Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, starting with an excerpt from A Fatal Fiction, the third Deadly Edits mystery featuring freelance editor Mikki Lincoln. In the series, Mikki has moved back to her old home town in rural New York after fifty years of living in Maine. She’s happy with her decision, but at this time of year she finds herself missing an annual event that can only be found in the Pine Tree State.

            Two days later, at nine on a gloomy, overcast Saturday morning with thundershowers in the forecast, I was at home trying to work on a short story sent to me by a new client when I was struck by a wave of nostalgia. For once, this was not prompted by a memory of growing up in Lenape Hollow, but rather by the realization that it was the third Saturday in April and for the second year in a row I was going to miss seeing the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race on TV.
            James and I didn’t live close enough to Bangor to attend in person, and we had never been tempted to participate, but it had been one of our annual traditions to watch the race from the comfort of our living room. The last time had been shortly before his death.
            It’s a little hard to explain the fascination of seeing canoes and kayaks wipe out in the rapids at Six Mile Falls. The crowds lining the banks at that point in the race are called “river vultures.” There are rescue crews there as well. Everyone who falls in is quickly pulled out again. For many years, another of the highlights was watching a retired librarian in a white tuxedo go over the falls while standing up in his canoe. He always made it safely through.   

That white-tuxedo-wearing librarian is Zip Kellogg, now retired from the University of Maine’s Glickman Library in Portland. He’s also an author with several canoe guides to his credit.

As for the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race, it is still going strong. In fact, it will be run this coming Saturday and will be televised (from Six Mile Falls) on Channel 5, the local CBS affiliate, and probably streamed online at their website as well. Since I share Mikki’s fascination with canoes getting stuck on the rocks and/or tipping over when they try to navigate Six Mile Falls, and also enjoy seeing the crazy costumes some paddlers wear, I’ll be glued to the screen for a solid two hours, although of course it takes longer than that for participants to travel the 16 ½ miles from Kenduskeag to downtown Bangor.

I have no idea what it is that appeals to me about this event. Possibly it’s just that it’s unique. It’s also a heck of a lot more entertaining than watching strangers golf or play poker or bowl.

For more information, you can go to https://www.kenduskeagstreamcanoerace.com

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others. 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. In 2023 she won the Lea Wait Award for “excellence and achievement” from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. She is currently working on creating new editions of her backlist titles. Her website is www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.