Killer Nashville
Hope all’s well in your world.
I got to hang out with my granddaughters last week. They call me Lala. I came up with that grandma name because my mom was Lola and I didn’t quite feel like I could live up to the moniker (and it’s a fun name!)
So as Hurricane Lala stormed toward Hawaii, I explained to the girls that big storms are given people names.
The six-year-old said, “But there’s only one Lala in the whole wide world.”
My heart melted.
Speaking of melting, this week I’m heading to the Killer Nashville writers conference to learn from authors and crime and forensic experts. Temps in the high eighties. Okay, that’s tolerable. Here in Olympia Washington, we’re in the low eighties.
After Nashville I’ll visit family and friends in Oklahoma and Texas. The forecast calls for 108 degrees when I arrive in Dallas on Sunday.
One hundred and eight degrees!
I used to say I loved the heat, but that was before we lived in Dallas for seventeen years. I am no longer acclimated to that kind of weather.
One cool thing, though. On Thursday the 27th I’ve been invited to be a guest on KDFW Fox4, the TV station I worked at all those years in TX.
I hired Steve Noviello, one of the hosts of The Ten | FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth, waaay back in 2003. Knowing (and loving) Steve, it will be fun! I just hope I can keep up. His mind has only gotten quicker over the years and my mind is definitely slower than it was when we worked together.
I’ve been thinking about that time in Dallas recently as I write about my family and my life. Here’s a bit I wrote this weekend about a pivotal day at the station:
One day in 1997, I was in a meeting with news director Bruce Halford in his office. I was now assistant ND. Bruce was my third official news boss in my three years at the station. There’d been a couple other managers who acted like they were over me, but that was their misunderstanding about the hierarchy.
Bruce and I were feeling pretty good. Our May ratings numbers were up. Our new general manager, our first under Fox, had been there for months and we were both still standing. We were making plans for the future.
He got a call and headed off to the GM’s office. I waited so we could finish our meeting.
He was back in under five minutes. He said, “Well, it’s over.”
“What?”
I’d recently noticed my hearing was deteriorating. I must have misunderstood.
He was a whiter shade of pale than usual. He started packing up his briefcase, then paused and looked at me. His voice shook. “She fired me. Now she wants to see you.”
“Me? Now?”
“Now.”
“You’re fired?”
“Yep. I’m out of here.” He resumed packing. “I’ll be in touch.”
Here’s my late 90’s look.
Well, clearly the weekend wasn’t going to go as planned. I took a deep breath and headed down a hallway, silently cussing myself. Kathy Saunders did not mess around. She was smart, tough, demanding. A very strong general manager. She paid attention to details. She did not believe in casual attire at work and would silently convey very clearly exactly what she thought of one’s outfit.
I felt like a chronic source of disappointment in terms of clothing and jewelry.
I did not expect to see her this day and hey, it was a June Friday in Texas. I’d planned to get an early start on the weekend, but not like this. Yet here I was, walking to her office with my canvas flats flap-flapping on the linoleum floor, wearing faded jeans and a cobalt blue cotton top with flowers on it. Flowers. Here I was about to be fired and I’m wearing a tropical camp shirt.
Damn.
I wished I were wearing heels and a suit.
Spoiler alert—I did not get fired. Ten long months later I was named VP/News Director. That seems like a lifetime ago. My life is much calmer now.
I did get a bit of a thrill this week when Storytrade Book Awards honored Parallel Peril, my second Vicky Robeson mystery, with first place in its Cozy/Amateur Sleuth category.
I’m now even more fired up to work on book three…which takes place mostly in Dallas, where Vicky is news director at an unnamed TV station. Hmmm…
Stay cool. Let me know what you think.
Lala