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| Scottish Village by Shelley Adina |
Author Shelley Adina writes contemporary romance and
steampunk, and as Adina Senft she writes women’s fiction set among the Amish
and other plain communities. She holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction and is
working on a PhD in Creative Writing. When she’s not writing, Shelley is
usually painting, sewing historical costumes, or hanging out in the garden with
her flock of rescued chickens. Learn more about her and her books at her
website.
Thanks so much for having me
in to visit today! I’m so excited about my first cozy mystery, The Bride Wore Constant White, that I
can’t wait to tell your readers about it.
Steampunk readers know me
best for my Magnificent Devices series of twelve adventure novels featuring
young ladies of intelligence and resources. When I came to the end of that
series, I wanted to try something different, and since I’m a mystery reader, my
path seemed clear! The only trouble is, I soon found that cozies are fiendishly
difficult to write well. I called in reinforcements—Victoria Thompson (the
Gaslight Mysteries) and Nancy Warren (the Toni Diamond mysteries), who set me
on the right track.
Over the years I’ve enjoyed
different kinds of crafting. I’ve been sewing and costuming since I was small,
and enjoy quilting, too. I even created a quiltpattern based on a quilt from 1868 to go in my
Amish Quilt trilogy (written as Adina Senft), which was more math
than I ever want to contemplate again in my life! But lately I’ve been trying
to learn to paint in watercolors. For decades I thought this was a hopeless
dream, because I never progress any further than stick figures. But then I took
a weekend class with the local art society....
When the Mysterious Devices
spinoff series began cooking in my head, I had already learned that
watercolorists look at the world differently. They see color in hues, shades,
and mixes that other people simply disregard. They see shadow, and white space,
and the telling detail that can bring an entire painting into focus.
What better talent for an
amateur sleuth than to be a watercolorist? Who better to observe a scene and
note detail, colors, and what might be missing? And so Daisy Linden was born.
Then, to my delight, I found
in researching the pigments that would have been in use in the late 1800s that
they had really nifty names. No Quinachridone Gold here! Suddenly I had a
naming scheme for my series titles: The [Victim] Wore [Watercolor Tint].
Perfect!
The Bride Wore Constant White
The Dancer Wore Opera Rose
The Lady Wore Venetian Red
The Governess Wore Payne’s Gray
The Judge Wore Lamp Black
The Soldier Wore Prussian Blue
I really wanted to find a use
for Caput Mortuum Violet, which was a byproduct of sulfuric acid, or Egyptian
Brown, which was originally made from ground-up mummies(!) But use of Egyptian
Brown was discontinued in the 19th century when artists realized what it was
made of, and I didn’t want poor Daisy to be carrying around anything that
smacked of sulfuric acid, so I had to let those colors go.
Each story takes place in
either a ghost town or a town with a distinct history, such as San Francisco or
Port Townsend. While my steampunk books are alt-history—meaning that while
there are plenty of fabulous steam trains, there are also airships, steam
landaus, and other interesting machinery—it’s fun to research these towns and
include bits of their real history.
For instance, I was in Georgetown,
Colorado, to speak at a writers’ conference last summer, and fell in love with
the place. Daisy and Freddie stay in the Hotel de Paris, which conveniently for
my subgenre was actually steam-heated. The bride comes to a cottage on Rose
Street that is delightfully real today. And best of all—Nicola Tesla, the
genius and the unofficial godfather of steampunk, built a power plant there. I
toured the plant, and then let my imagination go wild with what all that
lightning and electricity could do!
The Dancer Wore Opera Rose takes place in Santa Fe, which in my world is the
capital of the Texican Territories, and in the real world is one of my all-time
favorite cities. The Lady Wore Venetian
Red will be set in the ghost town of Bodie, California, which I’ll visit in
June to steep myself in the lore and history of this boom-and-bust town. The
Lady, I’m thinking, is a matchmaker, so I can’t wait for Daisy to find out what
happens to her!
And in each place, while
solving mysteries and searching for her missing father with the help of a
couple of street children and a snake-oil salesman, my heroine is painting:
landscapes, portraits, and—oh yes!—sometimes even clues.
And now that I’ve talked
your ear off, it’s time for me to get back to writing. As they say on a real
airship when it’s time to lift off—Up ship!
The Bride Wore Constant White
Daisy Linden is a young
woman of gentle upbringing, some talent as a watercolorist, and firm opinions
that often get her into trouble. Determined to find their missing father, in
the summer of 1895 she and her sister Freddie set out for the last place he was
seen: the Wild West. On the journey, a friendship blooms between Daisy and Miss
Emma Makepeace, who is traveling to Georgetown in the Texican Territories as a
mail-order bride. When Emma asks if she will be her bridesmaid, Daisy is
delighted to accept.
But the wedding day dawns on
a dreadful discovery. Within hours the Texican Rangers have their man—but Daisy
is convinced he cannot have killed her friend. She must right this terrible
mistake before he hangs … and before the real culprit realizes that two very
observant young ladies are not going to allow him to get away with it …
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