Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 131

From There to Here

Sherry here celebrating turning in my tenth book!

[image error]Yesterday I turned in my ninth Sarah Winston book, Absence of Alice, and as always I tend to reflect on what led me to this point. Hank Phillipi Ryan interviewed me recently for the Sister to Sister blog from the New England Chapter of Sisters in Crime—read the full interview here.

Here is the first question Hank asked me and my response:

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Do you remember the very first time you thought: I’m going to write a book, and I can do it.  What was that moment?

SHERRY HARRIS: It started with a short story contest I spotted in a newspaper. I started writing and writing and writing until I realized I was writing a novel instead of a short story. I never doubted that I could write a novel, but boy did I have a lot to learn about writing a novel that was good enough to be published.

The first writer’s conference I attended was in Monterey, California – a small conference with about fifty writers. Everyone who wanted to could read for five minutes. I did. As I stood there reading I was thinking “this is terrible, it’s all backstory and description.” Fortunately, the people at the conference were kind and pointed out the good things. The keynote speaker told me I was a good writer and loved that I was writing a book about the conflict between two sisters. Two sisters? I was writing a murder mystery, but no one could figure that out.

Back to the drawing board. I went again the next year. I’d made some progress, but one woman thought I was writing a horror story. Oops. Everything was over dramatized. Then I realized I needed to take some classes and read some writing books.

I took an online class at a community college, attended a now defunct but fabulous conference in Seaside, Florida taught by the MFA professors at Florida International University (how I wish I could hear them all again with what I know now), and read writing books by Hallie Ephron and John Dufresne among others.

And then, of course, as I’ve said many times before I met Julie Hennrikus at Malice Domestic who told me to join Sisters in Crime and attend the New England Crime Bake. Since then I’ve been surrounded by wonderful writing friends.

I’ve also gotten edits back that were discouraging (one long ago that was so terrible that if it had been my first one I would have given up), stacks of rejections, I have two and a half novels sitting on my computer that won’t see the light of day.

My point is that with writing you have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. You have to want to learn, to always be better, to reach out to people in the writing community. And you have to do it your way. Don’t listen if someone says you’re not a writer if you don’t write every day or if you don’t plot or if you don’t write in the mornings. Find your way.

Writing isn’t easy, most of us don’t make much money, but there is nothing better than holding your book in your hand, seeing it on the shelf at the bookstore or library, or having someone take the time to write you to tell you they love your books.

Thanks to all of you that have been here with me.

Readers: Do you remember a time you thought of doing something and carried through?

Wicked Wednesday: Playing it Close to the Vest

Let’s talk about passion, and how your characters show it. It’s a given that they have a passion for justice, otherwise they wouldn’t be sleuths. But how does their passion manifest itself? Do they jump in, or are they more contemplative? Do you have an example in your upcoming book or series?

Edith/Maddie: What a great question! In Murder at the Taffy Shop (releasing March 31), one of Mac Almeida’s best friends finds the body and soon enough becomes a suspect herself. Mac quickly gets passionate about clearing Gin’s name. Mac thinks of herself as a person who keeps her life orderly. She’s starting to discover that murder is never orderly.

Jessie: A passion for order seems like a good motivator, Edith! Passion plays out differently for my sleuths, Beryl and Edwina. Beryl is a bold and daring sort of person who throws herself headlong into new adventures all the time. For her, feeling passion is a bit like breathing. It is simply something that one does. She does get easily distracted by the next new passion, however! Edwina, on the other hand, is more inclined to make a more careful evaluation before giving her energy to something. But once she does, she is in it for the long haul.

Sherry: Jessie, I love your descriptions of Beryl and Edwina — the way they contrast and compliment each other is one of the things that makes the series so great. Chloe in my new series lives by words her father said to her: A promise made is a promise kept. So when Chloe makes it promise she passionately follows that promise until it’s fulfilled. Sometimes to her detriment.

Barb: What a great question. I think above all else Julia Snowden of the Maine Clambake Mysteries is loyal. She’s loyal to her family (even her pain in the neck brother-in-law), her friends, her business, and her town. So when something threatens one of them she jumps into the action hoping to be part of the solution.

A Wicked Welcome to Gabriel Valjan & Giveaway!

I’m so thrilled to welcome Gabriel Valjan to the blog! Gabriel is another New Englander. His book The Naming Game was recently nominated for a Best Historical Agatha award. Today Gabriel is going to let us know about his most recent release, Dirty Old Town .

Trust yourself.



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I’m all for constructive criticism and for picking your battles carefully, but there are times when you have to trust yourself. When I first wrote Dirty Old Town, I printed out the first chapter and sent it in for a Read-and-Critique. The idea was an established and published author would read the first chapter and critique it. We would meet in person for a discussion. At the time, I had more than one book published but Dirty Old Town was the first in a new series, and a dangerous foray into familiar territory, and I wasn’t confident about my concept. Let’s face it, a PI, in 1970s Boston, has been done before. Ever hear of Robert Parker? Spenser? Or those other Boston scribblers named George V. Higgins and Dennis Lehane?

The opener is the phone rings, Shane is in bed, and he is kicked. I wrote the scene such that I lead the reader to believe that the kicker is a woman, but it turns out to be, wait for it, a cat named Delilah. Long story short: the editor’s pen bled thus in the margin. NOT PLAUSIBLE.

I’m sitting across from Established Writer; so, being polite, I silenced the choice profanity running from my brain to my lips. I allowed my hackles to rise and subside. I asked: “Why not?” The author told me (pinky swear) ‘a cat wouldn’t do that. A dog might, but not a cat.’ This scribe clearly never owned a cat, never had fur or paw in face in the wan hours of the night to remind him the bowl was empty. Lesson learned: Trust Yourself.

One more thing about cats. I’ve had more than one editor who will change my pronoun for a cat, from he or she to ‘it.’ Seriously? Your fur baby or not, our pets have personality, they have quirks, and no matter whether they have been spayed or neutered, they have a gender. I can hear Lady Catbeth, ‘Unsex me’ not.

One last meow. I’ve read cozies and I’ve always resented the implication that they were not crime fiction, that they were quaint. Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot are not all sunshine and daisies. Often, cozy mysteries will have cats as familiars to a character in the story. Delilah is Shane’s companion since he is a man alone in the world. Shane is an orphan and ostracized. His father committed suicide, his mother died of a broken heart, and he became persona non grata for doing the right thing with the wrong people, the Boston Police Department. Delilah acts as his conscience, in that same way pet owners know how their furry friends communicate their opinions.

Let’s circle back to valuable criticism. Proofreaders and Copy Editors corral the mis-keyings on the keyboard and the violations of grammar. A continuity editor is keen to eliminate inconsistencies, unlike the film editor who didn’t spot the anachronism of Romans’ wearing Timex wristwatches with their togas in the 1963 film Cleopatra. A rarer breed of editor is the Developer or Diagnostician, who reads the manuscript and points out, with diplomacy, structural issues in the narrative. In Dirty Old Town, I was asked to add more ‘color’ to show how gritty Boston was in the Seventies. I listened and I appreciated the input. An editor sees missing parts, from the absent article of speech or words we miss when we’re typing faster than it rains to suggesting adding something more to a scene, or sharpening a plot point.

Have you received criticism that helped your story, or did you have to stand your ground and keep the cat in the room?

Gabriel will be giving away a copy of Dirty Old Town to one commenter!

Bio



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Gabriel Valjan lives in Boston’s South End where he enjoys the local restaurants. When he isn’t appeasing Munchkin, his cat, with tuna, he documents the #dogsofsouthendboston on Instagram. His short stories have appeared online, in journals, and in several anthologies. He has been a finalist for the Fish Prize, shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, and received an Honorable Mention for the Nero Wolfe Black Orchid Novella Contest. Gabriel is the author of two series, Roma and Company Files, with Winter Goose Publishing. Dirty Old Town is the first in the Shane Cleary series for Level Best Books. You can find him on Twitter (@GValjan) and Instagram (gabrielvaljan). He lurks the hallways at crime fiction conferences, such as Bouchercon, Malice Domestic, and New England Crime Bake. Gabriel is a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime.

About the book:



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Shane Cleary, a PI in a city where the cops want him dead, is tough, honest and broke. When he’s asked to look into a case of blackmail, the money is too good for him to refuse, even though the client is a snake and his wife is the woman who stomped on Shane’s heart years before. When a fellow vet and Boston cop with a secret asks Shane to find a missing person, the paying gig and the favor for a friend lead Shane to an arsonist, mobsters, a shady sports agent, and Boston’s deadliest hitman, the Barbarian. With both criminals and cops out to get him, the pressure is on for Shane to put all the pieces together before time runs out.

A Wicked Welcome to Susan Larson!

I was delighted to meet Susan in December when she, Hank Phillippi Ryan and I did a talkback together after a production of Murder on the Orient Express at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston. I’d known of Susan before that. But I’ll let her explain about her path to writing her debut mystery, The Murder of Figaro.

[image error]Susan Larson as Cherubino in Peter Sellars’s PBS “The Marriage of Figaro”

I used to be an opera diva. I sang in lots of Mozart operas. That’s my street cred.

Having lost my nice soprano voice, and having had the requisite nervous breakdown about it, I became a music writer for the Boston Globe and other publications. When I decided to try and write a murder mystery, I chose the opera world as my setting, and my beloved W.A. Mozart as my detective. The result is The Murder of Figaro.

The real Mozart was not who we think he was. He was classically educated, a true Enlightenment humanist. He was a Freemason, politically savvy and intensely curious about the world. Having read his letters I can tell you that he was also a punster, a practical joker, a lover of riddles and puzzles; the perfect sleuth for my mystery! Except he didn’t want the gig; he was busy putting his opera “The Marriage of Figaro” onto the stage at the Court Theater. It took a certain amount of arm-twisting, plus an Imperial decree, to make him do it.  

I pasted a murder mystery on top of Mozart’s rehearsal schedule: With a little cheating, it fit fairly well: stagings, detecting, coachings, detecting, piano run, coffee & snacks, piano dress, more coffee, more detecting; orchestra dress, the Big Reveals. The mystery plot loosely follows the plot of the opera, with bits from other Mozart operas and some content from Thomas Jefferson tossed in as needed.

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Mrs. Mozart, AKA Constanze, turned out to be a better Sherlock than her husband. She is often written off as a bimbo (q.v. “Amadeus”), so I have written her back on as the clever, musical and loving woman that she really was. Mozart also gets some help from the poet and scalawag Lorenzo Da Ponte (who wrote “The Marriage” libretto, and who, in “The Murder,” spends most of his time in jail). I have read his memoirs; though he never spent time in jail, he could have.

In Da Ponte’s honor, I wrote the mystery as a libretto, i.e., It’s almost all dialogue, with a few stage directions and scene settings. There are three zippy overtures, a handy cast list and a brief program note, all to settle you into your seat at the theatre in Vienna,1786.

Then, the action begins! Opera, with all its color and craziness: the bitchy sopranos, preening tenors, and bombastic baritones! The scheming rivals, the uptight administrators, pit players, spies, gossips, patrons, fangirls, stage moms, and even the Emperor himself!  All of them hiding dark secrets! Plus, the corpse!

Almost all my characters are based on the real historical people I researched and then contorted them into caricatures. I made them say and do rather awful things. In reality they were mostly good hard-working theater folk, trying their best. I ask their forgiveness.

If you have never heard the opera The Marriage of Figaro, and you want to treat yourself, I can recommend the one that I am performing in, the Peter Sellars/Craig Smith CDs on London Records.

Question: Do historical mysteries make good reading if the reader is not up on the history? I’d really, really like to know.  

About The Murder of Figaro :

Vienna, April 1786. “The Marriage of Figaro,” a new comic opera by Amadé Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte, has just begun its first onstage rehearsal when a corpse is discovered in the wings: it’s the universally-loathed Imperial Censor who was trying to kill the show. Despite a verdict of suicide, Da Ponte is arrested, and singers accuse each other of murder. In a desperate scramble to save “Figaro,” Da Ponte, and their very lives, Mozart and his clever wife Constanze untangle a web of lies, scandal, sex and international intrigue. Can they solve this deadly mystery? Will “Figaro” play in Vienna?

The Murder of Figaro is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and through your preferred Epub platform.

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About Susan:

Susan Larson has been an opera star, an actress, a music teacher, a journalist, a novelist, and an easel painter. She has written one previous novel, “Sam (a pastoral),” a story about a problem kid growing up with the help and love of a very special horse. Her website is here.

Guest Kaitlyn Dunnett

Edith here on the last day of a long month, happy to welcome back good friend of the Wickeds Kaitlyn Dunnet, aka Kathy Lynn Emerson. A View to a Kilt is her thirteenth Liss MacCrimmon mystery, and it came out out this week! She’s giving away a hardcover edition (US only) to one commenter.

A Cure for Cabin Fever

First of all, a big thank you to Edith and the rest of the Wickeds for inviting me back to their blog. They’re all familiar with early spring in New England, but for those of you living in warmer climes, it is also known as “mud season.” The ski slopes are shutting down, despite the fact that there may yet be another snowstorm to two, but the roads are still too messy for bicycling. The ground is too soft for hiking. Even taking long walks is problematic. It’s just not a pleasant time of year. Coupled with the “cabin fever” that can result from enduring cold weather for months on end, when it’s better to stay safe and warm at home than brave the elements, it can be downright depressing.

In my fictional Moosetookalook, Maine the locals have come up with a cure. Every year at the end of March they hold the March Madness Mud Season Sale. Its purpose is twofold—to cheer up residents by sponsoring assorted activities and entertainment, and to lure in tourists to boost the economy. I’ve mentioned this event a couple of times in previous books in my Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries, so for the thirteenth entry, A View to a Kilt, just out this week from Kensington Books, I decided it was time to make it the centerpiece of the story.

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Liss, who owns Moosetookalook Scottish Emporium, a gift shop specializing in items with a Scottish theme, has once again been roped into an organizational role. She’s both helped and hindered by her domineering mother, Vi, who has recently moved back to Moosetookalook with Liss’s father and is anxious to reinsert herself into the life of the community.

Finding a murder victim in her own back yard complicates matters for Liss, especially after his identity is revealed, but she’s determined not to let her neighbors down. So, while trying to solve the crime, and prove those near and dear to her aren’t responsible, she’s also setting up a whole series of events involving mud. Some—making mud pies and a mud slide, to name just two—are designed for children, but the “woman-carrying race” is intended to entertain the grown ups.

Believe it or not, I didn’t invent this. There is a real sport is called wife-carrying. There have been official races in North American since 1999 and the annual championship is held in Maine. If you’d like to see pictures, here’s a link to a story about last year’s race at Sunday River: https://www.sundayriver.com/events/north-american-wife-carrying-championship

There’s no requirement that competing couples be married, but as Liss explains it, Moosetookalook calls their competition woman-carrying because it’s an unsanctioned event. They use a shorter, slipperier course and only run one heat. The fastest time wins. Dropping your teammate adds five seconds to your time. Standing around yelling at each other afterward gets you disqualified. Women are required to wear a helmet, since the organizers don’t want anyone to get hurt. Mud is not all that soft and the rather undignified positions that work best for a fast time leave heads hanging close to the ground. The fireman’s carry and the piggyback are bad enough, but the most successful teams are usually the ones where the woman is upside down with her arms around her partner’s waist and her legs looped around his neck. Her face ends up nestled against his backside. That there is a huge mud puddle in the middle of the course makes things even more . . . interesting.

Of course, since this is a cozy mystery novel, there is also a clue to the killer’s identity planted in the festivities surrounding Moosetookalook Maine’s March Madness Mud Season Sale. The event not only provides the locals with a cure for cabin fever, it also brings Liss another step closer to solving the murder. Win-Win all the way.

Readers: What’s the best – or oddest – competition you’ve ever witnessed at a fair? What about kilts – what’s your opinion or experience of them? One US commenter wins the hardcover edition of the new book!

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With the January 2020 publication of A View to a Kilt, Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett will have had sixty-one books traditionally published. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. Currently she writes the contemporary Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries and the “Deadly Edits” series as Kaitlyn. As Kathy, her most recent book is a collection of short stories, Different Times, Different Crimes but there is a new, standalone historical mystery in the pipeline. She maintains three websites, at www.KaitlynDunnett.com and www.KathyLynnEmerson.com and another, comprised of over 2000 mini-biographies of sixteenth-century English women, at A Who’s Who of Tudor Women.

Jess Montgomery Interview

Edith here, in a January that doesn’t quite know what to do with itself.

My new favorite author weaves dark, intriguing women-centric stories set in the mid 1920s in Appalachia. I recently finished reading The Hollows, her second Kinship mystery featuring Sheriff Lily Ross. I’m delighted Jess Montgomery agree to be interviewed on the Wickeds today! Read to the bottom for a special giveaway.

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Here’s the book blurb. Ohio, 1926: For many years, the railroad track in Moonvale Tunnel has been used as a short cut through the Appalachian hills. When an elderly woman is killed walking along the tracks, the brakeman tells tales of seeing a ghostly female figure dressed all in white.

Sheriff Lily Ross does not believe that an old woman would wander out of the hills onto the tracks. In a county where everyone knows everyone, how can someone have disappeared, when nobody knew they were missing? As ghost stories and rumors settle into the consciousness of Moonvale Hollow, Lily tries to search for any real clues to the woman’s identity. With the help of a friend, Lily follows the woman’s trail to The Hollows—an asylum in northern Athens County—and begins to expose secrets long-hidden by time and the mountains.

E: Your series is set in southeastern Ohio. Until I read The Widows, I had no idea Ohio had a section of Appalachia. What was your best resource for researching the history of the area?

J: My family of origin, on both sides for many generations, is from a county in Eastern Kentucky, the heart of Appalachia. So, I grew up as a child of Appalachia, although I was born in southwest Ohio, learning the ballads, foods, heritage and so forth. I drew on those experiences and memories. For southeastern Ohio, the Appalachian part, I visited often, and spent time chatting with people who live in the area on several trips. Our younger daughter went to college at Ohio University in Athens County, which is part of that region, so it wasn’t exactly hard duty to go over there to visit.

E: Similarly, the details you brought to The Widows about unions and Prohibition are fascinating. In this book you have a notorious asylum. Tell our readers how you researched that. Was it a real place or did you imagine it?

J: The Ohio Asylum for the Insane (as it was called back in the day) was indeed a real place. The asylum, and others like it, have been closed for quite awhile. The building I describe is now known as “The Ridges” and is part of Ohio University’s campus. Most of the building is closed, but the central section houses some offices and a lovely art museum. I researched by visiting for a walking tour of the building and by reading articles and books on the former asylum.

E: How much does your fictional sheriff Lily Ross resemble the real first woman sheriff in Ohio, Maude Collins?

J: Lily was inspired by Maude Collins. In real life, Maude became sheriff in 1925 when her husband, Fletcher, was killed in the line of duty. There was no mystery as to who murdered Fletcher. Maude was elected in her own right in 1926—and won by a landslide. My Lily is similar in that she too was married to the sheriff and worked as his jail matron, then became sheriff when he was killed in the line of duty—but of course in my mystery novel, she doesn’t know who killed him. Lily’s feelings, actions and thoughts are of my imagination; I changed other details such as the number of children Lily has, and who her parents are and where they live.

E: I also like that your main character, Lily, continues in The Hollows, but she shares the lead role with a different co-protagonist than in the first book, this time with her friend Hildy. How did you decide to change, and was it hard to make the switch? 

J: The books are, among other things, about individual needs and desires versus community needs and desires. They’re also about family ties—for good or ill. Thus the name of the county seat, Kinship. As sheriff, Lily is at the heart of Kinship and the surrounding community. I thought it would be great to draw in a different narrator to share the story-telling with her in each novel. Also, I did not want to be constrained by having the same alternate narrator to share the stage with Lily for each story—that would limit the aspects of community and characters I could explore. So, it wasn’t a difficult decision.

E: That’s such an interesting approach, having co-protagonists. I like it, and it works. You’ve been a journalist for the Dayton Daily News in your day job. Are you still writing a column? Do you prefer writing fiction or non-fiction?

J: I still write a weekly column, Literary Life, for the Dayton Daily News. It covers authors, literary events, and literary history of the greater Dayton area. I love the discipline of having a column due each week—I’ve written this column for eight years, and prior to that, wrote a weekly humor column for ten years. But I prefer writing fiction.

E: I do, too. Several of us Wickeds include recipes in our books. I love that your blog has a Pie of the Month feature! What’s your favorite pie? Do your pie recipes have Appalachian roots, too?

J: Hmmm. My favorite pie. I’d say it’s a tie between chocolate and French coconut, for eating. I love baking all kinds of pies. The pie recipes don’t really have Appalachian roots—though, like people everywhere, people in Appalachia love pie!

E: I was delighted to read (in your Jungle Reds guest post from a couple of weeks ago) that you’ve signed contracts for books three and four. Can you tell us anything about Lily’s next adventure? And will each subsequent book feature a different co-storyteller?

J: Each subsequent book will, indeed, have a different co-storyteller sharing the page with Lily. I’m currently working on book three, and don’t want to say too much about it yet, other than it is set in 1927, and brings Prohibition center stage, rather than as an element in the background.

E: Thank you for joining us! Jess says she’ll send one commenter the ebook of The Widows so you can get a start at, well, the start of the Kinship series.

Readers: What is YOUR favorite type of pie? Jess weaves ballads and gospel songs into her novels, and she loves folk music and bluegrass. What is your favorite type of music?

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Jess Montgomery is the author of the Kinship Historical Mysteries (Minotaur Books), set in the Appalachian area of Ohio and inspired by Ohio’s true first female in 1925. Under her given name, she is a newspaper columnist, focusing on the literary life, authors and events of her native Dayton, Ohio for the Dayton Daily News.

Wicked Wednesday: New Adventures

Wickeds, let’s give our readers a sneak peek into one new adventure our characters will get up to in the coming year. No spoilers, of course, but in a 2020-release book, what new challenge, person, or situation will your protagonist meet up with? What will surprise them?

[image error]Rudi Riet [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D

Jessie: In the book that will release in October, my sleuths Beryl and Edwina will find themselves embroiled in a case of national importance. Edwina is rather shocked but Beryl is taking it all in stride.

Liz: In Witch Hunt, the first Full Moon Mystery, Violet Mooney runs into a few witches–which in and of itself is kind of shocking, but when she realizes she’s a witch also, it becomes a whole other story…

Julie: In Digging Up the Remains, which will be out in August, Delia discovers what may be the answers to the bodies found in Alden Park at the end of Tilling the Truth. Which opens up another can of worms entirely.

Barb: In Jane Darrowfield and the Madwoman Next Door, coming in November, a neighbor approaches Jane with a simple request: “I want you to figure out if I’m crazy.”

Sherry: I’m so excited for everyone to meet Chloe Jackson when From Beer to Eternity releases on July 28th! How does a Chicago children’s librarian end up as a waitress in a beach bar? She makes a promise.

Edith/Maddie: I can’t wait to read all these adventures! In Murder at the Taffy Shop, releasing in March, Mac’s parrot Belle helps save her from a killer. Robbie Jordan heads back to Santa Barbara for her tenth high school reunion – and a murder – in Nacho Average Murder, releasing in late June. And Rose Carroll visits West Falmouth on Cape Cod in Taken Too Soon, which will be out in September!

Readers: What adventure will you have this year?

Animal Farm

By Liz, currently on deadline! The furries decided to help me out and post some of their recent pictures…enjoy!

[image error]Molly, with Penny’s tail photobombing, wondering why we’re all up so early…



[image error]Jack, wondering why breakfast is taking so long



[image error]CC, who just celebrated his 15th birthday!



[image error]Penny, wondering why Katsi won’t play ball



[image error]Penny, again wondering why Snowy doesn’t care about her toy…



[image error]“Can’t we just go back to bed?” — Molly



[image error]Penny posing for her Tinder photo



[image error]My girls



[image error]And one more just for fun

On Being Honored

Edith here, writing from Amesbury, Massachusetts, where carriages no longer traverse the roads and paths. But where one happy author is delighted to announce that Charity’s Burden, my fourth Quaker Midwife Mystery, has been nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel! It’s the fourth nomination for the series, and my seventh Agatha nod (hint, the paperback is on sale over on Amazon). Read on for a giveaway.

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Only five authors are nominated, and once again I share the slate with four talented friends: Rhys Bowen, Susanna Calkins, LA Chandler, and – in his first Agatha nomination – friend of the Wickeds, our Boston neighbor – Gabriel Valjan. (I’m inviting them all over to the blog in April to share their books with you.) The winner is announced May 1 at the Malice Domestic conference in North Bethesda and gets to take home a teapot. If you’re going, you can vote there.

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Today I’d to refresh your memory about Charity’s Burden. It came out last April, and we all know how many other historical mysteries have released since then. I hinted at the theme and plot here on the blog. I thought I’d give you a bit more.

Kirkus said this about the book: “Murder poses difficult challenges for a compassionate 19th-century Quaker midwife in Massachusetts . . . Because [Rose Carroll’s] actions are motivated by her faith, she won’t let threats keep her from doing the right thing as she seeks the truth. Plenty of suspects keep the pot bubbling as Maxwell examines the roots of the abortion controversy that continues to this day.”

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Yes, the story addresses the issues of contraception and abortion in late 1880 New England, matters which have always been fraught for women. As part of my research I read Contraception and Abortion in Nineteenth Century America by Janet Farrell Brodie and My Notorious Life by Kate Manning, a novel based on the life of Madame Restell, a nineteenth-century midwife and provider of abortions in New York City. I hadn’t known of the 1870 highly restrictive Comstock law, which made talking about preventing pregnancy a federal crime. Massachusetts and other states enacted even more severe versions.

Midwife Rose’s clients of course come to her for help with their pregnancies and births. When a woman bears seven children in nine years and her body can’t handle having more; when her husband has lost his job and they can barely feed the children they have; when she’s pregnant as a result of assault? Women ask Rose for help in preventing or ending a pregnancy, as they have asked midwives for centuries.

Rose’s remedies are limited to herbs and condoms, which are largely ineffective, and she does not recommend abortions, which can imperil life, but her heart goes out to the women she she is committed to serve. I included an herbalist based on Madame Restell. The book opens with a malnourished mother bleeding heavily. Mix in greed, jealousy, revenge, and passion, and you have the recipe for an Agatha-nominated historical mystery!

I would love to send a signed copy of Charity’s Burden to a commenter who missed it the first time around or who wants to give it as a gift.

Readers: Which historical controversies have you read about? Do you have a favorite era in the past?

Ask the Expert: a Publisher’s Publicists

As all the Wickeds have at least one series with Kensington Publishing, we’ve worked closely with their two fabulous publicists, Larissa Ackerman and Michelle Addo. I thought I’d invite them over today to share some tips and background with us and our readers!

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Michelle and Larissa with a few cozy mysteries

E: You are book publicists for Kensington Publishing. How did you find the job, how long have you had it, and what qualified you for it?

L: Hi Edith, I just wanted to say thank you so much for having us on The Wickeds blog, you ladies are all such fantastic authors AND a blast to work with! More seriously, though, I was previously at a boutique public relations agency for over five years that focused on book publicity with traditionally published, indie, and self-published authors. One of my first projects at the agency was securing publicity for cozy mystery author Gretchen Archer. Working with her series opened the door into the cozy mystery sub-genre for me. When the position to work exclusively with cozy mysteries opened at Kensington about two years ago, I jumped on it. I hope it’s not too bold to say that the (now) seven plus years of working on publicity and events for cozy mystery authors qualified me for this position!

M: I’ve worked at Kensington since June 2017 and originally found the listing for a Communications Manager on MediaBistro.com, a great resource for people who work in the media industry. Prior to working at Kensington, I worked at various boutique PR agencies in New York (in both Marketing Manager and Publicist roles) and often on books. More specifically, I had a lot of experience coordinating nationwide campaigns, producing events both on and offline, and branding.

E: I know you help the Wickeds with our mysteries. Do you do campaigns for other genres, too? If so, how is that different?

L: I almost exclusively work with our cozy mystery authors at Kensington. However, having campaigned for other genres in the past, I would say that the foundation of a publicity campaign (get media coverage, secure events) is always going to be similar. It’s the people that you are going to approach, and how you are going to approach it (aka the “angles”), that is going to be different.

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Larissa in her Kensington Office

M: Yes! Besides cozy mysteries, I also work on true crime books, select romance, and pretty much every genre under Dafina Books – our African American imprint.

E: What’s your favorite part of the job? Your least favorite?

L: I love all the authors and their books that I get to work with. I get to work with such interesting, friendly, warm, lovely people who are part of a warm, lovely community. Least favorite…My commute from New Jersey!

M: My favorite part of the job is definitely creating and implimenting well-rounded campaigns with all of you authors! It’s really great to work on all the different parts of a book’s lifecycle and see them come together.

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Sherry and Michelle

My least favorite part of the job is having a no-pets office – our building doesn’t allow them unfortunately so we can’t celebrate Bring Your Pet to Work Day.

E: How does your job differ from, say, Kensington’s digital media publicist, or does it overlap?

L: There is some overlap in that we send our events and publicity we’ve secured to her to post about on social. We also will brainstorm with her for ideas with online promotion. But for the most part, our jobs are very different. Your publicist is pitching media outlets for coverage, mailing books to reviewers/bloggers/influencers, writing press releases, setting up events, etc. Our social media manager is creating totally separate promotions entirely for the online space and building our social media communities like Between the Chapters Facebook Group.

M: Primarily in content. The Social Media/Digital Team plans and produces the online content and advertising for our authors, and Communications Managers cover all the Publicity and Marketing.

E: What are your tips for authors working with a publisher’s publicist? Are there things we can do to make your job easier? 

L: If you have any upcoming events or media that you booked yourself, please tell your publicist! This is more vital than a lot of authors realize—basically, it helps your publicist (and the publisher’s sales department) help you. And if you have any media connections (no matter how big or small the outlet is) don’t be afraid to ask to discuss with your publicist the best way to utilize those contacts. We’re all on the same team and want the best possible outcome for you and your books!

M: My biggest tip would be to talk about your book every chance you get – tell your friends, tell your social media community, tell your partners, TELL EVERYONE! Provide regular updates and immerse yourself in the very active online cozy community, it’s the best way to spread awareness. Also, make sure to tell your publicist whenever you plan on doing an event!

E: Thanks for those tips! What would you like to know from our non-author readers? What can they do to help make an author’s career a success (other than buy the latest book)?

L: Reviewing books online is extremely helpful, but one of the best things that you can do to help an author successful is to spread the word! If you loved a book, tell your friends and family and colleagues. Word of mouth is one of the oldest and most effective ways of creating buzz and success for a book.

M: I would say non-author readers should also tell their friends about their favorite author’s books! Post reviews whenever you get a chance to and don’t be shy to say hello to an author at an event.

E: Finally, the flash quiz: Pizza or chocolate? Mountains or beach? Movies or live theater? Kindle or paper? Cook or order takeout?

L: Milk chocolate, always. Mountains to hike on. Movies. Paper. A year ago, I would have said takeout, but I’m learning to cook and enjoying it!

M: Chocolate (preferably 70% dark), Beach (but not in the middle of summer – only fall/spring), Movies, Both!, and Cook.

E: Thanks, ladies! Readers – here’s your chance to ask Larissa and Michelle questions.