Capt. Salem Avery Museum's Speaker series always draws a crowd

Author Marcia Talley signs her most recent book, "Dead Man Dancing," for Debbie Kappel of Davidsonville. Ms. Talley led off the Capt. Salem Avery House Winter Luncheon Series with a talk last Wednesday at the Shady Side museum. Photo by Mitchelle Stephenson -- For the Capital.

By MITCHELLE STEPHENSON, For The Capital
Published January 22, 2009

The Capt. Salem Avery House Museum was packed last week for the first speaker in the museum's winter luncheon series. Marcia Talley, a mystery writer based in Annapolis, lured 85 people to the Shady Side site.

She came prepared with a slide show outlining her career path from librarian to renowned novelist.

It is easy to understand where her her heroine Hannah Ives' wry wit comes from - the author gave a lively talk, with plenty of insights into how she got her start, what motivates her, how she comes up with story lines, and locations for her novels.

Last week, Ms. Talley gave her talk, then everyone dined on a hearty vegetable and meatball soup prepared by museum volunteers before guests could talk one-on-one with the author. Dozens bought books, then lined up for a book signing.

Ms. Talley's slide show had a lot of pictures of not only Annapolis, which is the main setting for her stories, but also areas in south county, in Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore.

In her stories she likes to include places she personally likes. One such spot is Chick and Ruth's Delly on Main Street in Annapolis. "When you have a place where at 8:30 a.m. they stand up for the pledge each morning, you have to put it in a novel," she said. She also enjoys Galway Bay on Maryland Avenue, where she and her husband like to dine, so of course her heroine, Hannah, likes to eat there with her husband, who by coincidence teaches at the Naval Academy, just like Marcia's husband.

Many of the private locations in her novels are made up. For example, Hannah lives at 193 Prince George St., which is actually a gap in the street numbering - no house exists there. She does that in part to protect homeowners from gawkers, but she also seemed to enjoy the sport of finding quirks in her environments.

Marcia explained that many of her stories come from events she has read about or from sites she's visited.

One of her novels got its start because of an article she'd read about a family in south county whose child's remains were found in a well after many years.

And while on vacation in Hawaii, Marcia's husband showed her a story in Forbes magazine about viatical insurance settlements - in which someone invests in another person's life insurance policy. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, with a viatical settlement, a person buys the policy, or part of it, at a price that is less than the death benefit of the policy. This is usually done when the insured has a shortened life expectancy. When the seller dies, the buyer collects the death benefit.

Marcia said she got the idea for a story: What if you sold your insurance policy in a viatical settlement but then recovered from the life-threatening illness? Wouldn't the person who bought your policy be interested in making sure that your life span was indeed shortened?

Another time Marcia said she saw two people "necking in the front window of the City Dock Cafe." She recognized the man, but soon realized the woman he was kissing was not his wife. "I knocked on the window and waved," she said. That too became the basis for a storyline.

Marcia continued her talk for about 25 minutes, and when she was finished, the volunteers brought out lunch.

Suzy Smith is the new chairman of the Shady Side museum. She said that the series is mostly sold out, although there is a waiting list.

Volunteers, led by Roberta Dorn, come up with the menu, she said. At each event a different soup and dessert is served. The recipe for the soup is printed on a take-home card at each place setting. Upcoming soups will include a unique chicken and rice soup with lime, a sweet-potato chicken and barley soup, and Senate bean soup.

"These (Marcia Talley's mystery novels) are good to take to the beach, especially because the stories are about so many local places," said Connie Kann, who lives in Shady Side. She came to the luncheon with her friend Margaret McKim.

The next luncheon is at 11:30 a.m. Jan. 28, when Julie Erickson presents "Conservation - Go Green." Julie taught chemistry at Arundel High School for 24 years before retiring. She is currently the director of public policy for the Presbytery of Baltimore. In her remarks, she will highlight what is being done at the individual and local levels to improve our environment and protect our planet.

For more information, call 410-867-4486. The museum is located at 1418 East West Shady Side Road in Shady Side.