Would you believe it’s 55 degrees this morning? Yesterday morning, very early, the thermometer registered 49. It never fails to surprise me, each fall, when the earth begins to cool toward winter. Yet, the same thing happens year after year, and to me, it’s reassuring. Yesterday morning, when I poured water into my coffee maker, […]
The Cottonwood
·The Cottonwood At Grandfather’s farm, in back of the house Stood a large, ancient cottonwood tree. How it weathered the years and stood fast in storms Was a wonder and marvel to me. My grandfather said that the tree had strong roots Sinking deep, holding fast to the ground, For the earth never lost it […]
What a Character!
·What do you like most about the books you enjoy? Is it the setting, that intriguing plot, or, is it the characters? Thinking back on my favorite stories, I remember the characters. When I read each of the books, those characters became alive to me. They weren’t words on paper; they were living, moving, thinking, […]
Or, Doesn’t It Matter?
I’m simultaneously doing two things: re-reading one of my favorite mysteries by Mary Roberts Rinehart and starting to write a new cozy mystery, new protagonists this time. Not Ned and not Darcy and Flora. Maybe it’s because I’m stuck in an earlier time zone, although I actually wasn’t born at the time Miss Rinehart wrote […]
It Almost Didn’t Happen
·I wanted to write a second Ned McNeil Moonlight mystery, following Moonlight Can Be Murder. I had the title already, By the Fright of the Silvery Moon. It sounded suitably chilling. That was the starting point–I wanted to write it. But, it wasn’t all that easy. I wrote the opening scene and read it to […]