It’s a Horizontal Life

by Posted on

by Barb Ross, who wishes she were out in the sunshine enjoying New England’s first sustained visit from spring.

But first, a word from our sponsor.

Randomly selected winners from their comments on Our Second Anniversary Blog post are: Ruth Nixon, Tiger Wiseman, Sandy Bartles, Jane Werthmann, Mary Feliz, and Nancy Roessner. Please contact Edith at edithmaxwellauthor at gmail dot com if you haven’t already heard from her. We need your mailing address. And congratulations!

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

musseledIt’s been wonderful celebrating the release of Musseled Out this week with my Wicked sistahs. It’s been especially wonderful, because I’ve been doing it from my bed. Right before Malice Domestic, I did something excruciating to my knee. I’ve been mostly in bed with my leg up, with occasional breaks on the couch, with my leg up, ever since.

“How terrible. And you’re launching your book this week,” my friend Lucy Burdette said.

“Barb can launch a book from a horizontal position,” my friend Kate Flora reassured her.

After an extended pity party while everyone was a Malice, I realized Kate was right.

Barbara Cartland writing
Barbara Cartland writing

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve visited Dru Ann’s Book Musings in the persona of my character Chris Durand. I’ve had a lovely chat with E. B. Davis over at Writers Who Kill. I had another conversation, this one over Skype, with Stephen Campbell at CrimeFiction.FM. And I shared a recipe for mussels at Mystery Lovers Kitchen and recipes for shrimp and lobster polenta and hot lobster dip on Kensington’s site.

Edith Wharton writing in bed. Note: This is a recreation. Though EW did write in bed, it's hard to imagine her allowing herself to be photographed there.
Edith Wharton writing in bed.
Note: This is a recreation. Though EW did write in bed, it’s hard to imagine her allowing herself to be photographed there.

Lots of people have weighed in with their reactions to Musseled Out, including Sandra Martin at RT Book Reviews, Katrina Niidas Holm at Crimespree Magazine, Dru Ann Love at Dru’s Book Musings, Mark Baker at Carstairs Considers, Beth Kannell at Kingdom Books and many others, (For a more complete listing, click here.)

Mystery writers who were first published in the era before mine often wax nostalgic for the days when authors were sent out on tours and there were many, many independent mystery bookstores to visit. I get caught up in that, too, because I still miss Kate’s Mystery Books just down the street from me. But now all I can say is, “Thank goodness things have changed.” I never could have gone on tour.

Mark Twain writing in bed
Mark Twain writing in bed

Do you think we’ll ever sit around reminiscing about the “good old days,” you know, when we used to launch a book using ezines, blogs, podcasts, e-mail newsletters and social media? The youngsters will probably roll their eyes and sigh at our old-fashioned notions.

Published by Barbara Ross

Barbara Ross is the author of twelve Maine Clambake Mystery novels and six novellas. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Portland, Maine. Readers can visit her website at www.maineclambakemysteries.com

24 Thoughts

  1. I love all those pictures of authors writing in bed, Barb. And wish you all the best with your knee, as someone who has definitely been there. Musseled Out is next up on my TBR stack.

  2. I’m going back to bed! I wonder what will be next — hologram versions of us visiting book groups? I wonder if they can make me more svelte? All I know is I’d read Musseled Out standing on my head if that’s what it took. It’s a terrific book and even though I read an earlier versions, I’m now reading it again — in bed.

  3. It’s funny, because Katherine Hall Page is on Jungle Red today waxing nostalgic about the old days of book tours (and the slower pace of life). I just read and commented there, and now I’m here. Of course, since my favorite mystery bookstores have closed, I miss them tremendously.

    However, I never could have been part of a real life launch celebration for your book from the other side of the country, so there are advantages, too.

    Hope your knee is doing much better soon.

  4. Much sympathy on the knee issues, Barb, but now I have an image of you stuck in my head: you’re dressed all in pink, with ruffles, dictating your book to a bevy of secretaries while cuddling a furry blob I can only assume is a dog (although any of my cats could take it down, even the one who has no claws). Cartland’s output was tremendous, but the rest of it makes me shudder. Here’s to a rapid recovery and getting back to writing without one leg propped up (been there; done that; no fun at all!)

    Kathy/Kaitlyn

  5. Love your post and pics! And you were missed at Malice, although I was one of those who (surreptiously) made sure copies of your books were front and center at the book sellers.) Musseled out is on my Kindle — next up on my mailing list! Hmmm… maybe I’ll read in bed …

  7. I’m excited to have won a book. Thanks so much. I Edith did IM me and I gave her my address.
    So sorry about your knee and the pain you must be having.

  8. Barb, I can’t tell you how much we missed you this past weekend. I imagine in the future authors will do tours as holograms. That would be interesting! Though this writing and interviewing from the boudoir sounds very glamorous, we need you to recover quickly. You only get one excused conference a year!

    1. I missed you, too, Kim! As bad as it was not seeing my New Engand friends, it was worse not seeing friends from other places whom I see much less often.

  9. Your post made me laugh out loud. I saw the first picture and thought, “My Barb has a fancy house.” It was only when I read the caption did I realize it was a picture of Barbara Cartland in her living room. Well if writing on the sofa or in bed was good enough for Barbara Cartland and Edith Wharton, it certainly is good enough for the rest of us.

    Hope your knee is feeling much better. But in the meantime, take it easy and let others wait on you.

    1. Grace, if my house was that fancy, I fear I’d spend all my time wandering from room to room and not writing a word!

  10. Missed seeing you at Malice to tell you how much I have been enjoying the Clambake series. Sorry to hear you were not moving around at your usual breakneck speed, but one would never have known from the blogs and good reviews out there. Feel better soon.

Comments are closed.