Getting Medieval

Gumshoe, Shamus, Dick

Where do these various terms for "detective" come from? 

Funny, but no one really knows.

These terms have been part of the fabric of detective fiction for years and, one has to assume, the real nitty gritty patter of life on the street--or prison--where most slang shows up first.

Now, according to my best reference, the Oxford English Dictionary, the source that records when a word was at least written down for the first time, a Gumshoe might refer to the gum-soled or rubber-soled shoes used by detectives to do their best sneaking around. Or the idea that a detective who is sneaking around might be better served wearing gum-soled shoes. But here, from the horse's mouth in black and white from the venerable OED, the first mention in print: 

1906 A. H. LEWIS Confess. Detective 198 You're d'gum-shoe guy I was waitin' fer... It was Inspector Val tells me to lay for you. 1907 Springfield (Mass.) Weekly Republ. 4 Apr. 2 He..was forced to accomplish his ends by main strength rather than by gum-shoe methods. 1908 J. M. SULLIVANCrim. Slang 11 Gumshoe worker, a private detective; a spotter. 1913 H. A. FRANCK Zone Policeman 88 159 But the ‘gum shoe’ naturally cannot twirl a police club. 1927 D. HAMMETT in Black Mask Nov. 21/2 He..looked me up and down, growled: ‘So you're a lousy gum-shoe.’

Shamus is a bit trickier. The OED doesn't know for sure. It might be for the given name "Seamus", an Irish name which might then refer to a cop on the beat or someone with the same accuity in catching criminals as a cop. This is the one pronounced with a long a, "Shaymus." That's how I've always pronounced it, always thought it was pronounced that way. But if you watch the 1941 The Maltese Falcon directed by John Huston and starring Humphry Bogart as the definitive Sam Spade, Bogart pronounces it Shahmus, soft a. Which might lend credence to the other derivation in the OED which is Shames(h), a Jewish term which means a beadle or sexton in a synagogue, first mentioned in 1650. Originally more like a sacristan who helps prepare for the service for the rabbi, but then latter more of a bouncer: 1903 Standard 27 Apr., There is a ‘shammas’ acting as beadle, door-keeper, collector, cook, and utility-man in emergencies. 

Last but not least, Dick. As in private dick, or even Dick Tracy. The OED says it's a private detective or policeman. But as far as the etymology, there's a great big question mark. Though they seem to think it might derive from an abbrevtion for detective. Here's what the OED says:

1908 J. M. SULLIVAN Crim. Slang. 8 Dick, a cop, detective (Canadian slang). 1912 A. H. LEWIS Apaches of N.Y. 95 Still, those plain-clothes dicks did not despair. 1924 Amer. Speech I. 151/2 ‘Dick’ and ‘bull’ and ‘John Law’ have become established as names for the police. 1928 E. WALLACE Gunner xxix. 234 They'd persuaded a couple of dicks--detectives--to watch the barriers. 1956 J. D. CARR P. Butler for Defence xiii. 140 Plain-clothes C.I.D. men..are currently known as bogeys, busies, dicks, and scotches.

Canadian slang? Our venerable crime-speak is Canadian? *shrug* Of course, the listing gave us a few more I haven't heard of: busies and scotches. Funny thing is, there are no entries in the OED for those. 

I'd better get my best Shamus on it.  

In 1499, Englishman Discovers America

Well, we don't know if he actually got that far but there was a letter from King Henry VII suggesting that merchant William Weston was on an expedition to the New World. "Writing on 12 March 1499, King Henry VII instructs his Lord Chancellor to suspend an injunction against the merchant because he will shortly 'with God's grace, pass and sail for to search and find if he can the new found land'."

This extraordinary find may be the first attempt of any explorer to discover the Northwest Passage. But the odd thing about it all was that this letter was discovered in 1981 by archivist Margaret Condon. She in turn gave it to historian Prof David Beers Quinn. According to a BBC news article, Quinn passed it along to another historian Dr. Alwyn Ruddock who was doing research on John Cabot, Venetian explorer, the first European "discoverer" of America. He wanted to wait until Ruddock published first but that never happened. And then, "the letter might have been lost forever had it not been for a bizarre request by Dr Ruddock in her will to destroy all of her research notes." 

Bristol University's Dr Evan Jones said it was "an exciting find" that gave us a glimpse at a previously unknown, but epic achievement." But the whole "destroy my notes" request got Jones' attention.

So what does this all mean? Well, the moral of this story is, don't sit on your notes. Publish them. Or you can read the scant details here and sort out the letter here, letter there controversy for yourself.

Praise for Serpent in the Thorns

Again, we've gotten very nice reviews from the Big Four (and one from a lovely author) and I'm happy to see them:

“Appealling…Crispin’s derring-do is distinctly entertaining.” --Kirkus Review

"Readers who can't get enough of medieval historicals will snap this one up." --Library Journal

"Westerson's second medieval mystery to feature former English knight Crispin Guest works ...as a suspense novel."   –Publisher’s Weekly

"Westerson's noir-influenced historical mystery boasts a strong cast of characters and makes good use of period details, from broad background on England's numerous wars with France to the particulars of daily life in fourteenth-century London. This makes an excellent choice for mystery and historical-fiction lovers." --Booklist

"My favorite kind of historical novel--one that makes me feel I am there--sights, sounds, smells and all. Jeri Westerson has managed to create a complex character in Crispin, who nevertheless remains true to his time." --Rhys Bowen, Author of the award-winning Molly Murphy and Royal Spyness mysteries

Shamus Award Nomination!

The Shamus Awards are given by the Private Eye Writers of America, of which I am a member. Panels of judges read almost 100 submissions of Private Eye novels to determine five nominees. A grueling process with so many good and not so good novels out there.

But I am pleased to announce that VEIL OF LIES was nominated this year for a Shamus for Best First PI Novel. I am thrilled, shocked, and...well, grateful. As with the Macavity nomination earlier, it's a very nice place to be. Looking at some of the past nominees who didn't win Best First are:

Dick Lochte, Carl Hiassen, Bill Crider, Don Winslow, Janet Evanovich, and Laura Lippman.

Yup. That's a damned good place to be.

Here's an update: I just got the list of other nominees.

Best Hardcover
Salvation Boulevard by Larry Beinhart (Nation Books)
Empty Ever After by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House Books)
The Blue Door by David Fulmer (Harcourt)
The Price of Blood by Declan Hughes (Wm. Morrow)
The Ancient Rain by Domenic Stansberry (St. Martins Minotaur)

Best First PI Novel
Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer (Doubleday)
Swann’s Last Song by Charles Salzberg (Five Star)
The Eye of Jade by Diane Wei Liang (Simon & Schuster)
In the Heat by Ian Vasquez (St. Martins Minotaur)
Veil of Lies by Jeri Westerson (St Martins Minotaur)

Best Paperback Original
Snow Blind by Lori Armstrong (Medallion)
Shot Girl by Karen Olson (Obsidian)
The Stolen by Jason Pinter (MIRA)
The Black Hand by Will Thomas (Touchstone/Simon &Schuster)
The Evil That Men Do by Dave White (Crown/Three Rivers Press)

Best Short Story
“Family Values” by Mitch Alderman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 2008)
“Last Island South” by John C. Boland. (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Sep/Oct 2008)
“The Blonde Tigress” by Max Allan Collins (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, June 2008)
“Discovery” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Nov 2008)
“Panic on Portage Path” by Dick Stodghill (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2008)

Indiana Tourism

So I'm going to be going to Bouchercon again this year (you know, that big mystery fan convention they hold in different cities every year?) and this time it will be in Indianapolis. I'll be spending extra time there signing in bookstores before and after the convention (check my website for when and where I'll be), so I figured I'd have extra time to look at the local sights. Since I'm not big on race cars I won't be popping into any Indy museums. But I knew there had to be other places of interest. So I googled it. This is what I found:

World's Biggest Ball of Paint. Do not mistake this for the world's largest paint ball. Undoubtably, that's another category. No, this started out life as a baseball dipped into paint. And then many, many coats were added to it, sometimes eight a day. Now that little baseball is 1300 pounds with 18,000 coats of paint on it! It is the size of a large bean bag chair. The fellow who owns this, Mike Carmichael, keeps it in a shed in the back and applies coats daily. He's already been certified. By the Guiness Book of World Records, that is. I'm not sure if this is open to the public, but if it's convenient, I may just have to drive by this in Alexandria, Indiana.  

Giant Lady's Leg Sundail

. That's pretty self-explanatory. The reason for it is interesting, however. Where it is positioned started off life as a nudist colony in 1933 as the Sun Aura Nudist Resort. Under new management it was renamed Naked City by the son of the new owners who had lofty and, frankly, illegal ideas on how to market his naked people. But that's another story. The leg is 63 feet long and can, indeed, tell time. It's good to get a leg up on these things. 

In Elkhart, Indiana, is the RV Hall of Fame. Apparently, Elkhart is the RV capital of the world. I didn't know that. And isn't this what it's all about when you are on vacation? You want to find new things, to learn about what's around you. Actually, this kind of does look interesting, from vintage teardrops to vintage Airstreams. Since I'm an RV-er (we have a 1967 Terry Trailer. Unfortunately, it's a bit worse for wear, but we still go on vacation with it) I'm in to these things. 

You know, I'm only partly kidding about this stuff. Actually, we have been known to travel out of our way to see roadside attractions. When my son was little, we had a "hole in the ground" vacation: that is, our ultimate stop was the Grand Canyon, but we stopped to see every strange roadside thing as well as anything that was a hole in the ground--the Meteor Crater, the Grand Canyon Ice Caves, Hole in the Wall in Mojave. Meanwhile, we saw giant arrows, A Flintstone's campground, concrete dinosaurs, and burros taking over a town in Oatman. You can't make this stuff up.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing a bit of Indiana, whether strange, picturesque, or just fall colors. Keep an eye on this blog as I go Live! on the Serpent in the Thorns Book Tour!       

  

  

Pulp in a Deerstalker

A.C. Doyle has a new book out from Hard Case Crime. Great story with that "hard-hitting" action I like so much. Seems there's this PI in Chicago on the run from the boys he put behind bars. He hightails it to England (at the beginning of World War I) and seeks out another famous detective there for help. Book's called The Valley of Fear... Wait a second. That sounds awfully familiar... A.C. Doyle?

Anyway, you can order your copy here. 

Castle Building 101

Did ya ever want to build your very own castle? I'm not talking about Victorian re-dos or concrete Hearst-like structures. But a real-honest-to-goodness-medieval-castle? Want to guess what it takes? How many craftsmen? How much planning? How many years? 

Guess no more! In France, a project has commenced that has as it's mission statement: "Seek maximum authenticity in action with the sole exception of modern legislation and security." And that means quarry and cut the stone yourself, transport it the good old fashioned way, and even use local dirt and clay for your mortar.

It's a truly fascinating project. Check out the ribbed vault chapel ceiling they're constructing. 

    

The project is called Guedelon and the rest can be found here.       

By the way. Doing it the "right" way, will take TWENTY-FIVE YEARS! Dude, that's devotion.       

Royalty Check

Which is what it's all about, really. I just got my first one which turned out to be bigger than I expected. Much bigger. That means that I "sold through" my advance, or made back all the money St. Martin's advanced me and then some. In hardcover. In a recession. For a debut author. Now maybe that is part of the charm, that Veil of Lies was a debut first edition and that it might be worth something someday. People do buy these things just for that without ever reading the book. But hey. Who am I to argue about it? That's what wins horse races...er...I mean, helps authors make a living. After all, that's what I'm after.

I'm hoping Serpent in the Thorns does just as well if not better (there are only a few hundred copies left of Veil in hardcover out there so it's a good thing the paperback is forthcoming). Let this be a trend, then, in the interest in all things Crispin.     

Make Thine Own Tapestry

Here's a nifty site where you get to design your own Bayeux-type tapestry. It's fun! Give it a whirl. Right here.

Archery

Since archery is a running theme in my upcoming medieval noir, SERPENT IN THE THORNS, I thought we might discuss a bit of it here.

Though England saw its share of many kinds of bows, including the crossbow and hunting bows, it is the English long-bow that is perhaps the most famous. The longbow- men are credited with winning the day at the Battle of Agincourt, and training in archery was, by Edward III’s day, mandated by law: Every man between the ages of sixteen and sixty were required to practice archery on Sundays and feast days.

The long bow was mostly made of yew for its strength and flexibility. The bows themselves were from five to six feet tall, which was taller than many men in those days. String was made of waxed linen and the arrows—a yard long—were of reeds and tipped with steel. The fletching or feathers were usually made of goose feathers. For silent flights, they were made of hawk or owl feathers.

Such a large unwieldy bow called for more than just upper arm strength, but the strength of the whole body. In a famous sermon by Bishop Latimer for Henry VIII, the bishop described his own training with the long bow in his youth:

“My father was as diligent to teach me to shoot as to teach me any other thing. He taught me how to draw, how to lay my body in my bow, and not to draw with strength of arms, as other nations do, but with the strength of the body. I had my bows bought me, according to my age and strength, for men shoot never so well except they be brought up in it; it is a goodly art, a wholesome kind of exercise...”

The range of the long-bow slips into myth, with boasts from Robin Hood, claiming 800 yards or more. The most effective fighting range, that is, from the battlefield toward the enemy lines, was more likely about 220 yards. From the walls of a castle, you could certainly shoot farther. Armor plate was designed to deflect arrows and mail to discourage it, but at short range, an arrow could pierce armor.

Crossbows could, indeed, pierce armor, and easily. An archer with a bow could shoot and reload more quickly than a man with a crossbow which demanded winding a windlass and placing the bolt or quarrel in place, but a longbow required skill and years of training whereas a crossbowman only a minimum set of skills. As men were conscripted into more warfare their generals needed more men fighting. The more unskilled crossbowmen replaced longbow archers. But once canons and guns came into the picture—matchlocks in 1400, wheel-locks in 1500, and finally flintlocks in 1600—bowmen of any stripe were at last obsolete and by 1600, this changed the face of medieval-style warfare with its long sieges and frail weapons forever.