People often ask me, “Did you decide to write a cozy mystery series about a wedding planner because you got an idea for it from your wedding planning business? The answer is… sort of.
Hello, I’m Mary Karnes, and I write ‘The Wedding Planning Mystery Series’ – a cozy mystery series published by Level Best Books. I always wanted to be an author. My mother helped me obtain the first of many rejection letters when she submitted a series of my poems to “Redbook Magazine” when I was six. I did not, however, always want to be a wedding planner. That was born more out of necessity than desire. I have four daughters. When daughter number two got engaged twelve years ago, my husband said, “Let’s get a wedding planner!” I said flat out, “NO! We are not wasting good money for that!” I won’t bore you with the details, but it was a grave mistake. After daughter number one’s wedding the following year, I thought, I can be a wedding planner. I did just that. I built a website, with the help of Godaddy.com, advertised on the knot.com and my business has been in the black since day one. All I needed to start was advertising, a computer, a clipboard, paper, and some pens – no overhead. Has it always been easy? Heck no! I was dealing with young women planning the biggest day of their lives. But I have been lucky. In ten years of professional planning, I have had only one ‘bridezilla.’ I now have a team of three ladies, and in the 2024 season, we did thirty-nine weddings. I planned them all but wasn’t always the ‘Day of Coordinator.’ I had written three books before I started the wedding planning business, in fact, I had written one wedding planner book before I had even started my business. ‘Why not write a wedding planning series now that I’m in the biz?’ I asked myself. So, I did. Friends say, “It must be so easy to write your series! You must get so much fodder from your brides!” Actually, the opposite is true. I have to work really hard to make my stories not resemble my couples, as I guard their privacy very closely. My first book, WEDDING BRIDE AND DOOM, was published in September 2023. Here’s a brief synopsis: WEDDING BRIDE AND DOOM KATE LUDLOW has moved back home to New England with her daughter, ELLIS, and her little dachshund, Hannah. Her husband, the cheating louse, left her for their next-door neighbor back in California. Finding herself in need of full-time employment, Kate turns her part-time wedding planning business into full-time event coordination. Home a little over a year, Kate lands a big society wedding, (it could be her big break!), and she’s ready to do anything to make the wedding a success, including finding a missing family heirloom ring. Kate is unsure why the family thinks she can find it when no one has been able to locate it for decades, but she’ll give it a shot. As she begins to get all the society wedding vendors in place, Kate stumbles upon the body of her best florist, LORI-SUE JOHNSON. Lori-Sue and Kate weren’t friends back in high school, and they aren’t friends now. And just like that, Kate is the police’s number one suspect. Even though Kate is the police’s only suspect, Kate sees potential murders all around her, including her best friend from high school, JEN COOPER. Back in the day, Jen was worried Lori-Sue might steal her boyfriend, and she never got over it. Was there another layer about their relationship that Kate is not aware of? To compound matters, BRIAN MCALLISTER, Kate’s high school boyfriend, and breaker of her heart, is the lead detective heading up the murder investigation. Are there still strong feelings between them? After the police search her home, Kate realizes no one is going to help her except for herself. She starts her own investigation, beginning with searching the deceased florist’s shop and finding a wrapper to a peanut snack, (Lori-Sue had a deadly peanut allergy), and Brian finds her. Brian tells her, “Kate you are your own worst enemy.” But still Kate carries on with her investigation. She doesn’t know who killed Lori-Sue, just that she didn’t. It could be any of a number of people from old friend, Addalee Baker, who provides Kate with an earful on why she’s not sorry Lori-Sue’s dead, to Brian’s former high school girlfriend and Kate’s archenemy, Sarah-Grace Deloro, the town’s top real estate agent. Why were pending ‘Board of Realtors’ charges dropped as soon as Lori-Sue was murdered? Even society Mother of the Bride, JOYCE SIMPSON, looks guilty. As if Kate doesn’t have enough on her plate, her daughter, Ellis, confides that she has been receiving nasty anonymous texts. Ellis guesses it is the relative of the deceased Lori-Sue, and daughter of Kate’s business rival, KENDRA JACKMAN. Kate goes to Kendra’s house and confronts her, telling her she’d better stop her daughter from harassing Ellis. But Kendra goes to the door to accept a delivery and Kate snoops on Kendra’s phone. It was Kendra who was sending the anonymous texts! Through further digging, Kate finds out Lori-Sue was blackmailing her own cousin, Kendra. Another murder suspect? Kate’s clients begin canceling her planning services, afraid she will be arrested for Lori-Sue’s murder. Kate is panicked. What will she and Ellis do if her business crashes or worse, she’s arrested for murder? Kate’s sleuthing has produced little, so she decides she might as well try to find the socialite’s missing family ring. The search takes Kate from a local jewelry store to a farm to the town’s historic landmarks. She has an unlikely ally, her old high school beau, and police detective Brian. Sparks fly, and it’s obvious there are still lingering feelings between the two. The strongest lead sends Kate to a local wedding cake baker who has purchased the antique ring at a farm tag sale. Where has the ring been all these years and how did it end up at a tag sale? After visiting the farm, Kate goes to a local retirement home to question a resident about the ring’s origin. As Kate investigates, she discovers a long-buried mystery that involves JOYCE SIMPSON, mother of the bride. Kate finds, at the risk to her own life, that Joyce has a deep secret she would do anything to keep, including killing Lori-Sue (and Lori-Sue did die by peanut allergy). This all comes to a head when Joyce realizes Kate is too close to the truth and kidnaps Kate to ultimately silence her. Kate’s unlikely savior is arch-rival Sarah-Grace. Kate discovers her other suspects’ secrets and why they had motives to kill Lori-Sue. The dead florist had been quite the blackmailer and used her friends and family’s secrets against them. The arrival of Kate’s ex lends another layer to her already chaotic life when he makes it plain, he’d like her back. Will Kate reunite her family, or seek what will make her happy, Brian? SAVE THE FATE was published in October 2024. Here is a brief synopsis: SAVE THE FATE Wedding Planner Kate Ludlow is back with her fun circle of small-town New England friends. Life is clipping along well for Kate. Her wedding season is off to a great start; she has reconnected with her former high school boyfriend, and her teen daughter is happy and looking forward to a fun summer. At the town’s traditional kick-off to summer party, “Strawberry Moon,” Jack Malone, the town’s parodical son, surprises the population with his appearance. He’s the best baseball player the whole of New England has ever produced, and he now plays professional baseball in Los Angeles. He hasn’t been home in years but has returned home to marry a local girl. He taps Kate to be his wedding planner, and she couldn’t be happier; what a boon this will be for her business! Jack reconnects with old friends, and apparently old enemies too, as his body is found in the Connecticut River on his third day home. Jack’s high school girlfriend, and Kate’s best friend, Jen, is the prime suspect. She can’t or won’t give an alibi for the time of Jack’s death. But she’s not the only person who looks guilty. A new business partner has come to Eastbury looking for Jack, claiming Jack cheated him in a business deal gone wrong. Then there’s the high school rival who lost everything in a decade’s old confrontation with Jack. The state police leading the investigation into Jack’s death feel certain Jen is their killer, so Kate has to act. If Jen won’t help herself, Kate will have to step in to save her; but this won’t help her fledgling relationship with her old/new love, Brian, who is Eastbury’s lead detective. The third in the series, UNVEILED SECRETS, will be published in October 2025. All books in the series are available wherever online books are so, in print, eBook, or audio formats. Mary Karnes is a mother of four who raised her family through six corporate moves, but always dreamed of being an author. Once the kids were grown, she started a wedding planning company and decided to simultaneously chase her dream of being a published author. The ‘Wedding Planner Mystery Series’ was born, with her business providing much subject matter for her books. Mary resides in New England with her husband, Ken, her mini-dachshund Lucky. Her door is a revolving one with her kids and grandkids visiting frequently.
0 Comments
“Never, never, never give up” Or, how to become a published author in fifteen years or less12/20/2024 by Allison Keeton Winston Churchill is credited with saying “Never, never, never give up.” Even though attempting to be a published author isn’t the same as surviving the Nazis’ bombings, Churchill’s mantra has echoed in my head for decades and has helped me keep my spirits afloat through pages and years of rejection letters, or worse, the echo of silence.
While I often say that I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was seven, it wasn’t until I received my MFA in my 40’s that I felt worthy enough to officially try. Did I need the MFA to write? No, but I did need it for courage, community, and a push—I had to write to justify the graduate school expense. Also, craft, as we know, can be taught, and I did have a lot to learn. I still do. But, two, three, four years out of graduate school, and I still hadn’t published my original novel. No agent had an interest in me, and I grew tired of rewriting it over and over and over to make it better. (Was I actually making it better, anyway?) Then, by chance, I took a seminar given by Steve Berry, successful thriller writer. He shared that his first seven novels were still in a drawer. “Keep writing,” he said to the class. His comment gave me permission to start a new story. That novel didn’t sell either. I wrote a third one. It also didn’t sell. So, I wrote a fourth. Then a fifth. With the sixth, I thought I had a winner. Who isn’t intrigued by the Lizzie Borden saga? Nope. Struck out again. All six novels are still in a “drawer,” so to speak. Another turning point came when I gave up my search for a literary agent. I’m not anti-agent, at all, but coming up with a different mindset was freeing. The first glimmer of this idea came from a zoom conference that had representation from the three main avenues to publication: self-published, traditionally published with an agent, and traditionally published without an agent. The latter had had an agent, for years, who never sold his book. He finally struck out on his own and landed a contract with a small press. I also attended a conference where multiple writers spoke of agents who had found editors who were interested in publishing their work, but the editorial board of the publishing houses voted the works down. I thought of my years of struggling to find an agent to only have another round of disappointment heaped on if the agent never sold my work. “Why let two hundred and fifty people dictate my writing career?” I said to myself. I know there are more than two hundred and fifty agents, but it seemed for my genre, I kept running into the same ones online and at conferences. Going beyond the agent process mentally opened me up to new possibilities. My friend and fellow writer, Cheryl, always says that until we actually land a book contract, we write in the dark. Even though we have feedback in our writers’ groups, we never know if what we’re really doing just needs a tweak here or there, because, commercially, agents and editors dismiss us. We have no true validation of our work. One day, I also asked Cheryl for creative advice. “Should I rewrite my fifth or sixth novel, or start the Midcoast Maine Mystery series?” I had pages of notes for the 3M series, as I call it. “Start fresh,” she said. “Start that series.” As she said the words, a raven sat on a branch outside of my window. “Ok,” I said, “and my protagonist’s name is Raven.” Raven Oueltte was born in my seventh novel, Blaze Orange. The book was set up to fit into a series mold, not to compromise myself or to write to the market, but to recognize that if I wanted to be a true mystery writer, I could follow a character-driven plot formula with all the ideas that I had been gathering. Yes, Maine is a character too. There’s a reason so many mystery writers live here. Finally, my story worked! Level Best Books will publish Blaze Orange, the first in a series, in January. I couldn’t be more elated. Fourteen years and seven novels later. While I always say to never give up, and I hadn’t, it still all feels like a dream. If you have a dream, whatever it is, keep at it—keep learning, and listening to feedback, and trying again, and again, and again. Unless it’s becoming a ski jumper in the next Olympics, chances are it’s never too late for you either. Allison Keeton lives in Maine with her muse, Tom, and their two dogs. She has twice been accepted into Rutger University’s invitation-only writers’ conference and is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Additionally, she received an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University. Besides writing mysteries, she has written numerous business articles and published a book on job hunting called Ace that Interview. She also writes a creative non-fiction blog, Largest Ball of Twine. by Sharon Marchisello I’ve always loved animals and have been owned by cats most of my life. At age four, I acquired my first kitten. My mother warned me not to grab her, to approach gently. I didn’t listen and got scratched. Nevertheless, I was not deterred from loving cats, but I learned right away to respect them. About twenty years ago, I found my tribe at the Fayette Humane Society (FHS), a local all-volunteer, foster-run animal rescue group supported solely by donations and fundraisers. I fostered cats in my home, worked at adoption events, and later, was asked to become the organization’s grant writer. In 2011, they invited me to join the Board of Directors. I learned that, although we rescue and rehome cats and dogs, it’s not enough to make a difference. Sadly, three to four million healthy, adoptable cats and dogs are put to death in animal shelters around the country every year, simply because they don’t have homes. We can’t adopt our way out of this problem. Spay and neuter became our mission. Not only do we ensure that all pets we adopt are fixed before they go to their new homes, we reach out to pet owners in the community and offer assistance with spay/neuter surgery. I’ve obtained numerous grants to fund this effort. One of the programs I write grants for is TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return). Or more accurately, TNVR (Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return). Before I became a rescue volunteer, I assumed all cats were potential house pets, like most of the cats who appear in cozy mysteries. I didn’t realize there are millions of unowned, unsocialized cats who call the outdoors their home. My town, like most communities all over the world, supports multiple colonies of free-roaming cats. They populate wooded areas, trailer parks, and shopping centers, especially properties that house restaurants. Free-roaming cats might be lost pets, strays, or truly feral felines, born outdoors and never socialized to humans. Unfortunately, they reproduce exponentially. A kitten can have a litter before she’s six months old, sometimes as early as four months. And most of her surviving kittens will have litters of their own before she’s a year old. In a state like Georgia, where the winters are mild, cats breed all year; a couple of abandoned, unaltered pets can quickly grow into a huge colony. Fortunately, volunteers from rescue groups like FHS are passionate about TNVR. They set humane traps to catch these free-roaming cats, transport them to a low-cost clinic to be spayed or neutered and vaccinated, then return the unsocialized ones to their outdoor homes, where they can live out their natural lives but not reproduce. While the cat is under anesthesia, the veterinarian clips a corner from the left ear; if the cat gets trapped again, the ear tip saves everyone another trip to the clinic. Since feral cats are mostly nocturnal, our trapper volunteers must work at night, usually in deserted locations. A perfect set-up for danger… or finding a dead body. Hence the premise for my new mystery, Trap, Neuter, Die. I figured most readers would be as clueless about TNVR as I was before I joined FHS. So, how could I educate them on the program without a big info-dump? Our organization has a revolving door for volunteers: high school students who need hours for Beta Club, empty-nesters or new retirees biting off more than they can chew, and of course, court-ordered community service. I decided to make my protagonist, thirty-year-old divorcee DeeLo Myer, a new community service volunteer. Thus, the reader learns about TNVR along with the heroine. The story opens with DeeLo’s first night on duty. A newcomer to the fictitious Georgia town of Pecan Point, she’s paired with seasoned trapper Catherine Foster, who’s not ashamed to admit she likes feral cats a whole lot better than human beings. And she’s particularly intolerant of DeeLo when she finds out the reason for her court-ordered community service. Needless to say, their working relationship gets off to a rough start. The night gets even worse when they discover a dead body. And Catherine won’t let DeeLo call 9-1-1. From my involvement in procuring grant funds, I learned that many communities, including the county where I live, have animal ordinances that do not support TNVR, so volunteers operate in the shadows. These ordinances treat free-roaming cats the same as pets, with leash laws as well as ownership and abandonment restrictions designed for pet owners, not feral cat caretakers or rescue volunteers. A few years ago, a group of FHS volunteers attempted to work with the Fayette County Board of Commissioners to get the animal ordinance updated—let’s just say there was a lot of drama and hidden political agendas. Maybe fodder for a novel… These draconian ordinances are rarely enforced; in fact, most people don’t know what’s on the books. But in my story, a cop with a grudge against Catherine Foster has read the county’s ordinance and found the loophole giving him the authority to arrest her for practicing TNVR. When DeeLo sees Catherine arrested (and subsequently held under suspicion of murder), she’s amazed at the law’s stupidity and vows to change it. How hard could that be? She enlists the help of her boyfriend, owner of the law firm where she works. DeeLo’s job at the law firm gives her intimate knowledge of the business affairs of key Pecan Point residents. And in her efforts to enlist support for her ordinance reforms, she comes in contact with some of the town’s most prominent citizens—including those who have motives for murder. Even though I’ve been a rescue volunteer for years, I was never a trapper. As part of my research for this book, I went out trapping with FHS volunteer and TNVR guru Marcia Hendershot, who is nothing like Catherine Foster (apart from her TNVR expertise). Marcia was kind enough to be one of my beta readers and help me correct my mistakes. What do I hope to accomplish with this book? I want to create awareness about the tragedy of pet overpopulation and show how some people are working to help solve it. And of course, give readers an entertaining mystery. Sharon Marchisello is a long-time volunteer and cat foster for the Fayette Humane Society (FHS). Because she earned a Master’s in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California, her fellow volunteers tasked her with writing grants for FHS, including procuring funds to support Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return. She’s the author of two mysteries published by Sunbury Press--Going Home (2014) and Secrets of the Galapagos (2019). Sharon has written short stories, a nonfiction book about personal finance, training manuals, screenplays, a blog, and book reviews. She is an active member of Sisters in Crime, the Atlanta Writers Club, and the Hometown Novel Writers Association. Retired from a 27-year career with Delta Air Lines, she now lives in Peachtree City, Georgia, and serves on the board of directors for the Friends of the Peachtree City Library. By Paula Mays The mystery genre has gone through various metamorphoses from the traditional “who done it,” to far-out fantasy. The rise in travel and increasing globalization has led to an even greater expansion of the genre, which now includes the popular International Mysteries. These are stories from far-off places that allow you to sightsee while you solve a murder. Like the travels of Gulliver in the past, these stories allow you to learn about new cultures and to develop a greater love for humanity. It’s the genre I got into, the one I most enjoy. So, where did I develop this attraction for these types of mysteries you might ask? It was a combination of travel and falling in love with International Mysteries in their original language on MHZ, a local Washington DC television Network, especially Andrea Camilleri’s "Montalbano," Donna Leon’s, "Inspector Brunetti," and Georges Simenon’s, "Magret." There are also those dark Swedish Mysteries like Martin Beck and Wallander. (I urge you to read the books and find the shows on www. MHZ.com online). These wonderful mysteries intrigued me. I also traveled, quite by accident the first time, to Southern Spain. The problem is that, as soon as the plane landed in sunny Malaga airport, I knew that was where I belonged. There began a lifetime love affair. I don’t believe in Karma or that kind of thing, but if I did, I’m certain I had an ancient relative, perhaps from that time when the Moors ruled Spain before the La Reconquista. The romantic era of the final conquest of Grenada (home of the Al Alhambra, which you definitely need to see), by Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand in 1492 the same year Christopher Columbus opened America to the Europeans. This attraction drew me back several times a year for a while, to the point that my friend Lourdes’s then husband said I was 45% American and 65% Spanish. I haven’t been to my other home in a while, though I intend to return. In the meantime, I invite you to travel with me across the Mediterranean, to look over at the Rock of Gibraltar into the continent of Africa. I invite you to immerse yourself in colorful Flamenco, share tapas, stop for a churro in rich deep dark chocolate, and finish the night with a fine glass of Cava or Rijoa. While we’re there, we’ll find out who done it.
I recently read that the Japanese term Honkaku- which means orthodox, refers to the old-fashioned detective stories. The entertainment from them derives from the logical reasoning of solving the crime, like everyone’s favorite, Agatha Christie novels. A Brief Introduction to Honkaku Detective Fiction - killerthrillers.net Now, we’ve entered what the Japanese call, Shin Honkaku- the New Orthodox. These started with Island mysteries in the 1980’s. 4 Different Styles of Mystery Novels from Around the World (bookriot.com). The new orthodox involves solving a mystery on an island, something like the popular television show, Death in Paradise, if you’ve seen it (also love those British mysteries on Britbox). Today, we don’t stop just at the islands. We can go anywhere from Spain to Italy to France to Sweden, to Greece, to Morocco, or to Istanbul. This new orthodoxy expands our imaginations even further than Gulliver traveled. I invite you to join me and fall in love with a land not your own. You may want to see a part of the world you never knew existed; you may want to write your own mystery. Whatever you decide, you can’t go wrong with a good trip and a good murder to solve. Paula B. Mays is a Native of Washington, D.C. She is the Current President of Sisters in Crime (SINC) Chesapeake Chapter, a Trademark attorney, a former USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office) attorney, and has a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from George Washington University. MURDER IN LA PLAZA DE TOROS is the first in a new series of mysteries set in a fictional town in Southern Spain. Paula has also published articles in the Huffington Post and has written other trademark-related articles. She lives in Arlington, Virginia. by Vinnie Hansen Cha-cha-cha-changes. The one constant in life. In this decade-birthday year, I feel this acutely. A voice whispers in my ear, “You are the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be.” If there’s stuff I still want to do, I better get to it.
The urgency has already resulted in two trips, one of them to check off bucket-list items: the Teddy Roosevelt National Park and The Enchanted Highway. But I also realize my years as a writer could be numbered. In September, I’ll be on a MWA panel at the MLK Library in San Jose with Laurie King, Leslie Karst, and Heather Haven. We’ll be discussing how we work, how we got started, and what a person needs to do “to make it.” Like I know that? However, on more reflection, I do know something about it. My first response—to laugh—is due to constantly moving my goal posts. At one time, I would have thought I’d made it to write a book. Well, I’ve done that a dozen time over if you count the two manuscripts in my file cabinet. Get an agent? I’ve had one. Have a book published. Done. Nine to date. But even now with seventy traditionally published short stories and a two-book contract with Level Best Books, it’s hard for me to acknowledge the messages that tell me I have reached a certain level of success—the very invitation to be on the aforementioned panel, for example. Other authors ask me for blurbs. I was recruited by the NorCal MWA chapter to do a Facebook Live presentation on short story. I moderated a panel on short story at Left Coast Crime. The Coastal Cruisers chapter of Sisters in Crime asked me to do a Zoom presentation on short story. My local bookstore reached out to see if I’d like to be “in conversation” with a NY Times Bestselling YA thriller writer. Are you kidding me? The Capitol Crimes chapter of Sisters in Crime asked if I would be a judge for their anthology. A well-known editor invited me to submit to an anthology he’s put together. Barb Goffman chose one of my stories to be a reprint in Black Cat Weekly. Some of these things have required a lot of work on my part but I’ve learned to say yes to opportunities, to step up to difficult jobs like moderating a panel or judging an anthology. They are my way to give back to a community that has supported me, but they are also benchmarks of “making it.” And it has been my experience that seizing these opportunities and putting in the work generates more opportunities. I’ve always wanted to have a contract with a significant publishing company rather than indie publishing my long works via the small, collaborative press to which I belong. Now I’ve achieved that. Of course, reaching one metric does not prevent me from wishing I made more money from writing, would win a prestigious award, or break through to a best sellers list. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to level up, but it’s important to acknowledge our accomplishments and to understand we are not in competition with other authors, but only with our own expectations. Vinnie Hansen fled the howling winds of the South Dakota prairie and headed for the California coast the day after high school graduation. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine (BA) and San Francisco State University (MA) writing programs. She’s gone on to pen numerous short stories; Lostart Street, a novel of mystery, murder and moonbeams; and the Carol Sabala mystery series. The seventh installment in the series, Black Beans & Venom, made the finalist list for the Claymore Award as did the opening of One Gun. Still sane after 27 years of teaching high school English, Vinnie has retired and lives in Santa Cruz, California, with her husband and the requisite cat. By Steve Packwood Along with over 150 million other citizens of the United Kingdom and her Commonwealth, without thinking much about it, I went about living my life as a ‘New Elizabethan.’ Despite the connotations of the word ‘Elizabethan’ and obvious links to Shakespeare, I have never worn a lacey ruff or tights, sported a moustache or pointy beard, or uttered ‘hath’, ‘doth’ or ‘gadzooks!’ Nor have I skipped about singing ‘hey nonny, nonny,’ or ‘Lorks a Lordy!’ I was a New Elizabethan. Then it happened.
At 3.10pm on Thursday 8th September 2022, my Queen, Elizabeth the Second, took her last breath at her beloved Balmoral Castle. A hidden fairy tale retreat set beside the shallow, burbling River Dee, which snakes through the purple heather swathed hills and valleys of a remote corner of Aberdeenshire, in North East Scotland. A place I know well. Although that day is over a year past, like so many of my fellows, it still seems strange to me to no longer have our Queen. For the vast majority of us Brits, after reigning for seventy years, without giving it much logical thought, we assumed she’d always be there, as she always had been. Of course we were wrong. We shouldn’t have been shocked and surprised, there had been signs but we were. So it was, as Her Majesty’s heart, in her surprisingly little body, finally rested, without realising it, I ceased being a New Elizabethan and became a Carolean. (from Carolus, the Latin for Charles.) I must declare a personal interest at this point, I am now retired but for thirty years I was an officer of London’s Metropolitan Police and for the final ten of those years I was a member of the Royalty Protection Department of that Service. I met and interacted with most of the senior Royals, the late Queen in particular, when posted to Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral in Scotland, where she passed away. With a couple of exceptions I really liked The Royals I met, so I hereby declare myself a Royalist. Queen Elizabeth’s funeral was code named ‘London Bridge’ and had been planned and periodically updated since the 1960’s, ‘just in case’. (Each Royal’s funeral is code named after a bridge, her Mother was Tay Bridge, her husband, Prince Philip, was Forth Bridge. His funeral had long been prepared for too, even the long wheel base Landrover, which on his orders would carry his coffin, was kept ready for decades, stored in the Mews at Windsor Castle, started and driven once a week and kept immaculately clean). The State Funeral of Her Majesty took place on Monday 19th September 2022 after ten days of National Mourning. An image seared into every viewers memory is of her coffin, draped with the Royal Standard upon which sat, apparently precariously, the Crown, The Sceptre and the Golden Orb. As the red-coated and red faced Guardsmen skilfully manoeuvred the weighty, lead-lined coffin, the nation held its breath, fearful the ancient, priceless objects should perhaps slip and fall. They were of course, securely fastened. For me, it was the small, almost unnoticeable vignettes which adhere to the memory and move me deeply. The Queens daughter, Anne, The Princess Royal, her face riven with sadness, curtseyed slowly and reverentially as the coffin passed her by, honouring her Mother for the very last time. The New King, Charles III, his eyes glistening with tears which he fought and failed to keep from falling as his ‘Dear Ma’ma’ began the descent into the Vault of Windsor Castle’s St George’s Chapel, to rest beside her Father, King George VI, her Mother Elizabeth and her Husband, Philip. Most moving of all was the single piper, playing the lament, ‘Sleep, Dearie, Sleep.’ The drone of the pipes and the soulfulness of the tune echoed through the five hundred year old Chapel walls, and as the piper slow stepped away the sound diminished until it could be heard no more. It made me recall each morning at Balmoral Castle, The Queens Piper, my friend Pipe Major Jim Stout, played for exactly fifteen minutes, pacing the terrace beneath the dining room window as Her Majesty enjoyed her breakfast. He could be heard each evening, in his quarters at the Castle, practising for the next morning, to get the timing precisely right. His tune would begin as Balmoral’s clock struck the hour and finish fifteen minutes later. The clock would strike the quarter hour the briefest moment after his tune ended. Jim’s accuracy was fearsome. The Queen loved the sound of the pipes and it was his honour and joy to please her. At the end of The Summer Court at Balmoral the Queen would hold the famed Ghillies Ball. An evening of Highland dancing (called a ceilidh, pronounced kay-lee) attended by whichever Royals were in residence and invited members of the Royal Household Staff. Initiated by Queen Victoria in 1852 and held every year since, it is named for the estate Ghillies (Highland Gamekeepers). By my time among the one hundred guests were servants, cleaners, soldiers, cooks and hairdressers, and a few very lucky police officers, such as myself. A total novice, I needed Highland dancing lessons for eight weeks in preparation for the event. Queen’s Piper Jim Stout, who would provide music for the dance, oversaw my feeble efforts, oft declaring (with an amused twinkle in his eye) that I was a “flat-footed, uncoordinated English oaf.” (Thanks Jim, love you too). Somehow I eventually passed muster and on the great night was permitted to cavort enthusiastically around the ballroom demonstrating ‘Strip the Willow’, ‘The Dashing White Sergeant’, ‘The Eightsome Reel’, and my particularly flamboyant interpretation of ‘The Gay Gordon’, which I imagine is recalled by traumatised witnesses with incredulity. The climax of course was dancing with Her Majesty, whose hands were soft, whose stature was petite, whose feet were tiny and whose radiant smile was so, so warm. She rests in peace now, for evermore. Surrounded by her family and noble ancestors, encompassed and protected by the thousand year old walls of Windsor Castle. Like millions of others, I can’t quite believe it. Like millions of others, I miss her. God save The Queen. Steven Packwood was born in the economically declining industrial Midlands of England in 1960 to parents who worked in factories. In 1984 he moved south to London to become an officer of the Metropolitan Police. He served in many departments and in many capacities until specialising as one of the British Police’s, very few, firearms officers. He was employed for several years on armed response vehicles and motorcycles until selected to undergo further training, to qualify as a Protection Officer. There followed several exciting years safeguarding Prime Ministers, including Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, as well as other senior Government Ministers and visiting Heads of State. Steve was invited to join the Royalty Protection Group, initially on Prince Charles’s team (now King Charles III) and ultimately with H.M. Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and in Scotland at Balmoral Castle. In 2014 Steve retired from the police relatively sane and reasonably intact after providing “Thirty years of exemplary service.”. Steve has been very happily married to Sue for ten years and has two daughters from a previous marriage. Amy is twenty seven, a nurse in a central London hospital, whilst Emma is twenty four and has recently followed in her father’s footsteps to join the ranks of the Metropolitan Police. Steve’s wife encouraged him to start writing when he retired, mainly as a creative outlet after so many years of living a disciplined and regimented life but also, he suspects, to keep him from getting under her feet. He finds the process of writing both enjoyable and cathartic and admits to savouring being told that his stories are “not bad,” or sometimes even “quite good.” Words of high praise in a country steeped in a tradition of understatement. Steve and Sue are passionate about the theatre and love to travel, having so far ticked off the Far East and the Indian sub-continent as well as most of Europe but take special joy in crossing the pond to visit the USA which they adore. The couple have relatives in Florida and good friends in New York, so these are the most frequent destinations but they plan to explore the rest of the country soon, pandemics permitting. Steve has an adventurous spirit, as a qualified scuba diver he has a passion for swimming with sharks, misunderstood creatures he adores, he has also sky-dived, para-glided, abseiled and bungee jumped. Sue keeps a substantial life insurance policy in her back pocket. Steve considers himself amongst the luckiest of people and loves his life, often exclaiming with a satisfied sigh to anyone who will listen, “where did it all go so…right!”. |
Level Best AuthorsMusings from our Amazing Group of Authors Archives
February 2025
Categories
All
|
Level Best Books18100 Windsor Hill Rd
Olney MD 20832 |