#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR EMMIE CALDWELL'S KNITTING SLEUTH LIA GEIGER

Today we sit down for a chat with Lia Geiger from mystery author Emmie Caldwell’s (AKA Mary Ellen Hughes) Craft Fair Knitters Mysteries.

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

I was a widowed mom of a young adult daughter, I loved to knit, and my knitting group was and still is a very important part of my life.

 

What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?

I care very much about the people in my life and am ready to help when they need it.

 

What do you like least about yourself?

I tend to worry too much about the problems of those people in my life (maybe poke in their business too much?) which gives me sleepless nights.

 

What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?

She’s actually been pretty good to me, well, except for almost getting me killed by a murderer when I got too close to them. Does that count?

 

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?

When I’ve had a few too many sleepless nights I’ll complain with, “Can’t you simply tell me who did it and save me a lot of trouble?” She just tells me to get to work.

 

What is your greatest fear?

That something terrible might happen to my daughter. It came very close to happening in A Wicked Yarn, so can you blame me?

 

What makes you happy?

Oh, so many things! Being with people I love, knitting a special-order sweater for a client and anticipating her excitement, spending time at the alpaca farm with those super-sweet animals who provide such wonderful yarn.

 

If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?

I would gather together the people who have all these gripes against each other and work on getting them to talk it all out instead of resorting to violence. But that’s one of the things my author and I argue about.

 

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?

Ronna Dickens, the proprietor of Eco Alley, a shop that carries only environmentally safe merchandise, is really difficult to be around. She cares passionately about the environment, which is great! But she alienates so many by the way she goes about promoting her ideas, arguing and insisting instead of explaining and persuading. So counterproductive. 

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?

This might sound a little weird, but I’d often love to trade places with Pete Sullivan. As Crandalsburg’s Police Chief, he has access to scads of resources to help track down a criminal. On the other hand, he can’t always worm out those small but important details from witnesses the way I usually can, things they might think are too unimportant to bother the police with but don’t mind sharing with me. So I might have to rethink that.

 

Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?

My author, Emmie Caldwell, has written four more cozy mystery series besides the Craft Fair Knitters Mysteries under her own name, Mary Ellen Hughes. She’s a national bestselling author who lives in Maryland, where she’s set many of her stories. Her website is http://www.maryellenhughes.com  Emmie’s is http://www.emmiecaldwell.com

 

What's next for you?

Emmie/Mary Ellen is still deciding what to do with me. I’m trembling can’t wait to find out!

 

Knits, Knots, and Knives

A Craft Fair Knitters Mystery, Book 3

 

Lia Geiger and her Ninth Street Knitters have been knitting for the Civil War reenactment being held on the grounds next to the Crandalsburg Craft Fair. It’s all fun and battle games until one of the “injured soldiers” turns out to be the very real victim of a murder, and Lia’s friend and neighbor falls under deep suspicion. Lucky for Lia, she has the combined wits of her knitting friends to help her track down the truth about a very crafty killer.

 

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--A NEW PEN NAME AND A NEW KNITTING MYSTERY SERIES FROM AUTHOR MARY ELLEN HUGHES, AKA EMMIE CALDWELL

Emmie Caldwell is the pen name of Mary Ellen Hughes, national bestselling author of the Keepsake Cove Mysteries, the Pickled and Preserved Mysteries, the Craft Corner Mysteries, the Maggie Olenski Mysteries and now the Craft Fair Knitters Mysteries. Learn more her and her books at her website.  

How a Wicked Yarn Began and Grew

My protagonist of A Wicked Yarn, Lia Geiger, is an expert knitter, as is her long-standing group of friends, the Ninth Street Knitters, whose love of knitting joined them together. Having run out of people to knit for, Lia began running a booth for the group at the Crandalsburg Craft Fair to sell their knits but soon got into more than she bargained for.

 

I created Lia and all the characters in A Wicked Yarn, to tell a mystery story. But I made Lia an excellent knitter as one way for me to also create beautiful knits, but with much more ease and speed, not to mention skill.

 

I learned to knit as a child from my mother, as I’d guess many knitters have. My first attempt at about six, I think, was a scarf, and I do remember it growing wider and wider as it grew longer, which was not my intention. I kept no pictures of that.

 

I got a little better over the years, and when my husband and I were dating and we took up downhill skiing, I decided to knit him a ski sweater. My lack of experience led me choose a beautiful pattern but one that called for a double yarn of worsted and mohair. It took me a while (a subsequent engagement and wedding soaked up a lot of free time – no surprise!) but once I finished, I was delighted to see that it actually fit! Unfortunately, it was quite warm. Quite warm. Perhaps if we were living in Alaska, it might have gotten more use. But Maryland winters led my husband to beg off  wearing it except for a few ice skating sessions, and even then, since the skating rinks were indoors, he suffered.

The sweater has been in a drawer  more than not, since then, and though I did knit a few things for my children over the years, writing gradually took over my creative time.

 

Enter A Wicked Yarn. It’s always important for authors to know what they’re writing about, so when Lia got a commission for an alpaca sweater, I wanted to know all about alpaca yarn. The best way for me was to visit an alpaca farm, one where they bred alpacas, sheared their fleece, and turned it into yarn, all on the premises.

 

What a delight! Alpacas are absolutely wonderful animals – friendly, curious, and fuzzy. At the Painted Sky Alpaca farm in Maryland, they were well cared for and loved. After I spent time with many of the alpacas, the owners walked me through the process of washing and spinning alpaca fleece into yarn, some of which was then dyed, and some left in their natural colors.

 

After my time at Painted Sky, I wrote an alpaca farm into the plot of A Wicked Yarn, because why not? If I enjoyed my visit so much, I think my readers will too!

 

Of course, since it’s a mystery, I also slipped in a murder or two, and plenty of danger. But rest assured, no alpacas are harmed. My knitter? Well, it’d be telling too much to share what happens to her. But the mystery does get knotty, and Lia’s investigation grows a bit tangled for a while. But it all knits up in the end, knitters, craft fairs, alpacas, and all. A Wicked Yarn is, after all, a cozy mystery, perhaps as warm and cozy as an alpaca sweater, which was my goal. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

 

A Wicked Yarn:

A Craft Fair Knitters Mystery, Book 1

 

Mother's Day should be a cinch for the good folks of the Crandalsburg Craft Fair, and knitting enthusiast Lia Geiger has a good feeling about this year's yield. But things quickly get knotty when Lia's daughter announces she's quit her job and Lia finds herself tangled up in the murder of her best friend's ex-husband. While Belinda's alibi quickly gets her off the hook, nasty rumors spread throughout Crandalsburg that shroud the entire fair in suspicion.

 

Could the vendors be responsible for the murder of a man hell-bent on unraveling the fair just days before his death? Lia and her crafty group of Ninth Street Knitters must put down their needles to gather clues and save the crafting community they've grown to love

 

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MYSTERY AUTHOR MARY ELLEN HUGHES TALKS ABOUT CREATING A FICTITIOUS TOWN ON MARYLAND'S EASTERN SHORE

Mary Ellen Hughes is the bestselling author of the Pickled and Preserved Mysteries, the Craft Corner Mysteries, the Maggie Olenski Mysteries, and the Keepsake Cove Mysteries. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

The Significance of Setting

How important is setting in a book? A lot. If your protagonist is number one, to my mind setting is a close number two, especially in a cozy mystery, the kind I write.

 Cozy mysteries are usually set in a small town, or at least in a city neighborhood where everyone knows each other.  I’ve chosen to create fictional towns for my mysteries, and I do it carefully, knowing that what I create will affect my entire story.

In my latest series, the Keepsake Cove Mysteries, I put my town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, an area that developed differently than the rest of the state because of its location. For many years, it was reachable mostly by boat by anyone on the western side of the bay. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge eventually changed that, but the culture that developed over three centuries remained to a large degree.

I built my fictional Keepsake Cove within easy reach of the bay bridge and not far from the historic town of Cambridge, in an area that Harriet Tubman’s underground railroad wound through in the nineteenth century, a fact that I worked into A Vintage Death.

The development of Ocean City on the coast brought droves of vacationers across the Eastern Shore to its beaches. When they’re not swimming or sunning, tourists love to shop, so small businesses, of course, sprang up. Though no town exactly like Keepsake Cove existed, it seemed quite possible that it could. So I created it and filled my town with shops that specialized in one or another kind of collectible, making it a popular stop for vacationers as well as collectors.

That setting was important to my protagonist, Callie Reed, whose life was changed (in A Fatal Collection) by the sudden death of her aunt, who owned a collectible music box shop in Keepsake Cove. When Callie inherited the shop along with her aunt’s little cottage, it gave her the push to break off a stale relationship and start a new life, as well as investigate the true cause of her aunt’s death.

In A Vintage Death, Callie was pulled into circumstances surrounding the death of a local B&B owner. This brought in more history of the Eastern Shore, which, I felt, added to the murder investigation.

Would my story have been different set anywhere else? Absolutely. Just as one character is affected by another, where they are impacts their decisions and what they are able to do. It can also add interest and color.

A side advantage is that the author—in this case, me—has a good excuse for fun excursions we refer to as ‘research.’ Spending a pleasant day learning about a lesser-known part of your state, camera in hand and meeting new people can be a wonderful break from sitting at your computer, and it only takes a day when your story’s location is nearby.

On the other hand, setting a book a bit farther away, like, say, Hawaii, might be a great idea, too. For the mystery possibilities, of course, not (cough, cough) necessarily for the ‘research.’

I think, though, with a little effort, I could deal with that side, too. We authors can rough it a little, when we have to.

A Vintage Death

A Keepsake Cove Mystery, Book 2

As the new owner of a music box store in Keepsake Cove, a quaint town full of collectible shops on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Callie Reed is eager to get more involved in her community. So she volunteers to plan the fall street decorations and welcome a visiting author who's come for a special book signing. But the celebratory mood is cut short when the local B&B owner is found dead, killed with a pair of vintage scissors.

Suspicion is cast on the victim's estranged wife, Dorothy, who owns Keepsake Cove's vintage sewing shop. Callie is sure Dorothy is innocent, and the visiting author agrees. Together, they begin their own investigation, only to discover that many people in Keepsake Cove have secrets. Secrets that are worth killing to keep.

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--INTERVIEW WITH COZY MYSTERY AUTHOR MARY ELLEN HUGHES

Today we sit down for an interview with cozy mystery author Mary Ellen Hughes. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

When did you realize you wanted to write novels?

After writing a few short stories, I realized I wanted to write longer, more in-depth stories.

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?

About five years after my first short story was published.

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?

Traditionally published, but I’ve reissued earlier books that I regained the rights to.

Where do you write?

Upstairs in a spare room, next to a window where I can watch the seasons change as the book progresses.

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

Definitely silence. I enjoy music too much to be able to ignore it.

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

I don’t write “ripped from the headlines” plots, but since I also don’t write science fiction, some things have to come from real life, just hopefully with added drama and twists.

An inspiration for my Keepsake Cove series came from something that happened to friends. They had bought an 18^th century house, and as they moved in, they were greeted by the faint sound of music. They tracked it to a music box, found locked inside a roll-top desk. How it got wound up or turned on, they had no idea.

In A Fatal Collection and A Vintage Death, my protagonist, Callie, seems to get messages through a family heirloom music box that plays on its own at critical times. Warnings? Confirmations of clues? Callie is never 100% sure.

Describe your process for naming your character?

I’ll search through baby-naming books and also the Social Security list of popular names by decade to find the perfect name for a character. If she’s 60-something, she probably shouldn’t be named Ashley, and a teenager is unlikely to be named Hilda. I also avoid having names start with the same letter, which tends to confuse the reader.

Real settings or fictional towns?

I create fictional towns, but place them within reach of real cities.

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?

Tabitha, the part-time assistant in the music box shop, has a thing for dressing, um, creatively. She might show up to work looking like a 1940s Joan Crawford or Wonder Woman’s alterego, Diana Prince. Luckily, Callie’s music box customers enjoy it.

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

I don’t think I have any, but since we all think of ourselves as normal and everyone else as a little odd, I’m probably not the best one to ask.

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?

Ohhh, so many. But more recently, I would love to have written the Harry Potter books or Stephen King’s 11/22/63 about the time traveler who tries to stop the Kennedy assassination. Such impressive imagination in both!

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?

I might have majored in English instead of science, which might have led to writing much sooner.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

In the grammar category, the increasing misuse of “I” in sentences, as in, “He gave directions to Harry and I.” (shudder)

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?

Assuming I have food, water, and shelter, I’d require a cell tower, iPad, and a solar-powered charger (if that exists.)

What was the worst job you’ve ever held?

Believe it or not, it was in a bookstore (a now-extinct chain.) I thought it would be wonderful to be surrounded by books, but I was usually too busy to open them!

What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

That changes from month to month as I enjoy one good book after another.

Ocean or mountains?

Probably mountains.

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

Country (but with a city within reach.)

What’s on the horizon for you?

I’m currently polishing A Curio Killing, the third book in the Keepsake Cove series.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?

Just that it’s been an amazing ride, having ten books published with the eleventh on the verge. It’s hard work, but for me, the best job in the world. And hearing from a reader who’s enjoyed them or getting a positive customer review is absolutely the icing on the cake.

A Vintage Death

A Keepsake Cove Mystery, Book 2

As the new owner of a music box store in Keepsake Cove, a quaint town full of collectible shops on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Callie Reed is eager to get more involved in her community. So she volunteers to plan the fall street decorations and welcome a visiting author who's come for a special book signing. But the celebratory mood is cut short when the local B&B owner is found dead, killed with a pair of vintage scissors.

Suspicion is cast on the victim's estranged wife, Dorothy, who owns Keepsake Cove's vintage sewing shop. Callie is sure Dorothy is innocent, and the visiting author agrees. Together, they begin their own investigation, only to discover that many people in Keepsake Cove have secrets. Secrets that are worth killing to keep.

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#DECORATING WITH GUEST AUTHOR MARY ELLEN HUGHES

Mary Ellen Hughes is the national bestselling author of the Pickled and Preserved Mystery series and the Craft Corner Mysteries. Learn more about her and her books at her website.  Today Mary Ellen’s latest amateur sleuth, Piper Lamb, joins us.

Unexpected Perks of Decorating

Hi! Piper Lamb, here, proprietor of Piper’s Picklings, the shop in upstate New York that I opened after breaking off my going-nowhere engagement with Scott.

I love my little shop, where I make and sell all kinds of pickles, along with the spices and equipment for making your own. The first year, I was pretty busy just getting my new business off the ground and wasn’t too concerned with decorating. But when Ralph Strawbridge, who happens to be a master carpenter, saw the deteriorating condition of my front door, he offered to replace it with a hand-carved door.

At first, I hesitated, wondering if I could afford that. But then he gave me a too-good-to-pass-up price quote, so I jumped at it.

Ralph’s inspiration was the beautiful plaque Scott sent me from Thailand as he traveled the world to “find himself.” Though I loved the plaque, which was carved with all the vegetables and fruits that I pickle and preserve, I was also pretty annoyed because sending me such a great gift meant he was ignoring the fact that we were no longer a couple. Eventually, though, I hung the plaque up in the shop, where Ralph spotted it.

Ralph did an amazing job duplicating the carvings on his door. Once it was in place, crowds actually gathered to ooh and ahh over it. I was so delighted that we decided to hold a “grand opening” for the door, and we put together a celebration at the shop for the next night.

The party was great fun, despite the sound of nearby sirens, which, we learned the next day were due to a murder. Unfortunately, the immediate suspect was Zach, the college-aged son of Sugar, an amazing caterer who is also my good friend. How could I say no to her plea for help when Zach was on the verge of being charged for murder?

Ralph, besides being such an outstanding carpenter, showed a whole other side of himself by jumping in and coming up with great leads for other suspects, as well as giving Sugar much needed support. This led Sugar, who I think had been vastly underestimating Ralph, to see him with fresh eyes.

Yes, that carved door led to many things beyond being a lovely entrance into my shop. But isn’t that often the way with decorative art? What seemed at first like a small change—hanging a new plaque on the wall—led to an amazing new door, which brought people together who solved a murder and prevented a terrible injustice, not to mention the beginnings of a new romance!

The impact of that one plaque could hardly be predicted, but you might want to look around at your walls, or floors, or furniture and think about what might be worth a tweak or two. Hopefully there’ll be no murders to worry about (unless wallpaper is involved, LOL), but a small change in décor might do wonders for your life. I’d say go for it!

Scene of the Brine

Piper Lamb has to take a break from jarring her delicious pickles and preserves to blow the lid off a poisoner....

Business is booming at Piper’s Picklings in Cloverdale, New York. But not all is sweet in the life of Piper’s number one customer and friend, local caterer Sugar Heywood. Sugar is dating wealthy realtor Jeremy Porter, but his family doesn’t approve. After their unscrupulous accountant finds some dirt on Sugar, the family quickly urges Jeremy to throw her out like rotten fruit.

Things are further spoiled after the accountant is found poisoned, and all evidence points to Sugar’s son, Zach. With the Porter family determined to avoid scandal, it won’t be easy for Piper to preserve Zach’s innocence. And after someone falls victim to a poisoned jar of some of her brandied cherries, Piper’s got a peck of trouble to deal with herself…

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COOKING WITH CLORIS--PICKLING WITH GUEST AUTHOR MARY ELLEN HUGHES

Mary Ellen Hughes, author of the Craft Corner mysteries, begins her new Pickled and Preserved mystery series with The Pickled Piper. The series is set in a small, upstate New York town, surrounded by farms that provide nearly all the vegetables and fruits one could want to pickle and preserve. Learn more about Mary Ellen and her books at her website. 

Piper Lamb learned a lot about pickling in her Aunt Judy’s kitchen during the many childhood summers she spent at Aunt Judy and Uncle Frank’s farm near Cloverdale, New York. So when her long-time fiancé decided he needed a trip around the world to “find himself,” Piper decided she’d had enough of waiting around and living life as Scott liked it. She ended the engagement and picked up roots, leaving an unfulfilling job in Albany to pursue something she’d always secretly dreamed of: owning her own pickling shop.

She set up Piper’s Picklings in Cloverdale, which offered everything one needed for canning, pickling and preserving, plus plenty of jars of her own home-made pickles and jams made from a huge variety of vegetables and fruits.

When Piper took a booth at the Cloverdale fair to show off her wares, her pickles practically flew off the shelves. Many fair goers never knew the amazing number of ways you could pickle or preserve things, like making salsa out of peaches and cilantro. This unusual salsa is great not only for dipping into with tortilla chips but also good with grilled pork or fish. Give it a try!

           

Peach and Cilantro Salsa

5 pounds ripe peaches, peeled, pitted and diced (about 9 cups)

½ cup fresh lime juice

1 cup diced sweet onion

½ cup diced red bell pepper

2 tablespoons minced seeded serrano chiles

4 to 6 tablespoons sugar (to taste)

4 teaspoons kosher salt

¼ cup cider vinegar (5% acidity)

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

Mix all ingredients except cilantro and mint in a 6-8 quart preserving pan. Bring to a boil, then simmer at low heat until the peaches are soft and the onion is tender—about 30 minutes. Stir in the cilantro and mint.

Into prepared, hot canning jars, ladle the hot salsa, leaving ¼ inch headspace at the top. Wipe the rims and put a flat lid and ring on each, tightening to finger tight.

Process the jars for 10 minutes in boiling water, then let sit on a towel, undisturbed, for 12 hours, checking after the first hour that the lids have sealed. If they can be pushed down, they haven’t sealed and the jar should be refrigerated. Otherwise, label and store, then enjoy them at your next party!

The Pickled Piper

After her dreams of romance are crushed, Piper Lamb decides to pursue her dream of opening her own shop of pickles and preserves, called Piper’s Picklings, in the idyllic small town of Cloverdale. But she isn’t in town long before she encounters a barrelful of trouble…

The Cloverdale fair offers Piper a sweet opportunity to promote her business. With her new assistant, Amy, she sets up a booth centered around an eye-catching display of the ever-popular dills in an old-fashioned barrel of brine.

 

 But things soon turn sour when fairgoers witness a fight between Amy’s boyfriend, Nate, and town council blowhard—and bagpipe player—Alan Rosemont. When Rosemont is found floating in Piper’s barrel, Nate becomes the prime murder suspect. With Amy’s boyfriend in a pretty pickle, there’s no time to dillydally. But as Piper searches for the real killer, she needs to be careful to preserve her own life…or she may end up a pickled Piper herself.

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