One day I was at the grocery store, and I kept hearing someone whistling and sounding very cheerful. It seemed that the whistler was always one aisle ahead of me. I finally turned up another aisle, and there was a very little, very old woman, whistling “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,” and grinning from ear to ear. I stopped her and told her that her whistling had brightened my day.

This chance meeting also sparked an idea for a story. “The Trouble with Whistling” was hatched that day and it’s now available on Amazon.com.

Sandi Webster, P.I., is having a memorable week. The cases are piling up, and she has an eighty-something woman, Tillie, and a teenage boy, Mike, suddenly left in her care. All of the distractions have left her feeling clumsy and accident-prone. 

Tillie seems to have a song to whistle for every occasion, and the young man, while mature for his age, might be a liability. However, they both aspire to the same thing; to go on ride-alongs with Sandi.

While investigating a burglary case, a man is murdered in the same neighborhood. Should Sandi take on this latest case? Or are her hands full with burglars, elderly victims and stalkers?

And why would whistling be a problem? Afterall, it’s just a form of entertainment for a happy senior citizen.

I’ve been off the grid, in a manner of speaking, for a while now. Between covid and the lockdowns (thankfully mostly over), health and family issues, and moving across the country, things haven’t been normal. It’s time for things to settle down and get back to normal (whatever that is), for all of us.

My daughter and I have moved to Mississippi and I’ve found that I love it here! I don’t think I’ll ever regret the move. Sometimes we have to make a change in our lives when led to do it. And who knows? Maybe life in this beautiful, wonderful, slower-paced life might lead to another story.

The quieter life has given me plenty of time to think and I believe it’s about time for Sandi and her husband, Pete, to make a return trip to Wolf Creek. (“Old Murders Never Die”) One of my older books was about Sandi and Pete being stranded in a deserted ghost town where Sandi dared to solve an old murder. What if she returns to the town and discovers another secret? It could be fun. I’ll have to give it a lot of thought.

Sandi solves current day cases, as in the latest story, but she has the most fun and the biggest challenges when someone approaches her with a vintage case that’s just begging to be solved.

The characters I write about are fun to work with and they seem to evolve into whoever and whatever they want to be, without much help from me. Tillie was definitely fun to create, and she reminds me of a number of seniors I’ve known throughout my life. Her great-grandson, Mike, has been involved in mysteries with his parents in The Bogey Man Mysteries. He’s grown into a mature thirteen-year-old who’s more savvy than anyone gives him credit for.

Thank you for joining me today and for letting me tell you a little about “The Trouble with Whistling” and an idea for a new story. Life is good here in Mississippi and getting better every day!

Until next time, I wish you good health and joy in your day-to-day lives.

The Sandi Webster Mysteries, The Bogey Man Mysteries, and The Accidental Gumshoe Mysteries are available from Amazon.com, along with a couple of standalone mysteries. I hope you’ll check out some entertaining stories.

Click here to take a trip to Amazon.com

Look Up, Look Down

When my husband was in the police academy, something they emphasized was, “Look up, look down, look all around.” That’s good advice for anyone investigating a crime, real or fictional.

Have you ever played one of those Search & Find games on the computer? Some of the objects you’re told to find will turn up in the most unlikely places. That’s true in life, too. I recently lost my car keys. Thankfully, I had an extra set of keys. I looked everywhere for those missing keys, including emptying out my purse (which would frighten a mere mortal) and all of my pockets. I’d had an appointment that day and finally decided I must have dropped them in the parking lot without realizing it.

I missed those keys because there were other things on the keychain besides my car and house key. The house key is another story. Whoever lived here before had different locks put on every door. Lots of keys for lots of doors. But I digress.

About two weeks later I put on a jacket to wear to the store, stuck my hand in the pocket and, surprise, surprise, there were the lost keys. I could have sworn I wore a different jacket the day of my appointment.

In Old Murders Never Die – A Sandi Webster Mystery, Sandi and Pete are stranded in a ghost town. To the best of their knowledge, no one had set foot in Wolf Creek for over a hundred years. Without much else to do, the two detectives started looking things over and they discovered unsolved murders from around 1880. Thus began their desire to solve the old murders. As the pair began searching houses in the town, they looked for clues, and Pete (an ex-police officer) offered Sandi the advice my husband offered me. She looked up, down and all around, and a few clues came to light after all those years. 

 This looks like a good hiding place.

Between my daughter and me, we have three dogs. Things disappear all the time. The little angels just love to walk off with whatever is within their reach. Very frustrating. The same advice works when looking for a lost slipper or sock. However in the case of the dogs, it’s also advisable to look under rocks or where it appears fresh digging has taken place.

Readers, including me, love secret rooms or passages. These things add to the suspense. So when our protagonists see something that doesn’t look quite right, they take a second look and generally, in a mystery, they’ll discover something unexpected. How about a secret room that houses a mummy? (Gin Mill Grill – A Sandi Webster Mystery)

When writing a mystery, have a little fun. Close your eyes and picture the last place someone might look for a clue, information, or a body. Of course, there are times these places need to fall short of offering help. Don’t forget red herrings. Also, don’t forget that not all mysteries include a death. The mystery might include a missing person, or as in my case, lost keys.

Speaking of keys, my grandfather had a key collection. Some of them were pretty old. I had a very old trunk that was locked and no one could figure out where the key might be. What’s the fun in calling a locksmith? I dug out Grandpa’s key collection and after trying several of them, I found one that opened the trunk. The case of the missing key? Solved, although I have a feeling that this might have been a skeleton key that would open many things.

So, whether we’re talking about fiction or real life, remember to look up, look down and look all around. If that doesn’t work, start checking pockets.

Have you ever lost something important and found it in a very unusual spot?

Until next time, take in your surroundings and look for the unusual or unexpected.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

The View from the Other Side

Every once in a while, Marja McGraw runs out of ideas for posts, so this week I’m giving her a break and taking over. My name is Sandi Webster-Goldberg, I’m a private investigator, and taking over is something I do often.

I’m not altogether sure how Marja thought me up, but I once heard her say she originally planned on basing me on a younger version of Sally Field. Well, I showed her. Within the first chapter of the first book, I took on a personality of my own. I didn’t want to be based on anyone but myself.

I later heard her say she’d decided to base my menopausal mother on Sally, but as you can read for yourself in the books, that plan fell short of the mark, too. My mother is a one-of-a-kind. Why, she once took down a mugger while in the throes of a mood swing. Poor guy – I almost felt sorry for him.

As a P.I., I’m proud of the work I do. I do a lot of work for insurance companies, but I’ve also brought down a number of bad guys – some of them really bad.

My life is full. I have Pete, my partner and now husband, our friends Stanley and Felicity, and I should probably explain that I hired Pete not long after I opened my agency. In true fictional form, the business took off and I needed help. We’ve had our ups and downs, but overall we make a great couple.

Stanley was one of our first clients. He was being stalked, but I won’t go into that because Marja has already written a story that will explain Pete’s and my relationship with Stanley. When we met him, he was writing verses for greeting cards, but now he works for us. Stanley met Felicity when Pete and I were out of town and she stopped in to ask for help. They are the cutest, smartest and clumsiest couple I know.

I have an elderly neighbor named Dolly who owns a cat named Miss Kitty. I always feel a little silly when I refer to Miss Kitty. Dolly is like the grandmother I never knew, and she loves what I do for a living even more than her soap operas. She hasn’t been in the last couple of books much, but she’ll be back soon.

I have a dog named Bubba. He’s half wolf and half Golden retriever, and he’s, well, big. Very big. And he smiles frequently. The first time he smiled at me he was a stray and I thought he was baring his teeth at me. I almost called the dog catcher. However, it turns out that Bubba’s just a big ol’ bear-sized lovable mutt. And he can be very protective when the need arises. The latest addition to the family is a Chiwienie named Clementine, half Chihuahua and half Dachshund. She’s quite a character.

 

So far Marja has exposed me to a hundred-year-old family-related murder, Bubba thinking there was a ghost in the attic, a young woman being harassed by a bum, and an eight-something year old woman (P.I. in the 1940s) who wanted me to solve a cold case for her. As if that wasn’t enough, Marja brought the Bogey Man into my life. I have to admit, he was quite a character. One of my favorite actors is Humphrey Bogart and this guy was a dead ringer for Bogey. After that, Marja sent Pete and me to a ghost town where we became stranded. Actually, that was a lot of fun.

 

We helped my mother and stepfather renovate an old house full of mystery to be used as a Bed & Breakfast, we saved a billionaire with the help of my eccentric Aunt Martha, solved a cold case in Battle Ground, Washington, where we now own a vacation home, and we became involved in a cold case involving an old gin mill. I could go on, but I don’t want to give away any secrets.

I can’t help but wonder what Marja has up her sleeve next. I know my author is sometimes frustrated with me. She wants to go one way and I want to go the other. She’ll write a scene for me, scratch her head and rewrite the whole scene. Sometimes I’m dizzy from all the rewriting.

After all is said and done, all I can say is that I think it’s very generous of me to take over the blog this week. I hope Marja is busily writing me into another mystery as I carry her load.

Like Marja always says: Until next time, have a great week and enjoy a big chocolate bar. We do have chocolate in common.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

Marja: Actually, I’m working on a Bogey Man mystery right now (my 20th book), but Sandi’s latest case will be on the drawing board soon.

Rainy Sunday

 I really need an updated picture. One of these days...

It’s a dark, rainy Sunday as I write this, and it's a perfect day for snuggling up on the couch with a good mystery. Unfortunately, instead of that I’m writing a story that takes place during a major heatwave. It’s a bit difficult to write about the heat when I’m sitting at my desk, thinking I should get up and start the fireplace. I moved to Washington from Arizona, and I have to think back to what it was like during the summer in Arizona. Plus, the story takes place in Los Angeles.

Location is so important in a book. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve written enough to help the reader “visit” the location. Arizona, Washington and Los Angeles are so vastly different from each other. I can picture the location in my mind, but can the reader?

A lot of things depend on location, location, location: setting up a business, buying a home, planning a vacation, the setting for a fictional story. And when planning where a story will take place, you also have to think of regional issues such as earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, monsoon storms and snow, rain or heat. Even a volcanic eruption can be an issue, depending on where the story takes place.

Last night was quite windy here, and it was pouring rain. I’d just gone to bed when the wind picked up and the roof on the patio began lifting just enough to bang loudly when it dropped. At first I thought someone was trying to break into the house, but, surprisingly, the dogs didn’t react. I hadn’t noticed the wind when I had the television on. I couldn’t sleep and if my characters were in this situation, they wouldn’t get any sleep either. (Lucky dogs slept right through it.)

Your characters are in the middle of a thunder storm? Are there dogs or cats in the story? How do they react to the situation?

Have you ever lived through an earthquake? A hurricane? Don’t write about these things unless you have experience or a good “go to” witness to these disasters.

So it’s more than just location. It’s what the location is like if there’s an emergency. What’s possible at the location you’ve chosen for the story? There are so many details to consider when writing a story. You can research a blizzard, but if you haven’t lived through one you’re liable to get it wrong. At least talk to someone who’s lived through a blizzard, earthquake or something that could be devastating.

Of course, what if it’s just an average day and the weather is great, the air is clear and there’s a pleasant breeze? Be sure to let the reader know that’s what the day is like, but don’t tell them, show them. Let them figuratively walk in your character’s shoes. Maybe it’s nighttime and the weather is comfortable and clear. What might set this evening apart? Maybe the sound of hundreds of frogs croaking. There’s always something to remark on.

The book I’m currently working on involves some homeless people. It’s an extremely hot summer. It’s so hot out you could cook eggs on the sidewalk. In Oatman, Arizona, an historic tourist town, they actually have a contest involving cooking eggs on the sidewalk. Now that’s hot!

Right now I can look out the window and watch the rain fall. I’ve got the fireplace going and the three dogs are lying around the house, sleeping. It’s so quiet – except for the ticking of a clock. If the phone rang right now it would probably scare me out of a year’s growth. Okay, I stopped growing a long time ago, but you get the idea.

I started out talking about location, location, location, but it’s really about details, details, details. Sometimes the little things count, as long as you don’t go overboard with those details.

Now I’m chuckling. Rereading this post tells me that I’m running out of ideas. Or am I?

As a writer or as a reader, do you want those little details to enhance the story? Do you want to feel like you’re walking through a blizzard with the character in the book?

Until next time, think about where you live and the types of things that go on around you. Maybe you’re not a writer, but can you use your imagination and come up with a story about your day (in the rain, snow, or whatever)?

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

You might want to Click above and check out my website to find out more about me and my books.

Out with the Old

Contemplating 2019

The year of 2018 is about to end. Trying to decide what to post about, I reflected back on the past year. The politics, the political correctness, the crime and heartbreak have all taken their toll. There’ve been good and bad days. Thankfully the good outweighs the bad.

The year 2018 was a rough year for a lot of people, but there are better days ahead. I have a gut feeling. In the book I’m working on now, a character named Tillie says that she believes gut feelings are a nudge from God. Who knows? Maybe she’s right.

Over the past year I’ve discovered a number of new (to me) authors and read several entertaining books. Sometimes reading can be a great escape from the everyday woes.

I released two books in 2018. Gin Mill Grill and One Adventure Too Many (both Sandi Webster mysteries) kept me busy and out of trouble – not that I’d be in trouble for anything, but…

I added a new character to the Sandi Webster series by the name of Clementine. She’s a Chiwienie (half Chihuahua/half Dachshund) and quite an interesting dog, who just happens to have a doggie crush on big ol’ Bubba, the half wolf/half Golden Retriever sweetheart in the series.

Reality check: Clementine is based on my daughter’s dog and she has a doggie crush on Murphy, one of my two Yellow Labs. Sherlock and Watson of the Bogey Man series are based on my two Yellow Labs, Murphy and Sugar.

I wake up in a good mood every day because of the dogs. Murphy wakes me up by sticking his nose in my face or my ear, whichever is in his line of sight. Sugar whines with excitement and flops her paw on my bed. Clementine? She’s a licker. I pull the covers over my head. They make me laugh and they have an innocence that makes the day brighter.

My thoughts and hopes for 2019? I’m going to finish the book I’m working on. The dogs are going to make me laugh every morning. My daughter and I will find some fun and intriguing things to do. It’s going to be a good year for mystery writers and readers. I have a gut feeling, and you know what Tillie says about gut feelings.

I lost my aunt this year. No matter what happened, she always said, “Life is good!” She was right.

Life is good and I look forward to a new year and new experiences.

Best wishes for a Happy & Fulfilling New Year!

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com