Barbara Ross's Blog, page 8

The World at My Fingertips…

by Barb who became a grandmother for the third time on Saturday

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Lately, when I turn on Netflix, it’s been nagging me. “Next time, try using your voice remote to say ‘Netflix.'”

Here’s the thing. I don’t want to use my voice remote. I don’t want to say, “Netflix.” I am perfectly happy to tab around until I locate the Netflix logo on their app and then press the select button on my remote. In fact, I prefer it.

I don’t want to talk to my computer. Or my iPad. Or even my iPhone, more than is absolutely necessary. If I have a question I’ll type it into a search engine, thanks. And if not talking to my phone means I can’t text you while I’m driving, you can wait. The odds of you texting me something so important I have to respond immediately are infinitesimal.

I don’t want my devices talking to me, either. Nothing annoys me more than when I’m using technology to accomplish some task and suddenly a video ad starts running or music comes blasting at me. I keep the sound off on every device I own most of the time, but once in a while I turn it on to actually listen to something I want to hear and then forget to turn it off. I always regret it. I miss a lot of stuff with the sound turned off, like the notification about your all-important text, but I can’t say I’m sorry.

I don’t want my devices doing anything or remembering anything or reminding me of stuff. I have real people in my life to nag me, and frankly, that is plenty. I don’t need inanimate objects pitching in. I spend my days with a roomful of imaginary people for a reason. Leave me alone.

My husband has rigged up something at our house. I can’t even tell you if it’s Alexa or Siri or what. Honestly, that’s how little I interact with it. But every once in awhile, whoever she is will announce she’s turning off the TV. And then she does. I don’t know if she’s responding to something one of the characters in the TV show has said, or if she’d decided we can’t handle whatever we’re watching. Or that maybe that we should go outside and get some fresh air. I never find it helpful.

I realize that up to this point, this post has sounded like the rantings of a classic crankly old person. “Oh for the good old days of rotary dial phones and typewriters.” But I have no interest in going back there. I now understand that I spent most of my adulthood in what was a golden age for me. The age of the keyboard.

In junior high I flunked typing twice. Proto-feminist that I was, with the sophistication of a thirteen-year-old, I reasoned that if I couldn’t type, I would never end up being some man’s secretary. (“Why would she be worried about that?” younger readers are wondering. Good. Progress.) Of course, I also have the fine motor skills of a puppy playing the piano, so while I deliberately threw the class, I undoubtedly wouldn’t have done well even if I’d tried.

And then I spent the rest of my life typing. SO IRONIC. And I’m still terrible at it. And slow. But I’ve come to understand it’s the slowness I value. I LOVE having those keystrokes between me and the world. They provide just enough distance to make me happy and comfortable. Just enough delay so I can absorb and process. My keyboard is the the transformer that converts my fast-moving mind to the speed of my slow-moving fingers. Which is a better speed for me to handle to world and for the world to handle me.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to shut the world out. I just want it on a permanent sixty-second delay.

What about you readers? Talking to your devices — mega-convenience or uncomfortable interaction?

Key West Scene

by Barb, on a double deadline

Hi folks–

The second Mrs. Darrowfield, Jane Darrowfield and the Madwoman Next Door, is due January 15, and the ninth Maine Clambake Mystery, Shucked Apart, is due February 15. Things are a little crazy around here.

So, for your bloggy pleasure, I’m bringing you a rerun of a post from the Maine Crime Writers last year, a typical Key West scene.

Time: 3:00 AM. A beautiful night in Key West. The windows are wide open. Somewhere on the front porch of one of the five townhouses in our little complex…

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Bang, bang, bang, bang. “Let me in!”

(pause)

Bang, bang, bang, bang. “Let me in!”

(pause)

Bang, bang, bang, bang. “Let me in!”

(pause)

(from a second story window) “Use the front door code.”

“I don’t have it. Come down and let me in!”

“No! Let yourself in. I’m texting you the code.”

(pause)

Bang, bang, bang, bang. “Let me in!”

“No! Use the code.”

“I doesn’t work.” Bang, bang, bang, bang. “Come down here and let me in!”

“You did it wrong. Try again.”

(pause)

“It still doesn’t work.” Bang, bang, bang, bang. “Come down here and let me in!”

“I’m in bed!”

“I don’t care!”

“I’m naked.”

“I don’t care!”

“I am not alone.”

“I don’t care!  Get down here and let me in.”

“I’m texting the code again.”

(pause)

“Still not working.” Bang, bang, bang, bang. “Get your ass down here and let me in!”

“I am down. I’m standing on the front porch. I don’t see you.”

“What do you mean you don’t see me? I am standing right here.”

Together: “Ohhhh. Wrong house.”

Aaaand scene.

Whither Windsholme? and a #giveaway

by Barb, first post from Key West for 2020

Hi All. The eighth Maine Clambake mystery, Sealed Off, was released in New Year’s Eve. The Wickeds thought you might be a little tied up with the holidays, so Sherry, Edith/Maddie, and I held off announcing our new releases until this week. One lucky commenter on the blog will win a brand new copy!

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There’s a major subplot in the book about a diary found in a sealed off room in Windsholme, the abandoned mansion on the island where my fictional Snowden family runs their authentic Maine Clambakes.

Recently, Sherry Harris asked me if I knew from the first book, Clammed Up, that Windsholme would become a central character in the series.

The answer is –100% no. I don’t remember now why I put an decrepit mansion on the island in that first book, though you’ll find echoes of the theme of abandoned spaces in many of my earlier books and stories. Even the first book in my new series, Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody, includes a community for active adults 55+ built on the grounds of an old estate.

The influences for these places are many.

In Clammed Up, the playhouse on the island, a replica of Windsholme, plays a large part in the story. My grandparents had a summer house in Water Mill, Long Island that was in a little enclave on the edge of an large estate. The playhouse that had originally belonged to the estate was our nearest neighbor. When I was a child a friend of my grandparents’ owned it and used it as her summer home. The playhouse is long gone, sadly, renovated beyond recognition, and finally knocked down to make way for a more expensive property. You can get a look at the original mansion here–all $18 million dollars of it. It looks very similar to the way it looked when I was a kid. Can you imagine the impact that place had on the imagination of a suburban child? Windsholme looks nothing like this mansion, but the idea of the playhouse was definitely an influence.

There are other abandoned and demolished mansions in my childhood. I told the story of two of them in this blog post.

(Spoiler alert.) I didn’t intend to burn down the mansion on Morrow Island. It was already crumbling, but I got to a point in the plot in Clammed Up where I realized I had no choice.

So now I had even more of a wreck sullying my tourist attraction, or “dining experience” as the Snowdens call it. The logical thing was to tear it down, though even demolition, carting the materials off the island, and paying to dispose of them was beyond the family’s means in the first three books when the business was teetering on the edge of foreclosure. I really didn’t want to knock Windsholme down, and I heard from some fans who didn’t want me to either.

So, I had written myself into a corner, which is something, perversely, I like to do. What to do? First, I had to figure out how to get the Snowdens, who run a modest family business, the money to fix up the mansion. (Iced Under) Then I had to come up with a rationale to fix it up. (Stowed Away) Then I had to get an architect and a plan in place. (Steamed Open) Finally, in Sealed Off, the work has begun.

Windsholme has never been more than subplot in any of the books, at most. But I have had the opportunity along the way to write about the family history and why the mansion is unlived in. (Mostly in Iced Under and Sealed Off.)

I’m working on book 9 now. It takes place largely on the next peninsula up from Busman’s Harbor, among the oyster farms on the Damariscotta River, so Windsholme and Morrow Island are not really a part of it. After that, who knows? Will there be more books? Will the renovation ever get finished? We’ll all find out if and when I write myself out of the holes I’ve most recently dug for myself.

Readers: Is there a place that lives in your memory and informs your imagination? Tell us about it in the comments below or just say “hi” to be entered to win a copy of Sealed Off.

Holiday Movie Countdown and a #giveaway

by Barb, just returned from a holiday party. Santa was there!

Hi All. Christmas is my favorite season. I love the anticipation, the family traditions, the decorations pulled out year after year.

One of my traditions is rewatching holiday movies. A familiar, well-loved story is the perfect background to making cookies, decorating, addressing cards, and wrapping presents.

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Here’s my list of Christmas favorites. Leave a comment at the end for a chance to win copies of Eggnog Murder and Yule Log Murder, two novella collections that will get you in the holiday spirit. Each one includes a Maine Clambake Christmas novella.

Everyone’s holiday movie list is different, but sometime this month, I will watch the following. (Some of the clips will have ads, but you can skip them after five seconds.)

10. Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Ha! Not a Christmas movie, but a Thanksgiving one. But that’s what makes it such a great way to kick of your holiday viewing season.

9. Home Alone

I just watched the Netflix moving about the making of Home Alone (The Movies that Made Us) and that made this movie somehow even more enjoyable.

8. The Family Man

There are hundreds of Scrooge variants–and why shouldn’t there be? It’s an amazing story. One of my favorites is this one with Nicholas Cage and Tea Leoni.

7. The Family Stone

This is a flawed and occasionally annoying movie, but it has flashes of insight and killer moments that still lead me to watch it almost every year.

6. George C. Scott’s Christmas Carol

I love the Christmas Carol descendants and variants (see above), but my favorite straight-up version is the one starring George C. Scott.

5. White Christmas

This is one of the goofiest movies ever made. It only works if you don’t wonder too hard why a former general would build a 1000 seat theater and a full sound stage in rural Vermont. In fact, it only works if you don’t wonder about a lot of things. But I love it. I also love and read every year Tom and Lorenzo’s hilarious critique.

4. The Holiday

I kicked off the season with this one this year, watching it on Cape Cod with my daughter, niece and sister-in-law. It’s a great story filled with really cool houses and it’s very heartwarming if you don’t think about the future of the two central couples too hard.

3. About a Boy

This one is a bit of a cheat, since it’s not really a Christmas movie. But it does have two Christmas scenes and a New Year’s Eve party, so I’m including it here. It’s one of my favorite movies for any season, and it would be higher on this list if it was actually a Christmas movie.

2. It’s a Wonderful Life

I love this movie. I love Jimmy Stewart. I love the message. And I love that every time I see it I spot some little detail I never noticed before.

1. Love Actually

This for me is the ne plus ultra of Christmas movies. The one I have to watch every year. I love everything about it and the ending montage gets me every time.

I had to leave a bunch off and I also might reorder the list if I did it again tomorrow, but here are my ten and I’m sticking to it. (For now.)

Readers: How about you? Leave a comment with your favorite holiday movie and be entered to win the two holiday novella collections.

Is Restoring the Status Quo Enough?

Barb, writing this in her hotel room at the New England Crime Bake where Wicked Edith Maxwell/Maddy Day is doing an amazing job as co-chair, along with Friend of the Wickeds, Michele Dorsey.

Post-Bouchercon (The international conference for people who love all types of crime fiction) author Laura Lippman started a thought-provoking thread on Twitter.

You can read the thread here, or at least I think you can. (I’m not that good with the Twitter machine.) https://twitter.com/LauraMLippman/status/1191433978118578176. But Lippman’s basic argument is this: In the traditional mystery novel (of which cozies are a sub-genre, as are PI novels, Lippman’s primary focus), we make the assumption that a satisfying resolution is to restore the status quo.

But what, Lippman asks, about the people for whom the status quo is not so great? What about the marginalized, the oppressed, the under-represented? Is restoring the status quo good enough for them? For us all?

Naturally this made me think about my work, and the work in my particular corner of the crime fiction universe, the cozy mystery. We always say, we all say, the stories are satisfying because justice is done, situations are resolved, questions are answered. This makes the books very unlike the messy business of real human life where justice and resolution are often elusive goals and many mysteries remain forever. Our books are for people who need to step away from their real lives from time to time, especially at times when real life has become too real.

At first I thought, if the world sucks at the outset of the book, and when the story is done and the crime is solved the world still sucks, isn’t that noir?

But of course that’s a glib answer.

Then I thought, the worlds portrayed in cozy mysteries are already idealized worlds. I always think of cozy towns as fantasies. So restoring the status quo in these towns by definition restores a more perfect society. And by more perfect, I mean more just, not more white and more wealthy, though looking across the genre, particularly at the established authors writing long-term series, one might assume that.

[image error]I’d be lying if I didn’t admit this is something I think about. Particularly with my Mrs. Darrowfield series. Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody is my homage to Jane Marple, the sleuth I loved in adolescence, who is arguably the most responsible for my love of amateur sleuth fiction. I’ve moved Jane to the U.S. and the twenty-first century. I’ve made her divorced not a spinster, and given her a long, successful corporate career in which to observe the vagaries of human behavior, instead of the village of St. Mary Mead. I also posit that old isn’t so old anymore.

But like her inspiration, my Jane is a comfortable, privileged white woman. Of course being an old woman comes with its own set of challenges, but unlike many, Jane has the resources to meet most of them.

Sometimes I do wonder, why am I writing these books? More to the point, why am I writing them now?

You write the books you have standing to write. And do I ever have standing when it comes to writing about comfortable, privileged old white women.

I think what Lippman is saying in the full thread is that we need to make room, particularly in the traditional mystery genres, for new voices–voices that maybe don’t think the status quo is worth restoring. Lippman writes about how women are infusing new life in PI fiction. Cozy mysteries have always been a pink collar ghetto, which comes with its own set of challenges, but we sure could use new perspectives and casts of characters whose stories haven’t been told. We’ve made progress in the last decade, but it’s baby steps. We can do a lot more.

As for the rest of us old white women writing traditional mysteries, maybe if we thought in terms of fixing instead of restoring, fighting instead of discovering, it would breathe new life into our stories, too.

Readers: What do you think? What stories do you yearn for that aren’t being told?

Politics & Religion

Bre aking News: Margaret Utsey, you won a copy of Ang Pompano’s book, When It’s Time for Leaving! Congrats – message the Wickeds Facebook page with your address!

by Barbara Ross, staring out my study windows at the beautiful colors of a New England fall

I haven’t touched much on politics or religion in the Maine Clambake series. The books are intended to provide diversion and relaxation in a complicated world that feels like it is spinning ever faster. So like sex and gore, I have left these topics “off the page.”

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about them. Without either, my town would be incomplete and so would my characters.

Politics

Maine is a truly purple state with Republican and Independent senators and two Democratic congresspeople. The political views of my characters reflect that mix.

In my imagination Sonny, my protagonist 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. When Julia arrives in Clammed Up, he fights every change she wants to make at the clambake even at the risk of it going under. But later in the book he reminds Julia that he’s been there, faithful and loyal, year after year. Where has she been?

Restauranteur Gus Farnham is far more conservative that Sonny. I write in one of the books that he doesn’t accept credit cards or cash apps, and would be happier if the U.S. would return to the gold standard.

At the other end of spectrum is Julia’s boyfriend Chris. Raised among grandparents, great-uncles, and great-aunts who worked in the paper mills, saw mills, and canneries, he’s got an old-fashioned trade unionist point of view. Whenever Julia weaves romantic tales about her mother’s wealthy ancestors and the life they led in their mansion on a private island, he’s there to remind her that their wealth came at a great cost to working people–like her own father’s family. Julia’s sister, Livvie, has twice teased Julia about her boyfriend being a “commie.”

I haven’t written about politics in my fictional town of Busman’s Harbor. I would like to center a mystery around a New England town meeting someday. Murderous rages and shouted death threats are, if not common, certainly not unknown.

Religion

Maine is cited in most surveys as the least religious state in the U.S. I’m not really sure why the population of Maine is so irreligious, because the state was colonized (in the second attempt) by the same Scots-Irish people who settled the lower part of the Appalachians. But there is a strong live-and-let-live culture here. An “I don’t want anybody, including a preacher, telling me how to be” outlook.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t churches, synagogues and mosques, because of course there are.

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Busman’s Harbor has two churches bordering the town common. One a typical, white New England Congregational Church. The other is some kind of mainstream Protestant church, Methodist or Baptist or Presbyterian. It hasn’t been in a story yet so I haven’t had to declare a major.

[image error]Our Lady Queen of Peace in Boothbay Harbor

The Catholic Church building, I fully admit, I modeled on the gorgeous one in Boothbay Harbor. My fictional church was originally a smaller church built to fill the religious needs of the Irish servants of wealthy summer people. French-Canadians like Chris’s family arrived in town later. Then came summer people, as the fortunes of Catholic immigrants rose in succeeding generations. The church building was expanded with the increasing demand. The congregation worships in the big church nave in the summer and in the basement in the winter.

Finally, in my imaginary Busman’s Harbor, there’s an Evangelical Christian church out by the highway. It was built much later than the other churches, when people realized parking would be important for a church. None of the churches downtown have enough.

The Snugg sisters, we’ve learned in the books, are stalwarts of the Congregational Church, known by all in town as the Congo Church, its parishioners, the Congoes. The sisters attend in the off-season but are way too business Sunday mornings during tourist season. Besides, their minister goes on vacation for the month of August and they dislike the one who fills in for him.

Julia’s mother, Jacqueline, was raised Episcopalian and she’s never found a church in town that suits her. She bounced back and forth between the Catholic Church, for the ritual, and the mainstream Protestant Church, (whatever it is), never fully joining either congregation, which only reinforced her outsider status. But, when her husband was dying of cancer, people from both churches drove him to chemo and showed up, along with many other townspeople, with covered dishes. So maybe she’s not as much of an outsider as she thinks.

Gus Farnham is at his restaurant at five in the morning, seven days a week. If you were to ask him about his religious beliefs, he would tell you it’s none of your g-d business. So I haven’t asked him.

Religion plays a central role in some mysteries, like Amish mysteries, or mysteries that have clergy as sleuths, or our own Edith Maxwell’s Quaker Midwife mysteries. But some, like mine, leave it “off the page.” (Or at least so far.)

Readers: What do you think? Politics or religion in your mysteries?

Sealed Off ARCs and a #giveaway

by Barb, in denial about the fall feeling in the air in Portland, ME

Advance Reader Copies have arrived for Sealed Off, the eighth Maine Clambake Mystery.

I know there are a few of you out there who do not want to wait until December 31, for Julia’s next mystery, even if it means putting up with a few extra typos and glitches. If you are such a person, leave a comment on this blog and three of you will receive an ARC.

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Here’s the blurb.

Early October is “winding down” time in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, but there’s nothing relaxing about it for Julia Snowden. Between busloads of weekend leaf peepers at the Snowden Family Clambake and a gut renovation of the old mansion on Morrow Island, she’s keeping it all together with a potentially volatile skeleton crew—until one of them turns up dead under the firewood.

When the Russian demo team clearing out the mansion discovers a room that’s been sealed off for decades, Julia’s baffled as to its purpose and what secrets it might have held. Tensions are already simmering with the crew, but when one of the workers is found murdered, things come to a boil. With the discovery of another body—and a mysterious diary with Cyrillic text in the hidden room—the pressure’s on Julia to dig up a real killer fast. But she’ll have to sort through a pile of suspects, including ex-spouses, a spurned lover, and a recently released prisoner, to fish out one clammed-up killer.

I really enjoyed writing this tale of a sealed up room at the ruined mansion Windsholme. And there’s a murder Julia must investigate, of course!

What do you think? Does it sound intriguing? Leave a comment or just say “hi” to be entered in the giveaway.

The Ghosts of Busman’s Harbor and a #giveaway

by Barb, noticing a little nip in the air as we approach Labor Day

[image error]I’m quite excited about the release this week of Haunted House Murder, which includes my latest Maine Clambake novella, “Hallowed Out.” The book also contains novellas by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis. All the stories take place in Maine during the Halloween season.

I’m always grateful when these requests to write a holiday novella come around. I love writing in the novella length (roughly a third to half the length of a typical cozy mystery) and I like being given a theme to see what I can do with it. It’s a fun challenge.

In this case, the theme given us was the title of the collection, Haunted House Murder, and that was it. My story has always come third in these anthologies, so I figure the obvious choices will have been covered by the time readers get to it. So just like I didn’t poison anyone with eggnog in Eggnog Murder, I didn’t focus on a creepy haunted house in Haunted House Murder. I doubted that would be a new setup by the time readers turned the page to begin my tale.

Instead, I wrote about a Haunted House Trolley Tour, a special offering for Halloween week in Busman’s Harbor. The end of October is often pretty yucky in Maine. The beautiful foliage is gone, as is the likelihood of warm weather. We are headed into November, which some people argue is the yuckiest month of the year. So in my story the Haunted House Trolley Tour is a part of a push to bring in tourists after the season has officially ended.

I do offer up a ghost story–three in fact. One is a story that is told originally in Stowed Away about a mysterious woman who drowns herself at Herrickson Point in the off-season. My fictional ghost story is based on a well-known local legend in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. In the real story, just as in my story, the woman’s true identity is never established. She has carefully removed the labels from her expensive clothes. For research, I relied on the book Ghosts of the Boothbay Region, by Greg Latimer, a part of the Haunted America series. If you’re interested I highly recommend the book.

The second ghost story in “Hallowed Out,” I heard from one of of my husband’s cousins. My husband’s Aunt Connie was staying with them, and she was quite superstitious. Events in the household convinced there was a ghost in residence. It seemed unlikely. It was a newly built house. Where would a ghost have come from? But it did turn out there was an explanation for the strange goings-on.

The third ghost story forms the core of the novella, the central mystery. I had established in Fogged Inn the former warehouse where Gus runs his restaurant and where my protagonist Julia Snowden lives was used as a drop for booze smuggled from Canada during Prohibition. But I didn’t know that the  handsome, Robin Hood-esque (at least in his own mind) rumrunner Ned Calhoun had been murdered there while his fiancee Sweet Sue watched in horror. It is during a reenactment of this story for the enjoyment of the customers of the Haunted House Trolley Tour that a real murder takes place.

I loved doing the research about smuggling alcohol in the 1920s. I knew liquor came over the border and into Maine, but I didn’t know Canadian distilleries and distributors anchored massive boats just inside international waters. There were so many lights out there in a row from all the big boats, the area was called, “the rumline.” The small boats that carried the booze back to Maine were faster than anything the US Coast Guard could give chase with at the time. The boats, and eventually the captains, were called “rumrunners.”

I hope you enjoy “Hallowed Out,” with its three ghosts stories and in-the-present murder mystery.

Readers: Do you have a ghost story? Tell us your story or just say “hi” in the comments for a chance to win one of three copies of Haunted House Murder.

Cover Reveal for Nogged Off

by Barbara Ross, in a house on the Jersey shore with 16 adults, 2 six year-olds and 2 babies.

I just received the cover for the standalone ebook of my novella, Nogged Off, which will be available on October 29.

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What do you think? I’ve noticed Kensington covers for stories about the off-season in Busman’s Harbor, when the cold winds blow, are always from the point-of-view of someone on the inside looking out. They certainly are a lot cozier that way.

Nogged Off is the novella that was originally in the holiday collection Eggnog Murder, which also contains novellas by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis. Kensington has decided to release it as a standalone ebook.

[image error]So for those of you who have read Eggnog Murder, don’t buy this ebook! You already own the story. But for those of you who only know the Snowden Family clambake from the mystery novels, this could be the chance you were waiting for! In the Maine Clambake world, this story falls between Fogged Inn and Iced Under.

I loved writing this story, which was my first novella. I posted about the story behind the story here. I hope this ebook edition gives more people a chance to enjoy Nogged Off.

Readers: Tell us, have you started your shopping, squirreling little presents away or will you wait until some magical mark-Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Christmas Eve?

Why I Agreed to a B&N Exclusive

by Barb who just had the best 4th of July week in Boothbay Harbor, Maine with my husband, my kids and their spouses, and the grandkids

You may have noticed from all the hullabaloo here that I had a new book released last week. And that the book, Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody, is exclusively in paper and exclusively available from Barnes & Noble, in store and online, for the first year.

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The book, which begins a new series for me, has been mostly well-received. The reviews have been strong, and sales, at least initially, have been brisk.

[image error]Jane Darrowfield, along with Maddie Day’s Strangled Eggs and Ham, on the B&N instore bestseller list week of 6-29-19

But the response hasn’t been entirely positive. And when the response is negative it has been 95% not about the exclusive vendor, but about the exclusive format–i.e. that the book exists only in a mass market paperback edition. (The other 5% negative responses were from Canadian and Australian fans who don’t have access to B&N.)

I am actually quite sympathetic to these complaints, particularly to arguments about accessibility. Not having an ebook, a large print edition, or an audiobook does make the book inaccessible to people with low or no vision or other physical challenges.

When these objections come up on social media, I never apologize. Nor do I try to pass the buck to my agent, my publisher, or Barnes & Noble. The fact is, all of us participated in this decision and I had as much power to say no as any of the others. Social media is a terrible place to have these conversations, so I thought I would explain here what my thinking was, and still is, and see where the conversation goes from here.

The first I heard about this opportunity was a call from my agent, John Talbot, two summers ago. He told me that my publisher, Kensington, had worked out a deal with Barnes & Noble to offer mass market paperback cozy mysteries exclusively for one year. In exchange, B&N would place a large print order and would promote the books heavily. “Heavily” was undefined, at least as far as I, the author, knew. But it was clear John was excited about the opportunity, and he told me one of the reasons he was excited was because Kensington, as personified by my editor John Scognamiglio, was also excited.

“Barnes & Noble wants to put your book in the front of the store,” John Talbot said. The “comma–you idiot” was unspoken, but I heard it. Clearly this was an opportunity to get my work in front of more people.

[image error]Maddie Day’s new book Strangled Eggs and Ham, and Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody on the ladder in the front of the store at B&N

To participate in the program, I needed a non-Maine Clambake Mystery series book. I never would have agreed, and Kensington never would have suggested, that we take an existing series and make loyal readers who happen to prefer a different vendor or, more likely it seems, a different format wait a year for the next book. Did I have an idea for another series?

[image error] Jane Darrowfield with the B&N exclusive sticker on the cover

As it happened, I did. An idea about a woman, who in her retirement, becomes a sort of fix-it person for vexing personal problems for her friends and neighbors. The character was intended to be my homage to Jane Marple.

But even though I had an idea, I did take the time to think about whether I wanted to participate in the program. The enthusiasm of my agent and editor were persuasive. As was the idea of promotion by the largest U.S. chain of physical bookstores. I’m not going to lie. Finding more readers and selling more books was an extremely attractive idea to me.

I also thought about this:

The book would be available everywhere, in mass market paperback and ebook editions, a year after release. Much as I’d love to think of myself like Charles Dickens with readers storming the docks of New York harbor to find out what happened to little Nell, I am aware enough of my status as an author to understand that no one is really going to suffer waiting a year for my next book.While I’ve been lucky enough to have large print and audiobook editions of all my Clambake books, there is no guarantee this will happen every time. Kensington holds my English-language rights. They publish the mass market paperback and various ebook versions, and then they sell the large print and audiobook rights. Or sometimes they don’t. Or it’s a long wait. Musseled Out was released in 2015. The large print edition didn’t come out until 2018. So much as I’d like to offer accessible editions to every reader, I am never in a position to guarantee it.Though Barnes & Noble was at one time the Big, Bad, Big Box Store, endangering independent bookstores, (Nora Ephron even made a movie about it) now like all brick and mortar retailers, it is struggling. Since it is the last chain standing, my publisher, and many others, depend on its relatively larger print order to bring down the per-book cost of the entire print run. Without Barnes & Noble’s order, there might not be print editions of any of my books, or many other authors’ books, for that matter.

Will it work out? I went into it pretty blind. I worried what “promoted heavily” might mean. And about whether Barnes & Noble would even be there by the time I delivered the book and it was published. Indeed, B&N was sold to a hedge fund the very month Jane Darrowfield was released.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day’s book, Murder on Cape Cod, the first book in the program, was a huge hit. It went into multiple printings, and the success of that book had a tremendously positive impact on her other Maddie Day series, the Country Store Mysteries.

The jury is still out for Mrs. Darrowfield. But I’m hoping. I’m hoping the book will be successful enough that it will sell to large print and audiobook publishers and all my readers will be able to access it.

Only time will tell.

Readers: How do you react to these exclusive offers? Yay? Nay? Buy it now? I can wait? I could care?