First blog post.

[Albert Tucher]

For my first blog post in Crimespace, some BSP:

I have two new stories out, neither of which is a Diana Andrews story. She is my series character, a suburban prostitute in northern New Jersey.

The first story, "Bismarck Rules," focuses on Diana's sidekick in my unpublished novels, another hooker named Mary Alice Mercier aka Crystal. It's now oneline in the "Oregon Literary Review."

http://orelitrev.startlogic.com/v4n2/OLR-rickert.htm#Bismarck

I guess it's safe to say now that it has taken me almost ten years to get this story published. Its length, 7500 words, and its dark subject matter made it difficult to place.


My novella "The Acting Librarian" appears in the current issue of "Mysterical-e."

http://www.mystericale.com/index.php?issue=current_issue&body=file&file=librarian_story.htm

This one is very different.

I work as a cataloger at the Newark Public Library, a place with an awesome span of institutional memory. One of my colleagues, still active in 2009, started his career in 1947, which was also the year that Beatrice Winser died. She, in turn, came to Newark in 1895 as Assistant Librarian (Assistant Director in today's terms.) She was a fascinating bundle of Victorian contradictions. Progressive on the rights of women and minorities, she was a demented micromanager. Thousands of pages of her memos survive. When you have read her four single-spaced pages on pasting a label into a book, you know how to paste a label into a book. She also treated her staff with a paternalism that no one would tolerate today.

In the end she abused her nearly total power over her subordinates less than most in her position would have done. She also laid a foundation that sustained the Newark Public Library through two generations of difficult times. She deserves a fictional tribute, and I hope this story measures up.