THE BIRTH OF A NEW SERIES by Lea Wait
I’ll admit:
my favorite parts of the writing process are research and editing.
Writing that first draft? That’s my version of walking through water deep
enough so it’s hard to keep your head above the waves.
So when I started thinking about writing a new
series I first thought about what I’d like to learn about. The bigger excuse to do research, the
better!
I thought about writing an historical series. I even
picked a time and place. (I won’t share more, since I still may write that
series!) But my first mystery series (the Shadows Antique Print series) had a
background of antique prints, so I decided to explore another area of antiques
or art in my new series.
I thought of many possibilities. Antiquarian books
had been done. China and glass didn’t fascinate me. Some antiques were
wonderful, but I didn’t think I could sustain interest in them for a whole
series. I kept thinking, as I walked through antique shows and attended
auctions. And then, at a show in Vermont, I saw an entire booth full of
samplers.
I’ve always loved old stitching: I grew up with samplers on the walls of my
home, and as a child I saw them at the antique shows I attended with my
grandmother, whose expertise was in old dolls and toys, but who also loved the
“womanly arts” of embroidery, tatting, knitting, and needlepoint. She tried to
teach those skills to me, but, sadly, my skills were with words, not needles.
(I can knit pretty well, but that’s the end of my needle craft skills.)
In past generations, women were expected to know how
to sew. Embroidery was an embellishment; a way to demonstrate high levels of those
skills, as well as a woman’s artistic creativity. Needlepoint decorated clothing
and homes. (In Elizabethan times wealthy families often retained men or women
whose only job was to embellish wall coverings, bed hangings, gowns and vests.)
I knew those things. But I didn’t know much else
about needle crafts. If I wrote a series with a background of needlepoint, I’d
have a great excuse to learn more. A visit with the head of the Textile
Division of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston convinced me: I’d found the
background for my series.
And, since I was still learning about needlepoint, I
decided my protagonist, Angie Curtis, would also be learning.
So Angie’s grandmother, an expert needlepointer, has
a small Maine business with several employees who do custom needlework for
designers and high end shops. One of the needlepointers is also an antique
dealer, and she suggests they also identify and restore antique needlework.
The Mainely Needlepoint series was born.
In TWISTED THREADS, the first book in the series,
Angie Curtis is called back to Haven Harbor, Maine, where she grew up … and
where her mother disappeared fifteen years ago. Now her mother’s body has been
found and Angie, who’s been working for a private investigator in Arizona, is
determined to find her mother’s killer. To do that she has to face her own
past, and get involved with her grandmother’s needlepoint business.
And I’m sharing the results of my research not only
with Angie and the others in Haven Harbor, but with my readers. At the
beginning of each chapter I’m including a quotation about needlework, or words
from an early sampler. A glimpse of the past, although the mystery is today. In
some books Angie will even find clues to the killer in needlework.
Am I having fun?
Absolutely. And I’m learning a lot along the way. I hope my readers will enjoy the result.
In addition to the Mainely Needlepoint series, Lea
Wait is the author of the seven-book Shadows Antique Print mystery series, and
has written five historical novels for young people. She herself is a fourth
generation antique dealer, and lives on the coast of Maine with her artist
husband, Bob Thomas, and their black cat, Shadow. To learn more about Lea and
her books, see her website, www.leawait.com.
She also welcomes readers to friend her on Facebook and Goodreads. The second
in the Mainely Needlepoint series, THREADS OF EVIDENCE, will be published in
August, 2015, and is now available for pre-order at bookstores and on-line.
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Marja McGraw