Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 51

A Wicked Welcome to Michelle Corbier **giveaway**

by Julie, wintering in Somerville

I am delighted to welcome Michelle Corbier to the blog today. Her next book, Murder in Gemini, will be released on March 7 and is available for pre-order. Welcome Michelle!

A Blessing in Misfortune

In 2021, I planned to self-publish my first novel, Murder Is Revealing, in spring 2022. After researching the process, I gave myself a year to complete it. Because I enjoy making lists, I meticulously plotted the steps toward publication. Though the launch didn’t transpire as successfully as scheduled, it took place. Unfortunately, no matter how carefully we plan, life intervenes.

The initial plan involved releasing Murder is Revealing in April 2022. I wanted six months for the preorder and pre-launch activities. However, in the fall of 2021, I traveled to Georgia to visit my parents. It became apparent that my mom’s dementia had significantly progressed. Though I intended to move east in a few years, I escalated those plans.

But I had a home in California and a full-time job I enjoyed with a supportive supervisor, generous salary, and benefits. Okay, deep breath.

In order to move back, I would need a job. I found an available job, interviewed, and received an offer within a month. Step one completed. Now the house. For those who remember, the housing market in 2021 was hot. Homes sold fast and way above asking price. But I didn’t receive a job offer until December. Undaunted, my home listed on the MLS the week before Christmas. Within five days, I had an offer.

During this time, my upcoming book launch fell apart. With my attention focused on moving across the country, I did the bare minimum in planning for the launch. Should I delay it, if so, for how long?

In my Write Club Mysteries series, Dr. Myaisha Douglas planned a life with her husband and son. But when her husband suddenly died, she became a single mother. She adapted, then her son left for college. Widowed with an empty home, she must build a new identity. Myaisha delves into writing—and murder. During the series, she explores life on her terms. Builds a new community, starts a promising intimate relationship. Along with her Labrador, Boomer, and Greensboro Women of Color Writing Group, she discovers a penchant for solving crimes—and confronting danger.

Prepare for the unexpected. I didn’t intend to sell my home and move across the country during a severe winter storm in 2021, but life intervened. I had a choice. Did I make a poor one? Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Whatever happens during your journey on this blue marble, make the most of the situation. The book launch of Murder Is Revealing in May 2022 could have gone better. But I will use that experience to improve the launch of my sophomore novel, Murder In Gemini, in March 2023.

Second chances are few. Don’t muddle your life with ‘what ifs’. Move forward, head held high, and do the best can with your current circumstances. Have you erred in writing or publishing your novels? How did those mistakes impact your career—favorably or not? Misfortune may become a blessing.

Michelle is offering a free ebook to the first twenty people who email her at
web @ MichelleCorbier.com and mention the blog on the Wickeds.

About Murder in Gemini:

In between seeing patients, Dr. Myaisha Douglas writes mysteries. When the sister of a friend dies, she suspects murder. Her writing group investigates, hoping to publish a true crime story. The investigation becomes deadly when Myaisha uncovers a secret behind a necklace.

About Michelle Corbier

As a military dependent, Michelle moved between California and South Carolina. She enrolled at the UC Santa Cruz before attending Michigan State University. After twenty years in clinical medicine, Michelle works as a medical consultant. If not writing, she’s outside gardening or bicycling.

Twitter: michelle (@MichelleCorbier) / Twitter

TikTok: @MrsDoctorWrites

Website: www.MichelleCorbier.com

Substack: https://substack.com/refer/michellecorbier

Buy link: https://books2read.com/u/bzVMrG

A writing love story

By Liz, wishing spring would hurry up!

One of my favorite meditation teachers starts one of her meditations with a story. It’s about a woman going to a wise elder and telling him all her problems and the things that made her sad. The list was long. At the end of the story, the elder says, “But tell me, beloved, what do you love?”

This story feels very apropos when I’m writing some days. It’s so easy to get caught up in the bad stuff—the lack of time, the looming deadline, words not coming easily, bad first drafts, the rejections, all the things. 

But there’s a reason why all of us writers are here. There’s a reason why we are, for lack of a better analogy, bleeding all over our keyboards day after day. 

We love writing. 

I’ll admit some days that love is a little harder to remember, like when your partner annoys you for the hundredth time and you wonder what the heck you saw in them in the first place. 

But unlike a romantic relationship, it’s hard to break up with your creative self. I honestly don’t even think it’s a thing. Some people put it on ice for a while when the frustration or the discouragement becomes overwhelming, but it’s never really over. It can’t be. It will keep drawing you back in. 

It’s part of you. 

So I’ve started reminding myself what I love about writing:

I love falling into a new story—the possibilities are endless, the pages are blank (but in a good way), the story is waiting for me to find it. I love when a new character pops into my head. A glimmer of a person, not fully formed, who I can mold to meet the needs of the story. Because you can’t do this with real people, right??I love losing myself in a place I’ve created. Spending time with old friends, seeing what people are up to. Getting new information that only they can tell me. I love knowing that my imagination is so rich that it can create worlds for others to enjoy.I love remembering the feeling I got the first time I wrote a story.

It helps me remember why I started doing this in the first place, long before that first contract. And it makes me want to keep writing. 

Readers, how do you reconnect with something you love?

When Love Kills: Hate

Love can manifest itself in many ways. The opposite of love is, well actually it could be argued that the opposite of love is apathy. But hate is a strong emotion that serves mysteries well.

Wickeds, hate is defined as, “feel intense or passionate dislike for (someone)”. Hate can be a powerful motivation for the crime in our books. It can also define character motivations in interesting ways. Have you used blinding hate in any of your books?

Edith//Maddie: We often set up the victim in a book as someone who is hated by several people, so they will have a Very Good Reason to commit murder. The intense dislike can be for different reasons – because people feel robbed or victimized or shunned. There are a couple of people who hated the victim in Four Leaf Cleaver.

Liz: I’ve used extreme hatred in a couple of my books. In Murder Most Finicky, the killer definitely felt slighted by the victim, and that it had a devastating effect on their life. And in Custom Baked Murder, the victim’s careless focus on money, power and status definitely caused some people to hate her.

Jessie: I am not sure that I have used blinding hate so much as fear as a murder motive in my novels. I think I incline towards characters striving to preserve something like a reputation, their liberty, or their loved one’s esteem more than being motivated by hate.

Julie: Edith, I agree with the need for a Very Good Reason. I’ve found in my books there are reasons for many people to dislike the victim intensely. (We weren’t allowed to use the word hate as a child. We disliked things/people intensely instead.) Those reasons become clearer as the novel progresses.

Readers, do you like it when the victim is clearly someone everyone loves to hate? Writers, is your victim usually someone everyone hates, or a chosen few?

A Wicked Welcome to Susan C. Shea **giveaway**

by Julie, wintering in Somerville

I am delighted to welcome Susan Shea to the blog today to celebrate the launch of Murder Visits a French Village. Susan and I served on the SinC board together, and her gracious manner was always a tonic.

Somewhere in my travel history, after falling in love with Bali’s magical culture as it was in the mid-1990s, Hong Kong’s optimistic energy before the hand over in 1997, and Italy’s, well, everything, I re-discovered France. First it was Paris, a swoony affection that included everything from garlicky snails and Berthillon ice cream to Baroque architecture and chimney pots.

Then close friends from my part of California moved permanently to a tiny crossroads spot in pastoral Burgundy. I was lucky enough to be invited for many visits. Much of the architecture bears witness to Burgundy’s medieval history, but some of the most glamorous structures were designed and built later, in the Renaissance, as palatial evidence of their owners’ importance and wealth.

 We visited d’Ancy-le-Franc, a completely restored Renaissance palace set in formal parklike grounds, once the home of the Dukes of Burgundy and renowned for its murals, which decorated every wall and ceiling we toured. Lots of photos online.

Château d’ Epoisses has a history that goes back to the 12th century, boasts a fantastic rose garden, a moat, and a 12-foot box hedge that may have been a maze. (Yes, the town named after it is the home of that delicious cheese.)

So many others…A brusque Count who owned another château led the tours himself, only opening a handful of rooms, one of which was adorned with portraits of his ancestors, of whom he seemed excessively proud, set on easels. There were châteaux that had been updated to 19th century standards, but retained their original grand facades and allées of tall trees to signal their old nobility. Some grand looking properties weren’t open to the public, so we only saw their gray or creamy stone exteriors as we drove by.

We were invited to visit a real medieval fortress that friends of my hosts were restoring bit by bit. It had a dungeon, a great hall where people once ate and slept, a bridge over its dry moat, and a tower.

With all of this imprinted in my memory, it wasn’t hard to dive into a mystery set in my invented château, which I decided was a minor structure, with a medieval tower that had survived intact, and a 19th century update for the rest of the building. Ariel Shepard, my protagonist, a new widow in her mid-30s who inherits it, has fallen in love with the tower. It’s fun creating your own château. The hardest part? Finding a name for mine that hadn’t already been given to a French château – there are so many of them, and other “château” names have been gobbled up by wineries!

So, Wicked Readers, put yourself in the picture: If you could stay in a château in Burgundy, what would it have to include?

Susan will give a pre-publication, signed hard cover copy of MURDER VISITS A FRENCH VILLAGE to one commenter with a US address chosen randomly from today’s commenters.

About Susan C. Shea

Susan C. Shea is a member of Norcal’s Sisters in Crime, a former member of the SinC national board, and a member of MWA. She’s the author of two series, the French village mysteries, and the Dani O’Rourke Mysteries. She’s on the faculty of the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference and blogs on 7 Criminal Minds. www.susancshea.com.

About the book:

Ariel Shepard is devastated by the sudden loss of her husband, but nothing could have prepared her for inheriting the rundown château in Burgundy they’d visited on their honeymoon. When the historian she hires to help uncover the château’s history is found dead in the moat, she realizes many people working on its restoration had the means, but who had a motive?

A Wicked Welcome to Olivia Matthews

by Julie, surviving the yoyo temperatures in Boston

I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know Olivia aka Patricia Sargeant over the past couple of years. I did a podcast interview with her, and enjoyed a webinar she did for Sisters in Crime on plotting. I’ve also enjoyed conversations with this talented author, and I’m delighted to welcome her back to the blog.

Sleuthing is Relative

Thank you so much to The Wickeds Blog authors for inviting me back to visit with your community. I’m thrilled. My first visit last year was an exciting unknown. Since I had so much fun last time, this time, I’m filled with celebratory anticipation. Yay!

During my last visit, I’d mentioned I was launching a new cozy mystery series this year. My Spice Isle Bakery Mysteries features a West Indian American family that opens a bakery in Brooklyn, New York’s Little Caribbean neighborhood. The first book in the series is Against the Currant, which is available now. The second book, Hard Dough Homicide, releases in May.

One of the things I love about this series is that it’s centered on a multi-generational family. Our main protagonist is Lyndsay, our baker amateur sleuth who’s the business’s majority owner. In addition to Lyndsay, we have her parents and her maternal grandmother. The cast extends beyond the bakery to include her older brother, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Another thing I enjoy about writing mysteries featuring a family is that the motivation for solving many of their cases is love. I believe love is the most undeniable and compelling motivation, regardless of the type of love: familial, platonic, patriotic, etcetera. The whole family rallies to help when a relative’s in trouble. The dangers involved in solving the case are worth the risk because you’re taking that risk for family.

And, yes, some of my relatives have inspired characters who’ve appeared in my mysteries. Unfortunately, sometimes they recognize themselves in my books and call me on it. For example, years ago, one of my victims was my protagonist’s very best friend. The friend was an exaggeration of my sister; the way she talked, her style of dress, her mannerisms. However, after my sister read the scene in which the friend was murdered, she called and asked whether we needed to talk. Apparently, I hadn’t made the friend’s character enough of an exaggeration.

What about you? Do you enjoy mysteries in which the amateur sleuths are related? Why or why not? I’d really like to know. Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts. I look forward to reading them.

About the Author

Olivia Matthews is the cozy mystery pseudonym of national best-selling author Patricia Sargeant. Her mysteries put ordinary people in extraordinary situations to have them find the Hero Inside.

Website: https://PatriciaSargeant.com

Twitter: @BooksByPatricia

Facebook: @AuthorPatriciaSargeant

Against the Currant: A Spice Isle Bakery Mystery, Book 1

By Olivia Matthews

Investigating a murder was never on the menu. . . but someone’s set the table for bakery owner Lyndsay Murray to take the fall

Little Caribbean, Brooklyn, New York: Lyndsay Murray is opening Spice Isle Bakery with her family, and it’s everything she’s ever wanted. The West Indian bakery is her way to give back to the community she loves, stay connected to her Grenadian roots, and work side-by-side with her family. The only thing getting a rise out of Lyndsay is Claudio Fabrizi, a disgruntled fellow bakery owner who does not want any competition. On opening day, he comes into the bakery threatening to shut them down. Fed up, Lyndsay takes him to task in front of what seems to be the whole neighborhood. So when Claudio turns up dead a day later—murdered—Lyndsay is unfortunately the prime suspect. To get the scent of suspicion off her and her bakery, Lyndsay has to prove she’s innocent—under the watchful eyes of her overprotective brother, anxious parents, and meddlesome extended family—what could go wrong?

Buy link: https://bit.ly/3lK5IcS

Of Castles and Ireland — Welcome Guest Art Taylor

It’s always a joy to welcome Art Taylor to the blog and to celebrate a new book. This time The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions. We met through the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime and found out we were almost neighbors.

While I’m a follower and a loyal fan of all six of the current authors here at The Wickeds (thanks particularly to Sherry for hosting me!), I’m actually thinking most of a former one as I write this: Sheila Connolly, who passed away in April 2020.

Sheila was a prolific and prodigious author (in a single year, she’d write more books than I write short stories!), and one of her best-loved series was the County Cork Mysteries, eight novels about Boston expatriate Maura Donovan and her adventures in the tiny village of West Cork. Sheila herself bought and renovated a cottage in Ireland, a process she wrote about in the blog My Cottage in Ireland. And to help celebrate one of Sheila’s novels, Scandal in Skibbereen back in February 2014, her fellow Wickeds wrote a group post about their own various Irish ties.

I’m thinking about Sheila and about Ireland because of my new collection, The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions, which came out earlier this week from Crippen & Landru, a small press specializing in short mystery fiction.

The title story (previously unpublished) is set in an Irish castle, where a group of American students on a study abroad find the capstone of their trip disrupted by a series of thefts: a scarf, a whiskey glass, a notebook, and more. Could it be someone among their own group stealing from their friends? And why? Professor Erwin Conroy and his star student set out on a Sherlock and Watson investigation (or is it Watson and Sherlock?) to determine the truth. All of it unfolds on “a majestic 14th-century estate south of Sligo”—the castle itself conjuring up different kinds of adventures for Professor Conroy and his students: knights and damsels, dragons maybe or ghosts, or maybe another group of kids, wizards in training discovering powers they haven’t quite learned to harness.

The story and its setting were inspired in large part by my own trips to Ireland—two of them, and each with a castle as the highlight.

My wife, Tara Laskowski, and I honeymooned in Ireland back in 2009, traveling from Dublin to Cork, Killarney, and then Glasgow—actually north of Glasgow, to the village of Cong in County Mayo. There, we stayed at Ashford Castle, a beautiful castle with 800 years of history behind it. The Guinness family once lived there; an island on the adjacent lake features the ruins of a monastic church attributed to Saint Patrick; and The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara were filmed mostly on the estate and in the village of Cong. Oh, and we did some falconry while we were there—a highlight aspect of the highlight destination! (What could be more castley than falconry, right?)

Several years later, I helped lead a study abroad trip to Ireland myself—a creative nonfiction outing through George Mason University. Our journey kept mostly to the West of Ireland: Sligo, Glasgow, and the Aran Islands at each step of the stay. And here again one of the highlights was a castle: Markree Castle, dating from the 17th century and located in County Sligo. In the mornings, our group held classes in one of the meeting rooms; in the afternoons we took small fields trips, hiking and exploring local bits of history; and in the evenings, the students all gathered for drinks and dinner and then settled in to savor the feel of the whole experience.

While none of the characters in “The Castle Thief” are based on any of those students (of course not!), the time we shared together helped inspire the sense of wonder, adventure, and community that I hope come through as the heartbeat of my story—with both Markree and Ashford Castle providing a suitable (even necessary!) backdrop to the tale.

Needless to say, setting does more than simply provide backdrop; character and plot and setting all intertwine to affect one another as a story unfolds—and to circle back to Sheila again, we’ve seen elsewhere how Ireland in particular can play such a central role.

Readers: I’m curious if others here have ever stayed in a castle or perhaps wanted to. What were your own experiences like? And how did all the connotations and expectations of “a castle” impact or enhance those experiences?

Art Taylor is the author of two collections—The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions and The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense—and On the Road with Del & Louise: A Novel in Stories, winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. His short fiction has won three additional Agatha Awards as well as the Edgar, Anthony, Derringer, and Macavity Awards. He is an associate professor of English at George Mason University. www.arttaylorwriter.com.

Art Taylor

Meet My First Reader, Jason W. Allen-Forrest

by Julie, enjoying more mild weather in Somerville

I worked with Jason Allen-Forrest while I was at Emerson College, and we bonded over our love of mysteries. At that point I wasn’t yet published, but he knew that was a goal of mine. When I got the contract for the Clock Shop series, I asked Jason to be my first reader. I sent him the manuscript, along with several questions. My first question was “is it a book?” We had dinner a week or so later, and he went over the copious notes he’d made, and assured me that it was a book. His notes were fabulous, and helped me shape Just Killing Time.

Liz Mugavero, Jason Allen-Forrest and Julie Hennrikus

He’s been my first reader ever since. I dedicated A Christmas Peril to him. Jason is a fan of the Wickeds, and has taken on the role of reader for Liz/Cate and Sherry as well. I thought it would be fun to have him on the blog, and ask him a few questions.

How many books do you read a year?

I average about 150 books per year.

That’s a lot of books! Do you remember when you fell in love with reading?

When I was a child, about 7 or 8 years old. Growing up we weren’t allowed to watch television on Sundays until Mutual of Omaha came on at 7pm and then Wide World of Disney at 8pm. My Mom would spend Sundays curled up on the couch in the family room, with jazz on the radio and a book. She would lay on her side with her legs bent, forming little nest like nook between the back of the couch and her knees. I would sit in that space and prop my book on her legs and spend the day reading with her. All these years later, I still love reading and still snuggle on the couch with jazz on the stereo and good book in my lap.

Do you have a favorite genre?

Cozies/Mysteries/Thrillers

What are some of the skills do you use when you are reading a manuscript?

I don’t know what skills I use specifically. I read the manuscript as I would any other book. After all the years I’ve spent reading, I have an innate sense of what works and what doesn’t. You know-does it read like a book? Does it make sense? Are plot points clear? Are all story lines satisfactorily wrapped up? Are the characters interesting? Does the story move? If the author has specific questions that want me to ponder while reading, it helps me to look for certain things, based on those questions. Even though I’m not an editor, for some reason typos leap off a page for me, as do syntax issues, so those I note for the author. If I read several manuscripts within a book series, I also look for areas where characters may be doing or saying something that is not in line with their character as demonstrated in previous books in the series. Likewise, I look for continuity in settings and circumstances.

You have a background in theater. Does the work you do as an actor re script analysis help with reading manuscripts?

As an actor I always read a script to look for what my character says about myself, what my character says about others in the play, and what other characters say about my character in the play. I apply that same thinking to characters in a manuscript-it helps in terms of keeping track of who is who in the manuscript as well as how they would/should react in any given situation. It’s also helpful for continuity across a series to inform whether or not a character does/says something that doesn’t mesh with ow their character has been speaking/behaving in previous books.

As someone who has directed and stage managed, I look for flow in the manuscript as I would transitions in a script. Stage management (as well as some deign and run crew experience) also help me to see if actions within a manuscript could actually be possible as described.

As a performance junkie, I also visualize everything, so reading a manuscript or a published book or a script needs to come alive in my mind visually and my theatre experience helps with how I visualize the world on the page.

You also review books. What skills do you use there?

I just put down my honest thoughts on what I’ve read. My reviews are exclusive to Goodreads and I also post them on my blog. I’ve never liked reviews that tell me what I should and shouldn’t like, see, read or do. Reviews are opinions, nothing more. Some are more educated than others, but at the end of the day they are just someone’s opinion. When I write my reviews, I try to remember to speak for myself only, and put in enough information so that anyone reading the review might get a sense of the general storyline of the book, and why it did or din’t work for me. I don’t claim to be a professional reviewer or a critic, I’m just someone who’s been reading for 50 years and (at the risk of sounding arrogant) has a competent sense of what works and what doesn’t.

You don’t sound arrogant at all! I am so grateful for the help you’ve given me, and continue to give me on this journey. And I would be remiss if I didn’t give your wonderful husband Scott Forrest-Allen a shout out for his title help. Thank you Jason!

Readers, do you ever read works in progress for friends? Writers, who is your first reader?

When Love Kills: Passion

Though February is a month for love, we’re crime writers so we’re going to have a different discussion.

Passion can play out in many ways in our novels. Passion can be a motive. Passion can also be shown for a hobby, a vocation, an item, or an idea. Wickeds, what role does passion play in your books? We all share a passion for writing–let’s talk about that a bit as well.

Edith/Maddie: My several protagonists have in common a passionate loyalty to their loved ones. That passion extends to protecting family and close friends and to defending them when falsely accused. I didn’t include that passion by design, but each new series seems to end up including a focus on family. My passion for writing might be obvious, since that’s all I seem to do, and I keep signing on for more book commitments. But making up stories and crafting them into books truly makes me happy, and while I I’m able, why not?

Sherry: I think almost all amateur sleuths in series have to have a passion to help people and fix things. It’s innate to their characters or they wouldn’t keep doing it. I’ve been writing stories since I could hold a pencil and making them up since before that. Whether it was writing spy stories when I was in grade school, writing yearbook copy, writing stories for my daughter when she was growing up (or making new one’s up at night to tell her at bedtime), ads when I was in marketing, or novels — I’ve always loved writing. Even writing college papers about other people’s books were fun.

Liz: My protags all seem to have a passion for helping animals…I wonder where they got that! Also, coffee. As for me, I’m with Sherry – I’ve been making up stories since I was a kid. Poetry, short stories, all kinds of things. I even wrote a set-up for a soap opera once. And I was definitely the nerd who loved to write papers!

Barb: I think the protagonists in all my books have a passion to know— what happened, how it happened, and most important, why it happened. I think this is a human trait, a trait I share with my sleuths, and perhaps a particular one of mystery readers. So much in nature and human behavior is unknowable. It is great to have answers, even to fictional situations.

Jessie: I love this question! And Liz, I want to hear more about that soap opera! I love to write about characters who are passionate about their interests, I suppose because I am too! My sleuth Beryl’s defining characteristic is her passion, for travel, for adventures, for love affairs, and for piloting all manner of machinery at high rates of speed. My far quieter sleuth Edwina is equally, if less flamboyantly, passionate about her gardens, her dog, her knitting projects, her novel, and her beloved village. I think passionate people are by far the most interesting which is likely why they show up so often in fiction!

Julie: I love discovering the passions of my characters as series progress. I knew starting out that Lilly would have a passion for gardening. What I didn’t know is that she also had a passion for fixing things. Ernie’s passion for baking and theater, Warwick’s passion for teaching, Tamara’s passion for her job and how it manifests itself–all of those passions add a lot of depth to the characters, and they give me a lot to work with. I’ve been thinking about my passion for writing, and why I love it so much. A huge part of it the fact that all of these random bits and pieces come together to create a world where things happen, and that it all exists in my imagination. How cool is that?

Readers, what passions do you enjoy? What are some of your favorite passions characters have?

A Wicked Welcome to Michele Dorsey **giveaway**

by Julie, celebrating Valentine’s Day in Somerville

I am delighted to welcome friend of the Wickeds Michele Dorsey back to the blog today. I love this post by Michele, and the journey she took with her book, Oh Danny Girl.

NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED

“Nevertheless, she persisted.” A frequent quote from a male senate leader about a female senator who refused to be silenced. It was meant as a disparagement. It became a banner, one that I internalized as a writer.

Oh Danny Girl was the third full length mystery I had written and the first I considered worthy of publication. I had poured my heart, soul, and brain into the creation of a story about a young female lawyer, whose widowed mother decides to go to law school and then join her practice. Danny’s luck worsens when her hot shot criminal lawyer husband is found naked and shot to death next a woman in a Boston hotel on the eve of a huge cop killer trial. When the gun that killed them is found in Danny’s briefcase, she knows she is in big trouble.

I loved writing every word of this book, even when an agent insisted I rewrite it from the first point of view to the third. I loved the characters, I adored the setting, the relationship between the mother and daughter, and writing about how nothing is ever as perfect as it seems. Beta readers were super enthusiastic.

 I felt on fire as a writer and was thrilled when a mega agent asked for a full manuscript after a conference. Three weeks later, her assistant scratched a standard rejection. “Not for me.” When a different agent signed me, she got responses that varied between, “Loved the characters, but not wild about the story,” to “Great story, not so much the characters.” She gracefully bowed out.

By then, I was deflated and had lost my confidence. I paid for a manuscript review by a curmudgeonly and brutally honest agent, who told me my agent had made a huge mistake mismarketing the book as a cozy rather than a legal thriller.

I got another agent, this time competent and not shy about being honest. While she loved Oh Danny Girl, it had been shopped everywhere and told me to move on. I had been working on other books and soon she sold two of them.

But I could never quit on Oh Danny Girl.

The book and its characters flickered in my memory as I wrote other books. I began talking to another writer about self-publishing books as I was about to revive a series I had started which had been traditionally published. I confessed that I was still mourning Oh Danny Girl and wished I had been able to share it with readers. My friend challenged me when she asked why I didn’t just publish the book myself. We began a series of conversations about who gets to decide what books should be available to readers and concluded that the reader, not the industry should decide.

I was liberated, unchained from the constraints I believed prohibited me from sharing a book I desperately wanted to bring into the world. Last March, Oh Danny Girl hit the shelves much to my delight. It had taken almost twenty years. I may be as stubborn as I am persistent.

I have been gratified by the reception by readers of Oh Danny Girl. One wrote, “I started reading Oh Danny Girl late at night and didn’t put it down until 6am when I needed to sleep. I picked it up again as soon as I could and read it to the end.” Mark Baker’s review in Carstairs Considers underscored the reason I wanted Oh Danny Girl to find its way to readers. “This is one of those books you can’t wait to finish to find out what happens but at the same time don’t want to end because you are enjoying it so much.”

When has persistence paid off for you, dear readers? I will send one commenter a copy of Oh Danny Girl.

About the book:

Attorney Danny O’Brien thought her biggest problem was that her middle-aged widowed mother went to law school and insisted on joining Danny’s law practice.

Until Danny heads to court for an uncontested divorce trial and a gun is found in her briefcase.

Until the gun is linked to a murder trial in which her hotshot criminal lawyer husband represents an alleged cop killer.

Until her husband is found dead, naked with a woman in a hotel room in Boston.

Life can only get better.

Until Danny unearths her husband’s clever secret life and starts to question whether he is alive and stalking her.

About C. Michele Dorsey:

C. Michele Dorsey is the author of Oh Danny Girl and the Sabrina Salter series, including No Virgin Island, Permanent Sunset, Tropical Depression, and Salt Water Wounds. Her latest novel, Gone But Not Forgotten will be published by Severn House in July 2023. Michele is a lawyer, mediator, former adjunct law professor and nurse, who didn’t know she could be a writer when she grew up. Now that she does, Michele writes constantly, whether on St John, outer Cape Cod, or anywhere within a mile of the ocean.

Covel Reveal- WPC Billie Harkness #2

Jessie: In New Hampshire where it is mercifully not as cold as it was just a bit ago!

Covers are such an important part of the experience of being published and I would have to say one of the most riddled with stress. Most writers don’t have an enormous amount of clout when it comes to covers and marketing departments have strong opinions about what moves books from the shelf to the shopping cart. So I feel so grateful to have had lovely experiences with my UK publisher for the WPC Billie Harkness mysteries. I was quite pleased with the cover they sent for Murder on the Home Front and am delighted to share it here today!

Not only am I pleased with the cover, I am happy to report that the novel has received a lovely review from Booklist. They called it “An entertaining and lively read”. The full review will publish on February 23 on the Booklist website and in their March print edition.

In addition, the audiobook for the first in the series, Death in a Blackout, is 50% off until February, 24!

Readers, are there any pleasant, or not so pleasant, surprises in your profession? How do you like the cover? Writers, how has the cover experience been for you?