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Thursday, May 1, 2008
Stuart McIver, Authentic Floridian Voice, 1922-2008
When I first met Stuart McIver and his sweet wife Joan (a fine writer in her own right)
back in the 90s, he was already elderly and something of a Florida institution, the quiet inheritor of the traditions of Rawlings
and Douglas. Carolinian by birth but Floridian in his soul, he took life’s scenic road, as his wife recently said
to Sun-Sentinel Travel Editor Tom Swick. His 12 books about Florida are essential to any who love and would know our
state.
Much enamored of all McIver’s work, I particularly enjoyed his 3-volume Florida Chronicles
(Dreamers, Schemers & Scalawags; Murder In the Tropics; Touched By the Sun). I would
bump into him from time-time at book fairs and readings and writer’s conferences and he always remembered me and happily
shared tales of olde Florida, and encouraged me in my own writings. My personalized signed copies of the Chronicles
stand proudly on my home-office shelf.
McIver was best known for his Hemingway’s Key West
and Death in The Everglades: The Murder of Guy Bradley, America’s First Martyr to Environmentalism.
A gentleman, a charmer, a scribe, known as "South Florida’s tribal storyteller," Stuart McIver knew and loved
Florida with a rare passion. He was what they mean when they call a man authentic. He will be missed. His slightly outdated—but
charming and authentic like him—website can be found at http://www.stuartmciver.com/
—John Bond
John Bond's story "T-Bird"
appears in Best American Mysteries 2007, edited by Carl Hiassen, and will be published as a chapbook in October by
ConJelCo Publishing. His reconsideration of John D. MacDonald's Condominium appears on our Classic Florida Reads page.
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| (Image from a Florida postcard) |
Weblinks to follow the weather:
www.nhc.noaa.gov - This is the official site of the National Hurricane Center. It's probably the most "official" site on the web,
so if you have trust issues, go here. They've improved over time, most notably with better maps and a new small news feed
at the top. In the past, their maps have been less definitive, with a huge cone, especially for slow-moving storms. Their
text descriptions are also very technical and dense. Plus, the site's not as colorful, and we all like colors, don't we?
www.wunderground.com/tropical/ - This is Weather Underground's tropical weather site. They are good if you want easy access to a wide range of information,
including things like the "historical" diagram which shows how similar past storms have moved. They have a good
variety of computer models (which are lacking on the NHC), and they're very easy to navigate. They're also the best source
I know of for hurricane blogging - Dr. Jeff Masters blogs about tropical activity pretty consistently, although if you're
a complete beginner he may seem a bit jargonish. Plus, they're the best location for hurricane news if you're trying to "one-stop
shop" for weather info at your mansion on Fisher Island, your home in the Hamptons, the Manhattan apartment, the London
flat and the Chateau on the Loire. On the con side, they are a commercial entity, so there are ads around the site.
www.skeetobiteweather.com - These guys have very clear diagrams that show not just where the storm will go, but how strong it will be in different
locations. They're also good for more minor systems, as they show details "investigation areas" that may develop
into depressions, which neither the NHC nor Weather Underground does. Their historical records, previously the least complete,
have been updated to include all storms since 2008, bringing them up to par with the others on that front. They have a slightly
wider variety of computer models than Weather Underground, though you need to visit both sites to see all of them. They can
be a bit slow in updating (they normally have a 45-minute to an hour lag in updating after the NHC, as compared to Weather
Underground's 5-minute lag), but that's because they end up presenting much more information with their diagrams. They come
across as no-frills, with their relatively plain layout and lack of things like "wind history" that the other two
throw in. --James Barrett-Morison
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Winners of the 2009 Florida Book Awards Children's Literature Gold
Medal: Joan Hiatt Harlow, Secret of the Night Ponies
Florida Nonfiction Gold Medal: Jack E. Davis, An Everglades Providence: Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the American Environmental Century
Silver
Medal: Carlton Ward, Jr., Florida Cowboys Bronze Medal: Todd
T. Turrell, Naples Waterfront—Changes in Time General Fiction Gold Medal: N.M. Kelby, A
Travel Guide for Reckless Heart.
Silver Medal: Janet Burroway, Bridge of
Sand
Bronze Medal: Ana Menendez, The Last War A. Manette
Ansay, Good Things I Wish You
Michael Lister, Double
Exposure
Popular Fiction Gold Medal:
Glynn Marsh Alam, Moon Water Madness
Silver Medal: Diane A.S. Stuckart,
Portrait of a Lady: A Leonardo DaVinci Mystery
Bronze Medal: Jonthon
King, The Styx
Chris Kuznecki, The Lost Throne
Tim Dorsey, Nuclear Jellyfish
Poetry Gold Medal: Campbell McGrath, Shannon
Silver
Medal: Denise Duhamel, Ka-Ching!
Bronze Medal: Jesse Millner,
Neighborhoods of My Past Sorrow
Peter Meinke, Lines
from Neuchatel
Spanish
Language Book Gold Medal: Juan Cueto-Roig, Veintiún cuentos concisos
Silver Medal: José Álvarez, País y la revolución cubana Young Adult Literature
Gold Medal: Alex Sanchez, Bait
Silver Medal: Rick Yancey, The Monstrumentologist
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