Author Archives: Richard Cass

About Richard Cass

Dick is the author of the Elder Darrow Jazz Mystery series, the story of an alcoholic who walks into a dive bar in Boston . . . and buys it. Solo Act was a Finalist for the Maine Literary Award in Crime Fiction in 2017 and In Solo Time won the award in 2018. The third book in the series, Burton's Solo, came out in 2018 and Last Call at the Esposito in 2019. Sweetie Bogan's Sorrow publishes on October 2, 2020. Dick lives and writes in Cape Elizabeth.

Plotter to Pantser to Driving Through the Dark

Posted on December 29, 2020 by Richard Cass

If the pandemic and quarantining have done anything for me, it’s forced me into some long-term organization I might not have gotten to otherwise. In the first month of lockdown, I organized my book by major topic categories, then alphabetically … Continue reading →

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All Hail the MacGuffin

Posted on November 30, 2020 by Richard Cass

I had a very long and unhappy screed teed up about the Senatorial race here in Maine, the disingenuous clowning of Bill Green pretending he was only doing a favor for a friend, and how nativism in the state becomes … Continue reading →

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Querencia

Posted on September 28, 2020 by Richard Cass

Obligatory Self-Promotion (scroll past if you like): Hope you’ll join me for a virtual book launch for Sweetie Bogan’s Sorrow, the fifth (!) in the Elder Darrow jazz mystery series. Free parking, goofy prizes, and a chance to help support Project … Continue reading →

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Once More To The Lake

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Richard Cass

Shameless Commerce Division: Sweetie Bogan’s Sorrow, number 5 in the Elder Darrow Jazz Mystery Series, will be out on October 2. Because my good friend Barb Kelly’s business depends on selling books at events and we haven’t had too many … Continue reading →

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An Anniversary of Sorts

Posted on July 31, 2020 by Richard Cass

(Begging your indulgence if you’ve seen this before): Cast. Mend. Drift. Strip. Step. Despite the bluebird desert sky, the rich sage air, the gorgeous red sun rising over the canyon rim—in spite of the prospect of a perfect river day—I … Continue reading →

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The Power of Pantsing

Posted on June 25, 2020 by Richard Cass

There’s a pretty well-known trope describing how people write novels. It breaks writers down into pantsers and plotters. Plotters plan out the sequence of events, outline what happens in their books, and generally have a strong idea where the ship … Continue reading →

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Raw as an Oyster

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Richard Cass

I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve been feeling raw as an oyster these past few months, enough so that I’m listening to podcasts by the TED Talk-famous Brené Brown and trying to parse out feelings about what we’ve lost … Continue reading →

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Baseball and the Amateur

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Richard Cass

One of the reasons I love baseball (and boy-howdy, do I miss lying back in the recliner after a long day of word-wrangling and sinking into those rhythms and sounds), is that for the most part, it’s played by normal-sized … Continue reading →

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The Covefe and Me

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Richard Cass

Not too much on the crime side to report this month, though I have to say I was seriously bummed by having to cancel my first-time attendance at Left Coast Crime this year. It wasn’t so much that I was … Continue reading →

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“Haunted by Waters . . .”

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Richard Cass

Maine, thank goodness, is a land of rivers, something people forget when they fall in love with the coast and the ocean. In Massachusetts, I was born next to the Neponset and baptized early in the Charles River, a long … Continue reading →

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