Lea Wait's Blog, page 38

Divertissements

Everything sounds better in French, doesn’t it? Basically, I’m goofing off from eternal editing, holding on to the hope of better days ahead and trying not to go stir-crazy indoors. While I know technically it is next week, a Maine spring really doesn’t arrive until May. Maybe even June, LOL. Here are a few things I’ve read, watched, and done to divert myself from wintry woes and work.

Book: Death at the Dolphin, by Gretta Mulrooney (not to be confused with the same title written by Ngaio Marsh, which I read it ages ago and cannot remember a thing about), the first Daisy Moore mystery. Immediately post World War II, our Cockney codebreaker heroine has burned down her house, and inadvertently killed her mother and cat. To tell you the truth, she’s more upset about the cat. If that sounds a bit harsh, just keep reading for a refreshing change of pace and well-drawn, quirky characters. I’ve just finished the second in the series, Death at Larch Bridge, and hoping for more. Daisy is delightful and a natural detective.

TV: Monsieur Spade, on Acorn. A thousand years ago, I watched The Maltese Falcon but can’t remember anything about that either. The six-part series imagines Sam Spade 20 years later, a widower retired in France and up to his eyeballs in international danger even as he swims nude at his vineyard pool. Clive Owen takes over for Humphrey Bogart in a restrained, ironic performance. The scenery (including his bum) is lovely. Lots of the dialog is in French but don’t worry, there are subtitles. It is a very stylish recreation of the early 60s and almost as good as a drive through the French countryside, although I confess to being a little confused by the plethora of bad guys and gals at the end. A second viewing may be in order.

Film: American Fiction. Where to start? This movie kind of defies description and was deservedly nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.  The fabulous Jeffrey Wright portrays a “serious” writer with a complicated family life, a teaching job he doesn’t really like, and a fierce frustration with the vagaries of race and publishing and race in publishing. The movie is hilarious and sad and surprising, and the nuanced performances are stellar. I now want to read Erasure by Percival Everett, the book on which the movie is based.

Book: Unruly by David Mitchell. Mitchell is a British actor/writer/comedian and treasure. He is entirely snarky and erudite and so quick on his feet your head will spin. (I occasionally watch Would I Lie to You? on which he appears, an improv game show unlike anything you can see on US television. I can also recommend an older 3-episode mini-series called Ambassadors on BritBox, which is blackly funny and co-stars his frequent collaborator, Robert Webb.) Unruly is a history of some of the kings and queens of England which is not at all boring or date-driven. Even if you are not a monarchist (and I am definitely not; the whole concept is ludicrous to me though I do like strong tea and garden parties and the occasional hat), you will be entertained royally.

Spring Cleaning. Yes, it has begun early. I am here to remind you your dishwasher is full of evil slime and mysterious chunks. Perhaps you will recall where all the parts are supposed to go after you’ve removed them for a thorough scrubbing. Closets are being organized, too. Can my desk be far behind?

Do you have any diversions for me? When do you know spring has sprung in your neck of the woods?

www.maggierobinson.net

ANCIENT MYSTERY/CRIME IN FLORENCE ITALY

by Jule Selbo

At this moment, I’m sitting in the heart of Florence, Italy –  a five minute walk from the Duomo (the Basilica Santa Maria del Fiore), a one minute walk from the Cathedral San Lorenzo (filled with dead Medicis), three minutes to the Central Market (filled with long scarves (the saying is: wrap a scarf around your neck, you will never be cold) and clothes (cotton and linen shirts and skirts) and leather, leather, leather – gloves, purses, jackets, wallets, key rings, notebook covers, hats, mementoes.  If it’s not the smell of tomato sauce, pizza, lasagna, wild boar, cheese, wine, garlic, basil, oregano, steak, amaro, negronis, coffee (espresso), salamis, all-day cooked pork, cornetos, cream puffs and gelato – the scent that wafts under the nostrils in Florence is probably leather.

My first book FIND ME IN FLORENCE (2019, a mystery romance) was written while I was teaching here – which I did for months at a time for over four years.  When I get the chance to come back and my plane lands on the tarmac in Florence, I get this strange feeling that I am “home”.

There are mysteries and crimes galore in the ancient history of Italy (it wasn’t unified until 1861, so the crimes before that would have to be attributed to the sixteen or so “states” that were basically their own countries with their own laws and governors and political structures).

There is one criminal in the 16th century, who lived mostly in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, who has always fascinated me. It is hot-tempered, violent bad-boy and amazingly talented silver/goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini.

Was he really guilty of all the crimes he was charged with? Assault, murder (more than one, more than three, more than???), embezzlement of items from the Vatican, lots of sword-fighting where he inflicted grave injuries, sex crimes, lying, kidnapping, using diamond dust to poison (oops, no, someone did that to him (but it didn’t work because the assailant had been tricked into buying a fake diamond and when he ground it to dust, it was not lethal and Cellini did not perish. He lived to get his revenge)).

I walk by Cellini’s bust almost every day on the Ponte Vecchio (the most famous bridge in Florence) and marvel how he’s beloved despite his aberrant life – and marvel at how his amazing artistic talent always got him out of jails/prisons/serious scrapes. He was once sentenced to prison at Castel d’Angelo in Rome (formerly Emperor Hadrian’s tomb, built around 138 AD, it became a fortress, then was a prison, the a vacation home for Popes) for stealing jewels from the Vatican (that big place that was in the Papal State).

                                    

Hadrian’s Tomb – model (originally the tomb was covered with white marble) and what it looked like around 16th century (I think…)

Originally, Cellini was put in a dank, well-guarded cell, but after an escape attempt, he was put into solitary confinement. He was lowered by rope through a small hole in the second or third story prison floor – lowered  thirty-forty feet into a cold, narrow thick-stone cell.

The entry that prisoner was dropped through — going through the shaft and landing on the dirt floor of this stone cell.

The entry hole was covered, the prisoner was kept in complete darkness. The dimensions of the cell were such that he could not sit – or lay down. He had to remain standing – the only movement allowed was a very slight bend at the waist. Rotting food was tossed down from above every other day, he was left absolutely alone, standing in the dark with his feces and urine. Most prisoners who had been put into this kind of cell lasted a month – most perished from losing their minds. However, Cellini withstood it for almost a full year; he was finally released because one of the Popes wanted a new dinner-set of silver (forks, knifes and spoons) – and it had to be of the highest artistic quality, of course. So Cellini, the best and most famous silversmith in Italy at the time, was lifted out of his cell. Cellini fulfilled the dinner-set commission and then was banished to France.

Just some of the talent that kept Cellini’s head on his shoulders:

                              Some are delicate, some are bigger than life-size

Cellini was vain, loud and an extrovert. If other men looked at one of his mistresses or young male lovers, their lives were usually threatened (and sometimes they were killed by Cellini). His ego was very very healthy and his life was chaotic.

His autobiography (written around 1560) is a study in how a person can rewrite his own history. He minimized or revised his criminal behaviors and made himself a star of the 16th century.

Still, I wonder why this mad, criminal, amazingly talented guy gets a prime spot on the Ponte Vecchio…

Notes from Italy, March 2024

Weekend Update: March 9-10, 2024

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Jule Selbo (Monday), Vaughn Hardacker (Tuesday), Maggie Robinson (Thursday) and Kate Flora (Friday).

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

We thought it would be fun to share the occasional publishing opportunity that crosses our paths. So here’s one. The Thalia Press is putting together a new story anthology with stories relating to Yellowstone. Visited? Had a dark epiphany? Maybe this one’s for you.

Open for Submissions:

 Or maybe you’re writing a crime novel, and will find this advice useful:

How to Write a Fight Scene the Delivers a Knockout Punch – Colin Conway/High Speed Creative, LLC

Matt Cost is ecstatic to announce that Velma Gone Awry is a finalist for the Chanticleer Mystery & Mayhem Cozy and not so Cozy Mystery Award. Whew, that’s a mouthful. Cost was recently on the podcast Sunday Tea with V talking about Velma. Check it out HERE. Diane Donovan just gave Pirate Trap an excellent review for the Midwest Book Review. Check it out HERE. Are you wondering what you will be doing on March 27th? Pre-order Pirate Trap now and you can be reading it then. Order HERE. Cost has over thirty book talks planned for April to August, mostly in Maine, mostly at libraries. Check back here for dates, times, and places.

Maureen Milliken is thrilled to announce that her Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea three-book mystery series is now available in its republished format, courtesy of Nevermore Mystery Press. The books feature new covers, new edits, and some updates.

Redimere, Maine, may be remote and beautiful, but there is nothing peaceful and quiet about the northern Maine town. Just ask newspaper owner and editor Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea, who, with Police Chief Pete Novotny, try to stay afloat against a rising tide of corruption, betrayal and murder

The books – COLD HARD NEWS, NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS, and BAD NEWS TRAVELS FAST – are available on Amazon, at Sherman’s book stores, Oliver & Friends Bookshop in Belgrade Lakes, and, since they’re distributed through Ingram, available to order from your local book store if they’re not on the shelf. You can also ask your library to order them if they don’t already have them. You can also find them, and more information, on maureenmilliken.com. [NOTE: Due to a glitch because there’s a new publisher, it’s hard to find the new Cold Hard News format in paperback on Amazon. Please try this link. Hopefully, I will be able to clear up the issue soon!] DYING FOR NEWS, the fourth book in the series, is due out this summer.

 

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, book club 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, along with the very popular “Making a Mystery” with audience participation, and “Casting Call: How We Staff Our Mysteries.” We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora

What Do Baseball & Crime Writing Have in Common

Baseball and crime writing? Trust me, I’m not coming out of left field with this blog post.

Spring training has started and as a Red Sox fan I’m pretty excited for my team’s prospects. The Sox have a new manager and some great players. The new season is like starting to write a new book. It’s a time of optimism and fresh ideas. “Batter up” I think to myself every time I sit down to write.

As a writer of crime and thriller novels, I can’t help but see the parallels between a good crime novel and a baseball game. Can the phrases “stealing a base” and ‘stealing signs” merely be coincidences? How about Curt Schilling’s bloody sock in 2004? Or Dwight Evans memorable catch in the 1975 World Series, stealing a home run off Joe Morgan and winning game six? Love it when a new pitcher “comes out of the pen.” There’s even a “three strikes” law that puts criminals away for life. And let’s not forget that the dreaded Yankees wear pinstripes.

Writing a novel is a lot like a baseball game in many respects. Both have set parameters. My novels tend to run between 80 and 120 thousand words. A baseball game is nine innings, although there’s extra innings if the game is tied in the ninth. In both, it’s crucial to get off to a good start. In both, it’s important to keep the pressure on in the middle, whether that be a compelling subplot or putting in a competent middle reliever or pinch hitter. Then you have to finish strong. In baseball that means clutch hitting and solid defense combined with a shutdown closer. The crime novelist, as well, needs to round all the bases and write a killer ending. Sometimes the ballgame goes into extra innings, just as sometimes the author needs to add more scenes to adequately close everything out for the reader’s benefit.

The goal for us writers when we start our novel is to “hit it out of the park.” Is it any wonder why baseball and literature is so tightly entwined, especially the Red Sox? Parker’s Spenser was a big Red Sox fan. Authors past and present loved the Sox including Doris Kearns Goodwin, John Updike and Steven King. In fact, King wrote a novel called The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon about a girl who got lost in the woods and survives by thinking about her favorite Red Sox pitcher.

Fenway Park is an iconic landmark and shown in many Hollywood dramas. I even used it as a setting in one of my earlier horror novels, when I was writing in that genre. My favorite scene in the movie The Town, based on Chuck Hogan’s crime novel, Prince of Thieves, takes place in Fenway Park. Ben Affleck’s character and his gang pull off the heist of a lifetime when they sneak into Fenway Park dressed as Boston cops, and manage to make their way into the cash room, stealing millions.

A new year for the Red Sox brings with it much optimism and hope for a winning season. Just as the Sox hope to have a great year, so are all of us crime writers. As the Sox open the season in April, I too will step up to the plate with my new thriller, THE ANCHORMAN’S WIFE, which was published 10/272023. Hope you can check it out and let me know if I “hit it out of the park.”

The Maine Cabin Fever Add-on

John Clark pondering the sorta survival of another Maine winter. I say sorta because it ain’t over yet and I daren’t count the lost parts and number of chips and dings in my psychic paint job. We’re at that sketchy point where we can’t distract ourselves by watching football, The Red Sox are already written off, and there’s too little ice to venture upon should we want to fish.

There are, however some new, or remaining distractions. Black ice is in plentiful supply, and there are so many potholes, you don’t dare glower at the jerk in the other lane (or in love with your tailpipe) for fear of dropping into one as big as the one that claimed Aunt Thelma and her 1978 Buick last Sunday. It was kinda nice that the Foursquare Gospel Baptist Church in East Bumtwinkle adapted on the fly, combining the outdoor teen baptism with her funeral on less than two hours notice. And let us not forget a most enduring Maine tradition, the March town meeting. Sadly attended by only citizens looking at fifty in their rear view mirror (save for the occasional gullible soul who just moved here from Massachusetts intent upon pontificating to the cynical), it’s guaranteed to provide distraction and comic relief, not to mention sinful whoopie pies sold at the break by the church ladies, all proudly displaying their recently acquired tri-color Jesus tattoos. The more enterprising PTAs and fire departments in towns north of Augusta also put on the classic bingo version known as Bullshit. Cards have a one or two word catch phrase in each square like, ‘in my opinion’, ‘rollin’ in his grave’, Damn teachers’, and ‘we cant afford it.’ Whoever fills in a line first, jumps up and hollers ‘Bullshit!” They get half the pot.

In the spirit of helping you faithful readers here at MCW, I’ve come up with a new challenge to ease you through the month of March. I call it the DeLorme Follies in honor of that publication no real Mainer ever leaves home without. GPS is for wimps. Anyhow, below are clues to town names that change quite a bit with the addition of one or two letters at the beginning or end. I’ll add the answers later today. Early favorite at getting the most correct is Sandy Emerson.

1-Add one letter to this town and serve over pasta.

2-add one letter to this town and imagine lute players strolling while singing medieval songs.

3-Add one letter and it sounds like a hint or an aid to solving a crime.

4-Add a letter and you might do this with your stash during a bust.

5-Add a letter and get an oversexed Maine animal.

6-add a letter and this is what the patient hunter did.

7-Add a letter and get a town where everyone could shame you.

8-Add a letter and this might be what a vampire’s wife looks like.

9-Add a letter and this might be a town describing enduring beauty.

10-Add a letter and get a town where no one ever forgets

11-Add a letter and find a town where everything feels icky.

12-Add a letter and get a town full of poultry.

13-Add a letter and get a town where everyone is unsteady.

14-Add two letters and get a town where everyone looks and acts weird.

15-Add a letter and get a town where everything is secured.

16-Add a letter and get a town where everyone is a careless driver.

17-Add two letters and get a town where you might gather with family of classmates.

18-Add a letter and get a town full of nervous people who move a lot.

19-Add 2 letters and get Confederate soldiers.

20-Add a letter and get a town full of hucksters.

************************************************* The answers:

Alfred/Alfredo

Bar Harbor/Bard Harbor

Lubec/Clubec

Wallagrass/Swallagrass

Moosehorn/Moosehorny

Waite/Waited

Cornville/Scornville

Alewife/Palewife

Deep Cut/Deep Cute

Emory Corner/ Memory Corner

Limestone/Slimestone

Enfield/Henfield

Otter Creek/Totter Creek

Rangeley/Strangeley

Teap Corner/Strap Corner

Madrid/Madride

Union/Reunion

Kittery/Skittery

South Arm/South Army

Camden/Scamden

Dream it, then DO it

(Please forgive that some of this is recycled. We just finished a three day marathon drive to Florida, and I’m a bit brain dead.)

Kate Flora: I begin with a confession. I stole this title from my mother. It comes from a newspaper column she wrote years ago, when she used to do a weekly column called, “From the Orange Mailbox” for The Camden Herald. The column was about identifying one’s dreams and then acting on them, rather than waiting forever for that right moment. It made such an impact on my childhood best friend, Karin, that she read it at mom’s memorial service. I come back to it from time to time when I find myself cowering under my desk or spinning in small, slow, unproductive circles. And because my mother was very brave and I admire bravery, I remind myself of her advice as I try to shove myself forward.

Yes, it’s true. Even after thirty years as a published author, coming after ten years in the unpublished writer’s corner, I still have plenty of doubts and down times and am overcome by the unshakable certainty that I will never write a readable word again. Always a good time to channel mom, who published her first mystery at 83.

The Maine Mulch Murder by A. Carman Clark

So I stole the title. And why not? It’s a good title. As we all know, there is no copyright in titles, imitation truly is often the sincerest form of flattery, and there is more right than wrong in heeding the advice of one’s mother. So here I am, as I contemplate a month in sunny Florida with no new project on the horizon demanding to be written, blogging about the process of thinking and planning for the work ahead, and encouraging you to join me in considering what might change the shape of your next writing stint.

Perhaps you’re saying, “Okay, but what do those tightrope walker’s feet have to do with this?” But you already know, don’t you. For most of us, taking chances on doing new things outside our normal comfort zone can be as scary as we imagine walking on a tightrope would be even if we were only a few feet off the ground. This is especially true about the things we dream. There’s a big risk involved in taking the steps to move from a dream, with all of its inherent possibilities, to the reality. Our steps may be clumsy. Our execution inept. Often we don’t even know how to start. But most of us learned to walk, and to read, and to drive a car. If the dream is there, we can find the passion to execute it even if we’re hesitant.

Because I teach and have done a lot of consulting for writers, I’ve watched a lot of peopletaking those first tentative steps. If you’ve always dreamed of being a writer, it can be truly scary to actually clear the desk and sit down to start writing. What if you can’t do it? What if you discover that writing is actually hard? Second confession: It is. What if the flowing sentences and stories you always imagined aren’t flowing? Third confession: We sometimes write for months to reach that amazing phase where things flow, but when they flow it is one of the world’s greatest highs. And it never would have happened if we hadn’t been in the chair, writing, when it hit. What if you discover that your first drafts read like “See Dick and Jane run?”

Well, the truth is that realizing dreams isn’t easy. But looking ahead, ask yourself which is better, to exit this life having lived fully and taken some chances or to have held your dreams tightly in your fist and never risked finding out if they could be realized?

When I was a kid, I was such an avid reader that I used to take twelve books out of the Vose Library every week. I’d read six on the weekend and the other six during the week. The library was my temple. Writers were amazing people. I was completely entranced by their ability to take me into another, imagined world and hold me there through the power of their storytelling. I haven’t changed much. I still find writers amazing and I’m still entranced when I pick up a book that keeps me from seeing “the bones” or analyzing what the writer is doing, when I don’t want to stop reading. After forty years at the desk and with twenty-six published books (and another six in the drawer) and numerous short stories on the shelf, I’m still excited about writers and writing.

Back in those library days, I dreamed of being a writer.

Taking the chance of realizing that dream didn’t come easily, I was in the unpublished writer’s corner for eight years before I sold a book, two more before it was published. It took most of my courage for a very long time. But lately I’ve been thinking that it’s time to start expanding the dream. I’ve been asking myself what else is important, what else do I want to try out? Do I want to write different things? Have different adventures? Learn new things to broaden my perspective and help me see the world differently? I’m finally old enough not to be embarrassed about trying to do things that I may not be good at. I sing like a crow, but sometime soon I’m going to hunt down someone who has compassion for crows and take singing lessons. You probably won’t find me sprawled sexily across a piano like Michelle Pfeiffer–as we age we have to be cautious about breaking our osteopenic bones–or even braving the karaoke machine, but I may yet croak with joy. I signed up for tap dancing lessons. I suck but have so much fun.

I dream of writing a competent screenplay, despite the daunting nature of Final Draft. Of writing the books I’m scared to write. That historical novel? The romance featuring a match-making cat? The mainstream women’s fiction called Faith’s Dilemma. I dream of learning to take an interesting photograph where the people in it aren’t red-eyed, or blurred, or carefully centered by the type of photographer who once worried about coloring inside the lines. I’m trying to learn to color outside the lines. To stop putting myself into a box.

So far, I’ve only managed to kick a few holes in the sides of this box, but light is getting in.

What have you always dreamed of? What are you afraid to do? What’s holding you back? What might change that? Let’s start thinking about some new adventures and this time, don’t throw up all those barriers that keep you from acting.

Dream it? Sure. Then why not do it?

A Big Welcome to Rob Kelley!

Rob Kelley writes about the intersection of high technology and crime, where perpetrators live in the world of theoretical math and cutting edge science. They may be more sophisticated than your typical criminal, but at bottom, they want the same things as bank robbers and art thieves.

Money and power.

Rob lives on the Midcoast with his wife Margot, who is an accomplished writer as well. After a career in the tech world, he has deep personal knowledge of its people and social dynamics. As for crime? He uses his active imagination to create characters seduced by the potential to use tech for selfish, misanthropic ends.

Now Rob’s diligent work is bearing fruit. Next spring his debut novel, RAVEN, will be published by High Frequency Press. An active member of the Maine crime writing community for years (and winner of the Two Minutes in the Slammer contest at Maine Crime Wave conference every time he competed), Rob will be joining the MCW blog next month, and likely will use some of his early posts to describe the exciting process of getting ready to launch a first novel. So I could properly introduce our new blog mate to our readers, Rob and I played Ten Questions last week.

Q:  What’s your elevator pitch for Raven?

Raven is a thriller set at the end of the cold war and beginning of the internet. An aspiring MIT graduate student becomes a target when her mentor tricks her into stealing computer secrets for the crumbling Soviet Union. As threats from her mentor, the FBI, the Russians, and Boston’s Irish Mob pile up, she relies on friends in the hacker underground to stay one step ahead of the investigation and intrigue, and to outwit and out-maneuver them all.

Q.     What inspired the plot?

Actual events. There was a computer researcher in the early 90s who invented a tool to test the security of early networks by identifying vulnerabilities in them. It was incorrectly seen as a tool for hackers, resulting in widespread criticism of the work. I adapted that idea for the novel.

Q.     How much does your background working in the tech field inform your fiction?

My tech background definitely informs my fiction, as does my work in social justice. The good guys are not always who they seem in either field!

Q.     Process question: are there things you did as a tech professional that you need to be mindful to do (or not do) when you write?

Great question! One of the really challenging things for me, as I suspect it is for any thriller writer going for verisimilitude, is not to info dump. We all know the not-untrue stereotype of the thriller writer who spends a page detailing the features of the gun the protagonist uses once.

Q.     What was your reaction last year when High Frequency Press made you an offer?

I was thrilled. I’d worked Scott Wolven and Shanna McNair last year in my time attending their conference, The Writer’s Hotel, here in Maine (more info here: https://www.writershotel.com/ ). Scott and Shanna are thoughtful, careful editors and wonderful writers in their own respect.

Q,    How is it to work with Scott and Shanna?

See above.

Q,    What has surprised you most about the experience of getting a book ready for publication?

I’ve heard it said that writing is a solo sport, but publishing is a team sport. And that is very true. As a writer you have complete control of the world and your characters and that feels great. But then you have a smart editor telling you how to make your work really shine. They are telling you your book is good—after all, you submitted the very best book you could make—but that it can be better. It’s a pretty humbling experience.

Q.     Your wife Margot is a writer also. (Margot Anne Kelley is a writer, editor, visual artist and educator whose book FOODTOPIA won a Maine Literary Award and a Readable Feast Book Award. More info here: https://www.margotannekelley.com/ ) How do you support each other in your literary lives?

I have a funny anecdote about that. A friend of Margot’s once said to her, “so, do you just sit down over cocktails and talk about your writing day?” The answer to that question, actually, is yes. It’s awesome to have a partner who cares about words as much as you do. We are each other’s first readers and greatest champions.

Q.     Where did you grow up and what was your best subject in school?

I grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis and lived there until I went to graduate school in Indiana. Best subject, interestingly, was pretty much a toss up between math and English. So, I made a living out of math for a while, now I get to use my writing skills.

Q.     What have you read recently and what did you think about it?

I’m constantly reading in the genre to stretch my idea of what works and doesn’t in fiction. I just finished Joseph Finder’s Nick Heller series which starts with Vanished. I really admire his ability to keep the action moving while maintaining the wry voice of Nick Heller as the books progress. I highly recommend them.

Robert T. Kelley is the author of Raven, a thriller forthcoming in 2025 from High Frequency Press. After thirty years in the technology industry, he now serves as an advisor for both non-profit and for-profit organizations. He was formerly the publisher of the quarterly literary journal The Maine Review and is a recipient of The Writer’s Hotel Conference’s Sara Patton Award. Look for his first MCW blog post in April.

 **

Brenda Buchanan brings years of experience as a journalist and a lawyer to her crime fiction. She has published three books featuring Joe Gale, a newspaper reporter who covers the crime and courts beat. She is now hard at work on new projects. FMI, go to http://brendabuchananwrites.com

 

Weekend Update: March 2-3, 2024

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Kate Flora (Monday), Brenda Buchanan (Tuesday), John Clark (Thursday) and Joe Souza (Friday).

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

 

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, along with the very popular “Making a Mystery” with audience participation, and “Casting Call: How We Staff Our Mysteries.” We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora

The Great Gym Class Rebellion of ’65

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, with no idea why this particular memory popped into my mind some sixty years after the event. Still, once a thought turns up, I tend to make use of it, hence another nostalgia post for the Maine Crime Writers’ blog.

I was sixteen when I started my senior year in high school and one of the youngest in my class. We’d moved into a brand new building the previous school year and acquired, along with it, a fair number of new, young, energetic teachers. They were in their early twenties, which made a few of them only three or four years older than the oldest members of the class of 1965. That certainly made a change, and I suspect most of my classmates far preferred young blood to the rather nasty old biddies who, in particular, taught almost all the required sections of math and history. But I digress.

Gym class was mandatory. We had nice new locker rooms, new playing fields, new equipment, and something we’d never had in the old building—facilities for taking showers after gym class. In our senior year, the powers that be decided that showering after exercising and working up a sweat should be mandatory. We were told there had been complaints about the smell of that sweat in the classes that followed phys. ed., and that using deodorant wouldn’t be sufficient to eradicate the problem.

According to our graduation program, there were fifty-three girls in our class. There were probably three sections of physical education, although I won’t swear to that. There were at least two sections. Anyway, as I recall, almost all of us shared the same reaction to this mandate—no way! Why? Because using the showers in question would mean showering with the rest of the girls in each section of gym class. As a group. Naked.

yearbook photo of some of us fooling around with the laundry basket after gym class (that’s me in the white blouse)

It may sound quaint in 2024, but in 1964-5, at least in our quiet rural community, modesty was more common then exhibitionism. We were sixteen- and seventeen-year-old girls who weren’t allowed to wear skirts above mid-knee to classes and weren’t permitted to wear slacks in school at all. I wouldn’t say we were overly concerned about body shaming, although I can think of at least one girl in my class who would gleefully have pointed out flaws in the rest of us, but speaking for myself, I was a “late bloomer” and self-conscious about my lack of cleavage. I know I wasn’t the only one wearing a padded bra, but there’s a big difference between being seen in your underwear in the locker room by other girls and stripping down to the skin to shower with a large group of them.

To our gym teacher’s surprise, the senior girls, en masse, refused to comply. It wasn’t an organized revolt, but it didn’t take us long to realize there were advantages to sticking together. During that entire school year, only one or two members of our class compromised, and then only to make use of the one private shower available. However insignificant our gym class rebellion may seem, especially compared to demonstrations over much more serious matters that were taking place throughout the 1960s, for us it was a learning experience. Eventually, the mandate to shower was withdrawn.

I suspect that even our gym teacher (who happened to be married to the older brother of one of our classmates) might have had a grudging respect for our stand. By the time we took the candid photos for the yearbook (shown below with yearbook caption), she was happy to go along with the fun.

Still, there might have been consequences. At the time all this started, many of us were in the process of applying to colleges, colleges that were going to look at our grades, and at one point we were warned that our behavior could result in an F in physical education.

There were some nervous moments when the next report cards came out. An F was traditionally marked in red. When I opened mine, that color leapt out at me. Then, as I recall, I laughed. All of us who rebelled received the same grade—a D written extra large and in red ink.

Fortunately, those D’s had no effect on academic standing. Nine of us were among the top ten graduates in our class.

So ends my tale of youthful rebellion. What issues, silly or serious (but silly preferred), do you remember feeling strongly about during your high school years?

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. In 2023 she won the Lea Wait Award for “excellence and achievement” from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. She is currently working on creating new omnibus e-book editions of her backlist titles. Her website is www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.

 

What Would I Do with an Extra Day?

Kate Flora: This is a Leap Year, that rare extra day that only comes around every four years, so today we’re commenting on what we might do with an extra day. Lounge around? Read one of those books that pile up when we’re writing? Knock off a few thousand extra words? Go out to eat to celebrate that gift of time? Or will it not feel different at all?

I’m going to be in Savannah, Georgia, on the third day of a drive to Florida, where we will spend the month of March. I know, it sounds indulgent, but actually it only means that I will be moving my laptop, my files and notes, and myself to a different location where I will settle in to work. It will feel different to write in shorts and tee shirt in March, instead of being bundled up as I’ve been for the past three months. Will it be liberating to leave my fleece-lined leggings behind? I’ll report from the field.

original version of novel being revised (cover has no resemblance to plot)

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson: My extra day is going to be spent playing catch-up. As things turned out, on Monday we had to drive to Augusta (an hour each way) for an appointment, so forget accomplishing much else that day. Then Tuesday was the annual meeting with our accountant to sort out income tax for another year. That’s both less and more complicated now that I’m calling myself “retired” and my better half has taken up writing (and selling) fiction while still making almost a dozen custom (read expensive!) jigsaw puzzle tables during the last year. Throw in the weekly trip to the grocery store after the tax session, doing the week’s laundry, which would normally have been done on Monday, and there’s another day shot.

I’m not going to claim that, if I hadn’t had those appointments, today would be for goofing off. Being “retired” means I can goof off anytime I want. But I’ve been trying to revise one of the historical romance novels I wrote back in the 1990s, and momentum helps. With nine of seventeen chapters to go, averaging revisions on one chapter a day (about two hours in the morning to revise by hand and another two in the afternoon or early evening to enter changes into the doc file and revise a bit more while I’m at it), I wasn’t going to finish in February anyway, but the last thing I want to do is skip another day just now. So there you have it: I’ll be working on my extra day.

Maggie Robinson: I am reminded of my elementary school report cards. One of the categories was “Makes good use of time.” (No, one was not “Runs with scissors.”) I always got a plus sign in that column, but if The Great Efficiency Expert in the Sky was grading me lately, I would have a minus sign for sure. There is definitely room for improvement. I will probably be wasting this extra day with the same skill and diligence as the previous ones. But it’s time to ditch the Valentine hearts and decorate my Easter tree, so the last day in February will find me getting ready for March. Somebunny has to do it.

 

Matt Cost: Oh, the glorious reality of an extra day to accomplish all I want in life! The possibilities are endless. Perhaps I will go to Boston, spend the night and go to a Celtic’s game on Friday. A winter festival could be in the offering or perchance I will go to a movie. I recently went to my first movie theater flick in many a year, American Fiction, and greatly enjoyed it. There must be a band playing somewhere, a drink to be had, a fine meal out to be eaten. The possibilities of what to do with an extra day are infinite. But who am I kidding? I will most likely just write. Write on.

John Clark: I’m sleeping in because it’s predicted to be cold as hell. I indulged in one of my guilty pleasures yesterday and visited Pennywise,(https://www.facebook.com/FirstCongregationalChurchPittsfield/) a thrift shop operated by the Congo Church in Pittsfield. They sell tons of books at dirt cheap prices (think coming home with 5 tote bags for $10.00) I’ll be sorting them to see which sell, which I can trade on Paperbackswap.com, and Beth has already picked out a number of picture books to share with Gemma and Reid. In sum, I’ll be having fun while being busy, then topping everything off by going to refresher training so I can work at the polls next Tuesday.