Guest Post: From Short Story to Continuing Series by Edith Maxwell

Please welcome member Edith Maxwell to our blog today… 

From Short Story to Continuing Series

I don’t know how common it is to turn a short story into a long-running series. Let me share the tale of how I did it. And I’ll give away a signed copy of Charity’s Burden to one commenter here.

I’ve lived north of Boston in the northeast corner of Massachusetts for thirty years. For all that time I’ve been a member of Amesbury Friends Meeting (Quaker) but lived in other towns and drove to church on Sunday mornings.

In the summer of 2012 we downsized and bought a house in Amesbury. I already had friends here and loved the historic town full of brick mill buildings and a river that runs right through downtown. And now I could walk to Meeting. I was interested in antique houses, since renovating them (including the ones we live in – while we’re living in them…) is what my beau does for work. But I didn’t know much about Amesbury’s history before moving to town.

The next spring I read a newspaper article about the Great Fire of 1888 in Amesbury. The town was world-famous for its graceful well-built carriages, and the fire on the night before Good Friday burned down most of the factories on Carriage Hill. It was a huge disaster and was only saved from being worse by rain that fell during the night.

After I read that article, I was strolling to the lovely simple Meetinghouse built in 1851 one First Day morning when a short story popped into my head about the Quaker mill girl who solves the mystery of the arson. Historically the Great Fire wasn’t arson, but hey, I dream up fiction for a living. I wrote that story, and “Breaking the Silence” was published in Best New England Crime Stories 2014: Stone Cold (Level Best Books, November 2013).

As happens with writers, the setting and characters refused to go away, so I invented the girl’s midwife aunt Rose Carroll, wrote Delivering the Truth, and sold the series to Midnight Ink. The first three books have been nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel, including Turning the Tide this year.

I’ve also written several subsequent short stories featuring Rose, her quirky postmistress friend Bertie Winslow, and other mysteries in 1880s Amesbury, two of which were nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Short Story. (All my short fiction is listed on my web site.)

I love delving into all aspects of life in the late nineteenth century, learning about historic figures in town, and studying maps from the era. It’s a fascinating time to write about, being on the cusp of so much cultural change.

The new book, Charity’s Burden, treats the topic of birth control, which was hugely controversial at the time. Midwife Rose Carroll’s clients come to her with pregnancies, but they also seek her help when they don’t want to have another baby – whether before or after they have conceived yet again.

The highly restrictive Comstock Laws were passed in the 1870s, which made even speaking about preventing pregnancy a crime. Herbalists and others turned to evasive wording in the advertisements for their products, calling them products to regularize women’s cycles and improve their health. Certain practitioners also offered abortions, which of course were life-threatening at the time. I wanted to explore these issues – in the context of a murder mystery, of course. 


Here’s the book blurb:

The winter of 1889 is harsh in Amesbury, Massachusetts, but it doesn’t stop Quaker midwife Rose Carroll from making her rounds of her pregnant and postpartum mothers. But when Charity Skells dies from an apparent early miscarriage, Rose wonders about the copious amount of blood. She learns that Charity’s husband appears to be up to no good with a young woman. The woman’s mother, who goes by the mysterious name of Madame Restante, appears to offer illegal abortions and herbal birth control. A disgraced physician in town does the same. Charity’s cousin mistakenly thinks he will take control of his father’s estate, part of which was to go to Charity. Rose, who suspects Charity’s death was from an abortion either incompetently or maliciously performed, once again works with police detective Kevin Donovan to solve the case before another life is taken.

I’m excited Quaker Midwife Mystery #4 is out, and I am happy to announce the series is moving over to Beyond the Page Publishing with book five. Look for Judge Thee Not to release this fall! There will be at least two more in the series after that. My next short story, “Sushi Lessons,” releases in Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible, and my next Country Store mystery, Strangled Eggs and Ham (written as Maddie Day) comes out in June.

Readers: Do you know of other short stories that have led to series? Writers, do you ever cross over? I’m happy to answer questions, too, and I’ll give away a signed copy of Charity’s Burden to one lucky reader.

Edith Maxwell © 2019

Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Maxwell, with seventeen novels in print and four more completed, has been nominated for an Agatha Award six times. She lives north of Boston with her beau and two elderly cats, and gardens and cooks when she isn’t killing people on the page or wasting time on Facebook. Please find her at edithmaxwell.com, on Instagram, and at the Wicked Authors blog.