Tag Archive for: Shari Randall

Welcome to Mystic Bay!

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by Shari Randall

If you’re like me, you had a lot of travel plans canceled this summer. My consolation? Armchair travel with my TBR (to be read) pile. One of the great things about books is that they let us travel without leaving home.

So I thought I’d take you to the setting of my cozy mystery series, Mystic Bay. “Mystic Bay” is modeled on real life Mystic, Connecticut, a village on Long Island Sound that is always on those lists of best places to vacation. History? Check. Great scenery? Check. Charm? Check. Great restaurants, especially that New England specialty, the lobster shack? Triple check!

I’m including pictures of the real life Mystic that inspired scenes in my Lobster Shack Mystery series – a real slice of New England. Get out your cameras – the tour’s about to start!

Here’s the lobster shack that inspired The Lazy Mermaid. Ford’s was used as a location shot in the movie Mystic Pizza, so it may look familiar. Their lobster bomb is the best!

This is one of the beautiful old sea captain’s homes you’ll find in Mystic. Note the enclosed widow’s walk on the roof. The house overlooks the harbor where whaling ships returned after voyages that could last several years, and the captain’s wife kept watch from the walk. Yes, many of those wives did indeed become widows – whaling was a dangerous profession.

Mystic Seaport is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country. Nothing is more relaxing than watching ships – especially historic ships like the Charles Morgan – on the Mystic River.

Ah – fall color in New England! I set my third book, DRAWN AND BUTTERED, at Halloween so I could bring in the sights and sounds of autumn – fall festivals, glowing jack o’lanterns, and pumpkin spice everything!

I can’t let you leave without a delicious, buttery lobster roll. If you’d like a further taste of Mystic Bay, you can check out the Lobster Shack Mystery series, which includes recipes for some New England favorites. Enjoy!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B077JS8VPX

Shari Randall writes the Lobster Shack Mystery series about Allegra “Allie” Larkin, a ballerina who is injured in a mysterious accident. While she heals, Allie returns to her hometown of Mystic Bay where she works in her quirky Aunt Gully’s Lazy Mermaid Lobster Shack. When Aunt Gully falls under suspicion of murder, Allie discovers that she has a talent for detection. 


Where is the last place a book took you?

A Salute to Mildred Wirt Benson, the first “Carolyn Keene”

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by Shari Randall

When I was a little girl, I rarely noticed the authors’ names on the books I gobbled up like penny candy from the corner store.  The only exception was the author of my favorite books. Even though we referred to them as “Nancy Drews” my friends and I knew the author of the yellow covered books we traded was Carolyn Keene. 
Imagine my shock when I learned there was no “Carolyn Keene” and that it was a pen name for a stable of ghostwriters from the Stratemeyer Syndicate (is there a more terrifying corporate name?)

 As the years passed, I occasionally stumbled upon articles about the authors who made up that group, especially the first ghostwriter, Mildred Wirt Benson. Mildred and the other “Carolyn Keenes” inspired generations of young readers, especially girls. These authors gave us an independent female protagonist without parental interference or control, plus a jazzy blue roadster. I believe Mildred and her co-ghosts were one of the most influential groups of women in America (and if my FB feed is any indication, the world). Many women who broke glass ceilings have spoken of their hours reading Nancy Drew, women including presidential candidates and Supreme Court justices. My years as a children’s librarian have taught me that children’s world views are shaped by the stories they read.

Every July 10 on my Facebook author page, I commemorate Mildred’s birthday. As “Carolyn Keene,” she ghostwrote 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drews, creating the template for the determined girl detective who has inspired millions of young readers.
Here are five fast facts about Mildred:
  • Her typewriter is in the collection of the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History.
  • She was an avid traveler and adventurer who trained as a pilot, traveling to South American archaeological sites before they were opened to tourists.
  • In 1927, she was the first student, man or woman, to earn a master’s in journalism at the University of Iowa.
  • She worked as a journalist for 50 years, mostly on the courthouse beat for the Toledo Blade.
  • Her role as Carolyn Keene was kept under wraps until researchers uncovered the story in the 1980s.

Raise a glass with me to Mildred. She opened the door for so many of us to the joy of reading mysteries. To Mildred!
Shari Randall is the author of the Lobster Shack Mystery Series. It’s possible that her protagonist, Allegra “Allie” Larkin, and her chums, Verity Brooks and Bronwyn Denby, were inspired by Nancy, Bess, and George. You can see what she’s up to on Facebook. 

Clue – the Movie

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By Shari Randall

The pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives. It’s certainly changed my tv and movie streaming habits. I’ve never really binged before, movies or tv shows, that is. But now I’m binging with the best of them, and am currently on season four of Brooklyn 9-9. Yes, I’m looking for laughs. Back in March, I made a list of Oscar winners and other serious films that I intended to watch. Have I watched Parasite or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? Nope. Am I catching up with Agatha Raisin and What We Do In the Shadows? You bet.
After working through as many free options on Netflix as possible, my daughter mentioned that there was a movie version of the Clue board game. How did I not know this? One of my favorite games was made into a movie? With a cast starring one of my favorite actresses, the magnificent Madeline Kahn? In Clue the Movie, Kahn plays Mrs. White, a mysterious widow – not the cook/housekeeper of the original game.* On a dark and stormy night, she and several other suspicious characters are invited to a dinner party at the mansion of Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving). Boddy’s butler, Wadsworth (Tim Curry), assigns each guest a colorful name: Mr. Green (Michael McKean), Col. Mustard (Martin Mull), Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), and Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren).
Before watching, I checked reviews. The critics were not kind, with most concluding that the game was more fun than the movie. Rotten Tomatoes said: “A robust ensemble of game actors elevate Clue above its schematic source material, but this farce’s reliance on novelty over organic wit makes its entertainment value a roll of the dice.” Translation? The “plot” doesn’t make sense, the jokes are of the boob, dog poo, and rimshot variety, and it could have been funnier. What does makes the film fun? The stellar cast flinging dignity out the window and giving the less-than-stellar material the old college try, plus three different endings. 
Why three endings? Different versions of the ending ensured movie audiences wouldn’t be able to give away the solution to the murder. (The streaming version has all three endings.) Though the solution brought to mind Raymond Chandler’s take down of Murder on the Orient Express (“only a halfwit could guess it”), I had to admire the writers.
Three endings! Granted, they were wildly, manically convoluted endings. But every writer knows devising one satisfying ending is hard work. Three? The movie isn’t Oscar material, but I gave Clue four stars for effort.
Have you played Clue? What shows and movies have you been bingeing lately? 
*Parker Brothers sold Clue to Hasbro. In 2016, Hasbro replaced Mrs. White, the housekeeper, with Dr. Orchid, a scientist specializing in plant toxicology. https://www.thewrap.com/clue-mrs-white-dr-orchid-hasbro/
Shari Randall is the author of the heartwarming and humorous Lobster Shack Mystery series. The first, CURSES, BOILED AGAIN, won the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery.

PLA here I come!

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by Shari Randall

Next week I’ll be at the Public Library Association conference in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ll be signing at the Sisters in Crime booth 1745 on Thursday, February 27, at 3 pm. I hope you’ll stop by to say hello!
Writers have to evaluate each conference they attend, carefully consider how precious time and money will be spent. Attending library focused conferences, especially one geared to librarians who work in public libraries, is a no-brainer for me.
Public librarians, like booksellers, have a unique relationship with readers. In polls of most trusted professions, librarians always top the list. They know what we read, what we say we read and don’t finish, and which books come back tattered, water stained, and well loved. They know which books have waiting lists and which award winners are returned time after time unfinished.
Librarians have a sharp eye for breakout writers and popular titles. A year before the whole world went crazy for vampire books, librarians were sharing news of a book called Twilight that they couldn’t keep on the shelves.
That’s why I’m eager to go to PLA – I can’t wait to see what books are on the librarians’ radar for 2020 and beyond. I know I’ll come back with a suitcase full of ARCs and ideas.
What conferences do you enjoy?

Killing Your Darlings

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RIP Darling!
By Shari Randall
Of all the writing rules out there – and there are a lot – the one every writer knows is “Kill your darlings.” Stephen King expanded on this advice from William Faulkner (at least he did according to Google) and said “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” 
Darlings. Those lines of dialogue, those descriptions, those witty one liners that we writers love, that make us proud. That make us think, “that’s a good one. That’s writing!” The chapter that makes us laugh, or shudder as we sit at the keyboard. The character we enjoy so much we’d like to take him out to lunch. 
The problem is, well, there could be lots of problems, and the biggest is my reluctance to hit the delete button on those darlings. Stephen King is right – killing my darlings does break my egocentric little scribbler’s heart. I find myself arguing with, well, myself about the fate of those darlings:
The dialogue doesn’t ring true to the characters. But it’s funny…
The description is too long. But it’s sheer poetry!
That chapter is so exciting. But it doesn’t further the plot…
That character is so much fun to write. Does the world really need another homicidal prom queen?
But, but… I love my darlings, especially some of my characters. So I’m going to bid them a fond farewell here before I hit DELETE.
A fond pat on the head to Spumoni, the loveable mutt from Fairweather Farm.  Scrappy and loyal, tail always wagging, Spumoni was a little too good for his own good. I needed a farm pet that would get into trouble. So bye-bye Spumoni and hello Hairy Houdini, an irascible miniature goat who never met a pen he couldn’t escape.
The police department of my tiny Connecticut town had too many named characters, so thank you and farewell Officer Moskovitz, enjoy your retirement in Florida.
Ah, Lu Fairweather, slender and dark, with a strip of gray highlighting your artistic brow (probably because I was reading that biography of Susan Sontag while I was writing you). Au revoir. ! I will miss your feminine mystique, your dangling Elsa Peretti earrings, your French press coffee and no filter cigarettes, your air of disdainful sophistication. 
Have you had to kill any darlings lately? Feel free to give them a shout out below.
Shari Randall is the author of the Agatha Award winning debut, Curses, Boiled Again. Her latest book is Drawn and Buttered.

Comfort Reads

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by Shari Randall

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…and the time of the year when the sound of sniffles and sneezing is as prevalent as carols and silver bells.

If you do end up getting sick this winter, I hope it will be with the kind of cold that keeps you home, but doesn’t knock you out completely. The best case scenario is that you’re sick enough to stay cozy in bed, but well enough to binge all those shows your friends are talking about or enjoy one of the books on your nightstand.

I’m a realist. I stock up on Kleenex, chicken soup, and tea so I’ll be ready when a cold hits. Being cooped up with a cold is bad, but being cooped up without something good to read or watch while on the couch is worse.

When I have a cold, there’s nothing better than a warm cup of tea and a comfort read. So before flu season starts, along with chicken soup and Tylenol, I’m stocking up on good comfort reads. My comfort reads are classic cozy mystery favorites, short stories by Agatha Christie, the Mrs. Pollifax series by Dorothy Gilman, or Alexander McCall Smith’s Number One Ladies Detective series.

I wish you happy holidays, good health, and a great stockpile of comfort reads when you need them.

What is your comfort read go-to?

Shari Randall is the author of the Lobster Shack

mystery series from St. Martin’s Press. Her latest is a holiday story called “The Queen of Christmas.”

Meet The Queen of Christmas

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For the past few months, I’ve been working on a secret project – a Christmas short story called “The Queen of Christmas.”
I’m a huge fan of short stories at this busy time of the year. What better to read when there are so many demands on our time but also an increased need to recharge our batteries by taking a few moments to enjoy some fun holiday reading? 
Several readers have asked me to do a holiday story with the characters from my Lobster Shack mystery series. I started wondering — what do Allie, Aunt Gully, Verity, and all the other characters from the Lazy Mermaid lobster shack do at Christmas?
A visit to a holiday show house tour last December sparked ideas. A Christmas crazy friend of my mom has collected ornaments and decorations for decades. Over time, her single decorated tree became two trees, then three, and after several years this lady had a decorated tree for every room in her house and crowds clamoring to visit. Her Fantasy of Trees was born.
What if I moved this festival of trees to Mystic Bay? What if a desperate criminal was determined to cause holiday mischief instead of holiday merriment?
Writing a short story comes with challenges. The story has to be tighter. Every word has to work harder. Which characters will be in the story? How to keep the story to a length that is perfect to enjoy during the holiday crush?
I hope you’ll check out my new mystery short story, “The Queen of Christmas.” I hope it will provide you with a fun escape from the hustle and bustle of the holidays. The story also includes a recipe for hot toddy, because what’s nicer than curling up with a good story and a warm drink on a frosty winter night?
The story is available exclusively on Amazon for Kindle. Enjoy!


Downton Is Here!

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by Shari Randall


It’s here! September 20 – the release date of the new Downton Abbey movie!
How I adored the original series, especially the first episodes. The dishy debut season, complete with scheming Thomas and O’Brien, the Titanic disaster, Lady Sybil’s shocking modernity, and Lady Mary’s “incident” the Turkish ambassador was an Edwardian delight. 
The new movie already has a 79% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but we’re not going for the story – we’re going because everyone at Downton became our very gossip-worthy friends.
The trailer has many of the faces we’ve come to know and love and be irritated by (I’m looking at you, Mr. Bates) but I’ll still be there, sighing over the clothes, coveting the castle, and laughing as Lady Violet gets in a good dig at Mrs. Crawley.
Are you going to see the Downton Abbey movie?

What’s Today’s Celebration?

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by Paula
Gail Benson
From: https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-soft-ice-cream-day-august-19/
Did
you know that today, August 19, is National Soft Ice Cream Day? Shari Randall, you should take note of this commemoration!

According to
the National Day Calendar website,
while no one has been clearly identified as organizing the special designation,
soft serve ice cream began around Memorial Day in 1934 when an enterprising
salesman with a flat tire pulled into a parking lot and knew he had to get rid
of a load of melting ice cream quickly. Later, he patented a machine and
developed a secret formula. The product’s popularity caused a decrease in
business for hard ice cream and the Minnesota legislature briefly required that
it had to be pre-packaged instead of sold from a machine. The site suggests
that people observe the holiday by getting a dipped cone or sundae.
The
site boasts of over 1,500 national days. It also lists some international ones.
For instance, today also is International Bow Day, a tradition started by Claire’s.
August
20, tomorrow, is National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day. Not to be confused with
National Pecan Pie Day (observed July 12) or National Pecan Torte Day (August
22) or National Pecan Month (April).
You
can check out the recognitions that share your birthday. For example, my
birthday, on September 13, is National Celiac Disease Awareness Day (based on a
2005 unanimous resolution passed by the United States Senate) and Uncle Sam Day
(because New York meat packer Sam Wilson, born on September 13, 1766, supplied
meat to soldiers during the War of 1812 in containers stamped “U.S.” and they
called it Uncle Sam’s grub).
The
website allows you to register a national day, shop for merchandise, search for
recipes, and play National Day trivia.
What
does this site have to do with writing? (Please note that World Calligraphy Day
is celebrated August 14.)
Occasionally,
writers are asked to submit a holiday story for a collection. You can imagine
that well-known holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Valentines Day will
have numerous stories, but going with something like Talk Like a Pirate Day
(September 19), as Cathy Wiley did with her “Dead Men Tell No Tales,” published
in Homicidal Holidays (Wildside
Press), an anthology organized by the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, could
be unique. Barb Goffman currently is editing a collection of time travel
stories to be released on December 8, Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day.
So
consider taking a look at the National Day Calendar website, for a story idea
or just to celebrate a slice of life. Happy holidays!

Visiting a Favorite Lighthouse

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By Shari Randall
Sometimes I forget to enjoy the things that are right outside my front door here in Connecticut. I’m glad when friends visit and we do all the fun tourist things including one of my favorites, the Lights and Sights Cruise out of New London Harbor. On Lights and Sights, the tour boat parallels the coast, gliding along the shore past lighthouses, seaside mansions, fishing villages, and secluded beaches and parks.

This past weekend we boarded the Cecelia Ann, a high speed catamaran that does a two hour tour of Long Island Sound, and visited some of my favorite lighthouses.

One of the most unique is the New London Ledge Lighthouse. It looks like a wild gust of wind blew a charming three story French Second Empire-style house with a mansard roof to the mouth of the Thames River (by the way, we pronounce the “h” here). Built in 1909, the Ledge Light was managed by the Coast Guard through1987, when the lighthouse was automated. The light is visible from 18 miles away and has a distinctive pattern of three white flashes then one red flash every 30 seconds.

The New London Ledge Light was added to the National Register of Historic places in 1990. Its original fourth order Fresnel lens light can be seen now at the Custom House Museum.

In addition to its stalwart service to mariners, the Ledge Light has another claim to fame – its resident ghost, Ernie.

You can pick your Ernie story: Ernie was a lonely lighthouse keeper who decided to end it all after the love of his life threw him over for the captain of the Block Island ferry. Ernie went over the side of the lighthouse after a tussle with another keeper. Ernie slipped from the roof on a foggy night … Well, you get the idea. The lighthouse has been featured on several paranormal television shows, Scariest Places on Earth and Ghost Hunters, and if you’d like to try your luck at meeting Ernie in, er, person, you can visit during one of several haunted lighthouse tours in October.

If you want more information, check out the New London Maritime Society website at  http://www.nlmaritimesociety.org




Shari Randall writes Lobster Shack mystery series. Her debut, Curses, Boiled Again, won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel.