Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 201

July Opening Lines

Add your own opening line for this picture!

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Edith:  If ya want somebody to do something, tell ’em not to do it. I told her running alone on the rail trail was too dangerous. My plan worked, and now I’m blissfully alone.

Julie: There were runner’s stretches, then there were stretchy runners. She was the latter, and never met a wall she didn’t like. Until Tuesday. Did that look like a cliff to you?

Liz: I might not have noticed the shoe if I hadn’t dropped my phone during my walk. But when I bent over to pick it up, there it was. I thought at first it was a kid playing hide and seek, but boy was I wrong…

Sherry: I really wish I wouldn’t have pulled on that shoe when I found it.

Barb: “Go get it, girl! Go get it.” But Trixie shook me off, growling and baring her tiny teeth, so I dove through the hedge to retrieve her favorite ball. When I broke through the undergrowth on the other side, I saw something so strange and magical, so astonishing and terrifying, it changed my life forever..

Jessie: Patrice had always wondered how Melody had dazzled the judges, year after year at the annual Little Watford garden competition. Now that she knew her rival’s secret she could check two items from the top of her to-do list: win the Silver Spade trophy and rid her household of her layabout brother-in-law.

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Filed under: First Lines, Group posts, Opening Lines Tagged: Rail trails

Repurposing

By Sherry — how is it already July?

One of my favorite things to do is take something old that I’ve found at a garage sale or antique store and do something different with it. So it’s no surprise that Sarah Winston from my books does the same thing. It also made me think about repurposing life experiences for books — more on that in a bit. Here are some things that I’ve found a new purpose for:

I love old utensils with wooden handles, but only buy them if I can think of a way I would use them. I thought these dough blenders would be great for holding vintage postcards or photos. When I posted a picture of them on Facebook, Edith said they’d also be great for holding recipes.

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I found a wooden trivet at a garage sale but thought it would look pretty on the wall.

[image error]When we lived in Monterey I found a little bookcase at an antique store in Santa Cruz. It first housed my collection of cobalt glass but now holds my collection of vintage tablecloths.

[image error]I found this old wooden box at a garage sale and fell in love with it. It might be from a library but I use it to store bookmarks and business cards.

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This Victorian breakfast tray was at a show called The Big Flea. With the help of a couple of books it became a tiny end table.

[image error]I found a piece of vintage fabric at an antique store in Fort Walton Beach Florida. It wasn’t very big but my mom lined it and made it into valances for me.They hang in my office.

[image error]This old trunk was in my grandparent’s basement. My sister restored it and gave it to me. It now houses cds and albums.

I spotted this old cranberry scoop at an antique store in Annapolis. It now holds the newspaper.

[image error][image error]It’s so much fun to do this and I realized I do that a lot in my writing too. One example is the opening and part of the plot from Tagged For Death the first book in the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mysteries. I was sitting in an airport a few years ago and a guy was pacing around near where I was sitting while he talked on the phone. I couldn’t help but overhear his conversation and thought some day I’m going to use that. I also used a crime that occurred when we were stationed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in the plot of The Longest Yard Sale. There are so many ways to draw from life experiences and repurpose them in writing.

Readers: What have your repurposed in your life?

 

Filed under: Sherry's posts Tagged: breakfast trays, cranberry scoop, trivets, trunks, vintage fabric, vintage postcards, vintage tablecloths, vintage utensils

Wicked Wednesday: Bikinis and Graham Crackers

Wait, what? Bikinis and Graham crackers? Is that what we’re supposed to wear while eating graham crackers? No, but it’s Wicked Wednesday and it’s summer, so we thought we’d feature whichever National Days the date falls on. July 5–and I’m sure you ALL knew this–is both National Bikini Day and National Graham Cracker Day.

[image error]A little background on each, straight from wikipedia: “The Graham Cracker was inspired by the preaching of Sylvester Graham, who was a part of and strongly influenced by the 19th century temperance movement; Graham believed that a vegetarian diet anchored by home-made whole grain bread, made from wheat coarsely ground at home, as part of a lifestyle that involved minimizing pleasure and stimulation of all kinds, was how God intended people to live and that following this natural law would keep people healthy.”

“A bikini is usually a women’s abbreviated two-piece swimsuit with a bra top for the

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The US women’s volleyball team wears these.

chest and underwear cut below the navel…. The name for the bikini design was coined in 1946 by Parisian engineer Louis Réard, the designer of the bikini. He named the swimsuit after Bikini Atoll, where testing on the atomic bomb was taking place.”

So fess up, Wickeds – tell us about your first bikini. Extra points if you include a picture of yourself in it. And are you a fan of Graham crackers or never touch the stuff?

Liz: I don’t remember my very first bikini! But I did have an awesome purple polka dot one that I only recently gave up. Which just means I have to go shopping for a new one! As for graham crackers, I like them – but going gluten free meant giving them up. Until I found a really great gluten free version. I love them with peanut butter.

Edith: they are SO good with PB. And as a vehicle for cheesecake…

Barb: I’m not sure I every wore anything that truly qualified as a bikini. I had an excellent green two piece in high school, but I think the bottoms were a little too covery for it to be called a bikini. Since then, nothing even close. I blame it on my love of graham crackers.

Sherry: Ha, Barb! I remember my first bikini! I was in tenth grade and my mom took me shopping for it — she wanted to approve. It was a sky blue with something white on it — maybe palm trees. And hello, Smores! How can none of you mentioned their ooey-gooey goodness?!

Barb: Ha! Sherry, you would be the one to mention the treat with the marshmallow in it.

Edith: I had a red bikini in ninth grade, the year I outgrew my baby fat and hadn’t yet gained any of my adult poundage. But my favorite was the pink  cotton one I sewed when I was sixteen, with eyelet lace at the top of the top. Wore it to the beach for the day with Tibor Derencsenyi, my boyfriend  (a gorgeous Hungarian senior at my school), and at sunset he asked me to the prom. At the time I felt like we were getting engaged. Too bad he broke up with me right after he graduated. Graham crackers? Bring ’em on – regular, chocolate, cinnamon, I love them all.

Julie: When I was about fourteen my mother sewed me a bikini. I wore it twice. My first and only. Sadly, my confidence in bikini wearing was never strong. As for graham crackers–love them. LOVE s’mores, love graham cracker crusts, love them with tea. I’m actually pretty fussy about my graham crackers. Honey Maid or bust.

Readers: Dish on your bikini (or guys, the one you most appreciated seeing…) and your opinion of graham crackers.

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Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: National Bikini Day, National Graham Cracker Day

Declaring Independence

Edith here. I know you’re all out celebrating our country’s origins, and I wish you the best, safest, and most delicious of gatherings.

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Although all the signatories of the Declaration of Independence were (white landowning) men, I just learned from dynamite mystery author Martha Reed that the first printed copy was printed by Mary Katherine Goddard!

“When on January 18, 1777, the Second Continental Congress moved that the Declaration of Independence be widely distributed, Goddard was one of the first to offer the use of her press. This was in spite of the risks of being associated with what was considered a treasonable document by the British. Her copy, the Goddard Broadside, was the second printed, and the first to contain the typeset names of the signatories, including John Hancock .”

And just in case you haven’t read it recently, here’s the full text of the declaration, thanks to ushistory.org:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Readers: How often do you read the whole thing? Was this your first time? What pops out at you?

Filed under: Edith's posts, Uncategorized Tagged: 4th of july, Declaration of Independence, Mary Katherine Goddard

I Always Wanted to Live in the Country

I’m heading to my country cottage in Ireland next week. It’s been just over a year since I signed all the paperwork, and more than six months since I’ve been there (I’m still working out a schedule).

Buying the place has been an interesting experience, and one that was relatively uncomplicated. Since I’ve gone public, I’ve learned that there are a lot of people for whom owning a small cottage in Ireland is a beloved fantasy. I’m happy to let you live vicariously through my own adventure!

There are two main reasons why I wanted to have a place of my own in Ireland. One is all those Irish ancestors calling out to me. Because of various family frictions, I never had a chance to know my Irish-born grandparents (my father’s side of the family), so this was my way of making up for it (and I’ve found a lot of new relatives!).

But I always wanted to live in the country, somewhere. I grew up mainly in suburbs of major cities, usually within commuting distance. Don’t get me wrong—I love cities. I’ve worked in Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and London and enjoyed them all. But I don’t want to live in the heart of one.

My mother was a child of the New Jersey suburbs, until her father had a sort of mid-life crisis and decided he wanted to be a dairy farmer (you have no idea how absurd this was—he had no training at all, and little aptitude). He got a six-week agricultural degree at Rutgers and moved the family to Maine when my mother was fourteen. She hated it. Actually my grandmother did too: she got fed up, moved to Manhattan during WWII, and divorced her husband. My mother lasted another year in Maine, then joined her mother in New York. She never looked back, and when in later years we would drive past a farm with rolling hills and a pretty view, she’d snarl.

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Mountain View Farm, Waterville,

 

So why my fascination with places and lifestyles I’ve never known? Sometimes I wonder if there’s some kind of inherited memory involved, which is why rolling green hills seem familiar to me. Other times I think it really may be all those rural ancestors (on both sides of the Atlantic) whispering in my ear, which would explain why I kept finding their final resting places in obscure cemeteries when I’m not even looking for them.

But while I yearned for those rolling green meadows early in my life, a few decades later I’ve found that I want those places for other reasons, that have nothing to do with my ghosts. I want peace. Quiet. Real darkness, where I can see the stars, and on a good night, the Milky Way. Elbow room. I don’t want to be a hermit, but neither do I want to look into my neighbor’s kitchen and watch her washing dishes (been there, done that). Glimpses of animals who are too shy to come out back home, and wildflowers that I don’t even recognize. When I think about the cottage, the little half-acre piece of the world that is all mine, I swear my blood pressure drops. It’s my Happy Place. Sure, there’s work to be done on it, and I still want to visit new places in Ireland, but what I picture most often is sitting on the patio and watching the sun set over the mountains of Kerry.

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And, yes, the family cemetery is up the hill

What about you? Have you ever come to a place you’ve never been and immediately recognized it and felt at home? What places just feel “right” to you?

 

Filed under: Ireland, Sheila's Posts

Welcome Back, Hallie Ephron

by Barb, who as of when she’s posting this, has no idea what U.S. state (or what mental state) she will be in when it’s published.

[image error]If you’ve read this blog for awhile, you’ve heard of Hallie Ephron. She’s been our guest on the blog several times, and has been a teacher, mentor, and friend to each of us. Not to mention, she writes for one of our favorite blogs, the Jungle Red Writers.

Now she has a fabulous new book, You’ll Never Know, Dear. I devoured it in two greedy days. Spoiler alert, I loved it and you will, too. Please welcome Hallie back to the Wicked Cozies.

[image error]Barb: You’ll Never Know, Dear is set in the fictional town of Bonsecours, SC, a departure for you. Why did you set this story in the south?

Hallie: I imagined the book opening with two of my main characters sipping sweet tea and eating egg-salad sandwiches on a front porch hung with wisteria. The older woman is a doll maker. I knew we weren’t in New England. Or Hollywood. Or the Bronx. Or anywhere else I’ve set a story.

When I envisioned the town around them, I “saw” Beaufort, South Carolina. I’d been there a few times. Historic. Gracious. Riverfront. Perfect. Then I fictionalized it to Bonsecours because the real Beaufort has such an incredible history (it rivals nearby Savannah) and has already been immortalized by writers far more brilliant than I.

Barb: The book is about a crime in the past, the abduction of a little girl and her doll in the 1970s. The narrative takes place entirely in the present, when the doll comes back. Why did you decide on that timeline? Was it an easy decision? Did you every write any of the scenes set in the past?

Hallie: Such an interesting question. No, I never considered writing full blown flashbacks, or starting in the past which is where the story really begins (as do most!) I wanted secrets from the past to be uncovered in the present, by the reader as much as by the characters. That’s why I couldn’t let the grandmother, Miss Sorrel, narrate. She knows too much.

[image error]Barb: You’ve recently published an updated edition of your acclaimed writing book, Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel: The Complete Guide to Mystery, Suspense, and Crime. I’ve always wondered, does thinking through and externalizing your writing process–i.e. consciously knowing what you know, help you as a writer? Or does it make that voice from your internal editor even louder?

Hallie: Spontaneity has its limits. Then it helps if you have some idea what you’re doing. Knowing what I know is especially useful in plotting, making sure there’s an arc for the main character, making sure that something HAPPENS…every so often.

Barb: Recently, Wicked guest, Lori Rader-Day, posted here about why she writes standalones. You switched from series to standalones. Why? Have you ever wanted to go back?

Hallie: Only when I start a new novel and have to start all over with new characters, new setting, new dynamics. Once I’ve got a story up and running I never look back. I was afraid switching to standalones would be bad from a business perspective–that my publisher wouldn’t maintain my backlist. But they have, even better than my previous publisher did for the series.

Barb: What are you working on now?

Another standalone, this one set back in New England. I’m only 50 pages in and no one’s been murdered yet. But for once I know who’s the victim and who did it. Or at least I think I do.

HALLIE EPHRON is the New York Times bestselling author of suspense novels reviewers call “deliciously creepy” page turners. He new novel, You’ll Never Know, Dear, tells the story of a little girl’s disappearance and the porcelain doll that may hold the key to her fate. The Boston Globe called it “an accessible, easy read that deftly integrates the mystery genre with women’s fiction, it’s made compelling by the depth and resonance of the relationships.” In Night Night, Sleep Tight, Hallie took her experiences growing up in Beverly Hills in a family of writers and wove them into a suspense novel with echoes of a scandalous true crime. Her Never Tell a Lie was adapted for film as “And Baby Will Fall” for the Lifetime Movie Network. She is a four-time finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and author of Writing & Selling Your Mystery Novel, an Edgar Award finalist.

Readers: Do you like standalones? Novels of the south? Suspense?

If so, this book is for you.

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Filed under: Guest posts Tagged: Beaufort, Dear, SC, standalone, suspense, Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel: Revised Expanded, You'll Never Know

A Bowl of Cherries

Jane/Susannah/Sadie here, wondering where June went…

[image error]I don’t need an astronomer, or a calendar, or standing stones to know when the summer solstice hits. I’ve got my own personal predictor: the sour cherry tree we planted a couple of decades ago. The cherries are plump and green and just beginning to ripen by the longest day of the year. And by July 4th, they’re all done.

 

Anybody who’s ever been a gardener might know this feeling. You watch the plant’s progress, from dormancy, to blossoming, to fruiting/vegging and ripeness, eagerly awaiting the perfect time to pick. And then the time comes for the first harvest and it feels satisfying and wonderful.

Some years, like last year when we had a late spring freeze that decimated our fruit trees (we have two pear trees as well), we get only a handful. And other years, we get a bumper crop and manage to stay one step ahead of the birds. This is a bumper crop year. So the picking begins.

As does the pitting. And preserving. The thing about sour (pie) cherries is that they are extremely perishable, which is why you almost never find them in grocery stores. I don’t know that I’ve ever even seen any at a farm stand. They must be picked then within hours pitted and preserved or they develop an ugly brown and untasty ring at the stem end. So I have to pick at a time when I know I can do the follow-up work–pitting each individual fruit, then immediately cooking up with some sugar or freezing, to be cooked with sugar later.

Sour cherries are delicious–but they’re inedible until they’ve been properly prepared.

And I feel like that’s a metaphor for writing. Like those cherries between the solstice and Independence Day, ideas come fast and furious sometimes, and some of them will ripen into something wonderful. And some I’ll never get to, because they’re for the birds.

Today, and for the next few, there is no more time for profound thoughts. There are only endless bowls of cherries to process into jam, barbecue sauce, and future pies while binge watching Frankie and Grace on Netflix. But maybe, just maybe, during the repetitive motion of the pitting, a sweet little idea for the next story will emerge. We’ll see.

Do you grow any of your own food (or flowers)? Are there certain types or varieties you plant or harvest every year?

Filed under: Farming, independence day, Jane's posts, Sadie's Posts, Susannah's posts Tagged: cherry pie, Frankie and Grace, independence day, sour cherries, summer solstice

Wicked Wednesday: Movies that make you love animals (even more)

Okay, I admit, most of you (especially Liz’s fans) probably already love animals, but what’s your favorite movie with an animal in a starring or major supporting role?

[image error]Jessie: I have two but they don’t seem to have a lot on common. I love Babe! Every year when I find myself out shopping during the holiday season I can hear the voice of the duck from the movie shouting in my head “Christmas is carnage!”. I also adore The March of the Penguins. After we watched it the first time my husband and I headed to the kitchen and used a grapefruit to practice passing it back and forth with our feet as if we were penguin parents sharing the safekeeping of our egg. After several tragic losses we managed it!

Julie: Real, live animals? I’ve got to admit, I avoid animal movies. When I was in 8th grade we took a class trip to NYC, and went to Radio City Musical Hall toward the end of the trip. We saw some Scottish (Welsh?) movie about a mine town, and a pony that saves people then runs back into the mine to die. I have likely misremembered the whole thing. What I don’t forget is the sobbing. My father has an Old Yeller (or was it Shane) trauma in his past, so every time the “Wonderful World of Disney” was an animal story, he changed the channel. So, I’ve got nothing.

[image error]Sherry: Jaws? Just kidding I typed “movies with animals” into a search engine and it was the first movie that popped up. I love 101 Dalmatians. When my daughter was three she watched it a lot and took to calling me mother like the puppies called their mom. Also when I’m outside and hear one dog bark, then another, then Lily, I always think of it too.

Liz: Does Kung Fu Panda count?? I love that movie! I’m afraid to watch some of the more poignant ones like A Dog’s Purpose or Marley and Me, because I know they’ll make me cry. (No, it doesn’t matter how many people are killed in a movie, as long as the dog lives.) But going back to childhood, I loved 101 Dalmatians too, but Lady and the Tramp was my favorite.

[image error]Barb: In 1989 we were camping in Maine and on a rainy day Bill and I took our two kids, ages eight and five to see a Disney Movie, Turner and Hooch. It’s a lighthearted movie about a cop, Tom Hanks, who must care for a murder victim’s dog in order to solve the crime, all while wooing the local vet (Mare Winningham). (Spoiler alert.) The dog gets shot and dies! Heroically. Bill and I are sitting there stunned, with two little kids. It was a big deal at Disney, where they believed the movie would have made a lot more money if the dog had lived. There is even the legend of a sign up at Disney studios that said, “Don’t Kill the Dog!” a reminder to their writers. But here’s the thing. I loved the movie. I love it to this day. It had a strong emotional resonance. I’m not one for “Don’t Kill the Dog.” Pets die. It engendered some really good conversation in our family.[image error]

Edith: Wracking my brain. Movie with animal, movie with animal. Nothing, so I’ll go along with Lady and the Tramp, and March of the Penguins. Ooh, wait — Charlotte’s Web! Yeah, that would be my favorite.

Readers: Add yours!

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Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: 101 Dalmations, Babe, Charlotte's web, Jaws, Kung Fu Panda, Lady and the Tramp, March of the Penguins, Old Yeller, Turner and Hooch

Finding My Power

About a month ago, I was stuck. In both life and writing. I had about four thousand words written for my Cat Cafe book two, which is due at the end of August. And I had no creative juices flowing whatsoever. No desire to even pick up the computer.

A problem, right? The clock was ticking and the to-do list was piling up. So I did what anyone else would do. I found a new podcast series to listen to.

I wasn’t in the mood to listen to my normal crime podcasts. Instead, I found one called Adventures in Happiness, hosted by Jessica Ortner of The Tapping Solution. It was just what I needed – fun topics and fun guests. One of the people on the show was a Feng Shui expert.

I’d always liked Feng Shui, but another area where I was stuck was with my living space. I hadn’t really made it mine yet, and didn’t quite know how to get there. Which I assumed was contributing to my creativity problems. So I checked out this person’s website and decided to do a consult.

After my first conversation and a few quick-hit adjustments, I was surprised at how much better I was not only feeling, but how things were starting to flow. I added 11K words that first week, and managed to make my place feel a lot more homey by simply moving some things around, changing some colors and adding a few touches like plants and flowers.

But the best part? I started committing to doing positive things for myself every day that not only helped keep me in my creative flow, but actually shifted me into a place of power that I can channel into all areas of my life. Simple things every morning like a workout, a meditation, reading something new, taking a few minutes to nurture relationships, both with myself and others – all these things helped get me out of my funk and into a better place.

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There’s a whole list of things that I tackle every morning – well, most mornings – but here are my top three that make the most difference:

Journaling – I’ve written about morning pages before. I’m a huge fan. It’s all about getting the garbage out of my head and onto the page so it’s not festering and driving me crazy. With this new process, it’s about taking something that may seem negative, finding the lesson in it, then identifying how to apply it in all areas of life. Really cool.
Meditation – I’ve been working at this for the last year, and I’ve improved a lot. Now I’m making a point of doing it every day, twice when I can. I feel the results.
Workouts – I’d gotten out of the habit of doing a workout most days, and I felt it. I tend to fall into the trap of thinking that if I’m not doing an hour-long, high intensity workout, it doesn’t count. Wrong. Some days, I do a 30-minute on-demand class. Others I do yoga at my studio. Sometimes, I take an extra long walk with Shaggy and it’s my workout. And it all works. I feel energized, and I don’t feel guilty when I have some potato chips

Cover Reveal – Biscuits and Slashed Browns

Edith, with some delightful news, and a giveaway!

I have, that is, Maddie Day has, a cover for Book Four in the Country Store Mysteries. The book is called Biscuits and Slashed Browns, and it takes place during maple sap season in Brown County, Indiana. The book releases January 30, 2018. It is, of course, available for preorder wherever books are sold, and preorders really help the author. I’m giving away an apron and a cover flat to one lucky commenter today (US [image error]only)!

Here’s the cover blurb:

For country-store owner Robbie Jordan, the National Maple Syrup Festival is a sweet escape from late-winter in South Lick, Indiana—until murder saps the life out of the celebration . . .

As Robbie arranges a breakfast-themed cook-off at Pans ‘N Pancakes, visitors pour into Brown County for the annual maple extravaganza. Unfortunately, that includes Professor Connolly, a know-it-all academic from Boston who makes enemies everywhere he goes—and this time, bad manners prove deadly. Soon after clashing with several scientists at a maple tree panel, the professor is found dead outside a sugar shack, stabbed to death by a local restaurateur’s knife. When an innocent woman gets dragged into the investigation and a biologist mysteriously disappears, Robbie drops her winning maple biscuits to search for answers. But can she help police crack the case before another victim is caught in a sticky situation with a killer?

So, without further ado, I present the cover:

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Don’t you love it? We have the bottles of syrup, the sugaring-off shack, the sap buckets, pancakes, biscuits, a little March snow left on the ground, even the slashing knife.

And on the bench sits Robbie’s cat Birdy. For those of you who didn’t hear, this Birdy is modeled on my real-life cat Birdy, and he died on June 6, just a few weeks ago. I miss him terribly, and am comforted that he’ll live on in this series.

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Birdy, the cat in the Country Store Mysteries – literally, in this case!

Readers: To win one of my Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day aprons–which I save for extra-special giveaways–tell me in the comments section what’s your favorite thing to eat using maple syrup. Pancakes? Maple sugar candy? A mapletini? Oatmeal? Maple bars? Dish, gang.

 

Filed under: Edith's posts, Uncategorized Tagged: Birdy, Biscuits and Slashed Browns, Country Store Mysteries, Edith Maxwell, Kensington Publishing, Maddie Day, maple syrup, sap buckets