Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 210

What Happened This Month?

By Edith, still writing from her couch north of Boston. The way we Wickeds work our calendar is that each of us is responsible for wrangling one month twice a year. The wrangler sets up the Wicked Wednesday group posts, and generally make sure all the weekdays have a topic or a guest. March is my month this year. I’ve been a little out of it, and only last week noticed we had  big honking gap on March 7! Gulp. Scrambling to come up with a topic, I thought I’d see what has happened in the month of March over the last dozen centuries.

If I were really clever I’d make it a mash-up quiz. But I’m not, and I haven’t done my taxes yet, so  we’re sticking to the facts, ma’am. From the delightful History Place web site, I have learned the following positive facts:

[image error]March 1, 1961 – President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps.
March 3, 1917 – Marshmallow Fluff is born.
March 4, 1789 – The first meeting of the new Congress under the new U.S. Constitution took place in New York City.
March 6, 1475 – Renaissance genius Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Italy.
March 10, 1903 – Politician and playwright Claire Boothe Luce  was born in New York [image error]City. She served in the House of Representatives from 1943 to 1947 and then became the first woman appointed as U.S. ambassador to a major country (Italy). [Photograph from the Carl Van Vechten Photographs collection at the Library of Congress.]
March 12, 1888 – The Great Blizzard of ’88 struck the northeastern U.S. (an event that took place a scant month before my novel Delivering the Truth opens!).
March 14, 1833. The first female dentist, Lucy Hobbs, was born in New York state. She received her degree in 1866 from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery and was a women’s rights advocate.
March 22, 1972 – The Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Senate and then sent to the states for ratification.
March 25, 1807 – The British Parliament abolished the slave trade following a long campaign against it by Quakers and others.

There were certainly some disastrous and violent events in March over the centuries, but let’s not dwell on them. Other notables besides Luce and Hobbs born in the month, which I found listed on a site about history in March, include Alexander Graham Bell (3rd), Einstein (14th), Grover Cleveland (18th), Wyatt Earp (19th), Johann Sebastian Bach (21st), Van Gogh (30th), and Franz Josef Hayden (31st). Funny, notice how they’re all men?[image error]

So I went searching for famous women born in the month and found Miriam Makeba (4th), Reese Witherspoon (22nd), Sarah Jessica Parker (25th), Keira Knightley (26th), Mariah Carey (27th), Lady Gaga, (28th), and Celine Dion, (30th). Women celebrities sure back loaded this month!

But of course the most famous birthday of all is month is that of none other than our own Sherry Harris! AND her fabulous cozy-mystery-loving mom, Martha.

So have a great birthday month, Sherry!

Readers and Wickeds, what happened (or will happen this year) for you in March? Did I miss any big positive historical events from March pasts?

Filed under: Edith's posts Tagged: Claire Booth Luce, Equal Rights Amendment, Great Blizzard of 1888, Lucy Hobbs, Peace Corps, Reese Witherspoon

Reading History

by Sheila Connolly

[image error]I love history. Once upon a time I hoped to be a medieval scholar, wandering among French cathedrals and English castles and making intelligent comments about the symbolism of gargoyles and the evolution of the Gothic arch. As a child a friend and I used to act out Revolutionary War stories that we made up. I’m fascinated by ruined buildings, especially those that seem to have been abandoned in the woods for no obvious reason, because I knew there had to be a story there.[image error]

But I can’t write historical novels, and I seldom read them (my apologies to those who do either—it’s me, not you). In part I blame it on my early academic training. I want to get the details right, the setting, the vocabulary. And that take research, which is a wonderful, terrible time-sink. I’d get so caught up trying to figure out what they called that buckle that held your armor on in 1327 or what kind of varnish a furniture-maker would use in 1783 that I’d never get around to finishing the book. Once I read a perfectly nice book written by a friend, and in it she said someone found a photograph hidden in a secret drawer in a piece of old furniture—but it was supposedly hidden there half a century before photography was invented. I nearly threw the book across the room.

But! you protest, you use all kinds of history in your books!

Yes, I do. But I incorporate history as seen through the eyes of my modern heroines. They don’t always understand all that they’re seeing, so they get to ask questions and do their own research, make their own discoveries. As do the readers!

I also was a teacher for a few years, long ago, and I remember how challenging it was to make teen-age students “see” the past in a way that made it become real to them, and how rewarding it was when at least a few of them did.

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View of Plimoth Plantation

I live in Massachusetts, not far from Plymouth, where so much of our country’s history began. Plimoth Plantation is a recreation of the original settlement, and is said to be one of the best in the country, down to small details like the stitches on the reenactors’ clothes. Old Sturbridge Village does a fine job too. When you’re standing in the center of the town green there, you can believe you’ve stepped back in time (and watch out for the piles of manure from the oxen). By the way, two of the houses at OSV belonged to distant relatives of mine. Sometimes I think my own history follows me around.

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Old Sturbridge Village — one end of the green

The more time I spend in Ireland, the more I realize that the oral tradition of passing history down through the generations survives, even in this electronic age. I met one woman who told me that my great-uncle Paddy used to stable a horse behind the pub I use in my County Cork mysteries. A dairy farmer spent half an hour telling me about the history of the house we were renting from him—and what happened when the sisters who owned the place were emigrating in the early 1900s and the man who had agreed to rent the house from them didn’t pay up, so it was the McCarthy’s down the road who took over the lease so the sisters would be able to sail to New York as planned. I heard this a hundred years after it happened, and BTW, the McCarthy’s still live down the road. He believed I’d be interested, and I was.

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Yes, that’s the McCarthys’ house

We need history, whether it’s a millennium or a century old. History isn’t all about kings and battles—it’s also about the daily fabric of ordinary people’s lives. It’s the details that make history come alive—in your mind or on a page. I keep remembering a line from a Dixie Chicks song: “Who do we become/Without knowing where we started from?”

What historic place or building or artifact has impressed you most? It doesn’t have to be something big and important, as long as it mattered to you and you remember it.

And in honor of the publication of my new County Cork book, Cruel Winter, I’m giving away a copy to one lucky person who leaves a comment. The book does include a lot of my own history—Maura’s house in the book is the one that my great-uncle built in 1907 (now, sadly, abandoned), and where my great-grandmother Bridget lived out her life.

Cruel Winter, coming March 14th from Crooked Lane Books, and available for pre-order

http://www.sheilaconnolly.com

 

 

Filed under: County Cork Mysteries, giveaway, history, Ireland, Sheila's Posts

Opening Lines

Here’s our Opening Lines–mysterious presence edition. Readers: Add your opening lines.

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Photo by Bill Carito

Barb: I shivered in the eighty degree heat.

Edith: As if the slick of the rain and the blue lights triggering my PTSD weren’t bad enough, when the apparition showed up, too, I had no choice but to scream.

Julie: I walked into the bikers’ bar, and ordered a Shirley Temple. “Extra cherries,” I snarled.

Jessie: The cops who investigated my wife’s death said they couldn’t prove it but they knew I’d gotten away with murder. With the way Pauline still dogged my every step, the truth was, I hadn’t gotten away with anything.

Liz: It had to be the heat shimmering off the pavement. I wasn’t ready to share the alley with a ghost, so I refused to acknowledge the face hovering over me.

Sherry: He sat with his arms crossed guarding his beach bike like he thought he was a tough guy. I couldn’t wait to test how tough he really was.

Readers: Add yours in the comments!

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Filed under: Opening Lines Tagged: Bill Carito Photography, ghost story, PTSD

A Wicked Welcome Back to Laura Bradford

Jane/Susannah/Sadie here, dreaming of daffodils…

I’m super excited to bring Laura Bradford, a/k/a Elizabeth Lynn Casey, back to the Wickeds. I asked her some questions recently, and here’s what she had to say:

Tell us about yourself.[image error]

I’m a mom. I’ve wanted to write since I was ten. I’ve had 29 books contracted since being diagnosed with MS in the summer of 2006.  I love—and I mean, love—to bake (and eat). And if I could only vacation to one place for the rest of my life, I would choose Disney World—I love the innocent joy and the way it lifts my spirits.

Tell us about your series.

How about I tell you about two of them?

Wicked Wednesday: March Into Spring

Edith here, and it’s March! Not sure quite how that happened so fast this year, but let’s

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March, from Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

march through our Wednesdays together this month. Today I want to know how each Wicked plans to march forward into spring. Many of us have been pretty much holed up during the winter, ignoring the weather and doing some concentrated writing. But spring will launch later this month. How do your work habits change in the spring? Do you get itching to plow both the ground and the fertile soil of your imagination? Do you start working out on your porch or taking more sunny plotting walks? What one step will you take differently this month?

Liz: I’m so excited it’s almost spring! The biggest difference this month for me? I’ll have turned my book in so won’t be working on a crazy deadline while trying to do a million other things! Seriously, this entire winter has been crazy and I’m not sorry to see it go (well, I’m never sorry to see winter go). But I think once I catch up on a few things, I’m going to get myself onto a more serious writing schedule. Probably early in the morning, maybe outside if I can manage it. I’ve let a lot of my routines go during a difficult few months, and need to get them back.

Edith: We’re all pulling for you, Liz! For me, I’m just looking forward to taking any steps. I’ve had a tough first month  post-knee surgery, and when I tried to do a slightly tiny bit longer slow walk on the weekend it really messed me up. But I find all the light in the sky, the sounds of birds again, and the crocuses and daffodils poking their green shoots up out of the cold ground inspiring and stimulating. I know I won’t be able to garden again until the weather really warms up, so I’m going to use that inspiration to finish a first draft this month, and hopefully be able to march lots better before April, too. I’m also, of course, marching toward my double release – When the Grits Hit the Fan on March 28, followed closely by Called to Justice on April 8!

[image error]Sherry: It’s been spring most of the winter here in Northern Virginia. My hydrangeas are leafing out, windows have been open, and I’ve spent a lot of time outside. I’m starting out March with my mom and family in Florida celebrating her 90th birthday today. After that I’ll be gearing up for the release of A Good Day To Buy (shameless self promotion warning — it’s available for pre-orders right now) on April 25th. It’s always an exciting and nerve-racking time!

Barb: Happy birthday to your mom, Sherry. She is one of the Wickeds’ most stalwart fans. Like Liz, I should be turning in my book soon, the sixth Maine Clambake Mystery, Stowed Away. Then, for some insane reason, this spring I’m doing eight appearances in five weeks. Four are conferences that require pre-registration: the Maine Crime Wave, Malice Domestic, Muse and the Marketplace, (where I’m teaching a class, Four Lies People Will Tell You about Marketing Your Novel ) and the Massachusetts Library Association Conference. Four are at bookstores. Various combinations of the Wickeds will be at all of the bookstore events, and we’ll all be together in Nashua, NH on April 19 and in Bethesda, MD the Thursday night before Malice. For those of you who are coming in early for the conference, we’d love to see you there! You can always find my events on my website here. It’s going to be a crazy spring, but I’m very much looking forward to it.

Jessie: Unlike the rest of you I have no plans. Living in northern New England teaches you that spring will break your heart. Just when the daffodils poke their heads up through cold cracks in the earth a foot of snow covers them and makes you wonder if you’ll see them again. So I don’t plan for spring; I prefer to sneak up on it when it isn’t looking. I ease out through the door on a sunny day and perch gingerly on the porch swing to eat my lunch in the warmth of a sunbeam and hope not to jinx things.  I peek at the lengthening days with the barest of glances so as not to scare them off. I whisper to my family the first time I notice there is no frost on the grass in the morning. I’ll make plans come summer.

Julie: This winter has let us taste spring a couple of times, and I am forever grateful for that. Last week it got close to 70. Delightful. Of course, here in New England once it hits 40 we take off our hats and scarves and unzip our coats. I have a lot to work on book wise, but can’t wait for windows to be open.

Readers: What changes for you with the onset of spring? How do you march differently?

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Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: A Good Day To Buy, Maine Crime Wave, Malice Domestic 2017, Marching forward, Massachusetts Library Association Conference, Muse and the Marketplace, spring bulbs, Stowed Away, sunshine, Working in spring

Making a Writing Retreat: Part II

From Edith, starting to walk around again (after getting a new knee) north of Boston.

Here’s Part II of my poll on writing retreats, with answers to my questions from authors Tiger Wiseman, Ramona DeFelice Long, Liz Milliron, and Holly Robinson – their bios are at the end of the post. Check out Part I for the purpose and feeling of a retreat, although of course there is overlap.

What are your top five tips for what to bring?

T:

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Tiger Wiseman

Writing snacks ( I bring potato chips)
A good book or two
Comfortable walking shoes
MP3 player
Wine

R: 

For work, only what you need. Before you leave, prioritize your projects and bring research, notes, etc. for those projects only, instead of every possible story on your dream list. Bringing too many projects can leave you feeling like a failure because you’ll never get to them all.
Comfort items, like your favorite pillow, blanket, teddy bear, Christmas lights, a sound machine.
A story idea or issue that can be discussed or brainstormed as a group. This is a real bonding experience.
A journal. If you are a newbie, it may help to note what you brought that was a godsend and what you left behind that you longed for. If you have a meaningful experience, journaling it will keep it alive for you  long after the retreat is over.
A camera! I use my cell phone and love looking back at photos of my writing escape places.

L:

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Liz Milliron

Anything you need to make your writing space comfortable (pillows, lap desk, favorite blend of tea, etc.).
Something you can take notes on (cards or a phone app), preferably portable so if you decide to take a walk and inspiration strikes, you’re prepared.
Materials for the WIP – me I never go without my MacBook air, which has everything I need on it, but if you write longhand make sure you have all your things. This sounds silly, but I once went on a retreat and a woman there had forgotten half her research materials.
Snacks to power you through the day (our retreats are never lacking for food, but if you crave something bring it along).
Comfortable clothes to write in. I am known in our Sisters in Crime chapter for my Cookie Monster pajama pants.When the pants come out, everyone knows I’m about to hunker down.Jeans are for socializing, but Cookie Monster is for writing!

H:

Flannel Pajamas & slippers: my favorite writing uniform
Running clothes: I find that solitary runs with music are the best way to wake up my brain
Bath bubbles: Yes, a bath works wonders to ease the kinks in your body after writing for hours
Quick reads: when I’m intensely writing, I like a good mystery or thriller for escape
Chocolate & wine: yeah, I know those are two things, but they go together!

E:  I’m seeing a theme of snacks and comfort, there! And what I bring is no different.[image error]

Comfy clothes and walking shoes (yes, and slippers).
My smaller laptop, favorite pen, and paper notebook.
Super easy meals. I don’t want to waste time cooking unless I’m with others.
Wine and chocolate, of course.
Chargers!


How long does it take you to get into the groove? What’s the optimal number of days to be away?
T: I can get into my writing groove immediately. Optimal retreat is 4 to 7 days.  Anything shorter and you don’t get enough written to feel successful; longer and you start to fret about things not getting done at home. . .and the dog.

R: I lose the bulk of the first day and the last day for coming and going, so the optimum

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Ramona DeFelice Long

short side is 5 days, because that leaves you at least three full days to write. I have been away for two weeks and four weeks, and the first is too short and the last is too long. For long term I’d say the sweet spot is three weeks.

L: I get into the groove pretty quickly – an hour, tops.l think this is because my limited writing time during the week has conditioned me to hit the ground running. I love weekend retreats. A day isn’t quite enough and I think I’d go a little bonkers after a week, but a weekend (Friday afternoon through Sunday morning) is perfect for me.
H: I get into the groove pretty quickly, after setting up my stuff, unpacking, and taking a walk to clear my mind. Optimally, I love going for 3-5 days: intense 10-hour writing days.
E: It takes me a few hours, usually. I have to get the space set up to my liking, poke around the kitchen, breathe some oxygen outside, and depending on long my drive was, take a walk – but even that is kickstarting my writing.

If you’ve hosted a retreat, any comments about the experience? Selecting whom to invite?
T: I’ve hosted several retreats in Vermont. I find that 3 to 5 writers (including host) is a good number since we share cooking duties.  I often let one person invite whoever they want, their friends.  I don’t think the choice of people is as important as making sure everyone understands and follows the rules: quiet times, chore division. Anyone can get along for 5 days, as long as they’re accomplishing what they came to do. Down time is very important.  If you’re alone, you may push too hard; with others, you stop for dinner and–at my retreats–wine and conversation or games. Makes for a well-rounded, relaxing retreat.


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Sign as one leaves the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

R: I have hosted. Once I rented the retreat house and invited a few people I thought might be available. Another time, I specifically invited people who’d been to a past retreat, as a reunion. A schedule that allows for private work all day and a dinner followed by group readings, brainstorming, discussion, or just chilling with wine is my favorite program. If there are workshops or any programming, those should be in the morning so the afternoon can be devoted to a long period of writing.

L: if you are putting together a weekend and inviting people (as opposed to something like doing it as a chapter of an organization), look for people who are flexible. People who like being in groups and are willing to pitch in – not sit around and live off other people’s work. Nothing brings a group down faster than a constant complainer. And if your event is going to be open to a chapter and you know there’s a complainer, resolve that the person is not going to ruin the weekend for you.
E: Morning workshops wouldn’t work for me. I need my morning creative time alone, and would rather hang with the group late afternoon and evening. Re-entry can be rough, too.

H: I do have mini-retreats at my Prince Edward Island house. I only take friends who write

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Holly Robinson

as intensely as I do—that’s just three people to choose from—my favorite friend to take is one who knows when not to talk! Which is pretty much all day, unless we’re on an afternoon walk, or after the wine comes out after dinner and we share what we’ve been working on.

E: Holly, I’m that kind of writer! Take me along next time, please?


My guests:

Tiger Wiseman is an aspiring mystery writer & confirmed foodie. She blogs at Pen, Spoon, and Dagger.
Ramona DeFelice Long writes every morning at 7:00 a.m. in her home in Delaware. She is an independent editor specializing in crime fiction and an accomplished essayist and short story author. Twitter: @ramonadef.
Liz Milliron writes The Laurel Highlands Mysteries. Her short fiction appears in Blood on the Bayou, Fish Out of Water, and Mystery Most Historical.
Holly Robinson is a novelist, journalist, and celebrity ghost writer whose latest novel is Folly Cove . Visit her at her web site and on twitter @hollyrob1.


Readers:  Ask our retreatants questions – they’ll pop in and check throughout the day if they can. And be sure to check out their writing if you haven’t already. They are a talented bunch!



Filed under: Craft, Edith's posts, Guest posts, Writing Retreat Tagged: Edith Maxwell, holly robinson, liz milliron, Maddie Day, Ramona DeFelice Long, Tiger Wiseman, writing retreats

Friends, Dead Freds and Deadlines

Liz here, in book jail, but quite possibly on the verge of parole…

It’s been a long few months.

Seriously. I don’t mean to complain, but it really has. There’s been a lot going on in my world, and then at the end of January, I got a little surprise. I realized (thanks to my super-on-it-editor at Kensington) that I had screwed up. I thought my deadline for my next book was April 1, and I was meandering along towards it, doing my usual “I’ll do it later” thing. (Granted, this time I had a better reason for doing that than others, but still.) Anyway, I was wrong. Or delusional. Turns out the book was due March 1 instead.

Heart attack? Oh yes. With a few panic attacks thrown in. When I learned this, I had about half my word count completed, but my story itself seemed to have gone by the wayside. I was stuck in the middle, so I wasn’t progressing. I was procrastinating, because I was dealing with some difficult personal and professional experiences. I was already feeling like it was an impossible task.

So to lose four weeks felt like a bad joke.

But seriously – I had no time to wallow. I had to just figure out how to get it done. And of course, this is where the Wickeds came in.

It’s no secret around here that I’ve struggled with the whole plotting vs. pantsing thing. I write about it often, usually around a deadline when I’m once again reminded how plotting could’ve saved my sanity. This time, I had plotted. I even felt good about the plot. So to still be stuck was killing me.

And then Jessie stepped in. She FaceTimed me one afternoon and walked me through an  amazing exercise where I laid out my plot, told her where I was stuck, and we spent the next two hours re-plotting and brainstorming and generally untying all the knots I’d worked myself into. By the time we hung up, I felt better. I used her method of posting “Dead Freds” all over my wall into some semblance of an outline. Once I had all my scenes mostly laid out and where I wanted them, I started inputting them into Scrivener. [image error]

Then I started writing. And miraculously, I started making progress. This was the best exercise I’ve ever done – and I’m totally going to bug Jessie to do it again (and again!) for my next book(s).

When Sherry read the first few chapters for me, she pointed out a potential (huge) issue that I was able to fix fairly easily, before it turned into a big problem with the finished draft. As always, her fabulous eye is just what I needed. I replotted a bit, then started again.

And through it all, Barb, Julie and Edith have been cheering me on – Barb from her own cell in book jail, Edith through her knee surgery, and Julie through her always-busy life. It’s been hairy, but I think I’m going to do it. As usual, these guys saved the day. And put up with me at the same time. I promise I’ll make it up to you all…

Now let’s hope my editor likes the book once I finally get to The End!

Readers, what’s gotten you through a difficult time or an impossible deadline? 

 

Filed under: Uncategorized

After The Contract — Guest Debra Sennefelder

Welcome, Debra Sennefelder! Debra and I haven’t met but a few weeks ago she left a comment on one of our blogs that she’d just signed a contract for a book! I was so happy she shared her news with us and when I had the idea for doing the After The Contract series, I hoped she’d be able to share her experiences!

I was so honored and thrilled when Sherry asked if I would write a post about my brand-spanking new contract. It took all of a nano-second to type my reply and here I am today.

[image error]“The call” came the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. I was home just finishing up my lunch break from writing when the phone rang. The caller ID said it was my agent. Oh, boy. Either she had great news or bad news, like all the editors we’d sent the submission to passed on it and made the suggestion I should give up writing forever (I know, that seems extreme but it’s how a writer’s mind works). Since it was 50/50, I took a deep breath and answered the call. She gave me the news. Good news! Kensington Publishing had offered me a 3-book contract for my Food Blogger Mystery series. That phone call was about to change my life (maybe a little too dramatic?) but truly things were about to change.

I was speechless (rare). My dream publisher wanted to buy my book. Three books. I recovered and somehow managed to have a coherent conversation with my agent and then we said goodbye. I had a decision to make of whether or not to accept the offer. But first I needed to process what just had happened. I’d spent months writing the book that was now in my new editor’s hand. I’d spent years pursuing publication. I’d spent years learning the craft of writing. And now it was actually going to happen. I was going to become a published author. The hour following the call is a blur. Text messages and phone calls to family and close friends and my critique partner. Everyone was excited and I was still in shock.

Fast forward a few weeks when I shared the news with those beyond my inner circle and was overwhelmed with everyone’s reaction. Everybody was thrilled, excited and they had loads of questions. But at that time I had little information – 3-book contract, first book due out in early 2018. Title? I wasn’t sure if the publisher would keep the title I gave the book.  I have since learned that the publisher is keeping the title so the first book is called The Uninvited Corpse.

When I first got the call and shared my good news with fellow authors I received what seems to be a never ending list of things I will need to do. Social media. Newsletter. Blog tours. Excerpts. Graphics for social media. Goodreads. Amazon author page. Website. Promotional material. Write the next book. Write the third book. My head was spinning. I was told all that I had to do now but the truth was all I had to do at that moment of receiving “the call” was to enjoy the moment. Of course I expect to have many, many more calls about offers to publish future works (hope my editor is reading) but it will never be the first call again.  I needed to enjoy the moment.

The next thing I made sure to do is breathe. With what I had to do for my editor, granted it wasn’t a lot of work but it was very important work, and writing the second book and working a full-time job and life, I could have easily dropped the ball many times. But I chose to breathe and not let everything that I needed to do overwhelm me. I think I’ve been smart, at least I hope I have, and began a spreadsheet for all of my social media for the year, I’ve set up an accounting system, I’ve started a newsletter (best to get into the routine now and you’ll find the sign-up form on my website – see, I’m honing my blatant self-promotion skills), I’ve started using my Outlook calendar for dates of blog posts and I’m heavily relying my handy-dandy organizer for notes and keeping my daily schedule on track. To think that when I got the call I thought that early 2018 was so far away but now I’m thinking early 2018 is close. Amazing how our perspective changes over time.

For the rest of December and January I kept my head down working on the second book which is due in the fall of this year. But it still didn’t feel real to me. Maybe it was because I didn’t have anything tangible besides a signed contract and a telephone conversation with my editor. You would think that would be enough but it kinda wasn’t. Then came two things that needed to be done for my editor – an author Q&A needed to be completed and feedback on the cover of the book. A cover? Wow. My book was going to have a cover. Well, of course it was and I knew that but to think about what the cover would look like? It was getting real now. To make it more real, my editor wanted the outline for book 2 by a specific date. I now had a deadline and now it was real.

Let me wrap this post up with one final thought on being in-between the signing of the contract and the release of the book.  I knew that signing the contract meant I’d be faced with a boatload of work and I prepared myself for that. What I didn’t prepare for was how much I would truly enjoy everything that I’m being tasked with doing. What’s that old saying, do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life? It’s true. I don’t believe I’ll ever have another work day again.

Thank you Wickeds for letting me share my contract experience with everyone. Before I go I’d like to remind everyone that dreams to come true. Believe and don’t give up.

Readers: What dreams have you refused to give up on? And please ask Debra questions – she’ll pop in as she can today to respond.

 

Filed under: Guest posts Tagged: Debra Sennefelder, Dreams come true, Food Blogger Mysteries, Kensington Publishing

Go West, Young Woman — Guest Annette Dashofy

[image error]I met Annette when we were both nominated for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. One might think we’d be bitter rivals but instead became good friends (along with all the other nominees). We welcome Annette back to talk about her fifth book in the Zoe Chambers mystery series!

I grew up with a steady diet of westerns. My dad and I watched them all. Bonanza, The Virginian, Gunsmoke, Big Valley. Later I fell in love with Alias Smith and Jones. Much of my reading material was authored by Zane Grey. My cousin and I used to play cowboys on our horses. In my vivid imagination, our farm buildings were livery stables, saloons, hotels, and the sheriff’s office. The green valleys of Pennsylvania became the rocky canyons of Wyoming in our world.

[image error]I never lost that love of the Old West. The TV shows faded into obscurity, and I’d almost forgotten them until one day I turned on a retro television network and spotted Hannibal Heyes. The next week, I randomly tuned into the same station and re-discovered Trampas. That long dormant passion flamed back to life.

However, in spite of my romance with the mountains and deserts of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, the farthest west I’d ever been was eastern Indiana.

At some point, I decided, dadgum it, I was going out there. Call it the top of my bucket list or whatever, but it became my mission in life. And it finally happened.

That trip in the summer of 2013 was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime dream vacation. Not only was I going out West, I was going to finally meet several friends I’d known online but never face-to-face.

In his best “let me get this right” voice, my darling husband said, “We’re going to fly to Colorado and stay with someone you don’t know?”

I said, “I know her.”

Hubby is something of Luddite and distrusts the internet. Distrusted it even more back then. “But you’ve never met her.”

I shrugged.

He went on, “And then we’re going to drive for hours to stay with someone else you don’t know???”

I didn’t see the point in arguing with him.

But that’s exactly what we did. We flew in to the Colorado Springs Airport and jumped into a vehicle with my longtime critique buddy Donnell Bell and her husband, Les. It felt more [image error]like a wonderful reunion than a first-time meeting.

Almost a week later, we bid a tearful goodbye, and Hubby and I loaded our gear into a rental SUV for a long drive southwest to Aztec, New Mexico, where we “met” my dear friend Leta Burns. There was much schoolgirlish squealing and hugging. Hubby stood back, certain we were all insane. But at least he was finally convinced that my online friends were neither imaginary, nor ax murderers luring hapless victims from across the country with promises of horseback rides and ghost towns.

Anyhow, besides meeting old/new friends, the trip was amazing. I remember looking out of the window of the airplane as it came in for our Colorado landing and crying at my first sight of real mountains. I exclaimed, “Wow!” at every new vista. That drive from Colorado Springs to Aztec took us from snow capped peaks to flat prairies to mesas. We drove through Wolf Creek Pass.

Wow.

After our visit in Aztec, Leta, Hubby, and I drove south nine hours through even more diverse scenery to Silver City. We saw a gazillion prairie dogs and a few elk.

[image error]On that once-in-a-lifetime trip, I rode a horse through the Garden of the Gods, I shopped the streets of Durango and ate at the haunted Strater Hotel. We wandered through a ghost town and toured the cabin where Billy the Kid lived…at least in the movie The Missing.

And oh so much more.

What I didn’t realize until I returned to the green rolling hills of Pennsylvania was that the once-in-a-lifetime trip wasn’t once in a lifetime. Like the lyrics from one of my favorite songs, I’d come home to a place I’d never been before. And those online friends had become family. I’ve been back every year.

I also didn’t realize right away that a seed of a story had been sewn. Heck, at that time, Circle of Influence didn’t yet have a publisher. I didn’t know there would be a Zoe Chambers mystery series.

But there is, and by the second book in it, I knew at some point, Zoe would be taking a trip to New Mexico. My exclamations of “Wow!” would come from her lips as well. A Pennsylvania fish out of water in the badlands of the four corners.

No Way Home is the fifth in that series and it does indeed take Zoe someplace she’s never been before.

[image error]Annette Dashofy is the USA Today best-selling author of the Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township. CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE was a finalist for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel of 2014 and BRIDGES BURNED was nominated for the 2015 Agatha for Best Contemporary Novel. NO WAY HOME, the fifth in the series, hits bookstores March 14.

Readers: Have you ever visited some place that unexpectedly felt like home?

 

 

 

Filed under: Guest posts Tagged: Annette Dashofy, Billy the Kid, Colorado Springs, Durango, Garden of the Gods, Silver City, Strater Hotel, The Missing, there was an old woman, Wolf Creek Pass, Zoe Chambers mystery

Romantic Gestures — What Does Your Protagonist Think?

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We are having a “We Love Our Readers” giveaway every Wednesday in February. Leave a comment for a chance to win no later than midnight the Thursday after the post. This week one reader has a chance to win a book from Liz and Edith.

Last week we talked about romance in cozies and this week we focus on how it impacts our protagonist. Is your protagonist a romantic? Is there someone special in her life who is? Has your protagonist created a romantic moment or has the love in her life? Was it a big thing or a little thing? How did it impact them?

Edith: What great questions! How our protagonists react to things like romance is just as [image error]important as what she carries in her handbag and what’s in her fridge. I will focus on my midwife Rose Carroll. I built the romance into book one. Despite being a practical independent midwife, she’s a romantic, too, but she’s conflicted about committing to David Dodge because of a painful (highly abusive, actually) experience when she was a teenager. There’s a very romantic scene in Called to Justice (out April 8!) where David takes her in his buggy out to the wide Merrimack River on a full moon night. (“The full moon splashed a silver path from the distant bank across to ours.”) You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens.

[image error]Liz: Stan Connor came to Frog Ledge with a token boyfriend. She’d totally forgotten what it was like to really feel in love or even romance. In fact, she snickered at all the sappy love stories or songs when she heard them and chalked it up to unrealistic people who would eventually find their bubble burst. Then she met Jake McGee. Once she’d lost the loser boyfriend, it took them a couple of books to get things right, but Stan has now turned into one of those people who sighs over love songs, delights in sappy movies, and generally thinks her life is better because of Jake.

Sherry: Sarah has had a rocky romantic life since she is [image error]recently divorced in the first book Tagged for Death. In the third book, All Murders Final!, she does go on one romantic date with Seth Anderson to the historic Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts. And Sarah does like to be wooed. It was fun to go to the Wayside Inn with the Wickeds in December after our Books and Bagels event in Sudbury. The pictures below are from the Wayside Inn. The one on the left is the tavern.

[image error]Barb: My amateur sleuth, Julia Snowden, is the product of a great romance–the marriage of a lonely girl who spent her summers on a private island and a local boy who delivered groceries in his skiff. Julia thinks her mother is the romantic and she is the pragmatist. I’m not so sure. Certainly Julia fell into the arms of Chris Durand when he appeared on her family’s tour boat to clear up some misunderstandings and confess his interest in her.

Jessie: There is at least a touch of romance in each of my series. That being said, none of my protagonists are romantics. They are all independent women with a lot [image error]going on in their lives whether or not they have a romantic partner. None of them are looking for romance; in fact, Gwen Fifield from Live Free or Die and Dani Greene from the Sugar Grove series are more interested in dodging matchmaking efforts by their friends and families.

Julie: Ruth Clagan is recently divorced in Clock Shop Mystery series, so she isn’t looking for romance. That said, Ben the handsome barber from next door is a dish, so there’s that. Her feelings for Ben throw her off a bit. She takes it slow, and finds it hard to trust. But did I mention that he’s handsome? Think Robert Redford in the early 70’s. That handsome. More [image error]importantly, he’s a good guy. That makes all the difference for her.

Readers: Do you have a favorite romantic moment from a book?

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Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: A Change of Fortune Mystery, A Clock Shop Mystery, All Murders Final, Called to Justice, CHIME AND PUNISHMENT, Custom Baked Murder, Julia Snowden, Longfellow's Wayside Inn, maine clambake mysteries, Midnight Ink, Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, Quaker Midwife Mysteries, romance in mystery, Sudbury MA, Tagged for Death, Wayside Inn, Whispers Beyond the Veil