What if it Never Happens? Jeannette de Beauvoir

That’s a question I’ve been asking myself lately. My current mystery series is set in a real place—Provincetown, Massachusetts—and features real events, the myriad festivals and “theme weeks” offered by this tourist destination. But like so much else in our world, that got upended when the coronavirus pandemic came to town. With the horrifying thought of thousands of people crowded into Commercial Street (our Main Street equivalent) for events such as the Carnival or Portuguese Festival parades, or into theaters for events like the Tennessee Williams Festival or the International Film Festival, one by one event organizers have wisely cancelled plans.

Which leaves my protagonist in a bit of a pickle.

The series is scheduled around these events, so that launch parties for each title take place at the same time as the event in town. Last week I changed the wording of an advertisement I’d planned for a local publication: “Explore Provincetown’s theme weeks!” it had exclaimed. That seemed rather like rubbing salt on the wound, since so many people are feeling bereft at losing so many cherished experiences this summer.

I’ve really been enjoying writing this series so far (we’re on the sixth book) and I’ve especially enjoyed the connections to a real place, real people, and real events. My reading preference is for mysteries set in actual places, so that by the time I visit Glasgow, or Moscow, or Abergavenny, I have a mental familiarity with it; so it’s logical I’d place my own stories in real places. And I’ve heard from readers who visit Provincetown that they love seeing where Sydney lives, or where she goes out for dinner, or which galleries she likes.

The books are “evergreen” in the sense they’re not anchored to a given year, so that A Killer Carnival, for example, which came out last August, could just as well be re-introduced and read this August, when Carnival parade happens again… well, okay, not this particular August! Last winter when I was writing The Matinée Murders (with as backdrop the Provincetown International Film Festival) I had no idea there wouldn’t be a film festival this year. So the book is being launched differently than usual, but it’s still launching. My publisher argued that in a sense reading about the event will help with a little of the heartache of not having the event. And indeed, when I rephrased the ad I spoke of earlier, I changed it to, “You can still experience Ptown’s theme weeks in fiction… until you can enjoy them in person again!”

I didn’t know about the pandemic when I wrote the book being launched today, but I know about it now as I finish up the novel slated for October. So what does one do? Have Sydney investigate a murder that occurred because Women’s Week was cancelled? Give her the option of wearing a mask when she interrogates suspects? Make sure she’s socially distanced from the killer?

They say there’s going to be a “new normal,” that we’re never going back to the way it was before. Perhaps a year from now we’ll find plot twists that deal with poisoned masks, toilet-paper hoarders, and hand-washing rituals; but I’m not ready for that. Not yet. At the beginning of the pandemic it was all I could write about—nothing else, no other ideas could find any space in my head. But after that first wave, I had to stop; I realized that I had no idea how to express any of what I was feeling. The words weren’t there. I think perhaps when something this enormous, this terrible happens, we need time and space away from it before we can write anything more meaningful than angry screeds. So—no, my protagonist isn’t dealing with the pandemic.

Which brings me back full-circle, because what she is dealing with is an event that never happened—film festival 2020. I think of it as a corollary to the question of whether a tree falling in a forest makes a sound if there’s no one to hear it—if someone gets killed t a festival that never happened, are they still dead?

I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

Jeannette de Beauvoir

Bio:

 Jeannette de Beauvoir didn’t set out to murder anyone—some things are just meant to be! Her mother introduced her to the Golden Age of mystery fiction when she was far too young to be reading it, and she’s kept reading those authors and many like them ever since.

She wrote historical and literary fiction and poetry for years before someone asked her what she read—and she realized mystery was where her heart was. Now working on the Sydney Riley Provincetown mystery series, she bumps off a resident or visitor to her hometown on a regular basis.

Jeannette is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Author’s Guild, and the National Writers Union. Find out more (and read her blog or sign up for her newsletter) at her website. You can also find her on Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, Patreon, and Goodreads.