Today I read that orangutans at Miami’s Jungle Island are learning to use iPads. [Here's the link.] The orangs reach through the mesh to push icons on the screen in response to what the trainer says. Apes are plenty smart, but they don’t have our vocal apparatus and can’t learn to talk—the hope is that [...] Read More →
Author Archives: Ann Littlewood
Gone Fishin’
I am stoned on spring and I’m not alone. Two days in a row (it couldn’t be three, could it?) of sunshine here in Portland, Oregon, has led to a population drunk on vitamin D and serotonin. Our faces are sunburned; our backs, knees, and shoulders ache; we suffer from blisters, scratches, and thorns. We [...] Read More →
Lessons learned?
I’ve turned in the final-final edits for Endangered, my third zoo mystery. The advance review copies are out and about, seeking those advance reviews. I wipe the sweat from my brow and sit back with a glass in my hand to reflect on what I learned from #3. 1. It doesn’t get any easier. Writing [...] Read More →
Class, cliches, and character
Political dialog these days is full of concerns about class–the shrinking middle class, the super-rich, the underclass, class warfare. “Class” may be useful short-hand for socio-economic status, for education, income, and attitudes, but it is a perilous short cut for the author. Real characters, like real people, resist pigeon holes.
On Wings of Gratitude
I’m in that floaty stage that comes when a manuscript soars off my desk and away to the production staff at Poisoned Pen. Yes! Finished! Yay, me! But… I’m not quite done. This mystery starts with a drug crime followed by wildlife crimes and then—this will amaze you—a murder. (Okay, you weren’t amazed. Never mind…) [...] Read More →
Unsettling the Setting
Every story has its setting. Creepy old mansion, tenement building, endless wind-swept prairie, or sunny suburb each contribute their atmosphere and opportunities to mysteries. Mine are zoo mysteries, set in fictional Finley Memorial Zoo in Vancouver, Washington. The third in the series, Threatened & Endangered (due out July 2012), is set less in the zoo [...] Read More →
Endangered: A Zoo Mystery #3
Zoo keeper Iris Oakley is sent to a remote farm in Washington State to rescue exotic animals after a drug bust. Instead of pets, she finds smuggled parrots and tortoises destined for sale to unscrupulous or unsuspecting collectors. The zoo’s facilities are full, and she ends up with two macaws shrieking in her basement. The [...] Read More →
Day-Tripping with Crime Fighters
I write zoo mysteries, not police procedurals, but when cops show up in my books, I would like to get it right. That’s what led me to sign up for a couple of drive-alongs with police officers. It was fun, fascinating, not scary, and surprising. Here’s the surprising parts.
Research: More fun than an AK-47
It is not true that I’m the most impatient person ever born, that I sink into depression if I’m stuck too long in peace and quiet, that I stir things up for the hell of it. On the contrary, I merely require a little stimulation now and then to keep my mind active, like anyone [...] Read More →
Adventures in Authorship
As this new blog of Poisoned Pen writers kicks off, I’ve been working on my third mystery and musing about the consequences of being published. Deciding to write something categorized as “a zoo mystery” is strange, but my reaction to publication seems stranger still. My analogy for the Big Day the book comes out is [...] Read More →