Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 91

Relaxing Hobbies

Most of our protagonists have interests or jobs that we use as the center of our series. But tell us about your main character(s)? What do they do for fun, or to relax? This may be something you know as the author, but your readers don’t. Or it could be a subplot in your series.

Barb: Um, solve murders? Julia Snowden in the Maine Clambake Mysteries doesn’t have any hobbies, though she definitely needs one. Jane Darrowfield, who’s retired, gardens, plays bridge, and travels. Jane has turned her hobby of solving vexing problems for neighbors into a job as a Professional Busybody.

Jessie: My characters tend to have passionate enthusiasms, likely because I do. Edwina gardens, rambles, knits and is engaged in writing her first novel. Her friend Charles is an avid watercolorist. Beryl loves to gamble, play sports of various types and to pilot all sorts of vehicles. All of these things have shown up in the books so they aren’t things only I know as the writer. Maybe I should think on this a bit!

Liz: I think my characters definitely need more hobbies…Maddie James loves to sing, which some might remember from the first Cat Cafe book. She hasn’t been doing much of it lately though, so maybe she should get back to that! Violet has her crystals, which is her business, but since she loves them so much she’s always learning more about different stones in order to bring more choices to her store.

Edith/Maddie: Robbie Jordan goes out for long, hard bike rides to clear her mind, but I’m not sure that’s a hobby. She does like to do difficult crossword puzzles – in pen. So far Mac Almeida doesn’t have a hobby other than reading cozy mysteries and discussing them with her book group. Rose Carroll doesn’t, either, but what working woman did in 1890? She does grow medicinal herbs in her garden.

Sherry: I love reading about all these different hobbies. It’s what makes reading so fun, learning about fictional characters and picturing yourself doing them. Chloe loves water sports. It stems from a tragic incident when she was ten. Sarah, of course, loves going to garage sales and turned that love into her business. Now if only someone would pay me to read!

Julie: I wrote the question, so that means I’ve been thinking about it. I think Delia does online gaming or plays Dungeons and Dragons. Ernie is an actor and a baker. Tamara probably plays tennis or golf. Roddy paints and draws. Lilly gardens (of course). She also knits, does puzzles, and likes crosswords, though she cheats.

Writer friends, do your characters have secret hobbies, or hobbies that are part of the book? Readers, do you like discussions of hobbies or games? Does it help you connect to a character?

Liz Milliron on Bibles (No, Not THAT Bible)

Edith here, still delighted with having my long-distance son home for a long visit.

I’m also delighted to have Liz Milliron back on the blog with her new Laurel Highlands Mystery releasing today! Check out the blurb for Harm Not the Earth:

When Southwest Pennsylvania’s summer rains flood the Casselman River, State Police Trooper Jim Duncan finds a John Doe body in what is initially believed to be a tragic accident. But when a second victim, John Doe’s partner in an environmental group at odds with a nearby quarry operation, is rescued, all thoughts of accidental drowning are abandoned. After Jim is invited to join the official investigation, he begins to think a career shift might be in his future.

Meanwhile, Assistant Public Defender Sally Castle is approached by an abused woman who is accused of murdering her abuser. Although the rules prevent Sally from taking the case, she steps outside her office to help the woman and discover the truth. As their separate cases become intertwined, Jim and Sally struggle to determine if their new paths can be traveled together or if they will divide their newly repaired relationship. And equally important, will they be able to bring a killer to justice before another innocent life is lost?

Read Your Bible

Thanks to all the Wickeds for having me back for the launch of Harm Not the Earth, the fourth in my Laurel Highlands Mysteries series. It’s always a pleasure to visit.

Now that I’m four books into the series, I figured it was time to get serious about a series bible. Dedicated readers and authors know what I’m talking about – that record of all of your characters and locations in a series that keeps you straight. What color eyes does your character have? What kind of car does she drive? Where is the post office in relation to Bob’s Diner? That kind of thing.

I thought this would be an academic exercise. After all, I use Scrivener to write and I kept Character and Location sheets for every book. All I had to do was transcribe that information into a central location. Piece of cake.

The first step was to decide on a tool. After some waffling, I decided to use Airtable, which is a kind of online spreadsheet, but it allows for more templates and options than plain old Excel. Bonus: it’s free and I was already using it for something else.

I sat down and cracked open Root of All Evil, the first book in the series. There were all my character sheets, all nicely filled out. I had a little backfilling to do, but not too bad. I’d have this task done in a day.

On to Heaven Has No Rage. The main character sheets were pretty good, since I’d copied them from the first book. But the secondary characters were…spotty, yeah, that’s a good word. And hey, where was the sheet for one of the key antagonists? Well, I’d come to that character a bit late in the process so it was understandable they didn’t have a sheet. It wasn’t too hard to fill in the information. I only had to search for the type of car they drove.

Next up, Broken Trust. Never mind trust, I’d broken my record-keeping. The character sheets had little information, mostly age and where they lived. Maybe a few physical details and the character’s role in the story. Um, what had I been thinking? I checked the sheets for the main recurring characters. I hadn’t updated them for the new story. Oops.

Finally, Harm Not the Earth. Oh wow. I’d really lost it. The character sheets were little more than name, age and town of residence. No physical details. No cars. No…nothing. It’s like I’d become so confident in my record-keeping, I’d assumed I’d done it when I really hadn’t. I spent over an hour searching the manuscript for details, trying to remember motivations. Ugh.

Then the locations. Dear reader, it wasn’t much better.

After this, I took a break. I need a snack and an adult beverage.

I was afraid to move on to The Homefront Mysteries. I was right to be afraid. Aside from my main recurring characters, I had little information in any of the three books, including next February’s release, The Lessons We Learn. Mama mia.

An exercise that should have taken no more than and hour or two, turned into two days of rifling through manuscripts, digging through memories, and, in some cases, backfilling information (such as birth dates). The best thing I can say is that it’s done. Well, almost. There is one more Laurel Highlands book to backfill, Lie Down with Dogs which comes out next August. But I’ll do that later this year as I’m revising the manuscript for submission.

At least I’ve learned my lesson. From now on, complete those character and location sketches as I think of them. And I mean more than a name. Because we all know the biggest lie we tell ourselves: I’ll remember that, I don’t have to write it down.

I’m sure future me will be thankful.

Edith: Speaking as someone about to write book #11 in a series, I can attest: future you will be ecstatic, Liz! And grateful.

Readers: Is there something you were sure you were doing, but later found out that you hadn’t been as diligent as you thought? What happened?

Liz Milliron is the author of The Laurel Highlands Mysteries series, set in the scenic Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and The Home Front Mysteries, set in Buffalo, NY during the early years of World War II. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Pennwriters, and International Thriller Writers. Now an empty-nester, Liz lives outside Pittsburgh with her husband and a retired-racer greyhound.

http://lizmilliron.com

Life Lessons

by Barb, vacationing on the Jersey Shore with her extended family

Investing for Your Retirement (Boston Center for Adult Education, Spring, 2011): When you are young, you will work as a paralegal in the trust department of a big law firm and the single observation from that time that will follow you throughout your life is this: Widows and orphans who don’t understand their own money don’t make out so well. Because, honestly, no one cares as much as you do. This is an important life lesson that will also apply to your career, your writing, your writing career, your kids’ educations, and your elderly mother’s care when she is lying in a hospital bed. But specific to finance, for most of your life, you will have no money, so the lesson won’t matter. And then, unexpectedly, the little company you co-found will have a “good exit” and you will have money but will no longer have a job. So, you’ll spend a year reading the financial press and talking to people who speak about Warren Buffet in the reverent tones usually reserved for Bruce Springsteen. At the end of that year, you will decide that you are so bored that you will hire a guy to take care of your money for you. He won’t care as much as you should, but he cares some, which is more than you do.

English 101-102 (University of Pennsylvania, 1971-1972): This is the course you will have to take freshman year in college because you failed senior high school English when you were an exchange student in Colombia. They were diagramming English sentences using Noam Chomsky’s theory on the deep structure of language, and even though that is normally the kind of thing you love, you stubbornly resisted, and you flunked. So, your high school in the States will say you can’t have your diploma until you’ve passed two semesters of freshman college English. You’ve read all the books on the syllabus and the courses won’t count toward an English major, so you will be very annoyed. This is the experience you will come back to all your life whenever you are forced to run through bureaucratic maze to get some piece of cheese that other people think is important. Also, the spring after you pass these courses, your hometown will be wiped out by a devastating flood, and you never will get that high school diploma. Here is the difference that will make in your life: zero. So, remember that whenever someone leads you to the entrance to a maze and tells you to run.

Looking Put Together in a Corporate World for Women (Workshop, 1979): You will be absent that day.

Latin II (Wyoming Seminary Preparatory School, 1967-1968): This is the class where all the girls will warn one another that if the teacher drops a pencil next to your chair you must tuck your skirt around you and cross your legs tightly so he can’t look up your dress. You will learn a lot in this class, almost none of it about Latin. And really, it will not be as bad as it sounds.

Fourth grade, (Edgemont Elementary School, 1961-1962): This is the year your teacher will tell you that you are a very good writer, thereby dooming you for life. 

American Civilization 101-102 (University of Pennsylvania, 1971-1972): This is the course where you will learn everything you feel and believe about being an American to this day, even though, what with DNA and all, we now know that most you learned about the Norseman in Greenland, and the lost colony of Roanoke is absolutely not true. The erstwhile colonizers didn’t die out because they insisted on acting like Christians and Europeans in a hostile landscape. Some survived and bred with the local populations and their genes are with us today. But the point is the right one. Sometimes to survive or even thrive in this unique culture forged by an enormous, diverse geography and people from all over the world, you’ve got to be flexible, look around you, and adapt.

Adulthood 101 (This course is not given in your locality): You will have to figure it out on your own.

Introduction to Parenthood (Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 1981): The best you can do is prepare your children to live successfully in your time and place. You can in no way prepare them to live in the time and place they will ultimately occupy. However, there is a flip side to this. Some of the children who are unsuccessful in your time and place will thrive in their own. This is why Ulysses S. Grant could win the Civil War even though he graduated in the bottom half of his class at West Point. And why Benjamin Franklin, stifled and miserable in post-Puritan Boston, could move to Philadelphia and change the world. Keep this in mind both when you encourage and discourage your children.

Advanced Parenthood for Working Mothers (Company lunchroom conversation with an older, wiser mentor, 1982): No one can be with their child 24/7/365. He may take his first steps when you are at work, but you could just as easily have been at Target. Calm the heck down.

Quantum Mechanics for English Majors (School of Life, 1978-1996): A small group of people who take this course will understand the subject matter intuitively. The rest of us will discover it fights everything that feels logical and real to in the world to us. The small group that does understand will separate itself from the rest of us like a space capsule shedding its booster rocket. This separation will happen at some point in your life, even if you never take quantum mechanics. No matter how hard you work, the people in the capsule will move farther and farther away. The best you can do is watch in appreciation and awe.

Time Management for Procrastinators (Random conversation with a work colleague, 1992): Your problem is that you make your chunks too big, so you never feel you get anything done. Break all tasks into manageable chunks so you can cross them off your list and move on with a feeling of accomplishment. (See Management for English Majors). Don’t think in terms of writing a novel. Think in terms of writing a chapter, or a scene, or a paragraph. This is the most important life lesson you will ever learn. (See Adulthood 101).

Management for English Majors (Corporate workshop, 1985): During this workshop you will learn that “Happy people are not productive people. Productive people are happy people.” Most people crave satisfying work and a sense of accomplishment So, your job as a manager is not to make people happy, since this is an impossible task, but instead to focus on removing barriers to your employees’ productivity. If you internalize this lesson, and apply yourself to ruthlessly moving obstacles out of your employees’ way, you may be pretty successful (See Investing for Your Retirement). Or, this advice may not apply at all, especially if your employees are robots (see Introduction to Parenthood). In that case, you are on your own (see Adulthood 101).

Readers: Do you have any life lessons you’d like to share?

 

 

A Wicked Welcome to Delia Pitts! **plus a giveaway!**

by Julie, summering in Somerville

I first saw Delia Pitts on a Sisters in Crime webinar about being an indie author, and then met her in an online committee meeting. In subsequent conversations about writing and her series, one thing is clear–she loves them both. Her Ross Agency series centers on Shelba Rook, a PI who works in Harlem for the Ross Agency. When I reached out and asked her to write a post for the Wickeds, she agreed to blog about relaxation.

Relaxation

by Delia Pitts

At ease. Chill out. Cool it.

I’ve always wondered, can you really relax on command? By doctor’s prescription? By boss’s order? Will a friend’s recommendation of a favorite beach resort or a colleague’s suggestion of a yoga class actually result in the longed-for letting go?

I’m not the kind who easily relaxes. I go on vacation only when absolutely required. Usually in small increments, a day or a weekend at a time. Prone is not my desired position: lying on the sand or stretched in an Adirondack chair won’t send me to Shangri-La. Even with a rum-laced umbrella drink on hand. There’s always something more to do, something to ponder, something to plan, something to revise or expand or invent.

Since I’m the keyed-up one in the family, I asked my son how he defined relaxation. Quite a smart man, Nick said, relaxation is enjoying yourself without pressure. So, I thought of those things in my everyday life that check both boxes: enjoyment minus pressure. I write, I walk, I weed, I shop, I read, I talk. I even do laundry. Fun? Often. Necessary? Sure. Relaxing? Not quite. Why didn’t these efforts fit the bill? Perhaps because they involve doing something. Achieving a goal; striving for an outcome, collecting a prize. Even if it’s only a clean basket of laundry. I decided submission to the Tyranny of Doing was not my path to relaxation.

But the inventory of a week’s worth of my activities did yield two sure-fire winners: watching a live baseball game and watching a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie. No waiting to exhale. I didn’t zone out, but I did let go. By the end of the game or the film I was relaxed. I wondered why these spectator occupations worked as relaxants. Here’s what I came up with:

Outcome is unpredictableOr entirely predictableMovement as ritualTalent beyond my kenEmotions intensely engagedBut I have no impact on the ending

Baseball, like any other live sporting event, is unpredictable. That’s what makes it such fun to watch, no one knows how it will turn out. (Unless the match is fixed. As a South Sider, the residual guilt of the Chicago Black Sox scandal looms large in my consciousness more than one hundred years on.) With the ending unpredictable, my attention is engaged, my imagination flies with each swing of the bat. Every pitch is fresh, every catch unscripted. Anything can happen. Elegant execution marks each pitch, catch, or slide. But errors are just as thrilling. They testify to human frailty behind the consummate skill. I am drawn out of myself because I have a front row seat on the unexpected. Relaxation is the enjoyable result of giving myself to the whims of the baseball gods.

In contrast, every move of a Fred-and-Ginger routine is painstakingly scripted. Pleasure comes from knowing each dance of seduction will end exactly as it did the previous thirty times I watched Top Hat or The Gay Divorcee: as he starts the dance, Fred is consumed with longing, his eyes and limbs strained with desire. Ginger begins with her supple waist stiffened by reluctance, her face clenched for the contest. Their dance dialogue is meticulous, each step precise, each arm curve, finger extension, head tilt, or change of eye level planned. The upshot is utterly predictable. Yearning persuades resistance. Every time. Knowing the results in advance, I relax into the sweep of the music and the folds of Ginger’s sequined gowns. The outcome is foretold and it’s deeply pleasurable to experience it again. And again. One more time with feeling.

So, that’s my formula for relaxation. Nine innings of baseball, indolent and sweaty, laced with black-and-white glamour in fox trot. Or swing-time. Even a waltz. As long as it’s tuxedoed and bedazzled.

What does the trick for you? Do you find relaxation arises from letting go or taking hold? From diving in or retreating? Leave a comment and I’ll pick someone to receive a paperback of Murder My Past.

Bio:

Delia C. Pitts is the author of the Ross Agency mysteries, a contemporary noir private eye series featuring Harlem detective SJ Rook. Murder My Past, published in February 2021, is the fifth novel in the series. Her short story, “The Killer,” was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021. Her short story, “Midnight Confidential,” will be published in the crime anthology, Midnight Hour. Delia is a former university administrator and US diplomat. After working as a journalist, she earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. She lives with her husband in central New Jersey. She is an active member of Crime Writers of Color and Sisters in Crime. The next novel in the series, Murder Take Two, will be published in 2022. Learn more at her website, www.deliapitts.com.

About Murder My Past:

Alluring lost wives. Vengeful academic superstars.

A memory-plagued widow. A detective on the edge.

Harlem private eye SJ Rook wants to forget his past. Ex-soldier, ex-drunk, ex-tramp are titles he’s eager to bury. He’s building a new life at a neighborhood detective agency. And he’s working on a solid relationship with his crime-fighting partner, Sabrina Ross. But without warning, Rook’s past returns with a vengeance in the enticing form of his ex-wife. Visiting New York for a convention, Annie Perry is a self-made millionaire with more than business on her mind. She’s confident, alluring, and ready to rekindle feelings Rook thought he’d left far behind.

When Annie is murdered shortly after their reunion, her death sends Rook over the edge. To find her killer, he must delve into her past, even if it hurts. There’s the oily vice president and the angelic business associate, plus the three thousand people who attended the conference. But Rook’s suspicions focus on a clutch of university professors who buzzed around his ex-wife. Driven by grief and distracted by jealousy, Rook digs into fraught campus politics and buried scholarly history in his search for the truth. Violence and betrayal dog his investigation. Rook learns that envy, greed, and fraud are not merely academic.

As he hunts Annie’s killer, Rook’s relentless quest uncovers clues to another mystery from the past, a case that strikes even closer to home. His boss’s wife was talented, volatile, and troubled. She vanished without a trace twenty-five years ago. Her disappearance stunned veteran detective Norment Ross and devastated their daughter Sabrina. If Rook solves this ice-cold missing person case, can he restore peace to Norment and closure to Sabrina? Rook wants the truth, for his boss and for his lover. But the only clues to this strange puzzle are hidden in the addled mind of a lonely widow. As the old woman’s memory blurs, Rook is running out of time to solve the case of the detective’s lost wife.

Faced with old grudges and buried lies, unsettled desires and secret promises, Rook races to untangle the threads of these twisted cases. Can he bring the killers to justice before the past fades forever?

Launched

I’m enjoying a respite from the summer heat! I actually had goosebumps when I walked Lily this morning.

I’m am so grateful for all of the people who made my launch week for A Time to Swill so wonderful! I’m amazed by the number of bloggers and readers who take the time to read my books and then highlight them. While I miss in-person events there are some joys in doing virtual events because I get to do them with people I normally wouldn’t be able to. Also, people from across the globe can attend.

I did an event with S.C. Perkins and Esme Addison. I love their series and they both have such interesting premises. John from Murder by the Book asks such great questions! If you didn’t get to see out discussion here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g2ibZQMurY

I celebrated release day with Cate Conte and Meri Allen (aka Shari Randall) who both had books out too. Meri’s is first in a new series. The fabulous independent bookstore One More Page hosted us. Here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoDLvLSLSeo

On Thursday morning I did a radio chat with prolific authors Vicki Delaney and Julie Ann Lindsey with Hunderton County Library. The link takes you to their Facebook page and then you have to scroll down to July 29th: https://www.facebook.com/HunterdonCountyLibrary

Thursday evening I got to chat with Meri Allen, Cate Conte, and Vicki Delaney — I can’t find a link to the event but we had a great time.

Tuesday night I had a wonderful time talking and making drinks with Cheryl Hollon! We had so much fun with Zandia from Bethany Beach Books! Here’s a link to their Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/BethanyBeachBooks/videos/387679342772144/

Also a huge thank you to everyone at Kensington Books who work so hard on each book! A special thanks to my editor Gary Goldstein and publicist Larissa Ackerman. And of course a big shout out to my agent John Talbot.

The week ended with a lovely gift from one of my readers. I’m am one fortunate woman.

Readers: Do you ever attend online events? Do you long for in-person ones?

The Relaxed State

Ah, the languid days of August. It brings to mind relaxation–vacations, beach days, reading. This month we’re going to be talking about relaxation for ourselves, and our characters. First up, OM.

Don’t panic. I’m not going to talk about our characters’ mantras. (Though that may be a fun topic for the future…). Here’s what I’m wondering–can your characters relax? Or are they wound tight, ready to fix the world?

Edith/Maddie: That’s a great question, Julie! Both Robbie Jordan and Mac Almeida are busy business owners, with personal lives AND a murder to solve. In 14 books between them, I haven’t written many scenes where either sits around and daydreams. In Murder at a Cape Cottage, next year’s Cozy Capers Book Group mystery, Mac buys an adult coloring book and pencils – but she never gets around to using them! Rose Carroll is a bit better. She hangs out at the lake with her friend Bertie or sits quietly knitting or mending.

Barb: When Julia Snowden moves back from New York in Clammed Up, she brings the go-go energy of the city and her job in venture capital with her. Her boyfriend Chris urges her to slow down, in part by requiring that the dinner restaurant they run in the off-season be closed on Tuesday and Wednesdays. “If we work seven days, when will I finish my house? When will I get my deer?” he asks in Musseled Out. Julia begins to adapt to life in a town with distinct seasonal rhythms. By the tenth book, coming in 2022, she has way too much time on her hands, but that’s another story for another day.

Sherry: Chloe likes to sit on her screened porch with a drink and a good book. She loves to listen to the waves of the Gulf of Mexico and smell the salt and pine scented air. Sarah on the other hand, turns to friends. She wants to spend time with her landlady, Stella, the DiNapolis, Carol, or Seth. I mean who wouldn’t want to spend time with Seth?!

Jessie: I love this question, Julie, and all the answers from the rest of you! My characters seem to be fairly good at refilling their wells after bouts of intense activity. I expect this is because that is generally how I operate too. Edwina tends her garden and knits. She walks her dog. Beryl enjoys sitting and thinking or playing cards or going for drives in the countryside albeit at high rates of speed!

Liz: Agree, such a fun question! Both Maddie and Violet tend to lean on the having-to-be-reminded-to-chill side of the spectrum. Maddie is always looking for the next entrepreneurial venture to tackle while constantly getting sidelined by murders, and Violet is trying to adapt to the witch world while still trying to manage her mortal life. Whew! That’s a lot. Maddie, however, has Cass Hendricks, her zen guru who is currently trying to teach her to meditate more. We’ll see how that plays out…

Julie: Liz, we all need a Cass in our lives! In the Garden Squad, there are varying degrees of relaxers. Tamara is always on the go, as is her husband Warwick. But Lilly is better at relaxing, as she defines it. For her, gardening is relaxing. Sleuthing is just something that needs to be done.

Writer friends, are your characters good at relaxing? Readers, do you like your characters tightly wound, or relaxed?

A Wicked Welcome to Catriona McPherson

by Julie, still summering in Somerville

I am delighted to welcome Catriona McPherson to the blog today. Catriona and I got to know each other when we both served on the national board of Sisters in Crime. As a person, she’s a delight. As a writer, she’s a wonder. I’m thrilled she’s joining us today to talk about A Gingerbread House!

What a Way to Make a Living

by Catriona McPherson

I’ve been charged, in the past, with giving my characters grim lives. Specifically grim jobs. I was startled to read a review once that spoke of a heroine’s desperate (!) existence. I had given her a job I thought would be fun: stock management in a free-clothing project for a Catholic charity. Another time, I made my protagonist an supermarket picker, choosing the groceries for delivery to customers who shop online. Again, lots of fun for a nosy-parker, I reckoned. Dead-end, minimum-wage, dreary, said a reviewer.

I’m ready for it this time, with A GINGERBREAD HOUSE. Even I will admit that a book-keeper, now haemorrhaging clients as everyone does their own accounts online, a freelance grant-writer so bored she needs podcasts to stay awake, and a direct retailer of phone accessories one step up from Etsy, do not have thrilling jobs. (I chose them for a plot-related reason, which I won’t go into here because spoilers.)

So much for the three second-tier characters in the book. I will, on the other hand, die on the hill of my true heroine’s job being a fun one. She’s . . . wait for it . . . a van driver.

But hear me out.

Tash Dodd has three gigs going during the time A GINGERBREAD HOUSE takes place. Now, the first is not high-octane. It’s a responsible job, delivering time-sensitive medical supplies that require refrigeration, and she does it well. Her second job, though, assisting the driver of a special student transport bus – collecting the children and working the wheelchair lift – is one I’d kind of love to do. And her third job, driving a patient transfer bus to and from the chemo clinic, is one of those lowly-seeming jobs that, done with grace and compassion, can make a massive difference in people’s lives.

I have to come clean about the extent of my research into the nuts and bolts of these professional settings, though. I found out what I wanted to know and left it there. It’s a proud tradition in the cozy sub-genre and one I’ve gladly adopted even in psychological thrillers. My bookshop owner did a lot of finding treasure and not much invoicing. My B&B manager fried a lot of bacon and did no fire-safety training. My church deacon gave inspiring sermons and typed up zero minutes from zero meetings.

And why not? Procedurals gloss over procedure. Spies in spy thrillers (even Le Carré; let’s not talk about Ian Fleming) spend a lot of time in the shadows and none at all on the continuing professional-development interactive courses that must beset any government work. Private detectives in stories solve murders a lot more often than they shut down fraudulent worker’s comp claims.

So I’m unrepentant about making the life of a van driver as entertaining as I wanted it to be. It’s a perk of my job to find the fun, the drama, the quirk . . . and ignore the admin. Making stuff up is what we writers get when we trade in tenure, a pension plan, health benefits and paid holidays. It’s one of the upsides of not punching a clock.

And speaking of punching a clock. Here is the time clock salvaged from the paper mill where my late father-in-law was a manager. It’s one of my most treasured possessions. (I use it as a drinks cabinet.) When my nephews were much younger, one of them asked what it was. I said, “It’s a time clock.” He went saucer-eyed and said, “A real one?” Meantime, his cool, teenaged brother snorted and said “Aren’t all clocks time clocks?” They were both adorable responses in their own way, but as a writer I’m always going to be on the side of the kid who thinks he’s just discovered that his aunty owns a time-machine. I’m always going to look for the magic and, because I’m writing the story, I’m going to find it. Even with a van driver.

So that’s my defence of writing what I think are fun jobs. I’d love to hear what your dream fictional job might be, or what authors you think write well about working for a living. Ooh! Anne Tyler. That’s my answer. What’s yours?

BIO

National-bestselling and multi-award-winning author, Catriona McPherson (she/her), was born in Scotland and lived there until immigrating to the US in 2010, where she lives on Patwin ancestral lands.

She writes historical detective stories set in the old country in the 1930s, featuring gently-born lady sleuth, Dandy Gilver. After eight years in the new country, she kicked off the comic Last Ditch Motel series, which takes a wry but affectionate look at California life from the POV of a displaced Scot (where do we get our ideas, eh?). She also writes a strand of contemporary psychological thrillers. The latest of these is A GINGERBREAD HOUSE, which Kirkus called “a disturbing tale of madness and fortitude”.

Catriona is a member of MWA, CWA, Society of Authors, and a proud lifetime member and former national president of Sisters in Crime.  www.catrionamcpherson.com

ABOUT A GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Meet Ivy Stone. A fifty-four-year-old book-keeper from Aberdeen with a second chance at life now that’s Mother’s gone. She’s determined to overcome her shyness and finally make a friend. Meet Martine MacAllister. A grant-writer from Lockerbie, facing her thirties like she’s faced her whole life – working hard and ignoring the racists. If only she wasn’t quite so alone. Join a club, they say. So she has and she’s hoping. Meet Laura Wade. An entrepreneur from Ayrshire, hitting forty and far from ready for it. She’s got her life mapped out and the prospect of it dazzles her. All she needs is to meet the right man. And soon. Luckily there’s no shortage of help for that these days.

The world is full of women and girls searching for something and ready to follow a trail of breadcrumbs to find it.

Enter Tash Dodd. She’s a worker-bee, a grafter, no way a hero. But, when her unremarkable life  explodes and her normal family is revealed for what they truly are, her only choice is to embark on a quest for justice and redemption; a quest that soon becomes a race against time.

In this modern fairytale, set in Scotland’s post-industrial central belt, the secrets inside respectable-looking lives curdle, the poison spreads, and the clock is ticking for all the innocents trapped in the gingerbread house.

A Wicked Welcome to Daryl Wood Gerber plus a Giveaway!

by Julie, summering in Somerville

I met Daryl years ago, when neither of us was published, at the New England Crime Bake. Since then she’s had series under her name and Avery Aames, and she’s also written stand-alone suspense thrillers. I’m delighted that she agreed to visit and tell us about her Fairy Garden Mystery series. Welcome Daryl!

HOW RESEARCH AND A GLASS OF ICE WATER RELAXES ME + GIVEAWAY

By Daryl Wood Gerber

Summer shouldn’t be stressful.  But for an author with a deadline, it can be. So in order for my creative juices to flow freely,  I need to do all I can to make sure I’m rested and relaxed.  That starts with making sure my writing space is comfy. A glass of cold water (or possibly a hot cup of decaf coffee—I grind my own beans) and a comfortable chair. Next, the desk needs to be neat. Okay, fairly neat. I do keep my notes and outlines to one side of me, but if I feel crowded, that’s not good. Then I make sure I’m ready to go. No outstanding phone calls to make. No bills to pay. Finish the chores before I sit at the desk. Oh, sure, those might all get done-done—I am not THAT organized—but I have no reminders at my desk to hound me.

One of the things that really relaxes me when writing—something that can take me down a rabbit hole if I’m not careful­—is research.

The other day I wanted to gather a few fairy quotes that I could use at the beginnings of my chapters. I must have spent two hours reading poetry . . . and smiling. 

How can you not smile at this?

A little fairy in a tree
Wrinkled his wee face at me:
And he sang a song of joy
All about a little boy.
~ Moira O’Neill, “The Fairy Boy”

After I do my research, I dig into my writing . . . except sometimes I don’t because . . . it’s time to dress a few of my characters, so I spend an hour surfing the web looking at clothing. Courtney Kelly, the protagonist in the series, typically dresses casually in jeans and rompers. She runs the fairy garden shop and gets her hands dirty building fairy gardens, so unless she’s going out someplace, I’m often looking at denim and capris and fun T-shirts for her. However, her best friend Meaghan Brownie, who runs an art gallery, loves flowing bohemian dresses. Oh, man, I have so much fun shopping, I have to refrain from buying anything for myself.

Then I dig into my writing . . .  except I don’t because . . .  I need to pin down which tasty recipes I’ll feature in the book. Yes, I include recipes in my fairy garden mysteries. Why? Because at Open Your Imagination, the fairy garden shop, they serve tea on the weekends on the patio. What have I found on some of these research junkets? How about lemon lavender cupcakes? Oh, my, yes! Cinnamon swirl scones? Can you spell salivating? Caramel brownies? Yup! I have downloaded many a recipe to try and I will tweak as necessary.

Then I dig into my writing . . . except I don’t because I need to look at fairy garden pictures on Pinterest to inspire some of the creations Courtney will make, and . . .

You get the idea. Research can be relaxing, but an author must be careful.  When my relaxing research is done, for real, I take a sip of my ice water, stretch my fingers, and let them hover over the keyboard.  Yes, this time I’m ready to write and write freely. My mind is clear. I’ve filled it with images that inspire.

Readers: What beverage do you like to enjoy when you’re ready to relax? To truly relax? Is there a deep dive you do on the Internet that you find relaxing? I’m giving away a choice of the first two Fairy Garden Mysteries to one commenter.  US and Canada only.  I’ll pick a winner August 5.

BIO:

Agatha Award-winning author Daryl Wood Gerber is best known for her nationally bestselling Fairy Garden Mysteries, Cookbook Nook Mysteries, and French Bistro Mysteries. As Avery Aames, she penned the popular Cheese Shop Mysteries. In addition, Daryl writes the Aspen Adams Novels of Suspense as well as stand-alone suspense. Daryl loves to cook, fairy garden, and read. She has a frisky Goldendoodle who keeps her in line. And she has been known to jump out of a perfectly good airplane and hitch-hike around Ireland alone.

A GLIMMER OF A CLUE debuted June 30 this year. It is the 2nd in the Fairy Garden Mystery series.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Courtney Kelly has a shop full of delights, a cat named Pixie, a green thumb—and a magical touch when it comes to garden design. But in Carmel-by-the-Sea, things aren’t all sweetness and fairy lights . . .

When Courtney’s friend Wanda gets into a ponytail-pulling wrestling match in public with a nasty local art critic, Courtney stops the fight with the help of a garden hose. But Lana Lamar has a talent for escalating things and creating tension, which she succeeds in doing by threatening a lawsuit, getting into yet another scuffle—in the midst of an elegant fundraiser, no less—and lobbing insults around like pickleballs.  
 
Next thing Courtney knows, Lana is on the floor, stabbed with a decorative letter opener from one of Courtney’s fairy gardens, and Wanda is standing by asking “What have I done?” But the answer may not be as obvious as it seems, since Wanda is prone to sleepwalking and appears to be in a daze. Could she have risen from her nap and committed murder while unconscious? Or is the guilty party someone else Lana’s ticked off, like her long-suffering husband? To find out, Courtney will have to dig up some dirt . . .

DARYL’S CONTACT INFORMATION:

WEBSITE: https://darylwoodgerber.com

FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/darylwoodgerber

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/darylwoodgerber

BOOKBUB: https://bookbub.com/authors/daryl-wood-gerber

YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/woodgerb1

INSTAGRAM: https//instagram.com/darylwoodgerber

PINTEREST: https://pinterest.com/darylwoodgerber

GOODREADS: https://goodreads.com/darylwoodgerber

AMAZON: https://bit.ly/Daryl_Wood_Gerber_page

Have you signed up to receive my newsletter? I send one out every month and with a new release. In the monthly, there is always a GIVEAWAY to one (or more) subscribers. There’s always a recipe, a bit about Sparky, what I’m reading, etc.

NEWSLETTER: https://darylwoodgerber.com/contact-media/

Having a Little Fun with the Grammar Police and #giveaway

Please welcome Friend of the Wickeds, Kaitlyn Dunnett back to the blog. Kaitlyn is here to celebrate the release of Murder, She Edited, the fourth book in her Deadly Edits Series.

One lucky commenter below will win a hardcover copy of the book.

Here’s the blurb

As the hesitant new owner of a rundown property outside of sleepy Lenape Hollow, New York, freelance editor Mikki Lincoln must get her facts straight about an old murder on the premises–before the killer returns to meet the next deadline!

When Mikki inherits a nearby farm from a woman she hasn’t seen in two decades, the unexpected arrangement comes with a big catch: forgotten diaries hidden in the neglected house must be recovered, edited, and published across the internet within one month. The lonely locale is like an untouched time capsule from the 1950s, and it was left behind for good reason.

While searching for the mysterious memoirs and clues about the former owners, Mikki discovers that the once peaceful place was punctuated by an unsolved homicide and other rumored crimes. Worse, suspicious activity in the creepy, dilapidated barn suggests it really hasn’t been abandoned at all…

In a remote farmhouse with only her observant calico cat, Calpurnia, keeping her company, Mikki must swiftly crack an eerie cold case from the past and stop a clever culprit from leaving red markups on anything other than pages of revised copy…

Take it away, Kaitlyn!

Thanks so much to Barb and the gang for inviting me to visit the Wickeds again. This time it’s to talk about the fourth Deadly Edits mystery, Murder, She Edited. The series features a retired teacher turned book doctor, Mikki Lincoln, as the amateur detective, and in this one she’s plunged into intrigue and danger when she inherits—with conditions!—an old farmhouse in the countryside near her home in Lenape Hollow, New York.

The main plot concerns a murder committed in that house way back in 1958 and a current crime (or two) in the present. In order to inherit, Mikki has to find and edit several diaries left behind by the former occupants, diaries that don’t seem to exist. But there’s also a subplot. It, too, grew out of Mikki’s career as a freelance editor.

I love creating subplots. They give me a chance to shine a light on secondary characters. And, in this case, they offer a bit of comic relief. Mikki, you see, has acquired a stalker.

Bella Trent is Illyria Dubonnet’s “biggest fan.” Who is Illyria Dubonnet? That’s the pseudonym used by Mikki’s friend Lenora to write steamy romance novels. Mikki has been retired for several years, but Lenora is still teaching and is not eager to have her double life exposed to the conservative local school board. She did, however, mention Mikki by name on her most recent acknowledgements page, leading Bella to believe that Mikki was the editor who missed two—count ’em: two—typos in Illyria’s last novel.

Every writer I know has received helpful mail from readers pointing out typos and other errors in the text of published books, despite the fact that such mistakes can rarely be corrected by that point. Most of these correspondents are well-intentioned, but a few are just . . . strange. Although Mikki herself runs a business called the “Write Right Wright” she isn’t anywhere near as much a stickler as Bella. Mikki is all for correct grammar and careful proofreading, but she knows how rare it is for a 70,000+ word novel to end up without one or two small errors. Those typos are tricky to find, especially when the human brain tends to see what it expects rather than what is. No matter how many times the writer, editor, and copy editor go over the manuscript, it’s almost guaranteed that something will slip through. On occasion, the result is unintentionally hilarious.

I’m not making fun of readers who care about accuracy, but in order to inject a bit of humor into the story, I did exaggerate Bella’s obsession and her self-assigned role as one of the grammar police. Or at least I hope I was exaggerating.

Fellow writers—have you had any unusual experiences with readers anxious to offer corrections and advice? And readers—how do you react when you find an error, grammatical or otherwise, in a book by a favorite author?Answer the question below or just say “hi” to be entered to win a copy of Murder, She Edited.

About Kaitlyn

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published several children’s books and three works of nonfiction. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. Her newest books are Murder, She Edited (the fourth book in the contemporary “Deadly Edits” series, written as Kaitlyn) and I Kill People for a Living. She maintains websites at www.KaitlynDunnett.com and www.KathyLynnEmerson.com. A third, at A Who’s Who of Tudor Women, is the gateway to over 2300 mini-biographies of sixteenth-century Englishwomen, now available in e-book format.

Changing Perspective, and a Giveaway

By Liz, enjoying some summer vibes from my new patio!

Hi readers! So, today I was actually going to write about boats. Yachts, to be more specific. I’m still celebrating the release of Claws for Alarm, my newest Cat Cafe Mystery, and there’s a really big boat in it with a few celebrities thrown in for good measure.

There’s nothing like a good yacht and some celebrity hijinks to really mess up the harbor on an island. I had a whole thing planned about the time I spent in Newport Harbor trying to find the perfect boat after which to model my boat, studying which boats could have which cool amenities, and figuring out which best suited my needs for my particular celebrities.

But on Tuesday, I had the privilege of doing a Zoom event at One More Page Books with Sherry and Shari Randall/Meri Allen to celebrate all three of our releases (make sure you pick up A Time to Swill and The Rocky Road to Ruin if you haven’t already!) and it was so much fun I had to stop and get a little sentimental. And maybe I’ll write about boats another time.

Like many of us, I haven’t been out much this past year and a half, and the last book event I went to in person was like, two whole years ago. It’s crazy. And in times of high stress, lots of work – books and otherwise – and all kinds of other things going on, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds of all the “have-tos.” Like, I have to write that scene/edit that chapter/make that deadline/do my day job, etc. etc.

But Tuesday night, sitting down for an hour with two of my dearest friends and the lovely Eileen from One More Page and talking about books and writing and all the fun stuff that goes along with it, as well as seeing so many other lovely friends in the audience and on the chat, I took a step back that I hadn’t taken in a long time and remembered how lucky I am to be doing this.

It’s not about “having to make my deadline,” it’s about “getting to do the thing I love.” It’s not about finding the time after a long day, it’s about happily carving out more time from other, less enjoyable tasks to do the thing I’ve dreamt of since I was a little kid. It’s about getting to write books that bring people enjoyment and happiness for a little while. It’s about getting that box of books in the mail and opening it with as much glee as one would a new pair of shoes (okay, maybe a bit more than the shoes, unless they’re Jimmy Choos or something).

I think it’s been easy to forget all the good that comes with this work, with so much going on. It’s never intentional, but you just get into a rut. I used to get out of that rut by seeing my writer friends and readers more often and remembering all the joy.

Today, I’m making a promise to remember that joy more often. I’m changing my inner dialogue to remind myself that writing or editing or page proofing isn’t another task on my to-do list, it’s a privilege and one I’m so, so lucky to have.

And so I wanted to say thank you to all of you for making it possible. And I can’t wait for Thursday night’s Zoom event with Sherry, Shari/Meri, and Vicki Delaney at Bank Square Books!

Readers, is there something on which you’re working on changing perspectives? Tell me in the comments below for a chance to win a copy of Claws for Alarm!