A Kernel of Truth Part Two by Sherry Harris

LUCY BURDETTE: Hurray for our friend Sherry Harris's new book! We knew her back in the days before she was published and she's come so far, and given a lot back to the community--welcome Sherry!

SHERRY HARRIS: First, Happy fifteenth anniversary to the Reds! Think of all the joy you’ve given me along with all your readers, all the books I’ve discovered, all the writing tips, the laughter, and the tears. To be a tiny part of this has been a treat. I checked and my first blog post for the Reds was in December 2014. What a way to celebrate a debut book! Thanks, Lucy and Reds for your continued generosity and support! I’m thrilled to be back to celebrate the third book in my Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mysteries, Three Shots to the Wind.

During my visit last August after A Time to Swill released, I talked about how a real story led to my fictional one. You can read it here.

An incident that occurred years ago while I was visiting family in Destin, Florida was part of the spark for Three Shots to the Wind. It’s a little dark so skip this paragraph if you need to. We were leaving Destin Commons—an outdoor shopping mall—and drove by a small pond on the way home. I glanced at it, thought, that’s an odd-looking orange log, but didn’t have time for a second look. You can probably guess where this is going. The next morning the newspaper had an article about a body being found in that pond. Okay, so that wasn’t a log, I’d glimpsed. At the time it never occurred to me that incident would ever spark a story.

The series is set in the Florida Panhandle so another element I wanted to use in Three Shots to the Wind was something unique to South Walton County Florida – the coastal dune lakes. There are only a few spots in the entire world that have them: Australia, Madagascar, Oregon, New Zealand, and the Florida Panhandle. South Walton County has fifteen of them and I put one of them near Chloe Jackson’s house when I wrote the first book. She runs by it almost every day. 

This is how I describe it in From Beer to Eternity: I passed the lake, seventy-five yards, three-quarters of a football field to my right. Compared to Lake Michigan, this was a pond that was given the grander name of lake. It was surrounded by pines on three sides. Giants protecting lily pad–covered water. Monet probably would have liked to paint the scene given the chance. I hoped there weren’t any alligators in the lake. 

But what do coastal dune lakes have to do with a body? In Three Shots to the Wind Chloe is out for a run and this happens: As I ran toward the coastal dune lake that was between the preserve and my house, I spotted Deputy Biffle walking toward a man who was gesturing wildly at the lake. Coastal dune lakes were unique because of their close proximity to the Gulf, their shallow depth, and because there weren’t many places in the world that had them. I heard sirens wailing. This couldn’t be good.

It wasn’t and Chloe’s life is about to get very complicated. If you’re curious about coastal dune lakes here’s an interesting article.  Weaving those two things together led me down a dark and yet funny path where Chloe’s past life in Chicago collides with the present. 

Readers: Is there a natural phenomenon you love? I’ll give away a copy of Three Shots to the Wind to someone who leaves a comment. 

Bio: Sherry Harris is the Agatha Award nominated author of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery series and the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mysteries. Sherry is a past president of Sisters in Crime, a member of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, the New England Chapter of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. Sherry loves books, beaches, bars, and bargain hunting — not necessarily in that order. She is also a patent holding inventor.

Blog: https://wickedauthors.com/

Twitter: Sharrisauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SherryHarrisauthor

Instagram: SherryHarrisAuthor

Website: https://sherryharrisauthor.com

Chloe’s Windy City ex-fiancé gets blown away in the Florida panhandle . . .
 
DEAD EXES TELL NO TALES
 
Saloon owner Chloe Jackson appears to have a secret admirer. She’s pouring drinks at the Sea Glass Saloon in Emerald Cove when an airplane flies by above the beach with a banner reading I LOVE YOU CHLOE JACKSON. She immediately rules out Rip Barnett. They are in the early stages of dating and no one has said the L word. Then a bouquet of lilacs—her favorite flower—is delivered to the bar, followed by an expensive bottle of her favorite sparkling wine. It couldn’t be . . .
 
Sure enough, her ex-fiancé from Chicago has flown down to Florida for an accountants’ convention. But is he trying to mix business with pleasure and win her back? Unfortunately he’s not in a hotel conference room, he’s floating facedown in the lake next to her house, clutching a photo of Chloe. Who murders an accountant on a business trip—it just doesn’t add up. When Rip becomes the prime suspect, Chloe is determined to find the secret murderer. But if she isn’t careful, it may be closing time and lights out for her . . .

A Kernel of Truth @sharrisauthor

LUCY BURDETTE: Today the blog welcomes back longtime friend Sherry Harris with her new book. Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered into a drawing for a copy! 

SHERRY HARRIS: Thanks Lucy and Reds for having me back to celebrate the release of A Time to Swill, the second book in my Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon series which is set in the panhandle of Florida. Authors get ideas for books from so many different places and the origin story for A Time to Swill is no different. 

I have visited Destin, Florida many times since 1988 and lived in nearby Shalimar for three years. One of my dear friends from there, Clare Boggs, helped me research for the series. We went to beach bars (such tough research!), drove by houses to find the perfect one for Chloe, picked out her car, and spent hours talking about what Chloe’s life would look like.  Sadly, Clare died unexpectedly in 2019. As I write this series (I’m now writing the fourth book) I think of Clare and call her the angel on my shoulder. 

Clare also gave me a file folder of articles she’d clipped from the local newspaper. She thought they might be helpful for story ideas. When I preparing to write A Time to Swill last year, I picked the folder back up and went through the articles. One was about an old house that was being moved from one location to another. Hmmm, that had a lot of possibilities. Another article was about a phantom ship that had washed up on the beach, washed back out, and then back onto the beach near the bar I ended up using as a model for the Sea Glass Saloon. 

That story caught my imagination. First, I discovered a phantom or ghost ships as they are called don’t have any paranormal activity occurring. They are abandoned ships or boats adrift at sea. Second, I did what all authors do in one form or another and thought, “what if?” What if Chloe got on the boat? What if while she was on it the boat went back out to sea? That was the kernel of the idea the opens the story. 

Chloe runs almost every morning. What if it’s foggy and she spots this sailboat bobbing at an odd angle near one of the sandbars that runs along the coast in Destin, Florida—the town near my fictional town of Emerald Cove. But why would she get on the boat? There must be some compelling reason. Ooohhh, I thought, what if she heard a baby cry and what if when she calls out, but no one answers. Chloe must take action—right after calling 911 to report the whole thing. 

The actual boat that ran aground in Destin was named The Phantom of the Aqua – isn’t that perfect? A man was sailing the boat from near St. Petersburg, Florida to the U.S. Virgin Islands. He got caught in a tropical storm, his sails ripped apart, and his engine died. He had to be rescued by the Coast Guard in a helicopter. The man assumed the sailboat sank, until he heard the news two months later that it turned up in Destin hundreds of nautical miles away from where he abandoned it.  Here’s a link to the news article. The photos of the sailboat are amazing. 

While Chloe is on the abandoned ship she finds a cat not a baby, but she also finds a skeleton. The remains connect back to her friend Ralph. His wife had disappeared twelve years earlier with three other people when they went out sailing. Ralph has always been a suspect in her disappearance. And now old wounds in Emerald Cove have been ripped back open. Chloe must figure out who is lying and who is telling the truth. 

Readers: Do you let your imagination run wild when you read an interesting story? I’ll give away a copy of A Time to Swill to someone who leaves a comment. 

Bio: 

Sherry Harris is the Agatha Award nominated author of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery series and the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mysteries. Sherry is a past president of Sisters in Crime, a member of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, the New England Chapter of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. Sherry loves books, beaches, bars, and Westies — not necessarily in that order. She is also a patent holding inventor.

Blog: https://wickedauthors.com/

Twitter: Sharrisauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SherryHarrisauthor

Instagram: SherryHarrisAuthor

Website: https://sherryharrisauthor.com

What If? a guest post by Sherry Harris

LUCY BURDETTE: We love having old friends visit and we love watching their careers blossom. Today Sherry Harris asks a question that is dear to my heart--how in the world can a writer keep a long-running series fresh? I can't wait to hear her ideas...Welcome Sherry!

SHERRY HARRIS: Thanks, Reds for having me back to celebrate the release of Absence of Alice the ninth Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery. I still have to pinch myself and ask if this writing/publishing adventure is real. I met Lucy, Hallie, and Hank through the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime back when being published was just a glimmer in my eye and a hope in my heart. I’ve been lucky enough to meet the other Reds along the way and all of you are such amazing supporters of other writers. Thank you for all you do for the writing community. 

As any series author will tell you one priority is keeping things fresh. The series starts out with Sarah reeling and wounded from a recent devastating divorce. Her relationship ebbs and flows with her ex. Also for the first few books (I know some of you hate love triangles) she’s also involved on various levels with the county district attorney. She’s also living in a small town without a lot of friends, but builds relationships through the books. 

That brought me to book nine. How could I change things up in this book? In the first book in the series Sarah is at odds with the police. They don’t trust her and she doesn’t trust them. But since that book she has developed a good relationship with the police. It grew slowly over the series until the police eventually ask for her help in the murder of a young Air Force spouse in the eighth book, Sell Low, Sweet Harriet. They know Sarah can go places and hear things that they can’t. 

Sarah has developed deep friendships with not only a couple of police officers, but with the people of the town of Ellington. She has a deepening relationship with the county district attorney, Seth. She’s also turned to Mike the “Big Cheese” Titone, a mobster who also has a good side, for help. So at this point in Sarah’s life, she’s in a good place. 

That’s when I asked myself “what if?” It’s how many writers start a story. We see or hear something that makes us ask ourself what if. What if that woman jogging through the woods is really running for her life? What if that woman sitting in her car crying just killed her husband? What if that man yelling at the store clerk just lost his job and is desperate? 

My big what if for Absence of Alice was “what if Sarah couldn’t rely on all the people she’s come to rely on over the series?” As soon as that thought hit me, I was itching to write the story. When Sarah’s landlady and friend is kidnapped, the kidnapper calls her and gives her three rules to follow if she ever wants to see her landlady again. The first one is that she can’t contact the police, Seth, or Mike the “Big Cheese” Titone. He will know if she does.

Sarah tests the rule soon after to devastating consequences. The next questions I asked myself were “what will happen to Sarah when and if the police, Mike, and her boyfriend find out she’s been lying to them. Will they ever trust her again? Can she repair the damage that’s been done? Sarah ponders these things even as she races to find her landlady. 

Do you ask yourself “what if” when you go about your day? 

Sherry Harris is the Agatha Award nominated author of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery series and the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mystery series set in the panhandle of Florida. She is a past president of Sisters in Crime and a member of Mystery Writers of America. Sherry loves books, beaches, bars, garage sales, and Westies — not necessarily in that order. Sherry is also a patent holding inventor. Sherry, her husband, and guard dog Lily are living in northern Virginia until they figure out where they want to move to next. 

Blog: Wickedcozyauthors.com

Twitter: @SHarrisAuthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SherryHarrisauthor

Instagram: SherryHarrisAuthor 

Sherry Harris on Creating a New Series #giveaway

LUCY BURDETTE: We love Sherry Harris and her writing and are delighted to help her introduce a new mystery series! And I'm a little embarrassed...you'll see why...welcome and congrats Sherry! (Her alternate title could be: What Lucy Burdette Had To Do With My New Series Without Even Knowing It) 

SHERRY HARRIS: Thanks, Lucy and the Reds for having me back to talk about From Beer to Eternity the first book in my new Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mystery series. Lucy had something to do with this series even though she didn’t know it. 

My editor at Kensington and I had been tossing ideas around for a second series for a while, never settling on something we both loved. In February 2018 he wrote suggesting a series in a beach bar in Key West. 

My first, second, and third thoughts when I saw his message were: Lucy writes the wonderful Key West series and I don’t know anything about Key West. When I read one of Lucy’s books I feel like I’m there. I don’t think I can do that. (In an interesting twist of fate my husband and I were going to visit Key West for the first time a few days after he wrote. We were staying with Barbara Ross and her husband and were getting together with Lucy and her husband too. What a strange coincidence!)

So I wrote him back: Interestingly enough my husband and I are going on our first trip to Key West on February 8th. However a friend of mine, Lucy Burdette, writes a food critic mystery series set in Key West and I feel like she's covered almost everything you've mentioned. Her series is up to seven books and I think there are more coming. (Her tenth book in the series, Key Lime Crime comes out on August 11, 2020!!!) 

And then I added: But I have a suggestion. My mom lives in a resort town in the panhandle of Florida -- Destin. It's a spit of land between the gulf and a huge bay. It's also called the Emerald Coast, the Redneck Riviera, and LA -- lower Alabama. We were stationed there for almost three years. It has three distinct seasons -- snowbirds, spring breakers, and summer people. There's a pirate festival -- Billy Bowlegs. There's a place called Crab Island which is really a shallow area of the bay. Boaters gather there all of the time. There's a couple of floating restaurants. The last time I was there the local government was trying to pass a law to have more control over Crab Island and the restaurants. There's snooty rich locals. There's kids brought over from Europe in the summer to work at all the resorts and water parks. There's suspect land deals and overbuilding.

A friend and I were at a restaurant/bar in Grayton Beach a several years ago. The tables were about an inch apart from each other so we were more or less sitting with seven Harley riding doctors and having a good time. A man with a big belly wearing a Speedo walks in and the place almost goes silent until one of the doctors pipes up. "Guess he's not from around these parts."

At my daughter's elementary school she had to say "yes ma'am or no sir" to all of her teachers. We started picking up drawls in the time we lived there. 

He wrote back: Till then, Key West is out, Destin is in. (Been there actually). So, knock me out a page or two with the overall premise and a paragraph or two on the first three in the series. Just so I have something in hand. 

And thus, the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon series was born—in part thanks to Lucy! 

Reds, Do you follow authors to a new series? Also I'd be happy to give away a copy of From Beer to Eternity to one commenter. Thanks again for having me!

Here’s a bit about the book: 

A whip smart librarian’s fresh start comes with a tart twist in this perfect cocktail of murder and mystery—with a romance chaser.

MURDER ON TAP

With Chicago winters in the rearview mirror, Chloe Jackson is making good on a promise: help her late friend’s grandmother run the Sea Glass Saloon in the Florida Panhandle. To Chloe’s surprise, feisty Vivi Slidell isn’t the frail retiree Chloe expects. Nor is Emerald Cove. It’s less a sleepy fishing village than a panhandle hotspot overrun with land developers and tourists. But it’s a Sea Glass regular who’s mysteriously crossed the cranky Vivi. When their bitter argument comes to a head and he’s found dead behind the bar, guess who’s the number one suspect?

In trying to clear Vivi’s name, Chloe discovers the old woman isn’t the only one in Emerald Cove with secrets. Under the laidback attitude, sparkling white beaches, and small town ways something terrible is brewing. And the sure way a killer can keep those secrets bottled up is to finish off one murder with a double shot: aimed at Chloe and Vivi.

Bio: Sherry Harris is the Agatha Award nominated author of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery series and the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mystery series set in the panhandle of Florida. She is the immediate past president of Sisters in Crime and a member of Mystery Writers of America. Sherry loves books, beaches, bars, and Westies — not necessarily in that order. In her spare time Sherry loves reading and is a patent holding inventor. Sherry, her husband, and guard dog Lily are living in northern Virginia until they figure out where they want to move to next. 

The Beat of Black Wings

Today the Reds welcome Edith and friends to celebrate the amazing music of Joni Mitchell!

EDITH MAXWELL: Thank you, Lucy/Roberta, for helping us celebrate this week’s release of The Beat of Black Wings! We had hoped to have a grand release at Malice Domestic. Since that isn’t going to happen in a few weeks, it’s great to have an audience here to share it with.

This anthology of short crime fiction is a celebration itself – a bow to the genius and wonder that is Joni Mitchell and her music. Each story in the collection is inspired by a different song spanning her seventeen albums. The anthology was Josh Pachter’s idea and baby, and it hangs together beautifully because of his expert editing. 

Last year sometime I posted Youtube link to a Joni Mitchell song on my Facbook page. I talked about what a strong influence she’d had on my life. Josh saw my post and wrote to me, saying he was assembling this collection. He asked if I’d like to submit a story. Of course! I wrote back to tell him Joni’s music was the soundtrack of my young adulthood. 

I ended up writing a story inspired by “Blue Motel Room” from the Hejira album, which is one of my favorites of Joni’s albums. “A depressing blue Savannah motel room. A desiccated hand in a locked safe. A petty thief with the blues . . . and wanderlust.” But I could have selected any of dozens of others of Mitchell songs and picked out a tale.

I asked Josh about his inspiration to create the anthology.

Josh Pachter: For as long as I can remember, my favorite music has included the work of singer/songwriters. Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, David Bromberg, Carole King, Marc Cohn, Van Morrison, Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Cheryl Wheeler, Kenny White, many more — their work has provided the soundtrack for my life. A couple of years ago — for an oddball reason I've explained elsewhere — I wrote a story based on Joni's song "The Beat of Black Wings." Right around the same time, I became aware of the publication of several books of short crime stories based on song lyrics, such as Trouble in the Heartland: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Bruce Springsteen, and I thought: Why not do something similar with Joni's songs? The result was The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell.

Edith: I asked Josh and a few of the other authors which of Joni’s songs resonated with them at a particular time. Here’s what they said:

Josh Pachter: I'm going to pick a song that's in The Beat of Black Wings, though the story was written by the great Brendan DuBois, not by me: "Free Man in Paris." The Court and Spark album came out in 1974, just as I was entering grad school at the University of Michigan and simultaneously beginning my first teaching job, a half-time position at Ann Arbor's Community High School. Joni's lyrics — "I was a free man in Paris / I felt unfettered and alive / There was nobody calling me up for favors / No one's future to decide" — reminded me how much I'd enjoyed my first trip to Europe, two years earlier, and made me hunger to return. Two years later, in '76, I finished my graduate coursework, quit my job, and took off to visit friends in Amsterdam. I bought a motorcycle and met a Dutch woman and spent eight months tooling around Italy and Greece with her. By the end of '77, we were married, and I didn't return to the US to live until 1991. We were divorced by then. I'm happily remarried now, to an American woman, and Laurie and I go back to Europe almost every summer, where we feel unfettered and alive. Sadly, it looks like this year's trip to Spain and Portugal will have to be delayed. But with The Beat of Black Wings coming out, we'll spend the summer immersed in Joni's music, if not in sangria and tapas....

Barb Goffman: The holiday season, from the lead-up to Thanksgiving all the way through New Years, often is hard for me. All the celebrations of family and love remind me that despite the many good things in my life, in a fundamental way, I'm alone. Sure, I have wonderful friends and my dog. But I've never been married. Haven't had a boyfriend in decades. No children. In December I often will listen to "River," both Joni Mitchell's version and the wonderful cover by Robert Downey Jr. The song doesn't make me feel better exactly, but it's comforting all the same.

Sherry Harris: I confess that I didn't listen to a lot of Joni Mitchell music when I was young. I was always more of a fan of rock and roll than folk singers. Of course I knew her biggest hits like “Both Sides, Now” and “Big Yellow Taxi.” But as I went through her songs to pick one for the anthology, it struck me how timeless her lyrics are and what an incredible musician and storyteller she is. Being re-introduced to her music has been so interesting.

Alison McMahan: It would have to be “Both Sides Now.” I knew the Judy Collins version from the Wildflowers album. I grew up an expatriate in Spain. In the early 70s, TV and even radio were limited, so LPs were our lifeline to North American culture. In 1974, when I was a teenager, “Both Sides Now” seem to sum up the angst of being an American teenager growing up in a fascist dictatorship. It was a great day for me when, many years later, I got to see Judy Collins live. I was an adult before I found out Joni Mitchell had written the song. (Remember, we didn't have internet). That led me to discover Joni Mitchell's other work. But that was much later, when I was back living in the US. To me the song summed up the tightrope walk I had to do, to be an American and believe in democracy and at the same time grow up in Franco's dictatorship.

Alan Orloff: When I was a poor college student, I would go to garages sales and swap meets to buy vinyl records on the cheap. So I got a copy of Joni Mitchell's Ladies of the Canyon, and I remember listening to that album, quite frequently, as a backdrop when I studied. I think I drove my roommates crazy with how often I listened to it (but it had some of her greatest hits on one album!). I went on to buy more of her albums, of course, but I think that one stands out as my favorite--or at least the most memorable in my mind.

Art Taylor: The first Joni Mitchell song I ever remember hearing was “Help Me”—junior year of college, sitting in my friend Mary Ruffin Hanbury’s room, sunlight pouring through open windows, a sudden burst of springtime and us eating triscuits and cream cheese. Even in the moment, college felt like a time of general romanticism about the world, rampant emotions in a hundred directions and a giddy and exciting helplessness to those emotions—and “didn’t it feel good?” (to quote the song’s lyrics). 

Years later, though, another of Joni Mitchell’s songs stood out: “Coyote” with that lyric about two lovers who "just come from such different sets of circumstance.” The relationship I was in at that time was troubled, doomed really, even as it felt very exciting in the moment—and something definitely resonated with me about the forward-moving motion of that song, along with lyrics which were both keen-eyed and accepting.

For a couple of years now, I’ve been tinkering with a story, potentially a series of stories, about a young woman who so loves Joni Mitchell that bits of lyrics keep popping into conversation—words of wisdom that have fashioned this character’s outlook on the world. All this talk reminds me I need to get back to it. 

Edith: (Art apologizes for going so long – but I loved his whole answer!) 

For me – a Californian – all of Joni’s early songs resonated. During college and after, I was hungry for adventure, love, and travel. After I started traveling, of course “California” pulled at my heartstrings, but “Carey” also called me to hedonism on a Greek island. “I was a Free Man in Paris” drew me, too. When my American boyfriend and I lived in Japan in the mid-seventies, we had cassette tapes of Hejira and Hissing of Summer Lawns. “Amelia, “Refuge of the Roads,” “Coyote,” and of course “Edith and the Kingpin” – so many songs gifted me with deeply etched memories.

We all hope you find a copy of The Beat of Black Wings. Please know 30 percent of the proceeds go toward brain aneurysm research. While they won’t benefit Joni directly, we hope your contributions further the understanding of the medical event that struck our favorite singer/songwriter. And think of all the intriguing stories you’ll have to distract you from the outside world!

Readers: What’s your favorite Joni Mitchell song, and why? If Joni’s music isn’t yours, who is your favorite female singer/songwriter? Edith will send one of you an ebook of the anthology.

Josh Pachter is a writer, editor and translator. Almost a hundred of his short crime stories have appeared in EQMM, AHMM, and many other periodicals, anthologies, and year’s-best collections. Please find him at joshpachter.com.

Edith Maxwell, also known as Maddie Day, writes cozy and historical mysteries as well as award-winning short crime fiction. She hopes you’ll find her under both names on social media and at edithmaxwell.com.

Crazy Eights! by Barbara Ross and Sherry Harris

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm delighted to welcome two good friends with brand new books to Jungle Red! Do you have a gift certificate burning a hole in your pocket? These are two wonderful cozy series...welcome Sherry and Barb!

Sherry Harris and Barbara Ross are happy to be visiting the Jungle Reds today to celebrate the December 31, release of the eighth book in each of our series. The latest book in Sherry’s Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery series is Sell Low, Sweet Harriet. The latest book in Barbara Ross’s Maine Clambake Mystery series is Sealed Off.



We’re celebrating with Jungle Red readers by answering eight crazy questions about things that have happened on our publishing journeys. Leave a comment to be entered to win either Sell Low, Sweet Harriet or Sealed Off to be mailed out as soon as we get our hands on a copy!





1) How did your protagonist get her name?



Sherry: Is my editor going to read this? (Looks around, doesn’t see him.) I originally called Sarah -- Sarah Fiennes. I thought how fun would that be because Sarah finds things at garage sales. Unfortunately, my editor hated the name. It reminded him of those two British acting brothers. So Sarah Winston was born. How about you Barb? Where did Julia’s name come from?

Barb: I think Fiennes would have been a great name for Sarah. But then I like the acting brothers. My protagonist is Julia Morrow Snowden and my niece is Julia Morrow Ross. When I wrote the proposal for the Maine Clambake Mysteries I was trying to avoid my tendency to overthink so I grabbed a name that was at hand. The weird part is, my niece has never said a word about it.

Sherry: Very interesting. Are we going to talk about Sonny and your daughter-in-law Sunny? You can plead the fifth.

Barb: Ha, ha, ha. I didn’t even get that until my daughter-in-law pointed it out!

2) What’s the question readers ask you the most?

Barb: People what to know if the Snowden Family Clambake is real and if they can go there. I send them to the Cabbage Island Clambake, also run by a family and their private island--though there the resemblance stops!

Sherry: You deserve a commission. People ask me if I’ll do a garage sale for them. I’ve done a few and they are a lot of work. I’ll stick to writing about them!

3) What’s the most controversial thing in your series? Readers either love or hate…

Sherry: The love triangle in the first few books!!!! I swear I didn’t mean to do it when I set out writing the series. Seth was supposed to be an unnamed character, a one night stand, but then he called Sarah…

Barb: It’s funny how the romance is the thing that gets to people. The most controversial thing in my series is Julia’s boyfriend Chris. He was her middle school crush, but do they belong together now? People send me e-mails arguing both positions quite vehemently.

Sherry: Gulp. I may have been guilty of trying to influence you about that too. I make no apologies. I have opinions.

4) What did you THINK would be the most controversial thing?

Sherry: See the above question! I thought that someone would write me complaining about Sarah being a slut for having a one night stand. Not one person has ever mentioned it.

Barb: PETA has a big sign in the Portland Jetport about not eating lobster. I keep expecting the hate mail, but so far, crickets.

5) What is the weirdest name you ever gave a character?

Sherry: In The Longest Yard Sale I have an Air Force officer whose call sign (similar to a nickname) is Bubbles. You have to read the book to find out why.

Barb: My favorite character name is the victim in Musseled Out, David Thwing.

6) In mysteries, the mystery is the thing and the romance, if there is one, is there to round out the character. Eight books in, tell us the truth, is your protagonist going to get her HEA?

Sherry: Now this is something I get a lot of opinions about. My answer is: I don’t know. Does a woman have to be in a relationship to be happy? Book nine is set exactly two years after the first book. Sarah went through a traumatic divorce and an almost got back together with her ex in that period of time. She’s not ready to settle down and she’s not Cinderella that needs to be saved by the handsome prince. That said...I love a happy ever after. Love them!

Barb: I don’t know, either. I guess it depends on how many books end up in the series. Chris and Julia’s relationship has many complications and it would take a while to resolve them.

7) What’s your least favorite cover in the series and why?



Barb: I admit it’s the cover for book five, Iced Under. All the other Clambake covers feature very Maine-y scenes and this one always looks to me like a generic suburban street. It’s never hurt the book’s sales, though, and since the book came out I’ve noticed when the weather in a book is stormy, Kensington covers are always from the inside (cozy) looking out,



Sherry: We’ve never talked about this before but mine is also number five, I Know What You Bid Last Summer! I love my covers and there’s nothing wrong with this one. I’d sent my editor some pictures of an antique store I visited with all of these beautiful pink dresses. I just had such a strong picture in my head I expected it to look like that.

8) What is the craziest thing that ever happened to you at a book event?

Sherry: Oh, Barb. You have to know where I’m heading with this one. It was with you. I’m surprised you’ve ever agreed to do another event with me.

Barb: Sherry is referring to a signing we did where a man came up to our table and told us his entire life history including his broken marriage and the last time he had sex. And he didn’t even buy a book! Sherry is a lovely, friendly person. I am not and our different personalities played out in that situation.

Sherry: Barb you are a lovely, friendly person too -- just in a different way than me. I must have a face says tell me anything. You forgot to mention that he also told us he has a top secret clearance which worried us both considering what a blabbermouth he turned out to be.

Jungle Red Readers: Thanks for playing crazy eights with us. Ask us anything below or just leave a comment to be entered to win a new release. (No need to give us any details on your sex life! Thanks.)

Sherry Harris is the Agatha Award nominated author of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery series and upcoming Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mystery series. Her website is: https://sherryharrisauthor.com/

Barbara Ross is the author of the Maine Literary Award-winning Maine Clambake Mystery series and the Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody series. Her website is www.maineclambakemysteries.com

Some Real History in this Mystery

LUCY BURDETTE: So happy to welcome our friend Sherry Harris back to the blog. Today she's talking about her new book which has a fascinating backstory...I'm going to let her tell it...

SHERRY HARRIS: Thanks, Reds for having me back! I can’t believe I’m here to talk about my sixth novel in the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mysteries, The Gun Also Rises.

When my editor at Kensington and I were talking about the sixth book I knew I wanted Sarah to organize a book sale for someone. A book sale full of mysteries. My editor thought adding a Hemingway-like character with a missing rare book would be interesting. I read a lot of Hemingway during my high school and college days. And I will never forget an enlightening discussion with a professor about the symbolism in Hemingway’s short story “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” when I did an independent study. But that was a long time ago.

In preparation for writing The Gun Also Rises I started reading more about Hemingway and came across a fascinating story some of you may be familiar with—especially if you’ve read The Moveable Feast—but I had never heard.

Here’s the short version: in 1922 Hadley Hemingway was traveling from Paris to Lausanne, Switzerland to meet Ernest. She packed up his works in progress including the carbon copies.

Ernest had been working on Nick Adams stories for months. Hadley stowed her bags and went to buy a bottle of water. When she came back the bag with the manuscripts was gone. A conductor helped Hadley search the train but the manuscripts were never seen again. If you would like to read more about the story here’s a link: 

I sat there stunned. Could anything be more perfect? But how could I use it? Should I use it? Back to my editor for permission to change from a Hemingway-like character to using the event from Hemingway’s life. He was as interested as I was in the story and told me to go for it.

 I decided that Sarah would find the missing bag with the manuscripts in her client’s attic tucked in with all of the mystery books. She takes them down to her client who is stunned that they are in her house. She asks Sarah to give her some time to process the find so Sarah goes back to the attic to work. When Sarah returns, she finds her client injured and that the maid has stolen the manuscripts. During Sarah’s search for the manuscripts she runs into a suspicious rare book dealer and a fanatical group called The League of Literary Treasure Hunters. They are convinced Sarah knows where the missing manuscripts are and follow her all over town.

The story still intrigues me. At the time Hemingway was a well-known war correspondent, but he wasn’t the famous author he is today. I keep picturing someone thinking, “There’s a nice bag.” They steal it and dump all the manuscripts in the nearest trash bin. Who knows? Maybe they did Ernest a favor with all the rewriting he had to do.

Readers: Are you familiar with the Hadley story? Any guesses as to what really happened to those manuscripts? I will give away a copy of The Gun Also Rises to someone who leaves a comment.

Here’s more about the book:

TO RECOVER A PRICELESS MANUSCRIPT . . .
 
A wealthy widow has asked Sarah Winston to sell her massive collection of mysteries through her garage sale business. While sorting through piles of books stashed in the woman's attic, Sarah is amazed to discover a case of lost Hemingway stories, stolen from a train in Paris back in 1922. How did they end up in Belle Winthrop Granville's attic in Ellington, Massachusetts, almost one hundred years later?
 
WILL SARAH HAVE TO PAY WITH HER LIFE?

Before Sarah can get any answers, Belle is assaulted, the case is stolen, a maid is killed, and Sarah herself is dodging bullets. And when rumors spread that Belle has a limited edition of The Sun Also Rises in her house, Sarah is soon mixed up with a mobster, the fanatical League of Literary Treasure Hunters, and a hard-to-read rare book dealer. With someone willing to kill for the Hemingway, Sarah has to race to catch the culprit—or the bell may toll for her . . .

Bio:

Sherry Harris is the Agatha Award nominated author of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery series and the upcoming Chloe Jackson Redneck Riviera mystery series. She is the President of Sisters in Crime, a member of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, the New England Chapter of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers.

In her spare time Sherry loves reading and is a patent holding inventor. Sherry, her husband, and guard dog Lily are living in northern Virginia until they figure out where they want to move to next.

She blogs with the talented women at Wickedcozyauthors.com