Naked Came the Rogue

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Ed Battistella
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Another big event for Jackson County Reads is Naked Came the Rogue, A Serial Mystery Set in Southern Oregon’s Jackson County. You can catch up on the adventures of Annie Brandon, an aspiring librarian as she tracks down the murders of a naked library patron and a buxom bluegrass banjo player, who turns out to be … .

You can check it out at the Naked Came the Rogue website at JCLS.org. My chapter, set in Rogue River and Gold Hill, appears April 15, 2011.

The serial mystery dates back to Agatha Christie’s Detective Club, but was made famous by Newsday writers who composed the iconic Naked Came the Stranger in 1969. That serial mystery was a hoax to make a point about American literary culture of the sixties. Naked Came the Rogue is a celebration of Jackson County and its libraries. No hoax just a lot of fun.

The writers met over wine in early January 2011 at the Ashland Mystery headquarters and agreed on some ground rules: the story would be set in the present, with a 3rd person voice and female protagonist amateur sleuth. And it would promote public libraries (so each chapter would make some reference to a Jackson County library. After that it was all just writing yourself out of whatever fix the last person got you in. Kudos to thriller writer Tim Wohlforth who wrote the first and last chapters, poet-historian Maryann Mason, who editored and trafficked the chapters, to international economist and crime fiction writer Michael Niemann who created the epub versions and Carrie Prechtel who did a remarkable job on publicity and posted the work to the JCLS website.

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“Mc”Copyright Infringement

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Ed Battistella
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I found the story in the New York Times article “‘McSleep’ Loses to Big Mc” to be both comical and fascinating. It’s comical in that “McSleep Inns” sounds silly, mostly because the name does indeed call to mind McDonald’s and its many connotations. Also, if the CEO of the hotel chain would not want the “lodging product to be confused with some hamburger chain”—and if he believes that the prefix “Mc” could ever cause that confusion—then why did the company file suit against McDonald’s for the right to use the name?

More importantly, however—here is the part I find fascinating—this lawsuit raises important questions about copyright infringement. If a combination of a mere two letters can belong exclusively to one company or corporation, where is the line drawn? Does Apple own the rights to the letter “i”? Or does copyright infringement exist only when “i” is used before another word by someone other than Apple?

It sounds like the issue of copyright infringement, when it comes to a well-recognized portion of a product or company name, can only be decided subjectively. It seems obvious that Apple should not own the letter “i,” but neither should McDonald’s own “mc,” by that logic. I haven’t done extra research on the topic, but based on the article, the judge apparently has the final decision on whether a letter or combination of letters is associated to a product or company strongly enough to constitute copyright infringement. This is where law gets troublesome, where there’s no finite right and wrong.

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Oregon–State of Mystery

Posted on April 9, 2011 by Ed Battistella
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This year Jackson County Reads celebrates mysteries.   On March 26, 2011, the Medford Branch Library of the Jackson County Library Services in Southern Oregon hosted about 70 attendees in a workshop featuring five southern Oregon mystery writers:  Phil Messina, Ken Lewis, Tim Wohlforth, Robert Arellano and Morgan Hunt.   Sponsored by the Jackson County Library System and the Ashland Mystery Readers Group, the free four-hour workshop covered all the how-tos any aspiring crime fiction writer would want to know. 

Phil Messina, Central Point city manager and co-chair of the Southern Oregon Chapter of Willamette Writers kicked things off with “Why We Love Mystery?”  Rogue River Police Chief Ken Lewis followed. Ken Lewis, the author of Little Blue Whales and The Sparrow Blade, explained the ins and outs of police procedurals. It was a police academy short course without the calisthenics.

Pushcart Prize nominee Tim Wohlforth was next. The author of Harry and the forthcoming The Pink Tarantula (featuring his short story characters Crip and Henrietta) explained why short form mystery is important and how to develop an idea into a short story.   

Southern Oregon University professor Robert Arellano was a nominee for this year’s Edgar Award for his fourth book, Havana Lunar, published by the prestigious Akashic Books.  Arellano described how to develop your writing and polishing skills and the delicate balancing act between writing and being a writer.  Morgan Hunt, author of the musically-titled Tess Camillo series (Sticky Fingers, Fool on the Hill and Blinded by the Light) talked about marketing your brand and your crime fiction.

The afternoon session was packed with questions and comments as participants broke into small groups to work with each expert on specific problems and opportunities. Kudos to the writers for sharing both their Saturday and the tricks of their trade.

Jackson County Reads Mysteries! The capstone event is still to come when in mid-April Carola Dunn, author of the Daisy Dalrymple mysteries arrives in Southern Oregon. Dunn will be at the Ashland Branch Library on Thursday April 14, 2011 at 7p, at the Klamath Falls Public Library on Friday April 15, 2011 at noon, and at the Medford Branch Library on Saturday April 16, 2011 at 1p. She’ll squeeze in an interview with Cathy Carrier at the Ashland Springs Hotel for Ashland Mystery rvtv noir on Saturday morning.

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An evening with the Wixons

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Ed Battistella
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At Bloomsbury Books On March 31, a crowd of about 50 poetry fans were treated to a reading by Vince and Patty Wixon.  The couple read from their two recently published books—Vince’s Blue Moon: Poems from Chinese Lines (WordCraft of Oregon, 2010) and Patty’s Airing the Sheets(Finishing Line Press, 2011).  With characteristic Midwestern modesty, they interspersed their poetry with readings from Lawson  Inada, William Stafford, and others who have influenced them.

Vince’s Blue Moon poems use lines from classical Chinese poetry of the Tang and Sung dynasties as points of departure for his own reflections. Vince explained (jokingly) that he uses prompts “because he had a happy childhood and has a happy marriage.”  The title poem, whose prompt is I’d send a letter in a fish if I could depicts the Blue Moon Ballroom of southwest Minnestoa, where Depression-era parents went to swing to Lawrence Welk.

Patty’s work is about the wisdom of small things passed along or lost forever,  from handkerchiefs embroidered with strawberries to an aging parent’s puzzlement at the mahjong tile in her hand.  

And each ended their part of the reading with a love poem.  Vince’s poem celebrated the end of endless home maintenance.  And Patty’s was a meditation on bedsheets.  They were made for each other.

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