Five Sites to See in St. Augustine

Lightner Museum 

Despite having grown up in Florida, I somehow had never made it to St. Augustine until now. Settled in 1565 by the Spanish, it's the oldest city in the United States. That's a lot of history to take in! Read on to learn about five sites we took in during our getaway. 

1) Shockingly (not), the impetus for the trip was not a history lesson but to see the holiday lights. St. Augustine does Christmas in a big way, stringing more than 3,000,000 lights on buildings and palm trees and hedges throughout the downtown area. As we say in my family, nothing succeeds like excess. People can enjoy the Night of Lights (which miraculously lasts almost two months) on foot or by trolley or carriage. We opted for a trolley tour and were rewarded with some groan inducing holiday-themed jokes, hot cider and a sugar cookie. I recommend it! 

57th Columbia Light Roadster High Wheel (1889(

2) The Lightner Museum (shown above) was built as a hotel by Henry Flagler in 1888. The ground floor of the hotel featured a large swimming pool filled with filtered sulfur water where male guests could get in a few laps. (There was a separate pool for the women.) Today the area is home to the Museum's restaurant. For some pics of then and now, click here. 

Known for its fine and decorative 19th c. art collection, the Museum is home to many, many dusty objects. Interesting enough, but not exactly my cup of tea. I did, however, enjoy the vintage bicycle collection from the Keith Pariani collection. The text for this bike noted that "The prospective rider devoted weeks of effort and endured frequent spills acquiring the correct technique for mounting the vehicle." Um, yeah. 

Cheers! 

3) No visit to St. Augustine is complete without a stop at the Fountain of Youth. As you probably know, Ponce de Leon arrived on the west coast of Florida back in 1513. He had been told by Native Americans that restorative waters existed near Bimini that gave those who partook of them a newfound spring in their step. When his fleet ran low on fresh drinking water, Ponce had an idea. Why not go for a two-fer and replenish their store of water from the rejuvenating springs? Ponce's navigation skills were a bit off, though, and the ships landed near what is now St. Augustine instead of the Bahamas. 

Today, the legend is perpetuated at the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. We spent a fun morning there that included taking a sip of the sulfuric spring water. You can taste every one of the 30+ minerals in it. I can't say that I feel (or look) any younger, but a girl can dream. If you go, don't miss the chance to fire a faux cannon. For more on the Fountain of Youth, click here.  

Fort Matanzas

4) My biggest historical takeaway from the trip was compliments of a guide on our visit to Fort Matanzas, the only Spanish watchtower in the United States. Did you know that cannonfire could reach up to three miles away? It is from this fun fact that the now defunct three mile limit to a country's territorial waters was derived. Sure, it was hard to have an accurate aim at that distance, but 18 pounds of iron coming at your wooden vessel would get your attention. 

As far as forts go, this is a cute one. Fort Matanzas was home to between seven and 15 men. Even at the minimum number of residents, the quarters would have been tight. The soldiers must have been trim because the opening to the lookout area was none too roomy. Of course people are bigger these days.

Fort Matanzas was owned by the Spanish until 1821, when the United States took control. It was never used in military operations again. For more on the site, click here.

Cannon at Castillo de San Marcos

5) Castillo de San Marcos is a more sizable fort that protected the citizens of St. Augustine (then under the control of Spain) from both conflicts and natural disasters. After a sequence of nine wooden forts at this site failed to protect St. Augustine and its fleet from attack, the Spaniards wisened up and used coquina as their building material. Coquina is a type of stone made more or less out of compressed seashells. In addition to being fireproof, the stone could absorb cannonfire rather than succumb to it. (The fact that the walls are 12 feet thick was also helpful.) 

Both the location and the design of the Castillo were carefully chosen. Situated on the winding, narrow channel of the Matanzas River, neither pirates (!) nor warships could turn broadside to deploy their weapons. Clever. Then there's the Castillo itself, which is shaped like a five-pointed star. The configuration forced would-be invaders into position where they would get caught in a crossfire. 

The Castillo also featured a deep, wide ditch surrounding the walls of the structure. Yes, it was a moat, but not of the variety you might envision. Other than a period in the 1900s when the National Park Service flooded the ditch, it was a dry moat. Keeping the moat water-free was a practical decision. When the city was under attack, both its citizens and their livestock evacuated to the Castillo. The people harbored inside while the animals lived and grazed in the moat. In case you're concerned, the banks of the moat and the surrounding landscape protected the animals from attack. They were, after all, the residents' primary food source. For more on the Castillo de San Marcos, click here. 

Whew. That's a lot of history!  I'm going to let my brain rest for a few days before sharing my favorite historical site we visited -- the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Historical Museum. Stay tuned!

Off the Page Literary Celebration Presents Chris Bohjalian, Part 2

Author Chris Bohjalian is a believer in Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule. In Gladwell's book, a person needs 10,000 hours of intensive practice to master a skill. I guess that's one reason my golf game never got better. Perhaps it's also a reason why Bohjalian's first bestseller was Midwives, a novel that came out almost ten years after the dismal failure that was A Killing in the Real World. Now on to his thoughts about some of his more recent books.

A little more than a decade ago, Bohjalian fell in love with shows like The Wire and The Sopranos. (He was a little late to the party.) He asked himself what it was about those shows that appealed to him. His conclusion: It wasn't the violence, but the feeling of dread that overcame him when watching. Given the popularity of these shows, he realized he wasn't alone. People like sitting on the edge of their seats knowing something bad is just around the corner. How could he incorporate that delicious feeling into his writing? 

His novel The Flight Attendant is an example of how he's done just that. The thought of waking up next to the dead body of someone you picked up in a bar the night before certainly qualifies as dread-inducing in my book. What had happened? While Bohjalian would of course like for you to buy the book, you can also discover the sequence of events leading up to that moment -- and more --  in HBO's adaptation of the novel into a two season limited series. 

Another evolution in his storytelling came about as a result of the ubiquitousness of the smartphone. In the olden days, Bohjalian would sit down with a novel and read uninterrupted for two or three hours. This is still theoretically possible of course, but it's unlikely unless his phone is on the other side of the house. It wasn't a leap to realize he's not unique in this regard. How could he adapt his writing to respond to this societal change? 

The answer soon became clear. He needed to write shorter scenes and include more cliffhangers. It's an approach that none other than Charles Dickens used in his writing. How else to get readers to return to the next installment of his story when it came out a week or even a month later? (Side note: Dickens truly was a master of this technique. Readers of his novel The Curiosity Shop were so keen to find out the fate of Little Nell that they stormed the ship carrying the magazine with the final installment of the story when it arrived in port. Wow.) This technique keeps the action moving and the reader engaged. 

Bohjalian's most recent novel is The Jackal's Mistress. The book grew out of a story Bohjalian wrote for Readers Digest in 2003 about a Confederate woman who takes in a wounded Union soldier who shows up on her doorstep. He began the book in 2022, a time when the murder of George Floyd weighed heavily on (some) people's minds and Confederate statues were being removed from town squares. He felt the time was right for a story about overcoming political divisiveness and healing. 

Bohjalian said he particularly enjoyed doing the research for this novel. He traveled to Shenandoah Valley and visited Civil War sites. He read letters and memoirs written by people of that era. He studied photographs from the war, the first conflict visually documented. He learned that many dead soldiers were found holding images of their loved ones against their hearts or their faces. I suspect that heartbreaking tidbit made its way into the novel. 

The Jackal's Mistress makes the reader feel the sense of dread Bohjalian mentioned right up front. The first sentence reads: "She took the carving knife from the pumpkin pine table and pointed it at the stranger, the handle hard in her hand." I don't know about you, but I want to know what happens next. 

Bohjalian's next novel is The Amateur, a story about a young female golfer who accidentally kills a caddy with an errant ball. I swear that I didn't know this when I wrote the lead-in to this post with its reference to my own days of golfing. Cue the theme song from The Twilight Zone. This is one book I am clearly meant to read. 

Thanks to the team at Sarasota County Libraries for bringing Bohjalian and the other authors to this year's Off the Page Literary Celebration. I'm already looking forward to next year's festivities. Keep on reading! 

Off the Page Literary Celebration Presents Chris Bohjalian, Part 1

Bohjalian with "his" edition of Cosmo 

Author Chris Bohjalian began his talk at Sarasota's Off the Page Literary Celebration with some sobering facts. Only 16% of Americans read for pleasure on a regular basis. Fewer people than ever read fiction, a form of writing that builds empathy as we imagine other people's lives. Books are being pulled off the shelves in libraries at an alarming rate. (Bohjalian's own Midwives has been banned in Florida due to the use of the word "vulva" by a character who's an OB/GYN.) Ugh. These reminders of the world in which we live makes me appreciate Sarasota's vibrant library system even more. And now to some book talk. 

Bohjalian says he "found his voice" at an early age. This realization occurred when he was cleaning out his father's home after he had passed away. Tucked away in a box under the bed was a copy of a short story Bohjalian had written when he was nine. The final sentence read "The dripping stopped and the vultures had their meal." Whoa! These were words that could appear in one of his novels today. Bohjalian also noted his excellent penmenship, which he bragged made him a cool kid on the playground. He is quite funny. 

Despite this auspicious beginning, Bohjalian's path to becoming a successful author wasn't a straight line. When he was in college, the professor teaching his short story seminar advised him to become a banker. (This didn't really seem like a good option to Bohjalian given that he'd failed Econ.) He persevered, but there were plenty of bumps in the road ahead. His first published fiction (by his count, his 250th submission) appeared in 1988 in Cosmopolitan. Bohjalian reported that it was the lone issue of the magazine that contained full frontal nudity. His story about a female supermodel fit right in. 

Bohjalian's first published novel hit the shelves that same year. The reviews of A Killing in the Real World were memorable, but not in a good way. The Publishers' Weekly review started, "Mystery buffs won't find anyone to care about or much of the 'real world' in Bohjalian's debut." The reviews didn't get better from there. Still, the book is notable for the fact that author James Patterson wrote the blurb for the cover. (The two were colleagues at an ad agency at the time.) 

I kind of hate to go on about a book nobody has or -- in Bohjalian's opinion -- should read, but he was just so hilarious about it. When the novel came out, it was also reviewed in the Boston Globe. A friend called to give him the news. He asked the obvious question. "Is it a good review?" "I don't remember," she responded. "Well, can you read it to me?" "Um, I would, but it's already bound up in the basement." Clearly, something was up. When Bohjalian found the review the next day at the library, he understood why his friend didn't want to read him the commentary, which called his writing "styleless and without grace." Today, he can't argue with the review. "The book was sub-par in every way I can imagine and some I probably cannot." Still, he persevered. That was 25 books and four adaptations of his novels ago. 

Next up: Bohjalian's thoughts on some of his work you've probably actually heard of, including The Flight Attendant. 

Creating a Community Art Mural with Alissa Silvers

If you're of a certain age, you might remember the Shake 'n' Bake commercials with the catchphrase "And I helped!" The slogan came to mind when I was "helping" paint the new mural by Alissa Silvers (aka Liss) at the Arlington Park Aquatic Center. Funded by the City of Sarasota, the artwork is the latest addition to its public art collection. 

Ciera Coleman is Sarasota's Public Art Administrator. Her responsibilities include implementation of the City's Public Art Plan, an ambitious document that "sets the stage for major public art growth" in a city whose public art roots date back to the days of John Ringling. One of the Plan's goals is to provide opportunities for public art engagement. Liss' submission for the new mural at the Aquatic Center included a day on which members of the community would help paint the 1200 square foot artwork. This public participation component was a factor in the selection of Silvers' mural for the site. It's also a terrific design. 

And I helped! 

I arrived at the Aquatic Center excited about being there but the tiniest bit apprehensive. My mantra is, "I look at art. I talk about art. I write about art. I don't make art." Was this something I could actually do???

Happily, no creativity -- or skill -- was required of  participants due to Liss' careful planning. Upon arrival, you picked up a paintbrush and a cup filled with your favorite color of paint and made your way to a shape outlined in that color. (I picked pink.) Even for someone wholly incapable of creating art, it was easy and fun. Not to brag, but I think I did as good a job as the small children who participated. Their little hands did have an advantage, though, for getting into the narrow spaces in the vents.  

I had a chance to chat with Liss about the mural -- entitled "Rhapsody in Bloom" -- and her process. Her objective was to create a work that would give people of all ages a little jolt of happiness when they see it. Mission accomplished. Between the bright colors and a design featuring bubbles, swirls and flowers, it's hard not to smile when the mural comes into view. 

Liss using VR to transfer her image to the walls

While we're on the subject of design, let's talk practical issues. It's all well and good to create a great image on paper (or digitally, as many artists do these days). But how to get that design from the page/iPad to the wall? In times long past, artists such as Vermeer and da Vinci are thought to have used a camera obscura to project their drawings onto canvases or walls. But we are now living in the 21st century, so Liss used VR. 

I'm sure you'll be shocked to learn that I'm not conversant with VR technology. In fact, I think my sole VR experience has been viewing "Dreams of Dali" at the Dali Museum in St. Pete. Liss, however, has embraced the technology. This picture shows her outlining her image -- which was being invisibly projected -- on the lifeguard station wall. It's kind of mindblowing -- and just a little bit creepy -- to see. 

Liss said that being able to lay out her mockups of murals this way has been a game changer. While the technology is particularly helpful when creating a mural this size, it comes in handy whenever she's creating a large work. She also uses VR to show clients what a potential mural will look like on their wall. I can see how it would be a great tool.

"Rhapsody in Bloom" by Alissa Silvers 

Unfortunately, I don't have an image of the completed mural to share here, but this rendering from Liss' proposal gives you a good sense of what it looks like. What a difference from the plain white wall that was there before. It really creates a fun environment for visitors to the Aquatic Center. 

And now some links if you want to do a deeper dive. For an article in the Observer about the project, click here. For more on Liss and her work, click here. To learn more about the City's mural program, click here. (It's worth noting that many of the murals found on the streets of Sarasota were created compliments of private funding.) And to read about the City's public art program more generally, click here. How wonderful it is to live in a place that values public art. 

 

For more on Sarasota's public art program, click here. 

"Roots and Resilience: Art for Change" at Ringling College

"Luis" by Kandy G. Lopez (2022)

My jaw might have actually dropped when I entered Ringling College's Stuhlberg Gallery. Suspended from the ceiling were two larger than life fiber paintings by Kandy G. Lopez. Another of her large scale works can be found on an adjacent wall. While you may not be familiar with Lopez, she's an artist whose work I've seen while gallery hopping in New York. (In fact, she has a big exhibit on there now at ACA Galleries.) Talk about statement pieces. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. 

To quote from the exhibit text, "Roots and Resilience is an exhibition grounded in social realism, highlighting the power of cultural storytelling...It affirms art as a powerful tool for resistance, remembrance and renewal." The show's theme plays out not only through works by artists like Lopez who are creating art today. Works by Faith Ringgold and Jacob Lawrence and other artists whose names have become part of the art history canon are also included in the exhibit. The icing on the cake is that the exhibit was put together soup to nuts by students in Ringling's Exhibition and Management course taught by Director and Chief Curator Tim Jaeger. Color me jealous. Now back to the art. 

"Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter
from Birmingham Jail" by Faith Ringgold (2007)

The exhibit contains a number of works by Ringgold, including some serigraphs from her series "Martin Luther King: Letter from Birmingham Jail." As you probably recall, MLK was jailed in Birmingham in 1963 following a non-violent protest against racism. His letter, which defended these protests as a means of fighting injustice, was addressed to eight white clergymen in the area. To see the entire series, click here. And for an excerpt from MLK's letter and some of Ringgold's thoughts on the series, click here. 

Ringgold's "And Women?" is a strong companion piece to the MLK serigraph. The work contains images of Abigail Adams and Sojourner Truth overlaid with the text of a letter Adams wrote and a speech Truth made, respectively. To see "And Women?," click here. 

Adams' letter was to her husband John and urges him to "remember the ladies" when drafting the Declaration of Independence. (As you probably recall, the Declaration includes as one of its "self-evident truths" that "all men and women are created equal." How that's played out is a topic to discuss another day.) For more on Adams' letter, click here.  

The Sojourner Truth text comes from her "Ain't I A Woman?" speech made in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Conference. The catchphrase was adapted from the words "Am I not a man and a brother?" used by British abolitionists. To see actress Kerry Washington perform the speech, click here. (It runs three minutes.) And for more on Truth's speech, click here. 

From Kara Walker's "Freedom, A Fable" pop-up book (1997)

I was interested -- if a tiny bit frustrated -- by a bound volume of Kara Walker's "Freedom, A Fable: A Curious Interpretation of the Wit of a Negress in Troubled Times." The book features a series of laser-cut pop-up silhouettes created by Walker that illustrate the story of a formerly enslaved woman who still experiences racism. Freedom, it seems, is a fable. 

My frustration stemmed from the (understandable) fact that the book is under glass, so I was only able to see this page. The text reads, "Thinking her deed done she soundly settles into a deep meditation on the nature of her New World." The key word there seems to be "thinking," as the synopsis of the story makes it clear that this image isn't wholly representative of what's happening. To see the entire book, click here. I hope the pages will be turned over the course of the show.

Walker is known for her large-scale silhouettes of Black Victorian era figures. The subject matter of her work is not, however, what you would see if you watched "The Gilded Age." Instead, the viewer is confronted with depictions of violence, hyper-sexuality and racism. One of the most powerful -- and emotionally overwhelming -- exhibits I've ever experienced was Walker's "Cut to the Quick" at the Jacksonville Contemporary Museum of Art. To read about my visit to that exhibit, click here. And for more on Walker and her work, click here. 

These works are just a few examples of what you'll find in the "Roots and Resilience: Art for Change" show. Congratulations to Jaeger's students for putting together a powerful exhibit. The show runs through December 19th. It's one you won't want to miss. 

Amy Tan Talks Birding, The Rock Bottom Remainders and More

Amy Tan

Author Amy Tan is a rock star. Well, kind of. At her talk for Sarasota's Off the Page celebration, I learned that she's in a band with some other authors, including Stephen King and Dave Berry. I was still trying to wrap my head around that when she told a hilarious story about a rehearsal when she was new to the group. 

Tan tried out "Bye, Bye, Love" for the other band members (all of whom were male). Her choice got a hard pass. The guys told her they envisioned "their" Amy wearing a short skirt, fishnet stockings and thigh high boots while singing "These Boots Are Made for Walking." It became her signature song, with a bit of a flourish. After the last note, the guys lean over and she whips them as she tells them they're bad. What??? This was not the image of Tan I came into the evening with (nor of King for that matter). Click here to see a clip of Tan singing lead at a Rock Bottom Remainders concert many moons ago. Now on to some book talk. 

Tan's latest offering is "The Backyard Bird Chronicles." It's a book she has said was born of despair. Following the 2016 election, the country had turned into an ugly place. As an Asian American, Tan found herself the target of racism in a way she never had before. She had also just wrapped up her memoir "Where the Past Began." It was not a book she had wanted to write, but her publisher kept pushing her. Once she agreed, her past took front and center in her mind. It was emotionally overwhelming. 

Tan's father and brother both died from brain tumors when she was a teenager. That left young Amy with her mother, with whom she had an extremely tumultuous relationship. Her mother was not only suicidal but dangerous. When Tan was 16, her mother came at her with a cleaver and threatened to kill her. Tan was forced to relive these traumatic experiences -- and more -- while writing her life story. Once the book was done, Tan realized she had lost hope for the future. Something in her life had to change. But how? She remembered Jane Goodall saying that the best hope isn't something you have, it's something you do. For Goodall, that was conservation. For Tan, it was birding. 

It didn't take long for what Tan had intended to be a distraction to turn into a passion. It became commonplace to find her with a birding book in hand. Her new hobby didn't only help her pass the time. It gave her an immediate sense of calm. It turns out there's a scientific reason for that. Being in nature for even ten minutes can raise your dopamine and seratonin levels. Who knew? 

Over time, Tan realized that while going out into the world in search of birds was fun, it wasn't necessary. Lots of birds stopped in to enjoy her own backyard. She decided to make her yard even more hospitable by filling it with plants that would attract birds, bees and butterflies. (She jokingly refers to the space as "Amy's Bistro and Spa.") 

John Muir Laws preaches the importance of "pencil miles."

Tan shared that an unexpected benefit of creating her avian-friendly yard is seeing the same birds return year after year. Not the same species, but the same actual birds. How does she know? If a bird arrives and flies directly into a cage for some suet without having to figure out how to negotiate the mesh entry, she knows it's been there before.  

From the outset of her birding journey, Tan set out to do more than maintain a list of birds she'd seen. She'd create a nature journal with sketches from her sightings. But there was one problem. Tan suffers from what she calls "perfection syndrome." Even though she was just creating her journal for herself, she still felt pressure to do it "right." She took a class on nature journaling with John Muir Laws before getting started. And while that was helpful, a chance meeting on a field trip with then 13 year old Fiona Gillogy proved even more valuable. 

When Tan got a look at Fiona's journal, she couldn't believe what a mess it was. Yes, there were sketches of the birds she'd seen. But there were also an overwhelming amount of question marks and comments. Where was the order in her findings? Fiona explained to Tan that the whole point behind nature journaling is to keep asking questions about what you see. As the saying goes, out of the mouths of babes. Tan immediately adopted Fiona as her "curiosity mentor." Several years later, the two are still good friends and fellow birders. They are planning a trip to Platte, Nebraska to see the migration of more than 1 million sandhill cranes. Wow. 

Thanks to the Sarasota County Libraries for a terrific launch of this year's Off the Page Celebration. It was a real treat to hear how "The Backyard Bird Chronicles" came into being. For a wonderful article about how Tan came to nature journaling and her friendship with Fiona, click here. And for more on the book, click here. 

The Off the Page Celebration runs through November 20th. Click here for a list of upcoming events. Perhaps I'll see you there.   

Michael Connelly Talks "The Proving Ground" and More

With Michael Connelly at Tombolo Books event

"The Proving Ground" by Michael Connelly is a "ripped from the headlines" story. The dangers of AI were put front and center for the author when he came upon a statement made by the National Association of Attorneys General in September 2023. It read, "We are engaged in a race against time to protect the children of our country from the dangers of AI. Indeed, the proverbial walls of the city have already been breached. Now is the time to act." Then the author saw a story about a lawsuit brought by the mother of a 14 year old boy against an AI company for the role the company's chatbot played in her son's suicide. (Click here to read that story.) It was clear. Connelly's next book would explore the dangers associated with AI through a case taken on by Mickey Haller (aka The Lincoln Lawyer). The case provided Connelly/Haller the opportunity to pivot from criminal cases to civil litigation. 

Although a bit gruff, Connelly was engaging as he chatted with author Lori Roy. He shared that his publishers had rejected the title "The Proving Ground" for two of his previous Lincoln Lawyer novels. The third time was the charm. The title was deemed perfect for this book given the novelty of legal cases relating to AI. (The term "the proving ground" refers to a place where theories or inventions are tested.) 

An explanation of the book's title was the perfect segue for a peek into Connelly's research for the novel. First up was reading the transcripts from the Setzer case. One takeaway was that the AI company put forward the theory that what chatbots "say" is protected by the First Amendment as free speech. What???!!! Um, no. The judge in the case -- and in the book -- had a similar reaction. 

Connelly with author Lori Roy

Roy noted that Connelly's latest storyline is somewhat unusual because his bad guys aren't typically someone we might come across in real life. But in this case we could. They are, after all, just tech guys. Nor is the concept of using AI a foreign one. Even if you don't purposefully use AI when you're online, it chimes in with information. The results of my online searches often come with an "AI Overview" that I have to admit -- albeit grudingly -- is generally pretty helpful. 

So imagine you're a kid whose brain isn't yet fully developed. You've grown up in a world where you look to screens for information. You are used to actually seeing your friends online, whether it's through Facetime or Zoom or whatever other app kids are using these days. It's not surprising that you'd be more vulnerable to the suggestions put in front of you by AI, expecially when they come from an avatar you created rather than mere words. It's a brave new world out there. 

Connelly has had his own brush with the legal issues raised by AI. He's a party to a class action lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild against OpenAI, the company that invented ChatGPT. The litigation revolves around the company's downloading books into OpenAI's model without the writers' permission. A similar lawsuit was recently settled by the AI company Anthropic for $1.5B and an agreement to erase the contents of the downloaded books from its system. Any owner of intellectual property clearly needs to be vigilant as to its use. For more on the Authors' Guild lawsuit, click here. And for more of Connelly's thoughts about AI, click here. 

The evening would not have been complete without some discussion about the tv shows based on Connelly's characters. There's Bosch, Bosch Legacy, Ballard and, yes, The Lincoln Lawyer. Fans will be happy to learn that Connelly has a new show coming out in late 2026 or early 2027 -- Bosch: Start of Watch (or, as he calls it, Baby Bosch.) Baby Bosch will be the only series not based on a character Connelly previously created. He's spending a lot of time in the writers' room and enjoying it. For a sneak peek at the shows' stars (which Connelly had a hand in selecting), click here. 

Connelly noted for the record that he does not allow AI to be used in the production of his shows. An example of how AI could be employed is in the creation of a city skyline behind a character. Yes, it's more expensive to go old school, but he'd rather have real people doing the work. I commend him for taking this stand.  

It was a treat to hear Connelly speak, with the icing on the cake being the chance to say hello while he was signing my book. Thanks -- and kudos -- to St. Pete's Tombolo Books for organizing a first class event. Support your local indie bookstore!