Pat (Patricia) Stoltey is the author of
four novels. She lives in Northern Colorado with her husband Bill, Sassy Dog,
and Katie Cat. Learn more about Pat at her website/blog.
Wishing
Caswell Dead is Not a Cozy
The characters in my new novel are
about as un-cozy a bunch as you’d ever want to meet. Or not want to meet, to be
more precise.
I created a little fictitious
village called Sangamon that sits on a river in east central Illinois in
1833-1834. Young Jo Mae Proud lives there in a run-down log cabin with a
down-on-her-luck mother and much-older half-brother Caswell. I gave Jo Mae a
monumental challenge, then surrounded her with flawed, not-so-nice adults. Bad
things happen to Jo Mae along the way. The worst character in the book,
Caswell, is murdered. But we know there’s always good to be found, even when
evil seems to rule the times. Jo Mae finds the good in the old Kickapoo Indian
named Fish and escapes Sangamon in search of a better life.
Bringing a story like this to Killer
Crafts & Crafty Killers might seem odd, but during my research, I found
mention of so many early American crafts. The big loom that appears in one home
in the story is something I saw in a museum.
Jo Mae’s home had not so much as
a needle or even a bar of soap, and her best dress was fashioned from a printed
feed sack. How many of you are even old enough to remember what those old feed
sacks printed with tiny flowers looked like?
No fancy cooking went on in the
Proud household. Boiling a small piece of meat or fish with vegetables was the
best Jo Mae’s mother could do. When Jo Mae goes to live with the old Kickapoo
Indian in his camp by the river, she learns a little more about eating good
food. She also learns not to throw a handful of dried apples into the stew. The
apples were windfalls…and they were wormy. Once tossed into the cookpot, the
worms floated to the top, a very unappetizing sight.
Drying foods is a good way to
preserve an overabundance of fruits or vegetables in today’s world, too. I’d
recommend not using wormy apples. Slice them very thin (as with a mandolin, if
you dare), and dry them in your oven. There are directions online for the
process as well as recipes for using the dried fruits.
When researching this type of
information for Wishing Caswell Dead,
I visited the Museum of the Grand Prairie in Mahomet, Illinois. There was a wealth of information,
including hand-quilted goods and needlework, tools, machines, and items used in
homes and for cooking. I was most interested in quilting, something I’d like to
try for myself one of these days.
I have an antique quilt that I’m
afraid to display for fear it will be damaged in some way, especially as I have
a cat with claws and a dog who loves to cuddle into cozy blankets. At present,
I take the quilt out from time to time and refold or roll it to avoid permanent
creases. The quilt came from Illinois originally and its age was authenticated
by the Illinois State Museum. It’s not quite as old as the quilts that
characters in the Village of Sangamon would use, but it’s certainly
representative of the style and design of those times.
I’d love to know if any of you
are expert quilters, and if you quilt by hand or by sewing machine. Any weavers
with a loom at home? What about cooks who dry fruits and veggies for use later?
I won’t pretend Wishing Caswell Dead is full of
killer crafts, but that historical period offers excellent ideas for today’s
crafty reader looking for new projects…or for the crafty cozy writer looking
for new plots and characters.
Wishing
Caswell Dead:
In the early 1800s in a village on the
Illinois frontier, young Jo Mae Proud wishes her cruel brother dead. Forced
into prostitution by Caswell, Jo Mae discovers she is pregnant and vows to
escape. When Caswell is injured by a near lightning hit, he becomes more
dangerous, and more hated. The flawed residents of the Village of Sangamon
harbor many secrets. Caswell knows them all. Will he tell? Jo Mae runs away and
eventually finds shelter with Fish, the old Kickapoo Indian who camps by the
river. Wishing Caswell Dead
is an historical mystery about the evil that hides within a village, one girl
who is determined to save herself and her child, and a violent murder no one
wants to solve.
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