A Staying Kind of Barn

One spring day many years ago, a farmer decided to build a fine log barn. First, he gathered large stones. He chipped and fitted them together for a firm foundation. The farmer cut many trees, chopped off limbs, and smoothed the trunks. Notch and groove, groove and notch, the logs rose straight and true atop […]

All I Need to Know…

All I Need to Know…

Darcy, Flora, and Ned have taught me a lot. Did they teach me all I ever really needed to know? Well, let’s see now, they taught me… When you’re in a dark place, keep going forward…the tunnel has to end sometime, somewhere. Don’t believe everything you hear. You are more courageous than you think. Friendship […]

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 […]

Misty Morning

Misty Morning

Fireplace Weather

Fireplace Weather

It’s fireplace weather again. The temperature hovers in the thirties and, after a few warm days that lulled me into thinking thoughts of springtime, winter has returned, blowing its icy breath against the spring flowers. Thankfully, we missed the tornadoes that tore through parts of the South Monday night. It was the equinox and usually […]

The Flowers They Leave Behind

The Flowers They Leave Behind

Jonquils are blooming, usually in clusters. Have you ever thought of them as footprints of others that they have left behind? They are signs that someone has passed this way and loved flowers and springtime. At Ben and Tep Willis’, out on the river, there are remnants, reminders of the family who settled here, set […]