Wicked Wednesday: I Know What You Bid Last Summer

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News Flash – Marla B wins Leslie Karst’s new book! Leslie will be contacting you, Marla.

It’s another Happy Book Release Wicked Wednesday! We’re so happy Sherry’s fifth Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery came out yesterday. Here’s the blurb for I Know What You Bid Last Summer:

When it comes to running a successful garage sale, Sarah Winston believes in doing her homework. She also believes in giving back. But when she agrees to manage an athletic equipment swap, she doesn’t bargain on an uncharitable killer. The day of the event, the school superintendent is found dead in the gymnasium. Suddenly the murder suspects are the school board members—including the husband of a very difficult client who’s hired Sarah to run a high-end sale and demands she do her bidding. In between tagging and haggling, Sarah studies the clues to see who wanted to teach the superintendent a lesson. But as she closes in on the truth, the killer intends to give her a crash course on minding her own business . . .

In I Know What You Bid Last Summer, Sarah’s sleuthing takes her to a bowling alley. The bowling alley has candlepin lanes along with the more common ten pin bowling. And much to Sarah’s dismay, it is also Cosmic bowling night with strobe lights, loud music, and a disco ball. Wickeds, have you ever bowled? Candlepin? Ten pin? Or, gulp, Cosmic?

Edith: I have bowled a few times. Big balls in California in high school, candlepin up here on the North Shore. I am NOT good at ball sports. Too much enthusiasm, too little aim and control. So we won’t talk scores, not that I remember them. And these days the lights and sound of Cosmic anything? No thank you! That said, I can’t wait to read about Sarah’s next adventure.

Barb: Congratulations, Sherry! I can’t wait to read I Know What You Bid Last Summer. I have bowled when the opportunity presented, or more accurately when it couldn’t be avoided. I don’t know why I’m reluctant. I’ve enjoyed it whenever I’ve done it. There was a bowling alley with both ten pin and candle pins one town over from us when my kids were growing up. Lots of fun birthday parties for their friends there. Happy memories.

Jessie: Congratulations, Sherry on another release! I am not really an enthusiastic  bowler. Maybe it is because the shoes don’t have heels… I have done it as a kid for birthday parties and that sort of thing. When my own children were small we went on occasion. One of my kids bowled a great game once when he was very small by tossing the ball down the lane with glee and landing on his backside each turn. It was a delight to watch!

Julie: Huge congratulations Sherry! I can’t wait to read the book! I have bowled. I am not good at the big balls, but I used to be pretty good at candlepin. I really enjoy the social aspects of bowling, and have a few friends on leagues. If I had the time, I might be tempted. And yes, I’ve bowled in neon alleys, and with rock and roll. Is that cosmic?

Sherry: Thanks everyone! I have never been candlepin bowling. The first time I went bowling when I was about ten I dropped the ball, it rolled down the middle, and I got my first strike! I did a bowling league one year with the Spouses Club and my team took first place. I practiced a lot so I didn’t let down the general’s wife who was an ace bowler!

Readers: Bowling experiences? Thumbs up or down on the sport?

Published by Edith Maxwell

Agatha Award -winning author Edith Maxwell writes the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries (Beyond the Page) and short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Dot and Amelia Mysteries, the Country Store Mysteries series, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, and the Cece Barton Mysteries (all from Kensington Publishing). She lives north of Boston in an antique house with her beau and cat Martin, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook.

45 Thoughts

  1. Never heard of candlepin – but I used to bowl on a league. All the pre-teens in our town bowled so we learned early. I grew up in a small town. The bowling alley was close enough to walk and the only place kids could mix, mingle, meet, drool over older boys without parental supervision.

  2. I tried it (unsuccessfully) back in college. Eastern Shore of Maryland had tenpin and duckpin; I only did tenpin. Our bowling lanes shut down a couple years ago.

  3. I don’t Bowl very often but enjoy it when I do. I’m not very good. I have also done cosmic bowling with my cousin and her family (they used to bowl in leagues). Before I retired, I worked for the City government where I live. Every year the City participated in Bowling For Kid’s Sake, a fundraiser for the local Big Brothers, Big Sisters organization. I always bowled on my department’s team. None of us were very good but we had a blast.

  4. I bowled on a league for about 3-4 yrs but that was many years ago, though I still have my ball and shoes. I never achieved the much coveted 200 game. Closest I came was 198!

  5. I was in a candlepin league in grade school, high school, and work. Sadly candlepin bowling seems to be dying out – the lanes that I bowled at for many years recently sold and will be turned into housing.

  6. I bowled (tenpin) for a couple of years in high school–a bunch of us girls got together Friday afternoons after school. We weren’t competitive, but we had fun (the fact there was a nice bakery next door to the bowling alley helped). I think my high scores were around 150. Oddly enough, the next time I went bowling about 30 years later I bowled close to the same score. Never tried candlepin.

  8. Not a bowling fan, but the place my husband and I used to hang out when we were dating (a Dave and Buster’s type place) had a smaller bowling game that was fun. I don’t know what they called it, but I’m guessing it’s the same as candlepin bowling. Ball fit in the palm of your hand. Pins were smaller and plastic-y. It was an arcade game so it never worked right, but it was still fun.

  10. Large ball. Didn’t like it. Embarrassed myself by dropping the ball behind me!

  11. My father was an avid bowler well into his 90’s. He was on two different senior leagues. In the summer, those would become “open partner leagues” – not limited to seniors & bowling in pairs, rather than teams of four. I was dad’s driver at that point, so everyone at the alley knew me. Of course, the league president pointed out just how much it would mean to dad if I were his summer partner.
    Yeah.
    I was gifted an almost new pair of shoes (probably those of a recently deceased bowler – I didn’t ask.) and we were a team. It was a handicap league, so I wasn’t a total liability – just so I was consistently bad. (Not a problem.)
    I wasn’t the WORST bowler that summer. I came in 3rd from the bottom. Yes, I was the youngest by a couple decades and yes, the number 1 spot went to a woman in her late 80’s who was mostly blind and the runner up literally used a walker when he bowled, but I was NOT the worst.
    And it made my dad SO happy for me to be there.
    I learned that it is an act of love and courage to show up, week after week, for something at which I failed so completely.

  12. I’ve never bowled in my life…. 🙂

    For those who don’t know, I was on some leagues through work for about a year. I even broke down and bought my own shoes and ball. I had a lot of fun and made some friends with co-workers who are at a different location, so I never would have met them otherwise. I average about a 130, but as the year went on, it seemed like my scores got more erratic. I would bowl a 160 one game and a 95 the next. Yes, I started getting below 100! Now that my work has been sold, I’m really missing bowling.

    I’d never heard of candlepin bowling. Just 10 pin here.

    1. When I was in the bowling league my husband bought me a ball and shoes. That was in 1995 and I still have them! Bowling is fun but I too was very erratic. Being on the team with the general’s wife was a lot of pressure. The person who talked me into joining said it was a very low key, relaxed group. Wrong! I hope you find another league!

  13. We only had candlepin until I was middle-aged…I was on a league for work and had fun, but scored very low! When I had a chance to do the big balls I scored well because they were so heavy that I could not turn my wrist and send the big ones down the gutter as I had done with the little ones. I didn’t think the duck pins were as popular as the others, but maybe they are regional as are candlepins!

  14. Only bowled 10-pin and not often. Went a few times as a teenager, then again about 40 years later. I think the scores were about the same – dismal. But it was fun. Heard of candlepins when I lived in Boston. Popular TV show was Candlepins for Cash.

  15. Leslie did indeed contact me about winning her book. Thanks so much! And I haven’t bowled in years. I’m terrible at it.

  16. Congrats, Sherry! A great read.

    As to bowling, my total bowling score was once 0. That’s right, ten gutterballs in a row. However, the last time I bowled, I accidentally got a strike. My boss at the time, Butch Hartman (he created Fairly Odd Parents) thought it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen because the ball just kind of wandered down the lane and then suddenly picked up speed!

  19. Bowling…great fun except for those of us who have had the ball fly off their fingers and barely miss someone waiting their turn in the next lane. Or part of a group who want to win! Another armchair pursuit! 😄 would still love to read your book, though!

  20. Happy New Release, Sherry!
    I’ve only been bowling a few times. It was fun, even tho I wasn’t very good at it.

  21. I used to enjoy bowling but never bowled in a league. My Mom started bowling at the age of 65 after my father’s sudden death. She started out in a senior citizens league then started bowling with a much younger group as well. She ended up going to a state tournament with a team that included some of my high school classmates. I was so glad she found an activity that was something she had never done with my Dad. She loved it and her teammates loved her.

  22. Chiming in late to say Happy Pub Day, Sherry! I always enjoyed bowling even though I was terrible at it, but I could never get anyone to go with me. Maybe I was even worse than I thought!

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