Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 125

Welcome Back, Krista Davis and a #giveaway

I’m so pleased to welcome Friend of the Wickeds, Krista Davis back to the blog. Krista’s latest book, The Diva Spices It Up, the thirteenth book in her Domestic Diva series, debuted Tuesday. To celebrate Krista is giving away a signed hardcover copy to one lucky commenter below. (US addresses only.)

Here’s the description:

[image error]After a celebrity ghostwriter dies on the job, Old Town’s favorite entertaining expert and sporadic sleuth, Sophie Winston, whips up an impromptu investigation in the new Domestic Diva mystery from New York Times bestselling author, Krista Davis . . .
 
Sophie never considered ghostwriting as a side gig, until former actress and aspiring lifestyle guru, Tilly Stratford, trophy wife of Wesley Winthrope, needs someone to write her celebrity cookbook. Sophie agrees, hoping she’ll earn enough bread on this assignment to finish her bathroom renovations. But as it turns out, Sophie isn’t the first foodie to get a taste for recipe ghostwriting, and if the marginalia are any indication, this project could be a killer . . .

Thanks for joining us and take it away, Krista!

Thank you so much for inviting me. I’m truly honored to be a guest at The Wickeds.

Sometimes when I get an idea for a book, I start researching and wonder why I ever thought it was a good idea. But having Sophie Winston ghostwrite a cookbook was fun.

I knew that some cookbooks were ghostwritten but according to my research, it’s much more common than I thought. A lot of the celebrity chefs use ghostwriters to write their cookbooks. Some of them have two TV shows and four restaurants, not to mention public appearances, so maybe it’s not too surprising that they don’t have the time to write and compile all those recipes. There are some fun articles on the web about ghostwriters tailing the celebrities, trying to stay out of the way in hectic restaurant kitchens while writing down the ingredients and steps as the chef is cooking. One ghostwriter found herself packing a bag and following the chef to exotic locations, all the while trying to elicit recipe information from the chef.

It’s not quite so hectic for Sophie. At the request of her ex-husband, Mars, she’s helping Tilly Stratford, a woman who was a child star on television. Tilly is the wife of a congressman, trying to establish her own identity and brand. She’s totally intimidated by the other congressional wives. Sophie finds that hard to believe, after all Tilly was a star! But Tilly sees it differently, “Honey, have you seen some of these women? They run miles every day and lift weights. I break into hives when I pass a gym on the sidewalk.”

The trouble is that the original ghostwriter abruptly left the job, leaving Tilly in the lurch with an unfinished book. No one knows why and even worse, no one can find her. Sophie discovers odd numbers and letters on some of the recipes. They don’t look like any cooking instructions she has ever seen. Are they some kind of code that means add garlic? The ghostwriter’s elderly neighbor who was lucky enough to try some of the recipes says they needed a little spicing up. Still, that doesn’t explain the odd notes.

Readers of the series may be interested to know that there’s a major change in Natasha’s life in this book. No spoilers here, though!

Readers: We’re all cooking a lot more now that we’re staying home. What have you cooked or baked in the last few weeks that you absolutely loved? (To celebrate the release of The Diva Spices It Up, I’m giving away a signed hardcover copy. Please leave a comment to enter. Sorry, US addresses only.)

[image error]New York Times Bestselling author Krista Davis writes the Domestic Diva Mysteries. Her 13th book in the series, THE DIVA SPICES IT UP, was just released on April 28th. Krista also writes the Paws & Claws Mysteries for animal lovers that debuted with MURDER, SHE BARKED and the Pen & Ink Mysteries with covers that can be colored! Like her characters, Krista has a soft spot for cats, dogs, and sweets. She lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with two dogs and two cats.

Find Krista at:

kristadavis.com

www.facebook.com/KristaDavisAuthor

pinterest.com/kristadavisbook

instagram.com/kristadavisauthor/

mysteryloverskitchen.com

twitter.com/kristadavis

killercharacters.com

Wicked Wednesday–Online Games

Wickeds, we’re wending our way to the windup of our Wednesday waxings on games. One last question: What’s your online stress reliever? Are you a solitaire player? A multi-player gamer? Do you build virtual worlds? Play some sort of sport or dance your pants off? Give us some insight into your online gaming habits.

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Julie: I find online games to be very, very relaxing. I like the match type games, so I’m a fan of Candy Crush and the other King games. Recently I discovered a game called Small Town that is both a mystery and matching games. I’ve also been known to have Free Cell bouts. My nieces and nephews tried to explain one of the world building games to me, but I didn’t love it. I do my own world building in my books.

Edith/Maddie: I’m sure I’ll be the outlier here. I played one video game once. I think it was called Myst? It was before I was divorced, so before 2002. I like crosswords on paper and solitaire with cards. I spend way, way too much time gazing at a screen. I don’t want to play a game on one, too.

Jessie: I am not a gaming enthusiast either, Edith. If left to my own devices, I just am not in the least bit interested. That said, since my family has been spending an unprecedented amount of time together we have started playing Civilization V as a family. While I doubt I will ever chose to play it on my own, it has been interesting to interact with my husband and sons in a completely different way. I also appreciate that it takes a very different set of skills than I am accustomed to employing and I do love to watch my brain stretch!

Liz: I haven’t actually played an online game in a long time! But I used to love Bejeweled…I was completely addicted to it. Before that, it was Solitaire. And there was a stretch where I was hooked on Farmville – that was a fun one.

Sherry: Liz! I forgot all about Bejeweled I use to play that too. I play solitaire but it’s on my old desktop not online. My daughter plays a word game and occasionally asks me for help. I’ve thought about downloading it but haven’t as yet. And my family plays a fun game called Heads Up.

Barb: I’m not much of an online gamer, but I am sadly addicted to solitaire. For me it’s like a cigarette break was for my mother, only slightly healthier. A way to stop, pause, gather, chill. Usually I play the classic Klondike, turn three. The point is it’s familiar and not challenging. However, lately I have also been into the games included with the scenes from Jacquie Lawson. It started with an advent calendar this December and now I have moved on to the Curio Collection tableau.

Readers: Do you have a favorite online game? Let us know in the comments. Clearly we need to branch out.

Quarantine Top Fives

By Liz, still locked away in Connecticut

I love lists. I especially love to read other people’s lists. I’ll buy any magazine that promises me the top five or top 10 anything. Since we’re all still in quarantine and probably trying to come up with new ways to cope, I thought I’d share a few of my top fives for how I’ve been surviving. Hopefully you’ll find something fun or useful to pass your abundance of time!

Shows:

Ozark (if you want dark)The Stranger (Harlan Coben)Gilmore Girls (even though I’ve seen every episode a hundred times, this one is great to feel like you’ve got fun friends over)Grace & Frankie (just funny)Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (quirky, fun, and Lauren Graham)

Books:

Untamed – Glennon Doyle Where to Begin – Cleo WadeHid From Our Eyes – Julia Spencer FlemingEverything is Figureoutable – Marie ForleoWe Were the Mulvaneys – Joyce Carol Oates

Snacks: (and yes, this one is pretty random)

So Delicious oat milk chocolate salted caramel ice creamBoulder Canyon avocado oil potato chips – sea salt flavorClementinesTootsie RollsHummus and gluten-free flatbread crackers

Apps:

Insight Timer – for meditation, music and all around calmingWriterly – to get your creative juices flowingDaylio Journal – a good way to set goals and keep track of your moodSpirit Junkie – affirmations to get you through the dayBrain Sparker – another way to prompt a writing session

Crystals:

Lepidolite – balances mood swings and helps with meditationPeach selenite – promotes gentle healingHowlite – for sleepAmethyst – relives stress, balances mood swings, dissolves negativity, alleviates sadness and griefPolychrome Jasper – grounding Bonus: Petrified wood – for anyone feeling stuck or frozen in time (sound familiar, anyone??)



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Movies:

Back to the Future (what can I say, I love the 80s)The Outsiders (my all-time favorite)Shawshank Redemption (no explanation needed)Se7en (dark but Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt!)Arlington Road (also dark but awesome)Bonus – Groundhog Day (LOL)

Instagram TV:

Glennon Doyle’s Morning Meetings (@glennondoyle)Elizabeth Gilbert (@elizabeth_gilbert_writer)Gabby Bernstein (@gabbybernstein)Kris Carr (@crazysexykris)The Daily Show – Trevor Noah (@thedailyshow)

Readers, what are some of your top five (anythings) during this crazy time? Leave a comment below!

Missing Sheila Connolly

It is with heavy hearts we bid farewell to Sheila Connolly, our first Wicked Accomplice.

[image error]Sheila at Malice 2019 with a typical look of wry amusement.

Sheila passed away last week in her beloved Irish cottage.

[image error]From the front door of Garryglass, Sheila’s cottage in County Cork

Sheila was an integral part of our New England crime fiction community. She served as President of Sisters in Crime New England and co-chair of the New England Crime Bake. She was a mentor and role model to many of us. She made us laugh and wrote blurbs for our books. She was nominated for an Agatha Award twice, and wrote three (sometimes four) bestselling cozy mysteries a year , making it look like a breeze. And perhaps most important, as a brilliant storyteller Sheila provided her legions of fans with hundreds of hours of compelling reading.

Wickeds, please share your memories and photos of our friend. We’ve also invited our former Accomplices Kimberly Gray and Jane Haertel to contribute.

Barb: “If not now, when?” The year Sheila was president of Sisters in Crime New England, I was her vice president. I loved watching the way her mind worked. She had the most arcane bits of knowledge culled from her broad education, hobbies, and career experiences. She was generous and supportive of new authors. She blurbed my first Maine Clambake book.

But the reason I’ve thought of Sheila so often in the last couple of months is the question above. On the many panels we were on together, Sheila was often asked when she began writing seriously for publication. She always answered “9/11.” As it did for so many people, September 11, 2001 caused Sheila to take stock of her life and to ask what she really wanted to accomplish. Then she set out to accomplish it. And she did. Writing cozy mysteries, always with a twist, for example the Museum Mysteries, which have an urban setting, or the County Cork Mysteries, which feature a working-class protagonist. It wasn’t easy. Her first mystery, written as Sarah Atwell, was published in 2008. She set her sights on living in Ireland and against tremendous odds made an international move last fall.

As we navigate the current crisis and are reminded again that life is short and uncertain, I have asked myself over and over, what do I really want to accomplish? And if not now, when? Thank you, Sheila, for your shining example.

Sherry: When we were starting the blog we looked at each other and said, no one has really heard of us (we only had three books published among us) who is going to read this? Maybe we need to ask a bigger name to join us. Our first thought was Sheila. We reached out and while she said she didn’t have time to do all the things we had planned, she generously said she could do a post once a month and she did.

[image error]Sheila, Jessie, Julie, Sherry



[image error]2016 SinC Hollywood conference with Nancy J. Parra, Leslie Budewitz, Jessie, Sheila, Julie

The pictures above are from the 2016 SinC Hollywood conference. We had such a great time. When I asked Sheila to blurb my first book this was her answer: No problem (unless of course I hate it, but that’s only happened to me once, when I couldn’t find a single thing to like in the book). I read for pleasure, relaxation, escape, or to put myself to sleep–so I’m always reading anyway. What’s your timeline? That answer is so Sheila. I will miss her smile, laugh, smarts, books, and generosity.

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Liz: If it wasn’t for Sheila, I might not be published, and I probably wouldn’t be writing any of the three series I have, and the Wickeds might not even exist as we are today. Sheila was president of SINCNE when John Talbot reached out and asked for her help in identifying writers who might be interested in working on cozy proposals with him. Rather than choosing people, Sheila–being the generous person she was–put the message out to the whole membership. It’s how we all met John and eventually signed contracts, and the reason why we all came together.

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This picture was from the Malice right before my first book came out, and I couldn’t attend. Sheila made sure I didn’t miss out on any of the fun. She was always so friendly and funny and I’ll miss her presence at our events and in our lives.

[image error]Kim & Sheila in New Orleans

Kim: When I learned my friend, and fellow Wicked Accomplice, Sheila Connolly had passed on, I did the only thing I knew would help me through this time. I went to my shelf and took down one of my favorite books she had written. Buried in a Bog was the first in her County Cork series and is set in Sheila’s beloved Ireland.

[image error]Kim, Ramona DeFelice-Long, Sheila and Edith at Crime Bake

Sheila was one of the best storytellers I ever knew. She could make the directions on changing a lightbulb into a fascinating tale and have you on the edge of your seat waiting to find out if the bulb worked. Her wry sense of humor kept me entertained for three straight hours one exceptionally early morning at Crime Bake. I loved listening as she spoke of her cottage in Ireland and how it was so quiet she could overhear a conversation in a nearby house.

When we became Accomplices here on the Wickeds, Sheila sent me an email. “Do you know what you’re going to write about?” she asked me. “Not a clue,” I responded. “Oh good. I’m not alone,” she said. I knew, though, that she’d have many good stories to share.

[image error]Dinner with friends. Pre-Malice. From the left, Liz, Michele Dorsey, Sheila, Kim, Barb, Pat Remick, Julie, Sherry, Jessie, Edith, Shari Randall

Julie:  Sheila had a smile that lit up a room. As Kim mentioned, she was a wonderful person to talk to because she really listened. She was a pip. One of a kind. She really, truly enjoyed her writing life. She rode the waves as they came, and adjusted. She was so prolific–I sometimes think the writer in her was so pent up that when her muse was set free she was determined to catch up. She had so many projects in the works at all time, and approached each with relish. I am mourning my friend, who I will miss dearly. I am also missing the stories that won’t be told because we lost her way, way too soon.

[image error]At Crime Bake, with Dru Ann Love on a stick

Edith/Maddie: I met Sheila at my very first Sisters in Crime New England meeting in 2006. It was at Kate Flora’s house and I was a nervous, unpublished newbie. During introductions, Sheila announced she had signed not one but two cozy contracts and everyone clapped. I’ve been trying to follow in her footsteps ever since! Write three books a year? If Sheila could do it, I figured I could, too. Work on Saturday morning? I knew Sheila was writing then, so I did, too. I know I’m not as unfailingly cheerful and generous as she was, but I try. And mostly I try to channel her amazing storytelling.

[image error]Enjoying a Kentucky Derby drink at Malice Domestic last year

A few summers ago, Sheila and I spent most of a week at fellow New England writer Tiger Wiseman’s Vermont getaway. We drove up together, talking all the way there and back. I got to see her in action at the dining table, with her laptop and her pad of paper with scribbled notes. We three cooked together and played games in the evenings, sampling Sheila’s Irish whiskey. We went out for a Scottish meal on the last night. She shared her ideas, her whimsies, and her plans. I’d hoped to visit her in Ireland, but that’s not to be.

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As Liz said, it was due to Sheila’s stint as Sisters in Crime New England president that we all connected with our agent. John Talbot said this about her:

“She took an out-of-the-blue call from me as someone who was new to the mystery genre and graciously proceeded to connect me to clients who’ve since become the cornerstone to my business as well as my good friends. I didn’t know Sheila well and her quiet generosity to me can never be repaid, though in some ways it is constantly being paid forward to her readers and to the readers of the many authors to whom she was so generous with her time and support.”

Sheila stayed on the SINCNE board every year after that, giving service to her fellow writers, one more example of her generosity.

[image error]Some of the SINCNE chapter luminaries – that is, goddesses – with tiaras at our 30th birthday party for SINC National.

I will miss Sheila for a long, long time. Let’s all raise a glass to her remarkable memory.

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Jane Haertel: I met Sheila way back in 2011. I was revising (and agonizing over) the first draft of my first complete manuscript, the one I’d eventually sell as Feta Attraction. Sheila was on a panel at the library in Northampton MA. I was already a fan of Sheila’s Glassblowing and Orchard mysteries, and I recall being so impressed by her. She had a presence that seemed larger than life, not just because she was so tall, but because she was fascinating to listen to and it was blatantly clear she loved what she was doing and that writing, out of all the many careers she’d previously succeeded at, was her true, joyous calling. I was just a wannabe then, but later I would find myself at conferences with Sheila, and ::blinking in surprise:: I found myself her professional colleague!

I recall preparing for a Crime Bake panel with her a few years ago, sitting in the big room in the evening with a couple glasses of wine. We figured out that we had at least one common ancestor (and probably more), though we never did get around to figuring out what our exact degree of cousin-ness was. The conversation devolved into something about alpacas and I laughed until I cried. Isn’t that just like good writing? You don’t remember the actual words you read, but you remember how the story made you feel. And Sheila made me feel inspired, awed, and grateful for the gift of her stories and the gift of her friendship. Now, back to that Northampton event so many years ago. Afterward, I emailed her (fangirl, remember?), told her about my manuscript and that I was just beginning the process of shopping it around and, along with a big dose of encouragement, she gave me a nugget of advice about writing: Treat it like a business, but don’t lose the fun along the way. From what I know of Sheila, she never did lose the fun–in her stories, or in her life.

Jessie: Sheila was such an inspiration and a class act. She was unflaggingly generous and warm to the writers following in her footsteps. She always greeted both people of her acquaintance and those she had not yet met with her beaming smile and a thoughtful question about their work to make them feel valued and included in the writing community.

Like others have already mentioned, I am not sure my career would be at the point it is today without Sheila announcing to all of us the interest from an agent in working with members of the SinCNE chapter. It was just the opportunity I had been waiting for. She ended up blurbing the first book that agent sold for me. I am still awestruck that she took time from her professional obligations to give an unknown like me a boost. I will miss her for her kindness, her sense of humor and her shining example of how to be both an author beloved by her readers and a writer esteemed by her peers.

Readers: Please share your memory of Sheila or your favorite book of hers.

 

Best Historical Nominees 2020

Edith here, still writing from north of Boston and itching to get into her garden.

Once again I am delighted to welcome my fellow nominees for this year’s Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel. Yes, we are all staying home, sniff, and not gathering in North Bethesda next weekend for Malice Domestic 32. However – voting will go on, as will a virtual awards ceremony! Malice has announced that voting for all current registrants will begin on April 30, 2020 and will close on May 2, 2020 at 12:00 pm ET. The live Agatha Awards will begin on May 2, 2020 at 7:00 pm – just like it would have if we weren’t all quarantined, except we’ll all have our separate banquets at home. We hope you all can tune in to the show.

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Here’s the question I posed to Rhys Bowen, Susanna Calkins, LA Chandler, first-time nominee, New England’s own Gabriel Valjan – and to myself:

“How would your nominated protagonist respond to a world-wide pandemic during which people were asked to self-isolate and take extreme measures not to infect others? How would they have stayed sane and amused?”

Take it away, gang.

Rhys: My heroine, Lady Georgiana, would be stellar in our current situation. Having been brought up in a remote Scottish castle, self isolation would come naturally, as long as she could get out into fresh air. And being related to the royal family, she had duty drummed into her from an early age. She would emulate her great grandmother, Queen Victoria and do what was expected of her—unlike her cousin, the Prince of Wales, who abandoned duty for the love of a certain American woman! The only problem would be her new husband, Darcy O’Mara. At this point in her life she has moved into a big country estate in the English countryside where it would be easy to keep the world at bay, except that Darcy gets given strange assignments that might put him into contact with other people in other parts of the world. But the house is big enough that he could have his own suite, just to make sure—if he could keep away from Georgie for that long.

Susanna Calkins: In 1918, when the Spanish flu broke out in Chicago, my protagonist Gina Ricci was about sixteen years old and living alone with her father on the lower level of a two-flat. Her brother Aidan was still over in France, fighting in the last months of the Great War. Her papa, an engineer who drove the city’s elevated trains (the “L”), was expected to report to work every day, leaving her alone. Gina was still expected to attend high school every day, even as public spaces, such as zoos, amusement parks, skating rinks, and theaters, were being closed throughout the city.  The Chicago authorities had decided it was better to keep children inside, so that their health could be better monitored by school officials. If a child sneezed or coughed, they would be sent home immediately. If an adult sneezed or coughed on the street, or spat on the “L”, they could be fined or even arrested. (Interestingly, churches, bars and restaurants remained open throughout the contagion, to keep up the city’s morale.) 

Gina, who likes to tinker, spent her time alone fixing things around the house. Her upstairs neighbor loaned her a few cookbooks, so she learned to make some simple meals for her father, to stretch their meager supplies the best she could. She also spent her days pouring over her neighbor’s magazines, mostly Life and Variety, imagining a more exciting life for herself.

L.A. Chandlar: It’s safe to say my firecracker Lane Sanders would not enjoy being cooped up. Being aide to the extremely busy, never stopping Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, she’d definitely still have a lot of work to do, even if distancing herself. But to occupy her private time, she’s a reader. In The Pearl Dagger Lane meets J.R.R. Tolkien and can hardly wait for The Hobbit to come out the following fall. Lane also loves to dance. So I think in the evenings after their favorite radio shows, Aunt Evelyn and Mr. Kirkland would roll back the carpet and turn on some dance tunes. And just like most of us, Lane would also be creating her own cocktails. She would also be a little sad for her city, like I am. The pulsing heartbeat of the culture, the wide variety of people, the very energy is the heart of it and it was suffering. But Lane would know beyond a DOUBT, that they will carry on. And the city will be even better, its spirit unbreakable.

New York City handled the 1918 flu epidemic really well and very similarly to how we are handling this today. But through the hard times, they didn’t just survive, they thrived. And we will too. It’s hard, but with wonderful people and fantastic art -like the Wickeds!- we will find beauty out of this adversity and we will thrive.

Gabriel Valjan: Walker is a combat veteran, and he’s survived some of the fiercest battles in World War 2. Few people know about the Colmar Pocket: Walker had gone from that to the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Dachau in rapid succession. The military timeline alone suggests that he lived through unspeakable days of relentless and ruthless carnage. The majority of combat veterans, past or present, who have lived through such violence do not discuss it. Walker is no different. He is soft-spoken, even insecure about his talents. What keeps him motivated is a sense of duty and service, to not fail those around him. A soldier’s first duty is to accept orders.

An order for self-isolation would be hard on him, because he would think he ought to do something. Doing nothing is doing something and that is the paradox. Walker would be smart enough to get it…eventually. He is well-read, has an appreciation for music, thanks to the first girl who broke his heart, and he knows how to avoid people because he did so for many years, for emotional reasons. As for sanity, readers discover alongside with Walker in the Naming Game that Walker loves writing. He realizes he has as much a talent for writing a story as he does for doing spy craft for the newly-formed CIA at a major Hollywood studio in 50s Los Angeles.

Edith Maxwell: Rose Carroll is a midwife in the late 1880s, so she’s a medical professional and therefore providing an essential service, if they used that terminology. Pandemic or no, women are still pregnant and having babies. Rose would be out there riding around Amesbury on her bicycle doing her work. She would make all efforts to be safe, and would be talking to other midwives and doctors about best practices. But her devotion to her moms and babies would take precedence.

In an era where just living took a lot of work, isolating wouldn’t have been easy. Rose’s nieces and nephews have books to read and games to play with, but Rose and and her older niece, Faith, would need to go out to several markets and the butcher to buy food and milk. They live in a town, not on a farm. And of course antibiotics and antiviral medicines were only a dream. Still, Rose is a positive person, and her Quaker faith leads her to service. She would be sewing masks so she and other could still get out there and provide assistance.

Edith: One more flash question for the nominees. What are you wearing to the awards ceremony? (Don’t bother with footware – I’ll have my old fleecey LL Bean clog-slippers on below my pretty dress…)

Rhys: I was supposed to be on a cruise on May 2 so I’ll be wearing new clothes I bought for the Caribbean (and it will probably be really hot in Arizona by that date)! Bikini, maybe?

Susanna: I will definitely wear my 1920s headband complete with feather, to match my book. I’m sure the crumbs from the morning’s breakfast will add sparkle to my face and sweatshirt as well, when caught in just the right glare from the lamp in my son’s bedroom where I do all my zoom calls.

L.A.: Well, since we went to Michigan several weeks ago to take care of my mom, I have a limited supply of options. But I of course packed a pair of red shoes. ️ So I’ll wear my black n white blouse and black slacks – the only set I have that aren’t jeans – with my Art Deco choker and patent leather red shoes. And I will be holding Lane’s favorite whiskey sour! If I can get my hands on a tiara, I’ll wear that too;-).

Edith: L.A., I have two tiaras – I’d loan you one if I could!

Gabriel: Like my character Walker, I’ll be casual and comfortable, in a Hawaiian shirt of the day. No promises, but I’ll try to recruit Munchkin the Cat to make a cameo. Probability of success is nil.

Edith: In addition to the aforementioned slippers, I’ll don my maroon mother-of-the-groom dress from my son’s wedding two years ago. Where else am I going to wear it? Or maybe I should slip into my nineteenth-century Quaker dress, except…with my newly gained pandemic pounds, I probably won’t be able to fasten the thirty covered buttons…

Readers: What’s your favorite pandemic-coping strategy? Who will be tuning in to the awards ceremony?

Welcome Kathleen Kalb and a #giveaway

Hi all. I’d like to introduce author Kathleen Marple Kalb, whose debut historical mystery, A Fatal Finale, Ella Shane Mystery #1, releases on April 28. Our publisher, Kensington, is giving away a hardcopy edition of A Fatal Finale to one lucky commenter below.

Here’s the description.

[image error]On the cusp of the twentieth century, Manhattan is a lively metropolis buzzing with talent. But after a young soprano meets an untimely end on stage, can one go-getting leading lady hit the right notes in a case of murder?
 
New York City, 1899. When it comes to show business, Gilded Age opera singer Ella Shane wears the pants. The unconventional diva breaks the mold by assuming “trouser roles”—male characters played by women—and captivating audiences far and wide with her travelling theatre company. But Ella’s flair for the dramatic takes a terrifying turn when an overacting Juliet to her Romeo drinks real poison during the final act of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi.

Like most authors, Kathleen’s taken an interesting road to her fiction debut and she’s here to tell us about it. Take it away, Kathleen!

SECRET AGENT MOM

Or, Who’s that Lady in the Pickup Pen?

Okay, so I’m not quite a secret agent. But I’m definitely not your usual suburban mom. The other ladies (and gents!) waiting to pick up their kids probably didn’t spend the weekend telling the good people of New York about the latest stupid criminal caper in the subway…and they sure aren’t thinking about selling a book. They do, however, probably think that I’m at least a little impaired every once in a while. Sleeping on trains, never mind plotting fictional death by nicotine poisoning, will do that.

[image error]My typical Saturday starts on Friday evening. I light Sabbath candles with the family, then sleep until 9:30 pm, get ready for work, drive to the train station for the last train out at 11:30 pm, and sleep until we get to Grand Central at 1:45 am. Grab a cab, get to the 1010 WINS newsroom by 2:00 am. Write – hard news, not mysteries – until showtime: five o’clock. A half-hour on, half hour off until 11:30 am. Walk back to Grand Central, catch a noon train, doze and work on my current fiction project, then drive back to the house – home by 3:30 pm. Then: mom stuff with the Imp while the Professor gets a nap…bed at 6 pm – and at 9:30, the alarm goes off for rinse, repeat and Sunday. Sometimes Monday, too.

 That’s pretty much been my life since the Imp was born. It sounds brutal, but it’s really a blessing. I get to be both a stay-at-home mom, and a hard-core professional newswoman. I live in two completely different worlds, and I usually code-switch pretty well. So far I haven’t used newsroom language on the playground…but I came close the day a bully chased the Imp.

I’ve always felt like I had a secret identity. And then I started writing mysteries…and it got really interesting. Now I look at my colleagues and friends as inspiration for potential characters. I’m sure that the very nice grandma over there has no idea that I consider her a perfect candidate to poison her snippy daughter-in-law. Or that every once in a while, I think about killing one of my editors. Because they’d make a perfect victim, not because I don’t like them.

I’m still safe, because my debut is an historical series.  We don’t need to tell anyone that a few of the folks in Ella Shane’s Washington Square borrow from my friends in the pen…

[image error]Photo by Steve Kalb

About the author: Kathleen Marple Kalb grew up in front of a microphone, and a keyboard.  She’s currently a weekend morning anchor at 1010 WINS New York, capping a career she began as a teenage DJ in Brookville, Pennsylvania. She, her husband, and son live in a Connecticut house owned by their cat. You can visit her website at http://kathleenmarplekalb.com/

Readers: Do you ever feel like you have a secret life on the weekends? Are you a weekend ballerina or movie critic or chef? Comment on the blog to be entered to win a copy of A Fatal Finale. (Kensington will send the book as soon as the publicists can get into the office to mail it!)

Buy Links:

Amazon

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Your local independent bookstore

Wicked Wednesday–Lawn Games

At the Snowden Family Clambake they have bocce courts and volley ball nets for the guests to use before they serve the clambake meal. In a more genteel day, there might have been croquet and badminton on the great lawn. Then there are the touch football games, the seasonal activities like snowball fights…

Wickeds, what are your lawn games of choice? Fill us in on the wins and the crushing defeats, the pure athleticism and the sports injuries.

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Edith/Maddie: I am fond of bocce and own a set. When I (rarely now) go to the beach with my sons, we always play it. I have very little coordination between my eye and my hand, so I never win, but it’s fun! We own an antique croquet set. Maybe I’ll pull that out once the world opens up again.

Julie: We have a croquet set that gets hauled out when the family is gathered at the Cape. But for lawn games, nothing beats the Jart games we used to play when I was a kid. Honestly, I’m not sure how we all survived with the sharp metal and flying pointy objects. I also used to love tether ball back in the day.

Edith/Maddie: I LOVED tether ball, too, Julie! That I could play, because the ball was big, and it never escaped.

Liz: Have I mentioned I’m not very coordinated? My parents (especially my father) tried desperately to make me like sports even just a little bit. As the kid who’s been wearing glasses since age nine and always got picked last for teams at school, let’s just say he wasn’t super successful. One particularly failed attempt happened when I was probably somewhere around 10. We had a volleyball net in the backyard that my parents put up whenever we were going to have a family cookout or some other gathering. Well, somehow I forgot it was there (despite it being strung up in the middle of the yard). I was running around and ran smack into it, full force, and had a giant gash across the bridge of my nose for weeks…Needless to say, volleyball was on my bad list after that.

Barb: Liz, I get it completely. I somehow got between a pitcher and catcher before the start of a little league game and took a ball right in the mouth. As for lawn games, while the Snowden Family in my books supports them completely, my family is more likely to play these types of games at the beach. There’s paddle ball, frisbee, and bean bag. But you’ll more likely find me nearby in a chair reading a mystery.

Sherry: I always loved to play badminton! My dad would set up a net in our backyard occasionally. It wasn’t very dangerous, you didn’t have to be super coordinated to play, and if you got hit with the gamecock it didn’t hurt that bad. Now that I think about it, I think we also use to play volleyball occasionally. I have this vague memory of being in junior high and high school and groups of kids playing. We also had a croquet set that we played once in awhile.

Barb: Gamecock? We always called them shuttlecocks or birdies. Is that a regional thing?

Readers: What about you? Favorite lawn and outdoor games. Go!

Guest Barbara Monajem

Edith here, and I’m happy to welcome Barbara Monajem, my fellow Guppy, and her new mystery! Here’s the blurb:

London, 1811. Lady Rosamund’s mortifying compulsion remains a secret until she discovers the body of a footman at dead of night. Now an anonymous caricaturist mocks her in scandalous prints, and poison pen letters show someone knows too much about her. Suddenly, her sanity—and her life—are at stake.

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Take it away, Barbara!

Years ago, I bought a copy of Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Once I had foolishly purchased this massive tome, I had to at least try to read it. Very early in the book (that’s as far as I got), there’s a scene from the point of view of a girl who has been taught to see herself as valueless—not intelligent, not lovable, not worthy, not this, that, or the other. She’s an illegitimate child, which explains it somewhat, as at the time of the story, children born out of wedlock had no legal status. But there was also a class system in England, in which some people were perceived as being inherently “better” than others simply by virtue of their social class at birth—which was absurd and unjust, but people accepted it for centuries.

It may seem a stretch from deploring injustice to writing a mystery from the first-person point of view of one of the so-called betters, but I’ve published a number of Regency romances and am familiar with the society of the time. It was fascinating to put myself into the mind of a well-bred lady from two hundred years ago, who makes assumptions and harbors prejudices that seem awful today. Lady Rosamund Phipps is the daughter of an earl—wealthy, privileged, and taught to believe in her innate superiority. She means well but has no idea how the other ninety-nine percent live, much less how they view themselves and their social superiors. As she finds herself pulled into situations a lady should never encounter, she blunders, sometimes unforgivably.

“Being” her—writing from such an intimate point of view—was sometimes a bit scary, as it led to close examination of my own prejudices. Which attitudes from my childhood led to certain patterns of thought, and how have they changed? Did I really used to think like this or that? (I remember believing as a child that people who couldn’t spell were a bit stupid. Now I know better, but why did I think that way back then?) Why was it sometimes so easy to understand and predict Lady Rosamund’s thoughts and reactions, and sometimes so difficult?

Even within Lady Rosamund’s exalted sphere, “better” doesn’t mean safer or happier. She marries a man who agrees to leave her be and stick to his mistress, because she finds the idea of sexual intimacy so distasteful. Her anxieties lead to compulsive behavior (I even chose my own personal compulsion, which is to check things over and over, because I felt I could write it realistically) and a fear of being confined as a madwoman by her scandal-averse family. So when a caricaturist—the equivalent of a modern-day paparazzo—mocks her in scandalous prints, and she receives anonymous letters hinting that the world will learn of her compulsion, she has to DO something about the situation. And of course, she does.

I’m pleased to send one of you a copy of Lady Rosamund and the Poison Pen.

Readers: Did you have prejudices as a child that you find incomprehensible now? Do you have any compulsions that annoy the heck out of you? Is political correctness a solution to prejudice, or merely a sort of bandage, a way of covering up attitudes that still fester underneath? Do you enjoy reading novels written in first person? If not, why not?

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USA Today Bestselling Author Barbara Monajem has published over twenty historical novels. She has two items on her bucket list: to make asparagus pudding (too weird to resist) and succeed at knitting socks. She managed the first (it was ghastly) but doubts she’ll ever accomplish the second. This is not a bid for immortality but merely the dismal truth. She lives near Atlanta with relatives, friends, and feline strays.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/barbara.monajem

Twitter: http://twitter.com/BarbaraMonajem

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3270624.Barbara_Monajem

Buy links:

Amazon US, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple

Guest-The Country Bookseller!

Jessie: In New Hampshire where the daffodils are in bloom and the blackflies have yet to appear!

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I am absolutely delighted to welcome Karen and Autumn from the Country Bookseller in Wolfeboro, NH to the Wickeds today! Since stopping the shop in person right now is not a possibility, I thought we would enjoy a virtual visit instead. They have been kind enough to host me at the bookstore many times over the years and have always gone out of their way to advertise the events, have plenty of books on hand and to make me feel at home. Welcome ladies!

Jessie:   For a lot of book lovers owning a bookstore seems like a dream come true. That said, I expect there is a huge amount of work involved! What does a typical week for an independent bookseller involve?

CB: In our store, we wear all the hats. We often get asked the question, “Do you get to read while you’re at work?” The truth is, we could never find the time! When we aren’t helping readers find the perfect book, we are making coffee, receiving orders, cleaning, straightening and alphabetizing books on the shelves, building displays, and looking for new books to add to our shelves. We meet with sales representatives from some of the major publishers to go over lists of new books for each season so that every title that arrives in the store is hand-selected. 

Jessie:    Even though it isn’t all fun and games, I am sure you would not keep rising to the challenge if you didn’t love it. What is the most rewarding part of your job?

CB:It is always rewarding to put books into the hands of young readers. Whether we help a “non-reader” discover the love of words or keep adding to the stacks of a voracious reader, we love spreading the love of reading to the younger generations. One of the many perks of being in business for twenty-six years is that we get to see those kids grow up and not only keep reading, but then pass that love on to their kids as well.

Jessie:   You are obviously book lovers. What are your favorite 2-3 genres? Which are the most popular with your patrons?

CB:For Autumn, it is easier to pick a few genres she doesn’t like, rather than the ones she does. She will read almost anything, but tends to stay away from Science Fiction and Fantasy. That’s not to say one or two books from those genres haven’t found their way on to her bookshelf. 

Karen prefers literary fiction, magical realism, and anything “spiritual.”
As far as our patrons go, I think we have a pretty eclectic mix there too. It also depends on the season what our folks are reading. I think we see more history books and literary fiction fly out of the store in the winter months and lighter reads, romance or adventure, in the summer months.

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Jessie:      Bookstores always seem to me to be a vital and significantly contributing member of their communities. In fact, they seem to build community just by their very existence to a surprising degree. Which sorts of ways has your shop been involved in your community over the years?

CB: Not only do bookstores everywhere build community, but for us we can certainly say our community builds us. We wouldn’t survive in a small tourist town with the threat of Amazon looming if we didn’t have an extremely supportive community. 
We are lucky to have several schools in the area who choose to shop with us and we have always offered discounts to not only schools, but teachers and homeschoolers as well. We love working with our local libraries to bring authors to the area. Whether it’s a big event at a local venue, or an intimate gathering in a library meeting room, it gives us the opportunity to support authors and give back to another important institution in our community.

Our favorite way of being involved in the community is existing as a safe and comfortable place for all. Especially in these trying times, many have realized or reaffirmed their opinions that bookstores are gathering places. Now that we’ve had to close our doors to the public, we are trying to remain that integral part of the community. We’d like to think we’ve always gone above and beyond, but especially now we hope that our familiar faces feel how important they are to us. Whether it’s curating personalized lists of recommendations, keeping our “cookie monsters” fed, or just answering the phone to chat with folks stuck at home alone, we are still our community’s gathering place and we hope it still feels like home.

Jessie:    With all the upheaval in the world right now it is even more of a pleasure, and a sanity-saver, to get lost in a good book. Any recommendations for us?

CB: Autumn tends to be the pessimist and Karen the optimist. 

So, if you are looking for somewhat of a downer to show that things could be worse, here are a few good ones:
The Return by Rachel Harrison (A story of friendship but with an edge of your seat, lights on all night, horrific twist.)
An Imperfect Union by Steve Inskeep (Proving history repeats itself and that the country was just as divided, if not more, over one hundred years ago.)
Crisis in the Red Zone by Richard Preston (Definitely puts things into perspective and will give the reader some good knowledge on how viruses operate, why this is not the end of the world, and how much the folks on the front lines of outbreaks sacrifice.)

If you are looking for something to lift your spirits or take you away, here is what Karen recommends:
The Secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander (Set in medieval China, this is a tale of sisterhood above all else.)
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (A family saga exploring the bond of siblings and chock-full of beautiful prose.)
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (A gothic novel about a library of rare books that is sure to excite anyone who has ever sought solace in the written word.)
It’s also a great time to pick up those classics that you’ve been meaning to read.

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Jessie:     Finally, our readers love their independent booksellers. How can we best support them?

CB: For those who are in a position to, keep shopping with us! We are here offering curbside pick-up and delivery and many of our bookselling friends are too. Check to see if your local bookshop is open before trying Amazon. Even if your local store is not operating, you can check indiebound.org/indie-bookstore-finder to find another store close to you. Many of us are shipping orders all over the country right now. 
If your shelves are fully stocked, but you still want to help, buy gift certificates. Ours never expire and you can use it for a celebratory shopping spree when we are able to open the doors.

 
A couple of great companies we partner with are doing so much to help us out as well. Audiobooks can be purchased through libro.fm/thecountrybookseller and right now if you sign up with the code SHOPBOOKSTORESNOW, we will get 100% of the profits and you get two free audiobooks. Bookshop.org is another great option if you need a book and can’t wait until we are in the shop to take your order. We have a page you can visit at bookshop.org/shop/thecountrybookseller which has lists we’ve curated. You can also search for specific books if you can’t find what you want on our lists. We receive a portion of the sales for any books you purchase through our page.

Another way to show your support is through saveindiebookstores.com . There, you can make a donation that will help the bookstores who need it most. You’ll be in good company with some huge supporters of independent bookstores like: James Patterson, Reese’s Book Club, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, and the American Booksellers Association.
Most importantly, remember us. If you aren’t able to support us now, just remember that we intend to be here when this is all over. As soon as the doors are open again, we hope to see all our old friends and our new ones too!

Readers, do you have a favorite indelendent bookstore? Share their name here! Have you ever worked in a bookstore or just wished you could? Do you have a book recommendation for all of us?
See More from Jessie Crockett

A Long, Strange Trip

by Barb, posting for the first time in 2020 from Portland, Maine

Regular readers know that my husband, Bill, and I spend January through March every year in Key West. We live in a rental property there. It suits us fine. We’ve owned a lot of houses over the years and something always needs fixing. With the rental we simply call the office and help is on the way. They don’t even like us to change light bulbs.

As March marched on and the news got worse, we assessed our situation. I assumed that if the country or the whole east coast shut down, we’d be able to extend our lease. The people scheduled to move into our house in April were the owners. I reasoned if we couldn’t leave, they couldn’t arrive, so we could hold tight. The second week in March we called the rental agency to make sure this was true. They assured us that even if the owners did arrive they had plenty of (unexpectedly) empty property.

[image error]Sloppy Joe’s shuttered in Key West on St. Patrick’s Day 2020. Photo by Bill Carito

You’ve probably read a lot about Florida’s response to the pandemic. Our local governments, the City of Key West and Monroe County, were pretty on top of things. The Coast Guard controls the port and the last cruise ship left the city on March 14. The city closed down bars and restaurants at 5:00 pm on Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17, foregoing a lot of revenue. Those spring break photos you saw in the latter part of March weren’t from Key West. On March 20, the county closed the hotels, B&Bs and all short-term rentals. We were in a long-term rental, so I wasn’t worried. I neglected to read the fine print.

On Monday, March 23 we called our rental agency to see what our options would be. We’d already received one hotel cancellation for our originally planned trip home. I was antsy about finding food, restrooms, gas, and places to stay along the way. At that point we were informed that we couldn’t stay even if we wanted to. The county had also banned the extension of all long-term leases. We were going to have to leave.

That was my personal low point. Just knowing we didn’t have an alternative. But I also understood. Key West Hospital is small and the city didn’t need us overburdening their healthcare system. It was time to go.

We planned our trip, 1800 miles, for 3 days and 2 nights. We normally travel at a much more leisurely pace, visiting along the way with our son and his family in Virginia, my brother and his wife in Pennsylvania, and our daughter and her family in Massachusetts. All those visits would be skipped and we’d drive 600 miles a day in an effort to minimize the time on the road and the number of hotel stays.

We left Key West on April 1 at 8:00 am.

From the beginning of our trip, traffic was light. It wasn’t unexpected, but it was very strange. Our first stop was in Marathon at Mile Marker 59 on Route 1 (fifty-nine miles from Mile Marker 0 in Key West) for a Dunkin Donuts coffee and the public restrooms at a Winn Dixie supermarket. As we would every time we returned to the car for the next three days, we wiped down the inside and outside door handles, arm rests, seat belt buckles, steering wheel and gear shift and then hand sanitized.

[image error]Not much trafic on Seven Mile Bridge, April 1, 2020

At Mile Marker 112, there was then and still is now, a roadblock. Only full-time residents, property owners, trucks delivering essential supplies and people doing essential jobs are allowed to enter the Keys, creating, as some have said, the largest gated community in the world. From the other side of the road, the stop looked to be well-run and orderly and didn’t cause a significant jam of the much diminished traffic.

Florida rest stops were open and clean– for restrooms, the little market, and gas only, attended by people with masks and gloves.

[image error]Rest stop in Florida

We passed the stop at the Florida/Georgia line at around 5:00 at night. Like the one in the Keys, it appeared from the other side of the road to be well-run and orderly, but of course it was much bigger. All cars coming into Florida were diverted to a rest-stop. I know there are roadblocks for drunk driving and when dangerous criminals are at large, but to see something like this with all these state police cars at the border between one state and another, felt very odd and uncomfortable. Shortly after we left the state, Florida’s governor declared at statewide stay-at-home order to go into effect in two days time.

[image error]Roadblock at the Florida/Georgia line

We spent the first night at a Hilton Garden Inn at the Savannah airport just off 95. There were more people than I would have thought given the lack of traffic on the roads. Takeout options were available from local restaurants but we opted for sandwiches from the hotel store. While Bill wrangled the luggage, I clorox-wiped every surface in the room, including the light switches, phone and remote.

The next day in South Carolina and North Carolina there were very few personal vehicles on the road just giant trucks. At the rest stop on 95 where we ate our pb&j sandwiches in the car, every vehicle was a huge truck or car with a license plate from a northeast state with two tense-looking snowbirds inside.

Truck stops were orderly. Places to wait to pay were marked out. In a men’s room North Carolina Bill came upon two truckers spraying down the sinks and faucets, saying they ALWAYS sanitize everything when on the road so this is nothing new.

We spent the second night at a Hilton Garden Inn in Winchester, VA. We planned to take Route 81 to Route 84 through Pennsylvania to avoid New Jersey and New York City. The hotel was more like what I had expected. Very few people and long empty hallways. It felt like The Shining or an episode of The Prisoner. But there was room service available. The chef told Bill they served 3 meals that day total. I was amazed they were still able to offer it.

Our last day we sped through ten states, though three at only glancing blows. We crossed Connecticut on Route 84 in an hour and twenty minutes. For years we lived in Boston and my parents lived in northeast Pennsylvania and every time we crossed Connecticut I wondered how we could be stuck in a little, tiny state for so, so long. It turns out, when there’s no traffic, you aren’t.

We made it home safely, figured out how to get food and our mail, and have now quarantined for thirteen days. We both feel fine. It was an epic trip. We traveled through fourteen states, from summer to spring to winter, from one end of the country to the other. Every person we met was polite and respectful and doing their absolute best. I wouldn’t want to do the trip in that way again, but I am glad we did it.

Readers: What about you? Any epic journeys you can tell us about? We’d all like to be armchair travelers right about now.