Janet Reid, best literary agent ever, RIP

Janet Reid has passed away. She was my literary agent and the reason I was ever published.

Janet’s official obit is being written elsewhere. I couldn’t hope to write such a thing, there were so many facets to her life, and I knew only a small part of the whole.

People reading this will probably know her best for her literary agent blog, and for the famous (in literary circles) Query Shark. Indeed Janet spent so much time helping others from the goodness of her heart that I don’t know how she found the time to do any paid work. And yet she did. She was an engine, and sometimes a very forceful one, when it came to representing her clients. I was one of the beneficiaries of all that energy, and so were many others.

I’m pretty sure that none of the thousands who read her free and wise advice online knew that she also did volunteer work for her church. I wouldn’t have known either except she mentioned it once in passing in a conversation. That was so very Janet. Also very Janet were the times when she went above and beyond to help, not her authors, but early readers of her online blogs, people who had started as fans and become friends. Invariably over-the-internet friends, because Janet was a remarkably private person for someone who seemed so larger than life, and who knew absolutely everyone in the publishing world.

Have you noticed how so much of what I’m writing is about how she helped others? Everyone else who writes a memorial will be saying the same thing.

You would struggle to find any pictures of Janet. She had an aversion to being photographed. This did not stop some of her authors from playing a game where we made her a character in our published novels. One of her other writers had her as a character, killed her, brought her back to life and then killed her again. She thought it was hilarious.

Janet was one of the heroes of my own novel The Singer From Memphis, in which she was the eponymous Singer. In honour of her dislike of imagery I made her tall and dark, the exact opposite of the real Janet. Spoiler alert, but I think it’s fair enough here…at the the end she outsmarts everyone and rides off across the desert as a true Princess.

That also is the real Janet. So very smart, and a true Princess of Publishing.

She will be missed.

Political Assassinations: the Big Ones

I thought just for fun I'd do a list of the political assassinations that had the biggest consequences for the world. So here we go:

Gaius Julius Caesar

Hard to go past this one for the top spot.

Caesar's death led to the official end of the Roman Republic and the rise of the first Roman Emperor, Octavian Augustus, who just happened to be Caesar's nephew and heir.

I think we can reasonably say the Roman Empire was kind of a big consequence.

The Archduke Franz Ferdinand

A man defined by his death.

The otherwise forgettable Archduke managed to get himself killed by Serbian anarchists.  Which he largely did by ignoring not only a lot of serious warnings, but also a previous attempt on his life on the very same day.

Unfortunately, since he was heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, his demise kicked off a war which in turn started a domino effect of treaties that ended with World War One.

So that's about 38 million casualties right there that this assassination caused, plus the near destruction of Europe.

Philip II of Macedon

He was the father of Alexander the Great. 

Philip was assassinated when Alexander was only twenty years old.  Alexander spent the next thirteen years conquering the entire known world, and then himself died.

The world would be a very different place if Alexander had spent those thirteen years as his father's lieutenant.

You might argue that Alexander would have gone on to conquer the world after he inherited the kingdom anyway, but Philip was only 46 when he died. He might have lasted another twenty or thirty years. Which would have left Alexander inheriting at age 40 or 50. 

So Philip's death at just that moment changed the world a lot.

Ephialtes

You've probably never heard of him, unless you've read my first murder mystery, which is about the death of this fellow.  

Ephialtes created the first true democracy at ancient Athens, which in turn invented the whole idea of Western democracy. Not a small thing.  

Ephialtes was promptly assassinated for his troubles, and here comes the part that makes his killing so significant:

Ephialtes had a lieutenant, a rather likely lad by the name of Pericles.  

Pericles took the top job when his friend died, and that was the start of the peak of classical civilization that we call the Age of Pericles.  

 

Carloman

Charlemagne had a younger brother, which was very inconvenient because by the rules of inheritance at the time they were required to split their father's kingdom.  

Charlemagne was particularly put out. He had plans to conquer Europe &/etc, and an uncooperative little brother was going to be a drag.  

Then Carloman mysteriously died, still a young man, in circumstances that were never explained, and no cause of death was ever given.

It was very convenient for Charlemagne though. He promptly conquered Europe and founded the Holy Roman Empire.

Which probably would never have happened if Carloman had hung around. Charlemagne was never actually accused of arranging the assassination of his little brother, however this must be tempered by the observation firstly that Charlemagne was incredibly good at planning things, and secondly that only a crazy person would accuse the Holy Roman Emperor of murder.

Do feel free to add your favourite assassinations in comments.  Somehow I have a feeling people will have their own lists.

Archaeological Detectives: an Emma Fielding Mystery, on TV

One of my colleagues in crime is Dana Cameron.  Dana is a for-real professional archaeologist, but in her odd spare moments she also writes murder mysteries and supernaturals.  

Almost inevitably one of her detectives is an archaeologist, called Emma Fielding, whose first adventure is called Site Unseen.

Site Unseen has been picked up and made into a movie for television!

Site Unseen is coming out from Hallmark in only a few days.  If you want to see an archaeological detective written by someone who actually knows archaeology, this is your big chance.  

Dana by the way has the most amazing New England accent, which people outside the US don't typically hear.  She should totally be doing podcasts.

Dana Cameron

The detectives, as viewed if you happen to be the victim.