Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Arthur Conan Doyle's First Novel

altOnce upon a time, it was easy to blame the mail for lost letters and lost bills. The phrase "it's in the mail" has a certain comfort to it.

It implies that something will be coming but at the same time holds the suggestion that what was sent may never reach its destination.

I wonder how many authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, also lost their manuscripts to the void of the mail.

Conan Doyle’s original manuscript of his first novel, The Narrative of John Smith, was lost in the mail en route to his publishers.

He later rewrote the novel from memory but it was never published in his lifetime.

That novel was a far cry from the iconc Great Detective. Doyle's debut was about a 50-year-old man who is confined to his room when he has an attack of gout.

Now, I, of course, haven't read it and can't judge it based on that description.

But others will get a chance to weigh in on the novel.

The British Library has released The Narrative of John Smith, making it available to a wide audience. The library also will display the manuscript at its Sir John Ritblat Treasures Gallery in London.

The British Library said in a statement that the novel was written between 1883 and 1884 and is “semi-autobiographical in nature.”


During the novel, John Smith has a series of conversations about issues of the day, including literature, science, religion, war and politics.

Conan Doyle was once quoted about the manuscript's lost: “My shock at its disappearance would be as nothing to my horror if it were suddenly to appear again – in print.”

Arthur Conan Doyle's First Novel
Oline Cogdill
arthur-conan-doyles-first-novel

altOnce upon a time, it was easy to blame the mail for lost letters and lost bills. The phrase "it's in the mail" has a certain comfort to it.

It implies that something will be coming but at the same time holds the suggestion that what was sent may never reach its destination.

I wonder how many authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, also lost their manuscripts to the void of the mail.

Conan Doyle’s original manuscript of his first novel, The Narrative of John Smith, was lost in the mail en route to his publishers.

He later rewrote the novel from memory but it was never published in his lifetime.

That novel was a far cry from the iconc Great Detective. Doyle's debut was about a 50-year-old man who is confined to his room when he has an attack of gout.

Now, I, of course, haven't read it and can't judge it based on that description.

But others will get a chance to weigh in on the novel.

The British Library has released The Narrative of John Smith, making it available to a wide audience. The library also will display the manuscript at its Sir John Ritblat Treasures Gallery in London.

The British Library said in a statement that the novel was written between 1883 and 1884 and is “semi-autobiographical in nature.”


During the novel, John Smith has a series of conversations about issues of the day, including literature, science, religion, war and politics.

Conan Doyle was once quoted about the manuscript's lost: “My shock at its disappearance would be as nothing to my horror if it were suddenly to appear again – in print.”

Sunday, 09 October 2011
Camilleri's Salvo Montalbano on Dvd

altAt this time of year, the TV doldrums really set in. The new TV season hasn't started yet and the good cable series have wrapped up. At least this past summer we had exciting episodes of In Plain Sight, Rizzoli & Isles, The Closer, The Glades, Memphis Beat, and Burn Notice.

Sure, I can watch those series -- and endless reruns of the Laws & Orders -- countless times. But this is also the perfect time to delve into some of the best crime dramas on DVD.

And by that I mean some of the best international crime dramas on DVD.

MHZ Networks leads the way in releasing a variety of international crime dramas series, most filmed for foreign TV markets. Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti, Helene Tursten's Irene Huss, Gunnar Staalesen's Varg Veum and Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander are just a few of the crime fiction series being released by MHZ Networks.

The ones I have viewed are first-class productions with breathtaking scenery, involving plots that are faithful to the spirit of the novels and excellent actors who bring these characters to life. Rather than the Hollywood gloss that tends to soften too many crime dramas, the producers use first-rate actors who actually look like the characters, imperfections and all. There is no air brushing or perfect makeup to conceal natural imperfections. In a way, this makes the actors even more striking -- and believeable. Most of the series are subtitled.

A good example of these productions is the 18 episodes of the Detective Montalbano series, the film version of the Il commissario Salvo Montalbano mystery series based on the character and novels created by Andrea Camilleri.

Italian actor Luca Zingaretti is perfect as the fractious Sicilian detective in the police force of Vigàta, an imaginary Sicilian town.

The Snack Thief, the series' first episode and based on Camilleri's third novel, is an excellent introduction both to the novels and this filmed version.

In The Snack Thief, Montalbano is the only police detective to see a link between the stabbing of an elderly man in an elevator and a worker on an Italian fishing trawler who is machine-gunned to death by a Tunisian patrol boat off Sicily's coast. His investigation leads to a maid whose young son steals other kids' snacks. When his mother disappears, the young snack thief is the next target.

In the books and the DVD, Montalbano acts as if he considers his real work to be sleeping, eating, drinking and dealing with his long-distance girlfriend, Livia. Police work, he seems to suggest, just gets in the way.

But Montalbano has a deeper side and is a sharp detective, who contends with criminals as well as an administration more interested in a positive image than in fighting crime. Camilleri weaves into his novels myriad contemporary issues such as immigration and unemployment and this translates well to the screen. The Snack Thief also deals with racism, terrorism and political corruption.

In addition to The Snack Thief, the Detective Montalbano DVD of episodes 1 to 3 includes, in this order, The Voice of the Violin (based on the fourth novel) and The Shape of Water (based on the first novel).

The Potters Field, Camilleri's 13th novel to be released in the U.S., recently hit the bookstores -- and the e-readers.

Camilleri's Salvo Montalbano on Dvd
Oline Cogdill
camilleris-salvo-montalbano-on-dvd

altAt this time of year, the TV doldrums really set in. The new TV season hasn't started yet and the good cable series have wrapped up. At least this past summer we had exciting episodes of In Plain Sight, Rizzoli & Isles, The Closer, The Glades, Memphis Beat, and Burn Notice.

Sure, I can watch those series -- and endless reruns of the Laws & Orders -- countless times. But this is also the perfect time to delve into some of the best crime dramas on DVD.

And by that I mean some of the best international crime dramas on DVD.

MHZ Networks leads the way in releasing a variety of international crime dramas series, most filmed for foreign TV markets. Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti, Helene Tursten's Irene Huss, Gunnar Staalesen's Varg Veum and Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander are just a few of the crime fiction series being released by MHZ Networks.

The ones I have viewed are first-class productions with breathtaking scenery, involving plots that are faithful to the spirit of the novels and excellent actors who bring these characters to life. Rather than the Hollywood gloss that tends to soften too many crime dramas, the producers use first-rate actors who actually look like the characters, imperfections and all. There is no air brushing or perfect makeup to conceal natural imperfections. In a way, this makes the actors even more striking -- and believeable. Most of the series are subtitled.

A good example of these productions is the 18 episodes of the Detective Montalbano series, the film version of the Il commissario Salvo Montalbano mystery series based on the character and novels created by Andrea Camilleri.

Italian actor Luca Zingaretti is perfect as the fractious Sicilian detective in the police force of Vigàta, an imaginary Sicilian town.

The Snack Thief, the series' first episode and based on Camilleri's third novel, is an excellent introduction both to the novels and this filmed version.

In The Snack Thief, Montalbano is the only police detective to see a link between the stabbing of an elderly man in an elevator and a worker on an Italian fishing trawler who is machine-gunned to death by a Tunisian patrol boat off Sicily's coast. His investigation leads to a maid whose young son steals other kids' snacks. When his mother disappears, the young snack thief is the next target.

In the books and the DVD, Montalbano acts as if he considers his real work to be sleeping, eating, drinking and dealing with his long-distance girlfriend, Livia. Police work, he seems to suggest, just gets in the way.

But Montalbano has a deeper side and is a sharp detective, who contends with criminals as well as an administration more interested in a positive image than in fighting crime. Camilleri weaves into his novels myriad contemporary issues such as immigration and unemployment and this translates well to the screen. The Snack Thief also deals with racism, terrorism and political corruption.

In addition to The Snack Thief, the Detective Montalbano DVD of episodes 1 to 3 includes, in this order, The Voice of the Violin (based on the fourth novel) and The Shape of Water (based on the first novel).

The Potters Field, Camilleri's 13th novel to be released in the U.S., recently hit the bookstores -- and the e-readers.

Wednesday, 05 October 2011
Kate White: the Sixes, Cosmos

altBook signings are only partly about getting a book inscribed by the author. These signings also give readers insight to the author and show just what went into that novel.

That's what Kate White gave to an enthusiastic audience during a recent book signing for The Sixes at Murder on the Beach bookstore in Delray Beach.

Kate's latest novel is The Sixes, a thriller in which a student's death pulls a woman into a secret society in a small college town.

Best known for her Bailey Weggins novels, Kate also has two stand-alone novels. Her 2010 novel Hush landed on the New York Times Best Sellers List.

But Kate also has another job -- she's the editor in chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine.

The two careers work well for Kate's lifelong dream of being a writer. And she wanted to do all sorts of writing -- magazines, newspapers, plays, novels.

"I finally realized that there was no way I could do all the kinds of writing I was interested in," said Kate.

Since she had won Glamour Magazine's Top Ten College Women contest and appeared on the cover, she naturally steered to magazines. She began to work at Glamour as an editorial assistant, rising in the ranks to eventually be an editor in chief, running four magazines.

altBut still she wanted to write so, even with a demanding career and a growing family, Kate would take a few hours on Saturday morning to write. She was about four chapters into her novel when, on a Saturday she was writing, she got a call to come to the office. She wondered if she was going to be fired. Instead, Kate was named editor in chielf of Cosmopolitan.

That was in 1998.

She put the manuscript aside to concentrate on her new job. But about five months later, she "took out those pages and went back to work."

The result was If Looks Could Kill, which was published in 2002 and was selected as Live With Regis and Kelly’s first Reading With Ripa book-club pick.

Since then, she has published five novels in the Bailey Weggins series, two standalone novels and three nonfiction books.

Bailey Weggins will return with So Pretty It Hurts, scheduled for March 2012.

Kate was in her mid-40s when her first novel was published and she admits she had to wait until her children were a bit older so she could better manage her time.

The trick, she said, is not to think that a project is huge but to slice the time into small increments. "Write for 15 minutes. Soon, 15 minutes become 20 minutes and then 20 minutes become 30 minutes," she said.

"The decision was made that I could not let my dreams go," said Kate. "We live serial achievements."

Kate White: the Sixes, Cosmos
Oline Cogdill
kate-white-the-sixes-cosmos

altBook signings are only partly about getting a book inscribed by the author. These signings also give readers insight to the author and show just what went into that novel.

That's what Kate White gave to an enthusiastic audience during a recent book signing for The Sixes at Murder on the Beach bookstore in Delray Beach.

Kate's latest novel is The Sixes, a thriller in which a student's death pulls a woman into a secret society in a small college town.

Best known for her Bailey Weggins novels, Kate also has two stand-alone novels. Her 2010 novel Hush landed on the New York Times Best Sellers List.

But Kate also has another job -- she's the editor in chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine.

The two careers work well for Kate's lifelong dream of being a writer. And she wanted to do all sorts of writing -- magazines, newspapers, plays, novels.

"I finally realized that there was no way I could do all the kinds of writing I was interested in," said Kate.

Since she had won Glamour Magazine's Top Ten College Women contest and appeared on the cover, she naturally steered to magazines. She began to work at Glamour as an editorial assistant, rising in the ranks to eventually be an editor in chief, running four magazines.

altBut still she wanted to write so, even with a demanding career and a growing family, Kate would take a few hours on Saturday morning to write. She was about four chapters into her novel when, on a Saturday she was writing, she got a call to come to the office. She wondered if she was going to be fired. Instead, Kate was named editor in chielf of Cosmopolitan.

That was in 1998.

She put the manuscript aside to concentrate on her new job. But about five months later, she "took out those pages and went back to work."

The result was If Looks Could Kill, which was published in 2002 and was selected as Live With Regis and Kelly’s first Reading With Ripa book-club pick.

Since then, she has published five novels in the Bailey Weggins series, two standalone novels and three nonfiction books.

Bailey Weggins will return with So Pretty It Hurts, scheduled for March 2012.

Kate was in her mid-40s when her first novel was published and she admits she had to wait until her children were a bit older so she could better manage her time.

The trick, she said, is not to think that a project is huge but to slice the time into small increments. "Write for 15 minutes. Soon, 15 minutes become 20 minutes and then 20 minutes become 30 minutes," she said.

"The decision was made that I could not let my dreams go," said Kate. "We live serial achievements."