I had a great experience on Saturday at the Albany Book Fair. This is one of my favorite venues. It is not far away from my home. And the Fair allows you a full day, not an hour or so. I always enjoy talking to the other authors as well as the people passing through.
Besides that, this was my very first in-person activity, which made it even more special. Usually I sell my books to the parents that are wandering through. This time, I sold several to the students wandering through. (Am I aging myself when I say some of them look like grade schoolers?)
This time, I sold two of my first book: A Simple Murder. That makes sense since a lot of us mystery readers want to read a series from the very beginning.
I also sold four of Death in the Great Dismal. Not too surprising since the swamp is such an amazing place. I took the opportunity to recommend the Great Dismal as a destination.
There have been many serious epidemics in the human past. COVID, which continues to affect our lives, is the latest. Smallpox was one of the most feared.
The origin of smallpox is unknown although the theory says the virus developed in certain African rodents 60,000 or so years ago. The earliest evidence of human illness dates to the third century BCE with Egyptian mummies It is a lethal disease with a fatality rate for the ordinary kind of about 30 percent. Higher among babies. The Malignant and Hemorrhagic forms are over ninety percent fatal. Occurring in outbreaks, it killed hundreds of thousands, including at least six monarchs in Europe. In the twentieth century it is estimated to have killed 300 million alone. As recently as 1967, 15 million cases occurred worldwide.
The initial symptoms were similar to the flu, Covid-19 and many other viral diseases: fever, muscle pain, fatigue and headache. Before the distinctive rash erupted, small reddish spots appeared on mucous membranes of the mouth, tongue, and throat.
The characteristic skin rash form within two days after the reddish spots on the mucous membranes. The rash was formed of pustules with a dot (that became filled with fluid) in the center. These spots scabbed over and then the scabs fell off, usually resulting in scarring, frequently quite severe.
Edward Jenner is popularly credited with discovering that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox, a much less serious disease, did not come down with smallpox. There is evidence he was influenced by his friend John Fewster who had already begun experimenting with cowpox. Vaccinations had already been attempted by a Mr Benjamin Jesty who had inoculated his family in 1774.
In any event, Jenner began a trial and proved that inoculation with cowpox prevented smallpox. Inoculation with the live virus had already begun but, although the disease tended to be less severe and less fatal, some people still died. The cowpox was safer.
Later, the vaccine was made of the killed virus. In Great Britain, Russia, the United States vaccination was practiced. However, my father contracted small pox as a toddler and lived to tell the tale. I am old enough to remember my smallpox vaccination and still bear the scar on my upper arm.
A concerted global effort a to eradicate smallpox succeeded with the last naturally occurring case in 1977. (The last death was in 1978. A researcher contracted the disease from a research sample.) WHO officially certified the eradication of smallpox in 1980.
Usually, when I write about language, I write about idioms. There is nothing like a dated idiom to drop into your story and stop the action. And idioms are tricky. Some, even some we use all the time, are ancient. I think of ‘strike while the iron is hot’ which, although phrased different according to the century, has been around for hundreds of years.
But some idioms enjoy a brief spurt of popularity and are never heard from again. When was the last time you heard ‘Like the bees knees’? And of course, new idioms are always being created.
In this post, though, I am going to discuss a few words. They can be even trickier than the idioms. We use our familiar language frequently without thought, as I was reminded recently. And believe me, if you add an anachronism to your novel, someone is sure to know.
So the first word is clue. That has to be new, right? Probably created during the thirties, with Agatha Christie. No, my friends. Clue is very old, from Middle English, where it was spelled clew and meant ball of thread. The modern spelling is from the mid-1620s. Gradually, the meaning changed to it points the way.
Well, what about okay? Now, there is a word that has spread across the globe. If you watch foreign language movies, the word okay comes up regularly. I was told many years ago that it originated in an American Indian language – Choctaw to be exact – because missionaries signed letters Okeh. Okay, it turns out, was an editorial joke, created in 1839. It was popularized by Martin Van Buren.
Finally, hello. Who could question hello? Well, this word is a newbie. It may be an alteration of hallo from the High German, It was used for the first documented time in 1834. Thomas Alva Edison is credited with its use as a telephone greeting.
Even our common language lays traps for the unwary writer!
So happy to see some good reviews for the next Will Rees, due out August 3, 2021
From Kirkus: A complex mystery that focuses on the institutional racism still sadly ingrained in the nation’s psyche.
From Publishers Weekly: The intricate plot builds to a satisfying resolution. This sobering look at the cultural divide over slavery in the early days of the Republic deserves a wide audience.
I spent most of my vacation working on edits for the next Will Rees: Murder, Sweet Murder.
It is a little amusing to be working so hard on the next in the series when Murder on Principle will not be published until August 3rd.
In this book, Rees and Lydia journey to Boston to investigate an accusation leveled against Lydia’s father. I wrote this one at the request of readers who wanted to know more about Lydia’s past.
I am so excited to present the cover of Murder, Sweet Murder. No publication date yet.
I have posted a giveaway on Goodreads for Death in the Great Dismal.
Rees and Lydia travel to the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia to rescue their friend Ruth, a fugitive who has fled to the swamp and the protection of a village of maroons. As soon as Rees and Lydia arrive, one of the members of the village is found murdered. Rees and Lydia, as well as Ruth’s husband Tobias, are immediately suspect. To clear their names, and to leave the swamp for home, Rees investigates.
The new Will Rees, Murder on Principle
The owner of the people Rees and Lydia have escorted to safety in Maine arrives to recover the fugitives. When he is murdered, his sister and a number of slave takers arrive. Rees faces an ethical dilemma. Does he investigate and identify the murderer – who might have had very good reasons to kill the slave owner? Or does he let the murderer go free?
Murder on Principle will be released on August 3. A giveaway will be posted for the new book in July.
Read Death in the Great Dismal to prepare for Murder on Principle.
I write a series of historical murder mysteries set in the Federalist Period (roughly 1790’s to early 1800s). I am up to about 1802 now. My protagonists are a traveling weaver, Will Rees, and his wife Lydia, a former Shaker. The first book in the series is A Simple Murder, which is set against a Shaker community in Maine. That community, I call it Zion but it is loosely based on Sabbathday Lake in Alfred, Maine, plays an important role in many of the mysteries.
# What is/are the real-life story(ies) behind your book(s)?
Many of the Shaker communities are now living museums. Sabbathday Lake still has Shakers living there so they give tours to visitors. When my husband and I stopped, our tour was given by the daughter of an orphan who had been raised by this community. She had numerous anecdotes. That was the beginning of my interest in the Shakers.
# What inspires/inspired your creativity?
I hand weave as a hobby so it is something I can describe accurate. Also, during the era before the Industrial Revolution, both men and women wove – the men as a profession.
When I visited the Shaker communities, I bought books and the self-published booklets of prayers, rules, biographies and so forth and I return to them over and over for inspiration.
I also continue to research the period since every book is at a slightly different place in history. I find sending them to other places, Salem for example, or the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia, really inspires a story.
# How do you deal with creative block?
So far, this has not been a issue. There are not enough hours in the day and I struggle to make time for my writing.
# What are the biggest mistakes you can make in a book?
Information dumps, without a doubt. Especially in historical novels where it is important to set the time and place. Always a struggle to pepper information throughout.
# Do you have tips on choosing titles and covers?
I try to find a title that us captivating and short enough to remember easily. Not as simple as it appears. Covers are the same. So far, my favorite cover is for The Great Dismal Swamp; it really illustrates a dark and spooky nature of the swamp.
# How do bad reviews and negative feedback affect you and how do you deal with them?
It is difficult since sometimes I wonder if they’ve actually read my book. But an editor once told me that they will happen. You can’t please everyone all the time.
# How has your creation process improved over time?
I am more focused now. In the beginning, I threw in just about everything I was thinking of.
# What were the best, worst and most surprising things you encountered during the entire process of completing your book(s)?
How many people write in about mistakes, perceived or otherwise. Sometimes, to my shame, they are right. Quirky little mistakes do slip through. But sometimes, they think they know something and I have researched it thoroughly and know they are wrong. Always difficult.
# Do you tend towards personal satisfaction or aim to serve your readers? Do you balance the two and how?
I try to do both. I want to write something that is meaningful to me but at the same time write a good story. I want to teach and entertain at the same time.
# What role do emotions play in creativity?
I think it is easier to write about something that engages the emotions. I feel if it matters to me, I can convey its importance to the reader.
# Do you have any creativity tricks?
I read a lot. (?)
# What are your plans for future books?
I still have several ideas about Rees’s journey on his path to fully fledged adult. Along the way, I hope to illuminate some little known facts of American History.
# Tell us some quirky facts about yourself
I am a lifelong librarian. I wrote my first story at the age of ten; it was science fiction. I love all of the textile crafts. One of the things I love about research is how many weird things I’ve learned. I try to feature a job/profession that was common in that time. Most have diminished to craft status, such as weaving, but some are no more.
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I associated the Fugitive Slave Law with the Civil War. The truth is, however, the first iteration of the law was signed into effect in 1793, long before I would have guessed. It is important to remember that many of the founding fathers, including George Washington, were slave owners.
In Death in the Great Dismal,
when Rees and Lydia rescue their friends Tobias and Ruth, they were breaking the law. Although both Tobias and Ruth had both been born free in Maine, they were abducted and sold into slavery. (The slave takers frequently took any person of color, born free or not, for sale in the South. Occasionally, white children were stolen as well.)
Not only were escaped people subject to recapture, anyone who obstructed the slave takers were considered in violation of the law. Moreover, any child born to an enslaved mother was also considered to be enslaved. The prevailing custom was one drop of black blood meant that person was considered black, no matter how light-skinned. Rees and Lydia, therefore, could have been in serious trouble if they had been caught.
The full text of the Act is available from the Library of Congress (and online) in the Annals of Congress of the 2ndCongress, 2nd Session, during which the proceedings and debates took place from November 5, 1792 to March 2, 1793.
The appropriate sections are 3 and 4.
By the end of the American Revolution all of the Northern states had abolished slavery or made provision to do so. (The United States abolished the slave trade in 1808.) However, fugitives could and were returned to the Southern states per the Fugitive Slave Act by men whose profession, if you will, was capturing escapees.
This law was further strengthened in 1850 at the request of the slave states. One of the elements most annoying to Northerners was the three-fifths rule that counted every five slaves as three people and therefore gave the slave states much more representation in Congress. Although there were abolitionists prior to 1850, the revised law caused a tremendous increase in people who identified as anti-slavery.
The term Underground Railroad did not come into common use until the construction of actual railroads became widespread. An abolitionist newspaper published a cartoon in 1844 that pictured a rail car packed with fugitives heading for Canada. Use of ‘conductor’ and other railroad terms came into broader use after the 1850 law.
In Death in the Great Dismal, I take a temporary break from Rees’s world; the District of Maine and the community of Shakers who live nearby, to send him and Lydia south to Virginia.
Rees is asked by his friend Tobias to rescue his wife Ruth from the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia. Rees and Lydia agree, somewhat reluctantly, and travel to the swamp. (The swamp still exists, bridging 100,000 acres in Southern Virginia into northern North Carolina, and has been declared a Wildlife Refuge.)
There, Tobias guides them to a small village of fugitives, who were living hand to mouth, in the depths of the swamp. Who were these people?
Well, first of all, the existence of the Maroons is true and historically accurate. The hunger for freedom was so acute that many people fled slavery, preferring to take their chances in the hostile environment of the swamp. Daniel Sayers, an archeologist, has done excavations to identify some of the sites of the villages. The village structures were built of wood and, because of the climate in the swamp, they have all rotted. There are no stones of any kind in the swamp but Sayers found remnants of post holes and pottery shards. Why were they called Maroons. No one really knows. One theory is that the name is from the French, marronage, to flee.
Although not well known until recently, the existence of these small villages is present in the historical record. Slave takers were sent regularly into the swamp to recapture escapees – with mixed success. Some of these Maroons lived so deep within the swamp, surviving and raising families, that they could not be found. The children born here grew up in their turn, and the descendent of the original fugitives did not leave the swamp until after the Civil War. They had never seen a white person.
As I describe, male slaves were regularly hired by the Dismal Canal Company to dig the canal. The overseers turned a blind eye to the maroons who worked as shingle makers, despite knowing they were fugitives, because these shingle makers helped make the quotas.
I also based my character Quaco, on an historical account of a man who, brought to Virginia on a slave ship, escaped to the swamp as soon as he arrived. He survived by hunting, and dressed himself in the skins of the animals in killed. He never learned English.
