Travel Muse Blog

Fantasies for Mystery Writers

12/4/2025

Once I was walking along the Île de la Jatte, a lovely place to learn more about the Impressionists and enjoy some of their favorite settings. I realized, Wow, this would be a perfect place for a murder! And ever since, when I visit interesting places, I think the same thing!

By now I've posted a few videos on Youtube, but here are the latest ones.

The Hofbräuhaus, in Munich, Germany

Nordkette, a nature park high about Innsbruck.

The Hofkirche, next to Innsbruck's Altstadt, a Gothic-style church that dates from 1553.

Costa Rica pura vida

10/30/2025

I celebrated the beginning of the new year with a trip to Costa Rica. I'd heard about the beautiful beaches, the lush greenery, and the friendly people, but it's much better to visit in person! Here I am in the center of Palmares. The lovely gazebo is in the middle of everyone's favorite place--the town square!

Better yet, I was there during fiesta week in early January. It culminated with a long parade full of horses and, it seemed, half the country! Of course, the parade took place right in front of town square.

Musing about Venice

1/27/2021

In a better year, tourists would be packing their bags to head to Venice for some carnival fun. Shop owners would anticipate the hordes. Hotel owners would wring their hands, delighted at the prospects of "no vacancy" night after night. Waiters would be looking for better walking shoes.

And the real partiers would be making last-minute changes to their carnival costumes. They would look forward to parading around Venice: the Doge's Palace at dawn, San Zaccaria mid-day, San Marco in the afternoon, San Giorgio at dusk. They would make special pilgrimages to the Arsenale on Monday to stand against the stone lions and Burano on Tuesdays to stand against brightly colored buildings. They would gather at Salute on Thursdays and rejoice in their revelry. With the patience of angels, they would spend the week posing while crowds gathered at their feet and poked Canons and Lumixes in their faces. They would even obey their personal photographers telling them to learn to the left or right or raise a hand or a foot.

No such luck this year. Instead, for the moment, it's best to celebrate the past. Thank goodness for photography to help people remember their best moments!

Singing in the Shire

4/28/2020

Last Saturday I traveled virtually to the Shire. The Tolkien Society staged a sing-a-long so that we could share a few laughs. I performed the song I created for the Tolkien 2019 event in Birmingham. In “The Biggest Little Tolkien Fan” I explain that, while I thought I was a very big fan, I soon found out that I knew nothing!

Check it out here.

Want more Tolkien fun? In Birmingham and at the Oxonmoot I attended in Oxford, I performed my short skit “The Trouble with Creativity.” In this video I recreate it with the help of my colleague, Alan Kohler, who makes a darned good J.R.R.T.

San Diego

3/30/2020

Mid-March I went to San Diego for Left Coast Crime. I went a couple of days early to do some sightseeing. The San Diego Zoo is terrific! In fact, I spent the whole day there. The terrain is quite interesting. Most of the animals have a nice space. My favorite by far were the koalas! They are so cute! They spend most of the day sleeping, and then, when they're tired, they just bend their little heads and zzzzzzz.

I also went to the San Diego Art Museum, which was quite nice. Then I was all excited about the conference--and enjoyed the first day--and then we got shut down by the State of California. Darn it!

Dallas

11/20/2019

Old Red Museum and JFK Memorial

I had a great time at the Bouchercon Dallas World Mystery Conference. Not only did I hear fun talks, but I got to participate on a panel, do author speed dating, and even make time for some sightseeing! I had a chance to catch up with my mystery writer friends as well, so it was a perfect visit!

I heard some great interviews, but the one where Hank Phillippi Ryan interviewed James Patterson was the most entertaining. They might have been a comedy team! But James made important points about literacy. He says the trouble with reading in school is that kids rarely say, "Hey, I finished that book--give me another!" He tries to provide young readers with exciting stories. My colleague says his kids are hooked!

Another fun talk was given by Charlaine Harris. She explained about her Sookie Stackhouse series and how Alan Ball had done a great job adapting her work to film. I haven't watched True Blood yet, but I loved Dead until Dark! (Can't wait to read the second book in the series.)

A precious moment was meeting Dick Francis. He's a sweetheart! Back in the 80s, I read so many of his dad's books that I asked my grandparents to take me to Tampa Bay Downs so I could see what the racing environment was all about. Dick and Mary Francis wrote 39 books. Felix has continued the series, and he's up to 14. And lucky me, I got a signed copy of the new one!

I also took time to visit the Dallas Museum of Art. There are some fine Chihuly pieces on the front windows! I went on Thursday because the museum was open late, but that was also Halloween. The guards had been invited to dress up. The women mostly did. Only one of the male guards was brave enough! I gave the non-dressers a hard time--I was wearing my ghost T-shirt!

On my last day in Dallas, I visited The Sixth Floor Museum. It was very interesting and very hard to visit. You can stand at nearly the same spot where Oswald purportedly shot Kennedy. You look down on the pavement and see the two Xs where bullets hit. The experience was eerie and difficult. In fact, it made me cry. I was too young to remember JFK's death, but my mom recounts teaching class when his assassination was announced over the loudspeaker. It's a horrible chapter of U.S. history, but everyone should know about it.

And now, it's time to plan for the next mystery conference! Left Coast Crime will be in San Diego next March, so I have a great excuse to go visit that fun city...

Delving into Delft

7/16/2019

Delft is one of the most picturesque cities I've ever been to. It's famous for its beautiful ceramics. It's also the hometown of Johannes Vermeer. But I came to Delft to walk the canals. Unfortunately, most of the three days I had for Delft were full of rain! It was one rainstorm after another. Then, on my last afternoon, the sky cleared, and everyone ran to catch glimpses of the canals in sunshine.

I love being beside the water and looking at the reflections and imagining things like what would happen if someone parked too close to the edge of the canal! Delft feels like it's from a different time period--a mysterious one. There are cars, but this is a walking town--a bridge town. Once you know your way around you can scoot through the town quickly and efficiently. I sort of stumbled, of course, but I was so pleased to discover different paths that I didn't mind.

When I needed a picturesque town for Andy Veracruz, I naturally thought of Delft. Why wouldn't he visit such a town full of musicians and culture? Why wouldn't his girlfriend Rachel be delighted to accompany him? (Well, she gets disillusioned quickly enough....) And why wouldn't Delft be a perfect place for a concertmaster to hide? Hence in Substitute Soloist, Andy is sent to Delft, where he's greeted warmly by the people.... at least most of them!

Left Coast Crime 2018 in Reno, Nevada

3/25/2018

FuLL Story Here

Philip Donlay, DR, Wendall Thomas, Aaron Elkins, Elizabeth Little

Oxonmoot 17

10/1/2017

Commemorative edition with JRRT's drawings

This year I had the lovely opportunity to attend the Oxonmoot, the annual conference presented by the Tolkien Society. The event is held in Oxford, England, where Tolkien was a professor for most of his academic career. The event is held near Bilbo and Frodo's birthday, September 22nd. This year it was conveniently held at St. Anthony's College.

It was a wonderful experience. For the first time I had a chance to hang out with lots of other Tolkienites. When I showed them a picture of the mural that proudly hangs in my living room, the one I've owned since high school, the one my parents drove out to Tucson for me, my new friends knew immediately: Oh, yes, that artwork comes from the Barbara Remington covers from the 1960s. Remington hadn't read the texts because Houghton Mifflin was in such a hurry for the covers, but I've always liked them anyway. They're happy and optimistic--which is how I've always seen The Hobbit as well as The Lord of the Rings.

For the next several days I enjoyed the myriad of activities: the pub quiz (those people REALLY know stuff!), the entertainments, the talks by Tolkien artists and scholars. I even got to speak about Bilbo's motivations. Obviously, he didn't really want to go off on a long adventure--or did he?

Over the weekend I had delightful conversations with Tolkien lovers from 17 other countries. (After the UK, the biggest number of attendees came from the US and the Netherlands; they also came from India, Canada, and other European countries.) We went to the Bird and Baby and the White Horse, pubs that Tolkien and C.S. Lewis frequented. We talked about passages of Tolkien's texts that we especially loved. With Joel's help, I performed an imagined dialogue between Bilbo and his creator. Since the author was procrastinating, Bilbo had to demand to be written!

Finally, on Sunday, we visited the cemetery where J.R.R.T and his wife are buried. The leader read from Chapter 1 of The Hobbit. One member wore his elven cloak; another sang in elvish. It was a beautiful pilgrimage.

It was also a beautiful weekend. I can't wait for the next Oxonmoot! And many thanks to the Tolkien Society members for all their hard work to put on the conference and all the friendly and sincere participants. If only the weather had been warmer, we might have been in Rivendell! Now the question remains, if I were to set one of my murder mysteries in Oxford.....

Grecian Holiday

9/17/2017

In July I had the chance to go to Kato Verbena with some friends. The small Greek town is a half hour south of Naufplio on the Peloponnese. My friends have a house there, and they had an extra bedroom. When they invited me to join them, I didn't hesitate. Unfortunately, they had a lot of housework to do. One day they waited three hours for the electrician to show up, and then he didn't have the right equipment! It was almost funny. But lucky me, while they were working on the house, I was spending my time down at the beach..... Or maybe playing with some of the cats.