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The Little Things
So, so happy this week.
My bedroom is gorgeous. Stunning. Breathtaking. Everything I wanted it to be. It was even worth the primer and FOUR subsequent coats of paint. Yes, I decided it needed an extra one. I’d post pictures, but some things are better left to the imagination, particularly when it comes to dens of iniquity.
The weather has finally cooled–no more hundred degree days and I can sleep with open windows instead of fake air conditioning air.
My library (which now has a couch in just the right spot) is heaven on earth and I can write surrounded by books when I get tired of looking at the walls in my office.
In the past few days, I’ve had really good Thai food with a great bottle of wine, invented and perfected The World’s Best Panini®, and am now sitting here trying to solve the great mystery before me: Why is it necessary to eat obscene quantities of pralined pecans while going over a copy edited manuscript?
But my week is going so well, I even know the answer to that: Because there are no Doritos in the house.
Life is good. Well. Not as good as it would be with Doritos, but I’m not going to be too demanding.
My favorite moment, though, was when the beautiful, talented and endlessly charming Kristy Kiernan called to ask me if I knew that couscous expands when it’s cooked. I’m going to go on the record right now and support a statement she’s been making to me for some time: She should never have to cook.
In fact, if you have even the slim beginnings of a heart, you’ll pull up a chair for her and hand her a drink while you whip up something for her to eat. Not sure what will quench her thirst? You’ve come to the right place; it’s Virtual Cocktail time….
With us this week is Joe Moore, who along with co-author Lynn Sholes, writes the Cotten Stone mysteries, stories jam-packed with action. Joe’s a great guy–I had the pleasure of being on a panel he moderated at ThrillerFest. Check out a picture here. Joe did a fantastic job as did my fellow panelists, Robert Gregory Browne, Brett Battles, Ali Karim, and Karen Dionne. I was a tad short on beauty sleep, but at least my hair was decent. Heh.
At any rate, I’m thrilled to be back with Joe. Ready to make his drink? Kristy’s waiting….
Joe’s Perfectly Golden Margaritas
1 10oz can of Bacardi frozen Margarita mix
5 ounces of Jose Quervo Gold tequila
5 ounces of Grand Marnier (substitute Triple Sec if you’re on a budget)
Mr. & Mrs. T Margarita Salt
Wedge of lime
Empty frozen mix into blender
Use frozen mix container to measure tequila (fill half) and pour into blender
Use the same container to measure orange liqueur and add to mix
Add enough crushed ice to fill blender (always add ice last)
Blend until smooth
Pour generous amount of margarita salt in a circle on a saucer
Rub lime wedge around lip of margarita glass to moisten rim
Dip glass rim in salt
Carefully pour frosty margarita without disturbing salt
Enjoy!
TASHA: If you could find one of the following which would you pick and why: Holy Grail, Ark of the Covenant, Jimmy Hoffa’s body.
JOE: We already found the Grail in THE GRAIL CONSPIRACY, and the Ark made a quick but dramatic appearance in our latest thriller THE HADES PROJECT. So it would have to be Jimmy. Here’s my reasoning. I don’t know why but I like Geraldo Rivera. I felt sorry for him when he opened Al Capone’s vault only to reach the lowest point of his broadcasting career. My theory is that it wasn’t really AC’s true vault but a doppelganger. I bet the real vault is somewhere in Chicago and is actually where Jimmy’s buried. I would want Geraldo beside me when we find it so he could get his dignity back. God knows he doesn’t have much left.
ANN: Which circle of hell do you think would be the worst?
JOE: Despite Dante’s famous nine circles, the worst is the one he missed completely: I285 that circles Atlanta.
CARRIE: What’s been the most satisfying thing to happen to you since you became a published author?
JOE: Two things actually: 1. At a party, James Patterson walked up and introduced himself to me. 2. A stranger told me that THE LAST SECRET changed her life.
DANIELLE: What’s the strangest thing that’s happened to you at a book signing?
JOE: I was in a Border’s men’s room washing my hands. An elderly man hobbled in. He didn’t realize I was the author when he commented on our signing event going on at the front of the store and said that he wouldn’t be caught dead reading “those kind” of books. So naturally, I said, “Yeah, me neither.”
TASHA: Cotten Stone v. Indiana Jones: Who wins? (And don’t tell me Indy won’t hit a girl….)
JOE: This is just another variation on the Alien vs. Predator controversy. My take is that anything with acid for blood always wins; period. Regarding Cotten, she is a daughter of a fallen angel, and even though her blood isn’t acid, it could be considered “heavenly”. And by my calculations, Indy is pushing 100 years old–remember he fought the Nazis in 1936. So all CS has to do is walk into his room at the rest home and pull the plug. She doesn’t spill a drop of her blood and not even his bull whip could get him out of that one.
BILL: What’s the most interesting trend you’re seeing in crime fiction these days?
JOE: I don’t read crime fiction so I’m unqualified to answer. But in general, the biggest trend I see is the exploding use of electronic media that writers are using to market their work. This blog is an excellent example along with YouTube videos, book trailers, websites, podcasting, MySpace, social networking sites like CrimeSpace and Helium, and the hundreds of other avenues of communications that pop up each day.
CARRIE: Tell us a bit about working with your co-writer. How do you operate as a team?
JOE: Prior to collaborating on our first book, Lynn Sholes and I spend almost 10 years as friends in a weekly writer’s critique group. So by the time we decided to writer together, there were few issues or surprises in dealing with ego, writing styles or author voice. We already knew what our individual strengths and weaknesses were and our goal was to capitalize on them. The result was THE GRAIL CONSPIRACY which was named Book-Of-The-Year by ForeWord Magazine. It became an international bestseller and has been translated into 21 languages worldwide.
When we first started, we worked in a linear fashion. Not so much any more. Currently, we’re half way through writing our fourth thriller in the Cotten Stone series called BLACK NEEDLES. Because we constantly brainstorm and plan our story in such detail, it’s not unusual for us to hop around and drop into the story at any point where one of us has a “handle” on the scene or chapter. I might be drafting chapter 52 while Lynn is revising 35 with few chapters in between. And we always know how the story ends pretty much from the start.
We are separated by hundreds of miles, so we collaborate electronically. Aside from an occasional signing, workshop or conference, we rarely are in the same place together. We conference call daily and burn up our email connection with attached drafts of our current chapter. There’s never any writer’s block or lack of ideas and solutions.
Lynn and I work well together. But I would not recommend collaborating on fiction to anyone else unless their goal was to wind up in prison for capital murder.
ANN: What would be your ideal location from which to write?
JOE: A laptop with a broadband WiFi connection in Tahiti.
A million thanks to Joe for joining us today! Be sure to check out his books—his latest, The Hades Project, hit stores this month and is available everywhere. You know you need a copy. Or two.
Please take a moment to answer the questions he’s so kindly left for us:
Why are purchasing tires and car batteries such a mysterious black art?
Is using a MAC really easier than a PC?
When a cow laughs, does milk come out its nose?
Why is it called chili?
When you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn?
Since high school, has anyone ever used trigonometry?
Tune in next week when we’ll be up to something fun and delightful. Don’t ask me what; I’ve not yet planned that far ahead. Been too busy making paninis. Sue me. But I promise, it’ll be good….
xo
Tasha
Fabulus margarita and interview!