Cold Case the blog

Someone asked me what I like about school visits. There are two things (okay there are more than two but these are key). The first is hearing all the questions kids have about books and writing and everything in between. The second is not hearing a thing when I read a chapter.

Take my visit to Rio Grande, a great elementary school in Santa Fe. It’s the kind of school that makes me want to go back to school only I’m afraid I’m too big for the chairs. The teachers are amazing, the kids fantastic and the Assistant Head Teacher brings her dog to school. How cool is that?

So I met with 3rd graders, then 5th and 6th graders. The questions were great including a lively discussion with the 3rd grade class about COLD CASE THE MOVIE (don’t worry, you haven’t missed it. We were only brainstorming). We decided it would have to be filmed in Santa Fe and one boy volunteered to play Oz (he’s acted in movies before apparently).

Once we got the movie sorted, I read Chapter One. As soon as I got to the part where Oz gets to the restaurant and realizes that 1) the door is unlocked, 2) there is blood on the floor and 3) there is something in the walk-in refrigerator and it’s not fruit and vegetables…well then things got very quiet. And suddenly this very lively class was still and silent.

Questions and quiet…that’s what I like about school visits.

It started out with 18 students…18 6th graders who were reading Cold Case. We’d get together and talk about the book. No big deal, right? Then it grew to 100. By the time I arrived at Madison Middle School in Albuquerque last week, I was speaking with 250 6th graders. With a microphone. In the school gym.

But you know what? They did all the hard work. They kept me busy with loads of fantastic questions about reading, writing and everything in between. How long did it take to write Cold Case? How many books have you read? If you didn’t write mysteries, what would you write? How many books have you sold? (Good question).

And the really good news was that I got to meet with several of the kids who are reading Cold Case. They’d only had the book for a few days but were already well into it. (One student told me she had to stop reading to do her homework. Don’t you hate when that happens?). As one student said, “I felt you were at the center of the crime scene. It grabbed me into the book.”

She drove a sports car, had a great-looking boyfriend and titian colored hair. I didn’t even know what titian was (reddish-gold it turns out) but who cared? It sounded…well, it sounded mysterious. I loved Nancy Drew. I wanted to be Nancy Drew.

Who wouldn’t? She was calm, cool and always got the bad guy. The mysteries she solved were full of curious letters and diaries with a healthy dose of hidden staircases and haunted passages thrown in for good measure.

The baddies were bad and the goodies were great. What more could you ask for? 

Rusty — my lime-colored-combat-boot-wearing-forensic ace-sidekick — is a world away from Nancy. But my love of mysteries started with Ms. Drew and so perhaps in a way, Rusty owes a nod of gratitude to our stalwart sleuth.

When I was 12 years old I was hanging out with Barbie and Ken and wondering why my 6th grade teacher was so mean to me. But not Megan. She’s busy reading books and blogging about them on tweenbookreviews.com. Megan’s blog is one of the many I’ve checked out recently. I had no idea there were so many book blogs nor how passionate the bloggers were about them.  

Take 17-year old Anna. Besides loving Mountain Dew and her labs Buster & Brutus, she likes reading. A lot. Her blog, Hope’s Bookshelf is chock full of great reading recos. So is high school student Lauren at Lauren’s Crammed Bookshelf and Sarah at Sarah’s Random Musings. 

What have I learned about books and blogging? 1) Books are alive and well. People are reading (a lot) and talking about what they like and don’t like. 2) Bloggers are really nice. I’ve had some great emails back from bloggers about the book. 

Speaking of…I’ll be doing an author interview about Cold Case with Anna soon. She wants to know 5 words that describe me. Any suggestions welcome…

When I was at the University of Virginia, I ran with a group called the Hash House Harriers. The idea was pretty simple. Each meeting, a couple of members would lay a trail (we used flour to point the way); the rest of us would try to follow it. Simple, right? Not really. The idea was to make the run challenging (picture running through steam tunnels, dorm hallways, that kind of thing). Just when you thought you’d got the trail figured out you’d hit a fish drawn in flour.

It was your worst nightmare: a red herring. You’d followed the wrong trail. You’d been hoodwinked, duped, fooled.

There’s a lot of debate about where the phrase red herring comes from but it’s come to mean something that diverts you from a more serious question. In mysteries, it’s the misleading clue that sends you, the reader, in the wrong direction. If done successfully, the red herring makes complete sense when you’re reading it (“I’ve got it figured out, I know I do!”) and a groan when you realize you were on the wrong trail. It’s the “so that’s what was really going on” moment.

I’ve tucked a couple of red herrings in Cold Case. Hopefully you’ll have a groan and a a-ha when you realize the truth. No clues as to where you’ll find them. Just remember that the truth is closer than you think…

How many time were you told to never tell a lie? Then you grown up, become a writer and that’s all you do. It’s one of the joys of writing — start with nothing and then make it up as you go along.

But it doesn’t mean that everything is make believe. Oz is a serious foodie and I couldn’t resist sharing some of my favorite food hangouts with him. These are real places with amazing food.

Bumble Bee’s Baja Grill with the pinatas and school bus yellow tables? It’s real. Oz orders one of my favs — the fish taco, served with avocado, chopped cabbage and pico de gallo with the (in)famous ‘secret sauce’. I checked out their website and apparently the chip and salsa bar is gone so Rusty couldn’t hoover up bowlfuls any more. But you can still order their homemade chips and salsa, so all is not lost.

Cafe Pasqual’s is real too. Oz didn’t have time to grab a breakfast burrito before going to see Dave but if you have the time (and you’re in Santa Fe) head there. Everything is delish but recently I’ve become inordinately fond of the Griddled polenta with sauteed chorizo, corn and red chile. The Blue Lady enchilada is a sure fire bet too.

Another local restaurant that I love is The Compound. James Beard winner Mark Kiffin is the inspired head chef. In Cold Case, Archie has to pass on a tempting lunch at The Compound with Harrison Smith. I remember going there with my Granny when I was younger so it always brings back happy memories. And the Buttermilk roast chicken with creamed spinach and foie gras pan gravy? It’s to die for.

There is one restaurant in Cold Case that isn’t real. It’s Chez Isabelle. But it was inspired by a real Santa Fe restaurant (and another one of my top picks). Any guesses?

I didn’t know books had birthdays but my lovely editors sent me a Happy Birthday email for Cold Case, so they must. The big day was 26 April — my sister-in-law’s birthday and the day after my Dad’s b-day, so Cold Case is in good company. It felt a bit surreal, perhaps because I couldn’t believe it had finally happened.

I looked at my very large Cold Case computer file (entitled ‘Chef’) and the first document dates back to January 2007. I did a quick google search and that’s a longer gestation period than elephants (around two years) and even longer than something called the Alpine black salamander with a gestation of 38 months –yikes!

What was I writing about all that time? I had a penchant for excel charts at one time, documenting where each character was when, what they knew and when they knew it (I became terribly confused and eventually tossed them). I added a lot of things and deleted a lot too. Poison mushrooms killing a character? Gone. Mrs. Martinez? In. Oz driving a car down the Santa Fe ski basin with his hands bound? Gone. Oz’s father used to be his grandfather and Harrison Smith used to be a man called Senator Humphrey. Confused? Imagine how I felt staring at the computer screen each morning.

But it happened…finally. Now Cold Case has joined the ranks of long-awaited elephants and Alpine black salamanders. Happy Birthday!