If you took a gander at The Little Blog this weekend you saw the following announcement:
Spice up your summer!
Long, hot days got you down?
Add some excitement (and some seriously good prizes) to your summer with the first-ever Little Blog of Murder contest!
Check in with us all this coming week to learn more.
Casey posted that before [...]

My mother is one of those Depression-era women dedicated to living a no-frills life. Her motto is, “It’s good enough for us.”
If our house wasn’t as fancy as some other people’s, well, “It’s good enough for us.”
Or if our car wasn’t as expensive, or our clothes as nice, or our furniture as new, or [...]

Two life-altering events dovetailed this week. Events so emotional and personal that I really shouldn’t be telling you about them. But, what the hey! This is a mystery blog and what is life but the mystery of all mysteries?
Life-Altering event No. 1:
This is my final week of painting. Oh yes, I suppose I’ll paint [...]

To paraphrase Garrison Keillor, it was another crazy week in Lake Poorismee, where the women are way too strong, the dogs indefatigable, and the men worse than frazzled.
A Sunday ago, Carol and I were in Owensboro, Kentucky, at the Kentucky International Mystery Writers’ Festival. It was a slow, easy-does-it day. The attendance was small that [...]

Good morning! I’m writing this on Friday. Getting it out of the way because of the busy weekend ahead. I’m teaching my Writing that Novel class from 9-11 Saturday morning then driving straight down to Owensboro, Kentucky for the big mystery festival there.
I’ve written the story below for the class, as part of my [...]

The week just passed was, as the jazz musicians of old used to say, quite copasetic. Satisfying if not excellent.
First of all, my birthday was smack in the middle of it. On Thursday.
I got a nifty card and fifty bucks from my mother. Even though I’m now 59, and she’ll soon be 90, she still [...]

I like to think of myself as a well-informed citizen. Wife Carol, has a better term for me: political junkie.
And she’s right. I am a political junkie. Always have been. Always will be. I love our democracy and the craziness that ensues.
Carol complains that all I watch on TV are boring documentaries and those talking-head [...]

I’m writing this on Saturday. It’s a beautiful day. Warm and sunny. Carol spent the morning planting flowers. I did the grocery shopping. I also went to the craft store and bought a couple of glass jars so Carol can transplant her bamboo shoots. While I was there I bought a bouquet of artificial roses [...]

I have a lot to worry about: Is this the day Dudley gets loose and eats the neighbor lady? Will Carol go to the mall and come home with the mall?
My newest worry is my carbon footprint. I’m a regular brontosaurus, I am.
My mother, on the other hand, is a teenie-weenie little mouse. I [...]

I came home last night from my Mother’s Day rounds with those Boy-Where-Has-The-Time-Gone? Blues. My mother is going to be 90 this summer. My brother is going to be 60! Which means I’m going to be, gulp, 59.
This melancholy comes on top of my decision this past week to finish Another Fine Night at [...]