Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 128

Thankful Thursday

[image error]About six weeks ago we were having a meeting via Zoom. We were talking about the blog and came up with the idea to have a Thankful Thursday on the third Thursday of the month. It would allow us to talk about what we were thankful for and allow our readers to do the same. It seems like the perfect time to start this new feature.

And there’s a giveaway! Tell us what you are thankful for and one person who leaves a comment will have a chance to win the following: Pruning the Dead by Julia Henry, an ARC of Nacho Average Murder by Maddie Day, Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody by Barbara Ross, Murder Flies the Coop by Jessie Ellicott, an ARC of Witch Hunt by Cate conte, and a copy of a Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery — your choice by Sherry Harris.

So here is what we are grateful for:

Cate/Liz: I’m thankful for my fur babies.

Maddie/Edith: I’m thankful for all the community efforts to make sure kids, elders, and those in need are fed. And that I’ve been home for ten days after two plane flights with no virus symptoms.

Jessica/Jessie: I am thankful for video chatting so that I can get my eyes on my loved ones even when we are far apart.

Sherry: I’m thankful that the weather is warm enough to take Lily out for long walks and that we can admire all the flowering trees. I’m also thankful for all the artists, musicians, and dancers who are sharing their talents on line.

Julia/Julie: I’m thankful for Zoom so that I can continue to teach my theater classes and so that I can stay connected to other folks while staying put.

Barbara: I am grateful that everyone I have dealt with in any sphere of my personal or business life during this time has acted in a spirit of cooperation, caring and carefulness. Please take care of yourselves.

Readers: What are you thankful for?

 

 

Wicked Wednesday — Our History — Driving

[image error]We are celebrating Women’s History Month by sharing bits of our history.  This week we are talking about our athletic prowess or lack there of. Wickeds answer the following questions:

1. Who taught you to drive?

Liz: My father opened a driving school a few years before I got my license. So…my dad taught me to drive. And my mother too. I have to admit her driving style – fast – suited me much more than his snail’s pace…

Jessie: Both of my parents taught me but my father was more involved. And, I went to a driving school for lessons and practice hours.

Edith/Maddie: I guess it’s a trend: my dad taught high school drivers’ training, so he taught all of us, starting in the Santa Anita race track parking lot in the off season (I’m a southern Californian and it was in the next town). Nothing to run into!

Julie: The first time I ever drove was when the instructor picked me up. We went to downtown Annapolis on a Saturday. Yikes! After that my parents would drive with me to build up my hours. My dad was much better than my mother, who would grab the door handle and suck in her breath a lot.

Barb: Both my parents taught me to drive, but mostly my dad.

Sherry: My dad taught me. We also had driver’s ed at school which was amazing. Classroom time, car time, and simulators. We got into machines that looked like the driver’s side of a car and would watch a movie screen. We had to react and steer with what was going on on the screen. They were cool.

2. Did you want to learn or were you reluctant?

Liz: I couldn’t wait to get behind the wheel!

Jessie: Like Liz, I really wanted to learn!

Edith/Maddie: Me too! Couldn’t wait. At the time you couldn’t go anywhere in So Cal without a car.

Julie: Freedom! I couldn’t wait.

Barb: As a younger teenager I’d adapted to walking or biking pretty much anywhere I wanted to go. And there was always the bus. So I don’t remember caring much one way or the other. It was a normal rite of passage so I did it.

Sherry: Like Barb, we had a bus system but I couldn’t wait to drive!

3. What car did you learn in?

Liz: My parents both had Chevys at the time and my dad had a special one for the driving school. So I drove a Chevy wagon, and two boring old four-door sedans.

Jessie: I think a Subaru was what I first drove. Then I learned to drive stick on a Ford Tempo. We taught all of our kids to drive a manual as well.

Edith/Maddie: A stick shift (of course) VW bug. Like Jessie, I also taught both my sons in a manual.

Julie: I never learned to drive a manual, wish I had. I learned on a Town & Country station wagon, that was HUGE. Wood on the sides. I was practicing parallel parking the night before my test and it wouldn’t turn in. I went into the house weeping. My father came out, and the power steering fluid was leaking. So I got to take the test in his Granada.

Barb: Julie, at least you have power steering! In my day…grump, grump, grump. I learned in a bright red Ford Fairlane with a white top. Very snazzy.

Sherry: I mostly drove our 65 Rambler which got nicknamed at some point Rodney the Rambler. I’ve driven a manual a couple of times but I’m terrible at it. TERRIBLE!

4. Do you remember the very first time you drove?

Liz: Yes – it was before I was supposed to! My mother would let me practice a little on our street (which at the time had a very low population of residents) so I was ready to go when it was time to get my permit.

Jessie: I do. What I remember most was the intense amount of concentration I felt. It was a completely different feeling than any other skills I could remember learning.

Edith/Maddie: I’m not sure I remember, although I remember I loved it.

Julie: As I mentioned, it was with the instructor! Terrifying, but thrilling.

Barb: When I was thirteen or so my grandfather took me out on the farms roads in the potato farms around their house in Water Mill, Long Island. It was thrilling!

Sherry: It was a my grandparents’ farm. From there house to the road was about a 1uarter to half mile. My dad let me drive us in our green Ford Torino. My dad kept saying, “Slow down, slow down.” And I responded, “My foots off the gas.” Yes, I’d forgotten about the brakes.

5. How old were you?

Liz: 16-ish.

Jessie: Fifteen and a half.

Edith/Maddie: I would have been fifteen and a half, too, and got my license on my sixteenth birthday.

Julie: 16ish.

Barb: I was 16 when I got my license, too. Right on schedule. Such an orderly little life.

Sherry: In Iowa you could get your learner’s permit at 14 (maybe you still can) so that’s when I first drove. And then I got my license at 16.

Readers: Answer the questions!

Welcome Back Kaye George!

It’s great to have prolific writer, Kaye George, back here with the Wickeds. She’s here with her brand, spanking new Vintage Sweets series. Revenge is Sweet is the first book in the series. Here’s a bit about the book:

[image error]In the picturesque tourist town of Fredericksburg, Texas, Tally Holt has opened a new candy store with a vintage twist . . .but there’s no sugar-coating a nasty case of murder . . .

Tally Holt has poured her heart, soul, and bank account into Tally’s Olde Tyme Sweets, specializing in her grandmother’s delicious recipes. Tally’s homemade Mallomars, Twinkies, fudges, and taffy are a hit with visiting tourists—and with Yolanda Bella, the flamboyant owner of Bella’s Baskets next door. But both shops encounter a sour surprise when local handyman Gene Faust is found dead in Tally’s kitchen, stabbed with Yolanda’s scissors.

 

The mayor’s adopted son, Gene was a handsome Casanova with a bad habit of borrowing money from the women he wooed. It’s a sticky situation for Yolanda, who was one of his marks. There are plenty of other likely culprits among Fredericksburg’s female population, and even among Gene’s family. But unless Tally can figure out who finally had their fill of Gene’s sweet-talking ways, Yolanda—and both their fledgling businesses—may be destined for a bitter end . . .

Kaye: Happy St. Paddy’s Day to you all! Hope you’re well supplied with beer and corned beef and cabbage, if you like those things. And now, a quick switch from Irish to German~~~

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I picked Fredericksburg TX as the setting for my new cozy Vintage Sweets series. I’ve been asked why I chose it, since I don’t live there and don’t know anyone who does. So I’d better tell you why I have a strong connection to that town.

 

Quite a few years ago, when I lived in Texas with my husband and all our children had flown the coop, it was the custom for them to all come to our house on Thanksgiving one year, Christmas the next. We alternated with the in-laws and that worked out well. We usually made plans to join one if the kids’ families close to the other holiday. One year, it worked out that everyone was busy, flying hither and yon for Thanksgiving, and my husband and I were going to be on our own.

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We had always enjoyed driving around and exploring parts of Texas. The Painted Churches, for example. The brewery tour in Shiner, for another example. For that year, we settled on a tour of Wine Country, also known as Hill Country. Texas, due to its size, has four to seven distinct geologic regions, depending on how you view it: Big Bend Country, Gulf Coast. Panhandle Plains, Piney Woods, Prairies and Lakes, South Texas Plains, and Hill Country.

Austin, where we lived (Taylor, very near Austin, but you’ve never heard of Taylor if you don’t live around there), is at the edge of Hill Country, and the Wine portion of it wasn’t very far. If you google “Texas wine country” Fredericksburg pops up at the top, I just discovered.

 

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I found a B&B online and booked it. It turned out to be delightful. It was called Camp David Bed & Breakfast, but is now closed, so you’ll have to find your own if you go. We tootled around from winery to winery, holding back in the tasting rooms so we could drive! After a couple of days, we decided to stay in town and walked Main Street, loving the shops and the German restaurants. We went back a couple more times, but not for extended stays.

 

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When I was casting about for a setting for this series, I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather use. Luckily, my agent, who was helping me put the proposal together had actually been there (from New Jersey!) and agreed with the setting.

I only hope I’ve done it justice in the series. I didn’t tell you about a park outside town that we also loved, because it’s in the climax of REVENGE IS SWEET and I don’t want to spoil that!

Readers: Have you ever fallen in love with a town, or a place? Does a location hold a special place in your heart, like this town does for me?

Bio:

[image error]Kaye George is a national-bestselling, multiple-award-winning mystery

author. Her short stories are online, in publications, and her own

anthology, DAY OF THE DARK. She belongs to Sisters in Crime, Smoking

Guns and Guppies chapters, Authors Guild of TN, Knoxville Writers

Group, and Austin Mystery Writers. She lives in Knoxville, TN.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Revenge-Sweet-Vintage-Sweets-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B07TS1KJ4T

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/revenge-is-sweet-kaye-george/1131427001

Books A Million:

https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Revenge-Sweet/Kaye-George/9781516105434?id=7830240381046

Kaye George, National Best-selling & Agatha-nominated mystery author~~

REVENGE IS SWEET, 1st in new series~~

NEW short story anthology! Mid-Century Murder~~

http://kayegeorge.com/~~

NEW short story anthology! Mid-Century Murder~~

http://kayegeorge.com/~~

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The Attraction of Distraction

Jessie: In New Hampshire where even though it seems like spring outside everyone is staying in their houses anyway!

Yesterday morning I took my dog, Sam, on a walk round our village. Most Sunday mornings at around 9 o’clock, at the first signs of spring, the streets and yards would be buzzing with activity. After all, the snow is mostly melted from the gardens and daffodils and crocuses are poking up through the cold earth. Usually, gardeners armed with rakes would be gleefully aiding their progress and children would be eagerly whizzing down the sidewalks on their bicycles.

Alas, things are a little unsettled at present. Perhaps you’ve heard there is a a nasty bug making the rounds and causing havoc to all and sundry? Here, the governor has ordered all public schools closed for the next two weeks. My husband has ceased his endless business travel and my college kid has had his university convert all classes to virtual ones.

There is a temptation to feel unnerved by the prognostications and the state of the stock market. But, although I have stocked up on frozen veggies and plenty of dry goods as well as a bountiful supply of coffee beans, I don’t wish to dwell on potential disasters. I am always happy to create untold troubles for the inhabitants of my fictional worlds but I have no such desire to spend my real life gnawing myself apart with worry.

But telling oneself, or anyone else for that matter, not to worry is futile and irritating. I find the best approach for me, whenever something heavy threatens to run on a loop through my mind, is to look to distraction. I am convinced that feeling agitated in my mind makes my body more vulnerable to whatever might like to come to call. So, here are a few of my favorite ways to distract myself:

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Write a letter to a loved one by hand, using beautiful stationery and a preferred pen. If there is any chance the world is going down in flames I see no reason not to break out that box of lovely notecards and let someone I care about find a cheery and uplifting message in their post. It is like receiving a germ-free hug from afar!Take care of one small thing around the house that bugs me but that I’ve been putting off addressing. There is nothing like sorting out a small but habitual irritation in my environment to make me feel a bit more in control of my world and slightly triumphant as well. I may not be able to buy hand sanitizer but I can track down all the loose rechargeable batteries in the house and juice them up before they are needed. Make some popcorn or some bread from scratch, the old-fashioned way. Pull out a corn popper or turn on the oven. Serve either one piping hot and savor each bite. Nothing drives gloom away like hot carbs smothered in butter!Learn something new. I love to learn new things and a deep dive into a new topic is one of my favorite distractions! Many, if not most, public libraries offer access to online learning programs, like Mango, for languages. MIT, Harvard and a bunch of other institutions offer free access to an astonishing variety of online university courses. Skillshare provides an amazing learning experience for about the same monthly cost as Netflix. I find I cannot pay attention to the latest disturbing news when I am busy concentrating on developing watercolor painting skills or brushing up on my Portuguese. And, of course, read a book. Nothing has ever transported me so completely from my own life into another world like a good book. I, like the rest of you, I’m sure, have a towering TBR pile that is always at the ready to serve up some solace. If, for some reason, I should run out of things to read before the pestilence subsides, I have a library card that allows three ebook downloads at a time. And I can borrow and return books without ever leaving my house!

Readers, what do you do to take your mind of the things that trouble you? Writers, are you using current events to spur your creativity?

Superstitions

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Okay, I confess I’m a tad (ha!) superstitious. Step on a crack you’ll break your mother’s back. Break a mirror and you’ll have seven years of bad luck. Don’t walk under a ladder. Find a penny pick it up all day long you’ll have good luck. Since it’s Friday the thirteenth I though it was a good day to ask the Wickeds if they had any superstitions.

I also saw these interesting superstitions from around the world:

A German superstition declares that if you cheers with water you’re actually wishing death upon the people you’re drinking with. The idea stems from Greek mythology.

In Turkey, an itchy right hand means you’ll come into some money but an itch on your left means you’ll lose money.

This one seems unlucky all around but just go with it. Stepping in dog poop is actually considered good luck in France if you do it with your left foot. It’s only bad luck if you step with your right foot.

Jessie: What a fun question, Sherry! It sounds morbid but I never will speak about automobile accidents when I’m in a car. It just feels like asking for trouble somehow!

Edith/Maddie: Interesting, Jessie. I STILL avoid lines (Step on a line, you’ll break your mother’s spine) and cracks and my mom has been gone for eight years. I also always pick up that penny and I avoid walking under ladders. In Brazil, 13 is considered good luck! Do any of you throw salt over your left shoulder when you spill some?

Barb: I’m not superstitious AT ALL, but I regularly knock on wood, so…

Sherry: Barb, my daughter says: knock on air, it’s always there. I’m very suspicious of the number 13. I don’t want to get out of bed if the hour is whatever followed by 13. I’ll wait for one more minute. Weird, huh?

Julie: Edith, I’m a salt tosser! I never wish people good luck, I tell them to break a leg. That’s a theater superstition, one of many, that has moved into the rest of my life. The challenge is that telling a non-theater person to break a leg isn’t always met with gratitude.

Readers: Do you have any superstitions?

Bake Your Troubles Away

by Julie, laying low in Somerville

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Do you know what my favorite thing to do during stressful time is?

Watch baking shows.

The shows I like to watch aren’t just the “here’s how to bake a fifteen layer cake” shows. They are the baking competitions. The Great British Baking Shows, all of them. That show is about skill, and is a lot of fun to watch. The technical challenges are usually my favorite part. Watching people create something when they have no idea what it is going to be. It reminds me of writing a book.

I also like shows that offer twists. The Food TV Baking Championships are fun. The spring one just debuted. And the kids versions are a wonderful example of supporting the folks you’re competing with. Chopped Sweets is new. It’s a spin-off of Chopped, which is one of my favortite shows. Both of these shows through curve balls by way of ingredients, and rely on craft to pull it off.

I recently binged a Netflix series called Zumbo’s Just Desserts. It has a bit of a twist in that the bottom two contestants have to bake one of Adriano Zumbo’s creations. And his creations are something. Mousse and cake and jellies and chocolate work and marble glazes with macarons and something that smokes added into the mix. I talked about it a bit in our Facebook group–I don’t know why folks don’t just say “no thanks” and toss in the towel. Instead they push themselves to the brink and do their best to present something.

These shows inspire me to bake, which is one of my creative reboot activities. I use my creative brain to do something else it and it gives my writer’s brain time to reboot but not atrophy. I’m usually a cake/cookie/pie gal, but I’ve already warned my sister that I’m going to bring it up a notch for Easter this year.

The other way they help my writer’s brain is that taking a pile of ingredients and figuring it out is a lot like writing a book. I’ve got the parts, but together they could be a masterpiece or slop depending on how I balance them. Also, the more I do it, the better I am.

Does anyone else watch these shows, or others? Does anyone else stress bake? Let me know in the comments! Also, feel free to share recipes and links to shows.

Wicked Wednesday — Our History — Sports

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We are celebrating Women’s History Month by sharing bits of our history.  This week we are talking about our athletic prowess or lack there of. Wickeds answer the following questions:

1. Did you play a sport growing up?

Edith/Maddie: I took ballet lessons for ten years (from an inexpensive-but-fabulous teacher that held classes in public schools after hours and on Saturdays – all costumes sewed by the moms, of course) and swam recreationally in the summers. So…no.

Liz: Not if I could help it.

Jessie: No, I never did.

Barb: I took ballet for years, too, which didn’t leave much time for school sports.

Sherry: Barb, I always wanted to take ballet, but we couldn’t afford it. One summer, I think in fifth grade, my PE teacher convinced me to play on a softball team. She lured me with the promise of going to A&W after games. I lasted two practices. My PE teacher failed to mention it would be hotter than the blazes and we were supposed to catch, hit, and throw the ball.

Julie: They always tried to get me to play basketball or volleyball because I’m so tall, but I wasn’t the sports type.

2. On a team or just for fun?

Edith/Maddie: We played all kinds of games for fun. After I “grew up” (not very far up) I did earn a black belt in karate. That was fun, too! As a grad student I played on a softball team, and we were terrible but had loads of fun. As a mom I played on a mom’s softball team.

Liz: Once I ended up on the basketball team in high school (don’t ask me how). I scored two whole points the entire season and spent most of the time on the bench wishing I had a book.

Jessie: I didn’t do any sports at all.

Barb: I took some lessons. Tennis. (Terrible.) Waterskiing. (Terrible.) Downhill skiing. (Not as terrible.) If I can be on or in the water, (except on skis) that’s as sporty as I want to get.

Sherry: Lots of swim lessons and swimming for fun. A friend and I would bat around a tennis ball, but that was only to try and meet boys.

Julie: I played tennis for fun, but never team sports. Too much pressure.

3. If you could do any sport what would it be?

Edith/Maddie: Soccer. I learned to play when I was an exchange student in Brazil (the year Pele won the World Cup for them!) and played on a loose team near the dorms in college. I love the footwork and teamwork.

Liz: I did always like dodge ball…

Jessie: I am enjoying becoming a runner. I like the elegance of it. You need some shoes and a place to do it, that’s it.

Barb: I’m not sure I want to play soccer, like Edith, but I really admire people who can look down any sort of field and anticipate what the other players are going to do and then execute the right move brilliantly. Perhaps I admire it because it’s so far from my skill set.

Sherry: Dodgeball, Liz? I can’t imagine anything worse! I would be an Olympic ice skater. When I was young my friend and I would watch the ice skaters and “skate” around her basement on the concrete floor with our socks on. The reality of my ice skating is I have wobbly ankles and I’ve always been afraid of falling.

Julie: I always love watching the ski jumpers. My two forays into skiing have been disasters, so it would never happen. But can you imagine what that must feel like?

4. Should we form a team?

Edith/Maddie: I wouldn’t be much use on one these days!

Liz: Um. Probably not.

Jessie: We are already a team! Oh, you meant a sports team? What about darts?

Barb: Darts, or there’s always the current craze for axe throwing. That doesn’t sound dangerous at all. I would be happy to have a few drinks with you gals at the local bowling lane. Next retreat?

Sherry: Ha, Jessie — love that. I’m not sure I should be throwing sharp objects. But bowling I can get behind — I have my own shoes and ball. Oh, so I was on a team once upon a time and we took first place!

Julie: Sherry, you have your own bowling ball? I think we need Wicked bowling shirts. I’m in.

Readers: Answer the questions!

Welcome Back — Alexia Gordon

Sherry here and I’m so happy to welcome back Alexia Gordon! Look for a giveaway at the end of the blog! Execution in E (love the title) comes out on March 24th so there is time to preorder this book — the fifth book in the Gethsemane Brown mystery series. Here’s a bit about the book:

Romance is in the air. Or on the ’Gram, anyway.

[image error]When an influencer-turned-bridezilla shows up at the lighthouse to capture Insta-perfect wedding photos designed to entice sponsors to fund her lavish wedding, Gethsemane has her hands full trying to keep Eamon from blasting the entire wedding party over the edge of the cliff.

Wedding bells become funeral bells when members of the bride’s entourage start turning up dead. Frankie’s girlfriend, Verna, is pegged as maid-of-honor on the suspect list when the Garda discover the not-so-dearly departed groom was her ex and Gethsemane catches her standing over a body.

Gethsemane uncovers devilish dealings as she fights to clear Verna, for Frankie’s sake. Will she find the killer in time to save Frankie from another heartbreak? Or will the photos in her social media feed be post-mortem?

Thank you to the Wickeds for having me back as a guest.

Execution in E, the fifth book in my Gethsemane Brown mystery series releases on March 24. This time around, Gethsemane and friends have to deal with a social media influencer-turned-bridezilla who descends on Dunmullach with her entourage in search of Instagram-worthy wedding photos. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the groom-to-be turns out to be the ex-fiance of Frankie’s current girlfriend. They had a horrible breakup, one so bad, she becomes the prime suspect when the groom is found dangling from Carrick Point lighthouse.

I juggle writing mysteries with my day job, which requires a lot of travel. I spent sixteen of the past twenty-five weeks on the road for work. My most recent trip kept me away from home for over a month. During this time, I also had to promote my podcast, schedule guests, promote pre-orders for Execution in E, and consult with my agent on my next manuscript. As much as I love to travel, after all that, I arrived home exhausted. Like Gethsemane, I’m task/work-focused and sometimes I forget to take care of myself. I’m trying to do better. If I want to keep writing mysteries, I need energy to do so. So, I took a minute to stop and think what I could do to refill my mental well. Here’s what I came up with:

Get some sleep. My travels took me to at least six different time zones. Between that and crazy airline schedules, regular sleep went the way of the dinosaur. So, yesterday, I turned off my alarm and slept until I woke up on my own—twelve hours after I lay down. I felt more refreshed than I had in weeks.
Have a good meal. Eating well on the road is trickier than quantum physics. Between hotel restaurants and grab-and-go at the airport, my diet resembled a pre-adolescent’s. When I got home, too tired to cook, I ordered delivery. (Yay, delivery apps!) Okay, I confess, what I ordered wasn’t the most nutritious meal in the world but it was a meal I could sit down and enjoy at a leisurely pace. Being able to take the time to savor my food left me feeling full and satisfied.
Listen to music. As my travels were work-related, I spent most of my time in meetings and seminars. I spent my “down time” preparing for the next meeting or briefing. I didn’t have much time to relax without having to think about and plan for the next day. When I got home, I queued up the Spotify playlists and lost myself in the music. I felt calm and better able to focus.
Read a book—for fun. After more than a month of reading stuff I had to read, pulling up a floor cushion and opening a book I wanted to read felt close to heaven.

Share some of your self-care tips? What do you do when you need to recover from too much of anything or to keep yourself from running down? Comment for a chance to win a copy of Murder in G Major.

BIO: Virginia native, physician by training, author by passion, I write the award-winning Gethsemane Brown Mysteries­­. Book 5, Execution in E, publishes March 24, 2020. I’m a member of MWA, SinC, ITW, and CWoC. I blog at Missdemeanors.com and with the Femmes Fatales (femmesfatales.typepad.com/my_weblog/) and host the podcast, The Cozy Corner with Alexia Gordon. Find me on social media (Facebook: AlexiaGordon.writer, Twitter: @AlexiaGordon, Instagram: DrLex1995) and visit my website (www.alexiagordon.net) to sign up for my newsletter.

Difficult Conversations

by Barb, last solo post from Key West and feeling a little sad about it

[image error]Jane Darrowfield, the sleuth in my new Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody series specializes in solving problems that while vexing aren’t appropriate for the police or other authorities. For the most part her caseload is pretty trivial. Helping a woman leave her hairdresser and move to the one at the next chair. Or asking someone to stop feeding their neighbor’s cat, in a case of alienation of feline affection.

“In Jane’s opinion, many people sadly lacked the skill to have difficult conversations with acquaintances and neighbors. Given a noisy house party or a car parked blocking a driveway, people stewed in silence–or worse called the police–when a simple knock on the door and a polite request would have done the job. It was into this breach Jane had leapt again and again.”

Of course, it turns out not everyone needs Jane’s services. When she names her hefty fee, some potential clients decide they’ll tackle the problem on their own. And that is Jane’s intent–to get people to find their own solutions whenever possible.

Jane Darrowfield is my Jane Marple. But she’s American, she lives in the indefinite now, she’s divorced, not single, and she charges for her services. She learned a lot of what she knows about human nature not just by observing her neighbors (though there is plenty of that) but by toiling in corporate America.

In some ways Jane’s skill at having difficult conversations is wish fulfillment on my part, because I hate confrontation. In situations where I had to, particularly when I worked in a day job, I could put on my big girl panties and have the dreaded conversations. I’ve fired or laid off countless people. I’ve confronted people about the kinds of behavior that often signal substance abuse. I’ve even had the dreaded BO conversation. More than once.

But the closer conversations hew to the bone, the more freighted they are with emotional truth–the interventions, the declarations of love or hate, the boundary-settings, the expressions of deep and close grief–the more difficult they are for me. I’ve gone into plenty of situations white-knuckled, hoping things will go better this time, when I should have overcome my cowardice and said something.

Not that Jane’s life is perfect. She is deeply estranged from her son and only child and has been for more that a decade, at his initiation. All three of her bridge playing friends have pointed out, not unkindly, the irony of her running around solving other people’s problems while this cavernous hole remains in her own life–and maybe she should do something about it. So she has trouble tackling the big stuff, too.

My ramblings here are about being on the initiating side of difficult conversations. Being on the receiving side is never pleasant, because the receiver hasn’t had time to work up the courage and rehearse the interaction.

But sometimes these conversations have to be had. Recently I was in a business situation where someone, or more than one someone, lacked the courage to tell me something difficult. Or they just didn’t care and figured that meant I wouldn’t care either, if they considered my perspective at all. Not hearing about it and finding out on my own made the situation much worse. I’m not sure what the plan was here. Did they think I wouldn’t notice? In our interconnected world that was never a possibility.

Lately I seem to be reading so many stories of business and personal situations where a direct conversation might have made a situation better, or would have stopped it from spiraling out of control with horrible financial, public relations, and emotional results.

Readers: What do you think? Have we lost the skill of having difficult conversations? Did we ever have it? Or are they going on all around us and only the failures attract all the attention?

Feel free to give examples of conversations that have gone well and created healthier situations and conversations that have gone awry. And also feel free to blur the edges to protect both the innocent and the guilty. In fact, we encourage it!

Welcome Back Guest Vicki Fee

I’m so happy Vicki Fee could join us today to talk about her new series! Here’s a bit about My Fair Latte:

Broke, unemployed barista Halley Greer is shocked when she inherits an Art Deco movie palace from her great uncle, whom she met once when she was eight. She moves from Nashville to the charming tourist town of Utopia Springs, Arkansas to claim her legacy. In addition to the timeworn theater, she discovers she’s also inherited a trash-heaped apartment, family secrets, her uncle’s friends, a stealthy calico kitty—and an adversary.

[image error]With a whole latté help from her new friends, the feisty barista fixes up and re-opens the theater as a coffee and wine bar, showing classic films. She generates some steam with a hunky local—and risks getting burned. The opening night screening of My Fair Lady is a big hit, and her new life feels like a bit of movie magic, until a customer turns up dead during intermission. With the cops eyeing her as a suspect, Halley digs into the victim’s life and runs into a tangle of blackmail and secrets to unravel, much like a mystery in her friend’s escape rooms business. The theater and her budding romance could both be D.O.A. unless Halley can find a killer—before the curtain comes down for keeps.

Settings play an important role in cozy mysteries. My new Café Cinema series is set in Utopia Springs, Arkansas, a small, charming town in the South, but a very different kind of town from Dixie, Tennessee in my Liv & Di series.

Utopia Springs was inspired by Eureka Springs – a very real tourist town in the Arkansas Ozark Mountains, where my husband and I have vacationed a few times. So while Utopia Springs, like its inspiration has a half-million visitors a year, the full-time population is only a couple thousand people, with a small, close-knit business community.

Catering to tourists allows Utopia Springs to feature many more and varied kinds of businesses than a typical small town, including the movie theater my protagonist Halley unexpectedly inherits and reopens with a coffee/wine bar, showing classic films. It also includes, Hidden Clue Escape Rooms, across the street from the theater, owned and operated by Halley’s new bestie, Kendra. Add to that, Utopia Springs boasts an art gallery owned by the best friends of Halley’s late uncle’s, George and Trudy.

The town in the series also has several other art galleries, a wide variety of eateries, a handmade candles and soaps shop, and a scenic railroad (which we’ll take a ride on in the next book). You wouldn’t typically find all these kinds of businesses in a small town unless its economy is driven by tourism.

[image error]One touristy business might be a novelty photography studio. The photo of my husband and me (shown here) many years ago as the sheriff and a dance hall girl was taken in Eureka Springs on an anniversary trip. It’s the sort of photo people might have taken on vacation in a tourist town that they wouldn’t typically take at home. I’m speaking just for us, of course. Hubs and I don’t normally dress up in Wild West costumes, but what other people do in the privacy of their own homes is their business – no judgment here.

I decided to fictionalize the town so I have the freedom change details to suit the stories. My inspiration town of Eureka Springs has more than 100 bed and breakfasts (many of them old Victorians), along with some lovely hotels, including the historic and purportedly haunted Crescent Hotel. The real town has a charming, quirky vibe and I hope I’ve captured a bit of that in my fictional version.

I’ve enjoyed my visits there, and I’d encourage you to visit Eureka Springs if you have the chance. I’m also enjoying writing about Utopia Springs, and hope you’ll pay a visit to Halley and her friends at the Star Movie Palace and Café Cinema.

Is there a place you’ve vacationed or lived that you thought was a perfect setting for a cozy mystery? Please share in the comments.

[image error]Bio: A decade ago, author Vickie Fee moved from Memphis on the banks of the muddy Mississippi River to Marquette on the shores of chilly Lake Superior, taking her accent, her sense of humor, and her recipe for Jack Daniels whiskey balls with her. She pens cozy mysteries with fun, feisty heroines. My Fair Latte is the first book in her new Café Cinema series. When she’s not dawdling on social media and swilling coffee, you can find her at www.vickiefee.com and in the coop at www.chicksonthecase.com.