192nd Post - Still Not There

No, Karin Begin's/Darian O'Toole's obituary still has not been published. Will check again before I go to work on Tuesday.

Had a headache this afternoon. Deciding to be a tough man and not take my special headache pills, which was a mistake. Had to have a lie down when I got home, and my cat wouldn't leave me alone. Kept me company most of the time upstairs. Got up and went downstairs, made a sandwich, and now I am in my office at the computer, while Newbie supervises every word I write.

Found out today that one of my favourite writers of my youth and early adulthood, died in January. Edward D. Hoch wrote a story every single month for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, a mag my parents bought me a subscription to when I was 12. Hoch had a story in that March, 1976 issue, and at least one in every issue since then until the present day. I don't know how far ahead Hoch wrote, but he will have a story in the May issue of EQMM, marking a (posthumous) 35 years of unbroken "service". Some months, he would also appear in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, or Mike Shane's MM or the former Saint MM. He also wrote a few novels, and I have one of them.

As a child, and a young adult, I avidly followed Hoch's stories, sometimes reading his story and nobody else's in a given issue. My favourite ones were probably the ones concerning the series character Nick Velvet. Velvet was a thief who stole only worthless items, like a used teabag, or snow off a mountainside. The one I remember the most was inspired by the editor at the time, Fred Dannay. Dannay speculated what it would be like if Nick Velvet stole... nothing at all. It inspired Hoch to write such a story, and it is one of my favourite in the series. It was published in... 1977 if I recall correctly. I may still have that issue and will dig it out the next time I visit my parents.

Getting tired of talking about dead people on this blog. I'll try to be a bit more cheerful tomorrow.

Damn, I have to get back to my TM speech. I have to deliver it in front of a very discerning crowd in a mere 2 days.

Later.

Bevboy