That First Hello

We’ve all heard, “First impressions are lasting impressions.” A writer works hard to create a good first impression when you, the reader, crack open her book. Below are beginning sentences from each of my cozies, which, hopefully, create a good first impression. Moonlight Can Be Murder: My car’s headlights cut a yellow swath through the […]

Miss Tootsie’s Surprise Guest

Sunday morning dawned bright and warm, as if the weather had no recollection of the dark, stormy time two days ago. Miss Tootsie sat down to a breakfast of ham and eggs, biscuits, and gravy. Sunday was a day of leisure and relaxation. With Cocoa curled in her basket in front of the wood-burning cookstove, […]

Break-In at the Bakery

Miss Tootsie was sure she wouldn’t sleep ever again; she’d be listening for someone to break in. What a thought! It gave her a headache. When she let Cocoa out to do her nightly business, she shut and locked the door behind her, then waited anxiously for the little dog to scamper back and scratch […]

Beggars Would Ride

“You know,” I said, “I was looking again at Marvie Saunder’s book.”             “No, Ned,” Pat interrupted. “Remember, you’ve given that up. You’re going to let Cade and Gerald handle whatever is going on about that house. You are fixating on that book of poetry so, stop it!”             Stung, I said, “What a thing […]

Nancy and Me and a Mystery

As a youngster, I learned many things from Nancy Drew besides what was 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 and staircases were just staircases, but not to Nancy […]

A December Mystery

Just in time for Christmas, the first book in the Ned McNeil moonlight series is a free e-book on Amazon.  Ned anticipates a joyful reunion with her uncle, her last living relative, but her return to her hometown is not the happy occasion it should be. Neither are the people around her to be trusted–that […]