Barbara Ross's Blog, page 3

Clammed Up is Ten Years Old!

by Barb, enjoying summer in Maine, as the temperatures go down into the 50s at night–perfect sleeping weather as my mother would have said

I’m celebrating a few days early, but Clammed Up, the first book in the Maine Clambake Mystery series, has its tenth anniversary on September 3rd. (When I’ll be in Paris. Also, September 3, 2023 is the 50th anniversary of my husband and me meeting for the first time, when a friend of a friend brought him to my West Philadelphia apartment. Who’d have thought we’d be here now?)

Little did I know when I wrote it how important Clammed Up would be and what a workhorse it would be.

Actually, it’s a good thing I didn’t know how important it would be, because if I had known, I likely would have freaked out and been paralyzed. As a reader, I’m perfectly willing to excuse a weak first-in-series book, especially if I’ve been entranced by a later book and gone back to read in order. (I’m similarly willing to give the first episode of a television series a pass if there’s a lot of set up and go on to try the second episode.) However, lots and lots of people read in order, and for them, Clammed Up is the gateway to the Maine Clambake Mystery series.

As for being the workhorse, Clammed Up is still in print, in its seventh printing, if the copyright page is to be believed. It had sold 85,640 ebook and mass market paperback copies as of December, 30, 2022, the date of my last royalty statement. (I don’t have a count on audiobooks and large print. The accounting for those is done differently.) Not big numbers for a bestselling author, but good for a mid-lister like me. (I think. In this business no one tells you anything.) It still sells along at between 40 and 150 paperbacks a month, at least this year (according to Bookscan).

Clammed Up was a nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel for 2013, for the RT Book Reviews, Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for 2013–Amateur Sleuth, and was a finalist for the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. The book has a respectable 4.3 rating on Amazon with 2709 reviews, and a lower 3.92 rating with a higher 4480 reviews on Goodreads, but I actually think that is good. It means the book reached people beyond the core cozy audience–and for some of them, it wasn’t their cup of tea.

Here’s what some nice people said about Clammed Up. (Some are old friends now but back then I barely knew most of them.)

I can see this series on the bookshelves for years to come.

Dru’s Book Musings

Clammed Up certainly deserves its nomination for the Agatha, and I will be making my reservation for another clambake with Julia and her family.

Carstairs Considers

Clammed Up is a terrific start to what promises to be a top-notch series, with a cast of characters I look forward to knowing better.

Suspense Magazine

Ms. Ross has written such a gorgeously cohesive novel that I wanted to celebrate it as a paragon of cozy cooking mysteries as well as a fine piece of fiction on its own.

Criminal Element

It’s always exciting to catch the first book of a new mystery series and realize it’s the start of years of enjoyment ahead.

Kingdom Books

When I look back at Clammed Up today, it is very much a first-in-series book. I was finding my way, getting to know my main character Julia Snowden, her strengths and foibles, and the world of Busman’s Harbor, Maine. I recently read an interview with an actor who has been playing the same character in a TV series for ten years. He said that when he went into the first episodes, he’d done plenty of prep on the character and his backstory and so on. But now that he’s portrayed the character reacting to all the situations he’s been in during the series, it feels like he has actual lived experience as this character. That’s very much the way I feel about Julia. Now that I’ve seen how she acts in so many different situations, I know her so much better.

Clammed Up has made the career I’ve had as a traditionally-published author possible. It’s led me to eleven additional novels and six novellas about the Maine Clambake characters. And, it has led me to all of you. I will be forever grateful.

Readers: How do you feel about first-in-series books? Is it one chance for you, or will you give a series with possibilities a second try?

Scared Off–A Maine Clambake Mystery Novella–Released

by Barb, loving the end of summer here in Maine

I am very excited to celebrate the release this week of Scared Off, a Maine Clambake Mystery novella. Triply excited because I’m sharing the release week with Cate Conte and Maddie Day!

Here’s the blurb

Barbara Ross returns to glorious Maine with a spooky but fun Julia Snowden mystery set during Halloween season.

Three teenage girls having a sleepover on Halloween night get spooked when high schoolers crash the house for a party. But no one expected to find a crasher like Mrs. Zelisko, the elderly third floor tenant, dead in the backyard—dressed in a sheet like a ghost. With her niece traumatized, Julia Snowden must uncover who among the uninvited guests was responsible for devising such a murderous trick . . .

About the book

Scared Off is book 9.5 in the Maine Clambake saga. In other words, it falls chronologically between book 9, Shucked Apart, and book 10, Muddled Through. Scared Off originally appeared in the collection Halloween Party Murder along with novellas by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis, so if you own that book, you already own this story. This week’s Scared Off standalone release is ebook-only. If you are a person who prefers to read in print, there are still copies of Halloween Party Murder available.

Here’s what some nice people said about the novella.

…my favorite novella in the collection. I enjoyed getting to spend some time with the characters, and I loved how the mystery unfolded.

Carstairs Considers

Barbara Ross always gives us solid characters that cleverly enhance her atmospheric cozies. Scared Off is a tasty Halloween morsel not to be overlooked this holiday season!

Wonder Woman Sixty

…my favorite cozy author, Barbara Ross, …provides us with another excellent installment of her Maine Clambake Mystery series.

Criminal Element

What is the deal with the novellas anyway?

This year library speaking events have really come back and I’ve done a bunch. The most common questions seem to be about the novellas. Here are some answers:

Yes, they are about the Maine Clambake characters, Julia Snowden and friends. They take place in the world of Busman’s Harbor and they do move the narrative forward in important ways. (Especially the later ones.) For those of you eagerly awaiting the next full-length book, they are a good way to visit with the Snowden family and friends.Novellas from Kensington are typically 25,000 to 35,000 words, or round and about 100 to 125 pages.Given the length, only one of my novellas is structured like a traditional mystery, with the central question of whodunnit? (That one would be Hallowed Out .) The others are structured around the central question, whatisgoingonhere? Though I do promise an answer to all reader questions, including whodunnit by the end of each.The novella stories do fall chronologically between the books (see below). In the beginning I had a little trouble with this and the chronology of the first couple is just a little off. Once I got into the flow of one full-length book set immediately before, during, or after the Snowden Family Clambake’s summer season, and one holiday-related novella set during the off-season each year, it really seemed to work.I’ve indicated the novellas chronological placement in the list below. Nogged Off , book 4.5, comes between Fogged Inn and Iced Under . Logged On , book 6.5, comes between Stowed Away and Steamed Open Hallowed Out , book 7.5, comes between Steamed Open and Sealed Off Scared Off , book 9.5, comes between Shucked Apart and Muddled Through Perked Up , book 10.5, comes between Muddled Through and Hidden Beneath . (This novella has not yet been published as a standalone ebook. The story is available in the hardcover, ebook, audiobook and large print formats in the collection Irish Coffee Murder . The mass market paperback is coming December 26, 2023.) Hopped Along , book 11.5, comes between Hidden Beneath and Maine Clambake Mystery #12. (This novella is coming in hardcover and ebook formats in the collection Easter Basket Murder , on January 23, 2024.)

Please join me in congratulating Cate and Maddie and celebrating a big week for Wicked Authors books.

Readers: Do you think it’s fair to move the series characters’ stories forward in the novellas, or no because many people skip them?

Cute Babies Sell Maine Clambake Mysteries, continued

by Barb who is at the Jersey shore with 3 generations of extended family

Long-time readers will be familiar with my highly mercenary and ethically debatable ad campaign, Cute Babies Sell Maine Clambake Mysteries.

I’m happy to say we have a new entry this year. Cute baby (really toddler) sells Hidden Beneath!

Like the others, my newest grandniece (greatniece? great-niece?) is taken with Kensington’s colorful covers.

Very taken.

(Her grandmother swears she’s never done this to any other book and I believe it.)

Kensington’s covers are so distinctive that my non-reading grandchildren can pick them off the shelf and know that I wrote them.

Let’s review the campaign.

2021–Cute Babie Sells Shucked Apart

My third granddaughter, another one who seems to find cozy culinary mysteries delicious, selling Shucked Apart.

2019–Cute baby sells Jane Darrowfield

My second granddaughter, selling us Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody.

2013–Cute Babies Sell Clammed Up

The whole campaign started because in 2013, I had new granddaughter, a first grandchild as a matter of fact, and a new book series. My daughter-in-law took a photo of my son reading Clammed Up to his daughter and we were off and running!

The photo that started it all!

My brother also had a new granddaughter and they got in on the act. A campaign was born.

Here are our models at the beach last year. (Somehow we missed a campaign with the cutie second from the left.)

We’ll try to get an updated photo of six wiggling, giggling children this year!

Readers: What do you think? Exploitation of unpaid child labor or compelling advertising campaign? (It can be both.)

Politics in Cozies

by Barb, heading out tomorrow for a few days of vacation with my oldest granddaughter

Hidden Beneath, my eleventh Maine Clambake Mystery, was published on June 27. Since then, it has received some wonderful reviews in publications, on blog posts, and on review sites like Goodreads and Amazon. Many people have written to say they loved the book.

I also received this email:

Barbara, I pre-ordered Hidden Beneath and was enjoying every bit until I came to page 50 and the wokeness sentence appeared out of no where. I am disappointed that you felt it necessary to interject your political views. It cast a wet blanket over the story for me who is fed up with efforts to make it wrong to be “rich” and a sin to be white. I am amazed, as successful as you are, that you would deviate from your winning formula.

To be clear, the writer of the email signed her full name, town and state. She did not attempt to be anonymous. I removed that information.

Now, before everyone loses their minds, let me say a couple of things. 1) I agree that cozies should not be polemics about partisan politics. I know from my fan mail, which comes more often than you might think from chemo therapy chairs and hospital bedsides, many people turn to cozies in times of stress. “You were my pandemic read,” so many people have said to me. Since partisan politics create so much of our human stress, people often aren’t looking for that when they want to be entertained and taken away from their cares. And, 2) I don’t think an authorial voice advocating political positions belongs in cozies. I know other very successful authors approach the work differently and they should do what they do. Avoiding politics is not a part of the Cozy Covenant. It’s just that as a reader, I find these messages intrusive. More often than not they take me out of the story.

I do, however, believe that cozy characters, if they are well-rounded, do have political beliefs, and that occasionally they express them or otherwise make them obvious.

I’m going to write now about the political beliefs of my Maine Clambake regulars. If you think it’s going to make you crazy, this is your chance to bail.

Let’s look at the passage my correspondent reacted to. Julia and her ex-boyfriend Chris are on Chipmunk Island, a summer community of one hundred homes.

Back outside, there was a loud crack, and the crowd in the stands at the ball field cheered as a spry woman raced around the bases while a young guy chased a ball. In the golf cart, I sat back against the seat, taking it all in. Aside from the clothes they wore, the people on the green might have been playing baseball or tennis in 1890. I said as much to Chris. “It’s like the olden days here.”

He looked around and nodded his head. “Yup. Everybody’s rich and everybody’s white.”

Notice that the author doesn’t say this. It’s Julia’s ex-boyfriend Chris who says it. Chris is portrayed throughout the series as raised among great-uncles, who worked in Maine’s paper mills. He’s got an old-fashioned trade unionist point of view. Julia’s sister, Livvie, teases Julia in more than one book about her boyfriend being a “commie.” What Chris says is entirely consistent with his established character.

The quote above may not be what my correspondent objected to. Following what Chris says, Julia thinks, but does not say.

So maybe not the good old days after all.

Note that neither Chris or Julia say it’s bad to be rich or white. (Though Chris may believe it’s bad to be rich. Julia, a confirmed capitalist and entrepreneur, definitely doesn’t believe that.) Rather, Chris is expressing an observation about the community as it continues today and the forces of history that made it so. Julia knows that there may well have been written restrictions in the island’s charter about who could build or buy there. Or, the restrictions may not have been written down, just a practice of approving sales to “people we know,” in a world where that invariably meant, “people like us.” Though the world where written restrictions based on religion or race is gone, the fact that the Chipmunk Island houses never go on the open market informally perpetuates it.

Julia acknowledges this history in response to Chris’s remark. The good old days evoked by the island baseball game weren’t good for everyone. Note that neither one of them condemn the people who live on the island now, just the forces that caused it to be the place that is.

The whole of Hidden Beneath is a meditation on what’s worth keeping and leaving behind from the past. Julia is processing in the scene above. She keeps processing throughout the book as she witnesses things that are good and should be preserved, things that are bad and should be left behind, and things that societal change has rendered obsolete and that will be left behind no matter how we feel about them.

Chris and Julia also have different views of what “rich” means. Julia has worked in venture capital in New York City, so she has known some super rich people. Her friend Quentin Tupper (more on him later) also falls into this category. She thinks of the residents of Chipmunk Island as “comfortable.” There are no helicopters or super-yachts bringing residents to huge mansions. For Chris, the houses on the island, passed down from one generation to the next, represent inter-generational wealth. That makes the residents rich in his view of the world.

At the time this conversation takes place, Julia is living in the renovated mansion her mother inherited, so her view of inter-generational wealth is more nuanced. As she says, she doesn’t feel rich, but she does feel lucky. The series has never shied away from looking at differences in class and experience and how they affect the characters’ perceptions.

What about Julia’s politics? She went to college in western Massachusetts. (To Smith, though I never actually say that.) And then to grad school and work in New York City. She’s a classic northeastern liberal, though politics are not a main (or a Maine) preoccupation for her. The Maine Clambake Mysteries are written in the first person, so everything we see and hear is from Julia’s point of view. (Cue my theory that all narrators are unreliable–which drives Sherry crazy.) Is Julia me? No. She’s half my age for one thing, so she’s sensitive to things I am not. I, on the other hand, have a lot more lived history to inform my views than she does.

What about the other Maine Clambake Mystery regulars? Here’s what they believe politically. But remember, most of this is “off the page,” as we say about sex and gore in cozies. It informs my writing of the characters, but for the most part, you haven’t seen it explicitly.

Sonny, Julia’s brother-in-law, is conservative in his political views and in life. He believes in the old ways. He lobsters like his father did, and works at his wife parents’ clambake. Though he’s the antagonist in about three-quarters of the first book in the series, Sonny and Julia come to have a good working and family relationship based on mutual respect. In Muddled Through, Julia says of Sonny:

He’d been a part of my life for more than half of it. We worked together every day all summer long. But we accomplished this by carefully avoiding landmine topics, including the biggies—religion and politics—and the small: for example, what was the best route out of the harbor in the small boat we used to move lobsters and ourselves out to Morrow Island for the clambake.

Surely everyone has a relationship like this.

Julia’s sister, Livvie, appears to agree with her husband politically, thought she rarely expresses her thoughts because her main interest is in keeping the peace between her husband and sister. Julia believes Livvie sometimes secretly agrees with her but there is no evidence for this. It’s just something Julia wants to believe about her sister.Neighbors Fee and Vee Snugg are Republicans whose ideal is legendary Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith. Their loyalties moved to Senator Olympia Snowe and then to Senator Susan Collins. In the last several years, Vee has been having doubts about Collins. Fee has remained stalwart. They have never discussed it, but each quietly believes that she canceled out the other’s vote in the 2020 Maine senatorial election.Jacqueline, Julia’s mother also doesn’t discuss politics, not in the interests of keeping the peace, but because she was raised that it isn’t polite to discuss such things in (potentially) mixed company. When she is able, she has been quietly been giving money to Planned Parenthood for decades.Restaurant owner Gus is so conservative he advocates a return to the gold standard. His practice of only allowing people he knows and people who come with people he knows to eat in his restaurant is charming and well-understood by the locals but undoubtedly results in some instances of illegal discrimination.Mrs. Gus mostly agrees with her husband though she’s been known to roll her eyes or give him a sharp elbow when he really goes off.Quentin Tupper, silent investor in Julia’s family business, made a fortune in tech. He tends toward the libertarian outlook some of those tech guys have. Julia teases him about this, but he’s been so supportive of her and her family in so many different ways, neither of them lets politics get in the way of their relationship.LeRoy the cat is also a libertarian, as all cats are.

I could have written Julia’s, or any of the characters’, politics as differing from what you’d expect from their background. That might have been more interesting character-wise. But it also would have required me to create opportunities to “show not tell” this, which would have required more dialog about partisan politics, which would have been the opposite of what I was trying to achieve.

In many ways I’m surprised I got the email above in response Hidden Beneath and not last year’s book, Muddled Through, which is much more “political.” The entire sixth chapter of that book is devoted to a contentious town meeting. There’s also an explicit discussion on the impact of increasing income inequality on resort towns like Busman’s Harbor. But that discussion does work with the Cozy Covenant, the last principle of which is “I want the book to be about something.’

Readers: Let’er rip. Does developing well-rounded characters require them to have political views? And, if so, how and how much do you want to hear about them?

Hidden Beneath Release, a New Map and a #giveaway

by Barb, taking time out from book jail in Maine

Hidden Beneath, the eleventh book in my Maine Clambake Mystery series, releases today. It feels like it’s been a long time coming, but it’s actually almost exactly a year since the last book in the series, Muddled Through, was published. And only six months since the last novella, “Perked Up,” in Irish Coffee Murder came out.

To celebrate, I’m giving away paperback copies of Hidden Beneath to two lucky commenters below.

A New Map

Regular readers of the blog and the series will be familiar with the map of Busman’s Harbor, Maine that I had made for the release of Shucked Apart. My goal at the time was to capture the intricate world I’d created through nine novels.

Click on the image to see a larger version on my website

My motivation to create the new map was just the opposite. Instead of a sprawling world that threatened to get out of my control, I was dealing with a limited geography that was critical to the story. As I wrote Hidden Beneath, I had such a hard time visualizing my characters movements through this terrain that I had to rely on my hand-drawn map a great deal. Unlike Busman’s Harbor, which is deeply familiar to me at this point, Chipmunk Island, the site of the new novel, was terra incognito. I was making it up as I went along.

Chipmunk Island appears on the map of Busman’s Harbor and in several of the earlier books in the series, mostly as the Snowden Family Clambake tour boat, the Jacquie II, takes customers out to Morrow Island to enjoy their clambake meals. In other words, in passing. Up until this book, I had only the vaguest notion of who lived on the island, and aside from the shape that contributes its name, knew next to nothing about the physical island either. Hidden Beneath fills those spaces.

Click on the map to see a larger image on my website

As with the previous map, I worked with artist Rhys Davies. I drew a (terrible) draft of the map and researched the houses. That process was made much easier this time, because a) I hadn’t described the houses in multiple books prior to looking for physical examples, and b) Kensington did such a terrific rendering of the victim’s house for the cover that I had my starting point. Rhys did everything else. We went back and forth a few times, but we’re veterans of working together now. I highly recommend him should you ever need a map.

A new book and a new map. Feels like a day for celebration!

Readers: Do you like maps in books? Do you find them helpful or distracting? Comment below or just say “hi” for a chance to win one of two copies of Hidden Beneath.

Did my Grandmother Pose for Norman Rockwell?

by Barb, still in book jail

Hi all. I am still in book jail and I barely have two brain cells to rub together. (To prove it, I just had to sit for a second to conjure up the word “cell.”) Therefore, I thought I would rerun an old post, or actually two. The posts were originally from August and September 2012 on the Maine Crime Writers blog. Though many people remember them, we have a whole new audience here that I thought might enjoy them.

I was thinking of my grandmother, and therefore these posts, because of a conversation Friend of the Wickeds Luis Nunez had here with author Marjorie McCown about Luis’s vintage hat collection. My grandmother, Eleonore Kimbel Taylor Ross, was a millinery buyer for Saks Fifth Avenue from the 1930s until she retired in the early 1960s.

The First Post: Did my Grandmother Pose for Norman Rockwell?

Originally published August 17, 2012 on the Maine Crime Writers

A few weeks ago, my husband Bill and I took advantage of a talk I was doing at the (gorgeous) Lee Library in Lee, MA to spend a few days at the Red Lion Inn in the Berkshires. On the first day, we visited Edith Wharton’s home, The Mount, which I totally recommend. We also saw King Lear at Shakespeare and Company, which was fantastic.

But when we went to breakfast on the second morning, the dining room was abuzz. We were traveling in that vacation news bubble and didn’t know that there had been a fire overnight at a transformer recycling company in nearby Ghent, NY and everyone was urged to stay indoors and turn off their air conditioning.

So we scrapped our plans for the day and decided to revisit the Norman Rockwell Museum because it is, at least, indoors.

After the main tour, I started poking around investigating something I’d wondered about for years. On a much earlier trip to the museum, I’d come around the corner in a exhibit on Rockwell’s early years in advertising and come face to face with…my grandmother. I was so startled, I think I even jumped.

As a child, I’d overheard references to my grandmother modeling for Rockwell, but this was in the sixties when both Rockwell and my grandmother were still alive and the references were in the “Man, we should have held on to those pictures,” vein. I think honestly I only heard it once or twice and I wasn’t sure if the story was apocryphal. It made some sense, yes. Rockwell was working in New Rochelle, New York in the late teens and twenties, which is where my grandmother lived, but beyond that, who knew? I didn’t think to write down details about the drawing the first time I saw it at the museum or take a photo.

But then, a few years ago when I helped my parents move, I found a couple of other illustrations my grandmother had posed for. That seemed to put a little more meat on the bones of the story. So this summer while we were at the museum, I spent time looking through the catalog trying to find that picture and came up with several advertisements that might possibly be my grandmother. And when I got home, I went back to the scrapbook and looked up those other illustrations.

Both have notes on them in my grandmother’s distinctive handwriting that say, “Eleonore Taylor by Coles Phillips.”

C. Coles Phillips was a well known American illustrator who lived and worked in New Rochelle until he died tragically young in 1927 at age 47. He owned his own advertising agency where one of his first employees was his fellow art school student, Edward Hopper.

The first item in the scrapbook was a December 15, 1921 cover of Life Magazine. The “fadeaway” technique of having the outfit and background be the same color is something Phillips was known for. Once you know what you’re looking for, you can find these covers all over the web and I ordered copies for family members.

The second item was just a fragment, an ad for Scranton lace, but you can find the full ad on the internet and I ordered an original via eBay. As with the Life covers, Coles Phillips did a whole series of these ads. This one appeared in the Ladies Home Journal in February, 1922 when my grandmother would have been a junior at Smith College.

But did my grandmother pose for Rockwell? Why keep copies of the Phillips illustrations and not the ones by Rockwell? Of course, I never saw any of them out in her house.  Which is odd because the advertisement for Lord Calvert whiskey my grandfather posed for was always displayed.

Maybe when I was growing up in the fifties and sixties, 1945, when my grandfather appeared in this series of ads, seemed a lot closer than 1922, when my grandmother’s ads appeared. The drawing at the top of this post (artist unknown) I found tucked in her page from her high school yearbook. So she wasn’t about displaying this stuff. I also remember Rockwell being quite out of fashion in those Mad Men days when I was young, dismissed as a mere illustrator of sentimental subjects for unsophisticated tastes. So that might have contributed.

I wrote to the archivist at the museum, Venus Van Ness (which should totally be a character name, don’t you think?). She said they do have some (scant) information on models and she would check.

What do you think?

The Second Post: Did my Grandmother Pose for Norman Rockwell–The Answer

(Or reason number 6,400,057 why I love the World Wide Web)

This post originally appeared on September 10, 2012 on the Maine Crime Writers.

Last month I wrote a blog post about my investigations into whether my grandmother had modeled for Norman Rockwell in the early 1920s.

Well, I think we got the answer!

One of the comments on that blog post said,

“Hello Barbara,

When you have a moment, please feel free to contact me concerning your grandmother and Norman Rockwell. I believe I have the information you’re seeking.

My best,

Robert Berridge

Norman Rockwell historian”

A bit of Googling showed that Robert Berridge was a known Rockwell expert. (For example, he served as a source for Laura Claridge’s 2003 biography Norman Rockwell: A Life). So I wrote him right back. Here’s his response.

“Good Friday morning Barb – happy to help.

After your Grandmother posed for C. Coles Phillips, she modeled for Mr. Rockwell in the following artwork…

* February 25, 1922 cover of the Literary Digest
* Raybestos ad featured in the March 4, 1922 Saturday Evening Post
* March 23, 1922 cover of Life Magazine

Please feel free to send additional information concerning Eleonore.”

This is truly astonishing. Because it means that when I came around that corner at the Rockwell museum that day and thought I saw my grandmother, I actually did. Naturally, as a writer, I started thinking about how I would make this moment believable if it was in a book. The answer is that the first, wholistic impression, the one that takes in the attitude as well as the totality of the physical aspects is the right one. After that, the more you study it, the less sure you are. I had never known my grandmother when she was twenty-one, yet I was positive it was her.

March 23, 1922 Life Magazine cover, “Don’t Say I Said Anything.” My grandmother is on the left.

Here’s what I wrote back to Berridge about what I knew about my grandmother during those years.

“As for my grandmother’s New Rochelle days, I don’t know a lot. I think she would have been a junior at Smith college in 1922. Her family had moved to New Rochelle (Sea View Ave) when the suburbs opened up. She was the oldest in the family and always missed New York City–never quite made the switch. Her mother’s family were quite well-known interior designers–A. Kimbel & Son.”

I asked Mr. Berridge how he knew this was my grandmother, and this is what he said,

“Over the past forty years, I’ve conducted thousands of oral interviews, phone calls, letter writings and emails concerning the life and times of Norman Rockwell-a hobby that went out of control!  My archives are vast.

February 25, 1922 cover of Literary Digest, “The Master Violinist.” My grandmother’s face appears just under the bow.

“In the mid 1980’s, I happened to interview a close friend of Mr. Rockwell’s in New Rochelle, NY – a behind the scenes Rockwell biographer of sorts.  In that interview, I received a treasure trove of information including that of your Grandmother Eleonore.

“In November of 1921, Mr. Rockwell traveled to South America.  He started one sketch right before he left and two soon after he came back.  Your Grandmother’s name was given to me as the young woman who modeled for those sketches – the illustrations listed….”

Once I knew what I was looking for, I found the other covers easily on the web. They’re both well-known works. Some people believe the Life cover, “Don’t Say I Said Anything,” is emblematic of Rockwell’s life-long hatred of gossip and presages his much better known Saturday Evening Post cover, “The Gossips.” “The Master Violinist” was made into a Rockwell plate (plate like a dish, not plate as in printing) and depending on the condition and lighting, you can see her face much more clearly.

All of the artwork my grandmother appears in, both the C. Coles Phillips pieces and the Rockwell ones, was published in a period of a few months between December, 1921 and March, 1922. I have no idea what lead times were like in publishing in those days, but it makes me wonder if my grandmother spent the summer between her sophomore and junior years in college modeling.

It must be noted here that Venus Van Ness, the archivist at the Rockwell Museum writes that there is no documentation to support the oral histories Berridge collected in this case.  Here’s her response.

“I spoke with Robert Berridge last week about your grandmother.  Based on the extensive oral histories that he has conducted with individuals connected with Rockwell, he determined that your grandmother was in fact a model for Rockwell.  He didn’t provide me with any real specifics or documentation, however, so that basically still leaves me at square one.

“Unfortunately because the dates in question are so early in Rockwell’s career, it’s difficult to find supporting documentation.  One source that we rely on here are Rockwell’s check registers.  In many cases, the check stubs show us who modeled for Rockwell, the date(s), the particular work, as well as how much they were paid.  The problem is that these check registers only date back to 1937.  Additionally, the business correspondence collection that we have has very few items from the teens and twenties.

“So, to make a long story short, I can’t confirm that grandmother was a model for Rockwell.  However, based on the dates, the fact that she lived in New Rochelle, and had worked as a model for other artists, makes it very possible.  At that time in Rockwell’s early career, he did employ professional models.  Your grandmother may very well have been one of them.

“So sorry that I couldn’t be more definitive in my response.  Best of luck with your continued searching.”

So there is still a leap of faith here, though a much tinier leap than before.

Today

Since the original posts went up, I’ve found a couple of articles about the Raybestos ad, both in communications from the Rockwell Museum.

A 1986 article about the acquisition says, “Painted on canvas en grisaille, the picture is interesting for several reasons. The black and white palette reveals that the advertiser chose not to go to the expense of color printing. The ad predates the use of photography in advertising work and is one of seven known pieces done for the Raybestos company. It is one of the few Rockwell works which treat the subject of mother and daughter, and it is the only one in the series which is clearly aimed at the female reader. The picture is important as an addition to the collection since advertising art is not well represented in the Museum’s holdings.”

The image also illustrates the website for a 2020 exhibit on Rockwell’s paintings of women and girls. Part of the text says,

“This exhibition takes a lively look at Rockwell’s approach to painting women and girls. According to Rockwell, ‘…I paint the kind of girls your mother would want you to marry,’ but in fact, many of his female protagonists were strong and savvy. In his early career, he hired professional female models to pose for him, painting with a narrative realism that made his characters relatable to magazine’s target audience, women.”

So that’s it, long story long. I must say the journey on this investigation was a fun as the result.

Readers: Have you ever gone on an investigation where the journey was as much fun as the results?

Easter Basket Murder Cover Reveal and a #giveaway

by Barb in enjoying a beautiful May day in Maine

This is a bit of a sideways cover reveal, as some of you may have seen the cover in graphics promoting Barnes & Noble’s recent pre-order promotion. Anyway, this is the official announcement.

Easter Bunny Murder is the latest holiday novella collection by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and me, coming January 24, 2024.

As we’ve been doing all month, there is a giveaway at the end of this post.

What do you think? I find it hilarious. Kensington has really been on a roll with the covers for my mysteries and the mystery novella collections I’ve been included in lately.

Here’s the description.

Put on your Sunday best and grab a basket, because Easter egg hunting in these quaint Maine towns is to dye for!

EASTER BASKET MURDER by LESLIE MEIER
Tinker’s Cove businesses are clashing over a new Easter Basket-themed promotion to boost in-store sales, with tensions boiling over the grand prize—a mysterious golden egg crafted by a reclusive Maine artist. When the one-of-a-kind art piece is stolen, it’s up to part-time reporter Lucy Stone to investigate three struggling entrepreneurs who stick out in the local scene. But a huge town scandal comes into focus when a harmless shopping spree turns deadly, leaving Lucy to stop a murderer from springing back into action . . .

DEATH BY EASTER EGG by LEE HOLLIS
As Bar Harbor’s annual egg hunt approaches, Food & Cocktails columnist and restauranteur Hayley Powell is thrilled to introduce her grandson, Eli, to local springtime traditions. Turns out, keeping up with a rambunctious toddler isn’t always sunshine and rainbows—especially when a decadent peanut butter treat kills the Easter bunny himself during the festivities! Now, with a clear-as-cellophane case of murder on her hands, it’s up to Hayley to crack the clues and scramble deadly plans before it’s too late . . .

HOPPED ALONG by BARBARA ROSS
Julia Snowden’s Easter Sunday at Windsholme, a sprawling mansion tucked away on a remote Maine island, looks like it’s been borrowed from the pages of a lifestyle magazine. But when a dead body is discovered in the garden—then vanishes soon after without any explanation—an innocent hunt for eggs becomes a dangerous hunt for answers. With no clues beyond a copy of The Adventures of Peter Rabbit, Julia must find out if April Fool’s Day came early or if she’s caught in a killer’s twisted game . . .

Readers: What do you think? Of the cover? The theme? The story descriptions? One lucky commenter below will win a hardcopy edition of my first book, The Death of an Ambitious Woman and a Snowden Family Clambake tote bag.

Ten Years Later with Barbara Ross #giveaway

Here’s my first post on the Wickeds blog ten years ago. It was titled So Who Is Barbara Ross. The interview was done by Liz Mugavero/Cate Conte. New info is in italics for those who want to skim.

To continue our month-long anniversary celebration, I’m giving away a hardcopy of Irish Coffee Murder and an Advance Reader Copy of Hidden Beneath to one lucky commenter below.

Liz: I love to chat with my wicked cozy sisters – they’re such interesting people, and I find out new nuggets of information every time! Today I’m talking to Barbara Ross, author of Clammed Up, to get an idea of what makes her tick.

I’m not doing the photo comparison thing like Sherry.

Barb, how long have you been writing? What did you start out writing?

I always wrote. My mother has an embarrassing illustrated story about a wild horse circa second grade that she’s saving to blackmail me with some day.

My mother has died since the original post, so I am now in possession of the incriminating wild horse tale. I swear I wrote about it on the blog here once, but I can’t find the post. Maybe that’s just as well.

Who has influenced you?

So many people! Like a lot of girls, I graduated from Nancy Drew to Agatha Christie to Dorothy Sayers. Then I wandered in the desert of contemporary American literature for awhile and found my way back to mystery via P.D. James, Ruth Rendell and Colin Dexter.

This one is still true. P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, and Colin Dexter taught me everything about mysteries and series and writing and reading. I am forever grateful.

Who do I buy as soon as the books hit the stores? In mystery, Louise Penny, Deborah Crombie, Julia Spencer-Fleming.

Also Tana French, Ann Cleeves, and Kate Atkinson

Who would I say has most influenced my series? Cleo Coyle, Sheila Connolly, Kaitlyn Dunnett, Sarah Graves, Leslie Meier, Lucy Burdette, Lea Wait.

This one is still true, too. These are the authors who convinced me I could write a cozy mystery.

Who would I trade my soul to write like? Alice Munro.

Still true. Also, Diana Gabaldon. I know, economy versus expansiveness, but I love them both.

Talk about your past life in the business world. How has that influenced your fiction?

Julia Snowden, the protagonist of Clammed Up worked at a venture capital firm and I knew quite a few people like that when I was a tech entrepreneur. One scene in the book is a direct lift from the life of a young investment banker I knew.

I always worked in start-ups, and starting your own little author business turns out to have a lot of similarities. And a lot of differences, but the similarities do help.

What’s your connection to New England?

I was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, but my family left when I was just a few months old. It tool me 22 years to get back, but the instant I moved to New England, it felt like home. Currently, I live with my husband in Somerville, MA and we have a summer place in Boothbay Harbor, ME which I’ve highly fictionalized for the Busman’s Harbor in my Clambake mysteries.

In 2017, after my mother-in-law who was living downstairs died, we sold the Somerville house and moved to Portland, Maine and haven’t looked back. We sold the Boothbay Harbor house in 2019 and have consolidated our lives in Portland. We love it there.

What’s your favorite thing about New England?

The people. Hands down. And the variety. City, country, ocean, lakes, mountains, rivers, winter, spring, summer, fall, history, contemporary. You never get bored or run out of things to do.

Still the same.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?

People are always surprised to learn that I’m a scrapbooker. I think it doesn’t fit with my personality, but it’s a hobby I enjoy.

The fiction writing has pretty much killed the scrapbooking. I still have all the supplies and very soon I either need to pick it up again or admit that it’s not happening and get rid of all the stuff.

What are you working on right now?

Book two in the Maine Clambake Mystery series, Boiled Over. Reading all the submissions for Level Best Books where I’m a co-editor. Getting ready to open registration for the New England Crime Bake, where I’m co-chair.

Seven years ago, my group of editors turned publishing the Best New England Crime Stories annual collection over to new group of editors. The franchise has since changed editors again and is now Crime Spell Books. I spoke to one of the current editors at Malice Domestic and they are busily reading this year’s submissions. As for me, I’m writing Book 12 in the Maine Clambake Mystery series due (ulp) July 1. I’m no longer involved with the New England Crime Bake, except as a happy attendee. I am now happily involved with the Maine Crime Wave.

Why cozies? Do you write anything else additionally?

Cozies because I love a good mystery. I also write short stories.

I would add cozies because I love writing a series. I also write novellas. I haven’t written a short story in years. I’m always distracted by my book and novella deadlines (and I’m always behind).

Which are the top five books are in your to-be-read pile?

There Was an Old Woman–Hallie Ephron

The Clover House–Henriette Lazaridis Powers

Zinsky the Obscure–Ilan Mochari

Together Tea–Marjan Kamali

Kneading to Die–Liz Mugavero

Okay now it’s…

Murder on the Homefront –Jessica Ellicott

Final Cut –Marjorie McCown

The Ingredients of Happiness –Lucy Burdette

Dead Man’s Wake –Paul Doiron

And one book for a blurb that I’ll keep to myself for now.

Liz: Thanks for sharing, Barb! Can’t wait to read Clammed Up – and I love the title Boiled Over too. Looking forward to your book.

Readers: I found reading over my answers from ten years ago to be quite satisfying. A lot has happened and been accomplished, but I’m still me. Do you ever reflect on your life five or ten years ago? Comment for a chance to win Irish Coffee Murder and an ARC of Hidden Beneath.

Hidden Beneath ARCs Are Here and a #giveaway

by Barb, first post from Maine in 2023

Advance Reader Copies of Hidden Beneath, the eleventh novel in the Maine Clambake Mystery series are here!

To celebrate, I’m giving away one copy each, signed by me, to 10 lucky winners. US only, unfortunately. Enter by April 17, by signing up on the form here. (And not by commenting below, which is how we usually do things here at Wicked Authors World Headquarters.)

Here’s the description of Hidden Beneath.

Serving up mouthwatering shellfish, the Snowden Family Clambake has become a beloved institution in Busman’s Harbor, Maine. But when new clues rise to the surface five years after the disappearance of Julia Snowden’ s mother’s friend, the family business shifts to sleuthing . . .

Julia and her mother, Jacqueline, have come to the exclusive summer colony of Chipmunk Island to attend a memorial service for Jacqueline’s old friend Ginny, who’s been officially declared dead half a decade after she went out for her daily swim in the harbor and was never seen again. But something seems fishy at the service—especially with the ladies of the Wednesday Club. As Julia and Jacqueline begin looking into Ginny’s cold case, a present-day murder stirs the pot, and mother and daughter must dive into the deep end to get to the bottom of both mysteries . . .

Where is Chipmunk Island?

There is a real Squirrel Island in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. When I created my fictional Busman’s Harbor, I thought it would be funny to put a Chipmunk Island in the harbor there. Chipmunk Island appears in several of the earlier books in the series, mostly as the Snowden Family Clambake tour boat, the Jacquie II, takes customers out to Morrow Island and back. In other words, in passing.

Up until this book, I had only the vaguest notion of who lived on the island, and aside from the shape that contributes its name, knew next to nothing about the physical island either. But I wondered about it each time the Jacquie II passed by. The story in Hidden Beneath fills those gaps.

I want to state, categorically, that I have never been to the real Squirrel Island and don’t know anyone who lives there. (Well, that’s not true. I do know one woman who lives there, but I always meet her in Key West.) I’m sure everyone on Squirrel Island is lovely. I made up all the people and places in Hidden Beneath out of whole cloth. Still, I feel like I owe the people of Squirrel Island an apology. Sorry about all the murders. And the other stuff. I didn’t mean anything by it.

I’m excited for you all to have the opportunity to read Hidden Beneath. If you’re not feeling lucky, you can pre-order it from any of these fine retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Chapters/Indigo, Your Local Indie Bookstore.

In the meantime, don’t forget to enter the giveaway! And good luck.

Cover Reveal: Scared Off

by Barb in Key West, saying good-bye today to a boatload of family. It’s bittersweet.

In recent years, Kensington has been offering the novellas from its holiday collections as standalone ebooks approximately a year after the mass market paperback of the anthology comes out. This means a new cover for Scared Off, coming August 22, 2023, and now available for pre-order.

What do you think? I kind of love it. Kensington has really been on a roll with my covers lately.

In Scared Off, three teenage girls having a sleepover on Halloween night get spooked when high schoolers crash the house for a party. But no one expected to find a crasher like Mrs. Zelisko, the elderly third floor tenant, dead in the backyard—dressed in a sheet like a ghost. With her niece traumatized, Julia Snowden must uncover who among the uninvited guests was responsible for devising such a murderous trick . . .

“…my favorite novella in the collection.  I enjoyed getting to spend some time with the characters, and I loved how the mystery unfolded.”

Carstairs Considers

“Barbara Ross always gives us solid characters that cleverly enhance her atmospheric cozies. Scared Off is a tasty Halloween morsel not to be overlooked this holiday season!”

Wonder Woman Sixty

“The final story is from my favorite cozy author, Barbara Ross, who provides us with another excellent installment of her Maine Clambake Mystery series.”

Criminal Element, Cooking the Books

In the Maine Clambake saga (as it is shaping up to be), Scared Off is book 9.5. coming in between Shucked Apart and Muddled Through. I enjoyed writing it very much, especially because, unusually, I got to write it in the season in which it is set.

These standalone ebooks make the novellas available for a very reasonable price. For those who don’t like ebooks, the novella is still available in mass market paperback in Halloween Party Murder.

Readers: What do you think? Do you like the cover? Do you like the opportunity to acquire these standalone ebooks?