The Perfect Mojito

You might have noticed a new publisher behind my Tai & Trey stories — Mojito Literary Press. Which is itself a part of the Mojito Literary Society, founded oh so many years ago by a bunch of us writerly types to celebrate joy, in all its forms.

And one of those joys is, of course, the mojito.

image @deemwave

The derivation of the name is unclear; it could refer to mojo, a lime-flavored seasoning mixture popular in Cuban cuisine, or to the word mojadito, Spanish for "a little wet." A favorite drink of Ernest Hemingway (whose graffiti praising the drink can still be seen on the walls of his favorite Cuban bar), the mojito is a deceptively simple mixture of five basic ingredients: rum, lime juice, cane sugar, club soda, and fresh mint leaves (traditionally yerba buena in Cuba, but most commonly spearmint or peppermint in the US).

I've had many mojitos. Some have been exquisite; others have been as limp and tasteless as salad in a glass. I make my own at home regularly, and they are quite tasty if I do say so myself (and I do). Still, when it comes to mixology, there's no greater authority than my friend Chris Milligan. He writes the blog The Sante Fe Barman and is, IMHO, a genius with all things spirited. When I asked him to explain how to make a perfect mojito, he graciously obliged.

So here it is, folks, straight from someone who knows.

The Perfect Mojito

You’ll need:

• 10-12 mint leaves

• 3/4 oz simple syrup

• 1/2 oz lime juice (freshly squeezed)

• 2 oz white rum

• Club soda

• Ice

• Lime wheel for garnish

In a 12-oz glass, muddle mint leaves with simple syrup and lime juice. Add ice, rum, and fill with club soda. Using a long-handled spoon, pull the mint from the bottom of the glass to combine. You are also mixing in the lime and simple syrup. Garnish with lime wheel or mint sprig.

Important Mixology Skills and Information!

• Muddling—the idea in this drink is to extract the oils from the mint without tearing the leaves, so be gentle.

• Measure, Measure, Measure. Get a small OXO measuring cup or jigger. This is KEY.

• That brings us back to the glassware. If your glasses are bigger than 12 oz, you will need to adjust.

• A lime wheel is a lime cut in a circle from pole to pole.

• Simple syrup—1 lb. BY WEIGHT of sugar and 8 oz of water (filtered) by volume. Place in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature. This keeps for 3-5 days or add a shot of vodka to keep for 3 weeks. Let cool to room temperature. This keeps for 3-5 days or add a shot of vodka to keep for 3 weeks.

• If you’d like to make this virgin, simply omit the rum. It’s just as refreshing and delicious.

Spring!

This year, the Vernal Equinox will be on March 20th at 5:25 PM EDT, marking the exact moment when the Sun crosses the celestial equator going south to north. It’s considered the astronomical beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere, but here in the Georgia Lowcountry, our spring sprung weeks ago.

The canopy of live oaks in my backyard an hour before sunset

We don’t need a groundhog to tell us this — we just look at the pollen. And by Valentine’s Day, the yellow stuff is usually everywhere, even if Mother Nature may still have a cold snap in her pocket. We call those chilly March and April days “blackberry winter,” and get in one last cup of hot cocoa before the broil of summer begins.

Savannah spring is a jubilation of color and scent and sound. Azaleas and dogwood and jasmine bloom flagrantly under the live oaks. This is our true “fall” as the dead brown leaves are pushed off the branches by fresh new growth, for live oaks are never bare, but they do shed.

Just 97 seconds in my backyard as documented by my Merlin Bird ID app.

And the birds! It’s a cacaphony out there every morning. Savannah is an important stop on the migratory path of many songbirds winging their way north, and my backyard is filled with visitors I’ll likely not see for another six months. The crows will be here 24/7, though, demanding their breakfast. To them I am simply a slightly daft servant who needs loud and frequent reminders that the peanut dish isn’t gonna fill itself.

Check out the different songs my Merlin Bird ID app caught in just a little over a minute: wrens and cardinals and grackles and doves, even a cedar waxwing and a yellow-rumped warbler, two birds I couldn’t see but could certainly hear (I eventually spotted the waxwing in the woodpile, but the warbler remained camouflaged).

If you’d like to get the Merlin app yourself, it’s free. You can learn more about it at the Cornell University Ornithology Lab website: https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/

I hope your spring is filled with boisterous joy and sweet surprises. May it be bountiful.

Happy Holidays!

In case you missed it last time, here’s my holiday Tai & Trey story again, FREE to newsletter subscribers until January 1st.

* * *

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the town, not a creature was stirring…except Tai Randolph.

Not that documenting a decidedly unusual robbery was on her holiday to-do list. But as an apprentice PI, she has to take the assignments that come her way, even if it means disappointing Trey, her partner in both romance and crime-solving, who had other plans.

As she and Trey begin to piece together the clues, an unlikely suspect emerges, as well as an unexpected crime. Someone has been very naughty, it seems, and Tai has to set things right. But can she do it while there’s still Christmas Eve to celebrate?

My December Recommendation for Your TBR Stack

For more book by Susanna Ives, visit her website: https://susannaives.com/wordpress/

Ah, the classic British murder village!

There’s something comforting about these bucolic little towns, all of which have the best scones, the most picturesque pastures, the quaintest little antique shops . . . and a murder rate that would drop the jaw of any criminal investigator.

But I also love a good romance, especially one that makes judicious use of the small-town setting. There’s nothing like falling in love with daffodils and lakes in the background. Bonus points if the characters are complex, their love story based on the kinds of real complications that keep good people apart. I like a smart romance, one with both brains and heart.

Here’s my current read, which delivers both: Amends by Susanna Ives. From the author:

“Amends is my most serious book. It’s a story of estranged lovers reuniting under complex and challenging circumstances, facing old wounds as they struggle to keep their children safe.”

You can read more about Amends — including a link to sample chapters — by clicking the button below.

Tis the season for giving, so give yourself or a loved one the gift of this book. You won’t regret it.

And to YOU a Good Read!

Get your copy of “And to All a Good Night” for 99 cents!

Available for Kindle and for Nook, Kobo, Apple and other retailers through the Books2Read storefront

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the town, not a creature was stirring…except Tai Randolph.

Not that documenting a decidedly unusual robbery was on her holiday to-do list. But as an apprentice PI, she has to take the assignments that come her way, even if it means disappointing Trey, her partner in both romance and crime-solving, who had other plans.

As she and Trey begin to piece together the clues, an unlikely suspect emerges, as well as an unexpected crime. Someone has been very naughty, it seems, and Tai has to set things right. But can she do it while there’s still Christmas Eve to celebrate?

Second Edition of DARKER THAN ANY SHADOW Available Now!

Get it for Kindle and other E-Book Retailers

One thing I learned writing Darker Than Any Shadow — performance poetry is the closest thing to literary blood sport that exists.

That’s why I chose it as the background for the second Tai & Trey outing. It’s a cutthroat endeavor, and it brings out the ruthlessness in every single character, because every single character has something at stake. Love, riches, success, vengeance. They’re all on the table in a performance poetry competition. It’s not called a “slam” for nothing.

The dog days of summer have arrived, and Tai Randolph is feeling the heat. Running her uncle’s gun shop is more demanding than she ever imagined. Her best friend Rico is competing for a national slam poetry title. And Atlanta is overrun with hundreds of fame-hungry performance poets clogging all the good bars.

She’s also got her brand-new relationship with corporate security agent Trey Seaver to deal with. SWAT-trained and rule-obsessed, Trey has a brain geared for statistics and flow charts, not romance. And while Tai finds him irresistibly fascinating, dating a human lie detector who can kill with his bare hands is a somewhat precarious endeavor.

And then just when she thinks she might get a handle on things, one of Rico’s fellow poets is murdered . . . and Rico becomes the prime suspect.

Tai pushes up her sleeves and comes to his defense with every trick in her book—a little lying here, a little snooping there. Trey wants her off the case immediately. So does Rico. Every poet in Atlanta has a secret, it seems, and one of them is willing to kill to keep theirs quiet.

Will Tai’s relationship with Trey survive another foray into amateur sleuthing? And even more importantly, will she?

You can read the first chapter HERE.

I hope you’ll enjoy this newly revised second edition e-book of Darker Than Any Shadow, available now for $1.99 for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Apple, and your favorite e-book retailer.

Congrats to the Winners!

Image courtesy @eilisgarvey

Thanks to everyone who entered the Rafflecopter giveaway for ten copies of the newly revised The Dangerous Edge of Things. The winners have been chosen (you can find them HERE) and I’m sending congratulatory emails to everyone. I’ve also let the Random Fate Generator choose the winner of my TBR giveaway and announced that on the blog.

Please stay tuned for more giveaways!

Once Again, From the Beginning

As you may remember, I have recently reacquired the e-book rights to my Tai Randolph/Trey Seaver series. Poisoned Pen/Sourcebooks will continue to carry the first editions of the paperbacks, and my own micro-press—Mojito Literary Press—will carry the e-books.

I am enjoying every second of it. Getting to watch Tai and Trey come together has been a treat, especially as their relationship deepens and strengthens with each new challenge.

And the first in the series — The Dangerous Edge of Things — is available now with spanking new covers designed just for the occasion. Plus you can find the first chapter of Darker Than Any Shadow, the second book in the series (you can read more about that book HERE).

A Place for Book Lovers

Image courtesy Tom Hermans @tomhermans

One lesson we have learned over the past eighteen challenging months is the value of community, however we find it. Not being able to visit my favorite local bookstore — shoutout to The Book Lady — was one of the hardest parts. Not traveling to conferences. Not gathering for readings. Not meetings readers and other writers.

Yeah. It’s been hard.

But I am lucky to have a daughter who finds amazing things. It’s one of her gifts, this genius at finding, a grace bestowed upon her head by whatever fairy godmother was in attendance that day. And she found The StoryGraph.

StoryGraph combines two things I have a nerdy appreciation for — books and data. StoryGraph helps you track your reading and choose your next book based on your mood and your favorite topics and themes. It maintains a virtual TBR stack for you and connects you with other readers enjoying the books you enjoy. You can share recommendations, write reviews, discover new series and new authors, and expand your literary horizons.

ALSO! There is data to be parsed! You can set reading goals, examine your readings patterns (like what genre you read the most and what characteristics your favorite books possess), and build your virtual library.

Until we can safely meet in person, you can find me there. Look me up! My username is TinaWhittle.

Tell me what YOU’RE reading for a chance to win one of the books I’M reading (when I’m finished with it, of course). I’ll even include a cute bookmark. Drop your comment below to be entered in the drawing.

Happy Whittleween!

We do this holiday right here at Whittle Central, combining my love of all things dark and spooky with my husband’s engineering prowess and my daughter’s creative flair. We’ve even started a website just for the occasion, and we’re inviting you to be our very special guest.

Visit us at https://www.whittleween.com. Click the PHOTOS tab to see images of Whittleween Past, or visit The Boo Blog! to see what the Diabolical Engineer might be up to. Visit the LINKS page to see what experts we follow throughout the year.

And if you’re anywhere near Southeast Georgia on Saturday, October 30th (which is when our town will be trick-or-treating) do drop by. If you’re in costume, you get candy. I promise.

Second Edition of "Trouble Like a Freight Train Coming" Out Now!

Yes, I’m using a lot of exclamation point for this release, one of my favorite stories ever, freshly edited and available for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and a plethora of other sites.

First published in the anthology Lowcountry Crime, “Trouble Like a Freight Train Coming” is now a stand-alone novella. It was nominated for a Derringer (in one of my most delighted author moments) and functions as a prequel to my Tai Randolph & Trey Seaver series.

Here’s its description:

Tai Randolph is accustomed to murder and mayhem...of the fictional variety. As a tour guide in Savannah, Georgia, she’s learned the tips are better when she seasons her stories with a little blood here, a little depravity there. She’s less experienced in real life criminality, however, preferring to spend her days sleeping late and her nights hitting the bars. But when she gets the news that her trouble-making cousin has keeled over while running a marathon, Tai finds herself in a hot mess of treachery and dirty dealings. Worst of all, the clues lead her straight into the moonshine-soaked territory of the most infamous smuggler in Chatham County—her Uncle Boone.

 “Trouble Like A Freight Train Coming” is set in Savannah several years prior to the inheritance of her Atlanta gun shop and her first encounter with security agent Trey Seaver, who ultimately becomes her partner in both romance and crime solving. For readers familiar with the rest of Tai’s adventures, this story is a chance to watch her develop her sleuthing chops. For those meeting Tai for the first time . . . welcome to her slightly reckless, somewhat hungover, not-quite-respectable world.

Look for it on Nook, Kobo, Apple, !ndigo, Scribd, and other platforms (Books2Read provides a handy summary HERE) and on Amazon Kindle. And just between us, keep your fingers crossed for an audio version real soon.

Swamp Things

Okefenokee. Land of the Trembling Earth.

My family and I visited during the winter, when the park has very few visitors (of the human variety anyway). Because of course there were gators. Many many gators. The thing is, there are always more gators than you can see. For every alligator just lolling around like a tourist in a beach chair, there were several lurking beneath the dark tannic surface, visible only to the discerning eye.

OBVIOUS GATORS!

SNEAKY HIDDEN GATORS!

But the most profound experience in the Okefenokee is a spiritual one, an ancient and instinctive understanding of where humans — soft-skinned and delicate as butterflies — fit into the ecosystem.

This is the sign that greets you at the end of the board walkway:

“We were once alive like you are now, but we complained and hollered anyhow. So love each day, don’t pass it by. Sooner or later, you too will die.”

One of the highlights of a visit to the Okefenokee Swamp is a trip up the three-story viewing tower. While walking the paths and trails of the park, it’s easy to become so fascinated with the up-close beauty — the lush foliage, the water like a dark mirror — that one forgets the breathtaking expanse of the waterway. Above the canopy, however, the vastness and wildness of this landscape reveals itself.

I hope that we continue to protect this wildness, the free and beautiful land. It is where water and land meet in a mating dance as ancient as the tide, as compelling as the moon. I am grateful for its inspiration.

Grab a Vacation Read!

image credit @aaronburden

One of my favorite parts of getting away is choosing what reading material I’ll bring along. I like books that are light but not flimsy. Entertaining but not trivial. Smart but not pedantic. I like a ripping good story, characters I can care about (even if they aren’t perfect), and a setting that feels like a vacation all by itself.

Currently in my vacation suitcase (and just let me digress to say how NICE it is to be packing a suitcase again. #TeamPhizer):

• Maggie Toussaint’s Shrimply Dead (Coastal Georgia flavor plus seafood recipes)

• Terry Odell’s Deadly Options (the Colorado mountains plus police procedures)

• Sujata Massey’s The Bombay Prince (a 1920s India setting plus feminist amateur sleuthing)

• John Lanchester’s Reality and Other Stories (spooky ghosts plus even spookier technology)

• Laura Valeri’s After Life as a Human (an untamed Florida island plus meditations on spirit)

• Stacey Abram’s While Justice Sleeps (political intrigue plus gun fights and kissing)

See? Something for every mood that could possibly strike, and absolutely nothing that requires a dictionary to understand (not that there’s anything wrong with challenging reading, but vacation require relaxation of both body and mind).

Do you have a book you’d like to recommend? Let me know in the comments! I’m always looking for my Next Good Read. And as always, please support your local independent bookstore.

For Newsletter Subscribers: A FREE short story!

Three Sleuths. Two armies. One séance. Plus a very nice boxed Cabernet.

When author James M. Jackson asked if I’d like to co-write a story with him, I was intrigued. I was a fan of his Seamus McCree series, which hits a lot of the same notes my Tai Randolph & Trey Seaver series does—he once described our books as “north of cozy, south of noir.” But the deciding factor in my saying yes was that I like Jim, very much.

The fact that I still like him after not only co-writing a story, but also contributing a novelette to his Wolf Press anthology Lowcountry Crime says a lot about Jim as a human being and even more about him as a writer. Thoughtful, smart, funny, with a genuine commitment to putting out the very best work possible, he is an exemplary working partner.

So I said yes. Tai said yes. Even Trey said yes, though he took more convincing. And Seamus said yes, which meant all three sleuths were on board. All we needed was a crime for them to investigate, and we were off.

I hope that one day soon our characters find themselves yet again in the same neck of the woods, with nefarious doings on the ground. I think they’d acquit themselves well, yet again.

Until then, Jim and I are making our story available for newsletter subscribers. If you’d like to join my list (or James M. Jackson’s list), you can do so by clicking the button below. Easy peasy, no spam, no selling your data EVER.

A Writer Writes on Writing

Every writer who has ever subjected herself to a live Q&A knows that some questions are classics.

"Where do you get your ideas?"

"Who's your favorite writer?"

"Which of your books is your favorite?"

I love these questions, to be honest. These are three of my favorite things to talk about. But I'm adding a new question to the list, and it's one I like to get because it's a topic I am very enthusiastic about: "Do you have any advice for new writers?"

This is a great question because it means that even with all the challenges facing the publishing industry right now, people are still eager to share their writing with an audience. And that is good. Creativity is a gift that grows the more it is shared.

My advice for aspiring authors? Follow the Three C's: Community, Craft, and Commitment.

• 1. Community: Writing is a solitary endeavor, but being a writer is a communal one. Finding a squad of supportive fellow scribblers is one of the first things new writers should do. No one understands like a writer how hard writing actually is, how challenging it can be to stay hopeful, how insidious self-doubt can become (especially when it's time to start submitting and the inevitable rejections start coming in). I tell writers to check their local offerings first—if there is a nearby writers group, even if it's not specific to one's genre, join it. Find out what organizations regional or national writers in your genre join and then join that—for me, it was Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. Find out what conventions and conferences writers in your genre attend, including fan conferences where you can meet other writers at all stages of their careers, and then attend those (even during our current "interesting" times, many conferences are hosting virtual versions). You might meet some of your writing heroes this way—say hello and introduce yourself as a writer. Enjoy your shared interests. Who knows? The relationship might prove fruitful down the road (spoiler alert—some of them definitely will).

• 2. Craft: A writer writes—a professional writer writes with the understanding that you should always be improving your craft. Writing is one way to do this (the best way, in fact, as is reading writers whose work you admire, which is why writers also read). One of the benefits of community is that workshops and learning opportunities abound. In Sisters in Crime, for example, members get access to an archive of webinars on topics from character creation to plotting to making sure your work is appropriately inclusive and diverse. There will never come a day when your work cannot be improved, never. Consider that a good thing. It means you're always in control of your own improvement.

• 3. Commitment: And this is the doozy. Everyone understands that the ideal writing life—that Pinterest image of the writer at her desk, a glorious view through the window, words pouring from her fingertips while money pours into the bank—exists for only a minuscule, impossibly small fraction of the writers in the world (and even they have writers block—just saying). So being a writer means that you are willing to deal with every aspect of it, even those you loathe, like tax paperwork or making promotional materials. More importantly, it means making time for yourself as a writer, honoring that promise by deciding what it means to you and then following through. For some, that's sitting down to the computer and making words every single day. For others, it's submitting X number of queries every week. You get to decide what that looks like. And then you get to commit. Success as a writer is only minutely linked to talent—most of it is about showing up.

And there you have it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a word count I need to hit.

The Next Chapter

As you may remember from the summer newsletter, I have recently reacquired the rights to my Tai Randolph/Trey Seaver series. Poisoned Pen/Sourcebooks will continue to carry the first editions of the paperbacks, and my own micro-press—Mojito Literary Press—will carry the e-books.

As soon as I get them re-edited. And since this is a one-person operation here at Whittle Central, than means I get the assignment.

This—like most things that happen during a pandemic—is taking longer than I anticipated. But I am enjoying every second of it. Getting to watch Tai and Trey come together has been a treat, especially as their relationship deepens and strengthens with each new challenge. I am currently three-quarters of the way through Blood, Ash and Bone, the pivotal third book in the series. At this point, it's all bickering and badinage for my two protagonists.

I licked salted butter from my fingers. “So this is a stakeout?”

Trey thought about it. “I suppose so.”

“I thought it would be more exciting.” I stirred my coffee. “Is this typical for a stakeout? Sitting around for hours?”

“We’ve been here thirty-five minutes.”

“You know what I mean.”

Below us, the crowd surged in a river of alcohol and high spirits, and the sun set behind the bridge in sluicing orange light. One couple stopped at the sweetgrass weaver to buy a rose. The man presented it to the woman with a courtly flourish, and she pressed it to her nose, even though it had no scent.

I looked over at Trey, so capable and efficient, his eyes riveted on the tour shop. “Trey? Do you ever wonder how we ended up together?”

He sipped his tea. “Your brother hired me for a personal protection detail.”

“No, I mean romantically.”

“You propositioned me.”

“No, I…I mean yes, but…you’re messing with me, aren’t you?”

So yes. Romantic bickering is fun. But the shadows in the corners are lengthening. I'm taking the opportunity to darken those shadows, sharpen their edges. And I'm taking my time.

Another thing I'm enjoying about the re-issue process is having new covers designed. For this, I turned to the talented Karen Phillips at Phillips Covers. She created a series of book covers not only for the six published books, but the seventh (which is currently being written, tentatively entitled Crooked Ways). You'll get a chance to see them all as soon as the books are re-published, but here's a peek at what she did for the first in series, The Dangerous Edge of Things.

I love this cover for lots of reasons, but the main one is that it captures the essence of my girl Tai—sexy, assertive, a breaker of rules and bender of truth who has a soft spot for underdogs and a thing for a well-tailored suit. Look for her on an e-book very soon!

One Upon A Midnight Dreary...

My love for darkly mysterious stories began in fifth grade, when I managed to sneak a book from the junior-high section out of the library—Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery & Imagination. Like most petty crimes, it was almost harmless . . . except that it opened the door to the world of the macabre and fantastical, a world where there were no happy endings, only consequences of the most horrific and nightmarish.

And I loved it. Loved it like human beings love simple sugars and standing on the edge of cliffs. It also terrified me. These simultaneous responses guaranteed that I read each story with every light in the bedroom on, stuffed animals surrounding me like a security team. Poe led me to Anne Rice and Stephen King and all their midnight court, but he also introduced me to crime fiction. For while Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is the most famous, the honor of being the first literary private investigator goes to C. August Dupin, the ratiocinating detective who solved "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."

Imagine my delight to discover yet another interest of mine—tarot reading—intersecting with my literary tastes. Behold in all its dark glory…the Edgar Allan Poe tarot deck!

The creators had this to say about it: "Blending the divinatory power of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot with the visionary writings of Edgar Allan Poe, this deck provides deep spiritual insights into who you are and what you might become. Stunning art based on Poe's tales of the mysterious and the macabre illuminates the imagination and opens the soul to fantastical realms of spirit." An apt description, with Poe's familiar themes of loss, obsession, and the horror hidden just below the surface.

The interpretations remain true to the RWS tarot, with the minor suites falling into the traditional categories of cups/water, wands/fire, swords/air and pentacles/earth (though the latter is given a Poe-worthy spin by placing the pentacle not on a coin, but on a solid gold scarab beetle, the "gold bug" of the famous tale of the same name). The court cards feature characters from the stories—Ligeia as the Queen of Swords, an orangutan as the Knight of Wands—with other stories referenced throughout the deck.

Some are breathtakingly gorgeous, like Strength, which features Annabel Lee against a setting sun (her kingdom by the sea in the background).

Other images are as violent and unsettling as the stories that inspired them, like this quiet nightscape from “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”

And, of course, there are ravens.

I haven't yet tried a reading with the deck. I'm afraid the answer would always be DOOM! DOOM, I SAY! (also do not look under the floorboards. Or in the wine cellar. Or up the chimney.). I find it inspiring enough just sitting at my elbow, whispering omens and other revelations, opening the way to the darker realms of the human heart and the richness of the human imagination. Just like mysteries do.

Writing is Hard—The Pandemic Edition

I know you've seen the memes, the ones explaining why THIS TIME is the BEST TIME for you to unlock your creative potential and produce a masterwork of some sort. Shakespeare did it. Tolstoy did it. You can do it too, unless you're some kind of inert sloth-person with no drive for success whatsoever.

Oh, please.

The amount of extra laundry alone is a productivity killer. Add to that the extra disinfecting, extra dish-washing, and extra time it takes just to get food into the house, and whoops, there goes your day. Not to mention the extra mental burden we're all facing, even those of us lucky enough to be able to shelter at home (like me). My brain feels dialed down to "just woke up" speed, and it was never particularly speedy in the first place.

I am especially challenged by the kind of global thinking that novel writing requires, the ability to hold an entire separate universe in my head, a universe filled with intricate timelines and shifty narratives and people who lie a lot. I keep opening up my novel-in-progress, but it's like opening a window onto a vast, hurricane-lashed beach. I can't even see a place to stand, much less build something, so I close the window and make a nice cup of tea.

I need to keep my creative juices flowing, though. That seems to be a vital part of my self-care, that I devote some time to writing a story. I have theories about why this is so. I think narrative-making is good for the brain—like push-ups keep your core strong, writing keeps your cognitive processes sharp. It is also psychologically soothing, like cleaning out the junk drawer.

So I decided that instead of the marathon that is making a novel, I'd work on the 5K that is a short story. It would keep my writerly processes engaged, but not in an exhausting and overwhelming way. I could tinker and fiddle, chasing research rabbits down fascinating new holes (like this disturbingly effective new facial recognition technology or the vast web of public-access video cameras operating all around you, including some that secretly transmit the most private of moments; there's also Tai's favorite new bourbon to track down). Plus I could spend time with my series characters, whom I know very well (not that they don't surprise me still) and whom I enjoy spending time with (I don't think they feel the same about me, however, since I am constantly throwing murder and mayhem in their paths).

The result is "Lockdown Blues" a short story about how we show up for each other in times of crisis. I am interested in the ways that crime impacts our collective experience, how transgressions large or small tear at the social fabric, revealing how connected we are even during times of isolation.

One of the great tensions in Tai and Trey's relationship is their opposite attitudes on surveillance. Trey believes that only people with something to hide need to worry about being watched, that having the eyes of the world upon public behavior makes people behave better. He trusts systems and protocols and rules, and is willing to sacrifice a little privacy if it keeps bad guys off the streets. Tai, however, prickles at the thought of a surveillance state, even if she's not doing anything wrong. She believes that such power is a slippery, dangerous slope, and that giving up even a minor freedom for an illusion of safety is a bad bargain,

I see validity in both their perspectives. I also see dangers. And that is the push-pull I ended up exploring in "Lockdown Blues" (and in Assault and Reverie and Other Stories, if you're interested). If you'd like to get your own copy of the “Lockdown Blues” go HERE.

And with that, I’m back to the blank pages that will one day be Tai & Trey #7, tentatively titled Crooked Ways.

Thank you for being a reader. Stay safe!

Crimes Against the Humanities

As often happens, the pieces of “Assault & Reverie” — my latest Tai & Trey story — came together during a long car ride while I listened to NPR (shout out to WSVH, my hometown station!). Intrigued by what I was hearing, I couldn’t resist concocting a plot that included these fascinating elements. The result was a work of fiction, with some true-life happenings grounding it in possibility, if not reality.

Warning: Spoilers Below!

The idea of a snatched violin was inspired by the real-life assault and robbery of violinist and concertmaster Frank Almond, who shared his story on The Moth Radio Hour, a radio show from PRX. There are a few similarities between my fictional version and his actual one—Almond was accosted by a TASER-wielding assailant, and the eventual identification of the thief was cinched through the use of AFIDs (and the fact that the robber left his driver’s license in the case with the stolen violin). There are many differences, however. Recovering Almond’s violin took almost two weeks, and the crime was solved through leather-on-pavement policing, not deus ex flying machina.

However, the aerial data Trey uses to solve the crime—and the airplane that provided it—are not fictional. A similar airplane is a keystone of Persistent Surveillance System’s Community Support Program, and the photographs it provides have been used to solve crimes from burglary to murder (and yes, one theft was solved in less than thirty minutes). I learned about it on RadioLab, a show from WNYC Studios, which discussed not only the effectiveness of the surveillance, but the surrounding privacy issues, something Trey and Tai possess very different ideas about. Having them bring their different perspectives to the issue was an interesting way for me to work through my own conflicted feelings, as I believe very much in both law and order and individual privacy. My literary use of such a plane in Atlanta, however, was entirely fictional, as was the idea that someone in the security loop might have let crucial information out of the bag (there is zero evidence that such a thing has ever happened in real life). Luckily, you can visit the company’s website to learn about their real crime-fighting missions, including their privacy statement, and leave my problematic fictional plane heading for a fictional horizon.

While researching this story, I also learned a great deal about Stradivari violins. The Brancaccio Strad featured in this story, alas, really was lost during an air raid in Berlin. I resurrected it as an act of hope, as a way to let this magnificent instrument live once again, and was heartened to see that a piece of it may have been recently recovered and identified. Even if it will never again make music, I hope it will remind us of the great evil that was overcome by the Allied powers at such profound cost, and of the beauty that somehow survived, broken but lovely, in those ashes. May we never forget those horrors, so that we may never repeat them. May we always remember the service of the Allied women and men, so that we may always honor them.

To hear Frank Almond’s story in his own words, go here: https://themoth.org/stories/a-violins-life

To learn more about the Brancaccio Stradivarius, go here: https://timothyjuddviolin.com/tag/brancaccio-stradivarius/

To see the (possible) piece of that violin that may have been recovered, go here: https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/333195-could-this-be-a-stradivari-neck/

To listen to the show “Eye in the Sky” about aerial surveillance, go here: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/eye-sky

To visit the Persistent Surveillance Systems website, go here:

And to get your very own copy of Assault & Reverie and Other Stories, click HERE.

Happy Birthday, Tai Randolph!

I’m talking about my girl Tai here, not the series named after her (which debuted nine years ago in February of 2011, though that deserves a bit of boo-ya if I do say so myself).

Tai was born on the cusp of the vernal equinox, March 21st, which makes her about as Aries as an Aries can be.

To celebrate, I’m giving away THREE copies of her latest adventure — “Assault & Reverie” — and all YOU have to do to put your name in the hat is leave a comment below (you get a bonus entry if you visit my Tina Whittle Facebook page).

So say hey, then click the button below to go to the official Assault & Reverie and Other Stories giveaway page.