New Web Site

PLEASE NOTE: My web site has moved! Come on over to edithmaxwell.com.


New Covers, New Books

The third Local Foods mystery, Farmed and Dangerous, made it to Amazon. Don't you love it?

It's available for pre-order, too! And speaking of covers, my second Lauren Rousseau mystery has a cover, too.

You can win a copy in a Goodreads giveaway from now to October first by signing up here: 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Bluffing is Murder

by Tace Baker

Giveaway ends October 01, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Barking Rain Press also has a free preview and a 35% off coupon available. The book will release November 11.

And don't forget book one, Speaking of Murder, is half off from the publisher in September - just use the coupon code BRP3YEAR at checkout.

Author Banner Time

Check out my new banner! 

I go to events sometimes where I'm at a table for a couple of hours and realized my visibility is not what it could be.

So now I have a 24" x 48" banner, complete with grommets, to hang from the front of my table or behind me on a wall. Since I have multiple series and multiple names, I decided to go simple. And all I had to do was drive down the road a couple of miles to my local party story Funny Bones. It wasn't even expensive. Wish I'd done it a year ago!

What do you think?

July 2014 News

A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die is on sale this month. If you've been patiently waiting for the price to go down, all of the digital versions - Kindle, Nook, Apple - are now available for only $1.99 thanks to Kensington Publishing. Get it while supplies last! Oh - that's right, it's digital...

Sales of 'Til Dirt Do Us Part continue to do nicely - if you haven't picked it up yet or asked your local library to stock it - well, it's perfect beach or lake reading and it's never too late.

I finished my historical mystery set in Amesbury in 1888 and it's out for review with several historical and birthing experts. Here's a first pass at a blurb for Breaking the Silence, the first in the Carriagetown Mysteries:

Quaker midwife Rose Carroll hears secrets and keeps confidences as she attends births of the rich and poor alike in 1888 Amesbury. When the town’s carriage industry is threatened by the work of an arsonist and a carriage maker’s adult son is stabbed to death, Rose is drawn into solving the mystery. Things get dicey after the same man’s mistress is also murdered, leaving her one-week old baby without a mother. While struggling with being less than the perfect Friend, Rose draws on her strengths as a problem solver to bring two murderers to justice.

I'm working hard on a new project that I'm not allowed to announce yet, but I'm very excited about it. Stay tuned for an announcement later this summer. 

Lots of events still to come this summer. Please click the Events tab for details. I've also been guest at quite a few awesome blogs - the Guest Blogs tab should be up to date with permanent links to those essays.

And the release date for my alter-ego Tace Baker's second Lauren Rousseau mystery, Bluffing is Murder, is November 11. The cover should be out soon from Barking Rain Press.

Finally, thanks for your support and your appreciation of my mysteries! One of the best ways you can support an author you like, besides reading (and buying, if it's within your budget) her book, is to write a positive review and post it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, your church newsletter, or wherever readers can be found. I'd be nowhere with my reader fans!

Support an Author, Win Art

May 27: The book is out! And Barbara Pease won the scarf. Congratulations to Barbara, and thanks to all who preordered. I hope you like the book. And if you do, one of the nicest things you can do for an author is post a positive review on Amazon, Goodreads, your church newsletter, your farm stand bulletin board, or wherever! 


May 14:
My author friend Linda Rodriguez held a giveaway contest for fans who preordered the latest in her fabulous Skeet Bannion mystery series, Every Hidden Fear. I liked the idea so much I decided to do it myself. 

I ask you to help me ensure my Local Foods Mysteries contract is renewed. Publishers love it when lots and lots of people buy the book during its release week, and the best way to do that is to preorder Til Dirt Do Us Part from the brick-and-mortar or online bookstore of your choice (see the link buttons on the right). The release date is May 27, and I'll close the contest at nine PM (eastern time) on May 26.


But I'll sweeten the pot. Not only will you receive the book you ordered on its release day, you can also win a gorgeous prize.

If you send me proof of your preorder,  I'll enter you in a contest to win a piece of art. It's a picture of 

the sun, rain, and sprouting plants hand-painted on a sky-blue crepe-de-chine silk scarf, signed by the artist, Joanna Lynam. Isn't it beautiful? (Unlike Linda R, I didn't make it myself...)

If you don't wear scarves yourself, wouldn't it be a lovely present for the person in your life who does? So go ahead and preorder the book, then forward the order email, scan the receipt, or take a screenshot of your Paid page, and send it to edithmaxwellauthor at gmail dot com. Make sure you put PREORDER CONTEST in the subject line. When I get your email, I'll enter you in the drawing to be held on May 27. Heck, print out your receipt and snail mail it if you want (but you'll have to email me for my address). 

And thank you from the bottom of my author heart. I'm living my dream, and am eager to continue to do so. Merci. Obrigada. Doomo. Danke. Inice. Gracias. Tak. Thanks.

Cam's Gardening Tips

Every Wednesday my fictional farmer, Cam Flaherty, has been posting gardening tips over at the Sisters in Crime New England blog. 

Stop by and check them out!

Recent News

Goodreads Giveway:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

'Til Dirt Do Us Part

by Edith Maxwell

Giveaway ends March 30, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Event News:

I am delighted to have three San Francisco Bay area author events scheduled in a couple of weeks and would love to see you at any of them:

• Friday March 14 at Great Good Place for Books in Oakland, 7 PM.
• Sunday March 16 at Borderlands in San Francisco, 1 PM
• Monday March 17 at Books Inc in Berkeley, 7 PM

I'll be talking about my local foods mystery series and my life as a writer, will read a bit, and will take as many questions as you have. I'm a fourth-generation Californian living north of Boston and am looking forward to being back! Thanks.



'Til Dirt Do Us Part releases May 27. Pre-order it here or here. The very first review is up and it's a five star! 

The produce is local - and so is the crime - when long-simmering tensions lead to murder following a festive dinner on Cam Flaherty's farm. It'll take a sleuth who knows the lay of the land to catch this killer. But no one ever said Cam wasn't willing to get her hands dirty...

Autumn has descended on Westbury, Massachusetts, but the mood at the Farm-to-Table Dinner in Cam's newly built barn is unseasonably chilly. Local entrepreneur Irene Burr made a lot of enemies with her plan to buy Westbury's Old Town Hall and replace it with a textile museum-enough enemies to fill out a list of suspects when the wealthy widow turns up dead on a neighboring farm.

Even an amateur detective like Cam can figure out that one of the resident locavores went loco - at least temporarily - and settled a score with Irene. But which one? With the Fall harvest upon her, Cam must sift through a bushelful of possible killers that includes Irene's estranged stepson, her disgruntled auto mechanic, and a fellow CSA subscriber who seems suspiciously happy to have the dead woman out of the way.


The closer she gets to weeding out the culprit, the more Cam feels like someone is out to cut her harvest short. But to keep her own body out of the compost pile, she'll have to wrap this case up quickly.

A High Compliment

A story I wrote a couple of years ago, "Just Desserts for Johnny," was published in the online Kings River Life Magazine a few days ago. It was a satisfying story to write, about revenge exacted on a literary thief. The essence of the story came from a bad experience I had with a fraudulent press a few years ago. The details, of course, are fictional. It's set in the San Francisco bay area, where I have many friends and family.

But equally delightful was the comment that a very esteemed editor and writer made after she

read it. Chris Roerden won an Agatha award for Best Non-Fiction work. She has helped countless authors with her books Don't Murder Your Mystery and Don't Sabotage Your Submission, among others. I've met her at conferences and she's a really sweet person.

So when I read what she had to say about my story, I was over the moon!

"Just Desserts for Johnny" by Edith Maxwell is a model short story, from the perfect opening line to the satisfying, twist end. Love it!

Thanks, Chris. I'm glad you liked it. I hope others will, too.

It Was a Very Good Year

When I summarized my writing accomplishments for this year, I was pretty amazed. I thought I'd share it with you, dear Reader. Here goes! 

As most of you know, A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die came out to positive reviews. I learned a huge amount about marketing, selling, and the limits of my own energy. I turned in 'Til Dirt Do Us Part, the second book in the series on time and wrote 62,000 words on the third book. 

I self-published two short stories that had previously been in anthologies: "Yatsuhashi for Lance" and "Reduction in Force." 

My short story "The Stonecutter" appeared in the Fish Nets anthology from Wildside Press. My short story "Breaking the Silence" not only made it into the Level Best Books anthology Stone Cold, but also won an honorable mention in the Al Blanchard Short Crime Fiction Contest. 

I finished writing and signed a contract with Barking Rain Press for Bluffing is Murder (written as Tace Baker), the second Lauren Rousseau mystery. 

I wrote 55 blog posts and contributed to a bunch more. Five other New England cozy mystery authors and I joined forces and started the Wicked Cozy Authors group blog, posting every weekday.

My story of revenge on a literary thief, "Just Desserts for Johnny," was accepted for January 2014 publication in Kings River Life Magazine. 

I was a panelist at four mystery conferences and spoke at a couple dozen library or bookstore events. And I quit my day job to become a full-time fiction writer. 

It was a fabulous year in my life. Thank you so much to all my readers and supporters!

'Til Dirt Do Us Part!

I've been  haunting Amazon for days, waiting to see the cover for 'Til Dirt Do Us Part, the second Local Foods mystery. And it showed up today!

Isn't that fun? 

The produce is local - and so is the crime - when long-simmering tensions lead to murder following a festive dinner on Cam Flaherty's farm. It'll take a sleuth who knows the lay of the land to catch this killer. But no one ever said Cam wasn't willing to get her hands dirty...

Autumn has descended on Westbury, Massachusetts, but the mood at the Farm-to-Table Dinner in Cam's newly built barn is unseasonably chilly. Local entrepreneur Irene Burr made a lot of enemies with her plan to buy Westbury's Old Town Hall and replace it with a textile museum - enough enemies to fill out a list of suspects when the wealthy widow turns up dead on a neighboring farm.

Even an amateur detective like Cam can figure out that one of the resident locavores went loco - at least temporarily - and settled a score with Irene. But which one? With the fall harvest upon her, Cam must sift through a bushelful of possible killers that includes Irene's estranged stepson, her disgruntled auto mechanic, and a fellow CSA subscriber who seems suspiciously happy to have the dead woman out of the way.

The closer she gets to weeding out the culprit, the more Cam feels like someone is out to cut her harvest short. But to keep her own body out of the compost pile, she'll have to wrap this case up quickly.

The book, the second in the Local Foods Mystery series, will release in late May, 2014. 

Where I Write

My new one-minute commute to my upstairs office is such a treat. Sheila Boneham asked me over to describe it, complete with pictures.
http://sheilaboneham.blogspot.com/2013/11/my-one-minute-commute-with-guest-author.html

I was a Bouchercon Virgin

I'm excited to report that my essay, "I was a Bouchercon Virgin," appeared in Crimespree Magazine online. Adeola Saul, our Kensington Publishing publicist, asked me to write it. And they took it. 

Read all about my first time at the biggest mystery fan convention of the year. And what I now have in common with greats Tess Gerritsen and Sue Grafton!

On Marketing

Rae Francouer

JoeAnn Hart

North Shore writer Rae Francouer recently interviewed Berrett-Koehler publisher Steve Piersanti,  another author, JoeAnn Hart, and me on how to market books. It's a nice article so I thought I'd share one of the links to where it appeared in a Wicked Local news outlet, this one in the Daily News of Newburyport. The Amesbury News printed it on the first page featuring my picture in color, too.

Here's how the article begins:

You’ve spent a few years, at least, writing your book. You’ve locked yourself away from loved ones, muted the phone and sacrificed vacations. You’ve gained five pounds from all that sitting and, to add insult to injury, you’ve got a touch of repetitive motion tendinitis.

The good news is your agent sold the book to a notable publisher.

The bad news? Your hardest work has only just begun.

I can attest to the five pounds! Hope you find the article helpful. I think Rae did a great job with it.

Three Years on the Blog Highway

I'm coming up on the third anniversary of starting this blog. At each year anniversary I've written about the past year: Two Years of Blogging and One Year in the Blogosphere.

It's been a great three years! Anyone who follows me here will have noticed a change in the frequency of my posts in the last year. That was due to several things:

• Total knee replacement in January  which took the expected recovery and therapy time.
• Books! A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die released at the end of May and I turned in 'Til Dirt Do Us Part at the end of June. Writing and promotion uses the bulk of my time, which is as it should be.
• Our new Wicked Cozy Authors group blog, where I blog every week or two, plus
  
  contribute to the Wicked Wednesday topic every week, plus comment on the other posts and push news of the blog out. I hope you'll stop by and check it out!

I hired Kathleen Valentine to freshen up the look and functionality of this entire web site this spring, which I'm happy with. 

In terms of interesting stats, I find it fascinating that the second and third highest numbers of views come from China and Ukraine. I have to believe this is not from the huge number of mystery readers in those countries, but who knows? Internet Explorer on Windows were the most used browser and operating system, and people got here usually by way of Google searches. No big surprise on those stats.

My post on Finding a Pen Name was viewed the most of all three years of essays. Wow! The one about Quaker fiction also got a lot of views, as did my post about Girl Scouts.

As for the year to come? I'll be right here writing and promoting, and will put up a post now and then. 'Til Dirt Do Us Part will be out next June, with the paperback version of A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die next May. I'm finishing up the first draft of the second Lauren Rousseau mystery, Bluffing is Murder, now, and hope to send that off to Barking Rain Press this fall. Farmed and Dangerous (for a June 2015 release) is already underway. And there might be another series in the works. Watch this spot for news!

What do you think, gentle reader? Are blogs alive and well in 2013? Are they replaced by Facebook? Where online do you prefer to have a conversation? I'll send a copy of A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die to one lucky commenter (US-only, please - if you're from elsewhere, I'll send you an e-copy of Speaking of Murder), so be sure to leave your email address if you think I don't already have it.

Essaying Around the Blogosphere

I've been fortunate enough to be a guest at some wicked awesome blogs lately to help celebrate TINE's release. In case you didn't catch them, here are the posts (I'll update it as new essays appear):

• Where I Write at Sheila Webster Boneham
• I Was a Bouchercon Virgin at Crimespree Magazine
• Top Five Places to Visit in a Cozy Town at A Prairie Girl Reads
• On Farming and Birthing at Jungle Red Writers
• A Writer's Dream Vacation at Fish Nets Anthology
• Grates and Tunnels and Turtlenecks, Oh My! at Fish Nets Anthology
• CSA Murder and Intrigue at Seasonal Savory
• Growing Garlic at Escape with Dollycas Into a Good Book
• My Life as a Farmer at Patricia Stoltey's blog
• Inspiration from a Traveler at the Guppies Anthologies blog
• The Mystery of Reviews at Mysteristas
• The Common Ground Fair at Maine Crime Writers
• My history with Poe at Poe's Deadly Daughters (look for the June 7 post)
• My favorite food and other interview questions at Beth Groundwater's blog
• Cam's Marinated Asparagus at Killer Crafts and Craft Killers
• Preston, Norwegian Forest Cat at Mochas, Mysteries, and More
• Cam's Herbed-Spring Garlic Quiche at Mystery Lovers' Kitchen
• A Day in the Life of Farmer Cam Flaherty at Dru's Book Musings
• How to Find Early Reviewers at Write Here, Write Now
• What I Wish I Had Known at Killer Characters

And then there are my regular posts over at our Wicked Cozy Authors blog, plus my contributions to the Wicked Wednesday discussions:

• Renewal
• The Value of One
• Setting as Character: Location, Location
• Freedom
• On Secret Lives
• How I Spent my Book Birthday
• On Writing Full Time
• My Feline Friends
• Who is Edith Maxwell?

Today's the Day!

It's finally here. A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die has launched! 

The book I started writing twenty years ago. The concept of Cam Flaherty and her organic farm that I dusted off a year and a half ago and started writing again from scratch. The first book in a Local Foods Mysteries series from Kensington Publishing, a big press with a wide reach. My first hardcover book. My first reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. 

Am I thrilled? YES! I have so many books to write, so many ideas crowding my imagination, but this one is done. It's now released into the world and it's very, very exciting. It's already in libraries, brick-and-mortar bookstores (including Barnes and Noble), and online sites (see those big buttons on the right?), including UK Amazon.

I owe so much to so many, and hope I thanked them all in the Acknowledgements in the book. Mostly I am grateful for readers, for people who  love to sit down and get lost in a good mystery. I'd love to hear from you, Gentle Reader, and hope you enjoy the story!

I'm also happy to have a lovely updated web site here, due to the talents of Kathleen Valentine, who can not only write great books herself but also design stuff. Thank you, Kathleen!

Calling Librarians Everywhere!

Wow. Library Journal wrote a positive review of my book. This is huge. It's where librarians go to decide which new books to buy. I am delighted! If my only sales were to every library in the country, I would be one happy author. Here's what they said: 

"Computer scientist Cameron (Cam) Flaherty turns her back on the corporate world to manage her great-uncle’s small Massachusetts farm. As a self-described geek-turned-farmer with rusty social skills, Cam finds the whole “getting to know you” process of small-town life tedious. Still, she plugs into the locavore community and does her best to make friends. But things go topsy when her recently fired farmhand is killed with a pitchfork in her greenhouse. Cam is now a prime suspect, while she thinks everyone else is acting suspiciously. At the same time, someone is systematically sabotaging Cam’s fields and crops, upping her unease. The killer astutely figures out Cam’s greatest fear and uses that weapon next. VERDICT Another topically relevant cozy debut introduces a fledgling organic farmer keying into the local foods movement and encountering some whack jobs along the way. This would partner well with Chrystle Fiedler’s “Natural Remedies” series."

Readers, feel free to quote or forward this review to your local library when you ask them to acquire my book. It's one of the best presents you can give an author. And thank you!

Edith's Feline Friends

Over at our new Wicked Cozy Authors blog, I'm talking about my cats! 

Stop by and let us know your feelings about pets, and what you expect from a cozy mystery. 

Another Giveaway

I've set up another Goodreads giveaway. Five books to five randomly selected winners.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Tine to Live, A Tine to Die

by Edith Maxwell

Giveaway ends May 04, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I really enjoyed sending off the five copies from the first giveaway to readers around the country, plus one in Canada, and one reader already posted a glowing review, here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/579824679/

With only six weeks until release date, my excitement is mounting. I'm lining up more and more events, so please check the Events tab. And both my wonderful sons will be back in the state for my Newburyport launch party on June 9! It's happy times in Maxwell-land.

Publishers Weekly Review

So this is exciting. Publishers Weekly has reviewed A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die! Their Facebook page describes them as " the leading international trade magazine of the publishing business." 

Friends and colleagues tell me being reviewed in PW is a big deal, because libraries read it and it governs purchasing all over the place, with a circulation of somewhere around 25,000. My publisher, Kensington Publishing, submitted the book to PW, but a review is not guaranteed by any means. 

When I ventured an opinion to a couple of fellow authors that it isn't really a rave review, I was assured that any positive coverage is great, since at least it isn't negative. 

And the words "absorbing" and "exciting" are actually pretty, well, exciting! 

Here's the actual review:

A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die (Edith Maxwell. Kensington, $24 (304p) ISBN 978-0-7582-8461-7)

Maxwell (Speaking of Murder under the pen name Tace Baker) brings her expertise as a former organic farmer to her absorbing first Local Foods mystery. Cam Flaherty, who has taken over her great-uncle’s organic farm in Millsbury, Mass., feels obliged to fire farmhand Mike Montgomery after he admits he was going to use pesticide on the beetles he was tired of handpicking off asparagus and potato leaves. That evening, Cam finds Mike lying dead, her pitchfork stuck in his throat. Suspected of the farmhand’s murder, Cam must contend with Mike’s angry mother and an unfriendly police detective. Lending support in her hunt for the real killer are her fellow organic farmers and childhood friend Ruth Dodge, who’s now a police officer. Issues involving immigrants and a local militia group add weight to a plot that builds to an exciting climax. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (June)

Note: the town in the book is Westbury, not Millsbury.

I'm still looking for smaller-scale reviewers for the book, but this is a lovely start to the release now less than two months distant!

And I'll say it again: if you have a sizable network, be it on Goodreads, your local farm's CSA newsletter, or your own blog where you could circulate a review, let me know if you'd like an advance copy and we'll see what we can work out. I'm always looking for readers.

A Thoughtful Review

In my traditional mystery, Speaking of Murder (published under pseudonym Tace Baker), linguistics Professor Lauren Rousseau occasionally falls back for comfort and guidance from her Quaker faith as she searches for her student's murder amid small-town intrigues and other threats.

Callie Marsh, a Friend I do not know personally, has reviewed the book for the West Branch Friends Meeting of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) newsletter. She gave me permission to share her very thoughtful review from the point of view of a mystery lover AND a Quaker. I copy the review here unaltered. Thanks, Callie!

Review of Speaking of Murder by Tace Baker

Tace Baker is a pseudonym for Edith Maxwell, a Quaker writer from New England Yearly Meeting of Friends. She chose her pen name before she knew that one of the first Quaker printer/publishers was also named Tace. She was Tace Sowle, (1666–1749), who inherited her father’s print shop and made a good busi-ness of it, an unusual feat for a woman of her time. Speaking of Murder, published in September 2012, is Maxwell’s first full-length mystery, and I am looking forward to more. She writes well. The pace is good, the characters, likable and real. Her protagonist is Lauren Rousseau, a college professor of linguistics at a small New England college in Ashford, Massachusetts. The story moves, however, from the life of academia and its own intense political ins and outs out into the wider community, including the sea front of a coastal town and the daily comings and goings of a variety of townspeople. Maxwell introduces her reader to the rich and lively world of an old New England small town without sentimentality or romanticism. She creates her novel with integrity and care.

I was delighted to see how well Maxwell navigates across social and economic differences. Her portrayal of the community is sensitive, without suffering from self-conscious anxiety about racism or classism. This is no small task. It is encouraging to see Maxwell’s writing reflect how Friends and the broader European-American views and cultural mores about race and sex can shift with work and time. The novel reflects this transition and invites us to grow with it.

Maxwell writes comfortably about her Quaker professor. Lauren is a Friend many of us might know and enjoy. Her Quaker understanding of the world is woven into who she is and how she lives without being preachy or overly theological. I felt very comfortable with her. It is fun to read a novel when one feels a bond of common beliefs and customs with the protagonist. Yet the book will read well for a general audience too, perhaps raising some mild curiosity in the non-Quaker reader.

I was fully engrossed in the story itself. The book is hopefully the first of a series, setting the stage for future books. Not unnaturally in a first book, I came away wanting Maxwell to deepen her characters, give me more understanding of why and how they are who they are. As Maxwell continues to write about these people, first she and then we, her readers, will come to know her characters more fully, developing a lasting friendship with them. I look forward to that.

Maxwell also writes the Local Foods Mysteries, in which organic farmer Cam Flaherty has to deal not only with eager locavores but also murder on the farm. A Tine to Live, A Tine to Die will be published later this spring. Maxwell promises she will get back to Lauren Rousseau and the town of Ashford, Massachusetts. You can buy Speaking of Murder at quakerbooks.org, the Friends General Conference website, or on amazon.com. It is available in electronic or hard copy. You can find Edith at her website, edithmaxwell.com. Enjoy. . .

Reviewed by Callie Marsh