She really knew how to push my guilt button. I had plenty of time. My only job was working part-time for Daisy and her real estate company, and I could certainly have turned her down, but she looked so needy that I couldn’t refuse. So, here I was on a windy, autumn day standing at […]

Do You Dare?
Ned had been thrilled to think Evangeline Carver, the grand dame of the county, would call her to take pictures of the fabulous Carver mansion. She would get a chance to see inside that historic landmark and she’d get to talk to Evangeline herself. Truthfully, Ned may have been just a bit star struck. However, […]

The Menace in the Middle
Do the first lines of a new book tell you whether you want to read the whole thing? First lines are important. So are final lines, but how about the middle? The middle of a mystery is important too. These are middle lines from my seven cozy mysteries. Can you identify the book each is […]
An Old-Time Easter
The following story is an excerpt from The Heritage of Etta Bend. It’s a story my mother told me, an old-time Easter, about her childhood in northeast Oklahoma. The “I” is my mother, Susie Latty Day. I thought it was appropriate for this Easter, more than 100 years after it happened. Mom told me this […]


