Lea Wait's Blog, page 318

The Tongue Stud Epiphany

John Clark here. I bet many of you read at least part of Carlos Castenada’s books about Don Juan the Yaqui sorcerer. One of the things I remember most vividly is the idea that there are places of power in the world. As a writer, I’ve discovered places where my creativity is much stronger. When I was the library director in Boothbay Harbor and I got stuck on a plot element in The Wizard of Simonton Pond, all it took was driving past Edgecomb Pottery and something to advance the story popped into my head. Our back yard has similar magic. I have written dozens of newspaper columns while pruning, raking, mowing or weeding the garden. Despite living in town, the back part of our property has woods on one side, a little wetland on the other and an abandoned railroad bed with a couple miles of fields and woods beyond it. All this makes it feel completely un-townlike.

Neither of these places of power are as productive as the spot in front of our kitchen sink. I find that the act of washing dishes frees my mind as I’m gazing into the back yard. In mid March, I was waiting for the coffee to brew while staring at three feet of snow when what I’ve come to call God’s Pinball Machine fired up. Here’s what followed and I share it because I think it’s useful to learn how other writer’s minds work.

I started wondering why people like one of my volunteers have tongue studs. The whole idea of a piece of metal in a hole through your tongue, particularly in view of how irritating the post and backing underneath must be, makes no sense to me. It was at that point when the uncensored writer kicked in and I started imagining the erotic possibilities inherent in having one. Don’t know, haven’t asked, but the thought was there and quickly bounced off a bumper and hit another one.

I started thinking about the number of similar themes in YA fiction I’ve encountered this year. Take leukemia for example. I’ve read five books already where one of the main characters has this illness. Some die, some live, all are different, most are good reads.

That got me thinking about what aspect of illness hasn’t been part of a YA plot yet. Laurie Halse Anderson owns PTSD this year thanks to The Impossible Knife of Memory, but what aspects of mental illness haven’t had their day and what plot twist hasn’t been used yet?

By the time I could pour that first cup of coffee, the snow on the back lawn was covered with imaginary plot elements and character sketches. My next project, the juvenile mystery I’m calling Shear Pin Summer, got kicked aside by a new YA contemporary I’m calling Finding Ginger.

Here’s what was written out there in the snow. Suppose you were fourteen and living with your parents in Baltimore, Maryland. You attend a private school, your parents are well educated government employees and you’re an only child. Your life has been unremarkable, you get along with your parents and you love reading and writing poetry. One night you wake up in the grip of utter terror, convinced the devil is coming up from hell through a tunnel which opens under your bed and he’s about to drag you back with him. You have never had anything this horrific happen and it seems so real, you react by jumping out of bed and smashing your head into the full length mirror on your bedroom wall. You’re in a dazed state when a voice starts commanding you to grab a shard of glass and start cutting yourself so the devil will see blood and retreat. When your parents find you, you’re lying on the floor, bleeding from numerous self-inflicted slashes across your abdomen.

You have just met Twyla, who has had her first psychotic break and will be diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. Unlike many who have this illness, she tends to cycle into severe depression instead of mania. When she gets out of the hospital, her life is irrevocably changed. Her classmates are leery of her, her parents are scared at what might happen in the future and she’s realized that she can’t stay on the medications prescribed as part of her treatment because they kill her soul. At fourteen, this is a pretty bleak future, but it gets even bleaker. Over the next three years, she’s hospitalized three more times, is assaulted by two street people, kills someone and is so depressed at one point that she receives ECT. School is no longer an option and the only place she feels anywhere close to normal is when she’s working under the table at a job in a pawn shop run by a a recovering addict biker babe who escaped her own hellish existence in California.

When Twyla realizes that her parents are never going to understand how awful she feels when on prescribed medication, she steals her mother’s ATM card, withdraws $600 and buys three bus tickets to different locations, using the card to confuse anyone trying to track her and giving tow of the tickets to girls about her age to further confuse anyone looking for her.

Twyla ends up in Boston, doing the live in shelters and work for cash when you can routine. She knows it’s just a matter of time before she cycles again. This time, she uses crack, alcohol and various pills bought on the street to help her survive. When she stabilizes, she’s broke and has done things she’s not proud of, but has survived on her own terms. Boston’s too big and scary for her, so she finds enough cash to go on another bus ride. When she arrives at the bus terminal, she’s trying to decide between going to Burlington, VT., or Bangor, Maine. She’s leaning toward Burlington and even gets in line to buy a ticket, but when the couple in front of her starts fighting and the guy hits his girlfriend, that sends her to the Bangor ticket window and she ends up on the streets of Bangor in early November.

Her trials have taught Twyla to be a survivor, but in many ways she’s still that frightened fourteen year old kid. She’s never been kissed voluntarily, never had a boyfriend, never even been on a real date. After she discovers a loose panel on the Salvation Army donation bin, she makes it into her home, saving various items in a couple trash bags which she hides in a snowbank when she’s out and about. This ensures that she always has clothing and bedding in case she returns and the bin has been emptied.

Twyla survives on the coins people lose in the Bangor Mall parking lot, the returnables she retrieves from snow banks and trash cans, as well as on the two or three free meals available to the homeless every week. When she arrived in Bangor, she remembered something her biker babe friend got her involved with back in Baltimore and starts going to AA meetings. She knows that the next time she cycles, she’ll use again, but in the interim, she likes the feeling of hope and safety she finds at meetings, makes a couple friends with women who have similar stories and knows the free coffee isn’t bad either.

There’s a stretch of pretty severe weather at the end of February that makes finding coins and returnables almost impossible, so Twyla stifles her pride and starts dumpster diving behind the mall food court. She soon discovers that the one shared by the KFC franchise and a Chinese fast food place is the best bet, but it almost seems like someone’s leaving untouched and freshly cooked food at the top of a KFC trash bag every night.

She’s eating a chicken wing while crouched beside the dumpster one evening when she hears a door slam and realizes someone is approaching her with a garbage bag in one hand. She doesn’t have time to escape, so she pulls out her switchblade and flicks it open. The young man who looks about her age freezes, but doesn’t look scared. Instead, when she looks at his eyes, something deliciously frightening hits her and she lets the knife fall to her side when she realizes two things. This is the person who has been feeding her and she hasn’t ever felt a pull like the one between them.

You have just met Abel, who is also nineteen. He grew up in Greenbush and is an only child whose parents had to get married when his mom got pregnant at sixteen. He was born with a defective eye, but because his parents had no health insurance, it was never treated properly. He lost it when he was five and started kindergarten with an eye patch over the empty socket. The class bully hauled him down on the first day, ripping off his patch so everyone could see the sagging lid over an empty socket. That set the tone for his entire school life. Abel never had a girlfriend, or even any close friends for that matter. When he did get an artificial eye six months after losing his, it was a donation from someone in Boston through the local Lion’s Club and was just enough off in color to call even more attention to his face.

Abel could have turned out to be a very bitter person, but went in the opposite direction. He’s amazingly compassionate for his age, something that Twyla picks up on immediately. After he graduated from high school, he moved to Bangor because he needed to feel independent and he’s used the library there ever since he burned through everything at the little library in his home town.

He works the late shift at KFC and gets around Bangor on a second hand bike. He has a good friend and mentor, Josh, who is a librarian at Bangor Public. Josh is ten years older and came from Greenbush. He saw the hidden talent in Abel and got him hooked on reading science fiction and fantasy as well as reviewing books for the library website. When he encouraged Abel to submit some of his short stories to a local contest, Abel won and this started him thinking about writing as a career.

All that was written out there in the snow back in March. It has since taken over almost every bit of my free time and the story now stands at 78,000 words. It’s a very edgy, but at times sweet love story about two young people who have become survivors after getting kicked in the teeth by life. I know how it ends, but there are still some events I’m not clear on. That’s fine because every so often Twyla and Abel grab me by the arms and hustle me off to that magic place where characters start dictating unexpected events to the author. There’s no better time in a writer’s life than those moments. Stay tuned to see what happens.

Hello Again from Eastport, Maine

 

The author at home.

Hello again from Sarah Graves, writing to you once more from Eastport, Maine. It’s been a long, cold, dark winter here, and quiet as an abandoned house, but now we are waking up: to mud when it’s raining, which it has been a lot, and to dust from the street sweepers the rest of the time. But at least it’s not snowing, or it wasn’t the last time I looked (knock wood).

One thing long winters are good for is writing books, since escaping into another world looks better and better the darker and colder it gets outside. I’ve started a new series, this time set in Aroostook County and starring Lizzie Snow, a Boston ex-homicide detective on the track of her missing niece. Once she gets out in the boondocks, though, she finds there’s plenty of local mayhem for a murder cop to investigate, and that the mean streets of Boston have nothing on the North Woods for general deadliness — and one person’s murderous plans in particular.

Meanwhile the rest of Eastport is coming back to life, too, and some parts of it are being reborn.. I’ve been particularly happy with Shead High School’s radio station, WSHD 91.7, because it’s begun playing lots of jazz and indie pop. The former is among my favorite musical genres, and I’m always glad for the chance to hear new sounds. Now my background music resembles the sound track for a smart indie film and who doesn’t like that?

And another source of happiness recently  is the cover of WINTER, a big change from the kinds of covers I’ve had in the past and one I’m liking a lot. I mean don’t get me wrong but this looks so…ominous! And since my goal in life is to raise your anxiety level, that’s good.

Also: Congratulations to Barb and Julia for their Agatha noms and to Kathy for her GOH-ness and Dorothy for her lifetime achievement award at this year’s Malice Domestic, and Vicki for her story’s inclusion in the MWA collection. The Maine contingent seems to be pulling down honors right and left, lately, which doesn’t surprise me a bit. Nice to see the rest of the world noticing what we already knew: there’s great bunch of writers in this state and on this blog, of everything from short stories to novels.

In past years, I’ve been finishing up my winter’s writing by May or so and am ready to go out into the garden to dig in the dirt. But this year, my deadline for the second book in the Lizzie Snow series isn’t until September so although I do see the end in sight, so far the spring flowers to the right have had to be enough for me. They’re in a lovely panel of stained glass in one of the shop windows downtown, where everyone’s getting ready for — yes! — tourists. Love ‘em or not, they are on their way; I personally enjoy the hustle and bustle of visitors, especially at the beginning of the season.

Antiques, t-shirts, baked goods, art and crafts, mugs, candy, souvenirs, hot dogs, ice cream…pretty much the whole shebang is cooked up, spiffed up, and put on display for our guests to delight in, and we all enjoy it, too.  At left is the newly done window of the Eastport Art Gallery, where the first show of the season is Works On Paper. Sadly, the Pickled Herring is no more but we do have the Liberty Café, where great Greek food and a cozy bar with a big screen TV for sports has been drawing raves.

 

But nothing can really beat the show Eastport itself puts on: here’s the tugboat resting at the fish pier after guiding in another container ship. Things will be lively around here from Memorial Day until the beginning of next winter, which you’ll excuse me if I really can’t bear to think about that so soon after this recent one.

And that’s it for now from Eastport, Maine, where with any luck at all next time I write to you it will be about the garden shovel and not the (shudder) snow shovel.

 

 

 

 

Boiled Over Released in Print, eBook and Audio!

Hi. Barb here, celebrating the fact that my blogging day is my actual release day!

Boiled Over the second book in the Maine Clambake Mystery series was released today from Kensington Publishing in mass market paperback and ebook form.

Here’s the blurb.

For Julia Snowden, the Founder’s Day summer celebration in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, means helping her family’s clambake company to prepare an authentic taste of New England seafood. Any Mainer will tell you that a real clambake needs wood for the fire . . . so why is there a foot sticking out of the oven?

The townspeople want to pin the murder of the RV park owner on Cabe Stone, a new employee of the Snowden Family Clambake Company–who bolted from the crime scene and disappeared.

Julia knows having another murder associated with her family’s business is a recipe for disaster . . . but who is the killer? Cooking up a proper investigation doesn’t leave much time for the rest of Julia’s life, and this is one killer who’ll do anything to stop her from digging up clues . . .

Even more exciting to me, Audible is simultaneously releasing the audiobook. I’m so happy to have an audiobook, my first ever, because I know so many people who enjoy them. But I’m not sure if I’ll listen to it. I’m not worried the narrator won’t be good. I’ve heard good things about her and she is very conscientious–emailing me with questions about pronunciation. And I’m not afraid her narration will be different than the voice I hear in my head as I write. I’m just not sure I want to hear my own words coming back at me.

But for those of you who love audiobooks (and everyone else), I urge you to buy it. It’s a fast-moving tale I really enjoyed writing.

A Visit from Beth Oliver, Ghost Hunter

Kaitlyn/Kathy: I first met Beth Oliver a long time ago in a galaxy far far away . . . in other words, back when we were both members of the fledgling Maine Romance Writers of American chapter (MERWA). During the years since, in addition to writing Gothic paranormal mystery novels (Obsidian, Three Truths, and Stealing Darkness), Beth worked as a paranormal investigator for Maine Ghost Hunters. With that background, how could we not ask her to visit us here at Maine Crime Writers to talk about her experiences?Take it away, Beth.

The things that scare most people don’t scare me. I’m not talking about roller coasters, bungee jumping, or being confined to small spaces. Instead, I am referring to the search for the existence of spirits. 

For most, the idea of sitting in the semi-darkness while calling out to some nameless entity would be reason enough to question their sanity. But since I’m not about to bungee jump, ride a roller coaster or confine myself to a small space, this is the risk I was willing to take.

Have I ever been scared while investigating? I’d be crazy if I said no. I’ve had disembodied energy spin objects in my hand. I’ve been propelled up a staircase by a guiding unseen hand and I’ve seen blue balls of energy dance in the night. Have I seen a ghost? The jury is still out on that, but I do know that what I’ve seen is enough to convince me that our souls continue long after our demise.

The television shows only have it partly correct. In the interest of keeping an audience and a short time frame they tend to leave out some of the less glamorous aspects of ghost hunting. They gloss over the basements filled with humongous spiders, the long hours of waiting for anything to happen and lots of nights with limited sleep.

Often, being called to investigate means travelling long distances and finding yourself in stranger’s houses as you struggle to put aside any preconceived ideas and beliefs to search for something that may never even show itself.

There are many reasons for people to seek out a ghost hunter, but the most prevalent ones that I’ve heard are fear and grief. There are the occasional thrill seekers, but most are only looking for answers. Answers that don’t always reveal themselves. The most I can do is offer assistance and guidance. Anything else has to come from the client or the spirit.

Ultimately, fear can be the catalyst that holds you back or propels you forward. It can be the thing that makes you stronger than you ever thought and open your mind to possibilities beyond your comprehension. The same energy that manifests from our fears is the energy that makes me believe that it is strong enough to continue after our death.  

Beth Oliver writes Gothic Paranormal Mysteries under the name Teagan Oliver. Her latest, Stealing Darkness is available through Amazon Kindle as an ebook. You can find out more about her paranormal adventures at www.TeaganOliver.com and through her GhostGirl blog at Gotghost.blogspot.com.  

Weekend Update: May 3-4, 2014

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Barb Ross (Tuesday), Sarah Graves (Wednesday), John Clark (Thursday), and Dorothy Cannell (Friday), with a special guest blog on Monday from Beth Oliver (aka Teagan Oliver), a Maine writer who is also a ghost hunter. Next weekend, we’ll post a special Weekend Update Report on this weekend’s Malice Domestic.

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

Dorothy Cannell, Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett, Kate Flora, Barbara Ross, and Lea Wait (and MCW alum, Julia Spencer-Fleming) are at Malice Domestic in Bethesda, Maryland this weekend. Dorothy is one of the three Lifetime Achievement Honorees (along with Joan Hess and Margaret Maron). Kathy/Kaitlyn is Guest of Honor and will be interviewed by Kate Flora on Saturday afternoon. Barb is up for two (count ‘em, two!) Agatha awards, one for her short story “Bread Baby” and one for best contemporary novel for Clammed Up. Julia’s Through the Evil Days is also a finalist for best contemporary novel. Lea wrote Kathy’s profile in the Malice program book and will be doing a presentation in “Authors Alley” on Sunday, talking about her new Haven Harbor Needlepoint series. The Malice website, with more details, is at http://www.malicedomestic.org.

From Kathy/Kaitlyn: Just a side note: it was my post here on cussing in cozies that inspired the panel I’m participating in on Sunday morning at Malice. Nora McFarland will be moderating “Authors Who Tackle Difficult Subject Matter” and my fellow panelists are Jeff Cohen, Con Lehane, and Tracy Weber. It should be a lively discussion! 

Kate, Barb, Kathy/Kaitlin and Lea in Kathy’s Guest of Honor suite at Malice Domestic.

Barb’s two (count’em) Agatha nominations at Malice Domestic.

John Clark Here: Enjoying the satisfaction of getting both the juvenile and YA Edgar winners right again. This makes two out of three times I’ve done this since starting to predict them here at MCW.

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: kateflora@gmail.com 

Why Mystery Conferences?

Lea Wait here — and in Bethesda, Maryland, where today is the day most attendees will arrive at the Hyatt Regency for Malice Domestic, the annual mystery conference featuring “cozy,” or  “traditional” mysteries. This year more than 150 authors will be there .. along with between 500-600 fans.

Recently I also attended a one-day mystery conference (Maine Crime Wave) in Portland, Maine. It was small, as mystery conferences go — about 80 people were there — and everyone I spoke with was an aspiring or published author of mysteries.

Two very different sorts of conferences. (I won’t even start to list the number of mystery conferences held every year, ranging from the granddaddy of them all, Bouchercon, which attracts writers of all mystery genres and several thousand fans .. down to that “first annual” Maine Crime Wave.) I’m often asked, by fans and writers … “Why? Why attend a mystery conference?

To begin with some conferences, like the one in Portland, and Sleuthfest (in Florida) are aimed at writers. Workshops and talks are about writing techniques; marketing; the state of the industry; and often agents and editors are in attendance. Other conferences, like Bouchercon and Malice and Left Coast Crime, are aimed more at readers: panels feature published writers talking on topics such as  “The weirdest thing I’ve done in the name of research”; “Why are so many crime novels set in New England?”; “What happens when weather interferes with solving a crime?” And so forth. Most of them are fun topics, and give the authors on the panels a chance to plug their books. Some conferences, like Crime Bake (in Massachusetts in November) try to appeal to both readers and writers.

I attended my first mystery conference as a “pre-published” author. I was looking for an agent. (I didn’t find one there.) The conference was a two-day one in Philadelphia, and I attended one day. I learned a lot, and loved the idea of a whole room full of people (all of whom knew a lot more about mysteries than I did) discussing serial killer fiction and cozies and who the up-and-coming authors were. I went home exhausted, but intrigued. I had my first inkling of how much I had to learn.

My next conference was Malice Domestic several years later, and I attended it with excitement as a first-time Agatha Award nominee. (Did I mention some conferences give out coveted awards?) Yes, I was overwhelmed .. but I was a part of everything. I didn’t exactly feel at home, but I did feel part of the action.

Since then I’ve attended mystery conferences all over the United States… an average of 2-3 each year, which is a small number. I know authors who attend 10-12 regularly.

But attending a conference takes time away from writing …takes money … and the number of books sold at each conference doesn’t justify the trip. What does justify it is meeting fans, connecting with  booksellers, hobnobbing with other authors (and agents and editors,) and getting out into the world and away from your computer screen.

If you’re thinking of signing up for a mystery conference, here are some basic hints:

1) Decide if you’re interested in a fan conference or a conference on writing. They’re not the same.

2) If you’re published, register early and try to get on a panel so you and your book(s) can be showcased. This will also mean your books will be carried in the conference book room.

3) If you have (and authors should have) bookmarks, postcards, pins, brochures … anything that markets your books, bring multi-copies. There are usually tables on which authors can put these giveaways. And attendees do load up!

4) Even if you’re on a panel, double-check with one or more of the bookstores that will be at the conference to make sure they’ll order and bring copies of your latest book.

5) Attend as many panels/talks/events at the conference as you can .. but if you’re exhausted, sitting at the bar (even if you drink coffee) is not a bad idea. Friendships and book deals are made at conference bars.

6) Don’t be shy. Introduce yourself to people sitting or standing next to you. After all, you already have mysteries in common. And if your favorite author is there … tell him or her how much you love their books! (Authors don’t get tired of hearing that.)

7) If you’re a fan, look at the conference website for the list of attending authors, and bring copies of their books you already own to be signed. It’s better to buy the books on site .. but few authors will object to signing a book bought elsewhere.

8) Wear comfortable shoes! You’ll be walking and standing a lot and (except for some awards’ dinners) mystery conferences are casual.

9) Don’t worry about acquiring too many books. (Is there such a thing?) Most conferences have contracted with a shipper so you can have your new signed books (or dirty laundry) shipped home for you.

10) Be sure to take a notebook .. you’re going to hear about new authors, new books .. or maybe a great new plot twist for the book you’re writing. You don’t want to forget anything. And you’ll be exhausted at the end of two or three days. Take my words for it.

So … as you’re reading this I’m on my way to Malice Domestic. Many of us Maine Crime Writers will be there. It’s an especially great year for Maine … Kathy Lynn Emerson is the guest of honor at Malice. Dorothy Cannell (along with Margaret Maron and Joan Hess) is receiving a Lifetime Achievement award. Barbara Ross is nominated for — not one — but TWO Agathas. (Best novel and best short story.)

I’ll be a part of the “Author Go Round” Friday morning, talking about my latest books, and I’ll be doing an “author’s alley” … a short presentation … at 10:00 Saturday morning, talking about my new mystery series that will begin in January of 2015. And, most of all, I’ll be cheering on my fellow Mainers, and having a great time.

Wish you were here!

ICE COLD Launch Party–New York City!

Yesterday was the launch party for Mystery Writers of America’s newest short story anthology ICE COLD: Tales of Intrigue and Suspense from the Cold War. It was held in Manhattan at Mysterious Bookshop, and Ed and I drove down from Maine to attend.

I am so happy and grateful to have had my short tale “A Neighbor’s Story” chosen for this fine anthology!  Here are some photos from this fun event:

 

Thanks to my husband, Ed, for his pics of the gala launch party yesterday at Mysterious Bookshop in New York!  Further descriptions to follow….

But for now I am enjoying being in NYC! (although it is JUST as chilly as Maine…)

Why Crime Writing Isn’t As Easy As You Think – Because Stuff Happens

Al Lamanda: Writing a mystery is not as easy as you might think when fall decides to fast-forward to winter and you have to put your latest chapter on hold to shovel the new foot of snow off the roof, and deck, and driveway. And then repeat this process every other day until spring. Oh, I know I live in a cold weather state where I’m supposed to love to play in the snow, slide down a mountain on sticks and hike through the woods wearing tennis racquets on my feet, but I have deadlines to meet here and snow is nothing but one big distraction for me.

And the holidays are always good for lost weeks at the keyboard. Especially when you have to drive hundreds and hundreds of miles to eat an enormous meal (at a time of day when you’d usually have no more than two pieces of toast) with a large group of relatives that I have divided into three categories. The first category consists of the “I have a great story to tell you that your next book should be about” and, of course it’s the same long-winded story as last year, and the year before that. (For the record, I don’t think a story about elderly people with ailments such as arthritis and eczema, using their various ailments like a super power to solve a murder is on my horizon anytime soon.) Category two is the critics. The, “I hated the end and I would have written it differently crowd. They bring notes on what my next novel should be about according to what they think I should write about. The third category is the “Where’s my free books bunch?” I wonder if I showed up at your office would you give me free dental work, or a free life insurance policy, or free electrical work simply because we are somehow related?

Additional winter fun that slowed the progress on my latest project was ice. Not the friendly little cubes of the stuff you find floating in a glass of bourbon, but the sheet of the stuff that grows on your three-hundred-foot-long, uphill driveway after the three day spell known as the January thaw. And you desperately need to get to the library, but you’re not going anywhere because you drive a car and not an M1 Abrams tank. So you call this guy you know who delivers sand (who knew people did this for a living back home in New York?) all winter and by the time he arrives and you help him spread the sand, the library is closed. And, for the next three days, so is your research.

And the evil cup of coffee. Because, in the middle of a chapter that you forgot to save because your mug was empty and you just had to have more, you go to the kitchen, and, (did I forget to mention the raging February snowstorm that was happening at the time) power goes out and the entire chapter you worked on for hours and hours is gone as in it ain’t coming back anytime soon.

Another delay came at the hands of having all four seasons in one week, a particular favorite of mine. Where on Sunday it’s a lovely fall day and you’re staring out the window instead of writing and longing for summer. And the very next day is summer and temperatures sore to eighty-one degrees and you open every window and door and for one afternoon you pound the keys like a madman. And you go to bed feeling like you’ve accomplished something and wake up the next day to four inches of snow on the ground and thirty-two degrees, and you spend half the morning trying to remember where you put the snow shovel. And the day after that, which is a lovely spring day and the snow melts quickly and you have a yard and driveway full of mud and you need chest waders to get the mail.

With forty or so pages left to write in my latest mystery, it was looking good that I would meet the required deadline. Until I happened to mention that the old sofa wasn’t as comfortable as it once was, which led to a week-long hunt for a new one that dwarfed the old one and cramped the room, so out with the old entertainment center and in with the new, sleeker one, which meant, of course, shopping for a new, sleeker television, which, when all was said and done made the windows appear old and worn, so hello window guy, can I waste three days picking out windows with you, and while we’re at it, let’s throw in new doors just because.

So winter is done, and so is my latest mystery novel, and I will write another because it makes the stuff that happens so much more interesting.

People behind the curtain in the Maine Library Community

Hartland Public Library

 

One of the best aspects of the Maine Library community is the willingness of people who have unique skills to step up and push the library world forward. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of knowing and working with several of them. Tom Abbott, Dean of Library Services at the University of Maine at Augusta, along with the Late Walter Taranko, were responsible for bringing the University of South Carolina’s Masters in Library Services degree program to Maine in 1995, changing forever the landscape by creating an opportunity for hundreds of Maine citizens to get a degree that before that time was only available out of state. Walter was also the man who introduced me to the amazing world of resource sharing, something I’ve raised to an art form.

Abbott Memorial in Dexter

Karl Beiser did more to drop kick the library systems in Maine into the world of technology than any three other people. If you’ve used an online catalog or borrowed something through MaineCat, thank Karl. He was responsible for most of what’s under the hood that makes finding, lending and borrowing items such a seamless process for Maine residents.

Thompson Library in Dover-Foxcroft

When three of us in central Maine wrote a grant to create an open source library system to serve libraries in Penobscot, Piscataquis and Somerset Counties, we floundered because all of us were too blasted busy running our libraries to be able to figure out how to get the consortium off the ground. Enter Chris Maas, retired law firm consultant. He stepped in and has invested an incredible amount of time finding a support guy, negotiating with various hosting services and figuring out why certain things refuse to play nice. It’s fair to say, the Maine Balsam Libraries Consortium would still be floundering if it wasn’t for his willingness to step in and help. I asked Chris to write up something about himself and how he got involved. We had intended it for National Library Week, but were unable to do so, hence it appearing today. So, without further ado, meet Chris Maas.

Chris and his wife at an Easter celebration in Bangor

I owned a technology consulting group in Washington D.C.  until I retired and moved to Dover-Foxcroft with my wife in 2007. I loved the work and working with law firms all over the world.  While demanding, law firms proved to be very value oriented.  Once they understood the value of technology in their firms, they were generally willing to pay the price (both time and effort) to implement it properly.  Over the years, I grew to have a great deal of respect for the industry and the role that that profession plays in a civil society. (I used to say “if you want to see what life would be like without lawyers, move to Russia”).

As much as we appreciated living in big cities all of our lives, when it came time to retire, we looked for an old house in a quiet place with no traffic. Since, of all the places we had lived, we had never lived in New England, we thought that mid-Maine would serve us well – and it has.  Both my wife Karen and I have always been readers, our new town had to have a good library.  We found that in Dover-Foxcroft – not just the collections, but the programs and the excellent staff.  Within a year the librarian, Helen Fogler, knowing of my technology background asked for help in implementing a new web based computer system under the terms of a grant that a group of libraries in mid-Maine had recently received. I joined forces with John Clark (who filled in my gaps in knowledge of libraries and technology).  We settled on an open-source product which has, to date, served our needs well.  In about eighteen months, we were able to get the system up and running and the first library in full circulation.  Now, three years later, we have about 20 libraries (with a total of about 30 branches) up and running.  Almost all of this work was done with volunteer labor. It’s been an absolute joy working with the public, school and academic librarians in this consortium (Even though never once in my prior career did I tell a lawyer joke, I do often say that my reward for having worked with lawyers for forty years, is that in my retirement I get to work with librarians!).

Living in a small New England town is democracy at its core – both the good, the irritating and the amusing. In Washington, I used to attend hearings and congressional sessions where they discussed pressing issues of national importance. While interesting and informative, I never felt that I could make much of a difference.  In our new home, I found pleasure in attending the regular meetings of the town’s select board. The issues were certainly different, but the process as much more collegial – and I found that my voice was heard and I could make a difference. I particularly remember the session where the most important issue on the town’s agenda was revisions to the town’s chicken ordinance (only 6 hens permitted in the village – and no roosters).  Lots of discussion about whether the ordinance should be extended to ducks, geese and other avian creatures.  Who wouldn’t want to live in a town where this is the biggest problem?

My wife, worried about me hanging about the house all day, advised me to “do something useful”.  There is no end of opportunities to do useful things in a community such as this.  I’ve worked with the local historical society, the school board, the zoning and planning board, the town’s budget committee, several non-profit organizations and on a special project to save the old “Central Hall”. Tons to do, and you can make a difference.  (“I woke up this morning with nothing to do, and went to bed without half of it getting done!).

But there is always time to read.  I doubt that my wife and I, in fifty years of marriage, have failed to spend at least an hour each day reading.  She has her authors and I have mine.  Over the years, our “favorites” have changed often.  In my case, I find myself returning often to George Orwell and to H.L. Mencken. In Orwell’s case, I find a clarity and steadfastness in seeking truth in a complex world. The opening chapters of “The Road to Wiggan Pier” is probably the most honest depiction of real labor (down in a coal mine) that was ever penned. Everyone who enters politics – at any level – should be forced to read “Politics and the English Language”.  In fact, I think the Republic would be better served if they dispensed with the daily prayer that opens congressional sessions and replaced it with random members of congress reading selections from “Politics and the English Language”.  We may not be better governed, but at least we would have a better understanding of how we are governed.

H.L. Mencken opens different doors for me.  He was a newspaper editor and literary critic who was often out of step with the fashions of the time – both in politics, culture and literary affairs. Mencken wrote in the period after the First World War at a time of great disillusionment.  As he said, people fought for a new day – and all they came home to was A. Mitchell Palmer, Harding, Coolidge and Prohibition. We seem to be living, once again, through such times. It is instructive to know that we have survived these times before and we probably will again.

Mencken was an early champion of authors such as Dreiser and Edith Wharton.  In reading his essays, I’ve come across other long forgotten, authors such as Joseph Hergesheimer and Arnold Bennett.  In some cases, these guys are justly forgotten from a literary standpoint, but any student of the late 19th and early 20th century would find that they add color and detail to that period that one would never get out of the history books. I once had an influential history teacher who said “If you REALLY want to know an era in history, you must read its literature”.  I am thankful for Mencken for providing the links to these authors. (And thanks to Helen’s library, many of these books are still on her shelves – in the basement to be sure, but they are still there!).

I couldn’t ask for a better retirement.  And working with all of my librarian friends has been the highlight of my second life.

Simpson Library in Carmel

Weekend Update: April 26-27, 2014

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by John Clark, filling in for Gerry Boyle (Monday), Al Lamanda (Tuesday), Vicki Doudera (Wednesday), Lea Wait (Thursday), and Jim Hayman (Friday). 

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

Late in the week, Dorothy, Kathy/Kaitlyn, Kate, Barb, and Lea will be setting off for Malice Domestic, held on May 2-4 in Bethesda, Maryland. Dorothy is one of the Lifetime Achievement Honorees. Kathy is Guest of Honor. She’ll be interviewed by Kate on Saturday afternoon. Lea wrote Kathy’s profile in the program and will be doing an Authors Alley presentation on Sunday. And Barb is up for two (count ‘em, two!) Agatha awards, one of them in the same category as Maine Crime Writers alum Julia Spencer-Fleming. You can see what’s in store for all of them at http://www.malicedomestic.org and we promise pictures and stories in a future post.

Barb: Here’s the Kensington ad for the Malice Domestic program. Isn’t it great to see Kathy/Kaitlyn at the top?

 

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: kateflora@gmail.com