Maine author Lea Wait
writes the seven-book Shadows Antique Print Mystery series, the first of which,
Shadows at the Fair, was an Agatha
Award finalist, in addition to the new Mainely Needlepoint series. She also
writes historical novels for ages 8 and up. For more about Lea and her books,
visit her website.
I’m excited! Tomorrow,
January 6th, is the publication date for Twisted
Threads, the first book in my Mainely Needlepoint mystery series.
The protagonist,
28-year-old Angie Curtis, grew up in Haven Harbor, Maine, the daughter of a single
parent with a questionable reputation. When Angie was ten, her mother
disappeared; her grandmother guided her through a rocky adolescence. After high
school she took off to make a new start far from Maine. She made it as far as
Arizona, where she got a job assisting a private investigator, learned to
handle a camera and a gun, and tried not to think about her past.
Twisted
Threads begins with a message on her telephone: “Angie, they’ve
found your mother. It’s time to come home.” She looks at her needlepoint
cushion stitched with Gram’s phone number. Gram gave it to her when she left
Maine: a message to anyone looking for her next-of-kin. Gram didn’t want her to
disappear, as her mother had.
Angie takes the next
flight out of Phoenix.
Back in Haven Harbor,
she faces her past, is determined to find her mother’s killer, and discovers
Gram has started a custom needlepoint business. And then … but you’ll have to
read Twisted Threads to find out
what happens.
The Mainely Needlepoint
series is my second mystery series; the first, the Shadows Antique Print
series, is centered around an antique print dealer. Since I’m a fourth
generation antique dealer, none of my readers will be surprised that Angie will
be involved with identification, restoration, and preservation of vintage and
antique needlepoint. The chapter headings in the Mainely Needlepoint series
will also have snippets of information about needlepoint and quotations from
early samplers, like this one from a sampler stitched in Limington, Maine, in 1821
by fourteen-year-old Louisa Otis:
“Of
female arts in usefulness
The
needle far exceeds the rest.
In
ornament there’s no device
Affords
adorning half so nice.”
Why needlepoint? I’ll
admit that although my grandmother knit, embroidered, tatted, and smocked, the
only skill I picked up from her (despite her best efforts)
was knitting. But I’ve always loved needlepoint and grew up admiring antique
needlepoint and cross-stitched samplers. Antique embroidery, especially
needlepoint, has always fascinated me because it represented the skills and
interests and art of generations of women. It still does.
Writing the Mainely
Needlepoint series has given me an excuse to learn more about needlepoint, past
and present, just as Angie does.
I’ve joined the Embroiderers’
Guild of America. I now have several shelves of books on needlepoint, past and
present. I’m even starting to do some stitching of my own, although having a kitten
in my house hasn’t helped me concentrate on needlepoint projects!
But as the Mainely
Needlepoint series continues, I’m looking forward to increasing both my
knowledge and my skills.
What could be more
fun? Learning a new skill … and solving a few mysteries along the way!
Twisted
Threads
Returning to the quaint coastal town of Harbor Haven, Maine—a place
she once called home—Angie Curtis finds her memories aren’t all quite pleasant
ones…
After leaving a decade ago, Angie has been called back to Harbor Haven
by her grandmother, Charlotte, who raised her following her mother’s
disappearance when she was a child. Her mother has been found, and now the
question of her whereabouts has sadly become the mystery of her murder.
The
bright spot in Angie’s homecoming is reuniting with Charlotte, who has started
her own needlepointing business with a group called Mainely Needlepointers. But
when a shady business associate of the stitchers dies suddenly under suspicious
circumstances, Charlotte and Angie become suspects. As Angie starts to weave
together clues, she discovers that this new murder may have ties to her own
mother’s cold case…
Buy
Links
Thank you for hosting me! Lea Wait
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great series! I used to cross stitch and I'm going to get back into it now that I'm retiring from our family business. I'll still be writing!
ReplyDeleteI envy those who have a talent for needlepoint. Best wishes with your series, Lea!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Angela! I'm just beginning to learn needlepoint, Ruth -- but it looks so beautiful when you know what you're doing! Between writing and having a cat who likes to help ... (see picture) .. any needle craft is a challenge! Lea
ReplyDelete