Tag Archives: books

The Swanson Shuffle

The Swanson Shuffle Launches April 30

Ta-da, my next novel, The Swanson Shuffle has an official release: April 30. For me, that will be a happy day as this novel finally will be available to readers as an eBook and paperback. The link’s below. 

Over the next few weeks, I will share posts about the book’s pieces, that is, its story line, characters, setting, inspiration, and what was happening in 1974 when the book takes place. Today, I am writing about the title, The Swanson Shuffle, and what that means.

Two years out of college, Bia Fernandes leaves a dead-end job to work and live in a psychiatric halfway house, where she learns more than she expects from the ex-patients who live there. The Swanson House is a century-old mansion that must have been grand in its day when it was owned by the Swanson family who got rich from the mills in that town. Since then, it’s been an inn, a rooming house, and now a psychiatric halfway house. The building will eventually be demolished when an interstate is extended through that town.

That’s the Swanson part.

As for the shuffle, I will let Bia, who tells this story, explain what that’s about. At the start of the book, she has arrived at Swanson House for part of the interview process.

I pull my black VW Bug onto the long drive of Swanson House and park beside a maroon-colored car with fins. A man leaning over its chrome grill squints as he raises his head and pushes his long, dark hair back with the side of his arm. I remember him from when I came for the interview last week. His name is Jerry, and the man marching in place beside the car’s front fender is Lane, actually Lanford Dawson V. That’s what he told me, and I haven’t forgotten because he made such a big deal about the V and when he said, “I come from a long line of Lanes.”

I’m here for the overnight visit, part of the hiring process to see if I can cut working and living in a psychiatric halfway house. I’m early, but I’ve already driven once around Petersville, and it looks just like another Massachusetts mill town barely holding onto itself. The houses, mostly triple-deckers, are a little worn, and downtown is a strip of dusty stores a few blocks from the brick factories. A supermarket, an International House of Pancakes, and a couple of car dealerships are on the outskirts of town, where a patch of scrubby forest ends.

Lane stands beside my VW although his feet still move on top of a thin, gray crust of snow. Up and down. Up and down. Like somebody ordered Lane to mark time and forgot all about him, so he keeps doing it. I asked about it when I was here before. Debbie, the staff member who’s leaving, said it’s a side effect of the drug Lane takes. Two other guys at the house also take it, and they do the same exact thing. They call it the Swanson shuffle.

I witnessed such a side effect when I was a live-in staff at a psychiatric halfway house a long time ago. To be clear, this book is not a memoir. But I believe my personal experience allows me to give an accurate portrayal of what could happen when people with zero experience in the mental health field are hired to live with ex-patients. 

The residents are expected to have jobs, take their medication and do chores. They interact at dinner, meetings, card games, and activities such as volleyball games in the backyard. The staff members are supposed to be role models and help in any way they can. That’s how Bia feels when she is hired. But, alas, that’s not the what happens in The Swanson Shuffle. More soon….

Here’s the link to The Swanson Shuffle to pre-order your Kindle version. (Paperback readers don’t have to wait and can get a copy now.) Thanks for your interest.

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Isabel Long Mystery Series

News about Isabel Long Mystery Series

So, what has P.I. Isabel Long been up to these days? Plenty. And fans of the mystery series will soon be able to read about it when I release no. 8 — Finding the Source. That will happen late May, a date to be determined. Right now, my son Ezra Livingston is working on the cover.

For those just tuning in, Isabel Long was coming off a bad year when she decided to investigate what happened to a woman who walked home from her family’s general store and was never seen again. That was 28 years ago. When she began the case, Isabel was coming off a bad year after her husband died unexpectedly and she lost her job as editor-in-chief of a local paper. With that case solved, she moves onto others. 

Each book features a cold case Isabel tries to solve in the fictional hilltowns of Western Mass. I wrote the first, Chasing the Case, eight years ago.

Writing a series means that I can hold onto the characters I love but let them do something else. Certainly, that includes Maria, Isabel’s 93-year-old mystery-loving mother who is her Watson; Jack, who owns the Rooster Bar, where Isabel has a part-time job and with whom she has a relationship; the Old Farts, a group of gossipy old who provide great intel; Annette Waters, aka the Tough Cookie who owns a junkyard. Others are one and done.

So, what’s Finding the Source about? Isabel Long and Maria are about to have lunch in a nearby city when they are approached by a homeless man, Tom McKenzie, who announces his mother had been murdered 43 years ago and the case never solved. Tom was only 12 when he found her beaten and strangled in their home.

His mother, Abby McKenzie, was a likeable and smart book buyer, finding vintage editions where people don’t value them like in yard sales. She sold books to collectors and at her store in the small town of Dillard. Her body was found beside a smashed bookcase where she kept her most valuable books.

Here’s a chance to help somebody who obviously was traumatized. Naturally, Isabel is interested.

So, as she did with her other cases, Isabel gets to work finding sources to interview. Fortunately, Tom has accumulated helpful information in a notebook.

One of the obstacles Isabel faces in this case is that many of the suspects are dead. They include an avid book collector, a former town official who stalked her, and the man who was allegedly the last to see Abby alive. But there are others to interview like the collector’s twin brother, a supposedly best friend, and Abby’s ex-husband. Hmm, what about his current wife?

Then there is Jim Hawthorne, Dillard’s police chief, who has become Isabel’s nemesis running interference on her other cases. He even tried to pin a murder on her.

In this midst of all this drama, there is fun, including a big Halloween bash at the Rooster.

As I get closer to the release, including making a formal announcement, I will tell you a whole lot more, like how a chance encounter inspired this book.

For those who want to catch up, here is the series: Chasing the Case, Redneck’s Revenge, Checking the Traps, Killing the Story, Working the Beat, Finding the Source, and Missing the Deadline. You can find those and other books I’ve written for Kindle and paperback in this link.

By the way, I was very happy this weekend, when a reader bought the entire series to take home to Canada. Thanks Murray.

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North Fairhaven Girl

North Fairhaven Girl 4: Millicent Library

I was a reader before I became a writer. My teachers at Oxford School got me started. But it was the books I borrowed from my town’s Millicent Library that got me inspired.

As I’ve mentioned before, my mother was a voracious reader, who brought us to the library to borrow enough books to last a week. During the summer, the library sent a bookmobile to St. Mary’s parking lot at the bottom of our street, but I preferred going to the library because it was like stepping into a castle, the building was that grand. See the photo above that I took on a visit.

First a little history: The Millicent Library is one of the extraordinarily beautiful buildings given to my hometown of Fairhaven by Henry Huttleston Rogers, a resident who became wealthy thanks to oil. Charles Brigham, the noted architect, designed the Italian Renaissance building, which took two years to complete. The library is dedicated to Rogers’ daughter Millicent, who died at age 17. It appears she once said, “I wish we had a good library.” It was dedicated on Jan. 30, 1893, the anniversary of her birth.

Friends from Taos, New Mexico, where Hank and I lived for 11 years, will recognize the name Millicent Rogers. In Taos’ case, this Millicent was the granddaughter of Henry Huttleston Rogers. She lived a fabulous, artistic life. An art museum, which we visited often, is named for her.

But back to Fairhaven … the children’s room was to the left of the circulation desk, where Rita Steele, head librarian, was in charge. There, I vowed to read the entire Wizard of Oz Series, all 14 books. I don’t recall how far I got. My sister Christine and I got hooked on the Nancy Drew Series, taking turns to read each chapter as we proceeded through the story — believing like most everyone else the author was indeed Carolyn Keene. Books that captured my imagination: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, and, of course, The Diary of Anne Frank. There were so many more.

Another memory: the Samurai sword on open display. The 14th century Tachi sword worn in court ceremonies was a gift long ago from the then-Japanese ambassador — in recognition of the town’s connection to his country. Unfortunately the sword was stolen in 1977. The library now has a replacement.

When I stopped using the kids’ room, I ventured into the adult section, including nonfiction. I wanted to read every one, an impossible task, I realize.

By the way, I was happy to learn the Millicent Library carries several of the books I’ve written. I also did a reading there in October 2023, which was a homecoming that included a cousin, classmates, and even my ninth-grade history teacher.

Besides my adult fiction, I write children’s books, specifically for middle grade readers. For my Twin Jinn Series, I created a family of magical beings — jinn or genies — who live among humans. So far, I have published two: The Twin Jinn at Happy Jack’s Carnival of Mysteries and most recently, The Twin Jinn and the Alchemy Machine. 

I wanted to write books that inspire young readers. And I thank the Millicent Library for getting me going on that.

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The Swanson Shuffle

My Next Book: The Swanson Shuffle

Today I am giving you a sneak peek at my next book: The Swanson Shuffle. Unlike my last release, this one is not for kids nor does it have anything to do with magic. This book is about a young woman’s experience living and working in a psychiatric halfway house and the people she encounters. That’s the Kindle cover above designed by my son Ezra Livingston. Release will be in April.

Here’s a brief synopsis:

Two years out of college, Bia Fernandes leaves a dead-end job to work and live in a psychiatric halfway house, where she learns more than she expects from its ex-patients — just as the Watergate scandal in the U.S. comes to a head in 1974.

Swanson House is a derelict mansion that will be torn down for a highway coming through a dying mill town in Massachusetts. The state, which is closing its mental hospitals, hires inexperienced staff like Bia to help people make the transition. 

But where others have failed, Bia has it in her to help what the staff member she replaces called dented cans. She tries to see the good in them.

Yes, I lived and worked in a psychiatric halfway house, but this is Bia’s story to tell. The Swanson Shuffle is strictly a work of fiction although I believe having that experience helped me create realistic characters and setting. As I’ve said before, I take what I know and have my way with it. 

I actually began this novel in 1999. I was about a hundred pages into it but my then agent, who I acquired the following year, wasn’t interested in representing it. So, I wrote other books instead.  But the story stayed with me. 

On my computer I have versions going back to 2012 when I took up the book up again. We were living in Taos, NM, then and I tore the book apart. I kept the same characters—more about them in future posts — but seriously changed how the story unfolds. Over the years, I kept working it. Last year, I added an epilogue after two trusted readers, Teresa and Fred, felt the book needed better closure. 

Besides The Swanson Shuffle, the book has had two other titles, Walking in Place and Crazy Daisy. Why call it The Swanson Shuffle? For a few reasons. The name of the halfway house is the Swanson House. A few of the staff take a drug with a side effect that makes them constantly step in place. And, unfortunately for some, there is the constant shuffle between a mental hospital and halfway house.

Yes, this book has been a Work in Progress for many years. I will be honest, I have queried oh so many agents and publishers who didn’t want to take a chance on it. So, here I am publishing it myself and hoping readers will prove them all wrong.

ADDITION: In the first graph, I mentioned my most recent book was written for young readers. The Twin Jinn and the Alchemy Machine is the second in a series. A family of magical beings move to a small town where their 11-year-old twins, Jute and Fina, go to school. The twins are supposed to keep their magic hidden — they can fly, be invisible, cast spells — but they get carried away creating an alchemy machine that works for their science fair project.

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Professor Groovy

Turn On, Tune In, Write About It

It’s time to give a little love to my new audiobook, Professor Groovy and Other Stories, a collection of four short stories inspired by my college experience as, yes, you guessed it, a hippie girl. Previously, it was only available only in Kindle, but now you can hear me reading the stories aloud. Before I forget here’s the link.

You may read or heard me say this before, but I will do it again: I take what I know and have my way with it. That is certainly true of myIsabel Long Mystery Series and my other fiction. But in this case, I relied on my experience in college for these short stories.

When I arrived at Bridgewater State College — now a university — I was a shy girl who lived a sheltered life. I never dated, except for coercing a boy to take me to the prom. I so enjoyed my classes at Fairhaven High School and look forward to going to college. I was the first of my family to do so. They and I thought I would return home and teach school afterward.

Well, things didn’t go as planned. I found myself attracted to the college’s counter culture thanks to a woman in my dorm who introduced me to her circle of friends. And from there I enjoyed a great social life that included imbibing in all sorts of mind-altering substances. I was no longer shy or sheltered. And, yes, I did graduate with good grades and a teaching certificate. It was too important for me not to do that. But I moved onto another kind of life, which included raising a large family, moving about this country, and, yes, writing.

Here is the pitch for the short story collection: Lenora Dias, her college hippie friends, and a notorious professor try to make sense of life during the sixties. A prequel of sorts to the novel Peace, Love, and You Know What.

When I was in college, I encountered college professors who were figuring things out themselves. Was there a Professor Groovy? I recall one who liked to, uh, socialize with my group of friends. There were others. But what happens to Ned Burke in Professor Groovy did not take place in real life. When Bridgewater’s literary magazine, The Bridge, published the short story in an appeal to alum, one of the editors asked which prof. inspired the character. My lips were sealed.

In Ripple in the Jungle, Lenora Dias meets a friend for coffee at a locals coffee shop. Yes, there was one in the town’s center, Buddy’s, where I hung out with my friends, but this is a highly fictionalized meetup. Lenora is secretly corresponding with a guy she never met who is stationed in Vietnam. She sends him a bottle of Ripple as a gift, but there’s a bit of glass floating in the wine so he doesn’t dare drink it. Yes, I did mail a bottle of Ripple to a soldier and was amazed it even arrived intact except for that sliver.

In Smart Girls Like the Cool Guys, Lenora hooks up sort of with a local guy when she is back home for the summer. The guy has had a rough life along with a self-made tattoo of a dagger with the words “Born to Lose” on his arm. Let’s just say he was an inspiring character, but the story is pure fiction.

Fat Mark Writes It Down: I had a college friend who was indeed overweight and kept a journal in spiral notebooks. But, no, I never read any of them or did anything like Lenora does to one of her friends who has a similar habit. I wish I had.

There you have it. I recorded that audiobook in my son, Nate Livingston’s Mudroom Sound Studio. It’s a quick listen at 1 hour and 15 minutes. Recording this book was a learning process since it was our first. I thank Nate for taking on the project. We are talking about recording the Twin Jinn Series, complete with music he creates. Sounds like a great project to me.

Find Professor Groovy and Other Stories on Audible: here’s the link.

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