Matchbooks as clues in the upcoming --
THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED

The next book in my nostalgic mystery series set in New England in the post-World War II era takes place in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, in December 1951. Though the characters and events are fictitious, the locations mentioned in the story did exist in this manufacturing village. But no more. This novel seeks to recreate a time before the Urban Renewal movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s drastically changed our urban centers; in the case of Chicopee Falls, wiped out most of it.



It was also a time of lots of smoking, as you see here in the several images of matchbooks from businesses in Chicopee Falls in 1951 that pop up in the novel. It's funny for us today, perhaps, to think of even a bank offering matchbooks to its customers, but in an era of a widespread smoking habit, it was perhaps a good way to advertise, as handy, and more useful than a business card.

I'm hoping to have The Little Engine That Killed published in November in eBook and in print, and I'll keep you up to date on the particulars.

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I'd like to share with you the wonderfully silly cartoons by my twin brother, John, on a variety of products such as mugs, T-shirts, and more, over at his Redbubble site.  Here's a link to his shop: ArteAcher23 with more items being added every month. Here's a cute black cat, enjoying having an enormous piece of candy corn all to himself. Get your mug, shirt, apron, or whatever in time for Halloween!