Last week I watched the PBS production of The Thirty-Nine Steps. Now, usually, I like PBS productions because I think they tend to be truer to the originals than most. However, this was not true of this one. I kept thinking throughout the show that this wasn’t what I remembered of the book, but it [...]

The past two weeks have seen me in front of my TV. for way too many hours. Who knew I’d get hooked on curling? Anyway, watching the Olympics has stirred an interest in mysteries involving sports. I don’t know of any mystery taking place at an Olympic site, either during the games or around the [...]

In honor of President’s Day, Toni suggested I talk about mysteries involving presidents. Elliot Roosevelt wrote many books with his mother and father as main characters; Eleanor even more than Franklin in her own series. Franklin’s were more focused on his “man” John Lowell Endicott, known as Blackjack. Franklin and Endicott went to Harvard together, [...]

I really have a tough time coming up with ideas about which to blog, as I have said before. I kept trying to think of something all weekend, and nothing came to me. So I gave up and read. (Always a choice for me.) Since I have one six shelf bookcase and two three shelf [...]

Inspiration doesn’t come easily on a gray, January day. Curled up under an afghan, with a cat on one’s lap, sleep comes much more quickly than ideas for a blog. And then even when awake, it is easier to reach for a book, without disturbing the cat, of course, than it is to get up [...]

For the last couple of years I have done a presentation on Christmas mysteries, but no one asked me to do it this year, so I figured this was a good space for it. I happen to love Christmas mysteries myself. I figure part of the appeal is that when families get together for long [...]

I don’t really have to be creative to do this blog; that is, I don’t have to plot or invent characters and write dialog. This is more stream of consciousness writing, where the most difficult thing is spelling words such as “consciousness” and thank goodness for Spell Check or that would be insurmountable. So really [...]

I think I find it hard to blog each week because I’d so much rather be reading than writing. Thank heavens there are those who would rather write, or I’d be out of luck. It is a true symbiotic relationship; nice to know we need each other.
Why do I love reading, and in particular [...]

Well, here it is Sunday again, so time to do the blog for Foul Play. (I seem to remember someone–that would be Toni– saying she would do this every other weekend, which hasn’t happened, but maybe it is my memory.) Anyway, though I talked about Bouchercon last time, I neglected to mention one of the [...]

I’m just not good at this blogging business; I forget to do them! Sorry, I’ve missed two Mondays in a row. I’m giving myself a pass on the one two weeks ago; that was the day after Bouchercon and I was exhausted. When you go as a vendor to a convention you need recovery time. [...]