by Susan Van Kirk | Aug 4, 2013 | Blog, mysteries, Susan Van Kirk
Part of my second mystery, Marry in Haste, will take place in a large Victorian home in 1893. I lived in such a house when I first moved to Monmouth, Illinois in the 1960s. In my last post I discussed the history of the W.W. McCullough house, and now I’m...
by Susan Van Kirk | Jul 9, 2013 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk, writing
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…secretive and silent as it had always been, the gray stone shining in the moonlight of my dream, the mullioned windows reflecting the green lawns and terrace. Time could not wreck the perfect symmetry of those...
by Susan Van Kirk | Jun 27, 2013 | Blog, mystery, Susan Van Kirk
Murder as a Fine Art, by David Morrell, is part historical novel, part mystery, part thriller, and wholly enjoyable. It contains real people–essayist Thomas de Quincey–and fictional counterparts, like his ahead-of-her-time daughter,...
by Susan Van Kirk | Jun 8, 2013 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk
I picked up The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett at the library and had no idea it would be one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It reminded me of People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. Her novel is about a book that was saved through many...
by Susan Van Kirk | May 13, 2013 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk
Over the weekend I saw the new Baz Luhrmann 3-D interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Having taught that novel for twenty+ years, I know most of its lines by heart. Did I mention it’s one of my favorites? I’ve...
by Susan Van Kirk | May 8, 2013 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk
A little over a year ago I published a post on Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby. This weekend a new film version of the book is coming out to much fanfare and hype. Yes, I plan to see it with some skepticism since I have seen so many...
by Susan Van Kirk | Apr 14, 2013 | Blog, Phoenix, Susan Van Kirk
“You drive twenty-six hours? Are you crazy?” This is the universal reaction of people who hear that I spend the winter in Phoenix, the rest of the year in Illinois, and drive instead of fly. I generally rent furnished houses in Phoenix,...
by Susan Van Kirk | Mar 30, 2013 | Blog, Phoenix, Susan Van Kirk
Now that I’m about to head back to Illinois from Arizona, I should answer the question people ask me most about winter travel: What’s it like to live away from home for three months, especially in a desert rather than in the snowy and cold Midwest?Aerial...
by Susan Van Kirk | Jan 15, 2013 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk, writing
I saw the movie version of “Les Miserables” this week and the order of actors in the credits reminded me of the Shakespearean quote about the world being a stage. Yes, it’s true that each player has his time and size of...
by Susan Van Kirk | Dec 9, 2012 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk
In your path is a solid cement wall, eight feet high and two feet across. If you can get over it, you are faced with an iron fence whose top is festooned with barbed wire. Beyond that is a swamp with quicksand and alligators. If you make it through the swamp you will...
