Characters and Character

“Character is much easier kept than recovered,” Thomas Paine said. But, what is character? Personality is who people think you are; character is the real you. Character is all your deeply-held beliefs, your goals, your standards, the things that make you laugh or cry; your hates, your loves, your fears, your belief in what is […]

Go Against the Flow

I’m in the midst of a work in progress which centers around a protagonist who’s in her 80s. The time is the last century. This involves a journey backward to a time that was slower and should have been more peaceful, but in the case of Miss Tootsie, it wasn’t. Peaceful, that is. As I […]

Quiz

When I was in school, “Pop Quiz” were two of the scariest words around, but school was a long time ago and now, when I take a quiz, it is just for fun. That’s what this is this morning, a just-for fun quiz on my five published cozy mysteries. Pour another cup of coffee, get comfortable, […]

What Has Gone Before

When we hear a news story or someone tells us of a happening, believe me, there’s more to it than what meets the eye. Everyone has a back story, a reason for being where we are and how we got there. Characters in books have back stories too. Before Barbara and I wrote The Cemetery […]

October and Its Mysteries

You October people chose a wonderful month to be born. It’s a golden month, with the fragrance of apples and chrysanthemums, the time of harvest and tucking in of plants and insects readying for a winter’s sleep. Your birthstone is the fabled opal. Read about it. It has a fascinating history. And, of course, your […]

Storytime

Tell me a story. Even now, many years later ( I mean many years) I can remember following my mom around, asking her to tell me another story. I was too young to read, so how I can remember back that many decades, I don’t know, but I still remember the absolute joy of snuggling […]