On a trip to LA, I had occasion to stop by Murder, Ink, a mystery book store in Huntington Beach, California.
Signing in Murder Ink
While we were there we took a side trip to San Diego and spotted this weird sight.
Category Archives: writers
Writing Process Blog tour
My dear sweet very good friend Dora Machado, a writer who has been generous with both time and expertise, (honestly, I would have had a much harder time understanding the writing world without her) has passed the baton to me for the blog tours. I must answer four questions:
These are my answers.
What are you working on?
I am finishing up a Will Rees mystery that takes place in Salem in 1796. At the same time I am researching my next Will Rees, tentatively titled “A Cold Dish of Murder”. I am simultaneously writing the first draft and doing research. I am also already thinking about the next in the series as well as a stand alone.
Why do you write what you do?
I write historical mysteries because I wanted to write about a period in our country’s history that has been overlooked. I have really learned a lot. I don’t think human nature changes very much and although every culture prohibits murder we seem to do it all the time.
How Does your work differ from others in your genre?
There are a lot of historical mysteries. So far I have found very few that take place after the Revolutionary War and before the 1830’s. And yet this is such a fascinating period. Shadows of the coming Civil War and echoes of the previous war are omnipresent in this period, ships were traveling east to open up trade with China and India and people were moving into the western frontier – there was so much going on.
What is your writing process?
I get up every morning at 5 am and spend the next few hours working on my writing. Sometimes it is blog posts. Some times working on a manuscript. Sometimes sweating over edits. But I try to write every day. I think one of the biggest issue for any writer is making the necessary time.
And now I pass the baton to:
Mary Miley is a historian who, after thirty years of writing nonfiction books and articles, made the leap to fiction. Historical fiction, of course, and mysteries, because that is what she most enjoys reading. Her first Roaring Twenties mystery, THE IMPERSONATOR, won the 2012 Mystery Writers of America BEST FIRST CRIME NOVEL award and was published by St. Martin’s Minotaur in 2013. The second in the series, SILENT MURDERS, will be released in September 2014.
And Will Delman, Will has been writing since childhood and is now beginning to cause a stir in the Science Fiction world.He lives in Salem, Mass with his wife.
http://eleanorkuhns.wordpress.com
The saga of the kitchen floor
Well, we couldn’t keep the flooring that was already on the kitchen floor because of the holes under the cabinets. We were given three choices: hardwood, vinyl tiles or the engineered flooring like Pergo. (We could also have ceramic tile but I hate it – too cold and hard to walk on). We threw out the hardwood – we are already having hickory cabinets and I didn’t want a a kitchen that was like a wooden box.) So we looked at the last two. We chose two tiles, a first choice and a second. The first is no longer available and the second won’t be available until March 9. (So, Loews, why do you still have it in the store if it isn’t available?)
Then we looked at the flooring and chose a whitewashed look but the contractor told us it wouldn’t look good with the paint color we’d chosen. So we tried again for different forms of vinyl tile.We spent hours in both Loews and Home Depot putting samples on the floor and trying to imagine them in our kitchen.
After a week, we opted to go with the whitewashed flooring and change the paint. Who would guess that flooring would be such an issue?
Back ups and upgrades
Every time I log onto my WordPress Account I am greeted with a frantic message that I should update. But when I click on the link, I get to a page with about a million warnings, telling me to back up first or else I will lose all of the customization.
Really?
Then the ‘quick and easy’ directions begin. On your main control panel fo cPanel, look for the MySQL databases. I don’t even know where to go. And I started my library career as a computer tech so I am not without any skills.
Who writes this stuff? Not regular users, that is for sure.
I guess I will not be upgrading any time soon.
The Question of Titles
I am not good at creating titles; I’ll admit that first thing. Some authors seem to choose the perfect title. snappy and appropriate. I struggle.
I think of this now since I am struggling to title the fourth book. Right now it is titled “Death in Salem”. Bland, right? I started with “Salem Slay Ride” which I think is snappier but one of my readers said it sounded like winter. Since the story takes place in June, not a good thing.
Maybe I should have a vote.
The original title for my first book was “Hands to Murder”. I took it from the Shaker saying “Hearts to God, Hands to work”. The publisher felt that too many people wouldn’t get the allusion so it became “A Simple Murder.”
I was lucky with the second book. Since the mystery concerns a dyer – as in one who dyes – the title seemed perfect. But the third book, now titled “Cradle to Grave”, I called The Book until my daughter suggested the title.
So now I’m struggling with the title for the fourth Will Rees. “Death at Sea”? “”Blow the Man down”? I’m still partial to “Salem Slay Ride” because I like puns. Like I said, still struggling.
Thoughts on Thanksgiving
I recently read an article that claimed that people who worked at home were more efficient. Apparently studies suggest workers waste a lot of time socializing with co-workers.
Well, maybe. As someone who works at home (a writer !) I am not so sure that article is correct. When I write early in the morning, I am uninterrupted. Later in the day, interruptions come fast and furious – anything from phone calls to mail to my husband. And I have found the interruptions even more constant with the beginning of the holidays.
We had 16 guests for a total of 18 people; 9 adults and 9 kids. (I won’t describe the ruin of my basement.) Prep and purchasing Christmas presents for family members who won’t be with us for that occasion, have absorbed at least a month.
Some of the dinner conversation concerned shopping on Thanksgiving itself, whether the store should open or not. Pretty much everyone agreed that it was terrible and no one planned to shop. They couldn’t anyway, since they were at my house, and the final guest left at 9:30 pm.
That sparked my interest in Thanksgiving. I mean, everyone knows the story about the Pilgrims and the Indians who came to the first Thanksgiving. I always believed this holiday continued on in an unbroken line since 1621. Well, not so much. Until the time of Lincoln, Thanksgiving’s date varied depending upon the state. And some states did not observe it at all. The final Thursday in November did not become the usual date until the 1800’s. President Lincoln declared by proclamation that all states should observe Thanksgiving on the same date in 1863. Since this was during the Civil War, I would guess many of the Southern states elected not to comply.
Anyway, during the later third of the 19th century, the final Thursday in November became Thanksgiving. Ah, but we celebrate it the fourth Thursday. Yes, we do. Franklin Roosevelt changed the date in 1941 in an effort to give the economy a boost. He thought the extra time before Christmas might give people more time to shop.
I wonder what he would think of this most recent change.
Dyeing with indigo
I’ll return to looms next blog. But I wanted to post about the indigo dyed sweater. Indigo loses strength with repeated dyeing I like the marbled effect but if one dyes the fiber in successive batches, as I did, the later skeins of yarn are lighter. See the sleeve? Still a few bits of darker dye, but overall the color is a lot less intense. Just FYI for all the dyers out there.
ALA in Chicago
As a lifelong librarian, I have gone to more conferences than I can count. Mostly local (Library Association of Rockland County, New York Library Association, and occasionally a national conference. I would have wanted to go to New Orleans but I’ve never made it. Not yet anyway, but I hope to one day.
This year, though, the conference was in Chicago. What an interesting city!
My usual plan is to take a few workshops and hit the exhibits. Always the exhibits.
And now that I am a published author, I do writing stuff.
I look like I’m sleeping but I’m not. Really. I was on a panel with Charles Finch, Julia Keller,T heresa Schwegel and Tasha Alexander. All very talented writers. After the panel discussion, we signed books. I met a fan, one of the great thrills of my life.
I signed three and a half cartons of books at the Sisters in Crime Booth. I am seated with Libby Hellman here.
Any downsides? Well, I didn’t get to stay in Chicago as long as I would have liked. And now I plan to reread the Harry Dresdens. As I traveled around Chicago, I kept looking for a likely building that would house Harry’s apartment (destroyed in one of the newer Books – Ghost Story I think.) I also believe the McCormick Center was featured in one of the more recent works. I want to find out, now that I’ve been here.
Natural dyes
I learned to quilt at a young age (and still do it), as well as knit, crochet and weave. But some where along the way, I became interested in dyes.
When I was researching the Dyes for “Death of a Dyer”, I started to think about the bright colors we take so much for granted. Most natural dyes produce pastels, which is why indigo, madder and cochineal were so prized. They yield bright colors, especially when used with appropriate mordants.
So, what would people use who had little or no access to indigo, which was expensive, or cochineal, which was VERY expensive?
I started with onion skins. I saved the papery covers up for about three months. I mordanted a cotton towel with 2 tsp alum and 1 tsp cream of tarter.
Simmering the onion skins until they are transparent yielded a yellow brown dye. I tried the dye with the cotton towel and also with unmordanted plain yarn.
