Katherine Hall Page – Faith Fairchild Mysteries

Agatha Award winning mystery author Katherine Hall Page celebrates a special anniversary with the 25th book in her Agatha Award winning Faith Fairchild Mysteries Series, The Body in the Wake. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in today’s Binge Reading episode Katherine talks about how a decision to sit down and write a mystery novel while on holiday in France years ago led to a remarkable second career, how the pandemic is affecting her stories, and about the cookbook that won an Agatha Award for best novel nominated for nonfiction. Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: How a holiday in France made her a writerHer important first career as an educatorHow Faith has evolved as a characterWhy having 'moral compass' mattersHer award winning mystery cookbookHow one book grew into a 25-book series Where to find Katherine Hall Page:  Website: http://www.katherine-hall-page.org/bio.html Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katherinehallpage/ Katherine in Forbes magazine: https://bit.ly/3x4H4F8 What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. But now here's Katherine. Jenny Wheeler: Hello there, Katherine and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us. Katherine Hall Page: Thank you so much for inviting me, Jenny. I'm absolutely delighted. It's been a dream to go to New Zealand, and this is almost as good. Jenny Wheeler: The next best thing. I think you're in Massachusetts, are you? Katherine Hall Page - Agatha Award winning mystery author Katherine Hall Page: I am outside of Boston in Massachusetts. Normally we live four months of the year in Maine, especially since my husband retired about six years ago, but because of the pandemic, we never left Massachusetts.  We are in a very lovely spot, very wooded and beautiful. We did miss going to Maine by the water, but this has been not a bad place to hunker down. Jenny Wheeler: That's great. The latest book you've written in your Agatha Award winning series is set in Maine, and a number of them have been set in Maine over the years. It's a really special book because it's a silver anniversary book, it's the 25th in the series. That in itself is pretty amazing, isn't it? Introducing Katherine Hall Page Katherine Hall Page: It is really and when I think about it, at times it seems as if it's gone quite fast. Then when I look back, the first book wasn't published until I was 40. I didn't write the first book until I was 38 and my husband took a sabbatical. We were living in France, and I had a two-year-old who was in a lovely daycare there, but I had this whole other career, so I consider myself lucky to have had two careers that have meant so much to me. But this 25th has been one lovely thing after another. People have been wonderful. The Body in the Belfry - the first Faith Fairchild mystery by Katherine Hall Page Jenny Wheeler: You've won a lot of awards for them over the years, and we will go into that a little later, but Faith Fairchild is the name of your amateur sleuth. She's a minister's wife and a caterer. When you were starting out you were on holiday in France. Did you ever expect it would take off like this and be such a lasting thing? Katherine Hall Page: Absolutely not, and with no false modesty, I assumed I was writing this one book. I certainly didn't think I was writing a series. It wasn't until I met the legendary Ruth Cavin, an extraordinary editor at St. Martin's, who, when she died at 92, was still working away. I was so lucky to have her as my first editor. How one book grew to a series The first word I got was through my agent. She said, Ruth wants to know when she can expect the next in your series. That is honestly the first time I really thought it was going to be more than one book. I felt, well okay, two books, but then it turned out to be 25 and a bunch of othe...