Speaker 0 00:00:00 Many other well-respected Italian directors. She immigrated to the U S in 1980, received her MFA in creative writing from Columbia university. She has published eight ministries other than Camilla Christie, and several mysteries under her own name, all of this and more so stay tuned to write on radio
Speaker 1 00:00:27 Prepared, to put 15 year old Alf on the international flight from Minneapolis to bargain a KLM representative told her that she could pay an extra fee to have them watch over our unaccompanied minor. You mean like a babysitter or a live gasp? The representative told her that it was indeed mostly for young kids who are brought to a special kids' area in the airport, like daycare in a play area. Obviously you don't trust me. The representative confided. Actually, if he's responsible, you probably don't need it. Elephant assisted. I'll be fine. On my own. Katie nervously went over with Alf about how to transfer planes in the Amsterdam airport. She dropped them off and she'll drop them off in Minneapolis and he pick I'd pick them up on the other end. What could go wrong? ALA's plane was circling high above my head in Barragan. When I got the news, we're going to Warsaw.
Speaker 1 00:01:21 He texted, I immediately went over to the KLM desk to ask why the plane wasn't landing and to get some clarification on this bizarre message. The KLM representative scrambled around consults did her computer. We have no idea what's going on with that plane. She said not good. Are you serious? I asked don't you have any contact with the plane? Why would the plane be going to Warsaw? She had no answers, which of course made me conclude that the plane had been hijacked with our 15 year old unaccompanied minor aboard. He'd been taken hostage by Polish terrorists. If there even was such a thing, it didn't help that ALA had stopped responding to texts. As I found out later, his phone battery was nearly dead. He wasn't supposed to be using it on the plane. Anyway, despite the seven hour time difference, Katie called from Minneapolis and we desperately tried to figure out what was going on.
Speaker 1 00:02:16 Finally, olive texted that he had misheard the Dutch Norwegian German announcements over the Intercom, and that the plane was going to all slow. Now Warsaw, the KLM representative confirmed this and added that the plane was having problems with its landing gear in one of the wings and needed a longer runway. Somehow that didn't calm. Our fears. ALA had navigated through the Amsterdam airport flawlessly, but now the airline was sending him a loan to the wrong city. More than six hours away by train. By the time we figured all this out, the plane was about to land in Oslow. What would he do there? Would they just send them right back to Bergen? I called the KLM desk and Oslow to see if they could help him. All the passengers are now off the plane. The representative said, happily, wait, you did you see our 15 year old son?
Speaker 1 00:03:05 Is he gone? Just call him. He can come up to the help desk and either we'll get them on the next flight to Barragan or we'll get them a hotel for the night and a flight out the next day, his phone is dead. I explained trying to remain calm and he has no idea what to do. You need to find him Katie called and we remembered that Ellis godparents, Knute and Ingrid lived in Oslow. They saved the day by agreeing to pick them up at the airport. If they could even find him. ALA finally managed to charge his phone and said he was waiting at Pepys pizza in the airport. We told them not to move and the Knute would find him somehow, even though he hadn't seen him for almost a decade, we waited impatiently for news, anchor calls an hour later that the news that ALA was safe with them and had eaten enough for three adults.
Speaker 1 00:03:54 He was resting on the couch. Inker said he earned his books and pulling for him this adventure. He was a pro. She explained that, explain that Volks in pointing our grow points or adult points that kids earn in Norway when they are extra responsible, Elif was terribly proud of this. I didn't dare say that. It reminded me of the potty charts we used to tape up in the bathroom when he was a toddler and the lightning McQueen sticker, we placed on the tarp on the chart. Each time he used the big boy toilet, I was just happy that he wasn't in the dungeon of some Polish terrorist,
Speaker 2 00:04:29 Great stuff. You were just listening there to Eric <inaudible> or reading, uh, from, for the love of Cod, a father and sons search for Norwegian happiness. I mean grime Leask, um, let's see Eric as a little bit, slightly different, um, bio from what Josh just read here, which is kind of interesting is the author of 20 books. As we said, Vikings in the attic, weird Minnesota, and let's go fishing. He was a Fulbright fellow to Norway and survived the dinner of rat Fisk, fermented fish. Uh, we know all about that here. Uh, thanks. Uh, 80 proof Aqua VT managed to get through that and then went on the meat bus to Sweden for cheap salami, with a crowd of knitting pensioners. We should probably hear about that and compile his stories in, in Cod. We trust living the Norwegian dream. He's a professor of English, journalism, and Italian at Concordia. Welcome back to rod and radio. Eric
Speaker 1 00:05:29 Drag me. Yeah, it's fun to be back. Thanks for having me again.
Speaker 2 00:05:31 You are. When I first read that opening, it gave me the willies because I've done that with my kids. My daughter did that. She was, uh, she went to Amsterdam of course, and was trying to get to Aberdeen and it all went pear shaped the whole thing. It was just exactly the same kind of nonsense. And that was a great opening to a book. This that's about you basically say taking your son back to the land of his birth, actually burned. There were born there while you were working then fascinating stories. Tell us about that to start off, start us off. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:06:02 Um, so that happened. I mean, I wrote about that in the other book and Cod we trust and I had a Fulbright fellowship to go over to Norway for a year. But at the same time that I got that this was for the U of M um, we found out that my wife Katie was pregnant. And so we didn't know what to do. So we figured, well, Norway is a pretty advanced country and this is, but this is our first kid. So we risked, we risked it all and went over there. And we found out that, uh, we with a Fulbright, I mean, it's this big kind of a big deal. And then the healthcare is through the state department. And so it's the same healthcare that our senators and representatives have. And they always talk about it being the best in the world, of course, but the fine print said, pregnancy is a preexisting condition.
Speaker 1 00:06:46 And so if you get onto that healthcare and you're pregnant, they won't cover it. And so over in Norway, they just, they thought this was the most bizarre thing. And, you know, from England and from the UK, it's, it's not, everything's covered. I mean, so we went over to Norway and they just thought our problems back here in the U S are so strange. So they covered the entire birth. Plus they gave us $5,000 to have a baby there. And you weren't even citizens. We weren't even citizens. We were staying there one year. And so that was enough. And yeah,
Speaker 2 00:07:14 Right now, if, if there are any, um, Trumpites or super conservatives listening, which I doubt very much, but if they are that right now, they're gritting their teeth and going, this is crazy. Um, so one of the things to dive right into the book, one of the things you do all the way through is contrast the United States, you know, with Norway and you're doing it all the time through that. It's a it's it was, was that, uh, uh, a methodology that you were trying to follow? Is it just something you naturally do?
Speaker 1 00:07:46 W well, being from Minnesota, of course, the that's, those are the lenses I'm looking through, but it's also, we hear so much about the Scandinavian utopia and how everything's perfect and everything's great. And having lived there for that year, you know, it was pretty, they have things pretty squared away in many ways, but it wasn't a particularly joyous place, um, because it's so dark and rainy and cold and in the winter. Um, and it's a very expensive, but so I wanted to go and figure out, well, what do they have figured out that we have to learn from, especially in a place like Minnesota, that there's so many Norwegians Scandinavians. Um, so I mean, that was my, you know, and I tend to, you know, I have done some journalism, so I tend to be a little bit cynical about things or questioning of well, are they really so happy, but many of the Norwegians came up right away with an answer of, we think this, and we think that, which in the U S I would never imagine, like, I think this, but I would never imagine what other people think, but the Norwegians are really, they have the sort of unity of this community, spirit about it.
Speaker 1 00:08:51 Um, so about what about why they are supposedly happy and how they can help each other out. Um, and that's not always the case, of course. I mean, it's human nature, but overall it's, they do view that they are all in it together and that they have these high taxes, but they're actually the, what I learned too, is the tax is actually, aren't much higher than ours. It's not all about the taxes. It's not all about that. They do pay their taxes, they do pay their taxes. And that's one of the big difference. They don't have the ultra rich and they don't have the homeless.
Speaker 2 00:09:22 Yeah, that's right. One of the things you were contrasting of course, is food and you were a foodie. Um, and of course there's the whole Cod piece of all of this. I love that word cocky. Um, tell us a little bit about how you feel about food and how Americans consume it, how Norwegians can consume it. And why is that important to you?
Speaker 1 00:09:48 Um, I think, you know, in the U S more and more, we see, I don't know, like people eating in their cars, people eating them to go, people eating and there in Norway, it was really this idea of sitting down with people and talking, and it's, you know, this whole thing of you eat, and then you retire to the city of Rome and you have your coffee and this whole idea. And then going back to, you know, when my great grandfather came over like that era, I mean, it's really about survival too
Speaker 2 00:10:17 Mean they had trouble eating. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:10:20 And they didn't, the food was not very disabled, least it was fish and good at it like porridge and all of these kind of grim things.
Speaker 2 00:10:30 So explain to our listeners, you, you do it in the book very well, how the, how the wealth comes about over time and the difference between the folks that, uh, settled Minnesota and the five, five state region and Canada as well. Of course, um, up above us, this whole region here, what was the attraction? Why did they come? And then what was the change that happened back in their Homeland?
Speaker 1 00:10:58 Um, so when they came over, Norway was the poorest country in Europe, along with Portugal and coming here, they're some of the few that could handle the cold. And I mean, especially the fins up, further up north, um, and then coming here sort of banding together because, you know, this was, this was, you know, the Dakota pushed off the land here. And then, so this, this land quote unquote opened. And, you know, so then you have these different settlements of, you know, spring Grove and Benson, Minnesota, and all these different areas where they could come. Um, and one of the, in, I read about this a little bit in Vikings in the attic, which talks more about the skin and even experienced here in the Midwest, that there are more cooperatives and sort of profit sharing type of organizations here in the upper Midwest than there are anywhere else in the country.
Speaker 1 00:11:46 And it's the Scandinavian model, mostly actually from Denmark, but, you know, then the other Scandinavians got that as well. Um, I was actually also the UK, theirs was sort of that cooperative, the arts and crafts movement and such, but, um, this idea of we have to band together to survive. And here, you know, being in the mill city, there were the Pillsbury's and Jen, you know, all of that. So they were taking this money. Then you have, you go out west, out to North Dakota and you have a North Dakota state mill and the North Dakota state bank, even though North Dakota, we think of as very conservative, it's actually very sort of community minded in that way of, we don't want the rich corporate farms. We don't even know the socialists. Yeah. There was the nonpartisan league, which was the socialist wing of the Republican party, you know, so, I mean, that's, that's the history here. And a lot of it's the Scandinavians that, you know, wanted these co-ops and they didn't want to give the money to the big, to the robber barons or whoever.
Speaker 2 00:12:39 And when they came, they, weren't not, why wasn't it an independent country? Was it?
Speaker 1 00:12:44 Nope. Yeah. So not until 1905. I mean, they had a brief moment of independence in which they wrote their constitution and made a big fuss of it. And then Sweden, I mean, that's certainly mine. Yeah. So to my, that the constitution day and Sweden, I mean, it was a partnership, it was hardly a docu, I mean, even though the Norwegians, like they say that they were occupied by, but you know, Sweden was pretty hands-off for many ways, but so when they give the Norwegians a chance to vote, to become independent, of course they did. And the Swedes were shocked because who wouldn't want to be Swedish.
Speaker 2 00:13:18 Ah, that's funny. That's funny. The, um, you talk there just to jump into the children and we about this much of this story is about your son, a lesson. Um, you write a lot about how he's responding to schools and to food and to all the things that are around him. It's quite very charming. Uh, the way you write about that, it's lots of fun. I love it when you bring them on stage. Um, and then you write quite a bit about what's going on with the high school kids there and then a little snots. Tell us a little bit about what you learned there.
Speaker 1 00:13:55 Yeah, yeah. And my friend there, who's a school teacher also, uh, she pointed out you have there, all they think about is 13 off their clothes and they're repetitive and Isla recognized that right away, which is interesting. Um, yeah. So seeing that experiencing Norway through the eyes of a 15 year old now, because when I was 16, my dad actually took me on a similar trip around Scandinavia. Um, and I slept most of the time and just want to, you know, like, but then it actually did make a big impression. And so for him, for Alf now, going over there, I mean, just seeing how, like, what are the things that are attractive to me? Cause he doesn't care about the Buena nods and all this old, you know, the old Norwegian dress and the stave churches and all of that. He's interested in modern Norway about what's happening now,
Speaker 2 00:14:43 But he was interested in the busy workers. So you write about the bazookas later in the book and about the, the island, the, the monks, what was it called? Coleman monk home on the other side. And that apparently was an island that used to be a Viking island and they would put the heads on sticks to warn people away. And, um, you know, I think a lot of us think of old Norway as being those kinds of people. Um, and with the whole bazooka culture, which it turns out I learned something there that I think I heard before, but at long forgotten this, that they took mushrooms, not alcohol too, to kind of lose it when they went into battle and be crazy. Um, so he he's, he's very interested in that. Is that still interesting?
Speaker 1 00:15:33 Oh, of course. I mean, because you know, Al I mean he's a teenager and so the idea like, okay, what are all these different things? And they actually did this way back then. And, you know, in a way, I think it's kind of going back to that thinking, well, are these my people, is this what I should be doing?
Speaker 2 00:15:46 No. Well, my son is a little bit older, but, um, sort of was drawn into some of the same things and he he's been drawn to music and, you know, death metal Scott sort of got one foot in Scandinavia. And, uh, there is that sort of Viking revival that's going on there with the young, especially the young men and, you know, your son being a musician. I was wondering, you know, as he gets older, if he's going to get drawn into that, that kind of thinking, and
Speaker 1 00:16:20 I didn't really know that much about the whole black metal in Norway and then finding out more and more being over there, it's just horrifying because I had, like, I was into more like the British punk rock and all of that kind of stuff. And then the black metal, just so dark that's metal. Yeah. That's metal is more of the Swedish, I guess. And then the black metal is more than our region, but they would, I mean, they went around, burning down churches and, you know, killing people, doing all those crazy really crazy,
Speaker 2 00:16:49 But there's, it's very interesting why my son is into that. And funnily enough, one of the things that interests me about this book is that I just went on a two week to a tour of the Northwest part of the U S with my son in, in a Jeep Wrangler who is just harder. We went and done it for years. And for similar reasons, I think from what you did, and I got to listen to his music because he was, he's a very good driver, so I'd rather he drove, but the deal was, he listened to my music. I drive. So it was good. And gradually, I got used to hearing this material and especially the Scandinavian material is very dark, but if you listen to it, you realize that in many ways, it's more sophisticated than we had in the sixties, seventies, eighties, and, and that kind of music. And you get used to it if you listen to it enough. And, um, that's, uh, as I was reading your book, I was thinking about your son and, you know, what sort of influence does he's going to have, you know, after spending this time with you, they're obviously very benign kind of time, but he he's being driven into it. And it's his main interest. The thing that I picked up on was the bizarre, because why that
Speaker 1 00:18:04 It's wild and crazy and not sort of the stoic old. Cool. It's cool because it's so,
Speaker 2 00:18:10 Yeah. Um, my, my dad always used to say, um, he was, you know, obviously Acadian families comes from Albany, which is Norwegian, um, in Scotland. And he'd say that all the crazy people left Norway and Denmark and came to the, to what is now the UK and Ireland, and that's where they came. And, and then Normans came and then the Normans took over and then almost took over the world. And that's why we got a problem in the world because it's basically being run by busy workers and, you know, but now we're seeing that, that there is that element growing up and with the whole interest in, uh, Scandinavian NWA, which I'm sure you're familiar with, uh, that that's sort of showing a side, which is almost desirous of blood and may have, because there's not that much crime there. See,
Speaker 1 00:19:08 That's, that's the irony of the Scandinavian noir. It's like, it's almost crime-free
Speaker 2 00:19:14 And yet they, they really want that to be happening. And it's quite horrific and people like Nessbaum and folks like that, horrific stories getting made up. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:19:24 You know, and I think that's why I, that section about the black metal in the book, then it's really dark. And when I showed my parents the draft of the book and they said, well, yeah, cut that part out. That should go. And I'm like, no, that needs to be in their needs. You need to show that it's not all, you know, roses and everyone danced around the maple. I mean that it's, there is a dark underside and that there with a Scandinavian war literature, it's that we want, there's a dark side of us, even if everything is perfect. And
Speaker 2 00:19:54 Well, we were talking outside a little bit about the, um, about Scotland and the Orkney and Shetland and, um, Iceland and the rest of it. And it's funny that a lot of the TV shows is there's a TV show called Shetland. I don't think there's, I don't think it's ever been in a murder on chaplain in the last hundred years, but it's all about Nevada. And there's another huge one on Charlotte, Iceland. I forget the name of that one. Very, very well done, same thing. And these are places where there isn't a great deal of conflict, and yet there's this desire on the part of the artists to create it. And that's really, really interesting. And it, and it kind of runs underneath your book that this, this it's kind of scary dunk pot
Speaker 1 00:20:41 It's trouble in paradise, or at least they want there to be some trouble in paradise
Speaker 2 00:20:46 Because it's boring because it's too it's too civilized. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:20:49 You know what, my cousin who went over there and went to visit her relatives in some small island, she was like, oh, it was beautiful and everything, but it's a little boring, you know what? She didn't want to admit that. But because, you know, once you get everything kind of figured out and like the health and all the income inequality is essentially gone, um, what are you, do? You know, you dream about things gone wrong.
Speaker 2 00:21:13 See, this is just a, it's an, it's an alarming concept in many ways. When you think that if you solve all the problems that human beings tend to have, then what do we do for some reason I've got to go. I went out with briefly from Lindstrom and she couldn't stand it up there. And she was down in the city. Yeah. I was, why did you leave this lovely town? It was boring. It was boring. It was nothing to do. And everybody there is boring. And the only problem you ever get there is between the Lutherans and Catholics. And that might be something that never gets said. They just don't talk to each other. Never any problems at all. So, I mean, that's w that leads us, I think, to this big question, what do we do if we do create paradise? Yeah. What if we do have these Topia, what are you, what are you, what are we going to do there? You know, it's like it, Roxy music song, what do we do there? What does happened? Look
Speaker 1 00:22:05 Like, no, I mean, it's a good question, but I think even so, like we, especially in the U S have a lot to, to do, to get there, clearly get even close to get even close to it. Yeah. Yeah. And that's where, you know, like the idea like, well, what do we have to learn from these candidate means, well, you
Speaker 2 00:22:23 Get into this interesting little section talking about, um, the kids that are about to graduate the reus. Yeah. Tell us, tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 1 00:22:34 Yeah. I mean, that's another kind of dark side, really. I mean, because I don't know how long the reus will really last, just because, okay, well, let me explain what it is. So the graduating high schoolers, and they tend to go for one more year of high school than we do in the U S but when they saw at the beginning of may, when they're done with all their classes, they have about three weeks before their final exams, in which time there Bruce, which has, it's a tradition from Denmark, but Denmark doesn't, they don't really do it so much anymore. And essentially in those three weeks, these high schoolers can go crazy. So what they usually do, they wear these typically red outfits and they fill a bus full of beer. They blast music and they just go, it's very last hurrah before adulthood. And so you see them like, you know, out for the certain time, either the 17th of May, their big constitution day they're out there, like drunk, like making fun of everyone like throne, you know, and the police don't really, unless they're hurting someone or hurt or endangered or something, the police just let them do whatever they want because the police had been through it themselves.
Speaker 1 00:23:35 They've all been through it. And it's just like, you know, this is they're going to grow up. And so they get to do this. And it's weird, like here, can you imagine that if we'd just let, okay, these 18 year olds can do whatever they want for three weeks,
Speaker 2 00:23:50 Thank you. Shot. And, uh, and it would get really serious. It's really interesting. And, uh, in the UK it would be truncheons and everybody beaten over their heads and it would be
Speaker 1 00:23:59 Terrible. Yeah. There's lots of nudity. People, streaking people, crawling people. This is kind of bizarre.
Speaker 2 00:24:05 The, the, the word reus, I couldn't help thinking of the Russians and where, who, who descended from more or less a Swedish tribes in it called the roots, then that's where they get them their name. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:24:19 And it comes from like this Latin term for, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:24:23 Is it connected now to the tribe? No, it's just the reus. Yeah. Yeah. So, and you watched this happening and watched them doing it
Speaker 1 00:24:33 And they're, I mean, they, they do all sorts of pranks. Um, and like, you know, we'd see them like out crawling, like they have to crawl all day and then they earn it's elaborate hazing rituals. And so, you know, in the U S like with, especially with fraternities and sororities, it's like no more hazing, we're all done because too many people have gotten hurt. Um, and I think that starting people in Norway are getting a little more savvy about that. Like, they don't want them to rent these buses or these veins anymore. Um, no driving, well, you know, all of, so they're starting to crack down on a little bit. We have this crazy rough. I can't remember the name of them.
Speaker 2 00:25:07 Um, you probably remember it, but in St. Paul, and they might still have them, they dress in red and run around and paint people.
Speaker 1 00:25:13 Oh, the Vulcans. Yeah. Yeah. The St. Paul winter. Carnival. Yeah. Yeah. And they always get in trouble and they can have that tar that they put on. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:25:21 Uh, quite, uh, but they were kind of older guys. I mean, there's guys our age doing it, and that's probably not fun, but that's right. But is that related at all? Cause I
Speaker 1 00:25:32 Haven't seen it. It's the same idea of, you know, that they can kind of do this and get away with it
Speaker 2 00:25:36 Because it'd just be kids that would just be kids. And then of course that whole thing happens in Germany, in fashion, carnival, right? Yeah. Same sort of thing. But, uh, this is in may graduation. It's not hooked into, um, the time of year or the sun or,
Speaker 1 00:25:55 Or fertility. Yeah. I mean, part of it is it's the long dark, winter, and may is the best months to be there because it's all warm out and all the festivals it's light all the time. So,
Speaker 2 00:26:06 So like Christmas is a leftover from a pagan fertility festival or something
Speaker 1 00:26:12 It's from Denmark. It's, you know, this graduating thing that they would, you know, I dunno. It's just, can you imagine too, that those three weeks they should be studying for their final exams and instead they're going nuts, you know, the bus at a bus driver over there. And he was telling me about when he was RUSA and then his mom like saw him like passed out on the hood of a car or a bonnet as he, as a hood of a car, all taped onto the car, passed out. It's like, oh my God. But
Speaker 2 00:26:41 That's funny. Oh, we're running out of time. Of course it goes so quickly to talking to you. Um, what's next for you?
Speaker 1 00:26:48 Um, what's next? I actually, I'm working on a book that should be coming out in October called impossible road trip about crazy roadside attractions around the U S
Speaker 2 00:26:56 So he's staying home for this one. Um, yeah, same hole in the U S here. Yeah. Very good. All right. Well that's I, me and Graham Leask and I was talking to Eric dragging me about his lovely new book, highly recommended for the love of Cod. Thanks for being on the show. It's fun to be here again. See you next time. And now this
Speaker 0 00:27:19 I'm Liz Olson this evening of the second half of right on radio. We're going to be speaking with Camilla trenches. Trinchero author of many mysteries, including the Tuscan mystery series and the latest one of those is the bitter taste of murder. Hi, Camilla, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Hi. Hi. Yeah, we always have to say that. Don't we have to zoom protocol now. Can you hear me well, why don't we start with a little brief synopsis that you'd want to share with us about the book and then a reading that you have prepared?
Speaker 3 00:27:53 Okay. Um, the, uh, in the first position is a 10 minute task and mystery series. And the book we're going to talk about tonight is the second, which is coming out any day now in August, actually. And the first one was called the murdering Chante and to establish a, I have an ex homicide detective called Nico Doyle, who, um, goes back to Italy. Uh, his wife has died. It goes back to Italy when he loses his job, he's asked to retire from the police force. He was a detective homicide detective because of something he did, which will be revealed slowly, at least in the first book. Um, and, uh, and then in the second book I saw he I'm being I'm confusing. Um, so the town is curving in CA in the Canty region of Tuscany, which is of course the region, the great wines of the Tuscan wines are all come from from the county region.
Speaker 3 00:29:00 And, um, he is, was able to find, uh, a small, old farm stone farm house that he rents from this vineyard, uh, the owner of a vineyard, um, called outdoor. And he's very important in the second book and the bitter taste of murder, uh, which I will, I will let you know when, when I read you'll you'll understand and what happened at least in the first book was that he stumbled onto, uh, a body thanks to a dog. I'm not a stray dog that was barking, uh, too loudly. And he thought he had been hurt. So he w went out to help him and a dead man. And he asked to call the, the local authorities. He does not want to get mixed up in it at all. And the local authorities, uh, find out the, of Shiloh, who is a very important, uh, character in the books, uh, asks for his help, finds out that he was an ex homicide detective from New York.
Speaker 3 00:30:05 And here is a matter of shallow is from a very small town. Uh, and he thinks that the American detective will know much more than he does, and he wants his help to, and that's established as a friendship, um, between the two of them so that when the second book comes out, of course, there's another murder. And, and Nico Doyle has sort of taken over, uh, with some, not a shallow and will always help, even though at first, he didn't want to, but he realized, he said he could be helped be of help. And, you know, he's a man out of, he's just lost his wife. He lost his job through his own fault. And, um, here he is in a new country, uh, that he knew from because his wife was Italian and he has to find a new life. And that's why I think in the first book, he accepts two to help them out of shallow because it makes him feel useful instead of just sort of hanging out and helping at the restaurant of his in-laws.
Speaker 3 00:31:09 So that's the sort of more or less of our, it starts with no spoilers, no spoilers. And, um, that was, yeah, murdering Gant in this second one, things get a little bit more complicated because for Nico, who is feeling more comfortable in the town after a year, his landlord gets into trouble and he is convinced that his landlord would not have done anything wrong. And they're here for, he has to fight and then way he has to fight them out of Charlotte, who is of course convinced that, uh, everything points to the landlord, having done this drag, terrible D uh, and so, and then of course, Nicole also meets a woman who has helped him with the first case. Uh, and perhaps he likes her, but he's very, very, um, loyal to his wife. Rita visits her at the cemetery very often and would feel guilty.
Speaker 3 00:32:17 It's only been two years, uh, and unusually still, he feels guilty of having someone, you know, letting someone else enter into his, into his world, his loved world. So there's a little tension there. There's a little interest. And of course, food, food, because we are in, we are in Tuscany aware negatively. It doesn't have to be Tuscany. And so there's a lot of mentioned his in-laws. I was actually his wife's niece who runs a restaurant and he starts to help. He's actually becomes a waiter because it just gives him something to do. But of course, he also gets very interested in the food. And so there's a lot of description of food. And in the first one, also, that was very important too, to both books, to all the books I will write about in this series is the dog. His name is one wag because he only has his, he's got an arthritic tail and he only wags once. And that's all he's going to give you. And he he's, he's a very important character and I love him dearly.
Speaker 0 00:33:31 Oh, good. Oh, I was going to ask you about one way, but now I may ask you more, but now we have established the dog as a character. So would you like me to read? Yes, please.
Speaker 3 00:33:50 Good. I mean, yes. A small town in the county Hills of Tuscany, a Tuesday in June seven 30 7:50 AM ex homicide, detective Nico Doyle parties read 500 feet under cloudless sky that promised another hot day and followed his dog across the deserted main Patterson at the far corner, bought a Lambo opens in 6:00 AM would offer him breakfast. One wag rushed into the cafes with the open door nose immediately canvas single floor followed by Nico Sandra. One of the two owners who was Manning the cash register register as always looked up, child Nico salad and Nico reply. He walked through the cash register. How goes it so far? The day is good. Sandra replied with a smile. He was a good-looking man lanky somewhere in his mid forties with a small ear in shining in one ear, Jimmy Sandra's husband in charge of the espresso machine started ECOS Americano.
Speaker 3 00:34:54 Nico walked over to his usual table by the French, the open French doors and sat down, having breakfast and thought Alango was part of the daily routine. Yeah, they adopted early on. It gave his life some needed order. After burring Lee, Rita his Italian wife next to her parents in the town cemetery almost two years ago, after the funeral, he'd gone back to his home in the Bronx, but he had no wife and no job after being forced to retire from the New York police department with nothing to hold them in New York. It makes sense to go back to Rita's hometown, where her niece and her family welcomed him with open arms. When Jordan was a voice within Neapolitan accent, Nico turned around, <inaudible> stood outside the open French doors. He was a short stocky man, his shiny black hair, beginning to grey at the temples, a chiseled handsome faces, large dark liquid eyes, thick lips, and an Aqualine nose.
Speaker 3 00:35:56 He was out of uniform and his usual wearing jeans, a perfectly pressed blue linen shirt. And despite the heat, his beloved leather jacket slung over his shoulder. Nico smiles, glad to see the man who had become a good friend since getting them involved in a murder investigation. Last September, pretty low sat down next to Nico espresso for you. Salvatore Sandro asked, but Ella raised first two fingers. Then a thumb, which meant his two coffees should be corrected with grappa. The inclusion of grappa meant things. Weren't going well with the motor Shiloh that bad Nico asked, I will happily tell you this week. This is yesterday <inaudible>. They drove into gravy, found that the parking spots and not get some out there off, they were occupied, parked his Jaguar in the middle of the JAXA locked it and went off to lunch. Of course, one of my men call the car removal service.
Speaker 3 00:36:52 What followed was one Telia stomping into the station proceeded by a storm of insults directed at me. It was clear. I had no brains. I didn't know who he was. Headquarters and Florence was going to hear about this. I would be demoted and on and on. You would not believe the fury of the man who is he eco last a ball breaker. Nadia Montelli is considered a famous critic of Italian wines said to have the power to make or ruin arrive. He owns a very successful by your annual magazine called Vino Veritas written in Italian and English and distributed internationally. Also something called a blog, which comes out monthly with thousands of followers, the pied Piper and the rats. I say, if they only knew he is the head rat, I'm sorry. He got to you. Where's he from Milan, but he has an old Villa and monster <inaudible>.
Speaker 3 00:37:48 How are out on chains? You're putting on our last algo family who owned the different vineyard had let Niko rent a small rundown stone farm house next to his olive Grove. Fine. They invited me over for dinner last week, spaghetti yatta, Nico punched his fingers to his lips and kissed them the Italian way of saying delicious. I convinced me, convinced her to give me the recipe. Was there any tension between sheets? You know, though, not that I saw a couple walked in an order from Sandra and French tinted Italian, but he heard laughter and turned to look at the young couple. They were hugging each other, watching them brought back the scene you witnessed last night. Luckily he hadn't been seen, but ILA felt a sudden back pain of remorse. Was it fair to tell Nikko she instead now the, where he's friends, maybe there was an explanation for what he'd seen. He could only be spreading malicious gossip, eco watch, pretty loss expression change. Why are you asking me about Chines? No reason. Just that I haven't seen them around in some time. And in those stood up, I better get back to the station. He will enjoy life.
Speaker 0 00:39:07 Thank you. That was Camila crunchy, Sherry reading from the bitter taste of murder her, uh, second, uh, story in the, uh, Tuscan mystery series. Um, you know, let's start with your characters. All your characters are very complex. The book is very complex and the characters are, uh, they're almost more important to the enjoyment of the story as the murder or as the solving of the murder. I really enjoy your character. So, and I'm wondering how you develop them. If you come up with them sort of in whole cloth or if it takes some time or you make lists of character traits, or how do you create these wonderful characters?
Speaker 3 00:39:54 Uh, I, you know, I really don't know. I don't, I don't make mics. Um, you know, I don't write anything down. I mean, I do afterwards and I'm rather sloppy because then I forget their age and that, um, they just come to me slowly. I, I needed, okay, Nico. I have no idea. I really have to say they just come. I don't know anyone like me. Um, sometimes I think then maybe he might have some similarities to my husband in his, um, generosity, but then he has many characteristics that are not like my husband at all. I really don't know they come to me and his words come to me, the wonderful thing that happens. And that's why I love to write the, the character, speak to me. And they often speak to me early in the morning when I wake up early and have no intention of getting out of bed yet.
Speaker 3 00:40:52 And there I sit and then all of a sudden, just, I guess the brain starts working and, and they, and they tell me once time I remember writing something. And then in the morning the character said, I would never say that. And I went back and I said, okay, now I know that sounds nuts. I'm not quite crazy, but, but it is something in that comes inside me slowly. Now. I think that my background helped helps me very much in the sense that I was involved in the movie business. I dubbed films in Italy when I lived there. And for a long time, for almost 17 years, I watched actors on the screen. And so the, the, the acting the emotion, I was always seeing it because then the actors, the dubbers would, you know, try to copy the emotion. And I also want it to be an actress when I was younger, then realized I couldn't deal with rejection quite that way. So I chose, I chose writing, which is full of riches.
Speaker 0 00:42:01 Then
Speaker 3 00:42:01 I, then I got up. But then by then I was a little older when I started writing. So, um, and also I have lived a strange, my father was an Italian diplomat and we moved, we changed often country school, uh, language, uh, every four years. So what I did was I learned to adapt, but the only way I knew how to adapt is to watch first. So I was always watching people and sitting at the edge of the carpet to see how they were. So to try to figure out how I could fit in. And I think that has helped me in developing these characters. Um, but they, they really do come on their own. And for instance, the dog a one way, uh, who has, I think, quite a personality of his own, I started writing about him before I actually met someone who was very much a dog. Who's very much like one leg, but he came to me, I'm a dog lover. And so I guess I wanted a dog.
Speaker 3 00:43:06 Well, the dog that's all I can tell you is yes, I don't. I don't, um, I just let it ride. I just, I hope that inspiration leads me on and I am more interested in the characters that I, in a way than I am in the mystery plot, the mystery plot, I was interested in writing ministries because something terrible happens. And it was interesting for me to figure out how the people surrounded, the people who suffer because of it, the, the murderer to, um, what w what was they like? Who were they? What I I'm interested in, the psychology always have been. Um, and so I enjoy having, finding these characters that come, that come to me. Um, and I never, you know, very often, for instance, in the past, when I've written other mysteries, the, uh, I've decided at the beginning that so-and-so was going to be the killer and the reason for it. And then halfway through, I discovered that he, he kept, or she kept possibly be the killer, because that's not who they are, because I could discover that they are, they would never do that. And that's, to me it's fast, I'm fascinated. I go to the computer and I am fascinated to listen and type that's how I feel about it. I'm listening, um,
Speaker 0 00:44:33 About continuity and mysteries. I find I'm trying to be a mystery writer, I would say. And I find that keeping the continuity going and making sure that, you know, I don't have somebody, you know, killed in one scene and then come back to life in another scene. Do you make lists? Or how do you keep the continuity going? It's
Speaker 3 00:44:54 Right. I've learned to, I have a notebook. I used to do it in cards, little cards. So each time, you know, so I would write us chapter one, Nico goes into the bar, talks to Sandra, Jimmy, the mater shallow comes in. Then I, you know, I, as you noticed, I cut a lot of, from the first chapter, another character. So because it was, I couldn't do it in the time allotted. And, um, so I write it all down so that when I get to chapter 14, I check if I want to, I check, oh, but no, I can't have them do that because he did it already in chapter two. So, so I keep a notebook. Actually, it's better to have cards. I suggest you do that. Or, you know, just little notes so-and-so did this. So he met so-and-so and then keep going from there. And so that's the key. And then, you know, of course we have editors who are very pine and catch and catch saying, but wait a minute, you said he was 65 on page 10, and now you haven't be 45. Right? Can't do that. Yeah, no, no, no. I remember if there was in one industry quite a few years ago where I had the killer to have red hair, and of course by the end he had brown hair and my editor did not catch it, but thank God I did.
Speaker 3 00:46:18 I was lucky. Well, good luck with your, you shouldn't be doing an interview view and you're writing.
Speaker 0 00:46:24 Well, hopefully we will, uh, say, I wanted to ask you about the Italian justice system. You do, uh, an interesting, uh, job of, uh, of talking about that and how it all works. And, and, uh, so I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit, it's very,
Speaker 3 00:46:39 It's very complicated. I am, I know very little, uh, and thank God I became friends of a <inaudible> in gravy, which is where I put him in, in the book. And he has been wonderful answering my questions and we've become very good friends. Uh, and when I go back, hopefully in September, we will have dinner together and yeah, he's just become a pal. And he always answers my questions instantly. I wrote last night, because I was curious about what happens in an accident who takes care of it through the kind of be knitting or there's also the road police and five minutes later, practically, I had been my answer. So, um, yeah, that's how I'm able, because if you try to look into, I looked into the penal code into a mess, it is so complicated and I don't have that kind of brain. I, you know, it's, it's just too, a lawyer would understand it. I just don't have that.
Speaker 0 00:47:42 Well, it sounds like sometimes the, uh, the Marchelle doesn't understand that completely.
Speaker 3 00:47:48 Oh, no, no. Well, he's, you know, he's, oh, he's cute. I like it. And I'm I, the, but the guy I love the most is the, I mean, apart from Nico and the dog, um, is Daniella the young BRCA dearie, the Venetian guy, we guy who blushes all the time. Exactly.
Speaker 0 00:48:12 Yeah. He is cute. You
Speaker 3 00:48:15 And sweet and innocent and not dumb at all. As, as he figures out in the break, you know, in the, in the bitter taste of murder, he shows that he's not dumb at all. You understand? And he also is, um, psychologically acute. He is very, he feels for people and sees things and yes, he's, he's become quite, quite, um, a passion of mine, the media,
Speaker 0 00:48:40 Well, let's get down to brass tacks. What is your favorite wine?
Speaker 3 00:48:45 What my favorite wine, all that. Okay. I'm Tara. My husband is an Italian wine expert. He knows all. And I always go to him and say, well, what wine would they be drinking now? What should I put in the book? I drank only white wine. And I drink peanut Gladesville. Uh, not the, you know, the fanciest wine there is. And very, because I like very bland wine. So I'm not, um, I'm not a good one person. Um, I have a French friend he's not French, but he loves French wines. And if we go to dinner at his house, I bring my own bottle because he gets upset with me because he will offer me this very expensive, beautiful white wine, and I put ice in it and he goes, oh,
Speaker 0 00:49:34 Okay. That's funny. Uh, well, we only have a few minutes left, but, uh, uh, maybe three or four. Why don't you answer this question for me? You say you're very proud of being an Italian American, and I want to know what that means to you. Uh, the privateness of it, and also, uh, just how your life is and what makes you happy about it?
Speaker 3 00:50:00 Well, I had an American, I have an, I had an American mother she's long gone. We lived separately. She was ill. Um, she was schizophrenic. And so I grew up with my Italian father and mostly in Europe, except for a few years here first. Um, and then we were, my father was posted here for many years. That's why I speak English the way I do without an accent, but I was not a Mer, you know, I would, yes, I fit in, I had friends, but I wasn't part of, of America. And, um, even though I, you know, I spoken fine finally or whatever, becoming coming then I went back, lived 17 years in Rome, did my work with the, with the movie business. Um, my personal life sort of collapsed there. So I, a friend said, well, why don't you just come back here? And my mother posted me, I know you only have a few minutes and I go on too long.
Speaker 3 00:51:04 But anyway, what made me proud was finally becoming a citizen and keeping my Italian identity now having my American identity is just beyond the fact that I spoke the language well. Uh, but for instance, when I started writing, I said, I can't, you know, how do I, I'm not American. And I have to keep that Italian part, which I'm very proud of. I can't pretend to be an American, so having the right education and all that. But, but yes, I'm very proud to be both. And I almost cried when one of my books got published in Italy because it was just a meeting. You know, we were there, we both got together. I mean the attack, I had an English book and I had the same book in Italian and that was me. It was me being American, any town that's very moving.
Speaker 0 00:52:03 Uh, so this comes out in August, late July,
Speaker 3 00:52:07 August 10th, Augie, paperback of murdering Canty. The first of the series comes out in paperback, July 6th. There will be available as email E book, audible and, and hardcover at first for the second one. But also, yeah, you can still get both of them in various forms. Great.
Speaker 0 00:52:33 And what's next? Finally,
Speaker 3 00:52:36 The, well I'm working on it now, a book. Oh, I think unless marketing protects my title, but so far they haven't. So I think I've got it, uh, dying on the bone.
Speaker 0 00:52:46 Ah, and that's gonna hurt
Speaker 3 00:52:49 Her on the bar. No, the expression is dying on the vine and I changed it to murder on the
Speaker 0 00:52:54 Bar. And that's the Tuscan mystery series sports. Yes.
Speaker 3 00:52:58 I will only write those now. Great,
Speaker 0 00:53:00 Great. Well, we've been talking with Kamila, uh, trench Harry, and thank you so much. This has been a wonderful chat and I have enjoyed it very much. Uh oh, great. Thank you so much. And
Speaker 3 00:53:15 Good luck. Bye-bye okay.
Speaker 0 00:53:18 Leave that. Bye-bye
Speaker 0 00:53:41 You have been listening to right on radio on KPI 90.3 FM and streaming live on the
[email protected]. I'm Liz Alz. I'd like to thank our guests tonight. Eric, Derek ne and Kamila trench Harry plus our listeners without your support and donations KPI would not be possible. You can find more news and info about right on radio at KFC ai.org/programs/right on radio. Plus listen to recent episodes on our recently launched podcasts found on Spotify, iTunes, Google podcasts, and anywhere podcasts can be found. Now stay tuned for Bowser of Minnesota.
