MAYBE THAT’S JUST CAPE COD

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Have you ever met someone who you instantly know is going to be a friend forever? That's what happened when I met the fabulous Marion McNabb. I was speaking at an event on the Cape, and she was there, with her mom! And she tentatively came up to me and talked to me about her debut novel SOME DOUBT ABOUT IT, and it all sounded so wonderful. 

Turns out, she's a friend of Hallie’s, too! 

And now, I hope she will be your friend as well.

No doubt about it :) And keep reading for a giveaway!

  

 

MAYBE THAT’S JUST CAPE COD

by Marion McNabb

 

There is something magical in the air… or maybe that’s just Cape Cod.

 

After more than twenty years living out west in Los Angeles I find myself, in springtime, living in a pretty house adjacent to a cranberry bog and steps away from a large freshwater lake on Cape Cod. From my window I see well-bloomed daffodils, tulips, grape hyacinth, little robin red breasts, bunnies, turkeys and so many dancing trees.

 

Oh the trees! The imposing white oaks, always the last to bud, tower overhead, stubbornly resisting the power of new growth that is exploding all around, but the wind bristles and the dogwoods, holly, Japanese maples, pitch pine, spruce and sassafras wave and wiggle hello. I am enchanted. I grew up in New England, north of Boston and came back each summer for visits to Cape Cod.

Last July my move here was made permanent and I am experiencing the change and shift of the seasons once again. I embraced the autumn and winter with curiosity, warm sweaters, and buckets of hot tea. Now, after surviving my first New England winter in decades where these same friendly trees morphed into dark lonely sticks jutting this way and that, there are now fat, eager buds bulging, springing forth, soaking up the sun’s warming rays. It all feels so daring and hopeful, like something great is about to happen.

 

Cape Cod has long been my muse. But I’m not alone, dreamers, writers and artists have long been enchanted by this wondrous strip of land. Thoreau, Vonnegut, Hopper, Mary Oliver and there are just too many to name who have walked these shores. I can feel them. Every time, and I really do mean every time, I drive over that scary Sagamore bridge to return to this arm of land jutting its fist out into the mighty Atlantic, I feel the energy.

And now it’s home. I’m hooked. I feel all the hope and promise of a Cape Cod spring coursing through me, spurring on new growth, inspiring me.

 

In my debut, “Some Doubt About It,” Cape Cod is almost a character unto itself. Caroline, journeys from the white hot frenetic pace of Los Angeles to the sleepy, quaint, seaside New England town of Barnstable and in so doing learns what true love and success really are. Hey, write what you know, right?

 

And, I know what you’re thinking - big city girl goes small town, has an epiphany, centers herself, falls in love, blah, blah, blah. What a tired trope! I mean, I used to sit in velveted, high-back stools sipping overpriced gin in swanky LA bars laughing at how unrealistic those stories are. And now look at me. (And, yes, there is a love story here for me, too, but that’s for another blog…).

 

For now, I am enjoying all of the changes. Four defined seasons! And with Spring a promise of wondrous things still yet to come. It is so welcome, especially at this time in my life when it feels like my children are growing so quickly, two gone to college already, and my career is burgeoning. In sun-soaked Cali it felt like life was flying by. I was racing, trying to catch up to some idea of who I thought I should be.

 

So, I made a decision to live a more intentional life. And, these seasonal changes are so much more pronounced in the Northeast and it makes me feel more aware of time and my space in time.

And now, on the precipice of summer—the most popular season of all on Cape Cod and in my opinion its greatest—I feel like I’ve earned something. I raked leaves, I shoveled snow, I planted seedlings. The osprey have returned to their massive nests. The swans on the lake have built their nest. The hydrangeas made it through March and April without freezer burn and they are getting greener and fuller every day. 

 

And now Cape Cod and all its glory is gearing up to show off all summer. Go get it, girl! I’ll be watching. Front row tickets. And having all of this lined up with the release of my debut novel feels kismet. Magical even. A truly beautiful connection I have longed for.

 

That old Cape magic. Can you feel it too?

 

 

HANK: This is SO wonderful! Hurray, Marion!

Reds and readers, have you ever been to Cape Cod? Have you ever wanted to? (I'm doing a whole tour of the Cape in August for my paperback release, and I absolutely cannot wait!) What's your favorite place on the Cape? And your favorite bookstore?

And we will give a copy of Marian’s new book to one lucky commenter !

SOME DOUBT ABOUT IT

In this fun, feisty romp, a celebrity life coach collides with her former mentor as both women struggle with the choices they’ve made, the lives they have now, and the legacy they’ll leave behind. 

Caroline Beckett is living the dream. A self-help guru with a glamorous clientele and a marriage to a handsome photographer, she’s proof women really can have it all. But one night leaves Caroline reeling, forcing her to reconsider everything she thought she knew about her life—and what (if any) business she has teaching anyone how to live theirs. 

Retired professor Devorah Van Buren is spending her time getting herself and her chihuahua, Mary Magdalene, kicked out of local restaurants for causing scenes with tourists. When she learns about Caroline’s rise to success and the personal scandal that’s followed, Devorah has a new purpose: sue her former student for stealing the ideas that made Caroline famous. 

Back in her hometown to handle this new problem, Caroline is surprised to find reconnections with not only Devorah but her high school sweetheart too. After the way her life fell apart, Caroline is beginning to wonder if, with Devorah’s help, maybe she can build something better. 

Marion McNabb is an author and screenwriter for film and television whose work includes the animated series Rainbow Rangers on Nick Jr. and Netflix. She studied film at NYU and received a theater degree from Arizona State University. McNabb lives on Cape Cod with her family, swimming with the mermaids when not working on her next novel.

The Game is Once Again Afoot and We’re Off to London by Vicki Delany

 Jenn McKinlay: Look who is visiting us from the chilly north! Canadian Vicki Delany! One of my fave mystery authors of both traditional and police procedural, she's here to tell us all about her latest release THERE'S A MURDER AFOOT, which is out today! 

Vicki Delany: The protagonist of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series is Gemma Doyle, an Englishwoman who has come to the town of West London Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, to help her great uncle Arthur Doyle run the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium.

For the fifth book in the series, I thought it would be fun to take Gemma and the gang to London, to tread the streets as walked by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and, fictionally speaking, The Great Detective himself. 

London is Gemma’s natural environment.  Hailing black cabs, leaping on and off tube trains, dodging CCTV cameras and Scotland Yard detectives, slipping out the back door of Harrods.   Eating steak and kidney pies and prawn sandwiches and drinking copious cups of properly-prepared tea.

London might be Gemma’s environment, but it isn’t mine. 

So off I had to go to London.

In that, I seem to have a lot in common with the Jungle Reds gang. I know Deborah has learned the city intimately, it’s close to where Rhys is from, and Jenn has set a series there.

I don’t know it well at all.  But I had enormous fun finding out and I hope that’s reflected in There’s a Murder Afoot, the fifth in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series from Crooked Lane Books

I took five days one November to travel to London with one of my daughters, and used so much of what I learned in the book. 

Cocktails at the Bentley Hotel.

Gemma and friends stay in the hotel we stayed at (Bentley’s in South Kensington) they eat at the restaurants we ate at (the Hereford Arms, where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a regular when he was president of the College of Psychic Studies, located nearby;

Sign at the Hereford Arms

 Garfunkel’s at South Kensington station, The Crutched Friar near Tower Hill) and pick up croissants from Paul’s Boulangerie (to die for). I tracked Gemma’s progress on the tube as she travelled across the city, although I didn’t need to leap on and off trains as the doors closed, time my progress, or watch for people showing too much interest in me.   I scouted out the streets of South Kensington and located the street Gemma’s parents live on (Stanhope Gardens, but I don’t actually specify the house). 

The street where Gemma's parents live.

I studied the courtyard outside of the Tate Modern and the Millennium footbridge over the Thames trying to estimate how one would escape pursuit (by running faster than your pursuers, I concluded).  I went to the sculpture hall in the Victoria and Albert and decided that would be Gemma’s favourite place in the city, the one place in particular she wants to show Ryan Ashburton, if they ever manage to have some time alone together.  

I even had afternoon tea at the restaurant in the National Portrait Gallery, so Gemma could recommend it to Jayne.

Afternoon tea at the National Portrait Gallery

Yes, my dedication to research is impressive, if I do say so myself. 

You might be surprised to hear where I didn’t go: Baker Street, the Sherlock Holmes Museum, the Sherlock Holmes Pub, on a Sherlock Holmes walking tour. 

Because Gemma isn’t interested in those things. Instead she sends Jayne, Ryan, Grant Thompson, and Donald Morris around the tourist traps of London, to keep them (Ryan in particular) from finding out what’s she’s up to, and wanting to “help”. As her sister Pippa (a minor functionary in the British government) tells her, “Ditch the entourage.” 

The big problem with doing this sort of research, I’ve found, is trying to decide what to keep OUT of the book. I’m not writing a tour guide to London here, but I do want to bring the city alive to my readers. 

London on a winter's night

I hope I found a happy medium. Tell me, dear Jungle Reds reader, do you enjoy real-life settings in your books, or do you prefer the truly fictional?

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than thirty-five books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, the Year Round Christmas mysteries for Penguin Random House, the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane, and the forthcoming Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington.

Vicki is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It crime writing festival. She is the 2019 recipient of the Derrick Murdoch award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. Vicki lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario. 

Anne LeClaire on the People We Thank

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We are so happy today to have Anne LeClaire, the best-selling author of The Orchid Sister, visiting us! She has a fascinating question, and I can't wait to hear everyone's responses.

ANNE LECLAIRE: Do you always read the author’s acknowledgements?  I do. I appreciate the public recognition that it actually does take a village to get a book not only written but on the shelf.

Often the author is generous and thoughtful in thanking those who have been invaluable in her research and supportive in her life.  I chose the pronoun deliberately for in my admittedly unscientific survey, it’s usually women who express their gratitude – often running on for pages as they thank their publishing team, their agents, writers’ groups, family, friends, people interviewed during the research phase or who answer those questions that pop up during the course of the writing. Doctors, scientists, law enforcement, lay people of all ilk, even friends who have offered support by watching her children, providing a hot meal or a space in which to write.

Men?  Not so much. They thank their partners and professionals who provided expertise in other fields, but I can’t remember an instance where one male author thanked someone for bringing over a casserole or taking the children off for the day while he finished the last pages of the first draft. I’m curious as to the reason for this, but that is a topic for another day.

I suppose if we really thanked all the people who mentored us along the way, offering support and help, answering the hundreds of queries, reading drafts at various stages, not to mention other authors whom have influenced us, it could prove a volume unto itself. No author works alone.

Although she has been dead for many years, I always wish I had mentioned Dot  Winski in my acknowledgements. She was the cook in a four-room school where my mother was a principal and taught first grade.  The basement cafeteria was comprised of an oven, refrigerator, and long counter which doubled as a prep area and service space where the students would grab a tray and then carry their meal back to their classroom to eat. Without question it would not be legal today. Off to the far side by the furnace was a card table and a couple of chairs where Dot, a large-bodied Polish woman, would drink coffee and smoke when she wasn’t cooking or washing dishes.

When I was on vacation (I had a different school schedule than my mother had) I would spend hours in the basement with Dot. She was a high school graduate, a passionate reader and a born story-teller which was what drew me to her at first. It was also what made me trust her enough to confide in her that I wrote short stories, ones I showed to no one.  She wanted me to read them to her and when I did, she always responded enthusiastically, encouraging me to write more. 

I went off to college in Ohio and my mother moved to another position in another state and I lost touch with Dot. But when I think of early influences, people who believed in me and gave me permission to follow my dream of becoming a writer, I think of her. I regret I never told her that.

Who do you acknowledge? Was there a Dot Winki in your life? 

DEBS: Yes, I do always read author's acknowledgements, but it had never occurred to me that women tend to thank a village. Now I'm going to be looking at every book I read by a male author! As for a Dot Winki, mine would be my grandmother, who not only taught me to read but to love reading, and who encouraged all my aspirations. And I'd add Miss Schwann, my teacher in both third and sixth grade, who shared her enthusiasm for learning.

How about you, REDs and readers? 

The Orchid Sister: Set on Cape Cod and the myth-shrouded Yucatan coast of Mexico, the novel is “full of sisterly love and the power of women.” Two sisters – Kat, who is fighting the idea of aging and Maddie, who is afraid to love  – are caught up in the dangerous obsession of a fanatical doctor in a clinic deep in the Mayan jungle. 

Anne LeClaire is the author of ten best-selling novels, an award-winning memoir, Listening Below the Noise, and a children’s book, Kaylee Finds a Friend.

She teaches workshops both nationally and internationally on writing as well as on the practice of silence. Anne lives on Cape Cod.

Amie Smith on becoming a baker on Cape Cod

HALLIE EPHRON: We’ve all dreamed about that moment of transformation when we remake ourselves. I did it when I was working in high tech and contemplated becoming a writer.

It started in my head. Seeing myself as a writer. Then becoming one gradually. Day by day. Step by step. Taking classes. Writing essays. Joining a writing group. Starting a novel. NOT quitting my day job but cutting back so I could write... until the transformation was complete.

When I worked in high tech, I worked with Amie Smith who went on to transform herself, too, but into something I consider much harder and riskier. BLAM: One day she was a corporate marketing writer and the next day she was opening Amie Bakery on Cape Cod in scenic Osterville.

Or… maybe it wasn't quite that sudden. I invited her today to JUNGLE RED to share her story.

AMIE SMITH: I think all creative people need an outlet. After completing the professional pastry program at the Institute of Culinary Education in NYC. I wanted to make so many things but had no place to serve them. It also became my mission to educate people about authenticity in pastry.

Mass produced, chemically processed dessert is the rule. I wanted to be the exception.

From the time I graduated in 2009 I knew I wanted a storefront. But it wasn’t until the spring of 2014 that the right space suddenly became available. I needed to gut it and start over. I jumped in with both feet. I had lots of experience with construction projects and zero experience running a food operation. It was the scariest time of my life.

My father was a baker before I was born. Ironically, he left the job after I was born due to the long hours. Every year we would make a huge batch of butter cookies using a bakery-size formula (translation—hundreds upon hundreds of cookies). One day he took me to his friend’s bakery and I was mesmerized, watching pastries being made all day long.

HALLIE: What was it like, setting up the space? And did you get help from someone who’d been there?

AMIE: Once I started renovations, every single day people were stopping by and telling me stories about previous owners or how their grandparents used to take them there. I quickly realized this place had a storied past. Coincidentally, one of the legendary owners, Peg Mullen, used to own my house! 

The space was in dire need of updating and I wanted to evoke some of the nostalgia of the former soda fountain but make it feel like you were visiting a beautiful café in Paris too.

As for planning the kitchen and the rest of the operations, I had also read a lot about how to open a bakery; I attended a course at King Arthur Flour on this topic, spoke to countless mentors and friends in the industry, and became familiar with local health department requirements.

HALLIE: Your baked goods are fabulous. What’s your best seller, and where’d the recipe come from?

AMIE: Our most popular items is a raspberry walnut shortbread bar. It’s not only one of my favorites, but also it is a sentimental favorite. Barbara Gitto was my dearest friend’s mother and she lived in Osterville—and that is how I came to know this beautiful village. She was an amazing baker and this is her recipe.

On the savory side, our quiche flies out of our cases.

HALLIE: Why are you so passionate about baking from scratch? Isn’t it more profitable to resell desserts made elsewhere?

AMIE: Food evokes emotions and memories and I realized how much I missed the baked treats  grew up with—and that few people today even know or understand what baked goods were like a long time ago, or have tasted Swiss meringue buttercream.

I like to tell people to look for the perfection of imperfection. If the crust looks like it’s precision cookie cutter and every crust is identical, it’s likely that it is mass produced.

HALLIE: My day begins at 7 at the computer. Yours begins... where, when? And when does it end?

AMIE: Well, being open seven days a week in this kind of business has meant being at work 24x7. My bakers start at either 4 or 5 a.m. depending on the time of year and if they have issues or questions, I have to address text messages at all hours.

So my day can start in bed getting a text at 4 a.m. or a bit later around 7 at the computer and goes until the shop closes.

HALLIE: Would you be willing to share one recipe with us?

AMIE: Absolutely. I just reformulated our coconut macaroon recipe and it’s one of the easiest things to make. Macaroons are often my go-to recipe when I’m at home and I need a quick dessert for dinner. It also happens to be gluten-free, which is a popular request at the shop.

AMIE BAKERY COCONUT MACAROONS

14 ounces unsweetened shredded coconut

14 ounces sweetened condensed milk

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

3 egg whites, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup melted chocolate (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Line sheet pan with parchment paper.

Combine the coconut, condensed milk, almond extract, and vanilla in a large bowl.

Whip the egg whites and salt on high to medium-firm peaks.

Carefully fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture.

Use an ice cream scoop to form macaroons. Mixture is a bit loose so pack scoop and gently dispense.

Bake 20 to 30 minutes, until golden brown.

Cool and dip in melted chocolate if desired. Store in refrigerator or airtight container.

Yield 13 (if using a 2-3 oz ice cream scoop)

HALLIE: J'adore coconut macaroons. This is my sweet spot. What are yours, and do you have bakery like Amie's where you can indulge in the perfect imperfectios? 

Amie Bakery is right in the middle of Osterville on Cape Cod at 3 Wianno St. Her web site is full of advice on baking and the right tools and gadgets.