Paige Hawthorne: Blog

Radio interview. Andrew Vachss was explaining why he wrote novels in addition to toiling away at his career as a youth advocate - - an attorney specializing in juvenile justice.

And that congregation has continued to grow. The lead character, Burke, is as tough a tough guy as I've come across.

"I'm just preaching to a larger congregation."

I like me a preacher man.

Paige

One of my very favorite writers, an underrated one I believe, is Geoffrey Norman. His protagonist, Morgan Hunt, roams the Florida Panhandle, righting wrongs.

The quote from "Blue Chipper" is the diner cook responding to sheriff's lieutenant Tom Pine's post-breakfast comment, "Just great, Ray. I'd like to do it again."

"Well, if you're buying, I'm frying."

I've always liked men with appetites.

Paige

Alexander McCall Smith (McCall Smith is his surname) is best known for his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, set in Botswana. That quote is from In the Company of Cheerful Ladies.

But my favorite series is Isabel Dalhousie / The Sunday Philosophy Club. Isabel is sort of a Edinburg Miss Marple but more real, more thoughtful, more vulnerable.

"A life without stories would be no life at all."

And, in a way, I guess that's why we're all here.

Paige

Most of you are readers … my specialty is mysteries. And I also like music.

So I combined the two, in a very small way. If I'm reading a book by an author I really like, I jot down the musical references in the novel. I've discovered a few artists and songs that I really dig that way. My thinking is, if I like the writing, I may like the music in the writing.

Jazz from Hieronymus Bosch. Cajun from Dave Robicheaux.

My second suggestion - - at no cost to you today only! - - is to consider signing up for your favorite authors' newsletters. Some of them are pretty interesting.

Finally, a speed-things-along idea. When I'm tap-tap-tapping away and I come to a specific word that doesn't feel right, I don't stop and fret. I simply underline it and return when I'm taking a break. Roget's Thesaurus is my friend, as is the Urban Dictionary.

Paige

An astute comment from a bartender at the original Strouds on 85th Street in Kansas City, MO. That old pan-fried chicken roadhouse with its sloping wooden floors and the old African-American gent pounding out stride piano is, alas, no longer with us.

The bartender was commenting on James Lee Burke's "Jolie Blon's Bounce." Well, actually he was referring to the Cajun protagonist, Dave Robicheaux.

I agreed, I liked Robicheaux better when he was even more flawed, deeply lost in the bottle.

As we talked, and I drank, I realized that the bartender's comment could also apply to Matt Scudder, created by Lawrence Block. Matt's a hardened, cynical New Yorker who used to fight off the drink demons himself.

I like a man with weaknesses.

Paige