Mystery Author

I'm liking Matt more and more, and he has such a shy, happy smile. Plus, he does what I do when I miss a question (answer?): duck my head while I [lightly] smack the side of it with my hand. I agree with whomever said Lavar is trying too hard, but I don't care. I still 💗 him. Nobody has mentioned oar vs. paddle. So I will.

I like the champ (sorry - not sorry), but then I liked Austin Rogers <ducking> Me. Me. Waving hand in air. Yes, on wondering how to use my knuckles to count in base 60, LOL. But then, I use my fingers to count things like, oh, say, the days of the week.

Patrick did not have a buzzer issue. Patrick did not have a clue, pun intended. Another not-an-Austin fan here, but Jeopardy! loves her, along with LM Alcott and EA Poe. Oh, how I heart Lavar Burton. PS- I'm almost finished writing the novel I'm dedicating to the J! Forum. For the record, it's genre, a history-mystery, not even CLOSE to P&P or Emma. Or Wuthering Heights :) PPS- I wrote "genre" in an AT voice.

Happy belated birthday. Saber...

Thanks, Saber5055. Same to you and the rest of my "family" here in Forum Land. I'll try and communicate better, forum-wise, next season...if there is a next season. There has to be. They can socially distance (new verb) the jeptestants, right? They don't NEED an audience. Meanwhile, my history-mystery, The Horse Dancer, the novel I dedicated to the forum is finished and with my publisher. Except...my publisher is closed down for 3-6 months (or more), thanks to the pandemic, so I'm not even under contract yet :( Mr. Author said Toni Morrison. I said Maya Angelou. Then I turned to Mr. Author and said, "Hey, you're not just a pretty face!" Here, we are all pretty faces!

Re: FJs: Mr. Author got McClellan right away because, said he, there's a McClellan saddle. Who knew? I got The Ten Commandments. My dad, who was in advertising and worked in Manhattan, took me on a "real date." We ate at a restaurant whose menu had no prices and Dad had tickets to The Ten Commandments. They were for the first row. The movie was shot in "Vista Vision." Did I mention that I was a little kid? Tale of Two Cities was easy-peasy. My mind supplied the best of times, worst of times.

And I kept thinking: Do they allow bathroom breaks? I guessed Madison since that's where I attended college. Then I un-guessed Madison because that's where I attended college.

I couldn't yell anything tonight since my voice was gone from yelling TUDOR, sheesh. What's really ironic? His name is Rex --- [Latin for] KING. Heh!

I knew FJ because I researched boxing for one of my historical novels, and if I never write another fight scene again, it'll be too soon! Re: Mary Higgins Clark (RIP - she was a sweetheart and a real lady). Her daughter Carol and I did a booksigning together. I sat next to Carol. Everyone (and I do mean everyone) would hand her a book to sign and, at the same time, say, "Are you related to Mary Higgins Clark?" Carol would say yes and they'd say something like, "Ooh, I LOVE your mother's books" or "Tell your mom how much I enjoy her books." I told Carol she should reply, "No, I'm not related. I just like the last name Higgins Clark, so I decided to use it." She laughed and said, "They are buying my books, aren't they?"

Thank you, thank you. I graduated from the U of Wisconsin, so knew Pabst started in Milwaukee, but for the life of me couldn't think of 'Schlitz' and then forgot to google 'the beer that made Milwaukee famous.' I even visualized Laverne (RIP Penny) and Shirley, but that was Shotz Beer. I really, really like Travis, love his sense of humor, so hopefully he's not doomed.

I didn't like "Bridges of Self Indulgent County," either. Funny story. I was hired to ghost-write a novel "just like the Bridges of Madison County." So my first draft was a story about adultery. The woman who hired me (via my agent) was shocked. Adultery?! No way! BOMC was "a sweet love story." Her husband had even called her from the airport. He was bawling. She asked why and he said he'd just finished BOMC. Oh-kay. One sweet love story coming up...

Not shallow at all. I felt the same. And so did Mr. Author. "I'll take blah-blah-blah for two hun-dread." Argh.

I was brought up in NYC and thought Canada was a suburb of New York :-) Flash forward: I met a fellow author through an on-line writers org. We collaborated on a book, fell in love, and he asked me to marry him. I said I should meet him first. Born in Canada, he lived in Tasmania. I, by now a Coloradan, spent a month in Oz. We sold our houses, Mr. Author bought a house on Vancouver Island, and the day he closed on the house was the very first time I stepped foot in Canada. We got married at a writers conference (in Vancouver) 27 days later, and recently celebrated our 19th anniversary.

I did not get FJ. Even knowing the answer, I don't think I'd get it :-) I like Veronica. Confession: I've met Peter Benchley. . . .well, I met him before he died. . . and I saw Jaws inside a leaky theater in Princeton, where Peter lived, but I couldn't answer the clue on J! Favorite Peter Benchley quote: "If man doesn't learn to treat the oceans and the rain forest with respect, man will become extinct."

And it became a bestseller through word-of-mouth, not reviews, etc. However, Carr was a one and done. His second book. . .how to put this politely. . . sucked. Fingerprints, not DNA, is the reason I prefer to write history-mysteries.

Rats! The "submit reply" is playing silly buggers with me tonight. For one thing, it won't let me quote. I agree that Teebax was adorable and Shouty McShouty annoying. I had a good first round, okay second round, and as soon as I saw the FJ category I bet nothing, zero, stood pat (whatever that means). Even standing pat (whatever that means) with every cent of my imaginary money, I wouldn't have outscored Karen. I think Karen looks like a young Valerie Bertinelli.

I doubt it since the clue had the word...complain?...in it (someone please correct me if that's wrong). Obviously, my 2 musicals are over (Mamma Mia and GRINCHED) and I've returned to the fold, whatever that means. Something with sheep?

Don't you mean "Book larnin' ain't all that anyways"? (Cringing at anyways!)

Cuba and Paris did it for me. Hemingway is one of the names I mention when people ask me who inspired my writing (Stephen King and Rosemary Rogers are 2 others <g>). Me, too. Mr. Author likes to watch shows like 48 Hours and Dateline, where the cops (and practically everybody else) say lay for lie. "She was laying there." I picture a hen!

Finished our Mamma Mia run (I had a blast!) and I'm now rehearsing for the Christmas musical (Panto) GRINCHED. I'm catching J! every night, but usually too tired to post on the forum. Re: FJ: Ethel Rosenberg E. Roosevelt has to be one of the dumbest answers I've seen in a long time. I did the alphabet thing, got to A, thought Ayn, but might not have had time to write down Ayn Rand. Me: "Why don't they have a MEN AUTHOR category?" Mr. Author: "You say that every time."

I, too, was confused. How did Bull "blackmail" the rep into paying the $4M?

Me, too, re Disney and Books, though I can't brag about Disney. It was teen...little kid easy, once they showed scenes. For FJ I said...wait for it...East of Eden, which I knew was wrong, but J! has used it in a book category mega-times (not in a "female" or "women" authors category, you understand--that they reserve for Austen or Alcott). Didn't they even use East of Eden during the TOC?

James Dean is coming back from the dead to star in a new movie?

Me, too. Except for Classic American plays, Tony-winning roles and...synonyms for black (I have looked up more than one syn for black while writing my books). I ran those categories and MIGHT have beat out James and Emma at the buzzer. Or not.

I did! LOL. Me, too. If you get ostracized, I'll go with you. The Austin love-hate reminds me of a university on-line readers-writers group I once belonged to. I know for a fact there were quite a few members who liked amateur sleuth (aka "cozy") mysteries and romances. But no one would admit it, going for the darker, "literary" novels. And now I'll confess. I did not like The Da Vinci Code.