Barbara Ross's Blog, page 9

Jane Darrowfield Released and a #giveaway!

The triple release launch party continues! To celebrate, I’m giving away a Snowden Family Clambake tote bag, a Kensington notebook, and a copy of Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody to one lucky commenter below.

[image error]

Jane Darrowfield is my homage to Jane Marple. In bringing Jane into the twenty-first century and moving her to America I made a series of decisions.

Jane would be divorced, not never married.Jane would have learned everything she needs to know about life in the bowels of Corporate America, and not in the village where she resides.Jane would get paid for her efforts. She’s making a valuable contribution, improving people’s lives, and that deserves to be recognized by the way we keep score in our culture.Old wouldn’t be so old. Though Jane has taken (a slightly early) retirement, she does not think of herself as old and nor do her friends. Of course, sometimes she does take advantage of the invisibility that late middle-age can confer on a woman, but usually she’s pretty confident and straight ahead. Her knees may hurt when she gardens and she’s trying to get used to the trifocals her optometrist has talked her into, but she’s still out there pitching.

I hope you enjoy Jane as a character and want to follow her adventures. I’ve just signed a contract for book 2 in the series, so Jane will go on.

Bonus reading:

A Day in the Life — Jane Darrowfield at Dru’s Book MusingsAn Interview With Author Barbara Ross by E. B. Davis

Readers: How do you react to my description of Jane? Intrigued or wary? Leave a comment below for a chance to win.

Angela!

by Barb, recently back from an amazing vacation

Hi Folks. Our vacation was wonderful. The cruise around the Greek Islands, then on to Malta, Sicily, Sorrento, Ponza, and Rome was fabulous. The sun was shining and the temperatures were in the low 70s every day, perfect for touring ruins and small Mediterranean harbor towns.

Once we reached Rome we took a side trip to Calabria to visit the village my husband, Bill Carito’s, paternal grandparents emigrated from in 1921. Montauro is in the “instep” part of the Italian boot. Like other towns in the area, it is high on a mountain, with another portion of the town, Montauro Scale, on the beach. Today the area caters to tourists, particularly those from the north of Italy, during the summer months.

[image error]The view from Montauro, behind the church

Bill had been in touch with a second cousin via Facebook for some time, but in the months before we left, he’d dropped off of social media. Attempts to reach him had been unsuccessful. When we arrived in Calabria, we really didn’t know what to expect.

Bill rented us a lovely apartment on the beach. The first morning we were there we got in our rental car and drove up the twisty mountain roads, full of switchbacks, steep inclines, and beautiful views of the sea. When we reached Montauro there was roadwork, so we parked outside the town center and walked in. We found the church and explored the almost deserted streets of the little town.

[image error]The Church of San Pantaleon

Everywhere we went, in our terrible, broken Italian, we told the story of how Bill’s grandparents had left the village in 1921, and how we were looking for a second cousin named Giovanni Carito. None of the few people we met knew anything. An attractive woman hanging laundry from her balcony spoke to us, apologizing for her English (so much better than our Italian!), and even called out an older neighbor, but she didn’t know anything either.

[image error]A balcony like Angela’s

The town was so tiny there was no place to eat or even get coffee, so we went back down to the beach area to get lunch. We’d been told the church would be open at 5:00 p.m. so we planned to return then. We thought there might be a priest there then who could help us.

So down the twisty, turny mountain roads we went, and then back up again. We arrived back a little after 4:00 and discovered the church was already open, a youth choir practice going on. We sat and listened to the lovely voices and Bill took photos of the church, San Pantaleon, which has a sort of legendary quality in his extended family.

Choir practice ended and the choir director emerged from behind a pillar where she’d been playing a keyboard. It was Angela! She said, “I am going to help you.” She got out her cell phone and started calling and texting. (Everyone in the village seemed to use What’s App.) The town is so small that five minutes after she contacted them, people would walk into the church to try to figure out who Bill was and who he was related to. Everyone tried to be helpful. Every person we talked to had a cousin in Boston or Philadelphia or New York. But we were getting nowhere. People knew Caritos, but there were too many of them. (This never happens in the United States where Carito is a quite uncommon name.) Which Carito were we seeking?

Then an older gentleman appeared, cashmere sweater draped across his shoulders. He asked, “Is this Giovanni Carito Carabinieri?” (A member of the Italian national police force.) Bill remembered Giovanni’s Facebook profile. “He is!”

[image error]Montauro street

Then everyone had something to say. “He lives in the next village.” “His brother died young.” “His sister lives in Cantanzaro.” And so on. Angela messaged Giovanni’s wife and got no response. She and Bill exchanged numbers in case she heard anything back. We told her we were headed to the cemetery to see what we could learn there.

As we left the cemetery, a woman ran by us. It was Angela! “I have news,” she said. Giovanni’s wife had called her. She spoke a little English. She would be calling us.

The phone rang before we even left the cemetery. Mission accomplished. Giovanni and his wife would meet us near the beach. We drove off, down the scary mountain roads.

“Angela is amazing,” my husband said.

“Angela is a plot device,” I answered. Angela is the person who saves your bacon when you are writing a story and you need one person to find another. But Angela is real.

The story of what happened when we met Giovanni and Barbara was, in some ways, even more satisfying and wonderful than our adventures in the little Italian mountain village where Bill’s family’s journey to America began. I’ll finish the story on Maine Crime Writers on Friday.

Readers: Have you ever taken a journey to discover something about your family history?

[All photos in this post are by Bill Carito. If you like them and want to see more, you can friend him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bcarito and follow him on Instagram at billcarito and bill.carito.colorphotos.]

Cute Baby Sells Jane Darrowfield

by Barb, who hopes that when you read this she is in Milos, Greece on the first cruise of her life

Those of you with long memories may remember my Facebook campaign, Cute Babies Sell Clammed Up. I wrote all about it in a post here. Back in 2013 my first granddaughter, Viola Jane, was new and my brother and cousin had new grandchildren, too. We all posed with our progeny, and the crowd went wild!

[image error]Viola and me hawking Clammed Up.

So as you may have heard, I have a new series, Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody, and a new granddaughter, Etta Ann. So I thought to myself…

[image error]



[image error]



[image error]



[image error]



[image error]

I have no idea what it means that every time I get a new series, I get a new grandchild–either for the prospect of more series or for the prospect of more grandchildren. But I am certainly willing to go with it!

[image error]The cousins together in early May

Readers: One lucky commenter will win an Advanced Reader Copy of Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody. However, the winner won’t be notified or the book shipped until I get back at the end of the month!

Cover Reveal–Sealed Off, Maine Clambake #8

by Barb, happy to be back in Portland, Maine. (But maybe not so happy about our spring snowstorms.)

I’m excited to announce that the eighth Maine Clambake Mystery, Sealed Off will go on sale on December 31, 2019. Happy New Year!

Here’s the cover. The folks at Kensington have outdone themselves once again.

[image error]

Here’s the back cover 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.

[image error]

Readers: What do you think? Does the cover make you want to read the book? Let me know and one lucky commenter will win a Snowden Family Clambake tote bag and an Advance Reader Copy of Haunted House Murder.

As I mentioned in this post, my story “Hallowed Out” in Haunted House Murder begins before the events in Sealed Off and ends after them. But it can easily be read independently in any order.

Time, time, time…

by Barb. Last post from Key West.

Time, time, time, see what’s become of me
While I looked around for my possibilities
I was so hard to please

A Hazy Shade of Winter, Paul Simon, 1968

[image error]

Readers, I have built myself a time conundrum. (Not nearly so fun as a time machine.)

The first five books in the Maine Clambake Mysteries take place in perfect order, with only a matter of months between books.

Clammed Up (June) Boiled Over (August) Musseled Out (October) Fogged Inn (late November, early December) Iced Under (February)

Then Kensington asked me to contribute to the Christmas anthology, Eggnog Murder, along with stories by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis. Since Eggnog Murder would be published before Iced Under and I had cleverly skipped over Christmas in my timeline, I was a time management genius! I nearly broke my arm patting myself on the back. Now the line-up looked like this:

Clammed Up (June) Boiled Over (August) Musseled Out (October) Fogged Inn (late November, early December)“Nogged Off” from Eggnog Murder (week before Christmas) Iced Under (February).

My resort town of Busman’s Harbor is very different in the tourist season and the off season. I had originally intended to write three books set in the (lengthy, because it’s Maine) off season, but with the addition of the novella, and the extended trip to Boston in Iced Under, my editor and I agreed it was time to get back to sunshine, lobsters, and Morrow Island. Book 6, Stowed Away is set in June as the clambake is reopening for the season.

But then–trouble. Kensington asked me to contribute to another holiday novella, Yule Log Murder. Christmas takes place in December, right? There was no way around that. So we fast-forwarded to December. I turned in Stowed Away and “Logged On,” the novella for Yule Log Murder, on the same day. As it turns out, I am sadly not a time management genius. I had only the vaguest notion of what happened to Julia Snowden, her family, and friends between June and December, but I did hint at one thing in “Logged On.” As it happens, Yule Log Murder was actually published before Stowed Away, but only a matter of a couple of months before. Now the time-line looked like this.

Clammed Up (June) Boiled Over (August) Musseled Out (October) Fogged Inn (late November, early December)“Nogged Off” from Eggnog Murder (week before Christmas) Iced Under (February) Stowed Away (June)“Logged On” from Yule Log Murder (week before Christmas).

Okay, now where to go? Clearly a lot had happened between June and Christmas during Julia’s second year in Busman’s Harbor. I went back to fill some of that in. Steamed Open takes place in August. But the Time Lords weren’t done with me. Kensington asked me to write a novella for the Halloween collection, Haunted House Murder. Halloween, as we all know, must occur on October 31. To complicate things even further, the next novel in the series had to take place on Morrow Island for a whole bunch of reasons, before the clambake shut down for the season and before winter closed in. So Book 8, Sealed Off takes place in the week before Columbus Day. “Hallowed Out,” the Halloween novella, actually begins before Sealed Off and then largely takes place after. “Look at her, ladies and gentlemen, writing without a net!” So now we’re looking at:

Clammed Up (June) Boiled Over (August) Musseled Out (October) Fogged Inn (late November, early December)“Nogged Off” from Eggnog Murder (week before Christmas) Iced Under (February) Stowed Away (June) Steamed Open (August)“Hallowed Out” from Haunted House Murder (begins late September)Sealed Off (mid-October)“Hallowed Out” from Haunted House Murder (ends late October)“Logged On” from Yule Log Murder (week before Christmas)

(One thing is clear. You are most likely to get murdered in Busman’s Harbor in June, August, October or December, so pick a different month for your visit.)

So now what, time-genius? I ask myself. Some of what is hinted at in “Logged On” gets explained in Steamed Open and Sealed Off, but there are still gaps in the story. Part of me is content to leave it that way and skip ahead to the new year. I love it when authors do that. I think I’ve mentioned here that I read every single one of Ruth Rendell’s Wexford short stories, looking for the one where Wexford’s sidekick DI Mike Burden’s first wife dies. I was convinced such a story must exist, but I was wrong. Burden is a happily married man in one novel and a widower in the next.

But instinct tells me the next Maine Clambake Mystery gets squeezed in between Halloween and Christmas. Don’t ask me where it takes place or what happens. When he accepted my manuscript for Sealed Off, my editor at Kensington wrote, “Looking forward to reading the outline for the next one once it’s ready!” Him and me both, is all I can say.

Maine Clambake Readers, what do you think about my dilemma? Any feelings about what you want to read next? Everybody, how do you like to see time managed in a book series? Strong feelings? Good and bad examples?

The Mess

by Barb, in Key West where it is a gorgeous evening

[image error]

I’m deep in my favorite part of the writing process with Maine Clambake Mystery, #8, Sealed Off.

I’ve mentioned before, many times, I don’t enjoy first drafts. They are like pulling teeth for me. But once that awfulness is “done,” I get to have fun.

Because I love to revise.

Revising is bringing order out of chaos, which is my driving force in life. It was essentially my job as a chief operating officer in software startups, where there was always plenty of chaos, and you never knew what you would find when you turned over any given rock, but it was sure to be a juicy, complicated problem.

Prior to the actual grinding through the pages part of revising, there is always plenty to figure out. Like, what, exactly, is the timeline of the critical events in the backstory? What is every little thing that happened on the day of the murder and what time did it happen? On what day of the week did each scene in the book take place, and what was the weather on that day? What is the final name of each character ever mentioned, plus the name of their store or their boat or their car or their house, whatever of those might be relevant?

Maybe some authors figure this stuff out before they start writing, but I never have enough information. During the drafting, characters’ names change, sometimes because I’m looking for just the right one and sometimes because I have honestly forgotten what I wrote days ago. (I never look back. I am afraid, like Lot’s wife, I will turn into a pillar of salt.)

I often describe the process of writing a novel as one of making smaller and smaller decisions. You start with the biggies. What kind of book is it? Who are the characters? What is the setting? (For subsequent books in a series, these decisions are often already made.) And the biggie, what is this book really about?

In the drafting you get to the medium stuff. What time of year is it? What is driving each character? What do they look like? And what, for goodness sake, happens?

By the end, you’re deciding much more mundane stuff. Here are the things I’m wondering about now (no spoilers).

–How long have Jason and Pru been divorced? Because, honestly, there are a few scenes where they seem really settled into a routine and comfortably co-parenting, but other times their relationship seems really raw. If it’s confusing me, it’s going to confuse readers, so I need to make up my mind.

–That storm that blew through before the story started, how many days was that? Was it the remnants of a hurricane? What was the track of the storm? What were the top wind speeds?

–What is the name of that convenience store? I thought it was a bit player, but now that it’s been mentioned 37 times in a dozen scenes, I can’t keep calling it “the convenience store–mini-mart–gas station out on the highway,” because if it’s annoying me, it will definitely annoy readers.

–What kind of boat is Jason’s, exactly? I’ve told readers it’s new and big and show-offy, but what does that mean, specifically?

There are dozens of these questions that I can’t tell you about because they are definitely spoilers. I love making decisions and finally nailing stuff down (both in writing and in life), which is another reason I love this part of the process.

My drive to create order out of chaos is often thwarted in life, by, well, life, which goes on its crazy way heedless of my desire to tame it. But in the fictional realm I am the queen, and my subjects must obey. Lots of writers say, “I can’t control my characters. They have minds of their own.” To which, I always say, “I have enough people in my life who don’t do what I think they should. My characters have to. That was the point of making them up in the first place.”

Sometimes I feel like if I was a better writer, I would know all about Jason and Pru before I got to this point. But that’s not really how it works. They are like acquaintances in real life. You observe their behavior and draw certain conclusions about them. But if you can’t figure it out, if you’ve become close enough, you just ask. “So, how long have you and Jason been divorced?” And Pru gives you an answer and from then on (and sometimes even retrospectively) you view their behavior through that lens.

I’m off to do more revising. I do it on paper, so I have to type changes into the manuscript at the end of the day, which can be incredibly tedious. When I’m grumbling about that, remind me–I love this part.

Writers: Does any of this sound familiar? Or maybe not at all?

Readers: I don’t know what to ask, because if we’ve done this part right, made all the tiny decisions and implemented them consistently and with finesse, you shouldn’t notice them at all.

What’s New?

by Barb in lovely Key West

What’s new you ask? I am tempted to say this:

[image error]

But really, getting to the writing, these two things are new.

Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody. As Mark Baker has correctly noted, I’ve teased this one before. Dru’s Book Musings even did a cover reveal, but I was waiting until it was available for pre-order before announcing it here. Jane Darrowfield is a non-Clambake book. It’s a part of the same program as Edith’s book Murder on Cape Cod–exclusive in paper from Barnes & Noble for the first year, then widely available in all formats after that. It’s a part of an experiment by B&N, Kensington and the authors. I’m grateful Edith is ahead of me in the program so I can follow in her footsteps. The cover of the book says, “First in a new series,” though I don’t have a contract for more, so that’s part of the experiment, too. Here’s the skinny on the book.

[image error]Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody

Jane Darrowfield is a year into her retirement, and she’s already traveled and planted a garden. She’s organized her photos, her recipes, and her spices.  The statistics suggest she has at least a few more decades ahead of her, so she better find something to do . . .

After Jane helps a friend with a sticky personal problem, word starts to spread around her bridge club—and then around all of West Cambridge, Massachusetts—that she’s the go-to person for situations that need discreet fixing. Soon she has her first paid assignment—the director of a 55-and-over condo community needs her to de-escalate hostilities among the residents. As Jane discovers after moving in for her undercover assignment, the mature set can be as immature as any high schoolers, and war is breaking out between cliques.

It seems she might make some progress—until one of the aging “popular kids” is bludgeoned to death with a golf club. And though the automatic sprinklers have washed away much of the evidence, Jane’s on course to find out whodunit.

It releases June 25, 2019 and is available for pre-order here.

[image error]Haunted House Murder: I’m also excited about Haunted House Murder, the new novella collection by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis and me. I love writing these holiday-themed novellas and I hope you enjoy reading them. Here’s the description of this one.

Haunted House Murder

Tricks and treats keep the Halloween spirit alive in coastal Maine. But this year the haunted house theme is getting carried a little too far . . .

HAUNTED HOUSE MURDER by LESLIE MEIER

Newcomers to Tinker’s Cove, Ty and Heather Moon have moved into a dilapidated house reputed to be a haven for ghosts. Now strange noises and flickering lights erupt from the house at all hours and neighborly relations are on edge. And when a local boy goes missing near the house, it’s up to Lucy Stone to unravel the mystery of the eccentric couple and their increasingly frightful behavior.

DEATH BY HAUNTED HOUSE by LEE HOLLIS

For the past two years, the house next door to Hayley Powell has sat abandoned after the owner died under mysterious circumstances. The Salinger family has recently taken possession of the property, but the realtor behind the deal has vanished—after a very public and angry argument with Damien Salinger. If Bar Harbor’s newest neighbors are murderers, Hayley will haunt them until they confess.

HALLOWED OUT by BARBARA ROSS

With its history of hauntings and ghost sightings, Busman’s Harbor is the perfect setting for Halloween festivities. But when a reenactment of a Prohibition-era gangster’s murder ends with a literal bang and a dead actor from New Jersey, Julia Snowden must identify a killer before she ends up sleeping with the fishes.

There’s nothing like home sweet home in this trio of Halloween tales . . .

This book is currently available for pre-order from all major retailers in hardcover and ebook formats. There will also be an audiobook version. Amazon*Barnes & Noble

Readers: So that’s what’s up with me. What’s new with you?

Christmas Cookies and Co-workers

by Barb, in Portland, Maine, where we’re making our lists and checking them twice

[image error]I’ve written before, many times, about how I always bake six kinds of cookies at Christmas time. My grandmother made five of them, and the recipe cards I follow are written in her hand. The sixth recipe is in my scrawl, as dictated to me by my mother.

I’ve been making these cookies for so many years, that I’ve gotten to know them and their personalities. I was thinking, as I arranged them on a plate to take to a family party, the cookies are like co-workers. Each is a distinct office type.

[image error]Hazelnut wreaths. The hazelnut wreaths have a delicate flavor created entirely by the nuts. They’re rolled and cut and minimally decorated to let the flavor shine through. My family and I have made them through hazelnut droughts, when you couldn’t find one in a store, particularly, the shelled, but skin-on ones we most prize, to hazelnut gluts, like today when you can have hazelnut coffee while dipping your hazelnut biscotti in your hazelnut gelato.

If a hazelnut wreath were your co-worker, she would be that mysterious woman of a certain age who speaks several languages and has an unplaceable accent. She dresses not for the job she has or the job she wants–she dresses better than the boss.  And you’re always dying to ask why on earth she accepted a job that is clearly levels below what she’s capable of. Unsought divorce? Untimely widowhood? Or a coup in that country where the unplaceable accent comes from? She is pleasant and competent and she will never give you an opening to ask your many questions.

[image error]Butter cookies: These are the first of the cookies. The only ones I am certain my great-grandmother made. The are rolled and cut with small cookie cutters and minimally decorated. They taste buttery (three-quarters of a pound of butter, five egg yolks), with a hint of lemon.

If a butter cookie was your co-worker, she would be the undisputed grande dame of the office. She would know everyone’s birthdays, and the names of their partners and children. Though her actual title might be modest, in times of crisis everyone looks to her to know how to behave. Even more than the big boss, she sets the tone.

[image error]Nut puffs: A lot of people make these cookies, which are also called pecan puffs and Russian tea cakes and all sorts of other things. I will tell you honestly, mine are the best you have ever tasted. I have witnesses, tongue-witnesses, who will vouch for this. Nut puffs are not sweet, they contain a mere tablespoon of sugar in the cookie dough. All the sweetness comes from the confectioners sugar they are rolled in after baking.

The nut puff is the quiet workhorse of the office. He is that fellow you hired or promoted because no one better came along, who then absolutely shocked you with the quality of his work, his devotion to the job, and his wry sense of humor. You were unsure in the beginning, but now you love him.

[image error]Jewel Brooch cookies: Lots of people also make these cookies. They are called gems or jewels. I tell you, casting aside false modesty, mine are better. They don’t look any better, but they taste better. I suspect my grandmother and mother added these to the mix to fill out the plate with a colorful cookie that is relatively easy to make.

The jewel brooches are the dazzling young women of the office. They are smart and funny and pretty and wear great clothes. Brightening up the dark corners of the cubicle farm, they do their jobs well and then run out for evenings of theater and restaurants and shopping and laughter with their many friends.

[image error]Chocolate toffee squares: Another relatively easy to make cookie. The only one made with brown sugar instead of white. The dough is spread on a baking sheet, a task you can approach with many different tools, and ultimately have to do with your hands. While they are baking, there’s a double boiler on the stove and in it is the most delicious chocolate you can find. As soon as the sheet comes out of the oven, the melted chocolate is spread on top of the cooked dough so the layers fuse together.

The chocolate toffee squares are the young men in khaki pants who work the phones, selling, or providing support to customers. They flirt with the pretty jewel brooches, but few romances bloom. When they do, it is glorious and everyone in the office is invited to the wedding.

[image error]Marangoons: My mother called these “trash cookies.” Their sole purpose is to use up all the egg whites leftover after making the other cookies. Besides the egg whites, they contain confectioners sugar, corn flakes, chocolate chips, coconut, and a dash of vanilla. We’ve upgraded to better chocolate chips from the original Nestles my mother used, but the cookies have resisted any other attempts to upscale them. The corn flakes have to be Kellogg’s. The ones from Whole Foods turn into a soggy mass. And the coconut has to be sweetened. The real stuff, dried, is a disaster. Some things, like marangoons and green bean casserole, are best in their original, mid-century form. Like real macaroons, these cookies don’t last long, though I serve them stale and no one in my family has ever turned one down.

The marangoon is the office schlub. That guy who looks like a slob, no matter what you do. Even if you give up a lunch hour to help him clothes shop, he will come to work the next day looking every bit as schlubby as the day before. But, he’s a nice guy, and he does his job, albeit with a lot of grumbling, so you get used to him, and then you get to be friends, and the next thing you know, you’re crying a his good-bye party.

Readers: Do any of these office types sound familiar? Would you like to contribute any of your own?

Nancy Drew and Scooby-Doo

by Barb, still at Crime Bake

Yes, that’s right, I’m still at the Crime Bake hotel, even though almost everyone else has packed up and gone home. It feels vaguely like that time in college when you had the very last final on the very last day before the Christmas holidays, and the dorm was empty and a little creepy.

But I’m actually still here for a happy reason. Long before my new granddaughter was born, we had determined that Veteran’s Day weekend was the best possible time for my son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter, Viola, to come up to meet the new niece/cousin. So we’re staying here for a couple of extra days and traveling to our daughter’s place in Boston to take turns holding the baby. (Infants are like campfires. You can stare at them endlessly.)

Many of you may have heard me bemoan that fact that children don’t read mysteries anymore. Vastly oversimplified, my fear is that while I cut my teeth on Nancy Drew, the twenty and thirty-year-olds in my life grew up reading Redwall and Harry Potter.  Therefore as adults, when they read genre fiction, they tend to read fantasy. Meanwhile, the audience for mysteries grows older and older.

My son and daughter-in-law assure me this is not true, and they cite as evidence Viola’s love for Scooby-Doo. Scoopy-Doo and the gang spend their time solving mysteries, after all.

Viola is a great believer in themes, and a planner of themed birthday parties and Halloween extravaganzas. She involves everyone she can seduce into these enterprises, which explains why, two years ago, I, a hater of Halloween and a hater of costumes, found myself happily wandering around Franklin Park Zoo dressed as the Flora, the red fairy from Sleeping Beauty. (Also, Bill was dressed as Merryweather, the blue fairy, so I really had nothing to complain about.)

[image error]Halloween 2016

Anyway, this year Viola’s theme was Scooby-Doo and as usual, everyone she had access to had to be part of the act.

[image error]Viola’s “other” grandparents, Grammy and Gramps, fulfilling the roles of Shaggy and Fred. Daphne expressing annoyance that the gang isn’t solving the mystery fast enough.

My son Rob points out that Viola can’t even read, but already she is a fan of mysteries. Perhaps there’s hope for the future.

[image error]Readers: How did you get started with mysteries? Nancy Drew? Hardy Boys? Encyclopedia Brown? Scooby-Doo? Leave a comment or just say “hi” to be entered in the giveaway for my latest release, Yule Log Murder, a collection of three novellas by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis and me. The giveaway is open to readers from anywhere.

Yule Log Murder Released!

by Barb, who’s in Boston visiting her daughter and brand new granddaughter

[image error]Hi All. I’m thrilled to announce the release of Yule Log Murder, the latest collection of three holiday novellas by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis and me. All three stories take place in Maine, and all three involve a Bûche de Noël, the traditional French yule log cake.

I admit I was completely daunted when Kensington asked me to write a tale of Christmas mayhem centered on a complicated dessert. When they asked me to write for the previous collection, Eggnog Murder, I had an eggnog anecdote I’d been sitting on for years. For a Bûche de Noël, I had nuthin’. Plus, my baking is confined to a) fruit pies, b) Christmas cookies, and c) the very occasional bread (pumpkin, cranberry, etc.) or coffee cake. Note there are zero frosted cakes on that list, much less anything that gets rolled up.

But I love the holiday season and I love writing in the novella length, so there was no way I wasn’t going for it. I enjoyed doing the research, especially watching the famous video of Julia Child making a bûche.

The best part is when she flings the caramel at a broomstick to make the spun sugar moss (which starts about about 24:25 in the video).

Speaking to my niece Julia, who makes a Bûche de Noël every year, did nothing to assuage my fears. She strongly recommended making the cake over several days. Lots of the recipes I was looking at said the same. For example this excellent blog post improves Julia’s recipe by clarifying it. A mere 40 steps!

My protagonist Julia isn’t the baker in her family. Her sister Livvie is. So the idea of Julia learning to make the bûche over several days, while also learning about and solving a mystery, began to take shape. Who would teach her? Her mother’s elderly neighbor, Odile St. Onge. And why would Julia want to learn? To honor her boyfriend Chris’s family’s French Canadian heritage. After keeping mum about his family forever, Chris finally began to open up about them in Stowed Away and tells even more in Steamed Open (coming December 18, just in time for…).

So that’s the story. Making each part of the cake–the base, the filling, the icing, the meringue mushrooms, and the spun sugar moss–is entwined with a part of the mystery Julia uncovers at Mrs. St. Onge’s house.

[image error]I do include Mrs. St. Onge’s recipe at the end of the novella. However, in order to make the story last, I picked the most complicated recipe I could find for each element–and then added a few twists. Therefore, if Yule Log Murder makes you pine for a  Bûche de Noël of your own for Christmas, I recommend ordering from your favorite bakery. Or, there’s always Williams Sonoma.

Readers: Is there a holiday recipe or craft you’ve always wanted to try–but been daunted by? Do you think you’ll go for it or let it go?