Lea Wait's Blog, page 72

New England Crime Bake 2022 – History is Mystery

I’m just back from the New England Crime Bake, a three-day conference of crime writers from across the region, and have some highlights and photos to share.

This year’s Guest of Honor was William Martin, the master of the historical thriller.  Have you read Back Bay? Cape Cod? Citizen Washington? The Lincoln Letter? If so, you know Bill has the ability to bring history alive with compelling stories of suspense. His work  inspired this year’s theme of HISTORY IS MYSTERY and his current novel, December ’41 inspired many to wear WWII-era attire to the Saturday evening banquet.

On Friday evening, Bill Martin showed off his skill as a storyteller during the TRUTH OR FICTION? panel. The audience doubted his true stories and bought his lies, the mark of an expert. At right is Julie Carrick Dalton, who told some cracking good true and untrue tales of her own.

Four members of this blog pose during the 1940s-themed banquet. Back row L to R, Matt Cost, Richard Cass and Vaughn Hardacker (who always wins the prize for longest drive). Front row L to R, MCW founder Kate Flora, B.J.Magnani (former chair of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at Tufts University and the author of three novels featuring Dr. Lily Robinson, poison expert) and Leslie Wheeler, co-winner of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

Maine thriller author and MCW alum Chris Holm, far right, was part of a panel discussion titled ANOTHER KIND OF FUTURE – VAMPIRES, ETC., which broke new ground for brilliant and hilarious panel discussions. From left, moderator Nicole Asselin poses with panelists Dana Cameron, Paul Tremblay, Bracken MacLeod and Chris.

The Milliken sisters, Rebecca and the MCW blog’s own Maureen, in the audience at a panel discussion.

MCW alum Julia Spencer-Fleming, center, was a lively member of a terrific panel discussion on BUILDING THE COMPLEX PLOT. From left, moderator C. Michele Dorsey, Liv Constantine, Julia, Peter Swanson and Glede Browne Kabongo.

Me, moderating/herding the cats during the TRUTH OR FICTION?panel on Friday night.

MCW alum Bruce Robert Coffin with Alexia Gordon, author of the award-winning Gethsemane Brown mystery series and a pal of many Maine Crime Writers.

Caitlin Wahrer, whose debut novel, THE DAMAGE, won the Maine Literary Aware for Crime Fiction and was nominated for the 2022 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

Dick Cass, Julia Spencer-Fleming and me.

As you can see from all of the smiles, it was a fun, productive and memorable weekend. For readers of this blog  interested in attending Crime Bake in the future, it takes place in Massachusetts on the second weekend of each November.  For more information go to https://crimebake.org

  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: November 12-13, 2022

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

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

Matt Cost will be joining many fellow Maine Crime Writers as well as many more at Crime Bake this weekend. A great opportunity to take some great classes, listen to scintillating panel discussions, and mingle with 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

Maine Veterans’ Homes

Vaughn C. Hardacker

Today, November 11, is Veterans’ Day. It was originally Armistice Day to commemorate the veterans of WWI. The treaty ending the war (even though hostilities had stopped months before) was signed at 11 A.M. (the eleventh hour) on the 11th day of the 11th month. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill making it a day to honor all veterans who served honorably on May 26, 1954. As a veteran, it is a day I hold dear and makes me pause and reflect on “What have I done for other veterans this past year?” This year I can reflect back with pride and a sense of accomplishment.

About The Maine Veterans’ Homes. The Maine Veterans Homes’ are regulated by the Maine Department of Veterans Affairs but are not run by it. The homes are run by a non-profit corporation, The Maine Veterans Homes’ The administration of Maine Veterans’ Homes is vested in the Board of Trustees of the Maine Veterans’ Homes. The Board of Trustees is formally appointed by the Governor and is comprised of honorably discharged Veterans and non-veteran community members who broadly represent the various Veteran organizations, interests, and geographic regions of the state. The initial charter specified that locations would be in Augusta, Bangor, Caribou, Machias, Scarborough, and South Paris. The board later changed this without the approval of the legislature.

In October 2021, the Board met behind closed doors and decided to close the Caribou and Machias locations in May 2022. They also agreed to keep this confidential until February 2022 because they feared an exodus of nurses and staff. Delaying the announcement also made the window for public input would be reduced. When they made the announcement public, the Board cited the following reasons for the closures (1) difficulties in finding qualified staff and (2) a declining population of veterans. When he learned of the closures, Senator Troy Jackson took action. He wrote a bill requiring the Maine Veterans’ Homes to go before the legislature (which was not required then) and contacted several area veterans groups.

Presentation of WWII Appreciation to Robert Michaud USMC

As Commandant of Detachment 1414 of the Marine Corps League, I was notified of this decision. It spurred me into action. Several years ago, my detachment identified as many living WWII veterans as possible. We visited each one and presented them with a certificate of appreciation and an American Flag. It was possibly one of the most emotional events I’ve ever been involved in. The reaction we received from these men and women was phenomenal, everything from surprise to hugging us–we even saw a lot of tears. Never before had I experienced a ninety-something-year-old veteran struggling out of a wheelchair to stand at attention to salute me. I even met a Navy veteran who drove one of the landing craft that took U. S. Marines ashore at the battle of Iwo Jima.

At the time, five of these veterans lived in the Caribou Maine Veterans’ Home. We learned of a public hearing with the Committee On Veterans and Legal Affairs and obtained access. More than twenty local veterans attended and were each given three minutes to speak. We got our eyes open wide about the management of the Maine Veterans’ Homes. The CEO of the non-profit (who we later learned was earning $243,000.00 per year) stated his case mentioning the items listed above. The next speaker was an employee of the Caribou home. Her comments were: “Of course, they can’t find qualified staff. They’ve had a hiring freeze on since October. As for there not being a large enough population of veterans, currently, 100% of our beds are occupied, and we have a waiting list.” She closed with a warning, “We haven’t started seeing an influx of Vietnam and Gulf wars veterans  The committee approved Senator Jackson’s bill and went before the entire legislature, which was unanimously approved. Governor Mills signed the bill into law, and the Maine Veterans’ Homes backed down. Another factor was the expansion of the Augusta location.

The Maine Veterans’ Homes had received approval for a $30,000,000 bond to construct a new home in Augusta. There was more surprise when we saw photos of the new location (where we were told our patients could be moved to. Why not tell our people to say a final goodbye to their loved ones because they’d never see them again?) The new home was over budget by a considerable amount, and The Maine Veterans’ Homes wanted it to be as fully occupied as possible to justify the cost overruns (this is my personal theory). The pictures showed fancy entrances to the rooms (all of which were private), coffee shops, and conference rooms that could be rented. “What do those things have to do with caring for our veterans?” was the most often asked question.

In closing, we saved the Caribou and Macias homes, and the board, which previously had no representation north of Bangor, now has an Aroostook County member. I wrote a letter to the governor recommending the expansion of the Board and the creation of an advisory committee that would meet periodically with the management of the Caribou home to discuss ways in which we, veterans’ organizations, can assist them. We also have made a commitment to ourselves that we will not be caught off guard again… we will continue to monitor the actions of The Maine Veterans’ Homes.

BTW. It has been reported to me that the CEO of the Maine Veterans’ Homes has announced his intention to retire early in 2023.

 

Places & Spaces

I recently had to go back in one of my novels and change the name of a popular restaurant I used. Why? Because the restaurant went out of business and I didn’t want to date my novel by having a restaurant that no longer exists. So instead I changed it to Becky’s Diner, knowing that Becky’s Diner is an institution that has been around for awhile, and should be around for the foreseeable future.

As a reader, do you enjoy reading about real places and products in a novel? I know I do. I tend to look up stuff on the internet after reading about place and see if the mentioned restaurant or coffee shop really exists. Or a particular brand of local beer. Real places in a book grounds the story for me and makes it authentic. If I’m visiting that city, its a place where I probably would like to visit, and sit in the same seat that a familiar character or villian once sat in, like Norm in Cheers. Or quaff a local brew that the characters like to drink.

But there are times when I need to use a fictional business place or restaurant in my story. For example, if one of my characters has a bad meal there. Or if something negative happens in the business that might end up with the owner of the establishment suing me for libel. Ha! I’m a working writer. Good luck getting blood from a stone.

Say I’m writing a story about an unethical doctor or shady hospital administrator. Or a sleazy college professor who seduces his students. In that scenario, there’s no way I’m using a real name. Instead of Maine Medical I’ll make up another name, like Casco Bay Hospital. Or Dirigo University. I’ll use a name that won’t get me in trouble, but somehow alludes to the locale I’m setting my story in. I’ll never write a novel about a chef who poisons his customers and have him working at a wonderful floating restaurant named Demillo’s.

In one of my earlier books, a horror novel before I transitioned to crime fiction, I set one gory scene in a well-known Boston college. This was before I really started thinking about places and spaces in my novel. Well, it could have been a disaster publicity-wise. But instead the book made 10 Best Literary References to Berklee College, alingside some big name writers. https://www.berklee.edu/news/berklee-now/10-best-literary-references-berklee

My general rule in using an establishment or product’s name in a book is to use if it’s good, and change the name if it reflects negatively on the place or product. I’ve even had instances in my book where readers were so convinced a fictional beer was real that they looked it up, only to discover it never really existed. I suppose that’s a compliment.

In any case, if you’re a writer, keep using those landmarks in your manuscript to give a sense of place and space. Mention popular local beers and coffee shops. Your readers will surely appreciate it and enjoy your novel more than if you go generic.

TAKING BREAKS AIN’T ALL BAD by Jule Selbo

 

I had to take a break from working on the next book in my Dee Rommel series (8 DAYS) for a good week and a half last month to write a speech for a conference. The picture above (from Madam Satan, a 1930s film) is an indication of my annoyed and frustrated self.

But it turned out to be a good break – and educational. The most important lesson was that I no longer wanted to take on other projects – that I wanted to  concentrate on one creative thing – writing this mystery/crime series.

But besides that – I did find that my thinking regarding my main character, Dee Rommel, did benefit from some of the energy (positive and negative) that I garnered while doing research for my speech.

What’s the speech for?

A conference on Feminist Film. Why am I involved? Here’s the background: When I was a screenwriter in Hollywood, I was drafted by California State University, Fullerton to help set up a playwriting degree in the Theater Department. Since I had, formerly, worked happily as a playwright in NYC (and put it aside when I started writing tv and film projects), I jumped at the chance to get my small toe back into the theater. I figured out a way to arrange with the studio I was working for to have every Thursday night off (7pm to 10 pm) so I could teach at the University. (I had to promise I’d come back to the studio after 10 pm if needed – and lots of times, given tv series’ schedules, that did happen.)

The Film Department at the University started sending their students over to the playwriting class and eventually asked me to help set up an MFA program in the film department for screenwriters.

Soon I had one foot in Hollywood and one foot in academia. I liked it. The two paths complimented each other and satisfied two different parts of my brain. I ended up writing three “how-to-write” screenwriting books and also contributed other academic books and wrote journal articles on film history while writing (not so academic) projects for Disney and Aaron Spelling (who says Melrose Place was not an academic project?).

The work that takes me away from my 8 DAYS writing schedule is my final swan song to my academic life. I hang up my professor’s mortarboard and tassel May 2023. (Yeah!) But as life plays out, in these final months, I was asked to do this speech at the conference. And since the gathering is in Sweden and my plane fare and hotel would be covered, I said yes. (I’ll be giving my keynote on November 10 – that might be the  day you’re reading this blog). But the bad news was (for me) I had to switch gears from crime/mystery and think about what I considered to be viable and not-so-viable feminist films in America.

One of the academic journal articles I wrote a few years back was on PRE-CODE (1929-1934) cinema in America. That’s the era from when sound in movies became the norm and before the “Code to Govern the Making of Talking, Synchronized and Silent Motion Pictures” was adopted. Film historians have noted that male-female relationships, during this period, were presented as healthy, sane and lively. Men and women were presented as equal partners in the “adventure of life”. Many of the films written in this era are feminist films – written by women and men.

When the 1934 Production Code, (sometimes referred to as the Hays Code) was adopted, many film stories/topics/subjects were no longer allowed and characters inhabiting stories were forced to change. (This censorship code has nothing to do with the Rating Systems (G, PG, R, X etc.) that was adopted in the late 1960s.) The Production Code was instigated by ultra-conservatives and religious organizations that were concerned with what they saw as Americans’ “lax morality”; they were especially concerned that women were being celebrated for being intelligent, soul-searching, clever, ambitious and desirous of equality. The head of the Production Code Administration office was Irish Catholic Joseph Breen, he became famous for saying, “I am so enthusiastic about this whole (censorship) business that I’d be tempted to bite the legs off of anybody who might dare to cross me…”

Reading about Breen and his agenda has always annoyed me – and Dee Rommel, my protagonist, is fueled, at times, by annoyance. So as I dug back into this topic, I was reminded to keep that side of Dee “alive.”

In Pre-Code cinema in America, a woman could get divorced and not be ostracized (like a man), she was in charge of decisions about her own body (like a man), she could have affairs and be understood (just like a man), she could be head of a company (like a man), she could choose not to have a family – or if she did have a family, she could make choices that did not always put family responsibilities first and be understood (like a man), she could love someone of her own sex and not be judged.

However, to be in accordance with the 1934 Code, female protagonists were expected to be virgins or safely married, they had to obey their husbands or acknowledge that men “knew best”, they had to sacrifice all for hearth and home, they could not “enjoy” liquor, they could not let a kiss linger for more than three seconds and one of their feet must always be on the floor while being kissed, and many many more restrictions. These edicts were written into a document and scripts were written (or re-written against the original author’s desire) to adhere to the rules. If a woman was the femme fatale in a noir film – she must be punished (killed, arrested or ostracized), she must be presented as absolutely soulless/despicable. (Remember Double Indemnity (1944, a Code film), Stanwyck did end up on a beach with a cocktail looking pleased, but she was ostracized and audiences were set up to hate her supreme evilness.)

I decided, for my speech, to look at American feminist films written/produced in America in the last twenty years or so and compare them with the feminist films written during the PreCode era. My research energized me in unexpected ways.  Dee Rommel, my protagonist, has definite opinions on a woman’s place in America, the opportunities she should have and or demand and how she expects to be treated in professional and social situations. So, as noted earlier, when my research “upset” me, it fueled the corner of my brain where Dee Rommel was waiting.

My research also got me wondering this: If the Production Code had never been put into effect, would some of the movies being made today still need to be made? For nearly 40 years after the Code was adopted, the depiction of women was controlled by the “moral watchdogs” whose agenda was to keep a woman basically silent and “in her place”. (Dee Rommel (if she had lived in those times) would not have been a fan of these watchdogs.)

Would we, in America,  still have to be making some of the movies we’re making? Did the strict Code really re-form expectations and hopes and ways women were treated? How influential were those Code films? While digging into the list of feminist films produced in the last twenty years, it struck me (duh) how similar/same these more recent film stories were to the Pre-Code era’s films.

 

In 1934, Mary Stevens MD, was a box office hit; it dealt with a professional woman (a doctor) who has to decide whether or not to go through with a pregnancy.

 

Call Jane (2022) is a very similar story, as are many other recent films because this subject today, is relevant to today’s concerns.

 

Divorcee was a 1930 movie where a woman left an unsatisfactory, unequal marriage and, despite threats from family and husband, was able to retain her place of respect in society and her social sphere. When the Code was enacted, it was decreed that “the sanctity of marriage was always to be upheld.” If there was trouble in a marriage, it was solved and the partners were reunited at FADE OUT.

In 42nd Street (1933), Millie (1931) and Ladies They Talk About (1933) same-sex love was included in films, and then these stories disappeared – listed an inappropriate by the Code.

It wasn’t until 1982’s Personal Best (penned by Robert Towne), that the subject of a love affair between two women was explored in a mainstream Hollywood film.

Sexual harassment in the workplace was explored in Employee’s Entrance (1933) and Female (1934; in this film it is the female boss harassing the men). Studios are now deep into telling the same stories ( think Bombshell and the many #MeToo movies on the horizon) for American movie-goers. She Said – focused on the Harvey Weinstein case, is just one of the films.

I could list the Pre-Code movies that dealt with women, in abusive relationships, who gathered the strength to take legal action against their abusers. Then these stories vanished. It was until Post-Code (mid-1960s) that movies like The Burning Bed (1984), The Accused (1988) and the more recent Pink (2020) and Women Talking (2022) could be made.

Who know where some of the issues in American society would be if those 40 years of “stories shaped by the Code” had not happened?  What do you think? I think of some of the plots/problems/reasons for crime that Dee Rommel is going to find herself in – and wonder if I might be looking at different motives.  Sure, murder, robbery and other biggees seem to be a perennial problem, but would character motivations in other areas be different?

I could go on, but you get the point. Reading, researching and reminding myself of film stories made before the Code went into effect, and then the time period where (most) storylines were controlled and shaped in an attempt to model human behavior and thought and didn’t deal with “real” problems/crimes/abuses – got me re-energized to keep Dee Rommel strong, opinionated and determined to follow her own path.

Weekend Update: November 5-6, 2022

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

C’est un petit monde

Ooh la la. I have some good writing news. Yay for more euros! Do you know I have been an international best-selling author? C’est vrai.  At least in France. (I am hearing the Coneheads now. At. Least. In. France.) I’m sorry to say it’s not my 1920s-set mystery series that climbed the Amazon.fr charts, but rather the four Edwardian-era Ladies Unlaced romance books. They feature an unusual employment agency and some rather desperate employers, and the first got a starred review from Library Journal which I’m gonna brag on until I’m dead. They sold really well when they were first translated, and the French language rights have just been renewed.

I had to sign an e-document on my computer to extend them. Well, after rolling the mouse around like I was drunk, I managed to cobble together some of the letters in my name. I would have been better off writing a big X for all that you can read it.

Foreign editions are fascinating. I’ve been translated into nine languages, and depending on the alphabet, can sometimes barely recognize my name. The cover artwork is almost always changed, and often the titles are too. The French editions even changed the name of the series, but kept the first title (In the Arms of the Heiress). The subsequent books are totally different. In the Heart of the Highlander became Give Me One Night, The Reluctant Governess is The Colors of Eliza, and The Unsuitable Secretary morphed into Under the Spell of Harriet. I still can’t read them no matter who casts the spell or what they’re called.

I took two years of French in high school, where my teacher, Madame Rothenberg was young, pretty, and very stylish. She fled from Belgium to Spain to escape the Nazis (if you have time, her oral history is fascinating: The Digital Collections of the National WWII Museum : Oral Histories | Oral History (ww2online.org), and I often wonder how she wound up in a suburban New York classroom.

Alas, as great as a teacher she was, I was absolutely stymied in conversation. I aced memorizing vocabulary lists, but when it was time to talk, nada. I can pick out a few words when I read now, but not enough to make much sense out of them. I was, however, pretty good with menus and street signs when we were in Paris. Le hamburger avec fromage remains a classique.

The first two books in this series were also translated into German, and something amazing happened. Years ago, we hosted an exchange student, multi-lingual Ursula from Kulmbach, Germany, who grew up to own a translation company. Guess who was hired to do the books? Small world indeed! Here In the Heart of the Highlander has turned into A Scandal in Scotland. Gotta love those scandals, LOL.

I am reminded of George Clooney, who recently said, “I’m from Kentucky. English is my second language.” Americans are very fortunate that most of the world teaches English in their schools. We seem to be very resistant to learning another language, and so often have trouble with our own. Bless those souls who can move from one culture to another and make themselves understood!

Do you have a passing acquaintance with a foreign language? I need subtitles, even for English programs, LOL.

“Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.” ― Amy Chua

For more info on Maggie and her books, please visit www.maggierobinson.net

 

De Feet or Defeat: Where do you stand?

John Clark with a soap box moment. Douglas Rooks’ opinion piece in today’s Waterville Sentinel begins thusly: “Tuesday will mark the 50th anniversary of my first vote. Since 1972, I’ve voted in 12 presidential elections and 11 previous midterms, and on a lot of other occasions. “

He might as well have been describing me. Like many of my generation, I wasn’t able to vote at a time when my emotions and involvement was at fever pitch in the late 1960s. Once I was able to register, I vowed never to miss a state or national election and I’ve been able to do so.

In the last decade, I’ve gone beyond simply voting, have gone to several state conventions as a delegate, run for the state legislature, and this year, have campaigned on weekends for Democrats in two counties. When asked to do a bit more by the Progressive Turnout Project, I signed on to purchase 100 postcards and stamps. The organization emailed me a list of 100 registered voters in numerous states from Maine to New Mexico. I addressed each card, added a message to encourage them to vote, as well as thanking them for doing so, and mailed them on October 28th. The process, thanks to arthritic hands and nearly illegible penmanship, took the better part of three days. Will it have an impact? I hope so, but actions like the ones I have taken during this election cycle are important, if only to make me feel as though I’ve done the best I can.

My recent tumble off a stone wall while picking apples that resulted in my landing face first on a tar road, cut short some of what I wanted to do, as well as dope-slapping any remaining feelings of dexterity and ability to do things like I could just a few years ago. I’m sure my emotional state would be worse if I hadn’t gotten involved in the activities described above.

I have one more contribution to democracy this time around. I’m going to a training session this evening so I can be a ballot clerk next Tuesday. God help anyone who tries to harass me on election day.

You have one simple job after reading this-Get off your butt and VOTE. It ain’t rocket science, and I’m not asking/telling you who, or what to vote for. While you’re at it, grab a friend and take them too. If you want to do more, contact the local office of the party of your choice and volunteer to drive folks to the polls. This is just as important in a city as it is in T9, R7.

Think we can’t make a difference? Read this article, then Go vote! https://www.bangordailynews.com/2022/11/02/news/central-maine/pittsfield-library-budget/

Mystery Series You May Have Missed

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, again recommending other people’s books. Today I want to highlight a few mystery series I particularly like. The first three are Indie published by authors who were first published by traditional publishers. In other words, these writers are professionals who know how to do it right.

First up is Patricia McLinn’s “Caught Dead in Wyoming” series of eleven books (# 12, Air Ready, is scheduled for April 12, 2023). I was hooked from #1, Sign Off. The amateur sleuth is Elizabeth Danniher, formerly an on-air reporter at a top TV station in a major market, now reduced, through no fault of her own, to working at tiny a station in the middle of nowhere. The balance of personal growth with mystery solving is just about perfect, and the cast of supporting characters adds both complexity and humor to the mix.

I met Patricia back in the 1990s when we were both writing category romance. Her day job was working for the Washington Post, a background that serves her well in creating this series. For more information on her books, go to www.PatriciaMcLinn.com.

I also met Patricia Rice back in my early writing days. She’s written in a variety of genres, including romance, historical romance, urban fantasy, and mystery. Many of her books feature characters who have inherited a little something extra from their ancestors. In the case of Evie Malcolm Carstairs, amateur sleuth in the “Psychic Solutions” series, it’s the ability to communicate with ghosts. The Indigo Solution, the first book in this five-book series (#5, The Aura Answer, will be released on November 8), introduces her as a “dog walker and ghost buster,” but by the second book, she and some equally interesting continuing characters, some of them with tech and law enforcement experience and some who contribute in non-traditional ways, have formed a company called Sensible Solutions. Their goal is to make a living solving crimes and other problems. There is lots of humor, along with the woo-woo elements, but best of all these books are page turners. You can find out more at www.PatriciaRice.com.

I’ve never met Sara Rosett, but her background is similar to that of the two Patricias. First published by an established New York publisher, she then moved on to become quite prolific as an Indie author. Her “Murder on Location” series falls into the cozy subgenre. Seven books, starting with Murder in the English Countryside, feature amateur sleuth Kate Sharp, an American location scout in England. In the first book, she’s there to scout locations for a new movie version of Pride and Prejudice. Later assignments include scouting locations for filming a documentary about Jane Austen and attending a Regency house party. Each one returns her to England so that other characters who appeared in the first book, including a love interest, can pop up again. A nice sprinkling of humor keeps plots centered around murder from becoming too dark. Sara’s website is www.SaraRosett.com.

cover of the edition I have–there is a newer one

All three series are great escapist fare. So is a seven-book, humorous, paranormal mystery (aka urban fantasy) series that is traditionally published by DAW Books. The Esther Diamond series by Laura Resnick (yet another acquaintance from the days of writing romance) features a mostly out-of-work actress in New York City who keeps getting involved in solving murders with a occult twist. She’s aided and abetted by a 350 year old sorcerer charged with fighting evil in Manhattan and her on-again, off-again love interest, a police detective. The series starts with Disappearing Nightly and continues with Doppelgangster, Unsympathetic Magic, Vamparazzi, Polterheist, The Misfortune Cookie, and Abracadaver. In case you couldn’t tell from the titles, there’s a strong element of humor in all these books. My personal favorite is Polterheist, in which Esther takes a seasonal job in a department store as Santa’s Jewish elf. Laura’s website is www.LauraResnick.com but she posts more frequently on her Facebook page, where she keeps followers updated on her work fostering cats for a local rescue group and her day job as a walking-tour guide to the “underground” of her home town.

Happy Reading, Everyone!

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others, including several children’s books. 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. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. Her most recent publications are The Valentine Veilleux Mysteries (a collection of three short stories and a novella, written as Kaitlyn) and I Kill People for a Living: A Collection of Essays by a Writer of Cozy Mysteries (written as Kathy). She maintains websites at www.KaitlynDunnett.com and www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.

 

What Scares Us. What Scares You?

From time to time, we offer a group post in which we all weigh in on the same subject. Today, in honor of Halloween, the subject is: What Scares You? We’ll share what scares us, and hope you’ll add some thoughts about what scares you.

Kate Flora: As a long-time crime writer who has spent years imagining bad things, as well as a writer of true crime, the thing that I stumble over, and worry about, and definitely fear is randomness. Random crimes. Crimes that aren’t predictable and can’t always be avoided no matter how careful a person is. These are the crimes like the one recently involving a teacher who was out jogging and simply snatched off the street and murdered. The random shooter from a highway bridge or the group of careless teenagers who drop rocks onto passing cars. Yes, huge spiders on my sleeve scare me, as do many of the post-pandemic drivers I encounter on the highway. So do crazies who get in my face when I’m walking (I seem to be a crazy magnet) but most of all, what scares me when I read about them or imagine them are the random acts of violence that can come out of nowhere.

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson:  Lots of things in real life scare me right now, including the guy to the left and other far right Maga Republicans who want to take women’s rights back to the dark ages and otherwise screw up this state and this country. Loose-cannon dictators in other countries scare me. And climate change. And natural disasters. And pandemics that kill off way too many friends and acquaintances.

But in the interest of keeping this post from being too depressing, and in light of the fact that being “scared” can also be a fleeting, almost pleasurable thing, I’ll add that the thing that scared me the most as a kid was the cyclops in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. I swear I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting to find it following me, for years after I first saw that movie!

Maureen Milliken. What Kathy said! (Full disclosure, I’d thought of saying “the collapse of democracy,” but then I figured I should stay in the spirit of fun, not crushing.soul-shredding terror.)

I don’t really get scared that much, but I have to say any time I’m out walking in the woods by myself, I make sure the panic button app on my phone is engaged. Women should not have to police themselves, or be afraid of hiking or being alone at any time, anywhere, day or night, but yet we’re the ones who have to be on guard.

On a recent drive up the Kennebec River Valley, I wasn’t afraid of getting swept away at Wyman Dam, but was fairly nervous about being alone in such a remote place.

And I’m not referring to bears, coyotes, skunks, or any other critters. I’m talking, of course, about the animal that’s most dangerous to women.

A couple weeks ago on a beautiful fall day, I went driving up the upper Kennebec Valley, just to enjoy nature, see the foliage and check things out. At two different Kennebec River boat landings the only people there were me and a guy (different guy each time) sitting in a pickup truck smoking a cigarette. I’m not saying the guy was doing anything wrong, but I’m wary of being alone in a remote area along a river with a guy who is not fishing, not boating (no sign of equipment for those things at least), but just sitting there, watching me get out of my car. Maybe they were enjoying the river and the foliage and all that, too. But since I’m a woman by myself, it’s not in my best interest to find out.

I also checked out the massive and lonely Wyman Dam, but, after walking around a little bit, began to feel like I needed to be back in the safety of my car.

And I knew if something DID happen, people would be all, “What the hell was SHE thinking wandering around on her own like that?”

Several years ago I mentioned to two different men, separately, that I didn’t like to go into the deserted USM library garage late at night. Neither realized my point was that as a woman, I don’t feel comfortable being in dark deserted public places at night. Once I explained it, their lightbulb lit up and they got it. It seemed like a revelation to them. It was funny how I had the exact same experience with each guy. My lightbulb lit up, too — how women have a whole level of fear to deal with that men not only don’t have, but aren’t even aware of.

Laura Richards, formerly of Scotland Yard, and an expert on gender and domestic violence, remarked during a manhunt in England for someone who’d killed a young woman walking home alone at night that, instead of women being urged to stay indoors, maybe the curfew should be for men, since they’re the ones who were doing the attacking. Oh the hue and cry! The horror at the thought that they would have to alter their behavior.

Anyway, none of that’s going to change anytime soon, is it?

Oh yeah, the other thing? Bats. I used to never have a problem, but a long-running bat infestation in my house, that included frantic indoor visits from the lovable little flying rodents, who weren’t any happier to be in the situation than I was, has caused a bat-phobia. I had it taken care of two years ago (they block the entrances, etc.), but one got in last fall, and now every sound in the eaves makes me lie in bed paralyzed with anxiety that one is going to burst into my bedroom and fly into my face. Very very occasionally, if I hear a noise in the wall, I even go downstairs and sleep on the couch, which bothers the hell out of my cats, because that’s their territory in the wee hours.

I’m trying to get over it by reading about bats. The Nature Conservancy is unwittingly helping by frequently sending a fundraising aappeal with a photo of bats on it that says, “Who could love this face?” I feel like it’s a message from the universe for me to get over it and have some kind feelings for the poor bats. I even use the bookmarks that come with it. And, I admit, the return address labels.

Oh, I’m also afraid of a tree failling on my house while I’m sleeping, but that’s a story for another day.

Brenda Buchanan:   I’m glad Maureen came out of the closet as a bat weenie, because it gives me courage to admit my fear of mice.  They freak me out, full stop.  When I was in college in Boston, a dorm across the alleyway from mine was gut renovated. The process loosed many, many, many mice (and rats!) into the neighborhood, all seeking new homes. My dorm apparently had a big neon Welcome Mice! sign invisible to humans, because we had a lot of new dormmates that year. These were not the live-and-let-live field mice of my childhood–not a one resembled Stuart Little–they were urban mice (and rats!) and they stole my sleep often that year.

I don’t have to contend with street smart rodents in my suburban neighborhood in southern Maine, but once burned, twice shy, as they say. Our local expert on how to keep unwanted creatures outside where they belong will be making her biennial visit to our abode soon, sealing up any potential entry points. She is one of my heroes.

Matt Cost: FDR once said, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. Well, yeah. But what are the things that we DO fear? There are many, but I will focus on quitting, which is a fear that haunts me year around, not just at Halloween.

As Lance Armstrong says in the classic movie Dodgeball, “Well, I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn’t have anything to regret for the rest of their life. But good luck to you Peter. I’m sure this decision won’t haunt you forever.”

Kenny Rogers said, “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, Know when to fold ’em”. And that’s the truth, as long as you realize there are some things you never give up, and you never fold ’em, and you never quit. Regret is not something that goes away.

Maggie Robinson: I too am finding politics pretty problematic, and I can’t tell you how many hours my husband and I have spent discussing the depressing state of almost everything except our adorable grandchildren. But I remind myself to look to the natural world for comfort and joy. Fall is such a special time, and it’s never long enough. I recently went into my beautiful garden to plant 75 daffodil bulbs. After planting about 40 of them, I decided to take a break and bask in the sunshine. Well, guess what else wanted to bask along with me? A really, really enormous slithery snake that slipped through the leaves by my favorite chair, right where my feet would have been if I had sat down. I have been told there are no poisonous snakes in Maine, but that did not stop me from screaming. Then I saw a really, really enormous fat yellow spider weaving a web on that same chair, a few ladybugs already caught in it waiting to become dinner. No basking, but another scream. I went back to planting and dug up a really, really long earthworm. You can figure out what I did–when I went fishing, someone else always had to bait my hook while I closed my eyes. I guess the natural world and I are not truly sympatico. No snakes. No spiders. No worms. And no politicians of a certain persuasion, please.

Sandra Neily: Maureen and Kaitlyn hit the fear truth for me already: a pic of Paul LeRage (yes, that’s what I call him, lerage … am soooooo done with bullies), and then the fear of being a woman alone, exploring, when men feel threatening, even if there’s nothing overt.

But the biggest fear I sometimes had was guiding the Penobscot River and first thing we’d hit was a rapid called Exterminator (named for good flipping reasons), knowing that after a brief, placid warm up, I had a crew who’d never paddled much or at all. Folks figured it out a bit later into the trip, but the first rapid was the unforgiving Exterminator. It was a very bad swim.

And then of course the roar of the river often took away crews’ sense of left from right, as when I’d yell … (the pic shows a good yell)  … “All Forward Left,” or “Back Right!” The good news was we were trained on the rough places, trained to work the river as if our entire crew hit the floor and we were left alone up on the raft tube.

I now go yearly to stand next to the river’s rapids and cast flies out into the current. And each time I wade out to my knees to fish or just stand there and feel the tug and hear the rush, I am grateful for whatever the river has to offer, but also grateful foryears of being in the thick of it.