Vintage 1960s Automobiles: The Chevrolet Corvair by Will Zeilinger
February 3, 2020 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as 1960s, Car, history, Janet Elizabeth Lynn, Vintage, Will Zeilinger
Manufactured by Chevrolet for model years 1960–1969, is still the only American-designed, mass-produced passenger car with a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine.
Initially, the innovative Corvair was manufactured and marketed as a 4-door sedan.
The compact Chevrolet Corvair was designed to compete with Volkswagens in the US market.
The 1960 Corvair went on sale on October 2, 1959, and was the first American compact sedan with a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine, unit-body construction, three-across seating, and the availability of an automatic transmission. Only four-door sedans were available at first, then came the 2-door coupe, convertible, 4-door station wagon, passenger van, commercial van, and pickup truck body styles.
Though inspired by Volkswagen’s four-cylinder engine, Chevrolet engineers used Porsche engines as a guide.
To stay competitive with the VW Beetle, the new Ford Falcon, and Plymouth Valiant, Chevrolet chose to cut corners right where it showed: on the interior. The basemodel 500 was particularly drab. Everything inside was gray, both the fabric and vinyl upholstery and black rubber floor mats. The 700 models came with three interior colors from which to choose. Extra-cost options on both the 700 and 500 models includedthings we take for granted today, like sun visors for both driver and passenger, armrests, or a cigarette lighter.
The Corvair sales took a significant upturn when the Monza coupe debuted at the 1960 Chicago Auto Show.
Though the Monza would rewrite what everyone’s idea of a Corvair was an alternative to the typical front-engined American family cars of the period.
The death knell for the Corvair came when Ralph Nader’s 1965 book “Unsafe at Any Speed” claimed that the car’s design that incorporated swing-axle suspension created a far greater risk of the vehicle rolling, which he described as “the one-car accident.”
Even though the suspension had been redesigned for much better handling and safety, the damage was done. Nader’s book became a best-seller, but in the consumer’s mind, the reputation of the Corvair was tarnished forever. Chevrolet ceased production of the Corvair with the 1969 model.
The Skylar Drake Mysteries
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How to Finish Your Book and Keep Your Day Job
January 3, 2020 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as Janet Elizabeth Lynn
Writing on the Go by Will Zeilinger
Writing a book is a work of love. However, things get in the way, i.e., work. We all dream of the day when we can make enough money to survive on our writing alone. Until that day comes (if it ever does), we need to keep our full-time jobs. We wrote and published our first five books working full time.
This year we’d like to share a few jewels that worked for us during those hectic days of working and writing.
Most authors have characters, plot lines, or dialog running around in our heads most of our waking hours. How can you keep those great ideas from floating away until you can sit down and put them in your manuscript?
You need to keep a pad and a pen or pencil on your person at all times (unless you have a tablet or are a thumb master on your smartphone.) When one of your characters starts talking to you while you are waiting in a checkout line or at a long traffic light, you’ll be prepared to take a few quick notes for later.
At the office, you can always scribble a few notes while on hold or while sitting in a conference room waiting for a meeting to start.
My wife, Janet, learned on her sixty-minute work commute that sometimes traffic would come to a complete stop for fifteen minutes or more. She was able to jot a few notes or whole scenes while waiting for the cars to start moving again.
The same holds for waiting in the doctor or dentist’s waiting room. Rather than thumbing through four-year-old magazines, work on your story…whether its fiction or non-fiction, medical office waiting rooms are great. They have comfortable seats, good lighting, and are usually quiet.
A popular place to write while on your lunch break is a coffee shop or diner. If you choose to eat by yourself, you can have a whole table to spread your materials on while you eat and write. We’ve done this, and it works out well.
If you pack your lunch, hotel lobbies are a great place to write, and people watch. Some great character studies can come from watching travelers.
At this point, you might ask what’s wrong with just going home at lunchtime to write? The reasons are as simple and as complicated as, children, chores, pets, mail, television, and internet can all be distractions, plus—unless you live very nearby, you use up precious time going there and back.
If you happen to be traveling alone or with a writing partner (in my case—my wife), your writing can begin with an Uber, train, or taxi ride where you don’t have to concentrate on the time or driving. At the airport, you can pull out the trusty note pad and pencil while waiting for your flight to be called.
Inspiration can also flash into your mind at any time, so be prepared, and you won’t be saying, “I should have written that down.”
The bottom line is you don’t need to be at your computer at home. You can slip in a few minutes here and there to keep your writing momentum going.
Keep up the good writing!
0 0 Read more1950s Holiday Movies: Stories to Remember by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger
December 3, 2019 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as 1950s, holiday movies, Vintage 1950s
Christmastime is when the movie industry shows off their talents through art, storytelling and most of all, by making memories.
Though this movie was made in 1947, I just had to include it in the 1950s line up. One of my personal favorites during the holidays. The movie is a comedy-drama written and directed by George Seaton and based on a story by Valentine Davies. The story takes place starting Thanksgiving Day to just after Christmas Day in New York City. It centers around a department store Santa who claims to be the real Santa Clause. He is taken to court and a court trail begins to determine his sanity. It stars Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn.
It is interesting that Maureen O’Hara originally did not want to do the movie since she had just moved to Ireland. But after she read the script she changed her mind and moved back to the US for the film.
This 1951 film of Charles Dickens’ classic novel is a British adaptation. It stars Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, and was produced and directed by Brian Desmond Hurst. A London miser who, despite his wealth, refuses to make charitable contributions or provide holiday food to his sole employee, Bob Cratchit, an indentured servant played by Mervyn Jones. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of past, present and future.
By the way, Sim and Michael Hordern (who plays adult Jacob Marley and his ghosts) reprised their roles two decades later with their voices to Richard Williams’ 1971 animated version of A Christmas Carol. Clive Donner, who edited the 1951 version, later directed the 1984 version.
A 1952 British drama film, centers around an English clergyman who neglects of his grown children, in his desire to support his parishioners. This becomes apparent during a family Christmas gathering. It was released in the U.S in 1954 . Starring Ralph Richardson, Celia Johnson and Margaret Leighton.
The tale was originally a British stage play then adapted for film.
An American musical film, released in 1954, was directed by Michael Curtiz. A successful song-and-dance team (played by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) become romantically involved with a sister act (portrayed by Rosemarie Clooney and Vera-Ellen) with whom they team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former Army commanding general.
Originally Fred Astaire was cast opposite Bing Crosby. However, Astaire declined the project. Donald O’Connor was then signed to replace Astaire. However just before shooting begin, O’Connor had to drop out due to illness and was replaced by Danny Kaye.
For family fun during the week of Christmas why not gather the family together and have an old fashion holiday movie night and watch these movies together, as a family, like they did in the 1950s?
0 0 Read morePlagiarizing One’s Self by Janet Elizabeth Lynn
November 3, 2019 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as hardboiled mysteries, Janet Elizabeth Lynn, Skylar Drake Mysteries, Will Zeilinger, writing
(Hey it can happen!)
My husband Will Zeilinger and I co-write the Skylar Drake Murder Mysteries, a hardboiled detective series that takes the reader to 1950s Los Angeles and other areas of the west. GAME TOWN is the fifth and final book of the series.
Nothing strikes fear in an author’s heart more than plagiarizing one’s self. Especially when writing a series. This fear turns into terror when there are two people writing multiple books or a series. Plagiarizing might include duplicating a name, scene, dialogue or even a character. This is a big no-no.
What’s more frustrating is remembering who is related to whom, who’s married to who, who’s kids or pet belongs to which family, and most of all who’s in a relationship with who. When writing multiple books or series, this can become mind boggling.
Will and I made the mistake of plagiarizing a name we used three books earlier and nothing can be more embarrassing than when a reader or fan brings it to your attention on Goodreads! We had to figure out a way to keep this from happening … again.
We decided to use a family/genealogy chart to plot out who is who, locations, plots and subplots and 2-3-word descriptions.
During our research, we found various styles of family charts. We tried several styles, the third style worked beautifully for us. This is especially useful when one of us is working on a different section of the book and needs to find a particular location or relationship without interrupting the other.
Its like a road map, it can get you where you want to go when you get lost.
You can download this particular chart or print it out at https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/family-tree-template.html.
Here is a sample of the Game Town book chart.
The results, The Skylar Drake Murder Mystery series, SLIVERS OF GLASS, STRANGE MARKINGS, DESERT ICE, SLICK DEAL and GAME TOWN. And yes…we are still married!
~Janet
Website: www.janetlynnauthor.com
Blog: themarriedauthors.blogspot.com
The Skylar Drake Mystery Series
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Hot Novels about the Cold War by Will Zeilinger and Janet Elizabeth Lynn
October 3, 2019 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as 1050s, cold war, Janet Elizabeth Lynn, thrillers, Will Zeilinger
The genre of novels that seems to endure are the spy thrillers and stories of behind-the-scenes government scandals. Here are some very interesting and I’d even say, “watershed” novels about the cold war that have colored our vision of the past and the future. After researching some, I’ve made a list of just a few of the more influential titles and included a short synopsis of each:
Our Man in Havana (1958) by Graham Greene
First published in 1958, Our Man in Havana is an espionage thriller, a penetrating character study, and a political satire that still resonates to this day. Conceived as one of Graham Greene’s ‘entertainments,’ it tells of MI6’s man in Havana, Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true. (Goodreads)
The Ugly American (1958) by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick
A piercing exposé of American incompetence and corruption in Southeast Asia, The Ugly American captivated the nation when it was first published in 1958. The book introduces readers to an unlikely hero in the titular “ugly American”—and to the ignorant politicians and arrogant ambassadors who ignore his empathetic and commonsense advice. In linked stories and vignettes set in the fictional nation of Sarkhan, William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick draw an incisive portrait of American foreign policy gone dangerously wrong—and how it might be fixed. The Ugly American reminds us that “today, as the battle for hearts and minds has shifted to the Middle East, we still can’t speak Sarkhanese” (New York Times).
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1963) by John le Carré
In this classic, John le Carre’s third novel and the first to earn him international acclaim, he created a world unlike any previously experienced in suspense fiction. With unsurpassed knowledge culled from his years in British Intelligence, le Carre brings to light the shadowy dealings of international espionage in the tale of a British agent who longs to end his career but undertakes one final, bone-chilling assignment. When the last agent under his command is killed and Alec Leamas is called back to London, he hopes to come in from the cold for good. His spymaster, Control, however, has other plans. Determined to bring down the head of East German Intelligence and topple his organization, Control once more sends Leamas into the fray—this time to play the part of the dishonored spy and lure the enemy to his ultimate defeat. (Goodreads)
It is interesting to note that each of these novels was later made into a motion picture. Our Man in Havana with Alec Guinness (1959), The Ugly American with Marlon Brando (1963), and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold with Richard Burton (1965).
As is the case with most things a writer encounters, great fiction will always be thrilling but many times the reality is scarier and more strange than we could ever write.
Some other novels set in the 50s
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