Mark W Tiedemann

Beginnings of a Lifelong (Addiction) Love

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

When I became infected by literary influenza (a longterm, chronic condition treatable
by a steady diet of words) I had four sources of books.  The library, of course, both the one at school and the public one; the books my mother had bought through the Doubleday Book Club and had stored in boxes in the basement; the Scholastic Book Club at school; and Leukens’ Pharmacy around the corner from my house.

At first my reading tended to be omnivorous, with strong leanings toward books upon
which favorite films had been based.  But these weren’t that easily obtainable then.  Jules
Verne and H.G.…

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Institutional Abuse and its Discontents

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

William Donahue is the head of the Catholic League in America.  Basically, he’s an apologist for all things Roman Catholic, and he comes across like an old line political boss from Chicago or the Lower East Side.  Loud, aggressive, with just enough facts to make him sound like a heavy-weight in more than just bluster.

In the recent revelations about child abuse in European Catholic institutions and some allegations that the current Pope was responsible for some of it because he was in charge of the supervising organization at the time (which seems like a fairly straightforward argument to me), Donahue went on the attack and in one instance from the Fifties he blamed the parents for not going to the police.…

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Fiction On-Line?

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

So the new novel is finished and in the mail.  My agent has it now.  From there, who knows?

Anyone who has kept up with me here knows that the last five years have been, well, dismal publishing-wise.  The situation became even more complicated in 2008 when the global economy fell into the toilet and publishing began to look like a front-line regiment in WWI.  Everyone in the field watched in horror at the casualty figures as an industry that had seemed to be doing pretty well began hemorrhaging at the pores.

Naturally, I’ve been trying to think of What To Do Next in order to stave off professional oblivion. …

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Ada Lovelace Day

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

I just discovered that there is a day for this brilliant woman.

Ada Lovelace was the daughter of Lord Byron, a scholar, and wrote what is arguably the very first computer program in an essay about Charles Babbage.  Of course, since she was a woman at a time when women were considered not to have either brains or rights, she would have been seen as an anomaly at best, a monster at worst.  Since she had some position, however, she has not been forgotten or dismissed.

Warning: personal opinion follows.

Women who denigrate the idea of Feminism and fail to understand how tenuous their position is vis-a-vis  history cause me heartburn. …

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Remains Still Available

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

A couple days ago I received my royalty statement on my last novel, Remains.  There are still copies available and if you go directly to the publisher’s site here you can pick one up at a discount.

One of the things I’ve gotten very little of is feedback on my work.  At conventions I’ve spoken to readers about one or another, but aside from the Robot novels, very few people have let me know how they felt about either the Secantis books or this one.

I’m still looking for a new publisher for my work and at present feel pretty cut off. …

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In Charge and At Large!

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

Over this past weekend I had a couple of conversations with some people about the whole prom night controversy and one of the things that got said, which I’ve heard many times before in other contexts, was that, “don’t you think the people in authority know what they’re doing?”

As if that is any answer when they demonstrate that, clearly, whatever they’re doing it has nothing to do with common sense, ethics, or any kind of honesty.

I’ve  been hearing that rejoinder for decades, ever since Vietnam, and I keep coming back to that scene in All The President’s Men when Deep Throat lectures Robert Redford about the nature of the administration and he tells him, really, these are not very smart guys. …

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Prom Night, America

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

Constance McMillen wanted to go to her high school prom.  Like most students in the United States, she doubtless saw the event as the capstone of four years of effort, a gala event for students that represents a reward for getting to the end of their senior year and, presumably, graduating not only from high school but into adulthood.  One night of glamor and revelry, dressed at a level of style and affluence many might never indulge again, to celebrate the matriculation into the next level of independence.  A party where students can show themselves—to their peers and to themselves—as adults.…

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End of A Long Week…

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

I’m at sixes and sevens, waiting for Donna to read the manuscript and give me her notes.  I sort of want to work on something else, but I also want to clean my office, but I also want to read about a dozen books, and I can’t settle on any one thing, so I end up doing a great deal of very little. I should be used to this, but I’m not.

Once this book goes out the door it will be the first time in about four years that I will not be working on a novel.  (Yes, I do still have two novels “in process” and I can go back to work on either one of them, and I will, but I don’t have to.) …

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Meanwhile!

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

Coming down to the last two chapters of the final draft of (drum roll, please)  The Drowned Doll.

The title may change before it sees print, but that’s what it’s called now.  It ties into the plot, trust me.  My first shot at a contemporary murder mystery.  In describing it to my agent, she termed is “a cozy” which I gather means it’s in the vein of Nero Wolfe or Hercule Poirot rather than Thomas Harris or James Lee Burke.  Minimum of gore, emphasis on problem solving.  Except for a smidgin of bad language and the fact that there is, y’know, some sex (none on stage/page), kids could read this. …

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Jammin’

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

Last night I went to the coffeehouse at which I’ve been playing (after a fashion) music for the last few years.  This is not a grandiose thing.  It’s a church basement.  Two bucks at the door, open mic, lots of folks bring a tray.  But joy is where you find it.

The ringleader of this musical congeries, a gentleman named Rich, who plays marvelous guitar, sent an email a week ago to a horn player named Russ and me with the chords to that exegesis of 20th Century smooth rock, the Atlanta Rhythm Section’s Spooky.  Later he sent us a rough chart for the arrangement and I spent a week working on my book and occasionally practicing the tune.…

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