Wicked Wednesday – the final one of August and our full moon theme – and we’re also celebrating Julie’s latest Garden Squad Mystery, Digging Up the Remains, which takes place near Halloween – yay Julie!
This year Halloween falls on a Blue Moon. What is a once in a blue moon event that you had in your life?
Julie: Thank you Liz! I’m so excited about Digging Up the Remains being released this week, in addition to the paperback edition of Haunted House Murder, with Barbara Ross’s Halloween novella and the paperback release of Edith Maxwell’s Murder on the Bluffs. I was reminded of a once in a blue moon event last week when I saw the trailer for the new Death on the Nile movie. Ten years ago I was part of a group that went to Egypt. It was a dream trip for me. I spent three days on a riverboat floating down the Nile. Yes, it was that fabulous. And yes, we saw the ship they used in the 1978 movie. A once on a blue moon adventure that I hope to repeat at some point in my life.
Edith/Maddie: So excited for you, Julie! Thanks for the shoutout. When I read “blue moon” I can’t help hearing Nanci Griffith singing, “Just Once in a Very Blue Moon,” a long-time favorite song. My once-in-a -lifetime blue moon event has to be when I completed the Boston Marathon in 1998. I trained hard just to finish (running with a charity number not as a qualifier), and it’s a personal accomplishment I can hang onto, especially since I know I’ll never do it again.
Jessie: Super congratulations, Julie on the new release! I know this series is so close to your heart! One blue moon event that sticks out for me was a weekend in October ten years ago on the coast of Maine. It was unseasonably warm all summer and the weekend ended up in the high nineties and sunny. My family spent the weekend at the beach swimming in the ocean and lolling on the sand. It has never been warm enough to do that comfortably in October since but I am looking forward to the next time!
Barb: Congratulations, Julie! I am so excited about Digging Up the Remains. I love Lilly Jayne and company. One blue moon event I remember vividly is this one. In 1988 we took our kids to DisneyWorld. We’d had a crazy and not all together pleasant year. We were all exhausted. One day, toward the end of the trip, we drove into the park and put our car in the parking structure. As we climbed down the stairs, I happened to look out and saw the Space Shuttle Atlantis taking off from its launch pad. We hadn’t planned it. Neither had NASA. The launch had been delayed from the previous day. It was just the right time, right place.
Sherry: Julie, I’m so thrilled for you. Dreams do come true. I’ve mentioned it before, but need to talk about it again as we celebrate Digging up the Remains. At the Malice Domestic banquet in 2005, Julie and I were seated randomly at the same table. I was moving to the Boston area that summer and didn’t know a soul. Julie, being Julie gave me her contact information, told me I needed to join the New England Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and attend Crime Bake. That chance meeting had a ripple effect on my life: becoming friends with Julie, meeting the other Wickeds over the next couple of years, getting a publishing contract, becoming president of Sisters in Crime — all through a chance meeting. Love you, Julie. You’ve made my life better in so many ways. I’m so happy to celebrate you today.
Liz: So happy for you Julie! And I have to echo Sherry – meeting you guys through Sisters in Crime has been a series of awesome “blue moon” events, and my life is way better for it. It makes me happy to be able to celebrate awesome events like this!
Readers: What is your once in a blue moon life event?
Between hosting a haunted house on her lawn, serving on the town’s 400th Anniversary Planning Committee, and prepping for the Fall Festival’s 10k fundraiser, Lilly’s hands are full. She doesn’t have time for prickly newspaper reporter Tyler Crane, who’s been creeping around town, looking for dirt on Goosebush’s most notable families . . . until he’s found dead on the race route moments before the start.
An unfortunate accident? Or did Tyler unearth a secret that someone in Goosebush is willing to kill to keep? By planting nasty rumors and cultivating fear, Tyler sowed a fair share of ill will during his brief time in town. Weeding through the suspects will be thorny, but Lilly and her Garden Squad are determined to root out the autumnal assassin before the Fall Festival flops . . .
