The Rhinebeck Chamber MusicSociety recently announced its 2012-2013 season. Concerts are heldSunday afternoons at 3 p.m. at TheChurch of the Messiah, 6436Montgomery St. (Route 9) inRhinebeck.

The 2012-13 season begins onOct. 14 with the Linden Quartet, fol-lowed by the Pacifica Quartet onNov. 11. The Aulos Ensemble per-

forms on Dec. 9. Shows in the New Yearinclude Kerry Henderson (baritone) andBabette Hierholzer (piano) on Jan. 6, 2013;and the Horszowski Trio on April 21, 2013.

Tickets for each concert are $25 peradult, $5 per student under 23 with valid ID,and free for children under 13. Subscribe toall five concerts for $100. For more infor-mation about each program and tickets,visit www.rhinebeckmusic.org or call (845)876-2870.

Aug. 1-7, 2012 - NORTHERN DUTCHESS NEWS & Creative Living 9

Local author Chris Orcutt has honed hiscraft for two decades. He started his careeras a reporter at The Millbrook Round Table,a job he calls “his first love.” Orcutt’s shortfiction has appeared in literary journals, andas a playwright he’s had some of his worksperformed. His resume includes such dayjobs as speechwriting, technical writing,teaching and editing.

His other talents notwithstanding,Orcutt’s novels are garnering attentionthese days. Last year, he published the firstbook in his Dakota Stevens detective series,“A Real Piece of Work.” Recently, the sec-ond title, “The Rich Are Different,” wasreleased. Both are e-books available onAmazon’s Kindle platform.

Electronic publishing was not the wayOrcutt initially planned to go. He came upthrough a time when print was king, and hestill loves and has faith in the printed word.

“These novels went through the tradi-tional process and they were turned down,”he said. “But I always knew if I could getthese books to readers, readers would enjoythem.”

To date, “A Real Piece of Work” has soldclose to 6,000 copies and achieved a No. 1top rating in Amazon Literary Fiction(Kindle) and No. 4 in Mystery.

“I was very surprised that the book hassold thousands ofcopies, and it’ssold more thanyour typical firstrun of a hardcov-er novel [from anew author],” hesaid. “That’swhat I like aboutKindle … itallows me toreach an audiencedirectly.”

The series fea-

tures the exploits of private detectiveDakota Stevens and his ultra-capable assis-tant, the brilliant and beautiful SvetlanaKrüsh. Dakota maintains a practice in NewYork City but retreats to his Millbrookhome for rest and reflection, so there aremany local references for Hudson Valleyreaders.

In “A Real Piece of Work,” Dakota andSvetlana uncover an international art for-gery ring in the Catskills and enter a dan-gerous world where the ‘real pieces ofwork’ are not only the paintings beingcopied but also some of the charactersthemselves. The duo solves the case, albeitat great personal cost to Dakota.

“[It’s] a Pyrrhic victory, where you wonbut you didn’t win, because the playingfield is just scorched,” said Orcutt. “Hequestions why he’s doing this. He’s lost hisdetecting mojo, been doing nothing butwatching ‘The Rockford Files’ for the lastfew months. That’s where ‘The Rich areDifferent’ picks up.’

Svetlana, a Ukrainian-American chessgrandmaster, moves strategically to bringDakota back into the world: she makes himtake a case.

“They’re summoned to the Long Islandestate of this eccentric heiress, because herbrother was found dead on a Montanaresort,” said Orcutt.

The resort is a ranch set up like an OldWest town, where the very wealthy pay tostep back in time. Dakota and Svetlanamust travel to Montana and find the killer.

“It’s a complex case,” said Orcutt. “Themain story is finding the killer of thiseccentric brother who runs this Old Westresort; but the ‘B’ story is the detective,Dakota, getting his mojo back, because he’sdeeply depressed, he’s just off his gamebecause of what happened [in the previouscase]; he’s slowly getting that back.”

Orcutt wrote “The Rich Are Different”

as an homage to “The Great Gatsby”by F. Scott Fitzgerald and to theWestern genre, giving “tips of thehat” to Clint Eastwood, “High Noon”and other favorites.

“It’s an East meets West novel,”he said.

The idea for the Old West resortwas inspired by Orcutt’s trip toMontana about eight years ago.

“A number of things just sparkedmy imagination,” he said. “There arequite a lot of ghost towns inMontana; they’re perfectly preservedtowns from the 1800s. Mining driedup and people just moved out. I start-ed thinking: What is somebodywealthy created an Old West resort,where people could go and play cow-boy for one or two weeks?”

Yellowstone National Park alsomade an impact on Orcutt.

“I was strongly influenced by thesense of place out there and wantedto convey some of that. Yellowstoneis just remarkable; it really is anational treasure,” he said.

Although Dakota Stevens is a pri-vate detective, Orcutt said his goalhas been to write novels about adetective rather than writing a detec-tive novel.

“There are plenty of detective novels, allkinds of formulaic approaches. Detectivenovels are entirely driven by plot,” he said.“I wanted to write a character-driven novelabout a detective and his world. The detec-tive is more at the forefront. I feel I’veaccomplished that.”

He added. “I’m not unique in this; theauthor Raymond Chandler, he was alwaysafter the same thing with his Marlowe char-acter.”

Judging by the number of five-starreviews “A Real Piece of Work” has

received on Amazon, Orcutt’s assessmentisn’t merely boastful. Along with the sur-prise of success came a sense of vindicationafter going through the gauntlet of printpublishing, where he was told that the mar-ket for the detective genre was too glutted,or the timing wasn’t right. A movie produc-tion company that expressed interest in thestory ultimately rejected it because “it need-ed more explosions.”

“With all due respect [industry profes-sionals] can be right 90 percent of the time,but then they’re wrong 10 percent of the

Creative Livingcelebrating all good things

Novel approachWriter Chris Orcutt is pleasantly surprised by his success on the road less traveled. by Kate Goldsmith

Aug. 1-7, 2012

Millbrook author Chris Orcutt has just released ‘TheRich Are Different,’ the second novel in the DakotaStevens detective series. Courtesy photo

Rhinebeck chamber music series opens Oct. 14

The 2012-2013 Rhinebeck Chamber MusicSociety season includes (from top left) AulosEnsemble (photo by Jill LeVine), HorszowskiTrio (photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco), LindenString Quartet (photo www.lindenquartet.com)and Pacifica Quartet (photo by AnthonyParmelee).

continued on following page

10 NORTHERN DUTCHESS NEWS & Creative Living - Aug. 1-7, 2012

the ground, literally. It’s hard to watch asuperhero being brutalized. When Bane ripsthe mask off Bruce and says, “You have mypermission to die,” you’ll think all is lost!

Bruce is imprisoned, and it seems thatescape is impossible. Will he rise from thedarkness? I’d best say no more!

The co-stars all give wonderful perform-ances: Anne Hathaway as the Cat Woman,Gary Old-man as Commis-sioner Gordon,Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the hot-headedDetective Blake, Morgan Freeman as Fox,Marion Cotillard as Miranda, and Michael

Caine as Alfred.Alfred, Bruce’s friend and his butler,

wants Bruce to get a life. He’d like it ifBruce would never put on the Batman’s suitagain; in a tear-jerking scene, he tellsBruce, “You are as special to me as youwere to your mother and father. I swore toprotect you, and I haven’t!”

What he decides to do will sadden you.This film is three hours long, it cost $250

million, and it’s awesome! It was written byDavid Goyer and Jonathan Nolan anddirected by Chris Nolan.

Creative Livingis the arts and entertainment section of

NORTHERN DUTCHESS NEWSA division of Southern Dutchess News

84 East Main St., Wappingers Falls, NY 12590845.297.3723 • www.sdutchessnews.com

Publisher: Albert Osten

Executive Editor/General Manager: Curtis Schmidt

Editorial/Creative Director: Kate Goldsmith

Advertising Assistant: Roxanne Hoffman

Contributing writers: Mark Adams, Vicki Frank Day, Jim Donick,

Greg Draiss, Penelope Hall, Kristine Coulter, Ann La Farge, Ron Mombello

Editorial: creativeliving@sdutchessnews.com

Advertising: sdnadvertising@aol.com

Batman, a.k.a. the Caped Crusader andthe Dark Knight, is a comic book hero cre-ated in 1939 by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.In reality, he is millionaire (later, billion-aire) playboy and philanthropist BruceWayne, who, having witnessed his parents’murder when he was a boy, swore to avengetheir deaths by fighting crime wherever andwhenever he found it.

First appearing on the Big Screen in1949 (Robert Lowery played Batman) andagain in 1966 (Adam West played TheCaped Crusader), this superhero becameentrenched in American culture, and Iwould venture a guess that he’s here to stay!In 1989 and 1992, Michael Keatonassumed the role; in 1995 Val Kilmerdonned the cape; and in 1997 GeorgeClooney roared from the Bat Cave in hisBat Mobile and took on the bad guys.

The bad guys? They are the likes of theJoker (you may remember the brilliant per-formance of Heath Ledger; if not, check itout on YouTube), the Penguin, Two-Faceand the Riddler.

The Chris Nolan Trilogy, “BatmanBegins”(2005) “The Dark Knight” (2008)and, finally, “The Dark Knight Rises”(2012), takes the Batman series in a new,more realistic direction. It stars ChristianBale, renowned British actor and star of“American Psycho” (2000), “Reign of

Fire” (2002), “The Machinist” (2004) and“The Fighter” (2010). Though arguable, heis the best Batman.

Why? These three episodes concentrat-ed, more, on the man behind the mask,Bruce Wayne, and Mr. Bale surely giveshim depth. “The Dark Knight Rises” findsBruce in the doldrums, anguishing over alost love, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllen-haal), getting older (he’s graying at the tem-ples), walking with a cane, generally feel-ing sorry for himself and living the life of arecluse. He has not appeared in public, andhis Batman suit has hung in the Bat Cave,unused, for almost eight years.

Will you feel sorry for Bruce? I did!In comes the villain, a domestic terrorist

named Bane (Tom Hardy, a Brit as well,was excellent, and he has starred in“Warrior,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,”“The Take,” and “Wuthering Heights.”).His head is shaved, he has a Darth Vadervoice and he wears a Hannibal Lecter mask.His apocalyptic plan, an atomicArmageddon, may seem similar in motiva-tion to the ongoing uprisings around theworld. He plans to take over and destroyGotham City.

Will the Dark Knight overcome hisdebilitating and paralyzing self-pity?

Yes, but in their initial encounter, Bane,having superior strength, beats Bruce into

on the aisle with ron mombello

The villain Bane (Tom Hardy) vs. Batman (Christian Bale)

Super hero‘Dark Knight’ is ‘awesome’

Chris Orcuttcontinued from previous page

time,” said Orcutt. “There are a lot of greatbooks out there that somehow navigate theprocess, but what if they hadn’t navigatedthe process?”

Although he’s happy with his e-booksales (and his 70 percent royalty), Orcuttwould still like to get a traditional print dealfor his novels.

“Most people still read traditional books.I’m not going to kid you; I would love tosee my books reach a traditional audience,”he said. “At the same time, it’s been mar-velous to make a connection with readersthis way.”

The Internet has led to major changes inpublishing, demanding adjustments by all parties: writers, agents, editors and pub-lishers.

“I grew up with this traditional bookmodel, and that was the goal. I’m seeingnow that the paradigm has completely shift-ed,” said Orcutt. “All authors today are con-fronted to some extent with this feeling of‘What’s going on?’ Publishing is changingand it’s changing overnight.”

The new model requires Orcutt to wearmore hats, when he’d rather keep his‘writer hat’ snug on his head.

“There’s a part of me, and I think a lot ofother writers feel this way, [that says] I’m awriter and want to focus on writing,” hesaid. “All this publishing stuff, I don’t wantto do it, doing promotion and making sure that the book you’re offering people isquality and making sure it’s formatted cor-rectly.”

Apparently, Dakota and Svetlana areproving that quality can pay off: proceedsfrom “A Real Piece of Work” will sendOrcutt and his wife, Alexas, on a long-over-due honeymoon next month.

“This is going to be the first real vaca-tion and the first real honeymoon since wewere married 16 years ago,” said Orcutt.“When we were first married we didn’thave the resources or the ability to take areal honeymoon. So the proceeds from thatbook are financing a very extensive two-week vacation in France, primarily Paris.”

Orcutt isn’t a regular reader of the detec-tive or mystery genre. Perhaps thataccounts for the wide audience that hasembraced his series.

“I want the reader to have an aestheticexperience with the language. I want it tobe seamless, I want there to be some ele-gance and I want people to feel richer hav-

ing read it,” said Orcutt. “To say, yeah,maybe it was a mystery novel but therewere still these terrific moments of dialogand description. It’s been important fromthe beginning to have the writing as good asit could be.”

Hopefully, the future will hold moreadventures for Dakota and Svetlana. Orcuttalso aspires to make inroads as a short storywriter.

“As much as I love Dakota and Svetlana,they are just the tip of the iceberg as far aswhat I can do,” he said. “If I had one storypublished in The New Yorker, I could die ahappy man. It’s a very tall order.”

Orcutt said he’s been encouraged by thepersonalized rejections he’s received fromthe likes of Harper’s, The New Yorker andThe Atlantic, which suggest he’s “gettingthere.”

“I just love the short story. There is justsomething profound about being able togive readers a full experience in 5,000-7,000 words or less,” he said. “I love thechallenge, so that’s really where my heart iswith my writing when I’m not writingabout Dakota and Svetlana.”

Visit www.chrisorcutt.com for moreinformation.