Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 89

Wicked Wednesday – International Literacy Day

Today is International Literacy Day. According to UNESCO, there are “at least 773 million young people and adults lacking basic literacy skills today.” So Wickeds, have you ever had the opportunity to work/volunteer to help individuals learn to read and/or write? Have any of your characters?

Edith/Maddie: No, but I think one of my characters should get involved in literacy. I did teach Japanese businessmen conversational English for two years in Tokyo and surrounding cities, but that’s different. My ex-husband has spent years developing maternal-language reading materials for illiterate adults all over West Africa, so they can learn to read and write in their own language, not that of the former colonial power (French). It’s very good and needed work.

Jessie: Great topic, Liz! I have had the opportunity to teach each of my kids to read and also to support two family members in learning to read in English as a second language. I also volunteered for many years in my kids’ eklementary school and spent much of that time sitting with beginning readers and help to coach them through the process of becoming more capable and confident.

Sherry: I haven’t done anything formal, but love giving books as presents starting with baby showers and continuing on. I just gave the other man in my life (my six-year-old neighbor) a stack of my daughter’s old books over the weekend. Chloe Jackson from the Sea Glass Saloon mysteries is a former children’s librarian so she is all about literacy. Also the Wickeds have routinely put together baskets to be auctioned at Malice Domestic which raises money for local literacy programs.

Barb: I am semi-embarrassed to admit that when I was a sophomore in high school, filled with the spirit of the Great Society, I volunteered to tutor at our local Y. I don’t know what I thought I was doing. I’m pretty sure it was my idea, not something suggested by my parents or a teacher. I had no experience and no training. The boy assigned to me was only a few years younger. His father had died relatively recently and his grades had tumbled. His semi-desperate mother probably hoped for a male tutor, though she had also signed him up for Big Brothers. Anyway, for a school year, once a week, I walked the mile and a half from school to the Y to work with him. I remember sitting in the little room assigned to us but have no recollection of what we did there. He was a good kid, and we laughed a lot. Eight years later I was at my wedding when I heard someone call my name. It was my former tutee, working on the waitstaff. He seemed happy and healthy and was in community college. I’m certain I had nothing to do with this, but it was sure nice to know he was doing well and remembered our time together fondly.

Liz: I love that, Barb! I’ve never tutored but I am a big book pusher – I am famous for telling people about books I’ve loved and, if they’re in close proximity to me, pushing said books onto them!

Julie: Such important work! I’m very happy to celebrate those that work in literacy in so many ways.

Readers, what about you? To whom have you spread the gift of literacy? Leave a comment below.

Welcome Back, Devon Delaney and a #giveaway

Welcome back to the blog, Devon Delaney, who’s just released Double Chocolate Cookie Murder, the fifth book in her Cook-Off Mystery Series. Devon is giving away a copy of her new book to one lucky commenter below.

Here’s the blurb

Sherry Oliveri is used to competing in cook-offs, but this time she’s serving as a judge. The upside is that she gets to taste all the contestants’ cookies. The downside is that one of the bakers will wind up dead . . .
 
It’s the long Thanksgiving weekend, and between cooking for her family and working her dad’s store for Black Friday, Sherry has a full plate. Next, she has to judge the big cookie contest—and among the many entrants is her old high school home ec teacher, Mr. Currier.
 
For old time’s sake, Sherry invites him over for dinner, although sadly, the reunion will be short-lived. The next day, the prizes at the bake-off go missing—and later turn up at the marina, along with her ex-teacher’s body. Now Sherry has to find out who would do such a thing . . .
 
Includes Recipes from Sherry’s Kitchen!

One of the things we love about Devon’s books is that she really lives in the world in which her stories are set. She’s a real-life competitive cook.

Take it away, Devon!

Next month I’m competing in the National Mushroom Cook-off held at the mushroom capital of the United States, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. This month the sixth book in my cooking competition murder mystery series was released. I’m not anticipating a murder at the cook-off, but I am looking forward to collecting more fodder for my series. As a finalist I’m privy to behind-the-scenes situations the audience my never be aware of. It’s up to me to choose whether any organizational snafu or competitor tension may be the foundation for my next mystery plot.  

I’d tell you the title and ingredients of the recipe I’m competing with but because of pre-contest confidentiality agreements, well, you know I’d have to kill you. Just kidding. I’m willing to divulge my recipe to anyone who asks. I like to think I’ve created a recipe unlike others and one that got the judges attention for all the right reasons. If someone wants to abscond with my secret formula for a possible winning mushroom recipe then so be it. That scenario has played out in the cooking contest world. One cook may have made their recipe too well known before the contest entry date and voila an identical recipe showed up in the contest. Hard to know which recipe was conceived first but the problem was one of the cooks involved was very prolific in cook-off winning circles. A David and Goliath situation. It’s easy to understand how years of competing broadened my imagination, somewhat darkly on occasion.

Back to my mushroom cook-off. The contest has one terribly important constraint. The rules specify, five ingredients or less. The only free ingredients are salt, pepper and water. AND! The recipe must be prepared in thirty minutes or less. Thank you, COVID. I attribute these handcuffing constraints to you. The contest officials don’t want too many people hanging around bunched up together for too long. The good news is I love tight constraints in contests. I love mushrooms. I was the grand prize winner four years ago, so I am wise to the ways of the mushroom cook-off.

Having just written this last paragraph my mind immediately races to, wouldn’t I make a fine victim should someone want to eliminate the person perceived as the stiffest competition. Yes, should I mysteriously disappear, I’d be replaced by a reserve, that is quite common. Well, wish me luck. I’m going in with an open mind to cook relaxed while noting any unusual behavior by the cooks next to me. Hope I can stay focused on the tasks at hand. The competition is stiff. Defending my past title could take more than just a great recipe, if you know what I mean.

Readers: Does the world of competitive cooking appeal to you? Do you watch any cooking shows on TV? Answer the question in the comments or just say “hi” to be entered to win a copy of Double Chocolate Cookie Murder!

Devon Delaney

Guest Traci Wilton – The Writing Dream Team

Liz here, happy to welcome guests Traci Hall and Patrice Wilton— the writing dream team who writes the Salem B&B Mysteries under the name Traci Wilton. They are here today to talk about their collaboration, their books, and most importantly, their friendship. Take it away, ladies!

We are so glad to hang out with you all today!

I met Patrice eighteen years ago through the RWA community. We were both unpublished with BIG dreams, and we were willing to do whatever it took to reach our goals. Patrice was focused on romance while my Gemini self enjoyed telling stories about everything. Why not? (There is a valid reason for that focus, but that is not the point of this post!)

Fast forward to a Florida Romance Writers cruise four years ago. We’d decided to see if we could write together, since we’d been critique partners forever. We had similar styles, we were both determined and disciplined. We had our eye on the prize—a contract with a publishing house in New York. We’d met with our soon-to-be agent on that cruise to pitch a romance that we’d completed in months without many hiccups. That was the beginning of our co-writing journey. 

Our golden rule was to never forget that our friendship came first. That makes it easy to compromise or find another solution. We are each strong writers and we learned how to blend our voices into a unique one for the Salem B and B series. Book 5 was just released last week, Mrs. Morris and the Vampire. Book 6 will be out next year. I’m a plotter, which helps with structure, and Patrice has a sense of whimsy and writes from the heart. It works for us. We like it so much that we also write an indie series, the Riley Harper mysteries, that takes place on a fictional island in Maine. 

Thank you so much for having us on the blog today! And readers, we’d love to know if there is someone in your life who makes you more than who you are—tell us all about them please! It can be your grandma or your pet fish, we want to know! Our favorite will get a signed copy of Mrs. Morris and the Vampire. One for you, and one for your bestie ! We will choose a winner September 7th from the comments.

Guest Angela Sanders: Everyday Magic

By Liz, happy to welcome another magical cozy writer to the blog today! Angela Sanders writes the Witch Way Librarian series, which I was immediately attracted to because of my Full Moon Mysteries. And how funny – we share some magical character names in both our series! I have a Fiona and a Josie in my witchy books too Take it away, Angela!

You know how when you buy a green sedan (for example) you suddenly see green sedans everywhere? Or how when you adopt a shaggy dog with spots, shaggy spotted mutts trot past you all the time? 

Ever since I started writing the Witch Way Librarian series, that’s how it’s been with me and magic. Some days, I practically feel like a witch myself.

As I plotted Bait and Witch and Seven-Year Witch—the series’ first two books—I got in touch with an old friend, Pomegranate Doyle, an established witch in town. I didn’t intend for my protagonist Josie to be a typical Wiccan, but I wanted to get a handle on witchcraft’s basics so I could bend them to suit an inquisitive, slyly observant librarian who discovers that books talk to her.

Pomegranate was a wealth of information about curses, land spirits, ancestral guidance, and more. She told me, “Magic is subtle, but it’s everywhere. The more you look for it, the more you’ll see it.” Magic can be as mundane as thinking about your cousin right before she calls, or having a cookbook fall open to the recipe you need. It can be your sudden urge to vary your daily walk, then finding the perfect color to paint your house, the color you’ve been searching for all summer. It can be as profound as feeling sad and bewildered, then turning on the radio to a story that puts it all into perspective.

I’ve had a few magical experiences recently. My car was stolen, recovered, and towed to my mechanic (this is NOT the magical part of the story). As I dragged myself to the mechanic to check it out, I turned on my “walking” playlist, unconnected to data, to discover it had spontaneously added a new song: “What a Difference a Day Makes.” I took this as a hopeful message. 

Another story: My furnace takes unusual filters. I’ve called a dozen hardware stores, and no one carries them, so I have to order them online. Last fall as I realized cold days were coming and I’d better get on the filter situation pronto, I found a brand new furnace filter of the perfect size, still wrapped in plastic, on the sidewalk a few blocks from my house.

Reading this, some of you are undoubtedly muttering, “Furnace filters? Songs? Undoubtedly coincidence and cognitive bias.” Or even, “Plain old dumb luck.” I get it. I could see it this way, too. But for me the world is so much richer when I imagine mystery coursing through it, bringing solace and lessons. 

With this view of the world, magic is everywhere. It’s in your garden, sitting next to you on the bus, and, yes, on your bookshelf. If you choose to open yourself up to magic, it will find you. As Pomegranate said, all you have to do is look.

Have you had any magical experiences or synchronicities? Please comment! I love to hear about everyday magic.

Angela Sanders

Angela M. Sanders writes the Witch Way Librarian cozy mysteries and the Joanna Hayworth vintage clothing mysteries. When Angela isn’t at her laptop, she’s often rummaging in thrift shops, lounging with a vintage crime novel and her shelter cats Squeaky and Bitsy, or pontificating on how to make the perfect martini. Don’t miss her monthly newsletter! www.angelamsanders.com.

About Seven-Year Witch:

Finding your feet in a new job isn’t always easy. That goes double for Josie Way, who’s settling in as Wilfred, Oregon’s, new librarian–and has just discovered she’s a witch. But will her fledgling powers be enough to save her from a spell of murder?

While Josie develops her witchcraft with the help of letters left by her grandmother, there are other changes happening in her new hometown. A retreat center is being built at the old mill site, and rumor has it that the location is cursed. That piques Josie’s interest almost as much as Sam Wilfred, handsome FBI agent and descendent of the town’s founder…

When Sam’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Fiona, goes missing at the same time that a bloodied weapon is found, Josie enlists her witchy insight, and her cat familiar, to clear Sam’s name. But then the mill project’s architect is found dead, and it’s clear that someone has been drawing up a vicious plan. Now Josie will have to divine her way out of fatal mischief, before this deadly trouble turns double…

Reading and Writing and Writing and Reading

I turned in the copy edits for Three Shots to the Wind yesterday. (Look for a celebratory giveaway at the end of the post.) It’s always exciting and a bit nerve racking because I’m hoping I caught everything. I did find a big mistake that I’d thought I’d fixed before I sent the copy edits in. It had to do with the timing of the plot. Chloe goes to see someone and becomes one of the last people to see that person. Yet Deputy Biffle doesn’t show up to question her for thirty-three hours! Oof! That can’t happen.

I realized I either had to move scenes around which didn’t seem like it was going to work very well (I was afraid I was going to have one of those days that seemed endless) or come up with a really excellent reason why it takes Deputy Biffle so long to question Chloe about the missing person. So there I was tap, tap, tapping my hand on my desk while I went back and forth about what to do. Then I played a couple of games of spider solitaire which didn’t provide me with any insights.

Although, not long after that I realized I had come up with a solution. I opened a new document, cut and pasted a scene, and then rewrote most of it. Then I used the read aloud function and listened to the scene. It worked, probably even better than what I thought I did originally. Whew.

Here are some examples of what my copy editor does for those of you that haven’t ever seen copy edits before. I’m the Microsoft Office User– the copy editor is rlg.

Oops! I forgot to check the lists of characters from the last two books and reused the name Blake. Blake became Garth.

Above I was doing a little sentence smoothing and fixed something that didn’t work well with another scene.

Here is a sneak peek at the first couple of sentences in Three Shots to the Wind:

Today I went back to writing the fourth Chloe Jackson book. It’s still a mess, but I’m kind of in love with the story. I just hope it stays that way, but I’m sure I’m going to hit the despair “this is the worst thing I’ve ever written and everyone is going to hate it” phase of writing soon. It happens every single time.

Readers: To celebrate sending in Three Shots to the Wind, I’ll give away a copy of either From Beer to Eternity or A Time to Swill to someone who leaves a comment. Do you get to a “I hate this project” phase when you are creating things? Or just say hi!

Wicked Wednesday – World Letter Writing Day

Happy September, readers! To mix it up this month, I thought it would be fun to look at the national days that fall on Wednesdays. Some are serious, some are random, some are quirky – so let’s discuss!

Today is World Letter Writing Day. There have been incredible letters written in history. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is just one that had a deep impact. Writing a letter seems so much deeper in word and sentiment than an email or a text message, I think. So Wickeds, when was the last time you wrote or received a handwritten letter? Do your characters write letters? If so, to whom?

Edith/Maddie: First I want to congratulate Barb on yet another winning holiday novella publication! I can’t wait to read your contribution to this collection (frankly, yours is always the best of the three). I love writing letters, and have penned them this summer to my great-goddaughter (age 3), to my son’s girlfriend’s Puerto Rican parents, and to a cherished friend on the occasion of her husband’s death. My father and my uncle, brothers-in-law, kept up decades of correspondence that my uncle Richard recently passed back to me. It’s a such treasure.

Barb: I thought I was going to have to say that my last few handwritten letters have been messages of condolence. I have sadly reached the age where I own my own box of gray stationery notes. However, happily, I have remembered my last handwritten letter was to my granddaughter, Viola. I was mailing back a bathing suit she left at our beach rental and included a note marking her first week of school. I’ve been sending her handwritten notes regularly for years, and it’s a special joy these last few years when she’s been able to read them herself.

Sherry: I second, Edith’s congratulations on the release of Halloween Party Murder. I loved Barb’s story. I’ve received and written a lot of thank you letters this summer. It’s always so nice to get something in the mail, but I haven’t written an actual letter for the sake of writing a letter in a very long time! I don’t picture Sarah or Chloe being letter writers except for thank you cards.

Julie: Barb, thirding the congratulations! I am trying to get better about writing notes to people, and it’s working. I send out a couple of short notes a week. That said, my letter writing has moved online to emails. I know that’s not “good” but I find it easier to write long in that form.

Liz: Yes, fourthing the congrats, Barb! I usually send a handwritten note with prizes/giveaways when I send books to people. And I got a lovely handwritten note in the mail just this week from the amazing John Valeri, which made me so happy!

Readers, what about you? Do you send handwritten notes? What’s the last handwritten note you’ve sent out? Leave a comment below!

Halloween Party Murder Released–and a #giveaway

by Barb–how is tomorrow September 1st?

It’s release day for Halloween Party Murder–the latest holiday novella collection with stories by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis and me!

(If you follow along on these things and are wondering why Edith/Maddie’s Kensington book, No Grater Crime, was released last Tuesday and Halloween Party Murder was released this Tuesday– I have no idea.)

Here’s the description:

Small town traditions are celebrated throughout Maine during the holiday season. But when it comes to Halloween, some people are more than willing to reap a harvest of murder . . .

HALLOWEEN PARTY MURDER by LESLIE MEIER
Tinker’s Cove newest residents Ty and Heather Moon turn their Victorian home into a haunted house to raise funds for charity. But the Halloween fun turns to horrific fright when Heather overdoses on tainted drugs—and Ty finds himself accused of murder. Digging deep into the story, journalist Lucy Stone uncovers some sinister secrets in the Moons’ past linked to a conspiracy in her hometown . . .
 
DEATH OF A HALLOWEEN PARTY MONSTER by LEE HOLLIS
Everyone attending Island Times Food and Cocktail columnist Hayley Powell’s Halloween bash is dressed as their favorite movie monster from the Bride of Frankenstein and Jaws to Chucky and Pennywise the clown. But when partygoers stumble upon Boris Candy’s bludgeoned costumed corpse, it falls to Hayley to discover who among her guests wanted to stop the man from clowning around permanently . . .
 
SCARED OFF by BARBARA ROSS
Three teenage girls having a sleepover on Halloween night get spooked when high schoolers crash the house for a party. But no one expected to find a crasher like Mrs. Zelisko, the elderly third floor tenant, dead in the backyard—dressed in a sheet like a ghost. With her niece traumatized, Julia Snowden must uncover who among the uninvited guests was responsible for devising such a murderous trick . . .

Giveaway

To celebrate the release, I’m giving one lucky commenter below a complete set of the collections Maine Clambake novellas have appeared in to date.

And, if you want to join the Kensington Mystery and Thriller Launch Party on Facebook at 7:00 PM EDT tonight, August 31, there will be even more chances to win. Thirteen Kensington crime writers will be celebrating, including Maddie Day and Lee Hollis. There will be LOTS of giveaways and some great conversation.

The photo below is my granddaughter, Viola, and me making the pumpkin cookies using the recipe that is included in “Scared Off.” Viola did most of the mixing and all of the decorating. If you’re looking for the recipe, it will appear on the terrific blog Cinnamon and Sugar and a Little Bit of Murder on September 3rd.

I really enjoyed writing “Scared Off” for Halloween Party Murder and I truly hope you enjoy it.

Readers: Have you read any of the Kensington holiday novella collections? Would you like to? Comment below for a chance to win all four holiday novella collections that include a Maine Clambake Mystery story. Yule Log Murder, Haunted House Murder, and Halloween Party Murder will be hardcovers. Eggnog Murder is a trade paperback. Because the box will be heavy and therefore the postage expensive, this giveaway is restricted to U.S. residents only.

Welcome Guest Sandra Bretting #giveaway

Welcome, Sandra! I love the premise of Sandra’s new book The Safecracker’s Secret! Here’s a bit about the book:

A tragic death, an old-time safecracker, and his young protege. By the time Gene Jacks gets called into a murder investigation by the Houston P.D., it’s anyone’s guess who’s conning whom.

When police summon Jacks to the scene of a crime one steamy summer night, he knows the drill: he’ll be asked to crack a safe left behind by a drug dealer, Mob embezzler, or worse. He doesn’t expect to waltz into a murder investigation. Especially when police target his young protege as one of their chief suspects.Can Gene protect the girl, who’s become like a daughter to him, while there’s still time?

Look at the end of the post for a chance to win one of five ebook copies of The Safecracker’s Secret!

The Art and Science of Safecracking

During the ten years I spent writing feature stories for the Houston Chronicle, I came across many fascinating characters. One of my favorites was a safecracker who worked with the Houston Police Department to break into safes left behind by drug dealers, money launderers, and others.

Apparently, the HPD relies on old-time safecrackers when they don’t want the goods inside a safe damaged. (Otherwise, they simply “blast” the box open.) Or, they need it in a hurry and manual safecracking still is the fastest option.

Once I finished the feature story, I knew an awful lot about how to crack a safe. I also liked the idea of writing a story that revolved around an elderly safecracker and his young protégé.

I’ve tried to imbue The Safecracker’s Secret with insider knowledge about the industry. Such as…did you know safecrackers still hold competitions around the country where they compete to see who’s fastest? Or that Hollywood totally misses the mark when it comes to showing safecrackers on the big screen? The idea of someone placing an ear—or even a stethoscope—against the door to a safe is laughable, because too many layers of tempered steel muffle the clicks of a dial. Finally, did you know safecracking is all about math? No less than Richard Feynman, the eminent physicist, was obsessed with safecracking while he worked on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. He cracked into the file cabinets of his coworkers on the weekends and left them open until Monday morning so he could see the looks on people’s faces when they got back to work.

All of which is to say, I developed am honest fascination with safecracking while writing this book, and I hope it shines through the pages of The Safecracker’s Secret. I was sad to leave behind the main characters, Gene and Skye, at the end, because I enjoyed spending time with them.

Readers: Do you have a favorite movie safecracker, or maybe a literary spy who dabbles in this almost-lost art? Leave your answer here and I’ll conduct a random drawing for five free eBooks of The Safecracker’s Secret. Best of luck to you!

Author Bio:

 Sandra Bretting is the author of a bestselling cozy mystery series that ran for five years with Kensington Publishing, as well as several standalone titles. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, she began her career writing for the Los Angeles Times, Orange Coast Magazine, and others.  From 2006 until 2016, she wrote feature stories for the award-winning business section of the Houston Chronicle.

The Missy DuBois Mystery Series follows milliner and bona fide Southern belle Missy DuBois. Book six in the series debuted inJuly 2020. Bretting also wrote a Christian memoir, Shameless Persistence, which was featured on The 700 Club and Cornerstone Broadcasting Network. She invites readers to connect with her at http://www.sandrabretting.com.

Cover Reveal! And a Giveway

By Liz, trying to hold on to every last moment of summer

I was really struggling to find a super compelling topic for today’s blog. The bad news is, I couldn’t think of one. The good news, I didn’t need one because my new cover showed up in my inbox and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to give you all a sneak peek!

How much do you love this cover!! It is my favorite one so far. It’s got everything that I love – yoga, orange cats, gongs, a zen garden…and butterflies. Butterflies have been showing up a lot for me lately, and I thought it was totally a sign when I saw them all over the cover!

Now, I just need to finish the book…

Tell me in the comments what your favorite part of the cover is, and I’ll give away one copy of Claws For Alarm.

The Secret Staircase Release and #giveaway

Edith/Maddie here, writing from north of Boston and still basking in my 25th release week.

I’m even more delighted to share the week with our dear, late friend Sheila Connolly, whose last mystery, The Secret Staircase, also came out on Tuesday. I got an early read and loved the story. A lucky commenter will win a copy of the new book!

Kate Hamilton is feeling good about her plans to recreate Asheboro, Maryland as the Victorian village it once was. The town is finally on her side, and the finances are coming together.

Kate’s first goal is to renovate the Barton Mansion on the outskirts of town. Luckily, it’s been well maintained in the century since the wealthy Henry Barton lived and died there. The only substantial change she’s planning is to update the original kitchen so that it can be used to cater events in the building. But when the contractor gets started, he discovers a hidden staircase that had been walled in years earlier. And as Kate’s luck would have it, in the stairwell is a body.

After her initial shock wears off, Kate is relieved when the autopsy reveals that the man had died around 1880. Unfortunately, it also reveals that his was not a natural death—he was murdered. And serious questions remain: who was he and what was he doing there? Kate begins a hunt to identify the man and figure out what he was doing at the Barton Mansion. But when a second body is found—this time from the present day—Kate realizes that real dangers lie in digging up the past…

Sheila’s daughter Julie Williams did deep edits and revisions on Sheila’s manuscript, and I was thrilled that she agreed to be interviewed for this post.

Edith: You did such a good job of keeping Sheila’s voice in your extensive edits of The Secret Staircase, her last book. Had you written fiction before, or done other kinds of writing?

Julie: Thank you for saying so! I aimed to keep my mother’s unique voice intact, while making the changes requested to get the manuscript into its best possible shape for publication. Of course, it helped that I knew the author so well! To answer your question: I have always identified as a writer and a lover of language, though that has taken many different shapes and directions in my life.

I remember an elementary school teacher commenting to my parents that I had a good sense of the nuances of different words; when my mother reported this back to me, I had to ask, “What does ‘nuance’ mean?” In college, I read and wrote a lot of poetry, and while that has largely faded in the intervening years, I think it still influences my rhythms and word choices on a sentence level. I love novels and short stories, but my attempts to actually compose fiction of my own have been few and far between thus far. I find it hard to get projects started and to push through the uncertain parts, which makes me wonder sometimes if my real skill isn’t in editing, taking what’s almost ready and helping it to shine.

So, the task of working on The Secret Staircase was a unique treat, as well as a mountain to climb. I got to flex my creaky writing and editing muscles, while not having to make an entire novel from whole cloth. I learned a lot.

Edith: You have a lot of experience in the theater. How does that kind of creative work compare with crafting (or polishing) a written-word story?

Julie: To be honest, I have a bit of impostor syndrome when it comes to theater! I’m not very ambitious – I don’t have fancy headshots [Edith: Ahem, yes she does! See below], a graduate degree, or a long and varied list of credits – but luckily, Chicago (where I live) is populated with a wide variety of strange and serious small theater companies, doing their own thing in intimate spaces over many years. That tends to be where I hang out. I have mostly worked on productions with the Curious Theatre Branch, where I am a company member.

The main difference I notice between making something for the stage and making a work of fiction for publication is the “embodiment” factor. Once you’ve composed a script and begun rehearsals, you start hearing people say your precious words out loud, and you might find yourself thinking, “No, not this! Cut it!” You can use the experience of hearing your work in performance as an editing tool (it helps if you have patient actors), while a novel manuscript can exist as a silent Word document for many months. But I guess this might be the function of critique groups and trusted readers for other writers! I’m a rather solitary animal in art-making, and perhaps that will change over time. I have become a big fan of reading aloud – to hear what’s working, what dialogue sounds clunky, and where I’ve repeated a word three times on this page already.

Edith: Do you have plans to continue any of your mom’s series or to write your own cozy mysteries?

Julie: The existing series will likely not continue, sad to say. (Unless The Secret Staircase is some kind of runaway sensation… Stranger things have happened!) But continuing to write does appeal to me. I’ve been talking to my mother’s agent about pitching a cozy series of my own – and working, verrry slowwwly, on getting some initial chapters together. It has been an educational process already. (When I can steal a few minutes away from the baby, the dishes, the emails, and the day’s other ordinary needs to think about writing fiction, that is.)

I’ve been looking at the cozy landscape: frequent tropes, what’s established and successful, what’s emerging and changing things. I have a few years’ work experience as a production baker in a small coffeeshop setting – making croissants, mixing batters in enormous machines, washing endless dishes – and that feels like a natural place to set a story, but looking through the existing cozies out there, I wonder if that slice of the market isn’t saturated already! I’d love to hear from cozy writers and readers – how important does a fresh, new angle or setting feel to you?

Edith: Writers in the New England crime fiction community, as well as fans all over the world, loved Sheila’s books – and her. Do you have a favorite one of her series?

Sheila at a conference, one of Edith’s favorite pictures of her

Julie: Looking back, I didn’t read as many of my mother’s books as I should have! They were a wonderful secret key into the workings of her mind. Whenever I visited home, I got a heaping slice of all her recent writing topics (and conferences, and blog posts) in our conversations. I have an affection for the Irish series; it’s lovely to see that very rural part of the world depicted as the rich and lively place it is, and it was such a passion of my mother’s. I know it made her very happy to write those books – and to keep making research trips to Ireland!

Edith: So many of us shared vicariously in Sheila’s adventures acquiring and furnishing her Irish cottage. Do you have plans for it? (Hint – will you rent it to other mystery authors for retreats after traveling is safe again?)

Julie: Ha! I certainly won’t rule that out… I do plan to keep the cottage in the picture for now, and while I look forward to visiting, I can’t spend all my time there (my elderly cat would get too lonely at home), so I’ll have to figure out some scheme for the future. I was recently paging through an old passport, and noticed that the Irish stamp said, “Good for 90 days,” which made me think: “Hey, you can stay for three months without any trouble?!” That had never occurred to me, and it feels wildly unrealistic but also fun, to contemplate longer trips there. The car rental does get quite pricey, though… You see?

Julie with her parents at Drinagh, Sheila’s cottage

There are some logistics to work out! But I love the idea of keeping the cottage, and having friends and artists use it as a retreat. I plan to visit next summer (all fingers crossed) and meet up with some of my partner’s family members (an American branch of O’Reillys). I look forward to less fraught travel times in the future – as do we all, I imagine.

Sheila near her cottage with a bit of cabbage

Edith: You have a darling baby, now a toddler. Do you find bits of your mom’s spirit in Ginger, and can we assume she already loves books?

Julie: Oh, she’s definitely a reader. She’s about a year and a half old now, and she likes to bring book after book over to wherever I’m sitting, commanding, “Read! Read!” I don’t think she pays much attention to the text, but she will stare attentively at each page, and point out things she recognizes. (Owl! Car! Hat!) It’s wonderful to watch her face and remember the thrill of discovering language for the first time.

Ginger

[Edith: That is the cutest picture, EVER.]

Julie: And there are other facets of Sheila in Ginger – she’s quite tall, for one! I wish my mother could have known her. It was something of a plot twist in my life to have a child at all, and I know my mother was delighted, in her final months, by any news she received. What an exhausting and lovely time it is, in spite of everything.

Readers: Which of Sheila’s books or series is your favorite? How important does a fresh, new angle or setting in a cozy feel to you? If you had the pleasure of meeting Sheila, share an anecdote for Julie. Or ask her a question! She’ll send one commenter a copy of the new book.

Julia Williams | Photo credit Jeff Bivens

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Sheila Connolly (1950-2020) published over thirty mysteries, including several New York Times bestsellers. Her series include the Orchard Mysteries, the Museum Mysteries, The County Cork Mysteries, and the Victorian Village Mysteries. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Society of Mayflower Descendants.