Sherry Harris's Blog, page 10

A Wicked Round Up

Dear readers, the Wickeds have had a full very 2015. Here’s a list of our books and stories that were released this past year.

Liz: It’s so fun to look back at all our accomplishments! I started off the year with a short story in the anthology Rescued: The Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes. (Actually, Tuffy the Maine coon wrote it, I just helped.) Then in March, The Icing on the Corpse was released. And on December 29 Murder Most Finicky, the fourth book in the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, comes out. What a fun way to close out the year!

Edith: [Deep breath] It was a very good year. My historical short story, “A Questionable Death,” came out in the History and Mystery, Oh My! anthology. Then my recipe for Local Leek Tart popped up in the Mystery Writers of America Cookbook. The third Local Foods mystery, Farmed and Dangerous, released in May. In the summer my essay “My First Time” came out in a collection of stories about Mount Auburn Cemetery, Dead in Good Company. And finally, my alter-ego Maddie Day’s first Country Story mystery, Flipped for Murder, appeared in October. Whew! 2016 is shaping up to be almost as full, which is a blessing.

Julie: Well, the debut of Just Killing Time was it, but more than enough! What a thrill, still!! So glad to joined the ranks of the published on this blog.

Barb: Musseled Out, the third Maine Clambake Mystery, came out in April and my short story, “The Perfect Woman,” was in Best New England Crime Stories 2016: Red Dawn in November.

Jessie: A Sticky Situation, the third Sugar Grove Mystery, released in April, 2015.

Sherry: What a productive group of writers — you all amaze me! The second in the Sarah Winston Garage Sale series, The Longest Yard Sale, came out in June 2016. I am so lucky to be on this adventure with the Wickeds!

Filed under: Group posts Tagged: A Sticky Situation, Flipped for Murder, Just Killing Time, Murder Most Finicky, musseled out, The Longest Yard Sale

An Announcement

Jessie:  In an unseasonably warm New Hampshire, not missing white at Christmas at all.

Every writer has a project they’ve toyed with for a long time. Or a character that keeps whispering in their ear, nagging to be written about.

A few years ago my family started spending the summers in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. One of those ideas and one of those voices started to develop as I walked the beach or bought fries at the pier. I’ve always loved history and in Old Orchard it’s everywhere. Which brings me to an annoucement.

Come September, 2016 Berkley will be releasing my first book in my new Change of Fortune series,  Whispers Beyond the Veil. Here’s the official back cover material:

First in a dazzling new historical mystery series featuring Ruby Proulx, a psychic with a questionable past who suddenly finds her future most uncertain…

Canada, 1898. The only life Ruby Proulx has ever known is that of a nomad, traveling across the country with her snake-oil salesman father. She dreams of taking root somewhere, someday, but, until she can, she makes her way by reading tarot cards. Yet she never imagined her own life would take such a turn…

 

After one of her father’s medical “miracles” goes deadly wrong, Ruby evades authorities by hiding in the seaside resort town of Old Orchard, Maine, where her estranged Aunt Honoria owns the Hotel Belden, a unique residence that caters to Spiritualists—a place where Ruby should be safe as long as she can keep her dark secret hidden.

 

But Ruby’s plan begins to crumble after a psychic investigator checks into the hotel and senses Ruby is hiding more than she’s letting on. Now Ruby must do what she can to escape both his attention and Aunt Honoria’s insistence that she has a true gift, before she loses her precious new home and family forever…

I’ve really loved researching and writing this book and I hope some of you will enjoy hearing Ruby’s voice as much as I have.

Readers, do you like historical mysteries? Writers, do you carry around ideas and hear characters long before a story comes together?

Filed under: Uncategorized

Wicked Wednesday: Perfect Gifts for Writers

My fellow Wickeds, what is the perfect gift for a writer? Aside from more time for revisions, a dependable muse, and more books sales that is.

Sherry: Pens. I love pens, any kind, any color ink. I love them even though I usually write on my computer these days. And I guess some tablets to go with the pens — something basic like a lawyers pads.

Jessie: Notebooks! I love, love love Rhodia pads. The high quality paper is smooth and creamy but the notebooks still feel approachable. They are staple bound with a paper cover and don’t look like they are too nice to be written in. I buy them in bulk from Dick Blick and I crack open a new one for each new writing project.

Edith: I love the Murder Ink sticky notepad Barb gave us each last year. A perfect gift for a mystery writer, with Dead Fred bleeding out through his pierced heart. Okay, we’re strange, we crime writers. Acknowledged!

In the Wishful Thinking department, I think any writer would love the gift of a weekly or even monthly cleaning service. Right, ladies?

Liz: Okay, I love pens, notebooks and Dead Fred too, but I’m going in a different direction. Etsy has the coolest gifts for writers who love jewelry, from the Banned Books Bracelet to the Nancy Drew bracelet. One of my fave gifts ever is my Whodunnit bracelet.

Barb: Isn’t it funny the way most writers love stationery and pens? Our friend Ramona DeFelice Long has been on a retreat with both writers and visual artists and she reported, “Visual artists get as excited about Home Depot as writers do about Staples.” I thought for a moment and then realized, “Of course they do.” As for the source of Dead Fred, I heartily recommend the Bas Bleu catalog for those buying for either readers or writers.

Julie: Love these suggestions! I am a Levenger dreamer. Beautiful tools for writers. But honestly, if Staples had a coffee shop, I’d be thrilled. I could spend all day in there. Will say, for beginner writers, classes and books like Plot Perfect are a great gift. Helping them find their community is also a great gift–like pointing them to Sisters in Crime, or RWA, or other writer’s organizations.

Readers: What do you think a writer would like? Do you have any on your “to-give” list?

Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: Dead Fred, Dick Blick, Murder Inc, notebooks, Rhodia

The Detective’s Daughter — The Christmas Tree

Kim in Baltimore with the windows open and the heat turned off!

There’s a problem with my Christmas tree…it’s not decorated. We’ve had a light issue this year. My dog, the wonderful Romeo, has decided there is nothing better for an afternoon snack than some tasty wire and crunchy bulbs. We’ve gone through a few strands and the type of lights I like are becoming harder and harder to find. Now I have the tree surrounded with my kitchen chairs. Hopefully, before next week I will be able to hang an ornament or two that won’t become a midnight snack for him.

The last few years we’ve had an artificial tree. I am not a fan, but due to some allergies, they’re the only type of tree allowed in the house. I miss going out in the woods and chopping the tree down with my family. Well, I didn’t actually chop it, my job was to keep hold of the children and make sure they didn’t wonder away with some other similarly dressed family. Everyone looks alike in a parka!

I remember when the kids were small and watching  A Charlie Brown Christmas, they’d ask me why Lucy wanted the fake trees. Who wouldn’t want to tromp around for miles in the bitter cold and cut down a tree and then tie it to the roof of your car praying for the forty minute ride home it wouldn’t end up in splinters on the freeway?

I think I miss our yearly tradition more than I dislike the artificial tree. No matter how cold, I looked forward to the tree cutting event each year. We would all pile in the car; kids, husband, even the dogs, and be on our way. The trip always included stopping for hot chocolate.

Growing up we never had a real tree. I had only seen Christmas trees like that at George Bailey’s house! Our tree was silver and sat on a table in my grandmother’s living room. There was a rotating light that changed the color of the tree from blue to red to green. For years I kept the tree in our family room until the wiring became hazardous.

Christmas trees hold more memories for me than any other holiday symbol. When I see them I can hear my mom playing her Nat King Cole Christmas album on the stereo and I think of my dad instructing us on how thin the sugar cookies should be rolled out. Of course, my favorite memories of are my own children and their delighted faces when the tree was lit or leaving the plate of cookies for Santa.

This year I’ve been milling around a small business that has recently opened. They sell cut trees and wreaths and have a tiny shop filled with handmade and antique ornaments for sale. I sit by the outdoor fire and watch the families with their small children making future memories.

Readers: What type of tree do you have for your celebration? Has it changed since you were little?

Filed under: The Detective's Daughter Tagged: Artificial Christmas Trees, Christmas Trees, George Bailey, Nat King Cole, The Detective's Daughter

Christmas Letters–Yea or Nay?

From Barb, in Massachusetts where it is so warm it’s hard to believe it’s almost Christmas

So gang, holiday letters, how do we feel about them?

I have a friend who always starts his, “Well here it is, the bane of our existence, ‘The Christmas Letter’ wherein we tell our friends about our fabulous lives, great vacations, what our overachieving children are doing and how our lives are so much better than theirs…”

This is followed by a humorous account of his year that never fails to give me a smile.

This year’s Christmas letter

I started sending my Christmas letter in 1995. I had recently left a place where I’d worked for twelve years. Though I was more than done with the job, I missed the people, and in those pre-internet, pre-social media days, it seemed like a good way to keep in touch. I also sent the letters to my husband’s large family and other friends we didn’t see from one end of the year to the next.

I had to make some refinements to my distribution system over time. When she was alive, it drove my mother crazy that her sister in Chicago got the letter and she did not. My explanation, “You already know everything in it,” did not suffice, so immediate family, including my parents, brother, and later, when they were grown, my kids were added to the list. Some years, when we would see my husband’s aunts and uncles through the year, I would skip sending them “the letter.” That didn’t work, either. “No Christmas letter this year?” they would ask. So they got themselves added permanently.

The letter, of course, goes with the whole card ritual. I always start looking for my cards in October and pick them with care, and they carry a theme for the year. So the year I signed my Maine Clambake contract, I chose Crane’s dancing lobsters. The next year, when the book came out, it was a gorgeous illustration of antique books from the Museum of Fine Arts. Last year, there was an Eiffel Tower on the card, commemorating our two and a half weeks in Paris during the summer.

I admit that I am a seasons person. I always change up the decor in our house for the time of the year. When I worked, I loved the rhythm the business brought, the January sales meeting, the July user conference, the fall industry conference, and then budgeting, planning, board approval, close-out the year, begin again. That, added to our family rhythms, governed by the kids’ school schedule, made the world feel a little safer and more predictable, a good counter-balance to the frequent unknowns of working in a startup and raising teenagers.

The scene of the crime…

Card-writing became a part of my Christmas ritual, fit around work and other obligations, along with cookie-baking, decorating, gift buying and wrapping, throwing and attending holiday celebrations. For years, I went to my company’s holiday party in Vancouver and wrote the Christmas letter on the Saturday plane ride home. It was the emotional transition point from closing out the year at work to focusing on family traditions.

I love the letters, which document our family life for twenty years. And I love my little ritual that I carry on. But that’s all about me. I often wonder, in this age of Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, what I am doing. Who, at the far corners of my existence, doesn’t know what my family and I are up to (or couldn’t find out, if they were really curious). I’m even documenting my life via this blog.

I carry on, because I still love to get them from others, but every year it becomes a bit more of a decision.

So how do you feel, dear readers. Holiday letters, yea or nay?

Filed under: Barb's posts Tagged: Christmas letters

Knitting: Tis the Season

My niece holding up a sweater from her early years. Maybe Santa will bring her another knit sweater this season!

Julie: Well, between Sadie Hartwell’s new book, Yarned and Dangerous, and requests from the nieces, I have started knitting again this season. Since a few of us are knitters, we thought we’d spend today talking patterns and projects. Also, a little bit about why we knit.

My grandmother taught me how to knit. My busiest times knitting were when the nieces and nephews were babies. I knit them each a stocking, and many, many sweaters and hats. Over the past couple of years I’ve been knitting scarves, and hats, but nothing more complicated. Jessie has talked me into trying socks, but there may be a sweater project or two (or three) that I am working on for the holidays. I find knitting really good for plotting. It takes some focus, but not so much that I can’t think about Book #3. Like writing, the more I knit, the more I like to challenge myself to try something new. But I also enjoy being able to just do it, and give my brain a rest.

How about you, my fellow wicked knitters?

Socks in progress. Even the background is a WIP (it will be a felted wool bag)!

Sadie: I’ve been knitting since I was in second grade. Now, mind you, my mother did not knit. But at some point I decided this was a skill I should know, so I found some instructions somewhere, got some yarn and a pair of pink aluminum size 5 needles, which I still have, and set out to try. I couldn’t figure out casting on, so a family friend, Martha, showed me how to do that, as well as a basic knit stitch, and I went to town. My first project was a fuchsia and yellow striped belt (I now know it was quite hideous, but hey, it was the seventies!), which I gave to my cousin Susie. She seemed to like it. Not much later, I decided to try crocheting, which I taught myself and which I picked up very quickly. I’ve been a yarn worker ever since.

Now, I consider myself supremely fortunate to be able to combine my favorite hobby with my vocation. The brand new Tangled Web Mysteries are set in a fictional Connecticut yarn shop, Miss Marple Knits. I mean, seriously, who gets to knit/crochet and make up stories and gets paid to do it? What a privilege! And don’t think it’s lost on me that the word yarn means a spun fiber, as well as a story.

Hats in Progress for a friend’s twin sons. I’ve made approximately a million of these crocheted hats!

The last couple of days I’ve been going through and organizing my yarn stash. I’ve pulled out some WIPs, with the intent to finish them. I totally stole this idea from Jessie, by the way. The photos I’ve posted are of a couple of those projects, which I can easily finish by the end of the year. And taking care of unfinished projects, whether yarn or otherwise, is an excellent way to free up mental and physical space, and to allow new things into your life. Which means I might soon be able to allow myself a trip to Webs in Northampton, Massachusetts, the biggest, most wonderful yarn store anywhere!

Because I want to share my love of books and crafts, I’ve set up a Facebook group where others can share my obsessions: Sadie Hartwell’s Yarned and Dangerous Gang on Facebook. There will be giveaways and guest authors from time to time, so drop by often and invite your friends!

A sock, kindly modeled by one of my children.

Jessie: I know I’ve mentioned before how much I love to knit. It is one of the surest ways I know to access the mental state known as flow. I just sit back with a set of circular needles and a pleasing yarn and my brain and my spirit sort of connect and go to places I like to visit. Like Julie, I find knitting helps with knotty plot problems. And Sadie, after Christmas I’ll have some room cleared out in my yarn stash. I wonder if Webs could handle a pair of Wickeds on a shopping trip together?

Julie: I’d love to have a wicked knitting shopping spree. Or maybe a stash swap? BTW, teaching the Boston area nieces the pattern I learned to knit on–

How about you, dear readers? Any knitting being done for the holidays?

Filed under: Sadie's Posts, Uncategorized Tagged: flow, knitting, Sadie Hartwell's Yarned and Dangerous Gang, Webs, yarn

Guest: Triss Stein

Edith here, dealing with the long dark nights of December by using lots of lights. I’m so pleased to welcome Triss Stein to the blog today. We met over breakfast at Bouchercon in Albany, and she’s got a new book out! In Brooklyn Secrets, Erica Donato, Brooklyn girl, urban history grad student, and single mom, is researching the 1930s when Brownsville was the home of the notorious organized criminals the newspapers called “Murder Inc.” She quickly learns that even in rapidly changing Brooklyn, Brownsville remains much as it was, poor, tough, and breeding fighters and gangs.

She’s giving away a copy to one lucky commenter, too. Take it away, Triss.

But Is It Cozy?

Good morning! I lived in New England in my twenties, always thought I’d go back, have vacationed there often and we are seriously looking into Vermont as a retirement home.  So – what fun to be a Wicked for a day.

When Edith invited me, we talked about whether what I write could be called a cozy at all. The answer is a clear-cut yes …and no.  Probably it depends on definitions.

I believe the cozy is just a variant of the traditional amateur sleuth mystery. Small communities where people know each other, crimes that are personal, not random street violence or gang wars. They are about the evil behind the nicely painted front door, not the evil that walks the mean streets with a weapon.

Over the last couple of decades, there has been a very popular trend further in that direction, with stories often set in workplace that have a quaint or cute component. Food is often involved. Or pets. Especially cats. Or crafts. Punning titles. When it works, the contrast between that setting and the crime should be even more powerful.

Does it have to be in a quaint village? Does it have to have cats? Or cupcakes?

My books take place in the Big City. And Erica, my heroine does not cook much – there is always pizza – does not have pets, but does have a teen-age daughter. Brooklyn, her native turf, has gone through huge social disruption in the decades I have made it my adopted home. Lots of built-in conflict here, every day.

Can I call them “urban cozies?” Or perhaps “soft boiled?” The usual urban landscape, those mean streets, does not have a home for characters (or readers!) who live in a big city but are not Philip Marlowe. Or Harry Bosch. Or Matt Scudder.  Who do not even know anyone like Matt Scudder.

That would be me, and my friends and millions of other readers who live rather ordinary lives but do it in a big (bad?) city like New York. The life I see around me is mostly about work and family and home, local politics, neighborhood issues, schools.  Sound familiar?  And anyone who believes there is not enough drama there to sustain a mystery series is not paying attention. Kill over real estate? Art? Reputation? In a New York minute.

Long ago I worked for the public library system. They liked to move us around and what I observed was that the different neighborhoods were a lot like small towns.  Each one had its own atmosphere, history, quirks, and fears.  I am using that to write mysteries set in Brooklyn neighborhoods, halfway between too cozy and too hard-boiled, a domestic style background that includes real emotions and real conflicts.

And someday I will send Erica on vacation, to see what crime looks like in the Green Mountains or the Cape Cod shore. Where people say “wicked” as a compliment.

Readers, what do you think? Can Triss make the term “urban cozy” work? What do you think of the concept of “soft-boiled” mysteries?”

Triss Stein is a small–town girl from New York farm country who has spent most of her adult life in New York the city. This gives her the useful double vision of a stranger and a resident for writing mysteries about Brooklyn neighborhoods in her ever-fascinating, ever-changing, ever-challenging adopted home. In the new book, Brooklyn Secrets, , Erica find herself immersed in the old and new stories of tough Brownsville, and the choices its young people make.

Filed under: Guest posts Tagged: Brooklyn Secrets, Erica Donato, soft-boiled mystery, Triss Stein, urban cozy mystery

Wicked Wednesday: Gifts for the Readers in Your Life

Well, Wickeds, the season is upon us. So do tell, aside from books by the Wickeds and accomplices, what are you planning to give the readers in your life? Any hot recommendations for our readers?

Edith: I’m giving my nine-year-old bestie The Sugar Mountain Snow Ball by Elizabeth Atkinson, her latest middle-grade novel. It’s such a good read for any age. I just finished reading William Kent Kruger’s Ordinary Grace and plan to figure out who to give a copy to. Lyrical writing and deep storytelling about tragedy and mystery in small-town Minnesota in the summer of 1961 – as told by a 13 year old boy. Another recommendation is Chance Harbor by Holly Robinson – an intriguing novel of family with some mystery on the side and a stunning Prince Edward Island setting.

Liz: I have copies of Maddie Day’s Flipped for Murder and Cheryl Hollon’s Pane and Suffering for one of the readers in my life – loved both of them! I also would recommend Tana French’s latest, The Secret Place, an amazing murder mystery that really digs into the power of high school friendships.

Barb: I just finished Elizabeth George’s A Banquet of Consequences, and I LOVED it. One of her best. I highly recommend it for the mystery lover in your life.

Jessie: My suggestion is a recipe book instead of a mystery but I had to share it: Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist by Tim Federle. It is such fun and is beautifully illustrated too!

Sherry: Since some of the readers in my life read our blog everyday I’ll mention a couple of books I enjoyed reading recently. Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little is one heck of a book and has a protagonist that isn’t very likable. Another is Invisible City by Julia Dahl. And last but not least Past Crimes by Glen Erik Hamilton. None of them are cozy but all are well written.

Julie: Barb, so glad to hear this review–the book is on the docket for Christmas week. Jessie, I’ve heard about that book–will add it to my gift list. Love all of these suggestions. Books are always such a great gift! I’m also going to point out some other fun gifts for readers, like booklights, bookmarks, book plates, and book bags. Also, a library card is a great gift for a young reader. I also found a couple of adult coloring books based on books–Secret Garden (OK, not based on the book, but still fun and a great combo gift), Harry Potter, and Tolkien’s novels. Also, a great book for the reader in your life–the MWA Cookbook! Barb and Edith are both in it–as are many other mystery authors and friends of this blog.

Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: A Banquet of Consequences, chance harbor, Dear Daughter, elizabeth atkinson, Elizabeth George, Elizabeth Little, Glen Erik Hamilton, holly robinson, Invisible City, Julia Dahl, ordinary grace, Past Crimes, Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist, the sugar mountain snow ball, Tim Federle, william kent kruger

Delving into History

Edith here, north of Boston and immersed in 1888. 

I thought I’d share a few of the posts I’ve done for the Midnight Ink Authors’ blog, where I’m up on the second Tuesday of every month. Midnight Ink is publishing the Quaker Midwife Mysteries so I keep my posts over there on the subject of 1888. 

Up today is a discussion of midwifery then and now.

Here’s one about various tidbits of research: police procedure, medicine, and language.

I also looked into carriages and other horse-drawn vehicles.

Names of characters are important, and I’ve found a few fun ways to ferret out in 1888.

And here’s one on how life was on the cusp of change in the period where I set the series.

Sorry this is brief. But I’m reading proofs of Delivering the Truth AND putting final polish on Breaking the Chain! Now back to it.

Readers: do we have any other history buffs out there? Geneology nuts (besides Sheila Connolly, of course)?

Filed under: Edith's posts Tagged: Delivering the Truth, historical mystery, Midnight Ink, Quaker Midwife Mysteries

Getting the Details Right

by Sheila Connolly

A month ago we Wickeds were all gathered at the New England Crime Bake, which every year brings together a terrific group of established authors, hopeful writers, agents, editors, readers and fans. It’s an intense experience that can last between two to four days (depending when you want to show up), much of which is spent talking to everybody.

The final morning (Sunday) is often devoted to some aspect of forensics useful to writers (although there was one excellent panel on the craft of writing, presented by four authors who have written books on that subject), and that was true this year. The speakers were a pair of former police officers (turned writers after retirement, of course) and an expert on cyber-crime. Both presented information based on their real-world experience.

It took me a couple of days to realize how different their presentations were.

The former police officers started with a hand-out quiz about standard equipment, strategies for dealing with a suspect, and how to respond to various situations that are particularly dangerous. Not many people in the audience got the answers right. One point that came through loud and clear: television and the movies often get it wrong. Producers are looking for dramatic action, and good angles for their shots. But on the street the actions they depict can be dangerous, not only to the officers but also to innocent bystanders or people just driving by.

One example: most police officers, firemen, etc., are shown kicking in a door while facing it. Wrong! It’s more effective to use a “mule kick”, facing away from the door and kicking backwards. It’s stronger, and it means that you aren’t about to fall on your face when the door opens, rendering you useless against an armed assailant. But it does look a bit ridiculous on screen.

The presentation made me realize that the average citizen doesn’t think through a lot of these details. The downside is, people are quick to judge when they read yet another report of a police officer using undue force in a pursuit or an arrest. No doubt there are some abuses of power (unfortunately often captured on a cell phone video these days), but decisions on the street must be made quickly, with little time to think. It is unfortunate but inevitable that some of these decisions may be wrong, but we should not assume they are due to anger or hate. And remember that these bad outcomes represent a very small percentage of all arrests.

The presentation on cyber-crime was almost diametrically different. Most of us (ordinary television viewers) know something about computers, but we may look at stories about hacking into all and anybody’s systems (including those of major governments) or tracking people down to the street corner where they’re standing, all within two minutes, as pure fantasy. But they’re closer to reality than we want to think.

There are a lot of cutesy terms involved, which may be unfair to the seriousness of the crimes involved. We’ve probably all heard about “Black Hats” and “White Hats”  and “the Dark Web,” and it’s a little unsettling to hear an expert using them. Have you seen the terms “spearphishing” or “mudphishing” or “catphishing”? What about “warez sites”? They may sound a little silly (or look funny when written on the page), but all are real, and all can be dangerous to a clueless computer user (that’s most of us). Yes, there are hackers out there, and their goals range from “gee, let’s see what I can do” to “I want to take down a major government.” It’s scary.

So the bottom line is: in the case of law enforcement, there’s a lot happening that you don’t see or understand quickly, and in the case of the cybercrime universe, it’s all there in plain sight if you know where to look—but you as an ordinary citizen can’t do squat about it most of the time.

We as writers want to get the details right—but we’ve got a lot to learn. When you’re writing about crime, do your homework.

What do you think are the best sources for accurate information? Humans? The Internet?

Filed under: Sheila's Posts, Uncategorized