Sherry Harris's Blog, page 34

Happy Book Birthday–Rogue Wave!

This weekend was not only the New England Crime Bake, it was the launch of Best New England Crime Stories 2015; Rogue Wave, Level Best Book’s twelfth annual anthology of short stories by New England Authors. Barb’s been a Level Best co-editor/co-publisher for five years along with Mark Ammons, Katherine Fast and Leslie Wheeler.

What’s in store this year? Let’s take a look:

Cops, kooks, creeps and cons

Wily cats and wacky grandmas

Hoods, histories, and crafty whodunits

Nothing is spared by a Rogue Wave

Get swept up in this year’s tsunami of twenty-nine never before seen crime stories from a bevy of New England’s award-winning mystery writers joined by several of the region’s most compelling new voices.

From classic mysteries to dead celebrities–some light, some dark, some flat-out scary. some downright funny–Level Best Books twelfth annual anthology presents a veritable rogues’ gallery of the best in original New England crime writing. Surf’s up!

Rogue Wave authors lined up to sign, from our New England friend Dale Phillips and his Crime Bake report (http://www.daletphillips.com/crimebake.html)

Here’s what we like about the Level Best series:

Liz: I love these books. The diversity of the authors is rich and gifts readers with a completely different reading experience every time they pick the book up. The talent is immense and every year makes me proud to be a New England crime writer – one that is determined to finish a short story in enough time to be considered for the anthology one of these years!

Sherry: Every year I not only look forward to Crime Bake but also to the latest Level Best anthology of short stories. I’m not a short story writer and I’d admire those writers who can tell an intriguing tale in such a short amount of time. In every one there is something that makes me laugh and something that makes my heart pound. Congratulations to the editors and authors of Rogue Wave. I can’t wait to read it.

Co-editor Kat Fast with authors Louisa Clerici and Pamela Oberg

Jessie: I have a particular soft spot for short stories, especially when collected into an anthology. These little gems do all the work of a novel but in so much less space. The level of craft always astonishes me and I envy those who write them well. And, I also always love the titles of the Level Best series!

Edith: Such a treat to see the lineup of authors signing books on Saturday. I’ve been in one of those chairs three times in twelve years (out of more than eleven submissions) – all before I had completed a novel – and always felt honored. And my rejected story this year has found a home in a different anthology, so it’s all good, as Julie says. A certain Kate Carito and Gregory William Allen each had their debut short story pubs, too, and were delighted. My writers’ group pal Doug Hall’s story was accepted, as well – also his debut fiction publication. The volume kicks off with Al Blanchard Award winner Michael Nethercott – who we featured right here on the blog recently. Now that Crime Bake is over, I am adjourning directly to the couch to read the night away.

Julie: Level Best was my first publisher, and I’ve had three stories published by them. I was THRILLED to get Rogue Wave signed this weekend by the 23 attending authors. Congratulations to the authors, and thank you to the editors!

Readers: Which is your favorite anthology of short stories? Do you like short over long, or do you read both? Writers, did you start with short stories before going on to novels, or the reverse? Or do you only write in one format, like some of the Wickeds?

Filed under: Book Release Tagged: Doug Hall, Kate Carito, Michael nethercott, Short story

Wacky Weekend: What We’re Looking Forward to at Crime Bake

As New England writers, the New England Crime Bake is the Wickeds’ “home conference.” Some of us first met there. Most of us have been attending for years. It’s a great little conference, deliberately kept to 250 participants so it feels intimate, even though it sells out every year. The panelists, including the big dogs and the Guest of Honor, and the agents and editors hang out all weekends, so there’s plenty of time for informal conversations.

By the time you read this, most of the Wickeds will be on the road to the conference or will already be there, so today we thought we’d write about what we’re most looking forward to.

Barb: As the co-chair in 2012 and 2013, I had two goals for the conference. 1) That it would actually come off. And 2) that I would live through it. I’m happy to report that both were achieved both years. But this year, my duties on the programming committee largely done–barring of course, unforeseen disasters–I’m looking forward to kicking back, seeing my friends, and launching Best New England Crime Stories 2015: Rogue Wave, this year’s Level Best anthology. We’ll have 23 authors signing the book at Crime Bake, a record, I think.

Last year at the banquet.

Liz: Crime Bake has always been my fave writer’s conference. Every year I look forward to seeing familiar faces, making new friends, and generally being in the company of writers. The past few years attending as a published author has been so darn cool – I remember all the years I went and looked up to the authors on the panels. Now I’m one of them and it’s even sweeter. I love this job!

Edith: This year I’m moderating my first conference panel, and while I’ve prepared as much as I can, I’m looking forward to it being over at the end of Saturday morning so I can relax. I echo what Liz said: it’s a real treat to attend as a published author. And now, having gone for so many years, Crime Bake is like the first day of summer camp – greeting all my old friends, meeting some virtual friends in person for the first time, and hanging out in the bar with whoever is there (okay – that’s NOT like summer camp…). Sherry will be up from Virginia and Kim from Baltimore. And then there’s the banquet. How can you lose with costumes AND dancing?

The Level Best authors at the Vampire Ball, Crime Bake 2010. Can you find Julie, Barb, Edith, and Sheila?

Mo Walsh is one of the first people I met at my first Crime Bake in 2005.

Sherry: In 2005 I attended my first Crime Bake. I knew one person — Julie Hennrikus and I didn’t know her well. I was terrified. Now it’s like Homecoming and there’s never enough time to catch up with all the friends I’ve made by attending. By Sunday evening when I return home I’ll be exhausted and have a sore throat from talking so much — it happens every year. But I’m always grinning from ear to ear.

Julie: This year I am the co-chair of Crime Bake. This is a great honor, and I am happy to dig in. I am excited to do my interview with Craig Johnson (the Guest of Honor), though I am also a wreck. I worked on my binder tonight–my script for the weekend, and I have no doubt that Steve Ulfelder (my co-chair) and I will be counting down the speeches over the course of the weekend. I can’t wait to see the other Wickeds (we will all be there!), and to meet new friends.

Jessie: I love everything about Crime Bake! I love the energy of so many like-minded people all in one place. I love the professionalism with which the event is orchestrated. I love catching up with people I only see once a year. I love that even having attended so many times the event still feels fresh while remaining familiar. And I especially love that I get to spend time with all the other Wickeds!

Reader: Do you have a favorite conference? A place that feels like “home”?

Filed under: Group posts Tagged: Best New England Crime Stories: Rogue Wave, Criag Johnson, Crime Bake, julie hennrikus, Mo Walsh, New England Crime Bake, Rogue Wave

Being Present with the Past

Jessie: in windy and increasingly leafless New Hampshire

Over the past several months I’ve been hard at work on the first book in a new series. It’s a historical mystery set in the late 1800s and the research has been such fun. I’ve attended seances, interviewed historians and visited museums. I’ve discovered a great many things in the course of my searchings, not the least is that the past is always present.

Last week I visited the delightful Saco Museum in Saco, Maine. The museum was featuring an exhibit on the Victorian era and I wanted to be sure to visit it before it closed later this month. There were many interesting things to see like a delicate and decorative chatelaine notebook made of intricately wrought silver covers enclosing pages made of ivory, quite similar to the ones seen here. There were fancy hats and their accompanying pins, hair jewelry made from the tresses of deceased loved ones and stereoscopes with their accompanying slides.

They even had a tandem bicycle built in 1897 with a placard explaining that at the time it was made, the bicycle was called a courting cycle. The idea was that the lady sat in the front and the gentleman sat in the back. His seat was not only raised higher but also had a set of handlebars that steered the entire apparatus. The lady’s set of handlebars was merely to help her to balance.

While it was delightful to have the opportunity to look at so many interesting and novel items, what struck me most was how many of the things I was seeing were not new to me at all. New England is filled with history and also with frugality. People here tend to take care of their things and are none to eager to discard them. Most of the homes I have spent time in over the course of my life have been filled with the same sorts of furnishings, tableware and accessories that were on display at the museum.

Everywhere I turned there were fainting couches, gate-legged tables and drop-fronted desks like the ones I grew up with. Which got me thinking. 

I thought about how people have changed and how they haven’t. About what entertains us. About how we seek to provide our families and ourselves with comfort. I thought about how we still love meals shared at long dining tables and evenings spent reading in cozy sitting rooms. I thought about the nights I’ve spent turning over in a creaking antique bed, huddled beneath an elderly quilt.

Today, I write notes in a trusty Moleskine and steer my own bicycle.But I adore hats and I would like to construct a mystery around a murder involving a hatpin.

Sometimes the notion of writing about other times feels daunting. And sometimes it feels like home.

Readers, do you find the past all around you? Which things from times gone by most tickle your fancy?

 

Filed under: Jessie's posts Tagged: hatpins, hats, historical mysteries, Moleskin, New England, past, Saco ME, Saco Museum, stereoscopes

Wicked Wednesday: Writes of Passage

In 2013, when the wonderful Hank Phillippi Ryan was President of Sisters in Crime, she decided her legacy would be a book of essays. The idea was that writers would share their experiences, reach out and support one another like a warm and comforting embrace.

Working with co-editor Elaine Will Sparber, Hank reached out to members of Sisters in Crime all over the country, from every corner of the genre and at all phases of their careers. The result is a little book called Writes of Passage: Adventures on the Writer’s Journey, that contains sixty essays (#60secrets) where writers tell it like it is. The central message of the book is, “You are not alone.”

Writes of Passage is now available from Henery Press in paper and ebook form, at all the usual outlets.

Several of the Wicked Cozies have essays in the book. We thought today we’d each pick an essay that spoke to us from the collection.

Barb: I laughed out when I read Lori Roy’s essay, “Hard Work and Working Hard.” In it, she talks about how the hyper-organized style she learned as a CPA has never worked in her fiction writing. She can’t write from an outline and research is piled haphazardly around her office. The essay reminded me of the book Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks, by John Curran. (I write about it here.) You’d think Dame Agatha, Queen of Plot, would have been strictly organized, but Curran writes that Christie “thrived mentally on chaos, it stimulated her more than neat order; rigidity stifled her creative process.” But Lori’s essay made me laugh out loud because I had just said to my husband that my former profession as a Chief Operating Officer was the worst possible preparation for mystery writing. As COO, my job was usually to unkink the kinks and find the straightest line between two points, to take the obscure and make it transparent. Applied to mystery writing, the result would be a one chapter book. “A guy was killed. It was obviously so and so. He was swiftly arrested. The End.” I struggle against that impulse every day.

Liz: So many of these wonderful essays resonated with me, but as many of you know, I have procrastination issues. So Clea Simon’s “The Zen of Procrastination” spoke to me loud and clear. Her simple truth is also mine: “Somehow, as the deadline for each new book approaches, I find myself caught up on the most mundane of household chores – and then belatedly bashing out the prose at eight, nine or ten o’clock at night.” I struggle with this too, although I can – and often do – excuse my procrastination by citing the demands of my day job, but it’s the same difference. What I liked about this essay is Clea’s attempts for a Zen acceptance of her methods, such as the working out of the plot hole during the laundry cycles. I, too, am trying to be kinder to myself if I feel I have to do something instead of write at that exact moment, and channel the time more productively at least in my mind. So while I often say I’m working hard at being a reformed procrastinator, perhaps I should embrace that part of me and use it to my advantage, as Clea seems to!

Barb: I liked that one, too, Liz. I often say I am an overachiever trapped in a procrastinator’s body. But a little perspective is good. Clea publishes two books a year and you have a big day job..and…and…and. So kindness is called for.

Edith: It’s absolutely a book full of valuable advice and experience. Susan Oleksiw’s essay tells how she helped found two small presses. With the Larcom Press, which published the Larcom Review (and gave me my first full-length short story publication credit for “The Taste of Winter“) as well as several mystery novels, Susan says she and her co-editor didn’t know how to run a press, and she describes how they learned. She then went on to co-found Level Best Books, which is going strong even today, although under new management (including Barb!). Her essay ends with a paragraph that very much resonates with me: “My philosophy was, and still is, that if there’s something you want to do, just throw yourself at it. Whatever happens, you’ll know more than when you started, you’ll be closer to your goal, and your discoveries will open unexpected doors.” I agree, and have done this myself a number of times in my life.

Sherry: How could I not pick Hallie Ephron’s essay “I Get My Best Ideas at Yard Sales”? Sure I wanted to read it because I’m writing the Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery series but I loved Hallie’s novel Never Tell A Lie. The idea for the story came to her at a yard sale. I’ve also been in a number of classes taught by Hallie so I knew I’d find some good advice in her essay. Reading that a writer like Hallie gets stuck makes me feel better when I get stuck. Getting stuck happens it’s what you do about it that matters. Hallie says this: I’ve now written nine novels. My best ideas for getting unstuck seem to come to me when I’m frying chicken, or taking a shower, or driving, or going to a yard sale. In other words when I can’t write. So my advice for thinking your way out of a plot hole is this: After you’ve tried every technique in the book for writing your way out of one, step away from the keyboard.

Jessie: I really liked the essay Wabi-Sabi Writing by Kylie Logan. Basically, it spoke about mindfulness and the appreciation of things that are fleeting and imperfect.  Everything about that idea spoke to me as a writer and as a person who tries to find joy in the little things that make up a life. This attitude of acceptance and pleasure in the unfolding of what is, into what will be, is extraordinarily freeing on so many levels. It is exactly how I keep my inner editor at bay and how I convince myself to take risks of all kinds. I was delighted to find there was actually a name for that approach and that it wasn’t just a form of sloth. Ever since I read Kylie’s essay I have been chanting wabi-sabi to myself as I sit down to write, to cook or even to tidying the house. Thanks, Kylie!

Julie: I love this book. I am thrilled to be part of it, but would love it no matter what. I think there is an essay for every mood, and every writer’s need. It is really hard to pick one, but that is the task. I’m going to chose Diane Vallere‘s “What Are You Looking For?” It is about searching, and exploring the unexpected paths. Terrific essay. Great book. And fabulous legacy project for the wonderful Hank Phillippi Ryan.

Readers, have you read any of the essays? Do you have a favorite?

Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: #60secrets, Clea Simon, Diane Vallere, Elaine Will Sparber, Hallie ephron, hank phillippi ryan, Henery Press, Kylie Logan, Larcom Review, Level Best Books, Lori Roy, Never Tell A Lie, Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery, Susan Oleksiw, wabi-sabi, Writes of Passage, yard sales

Back to School

By Liz, impatiently counting down the minutes until Crime Bake this weekend

Recently, I was asked to speak to a group of high school kids who were interested in writing. I have to admit, when I first got the request I was hesitant. I remembered high school well, and I know how tough that audience can be. But in the spirit of “Do something every day that you’re afraid of,” (who said that, again?) I decided to go for it.

I spent a lot of time prepping for this one. The organizer told me to talk about my background, how I got started writing, the writing process – all the basics. I could handle that. I chose some of my favorite books about writing to show them some of the best resources available.

But I wasn’t convinced that would be enough. I wanted to give them something meaningful, something they could truly take away and use.

So I noodled it. And then it hit me one night during my ride home from work – I needed to tell these kids the things they shouldn’t believe. The things people tell kids who express an interest in writing. The things writers tell people interested in writing. All the myths that will derail an aspiring creative.

I spent a lot of time letting other people’s beliefs in writing, and making a living as a writer, fill me with uncertainty. My parents were proud of my writing abilities, yet it was hard for them to imagine just anyone achieving the appropriate level of “productive member of society” by writing books. I mean, Danielle Steel and Stephen King were the exceptions, right? So they nudged me towards teaching.

I never bit that hook, but spent plenty of time convincing myself that I needed “sensible” jobs. I let a lot of opportunities pass me by. Despite the fact that I’d sold the first short story I ever wrote as well as a few essays, I still didn’t have the confidence that I could make the writing thing work. When I finally decided to get on with my purpose, I became a reporter. That job inspired me, raised my confidence level and ultimately gave me a sense of what I could do with a pen.

From that moment on, I still worked “sensible” jobs, but they always related to writing. I had to remind myself of it daily, but it was true – I was making a living as a writer. True, not through books – yet – but I believed it would come. And it has.

A lot of that was due to the work I did with Julia Cameron‘s The Artist’s Way. Cameron has helped people all over the world discover – and more importantly, recover – their creativity. The exercises in this book, and the ongoing exercises, like morning pages, have truly saved my creative life. I hope these kids don’t yet need it, but if and when they do, now they might remember where to find the inspiration they need to move forward and fulfill their dreams.

So that was my message to the kids. Listen to your heart. Write what you want. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that writing won’t put food on your table. You probably won’t be a famous, well-paid author right out of the gate, but there are other ways to make money writing while you hone your craft. Tune everyone else out, and tune into yourself. Find and take opportunities. Open your mind.

And guess what? The session was a hit. The kids who came were mostly very serious about their writing, soaking up information and asking a lot of questions. I left feeling good about what I’d offered them. If I reached one kid who was having doubts about their career choice and inspired him or her to keep going, then I was successful.

Next time I’m asked to do an event for high schoolers, I’ll be quick to say yes.

Filed under: Liz's posts Tagged: high school, inspire, Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way

How Much is Too Much?

by Sheila Connolly

I’ve already written about “stuff”—the accumulation of several generations of treasured objects, plus all the things I’ve added over a rambling lifetime (was it seven states? Or eight?).

But maybe it really is a character trait of mine, this adding more and more of everything. As you may have noticed, I write multiple series. Four, in fact, although the latest one wasn’t planned—I had written a standalone ebook that I self-published last year (in an unfamiliar genre, paranormal romance), and it sold nicely, so my agent said, why not write a sequel? So I did. This is how I backed into writing a fourth series. Yes, there will be at least one more, in addition to the three for Berkley Prime Crime. I guess I shouldn’t wonder why some people question my sanity.

Recently I was on a public panel of writers and I was asked (not for the first time), how do you keep all your characters straight? In a way it seems an odd question, because I usually say that they’re all different people (and yes, after you’ve lived with them for a while, they seem like real people to a writer—you find yourself saying to someone, “but she wouldn’t do that!”). To some extent that was planned: Meg is a thirty-something former banker now running an apple orchard in a rural area, Nell is an almost-forty museum administrator in a big city, and Maura is a blue-collar twenty-something pub owner in Ireland. I can’t imagine how I could come up with one standard character, tweak a few personality traits, change her hair color, and drop her into three such different roles.

Of course, each of these women is surrounded by friends and colleagues and the occasional villain. How do I keep them in order? How do I even manage to avoid using the same names for them? (Sound of crazed laughter.) That’s harder, I’ll admit, especially if I have favorite names of friends or relatives, or former bosses I really want to slam for being jerks, and I want to fit them in somewhere. No, I don’t keep tidy spreadsheets or character profiles of each person in every book, and I think it’s kind of late to start.

But again, I say that even those characters are different people. Maybe they’re modeled on a real person, or maybe I made them up from scratch (I sneaked my Ideal Man in there somewhere, and I’ve pointed him out to my husband, hint, hint). But they aren’t just placeholders (the Best Friend, the Love Interest, the Unsuspected Killer)—I try to make them three-dimensional.

Or in the case of my paranormal heroine Abby, maybe four-dimensional, since she sees dead people. (Do I? Not yet, but I’m hoping. Do I know people who have or who do? Maybe.) But that sets her apart from my other protagonists. On the other hand, what links her to the others is how she deals with unexpected and difficult events and circumstances. In her case it’s seeing ghosts; the others have faced job losses, false accusations of crimes, thefts, fires, plagues of insects, unanticipated romances, and more than a few dead bodies. If they share any similarity, it’s because I hope I’ve drawn them as strong, intelligent women who can use their brains to figure things out and move forward with their lives.  And I’m happy to count them as my friends, even if they’re imaginary.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: sheila connolly

A Book Party

Edith, not yet adjusted to the time change

Quick report on the book party I held yesterday. I’d never had a launch party for ‘Til Dirt Do Us Part when it released at the end of May this year. The book opens at a farm to table dinner in the fall that I modeled on one that I attended at a local farm. That real dinner was cooked by the chefs at my local bistro, and they kindly gave me a version of one of their recipes to use in the book. So where better to hold a book party than at Phat Cats Bistro?

The date that seemed to work best for them was yesterday afternoon (which also happened to be my birthday). I paid for platters of appetizers, including the Sweet Potato Empanadas that are included in the book, and invited everyone I knew. Despite miserably cold and wet-snowy weather, we got a good turnout. The restaurant sold a bunch of drinks and I sold a bunch of books. I was also able to turn a few friends onto the restaurants, so hopefully they’ll see a hit with some new customers.

I also offered a free raffle to win naming rights for a character in Compost Mortem, the fourth Local Foods mystery, which I am writing now. My young friends James and Birima helped on that, and James also gave everyone present a copy of my new business card. I was surprised that people seemed to want to buy raffle tickets – maybe next time I’ll sell them!

Chef Christine Johnson at Phat Cats Bistro.

My wonderful sons were in town and both came along, and I was able to introduce a number of writers and readers to each other. Diane Weaver, a mystery fan who won the right have her own name on a character in ‘Til Dirt Do Us Part  in an auction a couple of years ago showed up, too.

All in all a great afternoon.

Filed under: Edith's posts Tagged: 'Til Dirt Do Us Part, Phat Cats Bistro

Boo! Best, Most Wicked Halloween

Happy All Hallow’s Evening — thus the contraction to Hallowe’en. This is the time when we use humor and ridicule to confront the power of death. The ancient Celts believed that during this liminal time, when darkness overtakes the world (at least in the northern reaches of the northern hemisphere), the spirits can more easily come into our world and are particularly active.

How do you ward off the spirits? What’s your best Halloween memory? Best costume? Or maybe your worst costume fail…

Barb: As everyone probably knows by now, I am not a Halloween lover. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t have some happy memories.

My son Rob, in an early Halloween costume.

Son Rob and daughter Kate. Costumes were always homemade. The werewolf is wearing an old mink sweater of my grandmother’s, the princess her aunt’s confirmation dress.

Last Halloween. Batman and Robin. My baby and his baby.

Liz: While my Halloween-junkie lifestyle offers many options for the most memorable, I do love dressing up the doggies and taking them to Salem. They are always huge hits, and they love the attention. It’s actually how they ended up with Facebook pages – the first time Shaggy went to Salem when she was Only Dog, people loved her so much they wanted to be able to connect with her again. A woman on the street actually had gave me the idea when she asked if she could find her on Facebook. And a star was born….

Shaggy as a bumblebee – I don’t think this was her favorite costume!

And then Finny decided he wanted to get in on the act, so here he is as a pumpkin!

Julie: My sister Kristen has a November 1 birthday, so she usually had Halloween themed parties. I remember one year when my mother made us all wear blindfolds, and then played a witch who handed around ingredients for a brew, including worms (cold spaghetti) and eyes of newt (peeled grapes). It was great. I also remember being little little, and having a nightgown that doubled as my Halloween costume. I was an angel, natch. As an adult, I loved my nieces’ first Halloween. They were 11 months old, and we got them little fleece outfits–one was a giraffe, the other was a tiger. I still smile when I see the picture. PS, I love that Liz takes the dogs to Salem.

Crime Bake 2012. From left: Julie, Sherry, Edith, Kathy Whelan, Liz

Edith: I love, love, love Hallowe’en. Love costumes – anybody who has seen me at Crime Bake banquets knows that. And I used to host an annual Halloween party, but haven’t in years. I sewed whatever costume my sons wanted every year, starting with Allan at age four saying he wanted to be a red-winged blackbird. Done. John David wanted to go as Aladdin? No problem. (If only I could easily find those pictures…) The last party I went to, hosted by a Quaker friend, had a prom theme. Loved putting on my black wig, my glasses from eighth grade, white gloves, and a plastic corsage. Why, yes, the wig and glasses do get repurposed quite often (see Crime Bake photo).Take that, dark spirits.

 

Jessie: My beloved sister and I have built a Halloween tradition that I treasure. She only lives a few miles from me but her home is out in the country. I live in a tiny village custom made for trick-or-treating. Every year she brings her children and a pot of soup and some sort of bread to my house. I make more soup and bread and provide my own batch of kids. Our husbands accompany all the cousins out trick or treating and my sister and I pass out candy and visit with each other. When our cold and tired wanderers return home we make sure they warm up with some hot soup before they begin evaluating their loot and haggling with each other over trades.

Sherry: I love getting dressed up too. Some of our best Halloweens were while we lived on Air Force Bases. A bunch of us would sit outside — perhaps with a glass of wine — and the kids just kept coming and coming. It was like a parade. I remember one unsuspecting general, whose wife was out of town, didn’t know how many kids would show up. He handed out all the candy, turned to cans of soda and finally cans of soup until he finally gave up and turned off his light.

Filed under: Group posts Tagged: Air Force Bases, costume, costumes, Crime Bake, Halloween, Salem, Samhain

Everything Has Something Good in It

by Barb on yet another lovely New England fall day

I just bought this collage created by my fellow Level Best co-editor, Kat Fast.

Artist: Kat Fast
Watercolor with glaze

I blogged about Kat (or Kathy as I call her, or Katherine as she appears on the covers of the Level Best anthologies) just the other day, when we wrote about the people in our lifeboats.

I first saw the collage at a one woman show Kat had at the Weston Council on Aging, a group she’s been very involved with as a teacher and a volunteer. I was immediately taken with the picture aesthetically and emotionally. I loved its density, composition and vibrant colors. I loved how it contained the promise of spring and summer. And, it doesn’t hurt that I also believe in my core that anything with hydrangeas in it can’t be all bad.

But when Kat explained how the piece was made, I resonated with it intellectually as well. It came out of a class with one of her teacher/mentors who believed, “Everything has something good in it.” A painting that is a failure will always contain at least one successful element. One flower, or one tiny corner, or even just a streak of the perfect color green.

So she had them cut up some of those failed pieces and arrange the successful elements in a new composition.

The result, I think, is spectacular.

What an important lesson that is for all of us who create.

Just two days ago on the blog, Kathy Lynn Emerson explained how surrendered after 100 pages of a failed Elizabethan thriller, but then was able to carve two short stories out of it.

The ideas and images that speak to us are the ideas and images that speak to us, and sooner or later, if we keep at it, we will find a way to express them.

The reason I call Kat “Kathy” is because we actually met, I hate to even think, it must be close to thirty years ago when we both worked at a company called Information Mapping. I left in the mid-90s and we lost touch, as people did in those pre-Facebook days. Then, one day, I was walking down the street in Harvard Square and there she was. “What are you up to these days?” she asked. “Oh,” I said, “I’m in this writers group. I’m writing a mystery.” “Really?” Kathy said. Because it turned out she was, too. She joined our group, and the rest is history. One of those serendipitous moments that changes several people’s lives.

At the opening of her show, Kathy spoke wonderfully, tying up into a tidy package a life she’s quick to agree has many disparate elements. She recognized each of her art teachers and told the central truth she had learned from each one, which I found very moving.

She also managed to tie in her editorship at Level Best via her story, “The Black Dog,” in Best New England Crime Stories 2012: Dead Calm, about an amateur artist, “not paying full fare at the movies” herself, who is initially rejected, then embraced by three elderly professionals in an advanced watercolor class. “The Old Cats” as they dub themselves, worry about housing and healthcare and the hundreds of paintings their children will eventually need to dispose of–until they come up with a plan that solves all those problems in one go and only depends on a little bit of fraud.

So here’s to the crafty old cats, and the mentors, and the little bit of good in all of our failures.

Filed under: Barb's posts Tagged: Best New England Crime Stories: Dead Calm, Kat Fast, Kathy Lynn Emerson

Stick with the Wickeds Contest Winner!

The official drawing hat.

Names in the hat!

Drum roll please…….

And the winner of the Stick with the Wickeds Contest is: Dru Ann Love!

Dru Ann has won an all expenses paid trip for her image to accompany the Wickeds on a stick to the New England Crime Bake.  We are delighted to have her joining us at the conference that started it all for the Wickeds!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest!

Filed under: Conferences, Contests, Jessie's posts Tagged: contests, Crime Bake, Crime writing conferences, Stick with the Wickeds