Lea Wait's Blog, page 79

She Has a Strange Idea of Fun

Kate Flora: Last week I took a break from revising my non-mystery book, Unleashed Love, the story of a woman who discovers the post-breakup dog she got from the shelter was a match-making dog. For two days, I drove from the island to Colby College in Waterville to attend part of the annual Coby Forensics Conference. While forensics are not everyone’s cup of tea, I know, I enjoy two information-filled days in a college classroom, learning about DNA and Genetic Genealogy, unidentified remains, expert witness testimony, and stress-induced markers in cases of child abuse.

Sound like fun to you? It was fascinating to me.

The first speaker I got to watch was from the Doe Project. I knew that there were a couple of large organizations that worked with genetic genealogy. What I didn’t know is that one of them, The Doe Project, limits its investigative work to identifying bodies, whether homicide victims or simply those who have died without identification, rather than taking on cases like that of the Golden State Killer, where the process was used to identify the man who’d committed multiple homicides. My mother was fascinated by genealogy back when it didn’t happen on line but through correspondence with record keepers and older family members who might have memories or old family records. Getting a glimpse of how complicated it can be, even when there is a usable DNA sample, to trace ancestry, was illuminating, and far more difficult that I had ever imagined.

Along with the fascination of learning new information was learning that one of the founders of the Doe Project was Dr. Margaret Press. I knew Margaret back when we were both writers in the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime. When Susan Oleksiw, Skye Alexander and I founded Level Best Books and were publishing crime stories by New England writers, we published at least one of Margaret’s stories. Margaret also inspired me to try writing true crime when she published her own book about a murder, A Scream on the Water. The way she handled the victim’s story was particularly inspirational and became a model for me when I was working on Finding Amy. Margaret’s book was subsequently republished as Counterpoint. https://www.amazon.com/Counterpoint-Murder-Massachusetts-Margaret-Press-ebook/dp/B009Z774G2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2YEMB2RRMXUL1&keywords=Margaret+Press&qid=1659375478&sprefix=margaret+press%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-1

About six weeks ago, I had the privilege of speaking at the annual training and conference of the Maine Association of Search and Rescue. One of the presentations was by Maine’s forensic anthropologist, Dr. Marcella Sorg on identifying bones. At the Colby Conference, Dr. Sorg paired with Maine’s former Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Margaret Greenwald, on a presentation titled: An Unusual Maine Case. Using medical forensics and information from bones and a scene of a decomposed body in the woods, they told the story of a man’s body found by a hunter in the town of Stacyville in 2010.

The body was found with a book bag and various items but no identification beyond a knit hat with the name “Chris.” Autopsy and toxicology revealed no criminal cause of death. Despite years long efforts and many contacts with missing persons databases and families looking for their missing, the body remained unidentified for about ten years. In the end, it was the amateur efforts of a blogger fascinated by true crime connecting with a group of students at a school in Concord, Massachusetts looking for a missing teacher that ultimately led to the man being identified. As I sat in the audience, I was stunned to realize that the man had been a popular substitute teacher in the Concord school system, Christopher Roof, and he had taught my son.

There was much more, ending on Wednesday with a complex (if you were an English major like me), and heartbreaking presentation by Maine’s current Chief Medical Examiner, Mark Flomenbaum, on some cases of child abuse homicide and markers in those cases of the effects of stress and subsequent damage to the children’s bodies. Drawn from a recently published paper, an aim of the talk was to alert those dealing with child abuse to issues that might be identified in time to save future children’s lives as well as further information about issues to look for at autopsy.

Between sessions, I also ran into Vermont mystery writer Archer Mayor, who writes the Joe Gunther mystery series. Archer is a writer I much admire. He is also a death investigator for the Vermont OCME.

Grim. Gruesome. Disturbing. Sad. Enlightening. Thought provoking. An amazing two days with some surprising coincidences. And of course, some new ideas to use in a future book.

 

The Mystery of Miron Gonzalous Hornbeck

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here. One of the nice things about being semi-retired is having the time to work at solving some of the mysteries hanging on my family tree. Since I’m not famous enough to be on Finding Your Roots or Who Do You Think You Are? and since I really don’t want to shell out the hard cash to hire a professional genealogist, who might not be able to find anything new either, I muddle along online, following leads that, for the most part, are dead ends. Fortunately, I’m not writing a book. I don’t have to solve the mystery. The fun part is the search for answers. I guess you could say I’m on a quest. I may never find out everything I want to know, but there’s a lot of enjoyment in the trying.

Miron with his parents and sister

Who was Miron Gonzalous Hornbeck? He was one of my great-grandfathers. His birth on the family farm in Hurleyville, New York, on January 19, 1861, is recorded in the family Bible, with that specific spelling. So what’s the mystery? It’s in his name. Miron is easy enough to understand. Myrons and Mynderts were common among the families of Dutch descent in that part of New York State. One minor mystery is why he went by Miles instead, but the real question is where the Gonzalous came from, and Constantia, the first name of Miron’s sister, who was born the following year.

Miron with his family on his 50th wedding anniversary

For a while matters were confused by the fact that my grandmother, Miron’s daughter, thought that her grandmother’s maiden name was Berrigan. It was not. Miron’s parents were Lawrence Hornbeck and Catherine Gardner, as proven by documents concerning the disposition of property belonging to Catherine’s father, David Gardner, after his death in 1865. Thank you, Ancestry.com, which also led me to the 1850 and 1860 census records for Liberty, New York, which listed David, his daughter Catherine, and his wife . . . Constantia.

Katie Hornbeck, who got her grandmother’s maiden name wrong

One mystery solved. Or so I thought. It would be logical to assume that Constantia’s maiden name was Gonzalous (or one of its many and varied spellings). And it just so happens that there was a rather famous Gonsalus family in the Orange-Ulster-Sullivan County triangle from the earliest days of settlement.

The Hornbecks in America go back to Warnaar Hornbeck, who came to New Amsterdam from Holland on the Cormick David in 1641, married twice, and was fruitful and multiplied. I’m actually descended from him through both wives. Anyway, for several generations the family was centered around Rochester (now Accord) in Ulster County, New York. My branch had moved to Hurleyville by 1850.

Ulster County towns settled by the Dutch

Manuel Gun Sallus is reputed to have been the first white settler in Sullivan County, arriving in Mamakating Hollow from Rochester (Accord) in 1730. He was a Spaniard who had married a Dutch woman. He farmed and traded with the Indians. The inscription on his headstone reads: MANUEL GONSALUS IS GESTORVEN DE 8 APRIL ANNO 1752. Translated that means Manuel died on that date. Anyway, Manuel had numerous sons and grandsons, frequently confused in the records, including Manuel., who built the first grist mill in the area near Wurtsboro, Jacobus, who may have kept a tavern, and Daniel, who was killed by Indians during the French and Indian War.

All this is fascinating to me, but trying to link up the generations between Manuel’s sons and Constantia, assuming there even is a link, is not easy. It may not even be possible, but making the attempt is a challenge. And really, what’s the advantage of being semi-retired if you can’t fall down the occasional rabbit hole?

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.

 

Weekend Update: July 30-31, 2022

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Monday), Kate Flora (Tuesday), John Clark (Thursday), and Brenda Buchanan (Friday). On Wednesday, Susan Vaughan will be here for a Win-a-Book Wednesday giveaway.

Coming soon will be a fun group post where we share some of our favorite Maine summer things. Stay tuned!

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

 Matt Cost here: I have a cover reveal from the wonderful graphic artist Deirdre Wait of Encircle Publications for the fourth book in my Clay Wolfe/Port Essex series. Cosmic Trap will be released December 21st, 2022.

 Kate Flora: And I have a cover reveal for the next Thea Kozak mystery, Death Sends a Message, scheduled for October 18th:

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

Summer Selling by Matt Cost

I like to write. That’s why I do it. But I also like to sell. Promote. Market. Make people aware of what I’ve written and let them decide on whether they are interested. And there is never a better time to do this than summer selling.

Summer selling includes bookstore events, library events, craft fairs, music festivals, and just about any opportunity that comes along to talk about, sign, and sell the books I’ve written. Sometimes it is with other writers, sometimes it is just me, but I am never alone.

I began my summer selling in June, three days before the official start of summer, at the Maine Blues Festival in Lisbon Falls. What could be better? I spent the day listening to fantastic blues music, working on my tan, and trying not to be blown away by the insistent wind. There were food vendors, my publisher, Eddie Vincent, came to hang out for the day, and I managed to stay away from the beer tent. And, of course, I sold books.

July has brought variety, starting with my hometown of Brunswick’s 2nd Friday Artwalk! I was given a sidewalk location right in front of the band, Blue Fuse Gypsy Swing, sat next to a gentleman clattering out poems on an ancient typewrite, and was joined by friend and fellow author, Anne Britting Oleson, who danced a number with my dad! And, of course, I sold books.

[image error] [image error][image error]The day after the Artwalk, I went to Books in Boothbay. I was joined in the drive by friend and fellow author, BJ Magnani, who was spending the night with my wife and I. Books in Boothbay is an author signing event broken into morning and afternoon sessions, and of course, it is wonderful to interact with the readers, but it was a true joy to see and talk with so many wonderful writer friends. I walked in the door and chatted with Kate Flora, Jule Selbo, and Bill Anthony before I even reached my assigned table. The day was filled with too many people to mention all the names, but it was, indeed, fabulous. And, of course, I sold books.

I’ve also had two library events during the month, one in Boothbay Harbor, and the other in Readfield, Maine. Both were outside, had wonderful audiences, and were hosted by terrific librarians. My Clay Wolfe/Port Essex series is loosely based on Boothbay Harbor, and it gave me an opportunity to poke around and get a feel for the town. The climax of my 2023 release, Mainely Wicked, takes place in the town of Readfield and is horrific, so it might be the last time I’m invited back, but it was a wonderful time. And, of course, I sold books.

Sherman’s Maine Coast Bookshops have invited me to do upcoming signings, one on July 30th in Topsham, and the other on August 13th in Damariscotta. They will be inside, but will give me the opportunity to interact with the staff of two separate stores of the best bookshop in the world. There will be another 2nd Friday Artwalk in Brunswick. I also am planning an event at my local golf club, with music, cocktails, and food. I will be attending Killer Nashville, a book conference, where my mystery, Mainely Money, is a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award in the mystery category. The common theme? And, of course, I will sell books.

Summer in Maine is a grand thing. Especially when I’m selling books.

Matt Cost is the highly acclaimed, award-winning author of the Mainely Mystery series, the Clay Wolfe/Port Essex series, and several works of historical fiction.

Cost was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.
Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.

Not Crime, Not Writing, But Really Maine

Neither crime nor writing this month, but something definitely Maine that I believe deserves your attention. Full disclosure—my wife Anne is on the Board of the organization I’m describing below, and takes an active part in awarding these scholarships to Maine High School Seniors. And we support the organization financially.

Mainely Character (https://mainelycharacter.org/) is an organization formed in 2001 to award college scholarships to Maine High School students based solely on character. The scholarship process does not consider a student’s academic achievement, athletic prowess, musical ability, artistic talent or financial need. Character, demonstrated through personal action, is the sole criterion the board uses to decide who receives scholarships.

Character is defined as:

Courage—taking appropriate risks and following one’s conscienceIntegrity—being truthful and trustworthyResponsibility—conveying commitment and convictionConcern—demonstrating compassion and care toward others

I’m particularly taken with the notion that the usual marks by which we rank high school students are explicitly thrown out of the mix here. So often, some of the strongest kids we have are the quiet ones, not the athletes or high-achieving academic students, the socially ept. So I’m pleased to see that there is an effort here to seek out the students who maybe don’t get the accolades or attention they might deserve, simply for modeling good citizenship and humanity.

Students awarded Mainely Character scholarships come from all over the state. This year, the awardees came from seven of Maine’s sixteen counties: Hancock, Lincoln, Kennebec, Washington, Cumberland, Penobscot, and York.

Here are a couple of their stories, names and details redacted to preserve their privacy.

A young woman from Midcoast Maine, diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, pushed through that challenge to organize activities at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital while she was receiving treatment. Even with the impact on her academic life, she made it to graduation and will attend the University of Maine in the fall.

A remarkable young man from southern Maine with muscular dystrophy turned his own challenges into helping other young people with the disease adjust to summer camp, many of these kids away from home for the first time. He led fundraising efforts for research and for scholarships to send kids to camp. He will attend the University of Southern Maine.

Another young woman from Downeast, who works summers on her brother’s lobster boat, respectfully and successfully challenged her high school’s administration to ease the way for transgender students and expand athletic possibilities for young women. Her peers voted her “Voice of the Students” at her high school. She will attend the University of Maine.

Other stories of these remarkable young people are here.

In 2022, seven other Maine young people were awarded scholarships by Mainely Character. These are often students with other challenges, for whom a scholarship might make the difference between  college education and none. I’m proud to have met some of these kids and proud of the way they are emblematic of the state of Maine’s character.

Should you read a mystery series in order? The answer is…

This double rainbow over South Branch Pond at Baxter State Park has nothing to do with today’s post, but I thought you’d enjoy it. I took it while camping last month. We love Maine!

Hi all!

In true Maine Crime Writers fashion I’m reprising a relevant column since it’s July, and as much as I’d love to say I’m on vacation, I’m actually scrambling to get a ton of work on so I can go on vacation in a few weeks.

I was reminded of this September 2020 column recently at an author talk, where a reader asked if they should read my Bernie O’Dea mystery series in order.

Enjoy!

So, I somehow just binge-read a 23-book series over the last two months. I’m not sure  how — or even why — and don’t want to delve too deeply into that part of my psyche right now, so this post isn’t about that.

You’re welcome.

The books take place in a period of time quite a while back. Though they were written over the past two decades, each book is set about a month apart — until you get to number 20, which takes place five years before the first book in the series. There’s a big cataclysmic event that precedes the first book, and the 20th takes place right before that event and as the event unfolds.

[This series is not by a Maine Crime Writer, or even a New England one, in case you’re wondering.]

You know I’m usually not coy, but I’m not going into the details of the books, who wrote them or what they’re about, because this blog post isn’t specifically about these books and I don’t to distract from the point.

And the point? I came across a post on the internet, long before I got to Book 20, that suggests readers read Book 20 before they start the series, since it takes place five years before the first book.

The post was not by the author, but by a fan. Or maybe just a blogger who hadn’t even read the books. I don’t know. But it bothered me when I read it, and I had that in mind as I plowed through the series.

I admit, I’m a linear person. The first book I read in this series, without realizing it was as series before I bought the book, was actually number 19. I liked it. The next one I read was number 1. Didn’t even have to think about that. I always do that when I find out that a book I’ve just read and liked is part of a series.

When people ask me whether they should read my three-book Bernie O’Dea series in order, I tell them each book is written so it can be read on its own, but I always suggest people start with the first book.

Most series have a character arc that expands and evolves through the books. If you hadn’t read earlier books in a series — any series — it’s hard to get the same satisfaction as a reader out of the later books that you’d get if you had.

When I read Book 20 in the series I binged this summer — the one the blogger suggested be read first — it underscored my belief that books should be read in the order they were written. Even though Book 20 is a “prequel,” there’s no way readers new to the series would read it the same way as those who’d read the previous 19.  Knowing what’s going to happen to the characters later adds layers for a reader. What the characters say and do, and their innocence given the horror that awaits adds a heft to Book 20 that someone reading it without reading the previous 19 won’t enjoy. I have to believe the writer intended this — while books in a series can usually stand alone, there is an arc intended by the author.

I tried this, in a way, with my second book, No News is Bad News. I felt the urge to do a prequel, but instead of a full-blown prequel, I interspersed scenes from before the series started with what was happening in “real time” in the book.

As I wrote those prequel scenes, I couldn’t help but write them with a foundation of what I already knew about the characters. Not that readers have to read the first book, Cold Hard News, to understand the scenes, but if they have, they’ll have knowledge that makes the scenes more powerful.

Most of us who write a series try to manage the tightrope of referring to things in previous books without spoiling them or being too distracting for new readers.

On the other hand, you have to mention previous book stuff. I mean, most of our protagonists, or other major characters, go through things that would cause major physical and emotional trauma to people in real life. While the books are fiction, that element of being affected by past events is still necessary.

When I did those prequel scenes in No News is Bad News, I didn’t think at all about this issue. But looking back, and knowing what I wrote, it’s obvious to me now that those scenes likely would’ve been very different if they were the first thing I’d ever written with those characters in them.

If a writer travels back in time, she’s doing it with the acquired knowledge she has of her characters as she’s grown to know them by writing about them. As much as a writer may try to make later books in a series OK to read as a standalone, they can’t help but write them in a way that’s informed by what came before.

If it has an impact on the writing, it also will have an impact on how the books are read. Reading books in order makes each subsequent one better than it would be on its own.

You’re going to do things your way. I know that. Don’t even get me started on people who read the last page before they start the book (with mine that won’t tell you who the murderer is, it’ll just spoil the emotional payoff #sorrynotsorry).

But if you’re wondering whether to read a series in order, the answer is don’t wonder, just read them in order.

Moosehead. The Kennebec. And An Endless Steps Workout

On August 16th, I will be a guest of a Natural Resources of Maine webinar to discuss recreation tourism in the Moosehead Lake region. The panel will share our ideas on the issue as well as tips of how to explore the region. (Info and registration here.)

Explore Moosehead Tips:

Suggest you access land sites around 6 AM (or on September weekdays) as hiking and fishing sites have gotten very popular. (Pandemic discovery has not waned.)

Paddling on Indian Pond

Paddling: Moosehead Lake often has big water, pushed by its forty-mile length. My favorite paddle is the north end of Indian Pond (fed by the Kennebec River’s two headwaters leaving the lake). It has protected shores, campsites, hidden coves and a very wild marsh.  Paddle up toward East Outlet to find current and rapids that dump into the pond or find wild marshlands and wild coves where West Outlet joins the pond. (Accessed on a dirt road the leaves 6 & 15 as you head north.)

Further up the east side of the lake Spencer Bay is surrounded by public land and it’s often a more protected paddle as well. Put in at the public campsite at the east end. (Use your Delorme Atlas.) I like to paddle into pebble beaches on the north side, plunk a folding chair in the water, and read and swim all day.

Fly Fishing: Try the Moose River below the dam, the Roach River or East Outlet around 6 AM or seek out smaller streams and remote ponds. Although the Maine Guide Fly Shop is no more, its old site has all you need to know to find a remote pond.

Treat yourself by renting a drift boat with guide. (And if the fishing does get tough, guides pull out every trick they know and you’ll walk away with tons of strategies.)

My favorite dog walking off leash: the ski area (at least until it gets developed.) Best wildflowers ever, late June until late July. (Stay away from raspberry areas in late summer. Bears.)

Fav workout: I used to hike up into the Squaw Mt Trail (find the info kiosk off rt 6 and 15 north of town) to the seemingly endless rock steps built by the Youth Conservation Corps. Try and do them up and back without stopping and then sit in the cool stream. (At the top of the stairs is a fine lookout off to the left.)

Biking: There’s off road biking on endless dirt roads. Look at your Delorme Atlas and imagine biking anywhere ‘dirt” from the Prong Pond public access just past Beaver Cove Marina. (Take a page from the Atlas with you.) The main roads are not safe.

Kid stuff;  Catch-something easy places: Prong Pond and Mt View Ponds have good parking and boat ramps for motor or carry in (and are stocked). Drop a canoe in the ponds below the West Outlet dam. Kid hikes: Lily Bay State Park has some lovely woods trails. The Moose Ponds areas has several options. The first pond you get to is an easy, fun hike and there’s a small beach for swimming. Great loons. For adults or older kids, the whole loop is lovely and the upper pond is quieter. (Find the public lands info kiosk north of town.)

The Natural Resource Education Center partners with AMC to offer week youth long summer camps that are rich in experiential outdoor fun.

Best views.  Eagle Rock: locals know the best and shortest way to get there is the old trail access further down the road past the turn-off to the Indian Pond launch area. Almost 360 views of Katahdin over to the Whites. Some wonderful souls continue to mark the old trail. (The new trail is over 12 miles round trip. Not going to do that.)

A trip for all abilities. A short shuttle to Kineo and its trails runs every hour from Rockwood docks. Some folks can just stroll the trail at the lake’s edge. Others can climb up to the restored fire tower. There’s something for everyone. (This shuttle and trail are very popular in the summer.)

X-Ski or Snowshoe. The volunteers at the ski area flat groom a great 5-mile loop. Lily Bay state park maintains some trails. I like to ski out to park campground areas on the lake and then explore the nearby islands. I also drive up to the AMC’s wonderful maintained trails and while it’s almost an hour or more, it’s worth it. Thank you, AMC! (Ski from West Branch Pond camps down toward Lyford camps and back. Just lovely.)

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Economic issues find their way into the plots of my novels, because I care about the forest’s future.

“Deadly Turn” Here the narrator is hiking out of the woods with a 15-year-old who’s just trapped and then released her dog.

If trapping was his survival issue, I needed to watch my words.

Wildlife, how it got managed and how money got made off it, was the second hottest issue in Maine. Second only to anything to do with sex. Money from people pursuing any kind of wildlife recreation—trapping, fishing, hunting and even just watching animals—sent over a billion dollars to us each year. I was sure any benefits from sexual activity weren’t as carefully tallied.

Chan turned to face me, one hand clenched white on his shotgun.

“OK. OK. Down there around water is where most all the animals need to come and go from where they live, eat, hide, hunt. Me too, so I’ve met most of them.” He smiled a soft smile that didn’t make it to his eyes. “I’ve killed ducks, partridge, deer, bear, otter, mink, coyote, fox, beaver, muskrat, bobcat, raccoon, and squirrel. Add marten. And one fisher. And skunks under our house. If I won a permit in the moose lottery, I’d kill a moose, too.” He tipped his chin into the air and looked down his long regal nose at me.

****************************

$$$$  About Recreational Tourism: Recreational Tourism is Big Business. For example:

Boothbay Harbor, Maine: A land trust survey on trail use spending: visitors $73.77 per day and seasonal residents an average of $57.94 per day. The annual economic impact from visitors to land trust preserves was $3.9 million in revenue, generating 39 full-time and part-time jobs and $1.1 million in related labor income.

Skowhegan is investigating the creation of a whitewater activity park. Research from other towns hosting this kind of site suggest $6 million a year in its first year and up to $19 million by its 10th year. In year one, 43 Jobs in Skowhegan and 54 in Maine total. By year 10, 136 local jobs, 171 statewide. (In addition to the boaters or tubers, thousands of people visit just to watch the fun.)

The 60-mile Mt. Agamentius conservation area in southern coastal Maine delivers between $5.3 -$6.4 million in goods and services and economic value.

Wildlife delivers $1.4 billion to Maine’s economy; $1.9 billion w multipliers.  (For perspective, snowmobiling, a significant economic contributor, is about $459 million.)

For every $1 spent to acquire a Land for Maine’s Future conservation site, $11 is returned in goods and services. (Moosehead Lake’s Mt Kineo and its trails were its first acquisition. Think how much economic activity Kineo generates because it has no, No Trespassing signs.)

Maine’s Great Ponds generate $6.7 billion per year.

Acadia National Park generates $3,400 per acre in goods and services. ((Actively managed forest land’s economic contribution is about $368 an acre. How much per acre do Moosehead’s outdoor assets deliver? What if we lose hundreds of economically productive acres to development?)

Maine outdoor recreation delivers $2.3 billion and 4.7% of the state’s employment. (How much does outdoor recreation deliver to the Moosehead region? How many jobs?)

Problems

Well, general ignorance about how our woods, waters, and wildlife habitat is a multibillion-dollar asset that will deliver forever if we don’t develop or degrade them.

2. We lack any state agency that combines conservation with the recreation economy. The Maine Office of Tourism does marketing and analysis. The Office of Outdoor Recreation has no conservation organizations on its partner list and says it “leverages Maine’s assets and outdoor recreation heritage to grow the outdoor recreation economy.” Hmmn……thinking that ‘leveraging’ is a financial transaction, not a strategy to preserve the goose that lays the golden recreational economy’s eggs.

Please join us for the webinar.

Sandy’s debut novel, “Deadly Trespass, A Mystery in Maine” won a national Mystery Writers of America award, was a finalist in the Women’s Fiction Writers Association “Rising Star” contest, and was a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. The second Mystery in Maine, “Deadly Turn,” was published in 2021. Her third “Deadly” is due out in 2022. Find her novels at all Shermans Books (Maine) and on Amazon. Find more info on Sandy’s website.

 

 

 

Weekend Update: July 23-24, 2022

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Sandra Neily (Monday), Maureen Milliken (Tuesday), Dick Cass (Thursday), and Matt Cost (Friday).

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

Matt Cost here: I will be doing a book signing July 30th from 1-3 PM at Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop at the Topsham Fair Mall in Topsham, ME.

Mainely Money is a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award of Best Attendee Mystery (or BAM as I like to call it). The winner will be announced at the banquet at Killer Nashville on August 20th.

Mind Trap is a finalist for best mystery/thriller of InD’tale Magazine’s RONE award. The winner will be announced on October 8th.

John Clark sharing two events from last weekend  On Saturday, the Union Historical Society celebrated their fiftieth anniversary, Our mother, A. Carman Clark, also a mystery writer, was one of the sixteen founding members. Five remain. Frank Cassidy, who, with wife Linda, bought Sennebec Hill Farm, used a piece of the original flooring to back the bronze plaque honoring the founders. I am extremely impressed with what they have done to preserve town history.

Here’s their website: http://unionhistoricalsociety.org/

The other event was a presentation by Arizona mystery writer Karen Odden, talking about her latest book Down A Dark River. I had the privilege of being included in a pre-program gathering which was fun and lively. I was particularly impressed with how Karen involves an audience in her description of the social and political atmosphere in the Victorian era where her books take place. By the end of the program, I could visualize much of ther aura and geography of that time, something that really makes a book (or books in her case) come alive.

Here is her website: https://karenodden.com/

 

 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

So We Bought the Books a House

Kate Flora: Twenty-two years ago, after a very long search, we bought a little cottage by the sea. Partly it was because my husband, who worked too hard, said a place by the sea was the only thing he really wanted. Partly–and not entirely a joke–we bought it because we had too many books and no place left to put them. So, here we are, years later, with a cottage full of books.

When we first bought the cottage, though our house was overflowing with books, we didn’t have enough. I solved the problem, in those early years, by going to the Orrs Island Library Book Sale, a fabulous event from which I always returned with several grocery bags full of books. The idea, whether with the books from our shelves at home, or books we acquired to add to the collection, was that there should be a wide range of books. This way, if there was a rainy weekend, everyone, whatever their taste, would have something to read.

To these books were added the books I got at mystery conferences, books by my friends, many of whom are writers, the research books I use for my writing, including some great forensics books from the library sale, and books my husband has used for his WIP on the Supreme Court during the New Deal. This is definitely a good place to be marooned. If you cannot find something to read here, you are simply to picky for words.

Of course, this is a summer house, so there is a stack of cookbooks, including Dishing Up Maine from Karen Baldacci, and the Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook, a gift from Governor Mills.

 

 

In the upstairs sitting room, there are few shelves of antique books from my mother’s house in Union.

In the upstairs hall, three tall shelves of books hold a miscellany of mostly paperbacks, including a row that runs right above the closet door.

Every bedroom has a bookshelf. White for the blue room, an antique pyrography shelf with an art nouveau design in the green room, and a red bookshelf in the red room. (My husband says he thinks it is silly that these rooms have names. Maybe I should call them Billy, Joe, and Stevie?)

 

 

For years, I have spent too much of my summer time writing at my desk in the office at the top of the house. This year, I plan to slow down a bit, and pluck some of the books I’ve collected off the shelves, sprawl out on the old iron loveseat on the deck, and read. It’s just hard to figure out where to begin. And it is likely I’ll get distracted by the gardening books, and then drift out into the yard to tend the plants.

Monarchs & Kingsolver

It’s Monarch time again! The glorious orange and black butterflies have been sighted in Maine, New Hampshire, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. I’ve seen them on our lilacs and milkweeds here in Yarmouth, Maine.

Monarchs are truly amazing creatures. They carry out one of the most incredible cross-continental journeys in the animal kingdom, traveling upwards of 3000 miles from Canada and the northern U.S. down to sacred fir forests in the mountains of Mexico.

The summer breeding range of monarchs is defined by the northern limit of milkweed. We can all help them by planting milkweed. There are over 100 milkweed species native to North America, many of which are used by monarchs. Sadly, monarch migration is declining and the butterflies need protection. Loss of milkweed habitat, drought in California and elsewhere, insecticides and herbicides, and habitat loss in overwintering sites in Mexico from illegal logging contribute to their decline.

Lincoln Brower, professor at Amherst College, led a team of researchers studying the overwintering grounds of monarchs in the mountains of Michoacan, Mexico. I knew Brower when I was at Hampshire College, also in Amherst MA. In the last decades of his life, Brower recorded sharp decline in North American monarchs by 80% attributed to herbicides, logging, and weather events.

Brower advised novelist Barbara Kingsolver on butterfly migration for her 2012 book Flight Behavior, a terrific read I strongly recommend. The story features Dellarobia Turnbow, a young discontented housewife living with her poor family on a farm in Appalachia. Dellarobia’s life suddenly changes when she finds millions of monarch butterflies in the valley behind her home.

For monarchs to overwinter far from the heat of the south is unprecedented. Locals view their arrival as a message from God. Entomologist Ovid Byron, a gifted African-American researcher who comes to investigate, puts the blame on a very different agent: climate change. Byron hires Dellarobia to help him to make sense of the strange apparition on her land. In the process, she acquires a self-confidence she had been denied by her lack of education and begins a new life as an environmental scientist.

I am very impressed with Kingsolver’s skill incorporating details of this insect’s life history into fiction. That’s a real challenge (which, as an ecologist, I can certainly relate to) and Kingsolver is the master.