Speaker 0 00:00:01 Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. You are listening to right on radio on K FAI, 90.3 FM and streaming live on the
[email protected]. I'm Josh Weber. And tonight on, right on radio, Pamela Fletcher Bush joins Dave FedEx to discuss blues vision African American writing from Minnesota and new collection from the Minnesota historical society. Press Fletcher is associate professor of English at St Catherine's university and a senior editor of St. Paul Almanac. She has published fiction nonfiction and poetry, and is the editor of numerous anthologies.
Speaker 1 00:00:35 And I lose old. And the last part of the hour, I will be talking with mark Lechleiter author of the other side and ministry set in Montana. Licklider has written fiction poetry, and his essays have appeared in many literary journals, including the Bloomsbury. Are you talking river review Weber the cost of the contemporary west and zone three. He is a former college professor and a writing program director. He was born in Wyoming and currently lives in the Flathead valley of Montana, all of this and more so stay tuned to write on radio.
Speaker 3 00:01:23 Hello, Pamela. I'm up there you are Pamela. Welcome to the big show.
Speaker 4 00:01:31 How are
Speaker 3 00:01:31 You? Very good. Very good. Uh, so they, we are welcoming and my name is Dave by the way. And we are welcoming Pamela Fletcher, Bush co editor of blues vision and amazing anthology. African-American writing from Minnesota. Welcome to the show again. And, um, you know, I tell you what I think what we're going to do. And I sent you a note earlier. I hope you saw it, but we'll play this by ear. We're going to have you do some readings from the books throughout the show because, um, it's kind of an, uh, really rich collection, not kind of a rich collection. It's a really rich collection of writing. So from writers, I think that people will be surprised to hear from, but before we get into the book, why don't you tell us about the project itself, Pamela, please. And, um, how this happened, how it came about and how you got involved, um, with this book.
Speaker 4 00:02:23 Okay, very good question. I'd be glad to, I, um, know Alex Pate. I knew, I know Alex for a very long time. Um, and I've known him, I should say for a very long time, as I did J Otis and, um, Alex invited me and he invited jail to us to be on the project with him. He was doing some work with the humanities center, Minnesota humanities center, and G and David O'Fallon, um, I guess, got together and talked about doing such a project and they invited us, um, Gerald has some me to join them on the project. And so, um, Alex asked me to be the pro's editor and jailed his power to be a poetry editor. And so we did a call for submissions as you ordinarily would do for an apology. And, um, and we got to work.
Speaker 3 00:03:25 So you guys did all the work and Alex gets credit for being the editor. That's how that goes. That's how
Speaker 4 00:03:30 That goes.
Speaker 3 00:03:33 But
Speaker 4 00:03:34 We consider Alex to produce there. There
Speaker 3 00:03:37 You go. There you go. So Pamela, uh, but you have writers from, you know, from down from back to the Harlem Renaissance era, if you will, a hundred years or so ago. So when you do a call for submissions or, you know, uh, people to send your writing, you did some of your own footwork on this yourself, right. Were there pieces in writers that you felt needed to be in here?
Speaker 4 00:04:00 Yeah, that's a good question. Um, yes, we felt that we're talking about a Minnesota experience. We wanted to have writers who had had some connection to Minnesota from way back then the 1920s as you saw, um, and can see in the book and up to the present day of the, you know, the 21st century. So yeah, so we wanted to be able to have people know that Minnesota has quite the black literary tradition.
Speaker 3 00:04:32 Yeah. Yeah. W what, as the editor of the pros section, uh, w it sounds like you just answered my question, but what was your guiding principle? What were you looking for? What w what did you want readers to come to know or understand?
Speaker 4 00:04:46 I want to get him to understand the experience, the, uh, if you will, the, the spirits of people, of African descent as being really rich and complex, um, you know, that this word, the verses bandied about, right. But the point of the matter is that black people in the USA have not really had the opportunity to be themselves individually, you know? And so we tend to be one big mass ball or whatever of a people and not individuals, right? So whenever something happens or whenever something is done, when, when this is say, if something bad happens, if somebody commits a crime, and that person happens to be black, then everybody who happens to be black yeah. Against monetized, you know, so that you cannot be an individual when somebody else does something and you have to carry the burden of that. Interesting. So black people have a tendency to say, well, I hope it went. And when we hear about something happening, right. Uh, and it's in the news and you don't see the person. And are you think of is that, but I hope that person is not black because you know, that it means that you're not going there. You're going to be held accountable somehow. No one wanted people to see that black people are individual, and that we have our own sense of being and thinking and, and being in the world,
Speaker 3 00:06:29 It was so beautifully said. And it, it really lines up with my experience in reading the book, which is part of me, especially in these times, in which we live expected, this collection on every page to challenge me as a white Minnesota, that is to say, you know, to come to grips with the legacy that, um, discrimination, segregation, and everything else, it's a part of this state and every other state. Um, but it's so much more than that. It's exactly what you said. People's intimate daily, sometimes very quotidian life experiences put on the page, uh, in ways, which we can all relate because it's just living, it's just life. And, uh, it's just full of life. Um, uh, I, I, I was really swept up by a lot of the writing. So, um,
Speaker 4 00:07:22 That's the range of the human experience just as you say
Speaker 3 00:07:26 Exactly. Well, let's give our listeners a taste of some of this. There are 43 selections, I believe in here. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, and, um, there is just wonder is on every page, you can just let the book fall open and start reading. And, uh, and you're going to have a good time. So w what are you going to start? What are you going to share with us for Pamela?
Speaker 4 00:07:44 I'm glad to, well, could I, could I give you my perception of the title and the group, and then I wanted to know, and then I want to go and to, um, how much to jail does Powell, who, who passed and his spirit still lives on, but I, I feel that, uh, my, my perception or my description of the, of the title is a really good segue into his poem. Beautiful sound. Can I? Okay. Yeah. So when people ask me, what does it mean to have blues vision? And as I see it, the blues, and in this case, in this book is used as a metaphor for a way, a black person perceives his or her experience or their experience in a white dominant culture. And so it's a perception that's heavily influenced by African-Americans unique history and heritage, as well as influenced by some social political and social economic factors that have shaped what I call the black indigenous experience.
Speaker 4 00:08:48 And that may explain that because that gets a little complex, I think, a little controversial. So when I use this term referring to the two, those whose ancestors came from Africa to north America over 400 years ago, as captive peoples, given the complex and how horrific experiences of the institution of slavery in north America, colonies African American people, African American people became a people that had never existed before. This is brand new and identity emerged in this unknown world. A new history and heritage were established before the United States of America, wherever, or even I should say, even formed. So African-Americans are indigenous to the United States. Therefore, the title of Blue's vision suggests a group identity yet as a reader, you'll note the broad diversity quote, unquote diversity among the writers regarding each distinct and personal experience. Wow.
Speaker 3 00:09:49 You just gave me a whole nother meaning for the word indigenous. Thank you.
Speaker 4 00:09:53 Yeah, but I'm saying indigenous to the United States right now to the ran. Right? Right, right. And this, this is a poem called tongue swallow from J oldest Powell. May he rest in peace? And so I know I won't be able to read it like Childers, but I'm going to put my I'm going to put my thing. I'm going to do my thing, this thing, they're not like, I'm sorry. Let me start this thing. Do me, like, I don't belong this thing hanging around like a weather fronts and stall above me making it snow rain and storm making rivers lakes, and seas rise up and rebel against land and everything. And everybody on it, this thing like climate change got so many names. We can't point a finger at it. And to not end up and identify it well enough to get help putting it down.
Speaker 4 00:10:54 Duke Ellington found a name for it. The miasma of the oppressive culture is known as translucency defined as a blue fog. You can almost see through, we live our lives in that fog and mama, Amir Baraka says, and folk folklore. That's why our spirit make us the blues. We is ourselves, the blues, Fred Moten author of the break, the aesthetics of the black radical tradition called it resistance of the object. A conscious intention to resist as well as conscious of resistance to dominant culture way of being and knowing simply because they are values of the oppressive culture. I struggled to reclaim my tongue and attach it in my mouth so I can speak my language. Sometimes I'm too angry to write, but I try every day to often my words won't dance into something that feels like grace. So I suffered with passages on a page that can't be shared by, right.
Speaker 4 00:12:09 And recant, because I don't want to leave records coding on the rage. I don't want writing. That's too raw to escape in. This represent me. I made space to write. And now time and space portray me, put my shingle, announcing, put out my shingle, announcing my intentions. Now what, who was this man masquerading as me who can't write his way out of rage out of this thing. And an identity crisis, an invisible foot is kicking my butt. And when I turn around, there's only his story, his values, her domination, and none of them are visible anymore. They've disappeared behind time institutions and traditions as if they were never there. It used to be I who was out of sight. Now I'm a target for long range weapons, unmanned drones, some drink to forget other strings. To remember, I drank to lubricate mouth parts to dry clenched jaws, to tight
Speaker 3 00:13:16 That's Pamela Fletcher, Bush reading from the collection blues vision. African-American writing from Minnesota, uh, jailed as Powell pong called a tongue swallow. Thank you, Pamela. That was beautiful. A blue fog. You can almost see through many images in this poem. Uh, thank you for that reading and thank you for, uh, remembering jailed as Paul for us. Uh, Hey Pamela, what's your Minnesota story. How did you get here?
Speaker 4 00:13:44 And here, I came here to go to Carleton college many, many moons ago, and my father did not expect for me to stay. I didn't even know I would stay who knew.
Speaker 3 00:13:58 Right. Was that because of the weather?
Speaker 4 00:14:01 No, it was just because, you know, you're, I'm 17 years old. I'm a kid. I leave, I leave home. I don't know anything about Minnesota. I don't know anybody. And I'm just, you know, here, you know, I'm being free. Right. And so he, so anyway, after I graduated, I ended up going to graduate school at the U of M. But every time I come home for like 10 years, he'd say, well, baby, when you went back home, baby, when you moved from back home. So finally I had to tell my mom, mom, tell dad that I already have a home I'm at home. I live in Minnesota now. And so she eventually told him, I guess, or they stopped asking me. And then I got really sad
Speaker 3 00:14:45 As a father of a daughter. I understand.
Speaker 4 00:14:48 Yeah. So anyway. Yeah. So that's how I here.
Speaker 3 00:14:52 Well, you shared part of your life and you are your own, um, pieces in here. Um, and I really kind of felt like I kind of know you from it from your piece. It's very honest and raw and real and fun and just smiling and, uh, um, uh, I don't know if you have a reading, if you want to read from, from your own piece, but, uh, why don't you tell us a little bit about, uh, the piece you chose you've have two pieces from yourself, but, uh, I'm referring to one, of course the story
Speaker 4 00:15:21 I have a prose, I have a prose poem. What I call really is how, as an exercise of what word would you define or what word would you redefine? And I redefined the word bad for always talking, you know, the dominant culture is always talking about or having some, some perception of black people being bad. I redefined it, not that I was the first black person to be defined bad because, you know, Michael Jackson song called bad, you know, many, many moons ago, but anyway, black people always done little things with language, you know, to really speak about our, our experience in history and this land. So that's about redefining what, how, how we see ourselves according to that word. But then I have a fiction, uh, um, a story. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:16:16 Yeah,
Speaker 4 00:16:18 My mother.
Speaker 3 00:16:19 Yeah. Is there any, uh, autobiography in this story?
Speaker 4 00:16:23 There is some, yes.
Speaker 3 00:16:26 Okay. We'll leave it at that.
Speaker 4 00:16:30 Let's just say this is autobiographical fiction, but the, uh, but it's really, it's a D it's a, a story dedicated to my mother. So I wrote the story from my mother's point of view.
Speaker 3 00:16:43 Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of love in that story. I'll say that much. Um, so, um, uh, w what piece or pieces, and it's tempting to say every one of them, but really speaks to you, um, for us today. Um, and I, and I know they all do, because that's why they're in this, um, collection. Maybe I should ask you when you started working on this, you and Alex and geodes,
Speaker 4 00:17:12 We started working on this, you know, really, we started working on it a long, a long time before it was published. In fact, I have forgotten about it. Hmm. I think that, um, he approached me about the project. I think it was like 2010. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:17:33 Okay.
Speaker 4 00:17:34 And, and we worked on it for probably, I don't know, a couple of years from 2011 to 2013, maybe, you know, during that period of time. And then, you know, then, and then he went, um, to try to find a publisher and then I lost track of time and lost track of it. And then remember it. And then one day he called me and he said, well, I found a publisher. We're going to be publishing the book. And I'm like, what book? He says, well, come on family. Hasn't been that long. And I'm like, well, I've just talking about, you know, yeah. I mean, if you're talking about a book we been, we were working on a while ago. I, I, are we really co are we really going to publish it? And he's like, yeah. I felt, you know, Minnesota historical society, you know, wants to publish it. And I'm like, okay, well, let's get it. Let's get it done
Speaker 3 00:18:29 It. And, you know, by the way, a shout out to the Minnesota historical society, society press for their great collections that they put together. We had some authors and editors on last week on another book, they continued to impress with these kinds of collections, um, representing many communities. Um, they, they just do great work. Um, yeah.
Speaker 4 00:18:49 I like to get a shout out to two and Regan, cause she was the editor that I guess I probably the executive editor of this good of our projects. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:18:58 Yeah. Good, good to send out some love. Um, I think in Minnesota and maybe in around the country and around the world, this is what we do when things happen or our brains just get fixated on things. Maybe I'm speaking about myself, but if I think about African-American experience in Minnesota, there is like a pre George Floyd time and a post George Floyd time. And that's terribly simplistic and maybe doesn't make any sense, but, uh, um, w w were you confronted by, uh, May, 2020, and in the time that followed in terms of this book, and we just went over the timeline, so it was probably already baked in the cake by the time this came out. Um,
Speaker 4 00:19:41 Yeah, because, because we, we, this came out, we launched this book in February of 2015. Right. So we're talking what, seven years? So six, about six years later, I don't know, five, five years.
Speaker 3 00:19:57 It takes a long time to publish a book.
Speaker 4 00:19:59 Right, right. So we can, so five years later, 20, yeah. 20, 20, yeah. Five years later we have, you know, um, uh, may you may, may Memorial day. Yeah. Or, yeah. Um, the George Floyd murder.
Speaker 3 00:20:17 Yeah. We had a, Tammy is her name. She's a, uh, librarian. Um, I have on once in a while, and I don't know if she's gonna be able to join us anymore, but anyway, we had around to talk about books, um, for people to read who want to learn more about, um, what's really going on in America. And she began by reading from an essay, which said, um, something to the effect of when, uh, when something like, you know, our George flight event happens or whatnot, uh, white people respond to it by joining book clubs, you know, by reading books. That's, that's, that's all, that's all they do. And then full stop. Um, uh, but in a shout out to reading books, um, uh, I want to somehow bring the blues blues vision, um, into the, uh, contemporary sort of Zeit, Geist or discussion that's going on, Pam I'm struggling here.
Speaker 4 00:21:16 Well, I appreciate that because I was wondering how you came to Blue's vision and did you just come to it because it has been out for awhile and what, what brought you to it and then why now? Well, now, I mean, I think it's always timely myself, but I just wondered for you what it's about
Speaker 3 00:21:38 Personally. I've been trying to do that, bring more of these brain books forward, uh, to write on radio, uh, as much as possible, but I'll tell you the truth, the word blues brought me to this book. Um, I love the blues and, um, um, that's, that's where it began for me, uh, music, frankly. Uh, and, um, yeah, so that's, that's the answer and I'm not used to answering,
Speaker 4 00:22:05 I love that answer. Yes. Because, um, as a mayor Jones or a member, a mirror Baraka says we are blues people. And, uh, and our life basically defined the blues is defined through our lives, you know, black people's lives. And basically it's about, you know, how we see things in ironic ways that we can, and that we can bring some joy and laughter to things that can be really horrible.
Speaker 3 00:22:32 Um, you do so much other writing. Um, we mentioned St. Paul Almanac in our intro of you. I want to take a little a sidebar here and talk about some other things. What is St. Paul Almanac?
Speaker 4 00:22:46 I'm an act is a literary arts centered organization, first of all. And then we have the, um, that we call lovingly called the Almanac. Okay. And so it's a, it's a unsolid of a community-based, um, derived anthology. It comes from our editorial, um, process, which we have a, um, apprenticeship cause. So we call it the editorial, I'm sorry, call it the editors, the editors, um, project of community of this project, in fact, so the, the operative word is community. And so we bring community together, um, a big group of people, and I'd say, you know, 20 to 28 people in a room spanning, you know, age and ethnicity, language, culture, um, you name it and gender, and we're all in there together, it out, hashing out what is a good, what's a good piece of work. What's a good poem. What's a good story. You know, how can we bring the community and to, you know, this, um, experience, how would the community respond to this experience? You know? And so we have our own, um, equitable process of coming up with, um, good standards, you know, w what's a good story, you know, what's good quality aesthetic. And so that's what, that's where the book derives, you know, from that process. But at the St Paul Almanac is an organization that really thrives on being, community-based having art, you know, basically facilitating the experience of artists wants one to have
Speaker 3 00:24:32 Yes. So we all need to Google St. Paul Almanac. Um,
Speaker 4 00:24:36 So you have to do our website is just quite the experience.
Speaker 3 00:24:40 Yeah. That's exciting. And you have events to I'm imagining, I mean, in normal times, whatever that's going to be.
Speaker 4 00:24:45 Um, so when we have, so we would launch the, you know, we had our last launch of volume twelve, twenty, nineteen llama, that call resistance and the resiliency. And, um, we had a launch at, um, the saints, um, club and the club house. And it was beautiful. I can't believe
Speaker 3 00:25:07 I haven't heard about this. It's driving me crazy.
Speaker 4 00:25:09 I know there's a lot of people who don't know this, you know, this open secret or something. Yeah. But at any rate, um, so I'm trying to do, I'm trying to get the word out, cause this is my 23rd, 24th month as the CEO and publisher of St. Paul Almanac. So I thank you. January 7th, 20, 20. Wow. Yeah, so we have books, so we will have, we were planning to have a book launch, um, hopefully October when we launched, uh, um, uh, launched the volume 13. Wow. Um, yeah. Um, anthology that I'm working on as we speak. And so, yeah. So, and we have that editorial process in the fall where we got, you know, we have the group, the editors come and we have senior editors and we have the community editors and we just have a great time, you know, figuring out what's going to go into the book and a whole lot of other things besides, but this is the foundation and that whole equitable process of, you know, um, um, amplifying the voices of a community that really mattered to have meaning to us.
Speaker 3 00:26:16 Wow. That's amazing. I'm so glad that, uh, we had time to chat about that. We have unbelievably, Pamela reached the end of our allotted 27 minutes of
Speaker 4 00:26:27 Really, and I didn't even get to read anything oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 00:26:37 Yes. You know what? I've got to make sure to get over there. And I hope we could meet some day, but you know, we're going to have you back to talk about St. Paul St. Paul Almanac, when that next edition comes out.
Speaker 4 00:26:46 I wish you well.
Speaker 3 00:26:47 Yeah. Well, thank you ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 4 00:26:50 And thank you for thinking of me. I really appreciate it. And yes, I appreciate you promoting on Blue's vision. It means a lot to
Speaker 3 00:26:57 Wonderful. We have been speaking with Pamela Fletcher Bush, a co-editor of blues vision America. African-American writing from Minnesota. Thank you, Pamela.
Speaker 4 00:27:07 Have a good take care and happy
Speaker 3 00:27:09 Holidays. Thank you. And now this
Speaker 1 00:27:24 Hello, mark. Are you there? Okay, great. We're speaking tonight with mark lek, whiter author of the other side, a wonderful mystery that takes place in the state of Montana state. I am familiar with. Um, and, uh, why don't we start with a little, you know, no spoilers, but a little story about how the, what the book is all about, and then you can do your little reading that we've got.
Speaker 5 00:27:50 Well, thanks, Liz. And thanks for having me on, it's great to have this opportunity. Minneapolis is such a, a rich literary town with a great history. Uh, so I'm, I'm really honored. Uh, the other side. Yeah, it's a book that crime fiction sets in Northwest Montana and, uh, I've circa 2017. So on almost contemporary book. Um, and it focuses on a little sleepy town called Lakeside, which is a real place along the shores of Flathead lake, which is the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. And, uh, the principal events of the book kind of are centered on the town and the lake. And it jumps starts with the abrupt disappearance of a 17 year old girl from Lakeside named Brittany Rogers, who seems a completely ordinary sort of person well liked, um, lives, a quiet life with a working class family, local high school kid, um, who really has none of the kinds of expectations or signs or symbols of, of, of one likely to have a pattern.
Speaker 5 00:29:02 But lifestyle would explain a disappearance. The, uh, principal investigator that the book really follows. Um, there's a duo of them, uh, led by a detective with the Flathead county Sheriff's department named Steve window. And she says, partner in crime, so to speak, uh, basically new to them. Um, and they're tasked with trying to solve this mystery of Brittany's disappearance. And as the book evolves, um, they stumble upon other crimes committed by other people and lots of dead ends. And kind of the biggest theme of the book is, is twofold. That's that kind of notion, how do you solve a mystery when you don't even have evidence that the crime has been committed and to, um, no matter what side of the, the, the, uh, economic divide you might stand on, uh, everybody's names, the house, things they wish to hide, um, stories to try to explain what they're up to, um, and they're doing the best they can to kind of find a way to live together in a place that brings people from various backgrounds closely together, uh, and the way that rural places often do
Speaker 1 00:30:18 Great. Why don't we go round with the reading? Oh, set us up.
Speaker 5 00:30:25 So this is, uh, this comes about a quarter of the way into the book. It's a very brief reading, uh, but the girl in question is, is Brittany Rodgers. And this, this portion of the book focuses on her father, Tom Rogers. And at this point in the book, um, she is, there's very little, that's been discovered that offers explanation. Um, the detectives involved or are convinced that there's more to this story and are really kind of doing the nuts and bolts of, of the kind of a police procedural style investigation. And meanwhile, the, the public sentiment is really calling for big search parties and a lot of the kinds of visible things that suggest the actions happening. And that's been a contentious issue between, uh, Tom Rogers, the father, and his wife, Sheila. And this picks up with, with Tom having, uh, joined a search party.
Speaker 5 00:31:19 That's what's been called Tom Rogers stopped something that didn't belong, a bright purple object emerge. Other rain filtered gloom among tickets or brush during the meeting prior to the start of the search, he felt ashamed that he didn't know what his daughter had been wearing. He could tell the assemble volunteers for height by indicating where the top of her head has happened. When she hugged them, they'd be hard pressed to tell precisely when the last time she hugged him had been, and yet he couldn't put a number to her weight height no more than he could tell you what your range she wore Saturday, or what color she painted her nails, all things Sheila knew, but now he saw the lavender coat clearly in his mind, remember the day when she begged him to buy it promised to pay half the beginning of the last school year, the jacket, I need manufactured before a trip to Bozeman and Missoula to look at college as her desire to look like she belonged on campus.
Speaker 5 00:32:19 He'd argued. If you have to change your clothes to fit in, then why would you want to seeing her disappointment? He trains her calm, his tone purple. When she tried on the coat, he saw how happy it made her to call our Fisher boys express, laugh and bright personality. All we can, long as they tour campuses, he felt his camouflage jacket marked him rather than hit him. He'd stayed quiet as they took Brittany to nice dinners and bought her sweatshirts and school colors. He cramped along at the back of campus tour groups, the names of the departments meant nothing to him. He had trouble hearing the student guide at MSU and Asian girl who told all the right jokes for the kids, but that were lost on him on the way home. He, I Brittany, in the rear view mirror, she wore the lavender Patagonia coat on top of room, the university of Montana sweatshirt.
Speaker 5 00:33:09 He said, we'll see you, Brett. I still think it would make more sense to get your first two years under your belt, or you could live at home for free. Part of them wanted to race toward the purple object tangled among the bushes. Another wanted to turn to the nearest searcher and ask him to check. He heard little, the directions the sheriff had covered prior to entering the forest, nearest home, something about grids and search logs, but then that's how I'd been for days. Cause attention constantly switched from one thing to the next, with long periods where I'd entered the feeling of being off sleep. Rain dropped off his baseball cap. The forest was suspended in Twilight. There were instructions about narrowing. The distance has being screened searchers because of the weather and emphasis on safety. The warning stuck with him only because they felt foolish when they should have all been focused on the unspeakable harm.
Speaker 5 00:33:58 His daughter had surely suffered. If she was out in those woods, he took a deep breath. His eyes remained fixed upon the purple object. All he moved mechanically forward. His glasses steamed over. Is that a log or rock shadow, or denim extending from the humped purple shape. He reached up to wipe away the moisture, interrupt his feet tangled in the lens of down pine, his trunk, its trunk slammed into his ribs and branches snapped under his weight. His glasses went flying. He groaned at the impact, arms outstretched and a failed effort to rest his fall. His left hand extended toward the purple object. He crawl forward raking along the tree trunk and gathered an empty dog food bag into his hands. The Solon rain pattern against the wax material. He heard branches break the searchers from each flank west with a you okay, man, shall this man who was first to arrive is perhaps 25, a full dark deer disguised at then face a pair of boots appeared and Tom's peripheral vision.
Speaker 5 00:34:59 As he looked up into this young face. And then he heard from somewhere beyond his vision, the familiar voice, a peak arrow, and say, Tom, what happened, brother? You okay, Tom held up the bag. Jesus pizza. You're lucky you didn't pale yourself. Pete stomped on a branch poking up from a nearby log, which broke with a snap. You hurt. Tom shook his head and moved into an awkward seated position. Pain in his ribs had taken his breath away. My glasses, he croaked helped me find my glasses. He shoved the empty dog food bag by hating this weakness and hating to the sympathy encountered in the men's eyes.
Speaker 1 00:35:44 That was Mark Lee quieter reading from the other side, his mystery set in Northwest Montana. Welcome to right on radio mark again, uh, I want to start with a question, uh, in your bio, it's clear that you are very eclectic in your writing. You write novel and poetry and in a memoir, it looks like, I don't know if he ever published a memoir, but an essays and nonfiction and short stories and everything. And I'm wondering, um, what inspired you to write a mystery at this point in your, uh, exciting and Lyndsey career? What, what, what got you doing the mystery?
Speaker 5 00:36:27 Well, uh, first I often referenced this buck as, as a mystery with literary pretension. There's a bit of the other next year. Mystery is always done a love of mine. Um, I, I think it's such an intriguing genre that not only, it's just fun to read, um, but it's, it's unusually gifted at being able to kind of examine cultures and societies on people and people's motives. And so, and, and those aspects, um, the kind of mystery I've written, um, is it's more character have even than, than a lot of other men mysteries. And I'm certainly, um, very purposeful and it's realism. Um, but it's also, you know, really, really takes on, uh, kind of the traditional notion of, of a police procedural and really pursuing, uh, the, the approach of an investigator and investigative techniques. So for me, it was actually not only a, uh, a turn into a genre I love, um, but a chance to, to kind of explore the place that I live.
Speaker 5 00:37:36 I do live in the area where this book is set in factor, the first book I've ever written while I'm still living in a place, um, and explore kind of its dynamics and its people. And, you know, it's, it's, it's just an incredible vehicle, I think for, um, asking the right questions and, and trying to find the right answers. So in a way I see it as a natural outgrowth of a lot of the other writing I'm doing, I do make some differentiation there. I think readers' needs are a bit different in ministry. And that was actually a pretty purposeful challenge on my part to lows, you know, wanting to, uh, to prove to myself that, that, that, uh, I could write a mystery at all, B that I could write a book that asks more of a plot elements to me than what I often do in other words. So, uh, I it's, I've enjoyed it. Um, and I think there are lessons in this book as a writer that, uh, I want to carry forward into all my work.
Speaker 1 00:38:36 Uh, this is a police procedural. Um, it's funny because most police procedurals that are set in somewhat rural areas have the, uh, you know, the tough chair with the big red Noah was in his deputy, you know, going out to solve the mystery. And this is, this is different. Uh, but what I'm wondering is how did you find the difference between, well, now this town is not really rural, it's a tourist town, but still the difference between writing about a police procedural about an urban setting, you know, Los Angeles or Minneapolis or whatever, and this a smaller setting where the police work is different. And I'm also wondering if you, uh, what kind of research you did on it at the same time.
Speaker 5 00:39:22 Yeah, absolutely. I, well, um, you're, you're right. It's this part of my camera. Like most places in the world, it's a, it's a complicated place. Um, and it's, it's undergoing particularly complicated times. Um, it's been a really desirable place for about 20 years in terms of new people wanting to live here and move in. And that's only accelerated, um, at, at work speed, uh, during the pandemic, um, real estate prices here have just escalated, like you wouldn't believe. And so that puts new pressures on, on communities. The valley is kind of accumulation largely of, of small towns and villages. Um, many of them were the truest emphasis. We're about 50 miles from the entrance to glacier national park. Um, so there is a huge tourist presence. Uh, the lake itself draws lots and lots and lots of tourists, but it makes for a really complicated policing environment to, um, kind of the center piece of the valley in terms of infrastructure is, is the city of Kalispell, which is a city of about 25,000 people or so, um, and that's where the Sheriff's department has headquartered is out of Callisto.
Speaker 5 00:40:36 And it's also kind of central to the county, but like most Western places, it's a really vast county. Um, the sheer square mileage is almost overwhelming and there are periods of a day in which, by the nature of, of infrastructure presence, there might only be four Sheriff's deputies patrolling this vast place. And so they kind of have to position them, um, carefully and strategically, and only a handful of, of the city, uh, within the valley half have separate police forces. So a lot of the investigation falls on the Sheriff's department. Um, and so it is a rural place, but it's a very unique kind of rural place, but with some of those traditions of farming and logging and such, but a huge tourist presence and kind of a hub for a larger region at the same time, I, um, I really wanted to locate the book focused on the five county Sheriff's department in large part because of some of those, those elements I've just described.
Speaker 5 00:41:43 Um, there's just so much jurisdiction and so much complication, so they really have to create a kind of expertise, uh, cause I become kind of the, the principal investigative unit, um, on almost any number of, uh, very different kinds of crimes and then get there. Um, yeah, there, there was a ton of research including are really, really important consultant. Um, but that identified kind of happened into after a long search of a guy that was at the time, um, still currently serving and not, not sure if department, I had held almost every role, including as a lead investigator and has since retired, um, early. Um, but he was a unique consultant and that not only was he a really expert in that this particular law enforcement environment, but his, his own education had been actually in, he went to film school, um, as a college student, I had kind of his fingers on film all throughout his career.
Speaker 5 00:42:46 And now that he's retired from the Sheriff's department, it's really actually actively developing a film school in the valley and has worked for years as consultant on lots of productions and, um, often serves as a trainer and consultant on films. So he understood some of the needs of the art as well as the needs of the facts. Um, so he was the perfect kind of consultant. So he was the one really primary source of research beyond lots of others. I was, I've been blessed to actually know a lot of law enforcement folks throughout my, my life. And so I had lots of sources to turn to, but I really also did want to list very specifically get out kind of this nature of, um, you know, awful things happen in rural places, just like they happen, uh, in urban places. But, but, um, there, there is the greater likelihood, um, you know, that a lot of the parties involved are either known or know each other in greater likelihood, um, that that resources are scarce.
Speaker 1 00:43:54 Well, um, I want to talk about something else. So I will just close this part of any by saying, uh, we're talking to mark lek wider and the book is the other, the other side, sorry, I got my brain stopped there for a minute. The other side is the great mystery that takes place in, uh, Northwest Montana, somewhat near Kalispell if you're familiar with the state, but I want to talk about your magazine, bio stories. Um, uh, why don't you talk about what it is and by the way, we'll, we'll give a website address at the end of the interview. So kids get your pencils ready. Um, talk about bias stories.
Speaker 5 00:44:37 Yeah. So by the stories is a venture that's almost a dozen years old now. Um, it's a web based non-fiction, uh, magazine. We only publish creative nonfiction. It's, uh, it's kind of operating principle is, is to share the extraordinary stories of ordinary people. So what we really pride ourselves on is finding those voices, um, those literary voices that are really able to convey, um, ordinary life, um, which what you find out real quickly is no life is at all ordinary. Um, and, and we're, we're just so blessed, just not some only really extraordinary writers that are constantly submitting, but that we've, we've had, uh, the wonderful, good fortune to be able to publish just so, so, so many rich rich essays. So it's largely assayed base. Um, most of the pieces we published tons to be, uh, first person, true accounts of kind of micro events or experiences or lessons, or, um, what have you, but the individuals themselves, occasionally we'll get a biography in there if someone else, or kind of profile of someone that the authors knows or shadowed.
Speaker 5 00:46:10 Um, we got some really wonderful family stories and, and parents' stories. Um, but you know, it's really been a vehicle for writers to explore almost any subject under the sun. Um, and I think that it really finds that niche. Um, and, and non-fiction from approachable people, approachable writers with stories that, that may with regularity feel like something that the reader can understand or, or have access to because of similarity to their own lives, but then also become vehicles to explore, you know, just about every topic under the sun, whether it's grief and loss or, or, uh, sexuality, or, uh, you know, growing up poor or you name it. Um, uh, it's, it's been just a real endeavor of the heart for all these years.
Speaker 1 00:47:08 And I would say, wouldn't you agree that part of your mission is a commitment to emerging writers getting them published? Uh, for
Speaker 5 00:47:17 Absolutely. Yeah. Um, we we've been really lucky on that fashion too, so, um, and, and it runs the gamut. I, we, we published just a couple of weeks ago, um, a form report. How about Lorea, uh, the state of New Hampshire, um, and we, we frequently published writers or those kinds of credentials, but we also with great frequency have been the first home. Um, I writers found for their first published piece and that's not unusual and we kind of dig on it so that those kinds of writers side-by-side, because you'd never know the difference if you didn't read the bio, uh, where they'd published before or hadn't, uh, because the quality was not good. Um, so yeah, it's, it's, it's very much a publication it's open to emerging writers and, you know, we're always looking for the diamonds out there, but sometimes we're taking a chance on the timings in the rough too.
Speaker 5 00:48:10 Um, I'm unusual as a group and, and I can't do it very often, but whenever I do, uh, or can, uh, and I see a piece of just that, that seems to have extraordinary potential or kind of almost there, but it's not a hundred percent there. Uh, you know, doing that extra work to say, you know, we're gonna give you an offer here. We're going to be an opportunity. Here are some thoughts or some suggestions let's, let's, let's work through some revisions and see if you can bring this case to a point of where it's ready for publication. And, uh, I tell you what we've, um, you know, some, uh, some of the writers that have done the best and gone on to when's the mice at work and stuff. Um, I've started with pieces where I think a lot of places would have just got sent them. No. Um, and we thought that, well, no, not yet, but there's something here. Uh, let's talk and that's, that's extraordinary, gratifying. I said, I can't do it often. Uh, there's just not enough time in a day to do that, but when you see it, I'm, I'm always willing.
Speaker 1 00:49:14 Perfect, great. Well, well, kids, we need to give you the website. Uh, so if your pencils already tell them the website and if they want to submit, they can do that through the website that contains the magazine as well. Correct?
Speaker 5 00:49:29 Absolutely. So, uh, it's www bio stores, B I O S T O R I E s.com. And there, there is a dedicated page to submission guidelines. We do ask that you follow those guidelines. Um, we have tried to put all of our money into keeping the magazine alive and healthy and growing. So we don't tell you the submission managers and such they're great tools, but, uh, we, we keep it a little bit simpler than that, um, in order to not, um, make right or suffer any additional ones or after suffered ourselves. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:50:10 Well, yes. Uh, so finally, finally, what's next for you? Are you, uh, is, uh, this is going to become a series or are you writing another mystery or what exactly is coming up?
Speaker 5 00:50:22 Yeah, the publisher wants more, they want a series. Um, I have ideas, uh, for two bucks, uh, to pursue the same, um, two detectives, um, and, and in this valley, so that's, that's up, I'm in the research stages on one of those books that really stills kind of in research, because I'm, uh, in the, in the thick of, of writing a new novel, um, I write under a pseudonym as well, which is mark homo. And my literary fiction has been published under that name. And that will probably be a mark Kemal book, which is historical fiction. It has both dueling narratives, uh, both a contemporary narrative and a narrative set about 30 years prior to, to now. Uh, so I'm in the thick of that. And then I have a new book, which is a more common title that will be released, uh, in the fall of 2023, which was a very dark comedy, but truly a comedy it's, it's kind of a tragic comedy that really looks at, um, the mess we've got ourselves with with fractures that don't seem to want to talk each other to each other and suggest that maybe some random acts of kindness might be the norm.
Speaker 1 00:51:38 Cool. Sounds like a lot of good stuff. Well, we've reached the end of our interview time. Unfortunately, we could talk about a million more things we've been speaking with mark luck, quieter author of the other side, and many other things, uh, is thank you for being on right on radio tonight.
Speaker 5 00:51:55 Excellent. Thanks. You know, keep it, keep the good work going. You guys are doing great stuff. Very appreciative of it.
Speaker 1 00:52:01 Oh, great. Thank you very much. And now this
Speaker 0 00:52:39 We're listening to right on radio on cafe 9.3 FM and streaming on live on the web. I can't say that.org. I'm Josh Weber with to thank our special guests tonight, Pamela Flesher, Bush and mark Licklider, plus our listeners without your support and donations KPI would not be possible. If I more news and info about right on
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