Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Feb 10, 2012, 8:32 pm
It was a scene out of Currier & Ives.  The Victorian cottages, lit up after dark.  Men, women and children ice skating on the frozen pond, sipping hot chocolate and warming their hands by the bonfire.  The horse-drawn sleigh making its way around the property.  We climbed into the carriage and a...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Feb 8, 2012, 7:11 pm
Some days my legs ask for the day off.  And they asked nicely this morning, so I set aside the snowshoes and the cross-country skis and I allowed the Snow Coach to do all the work, taking us up above the treeline on Mt. Washington.  I won't be able to upload my photos for another few days, but as ...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Feb 7, 2012, 10:24 am

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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Feb 6, 2012, 9:58 am
The mission of the the Tin Mountain Conservation Center is "to promote an appreciation of the environment among children, families and the community through hands-on programs in the schools, at camp and in the community."  The Field Station in Jackson encompasses 228 acres, mostly pine forest.  H...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Feb 5, 2012, 4:08 pm
@RighteousBruin is requesting pictures.  It'll be a week or so until I have an opportunity to upload new photos, but here are a few photos from previous winters in the White Mountains. 
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Feb 4, 2012, 9:32 pm
The air tonight was crisp and cold, the night sky clear under a nearly full moon.  We studied the sky, spotting constellations.  Cassiopeia, the Pleiades.  The Winter Hexagon.  Our snowshoes crunched as we made our way along the lower elevations at Great Glen, and everywhere we looked, Mt. Washi...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Feb 3, 2012, 7:59 am
(Perhaps I'll re-post just one fun fact). At my high school graduation, a representative from the Board of Education accused me of being unpatriotic and lectured me on citizenship.  Two months later, he was arrested for hiring someone to murder his wife.  I’ve never been arrested for hiring s...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Feb 2, 2012, 4:01 pm
Today, I discovered that fellow author and sometime xangan, Smoky Zeidel (who mostly now blogs at Smoky Talks...), had recognized me with a Versatile Blogger Award.  Last week, fellow author and sometime xangan, Rosa Sophia did the same.  I am now supposed to reveal seven fun facts about my...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Jan 30, 2012, 7:18 am
I don't particularly enjoy writing sex scenes, but my characters seem to have a healthy interest in sex.  I'm reminded of actors who say that doing a sex scene isn't sexy because everything is about making sure that a leg is positioned just so, that an arm is bent at just the right angle, that...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Jan 27, 2012, 2:24 pm
It's come to my attention (thanks to this lovely post) that today is Nelson's birthday, and he is, once again, dancing in his birthday suit.  So I feel obligated to re-post this entry from last year, wishing Nelson a very happy birthday. The Full Nelson I am struck by the number of people who are ...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Jan 25, 2012, 4:36 pm
Okay.  I admit it.  I don't get the popularity of tattoos.  I mean, go ahead and get your tats if you want to, it's no skin off my ass, so to speak.  But a tattoo is not the best look for a balding, slightly overweight middle-aged man.  And yet, this morning I read an article about a gro...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Jan 24, 2012, 12:01 pm
Most of us do, from time-to-time.  You slave over a blog post and then your friends and subs let you down.  It's okay.  Today's blog is designed to help you overcome comment envy.  You see, I spent some time this morning reading your posts and I didn't leave any comments.  Instead, I've assemb...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Jan 23, 2012, 5:18 pm
It was early Saturday morning, and the world outside my window was covered in fresh snow.  It was nearly time for me to leave for the train station.  "We need you to deliver a package."  My assignment was simple enough.  I was to pick up the package on my way to the Trenton train station and del...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Jan 21, 2012, 8:01 am
Chucho Valdes was great last night in Princeton.  Here's a clip, not from last night, but from last year at Jazz San Javier, in Spain.  Chucho Valdés - piano Lázaro Rivero - bass Juan Carlos Rojas - drums Carlos Manuel Miyares - tenor sax Reinaldo Melián - trumpet Yaroldy Abreu - percussion D...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Jan 19, 2012, 3:51 pm
Hubert's Freaks, by Gregory Gibson, tells an unusual story (of the "truth is stranger than fiction" variety), three unusual stories really, connected like siamese triplets, by a series of coincidences that span decades of American cultural history.  It is the story of the "strange Times Square wor...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Jan 19, 2012, 3:30 pm
Today is Edgar Allen Poe's birthday.  What better day for the Mystery Writers of America to announce the nominees for this year's Edgar Awards.  If you're looking for something good to read, you won't go wrong picking something from this outstanding list of nominees. BEST NOVEL The Ranger by Ace A...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Nov 1, 2011, 7:01 am
That's right.  November 1 is National Authors' Day and has been since 1929, when it was adopted by the General Federation of Women's Clubs, or, if you don't recognize the day-making authority of the Women's Clubs, since 1949, when it was adopted by the U.S. Department of Commerce. "By celebrating a...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 28, 2011, 5:02 pm
Some of you are embarking on an epic novel writing journey starting in just a few days, and at least a few of you are still trying to come up with a plot.  So here's the thing.  I used to write a Nanowrimo tip of the day to help get folks through the month of November (if you're curious, scroll...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 27, 2011, 7:50 pm
We all love scary stories.  And we've all heard some variant of the scary story that Bill Murray tells so eloquently in Meatballs. So I understand the fascination with abandoned asylums.  Especially during the Halloween season.  They truly are haunted places.  But the people who are confined i...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 27, 2011, 5:43 pm
For @AdamsWomanFell who wants to know what movies make us laugh. EDIT: for @Roadkill_Spatula EDIT: for @RighteousBruin
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 25, 2011, 11:58 am
Style?  Me?  I'm a before person.  You know what I mean.  On those makeover shows, I'm the before, not the after.  I could earn a living posing for before pictures.  But anyway, @MelFamy has tagged me, so here goes.  1.  I spent the summer of 1974 living on a Greyhound Bus.  In 1974, a Gre...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 22, 2011, 5:13 pm
It's nearly Halloween and I'm in the mood for a ghost story.  I've only ever written one, so even though some of you have seen this before, I'm re-posting it here today.  Twelve Steps            “Hi, my name is Jake and I’m an alcoholic.”            “Hi Jake,” they...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 20, 2011, 4:56 pm
Last night, at the Somerville Library, I was discussing how to develop fictional characters that readers will care about and I was reminded of this scene from the Woody Allen movie, Sleeper. "What you have here... I diagnosed the entire situation, and I think what we've got, what we're dealing with...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 18, 2011, 6:46 pm
"It is not uncommon to experience temperatures as low as 45 degrees below zero, with winds gusting over 100 miles per hour." We had such a good time on the summit of Mt. Washington, at sunset, in balmy September weather... ... that we're thinking about returning to the summit, for an overnight sta...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 17, 2011, 5:19 pm
I realize that most of the people who read my blog are not local (by which, of course, I mean not local to New Jersey.  Everyone is local to somewhere).  Anyway, I realize that most of you are not local, but for the few who are, here's your reminder that Wednesday at 7:00 pm, I'll be speaking at t...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 16, 2011, 4:34 pm
Karen Russell is a fearless writer.  She makes no excuse and offers no explanation for the audacity of her vision.  She simply tells her stories... fabulous stories about children and about the mythological world that they inhabit.  A world where a young boy's father can be a Minotaur.  A world ...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 15, 2011, 5:31 pm
From 1861 until her death in 1908, the Empress Dowager Cixi was the de facto ruler of China.  Historians, and the popular media as well, have generally portrayed her as a "dragon lady" and perhaps she was, but after spending the morning at the Sackler Gallery, I find myself wanting to know more abo...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 13, 2011, 6:55 pm
It shouldn't be news that the changing habits of readers, in particular the increase in the popularity of ebooks, has played havoc with bricks and mortars bookstores.  But a new wrinkle strikes awfully close to home.  Reading my local newspaper tonight, I learned that JR Trading Company is going o...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 12, 2011, 6:44 pm
I am not a political blogger but that doesn't mean I'm not political.  In my youth, I volunteered in the office of Representative Allard Lowenstein.  Perhaps you don't remember Allard Lowenstein.  More's the pity.   He was one of the original architects of the dump Johnson movement.  He was a g...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 11, 2011, 1:43 pm
You know the kind.  When nothing seems to go right. You go away for the week-end with your girl friend and one thing leads to another and now she's dead.  You don't really think you killed her, but your memory is a little hazy in spots.  Whether or not you did it, it's clear that when someone ...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 10, 2011, 4:52 pm
 
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 10, 2011, 7:55 am
for @AdamsWomanFell
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 9, 2011, 4:42 pm

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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 8, 2011, 8:17 pm
So, after today's earlier posts (here and here) @longshadow618 wants to know what of the dinner party and the guests? It was a scene right out of central casting.  The Dean was there, of course.  After all, it was her house.  And the Dean's young son.  The guest speaker was there with her husban...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 8, 2011, 2:11 pm
And then, one of the women leaned across the table and asked, Do you know about the murders? It was September 16, 1922.  A young couple strolled down Easton Avenue, along the border of New Brunswick and Somerset.  Even today, when I drive down Easton Avenue, if I look past the strip malls and the ...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 8, 2011, 1:13 pm
That night last year, at dinner, a beauty pageant queen, dressed in her sash and crown... I should probably clarify that... She was wearing more than just her sash and crown.  It would be oh so wrong, if she were wearing only a sash and crown... So anyway, that night at dinner at the Dean's house, ...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 7, 2011, 11:57 am
  No.  This is not a haunted place, but that doesn't mean it's not occupied by some extraordinary ghosts.  When you step inside Preservation Hall, you will surely feel the presence of those who were there before.  If you're lucky, and you listen closely, you just might hear Sweet Emma take a se...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 6, 2011, 7:29 am
If it's time for @saintvi's haunted challenge, then it must be time for more photos from Lafayette Cemetery Number 1. In a city built largely below sea level, the dead must find their rest above ground and it is said, they do not rest easily.
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 5, 2011, 6:18 am
The appeal of a traditional amateur sleuth mystery is that the crime is solved by an everyman (or an everywoman) rather than by a professional detective.  The amateur sleuth relies on old-fashioned detection to solve the crime, rather than modern forensics.  I was asked one time at a conference, h...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 3, 2011, 7:55 pm
So I'm sitting in the recovery room this morning (that's another story for another day) perusing last week's copy of US 1 and I discover that I missed an opportunity on Saturday to enjoy an all-day bus tour of Janet Evanovich's Trenton.  Now I need to explain a little bit.  I live about thirty mi...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Oct 2, 2011, 3:32 pm
I spent the afternoon at the Princeton University Art Museum, and then, later this afternoon, at the Triumph Brewery sipping amber ale and sampling the assortment of wurst on the Octoberfest menu, and I was reminded of a scene I wrote more than thirty years ago, set in a German restaurant, the menu ...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Sep 29, 2011, 4:07 pm
(wish I remembered where I found this, because I'd like to credit, but still, it's too good not to share)
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Sep 29, 2011, 7:58 am
I have always thought about writing in much the same way that I think about meditation.  It is a matter of focus, not of environment.  People often say that they need a quiet place to meditate, but it's been my experience that if I am meditating, really meditating, I can be anywhere.  It is only...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Sep 28, 2011, 1:06 pm
 
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Sep 26, 2011, 3:48 pm
I don't understand the controversy, but apparently, these books are dangerous.              Banned books?
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Sep 24, 2011, 5:05 pm
In 1906, the trustees of the Charlton Public Library in Charlton, MA, voted to ban Eve's Diary.  Eve's Diary is Mark Twain's interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve.  Knowing what we do of Twain, you might assume that the book was banned for blasphemy.  But it was not Twain's writing that ear...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Sep 23, 2011, 8:53 pm
To my grandparents, Romanian and Russian immigrants who settled in Brooklyn, and to my parents, growing up in Brooklyn, Nathan's could only refer to one thing, Nathan's Famous in Coney Island, where, after a day on the beach, they could get a Nathan's all-beef hot dog for just one nickel, the onl...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Sep 22, 2011, 6:44 pm
As the author of the Cassie O'Malley Mysteries, I have lived in Cassie's fictional world for nearly a decade now.  I've had breakfast with her at The Eggery, ordering my eggs and potatoes from Greta, the Eggery's popular  waitress with Tourette's.  I've spent the night with Cassie at the Bhait's ...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Sep 20, 2011, 5:49 pm
The book is always better than the movie.  Except when it isn't.  Shawshank Redemption Alright, let's start by riling up all the Stephen King fans out there.  I don't think I've ever finished a Stephen King novel (not even a novella).  I lose interest long before he stops writing.  But I ...
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Jeff M. posted an article on doahsdeer's Xanga Site - Sep 17, 2011, 3:00 pm
Once upon a time, in towns much like yours and mine, before a movie could be shown in the local theater, the projectionist would cut up the film, snipping out scenes that failed to meet the local moral standards.  The short film, Forbidden Images, consists entirely of such scenes cut from films in ...
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