Develop Your Inner Tutor, New Kopp Discoveries, and Pie

What?!? A new Kopp discovery!

It's rare for me to find something new and surprising about the Kopps these days. I've been through every archive and old newspaper that I know about. But sometimes, something new pops up. This is the first thing I've found that made me wish I could rewrite an earlier book! It's too late for Girl Waits with Gun, the novel, but it's not too late for the TV show. The writers are just wrapping up the pilot script now, and you can be sure I sent this right off to them and encouraged them to use it!

This appeared in the Bergen County Record on October 2, 1914. Most of the article just summarizes the events you're probably already familiar with if you've read Girl Waits with Gun, but look at that headline! Are they seriously implying that the Kopp sisters sent themselves threatening letters? Now read Courter's quote in that second block of text. Is he insinuating that they fired shots at their own house?

I guess we shouldn't be surprised that when three unmarried women complained that a powerful man was threatening them, they were not believed. But to suggest they FAKED the attacks and threats? To what end? 

Probably Courter was implying that since they could not get Kaufman to pay for the damages to their buggy, they were trying to make him look like a criminal so that he'd be forced to pay. But what a crazy--and all too familiar--accusation to make against the victims of a crime!

Anyway, if you've read all the books, you know that Constance and Courter were enemies. This just adds fuel to the fire--fuel I wish I'd had when I wrote the first book!

Asked and Answered

Ask me a question and win the book of your choice! This month's winner is Jaimie from Waterbury, CT.

Jaimie asks: Do you listen to music when you write, and do you find yourself listening to music that corresponds with the topic you're writing? 

Short answer: No! I find it completely impossible to listen to music and write. I need quiet--or random street noise--but no words! And even if I'm listening to music with no words, like jazz, the problem is that I know the words to so many jazz standards and they show up in my head anyway!

Also, I can't make any particular connection between music and the books I'm working on. This is a bit of a problem, because it's become trendy to ask authors if they have a playlist for their new novel. I used to get these requests from my publicists, and I was so eager to please that I would gin up some sort of list to impress them. You can see evidence of that here for Wicked Plants, Wicked Bugs, and Girl Waits with Gun. Finally I decided that I was too old to pretend to be excited about things I'm not excited about just to please a publicist or a website, so I finally told the truth and said that I had no playlist and made no connection between my books and someone else's music.

Having said that, I did make a Spotify playlist of songs referenced in the Kopp Sisters novels, plus a few significant songs from the era. But I don't listen to them when I write--just for research!

This Month's Contest

Hey look--you can win an advance copy of the new Kopp Sisters novel this time! Please go here to ask me a question and pick your prize. This is only open to those of you who have read this far, so you stand a good chance of winning!

It's Hand Pie Season in Oregon

Summer is almost upon us, and in Oregon that means berries, and that means hand pies. I confess that I don't make the pies myself--I buy them at the farmers market--but then I found this recipe that uses pre-made puff pastry rather than homemade pie crust. I think I could actually pull this off. I pass it along to you for research purposes.

Here's a Bit of Wisdom from a Book on Drawing

I found a wonderful bit of advice in this book that applies to any creative pursuit, or really any sort of pursuit at all. It's about ignoring your inner critic but actively cultivating an inner tutor.

Tutors! So helpful and knowledgeable. Read about it here.

Are you in OH or CT? I'll be there this week!

Lots more dates are getting firmed up now, so stay tuned! And if you're part of a literary series, a library event, or some other bookish gathering, please feel free to reach out to publicity@amystewart.com to see about setting up an event.

Rocky River, OH May 14: Lakewood Garden Club, Drunken Botanist
Wallingford CT: May 15: One Book, One Wallingford
Seattle, WA May 23: Author Salon, Drunken Botanist
Hillsboro, OR June 20: Author tea 
Mission Viejo, CA Sep 11: Literary Orange

Some of these are ticketed events. More tour dates are on my website. Please confirm details with the venue.

Giveaways!
All summer long! 

I'm giving away Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions on Goodreads this month.

And--here's a sneak preview just for you--we are going to give away copies of the next book in the series, Kopp Sisters on the March, all summer long on Goodreads! Please do add it to your to-read list now so you'll be notified when the giveaway goes live.

What Are You Reading?

I adored this book! I generally don’t like novels that weave between a historical story and a modern day researcher/historian trying to figure her own life out as informed by this other past life (how is this a genre, much less one I know well enough to have an opinion about) but The Victorian and the Romantic is a memoir and a lovely depiction of a real person grappling with a subject she’s trying to write about and understand—and I do relate to that!

What are you reading? Tell me about it on Goodreads or Litsy.