Category Archives: Uncategorized

Upcoming Events

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Saturday, September 27. Albany Book Festival. In-person; 10 – 4. Upper campus, University of Albany Upper Campus.

Monday, September 29. 10 am. Interview with FRAN LEWIS.  https://www.youtube.com/@franlewis8  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/berthaauthor/recent-activity/events/ 

Blog: https://tillie49.wordpress.com/ 

Instagram: @ferndine49

X: @franellena

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fran.lewis1

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/berthaauthor/

More events:

09/29 Books, Ramblings, and Tea THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Showcase

09/29 Just Reviews THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Review

09/30 Guatemala Paula Loves to Read THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Review

10/01 Because I said so THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Review

10/04 IttyBittyBookMama THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Review

10/06 Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books! THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Interview

10/09 Country Mamas With Kids THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Review

10/10 bookwormwhitlock86 THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Guest post

10/11 The Mystery of Writing THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Guest post

10/12 bookwormwhitlock86 THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Showcase

10/15 fuonlyknew THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Showcase1

10/16 Book Reviews From an Avid Reader THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Review

10/14. Interview at Marist College (in-person).

10/18 michieczar THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Review

10/19 Cozy Up With Kathy THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Review

10/23 Hott Books THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Interview

10/24 Books to the Ceiling Podcast THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER 1st. chapter reading

November 1 – Panel discussion at Renssaleer Public Library (in-person).

12/05 Mysteries to Die For: THE LONG SHADOW OF MURDER Toe Tags Podcast

Currently Reading

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Chilled to the dog bone is S.A. Kazlo’s fifth book.As in the previous offerings, the action takes place in Wings Falls, New York. All the familiar characters are in place.

Decorated outhouses (yes, really) with a prize going to the best one are a popular town winter event. The Loopy Ladies have an entry. Gladys, one of the best and funniest characters, will ride the outhouse across the ice. But the morning of the competition, a disliked man is found frozen to death in the outhouse. And both Gladys’s and Sam’s( that’s Samantha) fingerprints are all over the water bottles outside.

But the victim was so unpopular there are many suspects.

Worse, from Sam’s point of view, a new woman is working at town hall, an attractive blonde named Sunny Foxx. And Sam catches Hank, her significant other, with his arms around Sunny in his office!

Light, frothy, laugh-out loud funny in places. My only criticism is that Kazlo uses the same descriptions repeatedly. Hank is always described with crystal-blue eyes, for example, and Candie, Sam’s cousin, has violet eyes.

Still, lots of fun. Recommended.

Copyright

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For those not in the business, the current legal flap is over copyright. Several companies have been using published works to train AI, a violation of copyright.

What is copyright? It covers, among other things, intellectual property such as literary works. Books, short stories and more and protects them against copy without permission. According to the law, written work in a tangible form, including in a document on your computer, is ‘copyrighted’ and cannot be copied. (Plagiarism is the unlawful copying of another’s work and reproducing it as your own.) That means published works should be considered copyrighted and protected from unlawful use. It is recommended, however, that published works, whether published through an agency such as a publisher or self-published should be formally copyrighted through the office of copyright.

A lawsuit was brought against the AI companies that used published works. In one such case, Bartz vs Anthropic, it is estimated that 7 million books were used.Only about 500,000 were officially copyrighted through the copyright office. Although the case was settled, and Anthropic agreed to pay a settlement, because nothing is ever simple, the case is still tied up in court.

I am following the case with close attention since several of my books were used and at least 5 are eligible for a claim.

Who knew being and author would end up being so complicated!

Currently Reading

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Lies, lost and found was the third Boulden I’ve read and it is just as enjoyable as the others. This is the second in the Lake Amelia series.

While Rose is cleaning out the family home after her father’s death, she finds $10,000 and a note in an unfamiliar handwriting. Who left the money? Rose embarks on a search for the money’s owner and soon finds herself searching for the note’s writer as well. Her search involves her in a mystery surrounding immigrants and soon spirals into trafficking, murder and the involvement of people Rose knows and trusts.

This is a thriller rather than a mystery, but it is certainly engrossing. Recommended.

Currently Reading

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I thought I’d read all of the Holmes/Russell mysteries, only to discover this one; A Letter of Mary.

Mary Russell and her husband, retired detective Sherlock Holmes, receive an old friend and archaeologist at their Sussex estate. Dorothy Ruskin presents them with an old manuscript that she excavated in Palestine. It appears to be from Mary Magdalene and suggests she is one of Jesus’s apostles. The letter appears genuine but surely it couldn’t be. Could it?

Both Russell and Holmes are bored with their current lives and agree to look into the letter further. Then Dorothy Ruskin is murdered. Now the case suddenly achieves significant more importance. The game is afoot!

Although it is a bit of a stretch to imagine Sherlock Holmes married, these books work. I particularly enjoy the antiquated style Laurie King employs; it is so appropriate to the era. Besides, I love the archeological mysteries; Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody mysteries are still among my favorites.

This also has a clever mystery. Highly Recommended.

Maine

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Will Rees, and many of the mysteries, are based in Maine. It is still the home of the last remaining Shaker community with living Shakers. At the time of Will Rees, Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In 1820, Maine voted to secede from Massachusetts and in the Missouri Compromise of that year, Maine entered the Union as a free state while Missouri joined as a slave state.

It is theorized that the Vikings interacted with the Penobscot tribe in 1000. If confirmed, it would make Maine the earliest site in the entire U.S. with European contact. The first confirmed contact was in 1604 with French explorers, many of whom gave their names to locations especially on Mount Desert Island; e.g Samuel Champlain. Despite its large geographical area, it is the least populous state east of the Mississippi.

Sabbathday Lake was the smallest and poorest of all the Shaker communities. However, it is still in operation in Alfred, Maine, although with only a few Shakers remaining.

The rocky coast of Maine
The rocky coast of Maine

Currently Reading

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Wren Winters runs a gaming store – a store where lots of board games are sold. Just before a big event, Wren arrives at the store to discover the dead body of her landlord. He has been murdered and, of course, Wren and her assistant Charlie are primary suspects.

Wren and her crew – besides Charlie, there’s Esther the librarian and Jo the nurse, begin doing some sleuthing. The landlord, it turns out, is disliked all over his town. Then his estranged daughter shows up.

Vandalism on the store and the real possibility Wren will lose her space threaten her and her friends.

Lots of fun. As a former passionate D&D player, I remember what is what like playing involved board games. (I also remember when a local library was under the gun by a local group for ‘devil worship’ for holding the gaming sessions. Really.)

Very light but the mystery is cleverly planned. Recommended.

Traveling for a living

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Will Rees, the main character in my mystery The Long Shadow of Murder, is a traveling weaver, called factors. Like many professions then, weaving required an apprenticeship of about seven years. (This may explain the ‘Luddites”, many of them weavers who saw their professions disappearing.) About nine spinners were required to keep a weaver in business. And looms were big, heavy and expensive, hence the word heir-loom.

In colonial times, and stretching into the early USA, larger towns, like Williamsburg, had a resident professional weaver and cloth from overseas did come into the ports. Smaller towns might have a weaver who also farmed. The further away these towns were located, the less imported cloth the women had access to. In the beginning, this expensive cloth was expensive also although, as the Salem ships brought cloth from India, this cloth dropped in price. By 1802, when Long Shadow takes place, Rees is facing a huge drop in his business.

Besides the traveling weavers, other professions took to the roads. Some men made brooms. This was a craft the Shakers took on as well; they sold their wares which included brooms, whips, boxes and other items, from wagons. Tinkers, who not only sold pots and pans but mended them as well, were also a familiar sight.

In these agrarian times, the goal was to make enough money to buy a farm. Usually, once a man had a good farm, he settled, at least for most of the year. Although still a weaver, and a reluctant farmer, Rees has begun to focus more on the farm where he and Lydia and their children live.

Some of the accounts from the women married to such men speak poignantly of the loneliness and isolation, to say nothing of the struggles in keeping a farm going by themselves.

Currently Reading – and Mocha Lisa’s

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Had a great time at Mocha Lisa’s on Saturday evening with my fellow Mavens: Amy Patrica Meade, Frankie Bailey, Liz Irish, Chris Keefer, Jacqueline Boulden, and Shelley Jones. Great coffee, great pastries (just ask my husband) and a wonderful and engaged crowd. I also picked up some new books. Expect reviews.

This week I read The Last Wizard’s Ball, by Charlaine Harris. It is number six, and listed as the final volume in the series. I hope not since it ended on several cliffhangers.

Lizbeth Rose accompanies her sister Felicia to the Wizard’s ball in the Holy Russian Empire. The ball is similar to the Regency London season, a chance to see and be seen. Since Felicia is a powerful death wizard, and beautiful as well, she is much in demand. But, on one of their outings, someone fires an arrow which strikes Felix, another death wizard and Felicia’s mentor. Another attack occurs at a ball, and then another. At the same time, Lizbeth Rose experiences several odd conversations. What is going on?

War is brewing in Europe. It seems far away to Lizbeth but the Germans and Japanese are represented at these events, and they are desperate to add Felicia to their stable of wizards. Lizbeth realizes her husband and her sister are keeping secrets from her, serious, earth changing secrets. Then Felicia, who is only sixteen, does something so reckless, so dangerous, and so earth shattering, it changes everything.

Highly recommended.