Lea Wait's Blog

Why Write Short Stories? Lessons from the Maine Crime Wave

A few weeks ago, my friend and fellow Maine writer Rebecca Turkewitz and I co-facilitated a roundtable discussion on short stories with other crime writers at the Maine Crime Wave. It was a fantastic chance to talk craft. (If you haven’t read Rebecca’s exceptional collection, Here in the Night, please check it out.)

I wanted to share some of the essential tips I’ve picked up along the way.

Why short stories?

Subtext. The short form allows writers to go deep, fast. For example, in my story “For Laura,” I focused on trimming out as much as possible, leaving the characters on the cusp of a tragedy they can do nothing to stop. But so much of suspense is what is left off the page, it’s the quiet between the sentences. The best writing allows for many interpretations, motives, and meanings.

The art of a the twist. Truly exceptional short story writers master the twist. I compare it to a magician’s sleight of hand: the twist should never be entirely unexpected. The great writers line the road with breadcrumbs; readers know something is coming. Twists with no crumbs feel undeserved, and too many crumbs make the plot predictable. In my flash piece, “Lubbock to El Paso” (available October 15th), I sprinkled small omens along the way to earn the ending in under 680 words.

Experimentation. Short stories offer a low-stakes environment for risk-taking that is difficult in a full-length novel. You can try a second-person POV, explore deeper, darker themes, and test ideas without committing to a massive time investment. This frees writers up to be truly innovative.

What resources are out there?

Short Mystery Fiction Society (SMFS): This free, fantastic listserv is where over a thousand of short story writers share calls for submission, market news, craft questions, and encouragement. SMFS also sponsors the Derringer Awards.Reach Out to Authors: Did you read a short story you loved? Email the author! When I started out, I tracked down three of my favorite writers and received outstanding advice and encouragement.Share what you love on social media and with friends: Take a minute to showcase what you’re enjoying. Write the reviews. Show up for book events. This writing stuff is hard. It means a lot when people shout out the good that they are reading.

Where can I find a market?

When you join the SMFS, you get access to a comprehensive market list. Below are my personal favorites. (Full disclosure: my list skews toward dark, ambiguous, and literary crime fiction. Always check the submission requirements and read what the publication is putting out to get a sense of their distinct vibe.)

1.) Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (EQMM): A gift to the genre. They published my first story and invest in new voices. Highly regarded and competitive, they pay professional rates. Response time is typically 3–4 months.

2.) Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (AHMM): A sibling publication to EQMM and a guaranteed good read. The editor reads every story, so the response time is longer—twelve months plus—but they pay professional rates.

3) Rock and a Hard Place (RHP): Great for noir and dark literary fiction (my go-to for edgy pieces). They take risks and produce interesting collections. Standard pay is $25 per story.

4.) Dark Yonder  Focused on Neo-noir; they look for tightly written, deeply subversive, and unsettling stories. Pays $50 per story.

5.) Shotgun Honey Excellent small publisher for flash fiction (1,000 words or less) and unexpected themed anthologies. This is an online publication and offers $15 per story.

6.) Dark Waters Anthology (Annual): A podcasting duo that runs an annual call. Pay is $25. The call for submissions opens in the summer.

7.) Crime Spell Books (Annual): Publishes The Best New England Crime Writing anthologies. Pay is $25, and accepted authors are eligible for the Al Blanchard Award (which comes with a $250 cash prize). Calls for submission open in January

My latest stories:

In Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (September/October issue): My story, “A Hard Night’s Sleep,” explores a mother’s attempt to host a peaceful Thanksgiving, disrupted by her husband’s worsening condition and family resentment. The evening culminates in an act of violence that shatters the fragile world she was trying to protect.

 

In Snakeberry: The Best New England Crime Writing: My story, “Money Well-Spent,” introduces Sloane, a cynical private investigator whose vacation is derailed by a blizzard and a troubled young woman. Sloane will reappear early next year in “The Best and Sweetest Things” in EQMM.

 

New story up on Shotgun Honey on 10/15. Check it out online on Wednesday (10/15) HERE.

Upcoming Events:

Stay well, and we’ll connect again in November.

Gabi

Vaughn C. Hardacker

This is the third post on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and I will conclude with how Google ranks webpages. As I’ve stated before, Google controls 90% of the search market. Therefore, if we are going to use SEO, it only makes sense that we see how Google Ranks Pages. I a previous blog I mentioned that there are two ranking factores, On Page and Off Page. This is not entirely true; there are three:

Off-page. These are being measured by Google elsewhere from your site and primarily involve backlinks.On-Page. These are mainly related to the keywords and informational quality of your pages.Technical. These are also measured on-site, but have more to do with the overall performance of the site as a whole, as opposed to individual pages.

We now have the foundation. Let’s look a bit deeper.

Top 10 Google Ranking Factors 

For search engines to crawl and index your web page correctly, certain core technical elements or factors must work seamlessly. These are the back-end building blocks that make up your site so it will function the way it should.

Technical Ranking Factors: Deal with the website as a whole.Site and page speed. No one likes to wait for a slow page to load. whether on your phone or computer. How patient are you? If it aggravates you, it will make many searchers go elsewhere. Google agrees with the searcher on this. If your page is slow, your bounce rate will increase, a big no-no for Google. Your ranking will sink like the Titanic. There are tools to help improve page speed. Among these are GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights (both are free), which provide valuable insights into site speed, allowing for easy optimization.Usability on mobile. Even if your website is top-of-the-line on computers, but you have a subpar mobile version, your ranking will take a significant hit. Therefore, it is essential to preview both platforms before going live. This is important because Google uses mobile-first indexing when crawling websites. Ensure your hosting platform (i.e., WordPress or Wix) has built-in features that allow you to preview your website before publishing. You can also use a free mobile usability testing tool, such as Google Mobile-Friendly Test, to ensure everything is okay. Internal links. In my previous blog, I spoke about including links on your site. Why should you? For search engines to do a good job of crawling and indexing your pages, they need to follow links wherever they may lead. The links on your page help them analyze and properly index your pages. Internal links are the hyperlinks you place on your pages to link to other pages on your site. Proper linking is a huge benefit to your site. To do this, you should use topic clusters. This is when you create content around a specific umbrella pillow (think genealogy chart) and link each to the others in the cluster. For instance, think of a genealogical chart. The topic cluster would be family surname, and the pillow would represent the 1st generation, followed by 2nd to 3rd, and so on. This keeps your links tightly organized … Google and other search engines love this.On-Page Ranking Factors: Are page-specific Keyword Targeting. Keywords are the backbone of an efficient SEO strategy. All content and articles should revolve around these search phrases. These keywords become the clusters mentioned above. You need to find at least four to five related keywords and group them into clusters. Caution: Add these keywords or phrases. Do not stuff them just because you want to rank. Google is smarter now, and your site will drop in ranking.Title and Header Tags. Once you have identified the keywords you want to rank for, it is essential to insert them in specific places on your page, such as the title and header tags. Search engines use these tags to determine the content of the page and index it accordingly. The title tag is what is displayed prominently in the search results pages.Meta Description. A short description that appears on SERPs under your page title. They are part of the HTML of your pages. They do not appear on the front of your pages and are not visible to site visitors.Image alt-text. Images on your site have SEO value attached to them via alt-text. This description serves to illustrate the image and fulfills several purposes. (a) It makes your website accessible to visually impaired readers who rely on screen readers to browse the internet. (b) If your image fails to load, the alt-text will appear in its place. (c) It helps search engines to understand the image and index it properly.URL structure. An ugly URL is not appealing to people or search engines. Ensure your URL is well-structured to appear visually appealing.                                          Poorly structured URL: http://www.website.com/us.php?id=03736&edit=1            Properly structured URL: http://www.website.com/blog/google-ranking-factors

Information quality. Quality should be above par. You need to update outdated content on your site. Quality content provides enough detail to answer all your visitors’ questions in a way that leaves them satisfied. Don’t forget that Google values both freshness and accuracy when determining rankings.

Off-Page Ranking Factors: Rankings outside your website, such as social media platforms, influencers, and other websites.Backlinks. These are hyperlinks that contain pages from outside. Part of SEO is building trust, and when other websites link to you, it shows Google that you are a trusted source. This improves your credibility and ranking. Therefore, the pages linking to you must also be high quality.

 Question of the day. “How do you get backlinks?”

Answer: Four ways.

Quality Content. To earn backlinks, your content must be high quality. If your site generates numerous backlinks, this will help increase your authority, which is a signal to Google that you are a reputable source, resulting in a better ranking.Cold Outreach. You reach out to other webmasters and ask them to link to your content. You must provide value and demonstrate the value you offer. What they link to must complement what they already have or be better than,Guest Posts. Write content for other websites, and they agree to leave a link back to your site or content on the bio section of the page. As always, we only offer high-quality products.Thought Leadership Content. A growing number of marketers are recognizing the value of thought leadership backlink building. There are two parts to this strategy. (a) Identify opportunities to get featured on podcasts, webinars, or other forms of media. (b) Create data-driven content that generates links naturally.

NOTE: It’s essential to recognize that there is no single factor that will make or break your SEO. It’s the combination of all your technical, on-page, and off-page efforts that work together to build an SEO-friendly website.

In closing. If nothing else, I hope this series of blogs has illustrated what an effective website is from an SEO perspective (as well as explaining why it costs what it does to have a Great webpage designer build your page). To quote an old IT saying: GI-GO. “Garbage In-Garbage Out. Doing it right will pay off.

As we approach the busiest time of my year, I will not be posting again until after January 1. I am highly active in veterans’ issues (Commandant of the northern most Marine Corps League detachment in the country, life member of three vetran groups–VFW, DAV, & MCL, Maine Veteran Cemetery Committee, and founder and chair of the Aroostook Veterans Advocacy Committee) and we have Veterans’ Day as well as some group specific events coming up in November and December

I am currently working on the rewrite of the third installment of my Houston & Bouchard series (my editor is awaiting the final draft), in addition to a number of upcoming events and appearances, as well as the holiday season. I have to back away for a while.

If anyone is interested in adding backlinks between your website and mine, contact me via my page: https://vaughnhardacker.com. I’ve already spoken with my web designer, Melissa Gerety (who I highly recommend), and she has informed me that it is not a significant thing to add a links page. All I need to do is send the links. So, send in those links, People!

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Vaughn Hardacker (Monday), Gabi Stiteler (Tuesday), Rob Kelley (Thursday), and Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

Kate Flora is hitting another bookstore:

 

 

Matt Cost will be joining a motley crew of Maine’s mystery, thriller, and true crime storytellers on October 17th at 7 PM in Bangor. Come check out a Night of Noir at BookSpace at 48 Columbia in Bangor.

 

 

 

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business, along with the very popular “Making a Mystery” with audience participation, and “Casting Call: How We Staff Our Mysteries.” We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora

I am a prolific word counter. Yes, I’m a bit obsessed with how many words I’m writing at any given point during my novel-writing process. How did this weird compulsion to be?

Writing a novel is akin to running a marathon. A runner constantly check their time, pace and miles. Or maybe a better analogy would be like building wealth. Sure, you could spend all your money trying to hit the lottery. Or betting your life savings on the roulette wheel. But wouldn’t it be better to save some money every week and invest it? Build wealth instead of trying to make a big score? Of course the big score is sexier and more cinematic. But remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? Slow and steady sometimes wins the race, especially when it comes to writing. And how many of us can write a novel in a day? Or a week? Unless you’re Jack Kerouac writing On The Road on a 120-foot-long scroll of tracing paper.

I often wonder how people back in the day wrote without that little word count box on the right corner of the screen, keeping them in check. I did at one time, oblivious to the ways in which those numbers mattered. Now those numbers ground me, and speak to me about my daily progress. Often, I have to grind out a certain number each day, and I don’t stop until I’ve reached it.

People marvel when I tell them I’ve finished a novel. They often say that they could never achieve such a feat. Admittedly, it is difficult. But then I think about what they’ve said from their perspective. They look at a novel in its entirety, seeing it as singular, monolithic achievement. And it is, to a degree. But writers view that novel differently. Or at least I do. I see the novel as a series of word-building blocks stacked high. Like Legos. Blocks of words arduously formed into sentences. Blocks of sentences arduously formed into paragraphs. Blocks of paragraphs arduously formed into chapters. You get the point.

People say it’s too hard to write a novel. I tell them that if they wrote five hundred words every day for five months they would have a working first draft. An hour each day. An hour of discipline and a dash of inspiration. Sometimes it’s hard to teach the grind, but the grind is all I know as a writer. Not sure creative writing departments teach the grind, and that’s the hardest trait to develop. Grind. Never give up. Keep sitting in that chair and pushing out the words. And that’s where word counting helps me out.

I used to make myself write thirteen hundred words a day come rain or shine. If I wrote beyond that I could bank the extras for a rainy day. Or take a day off. If I didn’t meet my goal, I would have to write more words the next day to make up for the deficit. Couldn’t steal words from someone else.

In this day and age of literary austerity, managing word count matters for a novelist. The days of writing nine hundred page novels are a thing of the past, especially for crime writers. A workable word count for a mystery/crime novel is anywhere between 80,000 to 100,00 thousand words. Publishers have to manage paper costs, as well as cater to the demands of readers who have shorter attention spans. Thus, the need to keep an eye on that little box on the top left corner of the screen is imperative.

I could go on and on about this seemingly mundane subject. It’s not just good enough to be a writer these days. One needs to be an accountant of words. A CPA of literature. A story auditor. Bookkeeper of ideas. Words matter in this business, but so do numbers. Keeping track of them could be the difference between getting published and a rejection letter. So watch your words, brother. Numbers don’t lie, sister. Do the right thing and watch your word count.

I am a prolific word counter. Yes, I’m a bit obsessed with how many words I’m writing at any given point during my novel-writing process. How did this weird compulsion to be?

Writing a novel is akin to running a marathon. A runner constantly check their time, pace and miles. Or maybe a better analogy would be like building wealth. Sure, you could spend all your money trying to hit the lottery. Or betting your life savings on the roulette wheel. But wouldn’t it be better to save some money every week and invest it? Build wealth instead of trying to make a big score? Of course the big score is sexier and more cinematic. But remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? Slow and steady sometimes wins the race, especially when it comes to writing. And how many of us can write a novel in a day? Or a week? Unless you’re Jack Kerouac writing On The Road on a 120-foot-long scroll of tracing paper.

John Clark inviting you to join us on Sunday, October 19th at 1 PM (the Saturday Night show is already sold out.) What are we inviting you to? Nosh & Knock Off 2025, an immersive mystery event. This year’s play is called Dead As A Doormouse.

You shouldda kept quiet!

Nosh and Knock Off began some ten years ago as a combined acting opportunity for local talent in the Waterville area, and fundraiser for the Waterville Public Library. COVID-19 sent it on hiatus until last fall. As a member of the library board, I got involved in fundraising from local businesses and then setting up the day of the show. Little did I know how much fan Beth and I would have.

I couldn’t keep quiet!

The play takes place in the library, complete with culinary delights and libations for those 21+. We’re adding a 50/50 raffle this year. Those in attendance are right in the middle of a mystery with actors seemingly coming out of the crowd unexpectedly. Everyone is encouraged to figure out who the killer might be.

Who Dunnit?

Last year the library was turned into a speakeasy with the victim dying while giving a speech at the very beginning of the play. You could tell everyone in attendance was really getting into it. I expect the same will be the case this year. I am looking forward to having another fun evening while putting my sleuthing skills to work. Sunday tickets are $50 and can be purchased at wplnosh25.eventbrite.com

Hope to see some blog readers join us.

Barbara Ross, Jule Selbo, Nicole Asselin, Gabi Stiteler, Jules O’Brien and Matt Cost engaged in a round of “Ask Me Anything” at the Maine Crime Wave.

Since the Crime Wave rolled through Maine last week, I’ve thought a lot about how fortunate we are to have this amazing crime writing community.

Julie Spencer-Fleming, Bruce Coffin, Paul Doiron and me during “Ask Me Anything.”

Events like the Wave bring us together to talk and laugh, read and commiserate. Writers from other places are amazed by the degree of friendship and support we share. It’s a bond to be celebrated.

The readers at Noir @ The Bar, from left, Katie York, Kate Flora, Chris Holm, Barbara Ross, Jule Selbo, Bruce Coffin, Matt Cost, Paul Doiron and me, with Gabi Stiteler, who was the moving force behind organizing the Friday night event, in front.

This year, Friday night featured readings at a Noir @ The Bar held at the Congress Street venue Novel.

Jule Selbo

Matt Cost

With Jule Selbo and Matt Cost acting as emcees, a packed house heard nine Maine crime writers read five-minute passages from their work. In between the readings there were trivia questions (with fabulous prizes) and plenty of schmoozing in the audience.

It was the perfect first course for the weekend feast of everything crime writing.  In a break with convention, the Crime Wave organizing committee decided this year to move away from panel discussions in favor of roundtable discussions on various topics.

This resulted in active, enthusiastic interaction at every stage of the conference, from informal chats in the library at Mechanic’s Hall to substantive discussions about craft and the writing biz.

The lunchtime interview featured two of Maine’s most well-known crime writers, Julia Spencer-Fleming’s and Paul Doiron.

As the day’s Guest of Honor, Paul Doiron was interviewed during the lunch hour by Julia Spencer-Fleming. Their talk about finding one’s way as a writer was leavened with humor and warmth.

Mary Squibb, a/k/a Sarah Graves, joined us remotely from her home in Eastport to accept the Lea Wait Award.

Mary Squibb, known to her legions of readers as Sarah Graves, writer of the Home Repair is Homicide series, the Lizzie Snow series and the current Death by Chocolate series, was the gracious recipient of the annual award that honors our late sister Lea Wait, who may be gone but will never be forgotten.

A mega panel at the end of the day gathered a dozen writers for a round of “Ask Me Anything,” where everyone razzed Paul Doiron and Matt Cost admitted that if he could be any other writer on the panel, he’d be Chris Holm, and provided specific and hilarious reasons why.

Matt Cost confessing he dreams of being Chris Holm.

 

Kate Flora, one of the most consistent forces who has nurtured the Maine crime writing community.

This community was built over the years by many people and institutions.

This blog, which Kate Flora and Kathy Lynn Emerson founded oh so many years ago, is a big part of that. The Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, which sponsors Crime Wave, is another.

Of course our crime writing community grows out of the rich literary world here in Maine, and thanks are owed to MWPA, its director Gibson Fay-LeBlanc and the rest of the staff, for appreciating and backing the need for an annual gathering of the crime writer tribe.

(Credit for all of the photos to Diane Kenty!)

Brenda Buchanan sets her novels in and around Portland. Her three-book Joe Gale series features a contemporary newspaper reporter with old-school style who covers the courts and crime beat at the fictional Portland Daily Chronicle. Brenda’s short story, Means, Motive, and Opportunity, was in the anthology Bloodroot: Best New England Crime Stories 2021 and received an honorable mention in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022. Her story Assumptions Can Get You Killed appeared in Wolfsbane: Best New England Crime Stories 2023. A new short story, Cape Jewell, will be published in November in Snakeberry: Best New England Crime Stories 2025.

 

 

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Brenda Buchanan (Monday). John Clark (Tuesday), Jule Selbo (Thursday), and Joe Souza (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

Matt Cost had a fabulous time at Noir at Novel in Portland and Maine Crime Wave Roundtables this past weekend. Coming up next week, he will be going a COST TALK about The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed at the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor on Thursday at 6:30 PM.

Kate Flora: Sunday from 1-3 I will be at Books a Million in South Portland. Come by and say hello.

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business, along with the very popular “Making a Mystery” with audience participation, and “Casting Call: How We Staff Our Mysteries.” We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora

Kate Flora: Sometimes to create a mood, sometimes looking for a theme for a character, and sometimes searching for the perfect epigraph for a chapter, I dive into one of the many books of poetry on my shelves. Often at the end of the exercise I will have four or five open books on the floor, along with my trust Rodale’s Synonym Finder. Today is such a day. The weather has been amazing, making it hard to stay inside and finish this darned book. There are bulbs to planted for spring, and there is something about fall that makes me want to cook stews and pot roast and bake a chicken and make apple desserts and a cake with Italian prune plums.

I wonder: Does fall do this to you as well?

When I’m setting a scene in fall and it actually isn’t fall, I have to dive into autumnal language to help create the mood. Even when the book does take place in fall, setting the scene can be a challenge. What words capture the tension between seeing summer end and impending winter? What words capture that tension for an officer having to give up his plans on a gorgeous fall day to attend to a crime scene?

My third Joe Burgess procedural, Redemption, begins on a day Burgess describes this way:

The warm and windy October day was so beautiful it hurt. The sky and the dancing sea were a deep, sapphire blue, the trees in the city rising up behind them in the full glory of a Maine fall. Fishing boats tied to the dock creaked and groaned and the rigging on berthed sailboats clanged. Farther out, the water was dotted with white canvas as sailors squeezed in one last day before their boats got hauled and shrink-wrapped.

  Despite the fishy smells permeating the old wharf, the air seemed nutritious and refreshing. It was a day made for hikes and picnics, for apple picking and seeking the perfect Halloween pumpkin. For breathing in the crisp fall air and being glad to be alive. For law enforcement, it would be a long, slow day for death.

 Do you have a favorite fall poem? What about a favorite recipe?

Here are some fall poems I’ve found:

  When You Are Old

William Butler Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Autumn

John Clare

 I love the fitfull gusts that shakes
The casement all the day
And from the mossy elm tree takes
The faded leaf away
Twirling it by the window-pane
With thousand others down the lane

I love to see the shaking twig
Dance till the shut of eve
The sparrow on the cottage rig
Whose chirp would make believe
That spring was just now flirting by
In summers lap with flowers to lie

I love to see the cottage smoke
Curl upwards through the naked trees
The pigeons nestled round the coat
On dull November days like these
The cock upon the dung-hill crowing
The mill sails on the heath a-going

The feather from the ravens breast
Falls on the stubble lea
The acorns near the old crows nest
Fall pattering down the tree
The grunting pigs that wait for all
Scramble and hurry where they fall

Autumn Fires

Robert Louis Stevenson

In the other gardens
And all up in the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over,
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

We won’t be having fires to burn leaves this fall. Maine is in a state of severe drought. It’s a smell I will miss.

 

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here. As regular MCW readers know, I’m semi-retired. What you may not know is that since I no longer care to travel far from home and can no longer do jigsaw-puzzles because of arthritis in my fingers, my primary leisure time activity is reading. No surprise there, I suppose. I read the occasional new-to-me books, but the majority of my choices are actually novels I’ve already read at least once, and most of them are part of a series.

Today, lacking inspiration for anything more complex, I thought I’d share some of my favorites. With colder weather coming on, picture yourself reading a mystery series from the beginning or reading linked books in the romantic suspense genre while curled up in front of a warm fire with your pet-of-choice sharing a comfy chair.

First up, a series that was new-to-me until BritBox decided to film the first one. Val McDermid is one of the queens of crime fiction writing and I’d read some of her single titles before, but when I started the Karen Piries I was instantly hooked. She’s the head of a cold cases unit of the Scottish police force. I’ve read all seven and am eagerly awaiting #8 in December. #6 (Still Life) and #7 (Past Lying) are my favorites so far—total page-turners.

original paperback cover

I’m currently working my way through two historical series re-reads. In mystery I’m enjoying my seventh reading of Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody books (archaeologists in Egypt in the late nineteenth century), starting with Crocodile on the Sandbank. Yes, seven, although a couple of those (since 1985) have been listening to the audio books rather than reading my tattered old paperbacks. I also have some titles in e-book format. I’m alternating that series with Mary Jo Putney’s excellent Lost Lords tales. These are stories of romantic suspense set in the Regency era and are packed with action and adventure. Lots of spies and treasonous plots to go with the love stories. The hero of each is a graduate of a school for aristocratic boys who were a bad fit for other institutions. Although each book has its focus on a different couple, the characters from earlier books reappear in each of the later ones. If romance novel love scenes aren’t your cup of tea, you can always skip them and enjoy the rest. The first is Loving a Lost Lord.

 

This is the one I’m rereading as I write this

And of course I can’t write about rereading series novels without mentioning that I spent a good part of the past year re-reading all 60 (yes, sixty) In Death novels by J. D. Robb (pseudonym for Nora Roberts). Set in the not-too-distant future in New York City, where Eve Dallas is a homicide detective, they are definitely not cozy. Again, mystery purists can skip the sex scenes, but it would be criminal not to give this series a try. The first is Naked in Death.

another original paperback cover

If you enjoy following characters through more than one book, all these series are worth a read. Other suggestions anyone? Feel free to comment.

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. In 2023 she won the Lea Wait Award for “excellence and achievement” from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. She is currently working on creating new editions of her backlist titles. Her website is www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.

This month our group post is about fall in Maine. Whether it’s the brilliance of our leaves, the change in weather that tempts us out for fall walks, apple picking, or farmer’s markets, or its the shortening of the days, the changing light, and the gloom of impending winter, fall has an impact on all of us.

Kate Flora: I am always very much on the fence about fall. I love the cooler weather that tempts me out to take more walks. I love the bright bags of apples at the farmers market, the new varieties of squash to explore in my culinary activities, and the often dazzling fall sunsets. I don’t like the way it turns dark so early and the end of my plunges into the sea.

When I reflect back on growing up on a Maine farm, I think about the rush to get vegetables harvested before the frost. About our apple stealing expeditions on the backroads near home. There were many abandoned farms with apple trees. We would gather different varieties of apples to fulfill my mother’s dictum that you couldn’t make a good apple pie without at least five varieties of apples. Fall meant more evenings prepping vegetables for what was always called “the long, cold winter.” Stirring applesauce. Canning. Making pickles. The shed floor would be lined with newspapers and there would be rows of ripening tomatoes and mounds of squash. The coated egg baskets full of potatoes and onions would be hung up in the cellar. The shelves in the storage area in the cellar would gradually fill with jars of canned food.

Matt Cost: Fall is the best season of the year. Cool nights with mild days work exceedingly well for me. Give me 40° at night and 64° during the day and I am happy. Foliage is certainly a bonus that brings out the vibrant inner life of Mother Nature. It also

happens to be football season, which now is not much more than an excuse to sit on the couch on Sunday and do nothing. Which is pretty fabulous.  Autumn is also host to two amazing New England crime conferences, Crime Wave in September, and Crime Bake in November. The only pit-fall of fall is the shortening days. To me, that just begs more sleeping time.

Write on fall!

 

 

 

Kait Carson: As an escaped Floridian, fall gets my vote for best season of the year. Nights cool, sometimes enough to light the first fire in the woodstove. Days are mild, the humidity is low, and there’s a taste to the air. It’s a heady combination of wine and apples. Just glorious. The scenery isn’t too shabby either.

 

John Clark: I’m painting a visual picture of fall from my perspective. It has always been my favorite season for multiple reasons.

1-Most tourists have gone home.

2-I start many fall days in shorts and a sweatshirt, then switch to a t-shirt around noon.

3-The Patriots are playing (and hopefully winning). Their games are the ONLY thing I watch on TV.

4-If the Goddess is smiling, the Red Sox are in the post season (like this year)

5-Skies seem bluer in the fall.

6-Reading on our back deck is pleasurable, particularly when I look up and see eagles soaring overhead.

7-Mist fills valleys, following rivers and streams like a supernatural dancer.

8-Pumpkins, which used to be left to rot all too often, are now used in many things. While I’m not a fan of pumpkin spice in stuff, I really like it in bagels, muffins, and bread.

9-Watching leaves fall, ever so slowly and gently (making for a challenging, but rewarding photo opportunity), while milkweed seeds float ever higher on their way to a new destiny, are hypnotic and relaxing.

10-Finding abandoned apple trees that have unique flavors and are often worm-free.

11-Ramping up for deer season. While this may be my last due to health issues, I’m still excited about going into the woods.

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson: Here in the Western Maine mountains there are already as many leaves on the ground as there are on the trees, possibly because we are in a serious drought. We’re being very careful about water use for fear our well might run dry. That said, there’s nothing like being able to walk out onto the back deck and see fall colors, especially on a day when the temperature is in the upper 70s. Of course at night it goes down to near freezing. Typical Maine weather: wait a minute and it will change! The entire month of September has been a roller coaster weather-wise and the forecast for the first week of October promises to be the same: 80 one day and a high of 60 the next. Close to freezing at night . . . or not. And NO RAIN IN SIGHT!

Rob Kelley: The view from my writing desk includes several ragged spruces, a swamp maple, and some ferns. When the swamp maple and the ferns turn to rust, it’s a harbinger of cooler nights and mild days, and it’s my absolute favorite time of year in Maine. It’s perfect sleeping weather in the cool nights, but no jacket required in the mild days. And, while I was only a teacher for a little while, I was a student far longer, and so still think of fall as the actual beginning of the year. After such a crazy summer, foggy, rainy, then hot, then dry, this fall has been an ideal beginning to my year.