Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 226

Cover Reveal – A Good Day To Buy (Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery 4)

By Sherry — I’m excited to share my newest cover with you!

It’s always so exciting to see the cover of my next book. And I have to say I’ve loved all my covers.

When my editor at Kensington, Gary Goldstein, first asked for my ideas for the cover of Tagged for Death, I told him I wanted to have an old-fashion tag on the cover. I love how they’ve incorporated the tag on each of the books.

Here’s the back cover copy:

HER BROTHER IS NO BARGAIN

When Sarah Winston’s estranged brother Luke shows up on her doorstep, asking her not to tell anyone he’s in town—especially her ex, the chief of police—the timing is strange, to say the least. Hours earlier, Sarah’s latest garage sale was taped off as a crime scene following the discovery of a murdered Vietnam vet and his gravely injured wife—her clients, the Spencers.

 

BUT IS HE A KILLER?

All Luke will tell Sarah is that he’s undercover, investigating a story. Before she can learn more, he vanishes as suddenly as he appeared. Rummaging through his things for a clue to his whereabouts, Sarah comes upon a list of veterans and realizes that to find her brother, she’ll have to figure out who killed Mr. Spencer. And all without telling her ex . . .

Readers: Do the covers of books influence your decision to buy it? What appeals to you on a cover?

JULIE HERE: First of all, I love the new cover! Secondly, Woofmew won the drawing for CLOCK AND DAGGER.

I’ve contacted her.

Filed under: Sherry's posts Tagged: A Good Day To Buy, All Murders Final, book covers, cover reveal, Gary Goldstein, Kensington Publishing, Tagged for Death, The Longest Yard Sale

Who is Emily?

Edith here, delighted to be heading out of town for some down time! My good friend KB Inglee had a book published last spring, The Casebook of Emily Lawrence (Wildside Press). It is an intriguing, compelling collection of stories that reads like a novel. I wanted her to join us and talk about how this happened. She has impeccable history credentials, by the way, working as a living history interpreter in Delaware. She also graciously reads each of my Quaker Midwife Mysteries before I send them in to catch anachronisms and other errors.

KB is going to give away a copy of The Casebook to one lucky commenter here today!

Take it away, KB!

Before I started writing Emily short stories I had read every Linda Barnes/Carlotta Carlisle mystery I could find. Carlotta is six feet tall with red hair. While I loved the detective dearly, I knew that if I were to write a mystery story my detective would be a small plain woman with dark blond hair. She would have two abilities: she could vanish into the woodwork, and people would find her easy to talk to.

Something else intrigued me about the Barnes stories: the sense of place. I could follow Carlotta on a map of Cambridge and Boston. I knew I would have that in my work, too. My mother worked at MIT Press and she gave me a series of their books with details of architecture in Cambridge. I spent hours looking for the perfect house for Emily and her friends. Like Carlotta, Emily had to live in Cambridge, though I had long ago moved away.

I thought the hard part of writing would be making up the characters. Actually that turned out to be the easy part. On one eight hour train trip from Boston to Wilmington, Delaware, I came up with a whole household of characters. Emily lived in a boarding house that I moved from Fayette Street to Dana Street, because Dana Street was where the trolley fair changed from five cents to seven cents. I filled the house with the appropriate things for the era, especially a square piano that belonged to…well, never mind.

I had no plot, no idea where I was going, only a house full of people that Emily met at the beginning of the book. I thought if I put the characters together they would write the story for me. They didn’t. I actually had to work hard at the plot. A member of my critique group constantly cries, “You need to put some story into this story.”

It was a long time before I realized that you can’t start a novel by introducing someone to a house full of strangers. Another critique partner pointed out that I had way too much “furniture” and that I should get on with the story. To this day I am far more intrigued by the furniture than the story. Three cheers for critique groups.

Emily became the hero of short stories when I reread the first novel and realized it was a series of stories rather than a single linear narrative. When I started writing about Emily she was 40 and had retired from the detective agency that she and her husband Charles ran. I thought the short stories I wrote were merely to fill in her history. I discovered that we were both better suited to short stories than novels. I now have maybe 100 short stories in various degrees of doneness.

I am not sure where any of my characters come from. I don’t know how much Emily is like me, but I know she is a lot like the person I wish I were. I discovered by accident that one of her jobs is to solve problems for me so I toss her into a situation to see what she does. Only after I have finished the story do I realize that Emily was working through something that had been bothering not her, but me. I am more likely to model my behavior after hers than the other way around.

If I had her courage I would have been published much earlier.

Edith: Remember, one commenter today will receive a signed copy of the Casebook of Emily Lawrence!

Readers: Have you read other episodic novels? What’s your favorite historical fiction era? Stop by and ask KB a question!

KB Inglee’s short stories and episodic novel, The Case Book of Emily Lawrence, are set in America from the early colonial period to the end of the 19th century. She works as an interpreter at a water powered gristmill in Delaware and has cared for a flock of heritage sheep.

Filed under: Guest posts, Uncategorized Tagged: Delaware, episodic novel, giveaway, KB Inglee, linda barnes, living history, The Casebook of Emily Lawrence, wildside press

You Can Go Home Again – Part Two

By Sherry — enjoying life in Virginia

GIVEAWAY! Julianne Holmes aka Julie Hennrikus is celebrating the release of the second book in the Clock Shop Mystery series. She’s been gathering the names of our commenters for the last several days and one lucky person will win a copy of Clock and Dagger so be sure and leave a comment!

I blogged once before about my dad’s home town of Novinger, Missouri. For those of you who don’t know, my maiden name is Novinger. I spent lots of weekends and holidays on my grandparents’ farm in Novinger and was delighted to take my daughter there for the first time in mid-July.

I’m so impressed that this very small town moved the home of one of the founders of the town Issac Novinger (a great, great, great — you get the idea — grandfather). The log cabin stood on a farm near Novinger. They took it apart log by log and rebuilt it in the center of town. Then they turned it into a museum and give tours. We were lucky enough to take a tour.

Novinger was a coal mining town. My grandfather had an old coal mine on his farm. Of course we weren’t ever allowed to go into the mine and much of it looked like it had collapsed. This cart, near the Issac Novinger cabin, looks just like the one from my grandfather’s farm.

There are three things in the cabin that originally belonged to Issac Novinger.

The top left picture is a grain bin made by Issac. The tour guide had no idea I was a mystery writer and told us: If you dropped the lid of this on someone it would kill them. Of course that got my mind whirling. He also made the bench. The magazine is dated August 1911.

The house has three rooms on the lower level:

A spinning wheel sat in the corner of the bedroom.

Our tour guide told us it was unusual for a log cabin to have an upstairs but this cabin did.

After the tour of the cabin we decided to drive out to my grandparents’ farm. I hadn’t been out there in thirty years so I hoped I could still find it. On the way we stopped to see the school my Aunt Ginny taught at.

The roads out to my grandparents’ farm gets smaller and smaller and smaller. My husband wasn’t convinced I could get us there. I recognized my Aunt Alberta and Uncle Bryon’s house and my dad’s best friend Glen Dale Riley’s house.

Then just when my husband was convinced we should give up, (I think the narrow road and private property signs freaked him out) we found it! If you look in the far distance you can see a glimpse of white that was my grandparent’s home.

We spent the night in the town of Kirksville, Missouri where I attended college. On the way from Novinger to Kirksville we stopped at Thousand Hills State Park, the site of many picnics and hikes when I was little and maybe a party or two during college. We had time to stop by the campus of Truman State College (Northeast Missouri State University when I attended and Northeast Missouri State Teachers College when my parents went). We had a fun dinner with my college friends.

It was on to St. Louis for the last leg of our trip. We stopped in my mom’s home town of LaPlata, Missouri.And then we drove on to St. Louis where my friend Dianne arranged a dinner with some of our sorority sisters. It was such a lovely evening! And such a fabulous trip.

Readers: Do you have a favorite memory of a place from your past? Have you been back to visit that place?

Filed under: Sherry's posts Tagged: City of Novinger MO, history, home, Isaac Novinger, Kirksville Missouri, LaPlata Missouri, Northeast Missouri State University, Novinger Missouri, St. Louis, Truman State University

Wicked Wednesday: Practical Beauty

We’re continuing our celebration of Julianne Holmes’ Clock and Dagger with our thoughts about clocks. Civilization wouldn’t be what it is if they hadn’t been invented. Imagine the chaos if we couldn’t agree on the time, and even if we agreed, couldn’t tell what time it was right now.

But today, we have blinking digital reminders of the time all around us–on every appliance and device. What time it is, you ask? Let me glance around the room. More than ever, clocks are becoming art forms. While this has always been true, now they must provide us with beauty and happiness to find room in our homes.

Wickeds, is there a special clock in your life? Something from an ancestor or a gift? Something you possess now or remember from your childhood? Tell us about it.

Edith: I have a sweet clock in my office that I love. Hugh had given it to his parents, and we

brought it home after his father died. We also have a vegetable clock I’m very fond of. Right now, for example, it’s a zucchini past onion. Despite all the digital clocks, I always first glance at the analog ones to check the time.

Sherry: I love clocks and since Julie started writing the clock shop mysteries I always notice them. (She’s probably tired of me texting pictures of clocks to her!) Here are some of my favorites:

The first one is from my grandparents farm in Novinger, Missouri. The flyswatter clock came from the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Massachusetts. The second hand has a little plastic fly on it. One of my daughter’s friends almost took it out when he saw it move over his shoulder. I found the little alarm clock at a yard sale recently.

Liz: I love my zen alarm clock. I bought it years ago when I read somewhere that waking up to shrill beeping or blasting music isn’t a good way for your brain to start the day. The zen clock chimes when it’s time to get up. It starts off with one chime, then the more you ignore it, it begins to chime more frequently. You’re still not going to sleep through it, you’ll just wake up a lot more peacefully.

Julie: One of the best things about writing this series is the clock research. I fall in love with clocks all the time. But the clock on the right? That is the clock my grandmother left me in her will. It is a little beat up, and electric. But it reminds me of her, and I love that I have it. I fine most folks think of clocks as more than just timepieces–they are also memory portals.

Jessie: My brother-in-law, John, has made several clocks for my household. He tailors them to individual interests of the people in the family. When my first book came out it was the debut in the Granite State Mysteries series. He very thoughtfully crafted a clock for me from pink granite cut into the shape of New Hampshire. It makes me smile every time I glance at it.

Barb: I have several clocks back in Massachusetts that have meaning for me. One is a mantel clock my parents gave to my husband and I when we first bought a house that had a mantel. Another was one that sat on my grandparents’ mantel for many years. But since I’m not home, I took a look around the house in Maine. Most of the contents belong to my mother-in-law including several clocks. I found this one. Sherry Harris, it looks a little familiar.

Readers: What about you? Do you have a clock you cherish, for its beauty or the memories it brings?

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Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: A Clock Shop Mystery, analog clocks, Clock and Dagger, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, granite, Granite State Mysteries, Julianne Holmes, Lincoln Massachusetts, Novinger Missouri, vegetable clock, yard sales, zen alarm clock

Welcome to the family, CLOCK AND DAGGER

Three years ago this month I was writing proposal after proposal for the Clock Shop Mystery series. It seems like yesterday in some ways, a million years ago in others. Back then, I had a couple of books in drawers, and some short stories that had been published. Several of my friends were well down the path of becoming a published author. Getting that proposal accepted, and a book contract, put me on my own path of publication. It was a dream come true, and for that I will always be grateful.

I love writing this series for so many reasons! Ruth Clagan is a great protagonist–a clockmaker who is always late, a woman who’s had some hard knocks but keeps going, a person who is getting a second chance.

Orchard, MA is fictitious, but not. The town is set in the Berkshires, one of my favorite places to visit, especially in the summer. It is based on Williamsburg, MA, which is technically in Western, MA, not the Berkshires, but nonetheless west of Boston. (Boston-centric joke there.) I love thinking about Orchard, and creating more details to the town.

Clocks are fascinating. I love the research. How lucky am I to have David Roberts of The Clockfolk of New England to give me details and insights. He has helped me understand clocks, but to also understand the passion of the clockmaker. Also, what a great resource the American Clock and Watch Museum in Bristol, CT is–a few details in Clock and Dagger came from my wandering around there for hours.

Last but not least–I am a huge fan of mystery novels. I’ve always loved reading them.  Writing them, and being published in the genre? TRULY a dream come true.

Today is the day Clock and Dagger joins Just Killing Time as part of the Clock Shop Mystery series. I’m thrilled to be here on the Wicked Cozys on the day of the launch with all of you! To celebrate the arrival of book #2, I’d like to offer a commenter a copy of Clock and Dagger. I’m going to leave the comments open for a couple of days, and will post the winner later this week. I’m also doing a blog tour, some with giveaways. That schedule is here.

Welcome to the world Clock and Dagger! I can’t wait to hear what you all think!

Filed under: Julie's posts, Uncategorized Tagged: Berkley Prime Crime, BerkleyMystery, BerkleyPub, Clock and Dagger, Clock Shop Mystery Series, J.A. Hennrikus, Julianne Holmes, Just Killing Time

Editing Your Life

I have a sub-heading for the title: Stories Never Told

We’re all story-tellers here, right? We make up stories in our heads and write them down, and then share them with other people, to entertain and inform them.

But over time I’ve come to realize that my mother edited her stories, selecting what she was going to tell and how she was going to tell it. We all do, to some extent, but there are some curious omissions in her history, that I discovered only after she had passed away. Genealogy research is a double-edged sword: sometimes you find things you might not want to know.

Brief background: my mother’s father was the only child of a fairly wealthy couple, and he was born to them fifteen years after they were married. His father, from what I know, was fairly distant, and died when his son was 15.

My grandfather was still under-age when he married my grandmother. It was an unlikely pairing, since my grandmother was a penniless orphan, but (after checking her background), my great-grandmother approved of her, and in fact they became something like friends.

My great-grandmother died in 1935, when her son was 34 and my mother was ten. And then things got a little odd. My grandfather—prep-school raised, and not particularly good at anything, decided he wanted to be a dairy farmer. He took at six-week course on animal husbandry at Rutgers, bought a played-out potato farm in Maine, and bought a herd of Guernseys (or maybe it was package deal and the cows came with the farm), and was living there by 1939. My mother would have been 14 then.

He was a bad farmer. He built a state of the art barn, and it burned down just as it was finished—and he’d neglected to insure it. He made it through the early war years by raising green beans for the Army. After a few years of that, my grandmother decided she’d had enough of farm life, and left for New York, where she joined the war effort, leaving my mother with her father and a failing farm. Needless to say, my mother was not happy.

What is interesting is which parts of this story my mother chose to bury. The stories she told my father and me and later my sister about the farm years were deliberately edited.

–She claimed she had attended Colby College and left before getting a degree (her excuse: all the local men had gone off to war). After her death I checked with Colby: wrong. She’d taken a couple of classes as a day student, a townie.

–She was always a bit evasive about why she chose that particular time to head to New York and join her mother at a women’s hotel there (although they didn’t room together). My take: if you look at my grandfather’s death certificate (he died at the age of 44, of a heart attack), the person who reported his death, and who was identified as his “wife” on the death certificate, was not my grandmother. I have a feeling my mother was not happy at having to share her father with another woman.

–My mother never talked about the happy days on the farm. Any time in later life we’d go driving and marvel at bucolic countryside views, she’d say “I hate the country.” Period.

But another aspect was driven home to me just recently, after I’d spent two weeks on a dairy farm in Ireland. I watched the whole milking process, start to finish, twice a day. I had to wade through liquid cow by-products to get out of the driveway. I saw a newborn calf learn to stand. Okay, I’m a lifelong suburbanite, so this was all new to me—and in fact I kind of loved it, muck and all. (BTW, dairy farming is a big business in Ireland, so this was not a quaint operation aimed at tourists.)

But my mother never mentioned any of this, either the good parts or the bad. I assume she had to help out on the farm, at least some of the time, but she didn’t say a word about the mess and the smells, or what happened to the milk, or birthing calves. The only thing I ever remembering her saying about the cattle was that her father had a stud bull named Governor that he adored and had no trouble managing. Maybe he had an innate talent with animals—but not a head for business.

That entire period of her life, from high school until she fled to New York, my mother concealed or lied about. All her life. I don’t think my father ever knew she hadn’t attended college.

But that’s the story she chose to tell. Like us writers, she edited to create the character she wanted to be. She rewrote the past. What about you? Which parts of your life do you edit out?

Filed under: Uncategorized

Research Beyond the Veil and A Giveaway

Jessie: At the seaside in Old Orchard, just back from a week away

One of the very best parts of my job as a writer is the research involved. Now that I am working on my new historical mystery series there is more research than ever. And since the series is both historical and paranormal the research can be a little unusual. A trip I took with a dear friend last week is a case in point.

Lily Dale, NY is the self-proclaimed “world’s largest center for the science, philosophy and religion of Spiritualism”. Located about an hour southwest of Buffalo, Lily Dale is like nowhere else I have ever been. The village is filled to bursting with mediums, Reiki practitioners, spirit painters and herbalists. When I booked a room at the Maplewood, a supposedly haunted, Victorian era hotel, I was hoping to have a taste of some of the same sorts of experiences the characters in my novel Whispers Beyond the Veil enjoy at the fictional Hotel Belden. Luckily for me, the Maplewood did not disappoint.

The Belden is imagined as a hotel that caters to paranormal practitioners and metaphysical enthusiasts of every ilk. I was delighted to see this sign hanging in the lobby:

I couldn’t help but feel my protagonist Ruby Proulx would feel quite at home in such a place. Her Spiritualist aunt Honoria certainly would! Although she would have no qualms about spontaneous séances and development circles cropping up in the hotel wherever the guests might wish. There were no telephones, televisions or alarm clocks in the rooms. Mine didn’t even have a bathroom. I couldn’t have asked for a more authentically immersive experience.

The town had plenty of activities for visitors to partake in, much like the hotel in my books. There were meditation sessions, healing services and development circles. There were special speakers, ghost walks, a library and a historical museum. There were even gift shops filled with divination cards, dowsing pendulums and healing crystals. For the contemplative visitor there was a labyrinth.

But the most popular were the platform-reading services held twice daily at a place called Inspiration Stump. People hoping to hear messages from loved ones gathered on benches in a cool and shady grove and awaited the notice of the mediums conducting the readings. I had the enjoyment of being chosen for a reading just after we arrived.

The medium who read for me told me a pair of elderly sisters on the other side wanted to say hello. She was quite certain one of the ladies was one of my grandmothers. From the medium’s description of the women I found myself thinking of Elva and Dovie Velmont. These two are amongst my favorite characters in the book and were in fact based on my great-grandmother Elva and her sister Minerva. Such fun!

Everywhere in Lily Dale there are tiny houses covered in ornate gingerbread trim and fronted by inviting porches. House after house along each of the quiet streets displayed signs announcing the name of a practicing medium who lived and worked therein. Contact information was provided and waiting areas dotted the front yards. All up and down the streets you would see people sitting in outdoor waiting rooms until called in by the medium for their appointments.

Whether the spirits in Lily Dale are more real than in other places I am not certain I could say. But I do know it was a perfect place to read, to write and to soak up the feeling of times gone by. In my book and my books that made it magical enough for me.

Readers, have you ever gone on an unusual vacation? Have you ever visited a medium? I am giving away three advanced reading copies of my new book, Whispers Beyond the Veil to commenters today!

Filed under: Jessie's posts, Uncategorized Tagged: Hotel Belden, Jessica Estevao, Jessie Crockett, Lily Dale, mediums, old orchard beach, Spiritualists, Whispers Beyond the Veil

More Thoughts on Retreats

Susannah/Sadie here, just trying to keep cool…

A few weeks ago the Wickeds posted about the annual retreat they take to the Maine coast. Today I thought I’d post some tips about how to plan your own retreat. Whether you’re a writer, a scrapbooker, a knitter, or have some other craft or hobby you want to have some uninterrupted time to work on with other like-minded folks, a retreat can be a great way to get away from (most of) the responsibilities of daily life and really focus.

I’ll use a writing retreat as an example for the rest of this post, but this basic template will work for most other types.

First you need to decide whom you want to ask to go on your retreat with you. Think very carefully about your roster. You will be in close quarters with these people for several days. Make sure you choose a team of people who don’t have habits you can’t live with, and whom you can trust to pull their weight with shared chores, and whom you can trust to leave you alone when you are working. Don’t bring a diva along with you, anyone who needs to be the center of attention, or you’ll spend the whole weekend focusing on or distracted by her instead of your work. In a similar vein, make sure the people you ask are at more or less your level of skill and expertise. You don’t want a rank beginner, or you may end up doing more teaching than writing. The group I go with has been together for several years and we know each other well in and outside of the writing world. Although, we’re never really out of the writing world.

Next, you need to decide on a venue. I’m blessed in that one of my retreat partners owns a large, beautiful ski home on a mountain in Vermont that she is generous enough to open up to 8-10 of us twice a year. There are 4.5 baths and 5 bedrooms, good Wi-Fi, and, oh, a hot tub. If someone in your group has a second home somewhere, that might be just the place. If that’s not an option, depending on your budget, you may wish to rent a cottage somewhere, or even go to a hotel for a weekend. Obviously, the size of your venue dictates the size of the group you can take. Make sure everyone understands what kind of shared expenses there will be.

I highly recommend having a focus for your retreat. With my group, we set aside several hours (in two blocks) to work on plots and characterizations. We have a designated time where everyone sits around the big table, and we brainstorm a plot for each attendee. You would be amazed at how complete a story can be hammered out by 10 women in a half hour to 45 minutes. This ensures that everyone gets equal time, is giving as well as receiving, and comes away energized and ready to get to work. Bear in mind that we’ve been working together for a while now. The more times you retreat with the same group, the more efficient the process becomes.

Decide how you will handle meals, snacks, and cleanup. For our Vermont weekends, we potluck it, although we do a little advance planning so we don’t end up with 8 slow cookers full of chili. Anyone who’s crunched for time or not much of a cook can bring wine or offer to do the dishes. Oh, and we consider wine our eleventh member of the retreat.

Depending on where you hold your retreat, you may want to set aside a couple of hours to make a field trip into town. Where we go in Vermont (Manchester), there are both an amazing independent bookstore (Northshire Bookstore) and a yarn shop (Yarns For Your Soul). Do set a time limit so you don’t spend your retreat shopping instead of writing.

Finally, decide on some personal goals for the weekend. Perhaps you have a new project and you want to complete several chapters. Or you’re nearly finished with your first draft and you want to bring that puppy home. Or you have a word count target. Be fairly aggressive with your goal setting. The energy that comes from the group may surprise you. Take advantage of it and get as much, or more, done than you ever thought possible.

Oh, and do something nice for your hostess. Bring her a gift, and don’t leave her with a dirty house to clean after you’ve gone.

Do you go on retreat? Would you like to? It’s not that difficult to organize one!

Filed under: Jane's posts, Retreat, Sadie's Posts, Susannah's posts, Writing Retreat Tagged: Manchester, Northshire Bookstore, Vermont, writing retreat, Yarns For Your Soul

Myth-Busting, Part III – Personal Editing

This month, we’ve busting myths and rules about writing and the writing process. We’ve talked about character bibles and word count goals, and today we’re talking personal editing habits.

Many writers and teachers alike follow the mantra of, “Get the whole first draft down before you edit a word.” It works for a lot of people, especially those who dread the slog of a first draft. But some people say they need to look at what they’ve already done and make it better before they can move forward. So who’s right? Wickeds, what do you think?

Sherry: I do a combination of both. I think I’ve shared the odd way I write before — the beginning, the end, and then back to the middle. Because of this I do some editing along the way. But avoid writing and rewriting the same scene over and over. I think that is a form of procrastination or fear of failure.

Jessie: I am of the “get the draft done, then go back” school of thought. I don’t change anything already written before the draft is done. For example, if I decide to combine two characters into one, I go forward as if that has always been the case from the moment I make the decision. I wait until a revision draft to begin to patch things up. I tend to write quickly during those early drafts and I really don’t want anything slowing down my flow.

Barb: I am also of the “never look back” school, partially because I don’t know what needs to be fixed until I’ve gotten to the end, read the whole first draft, and made some decisions. I could waste a lot of time going back and fixing stuff–and then end up cutting the whole scene for one reason or another. Sometimes I KNOW I’m creating continuity issues, but I soldier on.

Julie: I write the entire draft. But, I use inline edits in Scrivener, and also use brackets and write myself notes like this [fix this later] [find out what you called her in the second chapter] [add more clock stuff here] [is this true or did you make it up?]. I’ve learned to trust my plotting, and keep on going.

Edith: I also like to crank out the sh**ty first draft, as Anne Lamott said. I try not to stop for research while I’m writing, instead typing [CHECK THIS] or a variation on one of Julie’s notes. One of my first editing passes is to search for left square bracket and then go check for answers to those questions. That said, every morning when I start writing I reread what I wrote the day before. I do some minor editing, fleshing out, tweaking. It gets me back into the story and reminds me of what’s coming up next.

Photo by Lisa Risager (blue socks for a feminist) via Wikimedia Commons

I think it’s interesting that this approach we all pretty much share would not work in some other art forms – like knitting, for example! Can you imagine knitting the rough draft for a sock and then polishing it? Although it might work for a painting. I wouldn’t know, not having talents in that direction, but I can imagine an artist might lay down the rough idea for a picture and then fine tune it.

Readers: What do you crank out and then refine, and what kinds of projects do you have to make your best on the first try? Writers – anybody out there write just one draft, ready to submit?

Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: editing, Wicked Cozy Authors, writing

You Can Go Home Again

By Sherry — who in this heat wave is contemplating a move to a cooler climate

I’m giving away a set of Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries — details at the end of the post.

They say you can’t go home again, but I did last week and it was fabulous.

When All Murders Final! came out I knew I wanted to do a signing in my hometown of Davenport, Iowa.

When most people think of Iowa they think of cornfields, small towns, and flat land. But Davenport is a small city, 100,000, in a group of small cities with a population of around 400,000. Since it sits on the Mississippi, river it’s anything but flat.

I worked in the tall building which was a bank.

I’ve only been back twice since my parent’s moved away in 1991. But every time I go back I’m struck by how lucky I was to grow up in a place with great schools, lots of parks, a museum, an art gallery, and so much more.

I’m not crazy about doing signings alone so I asked my friend Matthew Clemens to do the signing with me. Matt graduated the year after me from the same high school but with classes of over 700 we didn’t meet until a couple of years ago, first via Facebook and finally in person when he was in DC doing research. Matt might not have known me, but he had my dad as a math teacher in seventh grade.

I had two other purposes for the trip: to spend time with high school and college friends, and to show my daughter the places that influenced what made me, me. Since my husband was in the Air Force, my daughter had only been to Davenport twice — when she was one and six.

The first part of the journey was meeting my friend Carol in the Atlanta airport. She was the one with the short turn around time and I was the one that was supposed to throw myself in the doorway of the plane to hold it until she got there. Of course nothing ever goes as planned so her plane arrived thirty minutes early and I ended up running through the airport as our plane boarded.

Carol’s brother picked us up at the airport and entrusted us with his car. He also took us to a beautiful restaurant on the Mississippi for dinner.

We stayed at Hotel Blackhawk which back in my teen years no one would have gone to. It’s been restored, is stunningly beautiful, and has a bartender that makes the most amazing dessert martini’s.

It even has a bowling alley! (And our last night there we bowled.) The next day more sorority sisters joined us and there was talk, laughter to the point of crying, and more martini’s.

A classmate told me that Cary Grant is supposed to haunt the Hotel Blackhawk. He had a massive stroke there right before he was going to do a performance at the theater next door. He died at the hospital. One of my friends and I were sitting in her room. There was a knock, knock, knock on the door but no one was there or in the hall.

Maybe Cary stopped by to say hello.

The day of the signing dawned. I always get nervous. What if know one shows up? What if I let the store down? So Carol and I walked around downtown reminiscing about high jinx, talking about the windows of department stores at Christmas, and how much downtown had changed.

Matt and I met at Barnes and Noble (him cool, calm, collected, me — not so much). But then people started to arrive, classmates, teachers, family friends. It was amazing. Time flew by.

We stayed longer than the two hours, and barely had time to speak to each other. It was interesting to see where our lives intersected, who Matt knew that I knew. It almost seemed impossible that we’d never met.

After the signing we adjourned to The Filling Station, a place I spent a lot of time in my late teens and early twenties. Lots of people came and it was like a mini high school reunion. It was so great to catch up with friends.

Sunday was the day to show my daughter around. The two houses I lived in growing up. The second one was built by my father and some of his fellow teachers.

We also drove by the schools I attended and where my parents taught, parks that I played in, and the beautiful old homes in East Davenport.

Monday morning we left to visit Kirksville, Novinger, and LaPlata, Missouri and then St. Louis but I’ll leave that for another post.

But the glow from my wonderful time is still with me so to share that glow I’m giving away a set of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mysteries: Tagged for Death, The Longest Yard Sale, All Murders Final. Leave a comment for a chance to win.

Readers: Where is home for you? Can you go back?

Filed under: Sherry's posts