Saturday I helped a neighbor and as I walked back to my house, I dropped my phone. Flat. Facedown. Now, I’ve dropped my phone hundreds of time, but for some reason this time the screen shattered. And I know why. No good deed goes unpunished! So now I have a new, larger phone. Maybe my fingers won’t hit the wrong …
Funny Blotter Reports
Can you believe it’s October??? This photo is from late last October of a pond not far from my house. Where did 2018 go? The countdown has begun for finishing my first Natchez park ranger romantic suspense that I’m calling Natchez Standoff! So, after two weeks of being out of town and working on edits, I am now hard at …
Who Did It?
I’ve thought many things about the Opryland Hotel, but I never thought about the beautiful gardens here. Before the 2010 floods in Nashville, the hotel had gorgeous orchids everywhere. The bad news is the flood destroyed them, but the good news is, they are coming back. I was at Opryland for the American Christian Fiction Writers conference where I was a …
The Excuses People Come Up With
As I write this post, I’m at the beautiful Innsbrook Resort in Tampa, Florida, courtesy of my publisher. I’m here pitching Justice Betrayed to the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA), and I have met some of the nicest people! And everyone I’ve met is excited about my book, which is really nice. 🙂 Now onto last week’s Mystery Question: A man was a …
Stupid or Just Plain Dumb?
I am celebrating! I just hit 20,000 words in my new book I am tentatively naming Nachez Standoff. That is almost a quarter done. 🙂 It usually takes me this many words to figure out my characters, and this morning I sat down and wrote out their goals, motivation, and conflict. I.AM.EXCITED because writing the first draft is like pulling teeth …
Murder or Something Else?
Here in Corinth, even though the temperature hovers above 90 degrees, there is a feel of fall in the air. Temperatures drop after dark…something I was very happy about last Thursday night when I returned home to discover my air conditioner had quit working! For the first time in at least twenty years, I slept with my windows up and …
Stranger Than Fiction
The opening scene in the first Natchez Ranger book is set at Windsor Ruins. The Windsor plantation home was built between 1859 and 1861 and has a tragic history. Builder Smith Daniell died two weeks after moving in and during the Civil War, a Union soldier was shot in the front doorway. Then in February 1890, a guest left a lit …
More Dumb Criminals
It’s hard to believe summer is coming to a close…school has been in session here for three weeks…I can remember when we didn’t return to school until after Labor Day! I’m finally getting my head back into the first Natchez book after the bathroom remodel – didn’t write anything for six weeks. And Christmas will be here in 129 days! …
How Dumb Can They Be?
Whew! Edits are in for Justice Delivered as of yesterday afternoon at 4:08! Of course, there will be more when the editor that I affectionately call the plausibility police gets hold of it. 🙂 Seriously, my editors are great! They make my books better every time. Now onto last week’s Mystery Question: A seventy-one-year-old man, well-liked by all, was found dead a block from …
A Crime to Solve
It’s been an interesting week getting back into my house. But I am really enjoying having order around me. Have you ever noticed how great that is? Now to just keep it that way. 🙂 Now for last week’s crime: Three of the following reports from the police blotter are true. One is not. Can you guess which one I …