Lea Wait, member of Sisters in Crime New England, stops by the blog today to answer questions about Thread on Arrival: A Mainely Needlepoint Mystery, which was released in April. Have thoughts about crafty cozy mysteries or questions for Lea? Comment below!
How would you describe the plot of the book?
Small towns take care of their own. In Haven Harbor, Maine, Ike Hamilton’s role in the community is small, but meaningful. Kindly but slow Ike has lived in Haven Harbor all his life, now living on disability checks and the money he gets for redeeming the bottles and cans many people save for him. Most local residents know him, and he knows them. He keeps his eyes open as he collects bottles, and, in fact, knows more about people, and their secrets, than most others in town. And then Ike is murdered, and the simple life everyone assumed he lived is revealed to be more complicated that anyone imagined.
What excited you most about writing this story?
In many of my books I’ve written about people who were different, physically, psychologically, emotionally, intellectually, or socially. Those who, for some reason, didn’t fit in. In THREAD ON ARRIVAL I wanted to show the role someone who was intellectually disabled could have in a caring community, and the challenges of being an isolated teenager without a family. By pairing Ike and a teenaged boy named Leo, I was able to combine their stories with a classic murder mystery. And I hope I was able to make readers more aware of the outsiders within their own spheres, and what could be done to help them.
Which of your skill sets were useful constructing the plot?
When I was in my thirties and single I adopted four girls, ages 4-10, each of whom had been born in a different country. (Thailand, India, Hong Kong and Korea.) I founded a support group for single adoptive parents and prospective parents. I helped hundreds of individuals create families. Although I was never a foster parent, I knew many parents who were, and many others who’d adopted children who’d been in the foster care system. So I didn’t need to do any research before creating a fifteen-year-old boy whose parents had been killed and who’d ended up in several foster and group homes. I’d known many teenagers like Leo. Thankfully, none of them were suspected of murder.
Would you like to visit Haven Harbor?
Haven Harbor is a small working waterfront town in Maine. No, it’s not a real place, and isn’t based on one real place, but it is a compilation of small Maine towns I’ve known all my life. I visit it every time I write a book set there.
What is the hardest part of writing a book?
For me, dredging the plot out of my subconscious and writing the first draft is by far the hardest part of writing any book. Editing is the frosting on the cake – I love editing!
Author Lea Wait lives on the coast of Maine in a house built in 1774. She has had 27 books published, including the Mainely Needlepoint series, the Shadows Antique Print series, the Maine Murder series, and eight books for young people, most of them historical novels. For more information about Lea and her books see her website, www.leawait.com