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Okay, I’ve been very remiss at blogging lately, but I have a good excuse – a knee replacement, which left me very tired and just managing day to day for a while. I am heavily into PT now and walking with a cane, which means more energy! So I’m beta reading a friend’s book and back to working on mine, the second in a Rhe Brewster Mystery series. In the meantime, while my mind and body are catching up, I want to recommend two blogs I visit on a regular basis: Scribbling in the Storage Room by Elizabeth Hein and Sylvia Writes by Sylvia Villalobos. Elizabeth is a member of one of my critique groups and blogs about writing, offering great links and advice. She has recently published her first book, Overlook, which demonstrates her real skill for writing about women. Overlook, a novel about housewives who live in a housing development built around a man-made lake, is rife with social commentary, snarky and back-stabbing relationships, and yes, even some violence. I loved it. Worthy of Oprah’s book club. Sylvia is a new friend whom I met through blogging. I recently read a flash fiction piece she published in Pure Slush; she is a phenomenal writer. Her blogs are so worth reading; she asks profound questions about writing and blogging and makes thoughtful and perceptive observations of the world around her. Even though I am not doing such a great job at blogging myself, at least I can recommend a couple of women who are! 0 0

I have rarely encountered a series of books that I enjoy re-reading, especially in my favorite mystery genre. But lately I have found myself re-reading the Longmire series by Craig Johnson. I discovered them last year when Longmire became a new series of A&E, and I decided to read the books to see what the fuss was all about. The first volume hooked me and I raced through everything he had written. Now that I am re-reading the books, I like them even more, kind of like slipping on an old comfortable pair of slippers. Johnson is an interesting and talented writer, combining a wonderful ability to delineate memorable characters with write brisk, intelligent dialogue, and to create word poems of the beauty of the part of Wyoming where the stories are set. His mysteries also contain more than a soupcon of Cheyenne lore and mysticism and some chuckle-worthy humor. His main character, Walt Longmire, a crusty recent widower, has been the Sheriff of Absaroka County for 26 years and solves crimes the old fashioned way, with thought, intelligence, and consideration for the people of his county and the nearby Northern Cheyenne Reservation. He has an uneasy relationship with his daughter Cady, “the Greatest Legal Mind of Her Time,” who is a lawyer in Philadelphia. His best friend and right hand man is Henry Standing Bear, aka “the Cheyenne Nation,” an erudite man with whom Walt served in Vietnam and who now runs the Red Pony Bar and Grill and serves as Walt’s interface with the people of the reservation. I highly recommend reading two shorter books by Johnson, which he wrote to fill in, and elaborate on, the relationships and characters: Christmas in Absaroka County and The Messenger. Both books are full of warmth and humor and deserve more than one read. 0 0

I’m facing a period of healing (bodily) which leaves the mind at sixes and sevens. Having a routine helps, with small daily goals, including time for writing. With so much mental space unclaimed, the things people send me seem to have more of an impact. My sister-in-law sent me the following quote from Francine du Plessix Gray. “I write because in the act of creation there comes that mysterious, abundant sense of being both parent and child; I am giving birth to an Other and simultaneously being reborn as a child in the playground of creation.” Don’t we all have a little of creation in us? 0 0

Finally, after what has seemed to be an interminable length of time, Death in a Red Canvas Chair is out both on Kindle and paperback.  I’m having some surgery on Monday, so not much time for marketing, but I do hope whoever reads my blog with try the book. I welcome reviews – I can take it! 0 0

For many years I passed a dogwood and cedar on my way to and from home. There are lots of dogwoods and cedars along this road, but these two had grown intertwined.  In the spring the white blossoms of the dogwood popped against of the green of the cedar.  In summer, they offered two shades of green, and in the fall the burnished copper of the dogwood leaves and the red berries sparkled against the cedar branches.  In winter, I imagined the cedar protecting the dogwood, wrapping it with its branches, keeping it safe and warm until spring.  The two trees seemed like a married couple, husband and wife, complementing and protecting each other over the years. Finally, one day in late summer, I drove by my favorite trees and gasped. A road crew had come by and cut down the cedar.  It was gone.  The dogwood, forlorn and also damaged, stood, drooping.  It lasted through the winter but in the spring, the blossoms were few and the leaves were sparse.  It was as if its spouse had died, and it no longer had the will to live. Finally, toward the end of that year, the dogwood fell. Maybe I’m just getting old and sentimental, but I shed a few tears for those trees. 0 0

I came to the sort of end of a chapter in my book today and realized I hadn’t a clue how to really end it. As a matter of fact, endings of chapters have always been a problem for me. How to write a pithy sentence or two that would lead to the next chapter. Then I thought about feedback I’d gotten from my Early Birds critique group and realized that sometimes the beginnings of chapters were also difficult. So I’ve been looking critically at a couple of mystery writers I love – Craig Johnson and David Baldacci – to see what they do. The beginnings are generally a simple declarative sentence or a bit of dialogue, written to grab the attention of the reader.  The endings are generally something  brief, a thought or a bit of dialogue presaging things to come or commenting on a previous event. I need to work on this, clearly, with the emphasis on the endings.  More rewriting. BTW, Craig Johnson has a new book out:  A Serpent’s Tooth.  For those of you who have never read his books, try one. He is the author of the Longmire series, which has recently been filmed for A&E.  His books are so much better, but the person playing  Longmire, the sheriff  of the large Wyoming county of Absaroka, is an Australian Actor named Robert Taylor who is a perfect fit.  What is so great about Johnson’s books is his descriptive narrative of the beauty of Wyoming and its powerful weather, as well as the complicated relationships Longmire has with Henry Standing Bear, his best friend and member of the Cheyenne Nation, his daughter Cady, and the members of his small police department. The dialogue is crisp, interesting and more than occasionally smartly amusing and intelligent.  If you want to start with some oddly wonderful short Longmire stories, read Christmas in Absaroka County. So what do you all do to create a good chapter beginning and a better ending? 0 0

I recently attended the funeral of the mother of a good friend of mine. It was joyous for a good and long life lived and sad for the loss of her spirit. Today is also D-Day (which many Americans probably don’t even realize), with the tremendous loss of life on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. A day that turned the tide in the Second World War.  The pictures of the rows and rows of white crosses marking the burials of American soldiers moved me, as it always does, to tears. When I am sad, I often write. It pulls some of the sadness out of me and puts it on the table where I can deal with  it.  I wrote a poem today as a result.  If it’s not a good poem, it’s because I’m not a poet, but it says what I’m thinking.  It’s called Mortality. Mortality follows us on soft kitten paws Unnoticed when we are young First heard when we have children and think of their futures But behind and around the corner The children leave the nest and the soft padding comes closer We plan for when it arrives There comes a day when we can’t stay ahead of it We look down and there it is, sitting on its soft kitten paws Reminding us that we are just part of a continuing cycle Our time is drawing to an end It’s following our children on soft kitten paws   0 0

It’s Memorial Day, the beginning of summer, time for barbecues, picnics, swimming and boating. Or at least that’s how most of America celebrates.  And how we used to. We didn’t give much thought to our military; they were just there to protect us, but we weren’t involved. Then we became military parents. Our son Patrick joined the Army (82nd Airborne) seven years ago and served three year-long enlistments, one in Afghanistan and two in Iraq.  We learned what it’s like to really worry about a child; our hearts raced every time we heard about another IED, mortar attack, ambush.  Was Patrick involved? His phone calls and skypes were our lifelines. He’s still in the Army, now a Staff Sergeant, Senior Jump Master and Advanced Infantry trainer.  We’re very proud of all he has accomplished, for his dedication protecting and serving our country. We support our troops and the groups who provide help to all those service men and women who came home with horrible injuries, seen and unseen, and for the families whose sons and daughters didn’t come home.  We are indeed blessed. So on this Memorial Day, I ask anyone who reads this blog to think about what this day really celebrates. And maybe give a little money to the groups that support our troops. www.woundedwarriorproject.org  is one of our favorites. Here are a few others:‎ The Gary Sinise Foundation http://www.garysinisefoundation.org Healing Wounded Heroes www.healingourwoundedheroes.org Homes For Heroes http://www.homesforheroes.com Homes For Our Troops http://www.homesforourtroops.org Operation Homefront http://www.operationhomefront.net Operation Second Chance http://www.operationsecondchance.org Paws & Stripes www.pawsandstripes.org  The USO http://www.uso.org  0 0

My daughter recently called for advice. I’ve noticed that as she’s matured, she does this more often.  This time it was a sensitive situation with a co-worker who was struggling to deal with cancer in the family while working to support everyone.  Clearly what she needed to do was take on the role of mentor; it was her time to make the transition from being a mentee. When she called back to say that both my husband’s and my advice had worked, she bemoaned the fact she had no experience being a mentor. I don’t think anyone has that experience when they make the transition. You just hope that what you’ve learned from the people who mentored you and your own life experience will serve you well.  I’ve had three wonderful mentors in my scientific life, all men, and rued the day when I became so senior, there was no one left to mentor me anymore. Entering the writing world, I immediately looked for mentors, because that’s the way you move ahead and succeed.  But this is a different world.  You are not part of an organization; writing is solitary. However, I discovered my critique groups were a valuable source of support and information and that speakers at our North Carolina Writer’s Network Conferences provided invaluable advice. Who has mentored you in your writing career? Where do writers look for mentors? 0 0