Kathy Lynn Emerson's Blog, page 38

Weekend Update: July 22-23, 2017

Next week at Maine Crime Writers, there will be posts by Dorothy Cannell (Monday), Vaughn Hardacker (Tuesday), Joe Souza (Wednesday), Jen Blood (Thursday), and Lea Wait (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

This morning, July 22, Dorothy Cannell, Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson, Kate Flora, Katherine Hall Page, Lea Wait and many other Maine authors will be in Lincolnville Beach for Maine’s annual Beyond the Sea Book Festival. We’d love to see you there.

 

 

 

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business. Contact Kate Flora

Gold, Angry Wolverines and Other Tales From the Far North.

John Clark bringing you along on a trip Beth and I took over the Fourth of July to Alaska. When we went on our Canadian Rockies by rail tour in 2015, we met many people who were combining it with an inland passage cruise and a tour of Alaska.

Want mountains, we got plenty

Fast forward two years and we were ready to see Alaska ourselves. Finances made the inland passage portion prohibitive, so we booked a ten day tour starting in Fairbanks with stops in Denali, Seward, Homer and Anchorage. The adventure really started at La Guardia Airport in New York. After flying from Bangor, we had a several hour layover that turned into a real life edition of “Let’s Make A Deal.” It was July 1st and Delta must have overbooked every flight leaving that airport. Beth and I were amazed at how much the airline was offering in gift cards to passengers willing to be bumped and placed on a later flight. It topped out at $1300.

Beth at the Iditarod headquarters

The next interesting part was the flight from Minneapolis to Fairbanks. Our plane was outfitted with video screens that included a moving map as we flew over the Dakotas, western Canada and Alaska. We could also see our altitude, ground speed and the external temperature-at one point, a balmy -56 degrees. The scenery, even from 39,000 feet, was spectacular. We could really understand why parts of North Dakota are called the badlands and as we passed over British Columbia and a sliver of the Yukon, it was endless mountains with Denali poking a couple thousand feet above clouds as we made our approach to Fairbanks.

Susan Butcher’s dog training facility.

We had a great tour guide in James and an excellent bus driver in Robert. Both had been doing tours for years. James was extremely funny and enthusiastic. His dad is a retired Anchorage police officer and he regaled us with several stories including the time Dad and his partner fielded a prowler call that turned out to be a moose in a very small back yard. The more experienced officer lost it, emptying his service revolver very quickly. He shot the house four times and a glancing bullet knocked out the moose. Another equally funny story involved a different officer who was an avid hunter, but had never bagged a wolverine. When he answered a dead animal call, it was a large male wolverine. Instead of contacting animal control, he put it in his trunk. Yup, the critter wasn’t dead, just stunned and by the time three police officers had tried twice to shoot it in the trunk, its value as a taxidermy item was destroyed and the repairs to the trunk cost $8,000.

Once unloved, I now soar freely.

We enjoyed two adventures in Fairbanks. We took a narrow gauge train to Gold Dredge #8. This was a floating barge-like vessel that systematically scooped up giant gobs of gold bearing gravel after the surface soil was blasted away by high pressure hoses. It dredged an entire valley before being retired. We were shown how to pan for gold and found $22 worth of flakes between us. There’s a nice combined gift shop and museum there as well. Next was a ride on the sternwheeler Tanana Chief on the Chena River near our cabin with stops at the dog training kennel run by Susan Butcher’s daughter. She talked to all 300+ people on board about what goes into training. A short distance from there, we chatted by radio with a bush pilot who took off and landed beside us a couple times. His plane which you see in the photo, was abandoned in someone’s yard with weeds growing through it. He rebuilt it a number of years ago and it flies perfectly. In fact, he said the most preferred bush planes date from the 1930-50 era as they’re simple and durable. The ride included a visit to a recreation of an Athabascan village, complete with talks by some very talented young people from the tribe about how their ancestors lived in such a village. Note the amazing detain in the fur parka. It took six months to make.

Amazing design

We spent the next two nights in almost new rooms overlooking the Nenana River. The Alaskan Railroad ran high above us on the other side and James told us that this state owned railway provides passenger service during the summer and runs freight during the rest of the year. Because they hit moose frequently, the railroad has a call list of Alaskan citizens who are willing to pick unlucky critters. We upgraded to go on the longer bus trip into Denali and it was well worth it. We saw black and grizzly bears, caribou, Dall sheep, moose, eagles and stunning back country scenery. We were also fortunate to have a bus driver who was passionate about the park and had an excellent eye for spotting wildlife.

Bears ya say?

On our way from Denali to Seward, we passed the small town of Cantwell which sprung up as a result of the railroad being built. They sell a t-shirt that says ‘You Can’t Hide in Cantwell’. It got its start because there was one bar in town and it had the only reliable TV service. Apparently, reality TV shows and America’s Most Wanted were the top shows, but twice people who lived there turned up on the show, including the bartender.

And more bears!

Seward was a great stop. The long pipeline you see in the picture carries ultra low sulfur coal from the railroad depot to freighters. Both Seward and Valdez Harbors drop off sharply. Wade out too far and you’ll find yourself in 600-900 feet of frigid water. We spent a full day on a cruise to see marine life and glaciers. As you can see in some of the accompanying photos, we saw lots of amazing creatures and scenery.

I’m not Lion, these guys own this rock.

On our way to Homer, we stopped at the Idatarod headquarters where we read up on the history and some members of the tour went on a snowless dogsled ride. Both Beth and I got to hold week old huskie puppies. We had a free day in Homes after getting an excellent tour of the marine life that lives in the harbor. The giant starfish I’m holding has invisible velcro-like hairs on its upper surface that can pull arm hair off you very easily. It’s a defense mechanism to keep its breathing area clear. Eagles were everywhere, some sitting on posts so close to the road you could have plucked tail feathers as you went by. We also did some beach combing, shopped in an art store and visited the Homer Library. As you can see in the photo of their bulletin board, it’s a pretty busy place in the summer, but when the sun doesn’t set until midnight and comes back up three hours later, that leaves plenty of daylight activity time.

Some folks just go here for the halibut.

Our last day was in Anchorage and we took in the Anchorage Museum (https://www.anchoragemuseum.org/exhibitions/). It was probably the best twenty bucks we spent. Amazing paintings, a gut grabbing photo essay on threats to the native people (substance abuse, suicide, etc.), a huge display loaned by the Smithsonian as well as photos of Native Alaskans with a short life story of each. The two hours we spent there barely scratched the surface.

One busy library

It was a terrific adventure and gave me multiple levels of appreciation for the state as well as its people.

More pictures from the trip are on my Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/wizardofhart...

HANDS UP! GIMME ALL YOUR…

Not a holdup, but hands up and shoulders back and keep moving! I posted this a year ago, but it received such interest and more people have asked me about it, so here we go.

Because of years of back problems (and now osteoporosis and arthritis) and years of sitting at a keyboard, I’ve collected exercises and advice from various sources. Today I’m sharing some that can benefit writers, office workers, and others who sit long hours at desks and/or keyboards can benefit from exercises and activities aimed at preventing carpal tunnel, neck and back and hip pain, and weight gain.

PREVENTING CARPAL TUNNEL

Be sure you have your chair and keyboard so your wrists are straight rather than at an angle with the keyboard. Sit up straight like your mother told you. Don’t slump. Habitually letting shoulders slump forward can lead to “dowager’s hump” and rotator-cuff injury. A lumbar support cushion strapped to the chair back can facilitate this. The cushion’s pressure on the lower back is a great reminder to sit erect.

Train yourself to use the mouse with either hand, so you don’t overuse one hand. Even before I learned this about carpal tunnel, I taught myself to do this because of pain in my index finger from clicking and scrolling. I think the same thing could be true of using the touch pad repeatedly with the dominant hand.

This next sequence of exercises continues carpal tunnel prevention and helps keep arms and shoulders limber. Do these once and hour while you’re at the keyboard.

PRAY

Put your hands in a prayer position, pushing toward your sternum and with your elbows raised to the sides. Hold for a count of ten. Release the prayer hand position and point your fingers downward stiffly, pressing the backs of your hands together. Hold for a count of ten. Repeat that sequence three times.

Similarly, as in the photo, grasp the fingers of one hand with the other and pull back, hold for a count of ten and relax. Repeat the sequence three times with each hand.

SHAKE IT UP, BABY

Release and shake out your arms and hands. Hold your arms out straight from your sides and roll your arms and shoulders frontward, then backward.

STRENGTHENING

Remind yourself to stand straight with shoulders back as if the lumbar cushion is attached to your back, shoulder blades pinched together slightly. Get up at least once an hour and walk around, go up and down stairs, more often if possible. I set a small timer for twenty minutes.

SILLY WALK

A variation is to do gentle lunges, enough to tighten the buttocks but not enough to stress the knees. I do my silly walk down the long hall beside my basement office. When I began, to keep my balance, I touched the wall on both sides.

TURTLE

The head weighs about the same as a bowling ball, so as we age, we need strength to keep it vertical. This exercise will improve posture and strengthen neck muscles. Sit or stand straight, shoulders back, in the posture I described above. Looking forward, pull your head back, chin down, turtle-like. Hold for a count of five, then relax. Do five repetitions. Do the set three times a day. And here’s the “hands up” in my title.

WINGS OR THE BIG W 

This exercise will prevent the shortening of chest muscles and stretch your back. Sit or stand straight, shoulders down, shoulder blades slightly pinched together. Hold your arms out from your sides, elbows bent, hands pointed up so your arms form a big W, or wings. Pull your arms back and hold for a count of five, then relax. Do five repetitions. Do the entire set three times a day.

I’ve worked the Wings and the Turtle exercise into walks with my dog. Sasha doesn’t notice my nutty behavior, and neither do the birds and squirrels along our dirt road. None of these should be too time consuming and should improve flexibility and decrease risk of pain from overuse.

Lastly, pay attention to the body’s reactions, the movements and stretching of various muscles, and on your breathing. Focusing on the present moment and on the sensations created by the various exercises can reduce stress and increase the benefit of the activity.

I invite commenters to suggest additional activities or exercises to add to the repertoire.

No-Fuss Flowers

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, confessing to the sad truth that I have a black thumb. That’s right. Every plant I’ve ever owned has withered and died. Every attempt to plant a rock garden has ended in disaster—even the rocks failed to thrive. Plant bulbs? Forget it. Ditto for flowers bought from a nursery. This is especially galling when I remember that my mother had the magic touch. Her flowerbeds were a work of art. At one house she lived in, she covered the entire front lawn with flowers. Below is a photo from 1976, when Mom and Spot were offering advice for planting a rock garden at the house we’d just moved into. Below is that rock garden three years later, proof that I did not inherit the gardening gene.

I don’t even do well with cut flowers, although that may have more to do with owning cats than with any aversion a florist’s arrangement has to me.

 

Fortunately, since I live out in the country, Mother Nature is kind to me. Without any effort on my part, flowers appear. Every year the lilac bush blooms. Almost every year the forsythia does too. And, of course, the apple trees and crabapples blossom.

Years ago, I brought forget-me-nots to Maine from my parents’ house in New York State (I had some in my bridal bouquet, too). Although they didn’t thrive in my miserable attempt at a rock garden, they did naturalize themselves. Every year, they are a much-anticipated sign that late spring is on its way to turning into summer.

With no help at all on my part, what I assume are some kind of roses blossom every June. They provided the backdrop for this publicity photo I had taken back when I was writing the Face Down series, set in sixteenth-century England. The costume, by the way, was borrowed from the Theater at Monmouth, where Shakespeare’s plays, and others, are performed every summer.

At this time of year, early to mid-July, day lilies brighten roadsides all over Maine. I’m fortunate to have a particularly abundant batch right in front of the screened-in porch where I like to sit to edit manuscripts by hand.

Identifying flowers isn’t one of my strong points—a definite disadvantage for a writer—and I certainly didn’t inherit my mother’s green thumb, but even a gardening failure like me can enjoy the beauty of nature’s many no-fuss flowers.

 

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett is the author of more than fifty traditionally published books written under several names. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. Currently she writes the contemporary Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries (X Marks the Scot—December 2017) and Deadly Edits series (Crime and Punctuation—2018) as Kaitlyn and the historical Mistress Jaffrey Mysteries (Murder in a Cornish Alehouse) as Kathy. The latter series is a spin-off from her earlier “Face Down” mysteries and is set in Elizabethan England. New in 2017 is a collection of short stories, Different Times, Different Crimes. Her websites are http://www.KathyLynnEmerson.com and http://www.KaitlynDunnett.com

Summer’s short, and Vacationland beckons

Had a lunch meeting in downtown Portland, so naturally I parked (for free!) at the Eastern Prom and took a nice walk, too.

Is it summer that does it? Is it the warm breezes, the intoxicating smell of flowers, the promise of ice cream? I don’t know, but something makes it hard to knuckle down and do what’s has to be done.

One thing for sure — summer in Maine is too damn short and it’s a crime anyone has to spend any time indoors. And yet we do. Because, you know, working and stuff.

So how am I spending my summer “vacation”?

Here’s some random stuff. Because it’s too nice out to hold a thought in my head.

If the photos don’t match the topics, that’s because who wants to see crummy photos of work and stuff when you can see photos of summer in Maine?

The view from one of my undisclosed reading and writing locations. OK, OK. It’s the reading room at the Glick.

WRITING MY THIRD BERNIE O’DEA MYSTERY

Oh, you thought it would be out by now? Join the club. So did I. Still, it’s coming along and it’ll be out when it’s out.

I constantly say — as I’m sure every other writer in America who’s not a millionaire does — I would love to be able to do nothing but write. Not only would I have hit my deadline on the book, but the book would kick butt.

Part of the problem with having a lot of things to do when you’re trying to write isn’t just finding the time, but finding the head space. Or controlling the head space. Some of you writers may know what I mean. When I really get going on a book, it’s working in my head all the time. I don’t want to devote my brain to anything but my book. I don’t want to limit the time. It’s like being in love (only better in a lot of ways because the book doesn’t hog the remote).

When I write in the morning, I don’t want to stop to do the other (paying) things I have to do. When I write in the evening, it ends up keeping me up at night as scenes continue to develop in my head.

I guess if you have to have a problem, that’s a good one to have. I think of how boring life would be if I didn’t have that stuff in my head.

Popham Beach at twilight on a foggy July night. No filter needed.

JUDGING SELF-PUBLISHED BOOKS

Every time I do it, I vow to never do it again. But again, money. Not a lot, but just enough to dangle under my nose and kill my summer.

I have to read 75 for a contest, critique them and send back three, by Aug. 1. I won’t embarrass myself by telling you how many more I have to do.

Almost had a heart attack last night when I thought I’d misunderstood and I actually had 100 to do. Ha HA. Imagine the hilarity when I realized there was a clerical mistake.

PODCASTING

It’s become a monster. I have three now. The veteran of the group, Crime & Stuff, with my sister, which we’ve been doing since November; a spin-off, Groovy Tube, also with my sister. It was going to a be a Crime & Stuff, but there was so much to say it got its own podcast. Season 1, The Crimes of the Brady Bunch. And then, my solo effort, Notes from a Cranky Editor. Figure I’d put all that yelling at the TV and morning paper to work.

It’s cool that more and more  people are getting into podcasting, both doing it and listening. No, I don’t make any money from it. But as we find ways to build brands and market ourselves (yes, YOU, writers), it’s a big emerging thing.

And anyway, it’s a lot of fun.

FREELANCING

Gotta pay those bills! At least some of them. I’ve got a couple of sweet regular gigs and am enjoying being my own boss quite a lot. It’s almost like working, but more fun.

Every sunset is cool in Maine. Even when it’s not summer. Though this one is. Popham Beach!

ENJOYING MAINE

You what would be worse than having a summer full of work where I couldn’t get outside? Having a summer like that anywhere but Maine.

I find lots of excuses/reasons to get out and about, and I’ve vowed to take one day a week to just go somewhere. I’m going to try to mix it with places that have to do with the book I’m writing, because few things help generate that process than being in the setting. At least for me.

One scene in my book takes place at Popham Beach and I’ve already found many reasons to go. I can’t stay away. Next trip will be Franklin County, a nice trail I’ve picked out near Flagstaff Lake.

Gotta do it before the summer is over.

These things aren’t in order of importance, though the book is number one, but as I said up top, it’d be a crime to not get outside. Summer in Maine is short. Work and everything else — even the stuff with deadlines — will be there when we get back.

Maureen Milliken is the author of the Bernie O’Dea mystery series. Follow her on Twitter at@mmilliken47 and like her Facebook page at Maureen Milliken mysteries. Sign up for email updates at maureenmilliken.com. She hosts the podcast Notes from a Cranky Editor all by herself, as well Crime&Stuff with her sister Rebecca Milliken.

 

Renewed

Jessie: On the coast of Maine savoring each moment of summer

Is there anything in your life that you’ve been doing for a really long time and have finally just gotten sick of it?  Something where the day in and day out mundane  nature of the task has finally caused you to just give up?

I used to be an enthusiastic cook. I thought nothing of whipping up 1/2 dozen gingerbread houses for a children’s party. Barbecue for 60? No problem. I even catered my own wedding except for the cake. But in the last couple of years I just don’t have the will to cook anything at all. Opening a new box of cereal hardly seems worth the effort. After so many years of making dinner I’m finally burnt out.

Or at least I thought I was until Amazon Prime Day. I had heard of sous vide cooking before last Tuesday but I really hadn’t paid it much mind. Then I saw an advertisement for a sous vide cooker  offered at a tempting price. I did what any thrifty Yankee would do and cruised the Internet for background information, YouTube videos and competitor pricing. And then I did what thrifty Yankees would not do, I bought the darn thing.

I didn’t need it, but I wanted it. I felt a little spark somewhere down in my soul saying maybe I could find the will to make dinner once more. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the technique it involves using a heater that circulates water in a large vessel. You place the food you wish to cook, along with any seasonings, in a sealable container like a Ziploc bag or a Mason jar. You  lower the food into the water bath, set the temperature and the timer and you go away until it’s done. Nothing gets dried out, nothing gets overcooked, no chicken breasts come out half raw. It will even hold your food at temperature for several hours in case you just don’t get around to eating it.

You finish it all off in a searingly hot pan if it’s the sort of thing that would benefit from that and then you serve it up to accolades. I know it sounds crazy. But I finally got my son to enjoy a meal featuring chicken. But really, that wasn’t the point. The point was, for the first time in ages I am interested in making dinner once more.

Readers, is there anything you used to like to do the chief simply grown weary of? Have you ever tried cooking with a sous vide machine?

Weekend Update: July 15-16, 2017

Next week at Maine Crime Writers, there will be posts by Jessie Crockett (Monday), Maureen Milliken  (Tuesday), Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Wednesday), Susan Vaughan (Thursday), and John Clark (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

On Saturday morning, July 22, Dorothy Cannell, Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson, Kate Flora, Katherine Hall Page, Lea Wait and many other Maine authors will be in Lincolnville Beach for Maine’s annual Beyond the Sea Book Festival. We’d love to see you there.

On Wednesday, July 19th at 7:00 pm, Lea Wait and Barbara Ross will speak and sign books at the Thomaston Public Library, 60 Main St., Thomaston, Maine 04861 207.354.2453. We’d love to see you there!

Kate Flora, Barbara Ross and Lea Wait were all smiles

Last week, a bunch of us enjoyed meeting with readers (and other writers) at Books in Boothbay, an annual event held at Boothbay Railway Village.

Brenda Buchanan

Though this event is behind us, we thought you’d like to see photos of some of the crime writers who attended.

Richard Cass

 

Bruce Coffin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Want to win a free book? From time to time, we like to give presents to our readers.

The Maine Mulch Murder by A. Carman Clark

This month, one commenter on the blog will will a copy of Kate Flora and John Clark’s mother’s book, The Maine Mulch Murder. As some of you may know, A. Carman Clark was a journalist and edited the home and garden pages for the Camden Herald. She also loved mysteries. After listening to her complaints about mysteries with too much violence, or characters who lived improbably lives a country woman couldn’t related to, her librarian friends told her to go home and write her own book. So she did.

If you can’t wait to see if you win, here’s the e-book cover and a link to the e-book version: http://amzn.to/2tRckZr

 

 

 

 

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business. Contact Kate Flora

Save

Creative Ways to Support Your Local Bookstore

At the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, on my way to the Witherle Library in Castine

Kate Flora: Let’s face it–it is so easy to click onto Amazon and order that we often default to that mode. But readers who love books, and bookstores, and browsing the shelves or asking the staff for suggestions, know that if we don’t support them, local bookstores will go the way of the dinosaurs. This would leave a hole in our lives, a hole we may not even recognize until we suddenly need a book to read right now or don’t know what we want and need informed suggestions. If we want to keep our local bookstores, let’s make a vow to balance our on-line buying with shopping local.

Here, in no particular order, are ways you can support your local bookstore without breaking your budget.

Baby Presents: Sure, we all love buying those cute little pink or blue outfits, which are

Lyn Smith’s wonderful new book

quickly outgrown. But a book can give pleasure over and over and over, and even become something that the children will revisit for their own children. Consider what books you loved as a child. What books that you pick off the shelves have magical illustrations that you can imagine a mom or dad showing to a small child? Goodnight Moon never gets old. Neither does the little slipcase of Maurice Sendak books small enough for a young child’s hands. A stack of individually wrapped books, perhaps in

Illustration from The Porcupine’s Promenade

a tote the parents can reuse, makes a wonderful baby gift. And while you’re there, if there are older siblings, it is nice to include wrapped books for those other children. Most bookstores will have totes as well, a great selection of cards, and many will wrap for free.

 

 

Wedding Presents: Often, by the time I get to the gift registry, anything I would like to buy is gone, and I’m not ready to spring for the $500 appliance. I also like to find something that the couple can reuse for years to come. My solution? Cook’s Illustrated’s amazing cookbook: The New Best Recipe, which is not only a good cookbook, but a great read. In this book, the authors detail the many experiments they went through to reach the final recipe, and why it ended up being the version chosen. It’s a lesson in the science of cooking. I wrap it and then put it, and a card, inside of an interesting tote bag that can be reused many times. I’m also currently enamored with Yottam Ottolenghi’s cookbooks, including Plenty, for vegetarians, and Jerusalem for the recipes and the amazing photos. Want to be creative? Get a few of the exotic ingredients the recipes call for, like pomegranate molasses or sumac, and stick a few of them in the tote. For lovers of Maine, there’s , which has illustrations of places as well as food.

The couple aren’t cooks? No problem. A coffee table book of the location they’re going for their honeymoon, or the place they met, or perhaps one that echoes their hobbies. The possibilities are endless. You’ve given a thoughtful gift and supported your local bookstore.

Hostess Gifts: Here the possibilities are also endless. And can be so much more creative than the usual wine or flowers. A copy of a book you’ve recently read and loved? A cookbook you’ve just discovered and think they’d like. A small chapbook that will also support a local poet. A pair of books that connect, like The Sun Also Rises and The Paris Wife.

 

The “Treat Yourself” Binge: We all think of summer as the

The garden book I drool over, and there is Gardens Maine Style 2 as well

time when we’re going to take a break from work, kick back, and read, right? So to help make that happen, treat yourself to a trip to the bookstore, and buy

yourself two or three books you’ve been saying you’re going to read. I recently binge read three Frederik Bachman books: A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, and Britt Marie was here. Loved all three and it was so much fun to just move from one book to the next. Maybe for you it will be Jane Austen, or rereading Dick Francis, or discovering a new mystery author binge reading the whole series. (We at Maine Crime Writers love this option.)

 

Grandma or Grandpa’s Book Club: Thanks to Hank Phillippi Ryan for this idea…each month, your grandchild sends you a postcard listing a current interest or long-for book, and you send a book. I am looking forward to sending the Lemony Snicket series.

What other ways can you think of to support your local bookstore? I posed this question to my Facebook friends, and got some great suggestions, including this one for supporting both local bookstores and your library. Starting this summer, Devaney, Doak & Garrett in Farmington is introducing this program:

Announcing the DDG Library Reward Program, a way for community members to support their town library while shopping at their local bookstore. DDG Booksellers is dedicated to community partnership and literacy outreach. We offer many discount and content programs to our beloved town Library partners. The Library Reward Program adds fund raising to the mix. The program’s goal is to keep community resources in town while providing area libraries with a substantially greater fund raising benefit level than online fund raising programs such as Amazon Smile offer. Amazon Smile takes money out of the community and only returns .05 percent to the local library. A thousand dollars of purchasing only returns $5.00. Our Library Reward Program (LRP) gives back 5% on all dedicated purchase, ten times the return.

The program is easy to sign up for and easy to use. Library patrons who wish to participate in the program simply need to have their DDG purchases applied to the Library’s DDG LRP account. The LRP account will automatically track and issue store credit to participating Libraries for their book purchases. It’s a simple way to increase your book buying power through community partnership. The program starts on August 1, 2017. You can sign up anytime. We look forward to working together.

p.s. If you haven’t already bought it, and like to read e-books, A Good Man with a Dog is on sale until the 15th for $1.99

A Good Man with a Dog http://amzn.to/2twDeG3

 

Doughnuts!

Doughnuts play a central role in my life.

I’m not so proud that I can’t admit that there have been nights when I’ve gone to bed excited about the doughnut waiting for me in the morning.

Every Saturday morning for as far back as my increasingly dim memory can recall, I’ve bought doughnuts for our family. In recent years, we’ve expanded the concept of “doughnut” to include pastries, especially the cream horns, turnovers and cinnamon rolls from Baker’s Bench in Westbrook. If you haven’t yet had the chance to taste the cream horns, turnovers and cinnamon rolls from Baker’s Bench, do so immediately. They are the best in the world. Trust me. There was a test.

World’s Best Cream Horn

The term “doughnut” comes from Elizabeth Gregory in mid-19th century New England, the mother of a ship captain. She deep-fried globs of dough for her son, using the spices that he transported. She often incorporated lemon rind into the fried dough to ward off scurvy on long voyages. That’s the exact same reason I buy doughnuts and pastries every Saturday morning. Got to ward off scurvy during soccer practice. But she found that sometimes the center of the fried dough hadn’t cooked enough, which is disgusting, so she took to placing hazelnuts or walnuts in the center to avoid the goo. Hence: doughnuts, which was infinitely better than what “doughnuts” had been called when they first came to America: oily cakes. By the way, Mrs. Gregory’s son claimed to be the first to put the hole in the doughnut. Some say he did it to hang it on a spoke in the captain’s wheel. Cynics say he did it to skimp on ingredients. Either way, it works.

Some people say that doughnuts are bad for you. To them, I say shut up. A doughnut was a treat that remained accessible even during the Great Depression. Many were even sold with inspirational quotes, like “As you go through life make this your goal: Watch the doughnut, not the hole.” Come on, if that doesn’t make you tear up, then you’re just a nasty doughnut-hater.

Doughnuts greeted our soldiers in WWI and again in WWII. Although, sadly, doughnuts did not spark the nickname Doughboys. That nickname predated the rise (get it?!?) of the doughnut, having been bestowed upon foot soldiers by cavalry during the Civil War because of the glob-like buttons on their uniforms.

Doughnuts rule. But this is America and and that’s not enough for us. We need to know which doughnut is number one. Rest assured, we have scientifically determined which place makes the best doughnut in Maine, or at least the portion we can easily drive to.

At my law firm one day, a group of us were engaged in an increasingly tense debate over whether the rise (I did it again!) of the potato doughnut signaled the end of days. This led to an even more violent argument about which shop made the best doughnut. Tempers flared. Punches were thrown. Someone might have gotten sued. Then calmer heads prevailed and a competition was suggested. Our first annual doughnut-off.

Guessing that some of us (me) would not play fair in this competition, the more anal retentive members of my firm devised a matrix of a score sheet involving trigonometry and knowledge of the ancient language of Sanskrit and we set about to prove scientifically which doughnut was the best. Each of us could submit one speciality doughnut and one “regular” doughnut from each shop and then all would taste and vote. To avoid being sued (and to avoid the baleful glare of nutritionists everywhere), I won’t name all the shops we sampled, but there were many. It took weeks but finally we had a winner.

The Cookie Jar in Cape Elizabeth.

My favorite thing about The Cookie Jar is its doughnut hole. These aren’t munchkins. These are balls of cake coated in glaze that are bigger than a poodle’s head. Eat one and you’ll have such a sugar buzz that you lose the ability to modulate the volume of your voice. Eat two and you’ll shake uncontrollably. Eat three and you’ll black out, waking up weeks later in Cancun with no pants. It’s awesome.

Now, I know what you’re saying. Since The Cookie Jar was my favorite going into the competition, I must have cheated. There had to be voter fraud. Two responses: first, that’s hurtful; second, of course I cheated.

So prove me wrong. If you have a doughnut that is better, let me hear it. Actually, let me taste it. Just not potato doughnuts. Those really are the coming of armageddon.

Doughnut Expert and Comedian, Jim Gaffigan

To hear comedian Jim Gaffigan explain why everyone loves doughnut, click here.

Beth’s Farm Market

by Barb who’s cleaning out her house in Massachusetts, so she can spend more time in Maine (Yay!)

Everybody has a favorite farmstand, right? When it’s just Bill and me, we meet most of our produce and yummy bakery needs at the Boothbay Farmer’s Market. But sometimes when we expect a houseful of guests, or the farmer’s market is on the wrong day, we need to go farther afield. That’s when we make a pilgrimage to Beth’s in Warren, Maine.

Beth’s is quite a place. People come from miles around, which they would have to for it to be such a going concern, being that is in the middle of nowhere. (No offense to the citizens of Warren. I think that like that it’s nowhere.)

The first time Bill and I passed the signs for Beth’s it was purely by accident. I think we were speeding to a library talk I was doing somewhere. But then Lea Wait and Bob Thomas said they loved it, so we go curious and returned. Boy were they right.

Beth’s offers fresh produce, almost all of it grown on their farm, along with beautiful flowers. They carefully detail the provenance of the items they don’t grow–the meat, oysters, lobsters, etc. The variety of produce is mind-blowing, and they’ve found a way to harvest strawberries late and blueberries and potatoes early, ensuring a steady supply.

Like almost all New England farmers, Beth’s makes prepared foods, jams and jellies, and baked goods, including strawberry shortcake. (Transforming the raw materials is part of what makes the economics work.) They’re open in the fall for pumpkins, a corn maze, cider and donuts, and in December for wreaths and trees.

Recently, I had to send my editor cover ideas for the seventh Maine Clambake Mystery. It takes place in July. I was clear what food I wanted on the cover, except for the side dishes. Bill and I took a ride up to Beth’s for inspiration.

We both came away inspired. Bill took the photos below. Enjoy!

Readers: Do you have a favorite farm market?

[All photos below the prose 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.]

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