Occupy Greed

   I was in my high school band. Every 3 years, our district participated in a band exchange with another district. We'd travel to the other school for a weekend, do a joint concert and stay in their houses, then they'd come to our area a weekend or two later. Our exchange was with Hewlett High School on Long Island.

Talk about culture shock.

Back then my school in Norristown, PA about 30% African American, 30% descendants of ethnic immigrants, 30% Pennsylvania Dutch. Our student body of 2000 were primarily middle-class and poor students.

Their school's population was closer to 700, and at least 600 of them were rich white kids.

When we visited Hewlett, I was housed in a mansion with servants, an indoor Olympic-sized pool, and the biggest Great Dane I'd ever seen, named Sir. My guest room was larger than any room in my house, had its own bath and walk-in closet, and had never been slept in by a member of the family.

I grew up in a semi-detached home where 5 people shared a bathroom. We didn't have guest rooms. We could only accommodate one Hewlett student and only because my brother was away at college.

Skip ahead to this year's Malice Domestic Convention next month. I've been assigned to a panel titled Occupy Malice: When Money is the Root of All Murder. All of the authors on the panel have set their stories during bad economic times. I'm on the panel because half of my novel, FEAR ITSELF, takes place during the Great Depression. In thinking about the topic, I realize that all my Possessed Mystery novels are about poor and/or unemployed characters, and all take place during difficult economic times.

Why have I done that? Well, they do say "write what you know."

This week I heard a man named Charles Murray interviewed on PBS. His theory is that the wealthy are morally superior to the poor. He points to a lot of statistics that show that the majority of crimes are committed by poor people. My answer to that would be that poor people are more likely to be arrested and convicted. If we look at the amount of money stolen by men like Bernie Madoff, or by the mismanagement of the banks and investment firms that caused the 2008 depression, I'd guess it far surpasses the amount taken in crimes like convenience store robberies over the same period.

IS money the root of all evil? No. People are. Evil people exist at all levels of the economic spectrum. Greed isn't a matter of how much you have, but how much you want. The big problem comes when evil people take their greed to a national scale, have too much power over the government, and suck in taxpayer money.

I can't help remembering those Hewlett students. They taught us how the other half lives and how to drop 'R's from the ends of words. We taught them what it was like to go to a diverse school, and about cheesesteaks and shoo-fly pie, and to pronounce "water" as "wooder." We made good music together. We had fun. As their bus pulled away to take them home, they waved and called out the windows to us, and we waved and laughed back.

They were good people, and so were we.
I hope we all still are.

Peace,
Elena

Historical Eating

My Possessed mystery novels are half-historical, and feature a present-day heroine, Pat Montella, whose chief hobby is cooking. It stands to reason that Pat would eventually become fascinated with historical recipes, and that I'd have to delve more into that branch of research for each book.

In POISON TO PURGE MELANCHOLY, Pat learns what goes into elaborate 18th century dinner parties. You have to love an era that believed in two dessert courses. Research for this involved not only studying colonial cookbooks and experimenting with recipes, but eating out at Philadelphia's City Tavern and all of Historic Williamsburg's taverns. One must suffer for one's art.

But it's not all fancy viands. Pat's latest adventure, FEAR ITSELF, takes place partially in 1933. I had to research what immigrant Italian families on the poor side of town ate in the midst of the Great Depression. My parents were my main resources here.

My dad and his brothers' did odd jobs for the macaroni factory down the street and were paid in pasta and Parmesan. Not having meat, their mother varied her tomato sauce each night--sometimes adding onions or lentils or peas, or whatever beans were on sale that week. Once in a while his dad would bring home a chicken for Sunday dinner. One chicken to feed a family of 10.

My mom's family was smaller--only 5--but also poorer. My grandmother would scramble an egg or two in tomato sauce to make a sort of lumpy stew. (My mom used to make this for me for lunch sometimes. With decent sauce and grated cheese, it's actually a great warm meal on a winter's day.) If they could get bologna, my grandmother would fry it with egg to make it go farther. My grandpop eventually got a job at a bakery. I'm guessing he brought home bread, but my mom only recalled the warm donuts.

Just this month, I found a great blog on the subject of eating through history called Four Pounds Flour. Historic gastronomist Sarah Lohman covers topics from importing in the early 19th century to the roots of the Jello shot. Once in a while, she bravely engages in culinary living history, such as eating like a poor 1877 tenement dweller for a week, or her "Drink Like A Colonial American" day.  I highly recommend this blog, especially for all you historical fiction writers out there who spend tons of time researching wardrobe, vehicles, houses, etc., but take food for granted.

Besides, food research is fun.

I think I'll have go have eggs in tomato sauce for lunch. Find the recipe on Miss Maggie's Facebook page.

Mangia,
Elena

The Quest for Saints and Scoundrels

Pat Montella, the protagonist in my Possessed Mystery Series, mentions her gene pool quite a bit. Coming from a huge Italian family, researching her family tree was a survival tactic. I know because I resort to the same tactic when trying to keep straight my 32 first cousins and their families, and at least double that number of second cousins.

The knowledge also comes in handy as a functional database of hereditary health problems. It's an affirmation, too. Looking over my kin and our ancestors, I find good storytellers, musicians, science geeks, and kind, caring people.

Ancestral surprises are a recurring theme in of my Possessed novels. Pat found new branches on her family tree in both By Blood Possessed and Fear Itself. Other series characters like Miss Maggie and the Lees, were enlightened about their ancestors in Hang My Head and Cry and Poison to Purge Melancholy.

That's the intriguing thing about genealogy. Surprises are fairly common because so few of us know much about our families before our grand- or great-grandparents. For a writer, this can also be a great story fodder.

A month ago, I was amazed to learn that my family likely has heredity dwarfism in our DNA. Simply put, it's a pituitary growth deficiency, and sometimes it only affects parts of the body. I always knew we were short--my dad and his brother Charlie, at 5'4", were the tallest of their siblings. Their mother was 4'8". But this may explain why every dentist I've visited in the last 25 years has told me I have tiny teeth. One cousin said she could picture us coming from a race of court jesters. I'm not sure. If our progenitors told jokes as badly as our family does now, they would have been beheaded before they could procreate. Still, I can believe I come from a race of hammy actors who could sing, tell a yarn and do acrobatics.

I've read that amateur genealogists come in two flavors: those searching their family tree for famous or heroic kin, and those looking for scoundrels and black sheep. I'm not sure which I am. I think I'm simply in it for the stories.

If you've explored your family tree, what was your motive?

Peace,
Elena (short and proud of it)

Buy a Book, Feed the Poor

Learning history isn't much good if you don't apply the knowledge to today's problems. That's the whole point of my Possessed Series. Each novel has two mysteries, one historical, one present day, and hopefully a bit of insight about what we've learned, or haven't, between the two eras.

I set FEAR ITSELF in my hometown simply because my best historical resources were here, namely people who were alive in 1933 and willing to talk my ears off about it. I couldn't include every story, but I think I got a handle on what life was like in a poor Italian neighborhood in Norristown, PA during the Great Depression.

This week I found myself wondering if I'd done justice to the modern day setting. While running some errands, I drove along a street I haven't been down in a while. At one intersection, I saw a long line of people. I remembered there was a food bank in that building. Never had I seen a line that long at that food bank. This was the early afternoon, so that also meant those folks didn't have day jobs. It reminded me of the bread lines I'd seen in 1930s photos while doing research for FEAR ITSELF.

Also this week, I heard that an "Occupy Norristown" protest is scheduled for Saturday. My first reaction was to wonder what there was to protest against in Norristown. We don't have a financial district. In fact, for a small city of 30,000 residents, we have pitiful few bank branches left in town. We had more in 1933. That goes for Main St. businesses too. Back then you had your choice of 5 movie theaters, 2 five-and-ten stores, 2 department stores, at least 4 large food markets, as well as two shopping districts of stores with every kind of goods and service imaginable. After FDR took office and the economy picked up, we had a slew of local factories and mills who started hiring again. Today most of the large businesses have closed. The rest moved out of town, most nowhere near public transportation. We do have some small independent stores on Main St., but our downtown is a ghost of its former self.

I'm pretty certain the richest 1% of America can't be found my hometown.

From researching my town's newspaper archive, I know that, as bad as things were in 1933 here, everyone tried to pitch in to help anyone poorer and hungrier. These days at least two of our Congressmen are talking about slapping the poor with higher taxes.

I've decided, to do my small part, I'm going to give10% of my FEAR ITSELF royalties (including ebooks) the local charities in Norristown that seem to be doing the most good for our poorest residents--like that food bank with the long line. This town helped my ancestors weather hard times in the Great Depression, so I'm giving back. If you want to help
Find a local Independent Bookstore and help your own economy.
Order from Amazon.
Order from Barnes & Noble.

Peace,
Elena

The Forgotten Man at the Bottom

Even if you only catch national news on the fly while switching channels between ESPN and Disney, you probably noticed that this week everyone's talking about the economy and whether or not we're headed for another Great Depression.

The historical part of my novel FEAR ITSELF is set in the first week of March, 1933. The main reason I chose that week was the infamous "bank holiday" that officially began on March 5th and shut down all U.S. banks. In my mind, I pictured that as a really scary thing--no credit cards, no ATMs, no way to access your money. No knowing how long that would be the case.

Then I asked my parents about it. "We didn't even notice," Mom said. "We didn't have enough money to put in the bank."

A difficult concept to wrap my brain around: No savings, except maybe a few bucks squirreled away behind a picture frame now and then. More likely only the coins in your pocket to get you through each day.

That's not to say that poor people weren't affected by the Depression.  This is where the theory of trickle down economics has any validity at all--not in times of prosperity, but in times of loss. When speculation bubbles burst, the loss gets passed down the ladder to the poor. They're the first to lose their jobs, their means of transportation, and their homes. And because they have so little, the percentage of what they do lose is huge. Less workers, less mortgages, less loan payments all mean less profit, so eventually the wealthy also lose money and the situation, at last, can be called a Depression. Someone finally takes a look at the economic structure and finds the weak links.

In 1933, banks were some of these links. No computers then. At best, this meant human errors often went undetected. At worse, lack of consistent record keeping made corruption and fraud easy. FDR called a "bank holiday" so Federal inspectors could audit bank records. Once a bank passed audit, they could reopen. Since Saturday March 4th was the president's inauguration, many banks were persuaded to close early on Friday the 3rd, giving the inspectors a long weekend to get started.

As some of you know, I start my historical chapters with period quotes. Here are a few of my favorites from FEAR ITSELF:

"All the really important millionaires are planning to continue prosperity."

 Arthur Brisbane, Nov. 26, 1929

"These really are good times but only a few know it."

Henry Ford, 1930

"There is not an unemployed man in the country that hasn't contributed to the wealth of every millionaire in America."

Will Rogers, Nov. 1931

"These unhappy times call for the building of plans...that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid."

FDR, campaign speech, April 1932

So, are we headed for another Depression now? Don't ask the bankers or Wall Street. Ask the forgotten people at the bottom of the pyramid. Many of them will tell you we're already there.

Elena

EBOOKS: Fear Itself and Two-Faced

If I had any doubts about the future of electronic books, they were laid to rest by one question I've been relentlessly asked the last 3 months:  "Is FEAR ITSELF available on Kindle?"

I'm happy to announce that, at last, FEAR ITSELF, the 4th book in the Pat Montella series, is available in both Kindle and Nook formats, at a better-than-reasonable price.

In addition, for those of you ebook fans who are completely insatiable, I've begun a new Kindle-exclusive series.  The first novel, TWO-FACED went live today and, best of all, it's cheap.

TWO-FACED introduces my Twins Mystery Series, featuring forensic psychologist Gen Ziegler and her mirror-image twin, Sara.  If Pat Montella and Miss Maggie could be considered my Poirot and Miss Marple, Gen and Sara are definitely my Tommy and Tuppence. They're young and more adventure-prone.  I can throw all sorts of danger at them without worrying about things like osteoporosis.

Gen and Sara also let me show-off a bit of my local Pennsylvania culture.  They're half Pennsylvania Dutch, half Sicilian, and they were brought up in the Schwenkfelder Church (only a handful of these churches are left in Southeastern PA).  Apple butter and pizza sauce flow through their veins.

So go check them out and let me know what you think.

Peace,
Elena

Just Visiting

 I had a nice spontaneous visit with a cousin the other day.  Unusual for me.  I don't get out much.

When my writing's going well, I lose track of time.  I spend hours in front of my PC, or sitting with a notebook on my lap, getting words down.  Even when I go out to an appointment or planned event, I'm anxious to get back to my writing.  When I'm away, I feel like I'm slighting my Muse and to get revenge, she'll go catch a bus for Vegas or something.

When my writing's not going well, I feel like I ought to chain myself to my desk chair until I produce something.  Even after my left brain overcomes the guilt and gets me out of the room, I usually don't go farther than to work in the garden or take a walk or grab a snack.  Again, I feel like I don't want to be away if my Muse shows up ready to work.

Lately, the only times I've traveled farther afield is for grocery shopping and other necessary errands (which I try to do only one or two days a week, to save gas and carbon emissions).  In this economy, vacations are few and far between.  In the long run, though, I know this is counterproductive to writing.  My best ideas are seldom found close to home or while staring at a computer monitor.  Routine errands are, well, routine, with nothing to make me stop and say, "That needs to go into a book."

The latest novel in the Possessed Mystery Series, FEAR ITSELF, is set in my hometown.  I was a bit wary of setting it there, in so familiar a setting.  One's own backyard is rarely a place of discovery and a good story is, at its core, one person saying to another, "Listen to what I just found out."  I purposefully went around my town "visiting" places I'd been to before, snooping here and there, seeing things I hadn't noticed before.  For the Montgomery Cemetery chapters, I took several tours of the place, learning lots of history, legends, and terrific grave-robbing tales.  I was especially grateful to our historic society for their moonlight tour of the cemetery last year so I could make my night scenes in the old burial ground authentic.  The photo at the top of this blog is from that graveyard.

If anyone reading this is within driving distance of Montgomery Cemetery in Norristown, PA, they've got a tour scheduled on Sunday, June 26th at 2 pm, and a concert of Civil War songs on June 12th at 2 pm, to kick off the Civil War Sesquicentennial.  For more information, click here.

As for me, I know I need to get out and visit places and people more, to keep my writing fresh.  This month, that includes being a guest on other mystery blogs as well.  Here are the links if you want to check them out.

Buried Under Books Blog:  Don't Know Much About History

Maria Lima: Ignoring the One-Way Signs

I'll be at the "Birth of a Novel" blog next week and will post the link on a future blog.

Peace,

Elena

It's Here!

Yesterday copies of FEAR ITSELF showed up at my door.  One of the high points in a writer's life is holding one of your books in your hands for the first time.  This was an even than I expected because the books arrived a week early.  Of course, for all writers, reality settles in the next day and you have to get back to work selling the things.

To that end:  FEAR ITSELF is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and through the bookseller of your choice.  Eventually, it will also be out as an ebook.

In the Never Fear Fear Itself Contest, I handled the final drawing this way.  I wrote all the previous winners names on slips of paper and dropped the papers down the stairwell from my upstairs hall.  The one that fluttered the farthest won.

The winner is Karen Mayers of San Bruno, CA.

Peace,
Elena

Too Many Hats

I think I've posted before about a writer's need to be 2 persons when working on a project.  One has to be creative, uninhibited and a bit zany. That's where the ideas come from, and the solutions, when you've painted your characters into a corner.  The other must be a persnickety, no-nonsense editor, who finds the misspellings, typos and plot loopholes, and who reigns in the creative other half enough that the story stays believable.

When the project's done, even more personalities have to kick in.  You need to be an outgoing salesperson to get that manuscript under the eyes of an agent or publisher.  You need a back-pocket lawyer to assess each contract.  You need a meticulous accountant who logs receipts and knows what goes onto a Schedule C (even if you don't do your own taxes, you have to know which receipts to keep, and be able to decipher a royalty statement).

The personality I've been the last few weeks has been the publicist.  These days, even in the big publishing  houses, no one's going to put many bucks or manpower behind promotion of your works.  That is, of course, unless you're fairly famous already.  THEN they'll publicize you.  Yes, ironic that authors get too little publicity until it isn't needed anymore, but that's reality.

So writers need to do their own promotion.  In recent years, it's become easier to do this online.  First of all, you need a website, which is your homebase.  Besides author, book and short story info, you can post photos, videos, excerpts, poems, recipes, games--anything that might be fun for the readers and can be tied back to one or more books or to you personally.

Sites like Amazon, BookTour, and GoodReads now all have author pages, letting you post your bio, photos, videos, events, and a link for your blog entries.  These are like mini-billboards for your products, and can all be linked back to your website.  I like the fact that I can list my events on BookTour and have them automatically appear on my home page.

Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with fans.  You can post your events there and invite people, giving mere book signings more of a party atmosphere.  You can post photos of your covers and videos of book trailers.  You can have characters come out to play with fans.

Of course, you'll still have all the old-fashioned publicity chores--book signings/tours to organize, conventions to attend, business cards/bookmarks/postcards to have printed.  I like to bring some kind of promotional item to conventions and signings, too.  With my last novel, I passed out little pill bottles filled with M&Ms.  For DAME AGATHA'S SHORTS, I taped English toffees and butterscotch to business cards.  This year, I have mini Champagne bottles filled with bubble liquid.  Within 24 hours, the Malice Domestic Convention ought to look like the set for the Lawrence Welk Show.

So I've been working on all of these things.  When my FEAR ITSELF cover (above) showed up last week, promotion kicked into high gear.  The great thing about doing publicity--updating your online sites, seeing your cover for the first time, hearing from fans that they're looking forward to the book--is that it keeps you excited, and that means you'll carry more energy into signings and to conventions.

The bad thing is that being your own publicist takes so much time away from writing.

Peace,
Elena

Answers to 3rd Quiz

Here are the correct answers to Miss Maggie's 18th century quiz:

1. Elixir of vitriol was made from alcohol, "aromatics" (usually ginger or cinnamon), and sulfuric acid.  Yum. Makes castor oil sound like dessert.

2. The general who led Continental troops down the Williamsburg peninsula, tailing British general Cornwallis was Lafayette.  Washington was up north, keeping New York and Philadelphia safe while he coordinated the addition of French troops to the Continental ranks.  He joined Lafayette 2 months later at Yorktown.

3.  The 18th century anthology Pills to Purge Melancholy contained bawdy songs.

We have three winners:  Lelia Taylor, Karen Mayers, and J. Haupin.  They will each receive a free copy of the book of their choice by me and be entered in the grand drawing in late April for a free hot-off-the-press copy of FEAR ITSELF.

Peace,

Elena

Never Fear Fear Itself Contest #3 - Win a Free Book!

Here you go:  Quiz 3 of the Never Fear Fear Itself Contest.  The 3rd novel in the Possessed Mystery Series is POISON TO PURGE MELANCHOLY, a trip back in time to 1783 Williamsburg.  In it, you'll find early American Yuletide customs such as mummers' plays, rum punch, and sumptuous dinners, plus a frightening look at medicine, then and now.

Send your answers to the quiz below, along with your full name, to MissMaggieTests@gmail.com.  All entries who ace the quiz will be entered in a drawing to win the free signed book of their choice from the Possessed Mystery Series or DAME AGATHA'S SHORTS.  If you have all 4 books already and can't think of anyone who'd like one as a gift, tell me that on your entry.  Another prize will be selected for you.  If no one aces the quiz, the person with the best score will win.  Entries not selected in this drawing will be eligible for the next drawing.  In April, I'll do a grand prize drawing for a signed copy of FEAR ITSELF, due out at the end of that month.

Only entries sent to MissMaggieTests@gmail.com will be eligible.  Deadline for entries for the quiz below will be March 31, 2011.  Winners will be announced April 1st.

1.  A wealthy man walks into an apothecary and pays a shilling to see the doctor, who prescribes an elixir of vitriol, which the apothecary prepares for the patient.  This elixir is made from alcohol, "aromatics" (usually ginger or cinnamon), and

a)  camphor.

b)  mercury.

c)  sulfuric acid.

d)  aloe.

2.  When the British Army under General Cornwallis marched into Williamsburg on June 25, 1781, many of the residents, fed up with the long war, welcomed them.  Meanwhile, they were followed at a distance by Continental troops under the command of General

a)  Washington.

b)  Lafayette.

c)  Rochambeau.

d)  Wayne.

3.  The mystery novel Poison to Purge Melancholy takes its title from an 18th century publication called Pills to Purge Melancholy, which contained

a)  a list of medications for depression.

b)  herbal remedies for constipation.

c)  chocolate recipes.

d)  bawdy songs.

Peace,

Elena

FEAR ITSELF Trailer and Answers to Contest #2

Book trailers are becoming popular so I decided to make one for FEAR ITSELF.  As an advertisement, it's not Superbowl worthy, but it's short, painless, and gives you an idea what you'll find in the book.  The background tune is best described as Miss Maggie walking music (actually, the original 78 RPM version of "Brother Can You Spare A Dime.")  Enjoy!


ANSWERS TO MISS MAGGIE'S 2ND QUIZ

The answers to the second Never Fear Fear Itself Contest quiz are

1.  Sojourner Truth not only helped recruit black troops for the Union cause, but, after the Civil War, worked among freed slaves with the National Freedman's Relief Association.  Besides that she often spoke about the plight of black women, and rights for all women.  So the answer is D - All of the above.

2.  I had it pointed out to me that my wording was poor in the second question.  Joseph Rainey, of South Carolina, was the first African American elected to the House of Representatives in a general election (in 1870).  Hiram Revels was the first black man to serve in Congress, as a senator from Mississippi, but he was appointed (earlier in 1870 than Rainey served).  However,  the Mississippi legislature held an election amongst themselves to choose Revels.  Since I didn't specify "general election" in the question, I accepted both answers A and B.

3.  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited states from imposing their own voting registration qualifications, so C is the correct answer.  The reason this ended up giving more minorities the right to vote was because many states had enacted laws creating prerequisites to voting registration--such as literacy tests--to limit minority voting.

This month's winners are Suzanne Pontius and Penny Tuttle.  Questions for Contest #3 will show up right here in mid-March.  Study up on your Revolutionary War and pre-Constitution American history.

Down with tyranny, here and abroad,
Elena

Contest Quiz # 2 - Win a Nifty Prize!

Here is Miss Maggie's next history quiz for the Never Fear Fear Itself Contest.  The 2nd book in the Possessed Mystery Series is HANG MY HEAD & CRY, which deals with newly freed black slaves in the 1870s, voting rights of the 1960s, and intolerance in all eras.  Since this is Black History Month, it ties in perfectly.

Send your answers to the quiz below, along with your full name, to MissMaggieTests@gmail.com.  All entries who ace the quiz will be entered in a drawing to win the free signed book of their choice from the Possessed Mystery Series or DAME AGATHA'S SHORTS.  If you have all 4 books already and can't think of anyone who'd like one as a gift, tell me that on your entry.  Another prize will be selected for you.  If no one aces the quiz, the person with the best score will win the book.  Entries not selected in this drawing will be eligible for later drawings.  I'll post a third quiz in March (bone up on your colonial history), then we'll do a grand prize drawing in April, which will be for a hot-off-the-press signed copy of FEAR ITSELF.

Only entries sent to MissMaggieTests@gmail.com will be eligible.  Deadline for entries for the quiz below will be February 28, 2011.  Winners will be announced March 1st.

QUIZ

1.  The photo above is of Sojourner Truth, an escaped slave and revivalist preacher who

a.  in her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, spoke about the plight of black women, and right for all women.
b.  helped recruit black troops for the Union cause.
c.  after the Civil War, worked among freed slaves with the National Freedman's Relief Association.
d.  All of the above.


2.  Who was the first African American elected to the U.S. Congress?

a.  Hiram Revels, of Mississippi
b.  Joseph Rainey, of South Carolina
c.  George Henry White, of North Carolina
d.  Oscar De Priest, of Illinois


3.  The Voting Rights Act of 1965

a.  gave African Americans the right to vote
b.  gave women the right to vote
c.  prohibited states from imposing their own voting registration qualifications
d.  gave Congress the authority to regulate the voting process

Good Luck!
Elena

Contest Results and Working in the Real World

First, I'm pleased to announce that 3 students aced Miss Maggie's Civil War quiz: Debra Eisert, Mary Chamberlain, and Helen Delano.  Since we only had 3 star pupils, I've decided they each should win a free book.  Look here for Contest 2 around the middle of February.

Working in the Real World

One of the first pieces of advice a novice writer hears from the pros is "Don't quit your day job."  So what did I do last month?  I quit my day job.

I've quit at least 4 jobs in my lifetime, yet all for non-writing-related reasons.  This last time was because the job was effecting my health.  Sometimes I've quit because I decided I can't work for people better suited to be the bad guys in my books.  If you've read By Blood Possessed or any of my short stories set in offices, you know how I feel about the bad guys of corporate America.

Still, I'm not by nature a quitter.  I've had a slew of other jobs, all temporary for one reason or another.  Altogether I've been a retail clerk, school teacher, National Park guide, receptionist, data processor, and done every ilk of accounting, filing and other administrative jobs.  Oh, and I've been a proofreader, too. My finest moment was proofreading a brochure for a sex therapy lecture given by Dr. Ruth herself.

My mother would say I still haven't settled down.  Me?  I think I'm the kind of writer who needs to glean experiences from different sources, then move on.  Though, frankly, the need to pay pills tends to make me wait until I'm laid off or the job makes me physically ill or disgusted enough to quit.

I wrote By Blood Possessed while I was unemployed.  Hang My Head and Cry was written mostly in the hiatuses between temp agency jobs.  Poison to Purge Melancholy came together in the idle months before I took my last job.  Book 4, Fear Itself, was written while employed, but at the time, I had a boss who understood that I have a vocation outside of office work.

At the moment, I'm not grieving over the loss of my job.  With all the snow this winter, and the fact that my home parking spot is off of an alley that never gets plowed, it's just as well I don't have a compelling reason leave the house.

Yet I know, eventually, I'll get out there and start looking for gainful employment again.  Not only do I have the need to pay bills, but this writer, anyway, can't write in a vacuum.  It's not simply a matter of needing to observe human nature--I can go sit in a mall food court or ride trains in and out of the city to do that.  The thing is, with each position I've had, I've been thrown in with a diverse group of individuals, from all walks of life.  Some love their jobs.  The majority, at best, only like their jobs.  All are there because they must be or lose their livelihoods, and for some, their healthcare.  All have different motives for needing to keep their jobs.  A workplace, for a writer, is an encyclopedia of human psychology.

So when I say "Don't quit your day job" to a novice writer, I'm not merely commenting on the reality of most writers not being able to make a living from published works.  I'm saying don't take yourself out of the real world.  Your writing will suffer.

Peace,
Elena

Win a Free Book!

The next novel in my Possessed Mystery Series, FEAR ITSELF, will be coming out in April.  I want to celebrate by giving away a book a month between now and then, and I thought, what better way to find the most worthy fans than to let Miss Maggie give 3 of her famous history quizzes.

Miss Maggie is my protagonist's sidekick, Magnolia Shelby, a 90+ year-old retired history teacher and probably the most popular character in the series.  She even has her own fan page on Facebook (check out the link to the left of this blog).

Here's the way the contests will work:  Send your answers to first quiz below, along with your full name, to MissMaggieTests@gmail.com.  All entries who ace the quiz will be entered in a drawing to win the free signed book of their choice from the Possessed Mystery Series.  If you have all 3 books already and can't think of anyone who'd like one as a gift, don't let that stop you.  Tell me that on your entry and another prize will be selected for you.  If no one aces the quiz, the person with the best score will win the book.  Entries not selected in the first drawing will be eligible for later drawings.  I'll post another quiz in February and one in March, then we'll do a grand prize drawing in April, which will be for a hot-off-the-press signed copy of FEAR ITSELF.

Only entries sent to MissMaggieTests@gmail.com will be eligible.  Deadline for entries for the quiz below will be January 31, 2011.  Winners will be announced February 1st. 

Since my first novel, BY BLOOD POSSESSED, was set in May 1864, the Civil War is the subject of the first quiz.  Pencils ready!  (Or should I say, start your Google Search Engines?)

QUIZ 1

1.  Miss Maggie's Bell Run estate is on the southbank of the Rapidan, just downstream from Germanna Ford and upstream from Fredericksburg.  The Union Army crossed the Rapidan near here for all the following battles except which one?

a) Chancellorsville
b) Gettysburg
c) Mine Run
d) Wilderness


2.  The Commander of the Union forces for the Wilderness Campaign was

a) Meade
b) Hooker
c) Burnside
d) Grant


3.  The Confederate general in command of the 2nd Corps at the Battle of the Wilderness had the nickname

a) Stonewall
b) Marse Robert
c) Old Bald Head
d) Peter The Slow


Good luck,
Elena

Vacation Recommendation (for real!)

The photo on my banner above is of Montgomery Cemetery in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Seemed appropriate, considering my Possessed Series novels are semi-historical ghost mysteries. Cemeteries can evoke thoughts of ghosts and mysteries, and this particular burial ground is as historic as they get. Also, Montgomery Cemetery plays a significant role in my 4th (and yet unpublished) novel--titled FEAR ITSELF.

Like my protagonist, Pat Montella, I had kin (a grandmother, 2 uncles, an aunt, and 4 cousins) who lived within a block of Montgomery Cemetery. Their street ended right at the gates. As a kid, the graveyard seemed ancient to me. Derelict, too. Stones were toppled, the grass was always high. I never saw anyone venture inside. My relatives, as far as I was concerned, lived beside the mysterious ruins of a bygone civilization. How cool is that?

Fast forward a few decades, to when the Historical Society of Montgomery County took charge of the cemetery and began restoring the grounds and giving free tours. Main reason for today's blog--their tours continue this weekend and I highly recommend them. See info at the end of this article.

Before about 1850 in America, public burial grounds were usually potter's fields, that is, cleared land used for burying anyone who had no connection with a church, no burial plot on their family's property, no money for a funeral, or for anyone who died while traveling and had no family nearby. Sending a corpse home was a rare occurrence. Embalming fluid didn't catch on until the Civil War. These fields often had few or no markers.

Mid-19th century, the idea of "garden cemeteries" became popular. These were public parks where you could come to picnic on a Sunday afternoon while paying respects to your deceased loved ones. Montgomery Cemetery was founded in 1847 with this concept in mind, although it's laid out in a formal pattern instead of meandering like many other garden cemeteries (West Laurel Hill near Philadelphia, for example). Montgomery was actually one of the first cemeteries of its kind and has one of the largest collections of underground vaults in the region. (An underground vault is essentially a subterranean mausoleum--a room with shelves, usually accessed by ladder through a slab on top.)

If you're a Civil War buff, you shouldn't miss this place. Montgomery was the final resting place of 5 Union generals, the most famous being Major-General Winfield Scott Hancock, said to have "saved the Nation" at the Battle of Gettysburg, before going on to become a candidate for U.S. President in 1880, losing by a very narrow margin to James A. Garfield (who was shot only 4 months later). Hancock's funeral in Norristown was attended by thousands, and his pallbearers included Generals Sherman, Sheridan and Buell, and Secretary of State Bayard.

The other generals buried in Montgomery were Hartranft (the officer in charge of the Lincoln Conspiracy prisoners, who gave the final order for the first execution of a woman in the U.S.--he went on to become governor of Pennsylvania and welcome the world to the state during the American centennial celebration), Slemmer (who fired the first Union shots of the war), Zook and McClennan.

The cemetery is chock full of other historic personages, plus fascinating stories, like the huge mound that supposedly marks a witch's grave, and the tale of Charles Hunsicker whose skull was stolen by grave robbers. Legend has it that the robbers all went on to became victims of some form of accidental decapitation. Besides all this, Montgomery's tomb architecture is amazing--worth the trip all by itself.

For more info on Montgomery Cemetery and the free tours, go to
http://www.hsmcpa.org/cemetery.htm

Peace,
Elena