by
Paula Gail Benson |
| Dana Cameron |
Let
me begin by saying I am an unabashed, wildly enthusiastic fan of Dana Cameron
and her Emma Fielding archeological mystery series. My fandom is of long
duration, going back to when the first Emma Fielding novel, Site Unseen, was initially published.
For
the purposes of full disclosure, I met Dana Cameron at Malice Domestic when we
were standing in line to get Elizabeth Peters’ signature. Dana asked me to take
her photo with Peters. When I returned home, I read Dana’s novels, devouring each
as it was released and being tremendously sad after the last was published.
Although, I’m glad to say Emma has appeared in short story form since the end
of the series.
Dana
and I stayed in contact, meeting each year at Malice. I recommended her novels
to my book club and moderated a panel she appeared on at the South Carolina
Book Festival. The year she served as Malice’s Toastmaster, I attended the
banquet for the first time and sat at her table with Frankie Bailey, Toni
Kelner, and Charlaine Harris, an experience I’ll never forget.
I
love Dana’s Fangborn stories and her dark colonial noir with Anna Hoyt, but
Emma Fielding remains a favorite. And, it’s not just because Dana used my name
for a young karate student character in Ashes
and Bones, although I did give copies of that book to everyone I knew for
Christmas the year it was published.
This
year, Dana has experienced the delight of having her Emma Fielding novels reach
new audiences through a movie on the Hallmark Channel, an organization known
for consistently producing quality mystery programing.
On
social media and Dana’s website, I followed the project’s swift development. In
a matter of months, filming began, and Dana had the opportunity to visit the
set and meet the actors and production staff, which included such film-making
veterans as Douglas Barr (familiar to viewers for playing Howie Munson on The Fall Guy) as the director and Kellie
Martin (an actress who has appeared on numerous TV programs, including Life Goes On and ER) as producer.
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| Dana Cameron on set with Doug Barr (from Dana Cameron's website) |
I
don’t have cable, but a good friend does. We eagerly planned a viewing party
and set up with popcorn and phones ready to tweet as the credits rolled.
How
thrilling to see Dana’s name, listed not only for having written the novel, but
as an executive producer! The tweeting got a little intense.
Now,
let’s face the $64,000 question: how did the teleplay compare to the novel? I
think it’s reasonable to say they were offspring of the same mother and each
deserving of its own love.
Certainly,
there were differences. Courtney Thorne-Smith (known for her roles on Melrose Place, Ally McBeal, and According
to Jim), who played Emma, was older than the character in the books and a
blonde instead of a redhead, but she conveyed with conviction Emma’s tenacity
in getting to the bottom of an issue, her fierce love of archeology, and her
eagerness to teach her students.
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| Dana with Courtney Thorne-Smith (from Dana Cameron's website) |
In
the dramatization, Emma got a love interest in the detective investigating the
case. I have to say I missed Emma’s husband Brian, who appears in the novels.
He’s often in the background, but always provided support and a reliable
sounding board.
The
movie did maintain Emma’s archeological mentor, her grandfather in the books
and father on screen. As in the books, he is deceased before the start of the
story, but remains an important motivator as does his research about a colony
in Maine speculated to be older than Jamestown. It was a little disconcerting
to know from the publicity that the movie was shot on the Canadian west coast,
but it did offer some truly beautiful scenery. And, the Maine flag was raised
at the building serving as the local police station.
Perhaps
the thing I missed most from the novels – yet understood why it was eliminated
in the movie – was the “grittiness” of the excavation scenes. I still remember
vividly Dana’s description of Emma returning to her lodging from the dig,
disrobing, and jumping into the shower to rid herself of the dirt and sweat
from the day’s work.
In
the movie, all the actors wore stylish jeans, leather jackets, and knelt on
pads when working in a pit. The grueling nature of the work was completely
missing, but the joy of discovery was clearly conveyed. Perhaps the nicest
technique in the movie was showing how Emma visualized the complete artifact
after coming across a shard remnant.
Hopefully,
the other five books in the series will be made into Hallmark movies. It would
be great for renewed interest in Emma to lead to more Dana Cameron
archeological novels.
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| Dana Cameron sipping tea at the Empress Hotel (from Dana Cameron's website) |
