College professor Cordelia West loves her life–until her deadbeat husband returns at the losing end of a car chase and gun battle. He dies in her lap in front of a packed restaurant. Powering through the police interrogation and bystander videos going viral, Cory vows no man will ever wreck her life again.But after finding the cryptic artifact he slipped into her pocket as he died, Cory has a new problem: the killer’s after the artifact. Now she’s stuck with a charming detective who insists on helping her as they go on the run. Dodging the relentless killer and the detective’s suspicious behavior is giving Cory whiplash. She’s seriously considering smashing the artifact over Mr. Charming’s head.
When I'm stressed, I knit. The repetitive action is soothing, paying attention to a pattern keeps my mind occupied, and I get something to wear out of it. Win-win. This method is much better than my old method of dealing with stress: I used to have nightmares that I was back in the convent, wandering the halls, wearing the habit again, and asking myself over and over, "Why did I do this again?"
I made some interesting life choices when I was young.
Back to stress-busting. I haven't yet written a character who knits, but the main character in my current mystery, Death of a Bad Penny, is obsessed with mazes. The kind that are called labyrinths, because "maze" isn't fancy enough. You see them next to castles, made with giant hedges and that take up half an acre. And the kind in cathedrals that are set into the floor, using different colors of marble and stone.
This is the plan of the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth:
People walk it to meditate and be calm. My main character, a stressed college professor, tends to draw it with one finger on a nearby surface: a table, a chair arm, a bedspread. And let me assure you, she has a major need to reduce stress. She has gangsters shooting at her, the police think she must have had something to do with the death of her deadbeat husband, and then there's the hot detective she's on the run with.
She needs more than just tracing a labyrinth pattern. But I'm an evil author, and I don't give it to her. Although I do want to create a knitted labyrinth afghan now.
I do make sure to feed my characters comfort food. And since I don't have a knitting pattern to share, here's my recipe for chocolate figs stuffed with amaretto cream. They're a bit fiddly, but worth it!
Chocolate Figs Stuffed with Amaretto Cream
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 tablespoon amaretto liqueur
20 fresh figs
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1. In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese and amaretto.
2. For each fig, slice off about 1/3-inch from the bottom. With a small spoon, scoop out some of the fig flesh from the top half. Refill with the cream mixture and replace the bottom half of the fig.
3. When all figs are complete, carefully melt the chocolate in a microwave until smooth. Holding each fig by the stem, dip it about halfway into the chocolate. Transfer to a plate covered with wax paper. Refrigerate about 30 minutes before serving.
Cordelia West dug herself out from beneath a Mount Everest of final exams. It was almost noon, and she had to escape. This was probably the last June day without sauna-level humidity and mosquitoes big enough to drain a quart at a time. Channeling her inner Catwoman, she sneaked past the high-school principal’s office, dove into the back stairwell, and slipped outside before the hallway clock finished its twelfth chime.
Twenty minutes later she sat at an outdoor table in front of her favorite restaurant with a lamb gyro and a large sweet tea. She plugged in her earbuds to block out traffic and blaring car speakers.
An airport taxi crested the hill at NASCAR speed, pursued by a black sedan. The taxi lurched onto the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. The sedan clipped a minivan’s bumper. Three cars rear-ended each other in its wake. The taxi sideswiped a streetlight. The sedan T-boned the taxi. The taxi buckled. Airbags crushed the driver against the mangled door.
Bystanders screamed. Phones appeared in several hands. Voices shouted information at 911 operators. Other phones recorded the carnage.
The sedan’s driver opened his door.
People cried, “A gun!” Running feet slapped the sidewalk. Two people recording stood their ground.
The driver holstered the gun, wrenched the sedan out of the taxi, and sped away. Rubberneckers leaped to safety.
A bloody hand clawed the taxi’s back window. Cordelia unfroze. Popping out her earbuds, she leaped for the rear door and yanked it open. A man flopped out. She caught his head and eased them both onto the sidewalk.
His shirt was soaked. Her CPR training kicked in. She checked his pulse: thready. He coughed blood onto her clothes, and she turned his face upright.
“Cory.” Relief in his voice.
“Vince?”
Her husband coughed up more blood. “Remembered…liked restaurant.” He fumbled a small object into her pocket. “Told you so.” He groped for her hand. “Careful.”
The police arrived in time to see him die in her arms.
Baker of brownies and tormenter of characters, A.M. Loweecey grew up watching Scooby-Doo mysteries and Hammer horror films, which explains a whole lot. When A.M. isn’t finding new ways to mystify readers and make them laugh, she’s growing vegetables in the garden and water lilies in the koi pond. A.M. writes the Renegade Exorcist series (starting with Demons & Ramen), the Moonlighting Mysteries series (starting with Death of a Bad Penny) has 9 books in the Giulia Driscoll, P.I., mystery series (as Alice Loweecey) and 2 stand-alone horrors as Kate Morgan: Staking Cinderella and The Redeemers. She also has several anthologized short stories.
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