I Voted.

 

Sasha Peyton Smith and Rachel Griffin at the Mall

The new Barnes & Noble at Crossroads Mall in Bellevue (a suburb of Seattle) advertised that they would have Sasha Peyton Smith speaking about her second book, The Witch Hunt. I have to admit that I wasn’t familiar with the book. But it’s been a long time since I had heard an author speak in person about a book, so I went. I’m glad I did.

Sasha Peyton Smith is on the right

Rachel Griffin on the left

Some authors do readings of their work, and then answer questions as if the characters are real. In this case, Sasha Peyton Smith was interviewed by Rachel Griffin, a fellow author. The interview was entirely about the writing process. Sasha Peyton Smith discussed the research she did for the two time periods and the two locations for her books—New York and Paris. An interesting insight was she did not start writing her first book with the goal of publishing it. She was just writing to please herself.

When she decided to try having it published, she said she assembled a Frankenstein’s monster from parts of twelve different drafts. She then submitted it with a badly written query letter. Despite all that, her first book was accepted, and now she has her second book out.

While Sasha Peyton Smith was signing books, I asked Rachel Griffin, author of the recent Wild is the Witch, about agents. She said she submitted her first book to seventy different agents before she was accepted. That process took about a year. She could tell I was an aspiring author from my questions, so she wished me well.

Movie Review: See How They Run

In a London theater in 1953, director Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody) manages to start a fistfight after a showing of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. Not long after, Köpernick turns up dead on a sofa used in the play. The weary Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) is assigned the case and is saddled with the very energetic Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan). Through a series of hilarious interviews they find that multiple people at the theatre, including the famous Richard Attenborough, thoroughly hated Köpernick and could be suspects.

Constable Stalker wants to follow up every lead and often jumps to conclusions as to who is guilty. Inspector Stoppard is more torpid, to the point that he would rather have a few drinks while on duty. As the twists and turns mount up, will this turn out to be like an Agatha Christie thriller?

See How They Run deconstructs the murder mystery, just as Scream deconstructed the slasher movie. Both movies dissect the common tropes of each genre, then put them back together in new and innovative ways. See How They Run should improve murder mystery movies by not allowing them to be lazy in the writing and plot.

Saoirse Ronan is quite the gem. She is allowed to do her pert Irish accent throughout. The scene where Inspector Stoppard secretly goes off for a drink while she remains on duty with a fixed stare is hilarious. And when she yells, “Stop! In the name of the law!” It’s quite a treat.

Although Sam Rockwell does a fine job, I thought Saoirse Ronan should have gotten top billing, since she had far more lines than he did. And Adrien Brody does his usual job of getting under one’s skin with his intense but laid back style.

Throughout, scenes from The Mousetrap are shown. It makes me curious to read the book.

Book Review: Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Lynesse Fourth Daughter of the queen knows her land is in peril. Some unnamed horror is sending people fleeing from neighboring forest kingdoms. Perhaps it is a demon. The strongest men cannot face it with a blade. So Lyn climbs the mountain to the Tower of Nyrgoth Elder, last of the sorcerers. She will call upon him to fulfill the great compact to come to her royal family’s aid. Because blood is required, she puts her finger in an opening to the door, and feels the sting of a bite.

Nyr wakes up. He is the last of a team of anthropologists sent here to study this colonized world that has devolved from a spacefaring civilization. He spends most of his time in suspended animation. The system woke him because a visitor is a match for a family he made a compact with. Nyr is horribly depressed from being left alone on this world.

But Nyr is happy to recognize his visitor—the woman he spent time with, even having adventures with her on horseback. He addresses her by name and title. Lyn replies that that was her great grandmother. The woman Nyr remembers is dead.

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Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky is shorter than a standard novel, so it is actually a novella. But do not make the mistake of thinking it has less value because of that. This is a charming story that alternates between two points of view—a fantasy of a princess on a quest, and a science fiction story of an anthropologist who has to deal with the ignorance and superstitions of a backslidden people.

Lyn is convinced, as they approach the forest kingdoms, that the sorcerer will defeat the horrible evil. Nyr goes along because of the great compact, but is certain this is none of his concern. They are both in for an increasingly terrifying adventure.

Parts of the story are quite funny. Nyr tells Lyn that he is not a magician, he is a scientist. This translates into her language as he is not a magician, he is a sorcerer. The story drags in a few places when it goes into detail about Nyr’s depression, but Elder Race is a worthwhile read.

The Great Vow of Queen Elizabeth II

In the past several years, a number of commentators have openly said that Queen Elizabeth had done enough; she should abdicate and let Charles take the throne. After so many years of service, she should rest from any more official duties.

These people did not remember that Elizabeth had made a vow to God to serve the British people all her life. Because of copyright reasons, I cannot provide a link to the recording. But if you look for Princess Elizabeth's 21st birthday speech, you should be able to find a version of it.

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Think of what the British people had gone through: Edward VIII abdicated after less than a year to marry the commoner with whom he had had an affair. George VI was ill-prepared to be king, yet became the great symbol of the Empire during the war years. But Britain had been so weakened by the war, it was devolving from an Empire to a Commonwealth. I don’t know if this was known to the public, but George’s health was declining.

And so Elizabeth made her vow. Many would have forgiven her if she had gone back on it in her last years. But she did not. She kept her vow to the end. 

CT Scan

So I had a CT scan. If you don’t like the prospect of having a kidney stone, you might check out the National Kidney Foundation’s website.

While I was being slid into the machine, there was a dark piece of glass overhead that had a line of red light going through it that looked suspiciously like a laser. Sure enough, there was a little sign that told me not to look at the laser. That didn’t help. So I closed my eyes as I was slid in all the way.

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What I didn’t know was that I would be slid in and out a few times. Then the images are processed by sophisticated algorithms to produce cross-sectional images of the body. Did it show that I had a kidney stone? That’s private. A good side result is that it showed my other organs were mostly without defect Mostly.

Nichelle Nichols Passed Away

Nichelle Nichols, who was the original Uhura in Star Trek, passed away. You can read all about her at various sites, but I’ll try to put a unique spin on my comments. The Uhura who was played by Nichelle Nichols was African, not African-American. This could be seen from her easy facility with Swahili and the décor of her quarters. It could be argued that she might have been an aficionado of African culture, but the original series was obviously trying to impress on us that she was from Africa.

The Uhura in the new movies, played by Zoe Saldana, is obviously African-American. She acts like a typical young woman raised in America. Except for her name, she could have been a Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, etc. character, and there would have been no difference.

The Uhura in the new series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, played by Celia Rose Gooding, is definitely African, not African-American. How do I know? Watch the series.

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And just to put my own self-serving spin on things, I had a short story published in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Vol. 5 some years ago. How could this be? Was it time travel?

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Book Review—Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche

Enola is the younger sister of Sherlock, and though the book does not give her exact age, she seems to be an older teenager. Being unusually tall, she can carefully choose dresses or frocks and exude enough of an air of confidence that she can pass as an adult. Mostly.

When Sherlock is too moody to listen to a woman who begs for his help, Enola takes her on as a client. The young woman shows her a rather terse letter she received the day before that announced the death of her twin sister. She had been married to an Earl for only two years. Now the young woman only has the letter and an urn of the cremated remains.

The earl has a nice reputation, but Enola has her own suspicions based on the letter. The young woman says that twins share a special bond, so she knows her sister is not dead. And when Sherlock stirs himself from his gloomy mood to examine the ashes, he declares …

Let us just say the game is afoot.

Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer is the seventh book in the Enola Holmes series. How “real” is Enola? Let’s just say she is as real as her older brother Sherlock and their older brother Mycroft.

Did I like the plot? Well, not so much. Since this is not a negative blog, why am I reviewing it? First, as to the plot, Enola does not use incredible deductive reasoning the way Sherlock does. She mainly relies on social connections and blind luck. But the story zips along, especially the part where she is in an out-of-control gig pulled by a wild mare. More importantly to me, it is rich in Victorian vocabulary. Don’t know what a barouche is? Do not bother to look it up; it will become clear with the context. The same with reticule and so many other words. And there are many, many details on how Enola and other women dress, which female readers tend to be fascinated with.

A serious drawback for me is that Enola views Dr. Watson as “dense.” For shame. That is not how Watson is described in the original Sherlock Holmes stories. Still, this book is a keeper.

P.S. The prologue is written from Sherlock’s viewpoint. I skipped it and understood the story quite well.

4th of July—Bellevue Park

As usual, I went to the Bellevue Downtown Park, on the south side of Bellevue Square (a suburb of Seattle). It was very subdued this year: not many food trucks, not much music playing, no portable climbing wall so young people could show their astonishing skills.

The ducks were still there.

Where are they going?

Very skillful. They perch on the edge of the waterfall.

For context, this is what the waterfall looks like. (The white railing at top is waist high.)

As a nice touch, the trees were festooned with Japanese lanterns.

I didn't stay to see the fireworks or hear the music afterwards, since it's a school night, as the saying goes.