Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Kate Flora (Monday), Jule Selbo (Tuesday), Kait Carson (Thursday), and Joe Souza (Friday).
In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:
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, along with the very popular “Making a Mystery” with audience participation, and “Casting Call: How We Staff Our Mysteries.” We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora
AND DON’T FORGET! One lucky Maine Crime Writers reader who leaves a comment on the blog this month will win a bundle of books!
Back in the 1950s and early 1960s the options were pretty much limited to talking on the telephone or writing letters. I’m not sure how I acquired my first pen pal, but I know there were pen pal sections in many publications, printing names and addresses of people looking for people to write to in other countries. One of those publications was a comic book I read regularly about a young model named Katy Keene. I wrote to one of the addresses in the pen pal section, possibly in Australia, and in time a letter came back. The person who originally advertised for a pen pal had done so several years earlier and was now quite a bit older than I was but she passed my letter on to a younger friend and I corresponded with that girl for a number of years afterward.
I wish I still had those letters. If any of them sent me photos of themselves, those are long gone too. Sadly, so are most of their names. If I could remember more, given today’s technology, I might be able to reconnect with a few of my pen pals. There was Heather. Was she from Australia or New Zealand? I had a pen pal in each country. There was Carole from Bristol, England. I thought of her the first time I visited Great Britain at age twenty, but by then I’d already forgotten her last name and street address. My pen pal in India was a boy. He asked me to trace my feet and send the tracing to him. Nothing kinky. A few months later he sent me a pair of shoes and I sent back a photo of me wearing them.
In college and after I exchanged regular letters with family, in particular my parents and grandfather. Later we kept in touch with college and Navy friends by exchanging annual Christmas letters. That, too, has gone by the wayside. For one thing, I realized that mine ended up being the same letter with different book titles to reflect the current year’s work. We lead very dull lives.
Meet our guest poster, Jessica Berg.
Crime Wave is coming to Portland, Maine. Writers, readers, and criminals can all benefit from this fortuitous occurrence. Come meet the people who snake chills and thrills into our homes, bookstores, and libraries. The cast (or police lineup) of participating authors is incredible.
One of the (many) things I was concerned about beforehand was what it might do to my writing, in terms of schedule, how much time I could spend in the chair, and everything else that goes to make up the highly subjective and superstitious ways and means we all have of getting our work done.
for the offending joint, a general sense the sleeping unoperated-on world was a lot smarter than I was, and a curiosity about how long it would take before I could say I was glad I’d done this to myself.
What I’d relearned is that those first few hours, before the day rushes in, before you start scrolling for the news, before your living companions start to need you, are precious, and somehow more fruitful than the same number of hours later in the day.
Elaine Lohrman: I did not intend to write a book. It was just something I fell into. Conversations with Nora is not a crime thriller, but we will get to that part later. Some fifteen years ago, my mother was deep into dementia, and I was struggling to understand how my once loving parent could turn on me so viciously. A lovely lady, whom I call Nora, faithfully walked by my side during that time, helping me cry and deal with the inexplicable anger that welled up inside me. Every week we met over dinner to have those difficult conversations that always began with “Why?” Nora had experienced the mental decline of her own mother and had a deep understanding of what it is like to be “divorced” by one’s parent. Nora was a Stephen’s Minister, a lay person trained in compassionate caregiving of caregivers. Yes, that sounds strange, for a caregiver to need care, but while my mother was lost in her own confusing thoughts, I too was lost.
After a short hiatus, I eagerly picked up my pen again, this time to write in a completely new genre – historical crime thrillers. (I told you that we would eventually get to crime writing. Thank you for staying with me to this point!) There was no question as to which time period in history I would choose. The Victorian era has always fascinated me and in the tradition of Isaac Bell in Clive Cussler’s tales, the Angus Quinn series was born in my first novel. The Boathouse is set against the backdrop of New York City in the early 1890s. It is the first in a series of thrillers that spin compelling stories of police corruption, murder, and deeply enduring love. The Angus Quinn series grew from there and Incident on Hopper Lane soon followed, with a third book due out this fall.
