Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 141

The Wickeds on Tour!

Kensington Books, our mutual publisher, is sending all six Wickeds on a mini-tour of independent bookstores October 4-6, in New England. For times and places, see below.

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Here are the bookstores and their websites for your convenience.

Friday, October 4, at 7:00 pm

Jabberwocky Bookshop
At the Tannery Marketplace
50 Water Street
Newburyport, MA 01950
978-465-9359

Saturday, October 5, 4:00 to 6:00 pm

Wolfeboro Town Hall Great Room

A fundraiser for the Wolfeboro Public Library
Sponsored by The Country Bookseller
84 S. Main Street
Wolfeboro, NH 03894
603-569-6030

Sunday, October 6, at 2:00 pm

White Birch Books
2568 White Mountain Hwy
North Conway, NH 03860
603-356-3200

It will be a beautiful time of year in New England. The Wickeds would love to see you to talk books, mysteries, small towns, and of course, murder! Hope you can join us!

Readers: Have you ever been to an author event? Did you enjoy it? What did you like best about it? What should authors avoid doing on these tours? Let us know!

Christmas Cocoa Murder!

Edith/Maddie here, on retreat on Cape Cod!

My first novella comes out next week in a collection with two other fabulous Kensington cozy mystery authors, Carlene O’Connor and Alex Erickson – and you still have time to predorder it!

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Check out these three novella descriptions:

CHRISTMAS COCOA MURDER by CARLENE O’CONNOR
Siobhán O’Sullivan’s hopes for a quiet Irish Christmas are dashed when the local Santa turns up dead in a carnival dunk tank of hot cocoa. Now instead of hunting down holiday gifts, she’s pursuing a heartless killer. Seems the dead Santa was no angel either, stealing neighborhood dogs to guide his sleigh. But was it his holiday antics—or worse—that led to his death by chocolate?  

CHRISTMAS COCOA AND A CORPSE by MADDIE DAY
When local businessman Jed Greenberg is found dead with a Chocolate lab whimpering over his body, the police start sniffing around Robbie Jordan’s country restaurant for answers. Was it something in Robbie’s hot cocoa that killed Jed, or was it Cocoa the dog? As the suspects pile as high as her holiday tree, Robbie attempts to get to the bottom of the sickly-sweet murder . . .

DEATH BY HOT COCOA by Alex Erickson
A Christmas-themed escape game seems like the perfect pre-holiday treat for bookstore café owner Krissy Hancock and her best friend. But when the host is found dead in a pool of hot cocoa, it’s up to Krissy and her team to catch the killer—or escape before getting killed.

We each posed a question for the others so that you, dear readers, could learn a little more about our stories.

Carlene asked, “Christmas is supposed to be about joy. Was it challenging to work a murder into the mix, and how did you go about balancing the two?”

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Alex:  Since I enjoy inflicting pain onto my characters, no, it wasn’t a challenge at all!

Actually,
while it’s not a challenge to mix the two—murder and joyous festivities—there
are differences in how I approached this story versus a normal mystery. I feel
that in a Christmas themed story, you need to end on a high note and bring in
more of what makes life for your characters great. You want to celebrate the
holidays with these characters, and since their lives usually involve murder
anyway, it just becomes another part of their word. It would feel hollow without
it!

Maddie: It was a challenge, but it added tension to the story, and that’s always good. Of course Robbie Jordan wants to get the murder solved and squared away before Christmas, so that makes for heightened suspense, too, especially since her boyfriend Abe’s father is one of the suspects. The balance in my novella came with the lovely trappings of Christmas, the music, the colors, and Robbie trying to acquire meaningful gifts for her loved ones – while still managing both a busy restaurant and amateur sleuthing. It’s not easy, but she pulls it off. And we write cozies – our readers know all will be well in the end.

Carlene: First I’d like to thank Maddie Day for inviting us to participate in this discussion with the Wickeds! Cheers! But let’s face it. Burdened with all that holiday stress, who hasn’t wanted to murder someone at Christmas time? Jokes aside, the challenge for me starts with the fact that (luckily) murders are pretty rare in Ireland. Especially in small villages. So I’m an old hat at suspending disbelief when necessary. I leave the balancing to my characters. When times are stressful, it’s especially important to connect to the joyful moments. That’s when they matter the most. Tragedy forces my characters to yearn to connect to the spirit of Christmas. Wala, balance– no Yoga and meditation necessary! (Guinness is optional). And the last tidbit I’d like to offer is that stories thrive on contradictions. What’s more compelling than the idyllic little village with a dark secret? Yes, even at Christmas. And if none of that convinced you, when it comes to the victim, I went to the mat with this one. (I won’t spoil it, Ho ho ho…wait.. YOU KILLED OFF WHO?)

Alex inquired, “Many people have traditions for the holidays. Do you have any special Christmas traditions, and do you try to work them into your characters’ lives as well?”

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Carlene: I love setting up and decorating a tree, and I like Lionel trains, as did my grandfather. And it just so happens the O’Sullivans set up a train in Naomi’s Bistro every year. And of course they get a real tree and decorate it, as do I. (Although the better the artificial ones get, the more tempted I am). The O’Sullivans cook a lot more than I do though. A lot more. Like they cook. And I really don’t. (But there are six of them after all– that’s my excuse)…And my Irish friends say “Happy Christmas” more than they say “Merry Christmas” and I’ve continued that. And Christmas pantos! Who knew?

Maddie: Carlene, what’s a panto? I have lots of traditions: baking my grandmothers’ cookies, setting up the nutcracker collection, putting the electric candles in all the windows facing the street, adding irreverent figures to the creche scene (Bert, Garfield, a plastic chicken, and Gumby’s horse Pokey were joined this year by my action figures of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Barack Obama), and more. I used the cookies in this story – you can find one of the recipes at the end – and Robbie Jordan decorate the real tree in her country store with her eclectic collection of ornaments acquired throughout the years, just as I do. I saved the irreverence for Country Store Mystery #8: Candy Slain Murder (out in 2020).

Alex: Other than the yearly keep-the-cats-from-destroying-everything tradition, we don’t have a lot of traditions we follow at home. We go through the wake up, give gifts, eat breakfast, and then travel to the parents/grandparents for a few hours each, and then pass out at home routine. We barely decorate. We have a tree, but thanks to the cats, we are very careful about decorations. This year will be the first Christmas for our two newest kitties, and considering how they are still full of kitten energy, I fully expect to find the tree to be horizontal more this year than vertical.

This does
mean I tend to struggle a little more with coming up with traditions for my
characters. Mostly, it ends up being something simple, like travel to visit
family, or dealing with cats who enjoy ripping down trees and opening presents
the moment they are wrapped. Anything more, and I feel out of my depth.

Maddie wondered, “These novellas are basically a super short book, about a third the length of one of our usual mysteries. What challenges did you find writing yours? Was it easier or harder than a full-length novel? Discuss!”

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Alex:  I found it easier in some regards, harder in others. In the novella, I could focus almost solely on the mystery and the characters directly involved in the investigation. In the novels, there’s a whole town of people who come into contact with our heroine daily, and they need their time in each book to shine. As I was writing, I kept wondering if I should find a way to add these characters, throw in little tidbits, but quickly realized that if I did that, my 25,000 word novella would quickly turn into a 50,000 word mini-novel. There could be no downtime, no random events cropping up to distract us from the mystery. It was freeing in many ways. I could zero in on every detail pertaining to that moment, but I did sometimes miss having a beloved character pop in and mess everything up with a disaster of their own that just has to be dealt with right now!

Carlene: It was a bit challenging to develop a complete mystery in a shorter period of time. But it was also a lot of fun. I used less suspects than I do in the regular Irish Village Mysteries and there were less subplots. But even then I have Easter Eggs (sorry, mixing holidays here!) Ahem. The Easter Egg is at the very end and pertains to the ongoing personal relationship between our sleuth and a certain-someone. It was fun when that popped up, so even novellas can surprise us on multiple levels! What was more challenging was going back to a full length mystery after the novella. I remember thinking– geez, I wrapped the last one up much quicker!

Maddie: What they said! My (our) editor asked for 25,000 words.  “Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse” ended up about at 27,000 words, which was fine with him. I’d never written that length before, and I wasn’t sure I could pull it off. But Wicked Authors blogmate Barb Ross has written three for similar collections, so I consulted with her a little, and I pulled it off. Since my first drafts are always way too short, it was kind of nice to be able to go even shorter. I was already a teensy bit busy writing three books a year, but hey, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. And I’m glad I didn’t.

Readers: Share your favorite winter holiday tradition (Christmas or otherwise) to enter a giveaway for a copy of the book! And check out our Twelve Days of Christmas giveaways going on now! It’s not too late to join in.

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Carlene O’Connor is a USA Today Bestselling author of The Irish Village Mysteries. To date she has written Murder in an Irish Village, Murder at an Irish Wedding, Murder in an Irish Churchyard, Murder at an Irish Pub, Christmas Cocoa Murder, and Murder in an Irish Cottage (February 2019). In the Home to Ireland series she has written Murder in Galway, and April of 2020 will see the release of Murder in Connemara. Carlene is busy writing the next books in each series. Readers can visit her at CarleneOConnor.net , Carlene O’Connor on Facebook, and please follow her on Book Bub. Carlene also writes under Mary Carter.

Alex Erickson is the author of the Bookstore Café and the Furever Pets mysteries. When he’s not writing, he enjoys spending his time gaming or playing music. He lives in Ohio with his wife, son, and their three crazy cats. Website: https://alexericksonbooks.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexericksonbooks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/author138

Maddie Day writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. As Edith Maxwell she writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and award-winning short crime fiction. Day/Maxwell, with nineteen novels in print and four more completed, has been nominated for an Agatha Award six times. She lives north of Boston with her beau and an elderly cat, and gardens and cooks when she isn’t killing people on the page or wasting time on Facebook. Please also find her at edithmaxwell.com, on Instagram, on Twitter, and at the Wicked Authors blog.

New Beginnings — Beginning a New Novel

[image error]What’s the first thing you do when you sit down to start a new novel? Which book came easiest, which was the hardest? What advice do you have for someone who wants to write a book but hasn’t?

Barb:

What’s the first thing you do when you sit down to start a new novel? Check Twitter.
Which book came easiest? Iced Under.
Which was the hardest? The one I am writing right now. Every %^&* time.
What advice do you have for someone who wants to write a book but hasn’t? Lie down and hope the urge passes.

Jessie:

What’s the first thing you do when you sit down to start a new novel? Take out a fresh notebook and a favorite pen and start writing down questions about the book and answering them in a variety of different ways.
Which book came easiest? Murder in an English Village.
Which book was the hardest? Whispers of Warning. For every 20,000 words I added to that book I ended up cutting 25,000. It was absolutely maddening!
What advice do you have for someone who wants to write a book but hasn’t? Ask yourself why you haven’t done it yet. It is always easy to tell yourself there is not enough time, there are more important things that need attending to, that you don’t know what you are doing. If the answer to your question is about fear I would suggest you start to write the book immediately. If you want to do a thing, but you are afraid to do the thing, it is probably something quite important to you, something you would be sorry to fail at and thus something you will sincerely regret not having tried when you come to the end of your own story.

Edith: Barb, you made me spit my coffee! Hilarious. Jessie, why do you think that happened with Whispers of Warning (asking as someone who writes so sparse she never needs to cut great swaths of words)?

What’s the first thing you do when you sit down to start a new novel? Conjure a great first line.
Which book came easiest? Flipped for Murder. The story and voice for the first Country Store Mystery seemed to flow without effort.
Which was the hardest? Charity’s Burden might have been the hardest, possibly because of the difficult theme.
What advice do you have for someone who wants to write a book but hasn’t? If you want to write one, you will. Also, find your tribe – to learn from, commiserate with, and make connections with.

Liz: Barb, I’m cracking up too – and agreeing hard with you as I start a new book and wondering WHY I would possibly want to put myself through this again! Edith, I love that you used the word “conjure” about first lines because so often all of this seems like we’re using (or hoping for) magic to get it done, right?

What’s the first thing you do when you sit down to start a new novel? Think about how much time I have to procrastinate before I have to get serious about it.
Which book came easiest? Murder Most Finicky. It was just so much fun to write about reality show chefs and have Stan visiting Newport.
Which was the hardest? The book I just finished, Witch Hunt, out next year, was really hard because I was creating a “real” world and a mystical world. And being the first book in a series, you want to get it all right!
What advice do you have for someone who wants to write a book but hasn’t? Take care of your creative self and do what you have to do to get to the page every day.

Sherry: Twitter? I play a game (okay, multiple games) of solitaire. It’s so interesting to here which books were easiest and which were hardest.

What’s the first thing you do when you sit down to start a new novel? After solitaire I stare at the blank screen, put my fingers on the keyboard and stuff comes. I’m never sure where it comes from but it is usually there.
Which book came easiest? Who came up with these questions? This is hard. Maybe The Gun Also Rises because I had so much fun using the real mystery of what happened to Hemingway manuscripts.
Which was the hardest? I’m with Liz. The book I’m writing right now, From Beer to Eternity,  the first in my new Chloe Jackson Sea Glass mysteries. I have had a hard time shutting up the editor in my head who keeps telling me I can’t do it. 
What advice do you have for someone who wants to write a book but hasn’t? As author John Dufresne said, “Sit you behind in the chair.” Okay, he didn’t say “behind” but mom will probably read this.

Writers: What is your best advice to a budding writer? Readers: Have you ever been able to tell when a writer has struggled?

The Detective’s Daughter – For the Love of Libraries

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Kim in Baltimore enjoying some quiet time.

I love my local library. We even have a cafe in the back. What’s not to love when you can read books and drink coffee surrounded by people who all enjoy the same things you do? There is not a time in my life that I can recall not being infatuated with the hushed cool rooms and the enormous shelves filled with books.

[image error]When I was a small girl, I spent some of the best moments of my childhood with my mom in the tiny library a few blocks from my house. I would sit at a table engrossed in the picture books Mom had helped me choose while she wandered the aisles selecting mystery novels to take home. My sister was not as interested in books, but did enjoy climbing and ended up with her head busted open on the library’s radiator. I have to admit it was more exciting than the book I was reading at the time. A real-life adventure.

By the time I was turning eleven, the Enoch Pratt had abandoned the old building for a brand-new modern branch a half block away. It was next to the High’s. Now library time always concluded with a scoop of ice-cream in a sugar cone for the walk home. [image error]

When my children were younger we spent hours in the library for story time, special events, and sometimes just to take a break in the air conditioning on a sweltering afternoon. Even now that they are grown they still want to accompany me when I take a trip to the library.

Over the past few years a great number of little library boxes have popped up in my neighborhood. My friend Kathleen, who is a librarian, built one in front of her house. The little libraries are such a wonderful gift to bring the community together. Seeing the [image error]colorful boxes has inspired me to build one of my own.

Libraries are filled with limitless possibilities, dreams and wonder. Support your local branch often.

Dear Reader, Do you make regular visits to the library? In what section of the library are you most likely to be found? Was going to the library a part of your childhood?

 

Summer Memories and a Giveaway

Jessie: Wishing there was not a nip in the air, especially in the evenings!

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Even though though calendar says there is still just over a week until the autumnal equinox, around here it feels like summer is already becoming just a memory. So, I thought I would share a few photos of some of my favorite memories from the season with you before the busyness of autumn comes to call.

[image error]Seeing my book at my literary agency

[image error]Night at the
Pier in Old Orchard Beach, ME

[image error]The Rose of Sharon bursting into bloom in my backyard.

Readers, do you have a favorite summer memory? Leave a comment for a chance to win one of two paperback copies of Murder Flies the Coop!

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Guest Ellen Byron

Edith here, excited to welcome my good friend – and Agatha Award winner – Ellen Byron back. She has a brand new Cajun Country Mystery out!

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Country star Tammy Barker, a Pelican native who won an American Idol-styled TV singing contest, returns home to headline the town’s first music festival. But Maggie Crozat discovers that Tammy is a full-fledged diva, a tiny terror in six-inch platform-heeled boots and a thick head of hair extensions. Worse, she carries a grudge against Maggie’s best friend, Gaynell Bourgeois. When a member of Tammy’s entourage is murdered, Tammy sees to it that Gaynell is the prime suspect, and Maggie must cozy up to Tammy’s sketchy bandmates to prevent her friend from being charged with murder.

NEW ORLEANS: PEOPLE LIVE THERE – and a giveaway

Between my Cajun Country Mystery series, being a Tulane University alumna, and our daughter’s status as a sophomore at Loyola University-New Orleans, I get to spend a lot of time in the Big Easy. On my most recent visit, I took a long walk through the Lower Garden District, snapping photo after photo of beautiful homes like this one…

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Then I came upon this sight…

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And it reminded me that
while NOLA often feels like Disneyland for grown-ups, people live there.
They drink beer on their stoops.

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They navigate broken sidewalks and streets begging for repaving.

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They do their laundry in a laundromat that’s been there forever.

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And when it proves cost-prohibitive to repair a centuries-old gate, they leave the stanchions to decorate a property’s entrance like obelisks serving as a nod to the past.

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My walk turned into a reminder of what makes New Orleans mean so much to me. It goes beyond the gorgeous architecture, wonderful music, and irresistible food – although trust me, there’s always plenty of that on a visit. It’s is the lives being lived while tourists wander by. The beer on the stoop and the laundromat belching out heat from its dryers.

What propels my passion for the Crescent City is really very simple — it’s the people who live there.

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Mardi Gras Murder, Ellen Byron’s fourth Cajun Country Mystery, won the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel. The series has also won multiple Best Humorous Mystery Lefty awards from Left Coast Crime. Writing as Maria DiRico, she’ll debut a second series, The Catering Hall Mysteries, in 2020. TV credits include Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly OddParents.  Her award-winning plays, published by Dramatists Play Service, have been performed throughout the world. Fun fact: she worked as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart. Sign up for my newsletter at http://www.ellenbyron.com/. Find me at Facebook, Instagram, twitter, Bookbub, and Goodreads.

Readers, what’s special about where you live? Comment for a chance to win a copy of FATAL CAJUN FESTIVAL.

Here’s A Story. . .

by Julie, swinging into fall in Somerville

On Monday night my sister texted me. “Remember to watch the Brady Bunch show on HGTV!”

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Apparently we weren’t the only people of a certain age texting each other reminders. The debut of the Very Brady Renovation series broke rating records for HGTV.

Some of you may be asking what I’m talking about it. Others may be asking why I’m talking about it on the Wickeds blog.

First things first. The Brady Bunch debuted on September 26, 1969. Fifty years, can you believe that? But I digress. The Brady house was a real house in California, at least from the outside. From the inside, it was all a set. Still, when the house went on the market in 2018, there was a bidding war. HGTV won.

Now, I’ll admit that I am an HGTV fan. But I had no idea what they were going to do with the house. And I certainly had no idea that they had such fabulous plans. The Property Brothers are hosting a renovation series to make the actual house, inside and out, match the set. And, drum roll, all six of the actors who played the Brady kids are going to be participating.

I watched the debut and I loved it. I can, and do, sing the entire theme song. I’ll admit it, I got teary when they did flashbacks to the series. I was little (2nd grade) when the Brady Bunch debuted, but it was a HUGE part of my childhood in the initial run and in reruns. I bought my sister the DVDs, so the show is part of my nieces’ lives as well.

Now, what does that have to do with the Wickeds? Well, the books I write are cozies. And The Brady Bunch is pretty cozy, though there aren’t any crimes to be solved. Though how great would that have been? If Mike was a gumshoe rather than an architect? Carol as a supersleuth? Alice helping to clean up the crime scenes?

I dream of creating characters that folks get misty when they revisit them. Though books and TV shows are different, I know that I’m thrilled when I find a new-to-me Poirot or a new-to-me series with a deep backlist.

I also create a world that exists only in imaginations. Goosebush, MA and the folks in the town are a heightened reality that I wish I could create. How fabulous is it that they are making the Brady house real? The details they are bringing in are amazing.

Friends, am I the only person who watched the series debut? Any other Brady Bunch fans out there?

Here’s a behind the scenes from Episode 1:

New Beginnings — Celebrating the Release of Judge Thee Not

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Congratulations to Edith on the release of Judge Thee Not, the fifth book in the Quaker Midwife mystery series. Here’s a bit about the book: No stranger to judgmental attitudes in her small town of Amesbury, Quaker midwife Rose Carroll is nonetheless stunned when society matron Mayme Settle publicly snubs her good friend Bertie for her nontraditional lifestyle. When Mrs. Settle is later found murdered—and a supposed witness insists Bertie was spotted near the scene of the crime—the police have no choice but to set their sights on the slighted woman as their main suspect.

[image error]Rose is certain her friend is innocent of the heinous deed, and when Rose isn’t busy tending to her duties as midwife, she enlists the help of a blind pregnant client—who’s endured her own share of prejudice—to help her sift through the clues. As the two uncover a slew of suspects tied to financial intrigues, illicit love, and an age-old grudge over perceived wrongs, Rose knows she’ll have to bring all her formidable intelligence to bear on solving the crime. Because circumstantial evidence can loom large in small minds, and she fears her friend will soon become the victim of a grave injustice . . .

In Judge Thee Not Edith introduces a new character, Jeannette Papka, a blind pregnant client. It’s always fun to introduce a new character, give a new beginning, and see how they impact the story. So Wickeds, how do new characters come to you?

Edith: Thank you, Sherry! I modeled Jeanette on my friend Jeanne, but it’s rare for me to base a character on a real person. And of course right away the character diverged from the real person. In my WIP, which happens to be the next Quaker Midwife Mystery, I’m struggling with a new character who seems flat (actually, too villainous…). I need to get to know him better so my readers can, too.

Jessie: Like Edith I don’t tend to base characters on anyone specifically. A rare exception was a pair of sisters in my Change of Fortune series who were inspired by one of my great-grandmothers and her younger sister. I am not really sure where the characters come from. Sometimes they spring out of the time and place in which I set the story. Most often, especially major characters like Beryl and Edwina simply arrive and wish to chat. It doesn’t feel like I made those characters up but rather like they were waiting for someone to be paying attention on the right wavelength to hear their voices and to want to get to know them.

Julie: Jessie, I love the idea of paying attention to the right wavelength. Yes, I agree! I’ve been thinking a lot about the magical powers of writing lately. I will have an idea–of a cranky Yankee on a committee–and then I’ll let the magic happen. After a bit the character comes to life. I’ve never been one to sit down and write every detail about that person in order to get them on the page. As I get to know them, the details get filled in. Details like what kind of donuts they like may not matter in the book, but it does matter when I’m thinking about them. I love meeting new characters, even when they take over the book unexpectedly.

Sherry: Congratulations on the new book, Edith! I don’t write out long character descriptions either, Julie. And I’ll never forget the first time I heard Jessie talking about Beryl and Edwina because it was as if she was on the right wave-length with them. It is the magic of writing. Since I’m working on the first book in the new series I’m writing lots of new characters — some loosely base on people I know. Like Edith, I’m having trouble with a character who is too flat but in my case it’s the antagonist. I guess that’s why they say all writing is rewriting!

Barb: In the Maine Clambake Mysteries the Snugg sisters and Gus are based on real people, but I rarely do that. Sometimes characters to me come full blown with exactly the right name, looks, mannerisms, way of speaking. Other times creating a character is a tedious process of writing and writing until I understand who the character is.

Reader: Do you think you can tell when you read if a character is based on someone real? If they arrived to the author like a lightning bolt or required a ton of work to develop? What do you think?

Judge Thee Not Releases!

Edith here, so happy that Quaker Midwife Mystery #5 is now in the hands of readers!

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Here’s the blurb: No stranger to judgmental attitudes in her small town, 1880s Quaker midwife Rose Carroll is nonetheless stunned when society matron Mayme Settle publicly snubs Rose’s good friend Bertie for her nontraditional ways. When Mrs. Settle is later found murdered—and a supposed witness insists Bertie was spotted near the scene of the crime—the police blame her. Rose is certain her friend is innocent, and she enlists the help of a blind pregnant client—who’s endured her own share of prejudice—to help her sift through the clues. As the two uncover a slew of suspects tied to financial intrigues, illicit love, and an age-old grudge over perceived wrongs, circumstantial evidence looms large in small minds, and Rose fears her friend will soon become the victim of a grave injustice—or worse. 

This is the first Rose Carroll book to come out since Midnight Ink – the previous publisher – folded, stranding me and so many other fabulous authors, including Wicked Julie. I’m really pleased with how Beyond the Page Publishing welcomed my series, gave it a good edit, and followed the look and feel of previous covers.

Those who follow this series know full well that postmistress Bertie is a lesbian, and she’s directly attacked for it in this book. Amesbury was filled with immigrants in the late 1800s, so we also see even recent immigrants like Irish police detective Kevin Donovan looking down his nose at the newer arrivals from places like Poland. Finally, you’ll read about attitudes of the era toward those with deafness or blindness. Pop over to the fabulous Jungle Red Writers blog today, in fact, and hear about my research on the blind and my role model for pregnant interpreter Jeanette Papka.

I’m glad I could address the issue of prejudice against the disabled, against immigrants, and against those whose sexual orientation is not that of the mainstream culture. Alas, these are still issues today.

Thank you for helping me celebrate the release of my nineteenth novel!

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I’m just wrapping up the first draft of Quaker Midwife #6, and I am under contract for at least one more after that. I’ll happily send a signed copy of Judge Thee Not to one commenter here today (US only).

Readers: Share what you know about attitudes toward “the other” in the late nineteenth century. Or just say hi!

Sealed Off ARCs and a #giveaway

by Barb, in denial about the fall feeling in the air in Portland, ME

Advance Reader Copies have arrived for Sealed Off, the eighth Maine Clambake Mystery.

I know there are a few of you out there who do not want to wait until December 31, for Julia’s next mystery, even if it means putting up with a few extra typos and glitches. If you are such a person, leave a comment on this blog and three of you will receive an ARC.

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Here’s the blurb.

Early October is “winding down” time in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, but there’s nothing relaxing about it for Julia Snowden. Between busloads of weekend leaf peepers at the Snowden Family Clambake and a gut renovation of the old mansion on Morrow Island, she’s keeping it all together with a potentially volatile skeleton crew—until one of them turns up dead under the firewood.

When the Russian demo team clearing out the mansion discovers a room that’s been sealed off for decades, Julia’s baffled as to its purpose and what secrets it might have held. Tensions are already simmering with the crew, but when one of the workers is found murdered, things come to a boil. With the discovery of another body—and a mysterious diary with Cyrillic text in the hidden room—the pressure’s on Julia to dig up a real killer fast. But she’ll have to sort through a pile of suspects, including ex-spouses, a spurned lover, and a recently released prisoner, to fish out one clammed-up killer.

I really enjoyed writing this tale of a sealed up room at the ruined mansion Windsholme. And there’s a murder Julia must investigate, of course!

What do you think? Does it sound intriguing? Leave a comment or just say “hi” to be entered in the giveaway.