An Interview with Author Barbara Ross by E. B. Davis

Mud season takes on a whole new meaning in the coastal town of Busman's Harbor, Maine, when local business owners sling dirt at one another in a heated feud over a proposed pedestrian mall. Vandalism is one thing, but murder means Julia Snowden of the Snowden Family Clambake steps in to clean up the case . . .
 
When Julia spots police cars in front of Lupine Design, she races over. Her sister Livvie works there as a potter. Livvie is unharmed but surrounded by smashed up pottery. The police find the owner Zoey Butterfield digging clay by a nearby bay, but she has no idea who would target her store. Zoey is a vocal advocate for turning four blocks of Main Street into a pedestrian mall on summer weekends. Other shop owners, including her next-door neighbor, are vehemently opposed. Could a small-town fight provoke such destruction? When a murder follows the break-in, it’s up to Julia to dig through the secrets and lies to uncover the truth . . .

Amazon.com

 

Yesterday, Kensington released the tenth book in Barbara Ross’s Maine Clambake mystery series, Muddled Through.

Evidently a reader thought up this title, as Barbara explained in the postscript, and it is an apt title given the season and state of main character Julia Snowden’s life.

 

I can’t tell you how much I look forward to reading the books in this series. When I start a book, I try to become aware of when I slide into the reading and reality recedes. Total failure—I’m immersed before I know it.

 

Barbara puts the reader into intriguing action from the very start, and then she hooks you in with each chapter. But the other aspect that hooks me is the historic and other details that Barbara must research to write. Part of it is teaching. I had no idea lupine flowers (see the cover) was pronounced loopin, not loo-pine (long “i”), which begs the question—why isn’t the spelling lupin, solving the problem? English!

 

Please welcome Barbara Ross to WWK.                                                              E. B. Davis

Fifty years ago, many small-town folk were wary of strangers, or in as they say in Busman’s Harbor, the setting of this series, those “From Away.” But now? We’re such a transient society and Busman’s Harbor has lots of outsiders who own summer cottages there. Would that mentality still exist?

 

It would. I live part of the year in Key West, Florida. The people who have the good fortune to be born in the Keys are “Conchs.” People who’ve moved to the Keys from other places but have lived there full-time for at least seven years are called “Freshwater Conchs.” The rest of us are just passing through.

 

Maine doesn’t even have the “freshwater” gradation. I love this joke, which Katherine Hall Page tells in the thirteenth book in her series, The Body in the Lighthouse.

 

“A Down East man and his pregnant wife are visiting in New Hampshire when she goes into labor. He bundles her into the car, and they drive as fast as they can to the Maine border, but it’s no good. The baby is born before they can cross it. The same day another baby is born somewhere on the Maine coast. As soon as he can travel, his parents take him to Asia, where he lives for the rest of his life. The other baby lives a long life, too, but he never leaves the state again. They die at the same time. The Ellsworth American runs both obituaries. “Local Man Dies in Singapore” and “Man from New Hampshire Dead at Eighty-one.”

 

After spring mud comes black fly season. Remind me why people love Maine so much. Don’t the ocean breezes keep the bugs away?

 

It’s true. Black flies don’t bother us on the coast. But in the woods…

 

If in twelve thousand years, not enough topsoil has developed to absorb rain and snow melt in Maine (leaving clay exposed for potters), how many years does it take to develop topsoil?

 

Twelve thousand years is the blink of an eye in the history of the earth. The main point about the topsoil is there’s not enough of it to absorb and drain a combination of snow melt and spring rains, hence “mud season.”

 

Now that Julia is living with her mother again, broken her relationship with Chris, and unable to continue operating their winter restaurant, she has too much time to think. She’s retrospective, thinking about the last ten years of her life. She’s down. Is this natural or is she depressed?

 

I don’t think she’s clinically depressed (whatever that might mean), but she’s pensive, betwixt and between, trying to make sense of her life and figure out what’s next.

 

What does animatronic mean and how does it apply to Busman’s Harbor?

 

Animatronic comes up in a heated town hearing. A local complains about the “Disneyfication” of their resort town and says the developers won’t stop until the citizens are all animatronic—like the moving statues in the Hall of Presidents at Disney World. It’s a fight about what to keep and what to let go of to accommodate the tourists on which the town depends.

 

Who were “rusticators?” What was the purpose?

 

Rusticators are the first wave of tourists who came to Maine in the late nineteenth century. They came specifically to get away from the growing cities and experience a simple life for a week or a summer. They came to Maine because it was rustic.

 

My husband might be a Mainer. What is that, and is it the same as being cheap or being a potential recycler?

 

Some people might say it has to do with being cheap, but it really has to do with keeping anything you might ever have a use for, no matter how unlikely. My husband may be one, too.

 

Are there a lot of New York City expats in Maine?

 

Oh, my goodness, yes. And since the pandemic, even more.

 

I would have thought the most popular vehicle in Maine to be four-wheel drive trucks, not Subarus. But are the Subarus four-wheel drive as well?

 

Subarus are all wheel drive and Maine is the second-best market for Subarus in the country. (Following only Vermont.) However, there are more Ford F150s here than Subarus. (I just had to look that up.) But Maine’s love affair with the Subaru is well-known and well documented.

 

What does the psychological term “well defended” mean?

 

The way it’s used in Muddled Through it means self-protective, not allowing oneself to be upset by events by pushing feelings away. It’s not a good thing in the long run because the person isn’t feeling their feelings, but it can be a crutch to get through a crisis in the short term.

 

Why does Busman’s Harbor have two main streets? Isn’t it confusing?

 

Busman’s Harbor only has one main street, called Main Street, but it curls around a hill and crosses itself, thereby creating the intersection of Main and Main. You can see a map of it here.

 

What is pine syrup/bitters? Does it taste like pine, just as yucky gin tastes like spruce trees?

 

It tastes like Christmas! Really, pine syrup and pine bitters are lovely.

 

The lobster stew sounds incredible. But even if you could grind up lobster shells so fine as to not cut up your stomach, are they even digestible? They were used to thicken the stew?

 

It’s lobster bisque that was traditionally thickened by ground up lobster shells—and I mean truly ground up to powder. Some chefs still make it that way.

 

What do Mainers call tonic (that stuff you add to yucky gin)?

 

I think you’re alluding to what other people call soda or pop. Old, true New Englanders (not just Mainers) call that tonic. It’s fading from the language rapidly. You hear soda much more often today. I guess they call tonic, tonic as well.

 

I thought pecan pie was a Southern thing. The recipe is titled Cardamom Pecan Pie, but with the substitution of maple syrup, maybe it should be called Maple Nut Pie. It really is a different pie, isn’t it?

 

Hmm. Substituting maple syrup for another sweetener is a common practice. I have a novella coming out next year where maple syrup gets substituted for brown sugar in Irish coffee. I don’t think that makes it a whole different thing, does it? I fully acknowledge that pecan pie is a southern thing.

 

National Geographic Magazine has only employed four female staff photographers in its history. True?

 

As of 2000, when the book Women Photographers at National Geographic was published it was true, and those four were widely spaced in time. Further it says, “Until the 1970s (and some might say beyond) the National Geographic Society was the publishing equivalent of a private men’s club. Women worked at the society, but nearly always as secretaries or clerks. Men and women ate in separate dining rooms.” Nonetheless from 1907 onward, a small number of intrepid women, almost always submitting over the transom in the early days, or later working as free-lancers, did get their photographs published in the magazine. Some of their achievements are extraordinary.

 

Is it terrible to want to preserve memories of someone by avoiding the present-day real person?

 

Such an interesting question. But yes, I think in particular with a romantic partner, when the relationship is firmly in the past, it can be better to remember than to deal with current reality. Sometimes with former friends as well. Like when you rediscover them through Facebook and they’ve turned into jerks.

 

Why would forensic psychologists think that having someone in your family murdered gives anyone in the family more propensity to kill?

 

Because violence begets violence and someone raised in violent circumstances is more likely to be violent. It doesn’t apply in the situation in Muddled Through, though. In this case the psychologist, who hasn’t met the person in question, is generalizing and is wrong.

 

Is it a journalist’s job to make the populace feel safe by portraying murder victims as living unwisely, making them responsible for their own murders? Sounds like blaming the victim and casting aspersions to me.

 

I don’t think it’s a journalism thing. I think it’s a human-being thing. We look at the victims of anything horrible, manmade or natural, and we think, “I’m a different person in different circumstances, so that won’t happen to me.” It’s a defense mechanism. If we thought about all the terrible things that can happen all the time we’d never make it through the day.

 

With that, with the murder cited in the newspaper articles in Muddled Through, there is a degree of victim-blaming, particularly when the stories instigated by “leaks” from the defense counsel.

 

Maine lupines are actually from the West Coast?

 

Yes. The lupines we love to see in meadows and by the side of the road in June are invasive. We do have one native type of lupine, but it’s been wiped out by the visitors and taken a particular type of butterfly with it. We do love the lupines, though. They are beautiful.

 

Pottery must be a lot like writing. It teaches you failure. Right?

 

After interviewing potters for this book, I came away feeling like there was a difference. Both activities are about creating art, but potters face uncontrollable failure all the time from the beginning of their practice to the end. With writing it’s about trying to get close to an ideal and failing. With potters it’s about things literally blowing up in the kiln.

 

A character in the book tells Julia she needs to learn to fail in regard to her relationship with Chris. I’m not so sure that’s correct. Perhaps in the short term. But is it more that Julia has learned where she needs to draw the line, and appreciate that lesson, for long-term success? She’s already done that in her working relationship with Sonny.

 

You’re right about Julia’s decision of course. But I think when a loving relationship founders, we’re all susceptible to feeling like we’ve failed. Julia’s inexperienced at love. Her relationship with Chris is the first romantic partnership in her life that’s lasted more than weeks. Their relationship went on for a long time and was intense. They lived together and worked together. Julia imagined a future together, and I think it’s that imaginary future that she’s actually mourning.

 

What’s next for Julia?

 

After Muddled Through, we pick Julia up in “Perked Up," a novella in Irish Coffee Murder which will be published on January 31, 2023. The eleventh Maine Clambake Mystery is due to my publisher three days from now. (Gulp.) That will be out summer of 2023.

 

Thanks so much for asking! Your questions always make me think.

 

An Interview with Barbara Ross by E. B. Davis

 

The Snowden Family Clambake Company has a beloved reputation in Busman’s Harbor, Maine. Almost as famous is the sleuthing ability of proprietor Julia Snowden, which is why an oyster farmer seeks her out when she’s in trouble.
 
When Andie Greatorex is robbed of two buckets of oyster seed worth $35,000, she wonders if somebody’s trying to mussel her out of business. Could it be a rival oyster farmer, a steamed former employee, or a snooty summer resident who objects to her unsightly oyster cages floating on the beautiful Damariscotta River? There’s also a lobsterman who’s worried the farm’s expanding lease will encroach on his territory and Andie’s ex-partner, who may come to regret their split. Before Julia can make much headway in the investigation, Andie turns up dead, stabbed by a shucking knife. Now it’s up to Julia to set a trap for a cold and clammy killer...

Amazon.com

 

Shucked Apart is the ninth book in the Maine Clambake mystery series by Barbara Ross. It was released yesterday. One of my favorite things about this series is how much I learn by reading it. In this book, I learned about oyster farms in Maine. Now, I have an advantage many readers don’t. I live on Hatteras Island, NC, and we, too, have oyster farms. So, I asked someone I know about our oyster farms to double-check what I learned. The someone used to be a party (not with balloons, but most definitely with beer) boat captain turned oyster farmer, not unlike one of the characters Barbara has created, but without his financial problems. That in and of itself tells me Barb researched aqua farming and the changing times of the fishing industry.

 

There’s tension right from the beginning of Shucked Apart, but the source is surprising. Please welcome Barbara Ross back to WWK.                                    E. B. Davis

Julia isn’t the jealous type. She likes boyfriend Chris’s friend Andie right away. The problem is that Julia thought that Andie was Andy. Why didn’t he mention his poker playing friend was a female?

 

Chris keeps a lot of secrets. Julia had thought they were through the worst of his disclosures, and arguably they were. But in this book she’s surprised to find he’s been keeping quiet about things both large and small. The question is, why?

 

Do two buckets of oyster spat really cost thirty-five thousand dollars? Really?

 

Like agriculture, aquaculture requires investment. Two buckets of oyster spat, if properly cared for, have the potential to turn into hundreds of thousands of babies, so the potential to make money is there. Also, breeding those babies is highly specialized and not done in a lot of places, so there is demand.

 

Do oyster spat look like quinoa (or like Cream of Wheat right out of the box, small, white, round granules)?

 

Yes! That’s how everyone I talked to described them. I did get to see them for myself and I don’t have a better description.

 

Although oysters clean the bodies of water they live in because they filter it, they also give off a lot of scat—especially the spat or oyster seed (tiny baby oysters without diapers). Is the benefit greater than the detriment?

 

This is a controversial topic, especially in places where people are fighting about aquaculture. The farms in Maine are relatively small, owned by individuals and small groups, not giant corporations. The Damariscotta was too polluted to sustain sea creatures of any type until the 1980s. Since the oyster farms have been established, it has only gotten cleaner. In balance, I tend to believe the oysters make the river cleaner.

 

When someone knocks Andie down and runs with the expensive buckets of oyster seed, Andie wants Julia to investigate because Chris has bragged about Julia’s investigative skills. Why does Julia decide to investigate?

 

Julia likes Andie almost immediately. They are young, entrepreneurial women running challenging businesses in Maine. Also, it is a time of year when Julia can help out. Once the clambake season starts, she’ll be working sixteen hours a day every day.

 

I initially had problems with your setting. Andie’s company is named The Great River Oyster Company because the farm is in the Damariscotta River, which would be fresh water, but it isn’t really, is it? Seals can be seen on the river? The lobstermen also have buoys on the river, too? You didn’t make the river’s name up either, did you?

 

The real Damariscotta is a beautiful river in Maine. The source, Damariscotta Lake, is fresh water, but the river is very tidal, and the saltwater coming in on the tide makes the part of the river where the oyster farms are quite brackish. As you mention, seals, lobsters and other saltwater creatures live in that part of the river. I recommend the Damariscotta River Cruise to anyone who visits midcoast Maine in the summer.

 

You mention there are oyster hatcheries. Not to get too spicy, but how do oysters mate?

 

Oysters begin life as males and later become female. The young males release sperm and the females release eggs—millions of them. Some of the sperm finds the eggs and they become larvae, which later become the spat that opens our story in Shucked Apart. The release of the sperm is what gives us the expression that you shouldn’t eat oysters in months without an R in them. It gives the oysters a different taste and texture that some people love and some people dislike. Some farms purchase triploid oysters from the breeders, which don’t reproduce. This practice avoids the spawning season, enabling all months to be R-months’ taste and without the energy spawning requires of the oysters.

 

You mentioned that unlike clams, oysters can’t move. Do oysters just lie on the river bottom or do they sort of dig into the clay? Aren’t oysters a barnacle-type of critter, gluing themselves to things?

 

Oysters aren’t like barnacles in that they don’t attach to docks, boats, etc. They pretty much stay where you put them unless the current carries them along. An oyster’s happiest place is sitting on top of another oyster, but that doesn’t result in a pretty shell that farmers can sell to restaurants at a premium. Another happy place for oysters is on relatively hard bottom, which is why the clay on the bottom of so much of the Damariscotta is so appealing.

 

Andie is on the verge of expansion. A meeting is set in which her expanded farming territory will be approved or rejected. Why are a lot of people against her expansion?

 

People are often frightened of change, period. In addition there are competing interests on the river—oyster farmers and lobstermen who don’t want more river leased to others. Homeowners and pleasure boaters who don’t like the look of the floating oyster cages.

 

One of Julia’s aunts lives on the river with her lobsterman husband. She gets information about the attack on Andie from her uncle, but it also puts her in an uncomfortable position. How does she handle that?

 

Julia loves her aunt and uncle. Though she knows that fights among lobstermen can be absolutely vicious, she doesn’t believe her uncle could be guilty of murder. Though she investigates every clue that comes her way, Julia has to trust someone and decides it is her family.

 

Julia finds out that Andie used to be a romantic and business partner with Mack, who went into the restaurant business and is now married with children to someone else. Mack explains to Chris and Julia the similarities between wine’s terroir and oysters’ merroir. What’s all that? And are oysters a trendy menu item?

 

Just as wine grapes take on the unique taste of the soil, weather, elevation, etc. of the vineyard where they are grown (terroir), oysters take on the taste of the unique composition of the water they grow in—minerals, temperature, and so on (merroir). That’s why all the different oysters on the east coast can be the same breed but look and taste so different from the Canadian Maritimes to New England to the Chesapeake to the Carolinas, where you are, to Florida.

 

Oysters are having a moment. They were a major source of protein at the end of the nineteenth century. In the 1890s New Yorkers ate an average of six hundred oysters a year. Then the Hudson got too polluted to sustain the oysters and the techniques for shipping from other places and farming were not yet in place on the east coast. The oyster fell out of favor. Many chefs attribute the current oyster craze to the sushi craze because it got Americans into eating raw seafood again. Of course you don’t have to eat oysters raw. I include recipes for baked oysters and oyster stuffing in the book.

 

Andie’s next-door neighbor, Pinney Kirwin, doesn’t like oyster farming, especially close to her house and her river. During the 1800s and early 1900s, her family owned a shipbuilding business and owned the entire river front area. But Pinney’s family outvoted her and sold off land and a smaller house to Andie. Why does Julia see a comparison between Pinney’s family and her mother’s family?

 

Julia’s mother and Pinney are both descended from families that made fortunes in Maine when there were fortunes to be made there. Julia’s mother’s family was in the ice business and Pinney’s in shipbuilding. Both families left the state when those industries collapsed, and became summer residents only. Julia’s mother, however, now makes her life among the locals, while Pinney, who appears to live in Maine a lot of the year, moves exclusively in summer people circles.

 

What’s an abutter? Someone you share a property line with.

 

What is a chandlery? A place where ship provisions are stored and sold. It could include items specifically for ships, like sailcloth, rope, and so on, or also fresh food and water.

 

You include a recipe for lobster mash—but what is it? Lobster mashed potatoes—and they are delicious!

 

There are such a thing as soft-shelled lobsters? When do they do that?

Lobsters shed their shells as they grow. In Maine typically this takes place in early summer. During the period right after lobsters grow their new shell they are considered soft-shells. Some people think the soft-shells are the best, others prefer hard-shells. This is a frequent source of lobster-related arguments.

 

What are alewives?

 

They are a species of herring that lives in saltwater but spawns in freshwater. In Damariscotta, there is an Alewife Festival, which takes place when the fish come and climb the fish ladder in town to get to fresh water.

 

What kind of fresh tuna is used in the Sous Vide Spicy Tuna recipe?

 

The instructions say fresh tuna cut 1 ½ to 2 inches thick. You’re cooking it, so it doesn’t have to be sushi grade, but if you want sushi grade and are willing to pay for it, by all means go for it.

 

You say that having a house on the water is constant work. Do you have first-hand information about that? Do they really continually paint the Golden Gate Bridge? (And why is it orange? My six-year-old self was so disappointed.)

 

I’ve heard that analogy to painting the Golden Gate Bridge all my life. (As soon as you work from one end to the other, it’s time to start over again at the beginning.) I have no idea if it is true, but it makes a nice point.) My mother-in-law had one side of her house on the water painted every year. Once all four sides were completed, it was time to go around again.

 

So, Le Roi was right, huh. Should have known. What’s next for Julia?

 

In “Scared Off,” the Snowden Family Clambake novella in Halloween Party Murder, Julia gets a panic call from her niece, Page. High school kids have crashed the little Halloween sleepover party Page is attending at a friend’s house. They’re trashing the place and the friend’s parents are nowhere to be found. I’m currently working on the tenth Maine Clambake Mystery novel, as yet untitled. It takes place during Mud Season. (In Maine mid-March through April).

Barbara Ross Interview by E. B. Davis

Early October is “winding down” time in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, but there’s nothing relaxing about it for Julia Snowden. Between busloads of weekend leaf peepers at the Snowden Family Clambake and a gut renovation of the old mansion on Morrow Island, she’s keeping it all together with a potentially volatile skeleton crew—until one of them turns up dead under the firewood.

When the Russian demo team clearing out the mansion discovers a room that’s been sealed off for decades, Julia’s baffled as to its purpose and what secrets it might have held. Tensions are already simmering with the crew, but when one of the workers is found murdered, things come to a boil. With the discovery of another body—and a mysterious diary with Cyrillic text in the hidden room—the pressure’s on Julia to dig up a real killer fast. But she’ll have to sort through a pile of suspects, including ex-spouses, a spurned lover, and a recently released prisoner, to fish out one clammed-up killer.

Amazon.com 

In this eighth addition in the Maine Clambake mystery series, Barbara Ross confirms her talent as a great storyteller. Sealed Off shows parallel stories of the vulnerable female human condition, one in the nineteenth century and the other in the twenty-first century. Julia Snowden, Barbara’s main character, connects with these bittersweet tales of women soldiering on to better their positions in the world no matter the context of the times and relates to their struggles as she wrestles with her own.

When Julia finds the body of a man who worked for the family’s clambake, her boyfriend, Chris, asks her to solve the crime because the obvious suspect is his brother, an ex con, who worked with the victim. Julia’s investigation seems to find more evidence that he is guilty, putting her in an uncomfortable position.

Of course, the title is a play on words, but you’ll have to read the book to find out the how and why. Please welcome Barbara Ross back to WWK.                                                                                                                           E. B. Davis

P.S.—As of writing this interview, the first three books in this series were free to read with Kindle Unlimited—subscribe for one month and the cost of buying these books will pay for the subscription!!

When you talk about the actual clambake, you’ve emphasized that it is only the hot stones that cook the meal. How do they get rid of the embers? Is the food wrapped in foil? Do the potatoes have to go on first since the rest of the meal would cook quickly?

Cooking over hot stones is a traditional way to do a New England-style clambake. The embers are raked away once the wood burns off. The food is layered on, as you suggest, from that which needs the most cooking to the least. The corn, onions, and potatoes are wrapped in foil, as are the mesh bags containing meal-sized portions of the steamers (soft shell clams). The last item on the pile is the egg. When it is hard-boiled, all of the food is done.

 

In Hatteras, our clams clean themselves. After live harvesting, the clams are put in buckets of oceanwater for one day where they continue to siphon water through themselves, which gets rid of the sand. Why in Maine do they need clam broth for cleaning the clams?

I think from some quick Googling that in Hatteras you are clamming for quahogs, hard shell clams. The steamers served at a Maine clambake are soft shell clams, but I’m not sure it makes a difference. They are also soaked overnight and that does get rid of most of the grit. But for some reason steamers are traditionally eaten by dredging them first in warm clam broth and then in butter.

Some of the family’s employees start verbally fighting. Julia and her brother-in-law, Sonny, define the problem differently. Sonny claims the problem is Chris’s brother, Terry. Julia thinks it’s Pru, the ex-wife of Jason and also a coworker. Why do their opinions vary?

Pru and her ex-husband Jason have worked for the Snowden Family Clambake for years, and Sonny’s loyalty is to them. Julia, on the other hand, doesn’t want the problem to be her boyfriend’s brother, Terry. Julia hired Terry over Sonny’s objections even though Julia usually tries not to interfere in Sonny’s territory—the clambake fire.

Pru divorced Jason for cheating. Why is Pru jealous of Emmy, a younger single mother, with whom she works?

The heart wants what the heart wants. But in this case, Pru’s concerns may be more practical. Jason’s previous affairs have been passing. He seems to have an emotional connection to Emmy. Emmy has two children and is young enough to have more. Pru and Jason are still connected financially and by their children. Pru doesn’t want her children’s economic security threatened.

Why does Windsholme seem like an age-ravaged, but proud beautiful old woman?

The mansion has beautiful bones and was once proud and strong, but it has been unlived in since 1929 and given just enough maintenance to keep it standing. It’s still beautiful, but the porches sag, the roof leaks, shingles and shutters are missing, and several windows around the central staircase where there was a fire are boarded up.

Seals and dogs have a common ancestor?

Yes! Seals, sea lions, and walruses belong to the same suborder as bears, weasels, pandas, raccoons, and dogs. As you can totally tell by their appealing, doglike eyes.

Why is it illegal to go within 150 feet of a seal?

Seals have sharp teeth and no matter how appealing a pup, there may be a protective mama nearby. Seal pups are often left alone for as much as twenty-four hours, so you shouldn’t immediately assume a young one on its own is orphaned or abandoned.

I thought most migrants were Spanish agricultural workers. Are there Russian migrant crews in the U.S.?

The southern border of the United States has received most of the attention over the past three years, and rightfully so. However, in part I wrote the book to say, “Hey’ we’re here, too!” Thirteen states share a border with Canada. In many rural areas, including in Maine, the border historically was treated casually. People frequently crossed to shop or work. Since 9/11 and even more so in recent years, the border has been increasingly hardened, making some towns almost uninhabitable. I think most people would be surprised to know that Customs and Border Protection can and does board buses and hold roadblocks within 100 miles of the Canadian border and can ask you--without a warrant, without probable cause, without reasonable suspicion-- if you are a citizen. Because this includes sea borders, all of Maine falls into this zone—as do most cities on the east and west coasts.

As to the Russian demo team, when we renovated our home in Massachusetts it interested me that each of the trades that came through--demo workers, carpenters, drywallers, tilers, flooring workers--were comprised of a different nationality, more established immigrants giving a leg up to newer immigrants, as it has worked in this country, always.

The architect of Windsholme is Henry Gilbert. Was he real? Others you talk of were real turn-of-the-century architects.

He is fictional, though based on an architect, a self-taught French immigrant who only lived to design and build a few houses.

I never heard of a two-story kitchen with a balcony. It sounds awesome! Why does Windsholme possess one? What function did it have?

The kitchen in Windsholme is in the basement, the dining room on the first floor. The kitchen is ringed by a balcony on the first floor level that serves as a pantry, holding the family china, silver, crystal, linens, etc. I don’t know exactly where this idea came from, but there is a two-story pantry at The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. I haven’t been there in decades, but perhaps it seeped into my brain when I visited.

When a sealed room is discovered off the nursery, the diary of Lilly Smythe, who was a governess to the family’s two children in 1898, is found. Lilly was an educated professional, like the family’s yacht captain. Why did this put them in a socially awkward position?

Lilly Smythe, the governess, and Captain Beal, the captain of the Morrow family yacht, are educated people from middle-class families. But on Morrow Island, they are neither part of the upper-class owner’s family, nor are they servants, exactly. In such a small place, they are quite dislocated.

Both female victims, in the 19^th and 21^st centuries, were isolated. Is this one factor of victimization?

Isolation is attractive to victimizers, though the two cases in the book are quite different. In one, the woman has a job and is surrounded by people, but it turns out their loyalty is to their family and class and not to her. In the other, the victim has become quite isolated by circumstance and undertakes a dangerous journey. If she’d had someone in her life who could have cautioned her about the risks, she might have approached the situation differently.

What is cioppino?

Cioppino is a tomato-based seafood stew that is generally

attributed to the Italian fishermen of North Beach in San Francisco. In the recipe in Sealed Off we give it a little twist by using east coast seafood instead of west coast.

Pizzaiola sauce?

Pizzaiola sauce is a red sauce that includes olive oil, garlic, and oregano. Pizzaiola means, “in the style of a pizza maker.” It can be used with any protein that is flavorful enough to stand up to it. The recipe in Sealed Off is for halibut pizzaiola.

Why doesn’t Le Roi, Julia’s cat, like Chris?

Le Roi moved in with Julia before Chris did. Le Roi believes the primary relationship in the household is between him and Julia, and Chris is the interloper. Chris, naturally, sees it another way.

Pru’s sister tells Julia the truth. Do sisters have a unique perspective?

I suppose it depends on the relationship. In this case, Pru’s sister, Aggie, has had a front row seat to Pru’s entire relationship with her ex-husband Jason. Aggie has nothing to lose by telling Julia the truth.

What is a highliner?

A highliner is a highly successful fisherman. The word is used for lobstermen as well, who consider themselves to be fishermen.

Would you advise a young couple to examine each other’s families to see if they are joining the right tribe?

Ha, ha. Again I say that the heart wants what the heart wants. I’m lucky to have wonderful in-laws. Both my kids do, too.

Is Windsholme haunted?

Windsholme is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a workman who died during construction and the ghost of a maid whose appendix burst during a terrible storm when they couldn’t get her off the island. So far, I haven’t taken a position on whether it is actually haunted in any of the books.

Marguerite, Julia’s mother’s ninety-six-year-old cousin, is visiting to see Windsholme one last time before the mansion is renovated. She is the last member of the family to have lived in the house and remember it in its prime. This book is filled with bittersweet stories of women, every one of them. What was happening in your life at the time of its writing?

Oh my goodness! I’m not sure anything in particular was happening to me, though we did sell my mother-in-law’s 1879 Victorian sea captain’s house on the coast of Maine while I was writing Sealed Off, which was bittersweet. And writing in 2019, the themes in the book--the challenges and heartbreak of refugees and immigrants, and stories of powerful men taking advantage of women in subordinate positions—were all around me as I wrote.