Release Day for Charity!

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Edith here, so excited because it’s finally release day for Charity’s Burden!

In the publishing world, it can take a long, long time between when an author sends in a completed manuscript and when it appears on the shelves, either brick and mortar or virtual. I submitted this book in December of 2017, so I’m delighted to actually put my hands on the real thing.

Charity’s Burden treats the topic of birth control, which was hugely controversial at the time. Midwife Rose Carroll’s clients come to her with pregnancies, but they also seek her help when they don’t want to have another baby – whether before or after they have conceived yet again. The highly restrictive Comstock Laws were passed in the 1870s, which made even speaking about preventing pregnancy a crime. Herbalists and others turned to evasive wording in the advertisements for their products, calling them products to regularize women’s cycles and improve their health. Certain practitioners also offered abortions, which of course were life-threatening at the time. I wanted to explore these issues – in the context of a murder mystery, of course.

Here’s the cover copy: The winter of 1889 is harsh in Amesbury, Massachusetts, but it doesn’t stop Quaker midwife Rose Carroll from making her rounds of her pregnant and postpartum mothers. But when Charity Skells dies from an apparent early miscarriage, Rose wonders about the copious amount of blood. She learns that Charity’s husband appears to be up to no good with a young woman. The woman’s mother, who goes by the mysterious name of Madame Restante, appears to offer illegal abortions and herbal birth control. A disgraced physician in town does the same. Charity’s cousin mistakenly thinks he will take control of his father’s estate. Rose once again works with police detective Kevin Donovan to solve the case before another life is taken.

I hope you love the story! I’m thrilled to be sharing a release date with Wicked Julie, too, and a launch party in Newburyport on Friday.

Readers: What’s the best launch party you’ve ever attended, whether in person or on Facebook?

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.

20 Thoughts

  2. Congratulations, Edith!

    Best launch party? I’d have to go with Annette Dashofy’s launch for NO WAY HOME. Since a lot of it is set in New Mexico, she had themed food. Of course, could be I liked it just because I love Tex-Mex food. 🙂

  6. Congratulations on the release of ” Charity’s Burden”! Can’t wait to read more about Rose.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

  7. Congratulations, Edith!!! I was very pleased when Charity’s Burden showed up on my Kindle just after 9 PM (I get it three hours early because I’m on the West Coast, and my Kindle evidently hasn’t yet figured that out. SO NOBODY TELL IT! OK? Good, we’ll keep it just between ourselves.

    The best launch party I ever attended (OK, the ONLY launch party I ever attended) was for Catronia McPherson’s Go to My Grave. And it was really fabulous.

    First, it was terrific because Catronia can be incredibly funny. As it happens, this book (a stand-alone, not part of her Dandy Gilver series) is anything but funny. It’s deadly serious, even grim at times. But in telling us about the story, and how the book came about, Catronia was at her hysterical best. (Although I must say that, from my point of view, it really didn’t help that she introduced me to people all evening as “The man who was responsible for me coming home from Malice with bruises all over my face.” She made it seem like I’d sucker punched her in a moment when she’d let her guard down, which most certainly was not the case.)

    The book had actually been inspired by a photograph she’d seen in a home where she was a houseguest, and she’d brought a copy of the photo along with her. Of course I bought a copy of the book (and since the launch party was just before Christmas) three additional copies as gifts. And as I started reading the book that night, the origin story and the image of the photo were resonating in my head, which really enriched my enjoyment of the book.

    So, any time any of you have the luck to be invited to a launch party, especially for an author you love, you should absolutely go. The only downside for me is that, for every other book of Catronia’s that I’ve already read (plus a few of her stand-alones that are still on my “To-Read” list, I have a twinge of sadness that I haven’t heard all of the origin backstory which would so enrich my enjoyment.

    Again, fulsome congratulations, Edith. I can’t wait to read Charity’s Burden!

  10. It’s too hard to choose one favorite. Elaine Viets’ events are often arranged as fund-raising events for worthy causes, which I like. Susan McBride’s family made baked goods for one launch — tasty and loving participation!
    Most memorable for me was when Elaine was unable to tour and writer-friends stood in for her at events, because that’s what friends do. <3

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