Welcome to the Spot Writers. This month’s prompt is to write using the theme “The Christmas season.” Today’s prompt comes to us from Val Muller, author of the Corgi Capers mystery series. Naughty By Val Muller She stood at the drying rack, studying the dripping canvas among all the others. …
This post comes a bit late, as for the real Mother’s Day I had to do a little sleuthing to make sure my mom had actually finished reading the book mentioned in the post. There is a portion of The Girl Who Flew Away that is undeniably influenced by my …
I was glad to return to the world of Alexa Williams–along with all her usual legal and dangerous sleuthing and quest to combat human trafficking. Since Dead of Spring involved scandals related to fracking in Pennsylvania, I thought this would be an appropriate review for the week of Earth Day. If …
This week’s Fantastic Friday post is being published on a Sunday in honor of Father’s Day. Going through some pictures for an author presentation this year, I found so many of me and my sister in, or on, or near our backyard treehouse. This was a treehouse my dad built …
Happy New Year! I’ve had several discussions with people who dislike holidays that celebrate or designate the passage of time—New Years, birthdays, even Labor Day denoting the end of summer. At times, I even agree. But as my dad always asks, would you rather the alternative? So on New Year’s …
Happy Christmas! This year, so many people are complaining about the difficulty of getting into the Christmas spirit when the weather is hovering around 70 degrees across the East Coast. I don’t share that problem. I have no issues wearing sandals and having open windows while the Christmas tree is …
I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about Elf On The Shelf again—that mischievous “game” in which parents torment their kids with “deeds” the demented-looking elf commits while the kids are sleeping. Though Elf On The Shelf wasn’t a thing when I was a kid, my dad did plenty to …
As I’ve done in Novembers of the past, I wanted to highlight thirty reasons I am thankful. It’s so easy to go through each day dwelling on the negative; in fact, it seems negativity spreads much more quickly than positivity. But if we each take just a moment to thank …
Happy October! For those of you loving sweaters and pumpkin spice everything, happy October! For those of you dreading the snow and plummeting temperatures—enjoy October while you can. And for those of you (like me) who miss summer already, just be glad it’s not winter quite yet—and “we are closer …
Valentine’s Day is one of those days. While there’s a nice “warm, fuzzy” about it, it also seems somewhat manic—either someone is ecstatic about the holiday, or else in the doldrums. I thought I’d match the manic nature with my Valentine’s Day post, musing on the pros and cons of …