MYSTERY AUTHOR BARBARA EMODI ON HOW SEWING A GARMENT IS LIKE WRITING A BOOK

Gasper's Cove

Barbara Emodi writes sewing and craft-related cozy mysteries and sewing how-to books. Often when she sewed, she thought of the people she’s known and the stories she could tell. So now she writes mysteries. Learn more about Barbara and her books at her website and on Substack at How to be an Older Woman for Beginners.

Before I started writing fiction, I published two how-to sewing books, SEW…the garment-making book of knowledge and Stress-Free Sewing Solutions: a no-fail guide for the modern sewist.

 

With such a practical background, some members of my family were surprised at the switch from how to put-in-a-zipper to murder and mystery in the fictional (but extremely real to me) community of Gasper’s Cove, Nova Scotia.

 

It is interesting that not one of my sewing, crafty, or creative friends questioned my new direction. For them, as for me, the worlds of making things and solving crimes use parallel skills. The transition from non-fiction to fiction in my world has been seamless.

 

Let me show you what I mean. Let’s profile a typical sewist or crafter who:

· Could probably buy whatever she needs but prefers to make it herself, despite the cost, effort, and occasional frustration. She can’t help herself.

· Is a non-linear thinker, very good at making connections or at seeing potential in things other folks miss. That old sheet you were going to throw out? It’s really a rug, just rip it into 2” strips and get out the loom I happen to have in the basement …

· Never misses a detail. Did you use a twin-needle on that hem?

· Works best, is most creative, when faced with adversity or restrictions. A Depression era Dresden plate quilt?  I rest my case.

· Likes to solve other people’s problems. Your mother-in-law’s here. Where’s the mending?

 

The real question for me is how does anyone write a mystery, particularly a cozy mystery without crafty characters? Obviously, we are all born investigators and detectives.

 

Writing these stories has also given me a place to locate the many bits of interesting information I have picked up in the sewing classes I have taught for more than thirty years. The student whose pastor was a young seaman in a U-boat off the Nova Scotia coast in WWII? The one who looked up a periscope and thought to himself “What a beautiful place. If I ever get out of here alive, that’s where I am going to go and start a new life?”

 

The real crime would be if that bit of shared information was not allowed to inspire a mystery story. And it did. Book four of my Gasper’s Cove Mysteries, due out later this year is called Crafting a Getaway. 

 

A lot of my own life is in my books, too. Once I had a job as a press secretary for a senior political leader. (How I got that job is still a mystery to me.) In that position, I had to travel on the campaign bus during several elections. It was a strange experience that I survived only with the help of the sewing machine I kept hidden in my computer bag. The relationship of a crafty woman in that world gave me the material and the humor of my next release, coming out this month, Crafting with Slander. I had such a good time writing that book.

 

Gasper’s Cove is my own getaway, a place where I go to visit and see what the locals are up to. In addition to the four books so far in the Gasper’s Cove Mysteries, I also published four seasonal novellas in 2023. These are Spring – Panic in the Pansies, Summer – Inspection Deception, Fall- Potions and Notions and Holiday – Last Stitch Effort. I wrote them because I was so in love with some of the minor characters in the larger series that I wanted to have a place to tell their stories, too.

 

The theme of everything I write is that there is nothing ordinary about ordinary people. I would love for you to visit Gasper’s Cove with me. If you do, please drop me a line. I write for my readers.

 

Crafting with Slander

A Gasper’s Cove Mystery, Book 3

 

Corruption, chaos, and murder―Valerie Rankin is faced with a killer as crafty as she is.

 

Valerie Rankin is back in Gasper's Cove as a mayoral election brings chaos to the small town. A corrupt political scheme controls the town, and Valerie's cousin, Darlene, an ex-hairdresser, decides to run for mayor. With the help of Valerie and the Gasper's crafters, the group crafts a successful campaign. However, false rumors quickly spread about Darlene. Valerie moves to confront mayoral opponent Mighty Mike Murphy only to find him dead with one of her own stenciled campaign signs next to his body. Afraid that she or Darlene could be framed for his murder, Valerie must hunt down a killer before it's too late.

 

Preorder (available May 25^th)

#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--A NEW CRAFTING MYSTERY BY AUTHOR BARBARA EMODI

A Lobster Rope Wreath (example of a typical Gasper's Cove craft
 (image courtesy of www.madeinthemaritimes.com)

Barbara Emodi writes sewing and craft-related cozy mysteries based in Nova Scotia, Canada where she lives. She also travels frequently and writes in Austin, Texas and Berkeley, California in the winters. For many years Barbara led a double life. Publicly she was a journalist, radio commentator, government strategist, and public relations professor. In her private life she wrote, sewed, and published two books about garment construction. Often when Barbara sewed, she thought of the people she’d met and the stories she could tell; of the things she knew, and the things she suspected. Crafting for Murder is the first book in her Gasper’s Cover Mystery Series. Learn more about Barbara and her books at her website. 

Barbara’s Story Behind the Story

I have taught sewing classes for many years, and it has always struck me how interesting crafters and sewists are as people. Those who make things are resourceful, independent, and curious—exactly the kind of folks who would try to solve a crime. So, I felt I had the perfect cast of characters in my head to write cozy mysteries.

 

I write about small communities in Nova Scotia which are, by definition, stranger than fiction, anyway, so are they’re the perfect setting for my writing. Interestingly, some of the people and events my editors thought were the most implausible were based on reality. One even wrote to say that maybe I had too many relatives in my stories. I read her email on the way out the door to the wedding of my niece to my son-in-law’s nephew. I had no idea what she was talking about.

As is clear, Valerie and I have a lot in common. We are both empty-nest mothers of three children and we both teach sewing classes. As a result, the scenes where Valerie gets fed up and retreats to her sewing room to regroup and recharge were particularly easy for me to write. However, the central theme of her personal story, of someone who is resilient and determined to make a life for herself in her second act, is inspired by women I have known in the sewing and crafting communities. In the end she does manage to recreate herself just like so many women do. I’m proud of her.

The real Gasper's Cover

These days sewing is a parallel activity to my writing; I often plot while I sew and have my laptop set up behind my machine. My sewing never stops and my extended family, aged three months to ninety-five, keep me busy. I love sewing for them as much as sewing for myself.

 

I have already written the next in the series and have outlined two more. You’re not going to believe what happens next. I almost don’t myself. The Gasper’s Crafters have a lot going on. Was that a treasure from WW II that washed up on the shore? Who double-booked a wedding at the same venue as a crafter’s retreat? Did the signs the crafters made for a municipal election get one of the candidates killed?

 

My plan is to write two longer novels a year and to release some shorter novellas in between, each written from the point of view of one of the secondary characters. I thought this would help readers get to know the whole community better. 

Crafting for Murder 

A Gasper’s Cover Mystery, Book 1

 

Seamstress, crafter, and empty-nester Valerie Rankin has plans to open a crafter’s co-op that will put Gasper’s Cove, Nova Scotia on the tourist guide map. But one month before the opening day photo shoot, she still has to pin down a venue, patch up the family business, iron out corruption in town council, and unravel why anyone who tries to help her ends up dead. It’s a lot, even for a woman who’s used to making something out of nothing. But with the help of her Golden Retriever, an ex-con who loves cats, and a community of first, second, and third cousins, she just might pull it off.

 

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