Murder In Marin Mystery Novels

Lots of Great Films on TV 📺, and Books for Your Reader 📚

Dear Readers,

Up until the Covid 19 epidemic I thought “SIP” meant take a small amount of water, wine, tea, or coffee. Now of course we think of the acronym for, “sheltering in place.”

I don’t know about you, but before this epidemic, I would have called it, “House arrest.”

UGH! I’ve never been much of a homebody—at least, during the hours I’m not at home writing. Between going to the theater, museums, concerts, films, and long walks, there had been so many wonderful things to do outside the home.

But now, after many months of SIP, Josie and I have learned to adjust. The car stays mostly in the garage and we stay mainly at home.

Writing is still our day job, but now after dinner, we’re discovering more than ever that premium streaming channels are the retreat we never had in the days of early cable when the popular joke was, “Seventy channels and nothing to watch!”

PBS Passport is five dollars per month, and it gives you access to all those great shows you forgot to watch.

If you love old movies as I do, YouTube premium is only ten dollars per month, and it’s a treasure chest of things you’ve never seen or don’t remember. Dick Cavett, who interviewed Bette Davis when I was struggling with tenth-grade geometry, is one small example. Last night we fell across another: Lured, starring a very young Lucille Ball alongside three always-wonder actors: George Sanders, Boris Karloff, and Charles Coburn. (See the photo above.)

BIG PLUS: All commercial-free.

The Criterion Channel, also ten dollars a month, is dedicated to the restoration of old films into picture-perfect prints. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen two Otto Preminger classics in addition to Around The World in Eighty Days, Amacord, and Marlon Brando’s greatest film, On the Waterfront.

Then there are the three giants of streaming: Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu. Now saying there’s “Nothing to watch on TV” is like going to London and saying, “There’s nothing to do.”

Music services, Spotify, Apple, Prime, and much more, provide an ocean of choices for music lovers of all ages and interests.

And finally, podcasts: I’d quickly agree that a lot are awful, but some are wonderful. NPR’s Fresh Air with Terri Gross has put every one of its vast library of interviews online. 

Still not enough choices to grab your attention? Go to Google, ask any question about something you’d like to find, and in less time than it takes to blink your eyes. It will probably offer you a variety of choices.

Finally: as all readers know, there is a bottomless well of good books to read. And, in the digital age, access to great books, has never been greater.

In fact, below I’ve got links to a few that are free right now by signing up for the authors' mailing lists. Go check them out.

Are any of us happy to be sheltering-in-place? Very few if any, I suspect. One thing we can be thankful for: we’re living in the digital world of 2020 as opposed to the dial-up age of 1990.

Here's to staying healthy, happy, and well-read,

—Martin

 

ENDS JULY 11, 2020! And...

 

ENDS JUNE 30, 2020! 

The best of who we are will step forward.

The past two weeks have been a sad time. But if you look back across the landscape of our shared history, it’s reasonable to ask ourselves, when have we been free of worry or fear?

It is only in that knowledge that I take comfort.

Throughout primary and secondary school, there was only one subject that came easily to me. Unlike Math, French, and Science, History came naturally. When asked by adults and fellow students why that was, I explained, “These are the stories of real people. They lived at different times and faced different situations. But they had hopes, dreams, and disappointments, just as we do today.”

In the endless stream that is the history of generations, when has there not been a mixture of sad and happy times?

Wars, assassinations, racial hatred. In the U.S. Constitution, our founders wrote of forming  “a more perfect union.” That work is never done.

Last week was a particularly sad chapter in our shared history. A pandemic. Financial uncertainty. And now, racial hatred has again virulently reared its ugly head.

But we also know that, when challenges arise, the will to overcome adversity becomes more determined.

Today’s dark days are a prelude to the brighter future that we will create together. History is the story of the wise and the foolish; the generous and the selfish; the loving and the cruel.

It’s the story of us. 

Sadly, we don’t always like what we see.

But blessedly, in the long run, the best of who we are will step forward.

Here's to finding a better path in our shared journey,

—Martin

Fact can be stranger than fiction. It can also influence it.

A deck with a view — in Sausalito. Love this town (as a mystery setting.)

Marin County's broad vistas and open spaces approach perfection. As you might expect, however, nearly all of us who populate the county can fall well short of that mark.

 

Having been a Marin resident for over two decades, I’ll place myself alongside the less than perfect. I'm not proud of that. But like most folks, who feel compelled to show some sense of modesty, and honesty, I'd say I'm still a work in progress. 

 

Of the two places I resided in the county, Sausalito, and then Greenbrae, the first has the look and feel of a small town, whereas the latter has the appearance of a mid-century suburb.

 

Sausalito provided the more interesting cast of characters. Ranging from the gracious and welcoming to the suspicious and occasionally nasty. This relatively small town provides any writer with a rich pallet of different characters. No doubt in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and numerous other cities, you could find the same array of people. In Sausalito, with a population of just seven thousand, odd characters are more obvious and therefore easily observed.

 

In the first book of my Murder in Marin mysteries, The Gossiping Gourmet, I use composites of several individuals I came to know in the decade I resided in Sausalito.

 

In the case of Warren Bradley—my celebrated and loathed Sausalito gossip columnist—I borrowed many of the worst traits of one particular individual. Naturally, I gave him a different name. As far as the women who make up the core of my fictional Ladies of Liberty, they all sprang from real individuals as well. I rearranged facts and personalities, to create a fictitious group of gossip-hungry, mean-spirited power brokers.

 

A small town, or in the case of Marin, several small towns, can provide the perfect backdrop for all sorts of mischief. All the characters play on a relatively small stage making the results of their petty tyrannies more deeply felt. The secret sauce, so to speak, is best described in two words: WHAT IF?

 

Silly, petty, mean spirited people, clashing with those inclined to be open, honest, and kind, created the inspiration for Anthony Trollope's, The Way We Live Now, Charles Dickens' Bleak House, William Thackeray's Vanity Fair, and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and countless other works, like mine, of lesser note.

 

Wealth and poverty, generosity and stinginess, honesty and dishonesty, lust, greed, and social status are some of the traits that supply the dry kindling awaiting a creative spark to ignite a work of fiction. I wouldn't for a moment think of myself in league with any of these masters, any more than swinging a golf club makes me Tiger Woods; or singing Strangers in the Night in the shower makes me Frank Sinatra. But all artists, regardless of their field, need some form of fuel to power their creativity.

 

Odd characters behaving badly certainly fires up my imagination.

 

The rest of the county, Tiburon, Belvedere, Mill Valley, Ross, San Anselmo, Fairfax, are also populated with the good, the nasty, the too wealthy, and the too poor. 

 

In creating new stories for my Murder in Marin mysteries I continue to branch out to other towns in Marin. I always return to Sausalito, however, where my fictional characters—Rob Timmons, Eddie Austin, and Holly Cross—all grew up and continue to live. 

 

Sausalito, located on the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, offers one other important advantage. Because it is a popular day-trip destination for countless visitors who come to the San Francisco Bay Area every year, it’s one of a small group of communities in America with a population of under ten thousand, which has been visited or is at least known, by millions of people. Other examples would include Provincetown, Massachusetts with a population of three thousand, Taos, New Mexico: six thousand, and Aspen, Colorado: seven thousand.

 

The Sausalito Standard, a fictional newspaper, is based on Sausalito’s historic Princess Street, where I actually worked for many years publishing a newspaper called the Sausalito Signal. It is located in the tiny downtown district that swells on summer days with visitors and is mostly deserted at night. One evening, while walking home from my office, I was stopped by a visitor who perhaps had missed the last ferry back to San Francisco. In a voice that indicated he might have had one too many cocktails, he asked: “Is this a real town, or a movie set?”

 

“Huh?” I responded with a shrug.

 

In the quiet chill of a mid-November evening, anxious to get home, I wanted to help, but I could not grasp the meaning of the gentleman’s question. Sensing my confusion, he explained.

 

“A few hours ago, these streets were busy with lots of people and now it looks like no one lives here.”

 

“Sausalito is a quiet place that grows to many times its population during the day and goes back to its natural quiet state at night. Most of the people, who actually live here are at home up in the hills sitting down to dinner about now, not shopping for souvenirs in downtown,” I explained.

 

“It may not be make-believe,” he said, “but it sure does feel that way.”

 

—Martin

 

Marin County: The Perfect Setting for a Mystery Series

Let’s start at the beginning: How I came to choose Marin County as the setting for my Murder in Marin Mysteries. As Willie Nelson is fond of saying, “It’s a long story." But, let me share a little bit about how the remarkable beauty of Marin stole my heart and owns it to this day.

My wife, the author Josie Brown, and I, along with our two children, relocated from Atlanta, Georgia to Marin County. At this time, our son had just turned five, and our daughter was days away from her third birthday. It was a happy and tumultuous time in our lives. The move itself was a leap of faith. At various times life asks that we take that leap. The only thing you can count on when you make a move as significant as this is not everything will go according to plan.

Six weeks after our arrival, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck. Fortunately, it was smaller than the great quake and fire of 1906, but it was the Bay Area’s second most powerful quake of the Twentieth Century. In the process of settling into a new home and establishing our son in Kindergarten and our daughter in pre-school, that afternoon when our home suddenly turned into a shake shack left us wondering about the wisdom of our choice.

Fortunately, in the thirty years that have followed Loma Prieta, the wisdom of relocating to the Bay Area has never again been in doubt. For just a moment, let me jump ahead and mention that in 2012, with our children grown, living independent lives, we took up residence in the City of San Francisco. (More on that in a later blog.) Here I'd like to share with you why I view Marin as such a magical place.

For me, its scenic beauty, which is simply awesome, goes at the top of the list. Approximately two-thirds of Marin County is open space, both federal and state land. Hiking, biking, climbing, trail-riding, and so much more are outside your door or a short drive away.

For a seven to eight-month span, the weather is often magnificent. Generally, not hot, nor cold. In most parts of the county, 90 plus degree-days are as infrequent as 40-degree days.

There are countless blue-sky days, with crisp, dry air. No doubt, the sun can beat down hard in midday, in the center and northern portions of the county. But, tree-lined lanes and paths offer a welcomed respite from a day when it can get a little too hot.

Much of what makes Marin an extraordinary place seeped into our souls. It's why after nearly a decade of living in San Francisco, we often take the bridge north and enjoy Marin’s bounty of wonders. Trails along the expansive base of Mount Tamalpais, (simply called, “Tam,” by the locals) a long-dormant volcano that dominates the southern portion of the county, are shaded by enormous redwoods and have to be walked, biked, or driven through to be believed.

Traveling up the mountain, there are more trails and views of the blue Pacific than I would ever want to catalog. At countless viewpoints, your heart will soar over the beauty you're seeing.

In my first book in the Murder in Marin series I have my two heroes, small-town newspaper publisher, Rob Timmons, and Sherriff's Detective Eddie Austin, walking along a narrow path to a rock outcropping on Mount Tam. There they attempt to unravel the mystery of the man known as The Gossiping Gourmet. All while looking down into a ravine that seems impossibly lush and green under an unimaginably blue sky. Above them a red tail hawk circles in search of prey.

I get carried off on the wings of angels every time I think of the beauty one can find in countless places in Marin. Is there a darker side to this lovely place? Of course! But that’s not nature’s doing, that’s what humans occasionally bring to one of God’s more perfect creations.

In another of my books, The Phantom Photographer, one of those less perfect humans, uses steep hills, dense forest, and bay marshes, to hide his evil plans. And in the Terrifying Teacher, an attempt is made on the life of a critical character while he enjoys biking through the maze of Sausalito's scenic hillside streets.

Marin county’s scenery provides me with endless inspiration. And then there are the equally interesting characters who inhabit the landscapes and seascapes of this unique place. In next week's blog, more about the cast of characters that make life in Marin so interesting...  

 —MARTIN

Heads Up: I'm in a multi-author freebie and discounted sales promotions of mystery and thrillers that runs from October 1 - 14, 2019. If you're interested, click here...

Blue Angels Rock San Francisco

I don’t know how they do it, but every October the Blue Angels manage to bring beautiful weather with them to San Francisco.

Case in point: this photo Josie caught of me Friday afternoon during the first of three shows the Blue Angels will do between now and Sunday. The stunts, the speed, the roar of the engines, Just the thing to thrill a guy who simply refuses to grow up. 

If you missed today's show, or are not here in the Bay Area, here's a video clip of some of the high-speed excitement:

.

 

Want to know who's this month's $25 gift card winner?

Ellen J, from Charlotte North Carolina, jumped on my mailing list during a recent BookSweeps contest. Ellen is a physical therapist. She's never been to Marin County, California, where my mysteries are based, but now that she's read a couple, she told me, "I'm coming your way."

Great, Ellen. Until you get there, I'll keep posting stuff you'll be interested in that will take you here in spirit.

By the way, feel free to sign up and enter this monthly contest.

—Martin