A Thrilling Panel, a Chat with Marshall Cook, and More
By Doug Moe
Carter Wilson was scanning the news online in his home outside of Boulder, Colorado one morning in spring 2014 when he happened upon a horrific story out of Waukesha.
Two 12-year-old girls had stabbed a classmate 19 times in a twisted homage to a fictional character called Slender Man.
“I’m a voracious consumer of news online,” Wilson said recently, by phone from Colorado. “I read two paragraphs and I was immediately chilled by the thought of it. I couldn’t believe it had actually happened.”
In the story’s third paragraph, it was revealed that the victim had survived.
“That’s when I stopped reading,” Wilson said.
Wilson didn’t want to know more beyond those early details because he was already thinking that a fictional take on the frightening scenario might work in a novel. What would the life of the victim of such a crime be like a decade or more on?
Wilson will be at Mystery to Me July 18 at 7 p.m. with Mister Tender’s Girl, his novel loosely based on the Wisconsin events.
“Wilson turns the creep factor up to 11,” noted Kirkus Reviews of the new novel, “balancing his prose on a knife’s edge. A highly satisfying high-tension thriller.”
Wilson will be at the store as part of a four-author, four-city Up All Night Thrillers tour. The other authors – all acco mplished in the suspense field – and their most recent novels are Sandra Block (What Happened That Night); Jenny Milchman (Wicked River); and Randall Silvis (Walking the Bones).
“I think it’s going to be a blast,” Wilson said.
I will be moderating the panel, and if my telephone chat with Wilson is any indication, it will be lively.
Now the author of five well-received thrillers, Wilson was a licensed real estate agent sitting in a continuing education class when out of boredom he began sketching out a fictional story. This was 2003, he was 33 years ol d.
“I got home and I kept thinking about it,” he said. “Ninety days later I had a 400-page manuscript. It was a real turning point in my life. I had never done anything like that before.”
Wilson quickly learned there is a difference between writing a manuscript and publishing it. He did some research, and saw he likely needed to find a literary agent.
“It took me a year and 75 rejections to get an agent,” he said. The manuscript continued to accumulate rejections. “I wrote a second novel just so my agent wouldn’t dump me.”
In the end, it was Wilson’s fifth manuscript – the novel Final Crossing – that made him a published author.
I asked if it was a bigger thrill to get word that a publisher wanted his novel or to receive the first box of published books.
He laughed. Tough question. “Probably that the publisher wanted it,” he said. “But there’s something so visceral about opening that first box of books. Same with seeing the cover art for the first time. It’s thrilling.”
I suspect our panel July 18 will be, too.
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I’ll be moderating a few more events in July, including one at Mystery to Me July  20 at 7 p.m. with Victoria Houston, author of the popular Loon Lake Mystery Series.
I’ve interviewed Victoria before and we always have a spirited discussion. Dead Firefly is the 18th in the series, which is set in northern Wisconsin. Publishers Weekly found “plenty to like” in the new novel, calling the ending “unexpectedly poetic.”
On July 24 at 7 p.m. Patricia Sutton will be in the store with Capsized!, a nonfiction account written for young readers (and interesting for adults too!) of the tragic capsizing of the SS Eastland  in the Chicago River on July 24, 1915 with 2,500 passengers aboard. More people perished than on the Titanic. Who knew? Not me – and I look forward to talking with Sutton about it. “I enjoy finding little known-stories and shining a light on them,” Sutton notes on her web author page.
Thursday, July 26 at 7 p.m. brings two gifted writers, Sylvia Cavanaugh and Ed Werstein, to Mystery to Me, for an evening of poetry.
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The end of the month – actually Aug. 1 at 7 p.m. – will feature my conversation with the talented and versatile Madison author and teacher Marshall Cook.
Marshall has a delightful new novel, Glorious, set in small town Wisconsin and dealing with love and baseball and other eternal verities that we will discuss.
 I’ve known Marshall for decades and am amazed at his prodigious output of novels, nonfiction books and newsletters, much of it accomplished while he was also teaching writing fulltime at UW-Madison.
I didn’t realize until we shared a recent phone call that some 15 years ago Marshall appeared on TV with Orpah Winfrey to talk about stress relief and his book Slow Down and Get More Done.
He’s currently working on the 100th issue of the newsletter for writers and readers that he calls “Extra Innings.” Marshall and his wife, Ellen, will be married 50 years in September.
Some time ago Marshall told me that he got up at 4 a.m. every day and was typing before the sun was up. I asked if that’s still the case, and he said now he sleeps in until 5.
“I definitely write something every day,” he said.
It will be a fun and wide-ranging discussion August 1.
Here's a link to a list of upcoming events.
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 A tip of the hat...
Thanks to all who visited us last month for our our five-year anniversary party. A special shout-out to friend-of-bookstore, Sue Massey, for making two beautiful and delicious cakes AND for helping with the fun 60's decor!
Shout-outs also go to our terrific publishing "reps" who sent boxes of wonderful giveaways -- our Penguin rep, our friends at the University of Wisconsin Press, our rep for MIT, Yale and Princeton University Presses, and our reps from Ingram, Abraham Associates, and Fujii Associates.
Yes, road construction is ongoing and it's not been as terrible as we had anticipated. Why? Because so many of you are making that extra effort to get to us. We are forever grateful. If you're worried about parking, give us a call - we try to keep a space open behind the store. And feel free to use the back door - and the doorbell - to announce your arrival!
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Mystery to Me Best Sellers
In honor of our 5th birthday, here's a look at what we've been selling.
Just goes to show, there is a lot of mystery in (and) politics!!
Top 10 books from June 2013 through June 2018
1) View from the Interior by Sue Riseling
2) Old World Murder by Kathleen Ernst
3) Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
4) Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger
5) Politics of Resentment by Katherine Cramer
6) Still Life by Louise Penny
7) Zoo Station by David Downing
8) Haunted Ground by Erin Hart
9) A is for Activist by Innosara Nagara
10) - tie Maise Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
10) - tie Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein
Top 5 overall for January - June, 2018 -- non-fiction takes the cake...
1) With One Shot: Family Murder and a Search for Justice by Dorothy Marcic
2) Country Music USA: 50th Anniversary by Bill C. Malone
3) In Praise of Difficult Women by Karen Karbo
4) Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan
5) How to Make a Life: A Tibetan Refugee Family and the Midwestern Woman They Adopted by Madeline Uranek
Top 10 Mysteries January - June, 2018
1) Wrong Sister by T.E. Woods
2) Say No Moor by Maddy Hunter
3) Light it Up by Nick Petrie
4) Killer in King's Cove by Iona Whishaw
5) Marsh King's Daughter by Karen Dionne
6) To Die But Once by Jacqueline Winspear
7) Old World Murder by Kathleen Ernst
8) Death Rides the Ferry by Patricia Skalka
9) - tie Drifter by Nick Petrie
9) - tie Small Death in a Great Glen by A.D. Scott
9) - tie Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan
10) - tie Dry by Jane Harper
10) - tie Alice Network by Kate Quinn
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New Releases
The July Indie Next List is, once again, awesome. Next time you're in the store, check it out our new display. The Indie Next list is based on reviews from independent booksellers throughout the United States who submitted nominations. These are books you can trust to be vetted by the best! A few that we're particularly looking forward to sharing with you include:
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris
Dark Net by Benjamin Percy (now in paperback)
Wonder Valley by Ivy Pochoda (now in paperback)
If you're  a Harry Potter fan, you might want to check out the new covers for the 20th anniversary!
A few other July Releases include...
The Store by James Patterson (now in paperback)
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Half Moon Bay by Alice LaPlante
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Mosfegh
The Fall of Wisconsin by Dan Kaufman
Aunty Dimity and the King's Ransom by Nancy Atherton
A Double Life by Flynn Berry
Last Call by Allyson K. Abbott (paperback)
Dying up Loose Ends by Maggie Sefton (paperback)
Corpse at the Crystal Palace by Corolla Dunn
To Catch a Latte by Jenn McKinley (paperback)
Spymaster by Brad Thor
Origin by Dan Brown (paperback)
The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine (paperback)
Summer Listening Challenge!
Interested in Audio Books? If so, check out Libro.FM
What else is new?
The store's "smart" TV is gone! Five years ago we thought it was a terrific idea to have a smart TV for Skyping with authors, listening to Pandora, etc. Alas, thanks to planned obsolescence, the TV couldn't be upgraded to the new version of Skype or Pandora without way too many shenanigans... No time for shenanigans! So, lucky for us, we have very creative friends - Pete and Rachel Laubmeier designed and built our new event signage and event display area! Come on in and take a look!
Late r this month we'll be launching our 'pop-up' store at Bloom Bindery in Middleton. We plan to have 15-20 titles available each month -- we'll have a little sampling of of a variety of genres -- cookbooks, mysteries, children's books, poetry, and more. If you're a Middleton shopper, let us know what kind of books you would like to see available there. Just drop a note to info@mysterytomebooks.com. And if you shop with us online and would prefer to collect your book(s) in Middleton, we can arrange that too.
"Every reader wants the same thing: To open the cover of a book and watch the words explode like fireworks off the page." -- Kim Lehman
We'll be closed on the 4th of July.
Here's hoping you have a good book to read!
Thanks for shopping local.
Thanks for shopping Monroe Street.
Thanks for shopping at Mystery to Me.
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