Dispatch from the Northeast Kingdom, 2

Edda, our Icelandic sheepdog, and I took our usual noon walk the other day. As we came down into the sugar bush and turned toward home, the woods grew dark and it started to rain. I found a big maple with a thick limb sticking out horizontally about seven feet up and ducked in under it. 

It was quite pleasant, standing with my back against the tree’s rough bark, the dog sensibly curled up at my feet. I smelled the rain and the moldering leaves on the forest floor, watched yellow and orange leaves side-slipping down, and listened to the bright chattering of raindrops striking the leaves all around. It seems that every time we go out in nature, something wonderful is given to us. 

On a recent ramble I took this photo from the top of our hayfield looking east toward Burke Mountain:

Now for some book-related news. 

Lay This Body Down, the third Gideon Stoltz mystery, is in production. My editor at Skyhorse/Arcade made many excellent suggestions regarding the manuscript. One was to begin each chapter with a short quotation from an actual newspaper advertisement describing a person who fled from enslavement in the early 1800s. The announcements record real human beings who desperately and bravely sought their freedom. Fugitives from slavery play a key role in the novel, due out in February 2023.

Next, a freelance copy editor went over the manuscript. A writer generally has the option of accepting a copy editor’s alterations, or writing STET, which means “Leave it as is.” I didn’t stet many of the copy editor’s changes. For instance, I had described one character as a “confirmed bachelor.” The copy editor wrote: “Confirmed bachelor is anachronistic; Victorian era. And has always carried the connotation of the bachelor being gay.” Well, the character in question is not gay, and I certainly don’t want a mid- to late-1800s usage in a mystery set in 1837. Anonymous copy editor, thank you.

I should get page proofs soon, at which point I’ll proofread the text. On the publisher’s end, another person will do the same. All these editorial tasks used to be done on paper, with hefty manuscripts mailed back and forth in boxes. Now they’re carried out using an electronic word processor’s “Review” function, with modified manuscripts emailed instantly.

I’m married to a terrific writer (and editor), Nancy Marie Brown. She has helped me plot my mysteries and develop the characters in the Gideon Stoltz series.

Nancy has a new book out, Looking for the Hidden Folk: How Iceland’s Elves Can Save the Earth. It’s nonfiction, a memoir of her many trips to Iceland (33 so far!) and an exploration of Icelanders’ relationship to the natural world as embodied in their folklore and reputed belief in elves. Nancy describes her book like this: “I look for answers to Iceland’s ‘elf question’ in history, science, religion, and art, from ancient times to today. I find that each discipline defines and redefines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing (or not) the world around us. And each admits to its own sort of ‘elf.’” (You can LEARN MORE HERE.)

We look and listen for elves when we walk in our woods, in all seasons and weathers, in rain or shine.