September 2019 Newsletter

NEWSLETTER 2019 09

LIFE IN MEXICO

Linda and I are visiting Mary in San Miguel de Allende. The world heritage site is a colonial town, largely preserved from its glories in the 17^th century when it was a centre for silver mining in the High Sierra of central Mexico.

Mary has a cozy apartment in the Colonia of Guadalupe. We walk into Centro where the main Mercado is located. The covered marketplace is a riot of retailing, a myriad of stalls selling everything from wedding cakes and sombreros to figs and roast pig. Mary stops at a dairy stall and buys some overripe queso, a local cheese.

I catch a whiff. “Whoo! You going to kill rats with that?”

“Funny guy.” Mary stuffs it into her grocery cart. “I use it to make friends.”

Since Mexican President Obrador shut down gasoline thieves earlier in the year, the gangs have branched into extortion to make a living. Several restaurant owners in nearby Celaya had been murdered when they refused to sell drugs on their premises, and a number of cantinas in San Miguel closed their doors when faced with the same dilemma. Local citizens are on edge, and taking precautions.

We come across one safeguard as we return to Mary’s apartment. A pit-bull cross begins to growl and slather at us from the terrace on top of an adjacent home.

I just about jump out of my shoes in shock. “What the hell is that?”

“Roof dog.” Mary digs out the smelly cheese and flings it underhand in an arc. “It’s the cheapest way of protecting your home.”

The head of the dog disappears for a moment, then reappears, its large tongue licking its chops.

“How’d you like that?” shouts Mary.

“Roof!”

RECIPES FROM MY BOOKS

Mushroom & Pepperoni Pizza

From Runaway Bomb

Pizza is made everywhere around the world, but not everyone makes it the same. Mexicans love to eat pizza with green salsa instead of pizza sauce, for instance. I decided long ago that the easiest way to get exactly what I want is to cook it myself.

Ingredients

4 cups fine (OO) flour

1 tsp of salt

1 cup of warm water

1 packet of yeast

1 Tsp of sugar

4 mushrooms

16 pepperoni slices

1 cup shredded cheese

½ cup of mozzarella

For the sauce

1 jar of crushed Italian tomatoes

1 clove crushed garlic

3 Tsp of herb de Provence mix

1 tsp of salt

1 tsp ground pepper

Cooking Directions

Pre-heat your oven to 450 F.

Mix the fine flour (you can buy excellent pasta flour at your local Italian grocery), with a teaspoon of salt. Blend the yeast and sugar into slightly over one cup of warm water. Let the yeast rise for 15 minutes before mixing it in with the flour. Knead the dough for a few minutes until it takes on a soft, pliable texture. (If the dough feels too hard, add a little more water). Let rest for fifteen minutes on a cutting board.

While the dough is resting, cut the mushrooms into thin slices. I like to cut up mozzarella balls into thin slices to add, as well.

You can buy pizza sauce pre-mixed, but I like to make my own by mixing the crushed Italian tomatoes with garlic, dried herb de Provence mix, a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of ground pepper.

When the dough has risen, break into three portions, freezing two for later use. Roll out the dough ball into a crust roughly 12-in in diameter on a sheet of lightly floured parchment paper. You can leave the crust for 15 minutes to allow it to rise slightly, or you can immediately place the crust and parchment paper on a pizza tray and slide it into the oven to create a thin crust.

After 5 minutes, remove the crust and cover it with 5 tablespoons of pizza sauce, the pepperonis, mushrooms and cheese. Bake for 15 minutes, then cut it into 8 slices and serve immediately.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Thanks to everyone for supporting the launch of Runaway Bomb in August! You can download the eBook or buy the paperback at the following link:

Order your copy of Runaway Bomb here!

MURDER MYSTERIES THAT I LOVE

Where the Crawdads Sing

By Delia Owens,

Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons

This is a murder mystery set in the small coastal community in North Carolina during the 1960s. Barkley Cove is a sheltered port adjacent to the marshes and wetlands that extend for many miles to the south. The victim is Chase Andrews, son of a prominent local family and former high school athletic star. He is found one morning at the base of an abandoned fire tower outside of town, his body crushed.

Sherriff Ed Jackson and his deputy are stumped. There are no foot tracks in the mud around the body; it appears as though he fell through an open hatch in the observation tower. But what was he doing there in the middle of the night? Was it an accident, or was he pushed?

The small town is soon rife with rumors. Some speculate it was done by a jealous husband, furious at Chase’s amorous attention to married women. Others thought it might be a madman on the loose.

Most pin the death on the ‘Marsh Girl’, however. Kya Clark was a young single woman who lives in alone in a shack deep in the marsh. She is shunned by the community because she comes from ‘white trash’, the poor who live in the swamplands outside of the law. She is loathed and feared by the good citizens of Barkley Cove, and, as evidence mounts that it was not an accident, suspicions naturally focus her way.

The author, Delia Owens, is an internationally acclaimed wildlife scientist with several non-fiction books to her credit, including Cry of the Kalahari. In this, her first novel, she brings a sensitivity to nature honed by several decades of field work in Africa, evoking the majesty of the wetlands of America’s eastern coast with keen insight and observation.

But this is also a mystery full of twists and turns as it alternates in time between Kya’s early upbringing in the swamp and the investigation into the murder a decade later. A mystery is a partnership between the reader and the writer, in which the latter must carefully spread the clues and events in a manner that allows the tale to unfold in a natural rhythm that carries the reader carefully through the narrative, respecting both their intelligence and anticipation. Will the guilty be caught? Will justice be done? A good writer leaves all avenues open until the final resolution, where the reader is fully satisfied that it is the most logical and inevitable outcome.

Owens goes further, imaginatively using the ecology of the marsh as an extended metaphor for the behaviour of humans in society toward each other. We are only a few generations from the tribal forest, and the conduct we exhibit toward strangers and outcasts still uncomfortably mirrors the behaviour of hunter and hunted in the wild. The cruelty that the town-folk inflict upon an orphan child who grows up in complete isolation should not happen to a lowly skunk, and when she is arrested for the murder of Chase Andrews, it is the nadir of the town’s hostility.

Her enemies cannot crush Kya’s spirit, however, and her few friends offer support and aid in her defence. Will the guilty be caught? Will justice be done? I highly recommend you get hold of Where the Crawdads Sing and find out.

ADAPTATIONS OF BOOKS THAT I LOVE

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Written by John Berendt

Movie by Clint Eastwood.

This is not a novel, but a work of non-fiction by the journalist John Berendt. It tells the story of a shocking death that occurred in the city of Savannah, Georgia, in the early 1980s. The victim is a young hustler, killed by his mentor, a prominent antiques dealer living in the city’s largest mansion. The characters that populate the narrative include an outrageous performing drag queen, a paranoid genius with a bottle of poison, disbarred lawyers, voodoo witches and the bulldog mascot of the U of Georgia.

Clint Eastwood adapted the eponymous novel in 1997. It stars Jude Law as the victim Billy Hanson, Kevin Spacey as Jim Williams, the millionaire murderer, and John Cusack as Kelso, the investigating reporter. It is both a disturbing mystery and an incisive social commentary, all deeply immersed in black humor. Eastwood delves deeply into the book to deliver richly conceived characters, dialogue and visuals. I have re-watched this movie many times, and every viewing reveals new layers of subtext that add to my enjoyment. This is one of the few movies I have ever seen in which I would someday love to visit the setting, if only to see if the city is truly as eccentric as portrayed. I consider Midnight the best movie Eastwood every directed, and I highly recommend it.