The Reds on Vacation

 

LUCY BURDETTE: Summer’s coming very early this year with Memorial Day on May 24, yikes! I think we’re all feeling a little worn down and overworked by the long winter. We wanted to give you a little notice about a change in our summer schedule here at the Reds. Get out your flip flops and back your bags--the Reds are taking a summer vacation!  We won't go far and we'll still chat every week, but our summer schedule will be a little different as we all write our books and teach our classes and generally catch up. Maybe even go on vacation! Starting next week, May 25, we’ll have a group chat on Mondays and a writer’s choice on Thursdays. We won’t schedule guests this summer either—they get a vacation too:). We know some of you will be disappointed and will miss reading the blog every day–but, we haven’t taken a break in 15 years! (In other words, we’ve saved up our vacation days and decided now’s the time to use them.:). So what will we be doing?

Reds, I am determined to finish The Paris Recipe by June, before I have to get started on Key West #17. After that, we’ve planned a week getaway in Maine with a bunch of grandchildren and other relatives. And after that, maybe stay home and enjoy the summer in Connecticut. What are your plans for the summer?

RHYS BOWEN: as you can imagine I’m taking baby steps forward into a new stage of life. Living alone is something I have never done before. From college dorm to sharing with friends to marriage. So it will feel strange. Being able to do what I want without consulting someone else. So I’m flying down to grandson’s graduation this weekend. I plan to join Clare and co in San Diego, join Dominic either in Canada or San Juan islands and go to England in September   Oh, and finish a book I’ve put on hold and do all the publicity for this summer’s release. 

HALLIE EPHRON: Change is good!

I’ve got a flurry of teaching gigs in the next three months, including the Book Passage bookstore’s annual Mystery Writing Conference https://www.bookpassage.com/mystery. Rhys will be there, too! Also Elizabeth George and Lisa Scottoline and Rachel Howzell Hall…

I’ll be giving a talk for the Grand Canyon Sisters in Crime. Teaching my two-week mystery-writing class for SinC Guppies. Giving several workshops for the annual fabulous Surrey International Writing Conference in October. 

All of these are on my web site at http://hallieephron.com with links. 

Beyond that, my fall to-do list is topped by: Decide what I should do next. I have the start of a novel and some other projects noodling around. A lot of unanswered questions. Very much at a crossroads.

JENN McKINLAY: I’m chiming in from Spain! I’m  visiting the set where they’re shooting the adaptation of my novel PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA which will air on Hallmark Plus in July! Thrilling!

This summer will spent traveling a lot - a visit to CT for a book event at the Cragin Library in Colchester on June 12th, a trip to the Nova Scotia cottage at some point, and possibly a week in San Diego. I’m tired just thinking about it. Oh, and I suppose I have to start writing something again. Hmm…what will it be? 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My summer starts with a bang as Youngest brings the Very Tall Dutchman home for two weeks in June to met the family! I’ve cleared off my calendar so we can show him some typical Maine delights - a Sea Dogs baseball game, eating at a lobster shack, hiking in Acadia and visiting a Super Wal-Mart. Yes, that last was among the American experiences he wants to explore.

I’ll be working on a book, about which I can say no more at the moment, and I’m planning to devote much more of my time to my garden/grounds, since I’ve let everything go to wrack and ruin in the past few years. I’m planning a couple of stays at Old Orchard Beach, and rounding out the summer with the wedding of the daughter of dear friends.

When you live in Maine, you don’t travel in the summer, because HERE is where everyone wishes they could be!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: My 2027 book is due September 1. My 2026 book will be published on September 1. You do the math about what I will be doing this summer!  And into the fall.

It’s all very exciting, and quite wonderful, and there is absolutely no way I can take a work-free vacation. Happily, luckily, we have a lovely back yard with flowers everywhere and  a pool, and sitting outside and being in the lovely (we hope) weather is always so satisfying.

(I just got back from a whirlwind–Teaching at the MIT Weekend Writing Seminar, teaching the International Thriller Writers 8-hour Master Class (!), and a CraftFest Class and so much more. I was the featured speaker at Crime Conn and and and…well, my schedule is packed as you can see here hankphillippiryan.com/events ! )

And Rhys, we are thinking of you every day.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: This summer I will be doing all the edits for my book, A LONG COLD SLEEP, which apparently now has an April ‘27 release.  And then I’m hoping to have my long-overdue knee replacement, which I’ve been putting off for at least five years because I was trying to finish books. After that, I can start planning for trips. It will be three years in July since I’ve been to London and I am desperate for a visit!

Red readers, what are your summer plans??

How Did YOU Spend It?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Did you ever actually have to write a  “how I spent my summer vacation” essay when you were a kid? I can't remember actually ever doing that. Though, I imagine, it would be pretty interesting for teachers, and actually, now that I think of it, kind of a genius way for teachers to get to know their new class.

Now I'm really thinking about this. The unwitting revelations, the family dynamics. Certainly socioeconomic standing. Okay, we are all storytellers, don't get me started.

But did you accomplish anything this summer? Did you have any triumphs or challenges or changes or realizations?

I surrendered my tomatoes to the squirrels, and now the squirrels seem to have, knock on wood, disappeared. Leaving us with... tomatoes! (They are planted in the clematis, and there are millions of bees, so wonderful!)

So hurray. Let's hear it for Zen warfare.  Vacation, no, I did not have one of those. Book tour, all fabulous. Though the ferry to our Martha's Vineyard event was, um, interesting.

And Jonathan came with! Here's a wonderful photo he took of the sunset from the Nantucket Ferry. No filter! That's just the rain-spattered window. Very Monet, right?

And now I am mulling over the summer--which I think lasted about a week, truly, it couldn't have been three months.

What one life-changing thing happened during your summer?  And are you a summer-is-over-in September person, or is it over at the end of this week?

RHYS BOWEN: Every summer I make grand plans: picnics at the seashore or among the redwoods, a day painting, a day sitting alone and just reading and enjoying nature. And here it is, the end of August. Have I done those things? Not many. I have been out painting a couple of times but just for an hour or two.

I have met a friend at a yacht harbor and had coffee beside the boats. And we did have our family week on the beach in San Diego. Only that didn’t exactly turn out as planned.

Fourteen of us assembled in a big house on the beach. One of us brought Covid and, like an Agatha Christie plot, one after another family members succumbed. Strangely enough not John and me, the oldies. But it spoiled the noisy evenings we usually have, although they did enjoy the paddle boards and kayak during the day.

I confess I am not a big fan of fall. I like waking to blue skies and long evenings. I get depressed when daylight fades and leaves fall from trees. So I want summer to linger as long as possible (although this year, thanks to climate change, we had a long spell of too-hot weather).

HALLIE EPHRON: The silver lining for me as summer wanes is that the sun is no longer up at 4AM.  I don’t know why but sunrise and I rise. This week I bought a big pot of chrysanthemums. And I have to keep pinching off the top of my basil to keep it from bolting. And the temperature has cooled enough to make it a pleasure to walk again.

This summer’s life-changing event? Nothing comes to mind. It’s been more of a steady-as-she-goes kind of summer which suits me just fine. 

JENN McKINLAY: Growing up in Connecticut, autumn was always my favorite season. The changing leaves, the cooler temps, and being the social sort, I was happy to be back at school with my friends, plus, school supplies! I loved buying my new school stuff. Now that I live in AZ, the change of season is much subtler and is usually in mid-October. *sigh* So for me, autumn arrives a bit later than its calendar date.

As for my summer, it was glorious. I finished my first cozy fantasy (EARLY!), took a long vacation to our summer place in Nova Scotia, and read some amazing books. As for life changing, yes. I was put on an anti-anxiety medication because, frankly, I was struggling with EVERYTHING. It took a few weeks to kick in but I’m no longer having random heart palpitations and brooding tailspins, so I’ll call it a win!

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  No vacations here. My summer was the lead up to back surgery and then the recovery. But, we had an exceptionally cool July for north Texas, and after record rain in the spring, this summer hasn’t seemed nearly as brutal as usual. I just wish I’d been able to hang out in the garden and enjoy it more!

Fall in our part of the world comes maybe in mid October? But my brain clicks over at Labor Day, never mind the temps. And we do start to see some moderation come mid-September. Our forecast next week has highs in the mid-nineties! Considering we hit 107 last weekend, that would send me out for a pumpkin latte. If I drank them…

LUCY BURDETTE: I LOVE fall! Except if I start thinking about the grand meaning of life and where we’re all headed:). But I’m exactly like Jenn, I always loved going back to school, new teacher, new clothes, new pencils! It’s been a great summer but it went by in a flash. I kept saying, I’m going to enjoy this moment and these people, and I’ll write the book later. Well guess what? The book is due September 1. Yikes!

HANK: Yup. I hear you, mine is due Sept 4! And noooo, we are NOT talking about pumpkin spice yet! Though, no kidding, I saw Halloween stuff in the CVS.

PLEEEZE!

How about you, Reds and Readers--did you ever have to write a "how I spent my summer vacation" essay?

What one thing would you put in it this year?

How We Spent Our Summer Vacation: One Good Thing!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Every time I think oh, no, summer is over, I think of my wonderful next-door neighbor who we’ve known for so many years. Every time I say that, he says “No! September still counts." And I try to believe it.  (Do you?)

And our tomato plants are still burgeoning with tomatoes– we are eating them like crazy and we laugh every day.

The birds have descended on our backyard, red finches and cardinal families and duos of fluttering mourning doves. We strung fairy lights around our backyard and at night, we sit outside and just soak up the niceness.  Summer memories? I was guest of Honor at Killer Nashville, and they gave me and co-GOH Charlie Donlea–GUITARS! Honest to goodness guitars. Can you see how hilarious this was? (Do either of us play guitar? No!)  Oh yes, my summer was full of good memories, and I bet yours was, too! 

So today, Reds and readers–just tell us one wonderful thing that happened to you this summer!

JENN McKINLAY: Aside from it being the summer of the kittens - adopting The Trips consumed our days - Hub and I discovered the simple joy of floating in our pool, listening to music, drinking mocktails, and talking about whatever without a Hooligan or two canonballing us unexpectedly. LOL. It’s the little things. 

RHYS BOWEN: we have had several reasons to celebrate this summer: our daughter graduating from Pepperdine with her masters in psycho therapy, granddaughter Lizzie graduating from UC San Diegi with a degree in public health and on to dental school and the twins graduating from high school. We celebrated all these at a week together in a house on the beach in San Diego. Such fun 15 of us with paddle boards, kayaks and all kinds of games. Lots of laughter and good food. I’m still smiling as I think of it. One of those precious times before kids move away to adult lives.

HALLIE EPHRON:Top of the list for me would be going to Universal Studios/Harry Potter world in Orlando with my daughters, son-in-law, and grandkids. My granddaughter loves roller coasters as much as  do and she’s far more fearless. Never mind that (multi-vaxed and multi-boosted) I came down with covid the day after I got back. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Also going to a real live in-person writing conference. And a movie in an actual movie theatre. And though I’m so not a baker, I made a cake that’s first cousin to a black forest cake. It looked like Los Angeles after the big earthquake but tasted sensational.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: My summer was all about staying cool and editing. In July I had a wonderful very belated double-birthday lunch with my daughter and granddaughter (my daughter and I are both June birthdays.) We went to our favorite French bistro in Dallas, drank wine, talked and talked, and ate everything on the menu. When we came out of the restaurant, it was 106! A couple of weeks later we went to the Cartier exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art, with a picnic lunch in the very hot park. It was a lovely outing, though, and the Cartier was definitely a highlight of the summer. (Look at the Duchess of Windsor's necklace!) I'm so looking forward to more fun things in the fall.

LUCY BURDETTE: It still feels like a weird summer, overshadowed by stupid Covid. We did get to do some fun things–saw the grandkids and kids in California in June, and had another quick visit in July. Also trying to stay in touch with my dear New England friends while we’re here–mostly eating outside. And the trip to northern Scotland was a dream–every bit as good or better as I’d hoped!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It felt like I spent the summer writing - which was a good thing, believe me! - but looking back among my photos and my calendar, I did a lot of wonderful stuff - trips to the beach, visits with family, and Maine Crime Wave in person. It still feels like a thrill to actually be in the same (open air, no-sides) room with other humans! I went to a wonderful party launching Paula Munier's fourth book and a delightful four-author weekend writing retreat on beautiful Lake Arrowhead. And of course, many delightful meals out on the deck of our own Celia Wakefield's lake house.

 

The pinnacle of summer happened this past Saturday, though, when Youngest and her bf and I went to see the Portland Sea Dog's play - the first ball game I've been to since 2019. It was a summer rite for our family, and it felt so good to get back to Hadlock Field.

HANK: How about you, Reds and readers? What ONE wonderful thing happened to you this summer? Did you see a new bird, make a new friend, learn a new recipe, have a brilliant insight? (We know all the writers are writing and readers are reading, so don't count that. We'll do that another day.)

Tell us something special!

Where Did Summer Go?

 RHYS BOWEN:  Clare and I are working on our next Molly Murphy book. It’s going to be set in the Catskills in a fledgling bungalow colony and we are now deep into our research. At the time we write about, 1907, there were no big resorts in the Catskills and it was just beginning to emerge as a place where Jewish families spent their summers. Jewish farmers who had settled in the area outside New York and were growing fruits and vegetables for the city took in guests for the steamy summer months where city living with the risk of disease became unbearable. Then they built primitive cottages (bungalows) for guests to rent. The bungalows had their own small kitchen (hence the name Kochalayn in Yiddish–cook for yourself).  Families came up for the whole summer. Wives and children stayed. Fathers worked during the week and came up by train at weekends. It was a perfect arrangement. Children had a carefree exposure to country living. They helped collect eggs and pick berries while their mothers played cards (and later mahjong).

Gradually hotels were built, and then resorts until the heyday of Grossingers and the magnificent resorts that attracted the comedians and crooners of the day. All of this fell into decline when plane travel made vacations abroad easier and presumably when women had to enter the workforce and thus did not have summers free. 

And why only Jewish families, may you ask? The horrible truth is that Jews were not welcome elsewhere, so they created their own summer escape.

Older people I know had similar childhoods growing up in San Francisco, where it’s foggy and cold all summer. San Francisco families had cabins on the Russian River or at Clearlake and came up for the summer, leaving the husbands to work all week. It sounded ideal, especially today when we read that most people do not take the vacation days they are owed. A week on a beach is not enough to recharge!

I remember my own summers–we lived in a rambling old house in the country with an acre of orchard. I remember building tree houses, a trapeze, playing with feral kittens in the old shed (occasionally trying to smuggle one into the house), or going off on my bike, only to return when it got dark. It seemed that summers were endless and carefree.   Now I look up and it’s September!

So Reds, do you have fond summer memories? Did your family have a cabin somewhere? Do you make the most of summer now?

JENN McKINLAY: Growing up, we always camped or traveled for weeks during the summer and then my mom bought a cottage on the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia and that’s where my Hooligans learned to run wild. Mom was a teacher so she made sure we milked every drop of summer freedom for what it was worth. After she bought the cottage, she  left for Canada the day after graduation and came back the day before school started. Now the Hooligans are in college and not free to take off to Canada with me, so it’ll be me and mom and my sis-in-law, which is its own kind of lovely summer break. 

LUCY BURDETTE: Oh yes I have great summer memories too. Early on, my parents rented a really tiny house at the Jersey shore. We’d all jam in there with my mother’s sisters and their kids, and my father would take the train down on weekends. Later on, the whole family group moved to Hatteras Island, and stayed in a giant Coast Guard house that fit everyone. We played lots of board games and spent hours and hours roasting in the sun. Nobody had anywhere to be or anything else to do, so we enjoyed the beach and the family! When we got a little older, we put a surfboard in my cousin's convertible and drove around acting cool and trying to attract boys. That’s where I got my famous  sex education tip: “never lie down on a blanket with a boy.“

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: Ahhh….we didn’t have a routine summer thing.  We had ponies, so mostly we went to the local pool and listened to transistor radios, or rode along the trails and fields.  LOTS of reading. One summer, all five kids and two parents and another family of four took a tour of the west on Frontier AiIrlines–they had a deal where you could go on however many flights you wanted in three weeks for a flat rate. (CAN YOU IMAGINE??) No reservations, you just showed up and crossed your fingers.  We hopped on and off–in Denver, Colorado Springs, Jackson Hole, Helena, Sun Valley, Phoenix,  Tucson, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City Durango, on and on. It was incredible, and I think we bankrupted the airline company.

HALLIE EPHRON: My parents sent us to camp, pretty much all summer. Day camp (I loved being a junior counselor) and a month of overnight camp (in Arizona) which I also loved. 

I do not remember a single family “trip.” Not one! Though we did rent a house for a week on Malibu beach a couple of seasons running. A rambling house with hundreds of feet of sandy beach between it and the water. Spectacular. 

Tracking the house, Dick Van Dyke ended up owning it years later.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We traveled every summer. My parents loved to pile in the car and go and we covered a lot of territory over the years. There were many trips to Mexico, including terrifying drives on the old Pan American Highway to Mexico City. Lots of trips in the US, too, including one that took us from Dallas to LA to Vancouver, and back down through the Rockies. Otherwise, I ran wild in the summers, playing outside and roaming the neighborhood, swimming at the rec center pool, and hanging out at the country club pool while my parents played golf. Fun times.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My teen summers in the Finger Lakes were wonderful, in a kind of 1970's retro movie way. Crammed into a car with friends to see movies at the Lakeshore Drive- In (my friend Shaun always hid in the trunk to keep the cost down.) My bff Tracy and I would take the bus into Syracuse, which was then a thriving, successful city with glamorous department stores, cute places to eat, and a magnificent Carnegie library right next to where my boyfriend worked as a lifeguard at the YMCA. (See what I mean about a retro movie?)

My folks sailed on Lake Onondaga every weekend on The Tailwind, and we would take dad’s vacation on the same 38-foot boat, dropping mast to go through the lock system of New York’s canals and then out onto Lake Ontario.

Today, Lake Onondaga is considerably cleaner and safer, but everything else is gone - the Drive In flattened, the library renovated beyond recognition, and the city hollowed out when its major industries moved out of the US. Good thing I checked out À la recherche du temps perdu when I had the chance.

RHYS: Ah, the good old days!  Next week we're going down to San Diego where I have rented a house on the beach for a week with the whole family. I'm really looking forward to it, but a week is too short. A month would have been perfect but everyone is too busy to stay longer.

So what are your favorite childhood memories and do you still take long vacations?

Summer Tripping to Peaks Island, Portland, ME

Hallie Ephron: Today I'm taking you on a summer trip to  a little island in Casco Bay, just a 10-minute ride by car ferry from Portland, Maine. 

 

Most people haven't heard of Peaks Island, which it turns out isn't a bad thing since it's small -- a mile and a half long, about a mile and a quarter wide. Year-round population in 1896 was 343. Today about 860 people live there year round; with summer visitors the population swells to between 2,000 and 4,000. Most roads are not paved and there aren't many vehicles.

 

We park our car in Portland and walk to the brand new ferry terminal. It's teeming with people on Thursday afternoon, waiting for the 5:30 ferry.

But it's off-peak for cars -- only a few get on making the view from the car deck as we cross the bay nothing short of spectacular.

 Fifteen minute later, we're arriving at Peaks. Walk off the boat and up the hill to the little house that once belonged to my son-in-law's grandmother (or possibly great grandmother.)

Our itinerary always includes: A walk to the cemetery. It's got a fantastic view of incoming ferries, old gravestones with stories to tell, and trees that are teeming with cedar waxwings.

 

Take any street and you'll find Victorian cottages, the earliest homes on the island, and quirky vacation homes. This one makes a statement with an enormous guitar covering the front porch.

The main street features the world's only umbrella cover  museum, along with a couple of restaurants, an inn, an ice cream store, and a terrific coffee and breakfast sandwich place. Walk a bit further and you'll reach the public library and the laundromat. And honestly, that's about it.

But the beach, hidden away, is the big attraction. Here's me on Sandy Beach where the sand is fine and the water freezing. 

Just a short walk up along the back shore is the aptly named Stone Beach where visitors spend hours creating stone towers.

Dinner requires a walk back to the ferry dock to the Peaks Island Lobster Shack, hours of operation daily from 5 to 6 PM. Period. 

They haul the lobsters up from the ocean twenty feet below the floor of the shack. Cash only. And talk about fresh! Soft shelled lobsters, 5.99 a pound. Hard shelled lobsters, 7.99 a pound. We buy pound-and-a-half hard-shelled lobsters, take them back to the house, cook them with corn we've brought with us, and pig out.

Okay, I've shared mine... What's your favorite place for a quiet summer getaway?

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Yay, Gigi! We have all loved Gigi Pandian (and her intrepid Jaya Jones) from  from moment one.   But today at Jungle Red we are popping the champagne corks for her new book deal with Midnight Ink!  (THE ACCIDENTAL ALCHEMIST is the first book in a new series about a centuries-old alchemist and her impish gargoyle sidekick who was accidentally brought to life by a French stage magician.

(It  sounds like a fabulous idea.  I NEVER could have thought of it! And I'm constantly astonished by how our brains work.)

Anyway--Gigi's brain started working early on, and she has the wonderful (and adorable) photos to prove it. Do our books begin in out childhooD? Well, Gigi says yes. 

And--a prize at the end for a lucky commenter!

Turning Childhood Summer Adventures Into Mysteries

                                 Gigi Pandian

The first time I visited Scotland, I was ten years old.

My mom, a cultural anthropology professor, needed to spend the summer doing research in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. She also wanted to visit old friends she'd known since her days as a graduate student, so she took me along.

I'm an only child, so at ten years old I was already good at entertaining myself. And BOY was there a lot to do in Scotland! I'd already traveled across the United States several times, as my parents held appointments at different universities, but Scotland was the first foreign country I visited.

For a kid growing up in a suburb of Los Angeles, Scotland was a magical place. Bagpipers were more exciting than my mom and her acoustic guitar; castle ruins were much more fun to climb on than the playground jungle gym; and when I heard the legend of the Loch Ness Monster? It was like an episode of Scooby Doo had come true.

                      

The trip gave me the desire to travel – and to write – early in life. Because how could such adventures not make their way into stories? Back home, I created a comic strip about the adventures of Minnesota Smith, a female Indiana Jones. (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom had recently come out.)

My next childhood trip abroad was to India, to visit family on my father’s side. It was WAY too hot to think about outdoor adventures, but the country of vibrant colors, spicy food, and friendly people left a lasting impression, and I’ve returned multiple times.

A few years after my first trip abroad, I got to spend another summer in Europe with my mom. This time, I was inspired to write a script based on my favorite movie, The Goonies, which I called The Goonies Go To Europe. While in England, Scotland, and France that summer, I filmed my story on a hand-held home movie camera. (And no, you are never going to see that video I edited on my VCR – my attempt at a mystery plot didn’t hold together at all!)

At the heart of all of those early stories I wrote were two things: adventure and mystery.

But it took decades before my stories were any good. Two decades after my first trip inspired me, I wrote a draft of ARTIFACT, the first in the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series, out this month from Henery Press (http://henerypress.com/books-humorous-mystery-series-book/artifact/).

In ARTIFACT, Indian-American historian Jaya Jones travels from San Francisco to the British Library in London to an archaeological dig in the Highlands of Scotland, as she pieces together the secrets of a lost Indian treasure hidden in a Scottish legend from the days of the British Raj.

I bet you can guess where I came up with the idea J

Do you have any chidhood adventures that turned into fiction?

HANK: And a copy of ARTIFACT to a lucky commenter!

BIO

Gigi Pandian is the child of cultural anthropologists from New Mexico and the southern tip of India. After being dragged around the world during her childhood, she tried to escape her fate when she left a PhD program in favor of art school. But adventurous academic characters wouldn’t stay out of her head. Thus was born the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mystery series. Find Gigi online at www.gigipandian.com.

Sign up for Gigi’s email newsletter to receive a free, exclusive short story in the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series this fall: http://gigipandian.com/newsletter/.