Mrs Pollifax Fan Blog

Hey Guys the the 2010 Edgar Awards is fast approaching.  If you haven’t heard yet, Dorothy Gilman has been chosen as the Grand Master for the 2010 Edgar Awards and will be at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City for the ceremonies between April 27th to April 29th.  The tickets are $175 a person and can still be bought online through their website at:  the Edgar Awards.  Here is the blurp from their website….

2010 Edgar® Banquet
64th Gala Banquet
April 29, 2010
Grand Hyatt Hotel
New York City
Join us for our annual black tie gala celebrating
the best and brightest in crime fiction, non-fiction and television.
Reception: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Dinner & Awards 7:30 pm – 11:00 pm

Tickets for the symposium and the banquet may be purchased online at the MWA store or by returning the RSVP forms. You must RSVP and/or purchase your tickets by April 16, 2010.

I looked through the different pages and she is not giving any talks as far as I can tell.  If you are going to the Banquet and are able to get some pictures then please pass them onto her fellow fans here.  You can email them to me or upload them to a flickr account and I will post the link to them.  We would also appreciate a play-by-play of your experience!

Do you live in one of the countries that Dorothy Gilman writers about? Of course, I live in the U.S. but I have never been to New Jersey. I went through New Jersey once on a train but you can’t see very much. Sadly, I have never been out of the country either. I believe that is one of the things I love about her books is that she helps you see the country, the people and what it might be like to visit that place. A good mystery setting with rich descriptive words about place and time makes a good story for me. Our favorite author has set her stories in Mexico, Italy, Albania, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Thailand, Mainland China and various parts of the Africa Continent.

If you have lived or are living in one of the countries and would like to share with us some of the modern descriptions we would greatly appreciate it. The names of one or two of the countries that she has written about may have changed since the books were published but we would like to hear from you anyway. If you have some pictures we could email them to me with a description and I would be happy to post them. Email to: jolene.macfadden@mrspollifax.com

Have a great January and hope to hear from you soon!

For those who have recently tried to view the website within the last week or so you may have gotten the message that the account was suspended.  That was my fault folks due to recent financial setbacks and the holidays I forgot to include the fee for hosting the blog.  I have been paying for this blog for about 7 years now and have enjoyed keeping it going but I need help now and hope you will help me if you can.

I am asking for $1.00 donations through the secure servers at Paypal from members who are able and willing to contribute to keeping this blog going. You can of course send any amount you wish and in any monies that Paypal accepts and they will convert it to US dollars.

We are also still looking for contributors who would like to post their own essays so please use the contact form and give me your subscriber ID and I will make you a contributor.  This allows you to make posts to the blog, upload pictures and post your own stories.

We have some very interesting things plan for the coming months for our fellow fans and look forward to hearing from you.  Have a safe and happy holiday!

Just got an email from JB with some very exciting news.  DOROTHY GILMAN HAS BEEN CHOSEN TO BE THE GRAND MASTER AT THE 2010 MYSTERY WRITERS AWARDS!  How about that for some exciting news?!?!?

Here is the excerpt from the announcement…Or you can view the entire announcement on the MWA website at:

http://www.mysterywriters.org/files/2010_GM_Ravens.pdf

MWA GRANDMASTER

I know that we may never get another book in the Mrs Pollifax series but I, as an avid FAN, would like to propose story lines that we can make up ourselves.  I have always wanted to go to Australia and I think a Mrs Pollifax story set in this country would be a GREAT idea.  There are so many possibilities for Mrs P. to get into trouble even if she was not “on-assignment” there.

Now according to the CIA World Fact website, which is the only place to look for information about any of the countries that Mrs Pollifax may go,  Australia is approximately  7.7 million sq km in area, has about 21 million people, races consists of white 92%, Asian 7%, aboriginal and other 1%  and the languages are English 78.5%, Chinese 2.5%, Italian 1.6%, Greek 1.3%, Arabic 1.2%, Vietnamese 1%, other 8.2%, unspecified 5.7%.  Granted the country is smaller than the U.S. but it has vast territories with little or nothing in them that could hold a mystery or two.  Not to mention the close proximity to Japan, New Zealand, and hundreds of thousands of islands off the coast.  If there are any fans out there that live in Australia, have relatives who live there or have visited there it would be greatly appreciated if you could contribute a mystery or spy-type thing that has happened there in the last 40 or 50 years that we could make up our own story about.

It is a challenge to think of story lines and the carry through with them but between all of us I think we can come up with some interesting plots and twists and enjoy them together.  Remember to think like Mrs Pollifax, Carstairs, Bishop, Cyrus and even her children.

Well I was cruising the web in my never ending search of where to find a copy of the Mrs Pollifax movies I could share with my fellow fans when I came across this YouTube listing for Mrs Pollifax-Spy Movie with Rosalind Russell.  The problem is that it is broken down into 13 sections.  So, you will have to click on each one to see the next 7 to 10 minutes of movie.  But if you’re patient and would like to view it I am going to put links into this posting!  According to the note by each of these little videos the “embedding” has been turned off so you will have to click on the links below one at a time and be taken to the “YouTube” website to view each one!?!?!  You could look at the different links as a chance to get snacks or take a bathroom break.

Cheers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jICGA_Yys0k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7lRkilZ6-s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQIrF4kKHhk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BSZGLYvqSo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jpqMPty4n8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stIKU7OqzsM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqoVKeNKEKI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt58Ggzc46k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D6jhZgcfFY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6MUwLfEJRo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sZOaqlLHZI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXCUCWZRKEs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y2ec5Sf1sU

Sadly, there are only two of Dorothy Gilman’s Books that are currently in Ebook form and they are offered by Barnes and Noble.  You will need to install their free ebook reader and they can be used on iPhone/iPod touch, Blackberry, PC or Mac from their website.

The first one is for Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled which is the last book in the Mrs. Pollifax books to be released. This story finds our favorite heroine being sent to the desert with her old friend John Farrell to try and find an American Tourist who averts a plane being hijacked and then promptly disappears! You can click on the picture below and be taken to the Barnes and Noble website for each of these books.

MRS POLLIFAX UNVEILED:



The second book available on the Barnes and Noble website in ebook form is the very last book published by our favorite author called Kaleidoscope. This is a continuing tale of the fun and exciting adventures of Madam Karitska and her friend from the police Detective Lieutenant Pruden.

KALEIDOSCOPE:



As for Amazon Kindle they only have one product available and that is the Kaleidoscope Book. Click below to be taken directly to that page to purchase this book:
dorothy gilman kindle


Remember you can request that each of the Dorothy Gilman Books be placed in Kindle format by going to each page with the book and on the left side of the screen you should see a box that says something about requesting that this title be added to the Kindle line.

Well folks I have finally been able to locate a copy of the January 2002 edition of the Alfre Hitchcock magazine.  There is a seller on Ebay from Canada of all places that had a copy.  I shut my door and told me kids I was taking a nap and gave my cellphone to my mother to answer.  I began reading what may be the last thing published by our Favorite Author, Dorothy Gilman.

The story is not very long but it is enjoyable none the less.  It is about a young woman and her two children who end up in a small town in New Jersey.  As the story unfolds we learn that she has kidnapped her children to keep them safe from her powerful husband.  She thinks she has made a clean getaway and has finally been able to relax and enjoy being with her kids.  Suddenly she notices a man that seems to be following her.  She has only had her phone for a few weeks when in the middle of the night her first phone call is from her stalker saying the she doesn’t have longed to live.  She is befriendly by a kind by eccentric nextdoor neighbor who also happens to be born with the “gift”.  Sensing the danger surrounding the frightened young woman she offers her a place for her children to go should they need it.

On a scale of one to ten I would give this new short story an 8 because it is simply not long enough!

Sadly, this is the only copy I have found in the last 4 years of searching.  In an earlier post I had tried to get a copy from the magazine company but this edition was no longer available and they apparently do not have any way to make new ones.  Too bad they don’t have a digital version where they can just send out as many copies as are needed.

We are trying something new for this site.  Even though we don’t have a lot of postings you will be able to get this site on your mobile phone webpage.  I am just learning this new thing and there will be some bumps in the road and we appreaciate your patience.    Some things are working fine and other things not so well.

We are still looking for contributors and those who have signed up for it are still more than welcome to post new entries.  Anybody out there who has any news about our favorite author?  How about pictures or even a fun story to tell?  Anybody want to do a review of one of her books?  How about writing a new short story with one of your favorite characters?

Get involved and lets make this a great blog!

Cheers!

Jolenemacinjax

Hey Gang. We are getting a pretty good response from those who want to be contributors. I have added a Sign-on Widget to the top Right Hand Corner of the page. We need more contributors to make this fan blog interesting. So please feel free to sign-on as a subscriber and then email me to change your status at: becomeacontributor@mrspollifax.com

All subscribers can make comments on posts and all contributors can make new posts and upload pictures.

Just remember to stay on topic and keep the language rated “G” as this is a family website.

I Finally got a response to the Cherry Lawn website that has yearbook pictures. Yes, Dorothy Gilman taught at the Cherry Lawn School and she is in one of the Yearbooks. However, her name is not attached to the photo and we think it is this one:

Dorothy Gilman Pic

We want to thank our reader A.O. who submitted the picture!

Keep reading!
Jolene