West Winging It

Living in Washington, DC in the 90s was probably one of the only times in my life I ever achieved the double feat of Right Place and Right Time. After college, I moved to DC and began work near Capitol Hill.

Then the television show The West Wing aired.

Being young, smart, and a little bit geeky was suddenly cool. Not in a Hogwarts sort of way (though Harry Potter was arguably the harbinger of the Smart is Cool movement). No, it was an inside-the-beltway cool. Where walking down a hall speaking incredibly fast about policy and politics was simply what the popular kids did.  Wonk wasn't a bad word at all. 

The West Wing seemed to be perpetually ripped from the headlines. Scandals, political battles, even the people and organizations that popped on my screen on Wednesday nights were the fictionalized versions of what we read about every morning in the Washington Post.

I achieved another feat of Right Place and Right Time last week, when I finished reading Rob Lowe’s memoir Stories I Only Tell My Friends just a day or two before visiting the White House for a holiday reception.

I fully admit to elementary school crushes on St. Elmo’s Fire Rob Lowe and -- somewhat interchangeably -- all those Brat Pack guys. But whenever I picture Lowe, I see him as Sam Seaborn. So while it was fun reading about Lowe’s life before fame, or his string of Fabulously Famous girlfriends, I felt warm, fuzzy, and downright nostalgic reading his reminisces of his time on The West Wing.

I was full of this warm, fuzzy nostalgia when I took my son Sam to the White House for a holiday reception. I give plucky Sam lots of credit for trying to talk his way through a guarded partition towards the West Wing and the Oval Office. It didn’t work, but someday Sam will get his Right Place Right Time moment.

An interesting tidbit from Rob Lowe: White House staffers don’t really do the fast-paced talk and walk that was the epitome of West Wing-ness. Nowadays, if they find themselves walking the corridors, talking like Aaron Sorkin had scripted their dialogue, they high five each other and exclaim, “Hey, we just ‘West Winged!’”

Yes, indeed -- geeky is still cool. 

Happy Holidays, everyone! To celebrate the season, I leave you with one of my favorite holiday moments from The West Wing. Get those tissue boxes ready -- Leo gets me every time!

Hidden City

When I was 16 years old, my father let me tag along with him on a business trip to Greece. It was my first trip out of the United States, in fact, my first trip out of the South. I applied for my passport, bought a travel security belt, and learned how to say hello, goodbye, and bathroom in Greek.

Excitement. Adventure. I was ready. Bring it.

When my dad asked me where I wanted to visit, my answer was swift and sure.

Prison.

Listen, I never claimed I was a cool 16-year-old. In fact, I was a geeky, weird 16-year-old. The kind who wanted to visit prisons on her first trip abroad. But you see, I wanted to see Greece, the real Greece. I wanted to learn about how they treated the outcasts, the criminals, the least among them. Because that, I imagined, was how I would really get to understand the place.

My dad, he didn’t get it.

But you know who gets it? Marcus Sakey gets it.

                                                                                                                                     Credit: Frank Pinc

On December 6, crime novelist Marcus Sakey will begin his series Hidden City on the Travel Channel. Described as Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations meets Castle, Sakey’s new show promises to take us to the darkest corners of our favorite places. According to Sakey, “If you only see the tourist districts, Seattle is the same as Shanghai. The real stories are in the shadows—and shadowy stories are my business.”

From the comfort and safety of our sofas, we’ll join Sakey as he rappels with a SWAT team, hangs out with South Side gang members in L.A., and learns to rob an armored car in Boston.

In the first episode of Hidden City, Sakey tours Chicago -- and gets pepper sprayed so he can better understand the Democratic National Convention riots of 1968.

Because Sakey is a novelist (an accomplished one at that), we’ll be getting a writer’s perspective on each travel experience. As Sakey explains, “One thing I’ve learned writing fiction is that it’s the little details that make a world real.”

So when the pepper spray hits his eyes, his reaction isn’t ouch. Actually, his initial reaction is pretty colorful. But then he gives us this rather literary description of the panic, not just the pain, that sets in:

"And in that dark space, panic’s ragged edge was so close. It sucked and pulled at me. It teased and tempted. I knew it would only make things worse, but that didn’t lessen panic’s gravitational pull."

With a perspective like that, Sakey’s show is on my Gotta Watch List. And who knows, maybe he’ll get around to touring Greece. If he does, I highly recommend prison.

What about you? Which destination’s seedy underbelly do you most want to see? If Sakey came to your hometown, what dark corner would you recommend?

Look at me, I'm a guest blogger!

Today I'm guest blogging at author Ken Hoss's Bloggers Corner.  I've written about my experience at the Backspace Writers' Conference last month in New York City.

Ken is a fantastic supporter of new authors, and a killer writer himself.  Thanks so much for hosting me, Ken!

Check it out! 

Rip It!

How many times have you heard a news story and thought, somebody ought to write a book about that? Or make a movie? You know, a true story so heart-warming, gut-wrenching, or downright bizarre that it really deserves to be ripped from the headlines?

Viola! I offer, for your consideration, a new blog feature: Rip it!

My choice this week:

A Bloomberg Businessweek article -- wait, stay with me... 

about a Silicon Valley company -- no seriously, don’t go just yet...

that SEES EVERYTHING.

Pretty cool, right?

A movie adaptation of this news story could really go several different ways.

1) The Mission Impossible Treatment (aka, Spy Thriller)

So you’re wondering what is this company, anyway? And how does it see everything? The company is Palantir, and it has created computer software that combs through mountains of data -- financial records, e-mails, web search information, DNA samples, sound samples, video clips, maps, floor plans, and human intelligence reports -- to root out the bad guys.

They’ve busted up bombing networks in Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. They’ve stopped large-scale identity theft scams. They’ve solved child abduction cases. U.S. Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan uses Palantir to plan assaults. According to one Special Forces member, “Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap.”

All we'd have to do is cast Tom Cruise. Blockbuster!

2) The Informant! Treatment (aka, Black Comedy)

These guys aren’t Jason Bourne types -- though neither was the character from The Informant!, and that didn’t stop Matt Damon from playing the part. If you’re a Tolkien fan, you already know the company got its name, Palantin, from Lord of the Rings. They’ve decorated their office space (previously the headquarters of Facebook) with Care Bear murals and bobblehead collections. They’re not bad asses, they’re nerds. Tell me there’s not potential for some dark, dark humor there.

3) The Full-On Minority Report Treatment (aka, Cautionary Tale)

It doesn’t take much imagination to see how this sort of technology could go too far, with too few safeguards. Palantir already has its detractors, despite its employees’ penchant for Care Bears. “I don’t think Palantir the firm is evil,” says Christopher Soghoian of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity at Indiana University. “I think their clients could be using it for evil things.”

Okay, Hollywood, you have your assignment. Now go make a kick-butt/darkly comedic/Philip K. Dick-inspired movie based on a Bloomberg Businessweek article. And don’t forget those Care Bears!

So tell me, gentle readers, what current events do you think deserve to be ripped from the headlines?

Pride and Prejudice and Murder

Jane Austen did not die of natural causes -- she was murdered.

I know some of you suspect Seth Grahame-Smith, but I’m not talking about mash-ups here.

There’s a wonderful new novel out, and author Lindsay Ashford’s theory is that Austen did not die of bovine tuberculosis or Hodgkins’ lymphoma, as historians believe, but of arsenic poisoning.

And, just maybe, it was murder.

　

There seems to be something of a cottage industry surrounding Jane Austen, with mountains of Jane-inspired books and movies reveling in the Regency period. But Ashford, a novelist whose work is usually of the gritty and urban varieties, offers something completely different to Austenites -- crime!

And the exciting part is that it’s true crime. Well, Ashford's book The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen isn’t really true crime, it’s speculative fiction, but it’s based on some pretty intriguing evidence. Austen’s letters describe symptoms consistent with arsenic poisoning, and -- bum bum bummmm -- a lock of Austen’s hair tested positive for arsenic.

I’m already imagining Agatha Christie time-traveling to the nineteenth century to crack the case. Maybe along the way she’ll team up with a young Mary Shelley.

And together, they’ll fight the Zombie Menace.

Top 10 Creepy Stories “Based on a True Story”

I’ve got my pumpkin carved, my costume ready, and a ginormous bucket of candy just waiting for trick-or-treaters. That means it must be Halloween, one of my very favorite days of the year.

In honor of this spooky day, I present my Top 10 Creepy Stories “Based on a True Story.”

The Amityville Horror: I put this at the top of list because it’s the truest of the true stories. The movie The Amityville Horror is based on the non-fiction (read: super true) book of the same name. Actually, the book is titled The Amityville Horror: A True Story. I told you it was the truest of the true! Written by Jay Anson, the book recounts all the frightening things that happened to the Lutz family when they moved into a house that was -- oops! -- the site of a mass murder. (And you thought being underwater on your mortgage was scary.) Alas, the story by now has been completely discredited.

The Exorcist: Another movie based on a book. This one, though, was based on the novel (read: made up stuff) by William Peter Blatty. He based his story on the real-life exorcism of a young boy in Maryland in 1949. The movie is one of the scariest I’ve ever seen. And the book -- well, it was so scary I couldn’t finish it. There’s a 40^th anniversary edition released this month, so you can scare yourself all over again.

The Mothman Prophecies: This one is a creepy movie starring Richard Gere.  (No, not that one.  You're thinking Pretty Woman.)  First, there were local sightings of a big freaky thing with wings, dubbed The Mothman. Then a bridge collapsed. All of this is true. But saying the Mothman, whatever that was, caused the collapse strains the concept of cause and effect. Besides, we all have our local freaky things -- my hometown has the Chicken Lady. Don’t laugh. She was really scary.

Hostel: This movie is inspired by actual events. On the ladder of veracity, “inspired by actual events” sits a couple rungs lower than based on a true story. The movie’s director heard a friend say his hairdresser read a Craig’s List ad about some sort of murder holiday. So he made a movie about good-looking college kids getting chopped to pieces in Europe. Or something like that. I didn’t actually see it. Too scary.

The Blair Witch Project: By now you might be detecting a pattern. I get scared. Really scared. Really easily. But trust me, Blair Witch is super scary. It’s not really based on a true story, so I’ve put it at the bottom of the list. But the filmmakers made you think it was real. They shake the camera around, and I believe they starved their actors to make them seem really desperate. I saw it in the movie theater, and that ending made me drop my popcorn.

You may have noticed, I’ve only listed five stories. So what happened to the others? It must have been the Chicken Lady.

Creepy…

I hope you all have a terrific Halloween. Happy trick-or-treating!

Let's Start With Some Tall Tales

Hi, and welcome to the inaugural post of my blog, Ripped from the Pages! I love fact, and I love fiction. And I especially love when the two get a little mixed up. Movies that claim to be “ripped from the headlines” -- awesome. Novels ripped from the pages of history -- even awesome-er. So let’s get to it!

My first post is inspired by my 9-year-old son. His phenomenal teacher, Mrs. Constantine, passed out awards to all the boys and girls of the class -- the peacemaker of the class got the Ghandi award, the class clown got the Bill Cosby award, the quiet girl who is definitely going to do great things one day got the Rosa Parks award. All very thoughtful and educational presentations. As a mama, I got chocked up.

My son got the Johnny Appleseed award for, as the certificate explains, his compassion, keen interest in nature, and his love for all living things.

We all know the story of Johnny Appleseed. Good ol’ Johnny takes his place among American folk tales alongside Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill. Giant blue oxen, lassoing the moon, planting apple trees across America while wearing a pot on one’s head. Tall tales for sure.

But, as it turns out, Johnny Appleseed isn’t just a character. He was a real person. And, as a new book by Howard Means points out, almost certainly insane.

Gee, thanks, Mrs. Constantine.

Yep, Johnny Appleseed, or John Chapman, as his mother called him, was born in 1774 and grew up in Massachusetts. While still a young man, he left home a started planting apple seeds and spreading his own brand of spirituality and environmentalism. It’s that nurturing and love of nature that inspired my son’s teacher to bestow the Johnny Appleseed award on my son. Probably not the insanity part.

Maybe Johnny Appleseed was insane. He’s not the only historical figure accused of being insane because of his beliefs. Joan of Arc, or to take a more current example, Ralph Nader, did things that, let’s face it, the sane among us would probably never consider. I’m just not convinced they’re all that insane. And I don't think we should try to discount or diminish their actions by calling them crazy.

So Sam, I’m glad you love nature. And I’m glad you care about all living things. And if you decide to do something with your life that other people say is crazy, baby, that’s fine by me.