After a Sunday Hike

Yesterday I had one of those moments. I didn’t realize it was Valentine’s Day. For some reason I thought it was on Monday. So Happy Belated Valentine’s Day to those who did remember. I hope it was a special day of romance.

I have to be honest. I don’t care for romantic novels. My grandmother, bless her heart, loved romances with a little spice. She used to say that at her age (nineties) she could do or say whatever she wanted and get away with it. I should be so lucky.

However, give me a good mystery with a little romance and I’m happy. I still prefer a story that will leave some of the romance to my imagination, but that’s just me. Maybe when I reach my nineties I’ll look for a little more spice in my reading material. After all, I take after my grandmother in so many ways. Thankfully I have a very long time to go before I reach that stage of life. Nah, I think I’ll do or say whatever I want to right now. Why not?

My husband was a romantic, although he wouldn’t admit it. Maybe that’s why I spaced Valentine’s Day. He passed away last May. I’m entering a new chapter in my life, which has both pros and cons. Sometimes, in life, there just aren’t any do-overs. One of his favorite sayings? “Nut up and get on with it.” I hope that doesn’t offend anyone. Maybe I should have rewritten it to “Man up,” but I preferred to quote him – exactly.

I’m working on a time travel mystery right now, and I’m including a little romance along with the mystery. It’s part of life, after all. If all goes as planned, there will be a few little surprises along the path to 1909. I guess I gave away the era when my story takes place. Oh well…

Romantic writing can be tricky, at least in my opinion. Does the author want to be graphic, or are the sweet moments in life his or her choice? Can the author create a conflict that will please the reader? Romance isn’t as easy to write as I used to think, but then, it’s not my shtick, so what do I know?

Yesterday my daughter and I went shopping in Portland, Oregon. I observed several couples out shopping together. Is love about the gifts given on Valentine’s Day? Maybe it is to some people, but if I were to judge by the facial expressions I saw, true love is more about the thought behind the gift, not the present itself.

Maybe that’s one of the keys to romance writing. Let the reader get inside of a character’s head to learn why they do the things they do. The same can be said for a mystery. The reader needs to know why things are happening, or the story can become one-dimensional.

This week’s post is relatively short, but since I’m not a romance writer, I’ll leave the wise thoughts about love to the professionals.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with these two links. There are so many romantic songs out there, but these two, at least to me, are particularly romantic. I hope they inspire you to let Valentine’s Day become a two-day event, or even better, a lifelong event.

That Sunday That Summer – Natalie Cole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_dDRfY4L6Q

You Make Me Feel Brand New – Johnny Mathis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V13-qOdoeHw&list=RDV13-qOdoeHw

Until next time, have a great week and tell someone how important they are in your life.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

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Humor is the Spice that Makes Life Easier

 

In Memory of all of those who have loved and protected us throughout the years

~~~

 

I learned many years ago that if you can find even one piece of humor in a traumatic situation, you need to glom onto it and savor it. Humor can help you through some rough times.

Remember, when writing fiction, the same applies.

I’m going to relate a personal story about how a bird has helped me through my own recent tragedy – with humor.

My husband recently passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly. I was devastated, and that’s putting it mildly.

The morning after he passed I took a cup of tea and settled outside on the patio. We have a small pond with a waterfall, and it was filled with a dozen goldfish. A remote is used to turn on the waterfall, and the sound is so soothing that I immediately stood up and tried to turn it on, but it wouldn’t start. However, that’s not the gist of this story.

I sat down, and looking up I saw a crane/heron, I’m not sure which, on the roof of the house behind us. I know they turn up occasionally at the nearby lake, but I’ve never seen one around my home. Feeling a little sappy at the time, I thought, Oh, that’s Al and he’s letting me know everything is going to be okay. The bird hung around for about half an hour, just sitting and staring at me. I grabbed my camera and took his picture, but I haven’t had the film developed yet or you could see him.

End of story, right? No. The next day the crane/heron returned. This time he climbed down the neighbor’s roof, a little closer to me, and sat and stared at me again. Oh, my, how I thought my husband really wanted me to know things would be okay.

The third day the crane/heron returned and I was amazed. My heart leapt, knowing how much my husband cared for me. That is, until I walked over to feed the fish and they were gone! The bird had eaten all of the fish.

Now it’s the end of the story, right? No. Some friends came over to help me with things and one of them threw a pebble into the pond. Two fish came rushing out from under a rock overhang. Oh, my gosh! The stupid bird had missed two of the fish! I ran for the fish food and tossed them some pellets.

In the meantime, my daughter tried to turn on the waterfall and it started right up. Uh, my husband always turned it on in the morning, and I always turned it off at night. It seems I’d been pushing the Off button out of habit. Problem solved and at least two fish had survived.

Now it’s the end of the story. No it’s not. On the fourth day I got out the fish food – enough for two fish – and strolled over to feed them. Six fish had finally worked up the nerve to come out from under the rocks. Mr. Crane/Heron didn’t get to fill his belly on his recent pond raid.

So what’s so funny about all of this? My husband had a wonderful sense of humor and this felt like something he might have orchestrated. In my own way, I still feel as though he’s been telling me to pull myself up by my bootstraps (not the way he would have worded it) and take care of business.

Yes, I honestly believe that in life, and in fiction, sometimes you have to let humor do a little healing.

Until next week, look for the humor in what life throws your way.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website (Recently updated)

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Interesting note, at least to me. My husband came up with a few of my book titles. How Now Purple Cow was one of his best ideas. The story has to do with purple cows and elderly spies. Great title!

Jean Henry Mead, Guest Author

This week my friend Jean Henry Mead is my guest and she’s interviewing one of her characters, Sarah Cafferty. I got a kick out of this interview, and I think you will, too. I enjoy the Logan and Cafferty books and it was fun getting to know Sarah a bit better. Welcome, Jean!

 Protagonist Revolt by Jean Henry Mead

Like Marja, I include humor, romance and murder in my mystery/suspense novels, so I decided to interview one of my protagonists, who, after six books, seems like old friend that I eavesdrop on during the writing process. Sarah Cafferty is one of two senior amateur sleuths who hasn’t been her usual cheerful self since completing her latest adventure in Murder at the Mansion.

Author: Sarah, why are you so cranky? You’ve shown good humor in my previous Logan and Cafferty novels. You're too old for PMS.

Sarah: Cranky? What do you expect? First you destroy the mansion. Then you send us flying off to Texas to escape the killer. And if that wasn’t bad enough, you allow a questionable character to talk us into hiding in a mountain cabin in the Alaskan outback, which is even more dangerous.

Author: I’m sorry, Sarah. I know it was traumatic, but you have to admit that it was suspenseful.

Sarah: Where were you when we nearly froze to death in the tundra? Sitting in your comfortable chair thinking up ways to get us into deeper trouble?

Author: That’s my job. Would you prefer that I replace you and Dana with younger sleuths?

Sarah: Dana and I are only in our early sixties. Not some elderly widows with walkers. We can do everything that younger sleuths do.

Author: Well—

Sarah: With the possible exception of skateboarding and scaling tall buildings.

Author: If that’s true, I think I’ll have you bungee jump in the next novel.

Sarah: Unless you’re joking, Dana and I are taking a hiatus from your mystery series.

Author: What about our readers? You don’t want to disappoint them, do you?

Sarah: Haven’t we done enough? In The Village Shattered you send a serial killer after us. In Diary of Murder a vicious drug gang. In Murder on the Interstate you have a homegrown terrorist group kidnap us while they’re planning to take down the entire country. And if that wasn’t enough, you have a wolf killer cause us to wreck Dana’s Escalade and then stalk us on Gray Wolf Mountain. (Taking a deep breath.) Then you send us to Texas in Murder in RV Paradise where you have me wading into a lake to retrieve a woman’s body, only to be suspected of the murder. I don’t call that paradise.

Author: I’ve got some ideas that will knock your socks off.

Sarah: That settles it! You can email us in Argentina. That’s where we’re going on vacation. If we don’t answer, you’ll know that some other novelist has decided to adopt us and treat us fairly.

Author: You’ll be bored within a week and out of a job in a month. Novelists who are nice to their protagonists don’t last long in the publishing business. Readers want suspense as well as mystery.

Sarah: I’ve got a great idea. You take my place and I’ll write you into some mysterious and suspenseful situations. You’ll love bungee jumping over a crocodile pit or waking up with rattlesnakes. I can think of lots of exciting scenarios to place you in.

Author:  Point taken, Sarah. From now on we’ll concentrate on mystery and go easy on the suspense.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Bio: Jean Henry Mead is a former news reporter and photojournalist. She’s the author of 21 books, half of them novels, which include the Logan & Cafferty series, Hamilton Kid’s mysteries, Wyoming historical novels, and nonfiction interview and history books, one of which served as a college textbook. She has also served as a news, magazine and small press editor, contributor to the Denver Post, and has been published in magazines domestically as well as abroad.

Visit Jean’s website at http://www.jeanhenrymead.com/

You can read her blogs at:

            Mysterious Writers    http://mysteriouspeople.blogspot.com/

            The View from My Mountaintop http://theviewfrommymountaintop.blogspot.com/

            Murderous Musings  http://murderousmusings.blogspot.com/

CLICK HERE to buy books

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

A Well-Kept Family Secret – A Sandi Webster Mystery is available in audio format. Try it, you might like it. Don't forget How Now Purple Cow - A Bogey Man Mystery.

Marilyn Levinson, Guest Author

My guest this week is Marilyn Levinson. While I haven’t read all of her books, I’ve read a number of them and I thoroughly enjoyed the stories. Marilyn is here to give us the scoop on her three series – Wow – three series! I can’t wait to read her new and upcoming Ghost book. Welcome, Marilyn!

Marja has invited me to talk about my three mystery series. I’m delighted to have this opportunity to introduce my sleuths and to say a bit about their various escapades as they go about solving murders. All my series take place on Long Island, but the locale of each novel varies, as do the personalities of my three sleuths.

         

 Lydia Krause, an attractive, vibrant fifty-eight year old woman solves murders and unearths old mysteries in the Twin Lakes Mysteries. In A Murderer Among Us, Lydia embarks on a new life that brings her adventure, new friendships and romance. After her husband dies, she sells her thriving business and moves to Twin Lakes, an upscale over-55 gated community, to be near her older daughter and her family. While attending her first Twin Lakes social event, Lydia’s introduced to a man she knows under another name, that of the man who drove her baby sister to suicide and was sent to prison for embezzlement. The man’s wife verbally attacks Lydia and Lydia responds with vigor. The next morning the wife is found murdered and Lydia is suspect number one.

In Murder in the Air, the bones of a teenaged boy are discovered on newly acquired Twin Lakes property. Lydia’s elderly neighbor infers he knows something about the dead boy, and then he is murdered. Lydia unearths old secrets and new crimes, much to the disapproval of her boyfriend, homicide detective Sol Molina.

   

 Writing my Golden Age of Mystery Book Club mysteries is lots of fun because these books give my characters the opportunity to discuss the works of my favorite Golden Age of Mystery authors. In Murder a la Christie, book club members talk about books by Dame Agatha. They analyze Josephine Tey’s mysteries in Murder the Tey Way. My sleuth, Lexie Driscoll, is a 48-year-old English professor who is very bright except when it comes to choosing the men in her life. She facilitates book club meetings as she solves the murders that crop up around her. In Murder a la Christie, Lexie is discussing The Mysterious Affair at Styles in her friend’s manor-style home when another friend takes ill and dies. Convinced that Sylvia’s been poisoned, Lexie investigates. More members are murdered and Lexie begins to think she’s living in Christie’s novel And Then There Were None.

Lexie’s estranged sister pays her a visit In Murder the Tey Way. The following morning, the body of a man is found in Lexie’s backyard, and Lexie fears her sister may have killed him. Lexie and her friend, a former FBI agent who’s now a soccer mom, look into the mysterious pasts of the strange pair of sisters living next door to Lexie. Meanwhile, two men are vying for her attention—world-famous architect Allistair West and Detective Brian Donovan. Will she pick the right man this time?

  In Giving Up the Ghost, Gabbie Meyerson moves to Chrissom Harbor, a former fishing village that’s now a popular summer spot for affluent yuppies. Gabbie has taken a position teaching English in the local high school in the dead of winter. She is virtually penniless after having divorced her husband whom she helped put in prison for embezzlement and other white collar crimes. She rents a cottage situated on the buffs above Long Island Sound and discovers she has a housemate—the ghost of Cameron Leeds, the former owner of the cottage. Cam is an exasperating but lovable scoundrel who was a wheeler dealer and a ladies’ man till the day he died. Though his death was ruled an accident, Cam insists that he was murdered, but he has no idea who did it. He nags Gabbie until she agrees to find out who murdered him. Gabbie starts asking questions around town and discovers that several people might have wanted to do Cam in.

In her classes, Gabbie and her students discuss The Great Gatsby. One of her students is being bullied and runs away. Then one of the bullies is murdered. Gabbie learns that the murderer is the same person who threw Cam off the bluff to the beach below.

Though Gabbie has no interest in romantic entanglements, she falls for Darren Rollins, CH’s local lawman who was Cam’s best friend. Right now I’m writing the sequel to Giving Up the Ghost. The working title is Return of the Ghost. In it, Gabbie’s principal is stabbed to death, and Cam returns to Chrissom Harbor because his daughter is in danger.

Thank you for stopping in, Marilyn! I enjoyed reading about your books and I could hear the passion for writing in your voice.

Marilyn’s website is: www.marilynlevinson.com

Her Amazon page: http://amzn.to/K6Md1O 

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

COMING SOON: How Now Purple Cow – A Bogey Man Mystery

What could purple cows and elderly spies possibly have to do with each other? How do the Bogey Man and his wife, Pamela, fit in? Fun stuff.