Just Outside the Window

Just Outside the Window

As you know, I’m a weather watcher. I like the changing outdoor scene. If the meteorologist suggests snow is on the way, I eagerly watch for that first flake. I’m one of those people who makes sure there’s enough bread and milk if a storm is forecast, so I head for the store. (By the […]

Nancy and Me

Nancy and Me

As a youngster, I learned many things from Nancy Drew that were not written on the pages of her books. I learned that Nancy was the kind of girl I would like to be.  Nancy was a magnet who attracted mysteries. To anyone else, clocks were clocks, staircases were just what they seemed; but, not […]

Spinning Words

Where do they come from, those words that mystery writers spin into stories? Do we catch them like butterflies netted as they fly through the air? Do we snatch them from conversations of friends or winnow them from long ago memories? How can these words be spun into sentences and paragraphs and a story that […]

Perk Up The Day

Perk Up The Day

The other night, I dreamed that a dear friend had begun writing cozy mysteries. They were interesting! They were selling like hotcakes. The dream was quite clear. This morning, I’ll share that bit of news with her. How about you? Do you have some ideas that would sound great in a book? Remember that today […]

December Snow

December Snow

Ned wanted nothing more than to spend Christmas with her Uncle Javin Granger, her last living relative. It had been forty years since she and her family left her hometown of Ednalee, Oklahoma; now, she was back, hiding from a threat in Atlanta and needing the peace and quiet of the old Victorian house her […]

The Warmth of a Friendly Home

Are there times when you long for the warmth of a friendly home, the sincerity of a smile, the familiarity of people and a certain place, the knowledge that you are welcome? Do you ever turn to a well-loved book to recapture that comfort? I do. I go to Mary Roberts Rinehart. How many times […]