IMAGINE THAT!

Imagine if you were invited to spend the Christmas holidays at a hotel overlooking the ocean on the southeast coast of England, complete with excellent French cuisine served in a stately dining room, dancing in a magnificent ballroom and relaxing in a well-stocked library.  Sounds like a memorable way to spend a vacation, right?

If you were to pay a visit to the Pennyfoot Hotel, however, you might find a few drawbacks. Your first impression upon entering the majestic foyer will likely be pleasurable.  There will be wreaths everywhere - on the walls, hanging from the bannisters of the grand curving staircase, and pinned to every door.  The fragrance of pine and cedar will fill the air.

There will be a Christmas tree decorated with figurines and glass balls.  The candles on the tree will be lit at night for a short time, and heavily monitored.  There is always a danger of the tree catching fire. 

A uniformed footman will greet you at your carriage and escort you to the reception desk.  You might have to wake up Philip, the reception clerk.  He tends to doze, but I assure you, he will take good care of you once he’s awake.  

You may climb three flights of stairs to your room.  Since there is only one bathroom to each floor, a chamber pot is provided for emergencies.  A maid will bring you a wash bowl and a jug of hot water each morning.  She may wake you up a tad early, as she has many wash bowls to deliver, and carrying each one up four floors from the kitchen takes time.

The maid will also light the fire for you in the fireplace.  I would suggest that you stay under the covers until the room warms up, or you could suffer mild frostbite.  Of course, if you do that, the hot water in the jug will be quite cool.  

You will be expected to dress formally for breakfast in the dining room.  You will be served whatever the chef decides to prepare.  Perhaps steamed finnan haddie with a poached egg, followed by a plate loaded with scrambled eggs, sausage, ham, bacon, fried tomatoes, fried mushrooms and toast.   They eat well at the seaside.

The morning is yours to explore the hotel, visit the nearby town or simply rest in the library.  Just be sure to return to the dining room by one p.m., since your midday meal will be served, consisting, perhaps, of fresh grapefruit, mulligatawny soup, followed by roast pork and apple sauce, with trifle for dessert. 

You will have just an hour or so to rest before afternoon tea is served.  You will enjoy tiny crustless sandwiches of fish paste and watercress, scones with strawberry jam and Devonshire cream, and an assortment of pastries.

Your evening meal will be served at seven p.m., after which some form of entertainment will be available.  Many of the gentlemen enjoy a game of chance in the card rooms below stairs next to the wine cellar.  Care has to be taken, however, not to mention the fact, since gambling in hotels is illegal. 

You will spend your Christmas with British aristocracy, influential businessmen and the downstairs members of the staff.  You may meet Cecily Baxter, the owner of the Pennyfoot.  She is a shrewd, tenacious lady, with an eagle eye and a penchant for solving the most intricate murders.  Which is fortunate, since dead bodies appear with alarming frequency in the hotel. 

Her husband, Baxter, has a gruff manner and a soft heart.  You might be served by Gertie, the head housemaid.  She’s tough, forthright and peppers her conversation with curse words.

Michel is an excellent chef, though his French accent is completely fake.  Mrs. Chubb, the housekeeper, also bakes, while keeping a strict eye on her unruly maids.   

If you would like to meet all of the diverse and occasional eccentric inhabitants, I suggest you go back in time this Christmas season to the Edwardian era and visit the Pennyfoot Hotel in A MERRY MURDER.  I promise you a memorable trip.  Happy Reading!  

KEEPING IT REAL

It was the summer of 1944 in war-torn England.  For almost five years weary Londoners had survived bombs raining down on their homes.  But that summer Germany introduced a new abomination - the first unmanned flying bomb.

We called the V1 missile the buzz bomb.  It made an ominous buzzing sound, until the engine suddenly cut off.  It took ten seconds after that for the bomb to land and spread death and destruction.

As I huddled with my classmates in the damp, concrete shelters of our school yard, I would listen to the sound of those monsters droning overhead.  When the buzzing stopped, I would silently start to count, praying I would make it past ten.      

I learned a lot about suspense in those days.

Fearful of this new and devastating threat, my mother shipped off my sister and me, along with our three cousins, to spend the summer on England’s east coast with our grandmother.

Granny lived in a tiny cottage, perched high on the cliffs facing the North Sea.  The cottage had no electricity, no gas, and no plumbing.

     At first, we were all taken aback by the lack of amenities, but after a while we got used to the routines.  Every morning we tramped down the garden path to the alleyway, then up to the well to draw water in large, heavy buckets and carry them back to the house.

     Granny cooked everything over a coal fire.  We used rain water from a barrel in the front yard to wash our hair.   There was no bathroom, so we used the outhouse, which was down the garden path, across the alley and into the field.  At night we had oil lamps to light our way up the narrow staircase, and we used chamber pots that had to be emptied the next day. 

     The contrast to our homes in London was absolute, and would horrify today’s teenager, but to us, the quiet and peace of the English countryside after the devastating months of Hitler’s lethal bombardments was paradise.

When I decided to write a mystery series set in Edwardian England, the biggest challenge at first was the research.  If I was going to immerse readers in that golden age and make the story real for them, I had to make sure I didn’t jolt them out of the book by mentioning something that didn’t exist at the time.

That summer I spent with Granny proved to be invaluable.  I knew what it was like to feed the stove with coal in order to cook the meals.  Or to boil sheets one at a time in a cauldron, then hang them on the line outside to dry.

I knew how it felt to greet the milkman in his horse and cart, and exchange the empty urn for a filled one.  I knew how refreshing it was to wash my face and hands every morning in cold water from the wash bowl, and how strangely comforting it was to sit by the light of an oil lamp at night and listen to Granny reading us a story. 

I relive all of those experiences as I follow the adventures of Cecily Baxter and her companions and staff at the Pennyfoot Hotel.  Yes, I said ‘follow.’   I give all my characters a set of circumstances to deal with and then I follow them, sometimes writing furiously to keep up with them.  Cecily is very good at solving murders but, like the rest of the characters, she has a mind of her own and often takes the story in unexpected directions.  She is tenacious, compassionate and treats her staff the same way she treats her prestigious guests.  

The Pennyfoot Hotel is brimming with diverse, and sometimes eccentric characters.  They all struggle with problems, celebrate the good times and live out their lives.  Every single one of them is as real to me as my family, and I hope I make them real for you, too.  If you want to meet them, I invite you to visit the hotel in A MERRY MURDER.

Happy Reading! 

NOW THAT’S AN IDEA!

I have a sweater with these words emblazoned across the front, “Careful, or you’ll end up in my novel.”  I’m not kidding.  Every person I meet is fodder for my stories.  I might use the cute way you tilt your head when you talk, or the way your nose turns red when you lose your temper.  Maybe your love of gardening, or your distaste for sushi or how you are completely useless at changing a tire.

People often ask me where I get my ideas.  The answer is simple.  Everywhere.  They are easy enough to find.  The hard part is turning them into books. 

Ideas come to me when I least expect it – in the shower, watching TV, walking the dog, or sitting in a restaurant.  I once startled a line of customers at the supermarket when I blurted out to my husband, “I’m going to poison the gardener!”  The cashier never looked at me the same way after that.

Ideas for settings are mostly places I’ve lived, or visited and loved.  A setting sets the mood for the whole story, so it’s as important as the characters.  I chose the Edwardian era for the Pennyfoot Hotel Mysteries because my parents were born during that time, and their stories fascinated me.  I set the village of Badgers End on England’s southeast coast, where I lived for a few years.

   

The hotel itself is based on the summer guest house we owned.  As for the name, that comes from the stuffed mice I made during my craft days.  They were dressed in Edwardian clothes and had spindly legs.  In order to make them stand up I sewed a penny into each foot.  Hence, the Pennyfoot Hotel.

For the past few years I’ve set my stories at Christmastime.  A dazzling Christmas tree, the spicy aroma of baking mince pies, and the sound of Christmas carols wafting from the ballroom – the perfect contrast for murder.

As for the characters, they are composites of people I’ve met.   Cecily Baxter, the intrepid sleuth is partly my mother, partly my favorite aunt and yes, I admit, partly me.  She treats her downstairs staff as well as she treats the aristocrats, entertainers and socialites who visit her hotel.

Gertie, the saucy chief housemaid, is based somewhat on an old schoolfriend, the bumbling police constable is mostly a long-ago neighbor, and Colonel Fortescue, who fought in the Boer War and doesn’t have all his batteries charged is…well, I’d rather not say.

The idea for each book starts with the murder.  I have hung, stabbed, poisoned and choked many people over the past thirty years.  I once hypnotized a victim and ordered him to jump from a third-story window. 

I see dead bodies everywhere.  I was putting clothes into my washing machine one morning when I had a vision of the laundry room in the Pennyfoot Hotel.  I saw a man lying on the floor with a woman’s brightly colored scarf around his neck.  I knew right then that I had the victim for my next book.

Once I know who the victim is, how he was murdered and why, then I can start deciding who killed him, and who else had the motive, means and opportunity to do so. 

Writing a mystery is like playing a game with the reader.  I want to keep you guessing until I reveal the culprit at the end of the book, while you are trying to figure it out for yourself.  I have to play fair and give you clues, while I attempt to fool you with suspects and red herrings.  Meanwhile, you’ll be following the ups and downs of the characters’ lives, watching them love, laugh and cry, while dealing with the consequences of a murder.

It’s a complicated process, but so much fun.  Oh, and the dead body with the woman’s scarf around his neck?  Well, you’ll have to read A MERRY MURDER to find out who killed him, and why.  I hope I keep you guessing until the end.  Happy Reading!