I’m so excited to welcome one of my favorite authors, Maddie Day/Edith Maxwell back to the blog for #WriterWednesday!
First, thanks so much for inviting me over to This or That Thursday, Heather! I’m delighted to be here, and I hope readers keep going to the end (hint – there’s a giveaway!).
Favorite thing to do when you have free time: Read a mystery while sipping wine.
The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to do list: Going through boxes of mementos from the past so my sons won’t have to do it later. I linger, I can’t make decisions, and I wind up paralyzed. So I close the box and put it back on its shelf.
Things you will run to the store for at midnight: That’s easy – I will never run to the store at midnight unless a baby is sick!
Things you never put on your shopping list: Rice-a-Roni, Bisquik, Hamburger Helper – anything that’s a shortcut to real food.
Favorite snacks: Dove Dark Minis, Cape Cod reduced-fat potato chips, and freshly popped popcorn with salt.
Things that make you want to gag: Raw squid on sushi, raw oysters, and raw onions. I guess it’s a raw thing!
Something you’re really good at: Making a perfect pie crust and growing sweet gold cherry tomatoes.
Something you’re really bad at: Anagrams. I love crossword puzzles and Scrabble, but I can’t anagram on the fly.
Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: A teenager. Is that the weirdest aspiration you’ve ever heard of, or what?
Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: I never dreamed I would have a career writing stories that people love to read – and make decent money doing it, too.
Something you wish you could do: Sing beautifully or play a musical instrument –
beyond the kazoo.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Um…oops. I can’t think of anything I’ve learned to do that I regretted.
Last best thing you ate: My own chocolate-chip banana bread – yum!
Last thing you regret eating: That handful of crackers that were a bit stale but I was so hungry, I ate them anyway.
Things to say to an author: “Your book got my through my mom’s surgery/my weeklong stay in the hospital/the latest quarantine after a COVID exposure/a tough time in my life.”
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “I have this great idea for a book – why don’t you write it for us?”
Favorite places you’ve been: Rural Japan, Sequoia National Park, western Puerto Rico (where my younger son lives).
Places you never want to go to again: Las Vegas! It’s American culture at its worst.
Favorite things to do: Gaze at my sons’ faces, walk on a quiet trail in nature, and cross-country ski on a fresh snow.
Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Argue politics with my neighbors – or anyone, really.
Best thing you’ve ever done: I raised two fine sons, who are now happy, healthy, productive adults. It’s the best and hardest job I’ve ever had.
Biggest mistake: Not joining Sisters in Crime earlier than I did.
Most daring thing you’ve ever done: When I was young and brave and living on a shoestring, I hitchhiked from San Francisco to Orange County with a friend and my sister, from Michigan to California with a woman I met on a ride board, and in northern Japan alone. And I survived!
Something you chickened out from doing: Visiting Italy without much notice (and therefore, not much planning) for a relative’s wedding. I still regret that.
The most exciting thing about your writing life: Being nominated for an Agatha award, being recognized for it, and winning it. I’ve had the honor to have books nominated eight times, but Charity’s Burden winning Best Historical Novel two years ago was such a thrill.
The one thing you wish you could do over in your writing life: I’d like to have started earlier. I have SO many stories to tell, and I’m not getting any younger.
Readers: What’s the most exciting thing about your job – or your life? Include your email address, because I’ll send one lucky commenter a signed copy of Batter Off Dead, my newest mystery, which released yesterday!
In South Lick, Indiana, fine foods and classic cookware can be found at Robbie Jordan’s Pans ’N Pancakes. Unfortunately, her country store also seems to stock up on murder . . .
Robbie and her new husband Abe O’Neill are enjoying a summer evening in the park with fellow townsfolk excited for some Friday night fireworks. In attendance are senior residents from Jupiter Springs Assisted Living including Roy Bird, father to South Lick’s very own Police Lieutenant Buck Bird. Despite his blindness, Roy is a member of his group home’s knitting circle, spending quality time with some lovely ladies.
But when the lightshow ends, one of the knitters who sat with Roy is found dead, a puncture wound in her neck. The poor woman’s death echoes that of Buck’s mother and Roy’s wife—an unsolved homicide. To help find the killer, Robbie’s going to have to untangle the knotty relationships deep in the victim’s past . . .
