Gravely Speaking

My friend Joy recently said she might want me to write her obituary. She said this jokingly as a compliment. “Well, after all,” she said, “you are in the cemetery business.” Gravely speaking, I guess I am, but it’s only in a fictional way. For example, The Cemetery Club, Grave Shift, Best Left Buried and […]

Eight Years Ago

Things change through the years, don’t they? Hopes are not realized or take a different path, kind of like a rocket aiming for the moon but veering off course. People change, groups and ambitions change. Yet, we rise with each new morning, hoping for the best for a new day, a new year, a new […]

Affected By What You Read

I’m loving those stories my friends tell me, about their reactions to my cozy mysteries. One of my dear friends has just finished By the Fright of the Silvery Moon. She likes the way Ned, Pat, and Jackie get together for coffee and to talk over their latest dilemma. The really neat part, though, is […]

Rain

A dark, rainy morning. Thankfully, we’ve missed the vicious storms that hit Iowa and other places. My heart goes out to those people. A robin is cheerfully proclaiming a new day, maybe thinking of all the earthworms that will come tunneling to the top to keep from being drowned. As a hard shower started a […]

Culture and Traditions

One by one, we abandon traditions, leaving the past behind. It’s sad, because, although we shouldn’t live in the past, we need a sense of continuity. There is something comforting about following patterns, about observing practices that have been carried down through generations. It gives me a connection to my ancestors. Decoration Day, always the […]

But Where Do They Come From?

I don’t believe in fairies. Of course, I don’t. They show up only in children’s stories of years ago, those magical little folk who can nip through the air, appearing and disappearing as they wish. And yet, when I see mushrooms that have popped up in my grass overnight,  I wonder just what, exactly, goes […]