Thank
you so much for having me over.
I
had my first-ever solo book launch party last week for Speaking of Murder and it was a big success. I held it at one of
the two independent bookstores in Newburyport, in the northeast corner of
Massachusetts. I have lived in the area for 23 years and attend Friends meeting
in the next town over. Over 50 people showed up. It was standing room only and
they ran out of both books and wine!
What
I thought was so interesting was the range of questions that people asked after
I read my prepared remarks and read a very short scene. I’ll share here some of
the questions.
Why the pen name? My book is published
under the pen name Tace Baker. While it was being considered by Barking Rain
Press, I secured a three-book contract for a different series with Kensington
Publishing. The contract stipulated that I couldn’t publish any other mysteries
under my name during the term of the contract. When Barking Rain offered me a
contract for Speaking of Murder, I
had to come up with a pseudonym. Tace is not only a unique name in terms of
Googling and URL, it’s also an old Quaker women’s name. And Baker is easy to
spell and pronounce and shares a vowel with Tace, so it sounds nice.
What TV shows do you
watch?
I don’t watch TV! Between the day job and commute, daily exercise, cooking and
eating, reading the newspaper (yes, on paper), and catching up on facebook,
when would I possibly watch television? Besides, I really rather read a book.
Did you take a
mystery-writing course? Nope. I learned what I know from two main sources: my
in-person writing group, and Sisters in Crime. Reading scenes aloud to four or
five other excellent writers and hearing their critiques has taught me so much.
Attending nearly every Sisters in Crime – New England event for the last seven
years has been a wonderful education, and reading many of the SINC and Guppies
digests for the same time period has taught me everything I know about
publishing. I’ve also been a faithful New England Crime Bake attendee for some years
and take eager notes in the workshops. I have signed up for a couple of the
online courses but somehow never quite manage to participate fully.
Is it normal for the
protagonist to be so close to the victim? Ooh. I don’t know what’s normal.
That’s just how the story came out. It certainly increased Lauren’s motivation
to find the killer, though.
Other
questions included explaining what a “cozy” is, when I possibly find time to
write (weekends, retreats, plane rides…), do you set up “scaffolding” (that is,
an outline – answer is no, I write into the headlights and somehow it always
comes out okay), when I started reading mysteries, and more.
I
was a bit nervous before the event. Had I remembered my favorite pen for
signing? Would they set out enough chairs? Which earrings should I wear? But I
found myself very relaxed once it started. It helped that I had written out my
remarks and had rehearsed the scene I read aloud. But I think I most enjoyed
the question-and-answer period, which surprised me a little.
Do
you have any questions for me? What question do you ask an author at an event,
or which question do you find yourself being asked most often?
Edith Maxwell is the author of
SPEAKING OF MURDER (Barking Rain Press, September 2012, under pseudonym Tace
Baker), which features Quaker linguistics professor Lauren Rousseau.
Edith also writes the Local Foods
Mysteries. A TINE TO LIVE, A TINE TO DIE introduces organic farmer Cam Flaherty
and a colorful Locavore Club (Kensington Publishing, June 2013). Edith once
owned and operated the smallest certified organic farm in Essex County,
Massachusetts.
A technical writer and
fourth-generation Californian, Edith also writes short crime fiction and lives
north of Boston in an antique house with her beau and three cats.
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