Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 39

Guest Margaret Loudon plus #giveaway

By Edith, writing from north of Boston and eating as many perfect, ripe, sun-warmed tomatoes as I can!

I’m delighted to welcome Margaret Loudon as our guest today as she celebrates her fourth Open Book mystery, which released last week. As Peg Cochran, she’s my blogmate over at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, and just to mix things up, she also writes as Meg London.

Here’s the blurb – doesn’t this sound fun? When murder taints writer-in-residence Penelope Parish’s charming British bookshop, she must follow the clues to catch a killer before tempers boil over. Penelope Parish thought she’d turned the page on her amateur sleuthing days but when the owner of Upper Chumley-on-Stokes’ proposed first high-end gourmet shop is poisoned, the American novelist starts to wonder if she and her quaint British town are in for another rewrite. It turns out that not everyone was a fan of Simeon Foster’s farm-sourced charcuterie and imported pastries—many of the locals were outraged by the potential new competition.

With a full menu of suspects on her hands, this just might be Penelope’s toughest case yet. Luckily, her friends at the Open Book are there to help with every twist of the poisoned pen.      

How a Series Was Born

Can I tell you something?  Shhhh…don’t tell anyone.  I am secretly an avid royal watcher.  I mean the British royal family, not the Kansas City Royals.  I’ve always been an Anglophile (I think it started with the Beatles) and the royal family is the icing on the Victoria Sponge Cake, so to speak.

Needless to say, I was glued to the drama that was Harry and Meghan but at the time, I had no idea it would lead to my latest cozy mystery series The Open Book, written as Margaret Loudon.  It began with the proverbial “what if?”  What if I used Harry and Meghan in a book? Not the real H & M, of course but the idea of them. 

The book would have to be set in England, a tantalizing idea since this was in the midst of the Covid quarantine and some armchair travel sounded enticing. 

I needed a town.  What to call it?  The Brits have such great names for towns– Upton Snodsbury, Boggy Bottom, Burnham-on-Sea.  Thus, the fictional town of Upper Chumley-on-Stoke was born. 

Photo credit Olivier Collet

I wasted er, spent, countless hours perusing pictures of quaint British towns as I slowly created Upper Chumley with its cobblestone streets, half-timbered stucco buildings and the ever-present castle known as Worthington House looming over the town from its perch on a small rise.

Photo credit Nicola Gadler

The castle needed a royal—in this case a duke–Arthur Worthington, the Duke of Upper Chumley-on-Stoke.  The red-haired Worthington speeds through Upper Chumley in his Aston Martin, drinks with the locals at the Book and Bottle and was a favorite of the queen’s.  Obviously, Worthington needed a bride…who better to stir up the townspeople’s ire than Charlotte Davenport, an American romance writer who pens what used to be known as “bodice rippers” with half-naked women and bare-chested men on the cover.  Horrors!

I needed a sleuth for my series as well, of course.  I happened to read in a newsletter that a bookstore was looking for a writer-in-residence.  Aha!  That was perfect. Penelope “Pen” Parish would be the author of a bestselling gothic novel who moves to Upper Chumley to be the writer-in-residence at the Open Book bookstore in hopes that it will cure her writer’s block as she tries to finish her second novel.   Tall and gangly with glasses that keep sliding down her nose, Pen turned out to be the perfect person to solve the rash of murders in Upper Chumley.

Photo credit Clay Banks

Pen needed a friend, a sidekick.  Enter Lady Fiona Innes-Goldthorpe, affectionately known as “Figgy,” who runs the teashop inside the Open Book. Despite her bohemian appearance with her short spikey hair and taste for vintage fashion, she is the daughter of an earl.   She and Pen become fast friends.

Who owns the bookstore? White-haired Mabel Morris appears as the proprietor of the Open Book, enjoying the quiet life in Upper Chumley after a career as an MI6 analyst.  From there, the cast of characters grew to include Gladys Watkins, Laurence Brimble and India Culpepper, all of whom continue their adventures in A Deadly Dedication, book number four in the series.  

Readers: Do you like foreign settings in books?  Which are your favorites?  Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of A Deadly Dedication.  Sorry, US only.

A former Jersey girl, Peg Cochran – aka Margaret Loudon – now resides in Michigan with her husband. She is the author of numerous cozy mystery series including the Open Book (writing as Margaret Loudon), Murder, She Reported, Cranberry Cove, the Farmer’s Daughter, Gourmet De-Lite, the Lucille series and Sweet Nothings Lingerie (written as Meg London). When she’s not writing, you’ll find her either cooking, reading or spoiling her granddaughter.

Ready for an Adventure

by Julie, summering in Somerville

I have been reading a great list of books in preparation for moderating a panel at Bouchercon. The Hook: Books, Victorian Architecture, and Other Excitement in Cozy Mysteries with Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day, Jenn McKinlay, Kate Carlisle, and Marty Wingate. (Thursday at 2pm!)

Panel preparation is different than reading for enjoyment. I’m trying to find good questions to ask the panel that propel the conversation in ways that interest the audience. Late in July I was part of a reading like a writer panel about The Murder of Roger Ackroyd I did for Sisters in Crime.

Once you start reading like a writer, you can’t stop. My niece recommend a lovely book called The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston. The book is a paranormal romance that’s also a page turner. I don’t read a lot of romances, and this made me wonder why not. This also made me think about what it takes to write a romance. I write mysteries with some romance, but writing a romance with a mystery, and maybe ghosts, is a different adventure.

Another niece and her friends play a game that is sort of like Dungeons and Dragons, but it’s called Monsterhearts. Roleplaying and dice. She mentioned that she thought I would be good at creating stories for games, and I’ve been thinking about that. Role playing games for people over fifty. First I have to learn how to play D&D, or a game like it. But I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.

I’ve also been gravitating towards shows that mash things up a bit. Did anyone see Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse? Visually stunning, narratively interesting, and unexpected. Also a cliff hanger that ticked me off, but I digress. I loved being surprised. Barbie was another movie that surprised me in wonderful ways.

I’m working on a few ideas, but this summer has made me think. I’ve been pushing myself to level up my prose. But how can I surprise myself? Try something new? Mash up another genre? Write in a different format?

Here’s what I know. I’m ready for a new adventure.

Friends, have you read or watched something recently that surprised or delighted you?

Wicked Wednesday: How our Characters Relax

Edith/Maddie here, loving the summer produce north of Boston.

Wickeds, pick one or more of your characters and describe how they relax in the summer.

Sherry: Chloe loves to go out for an early morning run to relax before going to work. (That’s the complete opposite of how I would choose to relax!) After work she loves taking a glass of wine and good book out to her screened in porch that looks out over the Gulf of Mexico. (Now that is something I can get on board with!)

Jessie: Edwina gardens and takes long, rambling walks with her dog. Beryl loves nothing more than putting down the top on her motorcar and taking it out for a spin!

Barb: Julia Snowden doesn’t get much chance to relax during the Snowden Family Clambake’s busy summer season. It’s hard for her to even find time to solve all the murders. But she does occasionally lift her head and look around to take in the sight and smell of the ocean and the sounds of her happy guests and to appreciate all that she has. She’s much better at relaxing during the off season than she was when she moved back to Busman’s Harbor at the beginning of the series.

Edith/Maddie: Mac Almeida sometimes goes for long walks on the beach with her husband Tim, or she puts up her feet on the deck and sips a cool white wine while reading the latest cozy mystery for the Cozy Capers book group. Except in the book I just turned in, Murder at the Rusty Anchor, her brain is too busy with solving the murder to let her relax much, even in July.

Julie: Lilly Jayne gardens. She turns compost to work off frustration, but she gardens to relax. And talks to her flowers. Sully Sullivan, from the Theater Cop series, probably goes to cold case websites and listens to true crime podcasts. Otherwise, I’m not sure she knows how to relax.

Edith: I LOVE that Lilly turns compost as an outlet for frustration, Julie!

Liz: Summer is Maddie’s busiest time too with so many visitors on the island. But the ocean is her favorite place too, so she’s making time to walk the dogs and smell the salt air before running off to help cats or solve mysteries – or other family problems!

Readers: Which of our characters do you share a relaxation practice with?

How’s Retirement Working Out for You? and a #giveaway

by Barb, still at the beach in New Jersey

Today I am so pleased to welcome to the blog Friend of the Wickeds, Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett. Kathy, along with Kate Flora and the late Lea Wait, were very supportive of me when I first moved to Maine and became a published author. We’re the same generation age-wise, but they were all publishing veterans by the time I came along and I felt like I was being let into the big kids club.

Kathy Lynn claims she is a retired author, yet she is here supporting a “new” book, The Death of an Intelligence Gatherer. And she’s giving away an autographed copy (see below). Is she retired? You be the judge.

Take it away, Kathy Lynn!

How’s Retirement Working Out for You?

Say the word “retired” and most people envision long, lazy days with no commitments. Being busier than ever? Maybe, but that would usually involve doing something other than what the retiree did before retiring.  

I am a retired writer. I haven’t had a single idea for a new book since before Covid. I no longer go to conferences. I turn down invitations to present library programs, share a table at craft fairs, and participate on panels about writing mysteries. Since the two cozy series I wrote as Kaitlyn Dunnett were dropped by my publisher, I don’t bother with much in the way of social media.  

Once upon a time I used to insist that writers don’t get to retire. I also recall expressing a wish to die at my keyboard. Funny how someone’s outlook can change.  

Even odder is what stays the same. During Covid I self-published a few books I’d written but hadn’t been able to sell. Then I branched out into producing omnibus e-book editions of backlist titles. Those projects involved only minor editing and repeated proofreading. I had more of the same in mind when something strange happened.         

Back in the 1990s, several of my novels were published in the genre of historical romantic suspense. I planned to collect the three set in sixteenth-century England into one e-book collection and first up for proofreading was Winter Tapestry, a novel described in its cover copy as “a romantic adventure in Tudor England.” I started going through the doc file, tweaking here and there, mostly looking to to cut down on my excessive use of ’tis and ’twas, something I thought was “authentic” back in the day and now just find annoying.  

Before long, I found myself doing more than tweaking. I might not have had any fresh ideas for new books for the last few years, but suddenly I had a whole lot of ideas for ways to make this particular book better. For one thing, the very first version of Winter Tapestry, then titled The Die is Cast, was written as a murder mystery. As it evolved, I strengthened the romance subplot and added a second subplot to do with conspiracies and rebellion during the reign of Mary Tudor (1554-1558). I wrote using multiple point-of-view characters. The result wasn’t a bad book. After all, it was published. But retired or not, the writer in me surfaced as I reread it.   I ended up rewriting the whole darned thing. The basic plot and subplots are the same, but now the story is told from a single point-of-view, that of the victim’s daughter as she tries to discover who killed him. There are new scenes. Some of the old ones are gone. And so, thank goodness, are all those uses of ’tis and ’twas. Very few paragraphs remain completely unchanged. Even some of the characters’ names are different.  

In spite of myself, I seem to have a “new” book. Death of an Intelligence Gatherer releases tomorrow in trade paperback and e-book formats.   But I’m still retired. Honest.  

Readers: What do we think? Is Kathy Lynn retired? Can authors retire? Can anyone? Are you retired? Do you plan to? Comment below or just say “hi” to be eligible for a giveaway of an autographed copy of Death of an Intelligence Gatherer. Apologies, but U. S. mailing addresses only.

About The Death of an Intelligence Gatherer

In 1554, scores of English Protestants fled into exile on the Continent after Mary Tudor took the throne and returned England to Catholicism. Sir Henry Ingram and his daughter Cordell were among them, but Sir Henry is not all he seems. When he dies in Strasbourg, Cordell’s life is turned upside down. Certain he was poisoned, and that his murder had something to do with the intelligence he was gathering about a plot to overthrow the queen, she is determined not only to complete his mission but also to bring his killer to justice. There is only one problem–as a young woman on her own she does not dare trust anyone, not even old friends. Her journey home is fraught with peril, and once she is back in England, nothing is as she expected it to be.

About Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett

Agatha-award-winning author Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others. In 2023 she won the Lea Wait Award for “excellence and achievement” as a Maine writer from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. More information about Kathy’s books can be found at www.KathyLynnEmerson.com

Cute Babies Sell Maine Clambake Mysteries, continued

by Barb who is at the Jersey shore with 3 generations of extended family

Long-time readers will be familiar with my highly mercenary and ethically debatable ad campaign, Cute Babies Sell Maine Clambake Mysteries.

I’m happy to say we have a new entry this year. Cute baby (really toddler) sells Hidden Beneath!

Like the others, my newest grandniece (greatniece? great-niece?) is taken with Kensington’s colorful covers.

Very taken.

(Her grandmother swears she’s never done this to any other book and I believe it.)

Kensington’s covers are so distinctive that my non-reading grandchildren can pick them off the shelf and know that I wrote them.

Let’s review the campaign.

2021–Cute Babie Sells Shucked Apart

My third granddaughter, another one who seems to find cozy culinary mysteries delicious, selling Shucked Apart.

2019–Cute baby sells Jane Darrowfield

My second granddaughter, selling us Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody.

2013–Cute Babies Sell Clammed Up

The whole campaign started because in 2013, I had new granddaughter, a first grandchild as a matter of fact, and a new book series. My daughter-in-law took a photo of my son reading Clammed Up to his daughter and we were off and running!

The photo that started it all!

My brother also had a new granddaughter and they got in on the act. A campaign was born.

Here are our models at the beach last year. (Somehow we missed a campaign with the cutie second from the left.)

We’ll try to get an updated photo of six wiggling, giggling children this year!

Readers: What do you think? Exploitation of unpaid child labor or compelling advertising campaign? (It can be both.)

Guest Leslie Karst and the Sixth Sense plus #giveaway

Edith/Maddie here, writing from north of Boston where we are happily awash in fresh local produce.

Good food is something my guest Leslie Karst appreciates, and she’s here to celebrate the release of A Sense for Murder, her latest Sally Solari mystery! I love this series and can’t wait to read the newest installment.

Here’s the blurb: It’s the height of the tourist season in Santa Cruz, California, and Sally Solari has her hands full, both juggling crowds of hungry diners at her French-Polynesian restaurant Gauguin, as well as appeasing her father, who’s distressed at the number of homeless people camped out in front of Solari’s, the family’s Italian seafood restaurant out on the historic fisherman’s wharf.   Nevertheless, when Sally gets the opportunity to volunteer at a farm-to-table dinner taking place at the hip new restaurant and culinary bookshop Pages and Plums, she seizes the chance. Not only is it a fundraiser for an organization aiding the homeless and seniors, but up for auction at the event is a signed boxset of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Sally’s hero, the renowned chef Julia Child.   But then the Pages and Plums dining room manager turns up dead—the locked cabinet containing the precious books now empty—and the irrepressible Sally once again finds herself up to her neck in a criminal investigation. She may have a sense for murder, but can Sally outwit a devious killer with a taste for French cooking before the villain makes mincemeat of her, too?

The Sixth Sense

My brand new mystery, A Sense for Murder, is the sixth in the Sally Solari culinary series. As some of you may know, all the books in the series contain little “Easter eggs,” in that each concerns one of the five senses:   Dying for a Taste is (duh!) taste; A Measure of Murder (in which Sally joins a chorus performing the magnificent—and mysterious—Mozart Requiem)—focuses on hearing; Death al Fresco (which concerns plein air painting) is about vision; Murder from Scratch (in which Sally’s blind cousin assists her in solving the case) concerns the sense of touch; and in The Fragrance of Death, poor Sally loses her sense of smell.  

So for this sixth book in the series, I clearly needed to bring in something about the so-called “sixth sense.”  

The problem is, neither Sally nor I are what you’d call “woo-woo” people. Quite the opposite, actually, as we’re both skeptics to the highest degree, and have never seen a ghost, had a “premonition” about the future, or made contact with anyone in the so-called “spirit realm.”  

As I was pondering the plot for this new book, however, I thought about Sally’s Aunt Letta, whom I killed off in book one in the series. And ever since, I’ve regretted that decision, for as I got to know Letta better while completing the book, I realized how much I loved this globe-trotting, restaurant-owning, black-sheep-of-the-family gal.   As did Sally.  

And then it occurred to me, why not use this as an opportunity to bring Letta back into the story—to make her a character once again in this sixth book? Sally misses Letta so very much that she starts to wonder, what if it were possible to communicate with her dead aunt? Not that she really believes that woo-woo stuff, she chides herself, but….what if…?

And so, among many other things—including a murdered dining room manager, a stolen signed copy of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and Sally’s father fuming about all the homeless people camped out in front of his restaurant, Solari’s—A Sense for Murder serves as a gift to all those who, like me, wanted to bring Letta back to life, at least in Sally’s mind.

Readers: Have you ever had a supernatural experience—or at at least ever wanted to have one?  I’ll send the new Sally Solari mystery, A Sense for Murder, to one of you.

Leslie Karst is the author of the Lefty Award-nominated Sally Solari mystery series and Justice is Served: A Tale of Scallops, the Law, and Cooking for RBG. After years waiting tables and singing in a new wave rock band, she decided she was ready for a “real” job and ended up at Stanford Law School. It was during her career as an attorney that Leslie rediscovered her youthful passion for food and cooking and once more returned to school—this time to earn a degree in culinary arts. Now retired from the law, Leslie spends her time cooking, cycling, gardening, observing cocktail hour promptly at five o’clock, and of course writing. She and her wife split their time between Santa Cruz, California and Hilo, Hawai‘i.  

buy link: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-sense-for-murder-main-leslie-karst/19831770?ean=9781448309054

A Happy Coincidence

It’s been a busy summer. One that normally would have included a trip to Davenport, Iowa to a something-something-something year class reunion and a visit with my dear, dear, dear friend Carol who I’ve known since ninth grade. But life interfered and neither of us went.  

However, I was really looking forward to a trip to St. Louis to visit a sorority sister who I’ve also known for a very long time and love to pieces. Dianne is an organizer of events and has put together reunions for fifty or more sorority sisters several times. People travel from all over to attend. This time Dianne asked me if I’d like to get together with some of our other sorority sisters who live in the St. Louis area. Of course I said, “yes, please!”  

Then I was talking to Carol. We were about to hang up and I mentioned that I was going to St. Louis and would see some of our sorority sisters one evening. (Yes, we went to college together and joined the same sorority and were in each other’s weddings). Carol paused and said, “When are you going?” It turned out that she was flying with two other sorority sisters from Florida to St. Louis the same day I was arriving. So we ended up being in the same town, at the same time, for very different reasons. There was much virtual happy dancing.  

My husband and I arrived in St. Louis on Tuesday. Dianne and her husband whisked us off to a restaurant that had pork tenderloin sandwiches which are very much an Iowa thing—not a St. Louis thing. Dianne had done an internet search to find a restaurant that served them. You pound a piece of pork until it’s thin, bread it, fry it, and voila, it’s a delicious sandwich.   Dianne also knows I love toasted raviolis which are very much a St. Louis thing and the restaurant had them too. Dianne made a gooey butter cake too. Heaven!  

Then in the late afternoon we headed off to the bar and restaurant for the meet up. There were fifteen of us with assorted husbands. We talked and laughed and reminisced and caught up and had a few drinks. Our three hours together went by way to fast, but it filled my soul. I’m so blessed to have these women in my life that even if we haven’t seen each other in a few years, we pick up right where we left off.        

 

Me with two of my beautiful pledge daughters. Carol and I with Donna. Donna is one of the women who made us want to join Delta Zeta.

Wicked Wednesday: Time to Relax

Edith/Maddie here, enjoying summer north of Boston.

Our WW topic for the month is relaxation.

Wikipedia says: In psychology, relaxation is the emotional state of low tension, in which there is an absence of arousal, particularly from negative sources such as anger, anxiety, or fear.

Relaxation is a form of mild ecstasy coming from the frontal lobe of the brain in which the backward cortex sends signals to the frontal cortex via a mild sedative. Relaxation can be achieved through meditation, autogenics, breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation and other means.

August is the last full month of summer, when many of us try to knock back a bit and enjoy less stress. So let’s get started on our conversations about relaxation.

Wickeds, what’s your favorite way to reach that “emotional state of low tension” in the summer? Draw a little word picture for our readers of how you prefer to relax.

Jessie: Relaxation for me involves almost anything to do with the seaside. I walk along the shore, read a book with my toes wriggled down into the sand, or carry my painting kit to the beach to capture the view on canvas of paper. I play bocce there with friends, explore piles of stranded seaweed and marine creatures with my dog, Sam, or unfurl a kite and race up and down the hard-packed sand to set it aloft. In the evening I light the grill and smell the salt air mingling with woodsmoke as I enjoy a cool drink and a pleasant conversation with friends and family.

Sherry: Oh, that sounds delightful, Jessie. There are so many different ways to relax, but staring at water is one of my favorites or watching clouds. Reading is a great escape as is watching a great TV show or movie. And I do like walking around the woods in our neighborhood there is always something different to see.

Edith/Maddie: Staring at water or clouds is lovely, Sherry. At this time of year, I find picking blueberries relaxing, almost meditative. It’s just me, the bushes, and the birds. We don’t seem to have mosquitoes at night anymore (which is frankly worrisome), so sitting on my deck with a glass of wine as night falls is a lovely way to relax. When it gets too dark to read, I just sit and watch the fireflies and maybe a setting crescent moon.

Barb: I find that the best way to reach a “emotional state of low tension” in the summer is to hand in a book at the beginning of it. Like great sex, handing in a book leaves you pleasantly relaxed in the afterglow.

Julie: Barb, that is quite the comparison, LOL. I will admit that I have not been very good about relaxing this summer, and need to remedy that this month. For me, like so many others, that means truly enjoying the summer. The blueberries (not sure about picking, but it may be fun to try), reading in a hammock, floating on a raft in the water, sleeping without needing to wake up. What I really need is to figure out how to relax all the time, but August is a great time to start.

Readers: How do you relax in the warmer months?

Welcome Back Guest Libby Klein

I’m not sure when I first met Libby–wait yes I do–it was at a Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime event in Arlington, VA. We had a great talk and soon after Libby was published and we started doing events together. You always know you’re going to laugh when you’re with Libby! The eighth book in her Poppy McAllister series, Mischief Nights Are Murder, just released last Tuesday.

Who Says a Good Murder Can’t be Funny?

Few things in life are more enjoyable for the reader than finding a cozy spot with a good book. For me, the best books are the ones that make you laugh. I like to think that when you laugh while reading one of my books, we’re laughing together. Because you can believe I was laughing when I wrote it.

Like other kids of the seventies, I watched enough TV growing up to thoroughly rot my brain. It didn’t matter what the subject matter was, if it was funny, I was a fan. I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, I Love Lucy, Laverne and Shirley, Carol Burnett – all my favorites. My introduction into cozy mysteries was as much Scooby Doo as it was Nancy Drew.

I write a very funny cozy mystery series completely by accident. I didn’t set out with the intention to add humor to my story of a plus sized middle-aged widow returning to her personal “Beach Hell” of Cape May. Instead, I wrote the story I wanted to read. Infused with how I see the world. I guess I’m just weird, because the more pressure you put on me, the funnier I get. Apparently, sarcasm is my go-to.

Concept and design front of Coffee Shop with black board and black seating

Sometimes I’ll add humor to my writing that’s just for me. Maybe it’s an inside joke, like the neighbor bringing you more kohlrabi from their garden than anyone could ever want. Or it’s a little jab of social commentary like “Wake Up! South Jersey” the Millennial Morning Show that comes on at ten a.m. I giggle every time I think about these things.

breakfast concept – milk, corn flakes and cookies on the table in modern kitchen

In Mischief Nights Are Murder, Poppy agrees to participate in a Gourmet Dinner Tour. Only she finds out at the eleventh hour that Aunt Ginny has actually committed them to a Ghost Tour. One that includes telling stories about the ghosts – that they don’t have. Easy. Except somehow Aunt Ginny has also signed a contract with Paranormal Pathfinders, a Ghost hunting television show. Allowing them to do a week-long investigation into the Bed and Breakfast’s otherworldly activity – that doesn’t exist. And Sir Figaro Newton has his paws full with the B and B’s newest guest, Owen Rodney – Pet Psychic, who is convinced he knows Figaro’s every thought and is determined to psychoanalyze the black smoke Persian.

Life is hard enough. Humorous cozies are like a vacation. Reading isn’t supposed to be work – unless you’re my editor in which case it is work, but even then I want you to have fun while you’re doing it. When you return to Poppy’s world, I want you to feel like you’ve come home. Everyone belongs. These are your friends. They are going to be crazy. Their lives are messy, and funny, and chaotic, but you are in for a treat. Because for the next few hours they will get themselves into the most ridiculous trouble and make mistakes and things will probably go off the rails at some point, but no matter what happens, you know it will be a wild ride and you’ll love every minute of it.    

Readers: Do you like to laugh when you read?

Bio:  Libby Klein graduated Lower Cape May Regional High School in the ’80s. Her classes revolved mostly around the culinary sciences and theater, with the occasional nap in Chemistry. She writes culinary cozy mysteries from her Northern Virginia office while trying to keep her naughty cat Figaro off her keyboard. Libby was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that prevents her from eating gluten without exploding. Because of her love for cake, she now creates gluten free goodies and includes the recipes in her Cape May based Poppy McAllister series. Most of her hobbies revolve around eating, and travel, and eating while traveling. She insists she can find her way to any coffee shop anywhere in the world, even while blindfolded. Follow all of her nonsense at www.libbykleinbooks.com

A Wicked Welcome to Kelly Oliver!

by Julie, summering/sweltering in Somerville

I’m thrilled to welcome Kelly Oliver to the blog today! Kelly serves as the vice president/incoming president of Sisters in Crime, and we’ve worked together closely during the past year. In addition to her service to the community, Kelly is a wonderful and prolific writer.

History is Fun??

Wanna hear something funny? Not funny haha. More funny, ironic. (Unless you find an entire shelf of unread books on WWI funny). I hated history in school. I ended up putting history courses on pass-fail, majoring in philosophy, and then going on to get a PhD in philosophy. Abstract thinking is my comfort zone. Anything detail-oriented, including history, not so much.

Fast-forward several decades (leaving out the little detail of how many), and I’m writing historical cozy mysteries. I love researching women’s stories that have been forgotten by canonical history. Finding amazing women and bringing their stories to life has become my passion— a passion for feminist reclamation in historical fiction.

Mata Hari (Margaretha Gertruida Zelle) is a great example of a woman maligned by history as a spy who allegedly exchanged sexual favors for state secrets. Biographer Pat Shipman argues that Mata Hari was a scapegoat for the double-dealing Georges Ladoux, France’s counterespionage chief. I couldn’t resist making Mata Hari a secondary character in my second Fiona Figg mystery, High Treason at the Grand Hotel.

Doing research for Villainy in Vienna, I came across Anna Sacher—the cigar-smoking, French bulldog loving, wife of the owner of the Sacher Hotel (think Sacher Torte). When her husband died, Anna took over the hotel and became known as a tough but discrete businesswoman. The most interesting woman I met on my journey to 1917 Vienna was Mileva Einstein, Albert’s first wife. She corrected Albert’s early work, went uncredited for collaborating on his early writings, and most likely contributed important research to Einstein’s theory of relativity.

In Mayhem in the Mountains (out August 15th), Fiona and her side-kick Kitty Lane travel to the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. There, they meet Marie Marvingt, a French bomber pilot and competitive athlete who invented the air ambulance. She disguised herself as a man to join the French army. In addition, she was a major in the Red Cross and worked as a nurse. A regular “renaissance” woman, Marie was quite a character in real life.

Another one of my favorite real-life characters appears in Arsenic at Ascot (out in November). Emilie Augusta Louise “Lizzy” Lind af Hageby co-founded the Animal Defense Society. In addition, she infiltrated the University College London Medical School as a student to uncover brutal vivisectionist practices. Together with Nina Duchess of Hamilton, she founded Ferne House as a refugee for abandoned pets during the world wars. Arsenic at Ascot features these early animal rights activists.

Bringing these amazing women to life in my fiction, I hope to reclaim their histories. And in the process bring new awareness to women’s issues both historical and contemporary.

In addition to rediscovering women’s stories, I love writing historical mysteries for plot points. If you find a great real-life mystery, you’ve got a built-in plot! And I feel such glee when I uncover a fun historical tidbit, especially if I can work it into my novel.

A couple of my favorites involve tea (Fiona’s favorite beverage and coincidentally  mine too). With the Cake and Pastry Order of 1917, to ensure the troops had enough tea to keep fighting, the British government declared tea a necessary “weapon of war.” That’s kind of funny. Troops carried water to the front in tins used for fuel, and tea became a way to camouflage the taste of petrol. Not so funny.

What do you enjoy about reading or writing historical fiction? What kind of balance do you like between history and entertainment? Why is it important to reclaim women’s history?

ABOUT THE BOOK

Mayhem in the Mountains

A Fiona Figg & Kitty Lane Mystery

 (August 15th, 2023)

1918 Italy

When a deadly blizzard traps Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane in the Dolomite Mountains, it’s all downhill from there.

Their hotel is snowed-in, and no one can get in or out. Then a man is found dead in his locked hotel room – and the killer is still on the premises. But with no murder weapon and too many suspects, their investigation is treading on thin ice.

The colder it gets outside, the hotter it gets inside as Fiona squares off with both her beloved Archie and her nemesis Fredricks. With her love-life on a slippery-slope, Fiona risks everything in one bold move…

As fast and twisty as a downhill slalom, this slick new cozy from Kelly Oliver will have you melting into a puddle of laughter.

Snap in and enjoy the ride.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kelly Oliver is the award-winning and bestselling author of three mystery series: Jessica James Mysteries (contemporary suspense); Pet Detective Mysteries (middle grade); Fiona Figg Mysteries (historical cozy).

Currently, Kelly is Vice President of Sisters in Crime. Kelly is a Emerita Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. To learn more about Kelly and her books, go to www.kellyoliverbooks.com.

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