From the editor:
Spring is finally showing its flowery face near our offices. In the spirit of spring rebirth, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new Web site design. Please pardon our dust as we work out the last few bugs, but we hope that you enjoy our new look and easier navigation. Our online store is coming soon.
Speaking of bugs, we look forward to the arrival of Beetle Boddiker in time for May. Beetle Boddiker is the newest offering from well-known author Priscilla Cummings, teamed with the diverse and talented Marci Dunn Ramsey, illustrator. This new children’s book is sure to delight. We look forward to the coming summer and many more exciting changes to come.
Managing Editor
New Release: Beetle Boddiker by Priscilla Cummings
Beetle Boddiker is a tiny beetle who rarely leaves home. But one day he needs to be brave and venture forth across the great jungle of a lawn and the ocean of rocks in the driveway to visit his brother, Nevins, who lives in a rusty tin can across the street. Join Beetle Boddiker on an adventure that is not to be missed.
Author Interview with Priscilla Cummings
A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, Priscilla Cummings is the author of many books for children and young adults. Her most notable children’s books are her Chadwick the Crab series, which includes: Chadwick the Crab, Chadwick & the Garplegrungen, Chadwick Coloring book, Chadwick’s Wedding, Chadwick Forever, Chesapeake ABC, Chesapeake 1-2-3, Chesapeake Rainbow, Meet Chadwick and His Chesapeake Bay Friends, Santa Claws: The Christmas Crab, and Toulouse. In 2008, she released Beetle Boddiker, a story about a nervous beetle and his adventures.
Priscilla Cummings grew up on a dairy farm in western Massachusetts and received a BA in English from the University of New Hampshire. As a reporter for twelve years, Cummings covered a variety of topics and has been awarded several journalism awards, including the United Press International’s Journalist of the Year for Virginia in 1980. She won Metro-Washington Association for Childhood Education Internationals literary award for her efforts to promote literacy and help young readers develop an awareness and a sense of responsibility for the Chesapeake Bay.
Priscilla Cummings lives in Annapolis, Maryland, where she divides her time between writing and visiting schools.
- What was your inspiration for writing Beetle Boddiker? Years ago, when my children were little, I noticed how fascinated they were just watching insects crawl through the grass. I think that my son, William, asked me how long it would take a beetle to walk across the entire yard. Questions like that get you thinking, don’t they? And so I began this story. I worked on it off and on for a couple years and then kept it in a drawer for a very long time – like fifteen years! Sometime last year, I pulled it out of the drawer and reworked it again before submitting it to Tidewater for their consideration. It’s been wonderful for me to see Marcy Ramsey bring the old beetle to life.
- Why did you decide to write Beetle Boddiker in rhyme?
I wrote Beetle Boddiker in rhyme because I thought that made it more fun.
- What are you working on right now? Right now I am working on another Chesapeake Bay picture book and a novel for teenagers.
- What was your favorite children’s book when you were a child? My favorite children’s book when I was a child was Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. It’s still my favorite all-time book. I tell children at schools that I love it because it’s all about life and is so beautifully written. I still have the copy that was given to me when I was eight years old.
- What book are you reading right now? I am reading The Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson for my adult book club’s annual end-of-the-year dinner party. But I’m also reading Before the Dawn, by Nicholas Wade, which is about human evolution. It’s fascinating! Just for fun, the other night I re-read Holly and Ivy, a picture book by Rumer Godden, illustrated by Barbara Cooney. It’s such a sweet holiday book. I have fond memories of reading it to my daughter, Hannah, when she was a little girl.
New Release: Memory of a Murder by Earl Staggs
A killer is leaving a trail of terror and death from Baltimore to Ocean City, and only
Adam Kingston can stop him.
“Slide over sweetcakes, we’re going to have us a real good time.”
After a near-fatal accident, Adam Kingston, a former FBI profiler, develops psychic powers that allow him to “see” things most people can’t. Now, twelve years later, this special sight opens the doorway to a mystery man who comes to Adam for help.
“I think I killed someone.”
Chip Weathers, a homeless man suffering from amnesia, believes he may be behind the murder of a woman found buried in the basement of the house his family once owned. A fateful Newsweek article leads Chip to Adam in the hopes he can reach through the fog of memory to determine the truth. But soon after Chip enlists Adam’s help, someone takes a shot at them. It seems as though someone has a lot to lose by Chip regaining his memory of the violent events of the past. Only Adam can “see” what really happened, but will his visions lead him to the killer or will his gift lead him to his death?
Author Interview with Earl Staggs
Award-winning author, Earl Staggs has served as managing editor of Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine and as president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. His short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. Well-known and respected in the mystery writing community, in 2004 he received the Derringer Award for Best Short Mystery Story.
Staggs spent most of his life in and around Baltimore, Maryland while vacationing regularly in Ocean City, which helped him in writing Memory of a Murder. Staggs currently resides in Fort Worth, Texas, where he divides his time between writing and attending mystery writing conferences.
- Who or what was your inspiration for writing Memory of a Murder?
When the crazy notion of writing a book popped up, I thought about the advice writers are always given to “write what you know.” Good advice, but I twisted it a tad into “write what you like to read.” I decided to try to write a book with all the elements I look for in a book I would enjoy reading
First of all, my preference in books as well as movies and TV shows has always been pure mystery, a solid “whodunnit” that puzzles me at the very beginning and keeps me guessing all the way to “The end.” If I figure out who dun what to whom and why early on, I lose interest. So far, I’m happy to say, no one who’s read Memory of a Murder has figured it out until the answers come in the final chapters.
But I like elements of thriller and suspense, too. That’s why I included a car chase, a foot race, a fight in an alley and some gunfire here and there to add an edge-of-the-seat “Look out!” flavor.
I also want to genuinely care about the characters in a story. Solving the case is not enough. I want to become personally involved with the people in the story to the point that the outcome as it affects their lives matters as much as seeing justice served. After all, things that happen to people we hardly know or don’t particularly care for don’t mean as much as if it happened to someone we’d want to live next door to. I’d like to think readers of my book came to care for my characters because I often hear, “There MUST be a sequel” and “I HAVE to know what happens next with Adam and Brenda.”
So my motivation was to write a book I would want to read. The problem is, after spending more than two years writing the darn thing, I didn’t have to read it. I knew how it ended. If a movie is ever made from it, however, I will certainly want to see it.
- What is it about the murder mystery genre that is appealing for writing? I think there are two things.
First, in real life, most of us go about our lives in a fairly routine manner. Writing about it would produce a dull story. Not until something dramatic happens to disrupt our normal lives does it become a story worth writing about. The same is true in fiction, and what can be more disruptive to normal life than a murder? When someone’s life is criminally taken, the lives of everyone around them take a sudden dramatic turn. A murder, then, is a catalyst or a trigger which sets in motion a series of events leading to a climactic conclusion, and that’s what storytelling is all about.
There’s also a desire in all of us to want to see justice done, to see good triumph over evil. In a mystery story, the good guys usually win, and the bad guys have to pay for their sins. I think we all want to see that happen once in awhile, even if it’s only in fiction and not always in real life.
- Why did you have this story take place in Baltimore and Ocean City, Maryland? My wife and I both spent most of our lives in and around Baltimore. We met, married, raised our daughters there, and when we could, loaded up and went to Ocean City to relax and have fun. When we left the beautiful state of Maryland in search of milder winters in the south, we carried away a ton of fond memories. Setting the novel there was a way of keeping those memories fresh. Besides, since I knew the area so well, I had to spend very little time in research, a part of the writing process I don’t particularly enjoy.
- The character, Adam Kingston, first appeared in your short story “The Missing Sniper.” What made this character special enough to you to build a full novel around him? For that story, I wanted to feature a private investigator. “Ho hum,” you might say, “another one of those.” Well, I didn’t want another “one of those” either. I wanted him to be unique. In addition to being a former FBI Agent, I gave him a special gift. Adam has some psychic abilities.
I modeled him after real-life psychics I met and talked to. For the most part, contrary to the way Hollywood likes to portray people with paranormal abilities, they are normal people leading normal lives except when they’re using their special gift. Like Adam, they regularly assist law enforcement agencies in solving crimes. Their gift doesn’t actually solve the crime, but can steer investigators in the right direction. Sometimes their images are so vague and enigmatic, they only puzzle and perplex. The same is true for Adam and his psychic clues, and he has to fall back on his FBI experience and old-fashioned police work.
That short story in which Adam first appeared (“The Missing Sniper”) holds a distinction, by the way, of appearing in a print magazine and an online ezine at the same time. It is still available in the archives of the ezine, “Mysterical-e,” at: http://www.mystericale.com/historical/THE_MISSING_SNIPER.html
The positive reactions and encouraging feedback on the short story inspired me to take Adam Kingston into a novel.
- Do you plan on writing about Adam Kingston in the future? Absolutely. I have some ideas for short stories featuring Adam as well as a sequel novel. Like many people who’ve read Memory of a Murder have expressed to me, I’m anxious to know what happens next with Adam and Brenda. Adam will do some traveling in the next book, but his home base will still be Ocean City, and much of the story will take place there. Now that I live in Texas, I’m not able to visit there often myself, but I can do it vicariously through Adam.
- What book(s) are you working on right now? In addition to the sequel, I’m working on other books. One is more serious and noir-ish and features a secret group of agents who track terrorists. When they uncover a group with a high potential for carrying out their heinous acts, they don’t concern themselves with Miranda rights and due process. They simply exterminate them before innocent people can be harmed. Another idea is more along humorous lines and features a crime-solving duo. That one will be fun, I think. Picture Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn at their comic best as a team.
Celebrate Earth Day, April 22, with Tidewater Publishers and some of our eco-friendly titles!
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With the purchase of Rosie’s Posies you receive a free seed packet to plant in your garden.
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Chesapeake Bay Walk and Awesome Chesapeake are made from recycled paper and both of these titles are great ways for you to learn about the Chesapeake and the environment. Plus, Awesome Chesapeake has a list of ways you can help the environment!
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Osprey Adventure explains to children how ospreys in the Chesapeake are impacted by fishing lines and how they have made a comeback from the brink of extinction.
- Plant a tree and remember the Maryland Wye Oak in While a Tree Grew: The Story of Maryland’s Wye Oak.
- New for 2008: Olly the Oyster is the tale about an oyster who wants to help clean the Chesapeake Bay. But what can a little oyster do? You’ll be amazed at what oysters, and other animals do everyday to help clean the Chesapeake Bay.
New from Tidewater Publishers: FREE activity guides for our children’s books!
These guides deliver instructional and informative ways to use your favorite books to help children learn about many fascinating topics like the Chesapeake Bay, animals, bugs, etc. These free guides will be sent via email as an Adobe PDF file. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader for free here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.
You can request a teacher’s guide for your favorite Tidewater Publishers children’s books right now simply by emailing our Marketing Coordinator.