Author: Connie Berry

An Interview with Carol Pouliot

January 17, 2020
Connie Berry

Is Time strictly linear, or can it be bent or twisted? The answer is well beyond my mental capacities, but the idea of time travel has always fascinated me. Today I have the distinct pleasure of interviewing Carol Pouliot, author of the Blackwell & Watson Time-Travel Mysteries featuring 1930s Detective Sergeant Steven Blackwell and present-day journalist and researcher Olivia Watson. Steven and Olivia share the same house in a small New York town—eighty years apart!

January 16, 2020
Connie Berry

HOBBY: [ˈhäbē] NOUN. An activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure. People love hobbies. Some can be pretty bizarre—clipping and dying dogs to look like wild animals; collecting back scratchers or Ronald McDonald memorabilia; extreme ironing (I’m not making this up); doing cow impressions; playing dead. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that the #1 most popular hobby in the U.S. is reading. Writing comes in at #4. Needlework is a universal hobby. From the earliest times, men and women all over the world have created works of art and necessity with needle and thread (or yarn). Collecting the needlework of the past is a hobby, too. Since my protagonist in the Kate Hamilton Mystery series is an antiques dealer, I thought I’d share with you two examples of historic needlework in my own collection. Forgive my amateur photography. At a time when educating girls was considered frivolous if not pointless, the domestic arts were the main focus of their studies. One Italian proverb says, “A girl should be taught to sew and not to read, unless one wishes to make a nun of her.” This particular sampler was worked by a girl named Elizabeth Billinghurst, […]

January 15, 2020
Connie Berry

For those who read, write, and love crime fiction, one of the best traditions of any new year is the listing of favorite books published by critics, reviewers, and bloggers on social media. This year I was honored to find both my novels (A Dream of Death and A Legacy of Murder) on several lists. Thank you!

I’ve decided to join the party (albeit a bit late) and nominate my top ten favorite books of 2019. As a self-confessed Anglophile, I make no apologies for the fact that all but one take place in England. Here they are in alphabetical order…

January 14, 2020
Connie Berry

My favorite line in J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan describes Captain Hook: “The man is not wholly evil—he has a thesaurus in his cabin.” I love that. Words are important. They convey meaning and create an intellectual and emotional response. Since we know words can hurt or heal, we should be certain ours are understood.

Some words are imprecise, flabby, and liable to misinterpretation. Other words nail the intended thought with such clarity and precision that the mind of the hearer or reader is enlightened and enlarged. I admire people—even Captain Hooks—who know interesting and beautiful words and use them with skill and artistry. That’s the job of the writer, after all.

January 13, 2020
Connie Berry

I adore pinecones— the woodsy smell, the rough texture and complex structure, the memories they conjure.

Last week I was putting away the final remnants of my Christmas decorations when it occurred to me that I use pinecones and tree branches a lot in my house, not just at Christmastime but throughout the year. From my earliest childhood, the woods have been for me a powerful symbol of the enchanted forest with all its delightful and sinister possibilities.