Lea Wait's Blog, page 281

Kitchen Memories

Lea Wait, here.

Several days ago I developed a craving for blueberry cake. (This is Maine, after all!) The blueberry season may be over, but the magic of freezing keeps wild blueberries available twelve months of the year, and almost every day I have them in my oatmeal … so finding them in my kitchen wasn’t a problem.

I stood in our kitchen — the kitchen where my mother had cooked, and my grandmother, before her — and suddenly memories filled my head. Blueberry memories. My grandmother, especially, had loved them, and during blueberry season had made not only blueberry pies and muffins and pancakes and blueberry grunt, but the blueberry cake I was remembering, and had put up blueberry sauces and jellies for the winter.

My grandmother, age 20

The more I thought about blueberries, and my grandmother, the more I wished I could ask her how she found the energy for all she did. I knew how she’d learned many skills. Like me, she’d depended on books. (The one great sorrow of her life was that she hadn’t been able to attend college. In her sixties, she listened to “sunrise semester,” early morning courses broadcast on television from New York University. I went with her twice a year to the original Barnes and Noble in New York to buy the books for her classes:  Russian literature, Victorian literature, European history, Introduction to Philosophy, and other courses I don’t remember. She never took the exams, but she read every book and listened to every lecture in the courses.)

So I knew that, excellent cook though she was, her cookbook was the source of most of her recipes. I don’t have her copy of Fannie Farmer’s The Boston Cooking School Cook Book (one of my sisters has that,) but I have my mother’s copy.

Fanny Farmer didn’t disappoint. I found my grandmother’s favorite recipe for blueberry cake, and for the lemon sauce she always poured over it. I stood in the same kitchen where she’d made it so many times for me when I was a child, and I followed the instructions. My husband and I enjoyed every bite.

And now, with memories of my grandmother, here’s the recipe she followed, with a couple of minor changes for the times.

Blueberry Cake: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. butter two 8-inch cake pans. Mix 1 cup blueberries with 1/4 cup of flour. Work 1/3 cup of butter until soft and creamy; add 1 cup sugar and beat until light. Add two eggs, beaten, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla; and 2 teaspoons baking powder. Mix thoroughly. Add in blueberries, stir, and pour into cake pans. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Lemon Sauce:  Mix together 1 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons cornstarch. Add 2 cups boiling water, and stir over heat, boiling for 5 minutes. Take off stove. Add 4 tablespoons butter, 4 tablespoons lemon juice, a sprinkle of nutmeg and a pinch of salt.

Simple, delicious, and a taste of the past for today.

Enjoy, with my grandmother’s complements!

Lea Wait is the author of the Mainely Needlepoint mysteries, the most recent of which, Threads of Evidence, was just published. She also writes the Shadows Antique Print mystery series, historical novels set in 19th century Maine for ages 8 and up, and a collection of essays, Living and Writing on the Coast of Maine. See her website for more about Lea and her books, and for links to prequels of her books. 

Setting Yourself Up for Self-Publishing Success

Jen here, writing on a slightly overcast and delightfully fall-ish day in midcoast Maine. I’m very excited about the subject today, since it’s something near and dear to my heart: independent publishing. Since Kate Flora wrote the very popular post, “Can You Afford to Get Published?” examining the challenges inherent in being traditionally published, she suggested that I write something about the indie publishing world.

First, a bit about me and my writing career: I graduated from the Stonecoast MFA program in the summer of 2005, when self-publishing was still very much a dirty word. Fast-forward seven years, to 2012. Popular opinion had shifted with respect to the validity of choosing to publish oneself rather than go the traditional route, though there are still many folks out there who have their doubts. I had a completed mystery that had been through endless beta reads, edits, and revisions. I’d been told more than once that it was good – which meant, in theory, that I should start querying agents, who would ideally see promise in an untried novelist and might then, months later, respond by taking me on as a client. At which point, I could expect months more of waiting while my manuscript languished on an underpaid and overworked editor’s desk. If a publisher did actually choose to sign me on, as a first-time author with no real track record, the best I could hope for was an advance in the very low thousands while I waited for the book to come out. Then, eventually, I might earn royalties. Hopefully. Meanwhile, I would be at the mercy of the publisher’s schedule in terms of when the next book came out, most likely at least a year down the road.

Despite the cachet that comes with being a traditionally published author, none of these things seemed appealing to me.

So, in February of 2012, having never submitted my manuscript to an agent or publisher, I self-published All the Blue-Eyed Angels as an ebook on Amazon. In June, I did a free promotion through Amazon’s KDP-Select program, which was getting great press at the time. The novel hit number one in Amazon’s free store in Thrillers and Mystery/Women Sleuths, and number three overall in Amazon’s free store. Which is super, except that you don’t actually earn money when a title is free. However, the momentum was enough that it carried over once the book was no longer free. In June, I sold 1,260 copies of Angels, which may not sound like a lot, but was about 1,200 copies more than I’d sold previously. Suddenly, I found myself with an inbox brimming with new fans eager for the next installment of the Erin Solomon series.

I published book two, Sins of the Father, in July of 2012. That one hit the paid bestseller lists on Amazon, and carried Angels right along with it. Though I was hardly getting rich on two books, I was earning upwards of $3000 per month on two titles alone, having been in the game for just over six months. I’d been a starving writer long enough to consider this big bucks.

That pretty much cemented my stance on independent publishing. I was – and am – firmly in favor of it.

Three years later, I now have five novels out. Those five novels comprise the complete Erin Solomon Pentalogy. They are well-reviewed and have been well-received, and regularly hit the bestseller lists on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. In April of this past year, I did a paid advertising spot on the promotional website BookBub for Angels, which is now permanently free with multiple online booksellers. That month, I sold just under ten thousand copies of my other four novels on Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble.

All of that sounds great, right? But the reality is that I recognize that I’m an outlier in this game; there are plenty of other self-published authors out there who make next to nothing and have no idea how to change that. So, how did I increase my chances of success in the indie publishing game? Here are six strategies I used, and a good way for you to gauge for yourself whether self-publishing is for you.

Jen’s online magazine

Establish an online platform. Personally, I actually started by writing fanfiction purely as a fun exercise to see how quickly I could complete a full-length piece of fiction and keep readers engaged. Many of my most loyal readers now actually discovered me through the fanfiction I wrote back in the day. I also worked as a freelance journalist; created my own website and began reviewing mysteries by other authors; started a Facebook group adevoted to fans and writers of mystery, suspense, and thrillers; and created my own online magazine that revolved around the Erin Solomon series. It’s not necessary to go quite so elaborate as your own magazine, but don’t be afraid to try new things. These days, the pressure is on just as much for traditionally published authors to make a connection with their readers online, so whatever route you choose, be prepared to get comfortable with social media in some way or other. The key is to do it on your terms, and to play to your strengths.
Have more than one title in your repertoire, and a plan for writing and publishing going forward. If you’re the kind of novelist who writes one book every nine or ten years (or every two to three years, for that matter), trying to break into traditional publishing may be a better option for you. I’ll be honest: The numbers game in independent publishing is such that you are far more likely to get readers’ attention if you publish regularly (conventional wisdom says at least once a year, and ideally more than that) and have a few titles to offer. If you’re uncomfortable with the pressure that puts on you as a writer, you can look at things in the long-term, continue to write at your own pace, and simply accept that it may take you a little longer to create a backlist for readers. One of the nice things about being an indie, and particularly being an indie in the world of ebooks, is that your novels have a much longer shelf life than they do if you have a publisher trying to sell hardcovers at a premium price in a crowded market.

Write a damn good book. There are thousands of independently published books that people put online because it seemed easy and they just wanted their books up there for the world to see, or they had lofty ambitions about making their fortune for next to no work. Happily, there are now plenty of quality independently published books out there as well, by authors who are conscientious enough to work with beta readers, hire a great editor, and take the time to ensure that what they’re putting out there is worth readers’ time. If you’re going to self-publish, be prepared to spend some money up front to make sure you are one of the independent authors putting out a truly great book. If you want more specifics on just how much start-up cash you’ll need, I’ll break that down next month. Spoiler alert: It’s probably not as much as you think.

Network with other authors, both independent and traditionally published. I mentioned previously that I had a website through which I reviewed other mystery authors’ books. I also did author interviews, promoted books I enjoyed, and offered spots so that authors could do guest posts if they wanted some extra exposure for their work. While you should never forget that you’re trying to connect with readers more than other writers, it’s good to keep in mind that authors in your genre are also readers – and they’re readers with clout and an audience you have yet to reach. My strategy is always to figure out what I have of value that I can offer someone else, and cultivate a relationship from that starting point. While our world is undoubtedly more technologically complex than it once was, those advances have made the publishing world a very small place. Use that to your advantage, and you’ll be amazed at the connections you can make…and what those connections can do for you in the long-term.


Price your work reasonably. I run an editing business in addition to my writing career, and am often flabbergasted when I see independent authors with genuinely great work, who then price themselves out of the game by offering their ebooks for prices readers today simply won’t pay. Look at other authors in your genre – and not Stephen King or Patricia Cornwell. Look at other popular independently published novelists, and watch what they are doing with their prices. Personally, I have the ebook of my first novel available free on most online stores; the others are priced at $3.99, with the most recent release priced at $4.99. In April, when I blew away my previous sales records, I did a massive sale and offered all four of my other novels for just $2.99 each. Clearly when you have access to a global market, those dollars can add up quickly. Is it a blow to the ego to offer work I’ve slaved over for months or even years for just a few dollars? I guess it might have been initially, but at this point I personally am far more concerned with continuing to sustain myself so that I can keep writing than I am with taking a political stand on the value of creative expression.

Educate yourself, and keep up to date on current and shifting market trends. I mentioned Amazon’s KDP Select at the beginning of this article as the way I first got a foothold in the indie publishing world. Though Amazon still offers the KDP Select program (in which you agree to sell exclusively through Amazon for a minimum of three months, in exchange for increased publicity and access to promotions otherwise unavailable to authors on the site), I don’t use it any longer and don’t usually advocate it for others, for a variety of reasons I won’t get into now. Pixel of Ink was the big advertiser in 2013; in 2015, if you can get an advertising spot on BookBub, do everything in your power to make that happen. The face of publishing is changing at an astonishing rate right now, so it is in your best interest to make yourself aware of the trends and plan accordingly. This past year, I’ve taken Joseph Michael’s course Learn Scrivener Fast, Nick Stephenson’s Your First 10K Readers, and am currently enrolled in Joanna Penn’s stellar Creative Freedom course. I’ve already seen significant dividends with each of these courses, and have ideally given myself an edge that will enable me to continue growing as time marches on.

If all of this sounds exhausting to you… Well, sometimes it is. I won’t lie – it’s a lot of work, and if your dream is truly to simply be a writer and you have no interest in the business side of things, you may find independent publishing to be a trying task. My goal from the time I was a kid has been to be a full-time author. I’m not there yet, but if things go according to plan, I’ll ideally be making my target income purely from my fiction by 2017. I don’t need to get rich – I just want to make a livable wage and feel as though I have control over my own creative destiny, and this happens to be the path I’ve chosen. As far as I’m concerned, there is no right or wrong answer in terms of your own publishing career. I have nothing against traditional publishing, and have no illusions that indie publishing is the cure-all for every author out there. But if you can honestly evaluate your own strengths and you find yourself leaning toward the indie way of life, an adventure – and a potentially financially viable, creatively fulfilling adventure, at that – may await.

I’m curious about your opinions on independent publishing today. If you’ve considered self-publishing but have yet to take the plunge, what gives you the most pause?

It’s hard to be grumpy, even me, when I can say ‘Yeah, I wrote that book.’

A beautiful day in Bar Harbor. This was the view from my parking space. What, me grumpy? Nah.

Maureen Milliken here, enjoying one of the last beautiful weekends of summer.

Despite the beautiful weather this summer, I can get a little cranky. It’s how I roll.

That was definitely the case on a beautiful but way too hot day a week or so ago, when I managed to get most of the day off from work to drive a load of my books to Sherman’s Book Store in Bar Harbor. I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in next weekend’s Murder by the Book event at Jesup Library and the vagaries of publishing being what they are, it was easier and cheaper for me to drive 20 copies of Cold Hard News to the store than have my publisher (or me) ship it.

Normally I love a road trip. But it was a hot, hot Thursday in what has been a very busy summer and no day off has been one where I can just relax and enjoy the weather.  In fact, all I could think was how much I had to do, that I should be doing, instead of spending a good chunk of the day driving. And it was 9:15 and already close to 80 out. Grump grump grump.

It ain’t heavy, it’s my box of books.

I had to stop at work in Waterville for a meeting before I truly got on the road, adding a layer of guilt that my generous but overburdened boss was doing what I should have been doing. And not that I needed a reminder, but it was one of  how much work there was left to do to in the next 48 hours to get the newspaper ready for the three-day Labor Day weekend. (Those stories and pictures gotta come from somewhere, folks).

Did I mention it was hot? It was even hotter when I got back in the car sometime after 11.

I didn’t want to spend one second on hot and crowded Interstate 95 — it gets boring when your state only has one real highway — so I decided to take U.S. Route 202 as far as Bangor.

I was on the bridge between Waterville and Winslow, stopped at the light, planning my route to 202 in my head (GPS? Not this gal. Gotta use that brain or lose it), when I felt a giant thump. Yup, the car behind had rear-ended me. Hard. I’d just spent an agonizing week or so dealing with a repair that had cost me more than a mortgage payment and my already sour mood grumped a little lower.

The other driver didn’t want to get out of her car to check the damage, was more interesting in fretting over why her brakes had failed (something I would have thought an unlikely story if mine hadn’t a couple weeks before, hence the expensive repair). Did I also mention I have no patience? I ordered her to back up so that her bumper, lovingly nestled under mine, would unlock, then get out of her car and appraise the damage. She finally got the message and she and I looked at the car — she nervous and fretting, me impatient and hot. A few scratches, all seemed fine. I was anxious to get to Bar Harbor, so we called it good and went on our way.

Local mechanic Tim Cottle finishes up a bumper fix in April. Tim has spent more time with my car than I have the past several months.

I stopped at a convenience store a little later, took another look at the scratches and realized my bumper was now hanging half off. The grump meeting rose a few notches as I jammed it back in place as best as I could. Same bumper that came off when I hit a deer in April and got kinda-fixed until I had the time and inclination to get it better fixed. Not related to the mortgage-busting more recent fix.

It didn’t help that my already funky left shoulder seemed to have taken the brunt of the accident and I couldn’t turn my head to the left.

Did I mention how hot it was?

There was one quick moment of joy: Zooming out 202 past Unity, “Layla” came on the iPod. And there is really no pure moment of bliss as sweet as cruising around 70 mph on an empty roller-coaster Maine two-lane while the guitar/piano instrumental from “Layla” blasts. But it was short lived when an 18-wheeler pulled in front of me and slowly escorted me the rest of the way to Bangor.

Heat, traffic, ugh. Summer traffic between Bangor and Ellsworth, then Ellsworth and Bar Harbor is enough to make me never want to see the Atlantic Ocean, which I love, again.

By the time I got to busy Main Street in Bar Harbor, trying to avoid hitting slack-jawed tourists wandering slowly across the street and giant SUVs trying to parallel park into spaces that were not made for giant SUVS, the top of the grump meter was blown.

I found a parking space less than a block from Sherman’s — but it was too little too late.

As I stepped out of the car, my back seized up and I found that as bad as my neck and shoulder felt, my lower back and really taken the brunt of that accident and driving for 90 minutes after hadn’t helped. I lifted my box of books — grump, ouch, grump — and brought them to the store.

Deb Taylor, the buyer for Sherman’s, was lovely, welcoming, gracious, friendly. I tried to act the way I’ve seen normal people do and be as nice as she was. She had me put the box of books on the counter and follow her to a back room to fill out some  paperwork.

I decided while there to buy a book (I’m not only a writer, but the daughter of a bookseller, so I try to always buy a book when in a bookstore). I picked out my friend Lea Wait’s Threads of Evidence and brought it to the counter, sidestepping and squeezing past the fanny-pack crowd, who seemed to be milling around everywhere I wanted to be.

Through all of this, the entire morning and early afternoon, the constant drumbeat of everything I had to do, both later that day, the next day, the weekend, hammered away at me. I was hot, I was tired, annoyed, sore, resentful, hungry, broke, put-upon. Grumpy.

When I went up to the counter, my box of Cold Hard News was still there.

The cashier made a joke about the the register being open despite the box taking up the counter.

“I don’t mind. I wrote it, so let it sit there all you want,” I said.

“It’s my book.”

If you’re ever lucky enough to be able to say that, I hope it makes you feel the way it does me. I’d be smart never to forget the feeling.

Did I say it was hot out? Funny, I can’t remember now.

See you at Murder by the Book. I’ll be the one who doesn’t have to be reminded how I’m living the dream.

Maureen Milliken is news editor of the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel and lives in central Maine. Her debut mystery novel, Cold Hard News, was published in June. She will be appearing at Murder by the Book at Jesup Library in Bar Harbor Sept. 18 & 19.

Weekend Update: September 12-13, 2015

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Maureen Milliken (Monday) Jen Blood (Tuesday), Lea Wait (Wednesday), Barb Ross (Thursday) and Susan Vaughan (Friday).

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

Murder by the Book is next weekend at Jesup Memorial Library. Check it out!

Kate Flora sometimes suspects that few of you out there are actually reading our updates, so I’m sneaking something in here. One person who leaves a comment during the upcoming week will win him or herself one of the very first, hot off the presses, copies of the group novel she wrote with four other crime writers. Kate, Lise McClendon, Taffy Cannon, Gary Phillips, and Katy Munger teamed up to write a novel about a serial killer who is knocking off famous TV chefs. The book is Beat, Slay, Love by Thalia Filbert. Bound to be a best seller and likely made into a movie, or at least to make you laugh. You heard it here first.

Bacon, squid ink pasta, and hot peppers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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: mailto: kateflora@gmail.com

Writer’s Best Friend

Dorothy Cannell:  My life for the past week has gone to the dogs. An exaggeration in the

Perhaps he only looks sweet?

sense that it’s factually a case of one visiting dog, but it feels as though there has been an invasion by a pack. My husband, Julian, says he never dreamed he’d end up in a madhouse. Never a bark free moment.

Harvey is one of those small dogs with hair falling over their eyes. When he was delivered to us by his doting parents his ‘bangs’ were contained in topknot giving him a demure look. In seeming confirmation of a sweetness and light disposition was the sizeable toy monkey that accompanied him.

“He can’t take being parted from it,” said his mother in a fatuous tone I admit to using when talking about our cavalier King Charles Spaniel Teddy and our two cats.

“Loving little guy,” added Harvey’s father proudly. “Only trouble you may have with him is that he’s a picky eater. Won’t have get up early to put him out; he always sleeps in until well past nine. The rest of the time you won’t know he’s here.”

 

I don’t take well to being chased

They departed on the pleasing sight of Harvey nosing up to Teddy in friendly fashion. That bonhomie ended with closing of the door. He growled menacingly at the monkey, grabbed it by the throat shook it till it blurred, and then shoved it under the sofa. That mission accomplished he lost all favor with Julian, by chasing the apple of his eye – our Siamese – around the room while barking at the top of his lungs. Vicky, our other cat, had vanished on the whiff of strange dog entering the house

“Dorothy,” said Julian plaintively, “we can’t just let him take over!”

“No, of course not,” I agreed. “What he needs is to feel wanted. I’ll give him and Teddy a doggy treat.” Picker eater, indeed! Harvey not only snatched at the biscuit, he’d have swallowed my hand if I hadn’t retrieved it fast enough.

Another supposed attribute, the one about Harvey never rousing until well after nine, was dismissed at six-thirty the following morning. Every dog in a five mile radius could have been barking at the bedroom door. In some ways, however, his behavior did improve. He gave up cat chasing and released the monkey from imprisonment under the couch.

“It’s the incessant pointless yapping I can’t stand,” groused Julian last night, turning up the TV volume for the third time. A light went on inside my writer’s mind.

“There are people like that,” I said, “talk, talk about nothing as though they can’t cope with a moment of silence.” Here was the personality trait I’d needed to define one of the characters in current book – Peril in the Parish. A hint at a troubled past … guilt, fear, shame, to be kept at bay during the daytime if impossible during the night.

‘Dear Harvey!’ I thought on awakening to dog-pack barking at six this morning. Julian really had been too hard on him. I was almost tempted to give him one of my hands to eat as rewarding treat. But I really do need two for typing.

 

Semi-wilderness Saturday

One of my favorite views on the Airline.

John Clark sharing the excursion Beth and I took last Saturday. While we’ve visited a great deal of Maine, neither of us had explored the chunk that lies north of the Airline and east of I-95 save for a trip up Rt. 1 before we got married 38 years ago. After a stop at the LL Bean outlet in Bangor where Beth shopped and I finished the book I was reading, we went up 95 to Lincoln holding at 70 and getting passed by every other vehicle. A couple years ago one of my patrons and I were chatting about hot cars and he told me that when he asked a state trooper where he could road test the sports car he’d just rebuilt, the trooper told him to go anywhere north of Lincoln on I-95 around 5 am and he could go as fast as he wanted with no interference. After watching several vehicles pass at better than 90 mph, I’m inclined to believe that he got the right advice.

One of many abandoned houses, it still has character and I wonder why it is unloved

One thing we noticed in several places was the prevalence of wind towers, ranging from a cluster of three, to one ridge where Beth counted 18. We agreed that they’re less of a distraction than cell towers and, given the amount of wilderness up that way, coupled with a scarcity of jobs, why not build more.

There are many intriguing pieces of farm machinery like this up here

From Lincoln, we followed Rt. 6 to Lee and stopped at a few lawn sales. A couple were your typical family trying to unload unwanted stuff to help pay bills and Beth bought our granddaughter two nice wooden puzzles. The last one we stopped at was ‘real man’ stuff, rusting traps, military surplus clothing and vacuum sealed rations as well as tools and a nice electric trolling motor that momentarily tempted me, but not for $120.00. After chatting with the gentleman who was selling these items, we learned that we were on the route to the Springfield Fair, (http://www.thespringfieldfair.com/) one I knew nothing about, but has been going for 164 years. You know you’re attending a real Maine fair when everyone who pays admission gets a chance at winning a beautiful used Lincoln right after the Labor Day truck pulls. I think we shocked the fellow who was directing traffic when we pointed up the road to tell him we weren’t going to the fair. I can tell you that they had one heck of a crowd on Saturday.

Fabulous phlox and a view of the Mattawamkeag river across the road. Fixer-upper?

We followed Rt. 177 through mostly wooded areas, passing many houses like the ones you see in some of the accompanying photos. It was pretty sad to see so many places that were falling in and looked like whoever had lived there either died or gave up and walked away. I couldn’t help but think what Maine might be like in ten years if we invited some of the refugees who are killing themselves and their children as they desperately seek a safe place to live, to move here. Granted, I understand that the job situation sucks in most of Maine north of Brunswick (and sure as hell in the rural areas), so they probably would require government assistance for a while, but at least we’d be addressing the need for a younger and more able bodied work force. I just read Pashtun by Ron Lealos which is about a young CIA agent in Afghanistan and I couldn’t help but think about a piece of dialogue in it regarding the extremely transitory nature of farming in a country where crops either wither due to lack of rain, or get blown all to hell in turf battles. Imagine the way people used to that kind of agriculture would feel if all of a sudden they were able to farm 20 acres of fertile Maine soil.

Sunlight on the Mattawamkeag

After going through Wytopitlock, we backtracked just south of town and followed Pitlock Road which runs mostly along the Mattawamkeag River which alternates fast and slow waters and looks like prime kayaking water. We stopped at one bridge to take photos and you can see the diamond sparkles where sunlight was reflecting off a bit of fast water and another where an old I-beam lay on the bottom.

RIP I-beam

Beth loves yarn and is a knitter, so we stopped at a gift shop and were pleasantly surprised to find the owner spun and dyed her own yarn. As you can see, the sheep were happy to pose for us. The owner gave us directions to a restaurant near the Million Dollar View. The food was good, the view amazing and Beth found an antique cup with the Pittsfield Library on it which she bought as a gift for Lyn Larochelle the library director there. The place was for sale and even though it was (to me at least) the beginning of the best time to be in Maine, they were getting ready to shut down for the year. There was an unused eagle/osprey platform just below the scenic turnout which looks across Chiputnicook Lakes. A little further down Rt. 1, is another scenic turnout where you have a really decent view of Mt. Katahdin.

Who knew Katahdin was visible this far east

I was struck by the lack of traffic on this stretch of the road just south of Danforth. In fact at one point, I must have gone four or five miles without seeing another vehicle. Contrast that with the sludge-speed of Route One in southern Maine. If that doesn’t speak to the reality of two Maines, then what does? Likewise the number of empty houses just a holler from the ocean. One other thing that struck both of us was how far it seemed people had to drive in order to buy groceries. Granted, we live in a small town, but my grocery shopping can even be done by walking a couple blocks to the Moose Lake Market. We saw places where folks must have to drive 40-50 miles to buy any significant quantity of stuff. I guess it’s like Uncle Dub says. “There ain’t no damn Wallyworlds in places starting with T9.”

We came back across the Airline, one of my favorite roads in Maine because it’s probably second only to the interstate in terms of condition and ability to put the pedal to the metal. Despite traveling through a couple hundred miles of Maine wilderness, we saw almost no wildlife. For that sort of experience, I’d rather go to Rangeley and back over the logging road that hits Route 27 in Stratton.

Despite the lack of wildlife and the frequent reminders of how hardscrabble much of rural Maine is (and Gerry Boyle describes it as well as any writer I know), it was a great outing and trust me, there’s plenty left to explore in that piece of Maine.

Now, folks, what’s left for you to see of our great state?

Watching the Sea is Noble Work

Kate Flora: It is a gift to have friends who are creative. They don’t just write good books

A sampling of what a writer sees

and poems or paint good pictures–they ask thoughtful questions and say interesting things. Once in a while, I find myself writing those things down to save for a day when I need an inspiration, or something to ponder on, or a blog topic. Those things used to go into a little notebook that I carried in my purse. More recently, though, they tend to get written down in the “notes” app on my iPhone or on my iPad. There they rest until I need them.

The title of today’s blog is a recent acquisition–I only acquired it two days ago. I was just back from vacation–a driving trip around Nova Scotia to sort of make up for having to cancel two weeks in Italy–and though I was home and work and the shiny new office beckoned, I didn’t want to leave the porch, or my rocking chair. I wanted to stare out at the sea and read a trash novel (is a novelist even allowed to say this, I wonder?) and just veg out until it was respectably late enough to long for a gin and tonic. In the wicked habit fallen into by those of us whose publishers have told us we “have” to be on Facebook, I posted my guilt about not working. And I got the line above in reply.

Sometimes the signs say it all. Or, as Craig Johnson says, stay calm, have courage, and wait for signs.

This post might really be about the importance of being in the world, and of carrying that little notebook to write down the things that happen around us. In my little notebook there are names, and instructions to myself, and to do lists, and lots of numbers, and books I should buy. But what is most fun are the odd things that are written there.

“Bee truck” reminds me of this: Two summers ago, my husband and I were driving up the Maine turnpike and we passed a truck loaded with small, square white boxes and draped in a lot of netting. As we passed, I could see that it was a massive load of bees bound for a blueberry field. And as we finished passing, I saw that the driver was texting. Since my mind is often in cop world, I said to my husband, “I’d hate to be the cop who rolled up on the scene if that thing has an accident.” The next year, I read in the paper that one such truck had tipped over in Baltimore.

If I scroll through the notes, I find things like this:

The empty channels through the salt marsh look like slick brown eels.

An odd thing to find deep in the forest?

Or this, though I don’t know what it means:

Driving around with skunks

A person is only as strong as their enemies.

The pain of being from away was a comment made by a writer who had moved to Maine and felt like an outsider.

And these: Decadence can’t be rushed. Rental caskets. There’s always a farmhouse. World’s largest marine taxidermist. No just any ooze. Fifty shades over fifty.

There is the thing a friend said, quite casually, one night at dinner: “Every time I got clam poisoning . . .” And from another friend, “I’ve come terms with the pickles.”

From a talk by James W. Hall:

Hide the word that is the subject of the book in the first paragraph

The experience is both “of course” and “aha!”

Just mossy tree roots or the strong toes of a lurking giant?

Weird word sequences like fuzzy logic, fussy logic, fluffy logic

There is a page of tee-shirt mottos for writers, including:

I’m a mystery author. I write wrongs.

Major Heroine Dealer

Is “Publishing Business” an oxymoron?

And of course: Living in Sue Grafton time–where no one ever gets old.

 

So, dear readers: Do you have a notebook? A stack of index cards? An entire bookshelf full of notebooks? A shoebox full of those little pieces of paper you’ve scribbled on? And will you share some of your notes with us?

 

 

Murder Without the Gore: Part III

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett here, finishing up my take on traditional (including cozy) mysteries. You can read part one here and part two here. This segment offers my (often highly opinionated) answers to some frequently asked questions.

Why are traditional mysteries so popular?

Simple answer: they offer readers an escape from harsh reality. By the end of a traditional mystery, the crime has almost always been solved, the villain punished, and order restored. In addition, although there are some stand-alones, the majority of traditional mysteries are part of a series, which means readers become invested in the characters and how they develop from book to book.

What are editors looking for in the genre?

Here’s the annoying answer: The same only different. Since cozies are currently selling well, right now they want more cozies. They want something that hasn’t been done to death, but they don’t want to go too far out into left field. The result is that there isn’t just one quilting series. There are at least three. Instead of just one series set in a shop that sells Scottish imports—mine—as of this past spring there are two. Go figure.

Even more important, editors are looking for books with series potential, which means they feature characters that readers will want to revisit. Writers need to be able to come up with clever ideas for future books. Lately, there also seems to be a trend toward more frequent publication. It used to be that publishers didn’t want to bring out more than one book a year by the same author. Now series books, at least in paperback originals, are being scheduled every six months or so, which makes for a tight writing schedule for the author.

What are the taboos?

I’ve already mentioned some of these in part one, but it never hurts to reiterate. Sometimes it seems as if the traditional mystery, especially the cozies, are defined by negatives. No excessive gore or gratuitous sex or violence. Don’t kill an animal, especially a pet, especially a cat.

Frankly the most important “don’t” is don’t neglect your research. Don’t get details wrong. If a gun is fired, don’t have a character comment on the smell of cordite. Cordite hasn’t been used for decades. Whatever you might be smelling, that’s not it. Lee Lofland’s website, The Graveyard Shift, is a great place to go to find out some of the common errors writers make when it comes to anything to do with police procedure. Lee also runs the Writers Police Academy.

There are quite a few experts out there who enjoy helping writers get it right. Two more are Dr. Doug Lyle, who answers questions on medical matters, and the Poison Lady, Luci Zahray, who frequently attends mystery conferences and will happily tell you how to bump off your nearest and dearest with chemicals and plants.

Getting details right is even more important if you set your mystery in the past. Your editor may not know enough to catch an error, but you can be sure readers will. Again, there are experts to ask—and I don’t mean Wikipedia! Find them. There is no excuse for getting stuff wrong.

What makes one traditional mystery stand out from the rest?

The following tips are especially true if this is your first novel and if you are trying to sell to a traditional publisher. If you have a track record, you have a little more leeway, but not much.

First tip: try to find a niche that hasn’t been done to death. This can be frustrating. I did my research back when I started my Face Down series. At that time, there were other mystery series with Elizabethan settings, but they were all set in the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth the First. Thinking I’d have the decade to myself, I set Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie in 1559. Apparently, other people had the same idea. Within a few months of each other, my book, the first book in Fiona Buckley’s Ursula Blanchard series, set in 1558, and the first book in Karen Harper’s series with Queen Elizabeth herself as the sleuth, set in 1558, all came out from different publishers.

Second tip: avoid areas that are widely perceived as not selling well, such as the American Revolution for historical novels—this is especially true if you want to sell to New York. Sad to say, some publishing houses have preconceived notions about certain settings or subjects. How do you figure out where these negative vibes live? You’re already looking at what’s out there—where are the gaps? Why are they there? How many series have tried to fill them and been cancelled after two or three books?

On the other hand, if there is a setting or situation you love and New York just isn’t interested, there are alternatives. Small, and not-so-small presses elsewhere don’t offer large advances, but they are more likely to take chances. There’s also Indie Publishing. There are ebook originals. Personally I’d advice trying the traditional route first, but in many ways there has never been a better time for writers who want to get their work out to the reading public.

Third tip: create an engaging—which is not the same as likeable—sleuth who is not a carbon copy of every other traditional detective, without going so far into left field that no one wants to take a risk. You want readers to come back. To use an example from TV, House could sustain a series. An attempt to imitate his caustic personality probably can’t.

Fourth tip: come up with a marketing plan to go with your proposal. Lea Wait has already covered this territory here at Maine Crime Writers with “Marketing and Competitive Research Before You Write.”

Do you need a hook to make a sale?

It couldn’t hurt. In a way, this is an extension of the last question. Stand out. Catch the editor’s attention, then fill in details. Think in terms of a movie pitch—short and kicky. Or maybe the title can say it all. When I first told my agent my ideas for what became the Liss MacCrimmon series, she wasn’t that thrilled with a lot of the details (and I ended up changing many of them) but the title, Kilt Dead, struck a chord. She said, and I’m quoting, “I can sell it on that title.”

And speaking of titles—What’s with all the puns?

I’m talking mostly about cozies here. Some of the puns are pretty awful. But this trend grew out of something that actually makes sense. You want to have memorable titles and, if you’re writing a series, it’s helpful in building readership to have titles that tie together in some way. This is also called branding.

Most of the Liss MacCrimmon titles have something Scottish in them, since she runs a shop that sells Scottish imports. Kilt Dead, Scone Cold Dead, A Wee Christmas Homicide, The Corpse Wore Tartan, Scotched, and so on. Some are better than others. Some titles that I came up with, like Homicide with Haggis and Auld Lang Crime, were nixed by the  publisher’s marketing department for reasons that, frankly, elude me. The publisher, however, has the final say on titles, just as they do on cover art.

Do you need a title with a pun in it if you’re writing on the cozy end of traditional? Not necessarily a pun, but connections between titles in a series are definitely a plus. Some writers have used song or movie titles on books in a series, or variations on them. A series about a librarian by Miranda James includes File M for Murder, The Silence of the Library, and Arsenic and Old Books. Barb Ross has used Clammed Up, Boiled Over, and Mussled Out for her Maine Clambake series. Lea Wait’s Mainely Needlepoint titles are Twisted Threads, Threads of Evidence, and Thread and Gone. Ella Barrick has a three-book series about a ballroom dance instructor. The titles are Quickstep for Murder, Dead Man Waltzing, and Homicide Hustle. And my personal favorites come from a paranormal mystery series written by Laura Resnick. They include Doppelgangster, Polterheist, and Abracadaver.

Obviously, there’s a fine line between clever wordplay and a real groaner. I won’t diss fellow writers by sharing titles I think are awful. I’m sure you can think of those for yourself. Please, don’t share them. But if you are so inclined, I’d love to hear some of your favorite mystery titles and the answer to this question: have you ever bought a book based on the title (or the cover art) alone?

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett is the author of over fifty books written under several names. She won the Agatha Award in 2008 for best mystery nonfiction for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2014 in the best mystery short story category for “The Blessing Witch.” Currently she writes the contemporary Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries (The Scottie Barked at Midnight) as Kaitlyn and the historical Mistress Jaffrey Mysteries as Kathy (Murder in the Merchant’s Hall). 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

 

 

Our Garden Plot

Hi! Kate here, coming to you over the airwaves while at vacation. At Maine Crime Writers, we’re happy to share another guest post from our friends at Mainely Murders Bookstore today. Hope you’ve had a chance to visit them this summer…or will this fall. And if you have a chance, go to their website (link below) and sign up for their terrific newsletter.

Summer visitors to Mainely Murders Bookstore in downtown Kennebunk know we have a garden plot—albeit, much overgrown—but one we think is a perfect place to hide the body. That’s why, each year, we highlight mysteries set in gardens.

We like the names of the books—titles like Thyme of Death, Deadly Slipper, The Azalea Assault, Slay It with Flowers, Gardens of Secrets Past, Slugfest, Three Dirty Women, and Death in the Garden.

Many are from today’s crop (no pun intended) of writers of cozies. Most are set in the U.S., but some are set outside the country, often in England.

But there’s nothing new about garden-themed mysteries. Obviously, we’re not the only ones who see the possibilities for murder weapons and burial sites. But, the writer who really set the tone for “murder in the garden” was Ireland’s Sheila Pim, who between 1945 and the early 50s, wrote titles like Common or Garden Crime, Creeping Venom, A Brush with Death, and A Hive of Suspects to entertain her father, who loved mysteries.

But, here at Mainely Murders, our best selling “garden-variety” murder is from much closer to home, the ever-popular The Maine Mulch Murder (2001), written by the late A. Carmen Clark—mother of our very own Kate Flora and John Clark. Evidently, interest in mysteries (and murder) run in that family.

I never met Mrs. Clark. But The Maine Mulch Murder, now out of print, has long been a favorite of mine. Maybe it’s because, although we have a lovely small garden outside our Kennebunk home and bookstore, gardens have always held a sense of danger for me. All those bees flying around. And, I can’t tell you how often I’ve stumbled into a hole dug by some creature, obviously out there to do no good.

But The Maine Mulch Murder has retained its innocence. After all, like all the books in our shop, the murder and havoc wrecked upon the small town of Granton, Maine, is pure fiction. And, talk about innocent, it was dreamed up by a sweet little old lady (she was 83 when it was published), when she tired of writing garden news for the local Camden newspaper.

So, this summer, as I’ve done every summer since we opened our bookstore five years ago, I set about creating our Garden Plot of garden-themed mysteries. On dry, sunny days, it’s just outside our front door; rainy days send the display indoors. There, front and center, I place The Maine Mulch Murder—and replace it and replace it. It never lasts long on the shelf.

Because we principally sell used books, we’re always on the lookout for copies at library book sales, garage sales, even the dreaded internet. But, still we run out.

This year, I e-mailed Kate, telling her how very much I’d always enjoyed her mother’s book, and that it was very popular at Mainely Murders. She seemed pleased and said she believed her mother, who died in 2005, would be happy that a few people were still reading her book.

“No, no,” I said. “A lot of people are enjoying it and, in fact, The Maine Mulch Murder is, year in and year out, a steady seller. We can never get enough copies to satisfy demand.”

When she told me she might have a few copies around her home, I was elated and asked if I could buy them from her. She e-mailed me back, “Found ‘em. Would you like two or twenty?”

Needless to say, I pounced on the 20. (In truth, she could fit only 18 in the box she shipped to me. But I have my eyes on those two left behind.)

So now, when customers, quite often vacationing from away, spot the book’s bright red cover, emblazoned with the title, and reach for it at the same time, I needn’t worry breaking up a tug-of-war. For a little while now, I can let them both have it.

Paula Keeney, along with partner Ann Whetstone, owns Mainely Murders Bookstore ( www.mainelymurders.com ) at 1 Bourne Street, Kennebunk. While she claims to be a little afraid of their garden, it was the setting for their wedding three years ago. She says the bookstore was too small.

Weekend Update: September 5-6, 2015

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be a guest post from Mainely Murders on Monday followed by posts by Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett (Tuesday), Kate Flora (Wednesday), John Clark (Thursday) and Dorothy Cannell (Friday).

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

from Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett: I’ll be speaking and signing books at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, Maine on Tuesday, September 8 from 7-8 PM as part of the Mystery Author Series. The event is held in the Morrell Meeting Room and there will be refreshments provided by Bohemian Coffee House. Books are supplied by Gulf of Maine Books. Also, don’t forget that if you are on Goodreads you can enter a giveaway for advance reading copies of the next Liss MacCrimmon adventure, The Scottie Barked at Midnight. The giveaway is at https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/151622-the-scottie-barked-at-midnight and runs until September 14.

Murder by the Book is coming up September 18 and 19 at Jesup Memorial Library. Current Maine Crime Writers Brenda Buchanan, Dorothy Cannell, Kate Flora, Vaughn Hardacker, Chris Holm, Maureen Milliken and Lea Wait will be among the authors speaking and signing there. So will alums Gerry Boyle, Paul Doiron and Julia Spencer-Fleming. Click on the link above for details.

 

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: mailto: kateflora@gmail.com