There he was, stuck to the screen of my door. What was he doing? Thinking? Doubtful. I hear him, these summer nights; he and his family and friends tune up in the darkness, singing their summertime songs, filling the night with their grating sound. All my life, I called them jar flies, and it was […]
Aug 26, 2020
Menace on Four Legs
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I got out of my car. The place looked deserted but as I approached the nearer house, a tall, bony dog appeared around the corner. It growled. I stopped. The animal didn’t look in the least friendly. It bared its teeth, snarled and started toward me. Everything I had ever read about unfriendly dogs […]
Aug 24, 2020
Good Days, Bad Days
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This is the first day of school for many Arkansas children. Once again, I see them trudging up the hill, or hurrying along, backpacks in place, to catch the bus. It has been a long vacation, an enforced vacation, and it wasn’t all that great. I hope it is a good day for them and […]
Aug 20, 2020
Signs
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This morning, I stooped down to pick up a something on the floor. It jumped! So did I. The “something” was actually a small, black cricket. This is cricket weather–one of the signs that fall is approaching and summer is winding down. There are other clues that autumn is waiting in the wings, ready to […]
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 […]
