Friday, January 16, 2009

A Busy Week on the Web

        Like the shoemaker with his barefoot children, I've done a good deal of posting on other sites this past week.
        Want to learn a useful technique to help develop realistic settings for your historical novels?  Read "Larry Karp Maps It Out," at http://candidcanine.blogspot.com/2009/01/writing-tip-14-map-it-out-larry-karp.html
        Want to read my nomination for Worst Mystery Ever Written?  Go to http://pattinase.blogspot.com/2009/01/fridays-forgotten-books-january-9-2009.html
        Then, if you'd like, check out my interview by William Kenower of Author Magazine.  Click the link in "Links to Interviews with Larry."

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Yuk Yuk. We've Got A Million Of Them

After he'd read my latest book, Bob Resta came up with this suggestion:

        Hey, here's an idea for your next series: Jew escapes Russian Gulag, sneaks into America, builds a business dealing in Oriental rugs.  He develops a special weaving pattern/technique that deviates from the usual rug patterns, and copyrights it as Syncopated Weaving.  You can call the book The King of Rugtime.

        Hmm.  Most people know that the punched cards used by Joseph Marie Jacquard for his mechanical looms foreshadowed modern computer technology ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_loom).  But those cards also served as the operational basis for many forms of automatic music, including the player piano.  And Scott Joplin recorded several of his rags on piano rolls.  What if Joplin had met the King of Rugtime, and been inspired to write the Cutting a Rug Rag?   
        Thanks, Bob.  I think I'll go back to work now.

Friday, January 2, 2009

A Little Automatic Music

Happy New Year.

For me, any happy year would have to include a good deal of music.  Antique music boxes, collecting them, restoring them, has been a hobby of mine for many years.  Martin Edwards, a fellow Poisoned Pen author who's seen my collection, asked me to write a short piece on these 
fascinating self-playing instruments for his blog.  You can read it at  http://doyouwriteunderyourownname.blogspot.com/2008/12/larry-karp-on-music-boxes.html