Murder in the Mansion

Last year I toured the historic Crane Estate mansion and grounds as I was beginning to write Murder on the Bluffs. I wanted the murder to take place somewhere on the vast grounds of the estate. I took pictures and lots of notes.

Mr. Crane was a plumbing magnate who spared no costs to build this summer retreat from the oppressive midwestern heat of Chicago. Parts of it remind me of the opulence of Hearst Castle on the opposite coast.

Yesterday I had the good fortune to score a slot in the "Hot and Cold" tour, which takes place in the back halls and stairways of the mansion, the realm of the maids and butlers. It was fascinating. We explored the pantries, the trunk room, the furnace area (hot), the rooftop, the ventilation system (cold), and much more. We traversed a hidden spiral staircase. We peeked into the old lift used to bring wood upstairs for fireplaces and checked out the dumbwaiter in a pantry the size of a small apartment.

Boy, did I come away with ideas. What if a body was stuffed in a trunk in the cellar? How about if Lauren was lured into the safe, a green-felt lined room used to store the considerable silver collection? Once the heavy door swung shut and the combination twirled, she'd have no way to call for help.

The antique elevator looked intriguing and dangerous with its door that resembled a jail cell door. That wood lift, with its pulleys, ropes, and rotting infrastructure. And the slanted concrete slab that coal used to slide down. Oooh.

I have changed the name of the estate in my book. Public places don't usually appreciate having fictional murders or assaults taking place on their properties, even if only in a book. Still, I think I might have material in surfeit for the climax scene I'll be working on tomorrow.

What's your favorite real or imagined site for murder and mayhem?

How I Write

One gentle reader of this blog asked to hear about my writing process, so here goes.

As much as I wish I were disciplined enough to write every day, I am not and so I don't. But on Fridays, my non-work day, I write. I don't schedule doctor or massage appointments, I don't clean or shop, I don't leave the house. I just write. I can also write on cross-continental flights, occasionally in the passenger seat of a long car trip, and sometimes on weekends.


When I'm at home, I sit in my lovely upstairs office and write at a desktop computer (sometimes with my helper, Birdie). When I'm traveling, I usually write on my trusty lightweight netbook, the one with the 9-hour battery life. I have, though, been able to write quite well in other locations with a good pen and a nice white pad of lined paper.

On Fridays I try to write steadily from early morning until I run out of steam, which is usually early afternoon, taking breaks only to stretch, grab a snack, or throw a load of laundry on the line. When I'm writing a first draft, I read over the last scene I wrote and then I try to write at least 1000 new words. Some days I get even more on the page.

What about when I don't know what's happening in the story? I'm not one for plotting or outlining, particularly. At times I sit down and have NO IDEA what's next in the book. But the old adage about "butt in the chair, fingers on the keyboard" is completely true. So I start typing. Sometimes I type "I don't know what to write today. I don't know what's next. I want to bring Irene's son Joey into the action..." and then I have an idea about what happened to a character and off I go. It works every time. Really? Really.

But what about distractions? The Internet is a biggie. It's too tempting to just check that email, or do a little research about this or that. So I simply don't open a browser on the desktop system. Instead I leave the netbook downstairs and use that for email. If I need to check a fact in the book, I type [CHECK THIS] so I can find it later, after the creative surge is over, and follow up then. It seems very important not to let myself interrupt the muse when she's flowing.

Other distractions include a nice sunny day and the view from my office windows. Or bringing pen and paper to the beach and finding myself listening to the waves and fellow beachgoers' conversations instead.

What about you? Where do you write, and how do you keep at it?

Groundnut Stew and Other Delicacies

I'm pleased to welcome fellow author Patricia Deuson as guest blogger today. We discovered we have a common past: living all over West Africa. As has, too, my amateur sleuth, Lauren Rousseau. Pat's first mystery, SUPERIOR LONGING, the first Neva Moore mystery, will be out September 15 on Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, and other e-book venues.

Food creates memories. Time spent with family and friends. Those special dinners in or out. Picnics. Holiday feasts. For those who lived for a time in a country not their own, vivid memories can be evoked by a dish once shared with friends abroad. Groundnut stew* is this kind of dish for those who spent time in West Africa .

What are groundnuts? Thought to have originated in Western Africa, the most common groundnut is the peanut, but while all peanuts are ground nuts, not all groundnuts are peanuts.** When I lived in West Africa peanuts were the groundnut of choice. Sold in bags and bottles, sweet or very spicy, in sauces of amazing heat, as groundnut butter, boiled groundnuts, fried groundnuts, green groundnuts, groundnut oil, they were found in soups, stews, salads, snacks, and sandwiches.

So what is Groundnut stew? It’s a spicy, hearty dish of whatever vegetable is on hand, chopped or diced and ready for the pot: carrots, onion, yams, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, winter or summer squash, chickpeas, okra, garlic, eggplant, hot peppers, sweet peppers, or cabbage, and spices. Spices! Ginger, cayenne, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, and turmeric all of which came from the marché, sold in twists of paper. And of course peanuts, pounded to a paste with a large wooden mortar and pestle.

Ground nut stew, like traditional dishes everywhere, has as many recipes as cooks and they add what vegetables they have on hand. If there is chicken or goat handy it is cut into small pieces and added or it canbe strictly vegetarian if meat is not available.

Groundnut stew can readily be turned into a soup with the addition of broth or juice. In West Africa either chicken or vegetarian bouillon cubes are used. Whether eaten as soup or stew, it might well be served with Fufu.***

What is Fufu? It's a dumpling made by boiling cassava, yam, plantain, millet, or rice, then pounding it into a glutinous mass in a mortar and pestle. The same mortar and pestle used to pound the peanuts one day and the millet the next. It is a ubiquitous, essential cooking tool.

[Edith's note: you can also use corn flour, and a Togolese friend of mine used to approximate fufu by combining Cream of Wheat with masa farina. It's really just polenta by any other name. And a perfect vehicle for a sauce.]

So here are some recipes for Groundnut Stew, one for FuFu, and a music video that will bring back the sound of West Africa to anyone who was lucky enough to live there.

* Groundnut stew recipes

http://www.food.com/recipe/vegetarian-groundnut-stew-134225

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/african_chicken_peanut_stew/

** Groundnuts

http://www.differencebetween.net/object/difference-between-groundnut-and-peanut/

*** Fufu recipe

http://www.africanfoods.co.uk/fufu-recipe.html

ENJOY!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ8noIoMsjE&feature=related

This post was brought to you by the folks at Cooks Inn Cooking School, whose further adventures (some of which lead to murder) can be found in SUPERIOR LONGING, the first Neva Moore mystery, written by Patricia Deuson, published by Echelon Press and available from 9/15/11 until the end of time in most fine ebook formats such as Kindle, Nook, Smashwords and Omnilit and maybe others no one told me about. SUPERIOR LONGING has its own blog and Facebook page as well: http://superiorlonging.blogspot.com/ and http://goo.gl/AfIVM. Go visit them!

Quaker Fiction

After last week's post on What is Quakerism? my friend Barb Ross asked if I had a list of recommended fiction featuring Friends. Since Speaking of Murder isn't published yet (although it will be, never fear), here's my list.

I have read two authors, who I indeed recommend, and also dug up a couple of others, plus a movie.

Irene Allen wrote a classically cozy mystery series set in Cambridge, Massachusetts: Quaker Silence, Quaker Testimony, Quaker Witness, and Quaker Indictment. The protagonist is an older woman who is Clerk of the Meeting, Elizabeth Elliot. In her quiet Quakerly way, she solves the murder in each book. I enjoyed these books greatly, but be forewarned that they are not thrillers.

I Take Thee, Serenity, by Daisy Newman, tells the story of two young people as they prepare for marriage as Friends. It's a sweet tale, although not a mystery, and if you have never experienced a Quaker wedding, this book gives you an authentic portrayal. Newman has several other titles out that feature Friends, as well.

Phillip Gulley is an author who sets his series about Quakers in a fictional Indiana village called Harmony. The latest book is Almost Friends, with a protagonist who is a Quaker pastor. I think these are also not mysteries.

Quaker Summer is a book by Lisa Samson. I loved the description I found: "Heather Curridge is coming unhinged. And people are starting to notice. What's wrong with a woman who has everything--a mansion on a lake, a loving son, a heart-surgeon husband--yet still feels miserable inside? When Heather spends the summer with two ancient Quaker sisters and a crusty nun running a downtown homeless shelter, she finds herself at a crossroads."

Finally, I found author Chuck Fager, who has published Murder Among Friends, Un-Friendly Persuasion, and others. Fager is a long-time Quaker activist who has also written non-fiction about the civil rights movement. I plan to put his mysteries on my reading list.


A great movie about Quakers is "Amazing Grace," which describes William Wilberforce's efforts to abolish slavery in England.

Let me know if you know of others and I'll add them here.

What is Quakerism?

My protagonist in Speaking of Murder, Lauren Rousseau, is a Quaker. I just happen to be one, too. This means I am a member of the Religious Society of Friends.

I have found over the years that there is a certain lack of common knowledge about who Quakers are. No, we're not the celibate Shakers, nor the Ludditely Amish or Mennonites. Or a guy who markets oatmeal in an old-fashioned hat.

Friends have a long history - over 350 years - and much has been written about them. George Fox founded the Society of Friends in England, and it soon spread to America.

The branch of Friends that I belong to and the Meeting I attend feature unprogrammed worship. This means simply that we sit in silence together on pews in a beautiful and simple Meetinghouse built more than 150 years ago (photos by Ed Mair). We sit in expectant waiting, listening for a message from the Light.

Friends are a tolerant bunch and, while it is at base a Christian faith, no one is quizzed on their individual belief system. One might be listening for a message from God, another for a message from Spirit, another for a message from within, and another might be mindfully meditating. All are welcome. If someone feels moved to share a message, she or he stands, speaks, and then sits.

That's it. We have First Day School for the children, fellowship and refreshments, and a monthly business meeting. We hold peace vigils as well as social potlucks.

The five Testimonies guide our lives:

• Simplicity
• Equality
• Integrity
• Peace
• Community

Quakers believe there is that of God in each person, which leads to the core and strength of the Testimonies. We have no minister because we all minister to each other. We believe in peace and non-violence because we are all equal. Living simply frees us to help others.

Historically, Friends have been rabble-rousers in the name of peace and equality. Mary Dyer was hung on the Boston Common in 1660 for preaching Quakerism. John Woolman traveled the American colonies urging people to give up their slaves. John Greenleaf Whittier, the poet and abolitionist, was on the building committee of the Amesbury Meeting, where I am a member. Many modern Friends have been conscientious objectors in time of war. See my earlier post on this topic, too.
I came to Friends as an adult. I find that quiet individual worship in community suits me, as do the Testimonies. Being a Quaker seems to suit Lauren, too. It's not for everyone, though. I knew someone raised as a high Episcopalian and he really couldn't handle all the silence. When I visited his church, I couldn't take all the busyness!

Did you know what Quakerism meant? If you have ever sat in silent Meeting for Worship, how was it for you?

Getting Help and Taking a Break

My good friend Julie Hennrikus is active in the mystery-writing sphere and in Boston theater. She works in theater management but is also a terrific writer of short stories (she has one in Thin Ice by Level Best Books, as do I) as well as a mystery novel. We both serve on the board of the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime.

Julie wrote an excellent post recently on "It's Really OK." She addresses the need to help each other and, occasionally, to take a break, step back, reconsider what one is doing. For a theater, this might even mean closing for a while.

This blog post at Stage Source is aimed at theater people. I think it is relevant to writers, too, and possibly just about everybody. My experience with mystery writers locally and internationally has been only positive. Published authors help out unpublished. Unpublished help each other. Everyone is so supportive. We might envy another's success while still waiting for our own, but that doesn't mean we won't congratulate them, retweet and repost their announcements, and have them on for a guest blog post at the time of their book launch.

Still, as Julie says, "Asking for help is a sign of strength." You going to get more out of your networked contacts if you ask for help instead of sitting back waiting to hear a tidbit of something useful.

As for regrouping, taking a break: for me, when the writing gets tough, when I despair of getting Speaking of Murder ever published, I am sometimes tempted to just stop writing altogether. Then I remember how happy it makes me to create a fictional world. My way of regrouping is to take a break by writing something different. A short story. A blog post. A letter to my mother or one of my sons. When I return to the book-in-progress, I have a fresher voice and a reenergized muse. I've also started branching out from querying agents to querying small presses, and have not ruled out publishing it as an ebook if all else fails.

Of course, there are times when taking a break is almost mandated. You finally typed The End at the end of the first draft? Let it sit for a month or two. You need some distance to be able to still love it when it's time to get in there and revise the heck out of it.

And for non-writers? We can all use a reminder to ask for help and take a break now and then. So thanks, Julie, for these bits of wisdom!

One Year in the Blogosphere

Well, dear Readers, we made it. This blog is just over one year old. While I haven't quite kept up with my once a week goal, I ended up with 59 posts. That was due to my almost daily book reviews while I was recuperating from back surgery in the spring.

Blogger makes it easy to look at stats, and they are fascinating:

I've had almost 7000 page views. That's not much compared to some group blogs, but for a start, well, it's a start. And viewers sat in nine countries beyond the United States (including India and Slovenia).

Google and Facebook were the primary referring sites, while Twitter was the largest referring URL followed by http://travelswithkaye.blogspot.com/ - thanks, Kaye! This makes sense: usually when I put up a new post, I mention it on Facebook and on Twitter.

The most common Search keywords that brought people here were:

• Edith Maxwell
• edithmaxwell.blogspot.com
• mystery story ideas

Almost as many people viewed the page on Firefox as on Internet Explorer, but more than three-quarters were on a Windows system as opposed to twelve percent on a Mac. There were even three views on an iPod.

The most-read blog topics fell into five (sort-of) categories:

• Publishing (Real Books in Walmart, E-books, E-readers)
• The craft of writing (One Page a Day, Flash fiction)
• Story ideas (Story Ideas, Inspiration)
• Factual stuff (What is Linguistics, anyway?)
• Book reviews (A Trick of the Light)

I plan to continue blogging on topics relating to Speaking of Murder (book One), Murder on the Beach (book Two), and, of course, writing and publishing. Thanks to everybody who has stopped by. I know how many blogs and feeds are out there, and I really appreciate it.

What would you like to read about in the next year? Send those requests in now!