If you’ve been on here at all, you know I write a series of mysteries and I like to use realistic settings. That’s why my central character is a reporter on a small daily newspaper on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. That’s why one story is set in Antarctica and another involves a flower delivery scenario.
I know those things because I’ve lived them.
The book I’m (slowly) working on now is set partially in Mount Rushmore National Memorial and in Yellowstone National Park, places my wife and I worked the previous two summers. This year, we’ve been working at an amusement park in western New York.
So … naturally … I suspect a future book will involve an untimely death in a theme park. In fact, I’ve already written about the fictional Treasure Harbor Theme Park in the current book; JP’s doing a story from there.
With all of that in mind, I did something the other day I’ve never even considered. I had my caricature drawn by artist Bill Gallagher here at Darien Lake Amusement Park. My reasoning was that I might use it on the back of the theme park book, whenever that happens, but I like it so much I might use it for more … maybe for everything.
I’ve never been what you’d call a good-looking guy (don’t get started lying; I’m not fishing for compliments here), but that’s OK because my appearance has never been all that important to me. (However, there was that time in high school that I got a pair of brightly colored seersucker pants that I typically wore with a red shirt and, of course, white belt and shoes.)
Regardless, I think Bill made me look, well … interesting? I’ve seen photos of myself at times and thought, “That’s not as bad as usual,” but I’ve never ever enjoyed a photo like I do this drawing. I cannot say why.
Steve Martaindale 