Government Loans for Mystery Writers—Not!

This is as nutty as I get, folks. My latest post at the Sleuthsayers mystery blog today is heavily inspired by the government loans the U.S. feds are handing out to…well, just about anyone these days, if only to keep the economy going.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if writers—specifically mystery writers—could carve off a piece of that action? Well, now they can!

Please check it out, if you’re so inclined.

The link to the blog post is here.

If you like my work, kindly consider bookmarking Sleuthsayers. The next post will be in three weeks.

If you’re looking for reading material during this hellish time, I hope you’ll consider one of my books or my wife’s. If ever there was a time for escapism, it’s now!

The e-book versions of both of my two most recent books, Murder on Book Row and the fantasy novel, Sorceress Kringle, are available at almost every online retailer. You can order print copies at the usual suspects online, or autographed copies from Malaprop’s, the bookstore in my nabe.

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Book “collage” photo credit: Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Hacker News readers weigh in on my 2000 Discover article

Back in January I told you how an article I wrote for Discover magazine in the year 2000 was suddenly back in the news, garnering, among other things, a mention in a CNN piece. That same Discover story was recently re-discovered by a slew of readers at the computer science news site, Hacker News, sparking a thread of nearly 150 comments.

The thread is here, if you want to check it out.

A reminder: The 20-year-old Discover story asked scientists, physicians, and other experts to predict what life would be like in 2020. “What You’ll Need to Know in 2020 That You Don’t Know Now,” appeared in the September 2000 issue of the science magazine. Among other things, we reported that in 2020 we’d need to know how to talk to our homes, that we’d fret a lot about our online reputations, and we’d need to have our irises scanned to board aircraft. All sorta, kinda true, as the folks discussing it on this thread point out.

There are certainly some quibbles among the comments, which is what makes these kind of things interesting.

Does that mean I’m an “old” writer?

“Prepare Yourself for 2020”

If you’re interested, my original story lives on the Discover magazine website.

The CNN article is here. (My article is mentioned late in the piece.)

If you’re into science, my Discover story also appears in my nonfiction book, The Scientist and the Sociopath, which is a collection of my best science writing.

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I hope you liked this post. If you want to stay better in touch, please consider signing up for my newsletter. I use that platform to talk about various writing projects, and upcoming books. As a thank you for subscribing, you’ll get a handful of ebooks, including one that you can’t get anywhere else.

Credit: Crystal ball image by Sasha • Stories on Unsplash

Please check out my article at Sleuthsayers, the mystery blog

Well, that sure went south fast, didn’t it?

My wife and I have been in lockdown for 30+ days, and I’m sure it’s as weird for us as it is for everyone who is doing the same. We’re professional writers/freelancers who have been working from home for nearly 20 years, so at first blush this type of life should not be THAT strange. But this is distinctly different.

We’re working as best we can, and to that end, I’m trying to keep everyone in the loop about my work.

I’m happy to announce that I’m now a regular blogger at Sleuthsayers, a blog run largely by mystery writers. My first official post went up Friday, talking about a recent book event I attended. My wife, Denise Kiernan, had the pleasure of interviewing Erik Larson, probably the nation’s greatest practitioner of narrative nonfiction. He’s probably best known for his book, The Devil in the White City. But the new book—entitled The Splendid and the Vile—is about the leadership of Winston Churchill during the Blitz of 1940-41. Since leadership during national crises seems to be The Issue of the moment, I thought I’d share my takeaways on their talk.

The link to the blog post is here.

Feel free to bookmark Sleuthsayers. I’ll be appearing there every three weeks. The next post will be end of the month.

Beyond that, I will try to post at my website more often, as I’m finding it’s quite important to share my opinions on what I see, hear, feel. Books, music, art—the hallmarks of civilization—are all the more critical.

If you’re looking for reading material during this time, I hope you’ll consider one of Erik’s books, Denise’s, or one of mine. (See below.) Escapism rules!

Author Erik Larson in conversation with Denise Kiernan.

Later, gang—and here’s hoping we’ll all be able to breathe safely in each other’s presence again real soon.

Book “collage” photo credit: Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

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The e-book versions of both of my two most recent books, Murder on Book Row and the fantasy novel, Sorceress Kringle, are available at almost every online retailer. You can order print copies at the usual suspects online, or autographed copies from Malaprop’s, the bookstore in my nabe.

Talking About My Story in Alfred Hitchcock's Magazine

I did a guest post at the mystery writers blog, Sleuthsayers, this week, on the subject of the origins behind my latest short story in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

The story is called “The Detective Who Stopped By Bedford Street,” and it appears in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of the popular mystery magazine.

But as usual, the story behind the story reaches back (in part) to my childhood growing up in New Jersey. The other part has to do with thriller movies, an old John Cheever story, and a particular New York City shop I used to walk past on my way to work at Scholastic back in the day.

The link to the blog post is here.

If nothing else, you’ll get to see an old postcard I found of my hometown back in the day. Check it out, if you have an interest in such things.

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Just a reminder: the e-book versions of both of my two most recent books, Murder on Book Row and the fantasy novel, Sorceress Kringle, are available at almost every online retailer. You can order print copies at the usual suspects online, or autographed copies from Malaprop’s, the bookstore in my nabe.

Leon Sherman, Auschwitz survivor and family friend, shares his story

Leon Sherman (ABC NEWS)

One of my father’s friends was featured in an ABC news feature back in January, and I’m just learning of it now. When I was growing up, Leon Sherman was a fixture in the circle of friends my father cultivated from his work in New York’s Garment District.

My brothers and I can recall wondering why Mr. Sherman had these little blue numbers tattooed on his forearm. And one day, when we were old enough to understand, he began to share his stories with us whenever he dropped by to visit my father.

Mr. Sherman is now 101 years young, and sharing his story on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Mr. Sherman is unusual in that he is one of those people who had experiences at more than one camp.

The story video and surprisingly detailed article is here if you care to check it out.

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Images: Mr Sherman courtesy ABC NEWS

Flower and train tracks photo by Albert Laurence on Unsplash

That Time I Predicted the Future–and CNN noticed…

Before January 2020 slips away, I should probably talk about how I ended up mentioned in a CNN article five days into this New Year. Before the old year ended, I started getting emails from various people–reporters, educators, others–asking me to comment on an article I wrote for Discover twenty freaking years ago.

In the year 2000, I wrote an article that predicted what life would be like in 2020. “What You’ll Need to Know in 2020 That You Don’t Know Now,” appeared in the September 2000 issue of the science magazine. Among other things, I wrote that in 2020 we’d need to know how to talk to our homes, that we’d fret a lot about our online reputations, and we’d need to have our irises scanned to board aircraft.

Am I a genius prognosticator and futurist? Hardly. I was just a reporter who interviewed a bunch of really smart people. As I recall, when the editors of the magazine hired me to write the story, they already had the title in mind but weren’t 100 percent sure that it would bear fruit. My editor and I drew up a list of scientists the magazine had worked with or had interviewed in the recent past, and set me free to contact as many as I could and ask them how they saw the future shaping up.

“Prepare Yourself for 2020”

At the time I thought some of the predictions were off the wall. The one about cleaning up our digital reputations, for example, seemed nutty to me. But in the year 2000, I had been surfing the web for all of three years. Social media as we knew it didn’t exist. Facebook wasn’t created until four years after my article, but geniuses like virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier, quoted in my story, were already thinking about how such platforms would alter the way we interact with others and how we think of ourselves.

When I look at the article today, it feels like a lot of predictive literature—it’s only accurate if you look at it a certain way. Yes, some of us are talking to our homes, but does Alexa count? Some of us are having our irises scanned to get preferential TSA treatment, but most of us are shlepping our way through security the old-school way.

Actually, strike that. Not a single one of the scientists and thinkers I interviewed predicted 9/11—an event that occurred eleven months from the publication of that magazine issue. Indeed, none of the articles written by my fellow reporters in that futures issue predicted that a single act of terrorism would forever alter American life, security, and so on.

So I can completely understand the tone of the CNN article that gently mocks the predictions of futurists.

Anyway, if you’re interested, my original story lives on the Discover magazine website.

The CNN article is here. (My article is mentioned late in the piece.)

And here’s just a random article about how science fiction writers imagined the 2020s.

If you’re into science, my Discover story also appears in my nonfiction book, The Scientist and the Sociopath, which is a collection of my best science writing.

Here’s to a wonderful 2020 for all of us, and to a future most of us have barely imagined.

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I hope you liked this post. If you want to stay better in touch, please consider signing up for my newsletter. I use that platform to talk about various writing projects, and upcoming books. As a thank you for subscribing, you’ll get a handful of ebooks, including one that you can’t get anywhere else.

Credit: Crystal ball image by Sasha • Stories on Unsplash

Advent Ghosts 2019

Today I’m participating in the 100-word #adventghosts2019 flash fiction event run by writer Loren Eaton. You'll find links to all the stories at his blog, I Saw Lightning Fall. Here’s my piece.

Town Square on a Midnight Clear

As the carolers sang, Betty considered just how little God cared. Long ago she had learned that she was irrelevant.

Summoning that power now, she pressed past the singers to the unlit balsam. No one saw her pull the paper bag from her purse. No one watched her hang her great-uncle’s shrunken head on a bough, the old sinner’s sand-filled eyes and mouth stitched tight with waxed green monofilament.

Claude had loved Christmas (and children) a little too much.

No one watched the stranger in the boring car coat drive away, leaving town for good. She was invisible.

Copyright 2019 Joseph D’Agnese

My previous contributions to the Advent Ghosts events are here: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016.

Photo by Seoyeon Choi via Unsplash

Look for my new story in Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine!

You’ll find a new short story of mine, “The Detective Who Stopped by Bedford Street,” in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The hard-copy issue hits newsstands today, December 17. Digital issues are already available.

"The Detective Who" is set in New York City during an unspecified decade. A detective uses an unconventional method to crack murder cases. It’s a story inspired in part by the old John Cheever short story, “The Enormous Radio.” Mine’s probably more a work of fantasy than mystery, but it was fun writing.

You can buy digital issues via B&N, Kindle, Google Play, Apple, Magzster, and Kobo. All the links are here at Hitchcock’s website. If you want to check out my story, make sure you are downloading the issue shown here.

Submissions stats: I finished this story sometime in Jan 2018, but it did not find a home until Hitchcock’s bought it in June 2018. They took 109 days to say yes, and the story is appearing about 17 months from acceptance. Payment was $350.

Yes, I will someday release an e-book version of of the story, which I’ll offer free to readers on my list. If you’d rather wait for the free copy, please join my e-newsletter.

Radio Photo by Felipe Belluco via Unsplash

Eight Arguments for a Female Santa Claus

My new historical fantasy novel about a female Santa Claus pubs today–the eve of St. Nicholas–and I thought I’d take the time to lay out the case for a female Santa Claus, and maybe clarify (if only to myself) how I even came up with such an idea. Some thoughts on the subject follow, and with it, I hope, some insight into this writer’s mind and process.

1. I think the seeds of the idea are rooted in my childhood. My mom grew up in Italy believing not in Santa Claus but in La Befana—a broom-riding female witch who brought presents to children on the eve of the Epiphany, i.e., the day the Magi encountered the Christ child in the manger. When Denise and I lived briefly in Italy, we’d see these adorable Befana dolls sold in Christmas markets in Rome.

2. It took me six years and three rewrites to get this book right. During that time, I learned that researching the history of Christmas sometimes feels like partaking in a massive, multi-century, international game of telephone, where language is constantly being corrupted and reframed for new purposes. The German-named Christkindl is a traditional European gift-bringer who is a kind of fae-like personification of the Christ child. But you could not ask for a more gender-ambiguous name than its corruption: Kris Kringle.

3. Similarly, the name Santa Claus is a corruption of the Dutch Sinterklaas (i.e., Saint Nicholas). But when I was growing up, my mom always referred to female saints as Santa Maria, Santa Teresa, Santa Cecilia. Male saints were San Francisco, San Giuseppe, etc. To my early mind, a Santa anyone was female unless otherwise noted.

4. I love the work of writer Washington Irving, who inserted a gift-giving St. Nicholas into his early 19th-century satirical history of New York City, so much so that one historian flat-out said, “Without Irving there would be no Santa Claus.” A couple of years after Irving’s book pubbed, the Dec. 28, 1815 edition of the New York Evening Post took a different tack, trotting out a female Santa Claus, dubbing her “Queen and Empress of the Court of Fashions.” Scans of the original article are a little hard to read (and the content sexist) but you can get the gist here.

5. My wife spent seven years researching women’s work during World War II. Among the many jobs women performed when men were off fighting in the war was the role of department store Santas. This did not always go over well with traditionalists during that era, leading to the over-the-top newspaper editorials described in this 2017 article in Smithsonian.

6. WWII was long gone by the time I arrived on the scene, but as a kid, I’m certain I sat on the lap of many a female Santa. More to the point, I’ve always thought that Santa’s look was outrageously…suspicious. Overdetermined, if you will. When someone dresses like they’re trying to hide something, they probably are. Why couldn’t the real Santa be a woman in drag?

7. In her book, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, author Karen Abbott investigates Confederate women spies during the Civil War. In one of her talks, Abbott, a friend, said that one of these women successfully passed as a man simply by donning men’s clothing. In 19th century America, that’s all it took. If you wore trousers, you had to be a dude, because what else could you possibly be? In my book, Kringle intentionally hides her identity, like any superhero, and takes up arms to defend the people she loves. Throughout history women fought in battle–disguised as men or otherwise–though the practice has strangely been ignored by us supposedly open-minded moderns, as brilliantly explored in this now-famous essay.

8. Last year, a viral news story raised the notion of a gender-neutral Santa, and Snopes had to step in to set the record straight. But academics have actually probed the notion, pointing out that most of the work of Christmas cheer, not to mention the nurturing of children and other family members, is still performed by women.

So there’s some of my thinking on the matter. As I’ve said the whole time I’ve been working on this book, I can’t really picture an elderly obese dude willingly leaving his cozy man-cave on a cold winter’s night to ride in a drafty open sleigh. There’s no question in my mind: the big man is not a man at all, and never has been.

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If you’re interested, you can check out the first chapter of the new book here. Thanks for stopping by.