Things that slow a mystery writer down

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Tom Hopp

DNA code lettersMy new medical thriller, The Neah Virus, is long overdue. I’ve demolished just about every deadline imaginable, and it’s still not quite done.

Sometimes, that’s just the way it has to be for a mystery writer. A book’s not done until it’s good and finished. And this one has spent a long time just shy of the finish line.

Finally I’m certain the draft I’m working on will be the last. But what has made me miss my mid-summer personal deadline for this one by three months? What tangle of unforeseen pitfalls and roadblocks made this one so long in the making?

Just listen.

First of all, a medical thriller has to be researched to the Nth degree. Is that virus deadly enough to cause a plague of madness, fever, and death spreading across the State of Washington and the world? Or would this other virus be more lethal?

And if a Native American shaman of the Makah Tribe seems to know the cure, but he’s not telling, what is it that he knows? What is kakalaklokadub, for instance? And how do you prepare a medicine from it? Must a ceremony accompany the cure, or can you just gulp it down?

These things require research, and plenty of it. A writer needs to reference scientific books like Erna Gunther’s Ethnobotany Of Western Washington, and cultural histories like Singing The Songs Of My Ancestors by Helma Swan, and language texts like First Lessons In Makah by William Jacobsen Jr, before you can hope to know the answers.

And rewriting. Oh, boy. And rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. When a story hinges on Dr. Peyton McKean’s race against time to discover first a new and deadly virus, and then to find its cure, the action is fast paced and nonstop. That takes a lot of words to say it just right and keep the reader spellbound as the story unfolds.

And then sometimes real life gets in the way. Like the biotechnology company that drafted me to help it solve a dozen major riddles about a real cure they are working on (more about them in a future post). Suffice it to say they have made severe demands on my time throughout the summer and into the fall, as I plunged back into the laboratory like a real-life Peyton McKean, to unravel some of the complexities surrounding a new drug they hope will treat infections, inflammation, anemia, and perhaps a half-a-dozen other maladies that afflict mankind. How could I refuse them?

But it all conspires to slow an author down.

Never fear though. I foresee a few days open in the next week or so that will allow me to finish off this final draft. I really expect to push the “Publish” button in a matter of days.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed that no real-world priorities will emerge at the last minute and make me eat this deadline too.

Wish me luck.

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Salmon Homecoming, Seattle

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Tom Hopp

A bunch of pullersToday the local tribes will salute the returning salmon runs with a ceremony. On pier 57 in the heart of the Seattle waterfront, all day long and into the evening, there will be native song, dance, a canoe-greeting ceremony, and best of all, a heartfelt welcome home to the salmon.

If you have never experienced the pageantry, pomp, and celebration of a Native American pow wow, maybe you should join in the fun today on the waterfront. It’s always quite a show. And if you should tire of the ceremonies under the big tent, even for a few minutes, you can always get in line for a meal of Indian baked salmon.

Fancy DancersThese events are always rich in Native culture, and in the celebration of local nature as well. While the dancers, drummers, and singers perform under the shelter of the bigtop tent, craftsmen and women exhibit the products of their carving, weaving, beading, and leatherworking trades. The traditional canoe-greeting ceremony will take place between 4 and 6 PM.

Wise WordsOn one stage or another, native speakers and elders will be telling tales of the ancient culture that once flourished here, which is experiencing a regrowth as Seattle area residents– Native American and Pahstud* alike–search for contact with their roots in this beautiful part of the world.

My advice: drop everything, pick up a raincoat and hat, just in case, and hurry on down to pier 57. You won’t regret it. I’ll see you there.

*Pahstud–The Lushootseed language word for American, derived originally from “Boston,” the term applied to all sailing-ship visitors from the East Coast of the U.S. in the 1700s and 1800s.

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Diamonds Discovered on the Moon and Mars!

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Tom Hopp

A spacegirl's best friendHallelujah! Finally something worth going to Mars for. That intrepid little Mars rover, Curiosity, has reported back with a major discovery–DIAMONDS!

Well, okay, one diamond. Maybe. If it’s not quartz. And if it’s not a chunk of plastic that fell off the rover.

But the concept is exciting. Suppose a rover bumped into a great big huge boulder and then took a good photographic look at it and sent the result back to earth and lo and behold, a diamond as big as a doggone washing machine!

Holy smokes! Every nation would rush to send a manned mission, if only to chip a few chunks off that baby for making jewelry for Britain’s Royals or some Hollywood starlet. Multinational conglomerate corporations would vie to be the first to stick a flag in the dirt and stake a mining claim. Then yahoo! We’d be back in space in a big way.

Oh well. One can dream, anyway.

And then again, there may be a dark side to diamonds in space. For instance, in my short story, The Treasure of Purgatory Crater, mysterious deaths occur on the moon and a man is driven mad by…you guessed it.

Now, I may have spoiled part of the fun of reading “Treasure” but there’s more to the story than what I’ve given away. Check it out. It’s one of my personal favorites.

And oh, yes. It’s got a girl in it who knows who her best friends are.

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Northwest Native Canoe Culture

Posted on August 31, 2013 by Tom Hopp

Coming ashoreThese days, as you wander around Puget Sound–also called the Salish Sea–you might spot a sight not seen in a hundred years: groups of native canoes–huge cedar dugouts, being paddled by crews of local Native Americans and their friends. I have seen such waterborne gatherings a number of times in recent months, traveling along between headlands as I look off the deck of a ferry, or pulling into shore as I pause in far-flung places like Port Townsend or Indianola.

Canoe culture was THE culture around here for millennia but time and the arrival of American pioneers ended it. The tribes were nearly wiped out by diseases brought by the newcomers, by alcohol, and by government policies against native culture.

Fortunately, times have changed once again and what was in decline is now resurgent. Every year, dozens of tribes around the Northwest launch canoes carrying what are termed “canoe families.” These groups of dedicated “pullers,” as paddlers are called, practice the art of canoe travel in their local villages and towns, and then participate in an annual “Canoe Journey” in which all tribal canoes converge on one or another of the region’s coastal villages for a festive gathering of song, dance, feasting, and camping.

Members of canoe families swear by them as a positive and uplifting common effort, one that brings the satisfaction of accomplishing arduous and sometimes dangerous journeys over challenging waters and even the open ocean.

This year, the big event was the Paddle to Quinault. Canoe families converged on the remote Pacific Coast town of Taholah, Washington for the festivities, coming by water from places as distant as the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon and the Bella Coola reservation in British Columbia.

Next up, around here, is the Salmon Homecoming celebration in Seattle on September 20 and 21, complete with canoe welcoming ceremony. I think I’ll be attending.

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Hangin’ with the Thomas & Mercer crowd

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Tom Hopp

FlyerToday I gotta be brief. I’m halfway through a final revision of my new medical thriller The Neah Virus, but I’ve got to get away from this computer and take in some fresh Seattle air. What better place to do so than at “On The Lam,” Amazon’s parade of authors with its new mystery/thriller publishing imprint, Thomas & Mercer (named for the intersection where Amazon’s headquarters stand).

This looks like a fun daylong event in which a whole passel of writers extoll the wonders of working with Amazon. For my own part, I’ll sidle up kinda easy-like. I’m not too sure I want ANY publisher owning part of what I create. My experience of the movie optioning of my Dinosaur Wars books to a major Hollywood film company has taught me that the modern author really doesn’t need any help.

However, I’ll be all eyes and ears. Maybe there’s something particularly good about the deals Amazon is handing out to mystery and thriller writers. If so, I might just be interested.

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How candles threaten your health

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Tom Hopp

CandlePoisonsCandles put poisons in the air. A bunch of them. Cancer-causing chemicals and substances that are tightly regulated by government agencies like the EPA and OSHA– watchdogs of public health and safety in the workplace–emanate from a lit candle in quantities that I, for one, find unhealthy. I wonder why I’m so alone in that view?

Candles are everywhere, from entire shopping mall stores dedicated to them, to supermarkets where you can pick up big bags of them for cheap, as well as about 98% of all restaurants and pubs I have been to recently. But every candle pumps out highly toxic substances. Why doesn’t anybody but me seem to care?

Because we all have been lied to, that’s why. The sellers of candles subscribe to a deeply embedded culture of misinformation that I intend to dispel, starting right here and now.

Here’s a quote from a scientific report on a major study of candle smoke: “All of the waxes burned cleanly and safely. Their combustion byproducts were . . . far below the most restrictive of any applicable indoor-air standards.”

To me, that quote is extremely straightforward to interpret. It says candles are safe. It says that a major scientific study found them to be safe. Right? So you be the judge. Suppose I told you those studies found a long list of extremely carcinogenic substances in candle fumes? Read the statement again in that light. Aha.

Don’t you agree that the statement isn’t just being diplomatic and giving poor little candles the benefit of the doubt? It’s going beyond what’s justified. How about this: it’s a lie. Read it again and decide for yourself, with the knowledge they found their candles to be putting out a stream of long-recognized deadly poisons. It’s a lie, right?

How could this happen? Have a look at the report I drew this information from. WAY DOWN in the fine print it says the studies were paid for by major candle producing companies and even oil companies, who provide the paraffin wax (and make hundreds of millions of dollars off of what had once been a waste product comprising 2% of every barrel of oil). Now, what self interest might be at play? Duh! The scientists want to keep their jobs and the oil and candle companies want to keep their profits astronomical. Double duh!

So there you have it. All they did was publish a report full of data showing all the deadly chemicals spawned by candles, and then go ahead and conclude that candles are safe anyway. I don’t know about you, but I don’t care if candles only put small amounts of toxic substances in the air below levels allowed by law. I don’t want ANY carcinogens added to the air I breathe!

CozyCandlesAnd I’m not done yet. It gets worse. Not only are they lying in their conclusions, but they started their research study with a lie. The image at right is a diagram of the testing chamber in which they measured the low levels of carcinogens they reported. Notice that bit about “Air supply (minimum turbulence)”? That’s no small matter. Candles in the real world don’t burn like the ones in these chambers. They are disturbed by air gusts from windows or people walking by. And when they flutter, they burn less efficiently and give off more soot and fumes. The report even allows that “high-soot candles generally produced greater levels of emissions than the reference candles,” but in their studies, the candles were burned smoothly and evenly in a controlled chamber that even had an idealized humidity, which also can effect candle burning. It’s all been tweaked to give the cleanest possible results. That’s not fair. So again, when these scientists repeatedly declare candles to be safe, they are deceiving us. They don’t even mean candles in your home or restaurant. They mean candles in their little box are safe. That makes their safety statements so deceptive, they might as well be lies. They may be worse than lies, because they seem so credible.

So here’s a partial list of the substances you breathe in a room where candles are burning: dioxins, benzo(a)pyrene, benzene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde. I dare you to click on them and read just how deadly they are and then go buy a candle. Or sit in a bar or restaurant where an un-educated proprietor thinks it’s a good idea for you to suck down these fumes. Good luck changing anybody’s mind about it. I’ve tried. But I’m just one little person railing against the major corporations who once again are bankrolling phony studies to support their safety claims and make us consume their deadly products. Remember the tobacco industry? Well, big oil has a lot deeper pockets and a lot of oil sludge to dispose of. Expect more candles coming to a room near you, soon.

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Mystery Writers University

Posted on August 10, 2013 by Tom Hopp

Edgar Allan PoeToday’s gonna be fun. All day long, listening to skilled and accomplished mystery writers as they divulge the secret means by which they create their craftiest sleuth stories. I’ll be taking notes.

The Mystery Writers of America, of which I am a card-carrying member, are convening a thing they call MWA University today at the W Hotel in Seattle. I’ll be there at 8 AM, coffeed up and ready to learn from the masters and mistresses of the art.

All the arcana of the mystery tale will be on the docket: plot, settings, characters, as well as some ineffables like, “Where do you find the time?” and “How do you catch all those typos?”

The faculty includes Daniel J. Hale, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Brian Thornton, Reed Farrel Coleman, Kat Richardson, and Jess Lourey, who are all notorious mystery writers, with more awards and bestsellers between them than any group of speakers gathered for the purpose in a long time.

This comes at the perfect moment; a review of the How-To of the Who-Dunnit just as I’m about to put the final coat of polish on my new medical thriller, The Neah Virus.

I’m stoked.

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In the Land of the Chinook

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Tom Hopp

Columbia VistaJust back from a visit to heaven. The Chinook Indians once inhabited one of the most wonderful places on earth, on the banks of the mighty Columbia River.

The picture shows the Columbia River Gorge, where Shelley and I spent a few days partaking of hikes and drives and dining in and around the lands once occupied by the Chinooks. The vista is blue with the smoke of a forest fire, and perhaps all the more beautiful because of it. The Columbia is a mighty river, one of the world’s greatest, and it forges its way right through a major mountain range, the Cascades, via the channel it has cut through the gorge.

We began our travels in Chinook Country downriver, on Long Beach and Willapa Bay, and ended them in the Hood River area, overshadowed by the grand edifice of Mount Hood, the nearby volcano the Chinooks called Wy’east. Along our way, we traveled and hiked through almost unsullied nature at the ocean shore and in the desert valleys, under skies that were almost always blue.

Deschutes River sceneAmong the finest features of our daily doings were our meals. The Chinook Indians were, in their time, the greatest gatherers of seafood in the world. They gave their name to the Chinook Salmon, a delicacy we were lucky enough to partake of in some of the early runs of the year, just now entering their long upstream migration on the Columbia River. The picture at right shows the rapids of the lower Deschute River, where descendants of the Wasco Chinook still fish from wooden plank platforms with dip nets.

From the tidelands, we sampled Willapa Bay oysters, said to be the most luscious on earth and I’d agree. The sands of Long Beach provided razor clams for chowder, the likes of which I have seldom tasted. And we didn’t neglect that other great Northwest staple food, Dungeness Crab, which was big, lush, and incredibly tasty.

Wow. I’m still full. And I haven’t even gotten started yet on the fresh local Rainier Cherries.

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Dinosaur Wars is back in paperback

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Tom Hopp

Watch out for that T rex, Kit!Glory Hallelujah! Dinosaur Wars: Earthfall is back in print. No not an ebook–print! And I am delighted to say, at less than half the price of the original edition, which cost a whopping $21.95 per copy ten years ago. Ouch.

Times have changed and printing paperbacks has gotten cheaper. So I was able to get the price down to $10.99. And today I see Amazon is offering it for $9.47.

At last! I’ve got a paperback out there for under $10!

Now you may be thinking I’m getting too excited over a little thing like pricing. But you see, I have always felt that the only thing between me and a wider readership has been the unavailability of my books at a price people are willing to pay for the work of a relatively unknown author. Looking at it that way, imagine my dismay as my earliest published works were all forced to bear price tags in the $15-$22 range. It wasn’t my choice. It was the best the printer could do. At those outrageous prices for paperbacks it’s a wonder I sold any copies at all.

Now that Dinosaur Wars: Earthfall can be had in solid form for under $10 I’ve got a good feeling about its prospects. In the past, big-name authors had it over me twice. One, they were big names. They had a lot of ready-made customers thanks to having million-seller books in their past. Second, however, was one of those unfair situations: they had publishers who could sell their books cheaply. Given those two advantages over my books, it’s no surprise their books sold like hotcakes while mine languished.

Now, although I may not yet be able to muster tens of thousands of loyal readers (emphasis on ‘yet’), at least I stand on a level playing field regarding price. My books are under $10 too, so nyah-nyah-nyah to the big boys of publishing. One barrier to my joining you in the winners’ circle has just been demolished.

From here on it’s more a matter of dishing up good stories than who’s got the price advantage. So c’mon big boys (and girls)! Dish up your best stories and let’s go head to head in a non-rigged market and see who readers choose at under $10. It might just be me this time around!

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Return to Lost Falls

Posted on July 13, 2013 by Tom Hopp

Over the brinkI promised a while ago I’d go back to the hidden waterfall I found while snowshoeing with my buddy Dave Galvin at Snoqualmie Pass. Well, I did. And I got some more pretty pictures.

A couple weeks ago, while the high mountain snowpack was still melting and the Spring rains were still falling, I hiked up onto Sahalie Ski Club’s upper forty acres of wilderness and found the trail markers I had left on a couple of trees.

From there, it was a simple matter of diving off a steep hill slope into the gulch I’ve started calling the Lost Valley, because of the death-defying bushwhack it takes to get in there.

Forget walking down. You have to go the way apes go–by the use of all hands and feet–if you hope to survive. Well, there are no apes around this neck of the woods but maybe Sasquatch. This is not a family-friendly place. It’s all steep inclines coated underfoot with fir and hemlock needles that are slippery. It’s studded with brush everywhere. You’ve got to hang onto the brush for dear life on the way in and out.

Anyway, I got there. The picture above is a montage of photos I took while variously leaning, hanging, or teetering off the cliff. You can’t really see the falls if you don’t do that. I pasted a bunch of photos together to give an idea of how spectacular the falls are up close. Click the image for a larger view and use your imagination to add a thunderous roar. There you go, now you’re starting to get it. The picture doesn’t give the full sense of how awesome these falls are. To try to get a sense of scale, notice down in the lower right–that brown thumb-shaped object. That’s no thumb, that’s my foot, hanging off the precipice so I could get the shot.

The falls splits into twin streams, one large and thunderous and one thin and cute. After plunging about 50 feet into the pool, the stream immediately leaps off another ledge and plunges another 30 feet or so below what I’ve shown here.

After getting a dozen or so pictures and a couple bouts of “This twig I’m hanging onto better not snap or they’ll have to fish my bloated corpse out of there if they ever find me,” I decided I’d had enough.

It’s just a bit frustrating that I haven’t yet found a way to snap one good old tourist shot from some panorama point nearby and capture the whole she-bang in a single Kodak Moment. Maybe from somewhere way downstream. I took a look down that way and lo and behold, between jagged hillsides and below the plunge pool of the lower falls—there was the perfect spot!

Photo viewpointI snapped a photo, just so I would remember the place and try to go back there someday. See? It’s a fallen log that spans the stream. Just the right place to stand and snap that prize-winning photo. What’s that, you say? It looks slippery? And it looks like the whole raging torrent passes under it and would sweep a person into next Tuesday if they fell?

Well, if that’s the kind of faint-hearted, fair-weather falls photographer YOU are, then you can stay home and watch TV or cruise the internet while I go out and do what must be done.

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