Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 258

Happy Book Birthday Edith!

Farmed and Dangerous is the third book in Edith’s Local Food Mystery! Here’s a little about the book: Snow is piling up in Westbury, Massachusetts, and Cam Flaherty’s organic farm has managed to survive the harsh New England winter. Unfortunately murder seems to be the crop in season…

Cam is finding the New Year just as hectic as the old one. Her sometimes rocky relationship with Chef Jake Ericsson is in a deep freeze, she’s struggling to provide the promised amount of food to the subscribers in her first winter CSA, and her new greenhouse might just collapse from the weight of the snow. Supplying fresh ingredients for a dinner at the local assisted living facility seems like the least of her worries—until one of the elderly residents dies after eating some of her produce.

Cantankerous Bev Montgomery had a lot of enemies, from an unscrupulous real estate developer who coveted her land to an aggrieved care provider fed up with her verbal abuse. But while the motives in this case may be plentiful, the trail of poisoned produce leads straight back to Cam. Not even her budding romance with police detective Pete Pappas will keep him from investigating her.

As the suspects gather, a blizzard buries the scene of the crime under a blanket of snow, leaving Cam stranded in the dark with a killer who gives new meaning to the phrase “dead of winter.”

Liz: Yay, Edith!! I love following Cam around on her adventures. Congratulations on Farmed and Dangerous – and I LOVE the title! Anxiously to get home and crack open the book tonight!

Sherry: I agree with Liz, the title is great! I can’t believe the third in the series is out! I was lucky enough to get to read an early version! This is another great book in the series and doesn’t disappoint!

Barb: This is my absolutely favorite Local Foods cover! Even though I am not in the mood for winter (I am freezing my patooties off on June 1st as I type this), I cannot wait to read this book.

Julie: Leave it to Edith to order up a cold wave so we can all get in the mood for this read. I am so looking forward to this, and thrilled to follow more of Cam’s adventures. I also love, love, love the cover. Congratulations!!

Jessie: Even though this installment is set in the winter, this series always puts me in the mood to roll up my sleeves and dig in the garden. Thanks, Edith!

Edith: Thank you dear friends! I’m so thrilled by this cover, by this continuing series, by the reception the book has already gotten so far, and most of all by having such an enthusiastic support group – the Wickeds and all our Wicked Cozy commenter community. You guys are the best.

Filed under: Book Release Tagged: A Local Foods Mystery, Farmed and Dangerous, MA, opening lines, Westbury

Shoes and Trash

News Flash: Pernette Wells is the winner of Farmed and Dangerous! Congratulations, Pernette. Please contact Edith at edithmaxwellauthor at gmail dot com.

by Sheila Connolly

Behold a ratty collection of antique shoes. Why am I showing you these? Because I have a new book coming out tomorrow (Privy to the Dead). Patience: I will explain.

I have blathered on here and elsewhere about the trash trove I discovered when my husband was replacing the battered floor in a slapdash room that connects our kitchen to what was once a stable. The room was cobbled together from whatever leftovers (doors, windows, lumber) were available in 1870, so you didn’t have to go out into the New England winter to hitch up the horse. One corner under the old floor included a heap of discarded, uh, junk. Broken china and glassware, tin cans, bottles (lots!), one skeletal umbrella, one bristleless wooden toothbrush, assorted odd ornamental items, a single cannonball, a silver-plated coffin plate—and a number of well-worn shoes.

The shoes, as near as I can tell, belonged to a woman with small feet, and she wore them long enough to wear holes in the soles. It’s kind of intriguing to see how shoes were assembled a century or more ago (for various reasons I date the whole mess to around 1900). But what really caught my attention was the pair with rubber soles: I had a pair of antique sneakers.

It had never occurred to me that rubber-soled shoes dated back that far, but when I did a bit of online searching I found that U.S. Rubber was making cloth-topped rubber-soled shoes starting in 1892, in Naugatuck CT, not extremely far from where I live. They later started making Keds (I still have a pair or two in my closet)

And why do I care about this? Because (duck—here comes the shameless plug) the next book in my Museum Mysteries, Privy to the Dead, comes out tomorrow, and it’s about what was found in a former privy uncovered in the basement during renovations to the Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society building in Philadelphia.

The Society is based on a real building in Philadelphia, and during recent renovations they discovered a privy pit in the basement (it was left over from the former building that stood on that site, covered over more than a century ago). I learned this from a friend who works there, and I stopped him before he could tell me what (if anything) was found in that privy, because I wanted to use it for my own nefarious ends. In the book I planted clues there, which led to solving an old murder and a new one. (No, there was no body!)

I’m kind of alert to the odds and ends that people toss away, and what the “trash” can tell us about their time and who they were. From my old pile I know something about the family’s taste in china and their decorative pretensions. I guessed that one member of the family had fought in the Civil War and brought home a souvenir (I confirmed his military service). I learned who the owner’s parents had been (from the coffin plate, which isn’t as weird as it sounds, although it should never have ended up in the trash). And I’m still puzzling over why some of these things, like the well-used shoes, ended up under the floor (although of course I’ve woven a story around them).

What’s the most interesting artifact you’ve found in or around your house? Behind a wall, under a floor board, or forgotten in a dark corner of the attic?

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Museum Mysteries, Privy to the Dead, sheila connolly

Wicked New England — My Favorite Place to Read

NEWS FLASH: Commenter Kait Carson won Hallie Ephron’s book, Night Night, Sleep Tight. Congratulations, Kait! If you see this, please contact Edith on Facebook or at edithmaxwellauthor at gmail dot com.

New England has so much to offer mountains, beaches, rolling hills — the changing seasons. So Wickeds where is your favorite place to read? Does it change with the season?

Sherry: My very favorite place to read is in bed at the end of a long day, propped up on a couple of pillows. But when I lived in Massachusetts I went on a girls trip with my mom and my sister to Rockport, Massachusetts. The house we rented had the perfect place to read or sit and reflect.

Edith: I really can read anywhere. The rocking chair in my office, which was my grandfather’s and then my mother’s, is a comfortable comforting place in which to soak up a

book. But I’ve read sunning at Crane Beach in Ipswich, camping at Russell Pond in New Hampshire, on cross-country airplanes, in waiting rooms.

Even at one, my granddaughter understood the joy of reading on the porch.

Barb: I didn’t even have to think about this one. Hands down, the big front porch overlooking the harbor at out house in Boothbay.

Liz: The beach will always be my favorite place to read, hands down. However, the Lebanon Town Green where the dogs like to walk is also a great place, with little benches,  lots of trees and gorgeous views.

Jessie:In the summer I love to read on the beach in Old Orchard. There is nothing like being stretched out on the sand, under a floppy hat with the waves lapping nearby.

Julie: My favorite place is on vacation, wherever that is.

Readers: Where is your favorite reading spot?

Filed under: Group posts, Wicked New England Tagged: Crane Beach, reading spots, Rockport MA, Russell Pond

The Waiting Game

Edith here, with a finally planted garden and a full heart north of Boston. And a book to give away!

So much about the writer’s life involves waiting. You finish one book, work on another project, write a proposal for yet a different book, and still the first book hasn’t come out, at least in the traditional publishing model. The release feels like forever distant. Then all of a sudden things are happening and you’re barely hanging onto the freight train door as it hurtles down a mountainside.

I wrote Farmed and Dangerous, polished it, and turned it in over a year ago. I first saw the cover late last fall, I believe, and got really excited about it, but it still seemed so long until it would be out. Kensington sent me a box of Advance Review Copies (ARCs) months ahead of the release date, and a box of the actual hardcovers a month or so ago. Now the book is out – well, officially next week – and I’ve been frantically writing guest blog posts, arranging a launch party (you’re all invited!), agreeing to all kinds of library and bookstore events. Speak of a freight train!

In the meantime, I wrote Book Four, Murder Most Fowl, polished it, and turned it in, and have made the few editorial revisons my editor asked for. But it won’t be out until a year from now. AND I wrote the synopsis for Book Five, Cart Before the Corpse (or maybe Mulch Ado About Murder), which my editor liked and accepted. That book is due in May 2016 and won’t be out for a year after that. Where is my time telescope so I can see that far out?

The same thing with the Country Store Mysteries. Got the cover for Flipped for Murder a few months ago and loved it, but the book won’t be out until late October, although it IS available for preorder (as Hank Phillippi Ryan says, it’s only my career…). Meanwhile Grilled for Murder, the second book, due August 1, is complete and awaiting Sherry’s expert edits before I submit it. (Book Three is due March 1. Gulp.)

The same thing, even worse, with Delivering the Truth. I say worse only in that, once again, the release date seems so very far away, but that’s partly because the book was complete before I landed the contract with Midnight Ink last December. The release date is April 6, 2016. I just saw the cover, which I love, and when I posted it on Facebook, 300 people popped in to say how much they also like it and want to read the book. It won’t even be available for preorder until July, and I’m already ten thousand words into Book Two! See what I mean?

It’s a good thing I’m, shall we say, a bit too busy, or the waiting game might have me sitting around tapping my foot and chewing my fingernails. As it is, I’m barely keeping my head above water. In addition to writing books, I also read books. I am Clerk of Amesbury Friends Meeting, on the Crime Bake committee, a judge in a contest, and so on. I’m smiling, don’t get me wrong. I love this life. And good things come to those who wait, right? Or as my Hugh says, “It’s just another f—ing growth opportunity!” (minus the dashes…).

Readers: How are you with waiting? Are you the patient sort, or the I Can’t Stand the Wait type? And what do you think about the brand-new Quaker Midwife Mystery cover? I’ll send a copy of Farmed and Dangerous to one commenter!

Filed under: Edith's posts Tagged: Country Store Mysteries, Delivering the Truth, Farmed and Dangerous, Flipped for Murder, Kensington Publishing, local foods mysteries, Midnight Ink, Murder Most Fowl, Quaker Midwife Mysteries

Wicked Wednesday–Spring Into Food

On Wicked Wednesdays we all weigh in on a subject. Since we all write cozy, food is an important subject. For some of us, it is part of our series. For all of us, it is a subject we love to discuss. So this week, let’s talk about the food that signifies “spring” to all of us. Recipes are welcome!

Julie: Rhubarb. I make a mean strawberry rhubarb pie, though it isn’t any special family secret. Better Holmes and Gardens does it. I need to find some more rhubarb recipes–I really do love it. And it tastes like spring.

Jessie: Chives are my spring thing. I have several patches in my gardens and as soon as there is enough length on their fresh green shoots I begin snipping them to add to anything savory. There is nothing like freshly cut chives in Thai spring rolls or omelettes.

Sherry: Now I want some chives, Jessie! I don’t think it’s one particular food for me, but I love that the Farmers Markets are open again the and the fresh produce is flowing in from local farms. There’s something about strolling around in the fresh air that makes buying food so much more fun. One of the things I want to do this spring is try new vegetables that I’ve never used before. Wish me luck because with my cooking skills it could get ugly.

Edith: Holmes and Gardens.> Good luck, Sherry! It’s not that hard. I love, love, love, fresh asparagus, and this year our three-year-old patch is shooting up a half-pound a day. Nothing says spring like lightly steaming asparagus and marinating it in a light vinaigrette. Recipe on the Recipes tab on my web site.

Liz: I’m so excited that it’s almost farm share time again. We have a share with a great local farm. They have the absolute best kale, among other things, but also cool things I’d never have tried otherwise if they hadn’t shown up in the share bag. Like tatsoi and kohlrabi. I still prefer the kale!

Barb: Like Julie, I love rhubarb. We have a big patch growing at our house in Maine and my husband has all sorts of clever recipes. (One of them is the Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Coffee Cake in Clammed Up.) Which reminds me. Strawberries! We eat them the whole spring season. And fresh peas. But I have to put a plug in for that blink-and-you’ll-miss-them, only-in-the-spring, limited-time-engagement-treat, fiddlehead ferns.

Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: chives, farmers' market, marinated asparagus, rhubarb, strawberry rhubarb pie, Wicked Wednesday

The Inside Scoop with Hallie Ephron

Edith here, exulting in spring, at last, north of Boston.

I am so pleased to welcome the great friend of the Wickeds, author Hallie Ephron, to the blog today. She’s giving away a copy of her new book to one commenter today, so be sure to ask her a question or leave a remark.

Edith: First, give us the short blurb of Night Night, Sleep Tight – which I loved, by the way – and how it relates to your own life as a girl in Beverly Hills.

Hallie: When I was 10 years old, actress Lana Turner’s boyfriend (a gangster named Johnny Stompanato) was killed by Turner’s 14-year-old daughter. The Beverly Hills house where it happened was two blocks from where we lived, and I used to ride my bike over there and just stare at the house and the windows of what I was sure was the “pink bedroom” I’d read about in the newspaper. Night Night, Sleep Tight combines a fictional version of of that murder  with stories from my own growing up in Beverly Hills. (What if I’d been Lana Turner’s daughter’s best friend and what if I’d been sleeping over at their house the night of the murder…)

E: By some standards Night Night, Sleep Tight is an historical novel. How do you feel when people call it that?  And which details did you have the most trouble finding out about, even though you and many of your contemporaries were alive then?

H: Historical? Really?? It’s true that so much has changed since the 60s and 80s. Remember when we “teased” our hair, used land lines and answering machines, when there were no computers or email? We all read movie magazines and ate at drive-ins. The movie business was very different, too — in the 60s it went through a huge upheaval, which is the backdrop to the novel. My parents were screenwriters. Most of the physical details I dredged out of my own memory, and fortunately there are lots of old-time photographs and ephemera like “movie star maps” of Beverly Hills that I could find easily on the Internet.

E: The rest of us at this blog write primarily series. You wrote a series earlier but now write standalones. I can’t image making up an entire new world every time I write a book. What do you like about that, and what is the most challenging? Do you ever feel moved to continue a character or setting on to another story?

H: It’s not that I don’t like writing a series, but the ideas that come to me work best as onesies. Yeah, it’s challenging, and it’s why it takes me two years to write a standalone novel whereas it used to take me one year for a series novel. The hardest part about writing? It’s the writing. Really. Whether it’s a standalone or a series. Just cranking out that first draft is a slog for me.

E: So interesting to hear you say that, since many of us regard you as our teacher! We all met you either through Sisters in Crime New England or at the Seascape Writers Retreat (or both). I’m

Seascape 2009 where Hallie worked with Liz, Sherry, Edith, and Barb.

so sorry Seascape has been discontinued, for myself and for all the other getting-started authors out there who learned so much and who got a critical boost from you and the other mentors. Is there any chance that incredibly productive weekend will be resurrected?

H: It was so great going to Malice and seeing Seascape alums like you and Liz Mugavero and Barbara Ross and Sherry Harris with published books and Agatha nominations! Lucy Burdette and I may do it again… 2017 at the soonest.

E: As a group blog, the Wicked Cozys of course very much admire your long-running Jungle Red Writers group blog and the community of commenters you have built up. Personally that’s the first blog I read every morning. Do you all have trouble continuing to come up with topics, or organizing yourselves? I know it’s no issue to find new guests to feature – who wouldn’t want to make a guest appearance over there!

H: Surprisingly I don’t find it hard to come up with blog ideas. It’s infinitely easier than finding a plot for a book!

E: I know you travel regularly to fun places like Mexico and Greece. Do you try to work on trips like those, or do you give yourself a real vacation from writing?

H: Depends on whether I have a deadline. I took my computer to Sanibel for a family week last year and spent 2 hours a day closed in a room working. But mostly on vacations I like to truly vacate my brain.

E: Tell us something you might not have told any other interviewer, something that might surprise us about you.

H: I’m a birder. And right now the season’s first catbird is out splashing around in my bird bath.

E: What’s up next for you, writing wise?

H: A book! Please, tell me it’s going to be a book. I’m up to page 50 and wondering what made me think I knew how to do this.

E: LOL. It will be a book, Hallie. Have faith! But that makes me think of people who asked me what I was having when I was pregnant. If I was feeling cranky, I’d say, “A baby” or “a human.” What did they THINK I was having, an aardvark? (Yes, I know it was a gender question…)

Thanks so much for visiting us. Readers, stop by all day and ask Hallie a question or leave a comment. She’ll give a copy of Night Night, Sleep Tight to one of you!

Bio:

HALLIE EPHRON is the New York Times bestselling author of Night Night, Sleep Tight, a suspense novel inspired by an infamous Beverly Hills murder that took place when she was growing up there in the ‘60s, surrounded by but never part of Hollywood glamour. A starred review in Publisher’s Weekly calls it “a captivating thriller.” It was InStyle Magazine’s #1 “Page-turning Pick” for April. Her earlier novel, Never Tell a Lie, was made into a movie for the Lifetime Movie Network. Hallie is also the author of the Edgar-nominated Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel and a regular book reviewer for the Boston Globe. 

Filed under: Guest posts Tagged: Beverly Hills, Hallie ephron, Night Night Sleep Tight, Seascape

Cover Reveal-Fogged Inn (A Maine Clambake Mystery #4)

by Barb, who has a book due–okay actually this book due–June 1 (Ulp!)

Look what just showed up on Amazon. (This is the first I’m seeing it, too.)

What do you think?

Would you buy this book?

Do you see the inspiration from this Pinterest board?

What do you think the story is about? (Note: If you come up with ideas that are better than my 98% completed book, I’m going to……possibly steal them for another book. :-) )

Let me know!

 

Filed under: Barb's posts Tagged: Barbara Ross, Cover, Fogged inn, Maine Clambake Mystery

Influences

By Sherry Harris

As I was trying to think of a topic to write about my eyes landed on two books in our family room The Riverside Shakespeare and British Literature Volume B — not that I think my writing is anywhere close  or influential as Shakespeare, Keats or Barrett-Browning. Both books are from my college days but I still pull them out to read. It made me reflect on other influences that have shaped my reading and writing life.

 

 

It started with fairy tales and went on through the Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew. I devoted a whole blog post to my favorite childhood author, Maud Hart Lovelace. When I was young I wanted to be Pippi Longstockings — strong, brave and adventurous — and maybe a dose of Pippi creeps into my protagonist Sarah Winston.

 

I was lucky to grow up in a houseful of readers and books. Our bookshelves were full of everything from the classics to current literature. Also I had wonderful teachers like my third grade teacher, Mrs. Kibby, who noticed I was falling behind in my reading skills and worked with me and my family. I think she instilled my deep love of reading. My senior year of high school I was editor-in-chief of my high school yearbook and wrote a lot of the copy. Mr. Stedwell, the young journalism teacher, was patient and managed us, but he didn’t micro-manage us. I probably learned more through that experience than almost any other in high school.

In college I took as many lit classes as I could — thirty hours — a lot considering the college I attended didn’t have a literature major. But I loved every minute of them. A whole class on Mark Twain — the first time I read Tom Sawyer was when we were visiting family friends in Hannibal, Missouri. We visited the fence, island, and cave Twain wrote about. I did an independent study on women authors — Willa Cather, Flannery O’Connor, Edith Wharton and so many more. And of course my class on Shakespeare — one of my proudest college moments was getting an A on my paper about Queen Gertrude.

My outside reading consisted of Phyllis Whitney, Victoria Holt, and Mary Stewart among others. Then I discovered Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich, and Sara Paretsky. I’ve been lucky enough to meet all three of them. I know reading them has influenced my writing and reaffirmed my love for mysteries.

Readers: who are your writing and reading influences?

Filed under: Sherry's posts Tagged: Flannery O'Conner, Heidi, Janet Evanovich, Mark Twain, Mary Stewart, Maud Hart Lovelace, Phyllis Whitney, Riverside Shakespeare, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, The Bobbsey Twins, Victoria Holt, Willa Cather

What Is Your Story?

By Julie, still chilly in Somerville

My day job is running an arts service organization called StageSource. StageSource is 30 years old, and connects the theater community in New England in dozens of ways. It is a very, very challenging job, but incredibly rewarding.

Every two years we host a conference. This year it will be June 7 at the Boston Opera House, and the theme is “Who Are We? How Do We Tell Our Stories Differently?” Thirty years in, it is time for all of us to take stock,and think about our theater community, and how we want to present ourselves. (If you live in New England, like or love theater, or are an arts administrator, come to the conference. It is going to be great.)

As complicated as this is for the theater community, it is as complicated for mystery writers. I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately. We are already a genre, and within that, we create other subgenres, like “cozy”. Some things are out of your control–like how your book gets tagged for data collection, or where it is sold in a store. How you claim that space, and tell that story, is an individual choice though. Do you fight it, or embrace it?

When I started out on this writing journey, I fancied myself a “serious” writer, even though I read widely in the mystery genre. It wasn’t until someone asked me why I wasn’t writing mysteries, and I didn’t have a good answer, that I changed paths. Even then, in literary fiction classes, it was a risky move. But when I dropped a body, my story got better. When I added a mystery component, characters had something to talk about. And when I embraced being a mystery writer, I fell in love with writing.

My cover! I don’t think I’ve shared it yet–isn’t it great?

Earlier this month I went to Malice, and was invited to the Berkley/Obsidian dinner. Sitting in that restaurant were some of my favorite authors, but I felt at home. We each had to get up and introduce ourselves, so I told them that I was Julianne Holmes, and my debut book, Just Killing Time, was coming out in October. Everyone clapped. For me.

How cool is that? Here’s the best part of the story when you are a mystery writer: other mystery writers are wonderful people. It is a great, supportive, and fun community.

I love that being a writer has become an integral part of my story. It isn’t my entire story. I am also an arts administrator, an arts advocate, and a teacher. But I have come to own the writer part of my story, and I realize it sure makes the whole package a lot more fun.

Writer friends, where does your work fit into your story? Readers, does your love of mystery fiction add to your own story?

Filed under: Uncategorized

Wicked Wednesday: Taking It Outdoors

Wicked Wednesdays we all weigh in on a topic, and then ask our readers to chime in as well. Last week we talked about spring cleaning. This week’s question, given that Memorial Day is coming up, and many a grill will be hauled out from winter storage, what is your favorite “it isn’t winter any more” outdoor activity?

Julie: Every spring, I try and do the Couch to 5K program, to get outside and moving. (I walk faster than I run, so this isn’t any great feat. Just makes me feel better about myself.) I also help get my folks’ summer house ready, which has meant dealing with gifts from mice the last three years. (Here’s hoping that won’t happen this year. Yeesh.) I also give myself or get a pedicure, and try to get my feet used to wearing sandals again. I live in a condo, otherwise it would be all about gardening as well.

Jessie: I head to the beach and start preparing the house my family has there for the season. I open the windows and remake all the beds with fresh linens. I stock my container garden and plant the window boxes. I rake out the garden beds and bring out the patio furniture. When I’m done I head to the beach and fly a kite.

Liz: Getting outside during the day – whether I’m working at the office or at home. If I’m at the office, I’ll grab a friend and we’ll head to Bushnell Park in Hartford and do a few laps, then grab a Starbucks on the way back. At home, I try to get Shaggy to the green for a walk. It gives me a good excuse to get out.

Edith: Let’s hear it for flying a kite after chores, the first pedicure, and laps at the park! For me, it’s eating at the table on the deck, preferably all three meals in the day. Planting the vegetable garden is huge. But a lot of it is just gazing at the fully greened-up trees, lawns, and shrubs. Forsythia turns from yellow to green. Tree branches get hidden by emerald leaves. The garlic I planted in the fall pushes happily up from its hay mulch. Even my baby blueberries bushes sprout brilliant green leaves. Call me happy.

Sherry: This is the second week in a row I have to confess to having no special rites of passage or spring routines. Seeing this week’s topic made me ponder this. I decided that maybe it’s because since 1981 I’ve lived lots of different places with lots of different climates. I’ve moved, on average, about every three years. Perhaps if I stayed one place for a long period of time I’d settle into some routine but I’m not sure I even want to. I walk all year long through sleet and rain and dark of night but that’s only because I have a dog and a yard without a fence. I do love when spring buds out in wave after wave of blooming trees, flowers, and bushes.

Barb: I love being outdoors, and this spring has been so late in New England, I’m especially excited. I move my writing operation to the porch, especially our deep front porch in Boothbay Harbor, Maine where I am inspired by the views of sailboats, lobster boats, islands and sea birds. I also look especially for restaurants where we can dine alfresco.

Readers: What is your favorite “it isn’t winter any more” outdoor activity?

Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: beach, beach house, blueberry leaves, container gardens, forsythia, garlic, kites, Wicked Wednesday, window boxes