Tag Archive for: Lobster shack

WANTED: 3 BR, 2 BATHS, LOTS OF STORY INSPIRATION

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By Shari Randall 

 

When she beta-read my last book, a friend told me that I seemed more interested in describing houses and settings than I was in describing people. At first I was taken aback, but after reflection, I saw her point.

 

I adore all those tv shows about houses – buying houses, selling houses, decorating houses, rehabbing houses, even haunted houses. With my husband’s military career, we’ve bought and sold plenty of houses. I love a good house tour or decorator showcase. Even dollhouses fascinate me. When I was a little girl, my favorite toy was my Barbie Dream House. Although my kids flew the nest years ago, I still have custody of their dollhouses and, sorry kids, I don’t think you’re getting them back.

 

Why do houses intrigue me so? Perhaps a psychologist could explain. Maybe the dollhouse my dad built for me and my sisters, a replica of our own red Cape Cod home, set me on this path.

 

Perhaps homes reflect the people in them and the writer in me has stumbled upon a different form of characterization? What can I say, houses inspire me.

 

With COVID, I haven’t been able to travel to scout potential story locations and buildings as much as I’d like. Lucky for me that my corner of Connecticut is full of intriguing places, places that fire my imagination and will make great settings for my books.

 

One of my characters likes to “collect castles” and so do I. Gillette’s Castle, set on a hill called the Seventh Sister overlooking the Connecticut River, is one of my favorite places to visit. Designed by William Gillette, an actor famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, the castle’s décor, construction, and grounds reflect the eccentric brilliance of its owner. This place inspired another pocket-sized castle in the second, as-yet-untitled book in my Ice Cream Shop Mystery series.

 

Here’s a charmer that is slated to be the childhood home of the main character in Ice Cream Shop Mystery #1, The Rocky Road to Ruin. 

 

This mini-castle is tucked into a neighborhood a block from the ocean. Not your typical beach house, is it? I can only imagine the character who built this place. I feel a story coming on!

 

Writers: People or places – which do you find easier to describe? Readers: Are you as crazy about real estate as I am?

Shari Randall is the author of the Lobster Shack Mystery series from St. Martin’s Press. The first in series, CURSES, BOILED AGAIN, won an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. The first in her new Ice Cream Shop Mystery series (written as Meri Allen), THE ROCKY ROAD TO RUIN, will be published on July 27, 2021.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Mystic Bay!

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by Shari Randall

If you’re like me, you had a lot of travel plans canceled this summer. My consolation? Armchair travel with my TBR (to be read) pile. One of the great things about books is that they let us travel without leaving home.

So I thought I’d take you to the setting of my cozy mystery series, Mystic Bay. “Mystic Bay” is modeled on real life Mystic, Connecticut, a village on Long Island Sound that is always on those lists of best places to vacation. History? Check. Great scenery? Check. Charm? Check. Great restaurants, especially that New England specialty, the lobster shack? Triple check!

I’m including pictures of the real life Mystic that inspired scenes in my Lobster Shack Mystery series – a real slice of New England. Get out your cameras – the tour’s about to start!

Here’s the lobster shack that inspired The Lazy Mermaid. Ford’s was used as a location shot in the movie Mystic Pizza, so it may look familiar. Their lobster bomb is the best!

This is one of the beautiful old sea captain’s homes you’ll find in Mystic. Note the enclosed widow’s walk on the roof. The house overlooks the harbor where whaling ships returned after voyages that could last several years, and the captain’s wife kept watch from the walk. Yes, many of those wives did indeed become widows – whaling was a dangerous profession.

Mystic Seaport is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country. Nothing is more relaxing than watching ships – especially historic ships like the Charles Morgan – on the Mystic River.

Ah – fall color in New England! I set my third book, DRAWN AND BUTTERED, at Halloween so I could bring in the sights and sounds of autumn – fall festivals, glowing jack o’lanterns, and pumpkin spice everything!

I can’t let you leave without a delicious, buttery lobster roll. If you’d like a further taste of Mystic Bay, you can check out the Lobster Shack Mystery series, which includes recipes for some New England favorites. Enjoy!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B077JS8VPX

Shari Randall writes the Lobster Shack Mystery series about Allegra “Allie” Larkin, a ballerina who is injured in a mysterious accident. While she heals, Allie returns to her hometown of Mystic Bay where she works in her quirky Aunt Gully’s Lazy Mermaid Lobster Shack. When Aunt Gully falls under suspicion of murder, Allie discovers that she has a talent for detection. 


Where is the last place a book took you?

Meet The Queen of Christmas

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For the past few months, I’ve been working on a secret project – a Christmas short story called “The Queen of Christmas.”
I’m a huge fan of short stories at this busy time of the year. What better to read when there are so many demands on our time but also an increased need to recharge our batteries by taking a few moments to enjoy some fun holiday reading? 
Several readers have asked me to do a holiday story with the characters from my Lobster Shack mystery series. I started wondering — what do Allie, Aunt Gully, Verity, and all the other characters from the Lazy Mermaid lobster shack do at Christmas?
A visit to a holiday show house tour last December sparked ideas. A Christmas crazy friend of my mom has collected ornaments and decorations for decades. Over time, her single decorated tree became two trees, then three, and after several years this lady had a decorated tree for every room in her house and crowds clamoring to visit. Her Fantasy of Trees was born.
What if I moved this festival of trees to Mystic Bay? What if a desperate criminal was determined to cause holiday mischief instead of holiday merriment?
Writing a short story comes with challenges. The story has to be tighter. Every word has to work harder. Which characters will be in the story? How to keep the story to a length that is perfect to enjoy during the holiday crush?
I hope you’ll check out my new mystery short story, “The Queen of Christmas.” I hope it will provide you with a fun escape from the hustle and bustle of the holidays. The story also includes a recipe for hot toddy, because what’s nicer than curling up with a good story and a warm drink on a frosty winter night?
The story is available exclusively on Amazon for Kindle. Enjoy!


Halloween in February? Reading Out of Season

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by Shari Randall

Back when I worked as a children’s librarian, there was a little boy named Jamie who loved to read Halloween books – no matter the season.  And when I say Halloween books, I don’t mean just scary books. He liked books set on the holiday itself. He loved Halloween.
So what did he check out when his family gathered books for a trip to the beach? Halloween books.
When his family picked up books to read over spring break? Halloween books.
Christmas break? Halloween books.
I myself tend to save holiday reading for the holidays. It feels funny to take a A Christmas Carol to the beach.
I set my latest mystery, DRAWN AND BUTTERED, at Halloween. I have to give it to Jamie – there’s something so enticing about Halloween, all the excitement, the thinning-veil-between-the-world-of-the-living-and-the-dead, the masquerades. The nights are longer and the dark itself is heavy with excitement and deception – perfect for a mystery.
But my publisher is releasing DRAWN AND BUTTERED on February 26. They know what they are doing and I put my trust in them but I can’t help thinking, Halloween in February?
So what do you think, Dear Readers? Do you read Halloween books all year round? Was Jamie onto something? Let me know in the comments.
Shari Randall is the author of the Lobster Shack Mystery series from St. Martin’s Press. She loves lobster, but may be a teensy bit allergic to it.

Getting the Setting Right

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by Shari Randall

Shari here, taking a bit of a break from writing Book Three in my Lobster Shack Mystery series. I just mailed in copy edits on Book Two, Against the Claw, which will be published on July 31. My kids love the fact that it comes out on Harry Potter’s birthday!
When I started writing the first book in my series, I thought about the ingredients I wanted to add to the story. What do I like in a mystery? I definitely wanted a play-fair puzzle with lots of possible culprits. I like a fast pace, in the snappy style of Murder, She Wrote. I love a fish out of water story, so I landed Allegra Larkin, my ballerina protagonist, in a lobster shack. Most especially, I wanted the setting to make the reader feel like they were taking a New England vacation.
Actually, of all the ingredients, the setting worried me the most. Even though I live in the area where my series is set – the Connecticut shoreline and I am just minutes from some great lobster shacks – I was concerned about doing justice to the feel, details, and history that make this such a great place to visit.
My fictional Lazy Mermaid lobster shack is a combination of several shacks that I visited when I did my Lobster Shack Tour last summer. From Connecticut to the Cape to Maine there are lots of lobster shacks. What do they have in common?  The sunburned diners at splintery picnic tables, the dive-bombing gulls, blue sky and blue water, the briny sweet taste of lobster, the long lines and jammed parking lots.
What does my fictional Lazy Mermaid Lobster Shack have that they don’t? For a start: 
A cook who serenades the lobster with Broadway show tunes.
Walls decorated with not just the typical fishing nets and wooden lobster traps, but also shelf after shelf of a mermaid collection called “mermaidabilia.”
A shack set in a little village where the buildings are unchanged from the time they were built in the mid 1800s.
A couple of weeks ago, I received a note from a reader who told me that my book made her feel like she was a little girl again, right back in the seaside cottage her family rented on the Connecticut shore not far from New Haven. It was her family’s tradition to visit a lobster shack and get lobster rolls once every summer. She was sure that the shack in my book was the one that her family had visited all those years ago. She even sent me a picture of her family at the shack.
Well, I was thrilled that I’d captured the feeling of this reader’s childhood New England vacations, but I didn’t have the heart to tell her that my lobster shack was fictional.
But the lovely fan letter has given me some hope that I’m getting the setting right. I hope if you’re in the mood for a New England vacation, you’ll visit the Lazy Mermaid Lobster Shack in my fictional Mystic Bay, Connecticut. Let me know if you have a good time, okay?
Shari Randall is the author of Curses, Boiled Again, Book One of the new Lobster Shack Mystery series from St. Martin’s Press. Book Two, Against the Claw, will be published July 31, 2018. You can see what’s new with her at https://us.macmillan.com/author/sharirandall/.