Good Morning, Booklovers!
I'm extending my Labor Day vacation and turning today's blog over to mystery author Edith Maxwell, who will be talking with you about...well, it's kind of like a selfie Q & A. Enjoy the blog!
Take it away, Edith!
“I’m Curious” or “Edith/Maddie’s FAQs”
Thanks so much for inviting me over, Ally, to talk about my new book and the writing life! Fans, at in-person (sniff, remember those?) and virtual events, are often curious about the same things over and over. I thought I’d address the top ten here. (Note: Some of these questions were inspired by my interview with Lynn Slaughter for her blog a couple of weeks ago.)
1.Tell me about the Country Store Mystery series and its inspiration.
I love writing this series, which was inspired by the five years I lived in lovely, hilly southern Indiana. I made up the town of South Lick as well as Pans ’N Pancakes, protagonist Robbie Jordan’s country store breakfast and lunch restaurant, which becomes the hub of the community.
Robbie is a transplanted Californian – like I also am – and a puzzle master. She discovers she has a facility for solving murders, especially when her dear ones or her livelihood are threatened. No Grater Crime ends with a special treat – Robbie’s marriage to her long-time boyfriend Abe!
I love writing this series, which was inspired by the five years I lived in lovely, hilly southern Indiana. I made up the town of South Lick as well as Pans ’N Pancakes, protagonist Robbie Jordan’s country store breakfast and lunch restaurant, which becomes the hub of the community.
Robbie is a transplanted Californian – like I also am – and a puzzle master. She discovers she has a facility for solving murders, especially when her dear ones or her livelihood are threatened. No Grater Crime ends with a special treat – Robbie’s marriage to her long-time boyfriend Abe!
2. What books/authors inspired you as a child? As an adult?
I loved reading series, digging my teeth into the Borrowers, the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, and of course, Nancy Drew. I also read biographies of strong women like Jane Addams and Clara Barton, so it’s no surprise I write strong female main characters in my own stories.
As an adult, I still love reading that kind of book. I read Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Sheila Connolly, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Hallie Ephron, Lucy Burdette, any of my Wicked Authors blogmates. I want a book about a heroine who is smart, strong, and brave.
3. Have you always written fiction? How did you get to where you are now?
I wrote lots of stories as a child, and at the age of nine, I won a short story contest and was paid two dollars by the Pasadena Star News. Then I spent decades as a technical writer and free-lance journalist and also did academic writing. But I’ve always read mysteries, and when my younger son went off to kindergarten, I tried my hand at writing a cozy set on a small organic farm like the one I had for a few years. It turned out to be A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die, my second mystery which was published almost twenty years later and the first Local Foods mystery. I just kept going, writing short stories and studying the craft until I got an agent and the first of many contracts.
4. In addition to the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, also written as Maddie Day, you’re the author of three other series and award-winning short crime fiction. How do you do it?
I treat my writing as my day job. I am working by seven every morning except Sunday, and sometimes on Sundays, too. I write or revise for four or five hours, go for my walk, eat lunch, and do other authorly things in the afternoons. The mornings are my sacred writing time. When I find myself dithering, I ask myself in a stern voice, “Are you a professional writer or not?”
5. Are you a plotter, pantser, or somewhere in-between?
I’m pretty much in between. By nature I write organically – by the seat of my pants, as they say - but I usually plot out three or four scenes ahead of myself. My editor wants a prose synopsis for a book before I start writing it, which just about kills me. Still, he’s the guy who offers me contracts, so I do it. And then, as I’m writing, if I get a bit lost, I check the synopsis, which usually offers me a brilliant idea of which way to head.
6. How do you approach research for your novels?
My historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries need research about buildings, transportation, clothes, how people talked, how they cooked their food, attitudes, what was in the news, health care methods, police procedure, news events. I love it, but it’s extensive.
For contemporary books, I still need to research particular topics. In this book I needed to know about poison mushrooms, and I went on a medicinal mushroom walk with an expert in the woods north of me. Google can help, but I like to have actual people to ask questions of, plus reference books.
7. Most of your books are part of a series. Is that by design?
I love writing series, because I get to hang out in a setting I invented and with a core group of characters I – and my fans – have grown to love. I have a standalone I’ve written half of, but I have no idea if it will sell.
8. When you’re not writing, what do you like doing?
I grow organic vegetables during the warm half of the year here in New England, and I love cooking with local produce in the summer and with anything in the winter, including baking bread and sweets. For my books with recipes, I need to test all of them, which greatly pleases my tall, skinny beau. I read a lot, of course, and occasionally sew a baby quilt. My beau and I do crossword puzzles constantly and enjoy watching art films. I rarely watch television except for the occasional PBS series or Netflix crime drama.
9. Chocolate or pizza? Mountains or beach? Wine, whiskey, or hot cocoa?
Chocolate, the darker the better! I love both mountains and beach, but if I have to choose, beach it is – as long as I have an umbrella. Wine, and whiskey in my hot chocolate.
10. What’s next?
I’m working on a new historical project I don’t have a contract for. It’s set in 1926 Boston and features a youngish lady PI (based on my grandmother Dorothy) solving crimes with Amelia Earhart. Fingers crossed! I also have a Country Store Christmas novella to polish and the eleventh in the series to write.
After No Grater Crime, Murder at the Lobstah Shack will be out at the end of November. It’s my third Cozy Capers Book Group mystery, and the fourth, Murder in a Cape Cottage, releases a year later. If you’d like an autographed copy of any of my books, please order it from Jabberwocky Books and I’ll run over and sign a copy for you. The new book is also available wherever else books are sold, including here.
I loved reading series, digging my teeth into the Borrowers, the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, and of course, Nancy Drew. I also read biographies of strong women like Jane Addams and Clara Barton, so it’s no surprise I write strong female main characters in my own stories.
As an adult, I still love reading that kind of book. I read Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Sheila Connolly, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Hallie Ephron, Lucy Burdette, any of my Wicked Authors blogmates. I want a book about a heroine who is smart, strong, and brave.
3. Have you always written fiction? How did you get to where you are now?
I wrote lots of stories as a child, and at the age of nine, I won a short story contest and was paid two dollars by the Pasadena Star News. Then I spent decades as a technical writer and free-lance journalist and also did academic writing. But I’ve always read mysteries, and when my younger son went off to kindergarten, I tried my hand at writing a cozy set on a small organic farm like the one I had for a few years. It turned out to be A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die, my second mystery which was published almost twenty years later and the first Local Foods mystery. I just kept going, writing short stories and studying the craft until I got an agent and the first of many contracts.
4. In addition to the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, also written as Maddie Day, you’re the author of three other series and award-winning short crime fiction. How do you do it?
I treat my writing as my day job. I am working by seven every morning except Sunday, and sometimes on Sundays, too. I write or revise for four or five hours, go for my walk, eat lunch, and do other authorly things in the afternoons. The mornings are my sacred writing time. When I find myself dithering, I ask myself in a stern voice, “Are you a professional writer or not?”
5. Are you a plotter, pantser, or somewhere in-between?
I’m pretty much in between. By nature I write organically – by the seat of my pants, as they say - but I usually plot out three or four scenes ahead of myself. My editor wants a prose synopsis for a book before I start writing it, which just about kills me. Still, he’s the guy who offers me contracts, so I do it. And then, as I’m writing, if I get a bit lost, I check the synopsis, which usually offers me a brilliant idea of which way to head.
6. How do you approach research for your novels?
My historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries need research about buildings, transportation, clothes, how people talked, how they cooked their food, attitudes, what was in the news, health care methods, police procedure, news events. I love it, but it’s extensive.
For contemporary books, I still need to research particular topics. In this book I needed to know about poison mushrooms, and I went on a medicinal mushroom walk with an expert in the woods north of me. Google can help, but I like to have actual people to ask questions of, plus reference books.
7. Most of your books are part of a series. Is that by design?
I love writing series, because I get to hang out in a setting I invented and with a core group of characters I – and my fans – have grown to love. I have a standalone I’ve written half of, but I have no idea if it will sell.
8. When you’re not writing, what do you like doing?
I grow organic vegetables during the warm half of the year here in New England, and I love cooking with local produce in the summer and with anything in the winter, including baking bread and sweets. For my books with recipes, I need to test all of them, which greatly pleases my tall, skinny beau. I read a lot, of course, and occasionally sew a baby quilt. My beau and I do crossword puzzles constantly and enjoy watching art films. I rarely watch television except for the occasional PBS series or Netflix crime drama.
9. Chocolate or pizza? Mountains or beach? Wine, whiskey, or hot cocoa?
Chocolate, the darker the better! I love both mountains and beach, but if I have to choose, beach it is – as long as I have an umbrella. Wine, and whiskey in my hot chocolate.
10. What’s next?
I’m working on a new historical project I don’t have a contract for. It’s set in 1926 Boston and features a youngish lady PI (based on my grandmother Dorothy) solving crimes with Amelia Earhart. Fingers crossed! I also have a Country Store Christmas novella to polish and the eleventh in the series to write.
After No Grater Crime, Murder at the Lobstah Shack will be out at the end of November. It’s my third Cozy Capers Book Group mystery, and the fourth, Murder in a Cape Cottage, releases a year later. If you’d like an autographed copy of any of my books, please order it from Jabberwocky Books and I’ll run over and sign a copy for you. The new book is also available wherever else books are sold, including here.
About the Author:
Maddie Day pens the bestselling Country Store Mysteries and Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. As Edith Maxwell, she writes the Agatha Award-winning Quaker Midwife Mysteries and short crime fiction. She’s a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime and a member of Mystery Writers of America, and lives north of Boston with her beau and crazy teenage cat, Ganesh. Find her (and Maddie) at her web site, at Wicked Authors, at Mystery Lovers Kitchen on the second and fourth Fridays, and on social media under both names.
Facebook:
Edith M. Maxwell and Maddie Day Author
Instagram:
Edith Maxwell and Maddie Day Author
Twitter:
Edith Maxwell and Maddie Day Author
Maddie Day pens the bestselling Country Store Mysteries and Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. As Edith Maxwell, she writes the Agatha Award-winning Quaker Midwife Mysteries and short crime fiction. She’s a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime and a member of Mystery Writers of America, and lives north of Boston with her beau and crazy teenage cat, Ganesh. Find her (and Maddie) at her web site, at Wicked Authors, at Mystery Lovers Kitchen on the second and fourth Fridays, and on social media under both names.
Facebook:
Edith M. Maxwell and Maddie Day Author
Instagram:
Edith Maxwell and Maddie Day Author
Twitter:
Edith Maxwell and Maddie Day Author
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