On building community with Edith Maxwell #bookgiveaway

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Today it’s my pleasure to host a writer and friend of the Reds who needs no introduction here. Welcome, Edith Maxwell. And the great news is that she has a new book out, MURDER AT THE RUSTY ANCHOR. Such an intriguing title...

Carry it away, Edith!

EDITH MAXWELL: Hallie, thank you so much for hosting me on the front blog. I’m here to celebrate with you all yesterday’s release of Murder at the Rusty Anchor, my sixth Cozy Capers Book Group mystery and my thirty-fourth published novel.

And I’m waving hi to all my backblog friends. What a community the Jungle Reds Writers have fostered! With each other as bloggers, for sure, but also among those of us who leave a comment nearly every day and then reply to each other’s comments. It was so fun to meet some of you in person at Boucheron in San Diego.

Community. Isn’t that what we all want in some form? I’ve read articles about adults having trouble making friends, and that makes me sad.

According to the Etymology Online Dictionary - one of my favorite research sites (https://www.etymonline.com/) – the word “community” is attested by the late 14th century, with a meaning of:

"a number of people associated together by the fact of residence in the same locality," also "the common people" (not the rulers or the clergy), from Old French comunité "community, commonness, everybody"..., from Latin communitatem ... "community, society, fellowship, friendly intercourse; courtesy, condescension, affability," from communis "common, public, general, shared by all or many."

Fellowship. Friendly intercourse. Courtesy. Affability. Among the common people. Shared by all or many.

The Reds and Readers might not live in the same geographic locality, but we sure do have things in common and share online. Over at the Wicked Authors blog and at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, we also have communities of reader/commenters, and we the bloggers are good friends behind the scenes, as the Reds are.

On a professional level, most crime fiction authors are devoted members of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, or both, where we find understanding, support, information, friendship, and so much more. I have said many times I would never be a multi-published author without the support and networking I gained from my peers, especially through Sisters in Crime and the New England chapter. Every single Red here has boosted me along my path in various ways and always with affability and courtesy, for which I am ever grateful. Thank you!

Any published author has a community of devoted fans. Some help us promote our work, some cheer us on, some tactfully (or otherwise) point out errors of storytelling or typography, and all either buy the book or request it from their library (which counts).

We probably all have other communities we need and are attached to. Church congregations, neighbors helping neighbors, clubs, volunteer organizations, trivia teams, swimming or walking buddies, or just plain pals – who can live without those? I know my Quaker community (a few of which are shown here before our local Pride parade) and a group of decades-long women friends are super important to my life locally.

In the fictional town of Westham on Cape Cod that I created for the Cozy Capers Book Group series, Mac Almeida is part of several communities. One is her family – her husband, her parents, her tiny dynamo of a grandma, her (half-)brother, and little niece Cokey – who all live within a mile of Mac and Tim. Family is super important to Mac, and she and Tim hope to start one of their own sometime soon.

Mac’s book group, who are also her fellow amateur sleuths, play a big role in the books and in Mac’s life, especially when one of them is a person of interest in a murder, which has happened in most of the books. The Cozy Capers book group members often are too involved in helping solve the case du jour to get to that week’s cozy mystery.

Mac’s bike shop employees and customers are another kind of community, especially her repeat shoppers. Mac’s walking buddy Gin, also a good friend and fellow business owner, is a friend who means a lot to her. (I always want to stop into Salty Taffy’s, Gin’s candy shop, and then I remember I made it up). The two often hash over case details while they stride along the Shining Sea Trail.

In addition, by now Mac has a mini-community of law enforcement folks. State police homicide detective Lincoln Haskins has come to acknowledge her abilities in the crime-solving realm, as has Westham detective Penelope Johnson. Police chief Victoria Laitinen, Mac’s old high-school rival? Not so much.

Readers: Who makes up your communities (besides this one)? I’d love to send two commenters a signed copy of the new book.

HALLIE: Thank you so much, Edith! Community is something we can all relate to, and especially important as so many of us felt stranded during the covid lockdowns.

ABOUT Murder at the Rusty Anchor:
There’s deadweight behind the bar at the Rusty Anchor and it’s up to Cape Cod bike shop owner Mackenzie “Mac” Almeida to solve the murder in Agatha Award–winner Maddie Day’s latest Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery . . .

A rainy July weekend in Westham means the beaches are empty and business is dead at Mac’s Bikes but couldn’t be livelier inside the Rusty Anchor Pub. But come Monday morning one patron is not so lively when the chef opens up and finds a body behind the bar. It’s last call for Bruce Byrne, an elderly high school teacher who’s been around so long it seems like he taught everybody.

When Mac’s friend Flo, the librarian, makes the list of suspects, Mac gathers the Cozy Capers Book Group to clear her name. With no end in sight to the rain, the group has plenty of time to study the clues and sort through a roll call of suspects to determine who decided to teach Mr. Bryne a lesson. But with a killer desperate to cover their tracks, Mac and the group will be tested as never before . . .

ABOUT EDITH Edith Maxwell is an Agatha-Award winning and national bestselling mystery author who writes the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries and the Local Foods Mysteries. Maxwell's short stories have appeared in thirty juried anthologies and magazines. She is active in Mystery Writers of America and is a proud lifetime member of Sisters in Crime. As Maddie Day, Maxwell writes the Country Store Mysteries, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, the Cece Barton Mysteries, and the historical Dot and Amelia Mysteries featuring Amelia Earhart as a sleuthing sidekick.

Maxwell/Day lives in an antique house north of Boston with her beau and their cat Martin, where she writes, cooks, gardens, and wastes time on Facebook. She blogs every weekday with the Wicked Authors and on the second and fourth Fridays at Mystery Lovers Kitchen. Look for her under both names on social media and at edithmaxwell.com.