The Reds Weekly Check-In, or, BEE Grateful

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Let’s check in on how we’re all doing, what reopening looks like in our neighborhoods, and any notable events from this past week or upcoming! Last week’s big event for me was a bee invasion upstairs - literally. My Guest Son’s room filled up with bees, much to his consternation. We could see them sort-of-swarming outside, going in and out of a crack between the main house and the addition. They were entirely peaceful honey bees, but even the most peaceable bees aren’t what you want to see inside the house - less so when you can see a hundred of them!

I contacted the Maine Beekeepers Ass’n and left a help ticket on their website, but it seems they’re more or less offline during the pandemic. Instead, we found help through Twitter! My oldest daughter, the Maine Millennial, tweeted about our...issue, and she got a DM from a beekeeper at The Honey Exchange. This led to a phone call, and within a few hours, a wonderful young woman named Thalassa Raasch was at our door, net hat and bee vacuum in hand.

With a little sleuthing, we discovered the bees were reachable via the inside wall of a kneehole closet in Guest Son’s room. We took out everything stored there (mostly old luggage, which I was happy to remove to the attic) and could see a brand new colony was trying to start itself in an uninsulated gap in the wall. (Old house - modern insulation was shoved in where workmen could reach and left off where they couldn’t. Please refer to past JRW posts where I complain incessantly about the cold.) Fortunately, we caught the bees before they were able to begin building, so it was a relatively straightforward job for Thalassa to suck them up into the bee vac. 

We got thank-you honey for saving the bees!

We opened up the windows, closed the door, and gave the room twenty-four more hours to clear out. Fortunately, when we went inside, most of the bees had escaped, leaving behind only a handful of tiny striped corpses to be swept up. Even better, Thalassa reports the bees have been successfully moved into one of her hives, meaning they, and we, can now continue to lead happy and productive lives - twenty-plus miles apart.

What’s buzzing in your life, Reds?

LUCY BURDETTE: That’s a wonderful story Julia! We are in Connecticut now, which is just opening up. I walked on the wild side and went to my favorite local bookstore, RJ Julia Booksellers. Everyone was masked up and there were markings on the floor showing us where to walk, and books! Thousands and thousands of books--definitely essential for these times! I’ve also been going to our farmer’s market on the town green. Again, masks and social distancing required. So many yummy veggies and good bread...I’m in heaven.

Bad news--we are worried about the spike in Florida and people getting crazy in Key West. Praying for everyone to stay sane and safe.

HALLIE EPHRON: The bee invasion sounds terrifying. We’ve had a swarm of thousands of bees take up residence hanging from a bush in our backyard (called the beekeepers and they were moved to safe quarters), but never IN the house. Yes, Florida looks ominous. Ditto Texas (sorry Debs). And Arizona not so good either. Time will tell.

I’ve been slowly crawling out. I went to my local grocery store for the first time, bought plants for the garden and fresh cherries and plums which, ordering for delivery, is a crap shoot.  I clipped my front hedges and the hedge clipper promptly died, so I ordered one from my local hardware store and went to pick it up. They are doing a busy busy business and had it totally under control.

Feeling like small bits of normal are creeping back. We’re in the suburbs so at least we can walk and sit out in the yard anytime we want, and I have great neighbors.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Our little air conditioning issues are very tame compared to Julia's bee story! So glad you are now happily separated, Julia--a win-win!

Yes, Texas is very worrying. I think we are just now starting to see the results of our "opening" and all the Memorial Day festivities with no masks or social distancing. I don't want to contemplate what will happen in the next couple of weeks after all the protests here.

I've had two masked trips to Trader Joe's at senior hour now--so exciting to pick out my own produce and groceries!! Also, two outings to the farmer's market. It was very busy this Saturday, but more people were wearing masks than the previous Saturday, so maybe that's an improvement. I've also had a friend (waving at you, Gigi!) over for a socially distanced happy hour on the patio, ditto morning coffee with another friend. I would really really hate to give up these small gains, but I think a lot of people here have just decided the pandemic is over, which doesn't bode well….

RHYS BOWEN: We have finally made it safely back to California after 110 degrees drove us from Arizona. The drive went amazingly smoothly. We spent the night at a Hyatt in Pasadena where they have arranged everything really well. We stopped at clean rest area bathrooms. No problems.  Now we are enjoying cooler weather and we’re back in Marin County where everyone wears masks, is polite, and only a few things have opened up… yes, and they have 17 deaths to date. None of them recently.  So I feel much safer than crazy Arizona.

We also go to Trader Joe’s for senior hour. Very well done with no stress. And I’m busy with the edits of my new Venice Stand alone. I’m also on a cleaning and weeding out jag. I’m about to Kondo my house, after my Arizona home that has no clutter. I’ll be ruthless!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh-- BEES! Oh my gosh, that is a nightmare. Just like everything else. Anyway, Massachusetts is apparently doing well, but we shall see. Reading about all of you is fascinating--truly. Jonathan and I are not budging. Not one bit. We have been home for 93 days. Not going anywhere. We have ordered groceries, ordered front porch chairs, ordered plants, planted tomatoes and basil, we have worked worked worked. Jonathan in virtual court, with the full array of personnel, I’m trying to write and be on TV (via Zoom) and it’s like--living on our own private planet. 

"Ryan could win a sixth Agatha with this one." !!!

Sometimes I actually pat the freezer to reassure it that  I am so pleased with it. My hair is awful, but I am persevering with many zooms and appearances and bookclubs, and THE FIRST TO LIE got a Publishers Weekly starred review so I am counting blessings.

I think the whole thing is horribly scary, insane, and I hope we can just all hang in.

JULIA: Check in time, dear readers! How are you doing, what are you doing, and are there any BEES involved? 

Pandemic Writing

Southernmost Point, Key West

LUCY BURDETTE: I was interviewed last week about how people are coping with the stay-at-home orders, and at the end the reporter said: “This will all be wonderful fodder for another book in your series!” And I thought, good lord, no, who will want to read about this once we’ve lived through it? I remember there were a spate of books about 9-11 and its aftermath, and I have the impression that most of them sank like stones.

But the reporter persisted a bit, asking how my Key West characters would react to pandemic conditions. So I imagined Hayley Snow buzzing around deserted Key West picking up takeout--though I couldn't picture her reviews getting any traction. And probably her mother, who runs a catering business, would be cooking for people in need. Houseboat Row, I thought, would probably stay much the same. The boats are in close proximity so the neighbors could still sit out on their decks (with masks?) and gab. Hayley would be super-protective of her 80-something roommate, Miss Gloria. But a murder during the epidemic? For what reason? Toilet paper hoarding? Inadequate social distancing? Counterfeit Florida Keys re-entry stickers?

I honestly can’t imagine wanting to write about this situation, nor can I imagine wanting to read about it! What about you Reds, can you picture any of your characters rising to this occasion? 

JENN McKINLAY: This is a very timely question since I’m writing about a character in next summer’s WAIT FOR IT, who is homebound for various reasons. Now that I’m in the thick of the manuscript, I have other characters thinking, Why would you settle for being stuck at home? Didn’t we get enough of that last spring? That is the complete reference I will make to this ver horribilis - to paraphrase Queen Elizabeth’s reference to 1992. I’m hoping it’s just the spring and not the whole year! I most definitely do not want to read about quarantine once we’re done with it. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Such a deeply fascinating question--and I keep envisioning every writer crafting tales of murder mysteries in quarantine, and rom-coms where the people meet cute in masks and then have a big reveal, how facial recognition will be useless, and meetings missed, and people vanishing and no one notices, and and and and all kinds of plot devices ...but hey. if all goes as we all deeply hope, I’ve got to say I do not want to read that. 

I know of authors who are setting their books-in-progress in 2019, and that’s one solution, I suppose. I love Jenn’s one reference idea, because--we can’t ignore it.

But my upcoming book, THE FIRST TO LIE, which comes out in August, just saying, has no references, of course.

Thinking about this a bit more--the books I’m reading now were “before” and they don’t make me think: oh no, don’t shake hands! It’s the world of the book.

HALLIE EPHRON: I don’t know about my characters rising to the occasion when I’m barely able to do it myself. I keep thinking, “when will it be over?” And that’s not what you want a reader to be thinking while reading your book. 

Funny, what Hank said, because right now I’m reading your new Key West food mystery, THE KEY LIME CRIME, Lucy, and Hayley keeps hopping on and off her motorbike and toodling around town and I keep thinking, Wait, wait, she can’t do that… can she? And I love it that she CAN and I can follow her vicariously when in real life our wings are clipped.

RHYS BOWEN: I’ve already tackled this subject in last year’s book THE VICTORY GARDEN that was set in WWI and then the following flu epidemic. I hadn’t realized until I researched that the flu killed up to a hundred million people worldwide. It was harrowing to write about because the chances of surviving were slim. But my story was about rising to the occasion, how women took over tasks and did jobs they never believed they could do. I like to think that both Molly and Lady Georgie would not shirk from playing their part, going what was required. But as to writing about this…. I’m so glad my books are set in the past!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am thinking about this, too. My books have always floated fairly loosely in time, except for a couple that have concrete time references (which I now pretty much regret.) The WIP is set just six weeks after the end of A BITTER FEAST, so would that be November, 2019, or November, 2020, or some unplaceable autumn? I'm going for the latter, although by the time the book is finished I may have to rethink that. I can't imagine wanting to write about this time, and I rather like the idea of my characters' lives going forward in an alternate virus-free world.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I have the same reaction to Hank - I can see all sorts of plot possibilities to various aspects of the crisis. After all, there's a whole genre of end-of-the-world books. (They never, however, seem to feature protagonists sitting around endlessly binging Netflix - even the apocalypse in this timeline is the worst.)

I also agree with Lucy - it's going to be a while before anyone will be able to get any traction with fiction about the pandemic. It takes time, sometimes a long time, to get enough distance to turn pain into art. But mentions of the pandemic? We'll have to drop them in, at least those of us writing in the present day. The great novel about the 1918 pandemic, Pale Horse, Pale Rider, was published 20 years after the events it covers, but countless novels written before that had men who had been in the war and women who had lost family to the influenza. 

So I can picture Russ recalling having to struggle to get his officers masks and gloves, or Clare telling someone about her church's efforts to keep the food kitchen going, but only if it's all safely in the past, and we can get on with a nice, simple, wholesome murder.

Reds, would you want to read about this pandemic in the future? And do have your copy of Julia's new book yet?

Lucy scores Hid from Our Eyes

What We're #Writing Week - Cancellation Notices and Regrets

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I was supposed to be sharing with you all my exciting book tour schedule for April, set in five states and concluding with my triumphant appearance as the guest of honor at Malice Domestic 32 (with my good friend Jeff Cohen as toastmaster!)

However, I have no confidence I'll actually be appearing at any venues when my book comes out on April 7th. Two of the bookstores I'm scheduled to appear at have cancelled all events through the first week of April. Do you want to bet things will be better a month from now? Me, neither.

The large stores I'm supposed to be appearing at are still open for authors - although if you look at their calendars, you can see over half the writers coming out in March have postponed their visits. For this leg of the trip, I'd be flying, and staying in hotels, and eating out - all activities I normally enjoy, but the thought of engaging in them right now makes me feel like a big target has been pinned to my back. 



Libraries, always a great place to introduce yourself to readers, are closing left, right and center. I am cool with the TP shortages, but the idea of NO LIBRARY is making me very anxious.

I've been talking with my publicist about this, and he and the social media guys are working on a plan for an all-digital roll out, so you may get to see me talking on Instagram Live (if my daughters can teach me how.) But there's no comparison to appearing in someone's town, bonding with the bookstore owners who place your books into readers' hands and chatting with and signing for those readers.



It's not just the people who turn out at book stores and libraries that make touring worthwhile. Showing up in person increases your chance of getting into the local paper, on Good Morning Albuquerque/Buffalo/Chattanooga, or - the gold standard - on the regional NPR station. That spreads the word about your work to people who wouldn't show up at the store, because they'd never heard of you before.



And of course, it's not just me dealing with this! These are some of the friends and folks who have appeared here at JRW with March and April releases: Laura Childs, S.W Hubbard, Anna Lee Huber, Deanna Raybourn, Paige Shelton, Victoria Thompson, LynDee Walker and, of course, Jenn, whose PUMPKIN SPICE PERIL is coming out April 28.

So what can you, a book-loving, always-reading person do to support the authors and bookstores you love?

First, pre-order! I wrote a whole blog about how much weight authors and publishers place on pre-orders.

Consider ordering or buying from an independent bookstore. Not having events to drive traffic hurts them - not to mention losing patrons who aren't leaving the house for anything except TP and sanitizer runs. You can come by and pick up your book(s) with a minimum of human interaction, or you can have them mailed to you. Yes, indies will ship your purchase! 

Is there an author you love with a book coming out? I adore Carol Goodman, and she's just published a new gothic/thriller/literary mystery,  THE SEA OF LOST GIRLS. You might not have known that until right now. Likewise, when you talk about authors and books on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, for someone reading, it'll be the first time they've heard about a release. Reviews on Amazon and Goodreads and LibraryThing are like gold. Even commenting on your favorite blogs - think of how many books you've added to your TBR pile when we have one of our semi-regular "What We're Reading" discussions.

Dedicated library user? The main branch may be closed, but most libraries offer digital downloads of ebooks and audiobooks, and librarians are there (well, probably at home) to help with getting an E-card and learning how to download. They're also taking requests, so ask them to stock the authors you want to read.

Who knows, maybe the current health crisis will permanently change the way we roll out books - after all, not every author tours, and no one can ever reach more than a tiny slice of the reading public in person. Lets all pitch in together and keep the reading party going - and hey, if you have any suggestions for cool things writers can do online/long distance/via mail, leave them in the comments!