One Mind, Two Hands, a New Personality

In the third Ned McNeil cozy mystery, the whole mystery centers around an old woman who recently died in a nursing home. Because she is the basis for the story, I have to know all about her before I can introduce her to you. That means I must write a back story. That’s the fascinating part. Out of the dark recesses of my convoluted mind, I put words to thoughts via my two hands on the computer keys. What emerges is a new personality, a brand-new character, fully formed, with a past and a whole series of happenings that brought her (and us) to the point where she needs a book to be written about her.

I don’t mean I’ve deserted Ned. Oh, my, no. Nor have I left out Cade or Pat or Jackie or Miss Ann, or Daisy, for that matter. Gerald is still alive and well. It’s just that they are all in this mystery trying to solve some things about Miss Lenora Jameson (that’s the new character’s name) that may shed some light on some recent, gravely mysterious happenings. 

A quilt figures mightily in the story. Not just any quilt, mind you, but a quilt with a specific pattern:  The Pickle Dish. And, there’s Miss Lenora’s New Testament and the people at the nursing home, and…well, you’ll just need to read the story.

Weather figures mightily in each of my cozy mysteries and the day of Miss Jameson’s estate sale is hot and sticky. A real humdinger of a thunderstorm is on the way. In fact, it figures in the mystery too–the thunderstorm, I mean.

This book is a lot of fun to write and I can hardly wait to see how it turns out. I hope, after reading Moonlight Can Be Murder and By the Fright of the Silvery Moon, you are looking forward to it too. 

Here’s my springtime gift to you: share this post on your Facebook page, tell me that you’ve shared, and I’ll enter your name in a chance to win a ten dollar gift card from Amazon.