Maine Crime Writers

The Best Made Plans

Posted on February 2, 2024 by mainecrimewriters

Kate Flora: I had a lot of plans for how much I’d accomplish this week. Finish tweaking that police procedural/serial killer book to enter in a contest. Review my other dark police procedural and decide whether to submit it. Get out the editor’s comments on the Dog book and start revising. Create a new graphic to promote my romantic suspense, Wedding Bell Ruse.

Then there were the administrative tasks. Finish organizing the “Writing Cops Right” panel for Sisters in Crime. Put together the agenda for the February meeting. Get tax materials together for the accountant. Make a million phone calls to locate a prescription drug that’s out of stock nearly everywhere. Call an exterminator to get these darned mice out of my house.

The list goes on and on.

There’s the research I need to do so I can I finally rewrite a new Thea Kozak mystery, as my fan letters keep asking me to do. Riding to tai chi, my friend Margaret gives me an idea. Now it must be worked into a plot.

Then there were all the things that needed to be packed and toted to the post office to mail. The clothes I never wear to go to the consignment shop. Try on that new bathing suit and see if it will work for a Florida vacation. Seriously, can anyone try on a bathing suit in February and not be horrified?

Go to my tai chi class. Work out with my trainer. Walk my thrice a week four miles.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Well. I was on a roll. I got the manuscript off to the contest. I went to tai chi. I wrote several chapters in the book I turn to whenever I stuck in my “real” work. And then the phone call came saying: Oh yes, that bump on your leg that you thought didn’t look quite right. The one your dermatologist didn’t think was a problem? Well guess what. It’s a skin cancer. Not the worst one. Not the best one. The middle one that still has to be taken seriously.

So my work day became holding on the phone, trying to make an appointment for the surgery to have it removed. I got lucky and found the person who wasn’t dismissive and wanted to schedule it for April sometime. And miracle of miracles…got an appointment to be sliced and diced this morning.

For a while, at least, I don’t have to worry about running errands. My leg is wrapped in an enormous bandaged and I’m supposed to stay off my feet. No trainer. No long walks. So, since writers are also supposed to be avid readers, I’ve got a few days off to lie about and read. Northeaster by Cathie Pelletier. The new biography of Joshua Chamberlain. Foster by Claire Keegan. All the reading I’d planned to do between Christmas and New Year’s which got derailed.

So, when I’ve finished them, dear readers, what books should I read next?

Posted in Kate's Posts, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

A Tribute to Phyllis A. Whitney

Posted on February 1, 2024 by kaitlynkathy

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here. Back in the 1970s, when I was first starting out and trying to write mysteries for middle-grades readers (ages 8-12), Phyllis A. Whitney’s Writing Juvenile Stories and Novels was one of the go-to how-to books on the subject, along with Joan Lowry Nixon’s Writing Mysteries for Young People and Jane Yolen’s Writing Books For Children. A little later, branching out into romantic suspense, I added Whitney’s Guide to Fiction Writing to my shelf of writing books. And, of course, I’d been reading Whitney’s romantic suspense novels for years. Between 1943 and 1997, thirty-nine of them were published, along with twenty juvenile mysteries between 1949 and 1977 and fourteen novels for young people between 1941 and 1972.

I won’t say I took all her advice. For one thing, she was a plotter, advising wannabe writers to make extremely detailed outlines before starting to write each book. That never worked for me, although I did give it a try. What she did do was inspire me to think I could write in more than one genre, mix up the genres a bit, and have a long writing career. She died in 2008 at the age of 104. In 2024, a great many of her titles are still readily available in electronic, audiobook, large print, hardback, and paperback formats. That’s one heck of a legacy!

I never met Ms. Whitney in person, but I do have a lovely note from her in response to my request for a blurb for one of my children’s books. She declined, since she was no longer writing for that age group, but offered words of encouragement that I cherish. She and I, and the then fledgling Sisters in Crime, also had something in common—a desire to advance the careers of women mystery writers. Later, when a small group at Malice Domestic founded the now inactive American Crime Writers’ League, she was an avid supporter.

It was while going through one of my scrapbooks that I recently found a copy of the ACWL newsletter, the BULLETin, in which was printed a letter Ms. Whitney had written to another prominent member, the late Margaret Maron, someone I did have the good fortune to spend time with on numerous occasions. Since she gave permission for Margaret to share it, I feel comfortable doing the same.

That sentiments in that letter, written in 1998, stand in stark contrast to the way writers today feel about what they must do to promote each new book. And they go a long way toward explaining why I feel the way I do about self-promotion. Once upon a time, it was the writer’s job to write and the publisher’s job to get the word out about the result. Of course, once upon a time, it was also possible for a mid-list writer to make a living by writing books.

Opinions are welcome, but please take the time to read the two letters that accompany this post before you comment.

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 omnibus e-book editions of her backlist titles. Her website is www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.

Coming Attractions! What’s Ahead in 2024

Posted on January 30, 2024 by mainecrimewriters

Kate Flora: New Year’s has passed, and we’re hard at work in the New Year. We thought we’d take this opportunity to share some of the books we’ll publish in 2024, and projects we’re working on that haven’t yet found a home. As for me? I don’t have anything in the pipeline yet, but hope that in the months ahead, Unleashed Love, my romantic tale about a matchmaking dog, will find a home. I’m also hopeful about a thriller currently titled The Senator’s Daughter, although I hope to find a better title with the help of my Facebook friends. Now it’s back to work on the next Joe Burgess, although I’m getting pressure to write a new Thea as well. We shall see. Inspiration has a way of sidetracking the best laid plans. Who knows? It might a children’s book, cowritten with my cousin, about a car nut named Ben and a mouse named Carby. Stay tuned.

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson: Continuing a “retirement” project I started last year, I’m turning the last of my romance novels published in the years 1989-1997 into an omnibus e-book (and possibly a print-on-demand trade paperback as well, if it doesn’t end up being too expensive). These books needed some revising, not to set them in the present day, but rather to get rid of the worst of the wordiness, some rather purple prose, and a few cringeworthy lines of dialogue from my “heroes.” This collection, titled The Maine Quartet, should be ready for me to publish through Draft2Digital sometime in February. Along with the four novels set in Maine, it will also contain a bonus short story, “The Boston Post Cane.” When that’s done, I have more reprint projects in mind. I want to do a thorough revision of an early historical romance, Firebrand, and bring it out as a “new” novel with a new title (probably Treacherous Gifts). I did this last year with another title, turning Winter Tapestry, a romance, into Death of an Intelligence Gatherer, a mystery. I’m also toying with the idea of producing new print-on-demand editions of my entire Face Down series, set in the 16th century. I already did the hard part on those when I collected them into three volumes for new e-book editions.

Maggie Robinson: If I ever finish editing, I hope to release two 1920s-set cozy mysteries into the 2020s–Lady May and the Memoir of Death, and Lady May and the Master of Deceit. The heroine is a woman “of a certain age” and quite close to my heart. The series also features a Scotland Yard detective anxious to retire, Lady May’s widowed niece Lady Alice, Lady Alice’s three-year-old son Tommy, a disreputable dog, and several dead bodies. Something for everyone! And I’ll continue to plug away on my turn-of-the-20th-century Maine island murder mystery.

Matt Cost: I have two books slated for publication this year. Pirate Trap will pub on March 27th. It is the fifth book in the Clay Wolfe/Port Essex Trap series. Clay and Baylee are hired to search for a long lost treasure and things immediately get more complicated. Pirates, motorcycle gangs, and sex doll manufacturers round out the mix. City Gone Askew will pub on July 31st. It is the second book in the Brooklyn 8 Ballo series. 8 Ballo is hired to investigate a death, a missing Roman Legion Standard, and gets drawn into investigating shady practices being run by Carnegie Institute regarding the eugenics movement in 1924 Brooklyn. The sixth book in the Goff Langdon Mainely Mystery series, Mainely Mayhem, is done and awaiting a pub date, which may be fall of this year, or spring of next. Write on.

Jule Selbo: 8 DAYS, A Dee Rommel Mystery has been out for 6 weeks now and reviews (from Kirkus to the LA Times Book Review to other sites/blurbs and Amazon reviews) have been great and I am so grateful. BUT!!! A hundred pages into 7 DAYS now, that familiar fear is setting in. Will I be able to make this work as well at 8 DAYS? And 9 DAYS and 10 DAYS – the other Dee Rommel Mysteries.

Last Saturday I spent a few hours at the Waldoboro Library talking with mystery readers (and readers of other genres) about writing and characters in my books. They braved the cold, were served tea and we had a fabulous time in the beautiful space. The energetic Ann Leamon (lead at Waldoboro Library – and non-fiction writer) put the event together and she’s planning on doing more of these in the future.

The attendees were interested in mysteries and historical fiction so I got to talk about Dee Rommel as well as my mystery/romance that takes place in Florence Italy and the two historical fiction biographies I’ve written.

I am doing some book clubs in the Portland/Yarmouth/Falmouth area soon and an event in Freeport in April that I’m looking forward to also – I’ve heard that group of readers are voracious! LOVE the SNOW, LOVE the COLD. HAPPY JANUARY!

John Clark: I’m part of two critique groups, one in person, one on Zoom. They are giving me valuable feedback on (I’m Not) Singing the L.A. Blues and Thor’s Wingman, both YA novels with paranormal and mystery themes. I have an historical short mystery story to submit for this year’s competition. I plan to go back to the twenty story starts I posted in two MCW blog posts (one recently, one in 2022), and turn as many as are practical into short stories. Already, two became full length books and another a Christmas story that was posted on YA Outside The Lines. Stay tuned for progress reports.

Maureen Milliken: I’ve got some exciting news for a change. At least, exciting for me.

The publisher of my three-book Bernie O’Dea series is ramping down operations, and handed back the rights to the books (short version), and I’ve taken the opportunity to republish under my own imprint, Nevermore Mystery Press. Look forward in the coming months to posts on how that all works.

I wasn’t ready to give up on the series, and readers certainly aren’t. I frequently get asked when the fourth book is coming out, and I can say with confidence that DYING FOR NEWS will be out this summer.

In the meantime, the first three books in the series, COLD HARD NEWS, NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS and BAD NEWS TRAVELS FAST have all been republished with new covers, new edits and some updated writing. I am very excited about the new versions — both the look and the content. (Another post for another day: The importance of finding a cover designer you really like, communicating with them and committing to pay for covers that will help your books sell and that you can be proud of).

I published on IngramSpark, as well as Amazon KDP, and that, too, will be a post for another day. Another post for another day will be the vagaries of republishing already published books on Amazon, with new ISBNs (required since the old ones belonged to my publisher), which is not going as smoothly as I hoped.

I will say this about it, though: the COLD HARD NEWS print edition is somehow attached to the old version, which normally would be great, since that means the reviews are still there, but it’s not visible to anyone but me since the old version has been unpublished.

On the other hand the COLD HARD NEWS ebook, as well as the two other books are easily found, but have no reviews.

Which brings me to: Anyone who is willing to do an honest Amazon review is welcome to a free ebook or print version of any of the three books (though with CHN just an ebook, since I don’t know how that’ll work right now with the print version). Please contact me at mmilliken47@gmail.com or through the contact form on my website, maureenmilliken.com if you are interested. I will gift you an ebook, or be happy to ship you a print version.

Aside from all this blah blah blah, I’ve very excited about DYING FOR NEWS and getting back to the series. I’ve put aside the non-series book I’ve been slowly laboring over for several years, but that’s still in the works at some point, too.

more “Butt in Chair…..

Sandra Neily: Even though AI gives me the heebie-jeebies, I tasked ChatGPT with enough info to give my third novel a better name. I really like what it spit out: “Deadly Harvest.” Now back to the genuine writing of it. It will get published this year and I will also (using FindA Way) bring out an audio book for my first novel, “Deadly Trespass,” and I plan to do more of the following: ski, see more of the grandgirls, fly fish, and go camping (in the Casita) with Bob. I think, with me, the outdoors seems to win out over the typing. Sigh.

Posted in Guest Blog | Tagged Bernie O'Dea mystery series, Maureen Milliken | Leave a comment

Piracy – It’s not just a seafaring pursuit these days

Posted on January 29, 2024 by kaitcarson

Welcome to 2024—it’s surreal. Remember all the year 2000 hype and fears. We wondered what would happen to our computers as the millennium clock struck midnight. Would they self-destruct? Turn into expensive paperweights? What about things that really mattered? You know, nuclear warheads and their launch codes. Looking back now, it seems anticlimactic. I had a DOS run computer (black background, orange tree) that reset itself to 1/1/1900, but other than remembering to manually date my documents, nothing else happened. Just in case, I’d backed up all my documents on 5.25” floppies, with an additional backup on 3.5” floppies. I come from a legal background. Belt, suspenders.

As we enter 2024, a different technical controversy rages. AI—artificial intelligence, or as my husband refers to it, artificial ignorance—sometimes I think he’s spot on. While I don’t have a handle on the technical aspects of AI, I know it needs to be trained. To train it, developers are feeding the programs published books. Most obtained from pirate sources. Piracy has been an issue for authors for years. Needless to say, authors receive no royalty from the pirated books. Nor do they for works used to train AI. The Author’s Guild discussed this matter in September. They also included a link to a website with a partial list of pirated books. You can read the article here.

Amazon has begun asking if any part of an indie author’s book, including the book

Photo by Igor Omilaev via Unsplash

description, is AI generated. They are not refusing to publish AI written books, but they are collecting the information. They exclude spelling and grammar checking programs from the query, although some of the more popular ones offer a “suggested revision” function. Whether or not that constitutes using AI is left to the discretion of the author.

This controversy led me to look at the writing programs I use. Plottr, Scrivener, ProWritingAid, and Atticus are in my common use arsenal. Of the four, only ProWritingAid offers features beyond spellcheck. It has recently introduced a suggested revision function. As a lark, I dropped a blog into the program and allowed it to suggest revisions to my work. The suggestions were stilted to the point of sounding like 1960s robot speak, or downright funny. I’m sure they will improve over time.

It’s a brave new world out there. Whether to use AI is a decision every author will have to make on their own. It’s not for me. I love the creative process too much, and I vigorously object to purloining someone’s hard-earned words for use as a free training aid. Others may have different opinions, or may decide that AI has a place in their plotting or outlining process. To quote Alice, “Curiouser and curiouser.” All options are open.

Posted in Kait's posts | Tagged AI | 4 Comments

Storms, Real and Imagined

Posted on January 26, 2024 by mainecrimewriters

Charlene D’Avanzo: I live on an island (Little John) in Yarmouth connected to the mainland by several bridges. Despite the ocean all around us, being island bound hasn’t been an issue because the bridges hadn’t flooded since we’ve lived here. That changed during the storm last week when we lost power.

We and our neighbors weren’t worried – in fact half the island wandered down to the water to watch waves splash up and over the bridge. Without electricity I guess the bridge spectacle was the only diversion available.

The next day Maine Department of Transportation came to our rescue and cleared the bridge. Our incident was minor but it got me thinking about the power of ocean storms – and some terrific books that tell the story. Here are a few:

The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea: Readers may recall this creative nonfiction bestseller about the so-called perfect storm – a rare combination of storm systems. The fishing vessel Andrea Gail, from Gloucester Massachusetts, was lost and all six crew members presumed dead. In 2000, the book was adapted into a movie starring George Clooney.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare: The storm that shipwrecks Prospero and Miranda sets the scene for the action of the play on the island. This ambitious and imaginative story is about magic, family, power, and race.

Northeaster: A Story of Courage and Survival in the Blizzard of 1952: A vivid and gripping story of an epic Maine snowstorm that tested the very limits of human endurance.

Storm Watchers is a terrific journey about the evolution of weather forecasting. From the age when meteorology was considered akin to sorcery to modern-day wizardry of supercomputers, John Cox introduces pioneering scientists whose work made it possible to foretell the future. He tells little-known stories of weathermen such as Ptolemy’s weather predictions based on astrology, John Finley’s breakthrough research identifying tornadoes, and Tor Bergeron’s new weather forecasting techniques which contributed to its final worldwide acceptance.

Filled with extraordinary tales of bravery and sacrifice, Storm Watchers will make you think twice the next time you turn on the local news to catch the weather report.

Posted in Charlene's post | 1 Comment

PIRATES IN MAINE!

Posted on January 25, 2024 by matthewcost

Dixey (or Dixie) Bull is generally considered the first pirate in Maine. As these things so often go, even if he dreamed of being a pirate when he was a kid, living the life of a buccaneer of the seas was not his first intention. But, given his moniker, perhaps becoming a corsair was merely his manifest destiny.

In the early 17^th century, Bull started life off as an honest merchant, but when a roving band of French men attacked him along the coast of Maine, moored in Penobscot Bay, and relieved him of trade items of knives and beads as well as the furs he was bartering them for, something clicked in his brain. The raiders left him his small sailing vessel, but nothing else.

Destitute and desperate he visited several English settlements and recruited fifteen men to be in his band of pirates. They started out ransacking small vessels, expanded their treachery to settlements along the coast, and then The Dread Dixey Bull and crew disappeared into thin air, never to be heard from again.

Almost one hundred years later we come across Black Sam Bellamy. Much like Bull, Bellamy started off as a sailor, but he was with the British Royal Navy. Stationed in Cape Cod, he’d fall in love with a young lass named Goody Hallett. It is not quite known whether she was already married, and her husband disapproved (funny that), or she was too young, and her parents rejected Bellamy, but either way, he felt it necessary to go find his fortune so that he could return and take Goody away.

He initially went looking for the treasure of the Lost Spanish Armada of 1715, but when that didn’t work out, he turned to piracy. In a little over a year, he became the wealthiest pirate ever, capturing the loot for up to fifty-three different ships.

And this is where it becomes interesting. Loaded down with loot, he came to Maine. He stopped in Pemaquid Point before continuing to Machiasport with the thought of creating a Pirate Utopia, a democratic community of buccaneers enjoying the splendors of their booty. He had one task left to do first, though, and that was to retrieve his love, Goody Hallett, from Cape Cod.

Unfortunately, his ship was caught in a fierce storm and sunk, and he and all but two of his men went down with the ship.

And this is where my latest Clay Wolfe adventure begins. One of those survivors carries with him a treasure map that suggests that the stolen riches of Black Sam Bellamy were actually buried/hidden in the area now known as Port Essex. This map is uncovered in a King James Bible by two antique dealers who hire Clay and Baylee to help them find the treasure.

Of course, it is not that simple. Pirates, Motorcycle Clubs, and Sex Doll Manufacturers round out the mix of those hunting the treasure.

Pirate Trap publishes March 27^th. Dead men tell no tales. Or do they?

About the Author

Matt Cost was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.

Cost has published five books in the Mainely Mystery series, with the fifth, Mainely Wicked, just released in August of 2023. He has also published four books in the Clay Wolfe Trap series, with the fifth, Pirate Trap, due out March 27^th, 2024.

For historical novels, Cost has published At Every Hazard and its sequel, Love in a Time of Hate, as well as I am Cuba. In April of 2023, Cost combined his love of histories and mysteries into a historical PI mystery set in 1923 Brooklyn, Velma Gone Awry. City Gone Askew will follow in July of 2024.

Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Character is King? Or Consort?

Posted on January 23, 2024 by dickcass

Sitting here with a toothache eating up one side of my face and wondering why ibuprofen gives me such stellar dreams, unless it was the combination of CBD gummies and Pinot Noir I tried before giving in to the chemical help. And partly because of the people in those dreams—such details you don’t want to know—I’ve been thinking about how I create characters.

The smartass response to the question “Where do you get your characters?” is the same as the smartass answer to the “Where do you get your ideas?” question, beloved of readers and other people at writer events. Why, from the idea store, of course. Why, from the character store, of course.

But flippancy aside—blame the gummies—there are all kinds of ways a writer goes about creating characters.

Some people use actual templates to build a character. I had a student once who wrote out a three-page list of personal history, physical, emotional, and behavioral characteristics she would have to know before she felt as if she could write a character well enough. I have a hard enough time writing a one page synopsis for my editor—if I did that much thinking for each of the ten to fifteen characters in a new book, I would feel as if I had already squeezed all the juice out of them. No more surprises left. And I need surprises when I’m writing.

That’s probably the most extreme example of using prework to build a character. My style, unsurprisingly to me, is somewhat lazier.

My characters emerge slowly from the actual writing of the story I’m working with. My writing process, if that’s not too definitive a word for it, is to write many (7 to x) drafts of a novel from start to finish, the whole thing at once. (I’m not one of those fortunate souls who can write parts and pieces out of order and stitch them all together later. I’d be too worried the stitching would show.)

In the course of each draft, the characters (always assuming I’m not working in a series where I understand something of the recurring characters already) emerge gradually from the layering of incident, description, dialogue, and narrative, exposing themselves through their participation in the story as it unfolds. On the fly. (Because I don’t write outlines, either.)

So the book, the story, ideally, deepens and widens with each draft and the characters emerge more fully through each subsequent iteration. Which is not to say I have no idea who a character is when I start.

For example, the core of the character of Ardmore Theberge in The Last Altruist

came to me from the story of Eddie Gallagher, the Navy SEAL who was charged with fatally stabbing an injured 17-year-old ISIS prisoner, photographing himself with the corpse, and sending the photo to friends. Half his military unit tried to pretend it hadn’t happened; half tried to see that he was brought to justice.

I started out to wonder what a man, a fellow soldier who stopped someone from doing something like what Gallagher was accused of and paid the military and personal price, would be like. So the central fact of that character was that he had protected the dead man. Through the book, as it developed, it became clear that Theberge was taking on the role of protector of all, of friends and lovers and all the other people he encountered who were less able to take care of themselves. But I didn’t have a clear idea how that one central notion would round into his character until I wrote the book, again and again.

The obvious benefit to doing it this way is that the action of the story and the description of the characters integrate as the story unfolds. I know as I’m going along whether a character would do what the story is trying to make him do or if I have something wrong in the narrative. Writing the story whole brings an integrity of character and action.

Names are important. I find it hard to name characters in advance. In the same way their characteristics rise from the writing, a name has to be consistent with the character. This means the character has to develop a little first before I know his or her name. In the Elder Darrow series, I only came to his name after writing enough of the first book to realize I needed the character to be part of an old-line New England family. The name had to have the flavor of both history and New England Brahmin origins. “Elder” harks to the names of the old Yankee preachers; “Darrow” has the four-square feel of a Mayflower-family name. And so on.

But, I admit, there are oodles of ways to skin a felis.

If I could wish for another way to build characters, I think I would wish for a more visual method. I know writers who see their characters (in their heads, obviously) and it seems that would confer a very big advantage in rendering them, describing them at least. But, as

Popeye says, I yam what I yam. And I’ll have to deal with that part of my character.

Posted in Dick's Posts, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Ooops. “Ass At Own Risk.” Details Too Good to Waste

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Sandra Neily

Sandra Neily here:

I collect details that I migrate to my characters, plots and pages. (My pockets and car corners are full of errant slips of paper.)

Today I thought I’d share some of the list that’s taped next to me. Right in front of my face as I work so it’s hard to avoid. Yes, it’s typed but as the pages accumulate, there’s lots of scrawled notes too: snatches of conversations I might hear or how someone’s dressed. (On the coldest day recently, I stood in line at the post office with a woman in a down parka and flip flops. Bare feet).

I add signs found in windows, bumper stickers, intriguing or bad behavior. (Like an “Ass at Own Risk” sign missing its opening P.)

In Quebec last summer at small, public park, a Cadillac convertible showed up with a couple who looked to be in their thirties. They sat two picnic tables away and let their dog roam. Near our tables, the dog took a huge dump next to the bathroom walkway. The couple ate their lunch. They called the dog. They left his steaming pile.

The scene was too good to waste. I will use it as a way to quickly define (or degrade) a character.

*****************************

Maybe something from my list will jog a memory that should not be wasted or a sharp detail that will bring even more life to your stories.

One strand of hair is placed on a table and someone says, “It’s barely this side of legal.”

“septic” “prehistoric” One word uttered as complete conversation.

camp: “safest place on earth”

Gate torn off and dragged to bar in town (ATV’s go anywhere; can’t stop them w barriers)

Hair spray’s weird uses

Hates rap: just more men in your face

Shreds an Evan (ex) picture; one remaining eye stares from waste basket.

Contact lenses: dried up like cornflakes, swallowed when sucked for cleaning, whipped out by wind.

Consignment store rejects her clothes (suits) as too “dated” for resale.

Arthritis anger: packaging as the enemy. Uses hammer to smash lid off

New car smell fights w beef bones odor (free bones for dog; she uses for cheap soup)

Irony: outdoors make us more human

“People who can be very good can be very bad too.”

trail camera on tree

Pees without seeing cameras on trees

Subaru is her undercover mailbox; anonymous tough stuff left there

Trapped, iced-in loon. Spring that isn’t spring. Young warden w a tub rescue

Always P’s outlaw choices. “If wilderness is outlawed, only outlaws can save wilderness …. God bless America. Let’s save some of it.” Edward Abbey

Leash dragging, dog leaps into the car at a run

“Grief dares us to love once more…” Terry Tempest Williams

Pock sniffs out salamanders

Moving through the woods is “healing” activity.

The pain of bad things rubbing together

Moz: “bright shining wet stones from a river eyes”

Sally’s coywolf: intense hungry look. Not normal coyote. Swimming nude, literally naked prey.

Dig daffodils from snow. Fragility.

The Big Nothing (endless woods): developers’ narrow perspective.

Pock; tug of war always at wrong times

Patton: fearful after chemo; cries out over small hurts (almost a keening)

Road names: developers use what’s displaced: Fox Run, Otter Slide

Millie: glitter green glasses; Françoise, purple anything esp. tights

Owl calling; spring mating

Pishing sounds: Patton calls in birds

If land is not posted, in Maine, you can go there. We are so lucky.

Permissive Trespass (a go anywhere in ME thing)

Patton’s still gray skin in selfie, compared w Kate

Cold weather fishing: back cast freezes in air

Chicken skin pulled off with teeth

restuff and sew

Sewing up wrecked dog toys

Hot tea bag for washing face

“I will not be silenced by intimidation or grief.” TT Williams (The struggle to be heard)

Ex husband. Revenge. Poke tiny holes w pin in his raft; gets limp slowly.

Fast food late-night gluttony. Fries, McDonalds sundae.

The Moose Eye (big white fear orb; ducks roof rack)

AARP article: how to hide age on resume

flip flops and down coat in icy parking lot

Scrabble: hatching caddis flies fall on board

“mature bosom”

Salt builds up in outhouses. Porcupines think that’s delish.

Porcupine eating salt in outhouse

Access is a Privilege Not a Right (sign deep in woods)

Chemo hair floats around her in tub

Chocolate: smell is instant seduction

“As life goes on it becomes tiring to keep up the character you invented for yourself, and so you relapse into individuality and become more like yourself every day.” Agatha Christie.

Sandy’s debut novel, “Deadly Trespass, A Mystery in Maine” won a national Mystery Writers of America award, was a finalist in the Women’s Fiction Writers Association “Rising Star” contest, and was a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. The second Mystery in Maine, “Deadly Turn,” was published in 2021. Her third “Deadly Assault” is due out in 2024. Find her novels at all Shermans Books (Maine) and on Amazon. Find more info on Sandy’s website.

Posted in Sandra's Posts, Uncategorized | Tagged author Sandra Neily, coyotes, Maine Crime Writers, Maine Crime Writers news, maine mysteries, outhouses, porcupines, Sandra Neily | 11 Comments

Weekend Update: January 20-21, 2024

Posted on January 20, 2024 by kaitlynkathy

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Sandra Neily (Monday), Dick Cass (Tuesday), Matt Cost (Thursday) and Charlene D’Avanzo (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

Matt Cost’s historical PI mystery, Velma Gone Awry, set in 1923 Brooklyn, NY, is a finalist for the IPNE (Independent Publishers of New England) Award. The awards ceremony will be Saturday, January 20th, at 4:00 p.m. The Zoom link to attend can be accessed at: https://ipne.wildapricot.org/event-5520281

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