Home for Christmas

Home for Christmas

  Are you in the mood for Christmas? What, you say! We haven’t even gotten to Labor Day? Well, just in case you’d like to think ahead, here’s a bit about a Christmas mystery. Nettie wanted nothing more than to spend Christmas with her uncle, Javin Granger, her last living relative. It had been forty […]

No Zip, No Dash, No Crackle, No Electricity

No Zip, No Dash, No Crackle, No Electricity

  The electricity was off when I woke up. Oh, my goodness! What a difference. Everything was still and dark. No friendly lights blinking on this or that appliance. No internet. No coffee!! So, I thought I’d just run over to McDonald’s for a cup of their savory brew. Running might have worked, but my […]

Lightning Popped and Sizzled

Lightning Popped and Sizzled

          Whew! What a night! Lightning popped and sizzled; thunder crashed and Nemo paced. Because he wasn’t asleep during the heavenly fireworks, neither was I. What is it about a storm that terrifies some animals? Do they feel an electrical charge in the air? Is it the noise? Are they afraid […]

Untangling the Web

Untangling the Web

Why do you pick up a cozy mystery and read? Is it because you like the characters or is it the setting? Do you like to try to untangle that snarled web of a mystery before the protagonist does? Have you noticed that in the cozy mystery genre, there’s a lot of leeway, a lot […]

Acting Out of Character

Acting Out of Character

One of the most fun things about writing cozy mysteries is creating characters and developing those characters into becoming. Becoming what, you may ask. Becoming real in the mind of the writer and reader.  Oh, I enjoy manufacturing a plot with plenty of chills and setting the whole thing down in a place that may […]

Once Upon a Time, a Few Years ago.

Once Upon a Time, a Few Years ago.

As I looked back this morning at past posts, I found this one I wrote a number of years ago. My grandchildren were a lot smaller then. I was working on the first Ned McNeil moonlight mystery. Today, I’m working on the third book in that series. So, because it gave me a warm feeling, […]