In How to Get Away with Myrtle, Myrtle is surprised and overjoyed to meet a professional female investigator, fellow railway passenger Mrs. Bloom. We’ve discussed the literary history of fictional female detectives here, but what about their real-life counterparts? Were there any? Contrary to what you may have heard on recent television programs from otherwise eminently… Read more »
News
#MyrtleMondays: Myrtle & The Rue Morgue
Why yes, I have been wondering how I might work that title in to the series somehow—and last week, Mystery Writers of America gave me the perfect opening. I am beyond excited to share the thrilling news that Premeditated Myrtle has been nominated for an Edgar Award! This is the highest honor an American mystery writer… Read more »
#MyrtleMondays: A Sneak Peek at Cold-Blooded Myrtle, coming October 6
This week, I got to experience one of the most exciting parts of publishing a new book: seeing the proofs (or typeset pages) of Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries Book 3, Cold-Blooded Myrtle! If you are a Myrtle fan, you already know how beautiful the first two books are. Designer Carla Weise continues to do an amazing… Read more »
#MyrtleMondays: The Girl Detective, part I
If you read this blog, chances are you’re a fan of the girl detective. Whether you just discovered Myrtle Hardcastle or grew up with Nancy Drew, you are enjoying a breed of sleuth that has been entertaining readers and outwitting criminals since the earliest days of detective fiction. Like many things we’ve discussed on #MyrtleMondays,… Read more »
#MyrtleMondays: Read All About It-The Victorian News Cycle
Are you a 24-hour news junkie? Even if you’re not, you’ve likely been glued to CNN, NPR, Facebook, or TikTok this week, watching historic events at the US Capitol and their aftermath unfold. The passion for the latest updates on current events is one that stretches back to the earliest days of the 19th century…. Read more »
#MyrtleMondays: A Victorian Quilting Adventure
Last week I promised you more Myrtle-related Making posts in 2021. As Miss Judson would say, no time like the present! Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries #3, Cold-Blooded Myrtle, is coming your way October 5. In that book, we learn more about Myrtle’s mum, including the fact that she (like your Learned Author) was a needlewoman. A crazy… Read more »
#MyrtleMondays: Ringing in the New
Well, Dear Reader, we’re almost there: time to say farewell (or good riddance?) to 2020 and hello to 2021! New Year’s Day is my second favorite holiday (after Hallowe’en). I just love the brimming potential and possibility of the coming months, all the exciting new plans afoot! I’m hard at work on Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries… Read more »
#MyrtleMondays: A Sherlockian Christmas
Mystery fans, I have a Christmas treat for you today! In January, 1892, The Strand magazine published Arthur Conan Doyle’s one and only Sherlock Holmes story set at Christmastime. “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” is one of my own favorite Sherlock stories, featuring a twisty tale of jewel thieves, ill-fated Christmas dinners, and some… Read more »
Myrtle Mondays: ‘Tis the Season to be Spooky-the ghost stories of a Victorian Christmas
The experienced reader knows it was Christmas Eve, without my telling him. It always is Christmas Eve, in a ghost story. …For ghost stories to be told on any other evening than the evening of the twenty-fourth of December would be impossible in English society as at present regulated. –Jerome K. Jerome, “Told After Supper,”… Read more »
#Myrtle Mondays: Myrtle in Translation
I am so excited to share the news that Premeditated Myrtle has been picked up for (so far) two foreign/translation editions: Russian and German. These are my very first foreign sales, so I am doubly doubly excited! (Quadruply excited? Excited squared?) Here’s last week’s announcement from Publishers Marketplace: Huge thanks to the fine folks at Rights… Read more »