Tag Archives: Janet Reid

NYMysteries Aug. 6 – Aug. 11

It’s been a busy week in hot and humid NYC. 

The annual Frick Staff Education Day was held on Monday.  Emma Capron, the 2016–18 Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow and an authority on Netherlandish art, gave a talk and slide show on The Charterhouse at Bruges: Jan van Eyck, Petrus Christius and Jan Vos. It was a tasty preview of the special exhibition opening on September 18. There were a variety of activities for Staff Education Day: a discussion about the future of the Boucher Room, a demonstration of sun printing and painting faux marble. Shadow profile portraiture was a popular activity in George Washington’s time. This activity ties in with the current Canova’s George Washington exhibit. Participants created their own examples.  There was also bowling. Let us not forget that in the early 20th century no mansion was complete without a bowling alley. The Frick’s is a beauty – all polished wood. The Staff Art Exhibition, Exquisite Corpse, was a knock out.

A friend and I visited the Morgan Library. After a very tasty lunch of cold soup, deviled eggs and delicious pinot grigio, we went to Morgan’s wonderful library on the first floor.

J. P. Morgan’s Library

On Friday I went to the first of three days of the Writers Digest 2018 Conference. Today was  dedicated to query letters. Janet Reid has been educating and terrorizing writers for years. QueryShark.blogspot.com. is where she lays down the law about writing in general and query letters in particular. Her talk was witty, biting and cogent. Paula Munier gave an interesting session on Beginnings: Your first 10 pages. There was lots of talk about pitching i.e. selling your story to an agent in 90 seconds. Tomorrow, I do it. Groan. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned a murder case at the  prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed while Kulchek was buying cigarettes? Escaping an attempted car bombing?  His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

Graphic Lessons: What do a teacher, a nine-year-old and an eighteen year old have in common? Murder. Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old, the only witness to the stabbing and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man..

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Mary Jo Robertiello

http://www.nymysteries.com

New York Mysteries  Aug. 18— Aug. 26

I attended the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference at the Hilton. Aug. 18-20. I had promised myself that I’d be fully engaged. That meant no kindle reading, no distractions about physical appearance. (She’s fatter than me. She’s thinner than me. She’s younger than me, She’s older than me.) No day dreaming about lunch. It worked. Full marks to Writer’s Digest and the Hilton for superb organization. Discussed topics were under the headings: Getting Published, Platform and Promotion, The Business of Being an Author, Craft, Genre Studies. The hour long sessions were discussions by the speakers followed by Q & A. Along with hundreds of others I attended Ask the Agents. Barbara Poelle, Janet Reid, Abby Zidle and Jessica Strawser spelled out the difficult task of getting an agent and gave solid advice about does and don’ts. Later in the day, Janet Reid gave an informative and hilarious session about effective query letters. Most of the participants were attending Pitch Slam. Throughout the day, a long line formed outside one of the conference halls. Inside, agents were seated at tiny desks. Each applicant was given three minutes to sell the project to an agent. I didn’t do a Pitch knowing that I’d only focus on that. A frightening thought: are there more writers than readers?

NYC Eclipse prep

 

When I was in Oregon in July, the state was gearing up for the eclipse. Friends and I went to a talk about eastern Oregon having orchestra seats for the event. Meanwhile in NYC, on Aug. 21 at about 2:26 EST people gathered on sidewalks and looked up.

 

 

Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-five-year-old widow Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a stabbed and dying man in the school kitchen, deals with the only witness to the stabbing – a troubled nine-year-old, develops a crush on a NYPD detective and her dog dies.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears three people fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie.

Graphic Lessons: Something’s eating at NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek: a failed marriage? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case? It doesn’t matter because he’s relentless.