From The Heritage of Etta Bend by Susie Latty Day. Time: around 1918, Place: the Latty Farm. In the fall come rare, sparkling days that are warm and bright, with very little wind, when nature seems to savor the last remnants of summer. Spider webs break loose from their moorings and float through the air, […]
May 3, 2020
The Merciless Wind, Part II
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This is the second and final installment of my May 5, 1985 Daily Press article about the tornado which destroyed Peggs, Oklahoma on May 2, 1920. In 1920, Walter Neel lived with his parents, brothers and sisters on the Gid Morgan farm, two and a fourth miles southeast of Peggs. The storm went a […]
Jan 27, 2020
When Real Life Is Mysterious
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Real-life mysteries exist all around us-life experiences, questions without answers. These are just begging to be put into a cozy mystery, and I am happy to oblige. Take houses, for example. Old houses have a history of their own. My parents moved a few times during my childhood, so I lived in several different […]
Oct 1, 2019
To Write or Not to Write
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Why did I write them? Why, indeed? Why are the three Ned McNeil moonlight books on the market, available for those who like to read cozy mysteries? As any writer can tell you, there are people and plots inhabiting the area in our brains where creativity takes place. Since those people and plots would […]
Sep 17, 2019
The Time Tunnel
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Go with me this morning on a journey–not so far in miles, but a great distance in time and quite a giant leap in imagination. We’re going to struggle through years of wild undergrowth–bushes, weeds, grape vines, wild rose bushes, blackberry briars, giant oaks, and we’ll stop at the remains of a small, wood house. […]
Sep 16, 2019
Puddles and Ponderings
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When I was a child, Dad had a pond below the house by the barn. I used to drop a rock in that pond and watch the circles spread. Small circles at first, but spreading wider and wider. Life experiences are like that rock. They disturb the small surface of the pond and spread, sometimes […]
