Mary R. Davidsaver's Blog, page 2

Bouchercon Silent Auction 2024

 

    My Bishop Hill food-themed collection for the BoucherconSilent Auction uses items that go along with my Bishop Hill Mystery books, wellsort of, I must be honest; the t-shirt came first.

    I could not resist the “just here for THE PIE”sentiment because the Bishop Hill Pie Diet was a real thing for myfriends and family.

    At one time there were five restaurants in Bishop Hill,and we could count on five variations on Swedish meatballs and rhubarb pie. Itwas difficult being a shopkeeper on a slow day and staying sharp until the 5pmclosing time. Back then when 3pm came around the debate would startwith “Where to today?” The Bishop Hill tea rooms stayed open after the lunchcrowd left just for that mid-afternoon rush.

    To go with the t-shirt, I chose a handmade basket byLori Keller Morrissey and began looking for foodie items that would represent thepast and present Bishop Hill.

    Bishop Hill began as a communal society in HenryCounty, Illinois in 1846. Those Swedish immigrants, like German immigrants, likedtheir beer. Both groups had problems with prohibition. I know that the Swedesmade near beer and probably kept the harder stuff on hand for medicinalpurposes.

    I included the VASA Cook Book, 1981, for itshistorical importance. I checked it and found no recipe for near beer. Yes, forSwedish egg coffee and for a couple of drinkable somethings that were yogurtbased. It was also simply and disappointingly lacking in pie recipes.

    I did find Gevalia coffee and Ligonberries for thebasket. That was a victory.

    But still, we newer pioneers will always love our BishopHill Pie Diet and will, sadly, make do with whatever is at hand.

Taking Care of Business Panel Prize Pack

 

    Book Marketing Basics: The 5 Ps abook by Jodie Toohey, a local author in my neck of the woods (eastern Iowa& western Illinois). Active in the Midwest Writing Center as a pastpresident and frequent workshop leader, she went back to school for her MBA. I’dbe willing to bet that book marketing and promotions were high on her agendaeven then.

    Her book came out in February 2019, and I bought mycopy in November of that year. I’m sure it was dated even then. The publishingworld was changing so fast that keeping up with new platforms and the newpossibilities they offered would be impossible for a printed book. Which is whythis was the only marketing book on my bookshelf when I went looking forinformation for the panel “Taking Care of Business.”

    I read through this and saw that basics count as muchtoday as yesterday. This is why I wanted copies of Toohey’s book. Anyone can readthrough this work for ideas to try, for directions of pursuit, and come awaywith the encouragement to find innovative solutions in today’s world of globalmarketing.

    My personal story here involves my first efforts of goingout into the field armed with my pitch for placing my first Bishop Hill Mysterybook in area stores and shops and being successful. I was quite pleased butunprepared for the business manager’s request for an invoice. She wanted aninvoice with duplicates no less. I was caught off guard and had to make wimpyexcuses while I desperately tried to think of a way to finish the sale. I drovetwelve miles to the nearest town and was lucky enough to find what I needed ata Walmart. I was saved and learned a valuable lesson: Prepare to Succeed.That would be my suggestion for a sixth P should Toohey update her book onmarketing basics. I’ve included a pad of invoices with carbonless copies in myprize package for that reason.

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

 

“TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS” isthe song title of the panel I’ll be part of on the bright, sunny Sunday morning,at 8 am no less, on the last day of the Bouchercon International Writer’s Conference.I’m preparing to get myself and my Bishop Hill Mystery books noticed with thefollowing promotions:

1.                Thepanel moderator wants prizes for the audience members who can name the bandbehind the song title. Got that covered with Book Marketing Basics: The 5 Ps byJodie Toohey. I have a story to tell. Hint: it involves anotherP.

2.                I’mdonating to the Silent Auction. I’ve amassed a food themed collection of BishopHill items to go along with my books. I have a story for that one, too. Hint: itinvolves pie.

3.                Myhusband and I will turn ourselves into walking billboards advertising my tablein The Discovery Zone along with my Bishop Hill related promotion for charitydonations. Yet another story. Hint: it calls for cash.

Will any of this work out?Hard to say. I will certainly have things to talk about for my panel. Whichwill be a huge improvement from my last Bouchercon panel appearance.

ANNIVERSARY 2024

 

I recently celebrated my anniversary. I got a box ofdark chocolate buttercreams. A small box for taking small bites. I’m stillrecovering from dental work.

I’m not writing about candy or how difficult it’s beenfor me to remember any anniversary let alone the 46th one. Thatnumber, 46, is weird and wonderful all wrapped up in the question of “How inthe world did that happen?” No. My topic is math. My father-in-law had aspecial formula for calculating anniversaries. His method said that every one after the 25th should be counted twice. So, I get to add anadditional 42 years to my 46. The grand total is 88. I haven’t looked it up yet,but I think that puts me in the platinum range for gifts.

The message on the card I gave my husband says:

“Sometimes

they knew

what the other

was thinking

or feeling or going

to say or do. It

wasn’t magic

or hocus pocus

it was just

one of the

lovely side

effects

of a lifetime

of love.”

I don’t get any expensive jewelry, just a trip to BoucherconNashville 2024, a writer’s conference. That will be precious enough.

Writer’s Studio Word Challenge for 7/20/2024

 Writer’s StudioWord Challenge for 7/20/2024

Use thesewords: Peak, Garden, Ecstatic, Plethora, Resemble,Inconsolable, Pistachio

 

I’m a Monarch Foster Mom

It’s themiddle of July and not the peak of the Monarch butterflies’ journeysouth, that comes in another month. I’m patiently awaiting the release of myfirst adult Monarch butterfly, hopefully by next weekend. This year’s gardenhas yielded few eggs and fewer caterpillars. I’ve looked at my records andfound that by this time in July in past years I had the following results:

2019-threereleased

2020-tenreleased

2021-fourreleased

2022-none

2023-seventeenreleased and headed for a personal best of 85. That resembles a victory tome.

 

In 2021 mynotes indicate I was losing a lot of caterpillars. I felt discouraged andpractically unconsolable. Fortunately, I found help online. The possibleculprits were the eggs of parasitic flies and wasps.  Plus, infections from OE, Ophryocystiselektroscirrha, a protozoan parasite that leaves the butterflies weak, deformed,and flightless.

My 2022caterpillar season was shortened because of travel plans. Hardly any reason tofeel ecstatic.

Then came 2023.I put into action all of my newfound knowledge and was rewarded with a plethoraof chrysalises, that final stage where the miracle of metamorphosis occurs. Ilove the delicate pistachio green color that hides all the action oftransformation until that final moment when all is revealed, the green colorfades out to a clear window filled with orange and black. The case splits open anda podgy body with a wrinkled mass of wings somersaults out, hangs by spindlylegs, and begins the twists and turns that will inflate the wings with fluidstored in the abdomen. First flight doesn’t happen until the filled-out wingsdry and harden. Then it’s off they go. Out of my life. Missed, but notforgotten. They are wild things after all.

The odds areagainst each and every one. I hope that by adding to the migration numbers myefforts might improve the odds that some will make the journey, survive tillnext spring, and begin the cycle all over again. Since 2019 I’ve nurtured 256caterpillars to adulthood in my little bit of suburbia. Will one of mine makeit? I can only hope so.

 

 

Check out:

https://monarchwatch.org/

For guidanceand help:

Monarch Butterfly Life   <questions@monarchbutterflygarden.net>

Essay on Radioactive Dirt Updated

 

Let’sbe clear, I’m older than dirt. That would be radioactive dirt. Sure,radioactivity is around us all the time because it’s a natural thing in theenvironment with levels that are normally nontoxic. The dirt I’m referring tois the kind that became enriched with Strontium 90, a product of nuclearfission. Forget the spent fuel from nuclear reactors or their radioactive waste;I’m talking atomic and hydrogen bombs. The testing of those bombs, both aboveand below ground, was the cornerstone of the Cold War, and went on from WWII untila partial test ban was signed by Kennedy and Khrushchev in 1963.

Asa child of a time without computers or the internet, I knew little of thelarger world outside of my immediate family, my small town. But at some point,I did become aware of images of mushroom-shaped clouds over the desert sands, ofhorrific winds blowing away houses, and the danger it might present for mysmall self to get in the way of such things. Blame television. Blame theschools. Whoever were the ones to come up with “Duck and Cover” drills. The“make like a turtle” and hide under your school desk all tucked up into a ball.I’m here to tell you that even a socially-unconnected little kid from that era canfigure out how valueless those tactics would ever be in the real situation.

Oneof the presents for my twelfth birthday was the Cuban Missile Crisis, the tensestandoff between the US and the USSR. Seriously, the grownups around me wereworried. So was I. The treat of nuclear war was real. I remember that I wantedto come to some kind of understanding with this scary scenario, thisunthinkable end of everything. I wanted to find a way to go on with daily lifewithout being paralyzed with fear. I wanted to just be a kid.

Mysolution then was totally childlike and naïve: I chose to trust that thegrownups would not let me down. They would fix things. Keep me and everyonesafe. And it happened. An agreement was reached, and everyone stepped back fromthe brink of disaster.

So,here it is decades later, and politics has us as bitterly divided, thenewspaper headlines tell me the government has been shut down, there are new kindsof bombs out in the world, and homegrown terrorists seem to be shooting atrandom. I’m much too old and too cynical to wait silently on the sidelines.

It’stime for the current crop of adults to step up, work together, and fix things.Our children need to be safe, and it would be nice if they didn’t have to doall the work themselves.

*****

I wrote that essay and posted it onmy blog in March 2018. I don’t remember the exact shooting event that triggeredmy rant. It’s one of those things I come back to on occasion to edit and update.Unfortunately, with this revisit the menace in the news came from a child.

In this instance, a 14-year-old boybrought a rifle to a middle school in a small town uncomfortably close to mygrandchildren. The school went on lockdown and parents received messages aboutan “active shooter.” No one walks away from a “scene” like that unscathed.

Back in the bad old days we armedourselves with Nike missiles to counter the Soviet threat. An expensivesolution fortunately never used. Not so with the deadly force rolled out for a pintsizedterrorist. That midwestern boy ended up being the only one killed that day.

I’m reposting these thoughts alongwith a photo of a poster I found while touring a Nike missile base being preservedin California.

Finding Romance by Accident?

 

I have spentmost of the past week rereading Clouds Over Bishop Hill, my first cozymystery, looking for signs that my two main characters, protagonist Shelley andtow truck driver Michael, were doing more than a little superficial flirting.

In the processI found a list of 150 Romance Tropes. I believe that the list uses a moderndefinition of “trope” and not just different figures of speech, such as puns,similes, and metaphors. More in the vein of an overused theme or device.

I didn’thave to look far. There it was on the first page, “Old enemies from school.”

In my defenseI had to throw Shelley and Michael together often to advance the plot and theimportant themes I wanted to explore. And I do love writing witty dialogue (myopinion here). So, to develop these characters, did I go too far? It wasn’t myintention to write a romance.

The mysteryhad to come first. I wanted to learn plotting. I wanted to work with the themesof preservation and community, family and career, past mistakes andforgiveness. Those sound more like conflicts than themes. Indeed, I’m told thatconflict is at the heart of good storytelling. But what is my story and what isthe subplot?

In goingthrough Evie Alexander’s list of 150 romantic tropes I picked out ten that I’veused in my writing without really spending an inordinate amount of time or thoughton the consequences. Serendipity? Perhaps. But it gives me something to discusswith the REAL romance writers, Misty Urban and Kitty Bardot, when we gather atthe BREWED BOOK on Saturday, Feb 10th, from 1-3 p.m.

Join us ifyou can.

 

Check out: https://thebrewedbook.com/

Romance in the Afternoon (Update)

 

Let adose of romance in the afternoon at The Brewed Book help you beat the winterblahs. Award winning author Misty Urban, who has penned multiple booksin both historical and contemporary romance genres, will be on hand to discusseverything from red carpet runways to medieval maidens.

   Mary Davidsaver,author of A Bishop Hill Mystery series, will explain the importance ofthe romantic themes in her work. She will address the idea that if all storiescontain an element of mystery, then they must also contain a thread of lovelost, love found, or love delayed that lead to cautionary tales or happyendings.

   Kitty Bardot, the author of the Burlesque River series, will add herbrand of romance to the gathering of local authors at The Brewed Book.  Her bio speaks of a full life of excitementwhich she uses to infuse her characters with “the real stuff … not just fluff.”

Three reasons to drop in for Romance.

Savethe date:

Saturday,February 10th, 1-3 PM

TheBrewed Book, 1524 N Harrison St., Davenport, IA   

(563)232-6642

Romance in the Afternoon

 

Let a dose of romance in the afternoon at The BrewedBook help you beat the winter blahs. Award winning author Misty Urban, who haspenned multiple books in both historical and contemporary romance genres, willbe on hand to discuss everything from red carpet runways to medieval maidens.

Mary Davidsaver, author of A Bishop Hill Mystery series,will be on hand to explain the importance of the romantic themes in her work. Shewill address the idea that if all stories contain an element of mystery, thenthey must also contain a thread of love lost, love found, or love delayed thatlead to cautionary tales or happy endings.

 

Save the date:

Saturday, February 10th, 1-3 PM

The Brewed Book, 1524 N Harrison St., Davenport, IA   

(563) 232-6642

 

More information will be forthcoming.

Season’s Greetings

 

Season’sGreetings

By Mary R.Davidsaver

 

Christmascards lay on the table.

Fewer thisyear.

They arrivedunbidden.

Myhalf-hearted quest for cards

Found allchoices wanting.

I came awayempty handed.

So manyvoids in my mailing list:

Dearfriends, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles.

My brother’ssudden passing.

I expectedno notice of my lapse.

I'm proven wrong.

One name drawsmy attention.

It didn’tregister. Who’s this Helen?

Inside, aview from a high vantage point

Overlookinga scenic river

Dressed inseasonal greens and gold.

Only oneanswer to the question.

Only onecouple climbed river bluffs.

Theirpurpose: take pictures, write poetry,

Honor theDriftless miracle

Of the riverin our own backyard.

Too oftenoverlooked and bypassed in haste.

I find mycopy of BLUFFING by Dick Stahl,

Eminentemissary of the Mississippi River.

Read it withfresh eyes,

Rediscoverits spirit,

Find inspiration…

For a New Yearof opportunities.

This poem was originallypublished on this blog in Dec. 2021 and

updated for this post.