Researching Martha’s Vineyard

I’m working on a couple of writing projects right now, but the one I just finished is a cozy mystery for Guideposts’ Mysteries of Martha’s Vineyard. While I’ve never had the opportunity to travel to MV like some other authors in this continuity series have (lucky gals!), I spent several months digging into scads of fun research about the Island, a fascinating place full of eccentric characters and colorful stories. I fell in love with tales of lighthouses and whaling ships, salt-worn cottages and seaside docks.

One piece of history that particularly intrigued me featured a woman named Nancy Luce, a figure some people refer to as the Island’s first female businesswoman. Luce lived in West Tisbury in 1800s and led a rural childhood that was nothing out of the ordinary, as she helped out her parents on their family farm and attended social events with friends.

However, in early adulthood, Luce’s health, which had always been fragile, worsened (it’s suspected she might have had an undiagnosed case of Lyme disease), and then her parents passed away. Struggling to support herself while dealing with a chronic medical condition, Luce became a hermit. She withdrew from society even more when townspeople, who likely coveted her property, made her a target of bullying, banging pots and pans outside her windows and vandalizing her home. Without friends or family to speak of, Luce instead lavished care on the family farm. She gave her chickens names reminiscent of Wonderland characters- Ada Queeny, Pondy Lily, Teeddla Toonna- and fashioned elaborate gravestones, complete with epitaphs, for them when they died.

She came to be known as “the Chicken Lady of West Tisbury”, and the stream of gawkers, mostly travelers to and from the nearby Methodist Campgrounds, continued to visit to sneak a peek at the spinster. Luce didn’t sit around, bemoaning her strange reputation, however. Instead, in a remarkably crafty move, she set up her home as an old-fashioned version of a tourist trap, selling photographs of her feathered friends and books of her original poetry. As a testament to her indomitable nature, she kept the farm running until her death at age 75.

Today, locals and tourists alike pay homage to the memory of Nancy Luce by leaving all sorts of trinkets on her grave, such as tiny ceramic chickens and glass eggs.

If you’re interested in reading more about Luce, be sure to check out Susan Branch’s delightfully whimsical blog and this article from the Vineyard Gazette, or you can pick up a copy of Walter Magnes Teller’s biography, Consider Poor I.

I won’t tell you how Luce figures into the plot of the mystery I co-wrote with suspense author, Nancy Mehl (to quote River Song, “Spoilers, darling!”),  but I promise to keep you up-to-date on release information, and I’m pretty sure I’ll host a giveaway for at least one copy, so keep your eyes open for that!

Keep reading,

Shaen