Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 148

In the Parlor, With a Nutcracker — Guest Leslie Budewitz

It’s always great to welcome back author Leslie Budewitz. Her terrific new Spice Shop [image error]mystery series book, Chai Another Day released on June 11. Look for a giveaway at the end of the post!

A few weeks ago, the wonderfully Wicked Sherry Harris posted a terrific piece called “Can We Just Stop?,” responding to the recurrent criticism of cozies as unworthy because of the low volume of blood and other bodily fluids spilled on the page, and the presence of more cats than guns on the covers.

One of the comments pointed out—and I’m paraphrasing, because there were a lot of comments and I can’t find the one I’ve got in mind—that it’s refreshing to read a mystery in which the sleuth solves the crime by thinking and talking rather than shooting or blowing things up.

And somehow—because the writer’s mind is a strange place where unrelated things get connected—that got me thinking about the creative methods cozy protagonists use to stave off trouble. Besides their mouths, that is.

Now, this is hardly limited to cozy mystery or female sleuths. Many of us of a certain age fondly remember the 1980s TV show, MacGyver,  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088559/   in which Richard Dean Anderson played a clandestine government agent who won’t carry a gun, instead exploiting a talent for using what’s at hand to squeak out of tight spots and derail the bad guys. Paperclips, duct tape, egg whites.

Sounds right up the cozy alley, doesn’t it?

(Confession time: One of the writers on MacGyver, Dennis Foley, has lived in my part of western Montana for decades now and regularly teaches at Authors of the Flathead meetings. So I happily consider him one of my teachers, even though I didn’t learn any paperclip tricks from him.)

What better embodies resourcefulness and creative thinking than the cozy protagonist who uses what’s closest to hand when crisis strikes. (Of course, cozy killers can get pretty inventive, too, but that’s a blog for another time.)

I’m not naming names of other authors’ books to avoid spoilers. If I say too much about a book of mine that you haven’t read yet—well, just practice a little intentional forgetfulness and enjoy the book anyway! And ff by chance you just have to know which cozy protagonist stops a killer by throwing a wedding dress over his head, drop me a line off the blog and I’ll spill. (Then her neighbor and occasional nemesis realizes she needs help and whacks the guy with a topiary. You gotta love it.)

Actually, the wedding dress example is perfect. When I was writing Death al Dente, my first mystery and first in the Food Lovers’ Village series, I turned to the books on my shelves for inspiration. Erin Murphy, my protagonist, and her sister, both retailers in the village of Jewel Bay, have finally managed to create big change by setting up a recycling center in an alley downtown. So when a bad guy comes after Erin, I remembered the wedding dress scene, and she slows him down by dumping a box full of paper to be recycled over his head.

Seriously, this is practical stuff. If someone comes after you at the recycling center, now you know what to do. Women have been told for years to use our keys or high heels to fight back. I’m not so sure about the keys—you’d have to be awfully close to hurt someone, plus you could do more damage to your hand than to your attacker. And while I’d stomp on an attacker’s foot like heck, I’m not sure my little Keds would do much good. (Even on my size 10 feet.)

In Butter Off Dead, Erin saves herself and a teenage friend when she slams a priceless movie poster over the killer’s head. Fortunately, it came from his collection, not hers. And in As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles, a snowman provides her with just the weapons she needs.

I’ll never forget the book in which the protagonist escapes her kidnapper by peeing on him. It’s HARD to pee on command, or anywhere besides the toilet. (Or a bush in the woods, for us outdoorsy types.) Brilliant, right?

A reader reminded me of a book in which the protagonist, a veteran of nearly two dozen criminal outings, defeats a sword-wielding killer with the Oxford English Dictionary. Poetic justice.

My cousin, the ever-inventive Laura Childs, glues a killer to the patio in one of her books. Coffee grounds become weapons for one of Cleo Coyle’s characters, and I’m just waiting for Barbara Ross’s Julia Snowden to put an oyster knife to its proper use.

In my Spice Shop mysteries, Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market, fends off assailants with spices, freshly-polished water goblets, and a bowl full of pasta salad. I won’t tell you what comes to hand in her latest outing, Chai Another Day, except to say you’d find it in a vintage shop, and it’s enjoyed a recent resurgence in popularity. Although I’m not sure the modern version would do the trick quite as well as the 1960s models many of you will recall.

Now I realize certain readers will dismiss such tools of the cozy trade as proof that these books aren’t “serious” literature. But I am fairly sure most cops would rather hear of a successful takedown by cheesecake than the too-familiar story of a wayward gunshot harming an innocent bystander.

I’m not going to say there’s no room for guns, knives, and poison on the lighter side of mystery. There is, in the hands of killers, cops, and trained amateurs. But most of us—and our characters—don’t carry such things. And ultimately I agree with the Wicked reader: There is nothing more inspiring, and entertaining, than a sleuth who uses her head and her heart, and duct tape, hot coffee, wedding gowns, and bear spray to stop a threat in its tracks.

Besides, as one of my first writing teachers—it may well have been Dennis Foley, late of MacGyver, said—a mystery ought to be fun.

And in cozy world, by golly, we take our fun seriously.

Readers: Got an idea for a cutting-edge cudgel you’d like to see one of our sleuths use? If you had to stop a threat with something within arm’s reach right this very minute, what would it be? (Besides picking up your phone and calling 911! And do please watch for spoilers if you’re mentioning inventive weaponry already used in print.) Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Chai Another Day (US and Canada only)!

About Leslie:

[image error]Leslie Budewitz blends her passion for food, great mysteries, and the Northwest in two cozy mystery series. CHAI ANOTHER DAY, her fourth Spice Shop Mystery, set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, will be published on June 11. DEATH AL DENTE, first in the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in Jewel Bay, Montana, won the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First Novel. She also won the 2011 Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction. “All God’s Sparrows,” her first historical fiction, won the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story. A past president of Sisters in Crime and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America, she lives and cooks in NW Montana. Find her online at www.LeslieBudewitz.com and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LeslieBudewitzAuthor

About CHAI ANOTHER DAY, coming June 11 (Seventh St. Books):

Seattle Spice Shop owner Pepper Reece probes murder while juggling a troubled employee, her mother’s house hunt, and a fisherman who’s set his hook for her.

As owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece is always on the go. Between conjuring up new spice blends and serving iced spice tea to customers looking to beat the summer heat, she finally takes a break for a massage. But the Zen moment is shattered when she overhears an argument in her friend Aimee’s vintage home decor shop that ends in murder.

Wracked by guilt over her failure to intervene, Pepper investigates, only to discover a web of deadly connections that could ensnare a friend – and Pepper herself.

More about CHAI ANOTHER DAY, including an excerpt here: http://www.lesliebudewitz.com/spice-shop-mystery-series/

#INSPO

by Julie, still basking in the glow of being with the Wickeds for a few days

Last week I suggested to my artist niece that we go to the Museum of Fine Arts. “That would be great,” she said. “I need some inspo.”

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I’d never heard the term, but I’ve obviously not been paying attention. If you look at #Inspo on Instagram there are 17.3 million posts using that hashtag. While a lot of the photos seem to be of too-thin women, there are others that I could consider inspirational. The beach. A beautifully set table. Artwork.

When I speak with artists wearing my teacher hat, I talk about the importance of artist dates with yourself to inspire the muse. I strongly suggest they go outside their discipline. Actors, for example, may find a museum or a cooking class to be helpful. As a writer, I find that a concert, a dance performance, or a museum refresh my artistic soul.

As a writer, inspiration is the spark that makes it all happen. I can have characters and setting, but I need something that inspires me to put it all together in a plot that works. That spark, my #inspo, is tough to come by. It is also one of the reasons hanging out with other writers is invaluable. When one of the Wickeds is brainstorming with me, they understand what I need. I don’t need them to write my book for me. I need them to give me an idea that sparks the book for me.

This is a subtle but important distinction. Barb Ross doesn’t talk to me about lobsters when she’s helping me with a Garden Squad idea. She talks to me about planting flowers on neglected graves. And voila.

Another source of inspiration for me is getting outside and taking a walk. The beach has a particular affect on my muse. Watching the waves come in, smelling the salt air, feeling the heat of the sun, seeing the blue of the sky melt into the ocean along the horizon. It all feeds my soul. #Inspo.

Spending three days with the Wickeds is different every year. But the one thing that is constant is the #Inspo I get from those five women.

Folks, where do you go for inspiration? If you were going to post a picture with the hashtag #Inspo, what would it be of?

Wicked Wednesday: Wickeds on Retreat

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[image error]Readers, have you noticed it’s a little quieter out there? The Wickeds are on our annual retreat, the time when we do a lot of Very Serious Wicked Business–and laugh and eat a lot.

Wickeds, what is something you want to make sure we do, or discuss or decide while we’re on retreat?

Julie: I love our Wicked retreat. We do have business to discuss, but I’m looking forward to brainstorming writing goals, and maybe doing vision boards. Jessie is also going to teach me how to read my tarot cards, so I’m looking forward to that!

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Sherry: Julie, I agree that I love our brainstorming sessions. I’m working on From Beer to Eternity and can’t wait for you to all chime in on my concerns! And I love our late night gabfests.

Jessie: I’m looking forward to tinkering about with the woo-woo with you, Julie! I am also looking forward to setting aside time for a back-burner project and to talking about the state of the world as we know it with all of you! There is so much value in in spending time on the physical plane with those you value!

[image error]Jessie always makes us fondue on the first night of our retreat.spending time on the physical plane with those you value!

Edith: These ladies put this early bird to the test with those late-night gab fests, but I do my best to keep my eyes open, because I don’t want to miss a minute of of our rare face-to-face time. I’ll be tweaking my current manuscript, but also taking plotting walks on the beach, and of course, solving all the problems of the publishing world with my wise-women blogmates!

[image error]Every retreat requires bags of chips.

Liz: I love all of these things, but I’m looking forward to getting to the finish line – or at least really close – with Witch Hunt, my book due July 1. And of course spending time in person with all of you lovelies!

Barb: I love this annual event, which is part business meeting and part slumber party. Like Edith, I look forward to solving all the problems of the writing and publishing worlds. Now if only people would listen to us. Oh, to be Queens for the Day.

Readers: Your turn! What would you like to see us do or do more of on the blog, Facebook, Group, newsletter, and so on? Things you could live without? All suggestions cheerfully reviewed!

The Best Laid Plans

Edith here, delighted to welcome Judy Penz Sheluk. She edited a new crime fiction anthology – and I have a story in it! Read all about it.

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The Story Behind The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery & Suspense (edited by Judy Penz Sheluk)

November 22, 2014. That’s the day The Whole She-Bang 2: 24 Stories by Sisters in Crime Canada launched at The Sleuth of Baker Street, an independent bookstore in Toronto, Canada. My short story, “Plan D”, had been included in the collection, judged in a blind submission process. While I’d been a freelance journalist and editor since 2003, this was my first publication credit in the mystery genre, and to say I was over-the-moon excited would be understating my mood.

A lot has happened between then and now. In addition to a
few more short stories, I’m the author of two mystery series and four—soon to be
five—novels. I’ve been traditionally published and, in February 2018, set up my
own publishing imprint, Superior Shores
Press.

From the moment I set up Superior Shores Press, I knew I
wanted to publish a multi-author anthology of short crime fiction, to recreate
in some small way the buzz of excitement I’d felt with She-Bang 2. I’d had some experience with the vetting process,
having been the intake coordinator for Passport
to Murder, the anthology for Bouchercon Toronto 2017, and my background as
a magazine editor would also come in handy when it came to editing and
compiling the collection. And so, in October 2018, after calculating the
financial risks and taking several deep breaths, I sent out the Call for
Submissions and spent a sleepless night worrying: What if no one responded the call?

I need not have worried. In all, seventy-two submissions
were received. Countries represented included the U.S., Canada, England,
Norway, Italy, Australia, and Argentina.

Reading seventy-two stories with a view to accepting twenty (I planned to include “Plan D”) was far more difficult than I’d anticipated, but after two weeks and multiple reads I came up with a long list of about thirty-five. Culling those down to the final twenty took another two weeks, and many more reads.

The stories within The Best Laid Plans are faithful to the underlying theme of the best-laid plans, albeit in very different ways as interpreted by twenty-one very different authors. My own “Plan D”, for example, tells the story of an unhappy wife who dreams up ways to kill her under-employed husband, while in “The Stonecutter”, Wickeds author Edith Maxwell shares a tale of a widowed, middle-aged librarian who falls desperately in love with a married man whose wife struggles with schizophrenia. In both cases, the protagonists’ best-laid plans come back to haunt them…and not in a way that anyone could have predicted.

Readers: Now time for you to ’fess up: Do you have a best-laid plan that went awry?

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Synopsis: Whether it’s at a subway station in Norway, a ski
resort in Vermont, a McMansion in the suburbs, or a trendy art gallery in
Toronto, the twenty-one authors represented in this superb collection of
mystery and suspense interpret the overarching theme of “the best laid plans”
in their own inimitable style. And like many best laid plans, they come with no
guarantees.

Stories by Tom Barlow, Susan Daly, Lisa de Nikolits, P.A. De
Voe, Peter DiChellis, Lesley A. Diehl, Mary Dutta, C.C. Guthrie, William
Kamowski, V.S. Kemanis, Lisa Lieberman, Edward Lodi, Rosemary McCracken, LD
Masterson, Edith Maxwell, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Peggy Rothschild,
Johanna Beate Stumpf, Vicki Weisfeld, and Chris Wheatley.

The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, releasing June 18, is available on Kindle and in trade paperback at all the usual suspects, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Chapters.Indigo.

Angela!

by Barb, recently back from an amazing vacation

Hi Folks. Our vacation was wonderful. The cruise around the Greek Islands, then on to Malta, Sicily, Sorrento, Ponza, and Rome was fabulous. The sun was shining and the temperatures were in the low 70s every day, perfect for touring ruins and small Mediterranean harbor towns.

Once we reached Rome we took a side trip to Calabria to visit the village my husband, Bill Carito’s, paternal grandparents emigrated from in 1921. Montauro is in the “instep” part of the Italian boot. Like other towns in the area, it is high on a mountain, with another portion of the town, Montauro Scale, on the beach. Today the area caters to tourists, particularly those from the north of Italy, during the summer months.

[image error]The view from Montauro, behind the church

Bill had been in touch with a second cousin via Facebook for some time, but in the months before we left, he’d dropped off of social media. Attempts to reach him had been unsuccessful. When we arrived in Calabria, we really didn’t know what to expect.

Bill rented us a lovely apartment on the beach. The first morning we were there we got in our rental car and drove up the twisty mountain roads, full of switchbacks, steep inclines, and beautiful views of the sea. When we reached Montauro there was roadwork, so we parked outside the town center and walked in. We found the church and explored the almost deserted streets of the little town.

[image error]The Church of San Pantaleon

Everywhere we went, in our terrible, broken Italian, we told the story of how Bill’s grandparents had left the village in 1921, and how we were looking for a second cousin named Giovanni Carito. None of the few people we met knew anything. An attractive woman hanging laundry from her balcony spoke to us, apologizing for her English (so much better than our Italian!), and even called out an older neighbor, but she didn’t know anything either.

[image error]A balcony like Angela’s

The town was so tiny there was no place to eat or even get coffee, so we went back down to the beach area to get lunch. We’d been told the church would be open at 5:00 p.m. so we planned to return then. We thought there might be a priest there then who could help us.

So down the twisty, turny mountain roads we went, and then back up again. We arrived back a little after 4:00 and discovered the church was already open, a youth choir practice going on. We sat and listened to the lovely voices and Bill took photos of the church, San Pantaleon, which has a sort of legendary quality in his extended family.

Choir practice ended and the choir director emerged from behind a pillar where she’d been playing a keyboard. It was Angela! She said, “I am going to help you.” She got out her cell phone and started calling and texting. (Everyone in the village seemed to use What’s App.) The town is so small that five minutes after she contacted them, people would walk into the church to try to figure out who Bill was and who he was related to. Everyone tried to be helpful. Every person we talked to had a cousin in Boston or Philadelphia or New York. But we were getting nowhere. People knew Caritos, but there were too many of them. (This never happens in the United States where Carito is a quite uncommon name.) Which Carito were we seeking?

Then an older gentleman appeared, cashmere sweater draped across his shoulders. He asked, “Is this Giovanni Carito Carabinieri?” (A member of the Italian national police force.) Bill remembered Giovanni’s Facebook profile. “He is!”

[image error]Montauro street

Then everyone had something to say. “He lives in the next village.” “His brother died young.” “His sister lives in Cantanzaro.” And so on. Angela messaged Giovanni’s wife and got no response. She and Bill exchanged numbers in case she heard anything back. We told her we were headed to the cemetery to see what we could learn there.

As we left the cemetery, a woman ran by us. It was Angela! “I have news,” she said. Giovanni’s wife had called her. She spoke a little English. She would be calling us.

The phone rang before we even left the cemetery. Mission accomplished. Giovanni and his wife would meet us near the beach. We drove off, down the scary mountain roads.

“Angela is amazing,” my husband said.

“Angela is a plot device,” I answered. Angela is the person who saves your bacon when you are writing a story and you need one person to find another. But Angela is real.

The story of what happened when we met Giovanni and Barbara was, in some ways, even more satisfying and wonderful than our adventures in the little Italian mountain village where Bill’s family’s journey to America began. I’ll finish the story on Maine Crime Writers on Friday.

Readers: Have you ever taken a journey to discover something about your family history?

[All photos in this post are by Bill Carito. If you like them and want to see more, you can friend him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bcarito and follow him on Instagram at billcarito and bill.carito.colorphotos.]

Welcome Author Sarah Osborne and a Giveaway!

[image error]All the Wickeds met Sarah Osborne at the Kensington Cozy Mini-Con in Cambridge, Massachusetts (our fair city) in April. Into the Frying Pan, the second book in her Ditie Brown Mystery series, just came out on May 28th, and we can’t wait to read it.

Take it away, Sarah!

It’s a Mystery to Me

I’ve read mysteries all my life, beginning with Nancy Drew, moving on to Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, and finally to Elizabeth George, Louise Penny and the explosion of current writers, including all the Wickeds.

Most of the ones I love fall neatly within the category of cozy mysteries. They have one or more amateur sleuths who are quirky and smart. They have a handful of likely suspects, little blood and gore on the page, and a murder to solve. They keep me engaged but never make me too anxious.

These are the books I try to write.

It’s only when I try to fit my own cozies into a specific sub genre that I run into trouble. My Ditie Brown Mysteries (think Ditie from Aphrodite) don’t seem to land squarely in any subcategory.

As a person who has always had one foot out of the mainstream, I probably shouldn’t be surprised that my books find themselves in a similarly awkward position.

I love food, so I talk a lot about it—preparing it, eating it, and sharing it in the form of good recipes—but these aren’t culinary cozies. Ditie Brown is a pediatrician, not a local chef or baker. She doesn’t leave a large city to come to a small hometown. In fact, she does just the opposite.

History pops up often, especially Southern history, and especially in my second book, Into the Frying Pan. Ditie’s ex-boyfriend, Phil Brockton, the fourth, turns up in Atlanta for his beloved Civil War reenactments, and, as you might expect, murder on the battlefield isn’t far behind. However, my mysteries aren’t historical cozies because everything happens in the here and now.

Ditie and I both love pets, so they are always present. On occasion, they may help save a life, but these are not full-blown animal cozies. My pets don’t talk or solve crimes or become the star of the show.

So, what should I call my cozies? A pot-pourri, a melange, some kind of fusion?

[image error]Many cozies today focus more on character than plot, and I don’t fit into that mould either. I love them both. I want my characters to seem realistic and to behave in ways that make sense. I want them to be people you’d like to know as friends (the good ones, anyway), but I also want a twisty plot that keeps you guessing—hopefully to the end. As Sue Grafton said, “My job as the writer is to fool you. Your job as the reader is to see if you can catch me at it.”

Each book is meant to be a fast, fun read for a warm summer day or a cold winter’s night, and I always make sure everything comes out right in the end. The good guys triumph, and the bad guys pay for their crimes. Justice prevails.

At the same time, I don’t shy away from Ditie’s opinions and feelings, of which she has many. She loves herself as she is—short, a little overweight, with curly hair that never behaves—and she loves other people, however they come. She works in a refugee clinic and relishes the diversity. There are events that make her profoundly sad as well as happy.

Maybe it doesn’t matter where my mysteries fit. Perhaps I’m a lot more like most authors than I realize—I write what I love.

Readers: What kind of mysteries do you love? What kind of books draw you in, keep you engaged, and leave you eager to read more? One lucky commenter will receive a copy of Into the Frying Pan.

[image error]Sarah Osborne is the pen name of a native Californian who lived in Atlanta for many years and now practices psychiatry on Cape Cod. She writes cozy mysteries for the same reason she reads them–to find comfort in a sometimes difficult world. Too Many Crooks Spoil the Plot is the first novel in her Ditie Brown Mystery series. The second book in the series is Into the Frying Pan. Sarah loves to hear from readers and can be reached at doctorosborne.com or visit her on her Facebook Fan Page at Sarah Osborne, Mystery Author

I’m So Excited! Audiobooks!

By Sherry who should be packing for the annual Wicked retreat.

I’m so happy that the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mysteries are now available in audiobooks! The first five are already out and are narrated by Hillary Huber.  Look for a giveaway at the end of the blog!

The Gun Also Rises will release on July 2, 2019!

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And Let’s Fake a Deal will release on July 30, 2019.

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Kensington sent me copies of the first two in the series and I want to share with them you! Leave a comment for a chance to win the first to in CD format.

[image error]And if you don’t like audiobooks five ebooks in the series will be on sale in July.

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Readers: I love a bargain! What’s your favorite all time bargain? I’ll leave the contest open until Sunday evening. Good luck.

 

Wicked Wednesday: Just Add Summer

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Spring has been slow to make its appearance here in New England, but hope “springs” eternal. Which raises the question, Wickeds, what are you dying to do this summer–no matter what? Despite deadlines, day jobs, family obligations, volunteer work, and so on, what are you absolutely determined to do? Answer each of these questions briefly with your best intentions.

What place will you definitely visit this summer?What event will you definitely attend this summer?What activity will you definitely participate in this summer?What book will you definitely read this summer?

Edith:

I will definitely visit Jeness Beach in Rye, NH, this summer with my chair, towel, hat, and a good book.I’m looking forward to attending the Women’s Writing Retreat at Pyramid Lake in the Adirondacks, a lovely never-motorized lake. It’s all genres, with workshops, lots of free quiet time for writing, and great female company. I last went 17 years ago and can’t wait to return.As always, I will stake, prune, and harvest tomatoes, plus eggplant, cukes, lettuce, and other veggies. Almost nothing makes me happier than going out back and picking our dinner.I know I will read the new books from Barb, Liz (as Cate), Sherry, and Julie (as Julia)!

Sherry:

I can’t wait to fly to Old Orchard Beach, Maine for our annual retreat!I’m going to Writers Police Academy the first week in August. It’s my second time and it’s fabulous.Swimming. I love to swim.Other than the Wicked releases that are coming this summer I’m looking forward to reading Borrowed Time by Tracy Clark. I loved her first book Broken Places.

Jessie:

I will definitely visit Old Orchard Beach, probably several times each day.I will attend the fireworks on the Fourth of July.I will invite friends and family for lazy visits lolling on the sand and relaxing on the patio with the grill sizzling away in the background.I will read Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice and Death in the Stocks by Georgette Heyer. I have been meaning to read work by each of them and was delighted to spot them recently at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ. If, sadly, you can’t make it to the shop they have a very comprehensive online store!

Liz:

I will definitely visit Newport, Rhode Island and Second Beach in neighboring Middletown.I will attend the Arts Festival in my neighborhood, which comes around twice every summer.I’m going to do a lot of sitting on the beach this summer…I’m looking forward to catching up on reading after I turn in the book due July 1, and a couple of new ones including Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls.

Barb

I will definitely visit Boothbay Harbor the week of 4th of July. The family is renting a place next to our old house.I will attend my niece’s wedding in Roanoke, VA the first weekend in August.I am going to sit out on my deck and have wine and cheese this summer.Kate Atkinson’s new Jackson Brodie, Big Sky , comes out June 25th and I will definitely be purchasing it just in time for our week in Boothbay.

Julie

I will go to an amusement park. Probably Canobie Lake. I need to ride a rollercoaster.I will attend some sort of outdoor art event. Happily in Boston there’s a lot of that to choose from.I will write a book that has been rattling around in my imagination for a while. I’m at the point where I’m having dreams about the characters, so I don’t have much choice.Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls is on my list. And the Wickeds are going to keep me busy!

Readers: How about you? What will you definitely go/see/do/read this summer?

Welcome Author Jenna St. James–and a Giveaway!

Hi. Barb here. Julie, Sherry and I met author Jenna St. James at the Barbara Vey Reader Appreciation Weekend back in April. Jenna is a terrific, high-energy, fun person and we invited her to come tell us about her mysteries.

[image error]The latest is Murder on the Vine: A Sullivan Sisters Mystery. Bookstore and bar owner, Jaycee Sullivan, figured it was just another day when her pastry chef sister, Jax, asked her to help deliver chocolates to a local winery. However, the discovery of a dead body was anything but typical for Jaycee. When it looks like the girls will be questioned further about the murder, Jaycee decides to do some snooping around of her own. When the hunky new detective in town, Mike Connors, demands Jaycee keep her nose out of the investigation, she decides to take matters into her own hands. With the help of Gramps, a retired Army colonel, her mom, and Tillie, a former trapeze artist and contortionist, Jaycee picks up the investigation gauntlet and runs. Between numerous wine tastings and hilarious stakeouts, Jaycee must ditch a certain detective and bring down the killer before Jax is next in line.

Take it away, Jenna!

Honoring Family

I decided to write the Sullivan Sisters Mystery series as a way to honor my grandfather, a WWII veteran who passed away almost nine years ago. Like the Gramps in this series, my own grandfather could sometimes be a little curmudgeonly (ha!), but he was also a kind man who loved his family…and John Wayne! Not long before he died, I stayed with him and my grandmother for a couple weeks. He and I would pretty much sit all day and watch John Wayne movies one after the other. I’d like to think if my grandpa were still alive, he’d love the characters and setting I developed in his honor.

My immediate family—dad, mom, sister—all still live in Sonoma County, CA. I’m the only one that left and is now living in the Midwest. Not only did I write this series for my grandpa, but writing this series also allows me to feel closer to my family. My real-life sister is a lot like the sister, Jax, in that she loves to boozy bake. I also have other real-life friends, Heidi and Bridget, who make an appearance in every book.

The Takeaway

I always tell people there are three “ingredients” I put into every book I write—whether it’s the Sullivan Sisters series, the Ryli Sinclair series, or the new series I’m writing with my stepdaughter, Maddy—and that is: The older generation will teach the younger generation, family/friends are important, and you’ll always find some sort of a positive military presence.

Building the Future

[image error]My sixteen-year-old stepdaughter, Maddy, has been one of my BETA readers for a while now. Recently she asked if we could write something together. I’d had a series idea I was playing around with and intended to start writing in 2020. When Maddy said she wanted the protagonist to be in high school, I thought I was going to have to come up with a whole new series concept. But after tossing around ideas, I realized if I just took the series I was going to write and bring the main characters (protagonist has two sidekicks) back to when they were in high school instead of in their early twenties, I could (hopefully) pull it off. So that’s what we did! Maddy is a fabulous artist on top of being a tremendously talented writer…so she went to work sketching the town as I worked on trying to take the girls back to their senior year of high school. We worked together on the plot, and then since this was Maddy’s first cozy novel, I did most of the bulk writing of each chapter. Using Google Docs, she’s then put in her part or made any changes she wanted for each chapter. We did this chapter by chapter until we had Seaside and Homicide completed. We are very proud of this co-authored series and plan to have Book 2 out by Christmas.

A question for readers and a giveaway: I have boozy dessert recipes in the Sullivan Sisters Mystery series. What recipe(s) from other culinary cozy books have you tried? I’ll send a signed copy of Murder on the Vine to one commenter!

Bio

[image error]Jenna writes in the genre of cozy/paranormal. Her humorous characters and stories revolve around over-the-top family members, creative murders, and there’s always a positive element of the military in her stories. Jenna currently lives in Missouri with her fiancé, stepdaughter, and myriad animals. She is a former court reporter turned educator turned full-time writer. She has a Master’s degree in Education, and an Education Specialist degree in Curriculum/Instruction. She also spent twelve years in full-time ministry.

Links

Website: http://jennastjames.com

Facebook: https://facebook.com/authorjennastjames

Instagram: https://instagram.com/authorjennastjames

Familiars

By Sheila Connolly. Are you familiar with the term “familiar”? (Sorry—I couldn’t resist the pun.)

Wikipedia says that it’s a medieval folk belief that they were supernatural entities that assisted witches in practicing magic. They could appear in different forms, often as animals. If they were evil they were labeled demons; if good, fairies. If you remember the James Stewart-Kim Novak movie Bell, Book and Candle (1958, and based on a Broadway play), you might recall that the Kim Novak character, who was a witch, had a familiar, a Siamese cat named Pyewacket. (As it happens, Pyewacket was one of the familiar spirits of a witch detected by the witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins in March 1644 in the town of Manningtree, Essex, England.)

But I digress. In the course of clearing out generations of accumulated stuff from my house in preparation for selling it, I have come to realize that my daughter (an only child) and I managed to collect a frightening number of stuffed animals, and I have a feeling they serve that familiar purpose.

[image error]And this is just a few!I didn’t have many stuffed animals as a child. My grandmother kept a stuffed doggie (with an internal music box that played “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?”) at her New York apartment, to keep me company when I stayed overnight with her. The first time I stayed at a friend’s house for the night, when I was seven, I “borrowed” a stuffed koala bear, which I still have (I apologize, Nina!). And those are the only ones I really remember—if there were more, they are long gone.

I started going through the attic of my house, and I kept finding stuffed animals. In trunks. In boxes. In bags. In dresser drawers. It became a running joke—every time I opened something else, there would be more stuffed animals. I won’t pretend that they were all my daughter’s—plenty of others were collected by adult me. The most recent are an octopus I bought at the gift shop of the National Gallery in Washington DC, and a spotted pig. I’m afraid to count them. (My daughter’s first was a panda, a gift from her aunt, which was larger than she was for a long time. Yes, Panda emerged from a plastic bag just this week and is now keeping me company on the couch.

Since there is much to clear out of the house, I let my daughter take our three live cats back to her home in Chicago. Since we’ve had cats for decades, I miss them, but I couldn’t see trying to move all the things from the house while keeping track of three indoor cats.

And then I found myself talking to the stuffed animals. I’m surrounded by them, on chairs, on tables, on the floor—just about any surface. They’re peaceful, there are no litter boxes to clean out, they don’t make any messes or shed fur, and they seem quite sympathetic. (In case you’re wondering, they don’t answer back.)

Why do I and plenty of other humans keep stuffed animals? I like to think they’re passive familiars. With my cats gone I realized how soothing to me it is to stroke a sleepy cat (and at times I had all three sleeping on me at the same time). It’s not quite as satisfying to stroke an inanimate creature, but it helps. Will I keep them all out in the open, once I know where I’ll be settling? Probably not all of them, but definitely some.

But which ones? I have stuffed cows, sheep, bunnies, a ferret, a raccoon, and a Welsh dragon with baby dragon, and that’s just the start. Oh, and a vulture I bought in Salem, MA, who sits on my newel post and acts as a gargoyle to defend the house. I talk to him a lot.

What about you? Do you have familiar creatures? Old or new? Do you talk to them? If you have live pets, how do they react to them?