My Mother's Apron

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I've been thinking a lot about my mom lately, prompted in part, I think, by our discussion earlier this week about growing up in a tea or coffee household. In the image that immediately comes to mind of my mom in the kitchen, brewing her perocolater coffee, she is wearing a half apron made from a terrycloth dish towel. She made these herself, and I remember them as being striped in the ugliest colors imaginable, perhaps gray, brown, and orange together, with the waistband and ties made from whatever cotton scraps must have been handy. She would not do anything in the kitchen without the everpresent apron.

My mom's aprons did NOT look like this! Nor did she ever serve my dad tea from a teapot.

I also thought of mom and her aprons when I was cooking the other night--without an apron, as usual--and splashed a big spot of hot grease on my thigh. Ouch, and a good thing I was wearing old pants.

How did I not aquire this very practical apron habit from my mom and grandmother (who preferred the pinafore type apron with a bib)? Partly because I am a slob when home and wear such ratty clothes that a spill or a splash is not a disaster, and partly, I think, because aprons had gone out of style by the time I was beginning to cook in my own kitchen.

Aprons have been worn as far back as the 1300s, and the name is thought to have come from the French word napron, "a small piece of cloth." Here's a lovely painting from the French artist Leon Bonvin, circa 1862.

The 1950S and 60s were the heyday of aprons in the US, when ads and TV moms always featured a woman wearing an apron. (June Cleaver, anyone?) 

But if the advent of feminism, more casual clothes, and women who worked sounded a death knell for the trusty garmet, it is apparently having a resurgence. Etsy is awash in aprons, vintage and new, and they pop up in upmarket clothing lines, too.

I do remember to put on an apron when I'm cooking for company--therefore wearing nicer clothes! Here's my favorite, from Anthropologie. Who could resist? (It does have to be ironed, unfortunately, as you can tell from my not very professional ironing job...)

How about it, Reddies? Do you have an apron handy in your kitchen? 

Clea Simon--The Butterfly Trap

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It is always a treat to have the multi-talented author Clea Simon visit here on JRW. Clea writes both cozies and dark psychological suspense, which inspires transports of admiration from me--I can't imagine how you twist your brain into such different shapes! Clea's latest, THE BUTTERFLY TRAP, definitely falls on the suspense side of the ledger, and here she is to tell us what inspired it.

What patterns are playing out in your life?

 

Hi and thanks for having me here today! Or here again, I should say, since you’ve hosted me before. Which brings up the question I’ve been wrestling with lately: What are the patterns you see in your lives? And, maybe more to the point, how do we use them in our writing?

This hit home just last week when I found myself teetering on the verge of an old fight. In brief, I’d been home all day working on the computer, with the exception of a short (and very careful!) walk in the icy day. My darling husband Jon (no relation to Hank’s Jonathan) had gone to the Boston Public Library to do some research. (He’s retired, but that just means more time for his own writing projects.) And so when he came home, I nearly jumped on him, full of things I wanted to tell him. How the writing was going. What the cat did. Thoughts on the day’s news (oh, so many thoughts…). And I could almost see him recoil.

To explain, he’d been at the library, but he’d been dealing with people all day. And I? Well, I’d only been dealing with the people in my head. All of whom were dying to come out.

It was all too much. I caught myself, and he met me halfway, asking about the day’s work and more. But in that moment, I saw a dynamic I recognized.

You see, my mother was an artist – a painter and printmaker, who dabbled in other media as well and who also, of course, had the full responsibility for us kids. My father was a doctor. An internist with a private practice, who saw patients all day. Too often, that meant a conflict at the end of the day. He’d come home, tired and wanting some quiet. And she, who hadn’t spoken to an adult all day, would be bursting with thoughts – with ideas she wanted to share. Ready for contact. Needless to say, it didn’t always end well.

In the worst scenarios, the tension would simmer for about an hour. By then, we’d be sitting at the dinner table – because, of course, despite her own work, my mom had to have dinner on the table at six! At some point, my mother would start to needle my father. Little things. Half-said comments that she wouldn’t repeat. And, inevitably, at some point, my father would blow up. He was a big man with a big voice, so this would be loud and, frankly, scary. My mother would run off to the kitchen, crying. And I, her youngest (and female), would follow to comfort her, leaving my father at the table. But even then I would be aware that he wasn’t really angry. In fact, he’d be confused. What had happened? Why had he exploded? He was like the proverbial bull in the china shop at that point, unable to take another step without causing damage. And as I hugged my Mom in the kitchen, I also felt sympathy for him. They were caught in a pattern that neither had the awareness to break.

In retrospect, so many other factors played into their relationship – and into their fights. Her work, for one, was never taken as seriously as his – by my father, by society at large. It certainly didn’t bring in an equivalent amount of money, which is too often how we measure such things. And there had been an imbalance in the relationship from the start: She’d been the beautiful artist he had pursued, winning in part with the promise of being able to give her a comfortable life – as a doctor’s wife. But was that who she wanted to be? Although he supported her work (and, I believe, was proud when she sold to museums and was honored in juried shows), did he ever understand it?

I confess, it took another friend’s disastrous relationship to make me revisit these old patterns in my own life. He and his then-love had come to visit, and by the third day, while she was sleeping in, he and I were crying at the kitchen table. It was impossible, he was saying. She drank too much. She was crazy. “But R-,” I remember saying to him. “You like the crazy! You’re drawn to it!”

“I know, but…” he replied (at least as I remember it. In truth, he might have resisted my diagnosis a bit longer). And sometime that day, as they both packed to go, it hit me. These patterns of love and anger. Where the fulfillment of one dream means the denying of the other. The way we wreck the ones we adore. And that night, I began to write The Butterfly Trap, a he said/she said tale of love and obsession that explores the dynamics of relationships, gender roles and expectations, along with lots of blood, dirty deeds, and sex (hey, I do write to entertain!).

And me and Jon? I don’t know if I’m any more careful these days. But I’m certainly more aware. Patterns can so easily become habits, treads worn in our minds… leading us down a tragic path.

What about you? Do you see patterns from your family of origins that have persisted in your lives? Are they useful or can you learn from them? Let me know!

 

About The Butterfly Trap:

Anya and Greg seem to be the golden couple, until dark secrets come to light and unleash inevitable devastation in this slow-burn he said/she said psychological suspense novel.

 

Greg has his life all planned out: become a doctor, buy a house, and have a wife and children – and when he meets Anya during his post-doc studies in Boston, all of his dreams seem to come true. It’s love at first sight, and Greg doesn’t shy away from changing his life to provide Anya, his beautiful butterfly, with everything she wants and needs.

 

Anya is a struggling artist, determined to make it as a painter in Boston’s art scene – but getting involved with shy and sweet Greg could thwart her lifelong ambition. Their relationship unfolds like a classic love story . . . except that Anya seems to be hiding something that unsuspecting Greg soon must face.

 

Are Greg and Anya truly the perfect couple, or will jealousy, uncertainty, and dangerous machinations break them apart in the most dreadful way imaginable?

 

“The theme of fear and control in a relationship emerges in Simon’s slow-burn latest, along with the exploration of the many ways two people can deceive each other.” – Booklist

 

Before turning to a life of crime (fiction), Boston Globe-bestselling author Clea Simon was a journalist. A native of New York, she came to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University and never left. The author of three nonfiction books and 32 mysteries, most recently the psychological suspense The Butterfly Trap, her books alternate between cozies (usually featuring cats) and darker psychological suspense, like the Massachusetts Center for the Book “must reads” Hold Me Down and World Enough. She lives with her husband, the writer Jon S. Garelick (another Boston Globe alum), and their cat Thisbe in Somerville, Massachusetts.

 

 

Moment of Calm

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I suspect that many of us these days find ourselves in a fairly constant state of stress and anxiety, with the daily firehose of distressing news. I know I keep realizing that my shoulders are up to my ears and I have to remind myself to take deep breaths. None of this is very healthy, or good for productivity! 

In search of a coping mechanism, I've turned to my old transcendental meditation practice. And I do mean OLD. I took the TM course with my parents back in the mid seventies. TM was very much in the news in those days, with the Beatles and other luminaries having visited the Maharishi's ashram in India a few years before. (Photo of the Maharishi courtesy of Wikipedia.)

This course was, of course, my mother's idea. My mom was quite the hippy in her day, an adopter of meditation and health food--she was a big believer even then in what we now refer to as a Mediterranean diet. She was always worried about my dad's health (he lived to be 96) so I'm sure that was her motivation. TM is reputed to have a lot of benefits, including lowering blood pressure and relieving stress. It's also supposed to improve concentration, something I needed then, when I was finishing my college degree, and I could certainly use now.

It's not hard. You sit quietly in a chair for twenty minutes twice a day, while repeating the "mantra" given to you by your TM teacher. (Don't quote me, but I think the repetition of any word works.) I've been managing twenty minutes at least once a day, and trying for twice. It really does help.

Dear REDs and readers, what do you do to find moments of calm in a sea of worry? 

Here's a lovely little treat to help you relax, which I came across in my college newsletter, the Austin College a capella choir singing a piece called "Northern Lights." And I will shamefacedly admit that I listened to a minute and then almost scrolled on, because "I didn't have time." But I made myself slow down, relax, and listen to the whole piece, and I was so glad I did. I swear my blood pressure dropped in that five minutes!

Beverage of Choice

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It was so heartening to see how many people responded to Hank’s check-in post a few weeks ago saying that JRW was the first thing they read while having their morning coffee or tea. But that sent me off (not unusually!) on a tangent, wondering how and why people choose what they drink.

I grew up in a perked coffee household. My mom made it every morning in the white Corningware percolator with the little blue flowers, and both parents would refill cups of black coffee throughout the day. The coffee smelled good when it was brewing, but imagine my horror the first time I tasted the bitter black liquid! I couldn’t imagine how anyone could drink such a thing, and my opinion remained firmly fixed until I lived in Mexico City the summer I was eighteen. There, coffee was the social thing, and many hours were spent in coffee shops drinking cappuccinos, although I still had to add sugar to make it palatable. It was only on trips to London in the last decade or so that I discovered the latte—along with the fact that if you drank coffee instead of tea, you spent much less time desperately searching for public restrooms, which are in short supply everywhere in the UK.

But although I drink coffee (unsweetened now) when I’m out and occasionally at home, tea is still my first, passionate love. A perfect cuppa satisfies in a way coffee does not, and most mornings I cannot wait to make that first cup.

Dearest REDS, are you coffee, tea, neither, or both? And how did you come to love your beverage of choice?

JENN McKINLAY: Coffee! So much coffee! Imagine my delight when Hooligan 2 became a barista. My morning cup is essential and I steam and froth the milk just to be fancy. Afternoons are for tea. It helps me make it through the day.

RHYS BOWEN: Need you ask, since my Facebook group is called Tea with Rhys!  Tea drinker from birth. I have to start my day with a cuppa ( made from John’s special blend of teas)  Then is coffee mid morning. Tea at teatime. And at night alternating flavors of herb teas. Well Rested. Maringa ginger turmeric depending on mood. When I am in the road I carry my own British tea bags but it’s no good unless I can get boiling water 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: There are days when the ONLY thing that lures me from my comfy bed is the knowledge that I get to have coffee. 

I often steam the milk, too, and it is transporting. I love it beyond all love. And in the summer, I love to get iced lattes. I mean–heavenly. During the day, I am Diet Pepsi, because I am out of coffee mode. Then after dinner, I always have camomile tea and half a cookie, and I am so cozy.

How? I remember, very clearly, I did not drink coffee until 1971. It just wasn’t a thing at our house. Although my father had it every morning, percolated? I wasn’t involved. 

But then, a boyfriend in Washington DC offered me coffee with cream and sugar, and because I was trying to be cool, I pretended that’s what I always drank. I was instantly–instantly!--hooked. Deliciousness! Caffeine! Sugar! Oh, I still remember that first cup. Now I don’t use sweetener, and only skim milk, but I am just as happy.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Passionate tea drinker here, which has been an uphill battle in the coffee-obsessed US. If I had a dollar for every time I ordered tea at a restaurant or diner and got a baggie alongside a tiny carafe of hot (never boiling) water… 

My mom, on the other hand, was a coffee fanatic. You could track where she had been in the house throughout the day by the half-empty cups of cold coffee she’d forget as she moved on to her next project. Ross was also a tea drinker, so we had no way to make coffee at our house, a point that was driven home when Mom stopped in at a CVS on the way to Spencer’s baptism (!!!) to buy us a Mr. Coffee machine.

HALLIE EPHRON: I like coffee and I like tea, but neither one passionately. I’m sure it’s partly because I’ve never been properly educated. Tea, for example, I don’t know how to BUY it, keep it, or brew it. I use a cone and a filter to make my morning coffee and it’s very hit or miss. 

I should love coffee – my mother always saved the last of her dinner cup of coffee, mixed in some extra sugar and cream, and gave it to me. Maybe that’s why I’m so partial to coffee ice cream.

DEBS: Hallie, glad to give you a crash tea-drinking course, anytime! I am a certified Tea Master from a course I took in London.

And did you all see that researchers are now saying that brewing tea can help remove heavy metals, including lead, from water? How cool is that!

How about it, Reddies, what do you drink, and how did you come to love it?

For the Love of Jessica Fletcher by Barbara Early

LUCY BURDETTE: I love this essay from Barbara Early about Jessica Fletcher's history--she's now writing for the Murder, She Wrote series--it's fascinating! 

BARBARA EARLY: Murder, She Wrote recently celebrated a birthday. Fall of 2024 marked the 40th anniversary of the first episode hitting the airwaves. I suspect what initially attracted viewers was the star power: a Hollywood legend like Angela Lansbury taking the lead role, William Windom playing the loveable yet curmudgeonly small-town doctor, and a likeable Tom Bosley (after his fatherly role on Happy Days) assuming the equally likeable, if sometimes bumbling, role of sheriff of a small, picture-perfect coastal community in Maine. Guest stars abounded, drawing from Lansbury’s friends from the silver screen: Ernest Borgnine, June Allyson, Milton Berle, Kathryn Grayson, Jane Greer, Buddy Hackett, and so many more, as well as a host of television regulars and future names, like George Clooney, who was just starting his acting career.

But beyond the star appeal, Murder, She Wrote was revolutionary. Yes, there had been female detectives on television shows before, but most had a certain--what shall we call it--jiggly quality about them. Even if they were intelligent and capable, those attributes were coupled with also being young and sexy. And then here comes a fifty-something English teacher-turned novelist-turned amateur sleuth, and America—and the world—ate it up, with the series finishing among the top 15 shows in 11 of its long 12-season run.

It's hard not to think of Jessica as a pioneer paving the trail for those who followed. While cozy mysteries have existed since the Golden Age of Mystery in the 1920’s and ‘30s, I wonder how much of the explosion of the sub-genre in the ‘80s and ‘90s might be attributed to Jessica’s popularity. And without her, how would the mature female sleuth on television have fared? Would there be a Vera? An Agatha Raisin? A Harry Wild? A (Whitstable) Pearl Nolan?

Forty years later, new viewers and old are still finding Jessica on multiple cable channels and streaming services. There’s talk of a movie in the works, and NECA just released an action figure, complete with miniature typewriter. Of course, I bought one! And I was ecstatic to be offered a chance to write the sixtieth—yes, that 60—entry in the Murder, She Wrote book series. Along with Jessica Fletcher, of course. (wink, wink) 

For those fans of Terrie Farley Moran’s Murder, She Wrote books, don’t worry: she’s not done yet! It just seems that Jessica has been so busy discovering dead bodies that it’s taking more than one author to keep up with her! 

For my first entry in the series, I wanted to set it in that beloved town of Cabot Cove in the wintertime, with Jessica recovering at home from an accidental fall: lots of friends and neighbors stopping by, a copious amount of tea, and just a hint of Rear Window.

But don’t worry: the victim was only visiting, so no need to change that population sign on the road into town. Again.

Whether she’s a cop, a private eye, or an amateur, who is your favorite female television sleuth and why?

In a nod to Rear Window, this newest entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series finds Jessica Fletcher coping with an injury that leaves her homebound—and a murder just outside her window!

Jessica Fletcher has taken a nasty spill on the ice, leaving her in a wheelchair for several weeks. She tries to work on her latest manuscript but finds herself distracted by a new neighbor moving in across the street. There’s good reason for her to be distracted, because soon after unpacking his sparse belongings, Mr. Rymer is out in the front yard, building somewhat risqué (read: naked) snow sculptures.

While Cabot Cove debates whether the sculptures are a protected form of art or a public display of lewdness, someone starts destroying them at night. Rymer doesn’t seem upset. He just makes new ones. No need to get the police involved over a little snow, he says. Especially when there’s plenty more of it and a blizzard in the forecast.

The morning after the storm, Jessica looks out the window to see a new sculpture across the street—and the body of Mr. Rymer half-buried in the snow. Can Jessica catch a cold-blooded killer from her chair by the window?

Murder, She Wrote: Snowy with a Chance of Murder by Jessica Fletcher, Barbara Early: 9780593820049 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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Bio: Barbara Early earned an engineering degree, but after four years of doing nothing but math, developed a sudden allergy to the subject and decided to choose another occupation. Before she settled on murdering fictional people, she was a secretary, a schoolteacher, a pastor’s wife, and an amateur puppeteer. She and her husband live in Western New York State, where she enjoys cooking, crafts, classic movies, campy vintage television, board games, and spending time with her two granddaughters. Before teaming up with Jessica Fletcher, she wrote the Vintage Toyshop Mystery series and the Bridal Bouquet Shop Mysteries (as Beverly Allen).

Cousin Tom's Limericks

 

From L to R, cousin Jim, brother Doug, Tom in stripes, Lucy, cousin Steve, sister Sue

LUCY BURDETTE: It’s been a sad time in our family as we lost my dear cousin Tom to cancer last month. Since then, I’ve thought a lot about his essence. He was an academic, a professor of agriculture like his dad, my father’s brother—focusing on peanuts in particular. He was a family guy, close to his brothers and sons and granddaughters. He loved tracing lines of ancestry and sorted out our family history and helped lots of others with theirs. As you might already be able to tell in this early photo, he was the son who was most like his mother, with her wry sense of humor and love of practical jokes. He was a guest on the blog here a while back, teaching us how to write limericks. It’s such a fun post that in honor of Tom, I share it here again with you…

TOM ISLEIB: Generally, a limerick has five lines with syllable content and rhyme scheme 8a, 8a, 5b, 5b, 8a.  If you read a lot of limericks, you will find that there is some variation in the numbers of syllables in lines, usually within one or two of the eight or five.  As for the rhyming, I have seen some real stretches, and I think it unsporting when the fifth line simply repeats the last word of the first or second line, e.g., one attributed to Rudyard Kipling:

"There was a small boy of Quebec

Who was buried in snow to his neck. 

When they said, "Are you friz?" 

He replied, "Yes, I is,

But we don't call THIS cold in Quebec." 

I imagine that Kipling would punch me out for calling that "unsporting." 

LUCY: When you, Tom, are beginning a poem, how do you start? With the important rhyming words for lines 1, 2, and 5, or somewhere else?

TOM:  I usually start with a word that is critical to the particular limerick, say, a name, and try to think of words that rhyme with it that could end lines 1, 2, and 5.  Some names are hard to rhyme, for example, "Martha" (my newly married cousin) although the shortened version "Mart" or "Marty" is easier.  If a critical word is difficult to rhyme, you can bury it within a line that ends with a more easily rhymed word, e.g.,

"When Martha was going to be wed

She asked, "Will it go to my head? 

I caught me a mister

Then gloated to Sister. 

Should I have just shacked up instead?" 

LUCY: Any other tips for limerick novices?

TOM:  A memorable limerick is off-color, some of them downright nasty dirty.  We all know the famous dirty one about the man from Nantucket, although I have heard a perfectly clean version of that one.  "There once was a man from Nantucket who kept all his cash in a bucket..."  If not off-color, a limerick usually has a pun, a joke, or some other cleverness built into it that makes the reader groan.  Consider Mark Twain's famous one: 

"A man hired by John Smith and Co.

Loudly declared that he’d tho.

Men that he saw

Dumping dirt near his door

The drivers, therefore, didn’t do." **

See how he did that?  Jot down your first try, then let it fester in your subconscious mind for a day or two.  You may come up with a better variation or rhyme if you do.

LUCY: And ps, in case you think my cuz can’t take a harder name like “Martha” and do something with it, here’s the limerick he dashed off just before the wedding:

“There once was a woman named Martha

Who was hunting a guy like Siddhartha,

And then she met Rich,

A nice sonofabitch,

Now they'll marry and snooze by the heartha.”

And in case (like me) you didn’t get Mark Twain’s cleverness, here’s the key:

Co. = Company

Tho. = Thump any

Do. = Dump any

Lucy again, I’m in northern Michigan this weekend celebrating Tom's life, but if you can whip up a limerick, we would love to read them! Also if you'd like to read the original post with lots of fun in the comments, the link is here.

On Monograms

 LUCY BURDETTE: I’m not quite sure why this topic came to me, other than as a card carrying member of the Jungle Red blog, one must always be alert for possibly interesting subjects! Maybe these spoons caught my imagination when we’d been getting ready for a party and polishing the silver? Anyway, they got me thinking about monograms. I’ve never been the kind of person who wanted to put her name on sheets or towels or articles of clothing. In fact, a number of years ago, John bought some silver knives on eBay to fill out our set. They had somebody else’s initials on them and I never liked using them. We sold them back not long after. I do like these spoons because they are a blast from the past, monograms from my maternal grandmother, my mother, and then John’s baby spoon. Don't you love the one with the little windmill?

Here’s another one that I love, because it was the class ring belonging to my grandmother, Alice May Hunziker Isleib, who attended the Patterson Normal School.

I also got a kick out of coming across this briefcase which my father presented to me when I graduated with my degree in clinical psychology. I haven’t used it in years, but it makes me smile to think of him choosing it.

Are you a monogram person? 

HALLIE EPHRON: I have a friend who was divorced twice, and her maiden name and both married names started with the initial H. So her monogrammed towels conveniently lived on, marriage after marriage and continue on now that she’s once again single. 

I always hated my monogram. HE. I’m not a HE. It’s even worse with my middle name: HEE. It’s not funny. So I would rather NOT have my initials emblazoned on anything I own.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: The only thing I can think of that I’ve ever had monogrammed was a lovely decorative stationery stamp–which if I ever managed to write cards and letters to people, I would still use. But no monogrammed sheets, towels, or silverware here. My maiden name initials were fine–DLD–and those from my first married name (which is still my legal and professional name) are fine, too–DLC. I have had my husband’s initials, RW, engraved on some cocktail glasses, come to think of it, although I’m not quite sure why since he’s not much for drinking cocktails!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Aw, well, no, I guess. Do I have anything emblazoned (such a good word)  with H? Just an Hermes bracelet, thank you very much, which is all the monogram I need. :-) Someone gave me rocks glasses with an H on them, that’s fun, but whatever. My initials are HPR, in some worlds, which is fine. And I do have that monogram on my suitcase, which I have to say is helpful. But it’s tiny. I wish I had things with my grandmothers’ monograms, I’d love that, but I don’t. Or my mother’s.  I am not at all anti-monogram though, I think they can be very sweet.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Debs, I love the fact your initials are also the Roman number 590! I do love monograms, and I have several things of my mother’s that had hers - although since she married three times, they aren’t always the same! However, having a hyphenated name is tricky, especially if, like me, you’re a stickler for the proper form. For instance, my married name is Julia J. Hugo-Vidal, so a PROPER monogram should be J H-V J. Try fitting that onto a glass! Most places don’t even offer that level of customization. 

I do have, however, the family writing paper! I got a copperplate engraving of H-V from Crane Stationery shortly after I got married, and every five or ten years I have another batch printed. Each of the kids now has a box of their own, so if they aren’t writing proper bread-and-butter notes, they can’t blame it on a lack of paper.

JENN McKINLAY: No. Monograms have ALWAYS bugged me. WHY is the last name initial in the middle and bigger? It’s maddening to me. I just don’t like it. It makes me itchy. LOL.

RHYS BOWEN:  I live in a house full of other people’s monograms and family crests. That’s what you get if you marry into a frightfully posh English family. So the silverware has crests or monograms, the serving dishes etc. there is no space for another monogram even if I wanted one, which I don’t. I do wear the family crest signet ring. 

Lucy again: LOL on Jenn! Rhys, your story is the most interesting--now we want to see the ring!

The Key West Woman's Club Cookbook for National Retro Day!

LUCY BURDETTE: Did you know that today is National Retro Day?? I thought this would be a perfect day to talk about the Key West Woman’s Club Cookbook, including the new edition which I edited last year, and is now out in the world!

The first iteration of the cookbook was published in the 1949. It’s a wonderful piece of history even if you wouldn’t go anywhere near most of the recipes. (Turtle steaks anyone?) It’s all written in the handwriting of various women who worked on the book and contributed recipes, and it has wonderful drawings like this one:

As we mulled over the new edition, we knew we wanted to retain the spirit of both the book published in 1949 and the one published in 1988. Although some of the recipes were the same in 1988, the handwriting was replaced by standard typing, and many of the quirky drawings were also removed.

My job was to figure out what should be retained from both versions and then to add in some modern day recipes from current members of the woman’s club. Luckily, I didn’t have to do the work of scanning or anything else technical. I had to choose, organize, and send it off. Here is T-bone helping me with the layout:

My suggestion was to use some of the hand written introductions and actual recipes as intros to each section. For example, we couldn’t possibly leave out this quote:

I had a spare copy of the second cookbook into which I could sandwich photocopies of the old sections that we did didn’t want to lose. I thought we would be overwhelmed with new recipe submissions, but luckily the number was manageable. I included the banana cream pie that I used in Key West food critic mystery number 12, A DISH TO DIE FOR. I wrote that before I got involved with the Woman’s Club, though there are several scenes that take place there. In fact, Hayley finds clues to the mystery in a box of old drawings that has been stashed at the back of a drawer for years and years.

The cookbook team is still working on marketing. As of today, there is no way to buy the cookbook online. However, there are copies available through our local bookstores, Key West Island Books ( 305-294-2904), and Books and Books Key West (305 320 0208). If you are a local or a visitor looking for a copy, they are also available at the Key West Art and Historical Society, the Woman’s Club, and also will be available at the brand new cooking school.

With fellow cookbook teammate, Marlene

We're so glad to have helped save this bit of Key West history. What would you feature for Retro Day?

Writing from Experience by Pat Kennedy

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm particularly excited about today's guest--you'll see why. Pat is one of my good buddies in the Friends of the Key West Library, and she is an old friend of Hallie's. When I heard she had taken Hallie's writing class at the Studios of Key West, I asked (begged) her to blog about it. Welcome Pat!

PATRICIA (PAT) KENNEDY:  Hello to all you fascinating Reds!  It has been quite awhile since I’ve chimed in here – July of 2022 to be precise when I complained about the never-ending presence of “piles” at my home -– papers, shoes, electronic devices, grocery bags, stuff.  Since the piles never seem to diminish, I just gave up and moved to Key West for the winter.  

I spend my time in sunny Florida participating in and supporting the arts. Recently, I participated in a “Writing from Experience” workshop at The Studios of Key West, led by Jungle Red’s Hallie Ephron. I had never taken a writing workshop being somewhat shy about sharing my work with strangers – and Hallie too. I’m an amateur and she’s definitely a pro. 

I had an interesting childhood as both my parents were profoundly deaf so we four siblings (none deaf) grew up in a signing household.  Recently my sisters and I were interviewed by StoryWorth on their national podcast about the challenges of growing up in a different family life. It was an emotional experience for us. More so when we heard the final 18-minute podcast.  I can’t listen to it without getting weepy.  

This experience rekindled my desire to write more about my parents – especially our mom.  Our dad was tall, handsome, gregarious – a real star shine kind of guy.  Our mother was shy and very angry.  And she had good reasons to be that way. We learned by dribs and drabs how challenging her life had been at a school for the deaf run by the Sisters of St. Joseph in St. Louis, Missouri. And the challenges of being a deaf mother with un-sympathetic in-laws who lacked confidence in her ability to be a suitable “mother.” She fought back.

As Hallie said to me, “you have a deep well of experience to write about.” My reluctance has been how to write about HER experience but write in a way that reflected her lack of traditional English composition skills. She was an American Sign Language user so her English was rudimentary. 

As you probably know already, Hallie is a superb teacher.  And a kind one too.  Fourteen of us produced short essays for each of the three classes – some were absolute stunners which left me intimidated. I passed on reading aloud during the first and second sessions but knew I had to come up with something for the third. Hallie’s teaching and comments about my classmates’ work were precise and spot on. She emphasized the importance of “voice” and how it drives the whole trajectory – and authority – of a piece of writing.  “It must be authentic. Obviously if one is writing about one’s experience, then one must use the first-person voice.”

I had been trying to write about a life-changing experience my mother had as a four-year-old child, but I was using third person omniscient. I could see that the piece was stilted and false, but I didn’t know how to fix it.  Suddenly, with Halie’s simple “change the voice” instruction, I saw another way to write the story but as I experienced it.  An hour later I was doing final edits and ready to read to the class. My sisters and I are now moving forward on collaborative pieces to add to this first piece. 

If you want to hear the StoryWorth podcast that so influenced me to get going on writing, here is the link.

Are any of you writing teachers?  Any pearls you want to share with us?  And it would be fascinating to hear from you, dear readers, how a teacher has changed or improved your writing.  

Patricia Kennedy is a retired marketing consultant for healthcare organizations. She lives in Plymouth, MA and Key West during the winter.  

How to Host a Murder Mystery Tea @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE:  for those of you who may not have seen this on social media, the Friends of the Key West Library had the very good fortune to host Ann Cleeves as the guest of honor at our fundraising gala in early February. Once we knew she was coming, I realized that we also had an opportunity to put on a murder mystery tea at the library. Ann is a huge and generous supporter of libraries, and she often gets asked to visit and speak. But she can’t go everywhere, so she came up with the idea of writing some short mysteries for libraries to perform. You can find those here.

We chose the Shetland mini mystery called Bannocks and Blood. I was able to round up four suspects, the Friends agreed to help with the tea, and the wonderful library staff in Key West contributed in every way. We decided to structure it so that the first part of the program would introduce the suspects and highlight their protestations of innocence. Then we took a break for tea, and the attendees voted on the murderer. Finally, the murderer was revealed and hauled away by a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputy. Winners were chosen for five copies of Raven Black and three friends of the library ball caps.

This mini mystery was written upon the publication of Cold Earth, Ann Cleeves’ 30th book in 30 years. It started out like so: This evening we’re not in Key West, but in Shetland at Sunday tea. This is a community meeting that brings people together across Shetland once a week to catch up on local news, hear music, and sell homemade items. This Sunday began like any other as the Shetland tea committee met early to set up today’s tea until the body of committee member Minnie Laurenson is found. In the tradition of the golden aged detective novel, only the people at the Sunday tea committee could’ve committed the murder – they were the only ones present in the hall and nobody else had access.

Here was poor Minnie Laurenson, stabbed by her own knitting scissors and arranged by the library staff, with Ann and me investigating.

Here was our playbill, designed by fabulously talented Samantha Blee.

Here's Ann with our wonderful librarians, Michael and Kim.

Here were some of the many delicious tea treats, prepared and delivered by Friends and some local bakeries.

Here are the very suspicious looking suspects, and the author herself!

Here is the murderer getting her comeuppance. 

The event was a huge success, drawing almost 150 audience members, including a number who had never been into our library. We were also able to add members to our Friends of the Library roster, and introduce lots of new readers to our amazing guest. Possibly the hardest part of the planning was finding clothes suitable for Shetland in Key West. The murderer is wearing a hand-knit Fair Isle hat that Ann brought with her from England.

Red Readers: What’s the most fun you’ve had at an author event?

What We're Reading

 

 LUCY BURDETTE: it's that time again, the time we add to our stacks and piles of books by describing what we're reading! I've had some good ones lately, finally finished with the contest I was judging so I can choose exactly what I want. I certainly enjoyed the newest Ann Cleeves Vera book, THE DARK WIVES. (She was our Friends of the Library guest of honor so I had to be ready for my interview.) Today in fact, we have two speakers coming to our Key West Palm Garden to talk about their books, novelist and memoirist Ann Hood, and food writer Michael Ruhlman. I just finished Ann's latest novel, THE STOLEN CHILD. It has two intertwined timelines, one taking place during World War I, and the other in the 1970s. Lots of interesting detail about the characters’ lives in Italy and Paris. I also read Betsy Lerner’s THE SHRED SISTERS,  which had been on my list since I saw her speak in Connecticut this summer. This is a story about a family with one sister who struggles with mental illness and the effects that had on the point of view character and her family. Very highly recommended! Finally, I’ve just finished Michael Ruhlman’s YA debut, IF YOU CAN’T TAKE THE HEAT, about a high school kid whose injury keeps him from returning to the football team, his great love. Instead, he stumbles into a job in a restaurant kitchen, and finds his future and his people.

How about you Reds, what are you reading?

HALLIE EPHRON: A few years back, I liked reading Andy Weir’s THE MARTIAN. So I was happy when for Christmas, my son-in-law gave me Weir’s new book, PROJECT HAIL MARY. It’s another solo astronaut, lost in space. He’s a crew’s sole survivor who wakes up on a mission to save the planet. It’s a reminder how totally different sci-fi is from crime fiction. I’m in the middle of it and hoping that Ryland Grace (and the rest of us) survive. 

On another planet entirely I’m rereading MARY POPPINS. I’ve been revisiting my favorite children’s books. It is *so different* from the movie in so many ways, I’m sure P. L. Travers was turning over in her grave when Disney made it into such a saccharine movie. Each chapter is a little nugget of spookiness and imagination, and the language is glorious. Mary Poppins is anything but sweet. Highly recommended.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Thanks to Rhys’s recommendation, I read THE SALT PATH by Raynor Winn–I should say I devoured it, pretty much in one sitting! It is a memoir, but it is as gripping as any best novel. Then I read the second and third books, THE WILD SILENCE and LANDLINES, and highly recommend those, too, especially the latter. 

On the mystery front, I finally got to DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK by Kate Atkinson, the new Jackson Brodie novel, which I adored. 

And then another non-fiction read–I’m on a roll–STOLEN FOCUS: WHY YOU CAN’T PAY ATTENTION AND HOW TO THINK DEEPLY AGAIN by Johann Hari. This is not a self-help book (or only a little,) but a very thoroughly researched look at how the forces of modern society are eroding our ability to concentrate. This book was written during the pandemic lockdown of 2020 in the UK and published in 2022, and the issues it explores are even more critical now. I found it so fascinating that I immediately recommended it to the rest of the Reds–and anyone else I could buttonhole!

JENN McKINLAY: Hallie, I loved PROJECT HAIL MARY - so good! And I’m clearly going to have to read THE SALT PATH.

 I’ve been juggling revisions and deadlines so not much reading time. I’m still finishing my January nonfiction books ATOMIC HABITS and INNER EXCELLENCE. I’m also reading ONYX STORM by Rebecca Yarros. I absolutely love this series but I thought it was a trilogy and just found out there are five in the series. Eek! I have a towering TBR so we’ll just have to see what I choose when my deadline is met.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Get ready, you all–here comes THE WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE AND HER JUST OK ASSISTANT by Liza Tully. It is  absolutely fantastic–voicy, funny, smart, witty, and everything we love about traditional mysteries but written in a very contemporary cutting-edge way. Preorder now, I am not exaggerating, it’s brilliant. If you love the feeling of Anthony Horowitz and Richard Osman? This is for you–but still, so different–do not miss this.

Also, FAMOUS LAST WORDS by Gillian McAllister. You know how her WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME changed my writing life–it did, if we haven’;t discussed this, but more on that later–and this is equally creative and riveting.

Oh, also, THE INHERITANCE  by Trisha Sakhlecha.  WHOA. Twists I have never seen–even though it’s Succession (with a wealthy family from India)  meets Agatha Christie on an isolated island, it is absolutely unique.

I am also reading MRS. DALLOWAY, since I am giving a presentation about it soon at the Boston Public LIbrary. Yeah, no pressure.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Another thumbs up for HAIL MARY - great science fiction that’s accessible to people who don’t usually describe themselves as SF readers. 

My non-fiction audiobook is also STOLEN FOCUS;  Jenn recommended this book to us all and she was so right to do so. I’m also echoing Hallie’s MARY POPPINS experience - I’m reading A SONG FOR SUMMER, a YA book by Eva Ibbotson, best known for her award-winning children’s novels. It’s a little bit like a fairy tale but also deals with the looming Anschluss in Austria, and is also a love song to the practice of the arts and how they can change people’s lives. 

My current mystery is YOU ARE FATALLY INVITED by Ande Pliego. You all know how I love locked room mysteries, and this presses so many buttons - a selected group of famous mystery writers at an exclusive retreat on an island in Maine… it’s delicious.

My SF read is ARTIFACT SPACE and DEEP BLACK by Miles Cameron. It’s a little bit like the Patrick O’Brien sailing novels, if you substitute a competent but traumatized heroine and an AI-enhanced xenolinguist for Aubrey and Maturin. I’m very much enjoying them.

RHYS BOWEN:  I have been reading lots of Scottish non-fiction for my new book, including rereading Lillian Beckwith’s delightful highland stories which give such a great feel for the critters and their personalities. I also reread Mary Stewart’s Wildfire at Midnight as my book is set on Skye. I did enjoy Colleen Cambridge’s The Art of French Murder , about Julia Child in Paris. Light and delicious. And I’m just starting The Beautiful Ruins about ten years after everyone else.

Your turn Reds, what are you reading?