Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 54

Welcome Darcie Wilde – The most dangerous words

By Liz, happy to welcome Darcie Wilde today! I love her post about “what ifs” – the most useful words for writers. Take it away, Darcie!

The most dangerous words in the English language are also the most useful.  These words start the creative process.  They vault over writer’s block, the shape the ending, and clear up the murky, marvelous middle.  They pair up unlikely characters, and reshape perspective on any scene.

The words:

What if…?

When I’m asked how I start a project, I’ll usually say I get a flash: a scene shows up, or a maybe piece of dialogue gets stuck in my head.  And this is true, but more often, the project really starts with those two words, and whatever might follow.

What if…?

I got a fresh lesson on the power of those words when I sat down to work on my latest Useful Woman mystery — The Secret of the Lost Pearls.  Actually, it was before I sat down, because I had an unusually hard time getting started.  I had some character ideas, I had some timeline points, I had some historical detail, but I didn’t have anything solid for the plot.  It just wasn’t showing up.

So, for inspiration, I went back to the roots of the series, and my love of the Regency in general.  Which sounds much fancier than what it actually was — me flaking out in front of the screen and re-watching the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.  

We can argue about best adaptations, but this was my gateway to the Regency, and to Austen fandom.  This and the Collected Works of Jane Austen which my then-boyfriend bought me shortly after we started seriously dating (yes, dear reader, he was in want of a wife, and yes, I married him).

Anyway.

While I was watching, I got to thinking a number of things.  

First, Mr. Bennet really does not get enough blame for hiding in his study and failing his family on so many levels.

Second, it must have been really hard to be a younger Bennet sister.  I mean, can you imagine?  Mom loves Jane best. Dad loves Lizzie best, and the rest of you are being constantly compared to these paragons of beauty and wit, and constantly being put down because you don’t measure up.

Heck, if I’d been one of the younger sisters, I would have eloped too.

And there it was.  Or rather, there they were.  Those two words.

What if…?

What if there was a change to the original plot?  What there was a neglected younger sister, like Lydia, who’s sisters looked set to marry rich, but this time the younger sister was not not simply scatter-brained and nieve?  What if she had a plan?  What if she went to the ne’re do well who was also sniffing around the sisters and said “I know a way we can both make out like bandits…”

What would that mean for a family?  For a young woman who took a chance like that?

What would that story look like?

I mean…What if…?

Darcie Wilde is a bestselling, multi-genre author of Regency mystery and romance.  Her latest Useful Woman mystery — The Secret of the Lost Pearls, has been named a Must Read by USA Today, and an Editor’s Pick by Amazon.com.  She lives and works in Michigan. 

Readers, weigh in on the biggest “what ifs” in your lives!

Walking from Florence to Rome While Visiting Scotland and Plotting…

by Julie, still waiting for winter in Somerville

Last year committed to walking from Florence to Rome in six months. Let me explain.

The Conqueror Challenges are virtual walking challenges. You decide what distance you want to walk and in how long. Then you download the app, connect your pedometer if you have one (or you can manually add the distances you walk), and you go. Along the way you can virtually visit where you’re walking. At certain intervals you get a “postcard” and update about the route. Upon completion, they send you a medal.

The St. Francis Way Virtual Challenge is 312.4 miles. Though I consider myself a walker, I work from home now and getting out daily to walk takes planning. That’s where audio books come in. In this new year I’ve been listening to the Hamish Macbeth series, which is set in Scotland. The series is one of my father’s favorites. Though I’ve read Agatha Raisin, I’d never read Hamish Macbeth and I’m enjoying the series very much. The beginning of the series are short novels that move along, which is wonderful for walks. The series is set in Scotland, which is one of my bucket list places to visit.

I will confess, that of late my mind has begun to wander, and I’ve started plotting a new book. There are just the seeds of an idea, but the accented voice of a narrator become the background to them taking root. Nothing is coming together yet, but the characters are showing up.

So that’s how I committed to walking from Florence to Rome while visiting Scotland in 2023. My gift to myself in this new year.

Readers, have any of your new year’s resolutions ended up with expected benefits, or joys?

Wicked Wednesday – Repurposing

Happy second Wednesday of the new year!

Let’s put a spin on ‘out with the old’ in terms of not necessarily getting rid of something, but in repurposing something that isn’t working and making it not only useful but also making it work in a new way – even if that’s just how it makes a space look and feel.  

Wickeds, what’s something you could repurpose in your home – or your life?

Edith/Maddie: My small guest room needs sprucing up. It’s a pale yellow with white trim. At the end are white shelves (filled mostly with cloth and sewing supplies) and a small closet with doors. But the desk and dresser are old, varnished natural wood, and they look shabby. After the weather warms up, I plan to take them outside and apply primer and a coat of light paint. It’ll brighten the whole room!

Julie: I’m doing this is a few ways this year. I am inheriting things from my folks, so I am purging other things and using their things as decorative pieces. I found a sweater I started ten years ago and never finished. I ripped it out and and going to knit something new. I’m using an old couch from the family room at my parents, and put new cushion covers and throws on it. Reusing and repurposing.

Sherry: I love repurposing things! A Victorian breakfast tray becomes a little end table. A vintage pastry cutter flipped upside down becomes a postcard holder. I really need to clean out our laundry/everything-I-don’t-use-often-or-ever/food pantry back into a laundry/storeroom.

Barb: My desk in Maine was my parents’ dining table at their home in Key West. I love it. The credenza (not visible in the photo) holds office supplies.

Jessie: I love seeing these photos and examples! I have been picking away at repurposing my studio space and shifting it over to embrace more knitting and painting than sewing and kid arts and craft supplies. It feels great to make this change as my family and my own interests grow and shift.

Readers, what could you repurpose in your life that would change everything?

Guest Traci Hall: Writing parallel events—when real life smashes into fiction, or vice-versa 😉

By Liz, happy to welcome Traci Hall back to the blog! She’s talking weddings today…so let’s get to it! Take it away, Traci!

Thanks to Liz and the other fabulous Wickeds for letting me hang out on your blog today! I’m thrilled to be here

I’d like to share my wedding experience writing book four of the Scottish Shire series. Lydia wants to marry Corbin but, well, death happens as it often does when writing cozy mysteries. I was planning my wedding for May 1st as I was penning this to make an April 15th deadline so there were many times when the whole process felt brilliantly surreal.

Who doesn’t love weddings? Yet, so many things can go wrong despite detailed planning.

Lydia and Corbin try to get hitched at the old kirk and honor his family’s traditions, from the Luckenbooth brooch to sharing vows in the same church. The Smythe’s lovely tradition is riddled with superstition.

In fact, the Luckenbooth brooch comes from 16th century Scotland where there were permanent small shops that sold wares on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, called Locked Booths. The jewelers were popular, and the heart and crown style became known as a Luckenbooth brooch. Some have thistles or a jewel. The tradition was that the man would give it as a betrothal gift to his lady, and later, when they had children, the pin would be attached to the baby’s blanket to keep away evil spirits. 

Now, Lydia is a very modern-thinking woman but to make Corbin (and his family) happy she goes along with everything his stepmother wanted—except for choosing a different Luckenbooth brooch. The one Corbin had chosen, with a real ruby, for Lydia’s birthstone, is deemed to be cursed.

Lydia doesn’t believe in curses. She loves Corbin and regrets not eloping to Gretna Green as he’d suggested when he’d first proposed. Especially when a Smythe cousin dies with the missing Luckenbooth in her hand at the bottom of the kirk’s steep stairs. The wedding is postponed, and his family wants him to call it completely off.

Paislee takes her duties as matron-of-honor seriously and promises to find out what’s going on before someone takes another shot at her bestie. In the end, Lydia gets what she wants, and Paislee has a new side hustle knitting pet gear.

As I wrote the ups and downs for poor Lydia, I was choosing a venue for my own wedding, something small and intimate. This was a second wedding for both of us and we’ve been together for nine years already. This was about celebrating our relationship with our family. Because of Covid, we’d delayed our nuptials by a year. We created our own vows and were married by a dear friend. We chose a seaside restaurant with historic rooms and a stellar view. The wedding would be outside near the sand dunes with a Sunday lunch to follow. 

A storm was predicted for the entire weekend—hurricane season in South Florida. Saturday, I was kind of worried that things would need to be indoors, or worse, canceled. I had buckets of hydrangeas that my new sister-in-law was keeping alive by cutting the ends and dipping them in alum powder, or else they wilted. I had no idea that they would be so delicate—oh, but they were so lovely.

Sunday dawned with blue skies! I didn’t realize that we’d be competing with the air show. Military planes and jets zipped by throughout the day. As far as fiascos went, we didn’t have a dead body to contend with, lol, just the planes and threat of rain. 

It was a good thing we didn’t plan an immediate honeymoon as we ended up with Covid, after two years of avoiding it and despite getting our booster in April. Now that some time has passed, I can look at the beautiful pictures and laugh. 

I hope Lydia and Corbin can share a smile now too.

Tell me about any wedding disasters that you know of in the comments! I’ll choose a winner for an ARC of Murder at a Scottish Wedding.

Thanks for chatting with me today!

Here’s the blurb for Murder at a Scottish Wedding:

As her friend’s matron of honor, Paislee Shaw vows to solve the mystery of a missing brooch and a dying wedding guest . . .

Paislee’s specialty sweater shop and yarn business Cashmere Crush, in the charming Scottish village of Nairn, is closed today for a special occasion. Her bonnie bestie Lydia is moments away from walking down the aisle of the church at Old Nairn Kirk to wed Corbin Smythe. Gramps and Paislee’s eleven-year-old son Brody are seated in the pews with the other guests—the only family not in attendance is their black Scottish terrier Wallace. As matron of honor, Paislee is at her friend’s side when Lydia lets out a frantic cry. The Luckenbooth brooch her betrothed gave her is missing. A traditional Scottish love token, the gold heirloom has been in his family for generations and not wearing it could bring bad luck—according to the superstitious Smythes.
 
But the real misfortune falls on a distraught cousin who suddenly disrupts the ceremony and dies with the brooch in her hand. The Smythes insist it’s the curse. But Paislee must broach the subject of…murder. And was the intended victim the guest—or the bride? Only Paislee can determine who to pin the murder on . . .

How I Got My Husband to Slow Down and Enjoy the Ride

by Barb, first post from Key West, first post of 2023

Often, when I give talks about my books, I mention that my husband creates the recipes because he does the shopping and cooking at our house.

“Oooh,” many women in the audience say. “How did you accomplish that? That’s the book you should write. You’d sell a million copies.”

The truth is, it wasn’t hard. My husband grew up in a household where his father did all the shopping and some of the cooking. “Always marry the oldest child of a working mother,” is my advice.

But toward the goal of getting people to take on tasks, one thing I did learn along the way is that I can get my husband to do almost anything if I can locate the proper gadget.

For example, I made salads for decades. For some reason, I was the salad maker in the family I grew up in, and somehow I was also the salad maker in the family I brought up. How did this happen? I would wonder. But it did. Then, I discovered a sleek, stainless steel salad spinner that did everything but chop the lettuce and sounded like an alien space ship when it turned. Suddenly, my husband took over the salad making. (He still claims my salads are better, but I suspect this is one of those situations like morning coffee. It’s always better if someone else makes it…because someone else made it.)

A friend of mine’s husband used to wander into Sharper Image or William Sonoma, pick up things, and ask the clerk, “Now what could I use this for?” Her father thought this was hilarious, a solution in search of a problem. A gadget in search of a task. But sometimes it works.

Principle: Some people will do anything if you give them an interesting gadget to accomplish the task.

I have now discovered another technique for changing behavior.

My husband has always been a quintessential Massachusetts driver, or Masshole, as the people who live in the states that surround us would have it. His driving is fast, aggressive, and based on the principle that everyone else on the road is an idiot, something he loudly declaims as he drives. (He’s the nicest man in any other situation, and he would have me point out at this juncture that he’s never had an accident. Cautious, conservative me has.)

He had a milestone birthday this spring. Seeing a possible opening, I said to him, “You know, your reflexes probably aren’t what they once were. Maybe it’s time to slow down.”

This went over about as well as you’d expect. (In fairness I need to say I hadn’t noticed any change in his driving skills. And since his cataract surgery this fall, he sees better than he has ever before in his life. I was merely taking what I thought was my best shot. Turned out it wasn’t.)

And so the situation remained. Until, this August when, a year after we ordered it, we picked up our fully electric car.

The car has a little gauge on the dash that tells you when you are in the optimal battery use zone and what your average miles per kilowatt hour are.

On our drive from Maine to Key West, he had the cruise control set at the speed limit and was driving in the right hand lane, giving me breathless reports about how much battery we were consuming. It was almost more of an adjustment than I could take. And it has led me to develop a corollary for my principle.

Principle: Some people will do anything if you give them an interesting gadget to accomplish the task.

Corollary: Some people will radically change their behavior if provided with a game.

So there you are. You can teach old dogs new tricks. Or maybe, this trick was available to me all along, I was just slow in learning it.

Readers: What are your experiences in changing human behavior? Any tips or tricks? Are there any you use on yourself?

Wicked Plans for the New Year

January is always a big planning month for us here at the Wickeds. We wanted to start the new year off with some good intentions – and when we share our intentions, we’re more likely to keep them, right?

So Wickeds, what are your top three intentions for the year? This could be anything from travel or family plans to writing or business goals. Anything is fair game!

Edith/Maddie: My late friend Annie was big on setting intentions. In her honor, I intend to: Celebrate (my son’s wedding), connect (with relatives known and new), and relax (on the beach!) in Puerto Rico in February. Be grateful for who and what I have and where I am. Make each book or story I write the best thing I can write.

Julie: The wedding is going to be such a glorious celebration, Edith! My intentions for the new year are to write, write, write. To be healthy in mind, body and spirit. And to connect with family and friends.

Barb: For the first half of the year, my intentions are similar to the last ten years–to write the best book and novella I can. But after mid-year I’ll be completely out of contract, so who knows? Even without any future contract information, I have vowed to be as present for my family as I can be. Not always to be the mom and grandmother working away in the corner. Can I really change, now in my seventh decade? I also have a personal project I want to complete, though it will be a challenge to finish it in 2023.

Sherry: You all are way ahead of me. I’m the worst about planning things so I’m taking a swag here. Find a publisher for my romance, find joy in each day, and laugh a lot!

Liz: I love all of these! As usual I started going through a million things I intend to do…but I’m trying to keep it simple. I want to finally get the suspense novel I’ve been working on done and sold. I want to stop overthinking and worrying about everything. And I want to have more fun! I definitely never have enough fun, so it’s time to rectify that.

Jessie: I love goals and intentions! Thanks for asking, Liz! I hope you all enjoy your own plans! As for me, I want to up my running capacity to a 10K distance, use up all my supply of paint, and complete a project that I have been working on. Here’s to a great 2023!

Readers, share your top three intentions for the new year in the comments!

Views from the Florida Panhandle

I love visiting the Florida Panhandle where my Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mysteries are set. Family, beautiful sunrises (which as your probably remember I miss), beautiful sunsets, good drinks, and with this trip: fog, cold, and storms.

On Christmas Eve morning my mom supervised Bob making Spritz Christmas cookies from a well-loved recipe in Pyrex bowls my mom got as a wedding gift 74 years ago.

It was cold Christmas weekend. The windchill was 10! We had the beach to ourselves! I’m laughing at the way my hair feathered back in the wind!

Sunrises courtesy of my husband!

I see a man’s face in the next sunrise photo. It’s in the brightly illuminated part near the building in the upper right-hand corner.

Or maybe you can see him better in this one!

And then he took a picture with a heart or angel wings.

And this is why I don’t get up for sunrise–because when I do it looks like this!

Malcolm, a bartender at the Crab Trap, (Chloe goes there in From Beer to Eternity) made me two amazing drinks. The first was a Bushwacker (Chloe has one or two in Rum and Choke). When we went back two days later I asked him to make me a rum-based, fruity, smoothy drink and he suggested a Miami Vice. Yum! Then a little wine on the balcony.

A little mother nature! These two birds stayed looking at each other and touched beaks a couple of times. They are very small sanderlings that usually run when you get to close. I could decide if they were on a date or fighting.

One day the beach had a lot of Portuguese Man O War on it! I stepped carefully that day!

And of course some sunset snaps. One has an odd reflection that looks like a poppy!

Happy New Year!

Readers: What’s your favorite book vacation location?

Wicked Wednesday – Out With Old Mindsets

By Liz, wishing all of us an amazing 2023!

This month’s Wicked Wednesdays are all about changing it up, making new choices, creating new habits. So for this first Wednesday of 2023, let’s talk about mindset.

Wickeds, what’s a particular mindset or way of thinking that isn’t working for you any more? Any negative self talk, perfectionism, dwelling on past mistakes that you’re ready to let go of this year? Tell me!

Edith/Maddie: This isn’t exactly a mindset, but it’s the thoughts that scroll, sometimes endlessly, when I lie awake at two in the morning. Usually I can get back to sleep, but it seems at least once a week I can’t, and my busy mind ranges through an incredible array of issues I have no control over. Some happened in the past (which are so over), some are my sons’ business and not mine, and some are worries that I know in the cool light of day will be FINE. I am more than ready to let this thought-scrolling go, especially since it never includes solving plot problems. Bye-bye. Don’t come back.

Julie: Edith, doom scrolling at 2am is the worst. I’ve taken to having a book I know on audio, and I play it to give my brain something else to focus on, otherwise I spiral. What I’m trying to shift in 2023 is playing out the future before it happens. I future think, and that’s not helpful for focusing on the now. Instead of worrying about how many copies my new book will sell, finish editing it. That sort of thing.

Sherry: I hate when the mind circles and re-circles in the middle of the night too. I have a variety of games I play in my mind to try to distract myself. I’m trying to see the big picture of things this year. I sometimes get caught up in the little things that create anxiety.

Jessie: I love this question, Liz! Every year I pick a word or phrase to use as a litmus test for decisions, goals and problem solving. It is a way for me to frame a mindset and one that I feel really helps me to change and grow.

Barb: Throughout our marriage my husband and I have had a motto, “No regrets!” Because really, what’s the point? You come to a fork in the road; choosing one path precludes all the others. It’s a part of the condition of being human and living in one timeline. And as for the things thrust upon you, where you don’t get to make the choice, there’s no point in regretting those either since you can’t change them. However, with a milestone birthday looming in two days, I’ve found in the last ten years or so that you probably can’t get out of this life without a few major regrets. I have found that having next to no experience dealing with major regrets that I am very, very bad at it. I get that what I’ve always believed still applies, that lacking a time machine you can’t go back and change anything, but still… So in 2023, I’d love to do better handling regrets.

Readers, what’s a mindset shift you’re making in the new year? Tell us below!

Welcome Laurien Berenson!

Liz here, happy to welcome Laurien Berenson back to the blog! Christmas and New Year’s are over, so we’re moving on to Valentine’s Day – which is when her book, Killer Cupid, takes place. Take it away, Laurien!

Thank you to Liz Mugavero and the Wickeds for inviting me back to your blog!

Though I’m not a romantic person, I’ve always loved the idea of Valentine’s Day. After all, what could be better than a holiday devoted to the expression of love? As I see it, a Valentine shouldn’t need to be a lover, spouse or SO. Parents, children, best friends, and pets should all qualify too. The more, the merrier. 

There are several theories about the origins of the holiday. One is that it began with the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, a festival of fertility held on the ides of February. Later, Pope Gelasius—who was opposed pagan rituals on principle–renamed February 14th Saint Valentine’s Day in honor of a martyred saint. During the Middle Ages, the day was believed to signal the start of mating season. Around that time, poets began to celebrate the romantic aspect of February 14th in their verses. Clearly it was a felicitous idea. Valentine’s Day is now celebrated in numerous countries around the world. 

The first Valentines were simple, usually consisting of hand-written notes, pictures, or poems. Over time, they grew both more fashionable and more decorative. By the mid-1800s the holiday had become so popular that Valentine’s cards were being massed produced. Valentine’s Day is now the second biggest card-giving holiday after Christmas. 

So why would a self-proclaimed “non-romantic” write a book whose plot centers around Valentine’s Day? Because characters don’t always do what you expect them to. Sometimes they run rampant through your plot, and occasionally they prod your subconscious with an idea whose time has come.

Melanie Travis is the main character in my cozy mystery series. After 29 books, she’s been through a lot. When the series opened she was a divorced single mother with a young son. Sam Driver appeared in the debut too. He started out as a potential suspect, but by the end of the book he’d decided he liked his prospects as a love interest. And when my characters talk to me, I tend to listen.

Over the course of the series, Sam and Melanie have had their ups and downs. They got together. Then they broke up. (It turned out Sam had an ex-wife he’d never mentioned, and she showed up to win him back.) Two books later, Sam and Melanie were together again. Sam proposed, Melanie turned him down. (Trust issues, naturally. I would have turned him down, too.) More time passed. Eventually they smoothed out their differences, got married, and had a baby. 

Domestic bliss with mystery-solving on the side. 

Except…I realized that in the decade Melanie and Sam have been a couple, they’d never been given the chance to spend any time alone together. Just the two of them–without the complicating factors of jobs, kids, Poodles, dog shows and the ever-meddling Aunt Peg.

If ever there was a couple in need of a romantic getaway, it’s these two. 

So in KILLER CUPID, Sam and Melanie sign up for a Valentine holiday weekend at a picturesque resort in the snowy Berkshire Mountains. They plan to go tobogganing, drink hot toddies, and cuddle in front of a cozy fire. What could possibly go wrong with that?

Readers: what’s your favorite way to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Leave a comment below!

Laurien Berenson is the author of the Melanie Travis mystery series, including the new book KILLER CUPID. She also writes the Senior Sleuths series which debuted with PEG AND ROSE SOLVE A MURDER. Her books have won or been nominated for the Maxwell Award for Dog Fiction, RT Reviewer’s Choice Award, Agatha and Macavity awards. She lives on a farm in Kentucky, surrounded by dogs and horses.

Our favorite holiday moments

By Liz, sorry to see the festive time of year over…

Let’s keep the holiday spirit alive just a bit longer, shall we? Wickeds, I want to hear about your favorite part of this holiday – best moment with someone special, favorite gift you gave or received, most awesome dessert…whatever you want to remember!

Sherry: My husband and I drove to Florida to spend Christmas with my mom. Our daughter was flying in on Christmas Eve and I was worried about that huge storm sweeping across the country. Planes were delayed, flights were canceled, but we got a Christmas miracle and she made it with only a one hour delay. I was so happy and grateful!

Edith/Maddie: That’s a lovely miracle, Sherry! Our in-person Christmas was cancelled/postponed because Hugh was COVID positive, alas (not me, thank goodness). But we had a lovely Christmas morning three-way Zoom chat with my sons and their sweethearts and a quiet day at home. I love this photo of son JD and his fiancee Alex in their superadobe home in Puerto Rico showing off the “Welcome to Amesbury” etched glasses I bought locally and mailed to them.

Liz: Love that, Sherry and sorry about Hugh, Edith. I had a pretty quiet holiday but got to reconnect with some old friends from my childhood, which was really special. I always felt like part of the family with the Murphys, and they welcomed me right back into the fold when I moved back to the area. It was so lovely to reconnect.

Julie: Liz, how great is it to reconnect with folks? My holidays were fairly quiet, but lovely. Lots of family time, going to see SIX with my sister and the nieces, dinner with my folks, and playing Left/Right/Center and Yahtzee on new year’s eve. Lots of fun.

Barb: Guys, I had the BEST Christmas. The first time we’ve all been together for the holiday, Bill and I, our kids and their spouses and the grandkids, in four long years. And we had two big family events–the traditional Feast of the Seven Fish (which untraditionally, Bill’s family holds not on Christmas Eve, but on the Saturday before) and Christmas dinner, this year held at my daughter’s house for 40+ people. Between the two events we got to see all Bill’s siblings, their spouses, all the cousins and their spouses, the next generation of cousins, and assorted in-laws and out-laws–all the usual suspects. It was so special I get teary just writing this.

Did Santa come?

Jessie: Barb, I got a little teary just reading your post! I am so delighted for you! We had a lovely holiday season, except that our oldest had to quarantine because of COVID. Luckily, he got to visit with us before our second youngest had to return to his new job out west. Having all four kids in the same house together is always one of my favorite things in the world!

Readers, what about you? Do you have a favorite moment from this year’s holiday celebrations?