A Moment Past As We Go Forward…
Dear Friends,
Welcome to September’s Substack.
This month’s blog A Moment Past As We Go Forward… considers the nature of past and present intertwined in the affirmation “We won’t go back…”
Each blog is now also a podcast. The audio version is available by clicking the link in the blog itself or clicking the link below for all podcasts. https://joanneleedomackerman.substack.com/podcast
The Writer at Risk section this month focuses on the case of José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, a highly respected Guatemalan investigative journalist and founder and publisher of three newspapers. Zamora is currently serving a 6-year prison sentence which is challenged by human rights organizations as well as by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and others.
The Books to Check Out section highlights two political thrillers—Second Term by J.M. Adams, a chilling glimpse into an unfortunately plausible scenario when the peaceful transfer of power breaks down and High Crimes by Joseph Finder, an earlier novel also made into a film—both thrillers set in Washington and written by fellow panelists with me at a recent conference.
In the Scene section you’ll find new photos along with text from The Far Side of the Desert.
Thank you to friends and new readers who’ve come to bookstores, book clubs and online to share my new novels The Far Side of the Desert and Burning Distance. If you’re interested in having me speak at a venue or with a book club, you can click here. I look forward to staying in touch and meeting more readers at future events, some listed below. If you’re engaged by the novels, thank you for telling friends and also for leaving reviews with online booksellers.
I hope you’ll enjoy these and other features in this free monthly Substack On the Yellow Brick Road and share it with friends!
A Moment Past As We Go Forward…
Affirming progress—“We won’t go back…” doesn’t prevent us from remembering and building on the past, acknowledging the ties that bind and helped us make the progress we’ve made and built the foundation from which we launch.
With this in mind, I looked back to a brief moment in time to see what I was thinking and writing in my September blog ten years ago in 2014. I can’t help but reflect on the illusion of time—how fast it moves (or appears to move) and how we circle within it as it wraps itself around us, then shoots us forward.
Boston on a Sunday Afternoon
By Joanne Leedom-Ackerman | September 8, 2014 |
The sun is shining. The swan boats are cruising on the pond in the Boston Commons. Joggers are jogging along the park. Children are running after ducks; parents are running after children. University students have returned en mass from summer so the hum of young people hums in Boston and its neighboring city of Cambridge, ever the student’s town. People from all backgrounds, speaking Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, Russian and languages I don’t recognize pass by as I sit on a park bench.
For a moment I don’t want to think about ISIS or terrorists’ attacks or the beheadings of writers, who are friends of people I know, writers and their families whom I can’t help but think about and want to honor, or to think about those who must decide what our country does next or those who will take the risk to do it.
All this is on my mind and on the minds of people in Washington, DC where I live. But for a moment I look out and take a breath and watch Boston on a Sunday afternoon before the world accelerates, a few days before we mark again the events of 9/11. I want to savor and remember this moment just for a moment. It is the point after all.
I enjoyed the Bouchercon Mystery Writers Conference in Nashville the end of August — September 1 and participated on the panel “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” with fellow political thriller writers J.M. Adams, Joseph Finder, Peter Malone Elliott, Robert Swartwood, and Vicki Montet.
I’ll be at the Norwalk Public Library for their AuthorSpeak Series in Norwalk, CT September 18 and at PEN International’s annual Congress in Oxford, England at the end of September. I look forward to giving a keynote talk to PEN’s Women Writers Committee, celebrating almost 40 years.
Details of these and other events past and future can be found on the Speaking page of my website.
Thank you to all who have come together and shared readings and conversations.
Selected recordings of events and interviews:
Why Baldwin Matters Series, The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center
Malaprop’s Bookstore and Café in Asheville, NC
Kinokuniya Bookstore in New York City with Salil Tripathi
Baum on Books on WSHU Public Radio
Interview with Anna Roins of Authorlink
Interview with Deborah Kalb
For more podcasts, videos and interviews, click here
I’m happy to see the $1.99 September Kindle Special for my novel The Far Side of the Desert! I hope you’ll enjoy, and write a review.
“Alliances—familial, situational, political—gird this engrossing thriller from novelist Joanne Leedom-Ackerman. U.S. foreign service officer Monte disappears during a visit to Spain; the search to find her, spearheaded by older sister Samantha, ricochets from Morocco and Egypt to Washington. Monty’s captivity is brutal, but there’s resilience, too, as both sisters slay old demons and chart new paths.”
—The Christian Science Monitor (highlighted as one of 10 best books of March 2024)
Burning Distance (Oceanview Publishing, 2023 and recent paperback in 2024) was honored by the 2024 American Book Fest International Book Awards as a Finalist in the Best Mystery/Suspense and Thriller/Adventure categories.
“Another deftly crafted novel of suspense featuring finely honed characters and an original storyline with more plot twists and turns than a Disneyland roller-coaster, "Burning Distance" showcases author Joanne Leedom-Ackerman's impressive and narrative storytelling skills. Very highly recommended for community library collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Burning Distance" is also available in a digital book format.”
—Midwest Book Review
José Rubén Zamora Marroquín (Guatemala)
(Sources include PEN International, PEN America, International Center for Journalists, Committee to Protect Journalists, Amnesty International)
Celebrated Guatemalan investigative journalist and publisher José Rubén Zamora Marroquín has spent the last two years in prison in spite of an Appeals Court overturning his conviction and calling for a new trial.
During his long career, Zamora uncovered government corruption and challenged political cronyism in multiple Guatemalan administrations. Founder of three newspapers: Siglo Veintiuno ("21st Century") in 1990, El Periódico ("The Newspaper") in 1996, and Nuestro Diario ("Our Daily") in 1998, Zamora has been attacked, beaten, kidnapped and his family threatened over the years.
Finally in 2022 he was arrested. At the time his newspaper had published stories focusing on 144 cases of corruption during the administration of President Alejandro Eduardo Giammattei, including corruption in the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines and bribery of Guatemalan officials doing business with Russian miners.
Human rights organizations, including PEN, have reported violations during his trial. These included violations of due process, misuse of pretrial detention and prevention of his providing evidence for his defense. He also had to change lawyers on at least four occasions because of allegations against them.
His arrest has been called a retaliation against his coverage of corrupt practices by the Guatemalan government and has been criticized by journalists, freedom of the press activists, political opposition in Guatemala, human rights NGOs, the business sector, the United States, Canada, and the European Union.
In March 2024, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared José Rubén Zamora’s detention arbitrary and called for his release.
On May 15, 2024, Judge Verónica Ruiz of the Ninth Sentencing Court granted Zamora house arrest after Ruiz found little risk of Zamora fleeing the country, but Zamora remains in prison.
The Appeals Court overturned his conviction in June 2024 and ordered a new trial, but Zamora has still not been released, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office has brought additional charges of obstruction of justice and use of falsified documents.
In July of this year, Zamora’s lawyers sent an urgent appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture regarding the conditions of his detention, arguing that these constitute acts of torture and cruel and inhuman treatment.
Zamora has received numerous international prizes, including the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University, an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, and he was named as one of 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the 20th century by the International Press Institute. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has also awarded him its International Journalism Award.
Amnesty International has documented numerous violations of José Rubén Zamora’s human rights. PEN International considers Zamora to be subject to frivolous prosecution because of his investigative reports of corruption by Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei, Attorney General Consuelo Porras, and the head of FECI Rafael Curruchiche.
PEN International, the International Center for Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Amnesty International and other freedom of expression organizations have called for the unconditional release of José Rubén Zamora Marroquín.
Open Letter to José Rubén Zamora, Imprisoned in Guatemala, from Fellow ICFJ Knight Award Winners
To Take Action for José Rubén Zamora Marroquín.:
Please send appeals to the authorities of Guatemala, urging them to:
Release José Rubén Zamora Marroquín immediately and unconditionally;
To end the legal judicial harassment of journalists, writers, and others who engage in peaceful expression in Guatemala.
Send appeals to the Embassy of Guatemala in your own country. Embassy addresses may be found here: https://embassies.info/guatemala
Help advocate for José Rubén Zamora Marroquín's release by sharing his story on social media using the hashtags #ZamoraLibre and #FreeZamora
An attack on a writer, the shutting down of a publishing house, the torching of a newspaper reduce the space in the world where ideas can flow. Freedom of expression is vital to writers and to readers but is challenged daily around the world. Listed here are organizations whose work on human rights and in particular issues of freedom of expression I’ve been engaged with directly and indirectly over the years. Some of the organizations have broader agendas, but all have contributed to keeping space open for the individual voice.
PEN International (with its 147 centers in over 100 countries)
PEN American Center
English PEN
PEN/Faulkner Foundation
Human Rights Watch
Amnesty International
Amnesty International USA
International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX)
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Article 19
Index on Censorship
Poets and Writers
Authors Guild
International Center for Journalists
I didn’t set out to write international political thrillers though my novels The Far Side of the Desert, Burning Distance and my earlier novel The Dark Path to the River all share characteristics of this genre. I thank my agent and publisher for identifying this space for my books. The characteristics include a strong plot in a political context with engaged characters trying to accomplish a task while figuring out their own personal lives. There are better definitions I’m sure and books that explain the conventions.
I have been reading more widely in this space and attending gatherings of writers in the field at ThrillerFest and recently Bouchercon, where hundreds of writers and over a thousand readers come to meet and celebrate the adventure of life and characters in the pages of novels.
Recently at Bouchercon in Nashville, TN this year, I was on a panel with other political thriller writers whose settings included Washington, DC. The panel titled “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” after the 1939 film was billed as: “Politics can be scary in the best of times. What makes a great political mystery or thriller?” I’m not sure we entirely answered the question, but we had a lively discussion.
Below are brief reviews and recommendation of two novels by my fellow panelists—J.M. Adams, journalist and first-time novelist of Second Term and Joseph Finder, author of more than a dozen novels, including the upcoming The Oligarch’s Daughter (Harper, January 2025). Below I’ve noted an earlier Finder novel High Crimes, which was also made into a movie with Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman. Both novelists successfully tell their stories with a female main character who has a young daughter at home who accentuates the vulnerability of the narrator and the consequence of the outcome.
Emmy-nominated journalist J.M. Adams’ first novel Second Term quickly draws the reader in through the voice of narrator Cora Walker, defense intelligence officer and legendary sharpshooter as she arrives in Benghazi on the eve of the attack about to happen. The Benghazi story sets the context for action that will drive the narrative 16 years later.
Cora, later a mother and press secretary for the U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives, again faces an unresponsive bureaucracy in an even more dangerous setting—Washington, DC—on the eve of the power transfer after the 2028 presidential election. But the sitting President doesn’t intend to hand over power. The mechanisms and planning for his coup are chilling and unfortunately ring all too plausibly after the last U.S. election.
Adams demonstrates his expertise in the workings of the branches of government and military and intelligence organizations so that this political thriller seems to balance on possible future headlines. The vulnerability of the professional warrior/mother Cora Walker with a child at home to protect adds depth to the emotional and dramatic story that unfolds.
From Second Term:
September 10, 2012
Mediterranean Sea, North Africa
A HEAVY BREEZE rolls off the Mediterranean Sea pushing away the stench of the city slowly dying around me. The deep salty air offers a snippet of comfort although I have no idea why. There are no childhood memories of the sea. I grew up in western Colorado and southwestern Virginia. Maybe it’s the brief respite from the taint of chemicals and human waste that’s embedded itself into the pores of this city. I feel like I’m constantly gagging on smoke from the unseen forest fires that raged in Colorado when I was a kid.
The buildings around me are pockmarked with bullet holes. Sandbags stand watch in front of every entrance with piles of rubble towering from thirty to fifty feet high. This place is a giant landfill waiting to fall into the sea. I walk another block and come across a building that looks like something took a mammoth crescent-shaped bite out of it. Rebar splinters off in several directions like webs constructed by a giant spider.
There’s no way to underscore the toll of human suffering here. My line of sight follows another tower of rubble going up to the second floor where a little kitchen comes into view. On the left side of the room there’s vibrant yellow wallpaper, a Roman numeral wall clock, and a table topped with a bright floral Persian table runner. On the right, the walls are stained with blood and black scorch marks. There are more weapons than food in this cursed city and the reminders are everywhere.
Western leaders continue to fool themselves into believing that the death of Muammar Gaddafi would have brought some semblance of sanity or stability to this region.
High Crimes by Joseph Finder also drives the story with a female protagonist who is confronted by the secret crimes and an intricate pattern of deception from a branch of government—the military—that is set up to protect itself.
Claire Heller Chapman, lawyer and renowned law professor at Harvard University, is drawn in to save her husband whose prior life and military service as a special operations soldier sent on covert missions is unknown to her. When he is captured and accused of horrific crimes committed 13 years before, she must use all her legal skills to save him and her family.
The emotional and legal journey that drives forward the story carries the reader through military courts and back to an illicit operation in El Salvador in the 1980s. Throughout the novel the reader cares about the lively cast of characters assembled, including the brilliant, but down-and-out fellow counsel, the private investigator, Claire’s sister, etc. The outcome is hard won, and the final twist at the very end is eerily predictable in retrospect but still chilling.
From High Crimes:
“Slow down, Annie-Banannie,” Tom called out, and Annie circled back, grabbed her father’s hand, and tugged at it, at the same moment that two men in suits approached them.
One of them said, “Mr. Kubik, come with us, please. Let’s make this simple.”
Tom turned to the one on the left, puzzled. “Excuse me?”
“Ronald Kubik, federal agents. We have a warrant for your arrest.”
Tom smiled, furrowed his brow. “You’ve got the wrong guy, buddy,” he said, taking Claire’s hand and striding quickly past them.
“Mr. Kubik, come along quietly and no one will get hurt.”
Puzzled, Claire laughed at the absurdity of this. “Sorry, boys.”
“You’re making some kind of a mistake,” Tom said, raising his voice, no longer amused.
The man on the right abruptly grabbed Tom’s arm, and Claire said, “Get your hands off my husband.”
Suddenly Tom swung his briefcase to the right, slamming the man in the stomach, knocking him backward and to the floor, and then, in a flash, he’d sprung forward and was running away, into the food court, at astonishing speed.”
Sharing here images and a passage of text in The Far Side of the Desert.
“We have to prepare for the worst, Sam,” Cal said.
They were sitting in a pub down the road from Samantha’s South Kensington flat. Outside, London’s late afternoon shadows closed in. The air was chilled, but inside a fire blazed for the few patrons.
(Over the years I’ve accumulated a running list of words I haven’t known from two main sources: WordDaily and WordGenius)
Disembogue
/ˌdisəmˈbōɡ/
Part of speech: verb
1. (Of a river or stream) Emerge or be discharged into the sea or a larger river.
Examples:
"The water began to disembogue from the dam, pouring debris into the river."
“The best fishing is just south of where the river disembogues into the sea.”
“The wildlife department does regular inspections where the streams disembogue into the river system.”
Decoct
\dih-kahkt\
Part of speech: verb
1. Extract the essence from (something) by heating or boiling it.
Examples:
“The first step in the recipe is to decoct the flavor from the onions by simmering them slowly in butter."
“I decoct overripe fruit to give my bread a rich banana flavor.”
“I make holiday gifts by decocting vanilla and peppermint extracts and bottling them in pretty containers.”
I’ve spoken at bookstores, university classes, book luncheons and in-person and zoom book clubs and look forward to more ahead. I enjoy giving readings and addressing audiences in many venues and moderating discussions on a wide range of topics and most of all meeting readers.
Click here for a list of future and past public events.
Or fill out the speaking request form to schedule an event.
I like engaging with readers so if you are in a Reading Group or Book Club and read one of my books, I’m glad to be in touch by email, zoom, or when possible in person. I can also suggest discussion topics.
Fill out the reading group form here to schedule a meeting.
