Wednesday, May 03, 2006


In my previous post I relate how Paco Ignacio Taibo II played a trick on me and never told me about it. He left it up to me to one day to find out. Fortunately I did. Being flummoxed by writers did not stop there. In 1996 I walked into Mystery Merchant (it used to be on 4th Avenue and it specialized in mystery and crime books). I asked for the lastest P.D. James book. A very serious and scary woman came up to me and said, "Here it is." From another corner the owner of the store noticed me and said, "You are here just in time this is Ruth Rendell. Do you have your cameras with you?" I did so I retrieved them and photographed Ruth Rendell. I broke my cardenal rule for author photos which is to never photograph one without at least reading one of their books. I asked her about her friendship with P.D. James and that was the only time she cast a smile in my direction. I asked her, "Are you always this serious and scary?" She answered that with a, "Yes." I have never known if that was true.