Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 56

Welcome Back Guest Sharon L. Dean

I am so happy to welcome author Sharon L. Dean back to the Wickeds. Sharon his here to talk about her new collection, Six Old Women and Other Stories, which was published just last week.

Take it away, Sharon!

Choices

No matter how loosely we plan a novel, the moment we put pen to paper or word process those opening paragraphs, we’ve made a choice. Is the narrative first person, third person, even the rarely used second person? We’ve chosen a setting, a verb tense, a tone. Will the novel be historical, contemporary, futuristic? Rural? Urban? Extraterrestrial? Comic? Satiric? Terrifying?

It’s trendy now to use multiple points of view, even multiple time periods. I think of Geraldine Brooks’s most recent novel, Horse. Points of view include a young slave, both an antebellum and a contemporary artist, a contemporary graduate student, and a contemporary restorer of animal skeletons. Thankfully Brooks didn’t try to write a chapter from the point of view of the horse.

I tend to commit early when I write. My first paragraphs establish the point of view and the setting. I write in a straight line, beginning to end with no flashbacks, past events coming only through the dialogue or, as often happens when I write, from some historical tidbit that I weave into the narrative. My tone is neither satiric nor dystopian. My characters are ordinary people leading ordinary lives in ordinary small towns. Until something thrusts them into the unfamiliar and the threatening. My novels might be called cozies. Murder, maybe, but off-page. Sex behind closed doors. Escape scenes, no more than a page or two.

Sound boring? I hope not. A conversation is overheard, a clue is found, the weather threatens, the past gets overlaid onto the present.

My novella Six Old Women serves as an example. I knew before I began that I wanted to put six elderly women into a large house on an island where they’ve hired a nurse and her husband, a handyman. The novella is told from the point of view of Nataki, the nurse. No six old women narrating their different versions of events. The seasons progress from the summer of the novel’s opening through the glorious fall of New Hampshire to the iced-in winter where the women have little contact with the mainland. It ends in the spring, the cycle of life ready to begin again.

Nataki’s point of view allows a young woman to learn about each of these ninety-three-year-olds and to discover that they aren’t the stereotype of old women passed over by life. They’ve lived. They have histories. They have present moments where they learn to get along together in a place they know will be their last exit.

By the time I finished the first chapter, I had my setting and my structure. I knew what these women looked like and how Nataki first categorized them. Her impressions change as the past gets woven into the present. The writing led me forward. The characters directed their futures. If you read the novella, I hope your journey will be interesting or compelling or enlightening. Anything but boring.

Readers: What choices do you make as you begin to write or as you choose what book to read next?

When I left the academic world and turned to writing mysteries, I joined a mystery writers critique group. My two series fall squarely into that genre. But I also wrote a novel called Leaving Freedom and now a novella called Six Old Women. They aren’t whodunnits or police procedurals or thrillers, but I choose to call them mysteries.  As I wrote in a piece for Mystery and Suspense magazine (March 28, 2022), “The Classics are Mysteries, Too.” Neither Leaving Freedom nor Six Old Women will become a classic, but I think I can argue that they are mysteries, too.

About Six Old Women and Other Stories

Six old women living on an isolated island in Lake Winnipesaukee, teenagers vacationing on Newfound Lake in 1959, paragliders and skiers on Cannon Mountain, an old woman in a house covered in gypsy moths, a man living off the grid in a shack he built himself. The characters in these stories all keep secrets. They are as tough and rugged as New Hampshire’s iconic Old Man in the Mountain. And like The Old Man who fell in 2003, their pasts survive only in memory. Sometimes that’s a good thing.

About Sharon Dean

Sharon L. Dean grew up in Massachusetts where she was immersed in the literature of New England. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of New Hampshire, a state she lived and taught in before moving to Oregon. Although she has given up writing scholarly books that require footnotes, she incorporates much of her academic research as background in her mysteries. She is the author of three Susan Warner mysteries and of a literary novel titled Leaving Freedom. Her Deborah Strong mysteries include The Barn, The Wicked Bible, and Calderwood Cove. Dean continues to write about New England while she is discovering the beauty of the West.

Genre Hopping — Welcome Guest Liv Andersson/Wendy Tyson #giveaway

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Liv/Wendy for a number of years now. I was so lucky to get to spend the day sitting next to her at a book conference in Bowling Green, Kentucky. She is fascinating and fun. You might know her from her acclaimed Greenhouse Mystery series. Liv/Wendy has a brand new standalone thriller out, Little Red House, and I can’t wait to read it! Look for the giveaway below.

Name (s): Liv Andersson/Wendy Tyson

Genre(s): Psychological Thriller and Mystery/Cozy Mystery

What drew you to the genre you write? I was drawn to the crime fiction genre for three primary reasons. One, nothing is quite as satisfying as developing the puzzle elements of a plot. My goal is always that “a-ha” moment in which the reader is surprised by the ending but simultaneously realizes that all the pieces have fallen into place and the denouement was really the only way events could have played out. Two, I enjoy crafting the whydunit aspect of a crime novel. As a former therapist, it’s exciting to explore the psychological reasons for people’s actions. And finally, justice. As a therapist working with at-risk teens, I saw the horrific results of injustice. Real crime is gritty and awful and actual people get hurt or killed. In my fictional worlds, at least, the bad folks get their comeuppance and justice (sometimes in a twisted way) is served.

What sets your book apart from what is out there? Readers say Little Red House is twisty, fast-paced, and has an ending they didn’t see coming. The book is told through dual timelines using two primary point of view characters, both of whom are caught up in—and affected by—murders in one fictional town. At the heart of the mystery is a rundown little red house in the New Mexico desert. The eerie isolation of that house in the desert is the perfect backdrop for the sinister events that transpire.

What are you currently writing? I just turned in a new Liv Andersson thriller (yay!), which takes place in a fictional town on the coast of Maine, near Portland. Now I’m working on a new cozy-with-an-edge mystery series set in Vermont and finishing a contemporary women’s novel set in Martha’s Vineyard.

Do you write a series or standalones? Why? Under Wendy Tyson, I write primarily mystery series, and under Liv Andersson, I write standalone thrillers. I’m a big fan of crime fiction in general and enjoy reading most of the subgenres, including longstanding mystery series. As an author, I’ve found that each has its advantages and drawbacks.

Series provide so many possibilities. There’s nothing quite like sinking into the first book in a series, creating the characters and building a fictional world, and then having multiple books in which to develop the characters’ arcs, relationships, and subplots. It’s a commitment to a fictional universe. That takes planning, however, and you’re always writing with an eye to the larger story arc and what could be next. On the other hand, standalones provide a certain creative freedom.  With a standalone, you can focus on just that story, just those characters, just that resolution—without having to ensure continuity of setting or characters from one book to another. With a standalone, you don’t have to build in the possibility of future novels. Choosing between series and standalones would be hard, so my solution is to write both.

What are you reading right now? She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan.

What is your favorite deadline snack? Hummus. Yalla Hummus with smoked eggplant (made in Brattleboro, Vermont) is my absolute favorite. I buy three or four containers of it and eat it with tortilla chips, pita, focaccia, a spoon—whatever. In fact, I just met a deadline and still have two containers in the fridge! A small miracle.

Do you have a favorite quote or life motto? “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use it, the more you have.” —Maya Angelou

Favorite writing space? We recently purchased a small “canned ham” style travel trailer. It has a table and two bench seats, and the table is surrounded by windows. We’ve had the opportunity to take the trailer to a few spots in Maine and Vermont this past summer and fall, and I love writing at that table. We have three dogs, but we take our Newfoundland with us—he loves to travel—and he’s fond of sitting on the bench seat with his head on the table so he can simultaneously look out the window and watch me. There is something about being immersed in nature (alongside one of my writing buddies) that sparks creativity.

What do you see when you look up from writing?  Birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. I live on eleven acres in the woods of Vermont. At home, I write at my kitchen table, which looks out a set of French doors onto our front yard. We have a pollinator garden out there, with multiple bird feeders. In the summer, I plant red and dark purple flowers, which attract hummingbirds, and I especially enjoy when they visit. In the winter, the birds congregate at the feeders. It’s a nice spot to write and watch the seasons change.

Readers: Why do you love reading crime fiction? Wendy is giving away a copy of Little Red House to one person (US only) who leaves a comment.

BIO:

Liv Andersson is an author, lawyer, and former therapist whose background inspires her thrillers and mysteries. As Liv Andersson, she writes thrillers, including LITTLE RED HOUSE. As Wendy Tyson, she is the author of several mystery series, including the Amazon-bestselling Greenhouse Mystery Series, and her short fiction has appeared in literary journals and crime anthologies. Originally from the Philadelphia area, Liv lives in the Green Mountains of Vermont with her husband, sons, and three dogs.

Gifts and Talents — Favorite Gifts to Give

Do you have a favorite gift you like to give people? And if it’s a book, be specific!

Julie: I love giving handmade knit items to family members. I’m on a “each niece and nephew gets a afghan” kick right now, and I knit hats and sweaters for babies in my life. My grandmother taught me how to knit, so it means a lot to pass that on.

Sherry: I love that you knit gifts for your family, Julie! I always give my husband Michael Connelly’s latest book and Robert Crais if he has one out. It’s a win-win because I read them both too!

Liz: I love to give people gifts that benefit causes. Like, making a donation to World Wildlife Fund and getting really cute gifts to give the person along with the certificate that says they donated.

Barb: For years I gave The Joy of Cooking and The Joy of Sex as my standard wedding shower gift. I received The Joy of Cooking at my own bridal shower, with a note that said, “Kissin’ don’t last–cookery do,” which I thought was rather depressing. My paired books were meant as a joke but became a coveted gift in the family. The Joy of Sex went out of print, but I soldiered on for years with The Joy of Cooking. I still remember my husband’s cousin, who married a little later in life, clutching the cookbook to her chest, sighing, “I thought I would never get my Joy of Cooking.”

Edith/Maddie: I love that pairing, Barb! And handmade is always good, Jessie. In Christmases past I have made sewn gifts: vegetable-themed aprons, wine coasters, and plastic bag “socks” – stuff the bags in the top and pluck them out at the bottom – and I’ve knitted scarves (the easiest knitting not to screw up for this undisciplined knitter). Also (except it’s not a Christmas gift), whenever a new baby is on the way in the family or our family-by-choice, I make a baby quilt. I do give books for Christmas, especially to the children.

Jessie: I love to give baskets of homemade goodies! I love to make tea breads, jams and preserves, hand-dipped dried fruits and boozy cordials all wrapped in sparkly cellophane and tied up with elaborate bows. It is my favorite standard gift and I love to see the looks on the recipients faces when they receive them!

Readers: Do you have a favorite gift you give?

Genre Hopping — Welcome Back Dana Cameron

I am such a fan of Dana Cameron. She’s a talented author and an amazing human. She has a brand new thriller out — Exit Interview and I can’t wait to read it.

Name (s) Dana Cameron

Genre(s) Mystery, Urban Fantasy, Thriller, Historical, Horror

What drew you to the genre you write?

I started writing mysteries because it was my favorite genre through the years, and I knew the structure. My inspiration for the Emma Fielding mysteries was a site looter with a gun (drawn, alas, from real life!), and that seemed to fit right in. The Fangborn novels (peopled with vampires, werewolves, and oracles) arose out of the short story that Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner asked me to write—I had so much fun, I kept going! My latest book is a thriller, Exit Interview (available December 6). I realized from my earlier books that I loved writing action scenes and this was the result.  

What sets your latest book apart from what is out there?

I love thrillers, love reading them, love watching them at movies, but none of the big franchises prominently feature female leads. There’s no Jane Bond, no Jasmine Bourne. On top of that, when there are women who are part of their organizations, they never seem to be quite as tough as the men. I wanted the high-concept, thrill ride with female protagonists and my take on the genre.

What’s it about?

Reporter Amy Lindstrom has just witnessed the sudden, suspicious death of the powerful arms dealer she’s been investigating. Jayne Rogers, the deadly covert operative assigned to work with the arms dealer, has been accused by her boss of killing him, as well as turning traitor and picking off her former colleagues one by one. The only one who believes Jayne is being framed is Nicole Bradley, whose technical skills are as stealthy and lethal as Jayne’s abilities with her fists and weapons. All three must work together to prevent a hidden arms cache from falling into the wrong hands.

Exit Interview is the first full-length “a.k.a. Jayne” novel. The character has appeared in stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (as a “Black Mask” feature), and in collections including Killing Malmon and Shattering Glass.

What sparked the idea?

My husband had just quit a job at a large corporation, and all he had left was the exit interview. I’d never heard of such a thing, and, frankly, it didn’t sound like much fun. I suddenly wondered what an exit interview would look like for a covert operative.

What are you currently writing?

I’m revising Anna Hoyt, a novel based on the short story “Femme Sole.” It’s noir, set in 18th-century Boston. The original story was in Boston Noir, edited by Dennis Lehane.

Do you write a series or standalones? Why?

So far, the novels have been part of a series, because that’s what the publisher wanted. In both the Emma Fielding mysteries and the Fangborn novels, I had arcs I wanted to follow with the main characters. If there’s a good response to Exit Interview, I’d write a sequel in a heartbeat. As much as Jayne scares me, she’s a lot of fun. With Anna Hoyt…she’s hard to live with. It would take a lot to write another book with her, but she always, always surprises me.

What are you reading right now?

Nothing But Blackened Teeth, by Cassandra Khaw; Vasquez, by V. Castro; Please Don’t Sit on My Bed In Your Outdoor Clothes, by Phoebe Robinson.

What is your favorite deadline snack?

I hate to admit it, but I really love Cheetos. When I’m in the throes of finishing a book, I’ll reward myself for every chapter edited or rewritten.

Do you have a favorite quote or life motto?

You only have one life; this is not a dress rehearsal.

Favorite writing space?

My office.

What do you see when you look up from writing?

A poster from the comic Bitch Planet (by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro); my investitures from The Baker Street Irregulars (“The Giant Rat of Sumatra”) and ASH (The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes—my nom d’daventure is “The British Museum”). The Edgar nomination for “Femme Sole.” A few very personal framed things, including the cover art from my books. A flock of LEGO minifigs (Scarlet Witch and Okoye, among others) and dice are on my computer stand. All things that remind me to keep pushing myself.

Thanks so much for having me, Wickeds!

Readers: What traits do you like to see in a strong female character?

Dana Cameron writes across many genres, but especially crime and speculative fiction (including the Fangborn novels). Her work, inspired by her career in archaeology, has won multiple Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity Awards, and has been nominated for the Edgar Award. Several of Dana’s Emma Fielding archaeology mysteries appear on the Hallmark Movie & Mystery Channel. When she isn’t traveling, she’s weaving, spinning, or yelling at the TV about historical inaccuracies. Exit Interview (an a.k.a. Jayne novel) is available now; #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Gardiner said, “Exit Interview takes off like an express train and never slows down. Grab this book, buckle up and hold on for a terrific ride. 

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Jessie: In NH, crossing fingers for a white Christmas!

I know I have posted here before about quirky and even ridiculous holidays that seem to be invented to fill media outlets with something to natter on about, but the truth is, I m kind of obsessed with the kitschy fun of it all! Today I was delighted to note is Gingerbread House Day. I absolutely adore gingerbread houses!

I have long loved miniature houses of all sorts. I have a cherished collection of teapots shaped like houses. I longed for a dollhouse as a child. I set up an entire Christmas village as part of my holiday decorations. But my very favorite of all is the gingerbread house.

It is a passion I was able to indulge in as an adult. I had never made, decorated, or to my memory, ever seen one in real life until I had children of my own and spotted a Christmas Cookie magazine from Better Homes and Gardens at a grocery checkout when my first was an elementary schooler. I flipped through it quickly and bought it on impulse despite our tight budget at the time.

By late the next day I had decided that in order to follow through some accountability was required so I issued invitations to several friends with children and offered to make plain houses for them all to come and decorate in a week’s time. If I had known how much work it would be I might never have started! Still, I decided on an A-frame style for the houses and by the time everyone arrived there was a slightly wonky, but totally serviceable gingerbread house for each of the children.

Over the years the guest list grew and the houses leveled up to include four walls and a roof. I received a Kitchen Aid mixer for Mother’s Day one year to make stirring the stiff dough less daunting. I picked up a tip for making a sort of super glue out of melted sugar to hold the pieces together before covering the joins with royal icing. I figured out that I didn’t need to make 3-D houses for toddlers and could make oversized cookies for them to decorate instead.

Eventually, the children all became too old to still look forward to decorating them and too young to feel nostalgic about it. I’ll admit, I was a bit heartbroken. And maybe just slightly relieved. For a couple of years, the sweet and spicy scents of molasses, ginger, and cinnamon did not fill my kitchen. Bags of just the right candies did not pile up in the dining room waiting for the guests to squeal at the sight of them. Globs of royal icing did not cling stubbornly to my hardwood floors.

But then, a couple of years ago my children all got together and asked for my recipe. They worked together to mix the dough, cut the shapes, bake it up, and assemble the pieces. They mixed up the royal icing, found the pastry bags to apply it with panache, and set about collaboratively creating a gingerbread house for us all to enjoy. I have had a life so far filled with so many delightful memories, but that one is amongst my favorites. Now if you will excuse me, I think I might just go and whip up a gingerbread house!

Readers, have you ever made a gingerbread house? Do you have a favorite holiday memory?

It’s A Good Thing They’re Cute–Welcome Back Guest Catrionia McPherson

Reading a post by Catrionia is like getting a shot of happiness and laughter. I’m delighted to welcome her back to The Wickeds as she celebrates the release of Scot in a Trap.

Catrionia: In SCOT IN A TRAP, (Last Ditch Motel No.5), there’s a murder, a few laughs, lots of food, snark about California from the Scot, snark about Scotland from the Californians . . . all that good stuff. But this time there’s something else as well.

A brand-new baby

I’m not the most disciplined of writers and so it’s no surprise that I wrote this baby in all her rank and waxy just-born glory during the time of COVID when, back home in Scotland, three (THREE!) new babies were born into my family and I couldn’t get to see any of them.

One of them was born when I should have been right there in 2020 and I planned to elbow my way to the front of the cuddle queue on day one, playing the “I missed the last six” card. Hmph.

I love new babies. Love them! Whether they little aliens, little simians, little Alfred Hitchcocks, little Buddhas . . . they’re all beautiful to me and endlessly interesting. I know that’s not the case for everyone.

I lied. I hear that’s not the case for everyone, but I don’t believe it. Of course we all love newborn babies! We’ve got to. Our species would never have survived if we weren’t hardwired to be turned to protective and selfless mush at the sight of a new baby.

It doesn’t even need to be a new baby human: kittens, rabbits, puppies, squirrels, ducklings – they all do to us what babies do.

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I reckon if someone can walk past a kitten/puppy adoption event without a look and at least one “Awwwww!” they must be a bit of a sociopath. Or a cyborg. Once we’re beyond mammals and birds it gets a bit more iffy. Is a tadpole cute? Is a caterpillar? But close to our own species, we’re a goner.

I mean, Disney made fabulous fortunes exploiting exactly this evolutionary adaptation, with animals who all had huge eyes, small noses (even Dumbo) and squeaky voices. I wonder if the people who (claim they) are immune to the charm of a new baby surprising herself by sneezing, or a slightly older baby finding his toes for the first time, or a grand old baby of almost one joyfully tasting/wearing an avocado, are immune to Disney too.

Objectively, I can see the pros and cons of a new baby. PRO: they stay where you put them and the catering is not complicated. (Except they can roll when they’re swaddled and the catering can cause excruciating pain.) CON: mostly smells and substances. PRO + CON: they issue very clear instructions that they are displeased, but in the form of ear-splitting yells that they can’t unpack for you if you don’t understand.

The new baby at the Last Ditch cries from the moment of birth until the last chapter, and explodes from every orifice with impressive regularity. I wrote eight besotted adults nevertheless and just one somewhat wary six-year-old, who can see the writing on the wall about his status as Boy Emperor beginning to crumble. (But even he can’t get over the teensy toenails.)

So how about you, Wickeds and readers? Do babies turn you to a mush that makes applesauce look like jerky? Or can you explain how you resist them? 

SCOT IN A TRAP

A mysterious object the size of a suitcase, all wrapped in bacon and smelling of syrup, can mean only one thing: Thanksgiving at the Last Ditch Motel. This year the motel residents are in extra-celebratory mood as the holiday brings a new arrival to the group – a bouncing baby girl.

But as one life enters the Ditch, another leaves it. Menzies Lassiter has only just checked in. When resident counsellor Lexy Campbell tries to deliver his breakfast the next day, she finds him checked out. Permanently.  Shocking enough if he were stranger, but Lexy recognises that face. Menzies was her first love until he broke her heart many years ago.

What’s he doing at the Last Ditch? What’s he doing dead? And how can Lexy escape the fact that she alone had the means, the opportunity – and certainly the motive – to kill him?

Bio: Catriona McPherson (she/her) was born in Scotland and immigrated to the US in 2010. She writes: preposterous 1930s detective stories, set in the old country and featuring an aristocratic sleuth; modern comedies set in the Last Ditch Motel in fictional (yeah, sure) California; and, darker than both of those (which is not difficult), a strand of contemporary psychological thrillers.

Her books have won or been shortlisted for the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Lefty, the Macavity, the Mary Higgins Clark award and the UK Ellery Queen Dagger. She has just introduced a fresh character in IN PLACE OF FEAR, which finally marries her love of historicals with her own working-class roots, but right now, she’s writing the sixth book in what was supposed to be the Last Ditch trilogy.

Catriona is a proud lifetime member and former national president of Sisters in Crime.  www.catrionamcpherson.com

Pondering 2022 Writing Life Lessons

By Julie, planning on decking the halls after I schedule this post

Some months coming up with a blog topic for the Wickeds is easier than others. This month, because of the season, I’m a bit more reflective and had trouble landing on one. So I decided to share a few thoughts I have about my writing journey.

It’s Better With Friends

Last weekend Edith, Liz and I sat at a table at a Cape Ann holiday author event. We sold some books, which is lovely. But we also had fun being together, meeting readers and chatting with other writers. A few days ago a debut author tweeted about her launch party where only two people showed up, and many authors chimed in to share their stories. Here’s what I know–never doing a solo event mitigates that because you’ll be there with a friend or two and you’ll figure it out. I remember Shelia Connolly and I doing a library event and there were only three people in the audience. I was deflated, but Sheila decided that we’d have more fun sitting around the table together and talking. She was right. That day is now a treasured memory.

I’m a Plotter

Last month I wrote a post about Plantsing NaNo Style, outlining my hopes to pants a roughly plotted novel during the month of November. Pantsing is a term that is used for folks who “write by the seat of their pants”. Normally I am a plotter, which means that I think through every scene in my manuscript before I write it. I was hoping that a very rough outline and some ideas would be enough to get me through the month. I was wrong. While I did get 30,000 words written, they were painful to write and are truly terrible. I need a map.

I want to make it clear that there’s no one way to write. Many of my friends are organic writers aka pantsers, and it works for them. I’m a proud plotter. That doesn’t mean I don’t have surprises while I’m writing. What it means it that I create a map to follow, and while I can add side trips, I can get back on track.

I’m Always Learning

I am fortunate enough to host the Sisters in Crime Writers’ Podcast. Every week I get to talk to writers about writing. And I’ve yet to have a conversation where I didn’t learn something, or have an “a ha!” moment during the conversation. Honing our craft, learning more about the business, finding the fun again–that’s what we all need. How lucky am I to talk to wonderful writers who are willing to share insights about their own journeys?

I Love Writing

I love looking at my shelf of books, and am so fortunate to be published. But what I’ve realized in 2022 is that I love writing more than ever. I love creating new worlds, meeting new characters, formulating new puzzles and spending time letting my imagination take me on an adventure. Sometimes in our pursuit to be (or stay) published, we forget that joy. I’ve rediscovered it, which is one of the great gifts of the year.

So those are some of my random writing thoughts from this year. Thank you all for being on the journey with me–I wish I could tell you what that means.

Friends, what’s your “a ha!” thought from 2022?

Gifts and Talents — Family Talents

For our December Wicked Wednesdays we will be talking about gifts and talents. I recently read that the difference between talents and gifts are that talents are inherited, and gifts are received. Is there a talent that runs through your family?

Edith/Maddie: That’s a complicated question, Sherry, and it gets deep in the weeds of the nature/nurture debate! I knew someone who wrote an entire doctoral thesis on the notion of talent, positing that in many parts of the world there’s no such thing as musical talent, that everyone can sing and play an instrument. But I digress. Is kindness a talent? Is a love of reading? My family – parents, siblings, cousins, and children – all have a habit of being kind and are inveterate readers. My father was a lifelong letter writer, typing long missives both informative and witty, and I have a calling to write fiction. Is that a talent – or a love honed by practice?

Sherry: It is a complicated question. I disagree with the musical talent because I have family members who can’t sing–at all and that has been passed through three generations! If a sense of humor or quick wit is a talent then it has been passed down. I can only trace it through four generations, but my great-uncle Bryon lived with my father’s family and was funny. My dad was funny, I’m funny (to varying degrees), and my daughter is funny. We love to laugh.

Barb: For a long time I’ve thought our family’s talent was breeding out talent. Ancestry tells me my forebears were music teachers. That’s gone. My grandfather was a tremendous athlete, captain of the Princeton football team and still the holder of a collegiate record for the 100 yard dash. (Sort of a cheat because they run the 100 meters now, but still he kept it for a good long time.) That’s gone. My father’s mother’s family were famous cabinet makers and later among the founders of the American Society of Interior Designers. That’s gone, both the work-with-hands skill and the artistic talent. My husband’s parents were a mathematician and an engineer. Not only did our branch get none of that, none of his five brothers and sisters have it. If there’s one thing we are good at it’s what I’m doing right now: writing. My son and daughter are both talented fiction writers. And a couple of weeks ago, in the car, my granddaughter Viola, out of the clear blue sky, said, “You know even a third person narrator has a point of view,” and went on to give examples from books she had read. Later in the back seat, she and her second cousin, both age 9, had a long discussion about run-on sentences and books where they are used as a literary technique. All I could think was that my daughter, who teaches college freshman composition and literature, would weep with joy if most of her students were able to have that conversation.

Julie: What an interesting question. Edith, you bring up a fascinating point about nurturing talent. I’d imagine that not shaming people for a lack of talent would go a long way towards that. Barb, the idea of breeding it out makes me laugh. I’m also wondering if Viola is available to help me work through some POV issues with my WIP. Does my family have talent that is passed down? I’d say no. We do have passions that are passed down–baking, travel, laughter, crafts, creativity–that become talents of a sort, but they all get challenged in different ways.

Jessie: What a thought provoking question, Sherry! I am not sure about talents, but I do know both sides of my family possess the skill of thrift and making not much into a bit more so that it suffices. It especially applies to meals. I think of it as the “loaves and fishes” skill. My maternal grandmother could make a meal for a crowd out of a practically empty cupboard and my sister and I both can too. It serves particularly well when faced with a week of weather too bad to drive out, or unexpected dinner guests!

Readers: Do you have a talent that runs through your family?

A Wicked Welcome Back to Guest Maya Corrigan #giveway

I’m delighted to welcome back Maya Corrigan who is celebrating the release of Bake Offed. Her first book, By Cook or by Crook, came out a month before my first book. We’re both members of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and have done lots of fun events together!

Thank you, Sherry, for hosting my guest post today. I got to know Sherry through the Sisters in Crime Chesapeake Chapter and met the other Wickeds at mystery lovers’ conventions like Malice Domestic and Bouchercon. Bake Offed, my 8th Five-Ingredient Mystery, takes place at a similar gathering—the Maryland Mystery Fan Fest.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember where the inspiration for a story originated, but for Bake Offed, I can pin it down exactly. When the pandemic lockdown began in March of 2020, I was in San Diego at Left Coast Crime, a four-day gathering of mystery lovers. It ended on its first day, shut down by the health department to keep Covid from spreading. I suspected that the other mystery fan gatherings I planned to attend that year would also be canceled. So I decided to create a fictional one to fill in the gap. Sadly, that gap lasted two years.   

The fictional Maryland Mystery Fan Fest includes panels, author signings, and a charity auction, like real mystery gatherings, but unlike them, it is the scene of a bake-off and a murder. My sleuths, café manager Val and her grandfather, are fest volunteers, recruited by Val’s best friend, an avid mystery reader who organized the weekend.

The fest starts with a Deadly Desserts Bake-Off, in which each contestant must play the part of a cook to a famous fictional detective and bake a dessert the detective would like. Val’s grandfather, a recipe columnist who refuses to make any dish with more than five ingredients, is given the challenging role of Nero Wolfe’s gourmet cook Fritz. After flipping through several of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries, Granddad grumbles that all the dishes mentioned in the book have “scads of ingredients.” Then he discovers a unique item in the attic—a book-shaped recipe box that his mystery-loving aunt bequeathed him. Granddad is delighted to find a five-ingredient dessert recipe among the 34 recipes in the box. He’s even happier when he learns how valuable the box is. As one of only a thousand promotional gifts from Rex Stout’s 1938 publicity tour for Too Many Cooks, the box is prized by collectors. The current price for the recipe box in good condition is $3,750 plus shipping.

Granddad is up against stiff competition at the fest’s bake-off. A culinary arts graduate plays Bunter, Lord Peter Wimsey’s manservant from the Dorothy Sayers books. Playing Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock Holmes’s landlady, is Cynthia Sweet. Granddad blames her for ripping off the five-ingredient theme of his Codger Cook column to use in her own recipe column and cookbook. But he isn’t the only one who has a beef with Cynthia. After the bake-off Granddad’s prized recipe box disappears and Cynthia is found dead in her hotel room next to a whistling teakettle.

Photo on left courtesy of: WFinch, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

How do readers at the fest who love a murder on the page react to a murder in their midst? Many assume it’s a murder game devised by festival organizers. Others come up with solutions derived from locked-room mysteries and Agatha Christie’s best-known plots. With a witness in jeopardy, and a killer familiar with every trick in the book to avoid detection, Val and Granddad must read between the lines to prevent another murder.   

With nods to Holmes and Poirot, Bake Offed echoes classic mystery tropes—an unsolved murder in the past, disguises and false identities, wills and inheritances, and crime re-enactments. The book reflects my enthusiasm for mystery fan conventions. It’s dedicated to the organizers of those events, who make it possible for readers and writers to celebrate crime fiction together. Having this book come out in the year when those in-person events resumed is, to use a culinary cliché, the icing on the cake.

READERS: Mystery fan gatherings feature discussions of all types of crime fiction: from classics to cozies, historicals, thrillers, police procedurals, and private eye mysteries. What kind of crime books are your favorites?  

I’ll send a signed copy (US only) of BAKE OFFED to one person who leaves a comment.

Maya (Mary Ann) Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring a café manager and her live-wire grandfather solving murders in a historical Chesapeake Bay town. Each book has five suspects, five clues, and Granddad’s five-ingredient recipes. A Virginia resident, Maya has taught courses in writing, detective fiction, and literature at Georgetown University and NOVA community college. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords.

Visit her website (https://mayacorrigan.com) for book news, mystery history and trivia, and easy recipes. 

Sign up for her newsletter (https://www.mayacorrigan.com/newscontact.html). One subscriber wins a free book each time a newsletter goes out.

Follow her on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/mayacorriganbooks).

Visit Kensington Books (https://www.kensingtonbooks.com/9781496734570/bake-offed/) for an excerpt of Bake Offed and Buy Links.

The Christmas Letter

by Barb, at home in Portland, where it’s beginning to look a lot like…

Over the past couple of days, I did spend some time writing that wasn’t work on the next Maine Clambake novella. I wrote our annual Christmas letter.

It’s an increasingly ridiculous exercise, I know, what with email and social media and other ways to keep in touch. But I’ve been writing them since 1995 and they’ve become a chronicle of the important events in our family year. I even took a survey of Wicked blog readers about their feelings about Christmas letters in this 2015 post, which also documented my history with them. At this point, my kids would think there was something terribly wrong if I didn’t write one.

Anyway, with only modest changes, like last names removed to protect the guilty, and photos inserted, here is this year’s effort.

December 1, 2022

Dear Friends and Family,

The merriest of seasons to you all. We hope this letter finds you happy, healthy, tucked up and cozy.

It’s the first day of Advent and we are off to the races! We’re decorating this weekend. Kate and her family will come to Portland next weekend for cookie baking. Granddaughter Viola arrives the weekend after that, just in time for the (renewed) annual Carito family Feast of the Seven Fish at Bill’s brother’s house. That is if weather and viruses cooperate. If there’s anything we’ve learned over the last three years, it’s that plans are only that.

In the meantime,

Bill has continued with his iPhone photography. He has a new website up at billcaritophotography.com, where you can buy a some of his pictures in a variety of sizes, with and without frames, even on mugs and tote bags! If you have a favorite photo of Bill’s and it’s not on the site, email him and he’ll fix you up. Bill’s also teaching a class at the Studios of Key West in March and one here in Portland in the summer.

I’m still writing. The tenth Maine Clambake Mystery, Muddled Through, was published in June. Two standalone ebooks, Hallowed Out and Logged On, previously released in the novella anthologies, came out in this fall. The Jane Darrowfield series has ended after two books. I’m a little sad about it, but I didn’t love writing two and a half books a year. So not that sad.

Bill and I spent January to March in Key West, and this year all the kids and grandkids were able to join us for a visit. Kate, Luke, Etta, and Sylvie, then three and two, endured a movie-worthy series of travel disasters to get there, but we were all together in the end. We were even joined by Luke’s parents, Kim and Bob, after Rob, Sunny, and Viola left. Etta and Sylvie loved being surrounded by all their grandparents.

All of us in Key West, March 2022

In early May, Bill, our sister-in-law Mary Ann, and our daughter-in-law Sunny, all had big birthdays within a day of one another. Kate and her cousin Emily were able to pull off a wonderful celebration in Kate’s backyard. Rob, Sunny, and Viola flew up to surprise Bill, which he thought was the best present of all.

Bill’s birthday cake, ironic in retrospect. For years he’s been distinguished by his mustache and glasses. But in September he had cataract surgery and the glasses are gone. If he shaved off the mustache none of us would ever recognize him.

Then things got crazy. In June, Viola flew up on her own for the first time to spend a week with Kate’s family. They found out they’d been exposed to covid and had their first positive test while Viola was on the plane. So instead of spending a week with her aunt, Viola spent it with Bill, exploring the attractions of coastal Maine, while I rushed to meet a book deadline.

Viola and Bill visit the food trucks on the Eastern Prom in Portland, Maine

Bill and I had a fantastic trip to Ireland and Scotland in July. We spent two days in Dublin, our first time, and then took a small cruise ship over the top of Scotland, with stops in the islands along the way. We spent a week in Edinburgh. Bill found the most amazing Airbnb on Thistle Street in the New Town. It was an exceptional visit and would have been even better if I hadn’t come home with covid.

At Culloden Battlefield, 2022

In August we spent our traditional week at the Jersey shore with my brother and his family, except Bill missed it because I’d given him covid. Then, over Labor Day, we had a family wedding for the first time in ages, which Rob, Sunny and Viola missed because they had covid.

You get the theme. A wonderful year that required flexibility and the ability to plan, and then re-plan, and then plan again. Our new, fully electric car also requires flexibility (at least as far as charging on long-distance trips is concerned), not a naturally strong suit for either of us. The world may teach these old dogs some new tricks. Or we may go on cursing and mumbling into the great good night. Either way…

On the Carito side of the family, John and Heather’s son Alex married Paula, in the Labor Day weekend wedding mentioned above. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception in a lovely old mansion in Connecticut. Carl and Eliana’s daughter, Christelle, her husband Pablo, and their son Julian were joined by baby brother Damien in September.

On the Ross side, Rip and Ann’s daughter, Julia, and her husband Ben welcomed their first child, daughter Meera, in February. Rip and I have six granddaughters between us!

All six second cousins in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, August 2022

And so, we’ve continued for one more trip around the sun, for which we are very grateful. We are also grateful for all of you. We miss you and hope to see you soon.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Barb & Bill

Readers: I’m updating my survey from eight (!) years ago. Christmas letters–yay or nay? Fun to find out what friends are up to, or annoying since they only tell the good stuff, or irrelevant with social media and so on. Be honest!