Nell, Birdie, Izzy, and Cass.
My cast of characters. My friends. My alter egos.
I know how the women of Sea Harbor walk, what they eat, how much they weigh, where they went to school, and the first time they had sex. I even know what number they are on the Enneagram chart. They are my mainstays in the Seaside Knitters mystery series. My stars and my glue.
But often, way too often, I haven’t a clue what they are going to do next.
And that’s good….and difficult. It’s one of the challenges of writing a mystery series, in which certain characters come back with each new adventure and need to feed the readers’ imaginations, to make them feel they know the seaside women just a little bit better with each book they read.
When I began writing the recently released Seaside Knitting Mystery, A FATAL FLEECE, I was struck by the fact that I’ve known these fine women for nearly seven years now. But they still surprise me. And that’s good. If they didn’t, they might not appear fresh and enticing to the reader. So therein lies the challenge. Fresh, but comfortable. New, but old friends. Predictable, but surprising. I hope friendships among these women and among the readers deepen with each book, change, grow, and never ever stagnate.
Kind of like a good marriage or partnership.
One way to make that happen is to delve into the seaside women’s pasts and discover things even I didn’t know about until they let me in to take a peek. In A FATAL FLEECE, it’s Birdie Favazza, the nearly 80-year-old matriarch of the small seaside town, who opens the closet door and finds a surprising secret that her third husband kept from her. One that will change her life.
Also in A FATAL FLEECE, the gutsy and sometimes rough Cass Halloran, a lobsterwoman, shows a softer side. It’s what happens when one becomes vulnerable and frightened—and finds a dear friend murdered.
Sometimes it’s difficult to do, keeping the women of Sea Harbor vital. It requires a ton of faith in my characters, faith that they’ll lead me along and reveal their secrets, that they’ll take me by the hand as together we bravely face the blank computer page.
So far they haven’t let me down. They show up when I need them, settle down with me on my porch or in the office or coffee shop, and they whisper things in my ear. Secrets. Knitting projects. New loves and suspenseful lives, adventures and even murders, which will come to life on my laptop screen. These wonderful women come into my life and then take me into their own as together we spin a new tale.
Nell, Izzy, Cass, and Birdie. My seaside knitters. My faithful friends. Characters. And they are always welcome.
 Death By Cashmere Seaside Knitters #1.0 August 2008 |
 Patterns In The Sand Seaside Knitters #2.0 May 2009 |
 Moon Spinners Seaside Knitters #3.0 May 2010 |
 A Holiday Yarn Seaside Knitters #4.0 November 2010 |
 The Wedding Shawl Seaside Knitters #5.0 May 2012 |
A Fatal Fleece Seaside Knitters #6.0 May 2012 |
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