Good morning and happy December! This is a special month and you who were born this month have a lot to celebrate. First of all, according to the Julian calendar, you were not born in the twelfth month, but the tenth. In Latin, decem means ten. But, remember, this was the Julian calendar. You December […]

Therapeutic Snipping
My back yard looks a whole lot neater. Yesterday, I wheeled my trusty wheelbarrow into position, took the snippers and started clipping and picking up and stacking. Dead wood, odd bits of tree limbs, a rose trellis that had seen better days, it all went into the wheelbarrow. Now, to get it to the curb […]

The Not So Nice Mice
A Fable By Blanche Day Manos The hundred year-old barn was home to a cow, a rooster, some hens, and a mule who pulled a plow. The days they spent in working; each one did its best, and when the sun sank from the sky, the animals wanted rest. But, when evening fell across the […]

A Close Encounter of the Scary Kind
In case you’ve forgotten The Cemetery Club, here’s part of an exciting chapter. We find Darcy and her mother Flora driving east toward Fayetteville during a rainstorm. The highway is deserted…or so they think. As we crossed the Ventris River Bridge, rain came down harder. Switching my wiper speed to “fast,” I made sure the […]

A Friendly Face
A friend who invites you in for a cup of coffee, someone who puts aside her own problems to listen to yours, the warmth of knowing somebody cares. It’s a cozy feeling, a comfortable feeling to have a friend like this. Darcy, Flora, Ned are like that. A reader can visit them any time; she […]

Murder Under a Full Moon
An excerpt from my current work-in-progress, the fourth Ned McNeil mystery: The next day, Pat’s and Jackie’s reactions were similar to Cade’s. “Look,” I said, as Janie set our coffee in front of us. “My curiosity was already piqued, so Tom’s request just gives me a good excuse. It’ll be kind of exciting to […]

