Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 139

Celebrating the Boston Book Festival

Hey friends, Liz here! This weekend, book lovers, writers, readers, and all other literary types will gather in Copley Square and in Roxbury for the Boston Book Festival. It’s such a great event to gather bibliophiles together, and it’s at the perfect time of year to be outdoors enjoying the fall weather.

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A few years ago, Julie took the lead in putting together a Sisters in Crime New England panel for some of us Wickeds and New England author friends, using the “Wheel of Why” to create a mystery on the fly. It was great fun and as Barb and I recently talked about on our tour, a huge milestone in our author careers. So on the eve of this year’s festival, we thought it would be fun to reminisce about that day and talk about what we love about this awesome event. So what do you think, girls?

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Sherry: I’ve never been to the Boston Book Festival but I hope to make it some day. I’m excited about attending Murder by the Book in Bar Harbor this weekend. My first time in Bar Harbor and Murder by the Book. I’ll be on two panels and one is with Barb!

Edith/Maddie: Have fun at Murder by the Book, Sherry and Barb. I was on that super-fun SINCNE panel Julie so ably hosted, and I’m delighted to be on another of our chapter’s popular Mystery Making Improv panels tomorrow! SINCNE Prez Connie Hambley wrangles Frankie Bailey, Hallie Ephron, Kate Flora, Joanna Schaffhausen, and me on how genre plays into plot and craft at 11 AM at the Boston Public Library’s Orientation Room. I’ll also be working the SINCNE booth (Booth 57 on Dartmouth directly across from the Boston Public Library), selling and signing from 2-3. I hope to see you at one of those places!

Julie: I love the Boston Book Festival. Such fun to see how passionate folks are about their books! I remember moderating that panel–what fun! I’m going to be at the SinCNE booth on Saturday at 11am selling and signing, so I won’t be at the panel this year. Alas-I do look forward to seeing folks at the booth!

Barb: I’ll be with Sherry at Murder by the Book in Bar Harbor. Have a great time this weekend, everybody!

Readers, do you have a favorite book festival? Will we see any of you on Saturday?

The Journey of Ideas

by Julie, enjoying the fall colors though today’s wind gusts are whirring them around

Yesterday I read an article about one author who was concerned with the alarming similarities between her book and another author’s work. They both wrote historical fiction about packhorse librarians, and there do seem to be similarities. But rather than one author plagiarizing the other, could there be another reason for the similarities?

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This fall I reread Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic. The subtitle of the book is “creative living beyond fear”. More on that in a bit.

In Big Magic, she tells a story about a novel she was working on. It was a big novel about the Amazon jungle. She was working on the idea, and then life got in the way. When she got back to the novel her inspiration was gone, so she set it aside for the time being. A while later, she was having lunch Ann Patchett. They were talking about their works in progress, and Liz started, telling Ann about the Amazon book, confessing that it was stuck. In her tell, Liz Gilbert says that Ann looked a bit pale, and then proceeded to tell Liz about her work in progress. Which took place in the Amazon jungle. There were many other similarities between the two books.

Liz Gilbert believes that when she didn’t write the book her idea moved on to another writer who was ready for the inspiration. That the muse traveled rather than letting the idea die. By that way of thinking, the muse can give several people the same idea, safe in the knowledge that they will all use it different ways.

Now, I do not condone plagiarizing, or stealing ideas. But here’s what I know. The Wickeds could all take the same idea, even a fairly complex one, and we would write very different novels. That’s the nature of creativity. The same idea gets different treatment depending on who is doing the work. This is true for all sorts of creative expression.

And so, my dear aspiring creatives, never worry that someone else has “already done” your idea. Worry instead that if you don’t act on the idea that sparked your creativity it will travel to someone else and inspiration will leave you.

Dear readers, don’t worry about reading “another xyz” book. Like, say, a gardening cozy. You never know what the different take on the same idea will bring, and how you might enjoy the story.

“Creative living beyond fear” is the subtitle of Big Magic. Fear is a powerful motivator for all of us, isn’t it? Fear is designed to protect us. But when we choose to be creative, whatever that journey, that requires fear be thanked for taking care of us, and then moved out of the way. When we embrace an idea and choose to act on it in a positive way, that’s a brave thing. Brave doesn’t mean without fear. Brave means doing it despite the fear.

Creativity takes many forms. We’re all writers, but we also have other creative pursuits. I knit, bake, I paint terribly. All of these creative pursuits help me as a writer. They help me with my process. They also make my life more fun.

I love thinking about, talking about, coaching on creativity. We all have creative energy waiting to be expressed. Don’t let “it’s already been done” stop you. For those of you interested, I’m doing a free, online masterclass next week on “6 Ways to Unlock Your Creativity”. You can sign up here.

Friends, what do you think about the journey of ideas? Have you ever had an idea that was “used” already? Did that stop you from exploring the path?

Writing Scares

Hey friends – Liz here. I’m writing my next book in the Cat Cafe Series, as-yet-untitled-number-4, and I’m heading into the middle. Sort of. And the middle is kind of scary because I always feel like I’m in the middle of a big pool and forgot how to swim.

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So I wanted to ask today – what scares you the most about a book? Beginning? Middle? End? The whole thing?

Julie: I think my scariest time as a writer is the copy edit phase. The rest of it is daunting, especially starting, but after eight books I know I’ll figure it out. But during the copy edits, someone else is pointing out the problems with what I thought was clear, or they’re asking questions that I thought were answered. Sometimes I get so twisted up that I’m afraid I’ve made it worse instead of better.

Jessie: Interesting, Julie! I worry that I will hate the cover. It feels like it is so out of my hands and yet the thing that is right in my face so much of the time. I love all the aspects of creating the books except waiting for the cover. Even when I end up loving them, there is always a weird jolt when I see them for the first time. It is as if I have an idea of how the cover will be in my head and don’t even realize it until the reality doesn’t match up.

Edith/Maddie: Interesting, Jessie. I’ve certainly had covers I’ve hated, but I’ve never waited and worried about it. I got copyedits for Nacho Average Murder yesterday, Julie, and can’t wait to dive in. For me, like Liz, I’m most scared of the middle. Every. Single. Book. (And I’ve completed 23.) I don’t know where it’s going. No one will ever read it. I’ll never finish it. It’s crap. All the worries, every time. At least by now I know I’ll get through it if I keep the proverbial butt in the chair and fingers on the keyboard!

Sherry: The middle is hard, Edith — it’s probably why I wrote that part last in my first few books. Now I power through — at least I have lately. I think the scariest part is just facing the blank screen and knowing I need to fill it. I have to remind myself to fill the proverbial sandbox with sand (words) and then build the sandcastle.

Barb: I find talking about my books to be really difficult–both when I’m writing them and when they’re done. I don’t mean giving a high-level series description. That’s pretty easy. I mean talking about premise and characters of a specific book in a way that is interesting for readers. (I may be having this scare this very moment because Sherry and I will be at Murder by the Book in Bar Harbor, Maine this weekend and on Friday night each of the participating authors is supposed to talk about our book for 3 to 5 minutes. I have sat in audiences where a parade of authors doing this has been horribly boring and I can’t think what to do or say.)

Edith: Barb, it’ll be fine!

Liz: I second that, Barb! You are certainly never boring…

Readers, what about you? What scares you most – in books, in life? Tell us below!

Guest- Connie Berry

Jessie- In New Hampshire where the foliage is glorious!

Connie Berry is not a new visitor to the Wickeds’ blog. She posted here when her first book, A Dream of Death, was released earlier this year. Since we share an enthusiasm for books set in the U.K. I was delighted to have the chance to ask her some questions as her latest mystery, A Legacy of Murder, is available. Welcome Connie!

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Connie: Hello, Jessica! I’m thrilled to be a guest today on The Wickeds. Thank you so much for having me.

Jessie: It’s my pleasure. Let’s get right to the questions! As someone who writes a series set in England, I am always curious about why others have set their own work in the British Isles. What drew you to set the first two books in your Kate Hamilton series in the U.K.?

Connie: First of all, I’m a card-carrying, dyed-in-the-wool Anglophile. My father’s parents were born in Scotland, so I grew up with the idea that everything British was unquestionably the best—Red Rose tea (the only kind they would drink), tins of Walker’s shortbread, Scots’ oat porridge, stirred clockwise with a wooden spurtle, lengths of fine wool tartan, Wedgewood china. When I was born, my grandmother sent me a Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit plate, bowl, and mug, especially precious to her because the Queen’s children ate off the very same china. Later, in college, I studied the modern English novel at St. Clare’s College, Oxford, and received my masters’ degree in English Literature. More importantly, though, the mystery genre began with those marvelous British Golden Agers—Agatha Christie, Cyril Hare, Dorothy Sayers, G. K. Chesterton (to name just a few). Who doesn’t love a classic murder mystery involving a small group of suspects, isolated somewhere in the English countryside? My thesis advisor in graduate school advised me to choose a topic I loved because I was going to spend a lot of time there. When choosing a setting for my first mystery, A Dream of Death,I remembered that advice and chose Scotland.

Jessie: The first book is set in Scotland and the second is set in England. Did it pose a challenge to move your protagonist to a new location from book to book?

Connie: A challenge? Absolutely! The main characters carry over from the first book to the second—Kate Hamilton, DI Tom Mallory, Linnea Larson (Kate’s mother and wise counselor). But since I’d pretty much killed off or otherwise disposed of the supporting cast in Scotland, I had no choice! Seriously, though, my plan was always to take Kate to a small English village, sopairing her in the first book with a detective inspector from Suffolk, England, was done deliberately. I wanted Kate and Tom to meet in a setting (an island in the Scottish Hebrides) where they were both outsiders, drawn together by circumstances and pooling their skills to solve a crime. In book two, A Legacy of Murder, Kate is visiting her daughter, Christine, in the village of Long Barston, Suffolk, England, where Christine has an internship. When a body of another intern, a young museum curator, is found floating in a local pond, Kate calls DI Tom Mallory. Long Barston is on his patch. Is Kate’s daughter next on the killer’s radar? Conflict ensues as Kate’s sleuthing parallels the official investigation. Fortunately, Tom learned in Scotland to value Kate’s abilities and insights, so he’s not about to write her off as a busy-body, poking her nose in where it doesn’t belong. He just wants to keep her alive.

Jessie: It is no surprise that with an antiques dealer as the protagonist a strong historical thread runs through the series. Do you do historical research for these books? Do you have a special interest in the history of the U.K.?

Connie: History is my passion. When I was newly married, I read through biographies of all the English kings and queens in order. But for me, history is more than words on a page. Like Kate, I grew up in the antiques trade, surrounded by the artifacts of the past. We ate off plates that had survived for centuries. Our living room contained a life-size marble bust of Marie Antoinette, another of the Three Graces, and an enormous porcelain Chinese nodder, a Buddha figure with head, hands, and tongue that bobbed when set in motion. Only later did I learn my friends were afraid of him. As a child, I once asked my mother why we didn’t have new furniture like everyone else. Her answer made it into A Dream of Death: “Our furniture has a history. So much more interesting, don’t you think?” 

I do a lot of historical research for my books—sometimes too much, and I have to make myself stop and write. In A Dream of Death I had fun researching Bonnie Prince Charlie’s ill-fated attempt to take the British throne. The unfortunate result was misery, injustice, and the end of the clan system in Scotland, but this real historical event provided the backdrop for an old, unsolved murder with echoes in the present. In A Legacy of Murder, the historical background involves an Anglo-Saxon treasure trove, buried during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1549 and unearthed in 1818. In each book, a particular historical object—an antique—plays a key role. In A Dream of Death, a fabulous marquetry casket(small chest) holds clues to the killer’s identity. In A Legacy of Murder, a blood-red ruby ring leads to the untangling of a centuries-old legacy of death. 

Jessie: Your books are lauded as perfect reading for traditional British mystery fans. Are you a fan of British mysteries yourself and if so, who are some of your favorite writers in the genre?

Connie: I think you can guess that I am! I discovered Agatha Christie in junior high school and never looked back. I’ve already mentioned a few of my favorites—Christie, Sayers, Chesterton, Hare. But I love current British crime writers as well—Peter May, Ann Cleeves, Ian Rankin, Elly Griffiths, Peter Robinson, J. K. Rowling in all her aliases, Ruth Ware, Tana French, Anthony Horowitz, Val McDermid. Some of my favorites are Americans who write books set in the UK, like Charles Todd, Deborah Crombie, G. M. Malliet, Carlene O’Connor, Molly MacRae, Marty Wingate, and (of course) Jessica Ellicott. I love the sleuthing duo of Beryl Helliwell and Edwina Davenport and can’t wait to read the next installment. 

Jessie: You’ve mentioned a bunch of my favorites! What are you working on next? And where can readers connect with you?

Connie: Right now I’m working on the third in the Kate Hamilton series, tentatively entitled A Pattern of Betrayal. Kate is back in the village of Long Barston, not only to visit DI Tom Mallory with whom she is now romantically involved, but also to help her friend Ivor Tweedy, who’s recovering from bilateral hip surgery. With Ivor’s finances on the rocks, Kate has agreed to keep his shop open until he’s able to work again. She’s thrilled when a reclusive widow consigns an ancient imperial Chinese hunpingjar and promises to let Ivor handle her late husband’s entire art collection. But when the hunping goes missing and the body of the recluse is found dead in the shop’s stock room, Kate must find the killer and recover the jar before Ivor’s reputation is ruined and he’s forced to reimburse the woman’s estate for the £40,000 appraisal price. Readers can connect with me on my website, www.connieberry.comor on Facebook at Connie Berry, Author. Those who’d like to keep up with my latest news and appearances can sign up on the website for my monthly newsletter.

Thanks again, Jessica, for the opportunity. Long live The Wickeds!

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Like her protagonist, Connie Berry was raised by avid antiques collectors in a home filled with objects of the past. She loves history, mysteries, cute animals, travel with a hint of adventure, and all things British. Connie and her husband have two grown sons and live in Ohio with their adorable dog, Millie.

Politics & Religion

Bre aking News: Margaret Utsey, you won a copy of Ang Pompano’s book, When It’s Time for Leaving! Congrats – message the Wickeds Facebook page with your address!

by Barbara Ross, staring out my study windows at the beautiful colors of a New England fall

I haven’t touched much on politics or religion in the Maine Clambake series. The books are intended to provide diversion and relaxation in a complicated world that feels like it is spinning ever faster. So like sex and gore, I have left these topics “off the page.”

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about them. Without either, my town would be incomplete and so would my characters.

Politics

Maine is a truly purple state with Republican and Independent senators and two Democratic congresspeople. The political views of my characters reflect that mix.

In my imagination Sonny, my protagonist Julia’s brother-in-law, is conservative in his political views and in life. He believes in the old ways. He lobsters like his father did, and works at his wife parents’ clambake. When Julia arrives in Clammed Up, he fights every change she wants to make at the clambake even at the risk of it going under. But later in the book he reminds Julia that he’s been there, faithful and loyal, year after year. Where has she been?

Restauranteur Gus Farnham is far more conservative that Sonny. I write in one of the books that he doesn’t accept credit cards or cash apps, and would be happier if the U.S. would return to the gold standard.

At the other end of spectrum is Julia’s boyfriend Chris. Raised among grandparents, great-uncles, and great-aunts who worked in the paper mills, saw mills, and canneries, he’s got an old-fashioned trade unionist point of view. Whenever Julia weaves romantic tales about her mother’s wealthy ancestors and the life they led in their mansion on a private island, he’s there to remind her that their wealth came at a great cost to working people–like her own father’s family. Julia’s sister, Livvie, has twice teased Julia about her boyfriend being a “commie.”

I haven’t written about politics in my fictional town of Busman’s Harbor. I would like to center a mystery around a New England town meeting someday. Murderous rages and shouted death threats are, if not common, certainly not unknown.

Religion

Maine is cited in most surveys as the least religious state in the U.S. I’m not really sure why the population of Maine is so irreligious, because the state was colonized (in the second attempt) by the same Scots-Irish people who settled the lower part of the Appalachians. But there is a strong live-and-let-live culture here. An “I don’t want anybody, including a preacher, telling me how to be” outlook.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t churches, synagogues and mosques, because of course there are.

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Busman’s Harbor has two churches bordering the town common. One a typical, white New England Congregational Church. The other is some kind of mainstream Protestant church, Methodist or Baptist or Presbyterian. It hasn’t been in a story yet so I haven’t had to declare a major.

[image error]Our Lady Queen of Peace in Boothbay Harbor

The Catholic Church building, I fully admit, I modeled on the gorgeous one in Boothbay Harbor. My fictional church was originally a smaller church built to fill the religious needs of the Irish servants of wealthy summer people. French-Canadians like Chris’s family arrived in town later. Then came summer people, as the fortunes of Catholic immigrants rose in succeeding generations. The church building was expanded with the increasing demand. The congregation worships in the big church nave in the summer and in the basement in the winter.

Finally, in my imaginary Busman’s Harbor, there’s an Evangelical Christian church out by the highway. It was built much later than the other churches, when people realized parking would be important for a church. None of the churches downtown have enough.

The Snugg sisters, we’ve learned in the books, are stalwarts of the Congregational Church, known by all in town as the Congo Church, its parishioners, the Congoes. The sisters attend in the off-season but are way too business Sunday mornings during tourist season. Besides, their minister goes on vacation for the month of August and they dislike the one who fills in for him.

Julia’s mother, Jacqueline, was raised Episcopalian and she’s never found a church in town that suits her. She bounced back and forth between the Catholic Church, for the ritual, and the mainstream Protestant Church, (whatever it is), never fully joining either congregation, which only reinforced her outsider status. But, when her husband was dying of cancer, people from both churches drove him to chemo and showed up, along with many other townspeople, with covered dishes. So maybe she’s not as much of an outsider as she thinks.

Gus Farnham is at his restaurant at five in the morning, seven days a week. If you were to ask him about his religious beliefs, he would tell you it’s none of your g-d business. So I haven’t asked him.

Religion plays a central role in some mysteries, like Amish mysteries, or mysteries that have clergy as sleuths, or our own Edith Maxwell’s Quaker Midwife mysteries. But some, like mine, leave it “off the page.” (Or at least so far.)

Readers: What do you think? Politics or religion in your mysteries?

Memories of the Wicked’s Book Tour

Regular readers know the Wickeds were on a mini-tour last weekend, sponsored by three fabulous independent bookstores. A million thank yous to Jabberwocky Books in Newburyport, MA, The Country Bookseller in Wolfeboro, NH, Wolfeboro Public Library, White Birch Books in North Conway, NH, and Larissa Ackerman, our publicist at Kensington Books.

Wickeds, tell us your best memory of the tour.

Edith/Maddie: Where do I start? The three fabulous booksellers? Sue Little, Karen Baker, and Laura Cummings were so generous to advertise our visit and host us.

[image error]The Wickeds with Laura Cummings at White Birch Books in North Conway.

The fans at every stop were enthusiastic, friendly, and keenly interested in us as authors. And they bought books!

[image error]Our amazing audience of over one hundred in Wolfeboro.

The scenery was stunning.

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As were Liz’s shoes!

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And, as always, it was a treat to hang out with five of my very most favorite authors and closest friends.

Liz: LOL! My shoes made the photo gallery – how about that? So where do I start…what a treat to be able to spend the weekend with all five of you, along with all those other people – readers, booksellers, librarians – who love books so much. New England in the fall, local bookstores, there was so much to love!

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Seeing our names in lights…sort of…

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Also, meeting Sam the poodle was pretty cool too….

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Jessie: Sam the poodle loved meeting you too, Liz! I think the thing I loved most about the tour was getting to chat with the readers that turned out. Somehow when you meet other people who love books you never really seem to start out as strangers. There is just so much common ground with fellow look lovers that it feels like chatting with an old friend! And this weekend introduced me to a whole bunch of them!

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Sherry: I agree, Jessie! Meeting readers is so much fun. Julie used to go to Lake Winnipesaukee with her grandparents so she shared her memories of that beautiful place with us. The Wickeds have known each other a lot of years, but Edith shocked us on one of our panels. She said that she has to find the perfect sentence before she can start writing her book. Five jaws dropped. We’d never heard her say that before. It might not be the sentence that ends up being the first one, but it’s how she starts. Thanks to everyone who put the events together and to everyone who came. I was thrilled that another Air Force spouse who I knew at Hanscom Air Force Base was able to attend one of the events!

Julie: As Sherry mentioned, my grandparents had a cottage on Lake Winnipesaukee, and my happiest childhood memories are there. Using the as my base of operations and showing Sherry around was wonderful. As was the dinner at Harts Turkey Farm with Barb and Sherry after our last stop. But my favorite part of the weekend was that we did a mini-book tour. Together! Honestly, how flipping cool is that? The bookstore owners were all so generous and supportive. The friends of the library in Wolfeboro were lovely, and fierce. Friends of the blog came out to say hello. I can’t believe how quickly the entire weekend went. So grateful to Larissa for putting this all together.

[image error]The Wickeds with Sue Little of Jabberwocky Books



[image error]The Wickeds with Karen Baker from The Country Bookseller

[image error]Barb: I have to agree, meeting readers is the best part. My husband’s cousin Donna and her daughters came to Jabberwocky, along with Friends of the Wickeds Margaret and Claire. I was especially touched that FOW Lisa came to Wolfeboro and Darcy, who always honchos the Wicked’s donation to the New Hampshire Public Television auction. Seeing old friends and making new ones is the essence of these tours.

 Readers: The Wicked mini-tour turned out better than we ever could have expected. Have you ever participated in something that outshone your wildest expectations?

When The Magic Happens

By Sherry — just back from New England and all its glorious fall beauty

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Last weekend Kensington sent the Wickeds on a three day mini-tour in New England. One of the questions posed was what brings you joy in writing. I said it was when the magic happens. The moment you are facing your computer not knowing what you’re going to write. Then you place your fingers on the keyboard and words come out. [image error]Sometimes it’s fast and sometimes it’s painfully slow. I heard a story one that Handel wrote the Messiah in three days. If it was true I’m sure the music was playing in his head for months before he wrote it down.

Last week I turned in From Beer to Eternity, the first Chloe Jackson Sea Glass mystery, to my editor at Kensington. As I mentioned last week it was the hardest book I’ve ever written. I got so inside my own head with this one. I wanted it to be perfect from the first sentence on. Perfection is no way to write. As I said in my post The Finishing Line, the mean editor in my head kept telling me, “You can’t do this. It’s not as good as Sarah.” Shutting up that editor took a lot of hard work. And the help of independent editor Barb Goffman and my beta readers Mary Titone, Jason Allen-Forrest, and Christy Nichols. Barb especially pushed me to dig deep. And I did. Jason made a suggestion that made the opening much stronger.

This week I started the ninth Sarah Winston book. My editor came up with the title, Absence of Alice. I was glad to be with the Wickeds to talk over who Alice was and why she was important to the story. As Julie and I drove back from New Hampshire to Boston on Monday she helped me plot. Who are the suspects? Why is this happening? Where does the book start? It was great. Thank you, Julie!!!

Tuesday afternoon I sat fingers to keyboard and the opening scene poured out of me. It’s a movie that’s been swirling in my head for a few months ever since I got the germ of an idea of what I wanted this story to be. Even before I knew about Alice. But the opening scene also chilled me and I thought it was maybe too scary.

So I called Barb Goffman. And she came up with a delightful suggestion. When I sat down to write this afternoon the magic was there again. The scene dancing in my head poured out onto the blank computer screen. It’s a fun scene. A happy scene. Then bam — there’s the twist. I love it.

The magic is why I write. I wish it was always as easy as the past two days, but it isn’t. I know there will be slogs ahead. Games of solitaire played instead of writing. Checking Facebook instead of writing. But if I trust, I know the magic is there lurking.

Readers: What motivates you to do something you love? Writers have you experienced that magic?

The Monster Under the Bed

Hey friends – we’re using this month to ramp up to Halloween, and we’re going to be talking a lot about scares…of all kinds! So today I want to know – besides the monsters under the bed (and the real life monsters we hear about every day), what scares your characters the most?

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Julie: What a great question! Honestly, not much scares Lilly at this point in her life, except the thought that something might happen to someone she cares about. For Delia, her journey is full of things she’s afraid of, like speaking in front of people, but Lilly is supporting her through those fears. Note to self, figure out what else scares my characters!

Sherry: I love how fearless Lilly is, Julie. Since I just turned in From Beer to Eternity (the first Chloe Jackson Sea Glass mystery) I’ll tell you something Chloe Jackson is afraid of — water, but she deals with that fear in an unusual way. Sarah, on the other hand,  is afraid of a lot of things — mannequins, stalkers, sometimes Mike “the Big Cheese” Titone. But Sarah’s strength comes from overcoming the things she fears.

Barb: Julia Snowden of the Maine Clambake Mysteries handles murder investigations with aplomb. Her romantic life is a different story. In the last few books she’s learned some things about her boyfriend Chris that scare her, for him and for their future. There’s nothing to be gained by worrying, but Julia can’t help it.

Jessie: Barb, I think that is one of the things that makes Julia feel so real and relatable despite the body count! As to my characters, Edwina is worried about her economic situation and also about her reputation in the village of Walmsley Parva. She spends considerable time considering what new traumas her jobbing gardener Simpkins is thrusting upon her gardens. Beryl, on the other hand, is afraid of very little. In fact, as a celebrated adventuress, she has built her name on fearlessness. So, it is with some shock and a soupçon of delight, that Edwina realises that Beryl is afraid of children. She is less delighted to learn her friend, like so many others who served at the front during the Great War, is terrified of being trapped underground.

Edith/Maddie: I’m glad you built in a fear for Beryl, Jessie. Because who among us is totally fearless? In my books, Robbie Jordan is claustrophobic. Her fear of closed-in spaces is seriously put to the test in one of the books. Mac Almeida is a neat freak bordering on obsessively neat, and she’s afraid of disrupting her tidy life with commitment (and babies…). Rose Carroll is afraid of losing her independence, and while her betrothed, David, assures her it’s fine with him for her to continue her midwifery practice after they marry, she’s not sure it will go smoothly – especially if his mother has anything to say about it!

Liz: Love these answers, girls! For Maddie James in the Cat Cafe Mysteries, relationships are her biggest fear – and she manifests this by usually picking people who are commitment phobes as well. Here’s hoping things will turn out different for her this time…

Readers, what about you? What’s your biggest fear? Tell us below!

Welcome Ang Pompano!

Liz here, and I’m SO excited about our guest today! Ang Pompano, a long-time friend of the Wickeds, is celebrating his debut release, When It’s Time For Leaving, and he’s here to tell us about his journey, and to give away a book to one lucky commenter. Congrats, Ang – and take it away!

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Thanks for having me here, Liz. I can’t think of a nicer way to spend my birthday than with The Wickeds talking about writing. I remember my first time at Malice Domestic this year and how you, Sherry, Jessie, Julie, Barbara and, Edith took me under your collective wing to teach me the ropes. At the time it was just sinking in that WHEN IT’S TIME FOR LEAVING was actually going to become a book. We all went to lunch and the Wickeds spent the whole time giving me advice and sharing their experiences. 

That got me thinking how, in spite of what Jessamyn West claimed, writing is not a solitary occupation. WHEN IT’S TIME FOR LEAVING would not be a published novel if it were not for a host of family, friends and colleagues who have encouraged me over the years. That starts with Annette, my wife, who works on her paintings in our sunroom which is right off my office. We’re practically within whispering distance and every once in a while, I’ll ask her to listen to something I wrote. Her opinion is usually spot on. In turn, I give her my opinion on perspective. I know nothing about painting, but she humors me and listens. It’s a nice setup once we agree on which Pandora station to listen to. 

And talk about spot on advice, I’ve been in the same writing group for twenty years. There are only three of us, Chris Falcone who has published many short stories and has a novel on the horizon, and Roberta Isleib, who writes the bestselling Key West Culinary Mysteries (A DEADLY FEAST) as Lucy Burdette. They both are my writing family and have guided me on everything from brainstorming the germ of an idea into a finished manuscript to finding an agent.

[image error]Roberta (Lucy), Chris, Ang, and Annette at Crime Bake

My agent, Paula Munier, of the Talcott Notch Literary Services has helped me with everything from editing to finding the right setting. I respect her opinion because she’s also a teacher and bestselling author of A BORROWING OF BONES.

And of course, there is the mystery writing community. It’s the most generous group of people in the world. Mystery Writers of America gave me the Helen McCloy Scholarship for a novel in progress one year. I’ve been a long-time board member of Sisters in Crime New England and have taken advantage of their many workshop offerings. I’ve also been on the New England Crime Bake planning committee for 14 years and have found their master classes, critiques, and networking invaluable.

Then there are the mystery readers. Without the support of readers, I would probably still write, but it would be a lot less fun.  

What about you, writers and readers? Do you find what you do a solitary process or do you have a support group you can rely on? Leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of the book (U.S. only please!).

And here’s a little more about the book:

When his girlfriend dumps him and a drug dealer rams him on a bridge, Al DeSantis quits the New Haven Police Department. As he makes plans to head for LA, he learns his father, Big Al, is alive, has dementia, and is entering a nursing home. More surprising, he has deeded the Blue Palmetto Detective Agency in Savannah to him.
Al wants nothing to do with the man who abandoned him at eight years old, or his agency. But when his California condo goes bankrupt and he loses everything, he drives down to Georgia, intending to sell fast and head west. But then he discovers a dead body on the agency dock.
He delays leaving until he can solve the murder, but things get complicated. He finds that a strong, attractive female detective, Max, is his superior in the agency that he owns. Also, his father, now determined to help his “new partner” solve the crime, keeps escaping the home. The facility now wants Big Al out, and Al must become his father’s advocate. With his traditional values challenged, Al has a lot of adjusting to do.
When his father goes missing, Al and Max, team up to find him and capture the murderer. With Max by his side, he battles everything from PTSD to explosions to alligators. Old secrets stretch from the Savannah low country to the Okefenokee Swamp–all shedding light on the murder and Al’s relationship with his father.

What Makes a Place Real to You?

I am in Ireland, and if all the planning and fantasizing hold, that should be true for a while.

I’ve been traveling to foreign countries since I was in college and after, with and without friends or relatives. I’ve always enjoyed traveling, and seeing new places. I’ve even enjoyed trying to make myself understood in a foreign language, or trying to figure out what other people were saying.

But it never occurred to me that I was learning about how to write.

When we live in one country—be it country, state or town—there are characteristics they share. Yes, some have mountains and bears, others have skyscrapers and subway systems, but there are fundamentals that are consistent. Like how to find a television channel. How to make a phone call. How to plug in an appliance and make it work. How to drive a car (on the right side!).

I found that in the past when I’d traveled I hadn’t really paid attention to the details, but now that I’m making Ireland my home—and writing about it—I have to. Little things like changing a lightbulb (I still haven’t figured that out). Why is there a row of dashed yellow lines on the left side of the road? (Assuming, of course, that I’d already figured out that I was supposed to be driving on the left.) Oh, I’m supposed to turn on an electrical outlet before I plug something into it? And most of my electronics won’t work unless I use an adapter plug, which I may not have remembered to bring. And there are lots more examples, like when you go to a pharmacy to get a simple antacid and want Tums, and what you find on the shelf are Rennies. Rennies?

And it’s not just things. Sometimes it’s how people talk to each other. How to start a conversation with a stranger (most people are usually more than willing). Or how to figure out which of six or eight kinds of flour or sugar in the supermarket will let you cook something simple? Assuming you can figure out how to turn on the stove or the oven at all? Oh, and the man at the front door is the electric meter reader, who expects to come into your house and do his job. Haven’t seen one of those in a very long time.

I do have a point buried in here somewhere. When we as writers write, we are often creating an imaginary world, or at least tinkering with a world we’re familiar with. We are creating a setting for an equally imaginary population of characters. And to make either of those happen, we have to pay attention to what we see and hear in the real world.

We have to create a world that is both familiar to readers and interesting enough to keep them reading. To do that you have to choose which details to include or omit, both large and small. Of course you could make the whole thing up, but I’ve read books where I would say the author had never even seen the place he or she was writing about—and it shows.

It’s a delicate balance, but readers will probably notice if the author is writing a book with a foreign setting with a guidebook in one hand, and the experience of reading will suffer. Not that you should overwhelm your readers with lots of details, just to show you’ve done your homework. You have to include just enough to make the place real.

Writers, how to you handle unfamiliar settings, or do you avoid them as much as possible? Readers, do you believe the authors’ descriptions? How much detail is too much?

(I’d send you scenic pictures, but it’s been raining too much for good shots. I don’t even know which cattle grazing in the field across the road are male and which are female. But I will do better!)