Double Release Day!

Edith/Maddie here, coasting after Christmas into another book birthday.

Deep Fried Death releases today, as does the paperback version of Irish Coffee Murder, which includes Barb’s novella “Perked Up.” I’m delighted to share the book birthday with Barb. But she’s on route to warmer climes today and turned the post over to me.

Deep Fried Death is my twelfth Country Store Mystery, which kind of boggles the mind. Last winter when I was writing the story, I was casting around for an event to anchor it on. Ongoing fans of the series know that my fictional town of South Lick isn’t far from Nashville (not THAT Nashville), the county seat of Brown County, Indiana.

As you can see by the cover, a goofy outhouse is involved. I had read about Nashville’s Abe Martin Festival, which includes an outhouse race called Nashcar. It’s all in good fun, and a fake outhouse seemed like an excellent place to stash a body.

But who was Abe Martin? According to Wikipedia:

Abe Martin was an American newspaper gag-a-day comic strip, drawn by Kin Hubbard and published from 1904 until 1937 in The Indianapolis News and other newspapers. Abe Martin was an anti-hero character, making wisecracker jokes and uttering sayings which became popular over the country. He made his first appearance on December 17, 1904. Originally the character’s locality wasn’t specified, but in a strip from February 3, 1905, he announced: “I’m goin’ ter move ter Brown County Tewmorrow”, which he did.

(Photos are public domain from Wikimedia Commons.)

My father and his family were from Indiana, going back to my great-great-great grandfather, the founder of Indiana University, who moved into the territory from Kentucky around 1810.

I remember Daddy and my grandfather occasionally putting on a folksy accent and citing Abe Martin.

Here’s a saying from the Irvington Historical Society‘s collection: “I wuz out t’ th’ poor farm yisterday t’ see a feller that used to print a paper that pleased ever’buddy.”

I did more research so I could include a scene in Deep Fried Death with Robbie Jordan’s staff joking around ala Abe Martin.

I smiled at Turner. “Abe Martin was a Hoosier cartoon character drawn by an artist and journalist named Kin Hubbard more than a hundred years ago. Abe, who ostensibly was from Brown County, doled out folksy wisdom often mixed in with political commentary.”

“Like, ‘Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature,’ for example.” Danna spoke in her best twang.

“Or, ‘Flattery won’t hurt you if you don’t swallow it,’” I added.

A few more: “You can’t stop a thing by making a crime out of it.” “Nobuddy kin talk as interestin as th’ feller that’s not hampered by facts er information.” “The feller that agrees with ever’thing you say is either a fool er he’s gittin ready to skin ya.”

So my new book is a bit of an homage to my Maxwell roots. But who stuffed a dead body into the Pans ‘N Pancakes outhouse? You’ll have to read the new book to find out! I hope you enjoy the story in this calm post-holiday period.

Readers: Share your favorite folksy saying or proverb.