Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 229

On Community

Edith here, fresh back from the Wicked Cozy retreat in Old Orchard Beach, and really feeling the love of community – both authorial and local.

All of us Wickeds write mysteries set in reasonably small towns. Jessie and I are diverging from the cozy label with our historical mysteries, but they’re still set in small towns (and mine is really a cozy even though it’s shelved as an historical). I live what is now called a city, because it has a mayor and a city council instead of the selectmen of a town. But Amesbury is one of Massachusetts’s smallest cities, with the most recent population pegged at around 16,000. And I set my Quaker Midwife Mysteries here – in 1888.

So imagine my surprise and delight when the John Greenleaf Whittier Home Association, which maintains the famous abolitionist poet’s home a few blocks from where I live, asked if “it would be all right” if they featured Delivering the Truth as an All-Community Read this summer. They planned to culminate the summer of reading – about Quaker midwife Rose Carroll solving an arson and two murders – with a staged reading of the four scenes in the book where Rose meets with Whittier.

Um, yeah! It would be SO all right, and I told them so.

I kicked off the summer of events yesterday with a talk during Amesbury Days at the Art Show about my research for the series. Wednesday I’m repeating my historical walking tour of town in my Quaker dress (see a video of highlights from the first one here). In July the Whittier Home will host a book discussion group, and there will be another one at the library in August.

September 10 will feature the staged reading at the the Amesbury Friends Meetinghouse, with actors portraying Whittier and Rose. I’ll be narrating, tying the scenes together, using a script our local Poet Laureate Lainie Senechal wrote based on the book.

The whole slate of events makes me SO happy.

John Greenleaf Whittier

Then I heard that several Amesbury High School teachers are requiring their students read the book this summer.They asked if I would be interested in talking to the History Honor Society students and the Early College American Studies classes.

Um, yeah! Of course I’ll come and talk with  students about history and writing and whatever else they want to talk about. Another teacher recommended the book as a Summer Reading Faculty Favorite.  After I posted a note about these teachers on Facebook, a college teacher in Oklahoma said she’d recommended the book to her Women’s History students.

When I started writing this series, I thought it might appeal to local history buffs and the occasional Quaker, in addition to midwives and fans of historical mysteries. I never dreamed of it going this far, and I’m floating on a cloud.

Now, off to fix several of the twenty buttons on my 1888 plain dress that popped off when I unbuttoned it in April…

Readers, have you ever participated in an All-Community Read? Do you know any high school or college teachers who need a fabulous (ahem…) historical mystery set in the nineteenth century for their students?

Filed under: Edith's posts Tagged: Midnight Ink, Quaker Midwife Mysteries

On Retreat

Barb here. It’s that time of year again, when the Wickeds scamper off to Old Orchard Beach for our annual retreat. Hard to believe it is our fifth one! Each of the retreats has had a different personality. On the first one there were just four of us–Edith, Liz, Jessie and me–and we wrote like crazy. We all had first-in-series books due, and the question weighing on each of us was, could we write commercial-quality mystery fiction on a deadline? None of us had ever done that before.

By the next year Sherry and Julie had joined us, and the talk was all about marketing. The subtitle for the retreat could have been, “I’ve written a book. What happens now?”

This year promises to be a mix of things. Several of us are writing the last contracted book in a series, so brainstorming about our proposals for the next books in the series, and about other projects will be a big feature. And, of course, writing and industry gossip.

Wickeds, what will you be working on at this year’s retreat?

Sherry: I can’t wait to see everyone! Someone always seems to be in book jail but it’s not me this year. I’m going to be working on book five in the Sarah Winston Yard Sale series — I Know What You Bid Last Summer. I only have some general ideas about what the book is about. I know how it opens so I’m looking forward to talking the story out with the Wickeds and having a good solid plot by Sunday.

Liz: I’m not in book jail either – yay!! I’m going to be diving into book six in the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, the holiday book. So while we will be enjoying the beach, I’ll be writing about…snowstorms. Yep. But looking forward to getting some Wicked input on the plot and getting inspired. Also want to work on revisions for another project – which I hope you’ll all hear more about sooner rather than later.

Jessie: I am working away on my next Change of Fortune mystery. It’s set in Old Orchard so I’m looking forward to being inspired by the setting. There is just something about the beach that gets my fingers flying across the keyboard! Having the Wickeds around for inspiration doesn’t hurt either!

Julie: I am in the home stretch of book #3 of my series, so editing Chime and Punishment is on the docket. I’ll also be working on blog posts for Clock and Dagger, which is coming out August 2. Maybe some brainstorming is in order as well.

Edith: I am smack in the middle of Turning the Tide, Quaker Midwife Mystery #3. So far it’s going well, but ya never can tell in the middle of a first draft. It’s the last one under contract for the series, so I’ll also be bouncing ideas for three more Rose Carroll stories off the Wickeds. As well as soaking up wise and fun companionship along with ocean breezes and sand under my toes! Can. Not. Wait. (And by the time most readers see this, I’ll already be at Jessie’s fabulous cottage just blocks from the shore.)

Barb: The synopsis for Book 6 in the Maine Clambake Mystery series is due the week after the retreat, so you know what I’ll be working on. My editor and I mutually agreed to scrap the original book six from my proposal, so at the beginning of the month, I really was staring at a blank page. Now I have a mystery (I think), but there are lots of other important bits missing, such as what’s going on in Julia’s personal life and –oh, by the way–what is the title? I had titles for all five previous books before I had stories, so it feels really weird not to have one. I hope to get some help on the retreat with all of this.

Readers, what are your plans this fabulous weekend?

Filed under: Group posts Tagged: I Know What You Bid Last Summer, old orchard beach, Quaker Midwife Mysteries, Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries

Guest- Anna Lee Huber

Jessie: On the coast of Maine, enjoying all the delights of summer!

Two years ago I was fortunate enough to be seated near Anna Lee at a dinner at Malice Domestic. Her smile was sparkling and her laugh infectious. Her books are atmospheric and engrossing. I am pleased as punch to welcome her on the Wickeds today!

Life in an Abbey School

My latest book in the Lady Darby series, AS DEATH DRAWS NEAR, is set at Rathfarnham Abbey in 1831 Ireland, where a woman of the cloth is found murdered. But it turns out this isn’t just any convent, it’s also an abbey school—complete with adolescent angst and hormones. Having grown up going to public school, I decided I’d better research what it was like to attend an all-girl Catholic boarding school. I mean, we’ve all heard the stories, and seen the movies and the Britney Spears video, but what was it really like?

Though, I couldn’t find any firsthand accounts written by girls who attended the school in those early years in the nineteenth century, I did find a trove of information in the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Irish Province of the Loreto Sisters Archives about the founding and day to day running of the school, and some of the challenges the sisters as teachers faced. I was also fortunate enough to find a memoir written by two sisters who attended the abbey school in the 1960s, and it was filled with enlightening and hilarious anecdotes.

For example, the students dubbed each of the nuns with a nickname, though they would never have dared call them by it to their faces. So Sister Mary Maxentia became Sister Maxie. Sister M. Philippa was called Sister Pip. Mother M. Fidelis was Mother Fido. And perhaps most humorous, Mother M. Attracta became Mother Tractor.

There was default rule of silence throughout the abbey, strictly observed, and random movement was tightly controlled. All I can say is that nuns must have been geniuses. No shrieking, blabbering adolescent girls running through the halls. Win!

After lights out in the dormitories, the girls were to remain in their beds. However, at least one girl accepted a dare and darted across the room into a friend’s bed. The sister in charge of their dormitory heard the girls from inside her curtained off area, and spoke a warning. Consequently, the girl was too frightened to attempt to return to her bed until almost morning, when being caught in her friends’ bed would have been much worse.

The food left much to be desired. It was edible and nutritious, but nothing to get excited about. The roly-poly, or boiled baby, was particularly execrable, though the biscuits were a high point. Once a month, all the girls would line up to receive a tablespoon of syrup of figs for constipation. Yum.

The girls would hide the fact that they were reading novels by putting them inside the covers of holy texts. Sort of like when I used to hide them behind my algebra textbook, seemingly absorbed in equations rather than Mr. Darcy.

Some of the girls lived in terror that they would get the “calling,” as the sisters referred to their decision to take their vows. (Sounds like a Fox TV show, doesn’t it? The Calling.) Yet this never seems to have happened except to girls who had already expressed an affinity for it.

Boyfriends would write to them as brothers in order to get their letters past the nuns’ censorship. Some were even brazen enough to try to visit them the same way, though they rarely made it past the strict nun on “sentry duty.” One girl whose boyfriend forgot to hide his identity had the letter he sent her read aloud in refectory during their dinner as an example of perdition.

Readers, what about you? Did you attend a public or private, day or boarding school? What interesting or humorous tales do you have to tell?

 

AS DEATH DRAWS NEAR, Book 5 in the Lady Darby Mystery Series – Releasing July 5th

July 1831.In the midst of their idyllic honeymoon in England’s Lake District, Kiera and Gage’s seclusion is soon interrupted by a missive from her new father-in-law. A deadly incident involving a distant relative of the Duke of Wellington has taken place at an abbey south of Dublin, Ireland, and he insists that Kiera and Gage look into the matter.

Intent on discovering what kind of monster could murder a woman of the cloth, the couple travel to Rathfarnham Abbey school. Soon a second nun is slain in broad daylight near a classroom full of young girls. With the sinful killer growing bolder, the mother superior would like to send the students home, but the growing civil unrest in Ireland would make the journey treacherous.

Before long, Kiera starts to suspect that some of the girls may be hiding a sinister secret. With the killer poised to strike yet again, Kiera and Gage must make haste and unmask the fiend, before their matrimonial bliss comes to an untimely end…

 

Anna Lee Huber is the RITA and Daphne awards-nominated author of the national bestselling Lady Darby Mysteries, including A Study in Death, A Grave Matter, Mortal Arts, and The Anatomist’s Wife. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in music and minored in psychology. She currently resides in Indiana with her family and is hard at work on the next Lady Darby novel. A special Lady Darby novella titled A Pressing Engagement will release on May 17th, 2016, and Book 5, As Death Draws Near, will release on July 5th, 2016.

Visit her online at www.annaleehuber.com.

Website: www.annaleehuber.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAnnaLeeHuber

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnaLeeHuber

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5775520.Anna_Lee_Huber

 

Filed under: Uncategorized

Wicked Wednesday: Sidekicks

Holmes and Watson. Nick and Nora. Kenzie and Gennaro. Wexford and Burden. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi. Even lone wolf sleuths need someone to chew the case over with. Sometimes it’s a sleuthing partner, or a lover, or an enforcer. Whoever it is, is part of the team.

Wickeds, does your sleuth have a sidekick? How did you decide who it would be and why is that person a great sidekick for your sleuth?

Liz: Stan has a few sidekicks that serve different purposes. Nikki, her longtime best friend, is an animal rescue professional who’s super passionate about what she does. Nikki is able to offer blunt, honest commentary on animal rescue issues about which I wouldn’t necessarily want Stan to be so outspoken. Her boyfriend Jake is a sounding board. But her most unlikely (and possibly most important) sidekick is Jake’s sister, Trooper Jessie Pasquale. Despite their rocky beginnings, Jessie and Stan have paired up now on a few occasions to solve murders, and it’s been working out better than either of them have expected. It’s a fun source of conflict – Jessie has a prickly cop personality and still grumbles about Stan’s involvement in these matters, but she can’t deny how much Stan has helped her.

Edith: In the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, I realized midwife Rose Carroll needed a sidekick. Somehow Bertie Winslow, postmistress of Amesbury, popped into my head. She’s older than Rose, and petite to Rose’s tall. She rides a black horse astride rather than sidesaddle, and loves both fancy hats and fancy alcoholic drinks, in contrast to Quaker teetotaler Rose who practices plain dress, along with other Friends. Even though they are different, Rose and Bertie each value their friendship, and with every succeeding story and book I write, Bertie gets more and more involved in helping Rose solve crimes. Bertie (short for Roberta) even took over the voice in a recent short story!

In the Country Store Mysteries, Robbie Jordan’s no-nonsense but caring Aunt Adele is her sidekick, as well as her tall talented teenage kitchen assistant, Danna. And Cam Flaherty in the Local Foods Mysteries has her gang of regular locavores, especially Brazilian Lucinda, but Cam’s main sidekick is her police detective Greek boyfriend, Pete Pappas.

Barb: Julia Snowden of the Maine Clambake Mysteries has an overload of family, friends, and neighbors who serve many purposes in her life and in the narrative. I think the closest one to a sidekick is her sister Livvie. Livvie is the person in Julia’s life who’s not afraid to call her on her BS. She’s always on Julia’s side, (except when Julia tangles with Sonny, Livvie’s husband, and then all bets are off), but she’s not a cheerleader. She’s a truth-teller.

Jessie: My new series, The Change of Fortune mysteries, is told from two separate points of view. Clairauident medium Ruby Proulx tells about two thirds of the story and police detective Warren Yancey carries the final third. They each have characters that take on some of the responsibilities of sidekicks but I think they are actually great sidekicks for each other. They spur each other towards solving the main mystery of the story but, like any good pair, they also bring out some of the best in each other.

Sherry: Sarah Winston has two main sidekicks. She’s known Carol Carson, owner of Paint and Wine, for twenty years. Carol supports Sarah in a variety of situations and understands her in a different way than Sarah’s newer friends in Ellington. Her opera singing, karaoke loving, landlady, Stella Wild, is another sidekick. When the series opens, they’ve just met, and build a friendship as the books go on.

Julie: Ruth Clagan runs solo, but does have a few sidekicks. Caroline Adler is her step grandmother, and has her back. Moira Reed is her best friend, and fellow shop owner. Ben Clover is the handsome barber next door. She also talks to her cat Bezel a lot. I think about Holmes and Watson, or Poirot and Hastings, and how interesting it would be to use one duo as the narrative center.

Readers: Who are your favorite mystery sidekicks?

 

Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: amesbury, Delivering the Truth, Midnight Ink, Quaker Midwife Mysteries

The Detective’s Daughter – Who Are You?

Kim, in Baltimore, enjoying the first day of summer.

I have over one thousand photos stacked in several boxes around my office. I’ve begun to sort them into piles for other members of my family, the majority of them are of my Uncle Roy and his family. My grandmother had seven siblings (Madeleine, Leona, Thomas, Albert, Mildred and Leroy) and two step-siblings (Charles and Annie), so there are quite a few photos to go over.

For the most part, I have enjoyed sifting through them; remembering good times or seeing events from a long ago past. Because my grandmother spoke often of her family, and because I knew most of them, I was able to recognize nearly everyone in the photos.

It was all going quickly until I came across a photo of a woman I didn’t recognize. Then there was another. Soon I had a box just for the unidentified.

I posted them on Facebook hoping someone would know them, but they remain nameless. My work table is now covered with their faces. Every night I sit staring at them, searching for any clue of who they might have been. It troubles me not knowing. Are we all so easily forgotten?

 

 

 

I reexamine group photos hoping to find them in one, but I have yet to discover where they fit in with my family. There are a few I’ve made up my own stories about, others I just shuffle back into their spot. As much as I want to organize and condense the amount of things I have, I am hesitant to part with these photos. The photographs should be cherished. These people were loved and an important part of someone’s life. They must have meant a great deal to my grandmother or else she would not have kept them.

In the evenings over the past week, I’ve gone over the photos I have personally taken and have carefully written the names, places and dates on each one. No one will be forgotten.

Readers, how do you keep your photos? Are they framed or in albums, or is everything digital now?

 

Filed under: Kimberly Kurth Gray, The Detective's Daughter Tagged: Balitmore City, Baltimore, Baltimore police detectives, Detectives daughter, family, family heirlooms, grandmother, Homicide detective, memories, photographs

Dads

By Sherry, enjoying a quiet Father’s Day

As well as I know the Wickeds, I don’t know that much about their Dads. So I asked them a few questions to get a bit of insight.

Barbara:

Where was your dad born? New Rochelle, New York

Did he stay there? Except for college and the army, he stayed in the greater New York City area until I was ten and he was thirty-four. Then we moved to the Philadelphia suburbs and then on to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

What was his life’s work? He was a banker. He came up through the investment side of banking and eventually was CEO of something that doesn’t exist anymore–a medium-sized regional bank.

Was he a reader? If so what did he read?

Such a reader. As he got older and had the ability to buy himself most things he wanted, his Christmas pile turned almost entirely to books. His first loves were history and biography, but he also loved fiction, particularly Trollope.

What was his best attribute?

My dad had an incredibly sharp, fast mind and the verbal skills to match.

Share a happy childhood memory.

I remember my dad refusing to go see The Sound of Music, because he “hated nuns and children.” This was, of course, a complete pose, same as the reason the grandchildren called him “Grump.” My mother always said my dad was never as happy as when his kids, their spouses, and his grandchildren were around, and that was 100% true.

Liz:

Where was your dad born? Lawrence, MA

Did he stay there? He stayed in the area, aside from a stint in Nigeria with the Peace Corps after college.

What was his life’s work? Math teacher! Where the heck did I come from? I can barely add…

Was he a reader? If so what did he read? He was. He read the newspaper every day, and he read a lot of non-fiction and biographies.

What was his best attribute? His calm demeanor.

Share a happy childhood memory. We used to ride bikes together before our street was fully developed, when there were only three houses – ours and two others. We’d pretend we were the C.H.I.P.S. patrol guys….I’ll always remember those bike rides.

Edith:

Where was your dad born? Allan Maxwell (Jr.) was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1923, the eldest of three.

Did he stay there? He moved with his family to southern California when he was nine, after my grandfather had a heart attack in his thirties and his doctor recommended moving to a warmer climate. Daddy prowled the sand at Laguna Beach with a cigar box, pretending he was broadcasting a local news show.

What was his life’s work? He was a high school teacher of social studies, geography, and emerging nations (and in the sixties, a lot of new nations were emerging). He listened to the BBC, setting a timer so he could record it on his reel-to-reel tape recorder overnight, to keep up with international news. He brought home older pull-down world maps so he and my mom could create a play schoolroom for us in the back patio (a covered and paved outdoor space behind the garage).

Was he a reader? You bet he was. If so, what did he read? Two newspapers a day, plus histories and biographies (my mother was the mystery reader). We had a houseful of books – many walls lined with bookshelves, four different encyclopedias, you name it.

What was his best attribute? Do I have to pick ONE? This introverted, intellectual man possessed a gift for unconditional love. He always had a big smile for me and my siblings, but when we needed discipline (and I needed more than my big sisters), he delivered a serious sit-down talk that had a huge impact — and still left me feeling loved.

Share a happy childhood memory. He taught me (a girl of the fifties and sixties, mind you), one-on-one, just him and me, how to change a tire, how to hammer a nail and rub a saw with soap, and how to run the family film projector and splice the smaller reels of film into a big one (I wrote a prose poem about him and the projector you can read here). A habit of his I’ve passed on to my sons was how Daddy would leap up from the dinner table to find a reference volume so he could answer one of his four children’s questions.

Julie:

Name: Paul

Have to check on birthplace, but I think Newton MA

He did not stay there, went to Boston University and met my mother

He was a salesman–worked in publishing for most of his career. Loved working with librarians.

He was always a non-fiction reader, but in the last few years has finally caught up with the family mystery reading obsession. P.M. Hubbard was always a favorite. He is one of a half dozen people who actually read my thesis on Agatha Christie, and is rediscovering her. Also likes MC Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series. And is, of course, a fan of the Wickeds, especially Barb’s Maine series.

His best attribute is that he loves his family fiercely. My mother is at the top of the pyramid, followed closely by daughters, grandchildren, sons-in-law (as long as they are good to his daughters and good fathers to their children), family & friends, and then others. My mother is high above us all, and they recently celebrated their 55th anniversary. He raised his daughter’s to be self sufficient women. He always made us feel like a million dollars in singles (family phrase), treated us equally, and loves us unconditionally.

Favorite memory: There are a ton, a lot really sappy. I don’t know why, a memory of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride always makes me smile. In 1977 or 1978 we went to Disney World, and my youngest sister was 10 and couldn’t get enough of It’s A Small World. My sister Kristen and I were 14 and 15, and we could, so we went with Dad on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. We had to take separate cars. At one point the cars whipped around and faced each other, which my sister and I saw since we were ahead of him. So when we whipped around we made a face or waved, and he fell out laughing. The three of us couldn’t stop laughing for the rest of the ride. We’d pull it together, but then we’d hear him behind us.

I won the lottery with both my folks, and am so lucky to be sharing this new publishing adventure with them.

Sherry:

My dad was born in Novinger, Missouri — a little town named after his forefathers.

He went to college in Kirksville, Missouri, got his first teaching position in a little town outside of Hannibal, Missouri. Spent most of his adult life in Davenport, Iowa, and retired to Destin, Florida.

Like Liz, my dad was a math teacher and like Liz, I’m terrible at math!

My dad read a lot! From the newspaper to biographies to novels. Our house was full of mysteries and thrillers. (So maybe the math part didn’t take but the reading part did!)

His best attribute was his sense of humor and his outgoing personality. He always had a joke to tell.

Favorite memory: Which to pick? He used to pretend he was a monster and chase us around the house — he was really scary. In high school I fell in love with a 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass and convinced Dad to go test drive one. He made a huge list of pros and cons (with many more cons) to consider before making a decision. I was so disappointed when he showed me the list and all of the reasons not to buy it. Then he went and bought the car the next day. When I got to drive it, I thought I was hot stuff.

Readers: Please share a memory of your dad with us!

Filed under: Group posts, Sherry's posts

Guest: Lynn Cahoon

Edith here, happy to have Lynn Cahoon back with a new cozy release, Tea Cups and Carnage! Take it away, Lynn.

Finding Your Tribe

Let me just start by thanking the Wicked Cozy Authors (especially Edith Maxwell) for letting me come visit today.  With that pleasantry out of the way, I want to talk about tribes.

I’ve been around a lot of tribes lately and have been thinking about the way the world works now. As a kid, I loved it when I found my first tribe in middle school. We could have been called The Three Girls who Loved to Read. We spent our lunch hours in the school library, unpacking new books, updating the card catalogue, and just enjoying being around so many books.

In high school, my tribe was the geeky band kids. We ate lunch together, hung out together, traveled together to band activities, and all read the mandatory book – The Lord of the Rings.  I felt like part of a community. People who understood me and didn’t judge if I was just a little different than the popular kids.  This group got me through a lot of bad years.

When I was in college, I never found that group or my tribe. I hooked up with my first husband sophomore year and he was possessive.  I thought that was love. I was wrong.

In the workforce, I enjoyed the people I worked with, but kept my distance. As my son aged, I joined a local church and I found a new tribe. People who loved reading, theatre, and God. My husband was not amused.

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After the divorce, I decided I wanted to play darts. When I hooked up with my new beau, he was deep into the dart world. (Yes, there really is such a thing.) This was fun and I became pretty good for a girl (not my words), but I felt like there was something missing.

When we moved to St. Louis, I found out I had breast cancer. Through the months of treatment, I did some soul searching to determine what I wanted to do with my life. Writing came back as the answer time after time.

I joined a local romance writer chapter (new tribe). Wrote a few books, finally got published in 2012 (publisher tribe and then off shoot tribe). And now I find myself re-visiting my tribes. I’ve joined Mystery Writers of America and have a great tribe in the Chicago area I’m just getting to know. I’ve met a lot of cozy authors and am building my tribe one conversation at a time.  I have a tribe of readers who are wonderful to get to know and easy to talk to either on line or in person.

My new husband and I have a tribe of people who like to ride the trails out where we own property.

I’m surrounded by people who are part of one or more of my tribes and I’m loving the sense of community. As a young girl in rural Idaho, I always wanted to be part of something more. Now I am and I’m loving every moment of it.

Tribes are a big part of my writing as well. In the Tourist Trap mystery series, Jill and the South Cove gang are a community that cares about each other. A place where I’d love to live.  In Tea Cups and Carnage, the tribe is made bigger with a new business being added to the fold.

Readers: So what about you? Do you have a tribe that gets you?

Tea Cups and Carnage

The quaint coastal town of South Cove, California, is all abuzz about the opening of a new specialty shop, Tea Hee. But as Coffee, Books, and More owner Jill Gardner is about to find out, there’s nothing cozy about murder . . . Shop owner Kathi Corbin says she came to South Cove to get away from her estranged family. But is she telling the truth? And did a sinister someone from her past follow her to South Cove? When a woman claiming to be Kathi’s sister starts making waves and a dead body is found in a local motel, Jill must step in to clear Kathi’s name–without getting herself in hot water.

Lynn Cahoon is the author of the NYT and USA Today bestselling Tourist Trap cozy mystery series. Guidebook to Murder, book 1 of the series won the Reader’s Crown for Mystery Fiction in 2015. She’s also the author of the soon to be released, Cat Latimer series, with the first book, A STORY TO KILL, releasing in mass market paperback September 2016.She lives in a small town like the ones she loves to write about with her husband and two fur babies. Sign up for her newsletter at http://www.lynncahoon.com

 

Filed under: Guest posts, Uncategorized Tagged: Kensington Publishing, Lynn Cahoon, Mystery Writers of America, Tea Cups and Carnage, tribes

Wicked Quiz — Protagonist Towns

Do you love to take quizzes and find out which Disney Princess you are or what is your spirit animal? So do we! Take our quiz: Which Wicked Cozy Protagonist Town Should You Live In? Find out by clicking here! And if you really like quizzes you can take the first one (Which Wicked Cozy Protagonist Are You?) by clicking here.

Watch for our upcoming quizzes: Which Wicked Job Should You Have? Which Romantic Interest Should You Be With? And more!

Here’s a sneak peek at the possible outcomes:

Granford, Massachusetts with Meg Corey

1870’s Old Orchard Beach, Maine with Ruby Proulx

Dorset Falls, Connecticut with Josie Blair

Ellington, Massachusetts with Sarah Wintson

Orchard, Massachusetts with Ruth Clegan

South Lick, Indiana with Robbie Jordan

Frog Ledge with Stan Connor

Busman’s Harbor with Julia Snowden

Readers: After you take the quiz tell us which town you got! Were you surprised?

Filed under: Quiz Tagged: Busman's Harbor, Dorset Falls, Ellington Massachusetts, Frog Ledge, Granford MA, old orchard beach, Orchard MA, progtagonist, Quiz, South Lick

Wicked Wednesday: Gimme Shelter

Kinsey Milhone lives in a studio apartment over her friend Henry’s garage. Travis McGee lives on the Busted Flush, a houseboat he won in a poker game. Holmes and Watson live at 221B Baker Street. The places are as iconic as the sleuths.

Wickeds, when you picked your sleuth’s home, what did you pick and why? Is it modeled on a real place or purely a product of your imagination?

Liz: The Victorian home Stan lives in is modeled on a real place – an adorable, mint green Victorian on the real town green around which I modeled the stories. Stan saw the house purely by chance and fell in love with it. She felt it really embodied small-town living and the new reality she wanted to create for herself. Plus the house overlooks the green, where lots of important town events–and gossip!–happen regularly.

Edith: When I first imagined my Quaker midwife, Rose Carroll and the Bailey family she lives with, I knew they lived in my house in Amesbury! It was built in 1880 for the people who worked in the Hamilton Mills just a block away. I love writing the scenes that take place at home. For my farmer Cam Flaherty, I’d seen an antique saltbox in the next town and that became her farm house. And Robbie Jordan lives at the back of her country store restaurant in southern Indiana, which is directly modeled on the Story Inn in Story, Indiana (about which I have written before).

Barb: Julia Snowden’s been in four published books and lived in three places. In Clammed Up and Boiled Over, she lives in her childhood bedroom at her mother’s house. The description of that house is kinda-sorta based on the dwelling pictured at left which is actually an inn in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. But it’s also, kinda-sorta based on that most romantic of houses to little girls from my era, the house Hayley Mills and her family move to in Beulah, Maine in the Disney movie, Summer Magic.

In Musseled Out, Julia lives in the little house by the dock on Morrow Island, and in Fogged Inn, she lives in the studio apartment over Gus’s restaurant. On the novella, “Nogged Off” coming October 25th, in the collection, Eggnog Murder, we even get to go to Manhattan to see Julia’s former apartment there.

Jessie: In my new Change of Fortune series set in Old Orchard, ME in 1898 the protagonist Ruby Proulx lives in her aunt’s hotel. The hotel is a small compared to the others in the area and Ruby’s aunt decides that in order to stay in business she needs to offer a special experience. She hires a staff of paranormal practioners like astrologers and mediums in order to cater to Spiritualists and other metaphysical enthusiasts. I’ve loved outfitting the hotel with a ladies’ writig room, a library and a seance room. I’ve imagined the Hotel Belden to look a bit like, and to be placed in the same spot, as a real building. Minnie’s Seaside Rest was built in 1896 by a Mrs. Charles Green as an affordable retreat for missionaries on leave from overseas.

Sherry: Sarah didn’t have a lot of places to pick from when she moved off base and into Ellington, Massachusetts during her divorce. But she found an apartment in a house that had been converted to a four plex. The real house that I based it on doesn’t have a covered porch but I’ve added one. Her apartment is on the second story and overlooks the town common. I love when I go back to Bedford, the town Ellington is based on, people ask me which house is Sarah’s. Here it is!

Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: 221B Baker Street, amesbury, Bedford Massachusetts, Busted Flush, Country Store Mysteries, Ellington Massachusetts, Graduation Advice, Hotel Belden, Kinsey Millhone, local foods mysteries, old orchard beach, Quaker Midwife Mysteries, Sherlock Holmes, Story Inn, Summer Magic, Travis McGee

The Invasion of the First Ladies!

A Wicked Welcome to Barbara Schlichting. Barb and I knew each other from the Guppies, and from Facebook, but we got to visit in person a couple of times this year, first at Left Coast Crime in February, and then at Malice Domestic in May. She sat at my table during the Agatha Banquet, and I was so glad that she did. She is funny, kind, and wicked excited about her publishing debut.

I’m thrilled to welcome her to the blog today, and hear more about the path she followed to write her new First Lady Mystery series.

Whatever made me think of writing about the First Ladies, let alone come up with a mystery surrounding them? How could an item that was lost over two-hundred years ago become a modern day mystery? I used my imagination.

I’ve always loved American history. The early years of our republic were colorful. How could the First Ladies manage? They needed recognition and praise. I got a ‘bee’ in my ‘bonnet’ and decided it was time for me to write the living First Ladies and request a picture plus an autograph. It should be easy. At the time, it seemed like it should be an easy task. I thought of a few options. My first thought was to send a letter requesting an autograph. I slid a self-stamped addressed envelope inside of the letter. Before you knew it, First Lady Rosalynn Carter sent me a photo plus her signature. I was elated. I never expected that. My letters were returned from the two First Lady Bush’s. I stepped up my request by asking for a picture plus the signature, found another address for First Ladies Laura and Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton. Since Mrs. Reagan hadn’t responded, I sent another letter to the same address. All total there were at least four letters of request sent to each First Lady. Eventually I received a beautiful picture of Barbara Bush of which she personally autographed in calligraphy as well as a letter. Laura Bush sent a signed picture. Nancy Reagan sent a photo of her and the president. Hillary Clinton was a bit of a challenge because she was Secretary of State at the time and hard to track down. Eventually I received three photos of Mrs. Clinton: First Lady, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton, and as Secretary of State.

Then one day, I thought our mailman was going to have a heart attack. He honked his horn all the way down the driveway, jumped from the car, and raced to our door waving a large yellow envelope and shouting, “The White House! The White House! You have a letter from the White House!”

Indeed. Enclosed was a letter on White House stationary from First Lady Michelle Obama with her signature plus a signed photo.

I had a relationship with the First Ladies.

It was my duty to shine the light on our beloved First Ladies. The question I asked myself was; who was my favorite?

Dolley Madison was at the top of the list. I loved that she climbed up on the roof of the White House with a spy glass and watched for the British soldiers. She chewed tobacco. Imbibed a bit too much. Had a parakeet or parrot, and probably talked to it plus wore a turban with bird flowers. She was a real person. She loved everyone. There had to be a mystery surrounding her, right?

Of course!

The title of the Star Spangled Banner easily translated to THE BLOOD SPANGLED BANNER, and my first book was born. I always felt sorry for Mary Lincoln. I thought she got a bum-rap from the press after her husband was assassinated. What horrible circumstances she had to live through. When I discovered that Mr. Lincoln gave a speech called, ‘the lost speech’, I had my hook. Couldn’t Mary have hidden it? WORDS CAN KILL will also be published at the end of the summer by Darkhouse Books.

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Barbara Schlichting was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota where her First Ladies Mystery Series is set. Barbara graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1970. Later, she and her husband moved their family to Bemidji. She attended Bemidji State University where she earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in elementary education and special education. Barbara has been married for forty-four years and has two grown sons who have blessed her with five grandchildren and one great grandson. Barbara has been known to travel too much, and read while not paying attention to her husband. However she has had an English penpal for over fifty years.

Barbara Schlichting can be found on the web, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Filed under: Guest posts Tagged: Barbara Schlichting, First Ladies Mystery series, The Blood Spangled Banner