Cover Reveal: Turning the Tide

Edith Maxwell here, thoroughly enjoying the plentiful fresh produce of a New England August.

I'm so excited I can finally reveal the cover for the third Quaker Midwife Mystery, Turning the Tide! To celebrate, I'm going to give away a large-print edition of Called to Justice to one commenter here today.

Here's the blurb for Turning the Tide: 

Excitement runs high during Presidential election week in 1888. The Woman Suffrage Association plans a demonstration, and movement leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton comes to town to rally the troops. When Quaker midwife Rose Carroll finds the body of the group's local organizer the next morning, she can't help but wonder who could have committed the murder.

Rose quickly discovers several people who have motives. The victim had planned to leave her controlling husband, and a recent promotion had cost a male colleague his job. She had also recently spurned a fellow suffragist's affections. After Rose's own life is threatened, identifying the killer takes on a personal sense of urgency.

I wrote about some of my research for the book here last month, and finally I can share the cover. Are you ready? Drumroll please...

The women turn out in force to demonstrate across from the polls on election morning - see them behind Rose? The book will be out next April, and is available for preorder (which, you know, really helps authors - just saying...).

Readers: Do you have any family connections with woman suffrage activists? What other novels do you like that deal with the topic, whether in the nineteenth century or the twentieth?

Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, and award-winning, Agatha-nominated short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she creates the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries.

Maxwell is President of Sisters in Crime New England. She lives north of Boston with her beau and three cats, and blogs here, with the other Wicked Cozy Authors, and with the Midnight Ink Writers. You can find her on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, and at her web site, edithmaxwell.com.

New Sins for Old Scores ... Launch!

by Tj O'Connor

May 27, 2017—Launch …. New Sins for Old Scores!

At last, my fourth published novel. This one coming to you from Black Opal Books and my strange, wild imagination. It’s a murder mystery with a paranormal twist! (Go figure, right?) And yes, this is a cheap self-promotion blog.

 

Summary:

Murder, like history, often repeats itself. And when it does, it's the worst kind of murder.

 

Detective Richard Jax was never good at history. After years as a cop, he was about to get the lesson of his life.

 

As Jax lay dying after being gunned down at an old inn while on surveillance, he's saved by Captain Patrick "Trick" McCall—the ghost of a World War II OSS agent—who has been waiting since 1944 for a chance to solve his own murder. Soon, Jax is a suspect in a string of murders—murders linked to smuggling refugees out of the Middle East—a plot similar to the World War II “Operation Paperclip,” an OSS operation that brought scientists out of war-torn Europe. With the aid of a beautiful and intelligent historian, Dr. Alex Vouros, Jax and Trick unravel a seventy year-old plot that began with Trick's murder in 1944. Could the World War II mastermind, code named Harriet, be alive and up to old games? Is history repeating itself?

 

Together, they hunt for the link between their pasts, confronted by some of Washington's elite and one provocative, alluring French Underground agent, Abrielle Chanoux. Somewhere in Trick's memories is a traitor. That traitor killed him. That traitor is killing again.

 

Who framed Jax and who wants Trick's secret to remain secret? The answer may be, who doesn't?

 

End cheap, self-promotion (for now). Look for New Sins for Old Scores!

 

We’ll talk again next month.

 

Tj O’CONNOR IS THE GOLD MEDAL WINNER OF THE 2015 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS

BOOK AWARDS (IPPY) FOR MYSTERIES. He is the author of New Sins for Old Scores, coming in May 2017 from Black Opal Books, and Dying to Know, Dying for the Past, and Dying to Tell. He recently finished his new thriller, The Consultant: Double Effect and his amazing agent, Kimberley Cameron is finding it a new home. Tj is an international security consultant specializing in anti-terrorism, investigations, and threat analysis—life experiences that drive his novels. With his former life as a government agent and years as a consultant, he has lived and worked around the world in places like Greece, Turkey, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and throughout the Americas—among others. He was raised in New York's Hudson Valley and lives with his wife and Lab companions in Virginia where they raised five children. Dying to Know is also the 2015 Bronze Medal winner of the Reader’s Favorite Book Review Awards, a finalist for the Silver Falchion Best Books of 2014, and a finalist for the Foreword Review’s 2014 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award.

 

Learn about Tj’s world at:

 

Web Site:  www.tjoconnor.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/tjoconnor.author

Blog: http://tjoconnorbooks.blogspot.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7148441.T_J_O_Connor

 

 



 

A Reading on Steroids

Edith Maxwell here. Well, I'm not not on steroids, but last month an event honored my mystery, Delivering the Truth, in a way that went way above and far beyond your average five-minute author reading. PLUS - I'm giving away a large-print edition of the book to one commenter here before midnight eastern time today! Details at the end of the post.

I might have mentioned it here, but last spring the Whittier Home Association asked if I would "mind" if they featured my book in their annual Celebrating Whittier event, and also suggested they would propose it for an All-Community Read. "MIND?" I replied, astonished. Why, no, I wouldn't mind.

The staged reading took place on September 10 at the historic Amesbury Friends Meetinghouse - where Whittier worshipped.

Local actors Chuck Kennedy and Kate Bernardoni portrayed Whittier and my midwife, Rose Carroll. I narrated, tying the scenes together using a script our town's Poet Laureate Lainie Senechal wrote based on the book.

Lainie Senechal, Chuck Kennedy, Kate Bernardoni, and author yours truly

It was a huge success. A hundred people turned out. The costumes were perfect. All our rehearsals over the summer paid off. 

A hot August rehearsal

The local cable TV station filmed it. And now you can watch it! Truly, not your average reading.

Chuck in front of Whittier's portrait in the John Greenleaf Whittier Home Museum in Amesbury, MA

Readers: What has been your favorite reading to listen to? Do you like it when authors read, or would you rather they didn't? Writers: Has your work ever been staged?

Remember - one lucky commenter will win a large-print edition of the book! Leave a comment or question for me here before midnight eastern time today. 

Runabout, Phaeton, Brougham, Rockaway?

Edith, here. I had the great fortune to go riding in a carriage a couple of weeks ago with a woman

who really knows her stuff.  I'm always looking to improve the details in my Quaker Midwife Mysteries, and Susan Koso is one way to do it.

She owns a mare named Hope. She owns a number of horse-drawn vehicles that my midwife Rose Carroll might very well have ridden in. She knows what kind of bridles and tack were used in 1888. And she's written academic published papers on the roads, the carriage industry, and the economics of the late 1800s. How could I go wrong?

I first met Susan at a couple of years ago at an Amesbury Carriage Museum event, where this not-young woman showed herself to be more agile and flexible than me, crawling around helping to secure carriages the museum was moving down from a second-floor loft.

In late June when the flies and mosquitoes were all hatched and bothersome, I drove to our riding appointment a few town's south of here, and I met her horse, Hope. Hope's

crocheted ear guard is similar to those horses would have worn to keep the bugs out of their ears and eyes. Susan hitched Hope to a beautiful restored runabout (an open two-seater conveyance with four wheels pulled by one horse), handed me a helmet, and off we went.

We wandered around Essex County Greenbelt Association trails, rode all through Appleton Farm (which used to be my walking route when I lived in Ipswich), and moseyed back, talking all the way. I got to experience Hope trotting, I hung on for dear life on bumpy trails and around corners, and I generally soaked up the atmosphere.

On a couple of trails, Susan said, "This would have looked exactly the same in Rose Carrols's day." I had to

agree!


As when I went riding the year before, I wore my long linen skirt and low boots to get a small feel for the clothing of the day.

I never stopped picking Susan's considerable brain. I learned more about all the different kinds of vehicles: phaetons, broughams, traps, and Rockaways, among others. She said the dash board in front of our knees - named to prevent hooves from dashing mud up onto passengers and drivers - might have been covered in patent leather. She told me a horse pushes a carriage rather than pulls it (which I still don't quite get). I even heard about the "fifth

wheel" - but that one's going to need further study before I use it in a book.

She suggested a couple of convenient ways for a malicious villain (oh, I guess that's redundant) to do away with someone by cutting almost through an important strap or to cause a horse to be a runaway. This is a woman after my own heart. Susan had also finished reading Delivering the Truth, and kindly pointed out a couple of small errors in horse-and-carriage procedure. I thanked her, of course. And then she read the manuscript for book two, Called to Justice, within a couple of days' time and corrected me on several points in that book, too.


I'm so delighted and grateful to have found a subject matter expert willing to share her extensive knowledge with me. Guess who's getting a complimentary copy of each book in the series as long as it runs?

Readers: Who is your favorite subject matter expert? Have you ever gone riding in an old carriage?

Cover Reveal!

Now that Delivering the Truth is launched and happily in the hands of readers (who report being very happy with the story, too - see lots of glowing reviews here), I'm looking ahead to books two and three.

Called to Justice is finished and in production. It's even up for preorder on Amazon! And isn't this a gorgeous cover?

Here's the blurb: Quaker midwife Rose Carroll is enjoying the 1888 Independence Day evening fireworks with her beau when a teenaged Quaker mill girl is found shot dead. After a former slave and fellow Quaker is accused of the murder, Rose delves into the crime, convinced of the man’s innocence. An ill-mannered mill manager, an Irish immigrant, and the victim’s young boyfriend come under suspicion even as Rose’s future with her handsome doctor suitor becomes unsure. Rose continues to deliver babies and listen to secrets, finally figuring out one criminal – only to be threatened by the murderer, with three lives at stake. Can she rescue herself, a baby, and her elderly midwifery teacher in time?

I'm so excited about this book! It'll be out in April, 2017. And this week I've started writing book three. It doesn't have a title or much of a plot yet, but it will by the end of summer. Stay tuned. 

Readers, what do you think of the cover? Does a cover catch your eye in a bookstore or online, or do you go more for what the blurb says? What leads you to buy a book?

Edith Hits the Movies

Edith Maxwell here. Well, not quite the movies, but I am the proud owner of a YouTube channel. And yes, I can't quite believe I just typed that!

Delivering the Truth, my first Quaker Midwife Mystery, released from Midnight Ink a month ago. To celebrate, I created an historical walking tour through Amesbury, Massachusetts, where the book is set. Sixty - sixty! - people showed up for it. I led them along a route featuring places in town where events in the book are set. We visited the Powow River, the Friends Meetinghouse, John Greenleaf Whittier's home, and the Upper Falls, site of several thriving textile mills in the day, among other sites.

The tour, complete with map, was the brainchild of publicist Skye Wentworth.

When my videographer and social-media-maven friend Christine Green suggested filming the walk, I jumped on the offer. Both my adults sons, Allan and JD, flew in for the weekend and acted as walk captains and book salespersons. I ordered a Quaker dress from a local seamstress. I started stressing, saying, "What if we get fifty people?"

But it was all fine. Everyone followed along and acted like they could hear. They sure looked like they were having a good time.

We had a party afterward, complete with cake (my very first book cake!), at a local restaurant housed in the old train depot building. We schmoozed, I signed books, everybody got a drink. I was happy.

So the day was a big success! But so many out-of-town fans and friends couldn't come. And now you can. The edited video, from Christine Green's Creative Factory, is now on my YouTube channel (I still can't believe I just typed that).

And now the cover is released for book two, Called to Justice, and it's equally as stunning as the first book cover.

Please take a look and tell me what you think. Have you done other book-related walking tours? Would you want to go on this walk in person when you come to the northeastern corner of Massachusetts?

"A Questionable Death" - Agatha Nominated!

Edith here. I've been enjoying writing short stories set in the time and place of my Quaker Midwife

Mysteries: Amesbury, Massachusetts in 1888. [NOTE: Giveaway details at the end.]

A year and a half ago I crafted a story about one of midwife Rose Carroll's clients, a young pregnant wife named Helen. Rose discovers that Helen's husband has been physically abusing her. Rose asks her police detective friend for help, but the police wouldn't touch domestic violence in those days. Rose enlists her quirky postmistress friend Bertie Winslow to help her find a solution to the problem.

I polished "A Questionable Death" and submitted it to an anthology of historical mystery called History and Mystery, Oh My! and to my delight it was accepted for publication. The anthology came out in January 2015. To my further delight, after the rights reverted to me, Kings River Life Magazine reissued the story in January of this year, this time with pictures.

Hank Phillippi Ryan with her
Agatha Award teapot
a few years ago. 

And to my extreme delight, the story was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Short Story! Icing on the cake? Delivering the Truth, the first Quaker Midwife Mystery, will be published on April 8, a few weeks before the Malice Domestic conference where attendees will decide the Agatha winners. Talk about worlds converging. I'm really over the moon about that.

I suspect the story was nominated in part because of the twist at the end. You can read it and decide for yourself!

And to celebrate, I'm giving away an ARC of Delivering the Truth to one commenter today! Make sure you include your email address so I know where to find you.

So tell, me dear reader, what's your favorite thing about reading historical fiction? What's your pet peeve about same? Or do you never touch the stuff?

Writing the Past

I'm delighted to join the Midnight Ink blog today. And I'm even more delighted to be writing a

mystery set in 1888 with a Quaker midwife as the protagonist. The Quaker Midwife Mysteries are set in the northeastern Massachusetts mill town of Amesbury (where I happen to live), which was also the carriage capital of the world.

I used to teach childbirth education in my living room and worked as a doula, providing labor support to women and their partners in birth centers or hospitals, so I have some knowledge of the birth process. And since normal labor and delivery hasn't changed for women in thousands of years, I don't have to do much research about that part.

The life of a midwife in 1888, though, has been interesting to set up, to say the least. Rose Carroll lives in my house - which was built in 1880 for mill workers, so it's a modest three bedroom. They have a pump in the kitchen sink but no running water otherwise.

She rides one of the new safety bicycles, the kind with two even-sized wheels, to get to her clients'  homes for births. Midwifery hadn't yet been taken over by male physicians and hospitals.

Life in town was on the cusp of change, too. The town might have had electric lights, and the big fancy (think Victorian, although of course they wouldn't have called them that then) homes of the carriage factory or mill owners might have had electric lights, too, but not the smaller homes. The electric trolley didn't go in until 1890, so it was still horse drawn.

I love including John Greenleaf Whittier as a secondary character. He lived a few blocks away from Rose and worshipped at the same Friends Meetinghouse as her (and the same one I attend every Sunday morning).

Life for an unmarried independent unconventional midwife like Rose is both difficult and fulfilling. She loses a baby once in a while, and that was life back then. She hadn't expected to have to solve murders too, but I'm almost finished writing the second book, and she's realizing she has a bit of a gift for detecting.

Look for Delivering the Truth in early April, 2015!

Readers: Do you like to read historical fiction? Got a favorite historical mystery series? Or do you prefer your intrigues set squarely in the present?