Getting Crafty

RHYS BOWEN: At the beginning of an unforeseen length of isolation I assumed I’d use the time well. Not only would I write stellar books but I would take up all those things I planned to do during my life and never had done. I was going to perfect playing my Welsh harp. I was going to take my knowledge of Italian beyond ordering meals and talking about the weather. Ditto with my Welsh. I have both programs downloaded onto my computer. Both untouched to date.

 Also I was going to be really crafty and make all sorts of wonderful things. Well, I did make some masks before you could buy them, including one from a bra! It looked okay but since I couldn’t breathe with it on was hardly a great success. 

 I bought a big cross stitch picture and I actually started it. I’ve done about an inch along the top by now. At this rate I’ll finish it by 2030.

I cut up many lengths of yarn intending to thread my loom and weave a scarf, but they sit, draped over the loom, not threaded, not ready to begin even. But I did knit an outfit for a German doll given to my daughter Clare as a baby by my best friend when we were visiting in Germany. Clare never really took to the doll (it has a carved wooden head) and so it lay there, too dear to throw away. But the doll was dressed as a baby and I thought he ought to be a little German boy. So I’ve made him lederhosen and a traditional green jacket. I’ve decided i can knit doll’s clothes. I like something I can finish in one evening.

 One thing I did do a lot of, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, was watercolor painting. I found it calming and I liked that I was totally absorbed and so did not worry while I was working. Having done landscapes I tried my hand at portraits and painted several of the family for Christmas gifts.

This was a picture of my mother, done from an old black and white photograph. It does look like her!

 But I notice I haven’t picked up my paints since Christmas. IN fact I haven’t done much in the way of creativity except for starting on my next book--and that’s because the word DEADLINE looms. But I think I feel burned out… too much underlying worry for too long, and then adding additional worry about crazy mobs storming the Capitol. Now all I want is for life to return to normal. I want to feel free to pop to the store whenever I feel like it, not just during senior hour, to meet friends for lunch, to go to a theater again. I’m sure you all feel the same.

 So who else has found her artistic and crafty side during this time? I saw a post from Jenn that she had ordered masses of yarn, intending to do great knitting projects.

I know Hallie has been doing jigsaws like crazy. Has anyone else found a hidden artistic bent? A new hobby that will be continued after the pandemic lifts? I think my new hobby will be research for upcoming travel!

And who found they were more creative? Less creative? More inspiration? Less inspiration?   For me it was the latter. I find I have had to drag out the words for my books, force myself to sit at the computer.  Now I have my vaccines maybe I'll be bursting with new creativity--make that cross stitch, weave that scarf, oh, and write a few brilliant books along the way.

AND drum roll please! 
The winner of Ellie Griffith's book is Joan Emerson.  Joan please email me at authorrhysbowen@gmail.com with your street address and I'll see that a copy is sent to you.  Congratulations.

Knitting Up a Narrative by Nancy Warren

JENN McKINLAY: One of the best parts of being a writer is the writer friends you acquire along the way. Nancy Warren is one of my long time writer pals and such an inspiration to me in writing and in life. She had me when she crafted fabulous romantic comedies, and then she hiked the Grand Canyon all by her lonesome. Wow! But she finished me off when she went to Bath to get her MFA (diploma handed to her by Jeremy Irons - yes, THE Jeremy Irons - no less). 

Truly, she's a remarkable woman who I'm honored to call my friend. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the first book in her new series and the knitter, reader, and writer in me, LOVED it! But here is Nancy to tell us more about her latest project. 

Nancy, knitting in Oxford

Nancy Warren: I can’t knit, don’t live in Oxford, and I’m not undead (or not that I’m admitting, anyway) so why would I, a craft-impaired, red-blooded Canadian, undertake The Vampire Knitting Club, a series of paranormal cozy mysteries set in Oxford?

The answer, of course, is one of those What If? games writers love to play. I’m going back a few years, to when literary mash-ups were all the rage. I hate to even mention the abomination that was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but that’s the kind of thing I mean. 

At the time, Kate Jacobs’ The Friday Night Knitting Club was a huge hit. I was also loving the wildly successful Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, which became the TV series True Blood. Wait a minute, said I. Vampires! Knitting! What a mash-up! Thus was born The Vampire Knitting Club. 

I loved that title and carried it around for years until I found myself living in Oxford. I was great friends with the mystery author Elizabeth Edmondson, now sadly deceased, and we spent an evening or two at the Eagle and Child Pub (where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to drinkcritique.) Lizzy and I drankbrainstormed my idea as it became a cozy mystery series. 

I think there’s a good reason that so many mystery books and TV series are set and filmed in Oxford. It’s not only historic, but the atmosphere is mysterious. You slip down Magpie Lane, and you’re transported back in time, you walk into a college quad and feel some of the greatest thinkers in history walking, ghost-like, at your side. Go to the Pitt Rivers Museum and you’ll find a bizarre collection of occult items, including my favorite, a witch trapped inside a bottle. At this very moment, the witch-in-a-bottle is on loan to the Ashmolean Museum’s wonderful exhibit called Spellbound: Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft, which traces supernatural beliefs in Oxfordshire. Where else would witches and vampires go to knit? 

There are also tunnels which run beneath the city. In Medieval times this underground network connected homes in the Jewish quarter. Some of these homes had massive vaulted cellars. Later, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) claimed he canoed the underground Trill Mill Stream beneath Oxford. What a perfect location for vampires to live and commute. In short, Oxford was the ideal setting for my cozy knitting series.

I still couldn’t knit and, even though my amateur sleuth, Lucy, can’t knit either, she does inherit Cardinal Woolsey’s knitting shop with its colorful undead knitting circle. I felt I should at least learn the basics. Fortunately, there’s an absolutely charming knitting shop, The Oxford Yarn Store in North Parade. Serendipity struck. The owner, Karen, had lived in Vancouver and we knew some of the same people. She invited me to a knitting circle in her shop, where the lovely, experienced knitters helped me in my frequent knitting emergencies. I even discovered a knitting circle set in pubs. The Oxford Drunken Knitwits are my kind of knitters.

Nancy and shop asst James (I love his sweater!)

Inspiration comes in surprising ways, even though the history of how this series came to be is as tangled as my fledgling knitting projects. 

What about you, Reds and Readers, are you a knitter? Have you been to Oxford? What writing mashups are your favorites?

At a crossroads between a cringe-worthy past (Todd the Toad) and an uncertain future (she's not exactly homeless, but it's close), Lucy Swift travels to Oxford to visit her grandmother. With Gran's undying love to count on and Cardinal Woolsey's, Gran's knitting shop, to keep her busy, Lucy can catch her breath and figure out what she's going to do. 

Except it turns out that Gran is the undying. Or at least, the undead. But there's a death certificate. And a will, leaving the knitting shop to Lucy. And a lot of people going in and out who never use the door—including Gran, who is just as loving as ever, and prone to knitting sweaters at warp speed, late at night. What exactly is going on? 

When Lucy discovers that Gran did not die peacefully in her sleep, but was murdered, she has to bring the killer to justice without tipping off the law that there's no body in the grave. Between a hot 600-year-old vampire and a dishy detective inspector, both of whom always seem to be there for her, Lucy finds her life getting more complicated than a triple cable cardigan. 
The only one who seems to know what's going on is her cat ... or is it ... her familiar? 

First in a new series of paranormal cozy mysteries with bite! 

YOGA? Or NOGA?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:   You know me, right? So picturing me in Tai Chi class will not surprise you.

Teacher: Palms flat, and slowly, lift..

Hank: Am I doing it right?

Teacher:  It doesn't matter. Now, when your arms are extended, keeping your elbows soft, turn your--

Hank: Yeah, but am I doing it right? Am I like, the best tai chi student you've ever had?

Teacher: There is no best, there just is. Now, Hank, turning your palms out, slowly

Hank:  Isn't this exactly right? I'm doing it, right?

I will spare you any more of this, and this is um, somewhat exaggerated, but it has always been very difficult for me to simply--do anything. I have to solve the mystery, be first, be fastest (or slowest, whichever is better). It's all I can do to let my grandson win at Concentration. (I do, too, LET him win!)

So you can imagine when all my friends, and this is no exaggeration, ALL my friends, are telling me that I would be so happy doing yoga. 

So far, I've said: NO GA.

The wonderful Tracy Weber may be the one who finally convinces me. Not that she would "convince."  A Tracy word is--offer.

Yoga, Writing and the Power of Persevering Practice

               by Tracy Weber    

First, I’d like to say that I’m delighted (and a little intimidated) to be a guest today on Jungle Red. I started public speaking when I was fourteen, but sharing the stage with these talented ladies leaves me, well, tongue-tied. 

Now that my first book, Murder Strikes a Pose, has been published, I can actually say it out loud: I’m a writer.

I still can’t believe it.

I never planned to write a novel; I never thought I could write a novel; honestly, I never even knew I wanted to write a novel. But as soon as I typed the first words of my manuscript, seeing my series come to fruition became my life’s dream.

Many forces propelled me to sit down and type those first few sentences, but one practice kept me going long enough to finish it.

Yoga.

But probably not the yoga you are imagining.

Most people believe that practicing yoga means bending your body into pretzel-like positions or sweating off half of your body weight in a 105-degree room.  In reality, yoga is so much more.  The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali—the key philosophical text of yoga—teaches that yoga is the process of learning how to control your mind, so that the mind, with all of its neurotic tendencies, can’t control you.  Finding that state of clarity—of yoga—involves “persevering practice.”

Persevering practice is any practice done:

§  Over a long period of time

§  Without interruption

§  With dedication and enthusiasm

§  Without attachment to results

Note that the list doesn’t include Downward Dog, even though the pose is in the tagline for my series.  It doesn’t say Head Stand. It doesn’t even mention asana (yoga poses).  The sutras are deliberately vague because any practice that fits the above criteria will help you focus your mind and achieve your goals.

Writing, for me, had to become a persevering practice or I would never have been published.  Unless I write daily, I make no progress. On the days I lack dedication and enthusiasm, my words end up as crumpled pages at the bottom of my recycle bin. As for attachment to results, well, I have to let that go, or I’ll never stop checking my Amazon sales rankings long enough to finish this article, much less write my next book.

Will all of those hours spent typing late into the night be worth it?  Yes, even if my series never sells a copy.  Like any persevering practice, writing’s greatest gift has nothing to do with external results. The greatest rewards are inside of me.

Word by word, writing offers me unexpected gifts: flashes of self-understanding, moments of quiet calm, a connection to laughter and joy in this sometimes challenging life. These small gifts make all of the effort worthwhile, even if my book never encroaches on a single bestseller list.  (Though I have to admit, I still hope that it does!)

My advice to all of you reading this article: find a practice that you love, be it yoga, writing, knitting, gardening, songwriting, or raising chickens.  Do it daily, every day, with enthusiasm. Try not to care about the results.  Your path may not lead to the destination you had in mind, but your life’s journey

will have greater meaning and peace.

What are your persevering practices?  How can you practice consistently, with enthusiasm—yet without attachment?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Hank: Wonderful, huh? My persevering practice? Listmaking. Seriously. That counts.  And my writing ritual. Add the word count to my chart, do the math, write it down, look at my "imagine" rock, begin.

And a copy of  Murder Strikes a Pose to one lucky commenter! (US only, please.)

******************

Tracy Weber is a certified yoga teacher and the founder of Whole Life Yoga, an award-winning yoga studio in Seattle, where she current­ly lives with her husband, Marc, and German shepherd, Tasha. She loves sharing her passion for yoga and animals in any form possible. When she’s not writing, she spends her time teaching yoga, walking Tasha, and sip­ping Blackthorn cider at her favorite ale house. Murder Strikes a Pose is her debut novel. Connect with Tracy at her author page http://tracyweberauthor.com/ or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tracywe?fref=ts

About MURDER STRIKES A POSE

Seattle Yoga instructor Kate Davidson tries to live up to yoga's Zen-like expectations, but it's not easy while struggling to keep her small business afloat or dodging her best friend's matchmaking efforts. When George, a homeless alcoholic, and his loud, horse-sized German shepherd, Bella, start hawking newspapers outside her studio, Kate attempts to convince them to leave. Instead, the three strike up an unlikely friendship. Then Kate finds George's body. The police dismiss it as a drug-related street crime, but Kate knows he was no drug dealer. Now she must solve George's murder and find someone willing to adopt his intimidating companion before Bella is sent to the big dog park in the sky. With the murderer on her trail, Kate has to work fast or her next Corpse Pose may be for real. 



Check out MURDER STRIKES A POSE, the first in the Downward Dog Yoga Mysteries. Available at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Strikes-Pose-Downward-Mystery/dp/0738739685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385096350&sr=8-1&keywords=murder+strikes+a+pose and bookstores everywhere!

Chilling Out Sunday--Knitting with Rhys

RHYS BOWEN: It's been a crazy week for me. Hosting Jungle Red, working toward the deadline of my next Molly book AND celebrating the publication of THE FAMILY WAY, the 12th book in the Molly Murphy historical mystery series. Right now it's #6 on Kindle historical mysteries and #10 on Private investigators bestsellers. Not bad.

So on Sundays I like to chill out. Usually in Phoenix that would mean a drive into the great outdoors, or lounging by the pool. But this weekend is cold and rainy and my thoughts turn to knitting. Like many of you I love to knit but have precious little time. That's why I was delighted to find the new way of knitting a scarf.

The yarn is called Red Heart SASHAY and it comes in varigated colors. You need 1 skein and a pair of fairly large needles. I use 5.5 mm.

The first thing to understand is the yarn. Spread it out like this:

and you'll see that it becomes a wide lace. You are going to knit with the top stitch of that lace.

Begin by casting on SIX stitches (ten if you want a wider scarf). This just means slipping through the top layer six times and holding those stitches on the needle.

Then to begin knitting use that top loop as if it were simple yarn

. It feels complicated until you get the hang of it. Then it goes quickly.

Six stitches, then turn and repeat. Back and forth until you have something that looks like this:




One skein will make a scarf about 60 inches long and is a perfect way to brighten up one of those black outfits that so many of you say that you wear!


Coming tomorrow is Red Lucy's week with a great discussion on women's rights. We're celebrating women's history month and the anniversary of the 1913 women's march on Washington.
Isn't it great that we can do so much, and yet we still like to keep these old crafts going?

Do share: what crafts to you enjoy doing?

Sew Crafty

RHYS BOWEN: I've always been amazed to see the number of comments we get here at Jungle Red when we feature a book to do with sewing or other crafts. I've never been in a Michael's craft store when it hasn't been busy. So it's fascinating to note that in this age of the cheap ready made, when you can buy a perfectly knitted sweater from China for twenty dollars, crafts still matter to us.

It's clear we are programmed to work with our hands. All those industrious ancestors who had to make their children's clothing or the child would run around in rags are driving us to carry on the skills, just in case.

Crafts are so important in making books into best sellers that my agent once jokingly suggested that I do a big World War II thriller that involved knitting. Or maybe she wasn't joking?

So for my Saturday list today I wondered what crafts my fellow Jungle Reds enjoy doing?

Here is my list:
knitting
beading
sewing (occasionally)
and of course I love to paint, both watercolor and oils.

LUCY BURDETTE: I used to do a lot more before WRITING took over! Like sewing, crocheting, canning...for one of my favorite projects several years ago, I took a ruined quilt that had belonged to my mother-in-law's mother and sewed a lavender sachet for everyone in their family from the pieces. (And they have a big family!)

HALLIE EPHRON: Rhys, I'm so impressed. Beading? Really? Say more!! And I hope you post one of your paintings, and I"m sure I'm not the only one...

And Lucy, lavender sachets! With home grown lavender?

I'm terrible at crafts. Truly awful. I think this is related to the fact that I also can't make a bed. Impatience doesn't help. Though I did quite a bit of crocheting in my 20s. And some quilting and embroidering, which I learned to do in elementary school. We cross-stitched a sampler on gingham and embroidered a map of California. I wonder with all the cuts if kids get any of the cool art projects we had.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Nothing. Zip. Terrible. (I can crochet, and used to make baby blankets and afghans all the time, with great delight. My Gramma Minne taught me to knit, and I've made sweaters.) But ah, these days, I gotta say, I think yarn is gorgeous, and I love craft stores. My reaction, however, is usually: "I wish I knew what to do with all this stuff."

Does flower arranging count? I'm pretty good at that, and love when the flowers come from my own garden. How about--magazine-stacking? (I have perfected that.) Does towel-folding count as a craft?

RHYS BOWEN: Flower arranging, Hank? Now that is a skill I fail at hopelessly. I put them in a vase and they sag in all directions. Pitiful.

JAN BROGAN: I embroidered during my high school years -- flowers on faded blue jeans mostly. And actually knit Icelandic sweaters in my twenties. The reason I knit Icelandic sweaters (they are the heavy monotone but multi-color ones) was because I needed a pattern to keep me engaged or I stopped paying attention when I knit and it got ugly. Real ugly.

I actually think knitting and other repetitive hand crafts are a form of meditation. But no -- I don't do it anymore. But I play a lot of guitar - and that's my hands, right?

ROSEMARY HARRIS: Icelandic sweaters? Lavender sachets? Wow. Most of my craft chip goes into my garden these days - planning colors, heights and leaf textures.

I used to knit, as long as it was a square or a rectangle. Crocheted a quilt once, made a shawl once and a mosaic table top. Had brief flirtations with shell art, chinese brush painting and jewelry making.

Now I'm with Hank...does china stacking count? Re-arranging the vase collection? Hank, since you're so good at towel-folding can you give me any tips on folding a fitted sheet? Few domestic activities are as exasperating to me.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: What I can do: sew, simple garter-stitch knitting, embroidery, needlepoint. What I do do: ....uh..ironing? The knitting dropped out after college, and I stopped sewing after I had my second child. The needlepoint lasted until my writing career took off, as the many bargello pillows in my house can attest.

What's interesting is that my youngest daughter is expressing a keen interest in all these traditional crafts. For Christmas last year, she embroidered a handkerchief for each member of the family with a design and an initial. If we can clear a sewing space out of her increasingly unused play room, we're going to set up my machine and haul all the boxes of fabric and trims out of the attic. And a friend has offered to teach us how to knit! So who knows, I may be returning to the days of crafting.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hopeless. My lovely grandmother sewed and knitted, and gave up trying to teach me either. I swear the old Singer had a grudge against me, and knitting needles drove me to want to commit murder.

I drew as a child, pastels and charcoal, but these days my friends make fun even of my attempts to decorate the whiteboard calendar in my kitchen. I used to be a better gardener. And a better cook. At one stage in my life I was determined to make whole grain bread from scratch--if that's not an art, I don't know what is. Oh, and I took a weaving class, with dreams of filling the house with crafty yarns and looms. Result? One not-too-bad throw. (There was a character who was a weaver in the book-in-progress.)

I'm a decent amateur photographer but lack the drive and technical skill to be really good.

But--there is a but--I've wanted to make a quilt since I was in my teens and my grandmother and I day-dreamed about the quilt she'd buy me some day. I have a friend who's a brilliant quilter and who has encouraged me to actually give it a try. I wanted to do something that would give me quiet time, that would disengage my brain, and that was neither work nor chores, for those things seem to take up the majority of my life.

For months my friend helped me collect fabrics and work out a pattern. Finally, this Sunday, with much coaching, I cut and then hand-stitched my first few bits of fabric together. It felt like Christmas. I suspect, however, that this will be a loooooong project.

RHYS BOWEN: You're right, Jan. It is a form of meditation. I love to sit in front of the TV on a winter night and knit, making sure my brain winds down.

So let's hear from our Jungle Red visitors: are you crafty? What is it about crafty cozy mysteries that so attracts you?

And since this is the pub week for my new book, Naughty in Nice, please go to my website and, if you've bought my book, do enter the contest for a fun and fabulous French themed prize.