Asha Lemmie is the debut author of Fifty Words for Rain whose novel was a Good Morning America book club pick, and New York Times bestseller. Bestselling author Lisa See recently hosted her for The Poisoned Pen. You can enjoy that conversation here.
Signed copies of Fifty Words for Rain are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2TIkv6F
A Good Morning America Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller!
From debut author Asha Lemmie, “a lovely, heartrending story about love and loss, prejudice and pain, and the sometimes dangerous, always durable ties that link a family together.”—Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale
Kyoto, Japan, 1948. “Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist.”
Such is eight-year-old Noriko “Nori” Kamiza’s first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents’ imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin.
The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity. But when chance brings her older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might cost her everything.
Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to be free.
I love to be able to share the backstory of a book. Mary Anna Evans, author of the Faye Longchamp Archaeological Mysteries, took the time to write about Wrecked, the thirteenth in the series. You can order Wrecked, and the other books in the series, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2IrcqLo
Mary Anna Evans is the author of the Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries, which have received recognition including the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Mississippi Author Award, and three Florida Book Awards bronze medals. She is an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches fiction and nonfiction writing. Winner of the 2018 Sisters in Crime (SinC) Academic Research Grant.
Here’s Mary Anna Evans’ backstory about Wrecked.
Going Underwater with Archaeologist Faye Longchamp
by Mary Anna Evans
I’ve been writing about an archaeologist, Faye Longchamp, for more than seventeen years. I’ve taken Faye (or should I say that Faye has taken me?) into old catacombs underneath Oklahoma City and into the romantic, spectral past of New Orleans. She’s traveled to rural Alabama, urban Tennessee, and small town New York. Faye gets around.
Faye swims like a fish, and she handles boats like the experienced sailor that she is. She’s a good mechanic who keeps her old car running and keeps her boat motors singing. She can operate a sewing machine. She knows her way around rare book libraries. She lives in an old house, so she can patch a tin roof and repair broken shutters. She has lived off the grid and, although she never wants to be without air conditioning and cell phone service again, she could manage if she didn’t have a choice.
When I began planning the latest Faye Longchamp archaeological mystery, Wrecked, I knew that I wanted to set this one at her home on Joyeuse Island, off the Florida panhandle. Joyeuse Island is an evocative setting, wild and beautiful, and Faye’s heart will always be there. I think it’s realistic for her to travel for her work, and it’s fun for me and for my readers to “visit” interesting places along with Faye, but I like to take her home every few years. I think that seeing Faye among her friends in her native habitat gives readers a fuller sense of who she is. Taking Faye home to Joyeuse also gives me a chance to explore her family history, which is another way of depicting the past that has shaped her.
(As an aside, let me say what a privilege it has been to explore and develop this character over thirteen books. I’ve published well over a million words about Faye, and I continue to find interesting depths to her character. When I began the series, I did not anticipate how much of a gift it would be to write the story of one person’s life over many years. The series as a whole gives me the feeling of diving into one of those Dickensian novels that serve as an exhaustive character study—”To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born…”)
So, once I’d decided to take Faye home to her island, I needed to decide what was going to happen to her and what she was going to do about it. Right away, it occurred to me that I had never done a book about underwater archaeology.
There was a very good reason for this. I don’t dive. In fact, the idea rather terrifies me.
I swim and I have snorkeled a bit, so I’ve felt comfortable writing scenes from Faye’s point-of-view while she does those things, but could I write about a subject that screams out for underwater scenes involving scuba gear? No spoilers, but if you’ve seen the gloriously spooky cover of Wrecked, you have probably guessed that people do in fact scuba dive in the book. And if you’ve read the back cover copy, you know that one of Faye’s friends is found drowned, wearing scuba gear.
How did I manage this? I reached out to people who had intimate knowledge of diving. I found people who have dived in the Gulf of Mexico and could tell me about the clarity of the water. (Or, at depth, the lack of clarity.) My friend Nadia, whose ecological business has included extensive diving ,told me her observations, and she sent me to someone with detailed knowledge of how diving equipment works…or fails to work. That conversation gave me enough information to explore the internet to find out how drowning deaths are investigated. The things I learned there took me to websites for sheriff’s offices in small Florida counties to learn about staffing for those investigations. And so on. Reaching out to experts always takes me down a research rabbithole that leads to a better book that I could have written if I’d tried to draw only from the contents of my own head.
And this research took me back to my character, Faye Longchamp, as good research always does. Readers are interested in how scuba equipment works, I’m sure, but they care about people. They care about Faye. I gave Faye my fear of diving, about which I am extremely well-qualified to write, and that fear raises the stakes of this investigation for her. She must rise above it or find a way around it, because it is deeply important to her that she find out what happened to her friend.
If you have my trepidation about sinking deep beneath the water, carrying nothing to keep you alive but a tank and some machinery that could fail, then perhaps you would enjoy diving into the pages of Wrecked instead. You can see the briny deep and never even get wet.
*****
Here’s the summary of Wrecked.
Next title in the Faye Longchamp Archaeological Mysteries. When tragedy strikes and everything she loves is threatened, Faye Longchamp, an expert in American archaeology, will resort to desperate measures. Because some losses cut to the bone…A murder mystery with an archaeological twist, Wrecked is:Florida-based mysteryPerfect for fans of James Lee Burke and Nevada BarrFor readers of archaeological mysteries
The suspicious drowning death of Captain Edward Eubank breaks archaeologist Faye Longchamp’s heart. It also confuses her, because he was found in scuba gear and she’s never heard him even mention scuba diving. During their last conversation, he told her that he believed he’d found a storied shipwreck, but when Faye checks it out, she finds nothing there—not a plank, not a single gold coin, nothing. If there’s no treasure, then why is her friend dead?
But the situation quickly escalates beyond a murder mystery. Surrounded by a community struggling in the aftermath of a major hurricane that has changed the very landscape, Faye grapples not only with the loss of her friend, but with her fears for her daughter, who is being romanced by a man who may be very dangerous.
As a professional with her own consulting firm, Faye had long ago given up her “anything goes” attitude when the law stood between her and an interesting dig. Now that recklessness is back. There’s nothing she won’t do to protect her daughter.
In this riveting addition to an archaeological mystery and thriller series perfect for fans of Nevada Barr, Faye must save her most precious cargo—her daughter.
Did you miss Janet Evanovich’s recent virtual event at The Poisoned Pen? It was the launch for the 27th Stephanie Plum book, Fortune and Glory. You can still order signed copies of the book through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2kNWFsm
Here’s the summary of Fortune and Glory.
The twenty-seventh entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series isn’t just the biggest case of Stephanie Plum’s career. It’s the adventure of a lifetime.
When Stephanie’s beloved Grandma Mazur’s new husband died on their wedding night, the only thing he left her was a beat-up old easy chair…and the keys to a life-changing fortune.
But as Stephanie and Grandma Mazur search for Jimmy Rosolli’s treasure, they discover that they’re not the only ones on the hunt. Two dangerous enemies from the past stand in their way—along with a new adversary who’s even more formidable: Gabriela Rose, a dark-eyed beauty from Little Havana with a taste for designer clothes. She’s also a soldier of fortune, a gourmet cook, an expert in firearms and mixed martial arts—and someone who’s about to give Stephanie a real run for her money.
Stephanie may be in over her head, but she’s got two things that Gabriela doesn’t: an unbreakable bond with her family and a stubborn streak that will never let her quit.
She’ll need both to survive because this search for “fortune and glory” will turn into a desperate race against time with more on the line than ever before. Because even as she searches for the treasure and fights to protect her Grandma Mazur, her own deepest feelings will be tested—as Stephanie could finally be forced to choose between Joe Morelli and Ranger.
*****
Even if you missed the virtual launch, you can catch Janet Evanovich’s conversation with Barbara Peters.
The winners of the World Fantasy Awards were just announced. The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the outstanding achievement in fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Check the Web Store for the winners. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
Congratulations go to all the winners, beginning with the Lifetime Achievement Award winners, Karen Joy Fowler and Rowena Morrill.
Novel – Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender
Novella – Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
Short Fiction – “Read After Burning” by Maria Dahvana Headley, in A People’s Future of the United States
Anthology – New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, edited by Nisi Shawl
Collection – Song for the Unraveling of the World: Stories by Brian Evenson
Michael McGarrity’s Head Wounds is the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. That’s perfect because he’s the guest author for the virtual event on Poisoned Pen’s Facebook page, Friday, November 6 at 4 PM (6 PM ET). You can pre-order a signed copy of this latest Kevin Kearney book, as well as earlier ones, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/327ZVRN
Head Wounds is the final book in the Kevin Kearney series.
Clayton Istee, son of retired police chief Kevin Kerney, goes up against an elusive Mexican hitman in a mesmerizing story of murder, revenge, and redemption.
Given a chance to salvage his law enforcement career, Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Detective Clayton Istee catches a bizarre late-night double homicide at a Las Cruces hotel. Both victims, a man and a woman, have been scalped with their throats cut.
The murders show all the signs of a signature hit, but national and state crime databases reveal no similar profiles. Digging into the victims’ backgrounds, Clayton discovers that six months prior the couple had walked out of a nearby casino with $200,000 of a high-stakes gambler’s money.
He also learns the crime had been hushed up by an undercover federal DEA agent, who resurfaces and recruits Clayton for a dangerous mission to seize the Mexican drug lord responsible for the killings.
Thrust into the nightmare world of borderland drug wars and corrupt cops, Clayton duels with a cunning assassin poised to kill him and his family in a ferocious climax to the Kevin Kerney series that is sure to stun.
*****
With the publication of Tularosa in 1996, Michael McGarrity turned to writing full time. Many of his novels have been national best sellers. He holds a BA with distinction in psychology and a master’s degree in clinical social work. As an undergraduate, he held a Ford Foundation Scholarship at the University of New Mexico. Additionally, he is an honor graduate of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy.
His career in criminal justice spanned over twenty-five years and included creating treatment programs for drug offenders, supervising outreach services for at-risk juveniles, and re-establishing mental health services for the Department of Corrections after the infamous 1980 riot at the New Mexico Penitentiary. As a Santa Fe County deputy sheriff, he worked as a patrol officer, training and planning supervisor, community relations officer, and was the lead investigator of the sex crimes unit, which he established. Additionally, he taught courses at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy, served as a caseworker and investigator for the Public Defender’s District Office, and conducted investigations for a state government agency. In 1980 he was named New Mexico Social Worker of the Year and in 1987 was recognized by the American Legion as Police Officer of the Year.
In 2004 he received the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts — Literature. He is also the 2015 recipient of the Frank Waters Exemplary Literary Achievement Award and the 2015 Santa Fe Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts ““ Literature. He has been instrumental in establishing the Hillerman-McGarrity Creative Writing Scholarship at the University of New Mexico, the Richard Bradford Memorial Creative Writing Scholarship at the Santa Fe Community College, and the N. Scott Momaday Creative Writing Scholarship at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife Emily Beth (Mim).
Debut author Asha Lemmie will be in conversation with Lisa See on Poisoned Pen’s Facebook page on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 5 PM (7 PM ET). Signed copies of Fifty Words for Rain are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2TIkv6F
Here is the background for the novel.
A Good Morning America Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller!
From debut author Asha Lemmie, “a lovely, heartrending story about love and loss, prejudice and pain, and the sometimes dangerous, always durable ties that link a family together.”—Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale
Kyoto, Japan, 1948. “Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist.”
Such is eight-year-old Noriko “Nori” Kamiza’s first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents’ imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin.
The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity. But when chance brings her older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might cost her everything.
Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to be free.
*****
If you would like a little more of a preview, here’s an interview done for “Meet Our Author” by Asha Lemmie’s publisher.
The Lost Spells, a book of poems by Robert Macfarlane, illustrated by Jackie Morris, is the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. There are signed copies of this follow-up to The Lost Words, available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2TI1NMo
Here’s The Lost Spells.
The follow-up to the internationally bestselling sensation The Lost Words, The Lost Spells is a beautiful collection of poems and illustrations that evokes the magic of the everyday natural world.Since its publication in 2017, The Lost Words has enchanted readers with its poetry and illustrations of the natural world. Now, The Lost Spells, a book kindred in spirit and tone, continues to re-wild the lives of children and adults.The Lost Spells evokes the wonder of everyday nature, conjuring up red foxes, birch trees, jackdaws, and more in poems and illustrations that flow between the pages and into readers’ minds. Robert Macfarlane’s spell-poems and Jackie Morris’s watercolour illustrations are musical and magical: these are summoning spells, words of recollection, charms of protection. To read The Lost Spells is to see anew the natural world within our grasp and to be reminded of what happens when we allow it to slip away.
Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently hosted Lee Child and his brother Andrew Child for the virtual launch of the twenty-fifth Jack Reacher novel, The Sentinel. You can still order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3jFov2u
Here’s the summary of the latest Jack Reacher novel.
Jack Reacher is back! The “utterly addictive” (The New York Times) series continues as the acclaimed #1 bestselling author Lee Child teams up with his brother, Andrew Child, fellow thriller writer extraordinaire.
“One of the many great things about Jack Reacher is that he’s larger than life while remaining relatable and believable. The Sentinel shows that two Childs are even better than one.”—James Patterson
As always, Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there. One morning he ends up in a town near Pleasantville, Tennessee.
But there’s nothing pleasant about the place.
In broad daylight Reacher spots a hapless soul walking into an ambush. “It was four against one” . . . so Reacher intervenes, with his own trademark brand of conflict resolution.
The man he saves is Rusty Rutherford, an unassuming IT manager, recently fired after a cyberattack locked up the town’s data, records, information . . . and secrets. Rutherford wants to stay put, look innocent, and clear his name.
Reacher is intrigued. There’s more to the story. The bad guys who jumped Rutherford are part of something serious and deadly, involving a conspiracy, a cover-up, and murder—all centered on a mousy little guy in a coffee-stained shirt who has no idea what he’s up against.
Rule one: if you don’t know the trouble you’re in, keep Reacher by your side.
Patrick Millikin of The Poisoned Pen recently hosted Stuart Neville, author of The Traveller and Other Stories, and Luca Veste, author of The Silence. Their books can be ordered through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
Here’s the description of Neville’s The Traveller and Other Stories.
A darkly glittering collection of Northern Irish noir by Stuart Neville, Los Angeles Times Book Prize”“winning author
Since his debut novel, the modern classic The Ghosts of Belfast, was published a decade ago, Stuart Neville has published eight other critically acclaimed novels and achieved international recognition as one of crime fiction’s great living writers.
Now for the first time Neville offers readers a collection of his short fiction—twelve chilling stories that traverse and blend the genres of noir, horror, and speculative fiction, and which bring the history and lore of Neville’s native Northern Ireland to glittering life. The collection concludes with the longawaited novella The Traveller, the companion piece to The Ghosts of Belfast and Collusion.
Complete with a foreword from Irish crime fiction legend John Connolly, this volume is the perfect indulgence for fans of ghost stories and noir, and is a must-have for devotees of Neville’s prizewinning Belfast novels.
*****
Check out Luca Veste’s psychological thriller, The Silence.
From the author of The Bone Keeper comes The Silence, another sinister psychological thriller of secrets, revenge, and a lurking serial killer.
We killed a stranger and covered it up.
It was supposed to be our last weekend away as friends, before marriage and respectability beckoned. But what happened that Saturday changed everything.
The six of us promised we would never tell anyone about the body we buried, even when we realized our victim was a serial killer.
But now the silence has been broken. And the killing has started again…
A twisted thriller that asks if we ever truly know our friends, and just how high price is for our silence.
*****
Enjoy the virtual conversation at The Poisoned Pen.
Jacqueline Winspear’s memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, is due out November 10. You can pre-order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2JDLy0W
You can also enjoy the virtual event on November 7 on The Poisoned Pen’s Facebook page.
If you didn’t read Jacqueline Winspear’s recent newsletter providing a little background for This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, you might want to read it now.
Hello!
My late mother would probably roll her eyes at what I am about to write, which amounts to a confession regarding a childhood trait of mine that was the cause of much embarrassment for her. You see, I was a rather nosey kid and I’m not really sorry about it. I would ask my elders all sorts of questions, interrogating them about anything that occurred to me regarding “the olden days.” I remember asking one of my mother’s friends about her childhood in the olden days, and she said, “Not so much of the ‘olden’ if you don’t mind!” My mother raised her eyebrows and gave me that, “Wait until I get you home” look—I seemed to get that look a lot when I’d overstepped the mark with my questions. That’s me, looking every inch the “inquiring” little imp!I was all ears when someone uttered the words, “Well in my day…” before going on to tell a story about life in another time and place. If I was at someone’s house and there were sepia photographs on the mantelpiece or on top of an old upright piano, I would stare into them, taking account of every detail. Sometimes I thought people hung onto old pianos just to have a place to display their family portraits. I would look at photos and wonder what made that person look away from the camera at someone in the distance, or I’d be curious about why that child was frowning at the photographer. Asking questions brought the past alive for me in a very direct and colorful way. People told me things they might have kept to themselves—and I have recounted some of those stories in my upcoming memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, which will be published on November 10th. Not long to go now!
There was the elderly gentleman who described the time he was the only witness to a meeting between Winston Churchill and General “Ike” Eisenhower in the summer of 1944—I was on the edge of my seat as he described his job and why he was tasked with keeping the meeting a secret. And there was the grandmother of a childhood friend, a very dignified woman who appreciated my love of books and allowed me to look at any book that caught my attention in her library. My eyes widened the day I saw a personal inscription from a very famous author, only for my friend’s grandmother to inform me, “I was once her secretary.” Had I known about degrees of separation then, I would have been jettisoned to the moon. I’m sure you recognize these two men!
I’m often asked how I go about the “research” for my writing, whether I’m working on a novel, an essay or short story, and the truth is research starts with asking questions; delving deep into a subject and then asking more questions—a process of inquiry that takes the writer on a journey of discovery. The challenge is in knowing when to stop, when enough is enough, though as far as I’m concerned, everything I gather is “inventory” for me to access at any time. The Imperial War Museum, London, where I have spent many hours using the archive.
Sometimes I will read a book simply to find that one little snippet of information that will provide the seedling from which to grow a whole scene, or develop a character, or a plot point. However, as you will notice when you read This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, much of the research for my stories is in remembering—after all, memories are inventory too. For my fiction, I’ll take perhaps a nugget of family history then weave a different kind of story. Drawing upon my late parents’ experiences during wartime has helped give color and texture to my writing. In my memoir you’ll read another story about my father, one that inspired the next book in the Maisie Dobbs’ series (The Consequences of Fear, to be published March 23, 2021). You heard it here first, though you’ll have to read the memoir to discover the other story about my Dad.
I began writing my memoir many years ago, stashing an earlier, very different version in a drawer because I couldn’t quite bend the words to my will. Now publication day is almost here for This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, so I’m excited, yet also filled with trepidation. As any writer will tell you, whether you are a first time author or have published a raft of books, publication day can be daunting. Yes, it’s thrilling, but scary too—the book you’ve worked on for a long time is now “out there” and you just hope that readers will enjoy the story you felt compelled to write. I’d just arrived home rather bedraggled after driving for seven hours—to find early copies of my memoir had arrived. Exciting day!
Until the next time…With all good wishes,Jacqueline
PS: You can read more about This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, along with an excerpt here: www.thistimenextyearbook.com
