It Must be March in New England What would a big stack of Maine blueberry pancakes be without fresh maple syrup poured over the top? We’re talking real maple syrup, not the type of artificial “pancake syrup” you find in grocery stores. That’s made from flavored corn syrup, and it’s not maple syrup! But what’s the difference between the two, and how is maple syrup made, anyway? You’ll find out in the pages of TOWN IN A MAPLE MADNESS, the eighth book in the Candy Holliday Murder Mystery series, due out April 4th. As we once again join the friendly and busy villagers of the coastal community of Cape Willington, Maine, it’s late March, which means it’s maple sugaring season. But it’s also the time of year when snow and ice are starting to melt, which means it’s mud season. Two big events, one sweet, one not so sweet, and they both play a prominent role in our story. Cape Willington has two “sugar shacks”—one at Crawford’s Berry Farm, owned by Neil Crawford, and the other at Sugar Hill Farm, owned by Hutch and Ginny Milbright. As the story opens, both sugar shacks are in full operation, with their evaporators…

This year marks the publication of the 25th China Bayles mystery, THE LAST CHANCE OLIVE RANCH. Gosh—it seems like yesterday when the first book, THYME OF DEATH, came out. But that was way back in 1992, the same year that Bill Clinton became president, Hurricane Andrew bulldozed across South Florida, and Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven cleaned up at the Oscars. To tell the truth, I never imagined that China and Ruby would be still be sleuthing, 25 books later. But I’m glad they are, for they’ve given me, as their partner-in-crime, many wonderful (and challenging) hours of writing fun. Back in the day, those early China Bayles mysteries broke some new ground. For one thing, regional mysteries were fairly new to readers, and I was a little worried that a small town in the Texas Hill Country might not be appealing. What’s more, China was a shop owner, an herbalist, and a gardener, the first of her kind in the U.S. (British mystery author John Sherwood had already written several books in his Celia Grant horticultural series but there were none in America.) China’s mysteries were also among the first to feature recipes (Diane Mott Davidson began doing this at about…

The date is indelible in my memory: February 20, 1995. I was a sophomore marine biology student, about to embark on SEAmester: a nine-week semester on board a schooner, traveling from the Caribbean up the Eastern Seaboard to Long Island, NY, learning about not only the flora and fauna we’d encounter along the way, but also the ancient art of navigation and seamanship. I remember that day so vividly, even after all these years: bidding my parents a teary farewell at JFK and flying to St. Maarten. I remember the conflicting emotions I experienced on that flight: excitement, anticipation, apprehension, and fear. I remember my first sight of the Harvey Gamage as we approached in the ship’s tender, her masts stretching into the sky, her hull gleaming white, her sails tightly furled. We set sail the next day. I can still hear the chink-chink-chink of the anchor chain as it slowly coiled around the windlass, lifting the iron weight off the bottom; the rush of awe I felt watching the sails unfurl like the wings of a giant swan, slowly climbing the masts, billowing out as they caught the wind. I remember the taste of salt spray on my tongue,…