by Marian Exall | Feb 2, 2024 | Musings, Reviews
I am addicted to British TV crime series, with an occasional seasoning of Scandinavian noir or French série policière. But my latest binge was American: The Killing (four seasons streaming now on Prime Video.) Oops, now I read the small print, The Killing is based on...
by Marian Exall | Dec 27, 2023 | Musings
My mother was a storyteller. As one of seven children growing up in Liverpool, she accumulated a horde of family anecdotes which she passed on to me. I recycled some of them into fiction, for example, my Titanic story “Left on the Shore” in the anthology...
by Marian Exall | Dec 7, 2023 | Musings
“Where are you from?” When they hear my accent, as I place my order at the coffee shop or call the dog at the park, strangers often ask me this question. I try to deflect by saying, “I live here,” but inevitably a monologue ensues about the fabulous holiday in...
by Marian Exall | Nov 14, 2023 | history, Musings
Edith Zwartendijk was twelve years old in 1939 when her father Jan Zwartendijk reluctantly accepted the post of Dutch Consul in Kaunas, Lithuania. She remembers him working late into the night to issue over 2,300 visas to Curaçao, a Dutch colony in the Caribbean,...
by Marian Exall | Oct 18, 2023 | Musings
In September I vacationed in rural France. Lazy days with extended family; watching the cows in the meadow lumber down to the river; browsing local village markets wishing I could bring the spicy olives, aged cheeses and goose liver pâté back to Washington State; long...
by Marian Exall | Jun 4, 2020 | Musings
After publishing A Splintered Step, the third book in the Sarah McKinney Mystery series, in late 2018, I became absorbed in my current project, a World War 2 novel that requires far more research and revision than the mysteries. However, before submerging...