How Book Groups Made a Crime Writer Out of Me

Book groups can be dangerous places. Talk about a killer hobby!

Why dangerous? Aren’t book groups places where you get to share your passion for books with like-minded people? Don’t book groups let you socialize and make new friends? Where’s the danger?

You can find the full range of human behavior at a book group and that can add up to one thing: conflict. There are the domineering sorts who take over the discussion with their non-stop chatter. Conflicts arise over what to read and how the group should be conducted. Others don’t read the assigned book. No doubt about it, if you want conflict, a book group can satisfy that need.

But only a crime writer—like me—would elevate a little harmless conflict to murder.

I joined my first mystery book group in 1993 in Southern California. The women in the group were lovely—almost too lovely. I hadn’t started my writing career but I knew I was on my way when the what-if scenarios came to me unbidden—what if these conflict-free women weren’t really so nice? What if this was all for show and they harbored secrets, scandals, hatreds? I gave them backstories and they became the prototypes for Murder at the Book Group.

In 1996 I said good bye to what I would come to consider my favorite book group when I relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia. I took a writing course at the University of Virginia and started penning Murder at the Book Group. I joined a mystery group at Barnes & Noble. Connie, our most prolific reader, showed up at each meeting with a large green loose leaf notebook that contained her book log. Another woman routinely declared that she hated whatever book we’d chosen for that month.

Fast forward to 2002 and I found myself living in Richmond, Virginia. I made a beeline for the Tuckahoe Library mystery group. There I met Mary Miley, who would later publish The Impersonator and Silent Murders and become a fellow sister in Sisters in Crime.

When the Tuckahoe group folded in 2006 a number of us joined the long-running Mystery Lovers Group, led by Lelia Taylor, who runs the popular blog Buried Under Books.

What happened to Murder at the Book Group? It was perishing and had become little more than a rainy day pastime. In 2010 I realized that I had amassed enough knowledge of book groups and their often fascinating dynamics and, yes, conflicts. Besides mystery groups, I also participated in literary fiction groups. I had to face facts—the only way I could get back on track with Murder at the Book Group was to give up book groups!

It still took some time, but Murder at the Book Group finally made its debut in December of 2014.

As for those book groups—I haven’t returned to one but I’m privileged to visit many as a guest author. The picture below shows a group from Truckee, California that I visited by Skype.

 

 

Maggie King is the author of Murder at the Book Group, published in 2014 by Simon and Schuster. She contributed the short story, “A Not So Genteel Murder,” to the Virginia is for Mysteries anthology and “Reunion in Shockoe Slip” appears in the Virginia is Mysteries Volume II anthology (February, 2016).

Maggie is a member of Sisters in Crime and the American Association of University Women. She has worked as a software developer, retail sales manager, and customer service supervisor. Maggie graduated from Elizabeth Seton College and earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration from Rochester Institute of Technology. She has called New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California home. These days she lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, Glen, and cats, Morris and Olive.

Visit Maggie at http://www.maggieking.com.

How I Carry 168 Books in My Purse

Last year a moving company estimated our move from St. Louis to outside of Washington, DC, would cost us $13,000.

Yes, you read that right. Thirteen THOUSAND dollars.

After we picked ourselves up off the floor, we asked what we could do to lighten the load. The guy with the calculator scratched his head and sighed. "As far as I can tell most of this is because of your books. Ma'am, you have a lot of books. A lot!"

I had at least eight bookcases, filled with double rows of books, plus other books in boxes. That doesn't count the books stashed in my armoir, or in closets, or beside my bed. Not only did the dollar amount for moving all those books astonish me, I also started worrying about space. My husband had selected our new home, and I hadn't seen it. Where would I put all those books?


In the end, I weeded through them. I gave away boxes and boxes. The library and the Goodwill shop both benefited from my move.

My husband said, "I know this is hard for you. Maybe the time has come to get an e-reader."

I'm not going to tell you what brand we purchased, but I'll tell you this: I love my e-reader. When I was snowed in this winter, I practiced single finger aerobics. I hit the "buy" button over and over and bought new titles. I love the convenience of being able to make a purchase anytime, anywhere. When I discovered I had three days to read my online bookclub selection, I uploaded the book in less time than it took me to type in the title. I was ready for the discussion with time to spare.

Then I discovered how many classics are available for free or next to nothing. Recently, I uploaded the entire collection of Virginia Woolf books for $1.99. I have all the works of Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, and many others. I can even sample some books before I buy! I love that option!

Do I miss turning pages? Sometimes. But I'm a very fast reader and I can set down the e-reader and "turn the pages" while I brush my teeth or whatever. Used to be, I couldn't keep the book flat while my hands were occupied.

Do I worry about the battery going out? That's only happened once. The last thing I do at night is plug in my e-reader.

I love having the ability to look up words as I read, plus the ability to highlight and mark passages I admire, or make notes to myself about them.

Most of all, I adore having a variety of books at my fingertips. I've read more books than ever lately, because I always have a book in my purse. If I don't fancy whatever I'm reading at the time, I just hit the magic button and read something else. If I see a book I know I'll want to read, I order it pronto. I pay nothing for shipping or handling.

Do I think that e-publishing will hurt the world of publishing?

Quite the contrary. Now that I have an e-reader, I'm buying more books than ever before. It's easy to buy them, easy to pre-order them, and easy to keep track of what I have.

After all, I'll never run out of shelf space!

How Not to Impress a Book Club

Early on in our courtship, my husband impressed the heck out of me by killing a fly.

I know this raises all sorts of questions in your mind, like why the Bachelor and The Bachelorette TV Shows don't cut to the chase and have fly killing competitions. Maybe fly killing isn't a skill that warms the cockles of every woman's heart. But to me, seeing him clap his hands over a newly landed fly, watching the palms smack together, seeing the dead body bounce across the table...well, he had me at "SMACK!"

After our wedding, I decided we were intimate enough for me to ask an important question. "How do you do that? I mean, I've seem people kill flies with swatters and with newspapers, but bare handed? And sometimes with the flies in mid-flight? Gee...." (I think the champagne was still percolating in my veins.)

He explained that if you positioned your hands roughly three inches apart and over the top of the fly that when you clapped, the fly was sucked up in the updraft. And voila! Dead bug.

This, I thought, was very, very cool. So I tried it. It worked. Since then, I've been a lethal weapon to any and sundry flying bugs.

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm pretty darn proud of my fly-killing, martial arts hands. So I show off my talent whenever and wherever a hero(ine) is needed to clap out bothersome bugs.

My talents served me well until May when I was on my Kiki Lowenstein's World Tour. I stopped by the Oprah Book Club in Monroe City, IN, for a repeat performance. This is a wonderful book club, and Marlis Day deserves credit for her work with them! Plus, Marlis always puts on a good old-fashion Southern Indiana spread for the club members. That includes oven baked chicken, salads, slaws, potato salads, rice salads, beans, tomatoes and Robert Redford, which has to be my hands-down favorite dessert. Read how to make it here. Yes, ladies, I would never turn down an opportunity to lick Robert Redford from a spoon!

Knowing my weakness, the kind folks in Monroe City made not one or two but five pans of Robert Redford, using a variety of puddings. I was digging into the chocolate version when a fly buzzed my plate. I decided I was NOT going to share my dessert with a fly, even if he was a fellow Hoosier. So I put down my plate and waited. When the fly was directly over the pan of Robert Redford--SLAP! I got the little sucker.

Unfortunately, he fell into the dessert.

I think they still love me in Monroe City, but they watch me very, very carefully when I start to clap for anything.

The folks at Monroe City know I'm a FOOL for Robert Redford.