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Way down south in the land of cotton

December 23, 2015 / / 2 comments

Just got back from a trip behind the Magnolia Curtain.  Thought you might enjoy some photos while you finish baking that plum pudding.  Which I had in Mississippi, and it was delicious.  Along with the catfish tacos and the breakfast kibbee and grits.

 

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Me on the Mighty Mississipp.

 

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Cotton is King, even off-season.

 

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Went to research the Delta Chinese community for a new Lydia Chin/Bill Smith book.

 

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Cotton snowperson in Cleveland, MS.

 

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Baptism mural in Helena, Arkansas.  Lunching in Helena knocked one more off the list of states I’ve never been in.  Down to 4!

 

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The Archangel Michael, though his sword looks like a tie, from a Charles Eames church in Helena.

 

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All is not sweetness and light in Helena, however.

 

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My little cabin away from home, in Clarksdale, MS.

 

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My cabin on left, with the back porch of the Big House on right and the plantation owner, Eric Stone.

 

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Rufous-sided towhee in Eric’s shrubs.

 

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Terra cotta in Helena.  The spirit of Prosperity.  A touch ironic.

 

Hey, NYers! Here’s a book worth winning!

December 16, 2015 / / No comments

Not mine, not Eating in Translation’s, but Oxford University Press’s SAVORING GOTHAM.  You win it at Eating in Translation, one of my favorite websites, so check out the contest rules.  It makes a great holiday gift.  As does, of course, a 2016 SJ Rozan Calendar.

Happy holidays!

 

Fiftieth Saturday, one day late

December 13, 2015 / / No comments 
Pair of soccer balls
Float slowly on river's glass,
Glow in morning sun.

Two paddling gadwalls
Slicing through waveless water
Raising tiny wake.

Long low swell rolls in,
Angles against seawall, breaks,
Single wave rolls out.



And don't forget your 2016 SJ Rozan Calendars!

Perfect for every room in your house.
Also, your friends' houses.
Every room.

I Love New York

December 12, 2015 / / No comments

Construction site coffee break.

Hardhat #1 takes out cigarettes.  “Hey,”  he says to Hardhat #2, already smoking.  “You got a light?”

Hardhat #2 takes out matchbook, strikes match, holds it out, lights Hardhat #1’s smoke.  “Thanks,”  says Hardhat #1.

Hardhat #2 shakes match out, claps Hardhat #1 on the back.  “For you, buddy, I’d burn this whole fucking building down.”

I love New York.

 

A short course in the short story

December 11, 2015 / / 2 comments

Some of you have asked whether I teach workshops in NYC.  Well, this winter I will.  I’m teaching a six-week course in The Crime Fiction Short Story, Saturday mornings starting Jan. 23.  Details on the CFA website, so check it out and come on down.

I Love New York

December 10, 2015 / / No comments

Into my subway car today come the doo-wop guys, who play the subway a lot.  They four-part their way through “Jingle Bells.”  The only people who put money in their little silver shopping bag besides me are the grinning young Asian guy with his hair in a man bun, and the Sikh in a purple turban.

I love New York.

River report — winter birds!

December 9, 2015 / / No comments

Two weeks ago a pair of male buffleheads came splashing in for a landing at the piling field near my bench.  It was early for our locals who winter here, so I figured they were headed farther south and just taking a rest.  Didn’t see them again, so I was probably right.  But this morning, a single male landed, floated around a piling with a seagull on it, and dove for fish, looking right at home.  About twenty minutes later a flight of Brant geese went by, showing their plump white behinds in a messy V.  The winter visitors have arrived!

Also this morning, a gull swooped into a float of debris and came up with a small eel.  He flew away and was immediately mugged by another gull, who stole it.  Then the first gull and about a dozen others all chased the thief, not to bring him to gull justice but to steal the eel themselves.  Or maybe that is gull justice.  Anyway, I didn’t see who ended up with the prize, but I started to wonder: do gulls hold grudges?  Will Gull #1, who caught the eel, be gunning for Gull #2, who stole it?  Will he knock #2 off a perch, or hang around on purpose to see what he finds to eat so #1 can steal it, turnabout being fair play?  Also, are some gulls better at finding food, or quicker at catching eels or whatever, and are they therefore stalked by other gulls, who find it easier to steal a faster gull’s prize than to fish themselves?

These are the questions that come up in the early morning, by the river.

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Forty-ninth Saturday

December 5, 2015 / / 2 comments 
On wrinkled river
Helicopter's shadow slides,
Ferry's white wake froths.

Tall construction crane
Looms over trees, low buildings:
Iron dinosaur.

Dog jumps on next bench,
Sticks cold nose in hand, wags tail,
Refuses to leave.


And don't forget your 2016 Calendars!

The Rozan Report, December 2015 Edition

December 2, 2015 / / 2 comments
Greetings!

It’s been a long time since the last Rozan Report and I’ve missed you all! I hope you’ve been happy, healthy, and productive. (Yes, I still use the Oxford comma and I don’t care who knows it.) For my part, I’ve been traveling, writing, teaching… oh, all kinds of things. And sometimes, all of them at once.

 

Sweet tea, espresso, Mongolian salt tea?? 

For the first time in my life I was in Mississippi. That leaves only four states I haven’t at least set foot in. (Should we have a contest on the website to guess which ones?) My friend Eric Stone (http://www.ericstone.com/) moved down there, to Clarksdale in the Delta, so I went to visit. After two days of tooling around with Eric (the world’s best tour guide) and local hero Ace Atkins (http://www.aceatkins.com/), I woke up with a hangover and an idea for a new Lydia Chin book. Luckily the one that faded was the hangover. The book, to be called SWEET TEA, is underway. 

 

In July I was in Assisi, as usual, teaching a writing workshop. An awful lot of you keep saying “maybe next year” about coming to Assisi to take a workshop and I want to say, THIS YEAR! Come to Assisi! This summer’s dates are July 27 – Aug. 9. Room, breakfast, dinner, and workshop in a four-star hotel with a very friendly staff; plenty of time to relax, to explore the beautiful town, and to GET SOME WRITING DONE! http://artworkshopintl.com/  

 

 

 

My big trip this year was in August, when I went to Mongolia for the third time. (And how many people do you know who can say that?) Went with a bunch of traveling buddies, had a fabulous time. We hit the Gobi, where we climbed a big giant sand dune and then had a picnic dinner in its shadow as the sun went down; 

 

 

to the wild east where we camped in the middle of a thunderstorm and woke up in the middle of a herd of migrating gazelle;

 

 

and further into the wild east to a pine-surrounded lodge built by a Mongolian man who spent a few years in the US as a rodeo bull rider.   There’s a book coming out of Mongolia, too, THE KHAN’S KEY. Stand by.

Assisi, Martha’s Vineyard, or Wisconsin?  

While you’re standing by, and if you can’t come to Assisi (come to Assisi!) here’s where I’ll be teaching in the US in 2016.

I’ll be in West Bend, WI, for the third annual Writers’ Bookcamp (like Bootcamp but for books, get it?) for a week, May 15 – 21. A week in a beautiful quiet retreat, hills, pond, walking trails and other writers. No specifics on the Wisconsin Writer’s Association website yet, but keep checking back. And no, you don’t have to be in, or from, or ever have seen, Wisconsin, to come.

Then June 19-25 I’ll be doing a Crime Writing Workshop on Martha’s Vineyard, MA, at the Noepe Center for Literary Arts. Again, beautiful and serene, a great place to focus and work.  

Mark Your Calendars Now!

Now, if you need something to help you keep track of the days until your workshop starts, I have three new 2016 calendars. (Because of what use is an old 2016 calendar?)

They are: Travels, Flowers, and The Five Snouts of Mongolia, plus.

Pick them up and never be confused again. At least, about what day it is.

Listen up! Bill Smith’s music recommendations

In preparation for a trip to the Mississippi Delta, Bill Smith has been spending time with some of BB King’s recordings, particularly “Live at the Apollo.” BB King recently died at 88. He and his guitar, Lucille, are well worth any number of hearings. Here they are — King and Lucille — doing “The Thrill is Gone.”

Ma Chin’s Kitchen Table

I know many of you have been following the stories of my daughter’s cases. I would certainly rather she had chosen a path that did not lead her into association with the type of person she encounters in her detecting work. I mean, of course, both the criminals, and the other investigators. I am sure that soon she will outgrow the foolishness of her current career and realize how many other more respectable possibilities are open to her. However, until she does, I am still her mother and it is my duty to assist my children in whatever way I can. To this end I have recently begun to investigate some cases myself, ones involving people too distasteful for me allow to associate with my daughter. If you are interested, two of my cases are chronicled in these publications.

“Chin Yong-Yun Meets A Ghost,” by S.J. Rozan, in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, March-April 2015.

“Chin Yong-Yun Makes a Shiddach,” by S.J. Rozan, in MANHATTAN MAYHEM.

Well, that’s it for now. Have a great holiday season and a terrific start to 2016. See you around the block!
  SJ


Forty-eighth Saturday

November 28, 2015 / / No comments

 

Glassy high water.
Cormorants flap drying wings.
Pilings stand like reeds.

Neighbor stops to chat.
Tourists photograph the sky.
Runner slaps on past.

Small tug, little barge,
Inching by at turtle speed,
Barely leaving wake.

And don't forget your Five Snouts of Mongolia, Flowers, and Travel Calendars for 2016!
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