Author Suzanne Adair

CFCF, held in Wilmington, NC the weekend in October closest
to Halloween, is a regional conference in its seventh year. This year, the
dates for the conference were 25 – 27 October. Proceeds from the mystery basket
raffles benefited the Guardian ad Litem program, which acts as an advocate for
children in the court systems of New Hanover and Pender counties. I donated a
copy of The Blacksmith’s Daughter for the Carolina Conspiracy basket. Joyce Lavene assembled the basket with panache.
The winner, avid reader Wendy Lutz, received a stack of books, a bottle of wine
plus a wineglass, and chocolate. What’s not to like?

Conference headliners were Jon Jefferson
(Thursday night Guest of Honor), William Bernhardt (Friday
night keynote), and John Hart (Saturday night Rookie of
the Year). It rained cats and dogs from Thursday through
mid-day Saturday. The rain was welcome, as North Carolina has been in a severe
drought, but it made for a soggy conference.

I taught a Friday workshop, “Researching Historical
Fiction.” Many writers of historicals, even those who are published, dump loads
of detail into their works. The primary considerations of anyone writing
historical fiction should be to develop riveting drama and compelling
characters, and to create a world in which those elements can flourish. In
fact, those should be the primary considerations of any novelist. Naturally
you have to get your facts correct, but I encourage writers to regard detail as
subordinate to excellent writing. Add detail on a need-to-know basis. If your
writing is mediocre and you’ve focused on detail, imagine the fate of your work
when readers and reviewers dispute your detail (as they often do).

The Carolina
Conspiracy is a group of authors who publish
regional-based mysteries. Terry Hoover moderated our panel early Saturday afternoon. Panelists from left to right at the booksigning in
the lobby afterward are: Suzanne Adair, Kathleen Delany, Terry Hoover, Joanne
Clarey, Judy Nichols, and Nancy Gotter Gates.

“Long Ago or Far Away,” a panel later that day about historical or travel
mysteries, was moderated by Maria Hudgins. From left to right: Suzanne Adair, Frankie Bailey, Maria Hudgins,
and Terry Hoover. Other panelists not in this picture were Charles and Caroline
Todd and Sarah Shaber.

One unique question Maria asked panelists was, “What would
your main character have been wearing?” We supplied the audience with a variety
of responses. Here I am explaining a colonial working woman’s clothing. She
wore a mobcap on her head. Her “underwear” was a shift that covered her torso
and extended to mid-calf. Over that, she wore a petticoat and short, boned
jacket to allow her more movement than a woman wearing stays and a polonaise
gown. The petticoat had slits in the sides, permitting the woman access to her
pockets, tied at her waist atop the shift. If the woman embroidered the
pockets, she might wear them atop the petticoat to display her handiwork. All
in all, a colonial woman bore more than passing resemblance to a modern-day
motel maid. In fact, I was mistaken for a maid by another guest while I was
staying in a motel during the Brattonsville 2006 reenactment.

Left: What would a CFCF be without Randy Rawls and his
cowboy hat? Randy is the author of the Ace Edwards mysteries.

Center: Here’s the one, the only J.A. Konrath. He
writes the Lt. Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels police thriller series. Back in the
summer of 2006, he hopped in his SUV and drove across the country with stops to
meet hundreds of booksellers. He chronicled his journey on his author blog.

Right: Ellen Elizabeth Hunter, author of the Magnolia
mysteries.

On Tuesday 30 October, I had a brief, taped interview with
Dave McIntosh, News Director at WPUB-FM in Camden, SC. We
talked about The Blacksmith’s Daughter, but most of the interview was about the annual
Revolutionary War Field Days this coming weekend.

Saturday morning at the event, I will moderate the panel “In
the Army and at Home: Women and Children of the Revolution” with authors Sheila
Ingle and Chris Swager. We’ll discuss the challenges women and children faced
during the war. More importantly, Sheila, Chris and I have spearheaded a gift
basket fundraiser to benefit Historic Camden. We’ve donated copies of our
books and found merchants and sutlers to donate their products. The
basket will be raffled Sunday at the gift shop, right after the battle.

My radio interview was supposed to air Wednesday 31
October during the local news at 7 a.m., noon, or 5 p.m. We hope this advance
plug will draw more traffic to Historic Camden for Revolutionary War Field
Days, and attendees will contribute to the raffle.

Thanks to the Cape Fear Crime Festival committee, especially
Dorothy Hodder, for the opportunity to participate in the conference. Thanks
also to Dave McIntosh for giving me radio time.

Next up: a panel discussion at Revolutionary War Field Days
in Camden, SC, on 3 November.

On Sunday 16 September, staff writer Ben Steelman with the Wilmington Star-News reviewed The Blacksmith’s Daughter. The headline reads
"Revolutionary War Tale fun and fast," and here’s the online link.
Grasshopper is again very grateful.

After you’ve read the review, let me know what you think of Mr. Steelman’s comment about actor Julian McMahon.

On Saturday I booksigned at an event for the SAR, DAR, and
CAR at Musgrove Mill State Historic Site near Clinton, SC. The event involved
unveiling a monument and placing wreaths to commemorate a battle that occurred
nearby during the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War on 19 August 1780. Thanks to the rangers at Musgrove Mill for including me in the program.

"The Battle of Musgrove’s Mill" almost never
makes the cut into standard history texts, yet so much about it embodies the flavor
of this war in the South. The combatants weren’t colorful redcoats and Continentals.
Nor were superstar generals like Washington and Cornwallis directing the fight.
Instead, Whigs and Loyalists duked it out, over 500 of them, mostly civilians
whose homes, families, and businesses were threatened by constant warfare.

Civil war, not revolution, described the war in the Southern
theater. (A scene in The Blacksmith’s Daughter brings home that theme.) At the
battle on this site, the Whigs were somewhat outnumbered, but they managed to
win. An austere monument testifies to loss.

The Enoree River and Horseshoe Falls are within walking
distance of the visitors center — all of
it well worth your trip. If you visit in April, you can also catch the annual
living history weekend.

Thursday was Tunnel Day. I drove through four tunnels.

The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel connects Hampton, VA and
Norfolk, VA on Hwy 60 between the James River and Chesapeake Bay. The highway
bottlenecks down to just a couple lanes for the tunnel. During morning rush
hour, this provides the usual unsavory traffic experience associated with large
cities that have more cars than room on the roads.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel runs between Chesapeake Bay
and the Atlantic Ocean. It’s actually two small tunnels connected by bridges
and is a $12 toll road –- the first of many toll roads I would encounter on the
journey. But it offers an outstanding, unmatched view of the Atlantic and the
Chesapeake. Sunlight sparkled on sedate seas, the air held that briny scent, a
gentle breeze blew, and gulls cavorted in the air. If you’ve crossed during
stormy weather, email me or post a comment about your experience. Quite
different, I’m sure, so I’d like to hear about it.

The portions of Virginia and Maryland east of the Chesapeake
Bay have been dubbed "the boondocks," but there’s some lovely country
in that area. The drive along Hwy 13 and Hwy 50 is peaceful in contrast to the
urban bustle of Norfolk.

The Compleat Bookseller in Chestertown, MD, is a lovely,
welcoming bookshop in a vintage downtown building. On Thursday afternoon, the
weather was mild enough to open windows to the cross-breeze. The store mascot,
a 14-year-old pointer named Brittany, slept content on the wooden floors while
customers strolled past.

Although rush-hour traffic in Norfolk delayed my arrival,
owner Lanny Parks greeted me graciously in her upstairs office. In keeping with
the interests of their primary clients (retired folks), the Compleat Bookseller
stocks just about every kind of book except business and New-Age titles. Every
year at the end of May, the town hosts a reenactment of the Chestertown Tea
Party. Boston doesn’t have the monopoly on tea parties. Groups of irate
colonists disposed of tea all up and down the coast. Janet Schaw chronicled the
Wilmington, NC Ladies Tea Party in her journal, now published as Journal of a
Lady of Quality.

Back on the road again, I crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge
westbound, a toll road in the eastbound direction only, but didn’t escape the
toll ($2) for tunnel number 4, the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel beneath the
Patapsco River in Baltimore, MD. Mystery Loves Company, bookseller for the
annual Malice Domestic conference, also has a store in Oxford, MD ("the
boondocks"). I visited the downtown Baltimore shop, located in a house
dating from the 1880’s and situated just outside the historic district. What
history, you say? Well, during the war of 1812, a fellow named Francis Scott
Key sat aboard a British warship in Baltimore Harbor and watched British
cannons bombard Fort McHenry all night long. After dawn revealed the fort’s
flag still flying, inspiration struck, and Key penned lyrics to a popular
drinking tune. Thus was the U.S. national anthem born.

Mystery Loves Company has the cozy ambiance of your dear,
old auntie’s home, but trust me, the store stocks far more than cozy mysteries.
All genres and sub-genres of crime fiction are represented. Owner Kathy Harig
also stocks impressive backlists, so no one goes away hungry. Except perhaps
the two shop cats, who were irked Thursday afternoon because Kathy talked with
me instead of feeding them on time, hrumph. Late for this appointment, too
(yeah, that Norfolk traffic was a bear), Kathy nonetheless greeted me warmly,
offered me a glass of iced tea, and chatted with me a long while about her
customers (kids to seniors), the industry, and Malice Domestic.

I took the "scenic" route out of downtown
Baltimore, through little neighborhoods with ethnic markets and delis. Carl has
lived in the South his entire life and never seen anything like it except on
TV.

Thanks to Lanny Parks and Kathy Harig for their time.