Interviews and essays on the web--ASHES AND BONES

This is the last day that I'll be the featured author, "the mugshot," on the ACWL's website (of course, after August 1 or so, I'll be in the archives, where you can also see what other ACWL members have to say for themselves). I wrote an essay called "Going Into The Basement," about what I needed to think about when I was creating the bad guys and worse situations for Ashes and Bones. Check it out--I had a lot of fun thinking about it.

(In case I hadn't mentioned it...Ashes is on sale now! More about the upcoming tour in, er, upcoming blog entries.)

And today...I had lunch with J.B. Thompson! Well, the next best thing, because J.B.'s in Tennessee and I'm still here in Massachusetts: J.B.'s blog is "Let's Do Lunch: The World According to J.B." We met (among other places) in Nashville, at the Southern Festival of the Book, where she organized several wonderful mystery panels. J.B. is a fellow Sister in Crime and writes romantic suspense, so she does her homework and has great insight into life, lunch, and the writing world. Thanks for the hang, J.B.!

(Actually, it's probably better that we lunched via the blog; it's not pretty watching me eat pesto. Long distance is definitely a good idea.)

Edinburgh pictures are in!

Well, after a good deal of messing about with the pictures, I finally got them inserted to my post about RT at Daytona Beach and Edinburgh. If you'll scroll down just a bit (or click on the link to the right, "Men without shrits, men without pants), you'll see some of the neat stuff I got to see. For example, the lovely picture of the river with the castle on the left? That's apparently the castle they used in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" to film the scenes with the French knights. And the ruins on Loch Ness? That's Castle Urquhart (pronounced "urkurt").

I told you I'd get the hang of this blogging stuff sooner or later. Blogjet seems to be helping!

Mid-Atlantic Madness!

A couple of weeks ago, I was down in the Mid-Atlantic, doing research for the book I’m working on, doing some events, and visiting with fellow Femme Fatale Donna Andrews.  The weather was actually spectacularly comfortable for this time of year, and I thought, if July was that good, August will be even better!

Okay, I’m not that crazy; I know it’s going to be beastly hot and humid, but we have that right here at home, where it’s been like living in a chicken pot pie.  I did have, however, a great time earlier this month:  I adore research and got to speak with some very cool people, I visited with the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, I got to hang with Ellen Byerrum in D.C. (pictured with Donna, left), I saw Riversdale, a historic house in Maryland (right) as part of a fun event with Noreen Wald, Laura Durham, and Donna.  It was a lovely setting for a mystery event and well worth a visit. 

There was even a surprise trip—wait for it—to the USGS map store!  (A word of explanation for the uninitiated:  The United States Geological Survey, among other things, has maps of every square inch of the U.S., with details about the topography, geography, environment, buildings, roads, etc., at different scales.  It is, in a word, a little slice of map-geek heaven.)  When Donna pointed out the location of the facility, my eyes grew wide with reverence.  When she said there was a store—and that we could stop—I squealed.  It was a noise worthy of any four-year-old being offered an ice cream cone with jimmies (sprinkles, to those of you reading outside the New England area). 

I doubt I’ll have time to visit Jamestown while I’m in Virginia, but there was a honking great (that’s an industry term) discovery there just this week.   A well was excavated, and because wells have such good preservation (stable environments with water help prevent bacterial growth), some extraordinary artifacts were uncovered that date to an early clean-out of the fort (see?  Cleaning episodes can be historically significant!).  While I am partial to certain very early 17th-century sites in Maine, I have to admit, this was something amazing.  And showing up just in time for the 400^th anniversary of the founding of both sites in 1607. 

It’s not just for the sites and the sights and the friends that I’m returning to Virginia and Maryland on August 8.  Donna and I will be promoting our new books, No Nest for the Wicket and Ashes and Bones, respectively.  We’ll be covering a lot of ground and then we’ll be coming up here to do the same.   Check out my tour calendar here and I’m sure Donna and I will be blogging on our own blogs and in the Femmes Fatales’ blog. 

 

Hurricane Season 2005 is not over yet

We in the Northeast have been enjoying our own private monsoon season, lately. And it's a good reminder that we are well into hurricane season 2006 and much of Florida and the Gulf coast hasn’t recovered from 2005. Friends who recently traveled to New Orleans for the ALAs and friends and family who volunteered in Texas and Louisiana after Katrina describe the devastation as beyond belief, beyond anything that could be portrayed by television cameras or print articles.

The 2005 hurricane season isn’t last year’s news. People still need help. Here are a few organizations that are trying to help:

• The American Red Cross
• Salvation Army
• Habitat for Humanity
• ASPCA
  

Mystery Scene article

Okay, there’s definitely something in the air lately! Sarah Wisseman wrote a super article in the latest issue of Mystery Scene called “Digging Death: Archaeological Mysteries.” Super not only because it was well written but also because tucked in between Agatha Christie and Lindsey Davis (and just a page away from Elizabeth Peters and Lyn Hamilton) were two paragraphs about my series. The article was a nice introduction to work by archaeologists and books with a feel for antiquity. I was honored to be in such illustrious company; even better, Sarah is an archaeologist herself, so she totally gets it. And…she writes mysteries too.

Publishers Weekly reviews Ashes and Bones!

I’m over the moon. Last week, I got my first PW review ever, and I was thrilled with it. I wasn’t expecting it, and since it’s so hard to get a mass-market paperback reviewed, it means a lot to me…and it means a lot for Ashes and Bones. They wrote:

"With plenty of twists, a well-developed supporting cast and just enough recap to bring readers new to the series up to date without sacrificing momentum, Cameron has crafted a fine suspense thriller."

I was still doing the happy dance about that when I heard that Ashes has also been reviewed in RT Bookreviews. The reviewer gave the book three stars (“Enjoyable”) and wrote:

"Cameron portrays the field of archaeology and the rivalries of academia in vivid detail, and the ways her characters respond to events are relalistic and well motivated. "

This is what we in New England call Wicked Good News!