Snow

Snow

It’s amazing what snow will do for the drabness of winter. Snow covers the ground and rooftops and it’s still snowing. It’s a wonderland for children who run out, lifting their faces to the sky, catching the flakes on their tongues.  Do the birds and squirrels enjoy the snow? I doubt it. Four squirrels are […]

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 […]

From a Cat’s Way of Looking At It

As you know, in By the Fright of the Silvery Moon, Ned acquires a new pet–a dog. But, she already has a cat named Penny. Penny came in Moonlight Can Be Murder. Do the dog and cat get along? Amazingly well. But, what does Penny actually think about Ned’s ability to get into trouble? I […]

A Writer’s Resolutions

I firmly resolve and forswear to work hard at sharpening my writing skills by never, ever writing run-on sentences unless they are called for by content of the story or one of the characters steps up and says he is going to say thus and so causing the sentence to become first a paragraph, then […]

New Every Morning

New Every Morning

New Every Morning   Every day is a fresh beginning, Listen my soul to the glad refrain. And, spite of old sorrows And older sinning, Troubles forecasted And possible pain, Take heart with the day and begin again.   Susan Coolidge