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Ground Hog Day and What Next?
Thursday night,

Well, it's been lively in Seattle: monsoons, windstorms, power outages, landslides, floods, mud,and more to come, and at 5:30 this afternoon--an earthquake! And, of course, the Seahawks on Sunday. But I am so grateful to be able to say that my hill is right where it started out, so all my hill-rebuild 9 years ago seems--fingers crossed--to be working.

My son had surgery yesterday to implant a trache tube to help him deal with sleep apnea. I was going to drive him to the hospital, but a windstorm took my power out, and the tram will not run without power. I said I could make it up the hill (It's very high and very steep) but he wouldn't let me, and took a cab down instead. So I made it down to the hospital an hour later after Seattle City Light fixed the wire that a downed tree up the hill took down. Spent a long, long, day in the Surgery waiting room. I met a lot of readers waiting there for their loved ones, and several nurses and one doctor who also read my books. Andy is doing fine,thank God. So I thank the prayer chains who went into action! But, boy was I tired today. Still, I'm managing to do my 10 pages a day book writing that I set for myself.

I watched Oprah's re-broadcast tonight with the the Ebersole family (Richard Ebersole and Susan St. James, and three of their sons. I think there is a daughter, too.) They lost their youngest son in a plane crash at Thanksgiving, 2004--but their other son on the plane--Charlie, I believe--somehow managed to get his father out of the burning plane, even though he had a broken back and burned arm. Just before that, Dr. Phil had the straying husband who had all these dumb arguments about why he wanted his wife and his mistress to become "best friends!" I think he called it "Poly-Fidelity," a bundh of hogwash to justify himself. He was quite handsome and smooth while his wife,mother of his four children, was, naturally, in such emotional pain. What a difference between total self-indulgence and a family that anyone could want to emulate! The Ebersoles will never get over the loss of their youngest but they brim over with love and class and acceptance of unimaginable tragedy.

I'm going to try to comment on some of the subjects that have come up in posts over the past few days. I have read them all--but sometimes it's midnight when I can get to them.

For Lisa, who was approached by the men who had the big story about the wife who had just had an accident and needed her to help buy gas. This sounds to me like a con game that happens a lot in parking lots of stores. They want money for drugs, usually. Last week, a woman with a small, pale child approached me outside of Safeway and said she needed money to buy food for the child, and that she had been trying to find a job all day. I questioned her, and she was clearly lieing. However, I thought, "Whatever her story is, she's out here in the rain and the dark in a parking lot,and I have enough money to go in and buy whatever groceries I want. So I gave her a $20 bill, accepting that I was being conned but I was O.K. with it. But, Lisa, there is always the chance that they want you to roll down your window so they can get you out of your car to rape or kidnap you. So you just can't lower your window or your defenses!

For those of you who have a dream of writing, don't give up! Success can be a long time coming, and I'm here to attest to that--but if you have a story to tell, and you're willing to perfect your spelling, grammar, writing itself, and to live with a lot of rejection slips before you get that one very important acceptance, I believe you can make it! Take a class in creative writing at a night school if you can, read Sherri Bykovski's book with an awful, insulting title--but with great advice: THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO GETTING PUBLISHED, subscribe to Writers' Digest and The Writer, consult WRITERS' YEARBOOK, 2006, and keep trying. Don't talk about writing someday: just do it TODAY. If you can write one page a day, you'll have 365 pages a year from now.

Whoopee! I learned today that my newsletter is in the mail, and many of you will be getting it within the next few days. I'll send an attachment for my webmaster to put it on this website, too.

I never wrote a book about a father who molested and killed his children. It's funny, but people keep writing to me about books that I'm supposed to have written, and I've never even heard of the cases. If you know the names of the people involved in the books you're asking about, you can go to www.google.com or www.amazon.com and enter those names in the search slot. If there are books about them, the titles should come up. Or you can ask me about those books if you have names. Otherwise, I can't figure out who you are talking about if it's somebody else's book!

For books I've written that resemble the Laci and Scott Peterson story, there are many. There's a case in WORTH MORE DEAD called "Desperate Housewife" that comes to mind, "The Highway Accident" in WITHOUT PITY and EMPTY PROMISES are all somewhat similar. I'm afraid I've written too many stories about women who got married with stars in their eyes--only to find out they had wed monsters who terrorized them, and eventually killed them. It's so easy to overlook the danger signs when you are first in love and you WANT the man in your life to fulfill your dreams. . .

For the movie casting, and who would play me . .. Please, no, Kathy Bates is a great actress, but she doesn't look like me at all. I've always thought that Gena Rowlands WOULD be the one I'd pick. Barbara Hershey, who played me in THE STRANGER BESIDE ME, wasn't anything like me. The funny thing about movie casting though--and I learned this to my disappointment--is that production companies pick the biggest names they can get--who are free to accept roles--and who charge the least money. So many times in movies and miniseries of my books, they have cast people who are the very antithesis of who I would have chosen, but they fit those three categories. I did think that Mark Harmon was tremendously good as Tom Capano in AND NEVER LET HER GO, and also Billy Campbell was great as Ted Bundy. Ken Olin was very good as Brad Cunningham, but I would have chosen Powers Booth (In terms of looks and intensity). It wasn't my miniseries, but Clancy Brown really resembled David Brown from my IF YOU REALLY LOVED ME--in a movie called "Love,Lies and Murder."

On Betty Broderick: I have always thought she was one of the most selfish self-involved women I've ever heard of. (This would be different if she proved to be truly psychotic). A lot of us have been through broken marriages, even after we helped husband to get their educations or to fulfill their ambitions, but we would never have thought of calling our children to complain in hysterical, profane terms about their fathers. We wouldn't have driven a car into the front of a house where our children lived. And we certainly would not have shot our exes and their new wives! Broderick wasn't living in poverty as a lot of abandoned wives are; as I recall, she got about $10,000 a month in alimony, lived in a lovely home, and had a fulltime boyfriend. But all she could think about was HERSELF! Why couldn't she have just gone on with her life? It was time to pick up the marbles and go on to another game, but she was so bitterly vindictive that she caused her own children terrible pain.

There's a new book out on the late Police Chief of Tacoma, Washington who shot his wife and himself. It's called TACOMA CONFIDENTIAL. It's a paperback.

I've been reading some pretty good memoirs lately and I'll list those soon. I'm gearing up to write my own memoirs (after this year), and it makes me realize how many stages and changes in my life that I've been through, and how swiftly the years pass. It's interesting to look back at our lives and wonder why we made the choices we did, and, with the wisdom and hindsight that comes with maturity, judge if we did the right thing. Maybe we never really know if we did the right thing because we can't know what might have happened if we had taken another path.

I'm sure I haven't answered even half the questions that have come in in the last three or four days, but it's almost midnight and I can't remember them. Lucy and Willow are running around outside, and I sure hope they will come when I call them because all my bedroom slippers are sopping wet from having to go out in the nightly storms to find them!

I'll catch up with you soon! And, of course, GO SEAHAWKS! ( One of the sports reporters from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer called to ask me my prediction of the final score, and I say Seahawks will win 32-17. That will take lots of touchdowns, field goals and safeties but it would sure make an interesting game! Remember this because if I'm right, everyone will think I'm really smart--and psychic, too!


Love,

Ann

P.S. Don't know yet where I'll be signing books in Georgia. I plan to head for Atlanta on April 15th, but they could still change trial dates so I don't dare set up signings until I'm sure. When I know where I'll be, it will be on the Home Page of www.annrules.com .

P.P.S. I am NOT going to write about the Vancouver B.C. serial killers by the pig farmer.
I may write about Perry March IF his trial doesn't conflict with my Georgia trials.
Posted by Ann on Friday, February 03, 2006 at 00:16

Trouble?
Dear Readers,

I'm kind of distressed as I had emails from a few people today who said they wouldn't be coming back to my guest book. I was so busy today that I didn't have time to read the posts--and, YES, I do, indeed, read every one of them--until 7 p.m.

I can see that there have been some misunderstandings, or I hope they're just misunderstandings? I tried to get on the A.R.F. site, but it wouldn't let me, so that's a fine kettle of fish. I've only looked at it once before and I'm not sure how to navigate around it.
Anyway, I cannot see what has been going on over there, but that is not my site and I don't have any control over it. The guestbook on my website is the only place that my webmaster and I put up. I did put my name down at the A.R.F site and entered a password THREE TIMES, but the site said I put the wrong information in.

My goal in having the guestbook was to have a pleasant. friendly, spot where people could get in touch with me, talk to other readers, comment on my books, submit ideas for new books, maybe help me with my research, get on my newsletter mailing list, and tell the rest of us a little bit about their own lives. I am hoping that we don't attract "flamers." Do they still call them that?

Anyway, at the risk of sounding trite, "Can't we all just get along?" I've said it before, and I'll repeat it: there are so many personalities here and we're all different, but nobody is to be banned or insulted here. It looks to me that this is much ado about nothing and that 90% of what's said is kind. Please remember, though, that some people have tougher hides than others and some people get their feelings hurt very easily. Everyone did great for months, and I think we can continue that. I thought the off-shoot site was fine, and as I say, I don't know what is being said there. I can only handle my guestbook and my weblog. I will speak up here if I find material offensive, belittling, covertly dangerous, of if I sense hidden motives that you may not spot.

Everyone is welcome here, but please keep being careful about who you tell personal information, addresses, phone numbers, etc.

My son isn't well yet, and I have to continue to respect his privacy. He's doing better than he was two months ago and will have some surgery on Wednesday.

Right now, I'm going to be especially careful not to put up subjects that will spark too much argument and I'm sorry for that because I feel as though I'm censoring content--and that's very difficult for an author. But I just hate to go to my guestbook and see all the unrest and concern. That sure wasn't my intention when I started this site!

Remember that Spring is coming any week now! The sun actually shone in Seattle today, and it sure raised my spirits. Maybe we all just have "cabin fever?"

Love,

Ann
Posted by Ann on Monday, January 30, 2006 at 19:58

End of a long day
Saturday night, and I'm just about to turn off the writing for today. I'm more than making up for my writer's block now.

I received a long email from Karen J. and I'm wondering if you think I should put it on the Guestbook? I've told her that it's difficult to trust her now, and that I don't want to be paid back the money I sent her. I've already written it off as a bad debt. It will take the old-timers to remember who she was, and how we fell for her story as a cancer victim with three little kids who needed school supplies. Or maybe it was four kids? I think it's probably best that, if Karen has truly changed, she take her newfound maturity and join another group where she doesn't have so many bad feelings. You are right, of course. It wasn't the money; it was that we got conned, and it took away a chunk of our trust in our fellow man(woman).

On Diane Downs being crazy? Well, she never was. She certainly has personality disorgers--HIstrionic, Anti-Social and probably Narcissitic. They don't mean you're insane; it's just that you have a sense of entitlement, no conscience, no empathy, see yourself as the center of the universe, and, with Histrionic, you LOVE being on stage with people looking at you. I never saw anyone enjoy being in the witness chair more than Diane did. She stayed there for days and gloried in the attention. I would doubt that she is going insane now--but it might be a ploy to get to a facility that is less secure. She hasn't won any of her appeals for a new trial, and she has about four to five years until she comes up for her first parole hearing. And then some women do go a little nuts during menopause (Well, didn't we all--just a little?) and that may be her problem. Diane would hate to come to the end of her childbearing years, as pregnancy (not children) is one of her favorite states.

No, Randy Woodfield didn't make Diane's sentence any longer, but he embarrassed her, when he got her to announce they were "engaged," and then he said that she must be crazy--that he was never serious about her. As far as I know, they never met in person. It was all through the mail. But Diane has been pretty clever about breaking prison rules, so maybe she did see him when she was allowed to attend classes with male inmates at the Oregon State Prison.

Trains? I love trains, and I often take the train to Portland, rather than driving. The scenery is so pretty and the ride so smooth. I've driven that 350 mile round trip so many times that sometimes I get drowsy because it's so familiar, and the train is a chance to relax and kick back instead. The food isn't great, though. I remember years ago when the dining cars served really good food. One time, a waiter was carrying a tray of beer (I was too young to drink and so I wasn't. ) But the train lurched and the whole tray spilled on me. The railroad gave me free meals all the way to Chicago. Everyone in my car went in first to see what was most expensive and told me to order that. But my conscience bothered me, so I just ordered what I would have, anyway. I think it was called The Empire Builder--Portland to Chicago,a nd then I switched trains for Detroit.

I'm about to watch a movie on Lifetime about the Kimes mother and son. This was quite a tale, all true. I remember that Mary Tyler murder played Sante Kimes several years ago. This would have been a case I would have written--but the timing was all wrong for me. I was always doing other books, and then there were just too many versions out there--so I moved on. There are several cases I wish that I'd written but it wasn't meant to be. Judy Davis is a wonderful actress so this should be good. I usually go for comedy--for a change of pace from crime and murder, but this looks too good to miss. For awhile, I heard from Sante's sister who was an absolutely gorgeous model. I encouraged her to write her own book about growing up in that family, but I don't think she ever did.

One of my readers gave me permission today to write the story of her kidnapping by two ex-convicts. It is harrowing and suspenseful, and it will be in No Regrets: True Crime Files #11. Every so often, a short case comes to me this way, and I'm grateful to have a chance to tell these tales that no one could ever write as fiction. It is amazing to me how some women can survive with their wits and clear thinking--even though they are utterly terrified.

All my best,

Ann
Posted by Ann on Saturday, January 28, 2006 at 21:12

Yes to Extraneous!
Forgot to say that "extraneous" material is perfectly welcome on my website. And, darnit, just saw that some prono ad snuck on. My webmaster should sweep it off there by tomorrow morning. Sigh.

Ann
Posted by Ann on Friday, January 27, 2006 at 21:06

Simmer Down Now
Dear Readers and Friends and Both,

I'm beginning to get troubled by some of the stuff in my guestbook. I have never, ever, ever, felt that the "spin-off site" was in any way harmful or upsetting to me, or that you were taking attention away from me, for heavens' sake! I get more than my share of attention. In fact, I have encouraged the other site. I think that there are limits set by the designer of the program for this guestbook, (Not my webmaster, but someone in England, I think, who offers the set-up for a donation). And you can only use so may words at a time. I've put posts on my own guestbook a couple of times, and I had to shorten one because the computer said it was too long. So the off-shoot site makes it easier for people to post more often and with more words. and have long discussions if they want to. My feelings are not hurt, and I'm not mad or "pissed," as one reader wrote. My ego isn't that big, I promise.

This is supposed to be a friendly, safe, happy place without the fire-fights or flamers I used to see on some discussion groups. It's a spot for people to drop in and say "Hi." And, for now, it's helping me answer a lot of questions at the end of a day when I have had to write on my books and skip answering emails. And, when I have new information or need help finding witnesses or experts on the books I'm researching, this is a place where I can ask for help. This guestbook is not meant for feuding and fussing! Arguments and scolding leave everyone up tight, including me.

Rene has been a correspondent for a long time--even before the guestbook--and I don't know why people are jumping on her? As far as I can tell, there hasn't been anyone on here who's out of line--well, again, except for the porno posters and they don't last long. We need variety here, don't we? We can't all think the same way. As for my readers, the youngest one I ever heard from was 9 and the oldest 97! Amazing.

If you find yourself getting too distressed by an Internet conversation, it's probably time to get a reality check and get out in the real world and talk to people face to face for awhile. I know that because, as a writer, I spend large segments of time in front of this screen working and answering emails and posting here, and I can begin to feel hemmed in and worried about what everyone thinks. But please, please, don't feel the need to protect me, defend me, explain what pleases me and what doesn't. I'm not that complicated a person or that sensitive, but I have felt some edginess among the posters lately. Let's all take three deep breaths. O.K.?

Did any of you watch Oprah yesterday--where she really blasted the guy that wrote A Million LIttle Pieces for saying that his book was non-fiction when apparently he made a good part of it up? I thought it was really interesting, and I have to wonder why a lawyer at his publisher didn't "vet" the book with him. Whenever I finish a book, I have to go over it page by page with one of the lawyers who work for my publisher. They ask me "Where did you get this information?" "How do you know that?" "How can you prove that?" "Do you have public records or trial transcripts?" Sometimes I get impatient with how careful these attorneys are , but I'm also grateful for them. In a way, it's much easier to write total fiction so you don't have to worry that somebody's going to sue you, but I like to read non-fiction better, and I think what real people do is more interesting than fiction--so I take the risks and then try not to be peevish with the attorneys who rein me in. But I try to have two or three sources for everything. I wonder if that Frey guy (Is his name James?) will sell more books because of the controversy or if his books will peter out now that people know he lied? I sure wouldn't want to have Oprah mad at me!! :*) And she is mad--and has a right to be, because she was conned.

Debbie P., I have cataracts too, but they haven't caused much problem. I don't think I've ever seen you wearing glasses, so you must have contacts? They don't work for me, I'm afraid. I think cataracts are especially common with people who are very near-sighted--and, like almost all authors, I am. One of these days--between books--I will have to go in and get them cleared. I decided not to have Lasik surgery because I have so much astigmatism. And, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. How I would have longed to not to have to wear thick glasses when I was a teenager, but Lasik wasn't invented then. I'm just grateful now that they can grind lenses so thin!!

I'm watching Dr. Phil out of one eye here. I can't believe that people would go on TV and tell their most intimate secrets, but I'll have to admit it fascinates me sometimes to watch it. Maybe it's the excitement of being on TV. Or meeting a celebrity? Or because Dr. Phil will pay for their therapy? And he is kind of an egomaniac but his advice is often pretty good.

Oh, I have to laugh quietly. Buns, the cat, just fell off the TV. He went to sleep and forgot where he was. He is very embarrassed because his dignity is ruffled, so I'm not going to stare at him. Tee Hee.

Time to quit for the day. Hope you all will have a pretty good weekend.

Ann

P.S. Here's something I discovered that has absolutely nothing to do with true crime. I only have two credit cards, and I have always assumed that I was paying the same interest that I started out with. But after that episode last summer when someone used my credit card number to change my billing address (without my knowledge, of course), and then charged expensive digital cameras on it, I looked over the whole bill.

Well, take a look at the interest you are now being charged! I was shocked to see that it was up over 20%, and that any cash advances --as I sometimes get from the cash machine when I'm racing to the airport--cost more, and start chugging up interest right away. If you look at yours and see that your interest has silently crept up, call your company and complain. You can tell them that you have had better offers--and most of us have--because credit card companies want to lure you over to them. Your current credit card company will almost certainly offer to cut your interest charges dramatically. Then, all you have to do is keep an eye on it as it tends to creep up again. We almost have to have at least one credit card--just to stay at a motel or hotel or for emergencies, but they can really be a quiet drain if you don't keep ahead of them!
Posted by Ann on Friday, January 27, 2006 at 20:39

A Word of Caution
Late Wednesday Night,

Boy, it takes a while to get through so many posts. I believe we have had almost 100,000 hits since Christmas! Of course, that includes those who come to read along with those who post. Please understand that, as an author, I am against censorship. I definitely want people to have a free exchange of ideas and opinions here, so please don't tell people that they have to be "nice to everyone" or they aren't allowed to post here. We do all like each other for the main part, but we are as diverse a group as you could hope to find! And people deserve a chance to say how they feel.

However, because it is my website, my webmaster and I agree on certain posts that will be taken off: ads for pornography, profanity, people selling something in a space that I pay to keep up, and those who sound to me as if they are con artists. In the latter, you will just have to trust my judgement as a former Bunco detective. Yes, those of you who have been here for many months know that even I have fallen for a scam or two.

On occasion, I have detected material that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck, and feels wrong in my gut. And if I can protect those of you who are a little too trusting, a little too quick to accept EVERYTHING you read here simply because you probably haven't been exposed to some of the darker underbelly of society, I may step in and try to warn you. Please continue to be VERY careful that you don't give away your addresses, your phone numbers, information about who you live with or if you live alone. Neither you nor I know exactly the background of all those 100,000 people who have dropped in here. Because I do write about homicide and violent sexual crimes, it isn't surprising that this site may draw an element that none of us would want to be exposed to. Please be careful? We don't even know our email addresses, you know. We value your privacy.

When I first went on-line , oh. . .must be ten years or more ago, I exchanged some emails with men who seemed very nice and had good references. But, in some cases, I found the correspondence changing rapidly from sharing interests to verging on kinky. Of course, I stopped writing to them, and they never knew anything about where I actually live. I always use a P.O. Box., not a street address.

It's my natural inclination to want to be friends with everyone, and almost all of you who post are the same way, but please stop and think and be a little suspicious.People can play with your emotions on-line. As you must know, you can't even be sure if you're writing to a male or a female--something that plays a big part on the book I'm writing now. And which ends in tragedy.

Got a bunch of new exercises for my banged-up shoulder today. The PT keeps telling me it will "never heal" because there isn't enough blood supply in the shoulder, and I just say, "Don't tell me that. I believe it will heal." She probably knows exactly what she's talking about, but I refuse to give up yet and have surgery!

It's raining again, and my new roof must work; not a drop came in to the spots where I had about 10 pots to catch the rain. Hooray!

Thank you for all the "old roof tile crushing" ideas! The tarp with the car driving over sounds great, but remember my car is about 300 feet up the hill, and I'd have to carry all the big tiles up on my tram before I could squish them with the tires, and then carry the little pieces back down again! Ditto with a heavy paver. The only way I could bring one in would be with a barge, or by putting it on a styrofoam raft and towing it with my teeth! That's how we got the hot tub in. Well, no I didn't tow it with my teeth; we pulled it with a small power boat, and winched it, somehow, onto the front deck. Nothing's easy down here.

When the sun shines again--Someday!!!--I'll take a picture of my blue bottle wall and put it in my photo gallery. Right now the bottle bottoms don't glint in the sun because there is no sun.

So here's for some honest opinions in the guestbook, but nothing really mean, lots of interesting things we can share about our lives, but I promise that I won't keep anything in that I wouldn't put in one of my books. No body photos, really gruesome details, et al.

I think one good topic might be to share the common scams that people keep falling for--but which you have discovered are fake. For instance, the "Find Penny Brown" forward is a total fraud. There never WAS a Penny Brown who disappeared and I have no idea whose picture that is. The number to call if you're on the freeway and are followed is also a scam in most respects. Remember that if you smell something fishy, go to www.google.com and enter Hoax Encyclopedia or just plain Hoaxes there and you will get a lot of sites that list the most common scams that keep going around. I especially resent the ones about fake missing children because it takes time away from REAL missing children. The last one I got was about the worst virus ever, and, sure enough, there it was--word-for-word--on the hoax site.

A very important site is www.realcrimes.com . This site was set up and is maintained by my fellow author, Lois Duncan, and her husband Don Arquette. They lost their 18-year-old daughter Kait to a drive-by shooting (never solved officially) many years ago. Now, they provide a site where people who have lost friends or family to unsolved murder can post their stories and ask for help or information. I think many of you would find it interesting, some of you need a place to post your story,and the more people who read this information, the more likely there will be cases solved. Lois's book WHO KILLED MY DAUGHTER is very sad but also amazing and engrossing.

I'm at the point now that I may have to start putting a standard message on my email site. I'm always a few hundred behind and I have to spend every spare hour writing to get two books done by September. I will continue to read every single email that comes in, but I don't think I can keep answering them. I will continue posting here, and I'll ask people who write to come over here and join us in the guestbook and my weblog until I get caught up.

Does that seem fair to all of you? I've answered emails for seven hours today,and I'm still 200 behind. I can't solve unsolved cases, and so many people want me to. And I can't teach someone how to write from scratch. Can't read other people's manuscripts while I'm writing.
Can't help with school papers. I either have to think of some way to handle email, or write half as many books. Still I love to get the gracious emails from people who have enjoyed my books, and I want to answer them all--I hope you all know that. But, wow, would I love a weekend off!!

My thoughts and prayers go out to the many of you who having a tough time right now.

Almost time for David Letterman. I know a lot of people think he's kind of a jerk, but I think he's basically a pretty nice man, very bright, quite kind and just a little eccentric. I like Jay Leno, but I think his writers are mean.

Have a good night, and a good day tomorrow, everyone and be careful out there! Always take a beat and consider the source of what people are telling you. It could save your lives!

Ann
Posted by Ann on Wednesday, January 25, 2006 at 23:33

Diane Downs, Other People, and Blue Bottles
Hi Gang,

I'm glad that you enjoyed the Diane Downs update. Remember that you can always go to the Updates on People from Earlier Books heading on the Home Page here, and click under it. I have lots of updates there on Diane and on other books. Also, the newest newsletter, going out any day, is full of updates. Send your street or P.O. Box addresses to AnnieR37@aol.com or just your email address, OR just wait for me to transfer the text of the newest newsletter to these website pages. Again, check the Home Page to find it.

Yes, that was my daughter Leslie and myself in Small Sacrifices, the miniseries. I'm in the background of a lot of my movies on TV,usually out of focus. We were sitting right behind Farrah in the verdict scene. This movie was made in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. My son, Mike, is one of the orderlies, and my friend Anne Bradley Jaeger, a TV star from Portland, played herself in the miniseries. I think I told you that Mike posed for a picture with Farrah and me, and then cut me out, and used the picture of himself and Farrah as his Christmas card that year?

The roof tiles are very, very, very, thick and hard to break into little pieces. They were flat--about 8X16" but when they were thrown off the roof, they shattered. I could have used the undamaged tiles as garden paths. But, in time, I think we can break them up. A roller machine might be too heavy to bring down on the tram. Remember our 700 pound limit? With my torn rotator cuff, there's no way I can sit outside and break them up with a hammer or poke them with a crowbar, although Mike and my other son, Andy, have tried pounding on them with a sledge hammer. They will break down to pieces about as big as a CD.

My prize example of recycling for an interesting garden feature is my "Wall of Shame." You see, I love anything cobalt blue, and I am also fond of Sky Vodka. I have been saving those blue vodka bottles for many years, and my friends save theirs for me, and their friends of friends save them. If I should ever pass away suddenly, I will be so embarrassed because my basements and the space under the decks are filled with blue vodka bottles awaiting new projects. I swear I did not personally drink them all, although I helped. The first "Wall of Shame" surrounds my rose garden. We stuck the blue bottles into wet cement with the bottoms facing out toward the sun, and the necks inside where they were covered with dirt and mulch. We mixed up batches of cement to surround the bottles and it makes a doggonned sturdy wall. When the sun hits the bottle bottoms, there is a lovely blue reflection. Small blue bottles from certain brands of pure drinking water make a nice design along the top of the wall.

Now I have enough blue bottles to make another wall. Or maybe a small garden hut. I've always admired those little houses that some people have made entirely out of bottles. My daughter Leslie got me a rock tumbler a few years ago, and I tried breaking the bottles up to make a flowing garden path with soft edges just like they had in the Sunday paper's garden section. But I would have had to tumble glass 24 hours a day for about three years! I've also heard that there are places where you can buy broken glass in all sorts of colors to enhance your garden path. But I think we'll probably go with another, taller wall, and make a dahlia garden surrounded by glittering blue glass bottle bottoms.

I like to put the occasional weird accent in my gardens. I have an old bedstead in one, a cobalt blue--what else--ceramic bird bath, lots of gazing balls and whirly-gigs, wind socks, an American flag on a tall pole, and several birdhouses now. Flowers too. Bernita sent me enough seeds from the midwest to plant the south end of King County!

Time for bed. It's always such a nice experience to hear from old friends and new ones on this Guestbook! Tenn. Bev, I'm thinking of you!

Remember, if there are people in my earlier books that you have questions about, ask them here or look under Updates on the Home Page.

Goodnight,

Ann
Posted by Ann on Monday, January 23, 2006 at 21:36

Where's Diane?
Here is the latest scoop on Elizabeth Diane Downs, born in August, 1955. Diane first escaped from the Oregon Women's Prison about two years after she was convicted. She went over a cyclone fence wall with razor wire on top, and was caught about a week later in bed with one of her prison mate's husband's friends. She was then sent to the the New Jersey Prison. She and I were on the Oprah Show, and some police officer's son in Portland, Oregon saw her and fell in love with her. (I was live on Oprah. Diane was on satellite.) So this guy moved to New Jersey to be close to her, visiting her every chance he could. She asked him to ejaculate into a plastic baggie, keep the semen under his arm to keep it warm,and bring it into prison so she could use it to impregnate herself. This turned him off a little. He was really turned off when she asked him to rent a helicopter, force the pilot to fly over the prison yard,and pick her up so she could escape.

The New Jersey corrections officers discovered that she was sewing herself a guard's uniform in her cell. Somehow, she had obtained the exact material, and even the braid trim, but she hadn't finished the uniform yet. Realizing that she was still trying to escape, New Jersey shipped her back to Oregon--but she stayed only awhile. She was sent next to the Washington State Women's Prison in Gig Harbor. She was there--in lock-down-- (Isolated for 24 hours a day)--for several years. Her daughter, Christie visited Diane there when she turned 18. A guard outside the visitor's room told me that Christie yelled at Diane, finally being able to see how she felt about Diane's killing Cheryl, and woundint Christie and Danny terribly. That was the last time Christie ever visited her mother.

Diane was moved again to Oregon for a short time. She's been in the Valley Prison for Women in Chowchilla, California for many years now. She's in the General Population, and I've been told she has had sex with some of the staff--but I can't verify that. I was told that by other inmates who have since been paroled.

When I'm signing books around the country, I've met several men who say they write to Diane,a nd they've shown me the pictures she has sent them.

Christie and Danny are fine. They're grown, college graduates and consider Fred and Joanne Hugi, the prosecutor and his wife who raised them after they were released from the hospital and after their foster family could no longer keep them, their parents. Christie is married and has a baby boy. Danny is a computer whiz.

Diane's first chance at parole comes in about four years. At that time, she will be 54. She is not very popular with her fellow inmates. I haven't heard from her for many years. She wrote to me several times at first, but would never answer my hard questions. She just wanted to talk about what a wonderful mother she was.

I think I would know if she has been transferred into another prison, but she's been at Chowchilla for a long time and will probably stay there. Her parents have moved to Texas. A young woman contacted me a few years ago and said she was the daughter that Diane gave birth to after she was convicted--but I don't believe her. She didn't have the correct information. I've heard from the family of the man who was Danny's father (As you remember,Diane chose good "specimens" to impregnate her after she made her husband have two vasectomies.) They sent a picture of the man's youngest son, and he looks just like Danny.

The man I called Lew Lewiston, the mailman who Diane shot her children for, was divorced from his wife a few years after Diane was convicted. I talked to many of Diane's lovers and they were all shell-shocked. They told me that she was a wonderful girlfriend--for about two weeks--and then things went sour. The man she chose to father her last baby was just plain shocked. He didn't really know her at all, but she seduced him once--just to get pregnant.

I think that if she can find a way to get pregnant when she is paroled, she will. With the way women in their fifties are conceiving today, it's quite possible Diane will have another child.

I feel sorry for the little girl Diane was, and I believe she was molested by a relative, but I don't like the woman she became.

By the way, if you have any questions about books, remember that you can go to Ann's Books on this website and find all the titles and covers. Amazon.com will soon have a feature with a personal link to many authors--myself included. We don't really need that, as we have this website, but I think it's a good idea that Amazon has.

If you have specific question in this guestbook, I will try to answer it in my weblog, or someone else who posts here will. Some of you know the answers almost better than I do!

In many of the Medical Examiners' autopsy rooms, there are placards that go something like this, "As I am, you once were. As you are, I will be," reminding all personnel to have reverence and respect for the bodies they work on. Autopsy means "To see for one's self." Although the soul has departed, I have been impressed by the number of very caring forensic pathologists I have met and with the respect they accord the dead. I try to do the same, and only rarely have I ever used a body picture. If I do show the deceased victims, I ask the family first--if I can use a photo that has a hand or a foot or a distant shot. There is one true crime writer--who may not be writing any longer--who I chastised once because he included terribly graphic pictures of the victims in his books, including close-ups of the face and eyes. I don't think he cared that their families might see those pictures. He never forgave me for that criticism. But I would say it again, I'm afraid.

My new roof is on, and it will be easier to write without the sound of bump, thump, and CRASH over my head. Roofers work soooo hard, and the men who tore off my old roof and put on the new one did it in two-and-a-half days! I appreciate that immensely.

Anybody have a surefire method to reduce old roof tiles to very tiny pieces of rock that would work on a garden path? Preferably not using a sledge hammer! Mike is beginning to feel as if he's on a chain gang!

Willow was frightened of all the activity though, and had to go stay with Mike's dogs, Cooper and Yoda.

Hooray for the Seahawks!

All my best,

Ann
Posted by Ann on Sunday, January 22, 2006 at 20:39

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