My Week-end with Cynthia Riggs and Barack Obama

What better way for a Cape Cod mystery writer aspirant to spend her week-end than with the much-published and enjoyed author, Cynthia Riggs, who also runs a bed and breakfast from her ancestral home on Martha's Vineyard. Last week-end was my third visit to Cleaveland House, but the first time I found myself within the Presidential Penumbra. The first family was just blocks away, and I was pleased that a place that gives me so much pleasure--with its rolling farmlands, tall oaks, old stone walls, and thundering waves--suits the Obamas too.

My purpose in crossing from Woods Hole to Oak Bluffs for the past few years has been to soak up atmospherics and inspiration for a good Cape Cod mystery, but most of what I've soaked up is Murdick's Fudge. Still, I've enjoyed the lively goings on in Cynthia's living room. One time I arrived during a televised interview by Cynthia of another Vineyard author. This time, I enjoyed a lively chat with Cynthia and her other guests about the creative side of the brain--heady stuff.

While there, I did manage to squeeze in some writing. I started a short story to keep me busy while my query letters for my novel, Dry Faith, go unanswered. Don't get me wrong--I'm not in despair. I expect to send my novel out at least one hundred times. As my sister, National Book Award-winnning novelist Han Nolan says (latest book, Crazy), "If you've got some ability and can stick with it a long, long time, you're probably going to get published." Stick with it? That I can do.

I picked up Cynthia's most recent book, Touch-Me-Not, a thoroughly enjoyable read, and was delighted to recognize the places I passed on the Martha's Vineyard shuttle bus, which by the way is the only way to travel on the Vineyard. It's clean, reliable, and cheap, and you meet happy, interesting people who can steer you to the less-frequented sites and the best watering holes.


I arrived home on Sunday mid-morning, but still had another cross-Cape journey to make--this time via ambulance. For those of you allergic to shell fish, don't try your luck with crab cakes the night before you run three miles in 90 degree weather. Fortunately, when Cape Cod Hospital does ER triage they don't check the patient for brains.