On November 12th Legacy Interactive released their long-awaited Murder, She Wrote computer game - five new stories encompassing around 80 puzzles, most of which are hidden object games (HOGs) that require the player to locate several objects in a busy, complicated scene. If you’ve downloaded this game and have bothered to read the credits, you’ll see that the five stories were written by me.
I must admit that I didn’t know quite what I was getting into when I was first approached by the game’s producers, who were looking for a fan fiction writer willing to pen five original stories. But I was game to try - my first paying gig! I pitched eleven potential story ideas, the producers settled on the five they liked best, and the writing began.
Unlike fan fiction, which knows no limitations, the stories written for the game had to adhere to a fairly strict pre-determined structure: only five or so locations could be used in each story, and each location had to be revisited at least four or five times. This makes sense when one considers that the artists can’t be expected to draw countless detailed backgrounds - five is plenty! The challenge, then, was to come up with a plot that didn’t need to range beyond five specific locales, and a trail of clues that would logically lead the player through those five locales again and again and again (though not necessarily in the same order each time). This was not easy to do! The other big challenge was to present the clues almost entirely in the form of physical objects, as opposed to presenting them as verbal tidbits dropped in dialogue. I quickly realized, as I tried to plot out my stories, that in my normal writing I depend a lot on dialogue. Not being able to use the old “slip of the lip” method for advancing the plot felt like writing with one hand tied behind my back. But after the first couple of stories, I had the format down well enough to be comfortable with it.
The editor that was reviewing my work was fantastic; she really pushed me to make the stories as tight and logical as possible. After submitting a rough draft that essentially just sketched out the locations, the characters, and a rough outline of the plot, she would send the draft back with suggested changes. Once the structure of the story was set, the next step was to write in the dialogue, which went through more back-and-forth for editorial review and revision. And when that was settled, the story was finished. The case notes that went along with each story (the summaries of each completed scene that the player can click on to track their progress) came next - these were not written by me, although I did proofread them and suggest some changes. After that, aside from penning some snippets of additional dialogue on request, my work on the project was finished.
From the beginning, my hope was to present five original MSW stories that were as authentic as possible despite the fact that they were being presented in an entirely new medium. Getting the sound of each of the characters right was important, as was presenting as real a Cabot Cove as I could given a limitation of showing only five bits of it at a time. Early reviews would seem to indicate that I succeeded. If I didn’t, let me know! There’s already a sequel planned, and yes, I will be writing the stories for that as well.
Angela Lansbury hasn’t wasted any time getting back into the Broadway scene. Mere months after finishing her run in “Blithe Spirit,” she is already in rehearsals for a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s 1973 musical 
The 2009 Tony Awards were given out this past Sunday night, and amid all the hype and fanfare surrounding uberproduction Billy Elliot, the most wonderful moment came when Angela Lansbury won her fifth Tony - best featured actress - for her role as Madame Arcati in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit. If the open emotion she displayed is any indication, Ms. Lansbury was not expecting this accolade, which ties the record for the most Tonys won set by Julie Harris. I missed the broadcast of the awards ceremony myself, but thanks to a YouTube poster going by the name Indy7888, I was able to find a 
Afterwards, Ms. Lansbury took questions in the press room backstage; 
Another questioner asked how the 2009 award ceremony differed from the other ones she had attended:
The next question: "If you could work with anyone …"
On May 14th, I had the privilege of seeing Angela Lansbury in 
It is also a very different performance from what fans of MSW would be used to: aside from the fact that both characters prefer bicycling as their primary mode of transportation, there is very little, if anything, in common between Jessica Fletcher and Madame Arcati. Jessica is a grounded, practical character, not at all superstitious. Madame Arcati is the polar opposite, an eccentric with one foot planted firmly in both the physical and spiritual realms. She has been communicating with the dead since her childhood – she notes that her first ectoplasmic manifestation occurred when she was five – and uses a deceased fourteen year old girl with a head cold as her go-between with the spirits on the other side. She is very specific about what she is and what can and cannot do (no fortune-telling!) and at the same time is accepting of the fact that most people she encounters are skeptical of her skills. The rituals she engages in when holding a séance (including awkwardly dancing to music played on the gramophone) seem whimsical to the other characters, but she is entirely in earnest, and they take her lightly at their peril. Mystery writer Charles Condomine (Rupert Everett) discovers this the hard way: he invites Madame Arcati to his house to perform a séance simply to gather first-hand material about mediums upon which to base a character in a novel, but comes away with much more than he bargained for when the séance successfully summons his deceased, flighty first wife Elvira (Christine Ebersole) back from the other side of the Veil. 
We didn’t linger after the performance was over; it was raining outside, which Sarah told us made it unlikely that Ms. Lansbury would linger to sign autographs outside the stage door. So Bob and I parted company with Sarah and Noah and headed back to the hotel, in time to see the broadcast of the Late Show we’d attended that afternoon. The camera panned over the audience too quickly for us to pick ourselves out of the crowd.