Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 152

Mystery Fan Conferences: Attend at Your Own Risk — Welcome Guest Grace Topping

It’s always exciting when a friend has a new book coming out and it’s even more exciting when it’s the first in a new series. I’m so happy for Grace Topping and Staging is Murder will delight fans of cozy mysteries! Grace is going to giveaway a print or ebook copy of Staging is Murder (US and Canada only) to someone who leaves a comment.

[image error]Grace: Several years ago, a friend invited me to go with her to Malice Domestic. She didn’t want to go alone. I was sympathetic, but I had never heard of Malice Domestic. When she explained it was three-day conference for fans of traditional mysteries being held in nearby Arlington, Virginia, it piqued my interest. When she said there would be famous authors there and named some of them, I couldn’t sign up fast enough.

The weekend was enjoyable, and I encourage mystery fans to go. But be warned: if you attend, it could change your life—it changed mine.

For fans of traditional mysteries, going to Malice Domestic is like being a movie fan who gets to attend the Academy Awards. There I was, simple Grace Topping, writer of very exciting computer user manuals, rubbing elbows with famous, and some not so famous, mystery writers. How could it get any better than that?

But it kept getting better. One afternoon, Katherine Neville, holding a hotel map, stopped and asked me for directions to a meeting room. As we walked there together, and I gushed about how much I’d enjoyed “The Eight,” she confided in me that she hadn’t told many people, but she was writing a sequel to her best-selling book. Later, when I got to tell Edward Marston, who had come in from England, how much pleasure his books had given me, I felt like I’d died and gone to mystery lovers’ heaven.

Throughout the weekend, I got to hear authors talk about how they got started, the challenges they faced, what inspired them, what kept them going, what books they had coming out. What surprised me was how they looked and acted like ordinary people. People like me. Never in my life had I thought about writing a mystery, but it made me think that if they could do it, perhaps so could I. The seed was planted.

It took a few years, but those seeds germinated and began to grow. I faced periods of drought and miserable growing conditions and often wondered whether I would make it. But this May 3rd, I’ll emerge at Malice Domestic—a fully grown published author.

Readers: What inspired you to write? Or have you met a favorite author?

STAGING IS MURDER

Laura Bishop just nabbed her first decorating commission—staging for sale a 19th century mansion that hasn’t been updated for decades. But when a body falls from a laundry chute and lands at Laura’s feet, removing flowered wallpaper becomes the least of her duties. To clear her young assistant of the murder and save her fledgling business, Laura’s determined to find the killer. Turns out it’s not as easy as renovating a manor home, especially with two handsome men complicating her mission: the police detective assigned to the case and the real estate agent trying to save the manse from foreclosure. Worse still, the meddling of a horoscope-guided friend, a determined grandmother, and the local funeral director could get them all killed before Laura props the first pillow.

[image error]Bio: Grace Topping is a recovering technical writer and IT project manager, accustomed to writing lean, boring documents. Let loose to write fiction, she is now creating murder mysteries and killing off characters who remind her of some of the people she dealt with during her career. Fictional revenge is sweet. The first book in her series, Staging is Murder, is about a woman starting a new career midlife as a home stager. Grace is the current vice president of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and a member of the SINC Guppies and Mystery Writers of America. She lives with her husband in Northern Virginia.

http://www.gracetopping.com

https://www.facebook.com/GraceToppingAuthor

https://twitter.com/gtoppingauthor

 

A Wicked Welcome to Diane Vallere

Welcome back to the Wickeds, Diane! Thanks for coming by and letting us know about your two latest projects!

There is no “I” in Personal Growth

by Diane Vallere

I experienced an unusual side effect to one of my more life-changing break-ups. I started to misspell words. More specifically, I started to misspell words with the letter “I.”

At first, I thought I was just writing too fast. With my ballpoint pen, I quickly inserted the “i” between letters and pretended it was one of those things (like when you spell “who” “hwo” or “people” “poeple.”) It wasn’t until I’d made the mistake multiple times that I realized what I was doing. If a picture is worth a thousand words, my misspelled words were leaving myself, my “I”, out of the picture. At a time when I should have been focused on myself, I was subconsciously doing the opposite.

I think more about my missing I’s than I think about the relationship, because I suspect there was more to the misspellings than met the—well, you know. If I’d started dropping my A’s, E’s, O’s or U’s, I might not have noticed. But after years of feeling like I’d back-burnered myself in the equations of work, play, and life, the idea of losing myself completely was terrifying.

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It was somewhere around then that I started thinking about personal growth. It was also somewhere around then that I finished my first Samantha Kidd mystery. I don’t think it’s an accident that the character remains focused on trying to improve herself.

Samantha’s ninth adventure, UNION JACKED, has just come out, and both she and I remain interested in the idea of evolving. I originally wrote her a life coach in this book. It seemed like something she might do, and with all of her focus on getting her life together, it’s a logical step. But through revisions, I knew Samantha wouldn’t end up hiring an expert who guided her to the answers she sought. She’s a fall-down/get-back-up sort who learns her lesson only after failing first, and it didn’t suit her to happen upon a mentor who could help straighten her life out.

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But you know what? Nobody owns the patent on falling down and getting back up. It’s what we do. It’s how we learn. It’s how we try new things, discover new passions, experience new joys, and make new memories. It’s something I talk about in my other book out this month, BONBONS FOR THE BRAIN: A Collection of Essays. If we sit around trying to be perfect, we’ll miss all the fun.

As anybody who creates—writers, actors, artists, musicians—knows, we can’t do our jobs without putting ourselves into our work. Most of us learn more about ourselves by going through the creative process, right? Imagine doing that while a part of you is in hiding. Not showing up. Eyes—I’s?—closed. But when we allow a relationship to happen between us and what we write or create, if we’re lucky, we can rediscover the part of us that’s scared or hiding.

Within months of the aforementioned break-up, my I’s returned on their own and have been with me ever since. Even better, I haven’t noticed the loss of any other letters—except occasionally my Ps and Qs!

What about you? Has your handwriting—or any other subconscious activity—given you a clue about your mental state?

BIO:



[image error]Diane Vallere

After two decades working for a top luxury retailer, Diane Vallere traded fashion accessories for accessories to murder. She is a national bestselling author and a past president of Sisters in Crime. She started her own detective agency at age ten and has maintained a passion for shoes, clues, and clothes ever since. 
dianevallere.com Sign up for Diane’s The Weekly Diva Newsletter and get girl talk, book talk, and life talk!

Wicked Wednesday: Fun in Cambridge

We Wickeds love spending time together, and last weekend was no exception. Wickeds, what was your favorite part of the Cozy Con?

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Jessie: My favorite part was much as it ever is at such events. I love spending time with other people who love the mystery genre as much as I do whether those people are readers, librarians, booksellers or other writers! I always come away from events like the Kensington Convention energized and ready to get back to my work-in-progress!

Liz: Being together with all the Wickeds is always so much fun – seeing all of you is good for my soul. It was a lovely event and I’m so grateful to Kensington for putting it on. As Jessie said, meeting everyone who loves mysteries is the best – it’s a wonderful community and I’m grateful to be part of it.

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Sherry: Other than seeing all of you there were two wonderful moments. The first was my friend’s daughter who is attending Northeastern stopping by to say hi. She lived two doors down from me when we lived on Hanscom Air Force Base and was about six when we met. She still has the same beautiful smile and enthusiasm for life. The second one seeing my books in the Cambridge Library! Scratch the two wonderful moments — I too have to add meeting the other authors and readers attending the event. It was fun!

Barb: Thanks to Kensington for giving us all a chance to get together. It was great seeing all of the authors and some notable cozy fans. (You know who you are.) I also got to meet Larissa Ackerman, my publicist at Kensington, (the other Wickeds met her on that trip to New York City that I missed) and her delightful mother-in-law who lives in Maine, and with whom I was hatching evil plans!

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Julie: It was great seeing the Wickeds, and so many of our writing friends! Missi Stockwell, from Missi’s Book Reviews, came to the event and said hello to all the authors, which is always great. I also was happy to see my sister and nieces in the audience. Friends, if you have the opportunity to go to one of these events, please do! We love meeting readers, and there time for great conversations.

Edith: What a whirlwind weekend, which started off with Julie’s and my book launch party the night before the Cozy Con. We even had three uber-fans – talking about you, Missi Stockwell, Lynn Ambrosino, and Margaret Rusthton – who attended both events! What a delight to talk with enthusiastic mystery fans. I also chatted with Larissa’s mother – who is a Quaker – and we promised to stay in touch. I got to know LA Chandler a little, one of my fellow Agatha nominees this year, and it was lovely to visit with our author pal Cheryl Hollon, who came all the way up from Florida for the event (and had dinner with the Wickeds and some associated menfolk after).

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Thanks, Kensington!

Friends, what reader/author events do you enjoy?

The Detective’s Daughter – A Tasteful Memory

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Kim in Baltimore welcoming spring… finally!

My grandmother’s kitchen was the center of not only our home, but our family life. Every Saturday afternoon my aunties would gather with their husbands and children around our kitchen table for a coffee hour that would last well into the night. There were stories to tell, disputes to iron out, and card games to play.

[image error]My family in our kitchen long before I was born.

All that was fun, but one of the main events of the afternoon was whatever my grandmother was making for dinner. She was truly an outstanding cook who worked for McCormick’s as their lead dietitian for many years. Her meals were famous. Whether it was sour beef and dumplings or  chicken noodle soup, no one walked out of our house hungry.

[image error]My grandmother, Florence Beckhardt, being recognized for her years of service at McCormick’s.

My mom had her own specialties like beef stew, though she also served Spaghetti-O’s for dinner as well. Just seeing the red and white can brings back fond memories of sitting around the dinner table with Mom and Dad looking over the crime scene photos from his latest case. The good old days!

Thinking back to those dinners, I can nearly taste the orange sauce and the slippery o noodles. They were delicious. With the addition of Wonder Bread and Green Giant green beans,  you had yourself a good weekday evening meal. We saved fancy stuff like Manwich or Chun King for special occasions or guests.

When my children were small and I was a young mother, I wanted everything to be as it had been in my happy childhood. Though I was no slouch as a cook, I didn’t have much time for preparing big meals. I stocked up on all the staples my mom had used- San Giorgio pasta, Ragu sauce, Jiff peanut butter, and Hamburger Helper. I was ready to be a mom, or at least cook meals the way my mom had for me.

I was especially excited to recreate my favorite childhood meal… Spaghetti-O’s. I thought about this all day long, how, in years to come, my own children would have fond memories of dinners together. That night I heated the cans of pasta and green beans up as my two children waited for the special treat I’d promised them. They loved it. I, however, was underwhelmed. Could this be the same stuff I’d enjoyed as a child? Had they changed the recipe? Yuck! [image error]

That was twenty-three years ago and never again will Spaghetti-O’s pass my lips. I suppose, just like the Tooth Fairy, some things are only meant to be enjoyed by children. I’m now hesitant to recreate any more childhood dinners, though I do make doughgies for breakfast just like my grandmother did for us. I’m not even going to try to make her sour beef and dumplings. Whenever I get a yearning for that I go to Dimitri’s in Ellicott City . Their recipe taste just the way my grandmother’s did.

It’s hard to live up to a good memory, but it’s very nice when you taste something that takes you back to a special place and time. Whenever I have a  spearmint snowball, I close my eyes and can imagine I’m five-years-old, holding my grandfather’s hand as we walk home from Miss Edna’s store. Those are the memories to savor.

Dear Reader, Is there a food that you loved as a child that you would never eat now as an adult? What food brings a good memory to mind?

 

 

Socializing for Bookworms

Jessie: In New Hampshire where the snow is still deep on the north side deck but the star magnolia is beginning to break bud!

On Saturday all the Wickeds attended the Kensington Cozy Con in Cambridge, MA. My husband traveled with me and we made a day of it taking the bus from NH to Boston’s South Station and then the T to Harvard Square and from there on foot to the main library branch in Cambridge. Even though I had never been there before, as soon as we pushed open the long glass doors I felt right at home.

Over the years I’ve noticed that most writers and an awful lot of devoted readers are the sort of people happy to spend long stretches of time in solitude. In the depths of winter or when a deadline draws near I am perfectly content to speak to no one but the members of my household for days on end. Since I’m the only one home during the day most often I find the majority of my conversations are the one-sided variety conducted with Sampson, the poodle puppy.

[image error]Sampson, holding up his end of the conversation!

I think most people in the writing business have a similar ability to enjoy their own company or at least the company of the characters we spend our time making up. Readers seem to be just as enthusiastic about hanging out with imaginary people between the covers of their favorite books.

So it is always sort of magical to me to see how such people come together in groups because of the love of solitary pursuits. Libraries are magnets for such souls and as I looked around the Cambridge library it felt as if I understood something fundamental about everyone else who was there. That feeling only intensified as the convention got underway and the mystery writers and mystery readers gathered in a single location to laugh and chat and gush about favorite books, old and new.

The hallway and the auditorium filled with voices as old friends embraced, new friendships were formed and readers found new authors to grow to enjoy. Even the quietest and most reserved reached out with ease to connect once the topic turned to books. It is like that at every book event I attend. There is just something so special about feeling as though you have something so important to you in common with a stranger. Age, gender, political affiliation and ethnicity are irrelevant in the face of a shared love of books.

I hope all of you have places where you are gathering together, now and again, with other readers. It does the heart good to be at ease with people who just get you. Why not strike up a conversation with another patron at your local library or bookstore, chime in on Goodreads or BookBub or join a book club?

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And speaking of book clubs, I’d absolutely love it if you wanted to attend the Wickeds Book Club Facebook Event tomorrow evening at 8pm ET with Barb Ross and me! We will be discussing Murder in an English Village and even if you haven’t read the book the questions will be ones that make it possible for everyone to add to the conversation. We would be delighted to hear what you have to say!

Readers, what is your favorite way to socialize? Do you feel at home wherever books are the focus?

Kensington’s CozyClub Mini-Con in Cambridge, MA

Say that fast three times!

Friends, the Wickeds are all going to be at the Cambridge Library in Cambridge, MA on Saturday, April 13 from 1-4!

Kensington is hosting the CozyClub Mini-Con East, and we are six of the 22 authors who are going to be there. This free event is open to the public. Here’s some parking information for the area. We’ll be signing books, giving away swag, laughing, and getting to know folks. Come on down and say hello!

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For those of you not in the Cambridge area, keep an eye out on the Wicked Authors Facebook page. We’ll be doing some Facebook lives throughout the day.

Hope to see some of you on Saturday!

Cover Reveal–Sealed Off, Maine Clambake #8

by Barb, happy to be back in Portland, Maine. (But maybe not so happy about our spring snowstorms.)

I’m excited to announce that the eighth Maine Clambake Mystery, Sealed Off will go on sale on December 31, 2019. Happy New Year!

Here’s the cover. The folks at Kensington have outdone themselves once again.

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Here’s the back cover 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.

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Readers: What do you think? Does the cover make you want to read the book? Let me know and one lucky commenter will win a Snowden Family Clambake tote bag and an Advance Reader Copy of Haunted House Murder.

As I mentioned in this post, my story “Hallowed Out” in Haunted House Murder begins before the events in Sealed Off and ends after them. But it can easily be read independently in any order.

Wicked Wednesday: A Double Book Celebration

Wickeds, this week we are celebrating the dual release of Charity’s Burden by Edith Maxwell and With A Kiss I Die by J.A. Hennrikus. Both of these books are more on the traditional side of the mystery world. Since we all write different series, how do you maneuver the different worlds you are creating?

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Sherry: Congratulations on the new books! I can’t wait to read them. I’m the newbie to the “writing more than one series” club. I’ve finished a first draft of From Beer to Eternity the first Chloe Jackson Redneck Riviera mystery. At first I thought I’d work on one series in the morning and the other in the afternoon. But I quickly scraped that idea. I’ve tried to make Chloe and Sarah’s worlds and personalities different from each other. Chloe is younger and has moved to a place she’s never been before.

Jessie: This is a fun question! Like Sherry I only work on writing one series at a time. I can write one and revise another on the same day but I don’t write first draft of both on the same day or even in any sort of alternating way. For me the trouble has more to do with drawing from the same well in terms of type of work than it does from the series being somehow easily confused. I have no trouble keeping things straight between series or characters but rather from using the same sort of mental muscle on more than one project at the same time. One of them suffers if I do so I don’t.

Barb: So far I’ve only written one non-series book while writing the Maine Clambake Mysteries. (Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody.) I’ve worked on the books and novellas serially, with only the usual interruptions for copy-edits and page proofs, though that happens within a series anyway. And then there are the blog tours and other promotional activity for the book that’s coming out. Series or non-series, we’re always working on more than one book.

Edith: I work on only one first draft at a time, but, as Barb points out, there are always pesky interruptions, especially with three books in year in three different series. The copyedits that come in are rarely in the same series I’m writing the first draft of, but occasionally the timing works out so the proofs will be of the just prior book, which is actually good. It reminds of exactly what happened in that story, so I might think of continuity issues to fix in the new one. I love going away on solo retreat to immerse myself in a first draft. I once wrote almost half a book in a week. Seriously. Reality rears its pretty head, though, so that’s rare.

Julie: Edith, I love it when the timing works out! I am finding the more separate I keep the worlds the easier it is to navigate between the two. I do find my thoughts drifting though. I keep wanting to add a character from one series to another. That could be fun, but would also be confusing.

Readers, do you have trouble separating the worlds when you are reading different series? Fellow writers, how do you maneuver your worlds?

WITH A KISS I DIE is launched!

by Julie, celebrating in Somerville

With A Kiss I Die shared a book birthday with Edith yesterday. I am thrilled that the second book in my Theater Cop series is in folks’ hands now. Here’s the cover copy of the book:

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When Edwina “Sully” Sullivan, a retired cop turned theater manager, learns that a production of Romeo and Juliet—which Cliffside Theater’s Dimitri Traietti left town to direct—is in serious trouble, she sets aside her grant applications and heads to Boston to help.

Between managing Dimitri, consulting with costume and set designers, and schmoozing with potential funders, Sully puts on nearly every hat in the biz. But the one hat she doesn’t expect to wear is that of her old job as a cop. When a socialite is murdered in Boston’s Public Garden, Sully’s ex-husband becomes the prime suspect. So she reprises her role as an ace investigator and once again steps into the spotlight to solve a crime.

This series means a great deal to me. I have worked in the performing arts for over thirty years, so setting a mystery series in that community brings my worlds together. Now, as with anyone who works in the arts, my career has been more than a series of jobs. It’s been a wonderful adventure with folks I care a great deal about.

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I dedicated the book to the StageSource community, and in memory of Jack Welch, the founder of StageSource. StageSource is the service organization for the New England theater community. I worked for the organization twice in my career. First as an administrative assistant (way back in the 80’s). Most recently I was the ED for 7.5 years. The organization does great work, and does a lot to support the performing arts community. Jack was a great friend, and was very supportive of my writing life. I so wish he was here to come to the double launch party I’m doing with Edith Maxwell on Friday.

My goal with this series is to introduce the theater world to the reader through the eyes of Sully Sullivan, an ex-cop who runs a theater company. Sully is a fish out of water, but is embraced by her new community. Working with these folks has changed her, for the better.

This series is a traditional mystery. I love crafting a solid story for folks while weaving in the theater. The mystery is framed around a production of Romeo & Juliet, a familiar story to all. I have seen a lot of stage productions of R&J. Some have been wonderful, most have been fine. A couple have been terrible. The production in this book currently terrible, but Dimitri is doing his best to right it.

I hope you all enjoy Sully’s latest adventure. Tell me, what is your favorite version of the Romeo and Juliet story?

Release Day for Charity!

Edith here, so excited because it’s finally release day for Charity’s Burden!

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In the publishing world, it can take a long, long time between when an author sends in a completed manuscript and when it appears on the shelves, either brick and mortar or virtual. I submitted this book in December of 2017, so I’m delighted to actually put my hands on the real thing.

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Charity’s Burden treats the topic of birth control, which was hugely controversial at the time. Midwife Rose Carroll’s clients come to her with pregnancies, but they also seek her help when they don’t want to have another baby – whether before or after they have conceived yet again. The highly restrictive Comstock Laws were passed in the 1870s, which made even speaking about preventing pregnancy a crime. Herbalists and others turned to evasive wording in the advertisements for their products, calling them products to regularize women’s cycles and improve their health. Certain practitioners also offered abortions, which of course were life-threatening at the time. I wanted to explore these issues – in the context of a murder mystery, of course.

Here’s the cover copy: The winter of 1889 is harsh in Amesbury, Massachusetts, but it doesn’t stop Quaker midwife Rose Carroll from making her rounds of her pregnant and postpartum mothers. But when Charity Skells dies from an apparent early miscarriage, Rose wonders about the copious amount of blood. She learns that Charity’s husband appears to be up to no good with a young woman. The woman’s mother, who goes by the mysterious name of Madame Restante, appears to offer illegal abortions and herbal birth control. A disgraced physician in town does the same. Charity’s cousin mistakenly thinks he will take control of his father’s estate. Rose once again works with police detective Kevin Donovan to solve the case before another life is taken.

I hope you love the story! I’m thrilled to be sharing a release date with Wicked Julie, too, and a launch party in Newburyport on Friday.

Readers: What’s the best launch party you’ve ever attended, whether in person or on Facebook?