Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 215

Wicked Wednesday: Happy Book Birthday Liz & Barb

[image error]We are celebrating the book birthdays of Liz Mugavero (Custom Baked Murder) and Barbara Ross (Iced Under). Julia Snowden and Stan Connor have had a number of adventures so far, and we’re thrilled to read their latest. Wickeds, what are your New Year’s wishes for Julia and Stan?

Edith: Don’t get iced under or murdered (custom baked or otherwise)! More seriously, may your sleuthing brains sharpen, may your love lives thrive,  may murder not get too close to home, and may we see many,  many more new adventures from both of you.

Julie: May your adventures be great, and justice prevail. And may your VERY talented creators continue to bless us with stories.

Liz: Thanks for all the well wishes, Wickeds! Here’s hoping enough bodies fall to keep Stan and Julia in business for a good long time.

Jessie: I wish you both investigations galore and a tidal wave of crime in each of your towns!

Sherry: I’d like to wish both Stan and Julia a peaceful New Year but what fun would that be? So may they both always get their man/woman, may their relatives not drive them crazy, and may they continue to intrigue us with all of their twists and turns!

Barb: I wish Stan a huge success with the Pet Treat Bakery she’s hoping and planning for. And for Julia, I wish she finds a home where she is comfortable and happy.

Readers: New Year’s wishes for Stan and Julia? Please add yours!

 

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Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: Barbara Ross, Custom Baked Murder, Iced Under, Liz Mugavero

Family Dynamics

By Liz, happily celebrating launch day for Custom Baked Murder and Barb’s  Iced Under !

Another release day is here. Five books? How in the world did that happen, anyway? And rumor has it there’s a sixth book on its way – that is, if I could get my butt in the chair and my fingers on the keys…

But that’s a problem for tomorrow. Today, I’m reflecting on how amazing it feels to have five published books in a series.To have readers who anxiously await Stan’s next adventure, and people who write to me to tell me my books have brought them joy. People who love animals and want to share their experiences after reading about the animals in the books.

It’s a wonderful feeling to have created a world people love to visit.

I’m excited about this book, too. Each one is more fun to write (deadline and plot hole angst aside), and with every new visit to Frog Ledge I find more and more reasons to want to go on living there virtually for a good long time. A lot of that is because of the relationships. And I don’t simply mean the good ones – the Stan and Jake story, or Stan’s friendships with Izzy, Char and Ray, to name a few. Having Stan’s “real” family take such a large part of the storyline has been fascinating for me.

Stan’s mother’s involvement in Frog Ledge isn’t something I plotted out when I originally planned the series. Patricia Connor’s re-entry into her older daughter’s life sort of just happened, and it felt right so I’m following along. I might be hoping this complicated relationship will untangle itself in a way that is mutually beneficial for both parties – something I’ve always hoped for in my own relationship with my mother. It hasn’t happened for me yet, but maybe Stan will have better luck.

In Custom Baked Murder, Stan’s family life gets even more complicated when her sister Caitlyn turns up in town – and doesn’t want to leave. But she’s in for some surprises on that front, too.

This is truly a case where the characters are telling me what to do instead of the other way around. I’m simply along for the ride on this front. But families? When do they ever listen anyway?

At least when it comes to the murder portion of the book, I’m still in charge…

Readers, what about you? What do you love most when reading about family dynamics?

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From the back cover:

Kristan “Stan” Connor gladly turned tail on her high-flying job and moved to a quaint New England town to sell organic pet treats. But with her nose for solving murders, there’s no such thing as a quiet life…

Summer is winding down in Frog Ledge, Connecticut, but Stan’s love life and career are both heating up nicely. In between planning her new pet patisserie and café, Stan is settling into living-in-bliss with sexy pub owner Jake McGee. Love’s on the menu for Stan’s mom, Patricia, too, who’s engaged to Frog Ledge’s mayor, Tony Falco.

Mayor Falco’s dogged ambition isn’t popular among locals, but it’s his executive coach, Eleanor Chang, who’s inspired a dangerous grudge. When Eleanor is found dead, there’s a whole pack of suspects to choose from. Stan has first-hand experience of Eleanor’s unsavory business tactics. But finding out who forced her to take a fatal plunge off the corporate ladder means unearthing some shady secrets…and a killer who’s too close for comfort.

 

Filed under: Liz's posts Tagged: Custom Baked Murder, family, Iced Under

Boxing Day Book Pairings

[image error]This week the Wickeds have a double celebration–Barbara Ross’s Iced Under and Liz Mugavero’s Custom Baked Murder are both being released on December 27. A pair of celebrations made me think about book pairings. Wickeds, what would you suggest folks eat or drink while reading your books?

Sherry: I’m so excited to read the final versions of both of these books! If you are reading any of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale books I’d recommend Italian food (maybe pizza) and a glass of Chianti. Sarah loves to eat at DiNapoli’s Roast Beef and Pizza. The food feeds her tummy and the DiNapoli’s feed her soul.[image error]

Edith: That depends on the series, of course. If you’re having brunch at Robbie Jordan’s country store restaurant, you could have a Bloody Mary or a mimosa with your baked French toast or your western omelet. Cam Flaherty in the Local Foods mysteries would recommend a good local IPA with your Irish beef stew. Meanwhile, back in 1888, Quaker midwife Rose Carroll of course goes strictly non-alcoholic, so pour yourself a cup of hot tea and munch on a gingersnap while you read!

Barb: I hope everyone has a chance to put their feet up and relax today. On Boxing Day the servants relaxed, but since so many of us are our own servants…As for pairings, with Eggnog Murder–why, eggnog, of course. No need to fear (he, he, he). With the Maine Clambake Mysteries, I usually recommend a local beer, for example from the Sea Dog or Shipyard brewing companies. But Iced Under takes place  in the dead of winter, so maybe readers won’t feel like something frosty. Go with a hot chocolate or a nice cuppa tea. Sounds lovely. I think I’ll go do so myself.

Liz: Stan spends a lot of time at Izzy’s coffee and gourmet chocolate shop, either eating or drooling over the pastries while sipping a fancy flavored latte. So I would highly suggest getting out of the house with Custom Baked Murder, heading to your favorite coffee shop and sitting in a comfy chair with your favorite drink and a decadent chocolate-something muffin. Or maybe a cheese Danish. Or a steaming hot cinnamon bun. Sheesh, I’m getting hungry….

Jessie: Maine in 1898 was a dry state. In Whispers Beyond the Veil, protagonist, Ruby Proulx lives at her aunt’s hotel for Spiritualists in Old Orchard where the spirits available are the disembodied, rather than alcoholic, sort. A tall, cold glass of lemonade would be a great beverage to enjoy while reading this book. Considering its coastal setting, you can’t go wrong with a lobster roll. Or Pier Fries!

Julie: The Sleeping Latte has great coffee drinks, and Nancy Reed specials. This time of year, I’d suggest an eggnog latte and a molasses cookies. You know the kind of cookies that bend when you pick them up, and are wicked chewy? Yes, those!

Friends, any book and food pairings you’d like to share?Save

Filed under: Book Birthday Tagged: Barbara Ross, Country Store Mysteries, Custom Baked Murder, Eggnog Murder, Iced Under, Liz Mugavero, local foods mysteries, Quaker Midwife Mysteries, Sea Dog Brewing Company, Shipyard Brewing Company

A Santa Bonanza!

Look what Santa brought, dear Reader! The Wickeds’ 2016 books. Of course, 2017 will bring many more by all of us, so please stay tuned.

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Thank you for being part of our Wicked Cozy community. We value your comments and company, and have so enjoyed getting to know you over these years.

Whatever holiday you celebrate (or don’t), we wish you a quiet cozy time of family, good food, and most important, reading!

Filed under: Group posts, Holiday posts Tagged: Merry Christmas, Santa Claus, Wicked Cozy Authors

Book Tree

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We wish you happy reading, we wish you happy reading

We wish you happy reading and

lots of good books!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Book tree

Wicked Shadows of Christmas Past

Friends, today we are sharing memories of Christmas past.

Sherry: I was just a bit over two and a half in the photo below. My sister sits behind me. The first picture is before our presents were open and the second after. I think the mixer and bowl is still at my mom’s house. I loved dolls and that little piano. You can also see a doll house behind the rocking horse. We adored it. I think this might have been at my grandparent’s farm in Missouri and the rocking horse was for my cousin.

Edith: I know somewhere in the morass I have a pic or two of me as a little kid at Christmas but I have no idea where. So this one, from Christmas Eve 1992, will suffice. Husband at the time (him with hair), me (with brown hair), and adorable sons Allan and John David in the pajamas I sewed for them, complete with night caps. They LOVED those night caps! My grandmother always sewed us new nightgowns for Christmas. We got to open one gift on Christmas Eve and it was always hers, so I was passing on a family tradition.

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Barb: This is my son, Rob, age five, and my daughter, Kate, age two-and-a-half, dressed up for their first time at the Boston Ballet’s Nutcracker Suite. I wanted to take Rob, who I thought was old enough, but my husband bought four tickets, including Kate. I was mad. The tickets were expensive, and I wanted to see the ballet. “You’re the one walking the floor with her in the lobby!” I said. There was some drama before we left. Kate had decided that to go to something fancy like this, ladies required a pocketbook, so she was bringing her bright yellow Fisher-Price one along. The plastic powder compact was in it, but not the powder puff! She ended up bringing a cloth diaper along and dabbing her nose with it throughout the performance. Needless to say, I was entirely wrong, and she sat, rapt, through the entire performance (with a bribe of Junior Mints at intermission). Rob slept through the second act.

It all became a tradition, and we went for many, many years. Always with the Junior Mints and always with Rob sleeping through the second act. One year, I was enough of a donor to the Boston Ballet that we got invited to a dress rehearsal–of only the second act. I thought, at last, Rob will see it! But, true to form, he slept through that, too.

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Jessie: I am lucky enough to be the custodian of a vintage tree topper that my great grandparents bought for their own tree sometime in the middle of the last century. Every year it is the last item to be added to our Christmas tree. It is a rite of passage for our kids to reach an age when they entrusted with the task of placing it upon the tree. This is a photo taken last year of my son Theo doing the honors.

 

 

[image error]Julie: In 1995, maybe it was 1994, my sister Kristen and I lived in Charlestown, MA. Our youngest sister came up to visit with our parents, and her boyfriend Glenn. It was the first time we met Glenn, who became a member of the family in 1997. Anyway, I got the family tickets to the Christmas Revels at Sanders Theatre. I gave the visitors the orchestra seats, and Kristen and I sat back in the mezzanine. The Revels are a wonderful tradition, part of which is the end of the first act where the lead player (then the founder John Langstaff) comes into the audience, hands someone the end of a scarf, and leads them into a Lord of the Dance conga line. He grabbed my father first, and Dad brought up the rest of the family. For as long as I live, I will never forget my future brother-in-law getting up and dancing with my family. This picture is from a dinner at our place later that night.

Friends, any memories of Christmas past you’d like to share?

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Filed under: Group posts Tagged: Christmas past, family holiday traditions, nutcracker suite

Best of Intentions

Jessie: In NH, where Christmas is sure to be white.

‘Tis the season of gift knitting in my world. Which is to say, nothing is goign the way I had planned.I have projects on the needles and otheres stretched out on racks still damp and drying into shape. I have balls of wool and alpaca and silk rolling round the floor near all my favorite knitting spots as I consider how best to use them.

But mostly I have re-starts and surprises. I love to gift knit for people who value such offerings and I set out to create such tokens every season. One of my sons loves to open such pacakges. One of my sisters does too. A few friends and even friends of friends are on the list. So each fall I sit down with the best of intentions.

I search for just the right pattern, pick out the ideal yarn and reach for what I hope will be the correctly sized needles. Then I cast on and begin to play with the project by swatching. For those non-knitting readers, swatching is simply knitting a small piece of fabric to check that the needle is the correct size and that the knitter likes the fabric produced. More often than not the needles are too big or too small and the fabric is not at all what I had imagined. So, I start again with different needles. After a few tries it often occurs to me that the pattern is not correct for the yarn or the yarn is not right for the pattern and I go back to the drawing board.

Eventually, if I am paying attention to how the yarn behaves once unwound from the ball and formed into stitches, I manage to match a pattern and yarn in a way that pleases me. I knit along happily, usually at a good clip, and before long I have a completed project in my hands. Which often leads to another problem. I am forever knitting things for the wrong person.

This year I thought a neckerchief of handspun, hand-dyed Blue Faced Leicester wool was for my son’s friend. But the color is more green than turquoise with a defiant tendency towards yellow undertones. I despaired of it until I realised I had been making it for another son’s girlfriend all along instead. It looks perfect for her. I have a sumptious alpaca cowl I thought was for one someone when really it is for another person on my list. I thought a third person was going to receive a hat. They ended up with a scarf instead.

Some of me is aggravated and befuddled by my inability to make plans that don’t go awry. The rest of me is pleased to see how it all works out in the end. It is a lot like writing a mystery. You try out some characters, some scenes and some motives. You end up with plot twists you didn’t see coming and a satisfying ending!

Readers, do you have projects that seem to have minds of their own? Do your gifting plans always go the way you imagine that they will?

 

Filed under: Jessie's posts, Uncategorized Tagged: Christmas, knitting, surprises, watching, wool

Wicked Wednesday: Stress Busters

By Julie, overwhelmed in Somerville.

Friends, this time of year can be a big ball of stress for folks. Wickeds, what is your favorite way to bust stress? Naps, meditation, herbal tea, boxing–what is your [image error]secret? If you don’t have one, what would you like to try?

Jessie: I knit. I pull out a pair of needles, a ball of yarn and a pattern that is engaging

enough to hold my attention but easy enough not to lead to frustration. Within very few minutes I feel centered and much more like my best self.

Edith: Boxing! What a thought. I took a kick-boxing class a few (okay, eight) years ago and LOVED it. I remembered my karate roundhouse kicks, the horse stance, the best way to punch. I barely kept up, energy- and heart-rate wise with all the younger members of the class, but I was deeply into it … until I blew out my hamstring. I hobbled home and never went back, but you can’t beat complete exhaustion for stress-busting. Now my [image error]fresh-air power walk has to suffice as a stress-buster, or with enough snow, a good hour of cross-country skiing.

Sherry: Read! Books have been my escape for years — my drug of choice because they take me away from my problems and transport me to another world. And also walking. Because we don’t have a fenced yard I walk my dog Lily several times a day. Even when the weather is terrible it’s usually good to be outside if only for a few minutes.

Liz: I love kickboxing too, Edith! I’ve been doing a program called Combat on and off the past few years – it’s a mixed martial arts workout and it’s pretty awesome. That said, lately I’ve been more of a yoga person. Having been practicing fairly regularly since the summer, I am finding it truly is the best thing for mind, body and soul. Throw in some meditation and I might be on my way to zen in no time.

Barb: When it comes to holiday stress, I LEAN IN. If I’m not in a holiday mood, the best remedy for me is to “do all the things,”–put up the tree, decorate the house, bake the cookies, open the little doors on the Advent calendar, send out the cards, wrap the presents, have a lovely lunch in a festively decorated restaurant with good friends. By the time the big day rolls around, I am de-stressed and feeling very Christmas-y. Tradition and ritual are what do it for me. As my children have reminded me, both in words and in expectations, the years when you don’t feel like it are the most important times to do it.

Julie: Friends, as always you inspire. I am determined to get better about doing yoga. I recently knit a Christmas project for a friend, and found it really relaxing. I suspect my friends and family are going to benefit from clicking needles in the coming weeks.

Readers: What’s your favorite stress-buster?

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Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: cross country skiing, karate, kick-boxing, Reading, stress busters, Walking, Wicked Wednesday

The Detective’s Daughter — Oh Christmas Tree

[image error]Kim in Baltimore still decorating and shopping for Christmas.

[image error]I was twenty-seven years old before I found out Christmas trees came from a tree farm and didn’t magically appear in a roped-off lot in front of the hardware store on the corner. I’m a city girl, what do I know? Our tree, the one that sat on a table in my Nana’s living room, was silver and had come out of a box she kept in the back of the basement on what we called “the bank.” Each year Pop-pop would haul it upstairs and curse as he tried to match the branches with the tiny slot they fit into. Nana would bring out a boxes of glass ornaments. There were a box of red, a box of green and one of blue. Each year only one color was chosen for the tree. On the floor sat a rotating light that made a whizzing noise as it spun round changing the color of the silver tree from blue to gold, then red to green and back again.

Upstairs in our apartment my mom had bought our tree from Montgomery Wards. It also had branches that needed to be pushed into the base of the tree. We had a beautiful star that glowed on top and dozens of feathered angels hanging from the branches. Not one person in my family had a Christmas tree that needed to be watered.

When I met my husband, he told me the most amazing thing. He said he worked on a Christmas tree farm. Now, I knew every year that there was a huge tree in New York City and that it came from some far off land like Maine or Vermont, but I had no idea you could get such a thing here in Maryland!

[image error]The first year we were married we set off one freezing cold morning in search of the perfect tree. I was in charge of carrying the saw. We drove for nearly an hour and then walked for another, at least it felt that way. Soon my nose was frozen and I would have agreed to a branch in a vase of water for a Christmas tree. My husband cut down the tree and we dragged it to the road to wait to be picked up. “This is fun, right?” my husband asked. Sure, I nodded, and tried to stomp feeling back into my feet. Yet, for the next twenty-three years with dogs and kids alongside us, we trekked across fields in search of our tree.

Then a few years ago I had a lung infection and was told by my doctor that I could no longer have a live tree in my house. I mourned the end of our family tradition. I missed the stinging cold on my face as we walked and the way my children’s voices echoed in the fields, the soothing warmth of the little shed that sold hot [image error]chocolate and cider. It would all be just photos and memories now.

This year we pull the branches out of the box and debate as to which goes where on the base. I make the hot chocolate and we unwind the lights and another Christmas tree is adorned.

Readers: What kind of tree do you have at your house? Or if you don’t have a Christmas tree what other decorations do you pull out every year?

Filed under: Kimberly Kurth Gray, The Detective's Daughter

The Odakyu Line

Edith north of Boston, juggling a few too many balls pre-Christmas.

When fans – and other authors – ask if I ever mix up my series, I usually say no, that I do my best to work on one series at a time. Sometimes that blows up. Right now I’m writing a first draft in one, slogging through edits on another, and trying to finish a short story, too. Along with baking cookies, wrapping gifts, and getting ready for family to arrive.

So I thought I’d give all you fabulous blog readers a thank-you gift instead of composing a post from scratch. “The Odakyu Line” is my first published fiction as an adult – and it’s a Christmas story! It won a holiday flash fiction contest held by the North Shore newspapers back in 1995 and was published in their weekly arts magazine.

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A bit of background: I lived with my American boyfriend, who was in the US Navy, in Japan for two years in the mid-seventies. We had a little house near the base, and I taught conversational English to businessmen and studied Japanese. (The picture is me in 1977 and I still have that indigo shirt…)

The following very short story isn’t true, but of course I draw on several of my own experiences. Enjoy, and have warm, cozy, delicious holidays!

The Odakyu Line

Riding the subway was like surfing. Ruth liked to bend her knees and go with the movement of the brightly-lit car. She rode the up and down movement. She swayed from right to left, mastered the sudden slowing, steered into the gradual stops. She only let herself grab an overhead handle in case of emergency unbalance.

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Ruth pushed her wire-rimmed glasses back up on her nose. Her long hair was never thoroughly brushed, but she held her shoulders straight back and kept her stomach muscles in tight. A year of karate with a local master had taught her that. Ruth felt good in her body. She thought about how she never would have taken the class without Paul, or have developed such a firm midriff. “Do as many sit-ups as you can, and I’ll do twice as many,” he used to say. This was the nature of their romance.

Paul left. She knew he would, when he started talking about traveling around the world and used the first person singular. Ruth stayed on, continuing to teach conversational English to Japanese engineers. She didn’t much mind Paul’s departure. She had the drafty little house to herself, and while she missed sitting on his lap to keep warm in winter and watching his long strong body move through karate forms, she valued her new solitude. She went to her English-teaching jobs, tried to glean ever more knowledge about making sushi from the local fish woman, and kept up with her Japanese lessons with Kenji.

Kenji. Ruth thought about his smooth skin, his wild black hair, and the crack in his delicious laugh. The way he fed her sushi, morsel by morsel off purple chopsticks, in his tiny 11th-floor apartment outside of Shinjuku. Ruth smiled, then looked around. All of her subway compatriots were studiously avoiding making any eye contact, as per their custom. Ruth knew people managed to look at her: she was gaijin, a foreigner, even though she was the right height and had dark hair. Other women didn’t walk around with their heads up and their shoulders squared. Ruth got a lot of attention, yet among all these people she still felt isolated.

She and Kenji became lovers after Paul left. Now, on Christmas day, they had eaten, slept, and talked together for hours. They ate the strange Japanese Christmas cake decorated with Disney characters sold in Tokyo only on this day, and drank port wine. Ruth sat on the heavy woven tatami. Her legs were crossed under the low table, her chin on her hand, her back warmed by a quilted robe, a present from her beau.

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From www.etsy.com/listing/125050134/oversized-quilted-silk-japanese-art 

Since she couldn’t be with family, this was a happy substitute. Kenji fed her another bite of sushi and murmured at her to stay. But when she refused, and it was time for her to go, Kenji smiled a smile as wild as his hair as she trekked shivering off for the station.

Ruth changed for the suburban Odakyu-sen. It was the midnight run, the last train out. She grasped a free pole, wondering if she was too tired to surf this last leg of her trip, and then noticed something unheard of. People were talking to each other. Complete strangers were looking at each other, cracking jokes, and chatting. Unacquainted Japanese people chatting – if that doesn’t take the cake, Ruth thought. The man next to her, red-faced and happy, attempted a few words in her language: “Mari kurisimasu!”

“Doomo, doomo,” Ruth thanked him, smiling and holding her ground as the train swung around a bend. “Merry Christmas to you, too.”

Filed under: Edith's posts, Uncategorized Tagged: flash fiction, Japan, Okakyu-sen, Shinjuku