Saturday, December 2, 2023

Chicopee Falls mystery novel - THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED

 


I'm very pleased to announce my newest book -- the seventh in my Double V Mysteries series:  The Little Engine That Killed.

On this adventure, Juliet and Elmer take on a case tracking an about-to-be-released prisoner to recover the money he stole and hid years before -- but as usual, nothing is as it seems, there are more questions than answers, and danger increases with every twist and turn.  It's the Christmas season, 1951, and our intrepid duo, unlike Santa Claus, have a little trouble determining for sure who is naughty and who is nice.

Writing this book has been a special treat for me, because I chose the setting for this story in my own hometown -- Chicopee, Massachusetts.  But there's a twist to that as well.  The particular part of town where the story takes place is Chicopee Falls.  In 1951, that village was completely different than it is now, because in the late 1960s and early 1970s, most of it was demolished in an urban renewal project.  To write this book, I had to recreate not only a time, but a place that no longer exists.  All of the books in this series are a form of time-travel.  This one, The Little Engine That Killed, is especially so.

As you can tell from the cover, trains figure prominently in the story.  Coal does, too, but not just for the Christmas stocking.

Grab your copy in print or eBook here at Amazon, or a variety of other online sources including Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo and others!

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom,  HolyokeMassachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Monday, November 13, 2023

Reminder - Zoom talk on CHRISTMAS IN CLASSIC FILMS one week away!

 



Next week...A Zoom discussion on CHRISTMAS IN CLASSIC FILMS!

My Zoom presentation on my book Christmas in Classic Films is one week away!



The talk is being hosted online by Sal St. George and the St. George Living History Productions.  I'll be discussing several examples of how Christmas becomes the climax and resolution in several classic films, which are not really "Christmas movies."  


Mr. St. George is an Adjunct Professor and Lecturer presenting programs across the U.S.A. specializing in Old Hollywood, and Motion Picture & Television history.  St. George Living History Productions has presented Zoom programs to thousands of viewers worldwide. Mr. St. George initiated Virtual Road Trips to Celebrity Museums and so far, those Zoom Road Trips have taken his audience to:

The Will Rogers Museum, The Red Skelton Museum, The John Wayne Museum, The P.T. Barnum Museum, The Mary Pickford Exhibition, The Lizzie Borden Museum, The Rosemary Clooney Museum, The It's a Wonderful Life Museum, The Clark Gable Museum, The Phil Silvers Museum, The Laurel and Hardy Museum, The Buffalo Bill Cody Center, The Ginger Rogers Museum, James Dean Museum, The Patti Page Exhibition, Edward Hopper Museum, The Yogi Berra, The Donna Reed Museum, and much more.

The event is scheduled for Monday, November 20th at 10:00 a.m. ET.  Please join us for a fun discussion on some of your favorites -- and perhaps a few you would not have considered to be Christmas classics.  Here's the login info below:

Time: November 20, 2023, 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82238652855?pwd=dWV4OGdERWIzQy9KKzROY0wvSWRiZz09


Meeting ID: 822 3865 2855
Passcode: 731986

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******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom,  HolyokeMassachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Mapping It Out - THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED - Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts


The next book in my nostalgic mystery series, THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED is set 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.  Some of the streets are gone now, and some whose directions are diverted and altered, but the more profound difference between then and now are the buildings on those streets that went under the wrecking ball.


Other aspects of the story are easier to distinguish on a map.  Above we have a 1946 topographical map by the U.S. Geographical Survey that shows a deep green area on the bluffs across the river from Chicopee Falls and other areas that were deeply wooded long before they were changed to suburban neighborhoods in the 1950s and 1960s.  A great place to dig a hole and hide stolen money.  If you really wanted to.

The "landing field" at the bottom of the map is the old Springfield Airport, the home of biplanes and the innovative GeeBees long before it became a shopping center.  For some, a field of dreams.

The railroad following parallel along the river figures prominently in the story.  That's not there anymore, either.

There's lots of trains in the book.





Here's a closer look at the setting in the web of streets of Chicopee Falls from a 1912 atlas that also figures into the story.  

Turning back time is a fascinating prospect, and one I've enjoyed very much in the writing of this mystery.  I hope you'll enjoy it, too.

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 as we get closer. 

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom,  HolyokeMassachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Matchbooks as clues in THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED - Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts

 


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.  

*************************************

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!



 

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Zoom Talk - Christmas in Classic Films - Coming in November!


This is to announce that next month I'll be doing a Zoom presentation on my book Christmas in Classic Films.




The talk is being hosted online by Sal St. George and the St. George Living History Productions.  I'll be discussing several examples of how Christmas becomes the climax and resolution in several classic films, which are not really "Christmas movies."  
The event is scheduled for Monday, November 20th at 10:00 a.m. ET.  Please join us for a fun discussion on some of your favorites -- and perhaps a few you would not have considered to be Christmas classics.  Here's the login info below:

Time: Nov 20, 2023 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82238652855?pwd=dWV4OGdERWIzQy9KKzROY0wvSWRiZz09


Meeting ID: 822 3865 2855
Passcode: 731986

One tap mobile
+19294362866,,82238652855#,,,,*731986# US (New York)
+16469313860,,82238652855#,,,,*731986# US

Dial by your location
• +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)
• +1 646 931 3860 US
• +1 305 224 1968 US
• +1 309 205 3325 US
• +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
• +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
• +1 386 347 5053 US
• +1 507 473 4847 US
• +1 564 217 2000 US
• +1 669 444 9171 US
• +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
• +1 689 278 1000 US
• +1 719 359 4580 US
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• +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
• +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
• +1 360 209 5623 US


Meeting ID: 822 3865 2855
Passcode: 731986

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/khK5PZZgT
 

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Friday, October 6, 2023

New book coming! THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED...


I'm very pleased to announce that my newest book -- the seventh in my Double V Mysteries series, is going to be published soon!


On this adventure, Juliet and Elmer take on a case tracking an about-to-be-released prisoner to recover the money he stole and hid years before -- but as usual, nothing is as it seems, there are more questions than answers, and danger increases with every twist and turn.  It's the Christmas season, 1951, and our intrepid duo, unlike Santa Claus, has a little trouble determining for sure who is naughty and who is nice.

The setting for this story is Chicopee, Massachusetts.  But there's a twist to that as well, which you'll see in weeks to come.  The particular part of town where the story takes place is Chicopee Falls.  In 1951, that village was completely different than it is now, because in the late 1960s and early 1970s, most of it was demolished in an urban renewal project.  To write this book, I had to recreate not only a time, but a place that no longer exists.  All of the books in this series are a form of time-travel.  This one, The Little Engine That Killed, is especially so.

I'll let you know more in weeks to come.  For now, I hope you enjoy a peek at the cover above.

Thursday, September 21, 2023

Big E - 2023


 photo by JT Lynch

It's that time of year again!  Visit New England's great state(s) fair in West Springfield, Massachusetts.  Behind the fife and drum corps band are some of the six replica statehouses from each New England state.  That's Rhode Island peeking out from behind the tree, and Massachusetts next to it.

It's a little end-of-the-summer world and for many of us, a family tradition.  Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Westfield River -- Agawam, Massachusetts

 

 

Here are three postcard views of the Westfield River in Agawam, Massachusetts.  They are all published by the Springfield News Company and printed in Germany, as was common in the early twentieth century.  The cards all date from around 1908, and are tinted.


You'll note that on the cards the river is called the Agawam River.  The earliest English settlers to the area named it that for the Agawam tribe that lived in the area, but eventually came to be called the Westfield River.  It begins in the Berkshires and ends in the Connecticut River, forming the boundary between the towns of Agawam and West Springfield.



Despite these idyllic scenes, by the mid-twentieth century the river became terribly polluted, as many of our rivers were through industrial contaminants, but today is clean for swimming, fishing, and its locally famous Westfield River Whitewater Races.

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Railroad and the Mill River in Northampton, Mass.



Here are two views of Northampton, Massachusetts, and the railroad running along the Mill River.  The view is from the South Street Bridge.  The above postcard is a daylight photo, and below we have the same scene artistically tinted for night.  Both cards were published by the Metropolitan News Company in Boston and likely printed in Germany, about 1906.



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Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Christian Science Church building - Springfield, Massachusetts



The Christian Science Church of Springfield, Massachusetts, stood on State Street in this 1930s-era colored postcard.  The postcard was published by the Springfield News Company.


The congregation merged with another in Longmeadow sometime around 2000.  The site is now the Progressive Community Baptist Church.

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

The small town of big practical jokes - MEET ME IN NUTHATCH

Here's a bit about my novel, Meet Me in Nuthatch:

A whimsical, poignant tale about a practical joke-turned publicity stunt that fires up the small town of Nuthatch, Massachusetts, in a desperate attempt to attract tourists.


Christmas tree farmer Everett Campbell proposes turning the clock back to 1904 and reviving the town’s cozy past, an idea he gets from watching his young daughter’s favorite classic movie, Meet Me in St. Louis. She is thrilled at being allowed to dress up and pretend, but not everyone in town is enchanted with the nostalgic promotion—including Everett’s moody teenage son.

The media, and the tourists, do come, but the scheme also attracts a large theme park corporation that wants to buy Nuthatch 1904.

Everett now stands to lose his town in a way he never imagined, and his neighbors are divided on which alternate future to choose.

A local drug dealer, Everett’s boyhood enemy, may hold the future of the entire town in his hands unless Everett can pull off one of his most spectacular, and dangerous, practical jokes.


Get your copy here at Amazon in print and eBook, or from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, and a variety of other online shops.
 

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.


Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Four aerial views of Springfield, Massachusetts in the 1920s




Here are four aerial views of Springfield, Massachusetts, all probably taken at the same time around the mid-to-late 1920s.  They are from a set of postcards published by the Aerial Service of Hartford, Connecticut.  Above, starting from the southernmost section of the city, we have the Everett Barney mansion, estate, mausoleum and grounds of Forest Park.  The Connecticut River is on the far upper right.



Next, we have the lower State Street area, specifically focused on what the postcard publisher calls The Educational Center, but which we have come to know as The Quadrangle.  The library can be seen, as well as the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, The Springfield Science Museum, and the building which currently houses The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss.  In this photo, the Museum of Fine Arts is absent, as that was not built until the 1930s.  Also absent is the Lyman and Merrie Woods Museum of Springfield History, which was not constructed until 2009.

St. Michael's Cathedral can be spotted, the Springfield Armory, Classical High School, and Springfield Technical High School, which we covered in this previous post.



The next view shows us the city's downtown with Court Square, the City Hall, Campanile, and Symphony Hall prominent in the photo.  The new Memorial Bridge, completed in 1922 spans the Connecticut River on the left.  Horizontal near the top of the photo we have the rail line and train station.  This view gives us a good look at Springfield before Route 91.



Our final view is of the northern section of the city and the expanse of what was the new Springfield Hospital, what would later become the main building of Baystate Medical Center.

 ******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Northampton, Mass.: the setting for By Your Leave, Sir - The Story of a Wave

 

Smith College - Capen School Faunce House, 1914 postcard


During World War II, Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, was a training camp for WAVES.  The story of female midshipmen is recounted by one of its graduates, Lieutenant (J.G.) Helen Hull Jacobs in By Your Leave, Sir – The Story of a Wave.


The book is actually a novel, published in 1943, but as Lt. Jacobs was then in the Public Relations Office of the Naval Reserve Training School in the Bronx, one may assume that writing this book based on her own experience was likely part of her duties in public relations for the WAVES.  Though it tells of a troubled young woman named Becky McLeod, who loses her fiancĂ© in a London air raid and seeks a place in the war effort, recounts her challenges and new friendships made, the book serves as a concise outline of the requirements for a woman to serve in the Navy and what she might expect to encounter in Midshipman’s School.  WAVES is an acronym for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service and was part of the U.S. Navy Reserves.

Smith College Assembly Hall and buildings, postcard, c. 1905

Smith College, one of the preeminent women’s colleges in the country, became figuratively the Navy’s U.S.S. Northampton, and the women were trained in military history, military courtesy, discipline, physical training, and classroom education in many subjects.  When they graduated, they would be officers, the first branch of the military in which women would receive full military status. 

Smith College, Capen House, postcard c. 1905


The notion of women serving in the military was a controversial one, but the book’s title, By Your Leave, Sir, is a reference to the purpose of establishing this branch of military service for women: to relieve male sailors and officers for sea duty.  The women were assigned to replace men in clerical positions, but also served as aviation instructors, intelligence agents, scientists, and engineers. Over 100,000 WAVES served in World War II. 

Faunce House, Capen's School, postcard 1907


In the novel, we follow Becky and the other midshipmen through locations familiar to those living in western Massachusetts: on the grounds of Smith College and in Northampton.  They attend classes at Faunce Hall, are billeted at Capen House and the Hotel Northampton, and Wiggins Tavern is frequented on their off hours.  Filene’s in Boston tailors their uniforms, and there are trips to The Whale Inn in Goshen, and they go to a Red Cross Rally at the Springfield Auditorium.  Though most of the characters in the story are fictitious, real-life figures such as Lt. Elizabeth Crandall also appear in the story.

Hotel Northampton and Wiggins Tavern postcard c. 1920s

The novel is an interesting look at the life of women in Navy training at this time, and also for a glimpse at Northampton as it served this unique position in America’s war effort.



The author, Helen Hull Jacobs, had her own interesting story.  This was one of several books, both fiction and non-fiction she wrote, after having had a very successful career as a professional tennis player in the 1930s and 1940s.  She won several U.S. National championships, Wimbledon, and nine Grand Slam titles.  She was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1962.  She was a farmer, designed sportswear, and her Naval career culminated by achieving the rank of commander while serving in United States Navy intelligence in World War II, one of only five women in the Navy to achieve the rank of commander during the war.

Sources:  

Asal, Alex. "Learning to be Navy," Campus Life, June 11, 2019, Smith College website. 

Jacobs, Helen Hull.  By Your Leave, Sir - The Story of a Wave. (NY: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1943)

New York Times, "Helen Jacobs, Tennis Champion in the 1930's, Dies at 88" obituary by Susan B. Adams, June 4, 1997.

 ******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

 

Monday, March 6, 2023

Wesson's Home Becomes a Hospital


 

The home in the foreground of this postcard belonged to inventor and firearms designer Daniel Baird Wesson of Springfield, Massachusetts.  With Horace Smith, Mr. Wesson formed both the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and Smith & Wesson firearms manufacturing companies.  

The house at 132 High Street, Springfield, was donated by Mr. Wesson in 1906, in memory of his late wife, to become the Hampden Homeopathic Hospital.  It became Wesson Memorial Hospital later that year when Wesson himself passed on.  It was a 30-bed facility, but Wesson Hospital enlarged with a further endowment from his estate to build a new 100-bed unit at 140 High Street, as well as a new 25-bed maternity hospital in 1908.

The old Wesson home that served as the original Wesson Memorial Hospital no longer stands, and what became Wesson Women's eventually merged with Springfield Hospital and became Baystate Medical Center.

The penny-postcard was published by George S. Graves of Springfield, Mass.

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

President Calvin Coolidge's homes in Northampton, Massachusetts


Calvin Coolidge lived in Northampton through much of his political career, and here we have in postcard images his two homes.

First, the duplex on Massasoit Street where he and his wife Grace moved after their marriage in 1905.  Coolidge, a graduate of Amherst College and native of Vermont, came here to open his law practice.  His wife Grace had been a teacher at the Clarke School for the Deaf.  They rented the left side of this duplex and raised their two sons here.  



The Coolidges continued to make this their home through the next couple of decades as "Silent Cal" entered politics and served as Mayor of Northampton, Governor of Massachusetts, Vice President of the United States under President Warren G. Harding, and then assuming the presidency in 1923 after Harding's death in office.  

The Beeches

Coolidge's presidency ended in 1929 ("I do not choose to run.") and in 1930, he moved his home from the house on Massasoit Street to a new house called "The Beeches" on Hampton Terrace, for more privacy.  The tourists gawking at his rented duplex got to be a bit too much.


Calvin Coolidge died at "The Beeches" in 1933, at the age of 60.  

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.