Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 135

A Wicked Welcome to Carolyn Wilkins! Plus a giveaway of DEATH AT A SEANCE

By Julie, decking the halls in Somerville

I’m thrilled to welcome Carolyn Wilkins back to the blog, and to celebrate the release of her latest mystery, Death at a Séance . I was fortunate enough to read an early copy of this book, and loved meeting Carrie McFarland, the protagonist of the novel. Welcome to the Wickeds, Carolyn!

Psychics in History and Fiction

Mystery readers are fascinated by the supernatural. Images of seances, haunted houses, poltergeists, and evil spirits rising from the grave remain eternally popular with readers and writers alike.

However as a practicing psychic medium, I know for a fact that much of what is portrayed as “psychic activity” in the popular media has little to do with reality. The dead rarely show themselves to psychics as living, breathing 3-D figures.  Nor do they make a habit of popping out of walls, throwing items around the living room in a fit of pique or returning from the dead to seek vengeance on those who harmed them while they were alive.  

Don’t get me wrong.  The dead are very much aware of what goes on in the world of the living, and they are perfectly capable of making their presence felt when necessary.  However their visitations tend to be subtle – far less dramatic that what we see in the movies.  

Am I saying that every so-called “spirit manifestation” is genuine?  Not at all. I would be the first to admit there are plenty of fakers, frauds and downright rip-off artists who have claimed to have psychic powers. 

My book Death at a Séance takes place in 1920, when interest in Spiritualism was at an all-time high.  Ten million soldiers lost their lives during World War One, and people on both sides of the Atlantic were desperate to communicate with their departed loved ones.  As we all know, where there is great human need, con men, fakers and phony mediums are not far behind. 

In 1923, at a summer retreat for Spiritualists located in southern Indiana,  seven Spiritualist mediums were arrested for fraud. According to their accusers, these so-called mediums had access to a hidden library containing the personal information of thousands of potential clients.  During the séance, the phony psychic would claim to have received this information from the Spirit World ,when in actual fact they had memorized it from a file!  

As you will see, this juicy bit of history serves as an important plot point in my book.  

The true work of the psychic medium is to help people understand their connection to the larger world in which we live – a world in which all souls, living and dead participate in a greater unity. The most meaningful spirit messages do not consist of merely of names and addresses.  In this age of Facebook and Instagram, this kind of information is easily faked. The most profound evidence that the human soul lives on after death happens when the medium describes the personality, character traits and hobbies of the deceased.  Even more meaningful are those moments when the medium is able to bring through advice from the deceased on a problem confronting the recipient in their current life.

Crazy as it seems, I have witnessed these kind of miraculous messages time and again as a practicing psychic medium.  I’ve even been lucky enough to have brought through a few of my own. 

Readers:  Have you ever experienced a synchronicity or déjà vu moment that you just couldn’t explain?  Leave a comment below by December 15.  

Giveaway: I will give a free PDF of Death at a Séance to the two readers who share their most unusual and/or dramatic psychic moments. 

About Death at a Séance :

Carrie McFarland’s psychic gifts land her in trouble wherever she goes.

The year is 1920. Corruption, bootleggers and the Klan are part of everyday life in Aronsville, Indiana. As an African American teenager, Carrie McFarland knows she must watch her step carefully. She’s already in hot water for putting a Love Hex under the pillow of the wealthy white man who seduced and abandoned her. 

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Carrie hopes she’s put the past behind her when she lands a job cleaning house for an eccentric Spiritualist. But when she foresees the death of a guest at her boss’s weekly séance, Carrie finds herself accused of murder.  Intent on keeping her community from being torched by the KKK in retaliation for the slaying, Carrie enlists the help of two friends—a handsome young reverend and a notorious bootlegger. To uncover the truth, she will have to search for  answers in the dark and dangerous world of spiritual frauds, gangsters and con men. 

There’s a vicious killer loose in Aronsville. Will Carrie’s psychic powers save her from becoming the next victim?

About Carolyn Wilkins:



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Carolyn Marie Wilkins is a practicing Reiki Master, a Psychic Medium and an initiated Priestess of Yemaya, the African goddess of compassion, motherhood and the ocean.  Her other novels Mojo For Murder and Melody For Murder feature the crime-fighting exploits of Bertie Bigelow, a forty-something choir director and amateur sleuth living on the South Side of Chicago.

Wicked Grateful–A Garden Squad Announcement!

By Julie navigating the Somerville snow

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You know, when I started my writing journey with a goal of being a published author twenty-odd years ago, my dream was limited to holding a book I wrote in my hand. In 2015 that dream came true, with the publication of Just Killing Time, written as Julianne Holmes.

Since then, I’ve had three series. Last year Julia Henry joined the team, and Pruning the Dead was published. Tilling the Truth followed in August. I’m not sure how Lilly, Tamara, Delia, Ernie, Warwick and Roddy came into my imagination, but I’m so grateful they did.

The next Garden Squad will be released next fall (I’ll let you know more about that next month). But I have wonderful Garden Squad news to share.

There are going to be Garden Squads 4&5! I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be telling more stories about Lilly et al. I have no idea where this series is heading, and look forward to introducing you to more Goosebush residents, and creating more gardening adventure.

Folks, without your support this wouldn’t have happened. So thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for your support of this series.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Wicked Wednesday: Community

For this week’s Wicked Wednesday, let’s talk community. That can mean the physical place as well as the people who live there. All the Wickeds have set our series in small towns. So, dish. Share one bad thing that’s happened to your protagonist because of your series’ community . . . or one good thing.

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Edith/Maddie: In my Cozy Capers Book Group series, nearly all the shop owners and some of the town officials belong to the cozy mystery book group Mac Almeida is also part of. That’s her community, and when the group starts to think a real murder is their own cozy mystery to solve, she tells them, “No! This is real life.” The book group pulls Mac into trouble – but they also rally around to help her get out of it.

Jessie: What a great question, Edith. I love the set-up for your Cozy Capers series. The same community of Walmsley Parva works for and against my sleuths. At the beginning of Murder in an English Village, Edwina is the subject of village gossip which is not not something she enjoys. Beryl, on the other hand, is delighted to feel like she belongs somewhere for the first time in her adult life.

Sherry: The contrast between Edwina and Beryl is one of the reasons I love your series, Jessie! One of the hard things for Sarah in the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mysteries is that the community is very tight knit and if you aren’t from there you may never be fully trusted. On the other hand, the DiNapolis who own DiNapoli’s Roast Beef and Pizza have taken Sarah under their wing and stand up for her.

Barb: Sarah’s decision to stay in Ellington following her divorce is one of the most interesting things about her. Julia Snowden in the Maine Clambake Mysteries is the product of a marriage between a summer person and a local. This puts her nowhere in the social hierarchy of Busman’s Harbor and makes her feel like an outsider. Her sister, Livvie, has no such qualms and has fully embraced the community as they have fully embraced her. Which all goes to show, I suppose, that feeling like an outsider can be driven as much from your insides as from your circumstances.

Julie: Goosebush is the kind of place where everyone knows each other’s business. The premise of the Garden Squad is that they notice or hear of problems and set out to solve them. The wonderful thing about Lilly is that she doesn’t care what folks say or think about her. But she’ll defend her loved ones at all costs. She loves the community and aspires to make it the best it can be.

Readers: When have you had support from your community, however you define it?

Time Travel — Welcome Back Guest Barb Goffman

Sherry  — I’m delighted to host guest Barb Goffman whose new anthology Crime Travel is just out! The cover is fabulous and what’s inside is even better.

[image error]Barb: Time travel. The mere words remind me of happy days as a child, lost in a book, reading about faraway lands where a modern person, usually a child, got to experience adventure in olden times, where magic was real. And I’m reminded of movies and TV shows, too, both from my childhood and from recent years. Back to the Future. Quantum Leap. Voyagers! The Terminator. Timeless. (Sigh, Timeless. Gone far too soon.) I loved all these and so many more.

So when I put out a call for short stories last year for my own time-travel anthology, I was excited anew by the prospect of traveling to faraway lands and times. I asked for stories involving crime and time travel, and the submissions poured in, leaving me delighted. A lot of people apparently love time travel as much as I do.

Two days ago, that anthology, Crime Travel, was published by Wildside Press. And I’m happy to be here on the Wickeds today to share with you the lands and times—both long and recent—that the Crime Travel stories visit.

Want to travel to Shakespeare’s England and meet some of his contemporaries? Anna Castle’s “The Sneeze” takes you there.

How about go to a castle in merry old England in 1801? Barbara Monajem introduces us to an earl with a family problem in “The Last Page.”

Heidi Hunter brings us to an elegant dinner party in 1935 and the last sighting of a famous diamond in “No Honor Among Thieves.”

In Cathy Wiley’s “And Then There Were Paradoxes,” British police investigating a locked-room mystery travel back to 1938 to meet a famous citizen who might have some helpful insight.

Twelve years later, the Cold War is on, and a Philadelphia PI gets caught up in a missing-persons case in James Blakey’s “The Case of the Missing Physicist.”

What would a time-travel book be without a visit to Dallas, Texas, in November 1963, and an attempt to right a wrong? Brendan DuBois takes us there in “The Dealey Paradox.”

Eleanor Cawood Jones gives us a glimpse of life in the mid-1960s for a stay-at-home mom dealing with surprising life changes in “O Crime, In Thy Flight.”

Rounding out that decade, John M. Floyd’s “Ignition” lets the reader in on a scheme to travel to 1968 to pocket a hefty bit of cash.

If you’re interested in 1975, you’re in luck, because we have two stories that will take you there.

In Michael Bracken’s “Love, or Something Like It” a scientist travels to 1975 Waco, Texas, to save the woman he loves.

While in Korina Moss’s “On the Boardwalk,” a dying woman takes us to the Jersey shore in the summer of ’75 to save the brother she loves.

Want a taste of Manhattan in 1980? Don’t miss Adam Meyer’s “The Fourteenth Floor,” in which a security guard revisits a night early in his career.

In “Hard Return” Art Taylor lets us remember life in the 1990s, when Caller ID wasn’t prevalent but landlines still were—a simpler time in some ways but definitely not in others.

If you want to go back a decade, my story “Alex’s Choice” will take you to the Maine coast and a twelve-year-old’s quest to stop a tragedy long after it’s happened.

For something even more contemporary, there’s David Dean’s “Reyna,” in which an injured girl goes back a year to the scene of her accident.

And, finally, we have Melissa H. Blaine’s “Living on Borrowed Time,” in which time travelers come from the future to present-day Kansas City at Christmas. Why Kansas City? Why now? You’ll have to read the story to find out.

So those are the stories in Crime Travel—perfect for armchair travelers who want to journey to different times as well as different places. Definitely my kind of vacation.

Readers: Now it’s your turn: If you could travel through time, where—and when—would you go?

[image error]Bio: Barb Goffman has won the Agatha, Macavity, and Silver Falchion awards for her short stories and has been named a finalist 27 times for national mystery short-story awards—five times in 2019 alone. She works as a freelance crime-fiction editor. Learn more at www.barbgoffman.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holiday Movie Countdown and a #giveaway

by Barb, just returned from a holiday party. Santa was there!

Hi All. Christmas is my favorite season. I love the anticipation, the family traditions, the decorations pulled out year after year.

One of my traditions is rewatching holiday movies. A familiar, well-loved story is the perfect background to making cookies, decorating, addressing cards, and wrapping presents.

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Here’s my list of Christmas favorites. Leave a comment at the end for a chance to win copies of Eggnog Murder and Yule Log Murder, two novella collections that will get you in the holiday spirit. Each one includes a Maine Clambake Christmas novella.

Everyone’s holiday movie list is different, but sometime this month, I will watch the following. (Some of the clips will have ads, but you can skip them after five seconds.)

10. Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Ha! Not a Christmas movie, but a Thanksgiving one. But that’s what makes it such a great way to kick of your holiday viewing season.

9. Home Alone

I just watched the Netflix moving about the making of Home Alone (The Movies that Made Us) and that made this movie somehow even more enjoyable.

8. The Family Man

There are hundreds of Scrooge variants–and why shouldn’t there be? It’s an amazing story. One of my favorites is this one with Nicholas Cage and Tea Leoni.

7. The Family Stone

This is a flawed and occasionally annoying movie, but it has flashes of insight and killer moments that still lead me to watch it almost every year.

6. George C. Scott’s Christmas Carol

I love the Christmas Carol descendants and variants (see above), but my favorite straight-up version is the one starring George C. Scott.

5. White Christmas

This is one of the goofiest movies ever made. It only works if you don’t wonder too hard why a former general would build a 1000 seat theater and a full sound stage in rural Vermont. In fact, it only works if you don’t wonder about a lot of things. But I love it. I also love and read every year Tom and Lorenzo’s hilarious critique.

4. The Holiday

I kicked off the season with this one this year, watching it on Cape Cod with my daughter, niece and sister-in-law. It’s a great story filled with really cool houses and it’s very heartwarming if you don’t think about the future of the two central couples too hard.

3. About a Boy

This one is a bit of a cheat, since it’s not really a Christmas movie. But it does have two Christmas scenes and a New Year’s Eve party, so I’m including it here. It’s one of my favorite movies for any season, and it would be higher on this list if it was actually a Christmas movie.

2. It’s a Wonderful Life

I love this movie. I love Jimmy Stewart. I love the message. And I love that every time I see it I spot some little detail I never noticed before.

1. Love Actually

This for me is the ne plus ultra of Christmas movies. The one I have to watch every year. I love everything about it and the ending montage gets me every time.

I had to leave a bunch off and I also might reorder the list if I did it again tomorrow, but here are my ten and I’m sticking to it. (For now.)

Readers: How about you? Leave a comment with your favorite holiday movie and be entered to win the two holiday novella collections.

A Wicked Welcome to Sharon Daynard! plus a giveaway of MURDER POINTS NORTH!

by Julie, dealing with snow in Somerville

There is nothing more thrilling than congratulating a friend on their debut novel. I’m so thrilled to have Sharon Daynard on the blog today to do exactly that. Sharon has had many short stories published, but Murder Points North is her debut as published novelist. On behalf of all of the Wickeds, congratulations Sharon!

A Christmas Note from Santa

We’ve all had them. The holiday disaster we don’t talk about. Who hasn’t made the rookie mistake of roasting a turkey with the giblet bag still stuffed inside the bird’s cavity, regifting an item to the original gifter, or putting the wrong gift tag on the wrong present. Of course, none of those top the Christmas my protagonist has in my holiday whodunit Murder Points North. Not only does she have the misfortune of discovering a dead body, but quickly finds herself the prime suspect in the murder. And let’s face it… No one wants to shop for those last minute Christmas gifts in a prison commissary.

I’ve never faced the prospect of ringing in the New Year behind bars, but I do have a pretty good story of a Christmas that went horrible wrong. Decades ago my son, Ken, then a second grader, came home from school on December 23 and asked the question every parent dreads—Is Santa Claus real? My daughter, Kris, a kindergartner, was on the verge of tears at the suggestion. I didn’t think we’d be having “the talk” for many Christmases to come. I panicked. I told them Santa was as real as I was and all they had to do was leave a note asking him to write back to prove it.

To understand what happened next, you need to know my wedding anniversary is on Christmas Eve and we always celebrate it with Chinese take-out. Instead of cookies and milk, we leave a plate of Chinese food for Santa.

Come that Christmas Eve, my children left a note on the table next to the Chinese food and hurried off to their rooms with a reminder that Santa wouldn’t come if they got out of their beds before morning. You can imagine how incredibly clever I thought I was writing “Santa’s” reply to them:

Dear Ken and Kris,
Thank you so much for the Chinese food.
If I had to eat one more cookie, I think I’d puke!
Merry Christmas,
Santa

My husband and I put on a Christmas movie and waited for the kids to fall asleep before placing the gifts under the tree. There was only one problem. We fell asleep watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the one thousandth time and woke to the sound of our daughter crying upstairs in her bedroom. Something about the combination of Chinese food, eggnog and sparkling apple cider didn’t sit well in her stomach and she threw up all over herself and the bedding. A quick shower, a clean pair of pajamas and fresh bed linens later, she was back in her bed.

With my daughter finally asleep, the stockings stuffed and the gifts under the tree, my husband and I headed off to bed. A few hours later we were woken a second time by my daughter’s crying—this time downstairs. After opening their Christmas stockings, Ken and Kris rushed to the table to see if Santa left them a note. When Ken read it out loud he thought Santa was a riot. Kris not so much. She thought Santa was mean and making fun of her for throwing up. She refused to open her gifts, wouldn’t wear her holiday outfit and was pretty much a Grinch for the rest of the day. And that’s they story of how I helped Santa ruin my five-year-old daughter’s Christmas.

Now it’s your turn. Have you ever been responsible for a Christmas gone wrong? I’m going to do a giveaway to one commenter on this post!

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About Sharon:

Sharon Daynard’s writing runs the gamut from light and quirky to downright dark and troubling. Her debut novel, Murder Points North, takes a humorous spin on murder in a small town. Her short stories include “The Boss of Butlers Square” which received honorable mention for the Al Blanchard Award and “Widows Peak” which was nominated for a Derringer Award.

About Murder Points North :



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With one week until Christmas, picturesque Points North, New Hampshire, hasn’t seen as much as a token flurry and the temperatures are almost as high as local tempers. The lack of snow, however, is the least of Liesl Alan’s worries. Liesl teaches geology, collects rocks, minerals and ex-husbands—three at last count. On the brink of turning forty, she finds herself living amongst a group of eccentric “innmates” at the Muddled Moose, an inn her family has owned for generations. Hardly in the Christmas spirit, the last thing Liesl’s looking forward to is a night of wearing a too tight, too ruffled, too plaid gown for the village’s annual Home for the Holidays open house celebration.When the event ends in a fiasco and someone from the Muddled Moose is found murdered, Liesl becomes the prime suspect of everyone from the lead homicide detective to her own mother. Fellow residents at the inn are even offering fashion tips for her inevitable perp walk and mug shot.Determined to prove her innocence and find the real killer, Liesl teams up with a private eye wannabe. With a list of suspects that might as well include all of Points North, she has her work cut out for her, especially when each new clue points her in a different direction.

Five Wicked Years Later

By Sherry — feeling happy in Northern Virginia

[image error]Monday, December 2nd was the fifth anniversary of the release of my first book Tagged for Death. It doesn’t seem possible that it’s been five years and that my eighth book, Sell Low, Sweet Harriet will be out on December 31. Look for a giveaway at the end of the post.

It truly seems like only yesterday (it was actually December 2012) when I found an email in my inbox from Barbara Ross on a Monday morning saying “my agent is looking for someone to write a garage sale themed cozy series for Kensington.” Barb went on to say something like “if you don’t know anything about garage sales watch a couple of those shows on HGTV.”

Garage sales? I LOVE garage sales. My house is full of things from garage sales, flea markets, and antique stores. But write a book about them? I’d been working on a series set in Seattle. My protagonist was a gemologist. I’d actually pitched the idea to Barb’s agent three weeks before at Crime Bake, but he wasn’t interested. I wrote Barb back saying I’d have to think about it.

I woke up the next morning and thought I have to try. I found the email I wrote Barb that morning:

I’m terrified but yes let’s proceed. I don’t want to let you down or John. I’ve been racked with doubts about my writing abilities. But I’ve also been thinking about characters and settings and complications all morning. How in the winter she can hit thrift shops and church sales and indoor flea markets. I’d already made her 38. I have an opening line. And yes I think she will turn it into a career. Thank you so much for even thinking of me. Your terrified friend! Sherry

By that afternoon I was in touch with John Talbot. He said that he needed a proposal fast. I had no idea what “fast” meant in the publishing world. But by Friday afternoon I sent in a 36 page proposal that included the first three chapters of Tagged for Death. The story and characters poured out of me like they’d been waiting in the wings for me to notice them. If only all writing was like that. John asked me to make a couple of changes but by early the next week the proposal was in the hands of Gary Goldstein, the editor at Kensington who wanted the series.

[image error]My mom the day my book came out!

Pins and needles for the next six weeks. I didn’t know that the publishing industry more or less shut down over the holidays. By early February I had a three book deal with Kensington. I’d like to say and the rest is history, but it’s been full of fits and bumps and starts. Ups and downs. Highs and lows. But what a wonderful ride it’s been. Thanks to all of you – especially the Wickeds – for being there with me.

I’m giving away a copy of one of my paperback books or the first six ebooks to celebrate. Leave a comment for a chance to win.

Wicked Wednesday: The Families We Make

Happy December! This month our Wicked Wednesdays are all about family, community, and holidays. To start, let’s talk about the families people make, not the ones they are born with. In each of our series, our protagonists have created “families” of their close friends, co-workers, supporters. Of those folks, Wickeds, which of your fictional surrogate family members is your favorite?

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Jessie: I love this question, Edith! My protagonists, Beryl and Edwina have made a family with each other to a large extent. Simpkins, Edwina’s jobbing gardener, has added to the mix and is one of my favorites.

Edith/Maddie: Thanks, Jessie! I like Simpkins a lot. In my Cozy Capers Book Group series, Mac is close to the family she was born with, but the book group members are definitely her “made” family. Norland helps out in the bike shop when she’s shorthanded, Gin is Mac’s sounding board, and head librarian Flo can find the answer to any research question. I’m writing book three (Murder at the Lobstah Shack), and the whole group helps out owner and book group member Tulia.

Liz: Such a fun question. In the Cat Cafe series, Maddie is close to her biological family, but pretty much all of the permanent residents of Daybreak Island are Maddie’s family. Personally, I like Leopard Man the best.

Barb: In the Maine Clambake Mysteries, Julia Snowden speaks of her mother’s across-the-street neighbors, Fiona and Viola Snugg–Fee and Vee– as honorary great-aunts. They, along with Gus and Mrs. Gus, are my favorite Snowden honorary family members.

Sherry: I love Fee and Vee — they truly are characters and I can picture them in my head so clearly. As a former military spouse Sarah has spent her entire adult life creating families as they moved from base to base. She’s done that with her friends in Ellington and always goes to DiNapoli’s Roast Beef and Pizza to talk with the owners, Angelo and Rosalie, when she’s down.

Julie: I love the DeNapolis, Sherry. Every time Sarah goes to their restaurant I get a hankering for Italian food and wine in a sippy cup. The entire Garden Squad are chosen family. I love how close Tamara and Lilly are, and how intertwined their lives have become over time. They are family. Delia is also a wonderful surrogate daughter for Lilly. I do love exploring these relationships–they’re what make these books such a great place to visit.

Readers: Who is your non-birth family member of choice? What family have you created out of choice?

Triss Stein Book Birthday!

Edith here, not quite believing it’s suddenly December… But it’s my friend Triss Stein‘s book birthday, and I can’t wait to read this new installment in a series I love. Read to the end for a giveaway! Take it away, Triss.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!  

Today is my book birthday and I am so happy to celebrate with the writers at the Wicked Authors and their readers. Brooklyn Legacies is the new baby, fifth in the series about the Brooklyn adventures of amateur sleuth and urban historian Erica Donato.

The search for a lost portrait of Brooklyn’s own genius Walt Whitman sends urban historian Dr. Erica Donato into Brooklyn Heights, a neighborhood of quaint and charming streets, family names out of history, and spectacular views of the harbor and the world-famous bridge. New York’s first suburb has long weathered political battles about neighborhood preservation and destruction. Is a new one shaping up?

As she studies the history of Brooklyn’s very diverse neighborhoods, Erica’s questions lead to people who are keeping secrets and do not want questions to be asked, let alone answered. Mysteries ensue.

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Legacies begins with a McGuffin, a device I haven’t used before. What’s a McGuffin?  If you’re a writer, or an avid mystery fan, you might be waving your hand and saying “I know!  I know!” Or maybe not, so I’ll explain briefly.  It’s a tool used to create a mystery plot and is usually associated with one of the masters, Alfred Hitchcock himself.  It is, essentially, the “thing” that gets the story rolling, without necessarily being of any value itself. And it is not what the story is actually about.

Sounds slippery? Of course. It is Hitchcock, after all.

I never set out to write such a story – I’m not foolish enough to compete with Hitchcock –  but in my new book I did it by accident. It seemed perfectly reasonable at the time.

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I wanted to write about Brooklyn Heights, arguably Brooklyn’s loveliest and certainly most quaint neighborhood, with old streets, the dramatic harbor and Wall Street skyline, home to a famous abolitionist and many centuries of famous writers, a huge religious organization, a witchcraft shop and at least one famous stripper. And that most famous bridge.

It was New York’s first suburb and its first official historic district too. Just choosing which pieces of its long history to focus on would be a challenge, but first I had to get Erica over there to discover a small historical mystery. Then that one could lead to a bigger, more up-to-date mystery.  In other words, I needed a McGuffin.

It dropped into my hands, a gift from someone I interviewed. He handed me a thin file of information about a long-lost bronze portrait of Brooklyn’s own genius, Walt Whitman. It had marked the building where Leaves of Grass was printed. Whitman did some of the printing himself. And when the building was torn down, the portrait disappeared.

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Erica, having finally finished graduate school, is employed at the Brooklyn Museum… where there happens to be a  collection of rescued architectural sculpture.  

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Why not give her an assignment to research the missing Whitman portrait? And have her meet an angry old woman who turns out to be one of her own professional idols?  And she is involved in a feud with the Jehovah’s Witnesses? And the Witnesses’ many buildings are connected by underground tunnels? You can guess my first thought about those tunnels – what a great place to hide a body. So then there needs to be a body… And all of this happens in just the first few chapters.

There I was, writing a book much different than the one I planned, led astray by a McGuffin.

What happens to that sculpture? Ah, well, you would have to read the book to find out, because it disappears until the final chapter.  The statue existed, by the way, but since, Brooklyn Legacies is fiction, I wrote it the way I thought it should end. I hope you will agree.

 Readers: did you ever find yourself led astray by the writer’s deception, or do you usually know when you are being conned? (In the nicest way, of course.) And writers, have you ever been surprised by your own work? I’ll send one US commenter a copy of the book, too – giveaway is open until end of day on December 6.

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Triss Stein is a small–town girl who has spent most of her adult life in Brooklyn. In the new book, Brooklyn Legacies, old and new crimes get in the way as heroine, Erica Donato tries to understand the seismic changes affecting historic Brooklyn Heights.

The Sound of Silence

Edith here. Sheila can’t be with us today, so I’m reposting a lovely blog she wrote two years ago.

by Sheila Connolly

Just back from a trip to West Cork in Ireland, where (in case you haven’t heard it seventeen times already) I own a small cottage, on a small plot of land. From anywhere on my quarter-acre property I can see a total of four houses, and one of those is a mile away. The ruined church up the hill where several generations of my ancestors married is almost exactly a mile, and I can see it out the back.

Coming back to “civilization” is hard after spending over two weeks in Ireland. The first thing you notice out in the country in Ireland is the absence of noise. It is quiet in my part of West Cork. By my rough estimate, based on agricultural reports, there are 542,000 people in County Cork, and 1,719,500 cattle. The cows don’t make noise at night. Most people don’t go gadding about at night because they’re exhausted from tending all those cattle.

Traffic past my cottage amounts to one or two vehicles per hour, including deliveries, milk and oil trucks, and school buses, as well as individual cars. There are no planes flying overhead. There are birds, of course, and when they squabble (most often various kinds of crows), their caws echo off the trees.

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The peace is lovely. You can feel your blood pressure dropping day by day.

Then there’s the darkness. Across the road in front of my cottage, at night I can’t see a single light anywhere. Turn off the interior lights during the dark of the moon and you can’t see your hand in front of your face. In contrast, during a full moon it seems almost as bright as day, although the light shifts across the sky faster. In winter you’re lucky to have eight hours of sun, dawn to dusk; in summer it’s more than sixteen hours. Those of us who live in suburban places have forgotten those rhythms.

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Silence and darkness seem to go together, It begins to make sense, why Simon and Garfunkel began their song, The Sound of Silence, with “hello darkness, my old friend.” Maybe they were depressed young men when they sang that, but that’s not true in Ireland. People have long memories, often stretching back generations. At the same time there’s a real curiosity about newcomers. Who are you? Where do you come from? And often, do you have people here? Their memory for recent events proves it: people I might have met once, a year or more earlier, remember my name and where I’m staying in Ireland. In some ways that’s unsettling, because it’s hard to be anonymous.

I’m not going to argue whether the silence of the countryside or the noise of civilization is better. I enjoy the energy of cities, at least in small doses. I’d seize the opportunity to visit a city I’ve never seen (especially if there’s a group of writers there!). But sometimes I need quiet, and a slower pace, as do most of us, I’m guessing. Would I go stir-crazy if I stayed in Ireland for good? I really can’t say, but it bears thinking about.

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There’s another quotation that keeps running through my head, and it fits too: “The World Is Too Much with Us,” a sonnet by William Wordsworth written in 1802. In it Wordsworth criticizes the world of the First Industrial Revolution for being absorbed in materialism and distancing itself from nature. It’s all the more true these days, and living pretty close to nature for the past couple of weeks has been eye-opening for me.

Readers: How about you? Does fresh air, sunlight and quiet drive you crazy? Or do you crave a dose of tranquility?