Break-In at the Bakery

Miss Tootsie was sure she wouldn’t sleep ever again; she’d be listening for someone to break in. What a thought! It gave her a headache. When she let Cocoa out to do her nightly business, she shut and locked the door behind her, then waited anxiously for the little dog to scamper back and scratch […]

Music

Sometimes when things start to get me down, broken water pipe, stopped up drain, etc., I go to the piano and play the old songs. I mean the really old songs, “I Was Seeing Nellie Home”, “Darling Nellie Gray”, “Mocking Bird Hill”, “The Tennessee Waltz”; then, the not quite so old songs, “Til I Waltz  Again […]

Little Cedar and the Big Storm

Fierce winds tugged at Little Cedar. His scrawny boughs bent and swayed but he dug his roots deeper and hung onto the rock buried beneath the mountain soil. “The wind is so cold,” said Little Cedar. He shivered from his topmost limb to the bottom of his twisted trunk. “It must be nearly Christmas again.” […]

Nancy and Me and a Mystery

As a youngster, I learned many things from Nancy Drew besides what was on the pages of her books; I learned that Nancy was the kind of girl I would like to be.  Nancy was a magnet who attracted mysteries. To anyone else, clocks were clocks and staircases were just staircases, but not to Nancy […]

A December Mystery

Just in time for Christmas, the first book in the Ned McNeil moonlight series is a free e-book on Amazon.  Ned anticipates a joyful reunion with her uncle, her last living relative, but her return to her hometown is not the happy occasion it should be. Neither are the people around her to be trusted–that […]

Backyard Zoo

Backyard Zoo Six squirrels, some robins, a rabbit or two– My yard resembles a wildlife zoo. Snowbirds, titmice, cardinals and doves, Lots of birds that everyone loves. But, what is the matter with those noisy jays? They’re rude and raucous with no polite ways. They aren’t inclined to share and act sweet I’m sadly afraid […]