2/2/2025 0 Comments You Have the Time![]() If you have a story aching to be told, get after it. Nobody’s going to write it for you. On the Type M for Murder blog, I talk about finding the time to write.
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1/26/2025 0 Comments Old Friends![]() Re-reading a favorite novel is like visiting an old friend. There's a comfort level similar to sipping a hot cup of tea on a cold day. Why read an old favorite when there are so many new novels? That is a problem. "Too many books, not enough time" is true. Most of us have "real life" to attend to, cutting into our reading time. Reader Lisa Varner rediscovered the classics, but also the value of rereading. "Most of us don’t need convincing that we ought to read more excellent books, but I suspect fewer of us have experienced just how deeply moving it may be to reread a title that we loved in the past, as well as to reread those whose impact we missed before." The Precious Value of Rereading Books. Not all novels stand up to re-reading. For me, the complexity of the plot, clever wordplay, or engaging characters can bring me back for a second read. Even though you know what's coming, you might notice new details. Or you wish to simply return to a delightful world, whether a small town, fantasy setting, or historical era. I recently re-read Malice (Detective Kaga #1) by Keigo Higashino. The plots in Higashino's detective novels have unexpected twists and turns, and I enjoy "visiting" modern Japan when I read his books. Typically though, if I reread a novel, it's classical literature. Moby Dick was an assigned reading in college. I needed to reread it at a more leisurely pace, to truly enjoy the novel. I've reread Jane Eyre, and I'm returning to Jane Austen's world with Pride and Prejudice. My husband hasn't read The Lord of the Rings, so I am rereading it aloud when we go on long drives. One benefit of the classics is living for moments in times free from modern clamor. No cell phones. No social media doom-scrolling. Reading slows the pace of life. What novels have you reread? Did they hold up a second time? 1/19/2025 0 Comments Clearing Fog![]() Let's get this year going! My energy has returned, post-cold. I was in a fog the first couple weeks of 2025. One day, there even was a thick fog blanketing all of the outdoors, matching my brain's interior malfunctioning. That has passed. One day I woke up, and it was like a reset button had been punched. What's on the agenda? This being January in Colorado, lots more miserably cold weather. Deceitful days where the sun shines boldly, but the temperatures are arctic. Gardeners will persist in planning for a spring we're optimistic will return, as it does every year. We'll soon be perusing seed catalogs, visiting gardening centers, and preparing trays for seedlings. Writing projects include a series my daughter and I are creating, with a hoped for release date in 2026. We've completed the YA, but need to think about how we want to pursue publication. I'm writing book 4 in the Rose Creek series, while waiting to hear the fate of book 3. The Body in the Cattails, book 1, is slated to be released in mass market paperback format by Harlequin this summer. I'm also trying to get back to short stories. Maybe shoot for writing two a year. I don't know how my husband's imminent retirement will affect my schedule. He has a long to-do list he placed on hold in anticipation of quitting the day job. We've pulled up our Bucket List. Or maybe it's more appropriate to call it a No Regrets list, of things we want to do, and places we want to visit, while good health and finances still allow. Our kids and grandkids want to plan camping trips with us. While I love to write fiction, I might have to ration out my time more carefully later in 2025. I plan to attend two writers' conferences this spring. Left Coast Crime is in Denver this year, so I have no excuse to skip it. And of course I'll be at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference. Sharing my completed book reads is a goal this year. Not necessarily as recommendations. I don't want to task myself with reviewing. Just to share what I've enjoyed reading. To keep myself going. I hope to stretch my reading tastes a bit. More history and biography. Some mainstream and literary crossovers. As well as cozy mysteries and my new interest, romantic suspense. Keep walking and running. The accursed cold knocked me off my fitness schedule, and I need to get back into routine. I have a treadmill, so the aforementioned bad weather is no excuse. At the same time, I want to pace myself. Take more moments to smell the flowers and notice the sunset. Time is precious. I want to be mindful about how I spend the minutes, hours, and days I'm given. How is your 2025 going? Have you experienced setbacks? I encourage you to take a moment to breathe. Clear your head. Hit your own reset button. Then dive back in with renewed energy. 1/12/2025 0 Comments Projects to Finish![]() I can't imagine the angst experienced by the local beaver. After felling trees and damming a creek, causing mayhem in the midst of the city, the wildlife folks humanely relocated the animal to a safer environment. As it was being hauled away, did it clutch its fists and wail about work left undone? There are a dozen trees along the urban walking path in the process of being gnawed. One day they will fall. But the beaver is far away, in some mountain meadow, and will not enjoy the fruits of its labors. The sight of these incomplete projects reminded me of the many things left undone in my life. I hoped to hit the ground running at the start of the New Year. Then a cold sidelined me. It was very frustrating to delay my projects. Or to work limited hours on them. I have a backlog of writing projects, and I've only scratched the surface on a family history project. Then there is the spring garden to begin planning. Arts and crafts projects cluttering up the family room. Home improvement projects requiring finishing work. I'm afraid it sounds like whining, when I am truly grateful to have so many interests, and the resources to pursue them. I'm sure you have your own list with tasks both more mundane and more impactful. It could all become overwhelming, if we let it. I hope I don't end this year with the feeling that I frittered away my time on inconsequential activities. Busy work. Although it seems counterintuitive to the desire to complete a long to-do list, I plan to spend more time sitting quietly. Letting my mind clear. And practicing gratitude. Celebrating the accomplishments, big and small. 1/5/2025 0 Comments Hello 2025!![]() I rang in the New Year sober. (I quit consuming alcohol over a year ago.) Yet I didn't wake up feeling bright and cheerful. January second was even worse. I started my day feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. My husband caught a bug during one of our holiday gatherings or shopping trips. I resisted for an extra day and a half, but it finally got me. The good news is, we're almost over whatever it was. Plus, we both lost those holiday cookie and snacking pounds. Now if we can just keep them off. Do you know the saying for March, in like a lion, out like a lamb? Meaning the month starts wintry, but will end with spring weather? Maybe starting January with a cold means the rest of the month will be smooth sailing, health-wise. I hope your year is starting out great. And if it isn't, may you overcome the early obstacles, and breeze through the next few months as you achieve your 2025 goals. 12/29/2024 0 Comments Goodbye 2024![]() This was a tough year. Allow me a whining session before I move on. My husband and I did a partial remodel of our home. What began as my simple request to merely paint and re-carpet our bedroom morphed into gutting our bathroom, partially remodeling the other bathroom, painting and new flooring for the office, and painting and re-carpeting the guest bedroom. That's good, right? Our 45 year old home was overdue for upgrades. Doing all this work, a good deal of it done by my husband, was stressful beyond my imagining. The house was turned upside down for months. We ran out of money and energy before finishing two remaining rooms. The contrast is glaring. My husband is ready to begin gutting another room. I'm screaming inside my head. All that pales in comparison to actual tragedy. My 89-year-old father passed in March. He was determined to make it to 100, but his body had other plans. In October we took his ashes, along with his wife's, and my mother's ashes (she passed in 2022), to South Dakota. As an amateur genealogist, I wanted a headstone to act as a physical notice of their existence. Plus, this felt like returning them home. The trip to Sioux Falls, and then Willow Lake, was a whirlwind. High stress, but also a burden lifted from me and my siblings. A door closed with sad finality is so much better than the lingering feeling of a task remaining incomplete. Then earlier this month, our oldest granddaughter totaled her car. Thank God for air bags. She came out of the wreck in better than expected condition. But it was a reminder of the frailty of life, and how things can change in an instant. That's the big whine. Now for the good things. Lots of miles with my husband walking in a local park, meaning we have good health and mobility. Participating in the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in the spring, then the 24 Hours of Palmer Lake ultra-running event in the fall, with our older daughter. Welcoming our younger daughter's new puppy into the family, and proudly watching her navigate significant life changes with grace. Witnessing the accomplishments of our intelligent and beautiful granddaughters. The release of Rapid Fear, my most recent Annie's novel. Immersing myself in the wonderful world of true crime podcasts. Receiving a new e-reader with access to tons of great novels, and stocking up on physical Annie's books at sale prices. Backyard gardening, and summer mornings on the deck. Seeing my blue columbines finally flower. Tea at the Glen Eyrie Castle with friends Beth and Fred. The party celebrating our friend Joyce's retirement as she joins her husband Steve in the leisure life. Family dinners, celebrations, and recitals. 2025 will bring my husband's retirement from his career as a medical device quality engineer. We'll be starting, not so much a new chapter, as a whole new book. My 2025 goals? I have plenty of writing projects and genealogy research to continue. I don't have specific New Year's resolutions. More like striving for my own attitude adjustments. Letting the future tend to itself while I enjoy the present. Gratefulness. That's my key focus for 2025. 12/22/2024 0 Comments Bringing Back the Light![]() The Winter Solstice happened Saturday. It is officially winter. That might be cause for alarm for some folks, but for me, this signals lengthening days. Those of us with Seasonal Affective Disorder still have a struggle ahead of us. The sunrise is not earlier for a while, but the days are slowly growing longer. One way of coping with SAD is to get outdoors. Go for a walk. Exercise indoors if you have to, but try to get some direct sunshine, too. Winter gives me more time to read. Encircle Publications is running a sale on their catalog of print books through December 31st. "Looking for unique gifts for your family and friends? Or even a new read for yourself? Peruse our shelves at https://encirclepub.com/ and enjoy 20% Off your print book order when you enter “20Encircle2024” at checkout!" My Rose Creek mystery novels The Body in the Cattails and The Body in the Cornfield are available, as well as my Rock Shop Mystery series, and the standalone Survive Or Die. 12/15/2024 0 Comments Dark Days and Long Nights![]() We're fast approaching the winter solstice. Saturday, December 21st, will be the shortest day of the year. I'm synched with the sun, as though my farmer ancestry is in control of my mind and body. You can't plow those fields by candlelight! When the days are less than 9 1/2 hours long, my world implodes. As daylight shrinks, so does my life. My brain believes the sun is slowly disappearing. Forever, probably. Leaving us in perpetual darkness and cold. We'll all surely die. The past couple weeks, I'm waking up without that signal of sun glowing through the curtains. Maybe that part of my ancestry hailing from Norway is awakening. The days are dark and the nights are long. It's time to go a-viking! I understand on a rational level that longer days will soon return. Until then, I'll struggle to stay upbeat and busy as I fight to slay the dragon of SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder. Am I the only one? Or do you have the urge to hibernate, or perhaps go a-viking, when the days are short and the nights long? What are your coping mechanisms? One of mine is to write. I have several fiction projects going that take my mind off the dragon outside my door. 12/8/2024 0 Comments Finding the Happy Endings![]() When I first began my writing journey, I thought people wrote from where they were at - meaning, a thriller author lived an exciting life, and a romance author enjoyed the bliss of perfect relationships. I'm not sure what I thought about science fiction and horror authors. Then I heard a speaker at a writers conference several years ago. The bestselling romance author gave an inspirational talk about how the tragedies and hardships in her life propelled her to continue writing. She was not writing from where she was at, but from where she wanted to be. As a cozy mystery author and reader, I crave happy endings. That doesn't mean my life is rainbows and unicorns. (I touched on my family history in an article on Donis Casey's blog last month.) It means that I've found escape from the harsh realities of life in fiction that provides solutions to character problems. The people in these stories have reliably happy endings. Well, the protagonist anyway. The bad guys and girls receive their comeuppance with astonishing speed, unlike real life. What I'm realizing is that happy endings come in moments. It's not a permanent condition. Seize the victories, the peaceful hours, the harmonious family gatherings. Live in them, not looking to the past or anticipating (or dreading) the future. Like the wild turkeys in the photo. Be a turkey. 12/1/2024 0 Comments Hiring a PI![]() I posted a two part article about my experience hiring a private investigator on the Type M for Murder blog: Part One - What It's Like to Hire a PI Part Two - I Hired a PI - conclusion |
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