Lea Wait's Blog, page 246

The Big Uneasy

This has been a crazy, wonderful, nerve-wracking week for me. (Well, will have been. I’m typing this on Saturday, September 10th, for reasons which will soon become obvious.)

My fifth novel, RED RIGHT HAND, was released on Tuesday. It’s the second in my Michael Hendricks thriller series, after last year’s THE KILLING KIND. So far, folks seem to dig it. It earned stars from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, and a rave from the Press Herald. Barnes & Noble named it one of their Best New Thrillers of September. And my Grandma quite enjoyed it… or so she said on Facebook. (Sidebar: only a writer could possibly be insecure enough to doubt a grandparent’s praise.)

On Thursday, travel gods willing, I flew to New Orleans for Bouchercon, where THE KILLING KIND is (was?) up for three awards: the Barry Award for Best Thriller, the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery, and the Anthony Award for Best Novel.

The Barry and the Macavity were given out on Thursday night, so by the time you read this, I’m either elated to’ve won or honored to’ve been considered. (No, really. I’m up against some damn fine books by authors I truly admire. Much as I’d love to win, I’m just happy to be in the club.)

Tonight—not last Saturday when I wrote this post tonight, Friday when it went live tonight (keeping this post straight in my head is like trying to map out the timeline of the Terminator franchise)—the Anthony Awards will be given out, so I’m almost certainly a basket case right now (your right now, that is). Keep a good thought for me if you’re so inclined.

Oh, and on top of all that (good) stress, I’ve got a panel to moderate, another to participate in, and a wife to cheer on from the front row of her panel.

I’m not the only MCWer at B’con, of course. Barbara Ross, Bruce Robert Coffin, and Richard Cass are here, too (unless me writing this ahead of time jinxed them). If you’re reading this at B’con and would like to track us down, a) you can find our schedules here, and b) HOW THE HECK DID YOU CARVE OUT ENOUGH DOWNTIME TO READ A BLOG POST?!

Speaking of Bruce, I’m also not the only one who had a book come out this week. His excellent debut novel, AMONG THE SHADOWS, is now available! If you’re a fan of killer mysteries with strong Maine ties (a safe bet for readers of this blog), do yourself a favor and pick up a copy today.

The Monster (Dust Bunny) Under the Bed

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, confessing one of my greatest sins—I’m a lousy housekeeper. If this wasn’t already obvious, it became blindingly apparent the other day when I decided to haul out the things stored beneath our bed as a continuation of the general weeding we began a few months ago when we were making room to install an upstairs half bath. It’s truly astonishing how many things can be put aside and forgotten just because they might “still have some good in them.” We tossed everything from ancient sweatshirts to moth-eaten blankets, to old electronics that haven’t worked for decades. But I digress.

We sleep in a nineteenth-century bed that was a wedding gift from my in-laws. It has elaborately carved head and foot boards and is much higher off the floor than most modern beds. There is lots of space underneath for storage. Our policy has been to shove it under there and forget it. Judging by the thickness of the layer of dust, it has been at least a decade, maybe more, since anything was pulled back out.

Let the treasure hunt begin.

Yes, that is what you think it is, a utilitarian piece of equipment we lovingly dubbed “the world’s largest chamber pot.” When we used to go camping in a pop-up camper, it went along. Let’s face it. No one likes to go traipsing through a wooded campground just to visit the comfort station in the middle of the night. After dusting, it went back under the bed. Yes, we have an upstairs bath now, but there are still those occasions when the power goes out, taking the pump with it. No pump, no water. It doesn’t happen often, but we can still remember the blizzard of ’98 when the entire state was without power for most of a week. We’re keeping the chamber pot.

Next up came the first of several suitcases containing old uniforms—bagpipe band, U.S. Navy, and Franklin County sheriff’s department. This first one used to be used, back when I was a kid, to hold hair rollers and clips for pin curls. Boy does that date me! Contents intact, these three suitcases went back under the bed, too.

I didn’t know what to expect when I pulled out the old green suitcase that belonged to my mother. It turned out to be a suitcase full of smaller suitcases. This was a nice set back in the day, but it’s way too heavy to lug on a trip now. These, and another suitcase-in-suitcase are going to the “share shack” at the transfer station. Maybe someone’s doing a play set in the 1980s?

Finally there was the mystery suitcase. I had a vague memory of storing it under the bed after my late mother-in-law gave it to us. I don’t even want to think about how many years ago that was. Anyway, it turns out to contain boxes of slides taken by my late brother-in-law. Some folks reading this probably don’t even know what slides are. Fortunately, since my father was also an avid photographer who left behind negatives, prints, and slides, I actually own a slide projector. We’re going to take a look at these soon, assuming the bulb in the slide projector still works. If it doesn’t, replacing it could well be my next challenge. Anyone know an easy, preferably inexpensive way to convert slides into either snapshots that can be scanned or digital photos?

 

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett is the author of over fifty books written under several names. She won the Agatha Award for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category for “The Blessing Witch.” Currently she writes the contemporary Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries (Kilt at the Highland Games) as Kaitlyn and the historical Mistress Jaffrey Mysteries (Murder in a Cornish Alehouse ~ UK in December 2016; US in April 2017) as Kathy. The latter series is a spin-off from her earlier “Face Down” series and is set in Elizabethan England. Her websites are www.KaitlynDunnett.com and www.KathyLynnEmerson.com

Beta Love

By Brenda Buchanan

There comes a time in every writer’s life when she needs to back away from the keyboard and ask for help.

For me, this moment comes when I’m so close to my story that I can’t separate myself from it. The telltale sign is when my characters show up in my dreams. At first, this nocturnal workaholism freaked me out. Now I know it’s my signal to call in my betas.

Beta readers are the indispensable people willing to read a full manuscript and give critical feedback at the point in the process when a writer cannot objectively assess her own work.

My sentiments exactly. Love your beta readers, that is.

Some writers work one-on-one with a series of beta readers, honing the manuscript in stages. Others have a standing writing group. Still others partner with a colleague who writes in the same genre, finding shared understanding of craft to be useful.

I’ve tried all three methods and they worked reasonably well. But with my last two books I’ve come to rely on a beta ritual I call roundtable, which supercharges me as I head down the home stretch. That said, it may not be for everyone. Like every aspect of the writing process, what works for me may not work for you.

Roundtable occurs after initial feedback from my spouse−who is my alpha reader−and separate from review by any necessary technical experts. For example, on my current project, I was lucky to have MCW’s own Bruce Coffin read the manuscript and share valuable knowledge about guns and police procedure.

In the lead-up to roundtable, I provide my beta readers with a full copy of the manuscript. Some find it easiest to mark up my prose on paper. I print out a full copy of the manuscript for them, put it in a three-ring binder and deliver it along with a sharp pencil and a pack of post-its. I email the file to those who prefer to evaluate it on the computer screen. A couple of weeks later, we meet around the big conference table in my office and my beta readers have at it.

There’s no stage of the writing process when kind words are not welcome, but the purpose of roundtable is for them to tell me what doesn’t work. How can I sharpen my characters? Give them more depth? Where have I failed to make the characters—major and minor, good guys and bad—believable, nuanced human beings? How can I create a more fully-realized setting? Where are the energetic lags, the holes in the plot, the clichés? Are there too many characters? Do they have the wrong names? Are there boring parts? If so, where? On the most fundamental level, how can I make it a better story?

With Truth Beat, the third book in my Joe Gale series, my four betas were Ann (a longtime professional editor with a serious mystery habit), Richard (a marketing expert who doesn’t read mysteries at all, but has breathtaking knowledge of popular culture), Shonna (a talented author with both fiction and non-fiction titles to her credit) and Travis (Shonna’s musician husband, who writes lyrics that make me weep with their compact brilliance). Other than Shonna and Travis, my beta readers didn’t know each other.

Before our meeting, I was hopeful but not entirely sure about the wisdom of putting myself on the hot seat and encouraging a barrage of critical feedback from this disparate group. But something told me they would click and it would work.

The hot seat

It turned into a synergistic spectacular. Multiple people reacting to my work at the same time yielded perspective and suggestions finer and richer than four individual critiques ever could have produced. Each beta reader started out with an individual critique, then they began to build on each other’s points, helping me to see not only what I needed to do to make Truth Beat stronger, but enthusiastically brainstorming with me how to get there.

Two nights ago the same reader foursome reconvened along with a new beta, Susan, a lawyer colleague and golf buddy who reads widely and perceptively. The five of them tackled my current project—the first book in a new series (I hope!) featuring a female criminal defense lawyer who returns to Maine and takes over her father’s practice after her hot-shot job in Boston didn’t work out.

Unlike Joe Gale, Christie Pappas and Rufe Smathers−three of the lead characters in my Joe Gale books−I’m still getting to know the characters in this new series. On Monday night every one of my betas identified my unfamiliarity with them as the manuscript’s greatest weakness.

My stories rely on strong, sure-footed characters. The betas were unanimous that with this book, I have more work to do. It was humbling, but so important to hear each of them make this essential point. What followed was a spirited conversation about the promise each character offers, and how I might go about making each as compelling as possible.

It feels good to have fresh bearings

By the end of the roundtable I was exhilarated about returning to the keyboard. Thanks to my beta readers I have fresh bearings on my creative compass. I know where I’m headed and can’t wait to resume the journey.

Brenda Buchanan is the author of the Joe Gale Mystery Series, featuring a diehard Maine newspaper reporter who covers the crime and courts beat. Three Joe Gale books—QUICK PIVOT, COVER STORY and TRUTH BEAT—are available through Carina Press or wherever fine ebooks are sold.

 

 

 

Puntown USA, or how we’ll celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in 2017

John Clark a tad late to the blog this morning. Next September Mother and I are celebrating 40 years together legally (you can tack on a couple in front of that where we lived in Sin, a small town between Augusta and Waterville). Ever since we heard those folks who bought out DeLorme might kill off the paper atlases for each state, we’ve been buying the different states from Uncle Henry’s, Ebay and wherever we can find them in preparation for an extended road trip to celebrate. We both figure if we wait to hit 50 years, it might have to be by ambulance, so we’re busting the piggy banks and going all out.

Uncle Dub whose knees and eyesight corralled him a couple years back, is loaning us his near mint VW Bus, complete with paint job and original McCarthy flower decals so we can travel in style. I can tell you lots of research, not to mention many a heated discussion, has gone into our itinerary, which isn’t completely finalized. We hope to hit unique events in all fifty states. Here, without further fanfare, is our planned itinerary, starting in Maine.

We’re starting with a fairly new event, the Deer Tick Orienteering Challenge in Gettumoffa, ME. After skipping Cow Hampshire, it’s on to the Bratty Sibling Therapy Conference in Illtellmy, MA, followed by a stop at the Gouged by Sketchy Internists Conference in Scanmeby, CT. We’re really looking forward to the Tipsy Poet Day in Comingthroughthe, RI. We’re looping back north to the Often Published, but Terribly Boring Academic Drone-off in Curriculum, VT before taking the ferry across Lake Champlain so we can hit the Get by with Less Sharing Day in Havent, NY.

After visiting relatives in Old Forge, we’re heading on a big swing through the middle Atlantic states before beginning our southern swing. I’m really looking forward to participating as a judge in the School Lunch Makeoff in PB, NJ, before we head to the Vanishing Political Promise-off in Fa, DE. Beth is hoping the Medical Fraud Symposium in Bogus, MD lives up to expectations, while I’m hoping for the same when we hit the Pennsylvania Polka Tuba Playoff in Omypa, PA. We have mixed feelings about hitting the Never Grew Up After College Reunion in Stilldointhe, WV because we’re sure we’ll encounter people we can’t stand. It’s on to The Borrower’s Fest in Doyouha, VA, but only to snap a few photos before we’re inundated with shouts of ‘gimmee’.

There are some really unique events once you hit the southern states, starting with The Bet Something’s Wrong Weekend in Feelin, NC, but sadly South Carolina is among the states lacking an interesting event, so it’s a zip through on our way to The Flashy Female Performer Wannabe contest in Ladyga, GA . I hear it’s almost impossible to tell who’s anatomically correct at this one. Florida beckons next with The Deadhead Museum in Grate, FL which is rivaled by its neighboring event, The Yankovic Family Reunion in Weird, AL. I’m eager to see if a cat fight breaks out at the Southern Belle Ball in Don’tcallme, MS, while Beth is intrigued by the possibility of a duel at the Perpetual Promise To Lower Them in Burdensome, TX right after the French Quarter Hottie Pageant in Oola, LA.

Since we have all summer to complete these visits and most events are at a fixed time, we loop back to moonshine country to hit some dandies, starting with the We’re Being Watched Paranoia Encampment in Yessu, AR, quickly followed by the Housebreaking Challenge in Skeleton, KY and the Cool Dude Smackoff in Gimme, TN. Speaking of Dudes, there’s an unspoken rivalry between the cools and the slows, so our next stop is at the Laidback Dude Fest in Slo, MO.

We’re finishing the heartlands next, starting with the Give Peace A Chance Bed-in at JohnandYok, OH, then the International Hypochondriac Society Summer Symposium in Feeling, IL and the Can You Overdo It Reality TV Tryouts at All, IN. Moving north, we’re anticipating the Narcissistic Weekend in Itsallabout, MI, overdoing it at the All The Way Home Pig Roast in Wee, WI and free samples at the Alphabet Soup Makers Get together in Jaykayell, MN.

West of the Mississippi again, we’re psyched to hit the Bad Vision 200 Auto Race in Myop, IA and the Drunken Hookup Rodeo in Sloppy, KS, before hitting the Compassion Competition in Areyou, OK.

Remember, life can be more relaxed or extreme out west, depending on the location as evidenced by the following events. We point to how different the Freud Fanatics Night in Penis, NV is from the Hardass State Cop Tournament in Gotany, ID. Even more intriguing are the Channeling The Insane Clown Possee Peyote Fair in Low, CO, the Anger Management %$#@@ Tour Night in Em, NM, the Village People Impersonation Contest in Whyem, CA and we can’t forget the Pretty Baby Week in Whattac, UT

I know we’re skipping a bit now, but the final itinerary isn’t cast in stone. (That’s an obscure town in Nebraska). Speaking of which, I almost forgot to mention we’re hitting the Learning to Panhandle Marathon Weekend in Got, NE, not to mention the Chronic Fatigue Campout in Runningon, MT. While most people look forward to the big bike Rally in Sturgis, or Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, we have better stops in mind. We’re hitting the Timothy Leary’s Not Dead Day in L, SD and the Last Beatniks on Earth Homecoming in Living, ND.

Our final stops find us at the Backward Shakespeare Festival in Youlikeit, AZ, the Ambivalence Finals in Either, OR and the Pondering and Mulling Fest in Everwonder, WY, before venturing farther afield for the Bloom County Snarkoff in Billthecat, AK and one we might never leave, the Pacific Ganja Growers Competition in Perpetually, HI.

We’re still looking for something to see in NH, SC and WA. Got any suggestions?

Another Version of the Story

(Caution: This is a true crime writer, writing about some of the details of real crime. Some of the details may not be suitable for all audiences)

Kate Flora: I never wanted to write nonfiction. I was dragged into that world to help a

Wardens walking down the tote road to search for Amy.

friend and became fascinated by learning about the real world of crime and the stories of those who investigate it. That fascination with discovering new worlds while helping other people tell their stories has pulled me back into nonfiction several times now. Each time, at some point, someone will tell me a different version of the story, or remember an incident differently, and that will add new, and often surprising, dimensions to the story I’m writing. Or have already written.

Something like that happened while I was working on Finding Amy. I thought I knew the story of the investigation from the police point of view, that maze of stories and witnesses that helped them solve the crime, and was ready to move on to organizing and smoothing the draft, when someone—it might have been Bruce Coffin—said, “Did anyone tell you about the night we put a birddog on Gorman’s car?” Not only had no one told me about it, I didn’t even know what a birddog, or bird-dog, was, since obviously he wasn’t talking about a canine favored by hunters. He was talking about birddogging—or closely following. When I asked about the details, it turned out that he was talking about an elaborate scheme to attach a tracking device to the suspect’s car—an activity that had to be done while it was parked in a public place—and then let him know that a body had been found, hoping he would want to check where he’d hidden his victim’s body and they could follow him and discover the location. That led to whole series of interviews with Portland and Maine state police, trying to get the details of the story that ended up in the book, a story that included some very funny shenanigans in a parking lot while they put the device on the car, and Bruce Coffin walking up and down the dark rural street by the suspect’s house, waiting for him to leave—which he never did. Only later did they understand why.

A story like the investigation into Amy’s disappearance has a lot of people and events attached to it, some of which only to come to me long after the fact. At one point in the book, the murderer has confessed the story of the killing to his mother, and his mother calls her former priest down in Florida to disclose the confession and talk about her distress. Long after the book was published, I got an e-mail from that priest, who had read the book, and he shared a very sad story regarding his own son’s death. His son had been killed in a town in Texas, and when they found the body in a drainage ditch, they thought he was an illegal. His body had been in the morgue for a year while his family was trying to find him. The priest had only recently learned this when he received that call from the killer’s mother.

A writer’s job is to imagine things, but it is hard—and heartbreaking—to imagine the father’s distress as he tried to compassionately listen to a killer’s mother talk about her pain that her son was murderer when his own child had been murdered.

Ellsworth Library

Last week, Roger Guay and I were speaking at a library in Ellsworth, and Roger was telling the story of his dog Reba’s first venture into a cadaver search to help the police find a hidden body. In the past, I’ve only heard Roger’s version of the story—that the police, using the details provided by the man who helped the killer dispose of the body, had searched but been unable to locate the victim. Roger and his dog had come in—the wardens having used a detail from the informant about thorns and bushes to find the location—and almost immediately, the dog had indicated on a site. The police had done some digging and not found a body, and the dog had then moved a little distance away and found an arm bone. That bone had a break in it which correlated to a break the victim had had. The wardens, with their outdoor expertise, were able to figure out why the body wasn’t there—that bear had gotten at it.

Maine Crime Writer Kate Flora, retired game warden and rookie author Roger Guay, their book “A Good Man with a Dog,” and their secret weapon, Lucy, at the Guildford Library local author event June 11.

It turned out that there was a retired Maine state trooper in that Ellsworth audience, and he had been on that search. He told me three things which amplified the story that I knew in fascinating ways. First, that they had done an elaborate grid search of the area, trying to find the body, before calling in the wardens. Second, that in the course of searching further, once they understood what had happened, they found the bear’s skull. And third, and the kind of amazing thing a writer can’t wait to use in a book—they found a bird’s nest made from the victim’s hair.

We become writers, in part, because we’re fascinated by story. And the stories—however they come to us—never lose that fascination, and the possibilities these real world details offer for illuminating worlds and showing complex emotions to our readers.

p.s. That retired trooper, now a private eye, has become a crime writer himself. We look forward to introducing you to him in a future post.

Weekend Update: September 10-11, 2016

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Kate Flora (Monday), John Clark (Tuesday), Brenda Buchanan (Wednesday), Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Thursday), and Chris Holm (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

from Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson: Next Saturday, September 17, Jen Blood, Kate Cone, Lea Wait and I will be in the gazebo just outside the New Gloucester Public Library in New Gloucester, Maine at 1 PM to celebrate the $1000 grant given to the library by Sisters in Crime. We’ll be talking about and selling our books and there will be food. Everyone welcome.

Our friends at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, who run a fabulous mystery author series every fall, have asked us to share the schedule, which includes two of our MCW writers:

Tuesday September 13: Ron Chase author of The Great Mars Hill Bank Robbery

Tuesday September 20: Maureen Milliken author of Cold Hard News and No News is Bad News

Tuesday October 4 : Amy Ray author of Dangerous Denials

Tuesday October 18: Chris Holm author of The Killing Kind and Red Right Hand

All programs are at 7pm in the library’s Morrell Meeting Room.

Susan Vaughan is excited to announce the publication of the first two books in her new four-book series, The DARK Files. In DARK MEMORIES, after witnessing a murder, Laura Rossiter hides under an alias at a Maine lake resort where she feels safe. Until old flame Cole Stratton walks back into her life. Now a Fed with DARK, he has come to protect her and flush out a killer. As dark memories assail them and a killer closes in, they must learn to trust each other—before their future is extinguished forever. In DARK COVER, Nick Markos inherited the shame of his brother’s terrorist dealings. Hoping to uncover the terrorists’ plot, DARK installs Vanessa Wade as Nick’s fiancée. Amid galas and intrigue, they cannot deny attraction, but is their relationship only a charade? One that can explode—along with a terrorist bomb? The DARK Files ebooks are available on Amazon.

If you’re coming to Bouchercon in New Orleans, you can find Maine Crime Writers and the Maine Crime Writer-adjacent (i.e Chris’s spouse, the wonderful Katrina) at the following places.

Thursday, September 15

12:30 to 2:30 Barbara Ross will be reading and signing at the Kensington Librarian’s Tea, Bissonet Ballroom

3:00 to 3:50 Barbara Ross will be on the panel Small Plot of Land, Small Towns, Mardi Gras ABC, signing immediately after in the Book Room

7:30 to 8:30 Bruce Robert Coffin will be signing at the HarperCollins Group Signing, in The Book Room

Friday, September 16

7:30 to 9:00 Bruce Robert Coffin will be on the New Author Breakfast Panel, Bissonet Ballroom, third floor Marriott

11:40 to 12:10 Chris Holm will sign at Mystery Mike’s Table in The Book Room

12:00 to 1:00 Barbara Ross will be a the Cozy & Proud meetup, location tbd.

2:00 to 2:50 Chris Holm will be on the panel We Don’t Need Another Hero: Author Thunderdome, Mardi Gras D, with signing immediately following in the Book Room

Saturday, September 17

10:30 to 11:20, Katrina Niidas Holm will moderate the panel What Is And What Should Never Be: Ever-changing Trends In Genre Fiction, Mardi Gras D

12:00 to 12:50, Chris Holm will moderate the panel Bad To The Bone: Antiheroes, Mardi Gras ABC, with signing immediately following in the Book Room

5:00 to 6:00 Bruce Robert Coffin will be attending the Blogger Meet and Greet for Witness Impulse Authors at the HarperCollins Room in the Marriott.

Sunday, September 18

9:00 to 10:00 Bruce Robert Coffin will be on the panel The Heat is On, Outdoing Yourself with Each New Book, Mardi Gras ABC, with signing immediately following in the Book Room

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An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business. Contact Kate Flora

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Three Generations of Maine Writers and One Packed Away Clown Mobile

The heroes (and villains) in our books all have origin stories. Most writers do too.

I never knew my parents. I was left in the care of a gruff aunt and uncle on a desert planet with two suns and nothing to do besides moisture farming. But, I always knew, that, one day, I would blast off that planet, have a strange and confusing relationship with someone who turned out to be my sister, almost be killed by my father, and restore balance to the Force.

Or become a writer, one or the other.

I had a wonderful family growing up who failed miserably at turning me into a tortured writer, but I’ve always loved reading and writing.  Growing up, I would write stories that were usually rip-offs of the Hardy Boys or Star Wars or E.T.. I stopped for a long time, though, and didn’t rediscover writing until I was in law school where I took an advanced fiction writing class with some undergraduates. While they were writing operettas, channeling Kerouac, and raging against the night, I wrote about my newborn son’s clown mobile, leading to probably the most awkward critique ever:

I like your use of clowns to comment on the absurdity of the patriarchal society.

No, they’re his clowns and he likes looking at them, but some day he’s going to grow up and not want them and I’ll have to pack them away and he’ll move away, and…I really can’t talk about this right now.

I’ve been surrounded by books and writing my entire life. I’m very proud to be the middle of three generations of Maine authors, even though, as the last to be published, I’m the slacker.

Morgan, Ed and Brendan Rielly

http://www.riellybooks.com/

My father, Ed Rielly, lived on a remote farm (not a moisture farm!) in southern Wisconsin and remembers being thrilled to receive his Book of the Month delivery. He grew up, got his doctorate, and has been an English professor for decades. He’s written more than 20 books, mostly poetry and haiku, educational books and biographies (like F. Scott Fitzgerald or Geronimo). He’s literally written the book on baseball and football (encyclopedias both). More recently, he wrote his own memoir of growing up on the farm (Bread Pudding and Other Memories: A Boyhood on the Farm) and wrote two children’s books: Spring Rain Winter Snow and Jugo Meets a Poet.

My son, Morgan Rielly (the one formerly with the clown mobile), was published as a high school senior. In 8th grade, he read an African proverb that when an old man dies, a library burns to the ground. That resonated with him and he decided to save the stories of Maine WWII veterans. He spent the next four years finding and interviewing Maine WWII veterans and then turned their stories into a book: Neighborhood Heroes: Life Lessons from Maine’s Greatest Generation.

He’s beginning his junior year at Bowdoin College and is working on a second book, sharing the stories of teenage immigrants to Maine.

And his clown mobile has been packed away for years. I don’t want to talk about.

Our two girls, Shannon and Maura, have also written stories that they haven’t felt ready to try to get published. Like my Dad, my sister has written a lot of poetry.

And then there’s me–the slacker who can’t write poetry to save his life. An Unbeaten Man, book #1 in the Michael McKeon series, won the 2016 Best Crime Fiction Award at the Maine Literary Awards.

I’ve just finished the second installment in the Michael McKeon series and am working on a new series featuring a former art thief who became a CIA agent after discovering that the art he stole was funding terrorism then quit the CIA after he went too far in the CIA’s black sites. Now, both worlds are coming to claim him, all as he hides a cancer diagnosis from his pregnant wife that means he may never meet their unborn child.

So, I may not restore balance to the Force, but I’m enjoying being the middle of three generations of Maine authors.  Check us out at http://www.riellybooks.com/

Just don’t talk to me about the clown mobile.

Is That a Real Holiday?

Susan Vaughan here. While going through a calendar given to me, I found a number of special commemorative days and sort-of holidays I’d never heard of. I’m betting few of you have heard of them too. September has more than a dozen, but I’ll cover only the ones that intrigued me.

September 1 is Emma M. Nutt Day. According to Wikipedia, the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company in Boston, Massachusetts, began hiring boys who had been telegraph operators to be telephone operators, but their lack of patience and tendency for pranks and cursing were unacceptable for live phone contact, so the company began hiring women operators instead.

On September 1, 1878 Emma Mills Nutt (1860–1915), lured away from a telegraph office, became the world’s first female telephone operator, starting a career that lasted between thirty some years. More than one reference stated it was Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the first practical telephone, who hired her. Apparently her soft, cultured voice and calm demeanor made callers feel comfortable. And reportedly, she could remember every number in the directory of the New England Telephone Company.

This experiment was so successful that soon all the boys were replaced by women. By the mid 1900s, a majority of telephone operators in the country were women. Additionally, Emma’s employment strengthened the slowly growing idea that women could work outside their homes and contribute to the society and economy.

Next up is National Be Late for Something Day. Shortly after Les Waas founded the Procrastinators’ Club of America in 1956, the club’s committee created Be Late for Something Day, as an “unofficial” national holiday, a day to promote the positive aspects of procrastination.  “Most people think they don’t have time to stop and smell the roses,” Waas said, “This day tries to alleviate that factor.” It may be hard for some of us not to do as we are taught to follow regulations and schedules (raising hand here). Today’s busy lifestyles put pressure on us to be here and be there at certain times and we are always watching the clock.

So take a moment to slow down a bit, enjoy the scenery, take a few minutes longer for lunch, visit with a friend, play with your children, etc. and just be late for something because of that side trip! It’s allowed on September 5 because it’s National Be Late for Something Day! Oops, we’re too late, ah well…

But we’re not too late for Swap Ideas Day, September 10. Its origins are murky, says the National Day Calendar, but it is believed that the creator of this day was Robert Birch, who also invented Lumpy Rug Day, Trivia Day and Nothing Day.

The idea behind Swap Ideas Day is that people celebrate by connecting with others to share thoughts and concepts. No rules involved, so Swap Ideas Day is an ideal opportunity for people to be as creative and wacky as they like with their ideas as well as learning from the ideas of others. This can continue throughout the entire day and by day’s end, we could have plenty of new information and helpful ideas. To post on social media, use #NationalSwapIdeasDay.

My favorite of the obscure holidays is September 17, National Apple Dumpling Day. Yum. This delicious dish originated as a humble peasant dish in England, Bavaria and Austria. Originally, apple dumplings used to be boiled and steamed, and the word itself comes from German dampf, meaning steam. Nowadays, this aromatic dish is typically baked and spiced. The crucial spice is cinnamon, though nutmeg and lemon zest are popular as well. We in North America and many people across Europe bake the dumplings and other apple concoctions for dessert during the apple harvest season and into winter.

Here’s a recipe for Apple Dumplings I adapted from several sources. Those who can actually make pastry will frown, but I have failed too many times at pastry, so I use refrigerated pie crusts.

Ingredients: Pastry for a two-crust pie; 6 cooking apples, 8 if apples are small (Granny Smith or Braeburn); 3 tablespoons each of raisins and chopped nuts; ½ cup sugar or more if desired; 1 cup water; ½ cup corn syrup; 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon (I like more) cinnamon.

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. 2. Roll out the pastry into two 14-inch squares; cut each into two 7-inch squares. (Yes, two extra if you use 6 apples.) Peel and core apples. Place an apple on each square. 3. In small bowl, mix raisins and nuts. Fill apples with raisin and nut mixture. 4. Moisten corners of pastry squares. Bring two opposite corners up over each apple and pinch together to seal. 5. Place dumplings in un-greased 13×9-inch glass baking dish. 6. In 2-quart saucepan, heat sugar, water, corn syrup, butter, and cinnamon to boiling, stirring occasionally. Boil three minutes. Carefully pour around dumplings. 7. Bake about 40 minutes, spooning syrup mixture over dumplings two to three times, until crust is golden and apples are tender when pierced by a toothpick. 8. Serve warm or cool with whipped cream or ice cream.

Two Days Until Publication

Lea Wait, here, announcing that Friday, September 9, is publication day for my SHADOWS ON A MORNING IN MAINE.

You might think that by this time (my seventeenth book) that would be no big deal.

But if you had seventeen kids, wouldn’t you worry about number seventeen as much as you worried about number one?  (Well, maybe not QUITE as much!)

Almost exactly a year ago I sent Shadows on a Morning in Maine to my editor. Edits and copy edits followed, through several months, while I was busy writing another book. This book is the eighth in the Shadows Antique Print mystery series, and may be the last. (I reserve the right to bring the characters back, though!) I was careful to tie up loose ends left from other books in the series, although I did open a couple of doors in characters’ lives that hadn’t been opened before.

Maggie, my protagonist, has come a long way from being a thirty-eight year-old new widow with a day job (teaching at a community college) and an antique print business. In series terms, that was two years ago. In the book publishing world, it was 14 years ago. (Shadows at the Fair, the first in the series — an Agatha finalist! – was published in 2002.) From my perspective as the author, Maggie and her world came to life in 1996 — twenty years ago. She and I have both changed a lot since then, and so have our lives.

But that’s another blog. The past year’s focus has been on this latest book.

My editor and publisher had edits and suggestions, and they were appreciated and incorporated within the manuscript. Shadows on a Morning in Maine had to stand by itself. Once edited, it couldn’t be changed.

Sometime last spring I saw the cover art for the first time. (Yes – it’s a Maine lighthouse; the one in Camden Harbor.)  I hesitated a moment — there were no lighthouses in my book — but I loved that the cover captured the feel of summer, and the beauty of the Maine waters – which are important in Shadows on a Morning in Maine.

I ordered postcards (if you’re on my snail mail list you’ll be getting one within the next week) and edited my mailing list (email and snail mail). I printed out labels,  and ordered 4,000 postcard stamps. (And if you’d like to be on one or both of my mailing lists, send me a note at leawait@roadrunner.com. My next mailing will be in late October, in honor of my next Mainely Needlepoint book – DANGLING BY A THREAD.)

During this summer’s hot evenings I listened to political conventions and labelled and stamped. One of my daughters and two of my granddaughters helped during the week they were vacationing in Maine. Postcards are ready to go.

I volunteered to guest blog in September, hoping to let more people know about the new book, and then wrote the blogs. I started getting calls about signings and talks for the fall, and scheduled as many as I could.

I wrote three prequels to Shadows on a Morning in Maine — each one a different moment from a different point of view, but all three providing hints about what would happen in the book. (One prequel is linked to my website — http://www.leawait.com— and one was posted here at Maine Crime Writers about two weeks ago. A third will appear on Dru’s Book Musings, another wonderful blog, on Friday – publication date.)

So. I’ve done what I can. On Friday Shadows on a Morning in Maine will make its debut in the world. I wish it well. I hope you’ll read it. If you enjoy it, I hope you’ll tell your friends, and post a review. Perhaps suggest your book club read it. (I Skype with book groups!)

But those things are up to you. I’ve done what I can for Maggie and Will and their friends.

Now … I have to get back to writing the book that will be published in November of 2017.

Shadows on a Morning in Maine is on its own.

I wish it well.

The Fish and the Bicycle

It’s been a wonderfully sociable summer here at Chez 28 and in the wake of a splendid visit from old good friends from the other Portland (and my Medicare birthday), I’ve been considering the nature of friendship. And then because my mind is never too far from the work, I’m thinking about the uses of friendship and sidekicks and relationships in crime fiction.

There are plenty of examples of the sidekick in crime fiction: Watson and Holmes; Inspector Morse and Lewis, Rebus and Siobhan Clarke. You choose your favorite.

Having just reread Charles Willeford’s Hoke Moseley series, I happened to be thinking about Florida, since my earliest dip into reading crime fiction—leaving out the Hardy Boys, who count for me mostly as an introduction to what was possible—was John MacDonald’s Travis McGee series, which I’ve written about elsewhere.

Travis McGee is a big rough man of action, physically imposing (though occasionally thoughtful). He is smooth with women (by 60’s standards) and prefers solving things in a straight-on way. But McGee’s best friend, sidekick, and fictional foil is a hairy economist named Meyer who lives on a houseboat named after John Maynard Keynes (at least until it was blown up).

One of the things I appreciate most about the McGee novels is how MacDonald uses Meyer’s character as a fictional device.

If McGee is the action character, Meyer is the thinking one. He’s a world-renowned academic, a gentle soul, and McGee’s opposite in many ways. Most notably, though, because MacDonald casts him as both thoughtful and verbal, the writer can use Meyer to explain things. If there’s exposition to be done, Meyer can do it believably in the context of his character. Long speeches out of McGee would sound forced but from a character used to thinking out loud and teaching, the speeches flow through without and bring us information we need without force-feeding us.

MacDonald also uses Meyer’s scenes with McGee for relief between action sequences. Readers and writers of crime fiction both understand that you can’t have all action, all the time, that the after the most intensely violent scenes, the reader needs a breather. Many of the quieter scenes with McGee and Meyer take place over dinners or in bars or in McGee’s houseboat, The Busted Flush, where previous action is reviewed, plans are made, Plymouth gin is drunk, and philosophies batted about. Without these breaks, which incidentally help deepen the characters, the headlong action would tire the reader out.

There’s also the way the protagonist and sidekick can change each other, especially over the course of a series. Meyer’s more passive and thoughtful character, like that of other sidekicks, contrasts with the active, physical, and violent character of McGee. As protagonist, McGee’s job is to carry the story’s action. But as a recurring character, Meyer changes McGee over the course of the books, as McGee does Meyer. Meyer occasionally takes an active solution to a problem at hand; McGee becomes more reflective about what he does and the way the bodies can pile up. They do not become each other so much as come closer to each other, and in the process, create character development, which is character interest.

And too, with a first-person narrator like McGee, a writer needs an extra body to go out into other parts of the fictional world where the narrator is not or cannot be at the moment and bring back news and information necessary to drive the plot. Having an extra character connected to the protagonist in that intimate way is an invaluable accessory.

Relationships—sidekicks and otherwise—make strange bedfellows. Witness the circus of relationships in our electoral  process, playing out in terms of who supports whom, who’s friend and who’s enemy, today and tomorrow. We may or may not elect our first woman President but it is certainly obvious by now that a protagonist needs a sidekick more than a fish needs a bicycle.

(I’m sorry. Really. Blame my age . . .)