Archive for May, 2011

This mystery isn’t completely unsolved like the cases I usually feature in these posts. It does contain the strange and puzzling elements I favor, juicy bits to make the eyes tingle as they read. Ultimately, though, this story is about the grandest mystery of them all: the twisting, turning, tangled terrain of the human heart.

I’ll get to the strange and mysterious part, but first I have to introduce the main character.

When I was a tiny girl, I actually loved going to my pediatrician. Oh yeah, I dreaded shots as much as any kid, but I loved Dr. Raymond La Scola. The gentlest of men, he had shining eyes that I remember as being dark, but it was a long time ago and I was little, so God only knows. The important part was that those eyes broadcast joy at being around children. Kids can tell that stuff, when a grownup really likes being around them and when they’re just going through the motions. Dr. Ray loved kids. He had a melodious voice, so soothing and comforting, and when he talked to me, he talked to me and listened attentively to what I said. Pretty heady stuff for a little kid.

My mom loved him, too. He was the most compassionate of doctors. We were desperately poor, my father working only now and then, my mom struggling to make ends meet by babysitting and sewing and whatever else she could think up. We lived in a ramshackle old house back then in one of the poorest neighborhoods in L.A. When my mother was especially hard up and I needed care, or my shots, Dr. La Scola often waived his fees. Once when I was so sick I could hardly get out of bed, he came to the house–a momentous, archetypal event in my young life. I remember his dark fedora and stylish overcoat, the leather doctor’s bag he carried, his shining stethoscope hovering over my chest, his sweet-sad smile. I remember his comforting voice, telling me it was going to be all right, that I was going to be all right. I remember the quiet ebb and flow of his words talking to my mother, telling her it would be all right, too.

He didn’t charge for that visit, either. I confirmed this with my mother when I was an adult.

Dr. Ray was also something of a Renaissance man. He published a novel, The Creole, and gave my mother an autographed copy which I still have. He was a concert pianist and before becoming a doctor, he tried his hand at being a lawyer. He had a restless spirit, always looking for something to fill his soul. He looked for love, too, but rarely found it. In the bad old days, being gay meant always hiding an essential part of yourself. He had a crush on a policeman friend of my mother’s. J. wasn’t insulted or jeopardized by this. He was secure in his manhood and let Dr. La Scola down easy. J. appreciated what a good man he was because he treated J.’s kids, too.

After I’d moved on to a grownup doctor, my mother one day found herself in the medical building where Dr. La Scola practiced. Since it had been a few years since she’d seen him, she thought to drop in and say hello. “You wouldn’t believe the strange people in that waiting room,” she later told me. “No kids. It looked like he’d gone down to Venice Beach and found the roughest, skunkiest people around.” Venice Beach was where the hippies and druggies hung out back then. It still is, in parts, but it’s also become a tourist mecca and quite upscale in parts. Mom left the office without saying anything to the receptionist or Dr. Ray.

On August 25, 1980, Dr. Raymond La Scola was charged with murder.

(more…)

Random quote of the day:


“Writing is rewriting.  A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes.  To fall in love with the first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospects of never publishing.”

—Richard North Patterson

 

(Widely quoted, widely unsourced.)

 

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

 

“There are always people who make big declarations.  These are always people of little consequence.”

—Issai Sato, Genshiroku

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

The peaches on the tree have been looking plump and gorgeous, but you can’t always tell by looking.  Mom wanted to go out and gently squeeze some, but after her last bad fall back there a couple of weeks ago we’ve both been nervous about her making the trek on her own.  We linked arms and took a stroll and started feeling up peaches.

Most still had more time to go, but some had ripened enough that we picked them, thinking to have peaches and cream, but we got so enthusiastic Mom decided there might be enough for cobbler.  So that’s what we did, made the first peach cobbler of the season.  I am resolutely waiting until after dinner to eat it.  I am mighty and disciplined.   But I would not have had so much fortitude if I had not done much peach sampling in the peeling and slicing stage. Oh, sweet heaven!

I thank the Green Man and the peach tree for the beautiful bounty this year.  The entire neighborhood will share in it.

But not our peach cobbler!  That’s just for us.

Maximum Rump*

 

 

 

 

*Runup
(a map of Southern California Tsunami hazard zones)

Random quote of the day:

 

“And the past and the future?
Nothing but an only child with two different masks.”

—Billy Collins, “In the Evening”

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Here are some ETA’s I’ve added to my list of posts on e-books and e-publishing.

ETA:

Kristine Kathryn Rusch — Trust Me.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch — Writing Like It’s 1999.

Jennifer Laughran — On Agency Agreements.

A. C. Crispin — The Interminable Agency Clause.

Revamped covers for Blood Geek—but first, a musical interlude:

Here’s the new mini version:

new small cover

And here’s the new click through version:

new clickthru cover

Please let me know if you think they are better than before.

Random quote of the day:

 

“Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.”

—Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

 

“[It’s not] one damned thing after another, [it’s] one damned thing over and over.”

—Edna St. Vincent Millay, letter to Arthur Davison Ficke, October 1930

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.