News Flash: Jarjm is Leslie’s lucky winner. Congratulations, and please check your email!
Edith here, writing from north of Boston where spring bulbs are bursting out and birds are busy building nests.
Spring is also a great to welcome back Leslie Karst, whom I was delighted to spend time with at Left Coast Crime in Denver a couple of weeks ago. She has a fun bit in her new Waters of Destruction that she took from real life!
But first the cover copy: After a vacation of a lifetime in Hilo, Hawai‘i, retired caterer Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen have decided to move permanently to the beautiful – if storm-prone – Big Island. The couple are having fun furnishing their new house, exploring their new neighborhood and playing with their new little dog, Pua. But while they’ve made good friends with local restaurant manager Sachiko and her partner Isaac, they can’t help but feel a little lonely. So when Sachiko begs Val to fill in for a member of her bar team who’s gone AWOL, Val dusts off her cocktail shaker and happily agrees. It’s a great chance to meet more people – and learn the local gossip.
Such as about Hank, the missing bartender, who vanished after a team-building retreat at a local beauty spot a week ago, and hasn’t been seen since. Until, that is, his body turns up at the bottom of the waterfall, and the police seem very interested in where Sachiko was at the time of his death. Sachiko couldn’t have killed him . . . could she? Val dives into the murky waters of the case, determined to find out.
Book two in my Orchid Isle mystery series, Waters of Destruction—which released Tuesday—opens with my protagonists, Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen, at a garage sale in Hilo, Hawai‘i. The two have just moved to the Big Island from Los Angeles and are looking to furnish their new 1930s-era plantation style home.
The problem is, there’s a guy who’s been beating them to every house they’ve visited so far that morning, and he’s buying up all the items they would’ve snagged had they gotten there first: colorful Pyrex bowls, a cast iron skillet, vintage Japanese plates, even a copy of The Joy of Cooking.
Some of Robin’s and Leslie’s early garage sale finds in Hilo
This was a fun scene for me to write, since it’s based on what actually happened to my wife Robin and I when we moved to Hilo and bought a house here some eighteen years ago. We arrived on-island with suitcases full of clothes and other essentials, but the house was almost completely bare. The previous tenants had left a few things at our request: a set of plain white plates and dishes, some towels, an old leather couch, and a couple of plastic waste baskets (which we turned upside-down and used for tiny tables).
Dinner in our their home
So we needed furnishings and kitchenware pronto.
Luckily, the garage sale culture in Hilo is strong. We’d buy the Friday newspaper, peruse the classifieds to check out the addresses of the garage sales the next morning, and then map out the most efficient route to hit them all without not too much back-tracking.
And then we’d get up early on Saturday morning. And I mean early. Folks in Hilo do not sleep in. Most garage sales started at six am—though sometimes even at five—and the classified ads would invariably say “no early birders,” as otherwise they’d have people waiting at their doors at four am.
Scoring a real bed and mattress quickly
Because of the early hour, many homes would offer coffee and food for sale as well as typical garage sale items. So we’d treat ourselves to butter mochi, hot malasadas (a sort of Portuguese donut), and Spam musubi while picking through boxes of kitchen utensils and checking out dressers and end tables.
But there was a problem. This one guy seemed always to get to the houses before us, and he had the exact same taste as did we: mid-century kitchenware, Japanese carved wood furniture, silk aloha shirts, and framed artwork depicting scenes from old Hawai‘i.
We bought out almost all the furnishings of a guy who was moving to the Mainland, and he even helped us move!
So we decided to skip the next house on our route and next go to the one after that. Which worked. For that week. But then, there he was again the following Saturday, already at the first house we’d arrived at. (We later realized he had a stall at a local farmers market/flea market down in Puna and eventually befriended the guy.)
Garage sale-ing—or more accurately, lānai sale-ing—was a terrific introduction to Hilo for us. For not only did we end up with a collection of lovely furnishings for our new home, but by mapping our those routes and then driving through so many different neighborhoods, we quickly acquired a familiarity with the town.
A special find: our monkey bar and Martini glasses!
But most of all, it gave us a glimpse into the local culture that was invaluable to malihinis (newcomers) such as us, as it allowed us to visit the homes of families from all different walks of life: Hawaiian, Filipino, Portuguese, Japanese-Hawaiian, Chinese, haole (foreigners of European descent), and those simply referred to as “locals”—a mishmash of all the above.
I still remember those garage sale-ing days fondly. Though not the getting up at five am….
Readers: Do you like to go to garage sales? What are some of the best finds you’ve made at them? Comment below (with your email address) for a chance to win a copy of the first Orchid Isle mystery, Molten Death! (US residents only)
Leslie Karst is the Lefty Award-nominated author of the Orchid Isle Mysteries Waters of Destruction and Molten Death, of the Sally Solari culinary mysteries, and of the IBPA Ben Franklin and IPPY award silver medal-winning memoir Justice is Served: A Tale of Scallops, the Law, and Cooking for RBG. When not writing, you’ll find her cooking, cycling, gardening, and observing cocktail hour promptly at five o’clock. Leslie and her wife and their Jack Russell mix split their time between Hilo, Hawai‘i and Santa Cruz, California.
Leslie blogs with Chicks on the Case and Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, and you can also find her at LeslieKarstAuthor.com.
The Wickeds 
We do enjoy going to garage sales, but unfortunately where we live now is an extremely small town where there aren’t many. Back when we were younger and lived in a bigger community it was fun to both go to them and have them as a way to declutter and to have the ability to change out something old for something new.
Once we had traveled to a even bigger town for hubby to attend a work related conference, I went our garage selling. I found this cookie jar that was just marked cow. The price was extremely cheap causing me to check it out extremely close for cracks, crackling or any defects. Finding none, I bought it thrilled with my find of a perfect condition (if not brand new) Beulah cookie jar with the sound box still intact in the lid. Hubby has a collection of Borden items with things like a very old and large milk can with the word Bordens in raised letters on it to a set of very old Bordens glasses. I had known instantly that this “cow” cookie jar was Elsie the Cow’s daughter – Beulah. It was a fabulous find and something that even when we downsized a few years back made the keep list. It’s still displayed in our curio cabinet.
MOLTEN DEATH is on my TBR list and I’m dying to read and review it. Thank you so much for the chance to win a copy!
2clowns at arkansas dot net
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Leslie here: That Bordens collection sounds fab, Kay! I remember well their commercials and dairy products–brings me back in time, lol.
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What a fun post! I love garage sales. I live close by a couple small towns that do garage sales every spring and summer. I have found so many great books at garage sales. My husband will usually find tools and yard equipment. One year I found a new-to-me KitchenAid mixer that was practically new for $50! My daughter has since inherited it. Lol.
Thank you for the chance!
jarjm1980(at)hotmail(dot)com
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Leslie here: Wow, that KitchenAid was quite a score–lucky you (and your daughter, now)! And books of course are always so fun to paw through at garage sales, as well!
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I love this post so much! To everybody, Leslie will be by to reply to comments, but keep in mind she’s in Hawai’i, so…time zones.
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Congrats on the book, Leslie. I’m not a huge garage-sale fan, but I do like perusing any books that are on sale. Occasionally, I see furniture, but I’ve never been a big knick-knack person. I do love your monkey bar, though. But I’m afraid I’d be stuck with the left overs since there’s no way I’d be up and at it by six in the morning. LOL
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Leslie here: Ha! I know–those early hours are no fun for me, either. I’m a big fan of knick-knacks, but not the dusting around them, lol.
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Thanks so much for visiting with us today, Leslie! I love all of the photos you shared! I am not one for garage sales, but I do love poking through antique shops and second-hand stores for vintage finds! Your monkey bar is delightful!
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Yes, antique and second-hand stores are a treat for me, too. I can spend ages pawing through everything looking for that certain special item….
Thanks so much for letting me visit the delightful Wickeds today, Jessica!
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Congratulations on the new book! This series has stunning covers. Love the pop of color.
I love tag sales, garage sales, flea markets, you name it. So much fun to find a treasure that means something to you. That said, I am moving so I’m divesting myself of a lot of those treasures.
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Yes, I’m in love with my covers for this series, as well! Good luck divesting; I dread the time when I’ll have to do that, as this pack rat has SO many items she’s collected over all these years. Oy…
Thanks for letting me visit with the marvelous Wickeds today, my dear!
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This is definitely a case of fiction imitating life, Leslie. They say to write what you know–this is a perfect example. Thanks for the photos with this post, along with its lesson that success requires adaptation.
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Ha! So true! (And I won’t tell you what other things are taken from real life in the book, lol.) Cheers!
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I love going to garage and yard sales. Back when I first started collecting pieces of pottery, I used to grab up things and look on the bottom for a stamp or mark. I found several pieces of Weller ( my favorite ) and Hull pottery to decorate throughout my home. I guess my favorite or best find was a refinished washstand, a cupboard and a couple of beautiful old crystal chandeliers and a couple of old floor lamps. We were building our first house ( we lived in a mobile home when we were first married ) . I rewired the floor lamps and put the chandeliers back together and replaced any missing crystal drops and we have the most beautiful lighting in our house.
I would very much like to win your book. I would someday love to visit Hawaii. My husband’s cousin lives on Kauai. Maybe someday.
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Leslie here: Those sound like marvelous finds, Laurie! My mom was a potter, so she would definitely have approved of those Wellers and Hulls. I hope you get to visit Hawai’i soon!
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Congratulations on the new book, Leslie! I’ve never been much of a garage sale person. I like sleeping in on the weekends too much. I do love our local farmers market, though. Cheers!
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Leslie here: Ha! Here’s to sleeping in, J.C.! And to farmers markets, as well!
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I wrote this entire comment and poof, it is gone! I even copied to paste it and that is gone. So, if you get it again after I finish this, it is magic. First, I love your books. Second, I loved your story and all of the wonderful photos. True stories are so good. We love vintage items, and our house is full of our collections. I have many iron skillets, but my favorite is not from a garage sale, but from my mother. I have those Pyrex bowls (stacking round ones and the blue rectangular ones along with yellow rectangular casserole dishes with covers). and use them all of the time. The yellow rectangular were also my mother’s, though I have picked up more. When we lived in Grand Prairie, Texas we had a yearly weekend long garage sale and always did quite well. I even bundled wire hangars together and they sold out. Who knew! The next year, none sold. The ones here in Georgia, if you can find them, are ever very good and only last until noon or 1 pm. We don’t have them here because our drive is very steep going down from the street and it is too much work here for the dividends. Your story about the guy beating you to the sales looking for the same things that you wanted, I have lived. I so enjoyed knowing that it happened to someone else. We began collecting telephones in the early 1970s. I went to Plano, Texas to visit my sister and her family and went antique shopping one day. At every store, I asked about telephones, and they would all say, “some guy just bought what we had.” Finally, I went further out on my mapped route and scored several times. Then by the end of the day, that guy and I ended up at the same place asking for the same telephones. He said to me, “so you are the one that has been beating me to the phones.” I said the same thing to him. We had a good laugh, and each got some good telephones. We later became sort of friends and traded phones to each other from time to time. Thanks for the chance. Have a great day and great sale of your books.
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Leslie here: I so love your story about the telephone guy–ha! So glad to know it’s happened to someone else! And yes, those Pyrex bowls and casseroles are so fabulous–as are cast iron skillets. I have a couple that were my grandmothers, including a deep “chicken fryer,” as she called it. So beautifully seasoned after all these years! Aloha!
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I live in Sun City West, Arizona and there are Estate and Garage sales galore here. They are not limited to weekends, with some starting on Wednesday or Thursday to spread them out. You can pretty much find anything you want from figurines, linens, books and cds/dvds, tools, furniture, kitchen items. You name it and you can find it eventually. My best find is replacement pieces for my everyday stainless steel flatware pattern from the 1970’s that were damaged, but I’ve had lots of good finds and fun snooping. It’s amazing how many seniors buy appliances and household goods, sometimes in multiples, and never even open the package. Sometimes they are as seen on TV items and I think some were gifts from the family. Items left at the end of the sale are then either sold as a lot or donated to local Thrift stores, where I’ve also found great things.
During the COVID pandemic we sold items on Ebay. It was fun for awhile. Then we got tired of all the boxes and stuff sitting around so sold everything off. We did make some good money, which was a nice bonus.
And good news. Looks like I just found a new book series to read from today’s posting. Sounds right up my alley. Thanks for that!
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Leslie here: Sounds like I need to take a trip to Sun City to do some garage sale-ing, lol! How cool that you were able to find replacements for your flatware! Cheers, and I hope you enjoy the Orchid Isle mysteries!
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I enjoy going to garage sales and I’ve found some great end tables and glassware. I like picking up older cocktail 🍸 glasses because my Mom always said when you serve a cocktail, it has to be served in the proper glass to taste right. Sounds like you and Robin had fun furnishing tou Hilo home with your finds.
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Leslie here: Your mom sounds like my kind of gal!
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Congratulations, Leslie! As you know, I’m also a big fan of garage sales and most of our furnishings are from them too! I always love finding Pyrex!
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Leslie here: Pyrex da bomb!
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I no longer go to them. I’m at the stage of life of getting rid of stuff. But many, many years ago when I was
pregnant and after my daughter was born, I totally clothed the two of us with garage sale wares. Years later I bought the perfect purse for airline travel. Passport and tickets and really necessary items with a strap long enough to go over the head. Love garage sales.
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Really enjoyed this post! I follow you guys in Hawaii and Santa Cruz! We found a good playpen at a garage sale. lindaherold999(at)Gmail(dot)com
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