Once

I saw the most wonderful movie this afternoon—“Once,” an Irish film about a Dublin musician and a Czech girl who meet and change each others’ lives. It’s a sweet, lovely story that doesn’t feel at all staged. It’s more like we’re eavesdropping on these people’s lives. It’s not a movie for children. Not that there’s anything objectionable about it, save for a bit of language here and there. I just don’t think there’s enough action to keep kids involved.

But, oh, adults, treat yourselves to this. The music is incredible. I left the theatre and headed straight for the music store to buy the soundtrack. The songs are infectious and haunting, and now that I’m home and have been doing a bit of online research, I see why. Glen Hansard, who plays the Dublin musician, is apparently a huge star in Ireland, the lead singer and guitarist of the Irish band The Frames. I’m glad I finally know this. I’ve really been missing out on something terrific.

Go, Mrs. Holloway!

My son is in eighth grade, and Tuesday we went to Back-to-School Night. His language arts teacher handed out notes with a web address on it—for her teacher blog. She keeps a blog so she can list assignments, supplies they need, what they’re working on in class, and anything else students and parents need to know. What a great use for a blog!

More GMMC

I just got a (very) tentative schedule of events for the Great Manhattan Mystery Conclave, and I’m going to be on a panel with Diane Mott Davidson. How cool is that? The panel is “From Cooking to Basketry to Basketball: Weaving Passions into Plots.” So far the three panelists are Diane, who writes culinary mysteries, of course (the menu at the conference banquet will be based on recipes from her books—yum), Beth Groundwater, who writes mysteries about a woman who owns a gift basket business (and who is a lovely person—I met her at the first GMMC), and me (Airball, of course, is about basketball). This should be great fun.

GMMC

It’s no secret I love mysteries. And I’ve talked about the Great Manhattan Mystery Conclave before, but I wanted to mention it again because this year’s Conclave is coming up in about a month and a half. I am so looking forward to it.

This is a great mystery convention. It’s such a warm, friendly weekend, the perfect place to start if you’ve never been to a mystery convention and are a little nervous about attending. This year’s Guest of Honor is Diane Mott Davidson. Her books prove something I’ve long contended, that setting is one of the most important ingredients (for me, at least) in a mystery series. I love vicariously tootling about fictional Aspen Meadow, Colorado (based on the real Evergreen, Colorado, a picturesque town in the Rockies east of Denver) with main character Goldy Bear Schultz in her catering van as she stumbles over dead bodies. I love sitting in Goldy’s kitchen, sipping espresso as she whips up something sinfully chocolate while contemplating murder suspects.

This will be the fourth year for the Conclave, and my fourth year to attend. We always have a lots Kansans in attendance, of course, but conference-goers come from all over, even as far away as Hawaii. There’s always a big contingent of mystery lovers from Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. So if you live anywhere close and you love mysteries, this would be a wonderful way to spend a weekend. It will take place September 28–30, 2007.

Not to Beat the Topic of Nancy to Death, But. . .

. . . I’ve recently discovered the joys of eBay. And yes, it’s a dangerous place. I’ve been bidding on old Nancy Drew books and, to my surprise, I’ve actually won a few. No small feat since I really have no idea what I’m doing.

As the packages have arrived, I’ve realized that the passion I’ve had for those books since I was nine years old is still there, undiluted. I can’t even describe how much I loved Nancy, how I devoured each book straight through, without coming up for air or food or potty breaks. How, when I finished, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the next one.

The passion has been latent for a few years, but now, as I hold these books and feel the weight of them and look at the pictures (I love the blue multi-illustration endpapers—why can’t my books have glorious endpapers? Oh, yeah. They’re expensive to produce.), that feeling is still there. That pure love of a character and a story—or a series of stories. I’m sure it’s the same feeling young readers of Harry Potter have.

And I want to inspire that kind of love in readers. I don’t know what the magic is. The right combination of character, setting, and situation. Plus page-turning action. But I want to find it.

Okay. So I guess I know what my life’s goal is.

Author Breakfast

Wow. Wow, wow, wow. I had such a great time at the Reading Reptile Author Breakfast. First of all, Reading Reptile is a wonderful store, packed with children’s books, with enormous papier mâché children’s book characters—Lyle Crocodile, Kevin Henkes’s Lily (of Plastic Purse fame), Firehouse Dog, and dozens more—hanging from the ceiling, children’s book posters papering the ceiling, toys and reading nooks everywhere (including a little cupboard you can crawl into with a book—or at least, a child could crawl into with a book; an adult would find it a tight fit, which is probably the point), and an orange cat who likes to be scratched. Plus Debbie and Pete’s adorable kids, who have been pretty much raised in the bookstore. It’s Book Heaven. It’s where I would have like to have been raised.

And the breakfast was such fun. Deb and Pete, the owners, managed, somehow, to squeeze in enough tables to seat 60+ people, and after a yummy meal, the authors took turns telling about “My Pet,” which was truly a delight. Each author’s presentation was funny and entertaining, from Jenny Whitehead’s movie about Aubrey the demon cat (yes! a real movie) to Eric Brace’s and Shane Evans’s slide shows, to Lisa Campbell Ernst’s hilarious reenactment of reading books to her hamster.

Deb and Pete plan to make this an annual event, so if you live anywhere close to Kansas City, give yourself a treat and attend next year’s breakfast.

Reading Reptile

Kansas City is very lucky to have the Reading Reptile, a fabulous children’s bookstore in the charming Brookside area, and I’m very lucky to have been invited to the Reading Reptile’s Summer Author Breakfast this Saturday, July 14. It’s an opportunity for authors and other children’s booklovers to hang out together while eating great food (breakfast is my favorite meal), and I’ll be there with authors and illustrators Jenny Whitehead, Pete Whitehead, Laura Huliska-Beith, Lisa Campbell Ernst, Eric Brace, Cheryl Harness, Shane W. Evans, and Christine Taylor-Butler, so I know I’ll have a great time.

Here is a link to last Sunday’s Kansas City Star article about the breakfast. The event is already sold out, but the owners of Reading Reptile are already making plans for next year’s breakfast, which will take place in a larger venue so that more people can attend.

A Little Space

I finally dragged my Neanderthal self into the twenty-first century and put up a MySpace page. Here’s the URL if anyone wants to take a peek:

www.myspace.com/ldharkrader

For writers (or anyone else) who are thinking of putting up a MySpace page but feel overwhelmed by the whole thing, hey, I was right there with you a couple days ago. I would get onto MySpace, then quickly scurry off again because I found it all too confusing. But if you poke around, things start to make sense, and already—two days later—I’m convinced the time I invested (and it does take a bit of time to set up and start inviting friends) was worth it.

To my friends list I’ve added other writers—some I already knew and others who are new to me—plus libraries, teen library advisors, ALA, YALSA, Sisters in Crime, and Astrokitty, a comic book shop in Lawrence I didn’t even know existed until I found their MySpace page. I’ve since visited the shop in person, and it’s a great place. Lots of comics and comics collectibles, staffed by friendly comic book geeks who really know their stuff and don’t mind having a children’s writer pick their brains. This is handy since it turns out the main character of my next novel is also a comic book geek who really knows his stuff.

At first I was shy about inviting anyone I didn’t already know to be a MySpace friend, but now I’m becoming brazen. I’ve even invited Paul McCartney. Not that I think Sir Paul is actually maintaining—or even looking at—his own MySpace page. But my rule of thumb is, if you get the opportunity to be friends—any kind of friends—with Paul McCartney, take it. He hasn’t responded yet, but I’m optimistic.

If You Love Nancy Like I Love Nancy. . .

. . . treat yourself to the new Nancy Drew movie. It’s a delight. The casting is wonderful. Emma Roberts is perfect as the intrepid, unflappable Nancy, and Tate Donovan and Max Thieriot are equally perfect as her father, Carson Drew, and her boyfriend, the long-suffering Ned. The mystery is compelling, with Nancy trying to solve the twenty-five-year-old murder of the glamorous movie star who used to live in the house she and her father rent while he’s on temporary assignment in L.A., and while Nancy fans may be disappointed that Bess, George, and Hannah only rate a small appearance at the beginning of the movie, her new friend Corky (played by Josh Flitter) is the perfect wise-cracking foil to Nancy’s single-minded, rule-following approach to crime solving.

The story, too, strikes the perfect balance between honoring the Nancy Drew tradition and having fun with—without making fun of—it. Nancy still sports her traditional look—knee socks, penny loafers, sweater sets, and lots and lots of plaid—but she looks great in it, and even fashionable in a totally Nancy way. She finds secret passageways, is always prepared with a flashlight and compass, and remains completely oblivious to any romantic notions Ned may have in mind. And no matter what she attempts, Nancy, as always, is better at it than anybody else. In math class she knows the answer to every question. In gym class, she outruns every other girl on the track, while remaining well-groomed and cheerful. In woodshop, while the other students construct roughly-hewn key holders, she builds a replica of Notre Dame Cathedral, appologizing to her teacher because she “only had time for twelve flying buttresses. In actuality, there are twenty-six.”

The movie is hilarious at times, with Nancy saying things like (when her father forbids her to do any more sleuthing): “I understand his concern. There was that whole hostage situation.” And (when the bad guys attempt to run her down with a car): “Usually when people try to kill me, it means I’m on to something.” And (when she finds a suspicious ticking mechanism in the back seat of her blue roadster): “Excuse me. I need to go defuse this bomb.”

I enjoyed every minute of this movie and hope there’s a sequel. Or even, dare I wish, a. . . series. I’ve loved Nancy Drew since my mom (who read Nancy when she was a girl) gave me The Hidden Staircase and The Bungalow Mystery for Christmas. No, wait. I didn’t just love Nancy; I wanted to be Nancy. I grew up in the 70s, at a time when girls were still being told they couldn’t do everything boys could do, and here was Nancy, proving them all wrong. Devouring Nancy Drew books was one of the things that first made me want to be—and think I could be—a writer.

And I’m seriously thinking about buying some knee socks, penny loafers, and a plaid headband.

Mysteries on PBS

Summer is the time when most network TV shows wind down, but on PBS, two of my favorite shows are just winding up. “Mystery!” has already started running on Sunday nights and this year includes episodes of “Foyle’s War,” a truly engrossing series starring the thoroughly watchable Michael Kitchen and Honeysuckle Weeks as Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Foyle and his driver, Samantha Stewart, solving mysteries on the homefront (the British homefront, of course) during World War II.

This Monday, June 25 (but check your local listings because PBS shows can vary), the new season of “History Detectives” begins, starring four experts in history, art history, and art appraisal who track down the real history behind folklore, artifacts, family legends, and heirlooms. Example: A woman owns bullets her family believes were recovered from the bodies of Bonnie and Clyde. The history detectives go to work, finding out if the family story is true, and if not, what the real story is. Many times the legends about the objects are not true, but the real story turns out to be fascinating.