When you were a child, did you ever sit in the living room with your family on a dark night listening, petrified, while your dad or grandfather told a true story about a really spooky happening, something that was never explained? You wanted a rational, satisfying explanation but there was none. It was just a mystery, […]

A Mystery Writer’s 12 Days
This is Twelfth Night, the Epiphany, the impetus for the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas. With my family’s help, I added words that might be appropriate for a writer of cozy mysteries. Thanks, Matt, Dawn, Sara, Nathan! A Cozy Mystery Writer’s Sizzling Twelve Days of Christmas On the first day of Christmas, Santa brought to […]

Looking Back Without Stumbling
Sometimes, when beginning a new year, I like to look back at the old one. So, yesterday, I not only looked back at 2014, I went way, way back to 1953 and a 5-year diary my mother gave me in 1952. It was full of a young girl’s thoughts and experiences. Some of them were […]

A Grisly Find in the Old Graveyard
For those of you who haven’t yet read The Cemetery Club, here is part of the first chapter that began the whole Darcy and Flora, mother and daughter sleuth series. When I awoke to sunshine, blue skies, and the fragrance of freshly perked coffee that morning, I had no inkling that a few hours later […]

Shadows Lurking in the Fog
Out of these twenty days of December, two have been sunny. Guess what we have lurking around the corners of the house this morning, settling down over treetops, seeping into autumn’s leaves? Gray, wet, cold, impenetrable fog! Yet again. Where is the sun? Is it still up there? Even Rudolph’s red nose would need several […]

The Mysterious Malady of the TV
Thank you for your encouraging comments on yesterday’s blog posting. I am working on it and will try to have another installment tomorrow. Monday night, however, I had a real life mystery, albeit a small one. I was watching the news Monday night when suddenly, the TV went blank. I mean, no warning, no fading […]

