Robert B. Parker died today: http://bit.ly/7Ji65A One of our favorite authors! RIP
Parker's most famous for his "Spenser for Hire" books. Other memorable mysteries featured Jesse Stone (played by Tom Selleck in made-for-TV films), and Sunny Randall. The female characters in his books were never shrinking violets.
I once saw them filming an episode of "Spenser" in Boston. I remember it took over an hour for a scene that was on TV about 15 seconds!
I used to write a column in the Princeton Packet papers and one day I was in the local ShopRite grocery store. A woman came up to me and said "I really enjoy your writing, would you mind giving me your autograph?" I replied "Sure, but I don't have anything to write with, let me borrow something from one of the cashiers."
I had no sooner gotten a pen and a slip of paper when I saw Avery Brooks (who played Hawk in the Spenser series) standing next to me in line. Catching my breath, I said something like "Wow, Professor Brooks, I can't tell you how much I enjoy your acting. Would you mind if I asked you for your autograph!?"
Meanwhile, I have no idea where that woman slipped off to, but she never did get mine!
I've posted a photo of part of our RBP collection. I will admit we never got into the non-mystery fiction, particularly the Western themed novels he wrote. However, we saw the movie "Appaloosa" and enjoyed that very much. I believe there may have been as many as three books that featured the characters Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, the guns-for-hire of those stories.
I'm not 110% sure, but I think he always dedicated every book to the love of his life, his wife Joan. If I wrote as he did, I would do the same...to my wife, of course, not his.
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