Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 109

A Wicked Welcome Molly MacRae **plus giveaway**

by Julie, enjoying a lovely December day

I am so happy to welcome Molly MacRae back to the blog! I’m so happy that we are able to help her celebrate the release of Heather and Homicide!

Don’t you Love a Good Coincidence – or –
Six Degrees of Dorothy Dunnett



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I do love a good coincidence, don’t you? While I was doing research for Heather and Homicide, a nice string of them paid off in a peculiar treasure that’s now sitting on my bookshelf. Here’s the story.

The setup: One of my favorite writers is the late Dorothy Dunnett. Dunnett, a Scottish novelist best known for her historical fiction, also wrote a wonderful mystery series centering on Johnson Johnson, a portrait painter and spy, who travels the world on his yacht, the Dolly. An interesting feature of the series is that Johnson Johnson isn’t the main character. Each of the books has a different strong female lead.

The research: Heather and Homicide is about the suspicious coincidences that occur when a true-crime writer arrives in the west coast town of Inversgail, Scotland. One of them involves a kayak, so I read a lot about kayaks and kayak trips along the Highland coast and came across a book called The Canoe Boys: The First Epic Scottish Sea Journey by Kayak. I bought a copy. It’s a 2007 reprint of the 1995 book, which was a new incarnation of It’s Too Late in the Year. That book, out in 1969, was a new incarnation of a 1950 book, Quest by Canoe, about a trip two young men made up the west coast of Scotland, from Bowling to Kyle of Lochalsh, in 1934. Most of the stuff I read about kayaks doesn’t show up in Heather and Homicide, but that 1934 canoe trip does.

The string of coincidences: My family comes from the area around Kyle of Lochalsh. The 1950 book and its subsequent incarnations was written by Alastair Dunnett, one of the canoe boys. Dunnett was a longtime editor of the daily newspaper The Scotsman, which arrives in my inbox every morning. He was Dorothy Dunnett’s husband.

The treasure: My sister, after hearing that string of coincidences, said, “Oh, but there’s more,” and she brought me a book wrapped in tissue paper. It didn’t need to be wrapped in tissue paper, but that made it more fun. Her son had found it at a library book sale and thought she might like it. She gave it to me, knowing I would love it. It’s a copy of the New Testament, in Scottish Gaelic, given to Alastair Dunnett and signed by him in 1978. To round off the coincidences, 1978 is the year my husband and I got married.

Coincidence in real life brings a spark of magic with it.

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If you’re writing mysteries, though, you need to be careful how and where you use coincidence. Letting your characters rely on one or more to solve the crime is a bit of a cheat. That’s me being polite. It really is a cheat. Protagonists should use their own skills and wits to save themselves and the day.

For the writers among you, bestselling thriller-writer Steven James wrote article about how to use coincidence well: “What a Coincidence: 7 Strategies for Creating Clever Coincidences in Fiction.” In another nice real-life coincidence, way back in the late 90s, Steven James used to shop in the bookstore I managed in Johnson City, Tennessee. We belonged to a fledgling writers’ group and had good conversations over lunch a few times.

What fun coincidences have you experienced? Answer in a comment for a chance to win a copy of Heather and Homicide (sorry, North American entries only).

Blurb:

True crime writer Heather Kilbride arrives in the seacoast town of Inversgail, Scotland, to research a recent murder for her new book. But if that’s true, why does she seem more interested in William Clark, a shadowy lawyer with no connection to the murder? Her nosy questions arouse the suspicions of Constable Hobbs, the members of a local writers’ group, and Janet Marsh and her crew of amateur sleuths at Yon Bonnie Books.

Heather and Homicide is a story featuring unconventional research methods, miniature books, tempting dark chocolate cake, and an ancient circle of standing stones. 

Buy links:

Heather and Homicide is available at independent bookstores, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon in hardback, e-book, and audio. Or ask for it at your local library. 

Bio:



[image error]Molly MacRae

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the bestselling, award-winning author of the Highland Bookshop Mysteries and the Haunted Yarn Shop. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Molly lives in Champaign, Illinois. You can visit her at www.mollymacrae.com.

Feral Cats Need Love, Too

By Liz, celebrating release week!

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I’m so excited that this book is out this week! This was such a fun one to write, and really got me in the holiday spirit. It’s Christmas-themed (which is kind of obvious by the cover) but it also covers a topic that’s really important to me – feral cats.

I’ve been doing cat rescue for a long time and thanks to some of the wonderful people I met along the way, I got involved in some feral cat missions. I’ve trapped cats, done feral cat clinics, and accidentally found some friendlies in feral colonies along the way who became part of my family.

I wanted to make this book about a feral cat community and their caretakers because it’s something that still isn’t widely understood outside of rescue people. Strays and ferals often get lumped together into one category, where there’s a very big distinction. All ferals are, technically, stray cats, but not all strays are feral. There are often stray cats who have been dumped by their owners, or ran away, or have come to live on the streets under varying circumstances, who perhaps find a colony to live with because there’s a food source.

Feral cats are cats who are not socialized. They have either lived outside since very early on in their lives, or perhaps are part of generations of ferals – meaning they were born outside. Some colonies are lucky enough to find a caretaker who traps them humanely so they can get spayed or neutered to stop the reproductive cycle, vetted appropriately, and returned to their area, and then feeds them regularly.

Caring for colonies is a tough job. Trapping alone and getting through a whole colony can take months, depending on the size of the colony. And once someone makes a commitment to feeding a colony, it’s a twice per day effort. It’s not uncommon for caretakers to run into people in the neighborhoods who don’t understand this concept and they can be resistant. Sometimes, they can even be the recipients of threats, intimidation, and even violence.

So when I wrote this book I wanted to call people’s attention to the plight of not only feral cats, but feral cat caretakers, and give some basic principles about ferals and caring for them. Here are my top five:

Ferals can’t simply be “relocated.” If they’ve been living in an area, it’s their home and they are used to it. Putting them somewhere new rarely works, and can cause them to try to return to their old space. Even if a relocation is successful, oftentimes other cats can come in and fill the void that’s left, which doesn’t solve the problem of removing the cats.Ferals depend on their caretakers just like your furry best friend who lives inside with you depends on you. Once they have someone feeding them and caring for them, they depend on that person/those people to keep it up. If you make a commitment, don’t let them down. Contrary to some myths that are still being perpetuated, ferals are not dangerous and will not attack humans or other pets. Actually, they are so scared of people they normally won’t come out until there’s no one around. Even with regular feeders, it takes a feral a while to trust – but if you earn it, they may come out to say hello.Ferals don’t spread disease. This is a common argument/myth that detractors often use. Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs, where the cats are fixed/vaccinated, definitely mitigate any potential for this also. Ferals should never be brought to a shelter. Sometimes kind-hearted people think they’re helping by trapping a feral and bringing it to a shelter; but really they are putting that cat in danger of being euthanized. A feral isn’t an adoptable pet, so they don’t belong in a shelter.

So, if you’re looking for a charity to support this holiday season and the plight of feral cats has tugged at your heartstrings, check out Alley Cat Allies, or if you know of any local rescues who support ferals, please consider making a donation. And hopefully, A Whisker of a Doubt will help spread the word.

Readers, do you have any experience with feral cats? Tell me in a comment below.

Three Cheers!

By Liz, cheering about my latest Cat Cafe Mystery, out this week! Also, our theme for December is “cheers.” (I know — it seems like a stretch to be cheering about anything 2020-related, but there are things — trust us.)

Like, A Whisker of A Doubt is officially on the shelves, and I’m celebrating even as I’m wrapping up the next book, Claws for Alarm. So Wickeds, let’s send out some cheer together – what’s something you have celebrated recently (big or small – it all counts)?

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Edith/Maddie: I’m so happy for you, Liz/Cate, and can’t wait to pick up my copy at Jabberwocky Books! I will cheer that my post-surgery hand is gaining strength and flexibility every day, that I’ve stayed on track with my weekly word count goals for Batter Off Dead (Country Store #10), and that we’re about to have grownups in the White House again.

Jessie: Happy, happy release to you, Liz! I am cheering the fact that the strangeness of the world this year has created an opportunity for me to look at a lot of things with a different eye than I might have before. I’ve done a lot of work on my on my physical surroundings but I have also made some real strides with parts of my internal landscape were easy to ignore in the clamor of ordinary life. I am truly grateful for all the unexpected benefits all the disruption has provided me. I am also profoundly grateful for my husband. Today marks his 31st anniversary of coming to the States. Here’s to you my sweet béncão!

Sherry: Happy book birthday, Liz! Jessie, hug your hubby for me! I’m so thrilled that I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time this year. It’s an annual writing challenge to write 50,000 words in November. Sisters in Crime was one of the sponsors this year and did all kinds of events and writing sprints. It was touch and go there for awhile, but I finished on Sunday. I’m writing the third Chloe Jackson mystery, Three Shots to the Wind.

Barb: Congratulations, Liz! I’m cheering the arrival of the holiday season. The fact that so many people were stuck at home for Thanksgiving means lots of houses have their lights and decorations up early. I get an enormous boost from it all, from the smallest candle in a window to the grandest display.

Julie: Huge congratulations Liz/Cate! Like Barb, I’m enjoying the early decorations. And also, like Sherry, I got 50K plus words done on Garden Squad #5, tentatively titled The Plot Thickets. I’m also celebrating some beautiful weather here, which means wonderful walks without freezing.

Readers, tell us something you’re celebrating today!

Welcome Guest Louise R. Innes

I am so happy to introduce you to my new friend from across the pond Louise R. Innes. I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of Death at a Country Mansion the first book in the new Daisy Thorne mystery series! Daisy is a hairdresser in a small English village and I want to move there and hang out with her! Happy book birthday, Louise!

[image error]Louise: Cozies are my favourite crime genre. There’s something so satisfying about a small village, a set of mysterious characters, multiple motives and an amateur sleuth who manages to tie all the pieces together to solve the murder.

I grew up in Cape Town, in South Africa, to an English mother. She fell in love with my father while he was studying in London and followed him back to South Africa. In those days, most people spoke a mixture of English and Afrikaans, and the television was predominantly Afrikaans.

Without her own culture and language, my mother befriended two English guys who ran a video store (back in the days of VHS). They had this magical stock of English murder mysteries: Midsommer Murders, Inspector Morse, Miss Marple, Law and Order, The Professionals, The Sweeny (to name but a few).

These were her lifeline, and so I grew up watching these great classics and they framed my viewing experience from a very young age.

As I grew up, I never lost the familiar comfort of curling up with a good cozy, whether television or in book form. I read all the Agatha Christies, marvelling at her ingenuity. They were twins! It was the other sister! Mistaken identity! An imposter! I loved unravelling the twists and trying to find out whodunnit.

So, when I began penning my own stories, naturally, I turned to this genre.

[image error]I now live in an English village not unlike the one I feature in my books. The Thames flows through it, there’s rolling countryside behind it, and we have basically two streets of shops with local cafes, hairdressers, a print shop and the village library and medical centre. The church bells chime every hour, and the village green is alive with dog walkers.

In a village such as this, it’s easy to come up with a unique set of characters, a mystery and a murderer. I often think – as I sip my camomile tea outside my favourite coffee shop – that the Christmas tree in the village square would make a great scene for a murder, or the woman who rushes into the library to return overdue books must have a suspicious reason for doing so, and why is the manager of the hardware store in such a bad mood today? And why does he have a weird brown stain on his jumper? Ideas and inspiration everywhere.

My cozies are set in the fictional village of Edgemead in Surrey, England. My sleuth, Daisy Thorne is a hairdresser who is studying criminology via correspondence and has an avid interest in the criminal mind. Also, because she owns the only hair salon in town, everybody goes into it at some point or other.

This means Daisy can tap into all the village gossip, a tool that becomes indispensable to the gruff but handsome detective Paul McGuinness, whose job it is to solve these crimes. Their relationship is rocky at first, but DCI McGuinness soon comes to rely and respect Daisy’s insights and they form a good working relationship – but do their feelings run deeper than that?

When famous opera diva, Dame Serena is murdered in her country mansion, her estranged daughter asks Daisy to investigate. There are plenty of suspects, Serena’s four ex-husbands for starters, her troop of illegitimate grown-up daughters and various other colourful characters. Alibis don’t stack up and everyone seems to have a motive – Dame Serena wasn’t very well liked in her latter years. It’s up to Daisy, with the help of her gay senior stylist, ex-model colour expert and junior hair washer to sift through the clues and untangle the truth.

Here’s the official blurb:

Welcome to Daisy Thorne’s Ooh La La hair salon in the charming village of Edgemead in Surrey, England, where you’ll find the latest styles, the juiciest gossip — and the most tantalizing murder clues . . .

No one would ever accuse famous opera star Dame Serena Levanté of lacking a flare for the dramatic. Unfortunately, it’s curtains down on the dysfunctional diva when she’s found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her elegant home. Solving an opera singer’s murder may not be the typical hairdresser’s aria of expertise. But Dame Serena was the mother of Daisy’s best friend Floria, so Daisy must do-or-dye her best to get to the roots of the case.

When a priceless Modigliani painting in the house is reported missing, the mystery gets even more tangled. Even though the gruff but handsome Detective Inspector Paul McGuinness tells the stylist to stay out of his hair, Daisy is determined to make sure the killer faces a stern makeover—behind bars.

Readers: Have you ever been to a English village or do you have a favorite one in a book?

[image error]Bio: Louise R. Innes is an English cozy crime writer and author of the Daisy Thorne cozy mystery series. She lives in a village, not unlike the one featured in her books, and when she isn’t writing, can be found traipsing through the parks or kayaking on the river Thames. Visit her at www.louiseroseinnes.com/cozy-mysteries, on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Louises-English-Cozy-Mysteries-103748998171229) or on Instagram (www.instagram.com/louiseroseinnes/)

“A promising debut with scads of interesting characters, a spirited heroine, and a hint of romance.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Death at a Country Mansion has more twists than a French braid.”—Sherry Harris 

“Enjoyable…will appeal to readers of Elizabeth J. Duncan’s ‘Penny Brannigan’ mysteries.”

—Library Journal

“If you enjoy British manor houses, a touch of budding romance, and a good mystery (like I do), I highly recommend Death at a Country Mansion.”—Vikki Walton 

“ A little romance, a little art history, and a gorgeous mansion . . . a page-turner that is fun and intriguing.”—ACF Bookens

Universal link: http://books2read.com/u/mVK2Yl

 

 

 

 

Welcome Back Guest Mary Angela + a Giveaway

Mary Angela is a wonderful human. We met when we were on a panel together and I’ve been a fan of hers ever since. I’m so excited that the Wickeds get to help celebrate her first in a new series book, Open For a Murder, a Happy Camper Mystery. Mary will give an ebook away to someone who leaves a comment. Here’s a bit about the book:

[image error]Deep in the heart of touristy small-town Spirit Canyon, South Dakota, former journalist Zo Jones runs the Happy Camper gift shop, where she sells everything from locally made souvenirs to memorabilia. She even rents out mountain bikes, and dabbles in the adventure industry—and sleuthing . . .

It’s Memorial Day weekend in Spirit Canyon, and for Zo that means the return of summer shoppers. It also means the return of her good friend Beth, who’s moved back to the area to reopen her family’s premier hotel, Spirit Canyon Lodge. Beth and Zo spent many childhood summers there and Zo can’t wait to reconnect and celebrate the Grand Opening. But the festivities go from bad to worse when a power outage knocks out the lights—and morning reveals a competitor’s dead body found on the premises . . .

Soon enough, Beth is the prime suspect in the suspicious death. Fortunately, Zo isn’t afraid to put her investigative skills to work and prove her friend’s innocence. To start digging for information, she appeals to Max Harrington, a local Forest Ranger and unlikely ally. Though they’ve argued about Happy Camper’s tours, in this case they agree on one thing: Beth isn’t a murderer. Stranger things have happened than their collaboration. After all, this is Spirit Canyon. But as the list of suspects grows, Zo will have to keep her guard up if she doesn’t want to be the next lodge guest to check out . . .

Mary: When my daughter Madeline was five years old, she liked playing outside, so when she asked to plant her apple seeds one day after lunch, I agreed. My mother had told her all she needed to do was take the seeds from an apple, bury them in the dirt, water them, and viola! A tree would appear. Yes, that sounded like something my mother would say. She, like most grandmothers, has the most fantastic imagination.

[image error]So out we went with seeds, shovel, and watering can in hand. Her sister, Maisie, who was two at the time, eagerly followed. I let Maddie pick the location, and she chose a spot by the deck, too close to the lilac bush. But never mind that. We were outside, and the day was sunny. It was all I wanted out of the summer day.

Any mom with young children will tell you there are afternoons when you wrack your brain, trying to come up with an idea to kill a couple of hours. This afternoon, much care was taken with our project for this very reason. Maisie held the seeds like precious gold coins while Maddie worked the trowel with her chubby hands, digging a perfectly round hole. When Maddie was ready, she took the seeds from her sister, placed them carefully into the ground, and just as carefully, covered them up.

A fight ensued about who would water the seeds, and Maddie, being the older sister, naturally won. But she did let Maisie help her make a sign out of an old garage sale stake, a piece of printer paper, and a handful of crayons. On it, they wrote Maddie’s Apple Tree with a picture of a bright red apple.

[image error]Faithfully, they watered the seeds. They fertilized them. When we had guests, they showed them “the tree.” When it rained and the sign resembled a limp piece of tissue, I’d stop and scowl, but I couldn’t take it down. I’d remember their special afternoon, and something would stop me.

Eventually, a little brown twig appeared, like magic, and they were thrilled. My husband said it was a weed. My mother-in-law agreed. But I, like the kids, was convinced something was there. Year after year, it grew, and I pruned it so that it would at least look like a tree. But after so long, I started to wonder if my husband was right, if it was an overgrown root from our nearby Ash tree or something else.

I’m happy to report he was wrong. This year, ten years after planting the apple seeds, the tree blossomed and grew fruit. It was the highlight of an otherwise dark year. We laughed, we cried (okay, I cried), we celebrated. The seed we had taken care of for so long had finally blossomed.

[image error]For me, writing has been a lot like that seed. It’s something I’ve done for a long time without knowing the end result. Writing is claiming a spot and caring for it. It’s also knowing what to believe and what to ignore. It’s seeing blossoms where there are none, and knowing one day fruit may grow. But writing isn’t just about the fruit. At least not for me. It’s about coming back to the garden with the watering can, day after day, to see what will grow.

Readers: What have you grown from seed? Did it turn out like you planned?

[image error]© Julie Prairie Photography 2016

Bio: Mary Angela is the author of the Professor Prather academic series, the Happy Camper cozy mystery series, and several short stories. When Mary isn’t penning heartwarming whodunits, she’s teaching, reading, traveling, or spending time with her family. She lives in South Dakota with her husband, daughters, and spoiled pets. You can find out more about her loves, including her writing, at MaryAngelaBooks.com.

Links:    Website: www.maryangelabooks.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/maryangelabooks

Twitter: @maryangelabooks

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryangelabooks/

Welcome Sharon L. Dean!

Hello, Friends of the Wickeds. I hope you had a satisfying if odd Thanksgiving. Today we welcome author Sharon L. Dean to the blog. Sharon’s new book is The Barn.

Here’s the blurb.

[image error]In 1990, Deborah Madison and Rachel Cummings, both seventeen, are enjoying a bicycle ride on a beautiful September day in New Hampshire. They stop at a local barn that no longer houses cows but still displays a wooden cow’s head that peeks out from a window in the rafters. Sliding open the door, they find Rachel’s boyfriend, Joseph Wheeler, dead on the barn’s floor.

The case lies as cold as Joseph for nearly thirty years until Rachel returns to New Hampshire to attend the funeral of Joseph’s mother. The girls, now women, reopen the cold case and uncover secrets that have festered, as they often do, in small towns. Against a backdrop of cold and snow and freezing rain, Deborah and Rachel rekindle their friendship and confess the guilt each of them has felt about things that happened in the past.

The Barn is a story of friendship lost and recovered, secrets buried and unburied, and the power of forgiveness.

I love mysteries that focus on uncovering secrets from the past, so The Barn sounds right up my alley.

Take it away, Sharon!

I often think of the saying “You can take the girl out of New England, but you can’t take New England out of the girl.” I’m the New England girl transplanted to the West eight years ago. Here in Oregon someone asked me how the West is different from the East.

He thought water. That’s certainly true. There’s a shortage of natural lakes near me. No Walden Pond. There’s the “wild and scenic Rogue,” but not the wide Merrimack that Thoreau paddled on with his brother. More than the dearth of water, there’s the absence of history. I can find a grave marked 1867 but none marked 1667. The literary history dates back to Helen Hunt Jackson and Jack London and Frank Norris. None of those writers of the so-called American Renaissance. No House of the Seven Gables to tour, no Walden Pond to walk around, no home of Emerson or Alcott or Dickinson. History here dates to the Gold Rush not Plymouth Rock.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my adopted home in the West. The mountains are higher, the Pacific coast more rugged and undeveloped than the Atlantic, the pace slower. I don’t want to “go home again” except in my writing, which plunges me into nostalgia. Susan Warner, the reluctant sleuth of my first mystery series is a retired English professor from New Hampshire. In Tour de Trace, I put her on Mississippi’s Natchez Trace, but she traveled it with the eye to its history. Death of the Keynote Speaker finds her on an island off the coast of New Hampshire studying the work of a fictional nineteenth-century writer amid the real history of the island. Cemetery Wine keeps her in New Hampshire in her home that was on the Underground Railroad. Deborah Strong, the character who inaugurates my second mystery series, is a librarian in a town much like the one I left when I moved West. The Barn allows me to remember what was, not what has changed. I re-imagined the library in that town, the cemetery, the cold and snowy winter, and the barn I used to pass when I was a kid. It has a wooden cow’s head peeking from the rafters. Yes, as a child I thought it was a real cow, and, yes, even with all the changes the cow is still there.

[image error]Only my stand alone novel, Leaving Freedom, has scenes set in the West. My character, Connie Lewis, leaves her hometown of Freedom, Massachusetts, and eventually ends up in Oregon. Writing it gave me a kind of freedom as I let go of nostalgia, so much so that when I finish the third book in my Deborah Strong series, I plan to resurrect Connie and set a novel in the West. Life changes. Nostalgia infiltrates my writing, but I’m content to imagine scenes and to move into the reality of the future.

Behind the scenes

Nostalgia creeps into both the content of my writing and my writing process. I compose on yellow legal pads like the ones I used for my Ph.D. dissertation. I never model characters after people I’ve known, but I steal images of them and, occasionally, experiences. Deborah Strong looks like a photo I saw in my daughter’s yearbook; like me, Susan Warner was once mauled by a dog. I love to set scenes in the places I remember. My novels include memories of church services and cemeteries and days canoeing or climbing mountains or cross country skiing. My characters read books I’ve studied and quote passages I remember. I come from the world of literature, not music or art or film or sports. I draw on what I know and twist it to fit my novels. Except for one thing: I’ve never known murder.

Readers, do you gravitate to nostalgia in what you write or what you read? Nostalgia for what?

[image error]About Sharon: Sharon L. Dean grew up in Massachusetts where she was immersed in the literature of New England. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of New Hampshire, a state she lived and taught in before moving to Oregon. After giving up writing scholarly books that required footnotes, she reinvented herself as a fiction writer.

Webpage: https://sharonldean.com/
Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard?ref=nav_profile_authordash
Publisher: https://encirclepub.com/

Happy Thanksgiving!

In whatever form it takes in this strange year, the Wickeds wish you the happiest of Thanksgivings. We are so grateful for all of you.

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It is Better to Light One Candle…

by Barb, typing away…

Wickeds, it’s the time of year when we all work into the dark hours. How do you light your workspace? Describe and show us a photo, if you dare…

Julie: I’ve escaped to my family’s summer house for a bit of a change. I brought the cats, and we’re settling in for a long as we can take it. I use the dining room table for work calls, but I’ve been sitting on my father’s (ugly) brown microfiber recliner, feet up, computer on my lap. I’ve got to admit, I love it. The chair rocks and swivels when not reclining, so there are several different views–tv, window (with water in the distance), fireplace. Here’s the light–a Christmas Tree Shop special from several years ago.

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Jessie: I love this question, Barb! What fun! I have to admit to being a bit of a crow. I love sparkle in all its forms but am especially enamored of crystal. In October my husband and I redecorated my office and high on the list of to do items was to swap out the overhead light fixture. I chose a glittering chandelier and I couldn’t be happier with the way it fills the room with light and rainbows! I couldn’t help myself from going just a little over the top and so I added 11 crystal prisms to the windows too; one for each book I have published and one extra for the books yet to come! Sometimes when the sunlight streams through the windows I set the crystals to spinning and watch the rainbows dance about the room. If you were peeking in the window you might just see me joining them!

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Sherry: I’m having light fixture envy seeing Jessie’s sparkly chandelier! I usually write during the day and have lovely light coming in two windows — one which overlooks a patch of woods. The light in my office is leftover from the people who rented our house while we lived in Massachusetts. And yes, we’ve been back here for ten years and I’m just now calling our electrician to put in can lights.

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Edith/Maddie: I’ve had the same desk lamp for many years, a castoff from a friend I worked with at my antepenultimate day job. The lamp, which turns on and off by touching it, is perfect next to my laptop. I dislike overhead lights and don’t have any in the house except in the kitchen (although Jessie’s chandelier is lovely).

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For zoom calls and when it’s really dark as I start work in the mornings (yes, I do start that early), on the other side of my desk I have a second brighter floor lamp with a gooseneck so I can aim it wherever I need it.

Barb: When we moved to this house three years ago I spent a lot of time thinking about my study. There are two walls of windows and one wall taken up by the staircase and an elevator, so effectively only one wall to use. I came up with the brilliant solution to use my parents’ old glass dining table as a desk and to float it in the center of the room. Then I looked at dozens of glossy photos of rooms with floating glass desks, trying to figure out what to do about cords for lamp, laptop, phone, etc. Guess what? Since 100% of the photos are staged, none of them have any cords in them whatsoever. I wish I had come up with Jessie’s chandelier idea, but that would have involved electricians since there’s no lighting in the ceiling and I wasn’t in that place at the time. So I have this lamp that curves over from a spot on the window wall. It’s meant to provide ambient light not task light, so not the perfect solution, but it will do for now.

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Liz:  I write in a bunch of different places, depending on my mood and where I’m spending that particular day. My apartment gets a lot of natural light, and I do like dim lights if I’m lighting up. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of writing in my alternate space, and as always I like to have my essential oil diffuser lighting the way.

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Readers: What about you? How do you light your workspace whatever you do there?

Celebrating our “Gotcha Days”

By Liz, on deadline (again) and really looking forward to the end of this year!

I recently celebrated two years with my girls, Penny and Molly. For those of you who have been around since the beginning, can you believe it? And for those of you who are just joining us here on the Wickeds, let me assure you – it’s been a journey.

So today, as I frantically try to make my deadline, I’m sharing some of my favorite photos of them from the past two years.

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Thanks for indulging me – and tell me in the comments if you’re celebrating any special days lately, furry or human!

Dreaming

Edith here, in the chilly northeast corner of Massachusetts, gearing up to spend Thanksgiving with only a single loved one instead of ten or more .

I’ve been thinking about dreams lately, and of stories. Of course I’m dreaming of the day the world opens up safely again. Dreaming of hugging my son and his wife; traveling to see my other son in Puerto Rico; scooping my favorite three year old girl into my arms, maskless; going to mystery conferences again and hugging all my author pals; hanging out with the Wickeds in person (and hugging). Can you tell I’m feeling hug-deprived?

[image error]Edith’s son Allan and Miss C, Edith’s great-goddaughter (both masked)

But those aren’t the kinds of dreams I mean.

I often wake up at three or four in the morning and usually manage to get back to sleep. The dreams that arise after that are the vivid ones I remember after I awake for the day.

Some have pretty obvious meanings. Earlier this week, I dreamed that a local Quaker friend urgently told me a caravan of white supremacists was rolling into town and what were the details of the vigil I was supposed to have organized? I knew in the dream that I felt guilty about having to tell her I hadn’t set one up . I’m sure I’m still feeling bad about not volunteering to do more in the recent election.

In another, I was carrying someone else’s tiny baby AND sweeping up someone else’s cake and sandwich crumbs in someone else’s church. As an author, I often wonder if I’m doing enough to get the word out about my books. But when I accept lots of invitations to appearances or set them up myself, I easily feel overwhelmed with obligations.

I find it interesting that during the pandemic I haven’t had any of my long-time recurrent nightmares of something going terribly wrong while I’m traveling. Maybe my subconscious knows there’s no way I’m traveling anywhere for quite a while.

But what do dreams have to do with my writing? I still vividly remember a dream I had a decade ago. I was visiting with the King of Norway and his American wife (I have never been to Norway). I knew their young adult daughter had been murdered, and at one point spied her bloodied body being carried away beyond where the King and Queen sat. They didn’t see and didn’t seem to know of the death. The people carrying the body signaled to me to keep quiet. I did.

SO many questions! Who killed her, and why? Why did I stay mum about it? What happened when her parents discovered the crime?

I’ve always meant to write a short story incorporating that scene, and I might still. But I think mining the images and feelings from my remembered dreams can be of great use in my writing. Everyone’s subconscious is tuned into areas of our being that are both important and unknown. Dream life is daring and crazy and scrambled.

I know there are many ways to make sense of dreams. When I was in college, I studied Fritz Perls’ Gestalt Therapy a bit (he explains it here). What I remember about his approach to analyzing dreams is this: all parts of your dream are parts of you. You might think you are the little girl cowering before the dragon, but you also have the strength of the dragon. I might be terrified in my dream while flying the jetliner full of people (usually to China) even as I know full well I don’t know how to fly, but when I awake I can also integrate the…oh. Never mind. It’s not always easy.

Still, can I be as daring in my writing? Can I let my subconscious/muse/intuition lead me into new and unusual stories, no matter what they mean? Can I give my characters the complexity, the flights of fancy, the astonishing newness of dreams?

Tune in next year, same time, and I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, I wish you all a safe and delicious Thanksgiving.

Readers, what have your dreamed about that came true? What daring or wild or unusual thing have you done?