Stories are the Spice of Life by Leslie Budewitz

 JENN MCKINLAY: One of our favorite writers Leslie Budewitz is with us today and she has a delightful post about the joys of traveling through the written word and how it inspired her latest. LAVENDER LIES BLEEDING.

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LESLIE BUDEWITZ: One of the joys of reading is armchair travel, right? You get to visit a place you’ve never been, or return to a place you’ve loved, with the author. Maine, with Julia. Key West, with Lucy. England – and France, Italy, and even Australia, oh and New York City – with Rhys.

 

With me, it’s Montana, where I was born and raised and still live. And Seattle, where I went to college and lived and worked as a young lawyer. I fell in love with Pike Place Market at eighteen, not long after the voters saved it from “urban removal.” Fun and funky, it was, and thanks to those voters and the historic preservation district they created, it retains its charms.

 

If, like me, you think of cobblestones, flying fish, and tales of the long-dead, top-hatted market master dancing in the upper windows of the Economy Building charming.

 

With the 9^th book, Lavender Lies Bleeding, coming out next week, I’ve been remembering a few of my favorite discoveries about the city, from living there and from researching and writing about the place. (I always say that by research, I mean eat, but as my research assistants, my BFF and Mr. Right, can attest, it also means walking. A LOT.)

 

One of the first things you see when you walk into the Market at First and Pike is Rachel, the four-foot-high bronze pig and Market mascot. She’s a piggy bank, of course, as well as a photo opp, and all the money deposited in her goes to the Market foundation for community services—emergency loans to vendors, the senior center, and more.

 

On one visit, Mr. Right and I were snooping around – with my sketchbook as my excuse, I’ll go down any ramp, hallway, or staircase in the Market. We came around a corner and saw a store room, its door open. And inside?

 

Spare pigs.

 

Big ones and little ones. On all fours like Rachel, or seated. Bronze or silver toned.

 

Turns out the spare pigs are often displayed in the Market itself. But they also travel, to pop-up Farmers’ Markets around downtown and to other regional markets and events.

 

I love public art, and it’s everywhere in the Market. These tile figures outside the restrooms at the foot of the stairs just behind the main entrance evoke the Market’s early years—it was founded in 1907 and is the oldest continuously-operating farmers’ market in the country. So when I needed a spot for a confrontation in Lavender Lies Bleeding, that staircase and these figures popped to mind.

 

Along with the cattle ramp—and Market staff confirmed to me that it was once used to bring cattle and pigs, Rachel’s flesh-and-bacon ancestors, into the Market. I first discovered it while location scouting with my BFF, and finally had a chance to use it in Lavender.

 

In my student days, I loved exploring the city’s neighborhoods. I still do, and try to take Pepper to a different one in each book. She often returns to her childhood home, where her BFF, Kristen, now lives, on Capitol Hill. In The Solace of Bay Leaves, she visits the adjacent neighborhood called Montlake. One rainy summer day, my BFF and her teenage daughter spent an afternoon sipping coffee and wandering Montlake’s streets and parks, looking for exactly the right spot for Pepper’s old frenemy, Maddie, to get into trouble. We found it—and I just managed to avoid backing into a car while taking a picture.

 

The Fremont neighborhood, probably the city’s funkiest, proudly declares itself the Center of the Universe, and since no one can prove otherwise, the King County Council officially agreed. I explored it on the pages of To Err is Cumin—a bakery I remember fondly, an underground vintage mall where Pepper finds clues in old treasures, and the Sunday Market where vendors and growers hawk their wares and bicyclists ride wearing only body paint, helmets, and shoes. Which catches Pepper quite by surprise when she finds herself taking an unexpected swim in the Ship Canal that runs through Fremont and is rescued by a pair of men in green and blue and nothing else.

 

The Market’s Flower Ladies have always made me smile. Mostly Hmong, they grow incredible blooms that always draw attention, even from visitors who can’t take a bouquet home. The action in Lavender Lies Bleeding goes between the Market and Salmon Falls, a farm town outside the city that is home to several Flower Ladies and to Pepper’s vendor pal, Lavender Liz. I got to weave together what I’d seen in the Market over the years with my experience living in a rural community, to create a new place that lives only on the page. We can call it Story Land.

 

After all, as I’ve learned after all these years with Pepper and the Spice Shop crew, stories are the spice of life.

 

Readers, where have you been on the page lately, and what did you discover about the setting that surprised or delighted you? Tell us the book and author, too, if you can, so we can enjoy a little armchair travel with you.

Lavender Lies Bleeding (Seventh St. Books, July 15, in pb, ebook, and audio)

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, is shocked when vandals destroy the greenhouse at her friend Liz Giacometti’s lavender farm. But then Liz is killed, and Pepper digs in to solve the crimes. As her questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?

 

Leslie Budewitz writes the Spice Shop mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers' Village mysteries, set in fictional Jewel Bay, Montana, based on the small town where she lives. As Alicia Beckman, she writes standalone suspense set in Montana and the NW. Her latest books are Lavender Lies Bleeding, the 9th Spice Shop mystery, and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection. A national best-seller and three-time Agatha Award winner, Leslie believes that stories are the spice of life. 

 

Read excerpts and more, and find buy links, at www.LeslieBudewitz.com

RESEARCH REVELATIONS by Jenn McKinlay

JENN McKINLAY: After sixty books written, I have to say I’ve had to research a wide variety of topics from hoarding to driving in Ireland. But in A MERRY LITTLE MURDER PLOT (coming out on Oct 8th), I had to research the possibility of death by electrocution using a string of holiday lights…well…oh, wait, I can’t tell you anymore because it might spoil the book. Suffice to say, it is very possible. 

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Now tell me, Reds, what is the most interesting/oddball/alarming thing you learned while researching one of your books?

HALLIE EPHRON: How easy it is to kill with an overdose of Tylenol. It’s scary how little it takes. Also: dead bodies don’t bleed. If it’s bleeding it ain’t dead (yet). Also: It’s pretty easy to “accidentally” kill someone in an MRI lab (between the super-powerful magnets and the massive amounts of liquid nitrogen, easier than you want to know). It’s amazing that mystery writers can even sleep through the night.

RHYS BOWEN: as Hallie said, in real life too many people get away with murder. How easy it is to tell an elderly person he’s forgotten to take his pills so that he gets a double or triple dose. And if an autopsy is done you say “ he was getting so forgetful!”

 

My garden is full of oleander. While not as deadly as rumor would have it it looks like a bay leaf in a casserole.

The most interesting research I ever did was asking John to help me in a scene where Evan has to wrestle a gun away from a man on a steep mountainside. We tried to act it out and ended up in an interesting position entwined on the floor, much to the horror of one of our kids!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, so much fun! And if someone looked at my search history, they would really be perplexed. How long does it take to drown in salt water, what does someone look like when they’ve been asphyxiated. Can you make mac & cheese with bananas? Seriously, I cannot tell you why I looked that up.

 

There are always, always, wonderful things you find that you were not looking for. For instance, my character Jane Ryland is called Jane Elizabeth. Her idol is Nellie Bly, the reporter. Guess what Nellie Bly’s real name was? Elizabeth Jane. I just loved that, and I did not know it when I wrote it.  

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Just think what our collective search histories would look like! a veritable smorgasbord of murder methods! Jenn, I electrocuted someone in my very first book, and learned why it's not unreasonable that regular outlets are not allowed in bathrooms in the UK… Also for that first book I remember posing myself on the stairs as if I'd been pushed down them–ouch! And like Rhys, we've done our share of role-playing. The lengths we will go to for our plots!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I went down a rabbit hole while researching the 1930s scenes in OUT OF THE DEEP I CRY and wound up learning how to harness a horse team for plowing. I actually used some of, too, as Harry McNeil questions someone! 

Weirdest research was with the help of my dear late friend, Tim LaMar. Tim was my go-to guy for guns and violence. Despite being a gentle and very physically unimposing man, Tim knew his stuff, and he walked me through how to turn a sapling into an offensive weapon, and what hitting someone's head with a big rock sounded like. 

And I second the concern over our search histories! You can imagine the sorts of things I was Googling for when researching the upcoming book, which is about a Neo-Nazi militia. Please don't come for me, FBI!

LUCY BURDETTE: The searcher would find my history heavy on poisons as well! Lily of the Valley? Check! Some kind of poisonous nut that would work well in a pie crust? Check! I also loved my research for the golf lovers mysteries–I went to actual LPGA tournaments to talk with the players, and even bought a slot to play in the professional/amateur tournament. It took most of my (admittedly small) first advance, but I wouldn’t trade that memory for anything. John caddied for me and was paid $50 at the end:)

How about you, Readers, what bizarre information have you learned while reading or researching that you didn't know before?

HOW A GIRL WHO COULD SING BUT NOT TALK, INSPIRED MY NEW NOVEL by Jane Corry

Jenn McKinlay: Today I'm delighted to have a guest author who was recommended by my dear friend Hannah Dennison. When Hannah told me she had a guest for us, I knew it would be a good one as she's never steered me wrong. Please welcome the prize winning author and journalist, Jane Corry.

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JANE: Nearly fifteen years ago, when running a writing group, I met someone who couldn’t talk after a stroke – but could sing her story instead. She stayed in my mind and emerged out of the blue when I wrote the first line of I DIED ON A TUESDAY. And so Janie was born: a young girl who was knocked off her bike and left for dead, just before she was leaving her seaside town to start a publishing job in London.

My ideas come like a floating feather. I don’t sit down and think ‘What can I write about?’  After the first feather, another follows and another  - rather like layers of millefeuille pastry. I try not to think too hard about them because if I don’t, another idea will come along – often when I’m not in a position to write it down, such as swimming in the sea.

I knew I wanted to write about an historic crime. I’m fascinated by the way in which a crime can be discovered, years after someone thinks they’ve buried it. Perhaps I should say here that I started my working life as a magazine journalist but then became a writer in residence of a high security male prison for three years after my divorce, when I needed money a regular income to bring up my three children. It changed my life. Until then, I’d had some romantic novels published but prison opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know about. 

Stories are often inspired by people you meet and through another area of my life, I was very moved by a woman who’d been a witness supporter – a voluntary role which involves looking after witnesses in court and showing them where to sit; explaining how court procedure works and metaphorically holding their hands. So Vanessa was born: my character whose dead husband had been the policeman in charge of Janie’s accident when the culprit was never found. 

Then along came Robbie. Robbie had been one of the 18-year-olds in the van which had knocked down Janie but didn’t stop. Twenty years later, those boys are famous musicians. ( I know a bit about this because my youngest is a music journalist: his podcast is called ‘101 Part-Time Jobs with Giles Bidder’ about jobs that musicians had before they were famous).  But suddenly new evidence comes up about the accident. Janie, Robbie and Vanessa each have different stories about the day of the accident. Which one is right?

I like to keep my readers guessing because I adore twists. But I am also in love with three-sided characters because no one is a stereotype: not the men I met in prison or the celebrities I’ve interviewed or you or me.  Of course, there’s another character who I’ve mentioned briefly. The sea. I was landlocked in outer London for the first fifty years of my life until I married the best man from my first wedding (long story) and escaped to the sea. It’s where I belong. I hope you enjoy the waves I’ve tried to create in my plot and scenery. I

‘I DIED ON A TUESDAY’ is being published by Penguin Viking on June 6 on Kindle and in audio and on June 20th (paperback). You can also order ‘I DIED ON A TUESDAY’ by clicking https://bit.ly/3SE8UVi. Thank you.

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You can also buy ‘COMING TO FIND YOU’, my 2024 novel about Nancy whose step-brother is sent to prison for murder.  The press believe Nancy was involved so they follow her to the family holiday home in Devon. But what no one knows is that during the Second World War, the owner Elizabeth was a secret spy for Churchill – and committed a terrible crime herself.  Can Nancy learn from a dead woman’s mistakes? You can order now on Amazon.

If you’d like to read more about my books, you can find details on www.janecorryauthor.com.  Thank you.

JENN: Thank you, Jane. These novels sound fabulous! Readers, what are some of your favorite plot twists?  

Mark Your Calendars!!! It's the Jungle Reds Virtual Cocktail Party!

Are you ready for the holiday party of the year?

Of course, you are. If the end of a year ever

deserved a send off party, it's this one!

Join the Jungle Red Writers at our virtual holiday cocktail 

party hosted by the Poisoned Pen Bookstore! 

How do you attend?

Simply go to this link:

Poisoned Pen on Facebook 

or long onto Facebook and hit the 

Poisoned Pen Bookstore's page 

on Saturday, December 12th at 

5:00 PM EST/3:00 PM MST

Because we're so very grateful to all of our readers, 

we're each giving away a copy of one of our books! 

Which means SEVEN WINNERS!!!

How can you be chosen to win a book?

Leave a comment on the livestream of the party and 

you're entered in the random drawing - even if you just say "Hi!". 

Pssst: For our Jungle Red Readers, here's an extra chance to win. 

Use the secret code "I read Red" in your comment 

and you get an extra entry in the drawing. 

Winners will be announced shortly after the event!

And now here's what you could win...

Hank's FIRST TO LIE

Rhys's THE LAST MRS. SUMMERS

 

Deb's A BITTER FEAST

Lucy's THE KEY LIME CRIME

       Hallie's CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Jenn's PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA

Julia's HID FROM OUR EYES

Our only dilemma is we're not sure what beverage to bring - be it a cocktail or a mocktail - what do you suggest, Readers? Hot toddies? Moscow mules? Egg nog? Margaritas? 

What's your go to beverage?

 SEE YOU ON SATURDAY!!!

 

What We're Missing (sigh)

JENN McKINLAY: When I first started writing, I wrote in this Emily Dickensonesque solitude where not only did I not take any classes, go to any conferences, or find any other authors to commiserate with, I also didn't tell anyone I was trying to be a writer. This is one of my biggest regrets. Why?

Well, it turns out, writers are, by and large, very friendly, generous with their knowledge, and extremely supportive of their fellow pen monkeys. Conferences are where I've made some of the best friends of my life -- like this crew of divine women: 

Jungle Red Writers Bouchercon 2019

And I've been to places I'd likely never have gone to without a conference being held there, such as Toronto's CN Tower. Yes, I'm standing on the glass floor, looking down at the aquarium. (Bouchercon 2017).

The friendships that are forged while being on a panel with other authors, going to dinner with your editor and agent, or just hanging out for a coffee or a large breakfast (my favorite) with readers is the BEST.

My bestie and frequent conference roommate Kate Carlisle, whose book THE GRIM READER is coming in June! I can't imagine my life if I'd never met her. Yes, we're enjoying
pre-book signing "salads" here. 

At the recently aborted Left Coast Crime, I even got to see blogger and Reds regular, Mark Baker, moderate the panel What's Cooking? He did an amazing job!

Left Coast Crime 2020

For most of us in the crime fiction world, this is the week for the Edgars, where our Hank is up for a Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Murder List (Available RIGHT NOW in ebook form for $1.99). It will be announced on Twitter on April 30th at 11:00 EST. I love you, Twitter (okay, not really) but this is NOT the same.

Today, I should be on a plane headed to the second Malice Domestic I've ever attended. Kate Carlisle and I were going to check out the Library of Congress, but the big event was to celebrate our Julia, who was Guest of Honor! Obviously, it, too, was canceled. 

This is particularly sad for me, because one of the friendships I forged at Malice, way back in 2012, was with our dearly departed Sheila Connolly.  Sheila passed away last week. It was a crusher for the entire cozy mystery community, but her blog mates at Wicked Authors say it best with a lovely tribute written by our friend Edith Maxwell. It's cold comfort, I know, but I'm so glad we have Sheila's books to take us with her to Ireland or an apple orchard or wherever her talents lead. 

Sheila was a genuine character, wickedly smart and with a delightful sense of fun. Here we are posing as Charlie's Angels, with finger guns and everything, because we're both so tall. We laughed pretty hard at ourselves. I'm so sorry I won't get to laugh with you again, my friend. RIP. (photo by Dru Ann Love)

So, if there is one thing I've learned and learned and relearned in the spring of 2020, I won't take any of these conferences, the amazing people who put them together, or those who attend them for granted -- ever again! Here's hoping I get to see you all at a signing, a conference panel, or a breakfast again soon! 

So, tell me, Reds and Readers, what conferences, signings, or other book centric events are you planning to attend, if any, when the world starts up again?

How Hard Could it Be? by S. W. Hubbard

LUCY BURDETTE: I've loved my friend Susan (S.W.) Hubbard's books since her first Adirondack mystery. When I heard that she was making the big leap to try women's fiction (as I am), I knew we should hear all about it. Welcome back to JRW!

SW HUBBARD: Have you ever looked at a photo and said to yourself, “I bet I can do that. How hard could it be?”

I had that experience twice recently.  First, my college friend Elliot posted pictures on Facebook of him and his family hiking around Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps. Every photo showed glorious scenery in the background with a happy Elliot and his family beaming in the foreground.

My husband Kevin and I both love to hike, so I showed him the pictures. “We should do this!”

Kevin did the research and reported that the trip would require us to hike nearly one hundred miles in nine days, starting in France and hiking through Switzerland to Italy and back to France. “I’m not sure we’re up to this,” Kevin said. I knew he meant, “I’m not sure YOU’RE up to this, Susan.”

Oh, pish! How hard could it be? After all, Elliot had done it. He and I are the same age, and he’s never been a hard-core athlete. Indeed, Elliot is more of a bon vivant. He and I once took a hike in college in which all we packed was a bottle of red wine, a baguette, and some brie.

No water.

I assured my husband I was up to the challenge, and we booked the trip. I steadfastly ignored his exhortations to do some 10-mile practice hikes in New Jersey. Who wants to hike ten miles through nondescript woods when it’s buggy and hot? 

In July, we departed for the French Alps.

Okay, I would never, ever admit my husband was right on a blog with a wide international readership such as JRW. However… hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc is harder than it looks. I’m very glad I went (and I DID cross the finish line), but it was challenging. As in, I thought my heart would explode out of my chest climbing up those trails.

Which brings me to my second, “how hard can it be?” moment. Earlier this year, I decided I wanted to break out of the mystery genre and try my hand at women’s fiction. Readers are always telling me how much they love my characters, so maybe I could  write a book that’s all about the character development and leave out the mystery altogether. Why, I bet I could whip out a novel like that in no time, freed from the pesky clues, red-herrings, and plot twists of mystery-writing. How hard could it be?

Hmmm. About as hard as hiking a hundred miles in the Alps, as it turns out. 



You see, mysteries come ready made with conflict because of that dead body in the first fifty pages. In women’s fiction, an author has to work to keep the conflict strong enough to move the story along. 

I had a great hook: a young woman marries a much older man and when she finds herself a widow at age 45, she sets out to recapture the endless possibilities that life offers at age 25. And I had a familiar setting: Palmyrton, NJ, the fictional town where my estate sale mysteries take place. Some of the characters from the Palmyrton Estate Sale Mystery series make cameo appearances in this new novel, Life, Part 2. But the story belongs to Lydia Eastlee. She trades her big McMansion for a funky starter bungalow, adopts a rescue dog, and launches into a new career she’s unprepared for. And did I mention the sexy young carpenter remodeling her kitchen? No one gets murdered, but there’s plenty of laughter and tears along the way as Lydia rebuilds her life.

As with the hike, I had fun, learned a lot, and tested my stamina as I wrote Life, Part 2. But I sure didn’t save time. Maybe on the sequel. 

When’s the last time you launched into something that was harder than it looked?

S.W. Hubbard’s newest novel is Life, Part 2, the first installment of her new Life In Palmyrton women’s fiction series. She is also the author of the Palmyrton Estate Sale Mystery Series and the Frank Bennett Adirondack Mountain Mystery Series. Visit her at http://swhubbard.net


And here's how to order the books:

Life, Part 2

Palmyrton Estate Sale Series

Frank Bennett Series

What Libraries Mean to Me by Jenn McKinlay

Jenn McKinlay: This post was supposed to go up on Tuesday, the release date of my tenth library lover’s mystery, WORD TO THE WISE, which is my forty-second book to date, but it didn’t. Why? Well, the short answer is I forgot. Yes, I forgot my book was coming out! It's mortifying, I know. The longer story is that I had a deadline the night before, I was half crazy with exhaustion, but then it just devolves into a bunch of whining and complaining so we’ll stick with the short answer.

"Riveting" --Publisher's Weekly

When I started writing the library lover’s series nine years ago, I had a wealth of experience to draw from. I had worked in libraries of all kinds since I was fourteen, my mother was a librarian, I have a degree in library science, and my husband and I even met in a library. Oh, also, my hooligans had their first brush with the law in a library – security caught them spitting off the fifth floor of the open floor plan library all the way down to the first floor water feature. It was quite the proud mom moment, let me tell you!

There has not been a time in my life where the library has not offered me sustenance of one kind, a quiet workspace, or another, story programs for my children, and lifted me up - free stuff! - on days that would have been dark and gloomy otherwise. Needless to say, I am a big advocate for libraries. 

Here are my top five reasons why I love libraries:

1.  The smell of the books. There is nothing so lovely as the smell of books, at least to me.

2.  My I.Q. jumps at least twenty points every time I walk into a library. I’m pretty sure I get smarter just by being in the building.

3.  Librarians are the coolest people I know. There’s a reason there have been roughly 150 librarians on Jeopardy!

4.  People watching. Second only to the airport, the library is my favorite place to people watch. 

5.  It has the potential to change your life. Want to start a business, learn a new language, travel, plant a garden, study poetry, find a scholarship? The library can help with all of that and that’s just the beginning. If you have a good library in your life, there is no stopping you!

How about you, Reds and Readers, how do you feel about libraries?

And if you're a library lover, don't miss this series! Set in a small coastal CT town, there is murder and mayhem aplenty, keeping Lindsey Norris, library director and amateur sleuth, using all of her librarian skills to crack cases and sometimes skulls. Just kidding, or am I?