Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 69

Writing Talismans, plus #Giveaway

Edith/Maddie writing from north of Boston on the brink of true summer.

When Julie prompted us to write about good luck charms last week, I was thinking I didn’t have any when I wrote my answer. But after she and Barb mentioned comfort items they have around the house, I took a close look at my office. I spend so much time here – every morning, all morning, in fact – you’d think I would have noticed.

Now I have, and today I present you a number of the small talismans in my work space that bring me joy, comfort, and inspiration. Read to the end for a giveaway!

First should be the tiny dinosaur I found on one of my plotting walks. She keeps track of my daily to-do list and makes me smile.

In the window to the right is Princess Yenenga, the fabled and brave founder of Burkina Faso in West Africa, where I lived for a year, plus the tiny Buddha my sister gave me, a wee Japanese bowl from fan Vida Antolin-Jenkins now filled with hand-therapy beads, and a mini vase, all in front of the lovely clock I received as a gift after my two years as President of Sisters in Crime New England.

I also have a wine glass that I’ve only ever sipped wine from once. With a raven on one side and a quote from Poe about writing on the other, I don’t want to break it!

“Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore.”

In the next window is a lovely glass bird, a gift from Jennifer, my best friend of forty-five years.

The last window holds my writing power items – two tiaras next to the writer’s beret my 95-year-old author-uncle Richard Reinhardt recently sent me. When I need some extra push at my desk, I slip one of those onto my head and remind myself I am a professional writer (and also the queen of my domain). Oh, plus some Mardi Gras beads and the fabulous stand-in teapot the Wickeds sent me after my Agatha Award win in 2020.

Next we have the actual Agatha teapot I brought home (along with COVID) in April, surrounded by a few toys that bring me joy: a tiny jeep, an anteater mascot from my college alma mater, and a wind-up scorpion to honor my sun (and rising) sign of Scorpio. Family pictures, a bigger Buddha, and a historical map of my town are the backdrop (with primarily Wicked Authors’ books on the shelves below).

The radiator, which never comes on, holds a collection of animals. My childhood stuffed dalmation, Topsy; a Dammit Doll for whacking on things when frustration mounts; a New England Crime Bake knitted lobster; and a stuffed dog wearing a Crime Bake hat in front of a few framed award certificates.

What else do I have in my office? Let me show you the grittier side: the standing laptop, whiteboard, long-term book calendar and month-by-month paper calendar, list of short stories submitted (and resubmitted elsewhere, often with success), tally sheet of books finished and books published, and so on. Not exactly talismans, except for the “Muse Most of Us Really Need,” but these are my tools of the trade.

Keen-eyed readers will note one item I’ll need to erase once this post is published!

In the last couple of months I’ve acquired a new talisman in the form of our gentle adopted cat Martin. He loves keeping me company on this vegetable cloth (to protect the futon behind it, which doubles as a guest bed), and I love knowing he’s there while I write. So far he hasn’t provided any new plot ideas, but he is the model for one of the two cats my new California protagonist Cece Barton has at home.

And here we have the upholstered rocker that belonged to my grandfather, Allan Maxwell, Sr., then my mother, and now me. It’s a perfect size for a short-legged person and is where I take my pen and notebook to brainstorm when I’m in need of new ideas.

My mom made the small quilted piece over the top, my son Allan the pillow on the left, and a good friend the pillow on the right.

And that brings us to the giveaway! I have a stack of advance copies of Murder in a Cape Cottage, Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery #4, and I need them in the hands of readers, not on the seat of my rocker.

Readers: Where do you find inspiration or comfort? Any questions about what you’ve seen? I’ll give away three ARCs of the September book.

A Wicked Welcome to Faye Snowden! **plus a giveaway**

by Julie, preparing for hot weather today in Somerville

Today I’m delighted to welcome Faye Snowden to the blog. Faye is a talented author, and part of our genre hopping series. She is also the current secretary for the national board of Sisters in Crime, a huge job at which she excels. She’s also a terrific person. Welcome to the blog, Faye!

Writing Advice | Five ways your book is not your babyBy Faye Snowden

My new book, A Killing Rain (Flame Tree Press), the second book in my Killing series will be released next week on June 21, 2022. The tale stars Byrd’s Landing, Louisiana homicide detective Raven Burns who must capture a serial killer to save her nephew. Raven is a strong, brilliant, but utterly flawed protagonist made that way by her father— notorious serial killer Floyd Burns who rides shotgun uninvited in Raven’s head. It’s not only his voice from the grave that she can’t escape. She’s being pursued by two men—one who wants to lock her away forever for a crime she felt she had no choice but to commit, and another who claims he wants to redeem her soul.

While promoting the book, I was asked about writing advice for new writers. Now, I wrote Rain during the pandemic at a time when I could barely think straight. I poured everything I had into it, and along the way missed a couple of deadlines, something that’s never happened to me before. It was one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life.

Even so, my answer was ready. I said that I would tell new writers, “No matter how much soul you pour into your book, or how difficult it is for you to write it, it’s not your baby.” Thinking of your book as a tiny, helpless creature as I know some authors tend to do will only bring on unnecessary angst when starting the next book. It serves no useful purpose. To help illustrate this point, I’ve listed 5 fun ways your book is not your baby. The list features a real live human baby also known as the #1 grandkid.

You’ll never refer to your baby as the Shitty First Draft (SFD)

We all have to start somewhere. For me, it’s creating what Anne Lamott calls the SFD. To prepare for Rain’s SFD, I made an intimate acquaintance with my villain by performing a character study. Lamott has some great advice in Bird by Bird (1994) on how to do this.

Next, using Jess Lourey’s Book in a Bag technique, I sketched out 80 or so scenes on index cards, and threw them in a bowl I lifted from the kitchen. Each writing session, I pulled a card from the bowl and started writing. It was like getting a birthday present every day. When the bowl was empty, my SFD was complete. I was delighted. Still, not even close to being a baby.

Parents rarely obsess over ways they wish their baby was different

We can’t send an SFD to our editors. And Rain had plot holes big enough for an ocean liner. I knew that changes were a must. I started by placing the scenes in some semblance of order, and then rewriting each one. Here are some of the questions I used to guide me during the scene rewrites: 1) Did the scene fulfill its purpose?, 2) Was it vivid enough with sensory detail that mattered to character or plot?, and 3) How would the book change if I removed it? Once this was done, the book was better, but still, I knew I didn’t have a baby on my hands.

You won’t neglect your baby for at least two weeks so it can ‘rest’

After rewriting and ordering the scenes, I took two more passes. The first pass was a  developmental edit by me and my writing partner. The second was a read for consistent tone and style, and to identify grammar mistakes. I made the changes before stuffing the entire thing in a drawer to ‘let it rest’. For me, stepping away creates needed distance for an effective final edit before it goes off to my editor. I’d never stuff the #1 grandkid in a drawer to let him rest. 

You won’t keep asking strangers if they like your baby

Reentering the publishing world after raising my sons was not easy for me. I sent out query after query only to be rejected— about 150 of them before I found my agent. Finding a publisher required similar tenacity from my agent.  Would you subject your baby to all of those rejections?!?

Good parents won’t forget about their baby and move on

I strive to write the best book I can, but once it’s done, I move on. I don’t obsess over small mistakes that my editor and I may have missed, or reread for nostalgia’s sake. And I’m no longer particularly interested in how it grew from that SFD into the finished product unless I’m asked about it during interviews. Does a negative review sting? Sure it does.  Will positive ones bring validation? You bet. But I try my best not to dwell on a book that’s already been written unless I’m about to write its sequel.  We don’t do that to our babies.

While I do recognize the courage and effort it takes to put work out there, I believe that thinking about your books in an objective light will relieve unnecessary pressure and doubt. And writers need all the help they can get creating and publishing in an intentional and joyful way. But tell me, do you think it’s healthier to view your book as a product?

Faye will give away a copy of A Killing Fire and A Killing Rain to one commenter!

About the book:

Dark, Southern gothic tale of homicide detective Raven Burns, with a complicated past and a desperate case to solve. Black Girls Lit recommends the first book, A Killing Fire “to crime fiction and mystery lovers and fans of Ruth Ware and Gillian Flynn.”

After former homicide Raven Burns returns to Byrd’s Landing, Louisiana to begin a new life, she soon finds herself trapped by the old one when her nephew is kidnapped by a ruthless serial killer, and her foster brother becomes the main suspect. To make matters worse, she is being pursued by two men— one who wants to redeem her soul for the murder Raven felt she had no choice but to commit, and another who wants to lock her away forever.

Learn more here.

Bio:

Faye Snowden is the author of noir mysteries, poems and short stories. Her novels include Spiral of Guilt, The Savior, Fatal Justice, and A Killing Fire, a dark, southern gothic tale featuring homicide detective Raven Burns. A Killing Fire is first in a four-part series. The sequel, A Killing Rain, will be released in June, 2022.

Faye has a master’s in English Literature. She has been awarded writing fellowships from Djerassi and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her short story “One Bullet. One Vote was included in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021 edited by Steph Cha and Alafair Burke. She is a member of Crime Writers of Color (CWOC), Mystery Writers of America (MWA), and Sisters in Crime (SinC) where she serves as Board Secretary for SinC National. She has participated in many writing panels, appeared as a guest lecturer in several university writing classes, and taught information technology courses at the university level. Today, Faye works and writes from her home in Northern California. Learn more about Faye at www.fayesnowden.com .

A Wicked Welcome to Sandra SG Wong! **plus a giveaway**

by Julie, summering in Somerville

I was fortunate to work with Sandra when she was the national president of Sisters in Crime, and between weekly meetings and committees we became friends. I’ve been hearing about In the Dark We Forget for a while, and I’m so glad to celebrate its upcoming release in both the U.S. and Canada as part of our genre hopping series.

Thanks so much for hosting me again, Julie! I’m so thrilled to be welcomed back among The Wickeds.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only writer to have ideas spark while traveling—whole scenes and scenarios even, springing forth into one’s imagination while on holiday somewhere. But what happens when you’re on a romantic anniversary trip, just you and your devoted spouse, and the dark scenarios just keep coming..?

If you’re me, you are blessed to be married to an exceptional person who truly understands you, so you go with it. You even share your strange new ideas, the ones flickering at the edges of your imagination, teasing you with their morbid potential.

For example, you’re having a scrumptious dinner one evening, in the only restaurant in a tiny hamlet in the Canadian Rockies. The restaurant is named Truffle Pigs. It is May 2018. You treat yourself to a slice of house-made strawberry rhubarb pie. When it comes, you’re delighted that it’s exactly the perfect temperature. As you cut into the flaky, golden-brown crust, you suddenly remember that flash of inspiration from the day before, the one that hit when you drove around a bend in the highway. To one side was a flattish space of weedy grasses, stretching to a line of trees at the foot of a mountain. You remember thinking, What would it be like to just wake up there, and not know how you got there? What would you do next? How would you feel?

Your spouse, of course, ever attentive, asks if you’re thinking of that idea you had. They want to know more. So you start talking. Next thing you know, only a few crumbs remain on the plate, your Earl Grey is sadly tepid, but you’ve got the biggest, silliest grin on your face. Your spouse, decades-married to a writer now, encourages you to keep at it. During the rest of the 5-day trip, they catch you any number of times daydreaming about that idea. Every single time, they ask you to share more. Your spouse is deeply, deeply wonderful, by the way.

And when you get home, you start noodling in earnest. You’ve never written a contemporary suspense novel before. But you have published 3 novels so far and a handful of short stories. You have a general idea how to approach this, at least.

Nine months later, you share draft #3 with your spouse, who is always your first reader, and with a trusted writer friend. They both give you extremely honest feedback. Fifteen months later, you sign with a literary agent. Two-ish years later, you sign the publishing contract. Four years later, your book is released.

And so here we are.

I had such fun writing this book. Which sounds weird since it’s dark and heartbreaking in parts. But I think there’s always place for joy when we write. At least, that’s what I strive for.

I’m excited to do a giveaway of the Canadian print edition of In The Dark We Forget today for Wickeds readers. (You can catch my unboxing video here to see how one looks.)

Just answer this question in the comments to be included in the random draw: What’s the weirdest place/time you suddenly found inspiration for a creative endeavour?

Open to US and Canada. Comment by midnight ET today to enter.

In The Dark We Forget releases June 21st. More details, and pre-ordering, available here.

Here’s the Bookshop link if you’d like to support local indie booksellers through Bookshop.org.

Bio:

Sandra SG Wong (she/her) writes fiction across genres and is a multiple crime fiction awards nominee. A speaker, mentor, and hybrid (indie/trad) author, Sandra is Immediate Past President of Sisters in Crime and a proud member of Crime Writers of Color. Connect with her: Twitter @S_G_Wong, Instagram @sgwong8, and sgwong.com.

June Bugs: Good Luck

The June bug looks a lot like an Egyptian scarab, which symbolized good luck and rebirth. Wickeds, do your characters have a good luck talisman? How about you?

Edith/Maddie: What a great question, Julie. We should know our characters’ talisman’s, right? I can’t think of any for my current protags. But as I am RIGHT NOW starting a new series and understanding Cece Barton’s background and motivations, you can bet she’s going to have a good luck something-or-other. I brought home a little Good Luck in Driving charm from Japan forty-five years ago. It kept me safe for a long time, until I think it got traded in along with my previous car in 2009. Yesterday I made a body shop appointment to fix damage caused – at very slow speed – by a car backing into mine while I was parked and in it. (Yeah, buddy – use your eyeballs as well as the the backup camera!) I definitely need a new safety-in-the car talisman.

Barb: I would swear to you that I don’t have any good luck charms, because I don’t think of stuff that way, but the truth is I have hundreds of “comfort objects” around this house–small things and artwork from my late parents’ and grandparents’ houses, things I’ve picked up in my travels, gifts from family and friends, etc. Similarly, Julia runs the clambake from her late father’s office. She derives great comfort, confidence, and strength from sitting at his desk, looking at the paintings of ships on the walls and the old-fashioned metal file cabinets. The whole room is her good luck charm.

Jessie: Like Barb, I don’t have any objects that I associate with luck, at least not in an overarching way. I think I may be a bit superstitious about things that I know work in various situations. I have favorite items for specific tasks, like certain pens that I use for particular activities and an exact sort of notebook in which I start all of my novels. My characters don’t have talismans either. My sleuth Beryl believes she makes her own luck and Edwina is far too sensible to credit luck at all. WPC Billie Harkness is the daughter of a rector and was raised to put faith in religion rather than luck. She tends to be a “trust in God, but tie up your camel” sort of woman.

Sherry: I am so superstitious, but I usually hide it. My husband gave me a necklace two months after our daughter was born. I wear it a lot and while it’s utterly ridiculous, I feel less stressed when I have it on. I lost it once briefly when the chain broke. I was so upset. Fortunately, my daughter found it between the seats of our car. Whew.

Julie: Edith, you definitely need to find a new talisman. So glad it was a slow speed accident, but yeesh. Barb, like you I have dozens of things around my house from people I love, or passed down to people I loved who passed them down to me. I also wear a ring my parents gave me for a birthday that means the world to me. For the Garden Squad, Lilly has sculptures in her garden that remind her of her late husband, parents and others.

Readers, do you have an object that brings you good luck?

Guest Ellen Byron plus #giveaway

Edith/Maddie from north of Boston in the middle of June, happily writing and gardening her brains out.

And also super happy to present my dear friend, the talented and hilarious Agatha-Award-WINNING Ellen Byron with Bayou Book Thief, her brand-new first book in the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries. I can’t wait to dive into this series! One lucky commenter will win a copy of the book.

Here’s the blurb:

Twenty-eight-year-old widow Ricki James leaves Los Angeles to start a new life in her birthplace of New Orleans after her showboating actor husband perishes doing a stupid internet stunt. Ricki’s career dream comes true when she joins the quirky staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, the spectacular former Garden District home of late bon vivant Genevieve “Vee” Charbonnet. Ricki is excited about turning her avocation – collecting vintage cookbooks – into a vocation by launching the museum’s gift shop, Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware. Then she discovers that a trunk of donated vintage cookbooks doesn’t contain books – it holds the body of a cantankerous Bon Vee employee who was fired after being exposed as a book thief.

The skills Ricky has developed ferreting out hidden vintage treasures come in handy for investigations. But both her business and Bon Vee could wind up as deadstock when Ricki’s past as curator of a billionaire’s first edition collection comes back to haunt her. Will Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware be a success… or a recipe for disaster?

Let Me Entertain You

Contrary to my ubiquitous presence on social media, I’m not comfortable tooting my own horn. Yet with so much of book promotion falling on the author’s shoulders these days, toot I must. To counteract my discomfort, I figured out a way to go all in with my promotional efforts by calling them exactly what they are: shameless shilling.

The idea to go with blatant honesty came to me when I was trying to figure out how to engage readers in the pre-order campaign for A Cajun Christmas Killing, my third Cajun Country Mystery. After joking I was one step away from wearing a sandwich board to herald the book’s release, an image appeared to me.

And thus my Shameless Shilling Campaigns were born.

The goal with each (relentless) marketing campaign is to entertain rather than annoy. I figured the best way to accomplish this is to let my potential readers in on the joke. Given my background in comedy, I have very few boundaries and even less shame. The upside of this is I have no problem making myself the foil of the campaigns, like when I turned a photo from a past New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival into a Shameless Shill. I even gave myself a tiara in this one…

No one is safe from my efforts, as my husband found out when I asked-told him I’d love to use a wedding photo from our 1994 New York wedding reception as part of the campaign for Here Comes the Body, the first book in my Catering Hall Mysteries, which I write under the pen name “Maria DiRico.” How could he say no when the series is literally set at the venue where the reception was held? (Spoiler alert: he couldn’t.)

My daughter’s Halloween costumes – with her permission, of course – offered wonderfully punny possibilities for the Murder in the Bayou Boneyard campaign.

I faced a dilemma when I had to promote a second Christmas-themed mystery, this one for the Catering Hall series. I couldn’t repeat myself… Or could I???

Sometimes the themes come easily, but sometimes they don’t. With the campaign for Bayou Book Thief, I suddenly had my first case of shameless shilling-block. I struggled to find a catchy angle that would both amuse and intrigue readers. In an act of desperation, I turned to my Bitmoji app – which rewarded me with so many cheesy kitchen-related avatars I was able to create six graphics instead of my usual four. Here’s one of them:

I hope readers get as much of a kick from following my campaigns as I get from creating them. If not, well… I don’t have another release until 2023, so enjoy the break!

Readers, what kind of author promotion works best for you?

I’ll send one lucky commenter a copy of the new book!

Ellen’s Cajun Country Mysteries have won multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and multiple Lefty Awards for Best Humorous Mystery. Bayou Book Thief will be the first book in her new Vintage Cookbook Mysteries. She also writes the Catering Hall Mystery series under the name Maria DiRico. 

Ellen is an award-winning playwright, and non-award-winning TV writer of comedies like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents. She has written over two hundred articles for national magazines but considers her most impressive credit working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart. She blogs with Chicks on the Case, is a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of America, serves on the national board for Mystery Writers of America, and will be the 2023 Left Coast Crime Toastmaster. Please visit her at https://www.ellenbyron.com/.

PURCHASE LINK: Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron: 9780593437612 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Guest Ellen Byron

Edith/Maddie from north of Boston in the middle of June, happily writing and gardening her brains out.

And also super happy to present my dear friend, the talented and hilarious Agatha-Award-WINNING Ellen Byron with Bayou Book Thief, her brand-new first book in the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries. I can’t wait to dive into this series!

Here’s the blurb:

Twenty-eight-year-old widow Ricki James leaves Los Angeles to start a new life in her birthplace of New Orleans after her showboating actor husband perishes doing a stupid internet stunt. Ricki’s career dream comes true when she joins the quirky staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, the spectacular former Garden District home of late bon vivant Genevieve “Vee” Charbonnet. Ricki is excited about turning her avocation – collecting vintage cookbooks – into a vocation by launching the museum’s gift shop, Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware. Then she discovers that a trunk of donated vintage cookbooks doesn’t contain books – it holds the body of a cantankerous Bon Vee employee who was fired after being exposed as a book thief.

The skills Ricky has developed ferreting out hidden vintage treasures come in handy for investigations. But both her business and Bon Vee could wind up as deadstock when Ricki’s past as curator of a billionaire’s first edition collection comes back to haunt her. Will Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware be a success… or a recipe for disaster?

Let Me Entertain You

Contrary to my ubiquitous presence on social media, I’m not comfortable tooting my own horn. Yet with so much of book promotion falling on the author’s shoulders these days, toot I must. To counteract my discomfort, I figured out a way to go all in with my promotional efforts by calling them exactly what they are: shameless shilling.

The idea to go with blatant honesty came to me when I was trying to figure out how to engage readers in the pre-order campaign for A Cajun Christmas Killing, my third Cajun Country Mystery. After joking I was one step away from wearing a sandwich board to herald the book’s release, an image appeared to me.

And thus my Shameless Shilling Campaigns were born.

The goal with each (relentless) marketing campaign is to entertain rather than annoy. I figured the best way to accomplish this is to let my potential readers in on the joke. Given my background in comedy, I have very few boundaries and even less shame. The upside of this is I have no problem making myself the foil of the campaigns, like when I turned a photo from a past New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival into a Shameless Shill. I even gave myself a tiara in this one…

No one is safe from my efforts, as my husband found out when I asked-told him I’d love to use a wedding photo from our 1994 New York wedding reception as part of the campaign for Here Comes the Body, the first book in my Catering Hall Mysteries, which I write under the pen name “Maria DiRico.” How could he say no when the series is literally set at the venue where the reception was held? (Spoiler alert: he couldn’t.)

My daughter’s Halloween costumes – with her permission, of course – offered wonderfully punny possibilities for the Murder in the Bayou Boneyard campaign.

I faced a dilemma when I had to promote a second Christmas-themed mystery, this one for the Catering Hall series. I couldn’t repeat myself… Or could I???

Sometimes the themes come easily, but sometimes they don’t. With the campaign for Bayou Book Thief, I suddenly had my first case of shameless shilling-block. I struggled to find a catchy angle that would both amuse and intrigue readers. In an act of desperation, I turned to my Bitmoji app – which rewarded me with so many cheesy kitchen-related avatars I was able to create six graphics instead of my usual four. Here’s one of them:

I hope readers get as much of a kick from following my campaigns as I get from creating them. If not, well… I don’t have another release until 2023, so enjoy the break!

Readers, what kind of author promotion works best for you?

Ellen’s Cajun Country Mysteries have won multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and multiple Lefty Awards for Best Humorous Mystery. Bayou Book Thief will be the first book in her new Vintage Cookbook Mysteries. She also writes the Catering Hall Mystery series under the name Maria DiRico. 

Ellen is an award-winning playwright, and non-award-winning TV writer of comedies like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents. She has written over two hundred articles for national magazines but considers her most impressive credit working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart. She blogs with Chicks on the Case, is a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of America, serves on the national board for Mystery Writers of America, and will be the 2023 Left Coast Crime Toastmaster. Please visit her at https://www.ellenbyron.com/.

PURCHASE LINK: Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron: 9780593437612 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Fete Accompli

Jessie: In New Hampshire, plucking away at the seventh Beryl and Edwina novel.

I am delighted to report that the annual assault by blackflies is at an end in my corner of the globe. An army of dragonflies has once again arrived and thoroughly vanquished the little beasts. This happy turn of events has made it possible for me to spend many happy hours in the garden with my dog, Sam, or with friends and family.

My sleuth, Edwina Davenport, loves her gardens as much as I do, and when I write scenes that place her in the midst of her plants I am put in mind of one of my favorite traditional mystery stalwarts, the village fete. This quintessentially English event is most often set on the lavish grounds of a local stately home. Complete with coconut shys, white elephant stalls, and tombolas, the fete is always held for a worthwhile cause, more often than not the church roof fund.

Everyone knows there is no real hope that sufficient funds will be raised no matter how many raffle tickets or home-baked goods are sold, but it matters not a whit. The revelers are actually there for the far more important tasks of discovering who has won the flower arranging competition or to off-load a murder weapon in the anonymity of the jumble table. More often than not, someone will be murdered in a quaint and clever way, one that frequently does not appear to be anything other than a tragic accident at first glance.

Considering that the village fete has made appearances in so many mysteries over the decades it was inevitable that I would turn my hand to one of my own a few years ago with Murder Flies the Coop. And even though I have already scratched that particular itch, every time I am out in my own garden I find myself wondering how I might justify doing it again before long. After all, the church roof must still be in dire need of repair!

Readers, which traditional mystery scenarios are amongst your favorites? Writers, have you ever used a similar situation more than once in your own work simply because you love it so much?

Sprouting Ideas by Sharon Dean

Hello, all. Please welcome author Sharon Dean to the blog. Sharon is visiting in support of her newest novel, Calderwood Cove, her third Deborah Strong mystery. And it’s set in one of my favorite places–Maine!

About the book

When Deborah Strong accepts an invitation for a reunion with high school friends who will all be turning fifty, she anticipates a lovely Fourth of July weekend in Maine. Her friend Brenda’s summer house is rustic and beautiful, but from the moment Deborah arrives, something seems wrong. Old rivalries flare between Brenda and Rachel, and Krista plays the role of peacekeeper the way she did thirty years earlier.

Soon, a murder disturbs the quiet of the summer homes that dot the isolated cove. Deborah’s suspicions follow her like the Maine landscape—plenty of sunshine, plenty of fog, and plenty of evening mosquitoes that, like the questions now plaguing their reunion, arrive like the sparks of fireworks. Where is Brenda’s husband? Where have her caretaker and cook gone? Who is the thin young man who keeps appearing? Is one of them a murderer? Or could it be the old woman who lives across the street; her son, who runs an oyster farm in the face of global warming; or the poet-tenant who lives in her apartment? Deborah even suspects each of the friends she grew up with. Her idyllic summer retreat has turned as deadly as contaminated shellfish.

Take it away, Sharon!

Springtime means flowers and vegetables sprouting in our gardens. It’s also a season when ideas often germinate for our writing. But ideas can sprout anywhere––in a coffee shop or bar with an overheard conversation, in a line at the grocery store where a tabloid heading catches our attention, in a library where the title of a novel or a line of poetry inspires a plot, in a park where a homeless man wearing a firefighter’s helmet talks to the trees.

Some writers start from plot, others from dialogue or character or setting. For most of us, these come together as we compose. But where does the novel begin? I used to tell students in my introduction to college writing classes that they could write the first paragraph last. “How can you know what you think until you see what you say?” was a mantra that circulated among writing instructors.

Now seven novels in, with two more in my publisher’s pipeline, I could amend that mantra. “How can I know where my characters are going until I know where my characters are.” I realize that I always begin with a sense of place––a campsite along Mississippi’s Natchez Trace, a porch on an island hotel that dates to the nineteenth century or a porch on a New England farmhouse that had been on The Underground Railroad, a cemetery, a village library or one on a university campus.

These places all spring from my sense of nostalgia, but out of that sense springs a novel that has little to do with my past. I don’t write science fiction or historical fiction unless 1970 counts as history. I write what I know and the imagining gets embedded as my characters move through the places I know.

A writer I know cautioned against beginning with setting. It’s too static, he said. But opening scenes that begin with setting don’t have to be static. My characters emerge alone from a tent, talk on porches or in front of a gravestone, or are surprised by something at a library. The prologue to my first novel, Tour de Trace  invokes a mockingbird rising into the fog against the grass wet from an evening’s rain. The mockingbird and its surroundings are part of the setting. So, too, is the hawk that swoops down and kills. Setting, action, not a human character in sight.

Setting looms in the opening to my newest novel, Calderwood Cove––a chilly wind off the Atlantic, the smell of salt air, a hedge of perfectly deadheaded roses, a mailbox with the Calderwood crest painted on it, a red x and a visor with its helmet down making the crest look threatening.

“How can I know what I think until I see what I say?” Seeing what I’ve written in this blog, I’ve thought more about how writers use setting. They may foreground it or keep it in the background, but people exist in places, whether those places are real or imagined. Hemingway’s “Hill Like White Elephants,” a story that is constructed almost whole of dialogue, opens with a long paragraph that sets the scene in a train station with a bar behind a beaded curtain and a table where a couple sit in the only bit of shade. The parallel lines of the train tracks suggest what is to come––the couple’s parallel responses to their relationship and the woman’s pregnancy. Hemingway doesn’t have to tell us anything. The setting, as it were, sets us up.

I’ve written novels set in spring, in summer, in fall, in winter because all those seasons inspire me. I create where I lived for most of life even as I write from the West that I’m learning to call home. Whatever the season, whatever the place, setting is the seed that sprouts into my ideas.

Readers: Do you have a preference for a particular season or a particular place? How much do you like setting in what you read or want to use it in what you write?

About SharonSharon 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.

Let’s Talk About Books

by Julie, enjoying the warmer weather in Somerville

This week a friend asked if I’d heard about a a trend on TikTok called Read Return Challenge. I hadn’t, so I looked into it. Apparently there’s a trend encouraging people to buy a book or audiobook, read or listen to it, and then return it for a refund. I know that I don’t have to explain to readers of this blog why that is problematic. When a book or audiobook is returned to Amazon, Amazon doesn’t take the financial hit. Authors do. Sure, Amazon loses their portion of the sale, but they make enough money to offset the loss. For indie bookstores, the return of a sale has a bigger effect. They operate on slim margins, and returns add up.

But this is about more than money. It’s the spirit of the thing. Not liking something creative–whether it is a book, a meal, a play, music, or a movie–does not mean you can return it. When you experience something creative, you are taking a “risk”. A risk that it may not be to your liking. A risk that you may not enjoy it right away. A risk that you may have a visceral reaction and truly loathe the experience. We are living in a thumbs up/thumbs down world, and creative endeavors require a more nuanced conversation. Having feelings about your experience is part of that conversation, and helps you develop critical skills.

I suspect that the creators of the Read Return Challenge weren’t being critics of the work. They were gaming the system. On the backs of writers. Not cool.

Which brings me to other thoughts about the book business. There are many ways people can get and read books. One is, of course, the library. Authors love libraries. Requesting your local librarian purchase a book or series you’re interested in shows support for the author. Budgets for libraries are being cut, so showing support for your local library is crucial. That means getting a card, using it, and advocating for the library with your local government.

Not every library has the wherewithal to purchase indie books. Programs like Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited are a subscription service that pays authors, but also allows the reader to enjoy an unlimited number of books every month. There are traditionally published books in the program, but there are also a lot of indie authors.

Another way to access books, if you’re a reviewer, is NetGalley. NetGalley is how many Goodreads reviewers, for example, get books early and share their thoughts. Word of mouth is still the best form of advertising, so this is important. Blatant Self Promotion time: The Plot Thickets, Garden Squad #5, is up on NetGalley.

Many publishers do giveaways as part of book promotions. Goodreads is one place where you can find them. Publishers will also announce them (follow them on social media), as will authors.

BookBub is another book source readers should know about. There aren’t free books on the site, but there are book deals. Signing up is free.

If you want to support indie bookshops, but there isn’t one in your area, Bookshop.org is a great resource. I’ve curated reading lists on Bookshop.org for Sisters in Crime, which is another great way to use the site.

Barnes & Noble is also an important part of the book ecosystem, as are other online retailers.

If you have a local library you love, and would like to support, Sisters in Crime has a “We Love Libraries” $500 grant that is given out six times a year. Pass this link to your local librarian.

If you have a local independent bookstore you love, Sisters in Crime also has a “We Love Bookstores” $500 grant that is given out six times a year. Pass this link to your bookstore.

Thank you, dear readers, for supporting this blog, and for supporting the authors who visit us. And for those of you who review books, THANK YOU!

What’s your favorite way of accessing/reading books? Me, I’m a combo Kindle/Audiobook/Bookstore/Library reader. And conferences–I have yet to come back from a conference without a bunch of books and a long reading list.

June Bugs: Pet Peeves

This week, using June bugs as a prompt, let’s talk about what bugs our characters. How do these bugs inform your characters? Do you share any of the bugs?

Jessie: I love the graphic you created for this month, Julie! My sleuth, Beryl Helliwell, dislikes naysayers and conversations about why things aren’t possible. I am not a fan of those either. In my real life, probably my most glaring pet peeve is about drinking vessels. I cannot stand plastic cups and I really prefer that the vessel is suited for the contents. I want my champagne in a flute, my espresso in a demi-tasse, and my tea in a mug to hold the heat.

Edith/Maddie: I’m with you on appropriate drinking containers, Jessie. Mac is borderline obsessed with keeping things neat and tidy. Messes bug her, whether in the kitchen or in her life. I don’t share that completely, but I do like a nice clean kitchen counter (free of toast crumbs, which really bugs me…), polished with a dishtowel. Robbie gets bugged in her restaurant when customers don’t say please or thank you. She’s not their mom, but a little common courtesy goes a long way. Amen, Robbie!

Sherry: I have to agree with Jessie about not drinking out of plastic! However, I prefer a coupe glass to a flute. There are always arguments about which is better and frankly if someone is offering me bubbles, I’ll drink it. Hmmmm, I’ve never really thought about what bugs Chloe — probably people who can’t hold their liquor.

Julie: What bugs me? Talking loudly in the theater, cell phones in the movie theater, people who take up more than one seat on the subway, people who are rude (especially to any sort of staff). What bugs my characters? Lilly Jayne tolerates much less than I do. Anything that doesn’t work the way she thinks it should bugs her. The good thing about Lilly is that she’s willing to do the work to make changes. She is not faint of heart.

Barb: What bugs me you ask? People with the emotional intelligence of five-year-olds and the critical thinking skills of the lower forms of mammals loudly proclaiming their whiny resentments and petty grudges as if the were some kind of badge of honor. Harrumph. (I have to say I get a strange, tingly pleasure from drinking from a vessel that is plainly wrong, like fine wine from a jelly jar or coffee from a cardboard cup decorated for Christmas in the middle of July. I think this is because this has happened in my life in moments that were spontaneous and improvised and therefore loads of fun. It doesn’t work if you do it on purpose. Or maybe it does. I will try it.) As for my characters, Jane Darrowfield prefers people who are honest and direct, but has been around long enough to understand why some people can’t be. Julia Snowden hates it when people insist on doing things the way they’ve always been done, for no other reason than they’ve always been done that way.

Readers, do you like it when bugs work their way into characters?