Today is my dad’s birthday. I’ve written about him a lot, both here and in my books. Only, he wasn’t called by his name, Bob Day, rather, he showed up here and there as admirable traits in male characters, especially the heroes, because that’s what he was– my hero. I can’t resist mixing a little […]
Aug 19, 2020
The Menace in the Middle
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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 […]
Aug 18, 2020
Stop While You’re Ahead
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Stop while you’re ahead. I used to hear this phrase a lot; not so much nowadays. It means to cut it out, stop doing or saying whatever. It’s useful in a lot of circumstances, but certainly in speaking or writing. One of the hardest things a writer has to do is delete those unnecessary words […]
Aug 16, 2020
When There’s Nothing Else To Do
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Reaching across the table, I squeezed her hand. “Oh, Mom, think of it! Think of the people we’ve always looked up to, so respectable and virtuous, so God-fearing and honest. How’d they get that way? Maybe it’s because they came through some tough times. Maybe it’s because they strayed from the Lord and He brought […]
Aug 15, 2020
A Day in the Life of
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Somehow, we missed the rain that parts of Oklahoma got yesterday. In places, six to eight inches fell, but here? We got a lot of boastful thunder, booming around the heavens and scaring small dogs, but it was all a lot of noise. No rain. All in all, it was a beautiful day, made even […]
Aug 12, 2020
The Figure on the Stairs
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Murder By Moonlight is finished, except for tweaks, edits, and a general buffing. Here’s a snippet. I hope you like it. Why had I listened to Daisy Stanton? “You don’t have to take this assignment, Ned,” she had said when we met for coffee at Grandy’s last week.” Here she paused and sighed. “I […]
