My Most Unusual Character

More than thirty years ago (!) I was walking across the campus of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and heard a noise like a slow-motion car accident: Whack! Clank! Smack! I looked over and there was a group of perhaps a dozen or more people wearing antique costumes. The men wore armor, the women long skirts. The women were sitting in the shade of a big tree, talking in pleasant voices. Most of them were doing embroidery – if memory serves me correctly, one was spinning with a drop spindle. The men were fighting with thick sticks, not viciously but boisterously. They didn’t seem to be actors but ordinary people doing what to them was normal Saturday afternoon activity. Among my first thoughts was: Can I play?

That was my introduction to the Society for Creative Anachronism. In a few weeks I was one of them. I chose as my “personna” Margaret of Shaftesbury, fifteenth century nun. I was the only nun in our group. (I was unattached at that time and the teacher of my Women in Medieval History class had noted that the only woman in medieval times who was not under the control of some man was a nun.)

Nobody else wanted to be a serious nun at that time and I had a notion that a nun was not allowed out and around all by herself. About eighteen months later I was working at the College (later University) of St. Thomas in Minneapolis (having become seriously attached) and in their gift shop were toy Paddington Bears, hand made by one employee’s mother. I bought one for a niece and fell in love with it myself and so bought another. I stitched a tonsure on his little head, made him a black monk’s robe and dubbed him Father Hugh of Paddington. He quickly developed a personality (“a small, brown fellow with kind, anxious eyes, who mean well”) and was often taken from me and handed around at SCA events. One time he was spotted sitting on the queen’s lap during court.

I began weaving him into the stories I was starting to write about life in a medieval abbey (Deer Abby, of course). When I wrote Murder at the War, he was one of the characters. I even wrote some short stories published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine with him as an amateur sleuth.

I still have him, he’s sitting on our couch, still with that kind, anxious look on his little brown face. My most unusual character, or at least the character with the most unusual source.

If you like, comment on this blog entry and I will put your name in a random drawing for a small collection of his stories called Father Hugh Investigates. Good luck!

You Name the Prize!

I think I have an idea for a contest. But first:

Yesterday was another appearance day for me, this time in Winona, at a charity affair, raising money for a hospital. There were three authors present. Two of us write mystery fiction, the third writes true crime books. Well . . . book. He’s only got one at present, about the Congdon murders, a very big deal in Minnesota. Over lunch – a slice of baked chicken over an Asian salad, carrot cake for dessert – each of us got to make a fifteen-minute presentation about our writing. The audience was appreciative to all of us, but I think I got off the best line: “As Fred Allen once said, ‘I don’t know why anyone would write a book when for a few dollars he could buy one.’” After lunch, the three of us moved to a long table and sold/signed our books. My hat got quite a few compliments.

There was a big crowd present, over a hundred. And while we didn’t sell a hundred books, we sold quite a few. So despite the long drive – about three hours each way for me – it was a worthwhile journey. I think we each made a few new fans.

Today I am off to buy some purple flowers and take them to the Science Museum of Minnesota where they will be turned into dye. I will use the experience in the book I am writing called, curiously enough, And Then You Dye. I understand the color of the plant material doesn’t always forecast the color of the dye, so this should be interesting. I’ll let you know next week.

I want to offer a contest next week. Win a free book. But which book? How about I leave it up to you? Let me know if you would prefer a copy of the first book in the Betsy Devonshire series, Crewel World, or a copy of the newest one, Buttons and Bones. Or would you like a copy of my first published novel, Murder at the War? Or a copy of the first in my Dame Frevisse mystery series, The Novice’s Tale? Or some other book? Let me know. Whichever gets the most votes is the one I’ll offer next week.

Novel Reflections

She likes it! My editor at Berkley thinks Threadbare is "terrific!" What a relief! Now I am impatient to get her notated manuscript to see what her suggestions are to make it even shinier. (I already have some ideas of my own for changes I want to make.)

Meanwhile, I have finished going over the four Peter Brichter mysteries that followed Murder at the War, and to my surprise I am thinking that perhaps Murder at the War is not my favorite of that series after all. Original Sin is giving it a run for its money, and if it’s not the new favorite, it’s running a very close second. It’s about an old house out in the country isolated by a blizzard, with the owners, their infant son, the son’s nanny, the horse trainer, an old woman who used to live in the house, a college professor, and a freshly re-married retired cop and his new-old bride gathered there to celebrate Christmas. A murder occurs – in the library, of course – and it appears no one could have gone into the library and out again without being seen. It’s my favorite kind of mystery, very cozy and traditional, with a twisty solution. It will be brought out later this year as an e-book. Along with the other three.

I had a lot of fun writing those mysteries and was pleased as could be when they were published.

Now I am turning my focus onto the next Betsy Devonshire mystery, And Then You Dye. I was intrigued to learn that the mordants – fixatives used to treat fibers before dipping them into a pot of dye – are poisonous. But there are two problems with using a mordant as a murder weapon. The first is that mordants are generally powdered metals, such as copper, tin, iron, or chrome, which are poisonous all right, but metal poisons kill slowly and painfully, which gives my victim time to tell the investigators who hated her and who had access to her dyeing setup. And secondly, how do I get her to ingest the stuff in the first place? Experienced dyers are very careful around mordants, that’s how they live long enough to become experienced. So I’m thinking, the heck with it, I’ll just shoot her.

A reminder: I am offering a free copy of a novel to the person who can give me a title for it. The title should be fewer than five words, and contain a stitching term that contains an element of threat. Visit my web site for titles I’ve already used and for contact information: Monica-Ferris.com.

Peter Brichter Lives Again

The same local small publisher who brought out a new edition of my first novel, Murder at the War, now wants to bring out the other Peter Brichter novels: The Unforgiving Minutes, Ashes to Ashes, Original Sin, and Show Stopper. I wrote these under my maiden name: Mary Monica Pulver. My web mistress has hauled the electronic manuscripts out and is converting them to a format my computer can read. I am reading them over, making corrections and small changes, before sending them off to FTL Publications. I have already finished The Unforgiving Minutes and am currently working on Ashes to Ashes.

Impressions? First, I am amazed at the length of these novels. The longest, The Unforgiving Minutes, is more than 98 thousand words! (My Betsy Devonshire novels run in the neighborhood of 55 thousand words.)

Second, the plots are complex. Lots of characters and several threads to keep track of. Of course, back then I had a longer deadline to work within. But also, I was just a more complicated plotter.

And not as good a writer.

But not a bad one, either. It’s interesting to see how my writing has changed – and how it hasn’t. I like these stories and it’s been a pleasure to dig into them again. I’ve always liked editing my writing and here I can edit without having first the hard work of writing the manuscript.

Meanwhile, I haven’t heard from my editor about Threadbare. I’m not going to do anything with it until I hear from her. That means I can totally focus on getting the four remaining Peter Brichter novels ready to return to the light of day.

Hardcover Vs. Paperback - And A CONTEST

My first published novel came out in hardcover, from St. Martin’s Press. It had an unusual but perfect cover and, because it took dead aim at a particular set of people who are enthusiastic readers -- members of the Society for Creative Anachronism -- it did well. It had a peculiar title: Murder at the War. The paperback version, from Walker, had a better title, Knight Fall. It did well, too.

I was surprised when MATW came out in hardcover, because what I thought I was writing was a book you buy at the airport or at a bus depot, read on your trip, and leave behind on the seat when you arrive. I meant it to be light but highly-entertaining, full of interesting characters, with a clever plot, and having a satisfying ending, but nothing deeply literary -- just the sort of thing to make the enforced inactivity of travel bearable. But I didn’t think it was the sort of book you buy to treasure and re-read over and over.

It was an honor as well as a pleasure to discover I was wrong, that people liked the books in the Peter Brichter series enough to buy them in hardcover.

There is a certain amount of prestige to having a book come out in hardcover; my current Betsy Devonshire series began as paperback originals, but has now graduated to hardcovers followed, about a year later, by paperback versions. Both versions, unlike my first series, come out from the same publisher, Berkley/Prime Crime.

Speaking of romance, which we seem to be doing this week, Murder at the War featured a happily married couple; the prequel, The Unforgiving Minutes, told the strange and exciting way they met and fell in love. (Sort of like the lines from a song in the musical “Fiorello!” “You remember her, she detested you; you remember him, he arrested you.”) The Dame Frevisse series featured a medieval nun who was above such nonsense as falling in love. My current series has Betsy being pretty much of a dud at finding and holding onto a good man -- though she is currently doing a lot better with Connor Sullivan, who is introduced in my novel Blackwork, and will be prominent in the forthcoming Buttons and Bones.

A CONTEST: You can win a copy of the just-released paperback version of the thirteenth Betsy Devonshire mystery, Blackwork! Suitably autographed, of course. Just answer this question Yes or No by five p.m. Friday, October 9: Are the terms “Counted Cross Stitch” and “Needlepoint” describing the same kind of needlework? In case of multiple correct answers (and I anticipate lots of them, this is an easier question than in my last contest), I will draw the winner at random.