Jessie: In New Hampshire, working on the next draft of my sixth Beryl and Edwina novel!
This month our topic is anticipation. We’ve all been anticipating life allowing for travel, visits and group gatherings of all sorts. What are you eagerly anticipating? If the events of the past year had occurred in your fictional words what would your sleuths be most eager to see arriving?
Edith/Maddie: I will reach two weeks post-second-vaccine on Friday, and I can’t wait to gather maskless with a few also-vaccinated dear friends, and with my kids once they are eligible. And get a real haircut! I know Robbie Jordan would be eager to fill her country store restaurant to full capacity again, and Mac Almeida to allow more than three customers at a time into her bike shop. Rose Carroll would have been attending births all along, but would be happy to ditch the cotton mask that kept her and her laboring mothers safe.
Sherry: As soon as I hit my two weeks after my second shot, I’m flying to Florida to see my mom. I confess I’m a little anxious about traveling after not being on a plane for over 14 months. But I can’t wait to give my mom a hug. Fortunately, my fictional world doesn’t have a global pandemic so my protagonists, Sarah Winston and Chloe Jackson, live in a blissful world — well except for the murders that occur.
Jessie: I am anticipating a visit from my mum in late June! I haven’t seen her since the beginning of February 2020. And I am holding out hope that a trip to the UK in the autumn might be possible! My sleuths have lived through an influenza epidemic in the early 1900s and are anticipating greater roles in the public an professional sphere for women on both sides of the pond!
Barb: My granddaughter is here with us in Maine now, where we’re supervising remote school. (I always have anxious moments until she’s safely signed on in the morning.) Next week we’re in Massachusetts with my daughter and her family. My son and his wife will travel from Virginia, the first time we’ve all been together since June of 2020 and only the second time our three granddaughters have been together. So much anticipation! There was no pandemic in Busman’s Harbor, but if there had been, Julia would now be happily planning for a tourist season without last year’s 25% capacity restriction for their tour boat and clambakes. I have no doubt Jane Darrowfield has risen to the occasion and helped many friends and neighbors find appointments for their shots.
Readers, what are you anticipating the most over the next weeks and months?