMPHETAMINE AT THE
WASHINGTON COUNTY JAIL, FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS

The Arkansas State Crime Laboratory (Little Rock) recently received a paperback novel that had apparent yellow highlighter stains on several pages, that field-tested positive for methamphetamine (see Photo 5). The exhibit was seized by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office from an individual who was visiting the Washington County Jail (located in Fayetteville). Analysis of a methanolic extract of the most heavily stained pages by color testing, TLC, and GC/MS confirmed methamphetamine (not quantitated, but a high loading based on TIC). This is the first seizure of this type submitted to the laboratory.

I suppose you should also see the DEA Disclaimers:

1) All material published in either Microgram Bulletin or Microgram Journal is reviewed prior to publication. However, the reliability and accuracy of all published information are the responsibility of the respective contributors, and publication in Microgram Bulletin implies no endorsement by the United States Department of Justice or the Drug Enforcement Administration.

2) Due to the ease of scanning, copying, electronic manipulation, and/or reprinting, only the posted copies of Microgram Bulletin (on www.dea.gov) are absolutely valid. All other copies, whether electronic or hard, are necessarily suspect unless verified against the posted versions.

3) WARNING!: Due to the often lengthy time delays between the actual dates of seizures and their subsequent reporting in Microgram Bulletin, and also because of the often wide variety of seizure types with superficially similar physical attributes, published material cannot be utilized to visually identify controlled substances currently circulating in clandestine markets. The United States Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration assume no liability for the use or misuse of the information published in Microgram Bulletin.

Spring break may be over...

but I'll bet some of you still have these creatures in your house. And apparently, they're nearly as indestructible as these.

Still, I think this is carrying things too far.

And while we're at it, do you suppose they could supply ammo for this? Probably not. But if any of you are aunts and uncles who supply the nephews and nieces with toys that make their parents say, "You shouldn't have!" in a meaningful way, you may want to consider this gift item.

(My niece Timbrely, who still gets weird presents from me, provided a couple of these links. Not the one that caused you to say "Eeeew!")


Photo above courtesy of rosevita, from morguefile.com.

Creeps

A friend brought a Publishers Weekly article to my attention, about a scam used to get bookstores to order a title by a POD press.

You should also read this lively entry on the Seattle Mystery Bookstore's blog by JB Dickey.

And don't miss the Writer Beware blog information about the "publisher" in the post, Author Identity Publishing Redux.

I'll soon write more about some of the issues this story raises for new writers.

Goodbye Bloodstains, Hello Biohazards

Ever see the old movie Car Wash? Did my asking that make that Rose Royce song go through your head? For a couple hours? Sorry about that.

I thought of it today when I read a story from the 3/26/07 issue of the Cincinnati Enquirer, "Bloody mess no crime scene."

It tells about the custodian at the Mr. Spotless Car Wash finding a big bunch of blood and bloodstained material near the vacuums. Understandably, he or she called the police.

Turns out a woman drove a friend (who had been injured in a fight) to the hospital, and after driving someone else around, decided to stop by the car wash and clean the blood out her car. I am curious to know how this was figured out, but the article doesn't give details.

The song says "you never know who you'll meet working at the car wash." Apparently you never know what you'll meet, either. Be careful out there!

Hmm...

So, as someone asked in Marathon Man, "Is it safe?"

She Probably Has the Time to Do the Time

If you've read the post about outdoing the Grinch, you may remember Jessica Hardy, convicted of forgery and taking funds from the Make-A-Wish chapter in her part of Pennsylvania. It was quite a scheme -- she invented children, faked doctors' reports on them, and raised money on their "behalf." Then bought SuperBowl tickets, took her family to Disney World, and bought a bunch of other stuff.

Yesterday the judge in the case decided that her crimes and lack of remorse deserved three to six years in prison. For more details, read the WNEP story by Sarah Buynovsky and Andy Palumbo here.

It's not just a matter of someone being greedy in an especially reprehensible way, of course. Co-workers lost their jobs. The local chapter was closed down. Donations to Make-A-Wish were down all across the country as a result of her actions. In three years she could be out, but its probably already too late for some of the real kids who would have been granted wishes with the money she spent on herself.