Lea Wait's Blog, page 51

Weekend Update: November 18-19, 2023

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Kate Flora (Monday), Sandra Neily (Tuesday), Dick Cass (Wednesday) and Matt Cost (Friday). Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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

 Body Contest Results? Are, alas, delayed, but will post next week.

Kate Flora is thrilled that book 8 in her Joe Burgess police procedural series will debut in December.

John Clark has had several good things happen recently. One of his short stories was selected by the Principal Foundation for Money Chronicles: A Story initiative. Read on for more details here: https://short-edition.com/en/contest/principal-2023/finalists

In late October, one of his stories was featured on Mysteryrat’s Maze podcast. https://mysteryratsmaze.podbean.com/e/when-a-prank-goes-bad-by-john-r-clark/

His latest anthology Dark Maine is out and available at Amazon, or from the author

On a note unrelated to crime (we hope) don’t miss Gardens Aglow, the seasonal light display at the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden.

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 Joys and Frustrations of Binge Rereading Series

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here. One of retirement’s biggest advantages is finally having time to read (and reread) other people’s books. I tend to have three going at once—one on my iPad, one in print format, and one on audiocassettes (yes, still using a cassette player!) for listening while driving. At the moment, sprinkling in the occasional new title, I’m having a great time binge reading entire series I already own. Since most of these go back a ways, each one tends to have a healthy number of entries. I particularly enjoy seeing how the protagonist’s story develops from book to book . . . without having to wait a year for the next installment. In the best of all possible worlds, there IS a next installment to anticipate after I’ve reread all the ones that came before.

So, what have I been rereading? I finished all of C. H. Harris’s Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries a while back. I also recently reread Dana Stabenow’s Liam Campbell series, some in e-book and number three in an audio version. You have to love eBay for finding used audiocassettes, although which ones are available is pretty hit and miss. Then, after I reread all of Lindsey Davis’s Marcus Didius Falco series, alternating that with Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum capers, I’ve continued my visits to ancient Rome with Davis’s spinoff series featuring Falco’s daughter, Flavia Albia.

Are there drawbacks to rereading? A couple. Although I rarely remember who dunnit, I do occasionally recall bits of a plot. Fortunately, that doesn’t spoil the reread. In fact, there are a few books—comfort reads—where knowing what comes next has been something to look forward to. After all, at the end of a traditional mystery novel the bad guys are caught and the good guys win.

What does frustrate me are continuity errors. Reading back-to-back instead of once a year means those jump off the page and pull me out of the story. Sometimes it’s something that’s easy to overlook (for the author as well as the reader), but not when the author has said one thing in the last chapter of the previous book that is contradicted in the first chapter of the next one!

A related issue came up in recent Evanovich books. In addition to the main series, which has numbers in the titles, she wrote several other stories using Stephanie Plum. In at least one of them, there is a character who borders on having supernatural powers. The problem for me came when he started showing up in the numbered books, as if I, as a reader, should know who he was. I vaguely remembered hearing about him, but he stood out like a sore thumb in the non-woo-woo plots and could easily have been omitted from the stories. Frankly, having him there made me reconsider continuing to read the series. The newest, Dirty Thirty, is just out, but since I stopped at #27, I’m not sure when, or if, I’ll get around to it. I own #28 and #29 (I know I read them, although I’m drawing a blank on plots) and I really should reread them first. Or not.

Occasional “willing suspension of disbelief” is part of the deal writers and readers make with one another, and some writers make lemonade out of lemons by doing what I’ve heard called “hanging a lantern on” a contradictory or outrageous bit. Dana Stabenow has a character in her Liam Campbell series throw a book across the room after reading what is obviously the book in her Kate Shugak series in which Stabenow killed off Kate’s love interest.

These two series merged in Restless in the Grave (Kate #19), in which Liam and other regular characters from his books play major roles. By rights, it should be Liam #5, but that designation is given to Spoils of the Dead, which was published some years later. I started rereading it after #4, realized I was missing something, and spent way too much time searching online to figure out in which book both protagonists appeared. Hey—reading in chronological order is important!

One big advantage binge REreading has one over reading each title as it comes out is that it eliminates the frustration of the cliffhanger ending. I really hate these, especially the ones that are nothing more than a teaser for the next book—the one that won’t be out for an entire year! If there is a perfectly good, satisfying place to end the current book, then that last chapter setting up a future adventure should be separate and clearly labeled so readers like me don’t have to read it if they don’t want to.

Other kinds of cliffhangers, the ones that just stop short of telling you who is on the other side of the door (Evanovich), or whether a major character is going to live or die (Stabenow—twice!), are also annoying, but if the next book in the series is already at hand, at least I don’t end up tossing the book across the room.

 

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.

 

Unscientific American

I was sitting at my computer the other rainy day when I heard a loud boom. The house  shook a little, and our power went out. Now, as one who has perfected the art of procrastination, I wasn’t too upset. Truth be told, my current manuscript was not even open. My plans for the morning involved numerous diversions from the realities of the grim world: the New York Times Wordle, Connections, Mini Crossword (I’m too stupid and impatient to do the regular one), and Spelling Bee, with a few rounds of Outspell from the Washington Post. These are the “exercises” I do daily for my brain, such as it is.

I’m not really stupid. (I am impatient though.) I skipped two grades in elementary school, graduated from high school at 15 and college at 19. However, somewhere along the line, my science skills suffered. Science credits were a requirement to get my bachelor’s degree from Adelphi University (and so was passing a mandatory swimming test, which is pretty bizarre in retrospect). So, I took a two-year survey course, AKA Science for Dummies: a semester each of watered-down Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. I’ll never forget the physics professor standing at the blackboard laughing, saying there was no point trying to explain anything to us because we were too ignorant. He was right, if politically incorrect.

Back to 2023. No power? No problem. I could always write in longhand if absolutely necessary. (But probably couldn’t read what I wrote.) As I sat in the gloom, I tried to remember what it was like pre-computer. I have become totally dependent on it, but have no understanding of bytes and pixels or any other associated computer science words. In fact, I do not understand how most mechanical and electrical things work.

I took driver’s ed in the dark ages, when one had to identify the locations of pistons and spark plugs and batteries on a little map to qualify for the road test. Nowadays, everything is computerized, and whatever I “learned” then is obsolete. I passed, although I will drive for blocks to avoid parallel parking. Maybe even go back home.

Some years ago, I bought a research book to help me with early automobile history. I was writing a book set at the turn of the twentieth century, and the heroine had to learn how to operate a vehicle on the fly to save the hero’s life. Here is the German edition of In the Heart of the Highlander (A Scandal in Scotland auf Deutsch). See the cute car?

The research book was mercifully in English, but I still failed to comprehend how anyone could have learned how to drive. Each nascent car company had a completely different design from the others, and what complicated procedure worked on one would get you nowhere on another. The first car keys were used in 1910, but they only activated the electric circuit or locked the ignition. It wasn’t until 1920 that you could stop cranking the handle. And it wasn’t until 1949 that Chrysler first used the key ignition system we have today. Now, some cars don’t use keys at all. It’s difficult to keep up with advances in technology, and I’m not trying anymore. Ignorance is my bliss, just as that professor professed.

You will be happy to know the power came back on without us having to go full Little House on the Prairie. According to the CMP guys, the issue was “animal-related.” Life resumed—except for the squirrel who electrocuted itself when the transformer at the end of the street blew. No matter how advanced we become, there will always be a suicidal squirrel to remind us there’s more to life than staring at a computer screen.

Those rodents really have it in for the modern world—twice, my car’s wires were eaten by chipmunks. (If this ever happens to you, insurance should cover it, and strategically-placed mothballs seem to be a deterrent.) A mouse’s nest killed our air-conditioning system when we lived in Connecticut, and something chewed right through my son’s letterman jacket when it was stored in a box in a garage (with no mothballs).

Are you science-savvy? What do you do to procrastinate/keep your mind sharp and avoid the dreadful news headlines? Is it working?

www.maggierobinson.net

The Mystery of History by Kait Carson

I was born and raised in New Jersey. Growing up in the shadow of New York City was like having a ringside seat to history in the making. From ticker tape parades honoring astronauts to mounting the endless swirl of steps to the Crown of the Statue of Liberty, my dad made sure I missed nothing. He also made me study for each event and pass a test before I could attend. Cruelty? No. It gave me a thirst to know the backstory and understand the why. Not bad lessons for a future mystery writer.

The skills taught to a child flowed over into the adult. In 2005, my husband and I moved from the steamy, tropical, hurricane prone east coast of Florida to the Crown of Maine. He’d been a rocket scientist and his involvement with various missile programs had brought him to Limestone from time to time. He loved the area and wanted to return. I’d been to Maine as a nine-year-old camper. Don’t remember the name of the camp, but I remember the rocky shores and cold, cold water. I was also ready to leave my paralegal career behind and try my hand at becoming a full-time writer. If only it were that easy.

I set my first books in South Florida and the Florida Keys. Write what you know. It wasn’t until last year that I became comfortable setting anything more than a short story in the County. Short stories, by their very nature, require pinpoint precision. They are a moment in time, not an epic procession. Novels are a very different breed of cat. One that I’m not comfortable writing unless I can crawl into the story, pull it over my head, and experience it through the eyes of my protagonist. In short, a novel requires knee jerk knowledge. Part of that comes from a sense of history.

When we first moved to Aroostook County, the sign at the edge of Soldier Pond commemorating the bloodless Aroostook War of 1838-1839 intrigued me. Despite a history degree, the terms war and bloodless rarely went together. When I decided to write a novel set in The County, I knew I needed to know more. Not because I planned to feature the war, or even Soldier Pond, but because I set the story in the Allagash and the Maine/Canada border is a major player. Border wars, even bloodless ones, shape both an area and its population. Good natured teasing between residents on both sides of the border is commonplace. Most locals have relatives in both countries. Sometimes it seems the border is still in dispute.

The problems that gave rise to the Aroostook War began with the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. The treaty failed to determine the boundary between British North America and the United States. When Massachusetts began handing out land grants in what was then the District of Maine, boundary disputes followed. The Americans built a system of blockhouses along the disputed border. Of these, the one remaining original stands in Fort Kent. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty settled the dispute in 1842. The term bloodless is a misnomer. The War claimed thirty-eight non-combatant lives, most by accident or disease. Local lore holds that two of these casualties resulted from bear mauling.

Today the border runs along various rivers. In wooded areas, it’s determined by The Slash. A twenty-foot-wide clear-cut area between the two countries. The modern-day Slash figures in my latest work in progress, the Aroostook War does not. The book is contemporary, not historical. Knowing the history gave me background to understand the subtilties of the setting and my protagonist.

Reader and writers, do you find a touch of history adds to your enjoyment of a setting and a story?

Which as a Jersey girl I know is located in New Jersey.

Scenes from the New England Crime Bake

Kate Flora: Twenty-two years ago, a regional mystery conference featuring New England writers was born in my living room when I said I thought we ought to have our own conference and the presidents for Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime immediately agreed to work together to plan one. Since then, every Veteran’s Day weekend, writers and readers descend on a hotel somewhere near Boston. The conference is always different–different themes, different players–but always wonderful. Surprising as it is, crime writers are an extremely nice and generous bunch, appropriately calling ourselves a community.

This year’s Guest of Honor was Deborah Crombie, a Texan who writes English police procedurals, and so the theme was very English, including a banquet where prizes were given for the best fascinator and the best cravat.

Here are some random scenes from the weekend, including Ruth McCarty wearing her Lifetime Achievement Award tiara. The event always concludes on Sunday with some forensics. This year: Junk Science, the Innocence Project, and what a private investigator really does. AND there was a chocolate party.

Kate, Maureen & Jule at the Sunday breakfast

Vintage Kate done up for the banquet

Photos from Diane Kenty:

An author panel

The Jungle Red Writers Blog Group hold forth

Our own Maureen Milliken

Brenda Buchanan with Conference co-chair Connie Hambley

M. Chris Fabricant from the Innocence Project

Ruth McCarty with her tiara

Kate Flora with Luci Zahray, the Poison Lady

The chocolate party:

Weekend Update: November 11-12, 2023

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be a New England Crime Bake wrap up on Monday and posts by Kait Carson (Tuesday), Maggie Robinson (Thursday) and Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Friday).

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

Here’s a great example of how supportive the writing community is:

This coming Thursday we’re launching Clea Simon’s new book because she’s having surgery. Eight authors on Zoom. Come and see how we do it:

Here’s the registration link: https://www.harvard.com/event/virtual_event_to_conjure_a_killer/

 For those of you awaiting the results of our body contest? Results will be posted next Saturday.

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

Help the Veteran In Your Lives

Vaughn C. Hardacker

Vaughn Hardacker here: The month of November is a special month in my life. I was married on November 4, 1970, November 10 is the Marine Corps birthday (248th this year), November 11 is Veterans Day, and of course there’s Thanksgiving. This blog will post on November 10th, a day sacrosanct to the vast majority of Marines. The purpose of this blog is not to glorify any one branch of our military. It is, I hope, to save veteran lives.

Over the years the federal government, congress especially, seems to think that veterans’ benefits and retirement funds are an incentive and are a place where they can cut spending. Personally, I don’t know why anyone would even consider a military career. The majority of veteran benefits are services, such as the Base Exchange (BX) or Post Exchange (PX) and are only of use if you live in the proximity of an operating base. Can anyone think of an open base (other than Coast Guard Station) in Maine? At one time there were Air Force bases in Limestone, Presque Isle, and Bangor (southern Maine was a short drive to Pease in Portsmouth, NH) and a Naval Air Station in Brunswick. Today there are none. The economic impact on Limestone (Caribou) and Presque Isle was devastating. When I grew up in Caribou the population was over 10,000 (9,423 in the 1990 census). In 2020 the population was 7,382, a decrease of 22%. The loss of jobs and the money spent blasted the economy. If I had to list all of the businesses that crashed it would fill this blog.

There is one government agency that has, in my opinion, done what it can to assist veterans: The Veterans Administration (VA). Over the years the VA has been plagued by a reputation for being at best slow, bordering on incompetent. Whenever I talk with a veteran who has issues with the VA it always comes down to one thing … the bureaucrats who run the organization, not the medical care that the dedicated doctors, nurses, and technicians deliver. Especially those who work locally.

There are a couple of things that you should know about the VA and Maine. First, the first VA hospital was located in Togus, Maine. Second, the first Customer Based Out-patient Clinic in the country was in Caribou. But, I digress. Recently we fought against the closing of the Maine Veterans Home in Caribou (and won). The homes are run by a non-profit chartered by the state government. They listed several reasons why they felt that they had to close the home, paramount of them was that the veteran population in the area was diminishing. We took exception to that argument. If you cross any parking lot in Aroostook County you will be astonished by the number of veteran license plates and decals for all branches of the military. Still (and keep in mind the adage: Figures don’t lie; but liars figure) an indepent study showed an overall decline in the veteran population. I founded and chair a group called the Aroostook Veterans Advocacy Committee. We spearheaded the movement to save the Caribou home. We have looked closely at the study and immediately saw the problem. Their only source of data was the VA. Remember I mentioned the poor reputation the VA had? We are human and for humans being negative comes easy, being positive takes work.

Here’s what we learned. The negatives are still flowing around. When younger veterans first leave the military, they are mainly in their early to mid-twenties and are still immortal. They are for the most part in good health and medical care is the furthest thing in their mind. However, they won’t be healthy for ever (I’m living proof of that.). Let me tell you a short story.

It’s no secret that we Marines stick together like flies to flypaper. I was visiting with a veteran, several years younger than me (and who isn’t?). In the course of the conversation he mentioned that he has been battling bladder cancer and had several operations. I asked Larry (not his real name) how long he’d been on active duty. He answered four years. My next question was how much time at Camp Lejeune? Two years. Larry had been using his own health insurance to pay his medical bills and was struggling financially. I now asked him the important question: Have you heard about the Camp Lejeune water? NO.

A few years back the Marine Corps announced that anyone, military or civilian, who had spent more than thirty day at Lejeune and was suffering from a number of diseases (Bladder cancer and Parkinson’s are high on the list) might be eligible for a settlement. I asked Larry if he’d registered with the VA when he was discharged. He said No. Should I have?

The Marine Corps announced that the drinking water on Camp Lejeune had been contaminated. If you served there for thirty days or more between the years 1953 and 1987 the government had set aside more than a billion dollars to settle lawsuits. The next thing I said to Larry was, Get your butt down to your congressman’s office and ask for Kim. She will register you and help you do the paperwork.

That was this past April. Larry pulled into my driveway last week and I knew something was up by the smile and look of relief on his face. “Read this,” he said and handed me a sheet of paper. It was from the VA assessing him at 100% disabled and he will receive a monthly pension just under $4,000. “And,” he said, “there was a seven thousand dollar check with it!” I replied, “Wait, they’ll owe you backpay to the date you applied you should get six months back pay. You should see if they will reemburse some of the medical bills you paid.” “Should I get a lawyer?” he asked. “Why,” I answered, “do you want to give some ambulance chaser one-third or more of the money? The VA will handle this for you at no charge.”

Let’s return to the title of this post. What can you do to help the veteran in your life? HAVE THEM REGISTER WITH THE VA! Larry appeared healthy when he left the Corps more than forty years ago. Just because you don’t think you need the VA now, wait about thirty or forty years and see.

 

 

Help the Veteran In Your Lifes

Vaughn C. Hardacker

Vaughn Hardacker here: The month of November is a special month in my life. I was married on November 4, 1970, November 10 is the Marine Corps birthday (248th this year), November 11 is Veterans Day, and of course there’s Thanksgiving. This blog will post on November 10 a day sacrosanct to the vast majority of Marines. The purpose of this blog is not to glorify any one branch of our military. It is I hope to save veteran lives.

Over the years the federal government, congress especially, seems to think that veterans, benefits and retirement funds are an incentive and are a place where they can cut spending. Personally, I don’t know why anyone would even consider a military career. The majority of veteran benefits are services, such as the Base Exchange (BX) or Post Exchange (PX) and are only of use if you live in the proximity of an operating base. Can anyone think of an open base (other than Coast Guard Station) in Maine? At one time there were AirForce bases in Limestone, Presque Isle, and Bangor (southern Maine was a short drive to Pease in Portsmouth, NH) and a Naval Air Station in Brunswick. Today there are none. The economic impact on Limestone (Caribou) and Presque Isle was devastating. When I grew up in Caribou the population was over 10,000 (9,423 in the 1990 census). In 2020 the population was 7,382, a decreas of 22%. The loss of jobs and the money spent blasted the economy. If I had to list all of the businesses that crashed it would fill this blog.

There is one government agency that has, in my opinion, done what it can to assist veterans–The Veterans Administration (VA). Over the years the VA has been plagued by a reputation of being at best slow, bordering on incompetent. When ever I talk with a veteran who has issues with the VA it always comes down to one thing … the beaurocrats who run the organiztion, not the medical that the dedicated doctors, nurses, and technicians. Especially those who work locally.

There are a couple of things that you should know about the VA and Maine. First, the first VA hospital was located in Togus, Maine. Second, the first Customer Based Out-patient Clinic in the country was in Caribou. But, I digress. Recently we fought against the closing of the Maine Veterans Home in Caribou (and won). The homes are run by a non-profit chartered by the state government. They listed several reasons why they felt that they had to close the home, tatamount of them was that the veteran population of the area was diminishing. We took exception to that argument. If you cross any parking lot in Aroostook County you will be astonished by the number of veteran license plates and decals for all branches of the military. Still (and keep in mind the adage: Figures don’t lie; but liars figure) an indepent study showed an overall decline in the veteran population. I founded and chair a group called the Aroostook Veterans Advocacy Committee, we spearheaded the movement to save the Caribou home. We have looked closely at the study and immediately saw the problem. Their only source of data was the VA. Remeber I mentioned the poor reputation the VA had? We are human and for humans being negative comes asy, being positive takes work.

Here’s what we learned. The negatives are still flowing around. When younger veterans first leave the military, they are mainly in their early to mid-twenties and are still immortal. They are for the most part in good health and medical care is the furthest thing in their mind. However … they won’t be healthy for ever (I’m living proof of that.). Let me tell you a short story.

It’s no secret that we Marines stick together like flies to flypaper. I was visiting with a veteran, several years younger than me (and who isn’t?). In the course of the conversation he mentioned that he has been battling bladder cancer and had several operations. I asked Larry (not his real name) how long he’d been on active duty. He answered four years. My next question was how much time at Camp Lejeune? Two years. Larry had been using his own health insurance to pay his medical bills and was struggling financially. I now asked him the important question. Have you heard about the Camp Lejeune water? NO.

A few years back the Marine Corps announced that anyone, military or civilian, who had spent more than thirty day at Lejeune and was suffering from a number of diseases (Bladder cancer and Parkinson’s are high on the list) might be eligible for a settlement. I asked Larry if he’d registered with the VA when hoe was discharged. He said No. Should I have?

The Marine Corps announced that the drinking water on Camp Lejeune had been contaminated. If you served there for thirty days or more between the years 1953 and 1987 the government had set aside more than a billion dollars to settle lawsuits. The next thing I said to Larry was, Get your butt down to your congressman’s office and ask for Kim. She will register you and help you do the paperwork.

That was this past April. Larry pulled into my driveway last week and I knew something was up by the smile and look of relief on his face. “Read this,” he said and handed me a sheet of paper. It was from the VA assessing him at 100% an he will receive a monthly pension just under $4,000. “And,” he said, “there was a seven thousand check with it!” I replied, “Wait, they’ll owe you backpay to the date you applied you should get six months back pay. You should see if they will reemburse some of the medical bills you paid.” “Should I get a lawyer?” he asked. “Why,” I answered, “do you want to give some ambulance chaser one-third or more of the money. The VA will handle this for you at no charge…”

Let’s return to the title of this post. What can you do to help the veteran in your life? HAVE THEM REGISTER WITH THE VA! Larry appeared healthy when he left the Corps more than forty years ago. Just because you don’t think you need the VA now, wait about thirty or forty years and see.

 

 

LESS THAN A MONTH OUT

by Jule Selbo

8 DAYS, the third book in my Dee Rommel Mystery series, will be released December 6, 2023.  The publisher tells me the paperback and hardback will be out a bit sooner, but the digital version will ‘drop’ that first week of December.

This is the time when I start hoping people will read what I worked on for a year and start wondering how all those bookreaders out there are divvied up.

According to UrbanWriters.com: the most popular genres (most books sold, did not specify where/how they got their data): number one is ROMANCE. Wish fulfillment, escapism, a lot of people like to think true love exists.  Number two is CRIME and THRILLER: the site reports that this genre stays neck and neck with Romance.  Instead of the warm and fuzzy and hopeful (where the conflicts are usually overcome), crime and thriller readers like to dig deep into the darker and more disturbing side of life where ‘bad’ people do face consequences.  Number three is RELIGIOUS AND SELF-HELP books. Number four is HUMOR and CHILDREN’S BOOKS.  Number five is SCI-FI and FANTASY.

8 DAYS, A Dee Rommel Mystery is a straight-forward crime mystery, it’s got a female protagonist, there’s a small hint of romance, a bit of humor, no religious overtones and it’s not suitable for children. And I wouldn’t dare to write ‘self-help’ – there are mornings when I decide to not get out of bed.

A few sites picked FANTASY as the number one genre for readers right now. Others focused on the fact that the number of sci fi and fantasy readers continues to grow at a leaping pace.  An article in YES magazine (originally in Mindsite News) is titled: “Young Readers Find Hope – and Escape – in Sci-fi and Fantasy Books”. The essay, written by Hermes Falcon and Kendall Covington, includes: “Fantasy fiction book sales increased dramatically in the past three years just as teen depression, anxiety, and focus on mental illness skyrocketed—parallel trends that may be both a symptom of the (past?) pandemic…”. Some reports even anoint fantasy literature as ‘health benefit’.

Fantasy tales, of course, can include systems of magic, mythical or out-of-this-world creatures, new forms of society, an acceptance of gender diversity and absolutely individual-istic goals. One essayist noted that the fantasy worlds are different from the ‘real’ world readers find themselves in (at least on Earth). Earth-Psychologists note that fantasy gives teens (in particular) a relief from a daily dark, dangerous, uncertain reality – a break from the “reality overload” of war, genocide, suicides, disease, mass shootings, climate change, reversal of women’s rights and more. (Or if we’re not going to the darkest, from the bully sitting across from them in Geography class, from the teacher with snout on his nose hairs, or the neighbor lady with twelve cats who watches you through her binoculars.)

Another site reported that more adults are reading sci-fi and/or fantasy. One adult reader mentioned that she didn’t want to read anything ‘real’. What she wanted was escape. “That ‘life’ today was painful enough.”

No sci-fi or fantasy in 8 DAYS.  A little science maybe. I am very interested in new tech robotics, so that does find its way in but it’s science-reality, not science-fiction…

Crime/mysteries (including thriller, cozy, spy etc.) are also listed as “mental health” enhancers.  Today’s readers, one essayist purported, even more than before, want to get engrossed in a story and feel a satisfaction when the mystery is solved, and the criminal is caught. And goes to jail. In today’s world – that ‘going to jail’ seems to be a sticking point in more than a few instances, but we, as writers of crime fiction, can give that satisfaction to the reader.

I read in one essay that evolutionary psychologists say that we’re drawn to the crime/mystery tales because murder, rape and theft have played a significant part in human society since our hunter-gatherer days. What does this mean? We read what we “know” in our bones? I don’t know if I am 100% on board with that theory.

I also got Google-happy trying to figure out the popularity of book series. 8 DAYS will make the Dee Rommel series a trilogy. I plan to do 10 books – (a decology). Will I make it? Will I stop at 4 (a tetralogy) – I will make it that far because I’m working on 7 DAYS now and I’m too stubborn not to finish something so there will be at least a tetralogy.

Will it be 5 (a pentalogy)? Or 6 (a hexalogy), or 7 (a heptalogy), or 8 (octology) or 9 (ennealogy). I know I love to read series; I like to stay with a character. A lot of Maine mystery writers  (and those out of Maine) have created characters that stay with you – but they live in ‘stand-alone’ books. IndiesUnlimited.com reported this is a popular series approach, it takes the pressure off the reader to ‘go in order’. A writer on the NY Book Editors site says she’s a fan of series – her article pointed to reasons: an increase of possible book sales, an increase in fan base, its ability to amplify a reading culture (keep them with books in their hands (or digital readers on their laps)) and more. She asked, what is one of the big reasons  readers like series? she asked. World-building. Readers like to drop back “in” to characters and locations. Less work for the reader, less set-up, more ‘straight-to-story’ stuff.

          …

8 DAYS, a Dee Rommel Mystery, features an arc for Dee Rommel but remains in the “stand-alone” category.  Publication date is December 6 across all platforms. The paperback and hardback will be available before the digital edition.

 

And The Leaves Drift Down, One By One

By Brenda Buchanan

This week I’m nursing an injured wrist, which makes typing something of a challenge.  So I dug into the archives and re-surfaced this post from 2016, which features nicer foliage photos than I could have taken this year, and autumn poetry that’s a comfort to read over and over again.

I hope to see as many of you as possible at Crime Bake, where the marvelous Deborah Crombie is Guest of Honor, and I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all!

The below post was titled “Sights and Sounds of Autumn in Maine” when it was first published on this blog on October 20, 2016.

**

The turning of the leaves took us by surprise this year.

The most beautiful season

After a long summer spent watering the garden we had modest hopes.

Too dry for good color, we thought. Wait ‘til next year. (Yes, Red Sox fans, we said that about more than the foliage.)

A few days into October the show began, startling us with its vibrancy.

Red maples flank a solider at Riverbank Park on Main Street in Westbrook

The swamp maples led the pack, but that’s true even in lesser leaf years. Then the big maple in our front yard began to glow, a reddish-yellow beacon visible from the end of the street. By last weekend all of southern Maine was alight.

Red tree, blue sky

To celebrate the end of a marvelous, warm summer, here are some photos from our recent travels, with some lovely poems about the season as accompaniment.

First, a Maine poet, Knox County’s own Edna St. Vincent Millay, whose iconic The Death of Autumn captures the despair that can accompany the dying season of the year:

When reeds are dead and a straw to thatch the marshes,

And feathered pampas-grass rides into the wind

Like aged warriors westward, tragic, thinned

Of half their tribe, and over the flattened rushes

Stripped of its secret, open, stark and bleak,

Blackens afar the half-forgotten creek–

The leans on me the weight of the year, and crushes

My heart. I know that Beauty must ail and die,

And will be born again–but ah, to see

Beauty stiffened, staring up at the sky!

Oh, Autumn! Autumn! – What is the Spring to me?

Marshland adjacent to the Mousam River in Kennebunk

On the October 10 Writer’s Almanac, Garrison Keillor read Wendell Berry’s poem by the same name, which evokes not only the visual but the auditory aspects of autumn:

    Now constantly there is the sound,

quieter than rain,

of the leaves falling.  

Under their loosening bright

gold, the sycamore limbs

bleach whiter.

  Now the only flowers

are beeweed and aster, spray

of their white and lavender

over the brown leaves.

  The calling of a crow sounds

Loud – landmark – now

that the life of summer falls

silent, and the nights grow.

A tree alight

Finally, Song For Autumn, by the marvel who is Mary Oliver, a poet whose connection with nature is second to none.

In the deep fall

don’t you imagine the leaves think how

comfortable it will be to touch

the earth instead of the

nothingness of air and the endless

freshets of wind? And don’t you think

the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,

warm caves, begin to think

of the birds that will come—six, a dozen—to sleep

inside their bodies? And don’t you hear

the goldenrod whispering goodbye,

the everlasting being crowned with the first

tuffets of snow? The pond

vanishes, and the white field over which

the fox runs so quickly brings out

its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its

bellows. And at evening especially,

the piled firewood shifts a little,

longing to be on its way.

Fall dunes at Ferry Beach in Scarborough