Next week at Maine Crime Writers we’ll be featuring posts from Susan Vaughan (Monday) Lea Wait (Tuesday), Al Lamanda (Wednesday), Jim Hayman (Thursday), and Barb Ross (Friday).
In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:
Barb Ross: I got an e-mail from a narrator who is currently recording Clammed Up for Audible. I am so excited this is finally happening! I’ve never had an audiobook before. She wanted to know if my protagonist would say ketchup or cats-up. Have any of you heard cats-up in Maine? I decided that, in any case, after years of boarding school, college and work in NYC, Julia would say ketchup.
Kaitlyn Dunnett: Definitely ketchup. How exciting about the audiobook. I am seriously envious!
Lea Wait: Publishers Weekly had good words for two Maine Crime Writers this week! They called Vicki Doudera’s Deal Killer: A Darby Farr Mystery, this one set in New York City, “well-crafted” and wrote that “the more (the protagonist) learns, the more the reader will feel compelled to keep turning the pages before reaching the final revelation.” Wonderful! And my Uncertain Glory was called an ![51qkuGEqAxL._AA160_[1]](https://i0.wp.com/mainecrimewriters.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/51qkuGEqAxL._AA160_1.jpg)
“excellent historical coming-of-age novel … Wait skillfully weaves the strands together in a fast-paced and authentic tale … a fascinating look at small-town life during a pivotal moment in American history.” (Uncertain Glory is set in 1861.) Both books will be published in April.
And for those of you who’ve been waiting … Tess Gerritson’s Rizzoli and Isles crime drama will be back on TV Tuesday, February 25, on TNT.
Barb: Oh my goodness! Congrats to Vicki and Lea. And yay for the return to R & I. I was so skeptical about Angie Harmon, but she pulls it off. (As Tess Gerritson said to Lee Child at the Key West Literary Seminar–your character went to Hollywood and got shorter. Mine got taller!”)
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: kateflora@gmail.com
Kait Carson
Charlene D’Avanzo 
Congrats to all!
Bab brings up a rather interesting point concerning accents….especially for writers of a local color. Considering that your readers are global, how much ‘accent’ does a writer include without making the accent un-translatable to all but local? [ Kate – I personally find the heavy Scottish accents the hardest to read – I always end up reading them out loud to myself.] Yet, we are all so wicked proud of our own local colorful accents. For the simple reason that they do add a unique color not found anywhere else in the world.
Speaking of the world, and international communications, are we all gradually losing our local accents and merging into one pronunciation? Thirty years ago [ yes, I’m pushing 70 and not happy about it!] accents were much stronger. One of my sailing friends, also born and breed in Western Massachusetts, had to translate between her husband, a New Yorker, and a Maine lobsterman. They simply could not understand each other at all and each kept asking my friend, ‘Wht hd say?’
Sorry for lengthy blabber but the basic question remains: Are all our local colorful accents going to end up like Old English and all our writing and reading going to eventually become a monotone? If so, maybe we need a cultural rescue league…LOL
I love it when your blogs send me off into a tangent of useless thought….thanks!
Jule