Cozy Wednesday with Fran Stewart – Author of A Wee Murder in My Shop – Giveaway too!

Welcome to Cozy Wednesday!

I am excited to welcome Fran Stewart to Escape With Dollycas today!
Her book A Wee Murder in My Shop was released in March. The next ScotShop Mystery, A Wee Dose of Death, will be out January 5, 2016.

Shadow-Play by Fran Stewart

Let’s look at shadows. They play an important role in my life. You see, I’m not a beach kind of person. I’m more a mountain gal. A sit-under-a-tree kind of woman. A shadow crone.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. Beaches are lovely places. I have two children and five grandchildren who revel in the sunshine. And maybe you do, too.

But I prefer beaches at pre-dawn, while a few stars are still accessible, before the sun bursts above the pulsing sea. Or right around sunset, while the shadows of the clouds play with the last rays of daylight.

I escape to the beach at Sapelo Island (http://GAstateparks.org/lodges/reynolds/about/) twice a year with a group of artists—I’m the only writer in the group—for a creative retreat. For a week, the artists all disperse during the day to paint the marshes, paint the dunes at the edge of Nanny Goat Beach, pain the groves of spreading pecan trees and ancient live oaks hung with Spanish moss.

While they’re outside painting in the bright sun, I’m in the shadows, writing. Or reading. I sit on the tree-shaded terrace or upstairs in the shadow-cool circus room, decorated many years ago by Athos Menaboni, one of the foremost muralists of the early 20th century. His lion graces my favorite corner, tucked into a shadowed corner between tall windows.

And, quite often, I write about shadows. Did you ever think about the shadows in the books you read? We hardly ever notice them, but they can set a tone most effectively.

I recall years ago sketching the face of a woman who sat across from me in an airport lounge. I’ve never claimed to be an artist, but sometimes I like to try. Seldom do I share the results with anyone except my cats—they promised long ago not to laugh at me. On this occasion, though, I showed the drawing to my sister, who is an artist. “You drew the shadows,” she said, “and left out the lines along the side of her face.” That was because the woman had sat in a shaft of sunlight that erased any distinction between the curve of her cheek and the wall behind her. I couldn’t see a line there, so I didn’t draw one.

Instead I drew the shadows beneath her angular cheekbone, the jut of her chin, around her eye, and beside her nose. My sister was impressed. It’s the only time she’s ever been impressed by one of my sketches. I wish I’d saved the sketch, just as I wish I’d saved a lot of my early essays and stories, but the memory of those shadows on that woman’s face still haunts me. I may have managed the shadows, but I didn’t draw her well enough. I didn’t capture her essence. My art lies in words, and while the pencil drawing may have been technically interesting, it stopped short of capturing who that woman truly was.

My inexpert shadows turned her into an enigma. Did the sunlight that day come from a bright spring morning or a harsh mid-summer? Was the woman an undercover agent, a jilted lover, a harried executive, a wilted mom (or stepmom)? Was she headed out or headed home? Was she someone’s best friend, or a harpy-like harridan who had just sent the emotionally unstable protagonist spinning back into an alcoholic dead end? Had she inherited those deep-set eyes from her paternal grandmother or were they a reflection of her inner turmoil? Was her angular cheekbone the result of ethnicity or anorexia? If she had raised her hand, would it have blocked the light and created a dark slash of shadow, or would the light have penetrated between her fingers and outlined each one in an unearthly red glow, like a flashlight beneath a blanket in the middle of the night?

Shadows. Sometimes they ask more questions than they answer. Unless we know how to sketch them with a deft pen.

Shadows. A great place to escape to. Especially if I have a book with me. Either one I’m reading, or one I’m writing. What do you do when faced with shadows?

~Fran

About This Author

Fran Stewart is the author of the Biscuit McKee Mysteries – GRAY AS ASHES is the seventh book in that series – as well as a standalone mystery – A SLAYING SONG TONIGHT. Her non-fiction work includes FROM THE TIP OF MY PEN: A WORKBOOK FOR WRITERS. Her new ScotShop Mystery Series from Berkley Press begins with A WEE MURDER IN MY SHOP.

Part of today’s guest blogpost was taken from a chapter in FROM THE TIP OF MY PEN.

Fran lives quietly with various rescued cats beside a creek on the other side of Hog Mountain, Georgia, northeast of Atlanta.  She is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, Sisters in Crime, and Mystery Writers of America.

Photo Credit: Mozelle Funderburk

A Wee Murder in My Shop (A ScotShop Mystery)
First in New Series
Cozy Mystery
Setting – Vermont/Scotland
A Berkley Prime Crime Mystery
The Berkley Publishing Group (March 3, 2015)
Published by The Penguin Group
Cover Illusteation by Jesse Reisch
Cover Design by Diana Kolsky
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0425270318
E-Book ASIN: B00LMGK41Q

Hamelin, Vermont, isn’t the most likely place for bagpipes and tartan, but at Peggy Winn’s ScotShop, business is booming…

While on a transatlantic hunt for some authentic wares to sell at her shop, Peggy is looking to forget her troubles by digging through the hidden treasures of the Scottish Highlands. With so many enchanting items on sale, Peggy can’t resist buying a beautiful old tartan shawl. But once she wraps it around her shoulders, she discovers that her purchase comes with a hidden fee: the specter of a fourteenth-century Scotsman.

Unsure if her Highland fling was real or a product of an overactive imagination, Peggy returns home to Vermont—only to find the dead body of her ex-boyfriend on the floor of her shop. When the police chief arrests Peggy’s cousin based on some incriminating evidence, Peggy decides to ask her haunting Scottish companion to help figure out who really committed the crime—before anyone else gets kilt…

I am giving away my review copy and the author is giving away a copy too!

Plus Fran is giving away a copy of

Martinsville Georgia has always been a sleepy little town, where nothing much ever happens, except a few murders…

There’s a firebug in Martinsville. Town librarian Biscuit McKee isn’t too worried when a garbage bin at the grocery store is set on fire. But when it’s her beloved garden shed that goes up in flames, the fur begins to fly.

Biscuit’s feline companion Marmalade comments frequently, …
Yes, I do.
… (even though her humans think she’s only purring …
Mouse droppings!
… or sneezing). She’s as baffled by all this as her humans.
We could have some tuna. That would solve a lot.

Distracted by a visit from Peachie, an old college friend, Biscuit pays only scant attention to a third fire, but it’s hard to ignore the fourth fire and the dead body found in the charred remains of Connie Cartwright’s studio, where glass-blowing may have turned into homicide.

Contest is open to anyone over 18 years old
with a US address or Canadian mailing address (for my review book).

Duplicate entries will be deleted. Void where prohibited.

You do not have to be a follower to enter but I hope you will find
something you like here and become a follower.

Followers Will Receive 2 Bonus Entries For Each Way They Follow.
Plus 2 Bonus Entries For Liking My Facebook Fan Page.

Following the new Google+ Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book Fan Page
will earn you 3 Bonus Entries.

Leave a comment for Fran for 5 Bonus Entries.

Pin this giveaway to Pinterest for 3 Bonus Entries.

If you publicize the giveaway on Twitter or Facebook or anywhere you will receive
5 Bonus Entries For Each Link.

Contest Will End June 17, 2015 at 11:59 PM CST
Winners Will Be Chosen By Random.org
Winners Will Be Notified By Email
and Will Be Posted Here In The Sidebar.

Click Here For Entry Form

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”