Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 149

Guest Nicole Asselin

Edith here, happy the Red Sox are doing pretty well … at least for now. And we’re so pleased to present debut New England author Nicole Asselin to the blog. Her first mystery releases soon, and it features a baseball team!

Madeline Boucher has been a baseball fan for her entire thirty two years.  Her grandfather instilled a love of the Boston Red Sox from an early age and increased that baseball love by purchasing a local Independent League baseball team, the Abington Armadillos.  After losing her corporate job in Boston, Madeline realizes her only option is to join the family business. Given the tile of “Social Media Director” for the team, when Madeline attends her first function as a member of the family business, she witnesses an argument between her brother and a strange man.  

A few days later, she comes upon the body of the man – beaten to death with a baseball bat in the visitor’s dugout – her brother was arguing with. When her brother is arrested and taken to the police station, Madeline realizes she needs to figure out who the real culprit is so her brother doesn’t take the fall for something she knows he didn’t do.

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First, I want to thank the Wickeds for letting me guest on
their blog.  I’ve been an avid follower
since even before I wrote a book, so this is great.

My debut mystery, Murder at First Pitch, is scheduled to be released in the next few months by Pandamoon Publishing.  I had hoped to have a cover to show off by now, but as most writers know, publishing is a marathon, not a sprint!

So, as I await my debut cover, I wanted to talk about how I
came to the Ballpark Mysteries.

I know for New Englanders, baseball is still the national pastime, and some of us live and die by the Boston Red Sox.  I always wanted to write about something I loved.  Before my travel anxiety had taken over, I had attended Malice Domestic in Maryland for the first time in 2017.  By chance, my father (who came along as a giant mystery fan) and I sat down before any of the events started with another writer who had Boston, MA listed on their badge.  That writer was Shelley Dickson Carr.  She could not have been nicer! At that point, I hadn’t even started to think about writing a book.  I was just a fan of the genre and so excited to meet authors.

She then asked me the important question, “What do you want
to write?”

Almost immediately, I knew I wanted it to be centered around sports.  I’m a HUGE fan of all the New England teams, but the Red Sox are always number one.  After thinking about it some more, I realized the Red Sox probably wouldn’t love it if I murdered someone in famous Fenway Park. After speaking with her for a little while longer, I had the idea to create a brand-new team.

And that is how the Abington Armadillos was born.  I created a fictional Independent Baseball
League, read the book “The Only Rule Is It Has
to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team,” and
hunkered down at my computer. 

Thus, Murder at First Pitch was born!  Madeline (the MC and NOT named after my youngest cat) is an avid baseball fan, just like me.  This book is also a love letter to my grandparents, who always had the Red Sox game on the radio when we would visit in the summer. I hope you all get a chance to enjoy this while listening to Joe Castiglione on the radio!

Readers:  Have you had someone who influenced your writing – or reading?

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Nicole Asselin works outside of Boston as a technical writer and lives on the South Shore of Massachusetts with her three cats Julia, Jacques, and Madeline (no relation to the main character of her book). Nicole is a member of Sisters in Crime (National and New England) and the Mystery Writers of America.  She sits on the Board of Directors for the NE branches of both groups as Social Media Liaison. Her short story, “Mile High Murder” can be found as part of Z Publishing’s “America’s Emerging Suspense Writers: East Region” published in early 2019.

Growing Books

Edith here, writing north of Boston – with a giveway, so keep reading!

New Englanders who garden finally have their vegetable gardens planted, and I am one of them. My lettuce went in a while ago, because it’s cold hardy, and of course I planted the garlic last fall. This week I put in all my tender veggies now that both the soil and air are warm enough. I’m talking about the plants that don’t tolerate cold weather: tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, basil, cukes, and more.

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I will nurture these babies along, water them when it doesn’t rain, prune the tomatoes to two main stalks, mulch the soil to keep down weeds and conserve moisture when it’s hot and dry, and generally take care of them so in a couple months I can head around to the back and harvest our dinner (or part of it).

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My annual planting ritual (and I’ve had either a garden or a farm since I was in college) led me to thinking about how it’s similar to – and different from – writing mystery novels or short stories.

Planting. For me, starting a story isn’t as straightforward as pressing a seed into prepared soil or tucking a seedling into same. Certainly, I have to prepare my mind and my environment. I’ll have sent in the last manuscript due, taken a couple of days off, even straightened my desk. Sometimes I know exactly where to start the new book and what’s going to happen, and the planting is easy. Other books take more pondering, more waiting for the story to reveal itself enough for me to begin writing.

[image error]My 23rd novel awaiting its beginning

Nurturing. Ah, the nurturing. Every writer is different. In my case, the best way for my story to unfold is for me to show up for work every day by seven in the morning and set my fingers on the keys.

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Writing the story feeds it. Immersing myself in the first draft keeps the ideas flowing even when I’m not at my desk. Also, as many of you know, I love to take myself off for a writing retreat, either solo or with others, several times a year. On retreat I write all day and all evening. I’m so immersed you can almost see the smoke coming off my fingertips.

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Watering and pruning. This would be my revision process. Because I write such spare first drafts (that is, way too short) so fast (in under two months), I need to go through and check all those bits of research or words I didn’t take time for the first time around. Make the language more elegant, more expressive. Include the senses and my protagonist’s feelings and reactions. Assure that the puzzle works and backfill both clues and red herrings. But I need to prune, too. I work through my list of overused words and clip them out. I make sure every scene moves the story forward and has the biggies: conflict, action, surprise, turn. If not, bye-bye scene. And so on.

Harvesting. In the garden, I can pluck off a few outer leaves of lettuce for a salad while leaving the head to keep getting bigger. I can gather today’s ripe tomatoes and know I’ll have a bunch more to pick in two days. The book harvest can also have many stages and forms. I first harvest a manuscript when I send it to an independent editor. Again when I submit it to my editor at the publisher. Again after copyedits and again after proofs, my very last chances for final pruning and watering. The final harvest is when its out in the world for you all to read and enjoy. That’s the best part!

[image error]My 2019 shelfie (including ARCs)



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I seem to have one last ARC of Strangled Eggs and Ham, my next book to be ready for final harvest (June 25 release, and your preorder is much appreciated). I’d love to send it to one of you (US only).

So, readers: What’s your favorite harvested vegetable, fruit, or metaphorical thing?

Wicked Wednesday: Favorite Writing Successes

Edith here, having trouble believing it’s almost June.

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Okay, Wickeds, let’s bounce back to five Wednesdays ago. What’s your favorite success in the writing world? What’s one thing you succeeded in doing that made you feel all rosy inside? It’s time to toot your own horn!

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Barb: The “success” that caused me to scream and cry was the mention of the Maine Clambake Mysteries in the New York Times Book Review in December. It wasn’t something I caused to happen, except by writing the books. The Book Review was a staple in my parents’ house, and in my own. For decades, until we gave up the print edition, I read it every Sunday. For my parents, it was their main source of information about what was going on in the literary world. They would have been so tickled to see it.

Edith: I could say it is figuring out how to write a first draft in under two months – which I just accomplished again last week, with novel #22. I wouldn’t be able to write three series if I couldn’t do that. But truly, it’s getting an email from a reader who says she took my book to the hospital to read while waiting for her husband to come through surgery and while sitting by his bedside for days on that. That makes it all worthwhile.

Liz: One of the moments that stands out to me was when the Wickeds were featured in the Boston Globe. As one of the newspapers I grew up on, one that had such a great reputation, to be featured so prominently in the arts section a few years ago was surreal to me – and I am still so grateful for it to this day. I thought of it recently when the daughter of a dear friend who passed away last year sent me a photo of the article. She’d found it when she was cleaning out her mother’s office. That made it all the more special, to know she had kept it.

Jessie: There have been a lot of milestones over the years that have made me feel successful but the one that stands out the very most was typing the words “The End” when I completed the first draft of my first novel. As soon as I wrote those words I burst into tears. I was committed to not being the sort of person who had always wanted to write a book but had never made the effort to do it. I was so proud of myself for not being someone who would allow a life-long dream to go unfulfilled I started to sob. If it hadn’t been for that first success, none of the other successes could have happened including the pleasure of sharing them with all of you here on the blog!

Sherry: I’m with Liz that one of the coolest things was being in the Boston Globe. The interview – done by phone ahead of time – was fun, the photo shoot was so exciting — we felt like rock stars. Unfortunately, Edith was out of town that day, but she’s included in the interview and they put everybody’s head shots on the next page. Here’s a link to the article if you want to read it: https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2016/04/24/murder-they-wrote/asE9zXGm30LUk6vqnalOuM/story.html

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Being nominated for the Agatha Award for best first novel was another thrill. I will never forget either of those events.

Readers: What’s your favorite personal success?

Finally, Summer

By Liz, grateful for three-day weekends and warm weather

It was a really lovely Memorial Day weekend here in New England. Sun, warm weather – everything that a summer-loving girl could ask for. While I was out walking the dogs in the forest they like and getting some sun on my rooftop patio, I thought a lot about what this weekend always meant.

As a kid, Memorial Day was the gateway to summer – my grammar school always had a Memorial Day concert outside behind the buildings, on some little makeshift bleachers that we stood on. Our parents came and sat on matching bleachers to dutifully watch our (probably terrible) singing. And usually that concert was on one of our last days of school. This was back when school actually got out in early June, unlike today when school can go on almost until July…but I digress.

Memorial Day was always special for our family too. My grandfather, who was literally my favorite person, had served for a short time in the military before a knee injury took him out of the game. In yesterday’s blog, I wrote about that and how disappointed he was – and later, how his entire troop was killed in combat. That knee injury changed the course of history.

My grandfather was always proud of the time he served, and I knew he wished he could’ve done more. He and my grandmother both volunteered during WWII, moving across the country to do so. It was a way for them to give back and show their support, and it was something they spoke about their entire lives.

So of course when Memorial Day came around, it was a time for us to honor him. His birthday was also in May, so we used to do it up right. My grandparents would come over to our house on Memorial Day weekend, and my father would barbecue. Since it was a special occasion, my mother would also get my grandfather’s favorite – lobster. I remember him being happier on those days than any other time, with his lobster bib tucked into the front of his shirt, offering me the caviar from the lobster he would scrape clean. (At that age, I thought it was the most disgusting thing ever.)

And then, it was summer. School was out, the windows and doors were always open at my house, and my dad was home to hang with. My grandparents would come visit nearly every day for a morning coffee break. The pool was open (we had an above-ground pool where I learned to swim) and my mother’s garden was in full swing. There were beach days, frequent trips to the ice cream shop, days spent riding my bike around the neighborhood and picking wild blackberries in the woods behind my house. The Monkees was always on reruns on TV, making for a nice break during lunch or when it got too hot to play outside.

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And in the evenings, late, lazy dinners outside, summer thunderstorms, friends visiting. Lots of books to read. Everything moving at a slower, happier pace.

My summers now are full of work, deadlines, dogs, and all kinds of adultish things that don’t stop once the weather hits 90 and the beach is beckoning. This year, I’m promising myself that I’m going to enjoy it more, I’m going to spend time at the beach reading all the books I haven’t gotten to all year long, and being grateful that I’m on this planet to experience another summer.

But those first few moments of summer every year always bring back the sweetest of memories of those long-ago days. I hope that feeling keeps coming back every year to remind me of what summer should be.

Readers, what are your favorite summer memories?

Memorial Day 2019

Today is Memorial Day, a remembrance of people who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.

The holiday began with decorating the graves of Civil war victims. According to PBS, “During that first national commemoration, former Union General and sitting Ohio Congressman James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which 5,000 participants helped to decorate the graves of the more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who were buried there. “

After World War I, Memorial Day became an occasion for honoring those who died in all of America’s wars and was then more widely established as a national holiday throughout the United States.

[image error]Photo credit TSgt Michael R. Holzworth via Wikimedia Commons

Let us honor those who sacrificed their lives for the principles of democracy: free speech, the balance of power, and an independent electorate.

Sherry: Neither my dad or his father died while serving but they both served, my dad during World War ll and my grandfather in World War I. And of course as a military spouse I honor all of those who have served or are serving. Look at how young they all look!

Jessie: My maternal grandfather fought in WWII and both of his sons served during the Vietnam era. I have thought of them and of all those who have given so much for the rest of us often over the time I have been writing and researching books set just after WWI. The older I get the more I realize what all of them risked and are risking by serving their country.

Edith: My father’s father served in WWI – and lost his only brother to the conflict – and my father was drafted out of college into WWII.

Liz: My grandfather had to leave the army because of a knee injury during WWII, but he and my grandmother both volunteered for the war efforts. It meant a lot to him because I know he truly wanted to serve. My mother recently told me that his whole troop was killed during a tour. That really stuck with me. I know that must have affected him for the rest of his life.

Readers: What’s your Memorial Day weekend ritual? Who do you honor?

Guest Hallie Ephron

Edith here, so pleased today to welcome Hallie Ephron, a friend and mentor to all of us. Careful What You Wish For, her new standalone suspense, comes out in August, and got a rave starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. Check it out – Marie Kondo meets creepy:

A professional organizer who helps people declutter their lives is married to man who can’t drive past a yard sale without stopping. He’s filled their basement, attic, and garage with his finds. Sometimes she finds herself wondering: Does he spark joy?

“Ephron’s tidy approach to stowing clues, arousing suspicions, keeping the chaos of the climax under control, then tying up loose ends makes her a professional organizer of this type of entertainment. In a word—neat.” – Kirkus Reviews

I Write Creepies, Not Cozies.

I started reading mysteries with cozies. I raced through all
of the Agatha Raisins, Miss Marples, Aunt Dimitys, and Blanche Whites that I
could get my hands on. Put me in an airport bookstore tomorrow and I’ll buy a
cozy to while away the layover. But do I write cozy?

Like cozies, my novels are steeped in domesticity with a relatively small cast of characters, and you can be sure you won’t stub your toe on graphic violence or explicit sex. Occasionally there’s a cat. If there are cops, they’re competent. If there are children, they won’t get threatened and become plot devices. My protagonists, nice young women at whom life has thrown a curve-ball, would be at right at home in a cozy.

But there’s a lightness that I look forward to in a cozy mystery that I’m afraid my books have only in brief spurts with the occasional character who leavens the tone. Just look at my covers.

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They’re dark, a little sinister and foreboding. My titles (Never Tell a Lie, Come and Find Me…) give off what I hope is a slightly ominous vibe. I like to think that if they were fairy tales they’d be the Grimms version.

Plus my last six books have been standalones, and by the end
each protagonist has pretty much been through the mill. A sequel would be cruel
and unusual punishment. Also not believable.

When people ask me what I write, I say creepy but not icky. I mined the dolls in You’ll Never Know, Dear for their creep-factor, not for their cutes.
The old woman in There Was an Old Woman who
starts wondering if she’s losing her mind is no Betty White. My August book Careful What You Wish For is inspired by
Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a
Train.

Often there’s no murder in my books, so even to call them murder mysteries is a misnomer. They’re what’sgoingonheres, not whodunnits. If I had to pick a genre,
I’d label them domestic suspense, and
even then I’m not sure, because I don’t use an unreliable narrator, as has
become the pattern of late in that sub-genre.

I’m also happy to be categorized other. Or creepy-cozy. Or women’s fiction with a twist of suspense. Most of all, I try to write books with situations that seem utterly believable. Yes, this could happen to me, I want the reader to think. And shudder.

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Edith: I, for one, can’t wait to read the new book! Please, Wickeds fans, run out and preorder Careful What You Wish For .

Readers: Have you noticed that the coziest of images can so easily be tinged with creepiness. Dolls, of course. (Doll parts! For sure.)  Tea (what is that strange smell in my Oolong?) Costumes/masks. As Stephen King demonstrated, red balloons.  (Feral) cats. What other cozy things can become not quite so cozy?

Hallie Ephron is the NY Times bestselling author of eleven suspense novels. Her books have been praised for integrating the mystery genre with women’s fiction. She is a five-time finalist for the MH Clark Award, Edgar finalist for Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel.

Six Years and Going Strong!

Edith here, thinking about how this blog started six years ago this month. We Wickeds have come a long way in our publishing careers since 2013, so I thought I’d share our very first blog post from May 1 of that year, where we reprise how we met each other!

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Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay.

How did we all meet?

Malice, Sisters, and Seascape

Sherry: In the spring of 2005 as I headed to my seat at the Malice Domestic banquet I hoped there would be an agent at my table. There wasn’t but I sat by Julie Hennrikus, which started a cycle of events I couldn’t have imagined. Julie lives near Boston, and my family was moving to Hanscom Air Force Base, fifteen miles from Boston, that summer. In minutes I had Julie’s email, information about the New England Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and Crime Bake, a mystery writers conference.

In the fall I joined the chapter and attended Crime Bake. Julie introduced me to so many fabulous, talented, inspiring women. New England started to feel like home. A few years later, I signed up for the Seascape Writers Retreat run by Hallie Ephron, Roberta Islieb, and SW Hubbard. One of the other attendees wanted to carpool. We met in a mall parking lot and I was relieved to recognize Edith Maxwell from SincNE meetings. I tried not to be too obvious as I sent a text to my family saying Edith didn’t appear to be an ax murderer. We happily yakked all the way to Connecticut.

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Part of our subgroup at Seascape 2009: Edith second from left, with Liz and Sherry second and first from right, respectively.

The days were crammed with learning but the nights were a sleepover for adults. Liz, Barb, Edith and I, along with a few others, we stayed up late talking, sharing wine and laughing. The second night we convinced Liz to stay over. Long after our more sensible retreat attendees had headed to bed we were creeping around the halls looking for a rollaway. My apologies to anyone we woke dragging the rollaway back to our room. Nothing like things that go bump in the night at a mystery writers’ event.

In the summer of 2010, after I moved back to Northern Virginia, I started hearing about Jessie Crockett. I finally met her at Crime Bake last fall. Her energy is contagious or maybe it was the vitamin B12 she sprayed in our mouths.

Barb, Edith, Jessie and Liz all have the same agent, John Talbot. And they went out of their way to make sure Julie and I met him at Crime Bake last year. Barb ran into a room, grabbed me, and half dragged me into a hall where she’d spotted John. Then when he was free she actually shoved me in the back so I stumbled in front of him before anyone else could snag him.

We’ve critiqued each others manuscripts, met for dinners, had coffee and wine, shared rooms at conferences, and Jessie has generously opened her beach house for writers’ weekends. Not meeting an agent that night at Malice is one of the best things that ever happened to me. There is more to this story but that will be saved for another time.

Barb: Julie gets around! In the fall of 2006 when I went to the New England Crime Bake I had a secret. My story, “Winter Rental” was receiving an honorable mention for the Al Blanchard Award. I sat across from a woman whose name tag said we were from the same town. We starting chatting, and when the Blanchard honorable mentions were called, both of us stood up. Same town, both short story writers. A relationship was cemented, and now Julie’s succeeded me as President of Sisters in Crime New England.

At the New England Crime Bake in 2011, Jessie was the one who had a secret. Our first novels had come out in the same month in 2010. When we got into the elevator, positively drooping at the end of the first day, I asked her what was new. “It isn’t announced, but I think I just sold a series to a major publisher,” Jessie said. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day!” I responded, because it was.

As to the debauchery with the rest of you at Seascape—the less said, the better!

Edith here: I think I met Barb before any of the other Wicked Cozy authors. We were at a SINC New England workshop on revision with Elizabeth Lyon about six years ago. It was one of my first meetings and I knew almost nobody. During the introductions, Barb said she’d just been offered a contract for The Death of an Ambitious Woman. Wow, I thought. She’s made the big time! Sherry hosted a fabulous workshop at the Air Force base the next year that featured the female base security commander, who told a bunch of mystery writers about fighting crime in an insular military community. But, as Sherry said, we didn’t really get to know each other until we drove in my Prius to Seascape. She’s a crack editor and writes mystery with one of those funny voices you can’t put down.

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Singing our song about Agatha Christie

I met Liz at Seascape as Sherry describes, and became immersed in the intriguing darker, non-cozy she was working on then. I hope she publishes it eventually, too. Jessie I first met at a potluck in Portsmouth before a Sisters in Crime event. She wore a rakish cap and impressed me with her self assurance and her published first novel, Live Free or Die. Julie and I bonded at a Crime Bake banquet table where we, with Sherry and the rest of the table, came up with lyrics to a song lauding Agatha Christie, and then performed it with great aplomb! Julie’s short stories are wicked awesome.

Liz: Some things are just meant to be. I wasn’t even planning on attending Seascape the year I met Barb, Sherry and Edith (and one other amazing friend and fellow writer from Australia, Christine Hillman Keyes). I was minding my budget. I’d gone to Seascape the prior year and had a wonderful time, but thought I just wasn’t going to make it that year. But Roberta Isleib sent me an email a couple of weeks before the event and told me she had one spot left, and would I like to go? Something told me to say yes, so I signed up as a commuter and packed my manuscript.

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The Seascape class of 2009. The front row includes Edith in the turquoise shirt, Liz in red, and Christine from Australia on the far right. Further back are Barb to the left of Liz’s head and Sherry popping up just to the left of Barb’s head!

Well, as soon as I ended up in their group I knew I’d made the right choice. We became instant friends, and all of them were such great writers! Sherry’s novel-in-progress about a gemologist drew me in immediately. Like Edith said, I was impressed with how far along Barb was in her career, and her calm, sensible approach to everything. And Edith was a trip from the get-go! We also have a six-degrees-of-separation connection too – she once worked with one of my oldest friends, and the two have since reconnected through our friendship on social media. How cool is that?

But what really solidified the bond was the horrible road construction on I-95 that weekend. Since I was commuting, I headed home on Friday night. What should’ve taken 40 minutes took two and a half hours. So the next day, I brought an extra outfit and hoped someone would let me crash. My new friends didn’t let me down. As Sherry mentioned, we stayed up way too late and drank wine and exchanged stories. Then we needed to find a bed. Although if I recall, Sherry, I ended up sleeping on some mattress thing on the floor, right? Either way, it was one of my favorite weekends ever.

I met Julie officially later at Crime Bake (the best conference around for mystery writers, in my opinion!). We hit it off immediately – she’s got amazing energy and always has positive things to say and inspirational tips on how to look at life. And Jessie I met (finally!) once we realized we were all represented by John Talbot. Another instant connection, and her weekend writing retreats are something I’m always looking forward to. I’m wicked glad I can share this journey with all of you girls!

Jessie: I remember starting to recognize Barb and Julie and Edith from attending the New England Crime Bake for several years. All three of those ladies seemed so much like the “It Girls” from high school, only nice. They knew all the panelists and all the Sisters in Crime New England board members, often serving on the board themselves.

I was thrilled when Barb and I sat at the same table for something at the Crime Bake and I was able to compare notes with her about releasing our first books at the same time. Barb always radiates competence and authority.  Just by having something in common with her on the publishing front made me feel like I was actually becoming a professional.

I am not sure when I really met Julie since she makes you feel instantly like you aren’t strangers. She is one of those rare individuals who leaves you with the sense she was truly listening when you spoke to her. She also has great taste in sweaters. I’m a knitter and I love sitting somewhere at an event where I can get a good long look at what she’s wearing. I’m not sure I am always getting as much as I should out of the speakers because I end up spending considerable time pondering how to reconstruct her knitwear!

Edith and I both attended a Sisters in Crime meeting in Portsmouth, NH in 2010. Edith was so friendly and easy to talk to and she let me try her netbook computer. It was the first time I had seen one up close and trying it opened up all sorts of ideas about how portable my writing could be. Thank you, Edith! Edith was also the inspiration for the writing retreat already mentioned by others. She posted on her blog about a wonderfully productive retreat she had recently undertaken. By this time, Edith, Barb, Liz and I all had contracts for mystery series and shared an agent. I asked Edith if she would be interested in another retreat up at my beach house. She readily agreed and we invited Barb and Liz to join us.

I met Liz a few weeks later at a seminar given by Donald Maass on Writing the Breakout Novel. Funky and irreverent, funny and enthusiastic, she was the perfect fourth for the retreat quartet. You get the sense from her that she might just be up for anything. In addition to her other qualities she has great taste in coffee and generously offers to share her supply with fellow writers in need of a fix.

Sherry was the last one I got to know but certainly was worth the wait. She has the biggest, most welcoming smile and I felt like I had known her just as long as I had all the others within just a few moments. We met at the 2012 New England Crime Bake and it was so nice to finally put a face to the woman Barb, Edith and Liz all kept mentioning so fondly. Sherry is the one who first got the idea of this blog and without her we would all still probably be Wicked and most likely Cozy but we wouldn’t be Wicked Cozy. Thanks, Sherry.

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Julie here: I love going last on this post. For me, it all comes back to Sisters in Crime and Malice. Many years ago I met a woman named Regina Roberts in a mystery writing class. She personified outgoing, and I did not. We decided to go to Malice Domestic that year, and try to network. While standing in a line, Regina met Dana Cameron, who was then the VP of Sisters in Crime New England. Regina found me and said “we need to join this group.” And so we did. Two years later I went to Malice with my mother—Regina had lost her battle with breast cancer. That is when I met Sherry, who was a gift—she has the best personality, and is one of the nicest women I know. The short story I won Honorable Mention for when I met Barb? It was inspired by Regina (long story). As a fundamentally shy person who goes through life faking it, I am amazed by Edith and her energy and enthusiasm, and remember sitting with her at Crime Bake and writing a song in homage to Agatha Christie. I was a Jessie Crockett fan before we officially met—she had published her first novel, and was rocking the marketing of it. And Liz? We sat together at a Crime Bake and just laughed. We six are a great team, and I am really looking forward to this blog. It is going to be a wicked good time.

Edith: And it has been!

Readers: Tell us how you discovered this blog!

Wicked Wednesday: Defining Success

Edith, blissfully on a writing retreat at a convent getaway in Pennsylvania!

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Maybe I should have made this post the first one in the month, but let’s riff on how we define success, for ourselves and our characters. What does it mean to succeed? Is it okay to set the bar real low simply to say you hopped over it? When do we aim high?

Barb: I do both–big goals, and then breaking the tasks I must achieve to reach those goals down into bitty chunks that I can accomplish in a defined amount of time. I need that sense of forward momentum and achievement to keep from getting discouraged. When I ran a software company I always said, “Goals should leave you green around the gills, but not actively puking.” Meaning goals should cause you to reach and grow, but if they are so high they are unreachable, you’ll give up.

Sherry: I have a half written blog about defining success. It’s different in our culture and often a success is defined by money instead of accomplishments. Of course almost every author wants to be a New York Times bestselling author, but really writing and finishing a book is a huge accomplishment. I think we should all celebrate the little things we do and not worry so much about the big ones.

Edith: For my characters, succeeding means surviving whatever menaces lie along the road to solving the mystery, and restoring harmony to their community in the end. For myself, it’s the same, if you define “menaces” as getting over the roadblocks of writing the middle of the book, an over-long to-do list, and the physical perils of sitting too much. Restoring harmony would be that lovely feeling of sending in a polished book I’m happy with.

Jessie: I tend to be a bit like Barb. I set big goals at the beginning of each year and then break them down to monthly, weekly and daily actions so I would say I set goals that are both audacious and easy. My sleuths, Beryl and Edwina are measuring success by figuring out how to move through a world so changed by The Great War. They may be making up some new rules for themselves as they go along but that is part of how they would define winning.

Liz: My tendency is to get really wrapped up in the “big” ideas of success, and I’ve been trying to take the same approach as Sherry – to celebrate everything instead of rushing to the next thing or feeling like whatever I just did isn’t good enough. Success really is how we define it, and I think it’s important not to let the outside world define it for us. I’m trying to remember all the ways I’m successful in every day life as well as writing and all the other things I’m doing, too.

Readers: How do you define success for yourself?

The Detective’s Daughter- Retreat Lessons

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Kim in Baltimore where winter has turned immediately to summer.

Last night I braved the storms and tornado warnings to drive back from Pittsburgh to Baltimore from my Pennwriters convention. I had no choice. You see I had only one day to ready myself for a writers retreat. There’s laundry to wash and food to buy, and it’s nice to sleep in my own bed from time to time. May’s been tough. With thirty-one days in this month, I’ll be away for seventeen of them.

Tomorrow morning I leave for a retreat just outside Philadelphia. I’ve been going to Clare House for about five years now and I think I’m finally learning what I need to bring. I’ve always been an over-packer. I needed an outfit for any occasion that might arise. Suppose I was invited to a grand ball in the middle of the woods? I’d need a dress for that. We might go shopping or out to lunch or to the movies. I might run into a girl from high school I haven’t seen in thirty years. All these scenarios needed a wardrobe and I was prepared for each of them.

The first time I went on this particular retreat, I brought enough clothes and food for several people for a month. The next few times I was invited I began to make list of what was needed and wanted, but still it took forever to pack and unpack my car. But practice makes perfect and I think I’ve got this down to the most important items.

Books. Next to writing instruments and food, books are vital to a successful retreat. In addition to a thesaurus and a dictionary,  I need motivational and inspirational books as well. They give me a boost when I get frustrated or feel what I’m writing is just not working.[image error]

After a full day of writing, I like to relax before bed with a good story. I picked up All Saints by Jason Jack Miller at Pennwriters. I’m looking forward to reading it over the next week.[image error]

In the afternoon, before I get started on the second part of my writing day, I meditate. This time I’m taking along my new meditation CD by Madhu Wangu. Quiet time is good for your mind and soul.[image error]

I’ve also learned that high heels, cocktail dresses and make-up really have no place on retreat. Leggings, a sundress, and comfy shoes are all the fashion I need.  And…of course… I’ll be bringing my trusty laptop and manuscript bible. That’s what the retreat is all about.

I’m determined to lighten my load this trip.   I’ll keep you posted!

 

Dear Reader, how do you pack for a trip? Are you over prepared or always forgetting something?

 

 

Snooping into the Past

Jessie: On the coast of Maine enjoying the seaside no matter the weather!

[image error]This magazine was a surprise gift from our own Sherry Harris! I just love it!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love research? Maybe it is because it is a way to justify spending hours snooping around on the internet. But, I think it is more likely that I just enjoy learning how the people who have gone before us lived, loved, persevered and triumphed. I especially like learning how things have changed and, more often, how they have stayed the same over time.

Articles written about the past are always interesting but it is especially delightful to get my eyeballs on books written during the time period I am researching. I also adore newspaper and magazine articles of the day and am fascinated by the advertisements. The problems readers were trying to solve seem to be very similar to our own. Readers are advised on slashing food budgets, making the most of new household technologies and new advances in personal grooming.

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But most delicious of all such records, at least in my opinion, are pieces of personal correspondence. Journals, letters and postcards that were not meant for public consumption are often remarkably revealing about the writer and his or her slant on the atmosphere and events of the day. I particularly love the sorts of notes that are not meant to be of earth-shattering consequence like postcards mentioning an upcoming visit or a fine day spent in the mountains. It makes the past feel alive to me to read everyday sorts of remarks between friends and loved ones.

Since I love to poke about in historic personal papers I was delighted to recently come across a way to make my inclination be of service to something greater than my own curiosity. The Library of Congress has embarked on a program, named By the People, to crowdsource help from volunteers in deciphering, transcribing and tagging documents from the past! Anyone is welcome to help out and there is no account or commitment necessary!

The projects already underway include Walt Whitman, Civil War Soldiers, Mary Church Terrell, Clara Barton and Abraham Lincoln. Upcoming projects are slated to include Women’s Suffrage and Branch Rickey. I have already started working on the Civil War campaign and am finding it really intriguing. Not only does it appeal to my interest in research, the handwriting often needs deciphering and I end up feeling a bit like a sleuth! I would encourage any of you who are interested at all in the project to check it out and to consider participating!

Readers, do you love to read old letters and newspaper articles? Do you have any cherished papers from a loved one? Do you save your own for people who will come along later? Writers, do you love to do research?