posted by Lorraine Bartlett

One of my hobbies is growing veggies. Thanks to Mr. Bunny, my home bean crop was chomped to the dirt before the plants could even begin to start climbing. Though I planted seven potato "seedlings," only two sprouted. However, my bean crop at the cottage is going strong...with one little problem. Or rather, 100+ of them.

In…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

I witnessed history in the making this weekend.

I mentioned in an earlier post that my town was flirting with entering into an agreement with the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe to support the tribe's opening a casino (or more elegantly, a five-star resort destination) on five hundred or so scrubby, boggy acres on the north side of town. On Saturday, Middleboro took the giant step forward of voting to authorize the five-person Board of Selectmen…

posted by guest blogger Marilyn Levinson

I’ve started writing a new book – a Y A horror. Once again I’m a boy. I’m fifteen years old and I’ve just lost my family. What’s more, I’ve yet to discover I’m in the clutches of an uncle with evil intentions, not the least of which is to take over my body. Quite a switch from writing cozy mysteries for adults.

Adults? Kids? What’s the difference these days? How many adults have their noses in the latest Harry Potter, a series that…

posted by Leann Sweeney

My first grandchild will arrive in October, so before I spend three weeks in Seattle in the fall, I decided to fit in every appointment to every doctor or dentist I know. Plus, I start a new medical insurance deductible in September. That's an important scheduling factor. I know Aetna will be glad when this year is over. Between the Lyme meds and the physical therapy, it's been a pricey year for all of us.

I made the mistake of seeing the dentist first.…

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

"But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near."

"To his Coy Mistress", Andrew Marvell

I admit it. I'm a Boomer, and our generation ain't getting any younger. Clever marketers have noticed that. We are daily bombarded with the "opportunity" to purchase long-term care insurance, retirement property in warm (or foreign) climes, and cemetery plots.

Despite more than a few creaks and groans in the ole…

In my never-ending quest to "girlify," I'm trying to turn our summer cottage into my own private B&B. (Meanwhile, hubby is saying he wants a moose or deer head--ANYTHING--just to make the place more MANLY. HA! There will be NO taxidermy in any abode where I'm living!)

So there we were, with one very expensive piece of molding for the Victorian hallway we're recreating in our cottage hide-away. A very SHORT hallway. The paint was over $40 (and wall prep was $12). The embossed…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

Some time ago, in some magazine, I read an article that fascinated me, about people who find certain words, or combinations of words, extremely funny–far beyond a normal giggle. I'm one of them. Put the right words together and I'm reduced to helpless laughter, to the point of tears. I never know when it's going to happen, and I certainly don't know why.

So, being a proficient Googler, I tried to look up the article. The first problem was deciding what…

posted by Leann Sweeney

I loved watching the Watergate hearings. I was pregnant at the time and had quit working during my 7th month, so Watergate totally entertained me. And O.J.? I took my tiny TV to the job so I wouldn't miss a word or a glove or a stupid, lying witness. It's the mystery writer in me. I am fascinated by crime. Will be until the day I die. And now, I am mesmerized by the Phil Spector trial. I barely had a clue who he was until recently and sadly, I have missed…

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

Fingernails are overrated. You heard it here first. For a whole lot of years, I have been a (go ahead, wince) nail biter. Right down to the quick. Short as they could get without actual surgery.

Yeah, it wasn't attractive, as my mother constantly reminded me when she wasn't slapping my hand away from my mouth in public. Even after I…

posted by Doranna Durgin

Yup, I'm back to it. Scent of Danger is back in progress, and once again I'm shifting into first draft gear. Because for me, first draft creates a different world. I love revising, I get a kick out of the production stages, I lo-oove the part where the book shows up on the shelves...but first draft, that's what it's all about.

The thing about first draft, though...it takes over your life. I've come to think of the…

posted by Lorraine Bartlett

For the past couple of weeks we’ve returned to the cottage to find both hummingbird feeders bone dry. Now, this was impossible. For weeks we’ve only seen two tiny birds drinking this pseudo nectar. These birds would have to be the size of vultures if they were consuming all those calories.

Backtrack. Apparently you’re supposed to do a two-to-one mixture of water and sugar, but I must’vie gotten the recipe mixed up. For years i’vie been doing a…

posted by Sheila Connolly

A few years ago my husband accepted a new job on Cape Cod, but home prices on The Cape (not to mention the horrors of summer traffic, as described by residents) drove us to look further north, and we ended up in buying a house in a town about half an hour from my husband's job. We had no personal connection with the town, but it was convenient, and we fell in love with a particular house.

This year the town has been turned topsy-turvy by the…

Posted by Guest Blogger Dean James

Some mystery writers have only one job - writing. Many others, like me, have either full-time jobs or part-time jobs in addition to writing. I spend five days a week as a medical librarian (cataloging and metadata, if you really want to know), and readers very often ask me, "When do you write?"

The short answer is "on the weekends." My schedule has been like this for more years now than I care to count. Full-time job during the week, sometimes…

posted by Leann Sweeney

Disclaimer: Serious and sefl-absorbed post by someone who prefers to remain essentially neither non-serious nor self-absorbed.

I recently had one of my books, A Wedding to Die For, discussed on a cozy list for two …

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

I'm nobody's idea of a tech weenie. Oh, sure, if it's on the internet, I can probably find it faster than the average bear, but when it comes to making computers do what they're supposed to do, I'm sunk. Deep.

At my library job, I'm often asked to help patrons with their computer problems--usually printing or e-mail. I can figure out most…

posted by Doranna Durgin

Okay. I'm gonna get political. And I'm gonna get opinionated. I hope you're ready!

There's an orchestrated series of aggressive spay/neuter laws sweeping the country--or trying to. And they suck. They should be fought, tooth and claw and yes, fiercely worded blogs.

I said this to an agility friend at practice the other day and startled her deeply. I don't blame her for being surprised--of anyone in this world, I am vocal in…

posted by Lorraine Bartlett

I need to get going on the next book in my Booktown cozy series. Oh, I've already got a fairly good start, but it's not good enough. And I really need to work at it more...but I'm overwhelmed by PAPER.

Sometimes I think Sheila and I are competing in a "who has the bigger piles of paper" contest. Just when I'm sure she's winning, suddenly there are stacks of paper (and magazines and all kinds of other junk) teetering in my office.

What is it…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

My daughter is learning to cook. She has a shiny new college degree, but unfortunately it didn't cover the culinary arts. Somehow over the years, I thought setting a good example (yes, dear friends, we ate home-cooked meals together every night in our house!) would be enough to set her on the right path. Apparently I was wrong.

My mother was a competent cook. She put together balanced, if unimaginative, meals–meat, starch, vegetable. She gave…

by guest blogger Lawrence Watt-Evans

As managing editor of Helix, I have three jobs. I handle the money; I provide a second opinion on stories when Will Sanders, the senior editor, wants one (which isn't all that often); and I write an editorial for each issue.

Well, almost every issue; I don't have one in our fifth issue, as it got bumped to make room for a guest. (I'll be back in…

I came back from my NYC business/pleasure trip determined to make all those appointments I have put off thanks to book writing and my wonderful, don't-you-wish-you-could-have-it-too, Lyme disease. Finishing the last book took a lot out of me, but I am doing better now. Until I called the new dentist Monday and they said they could take care of that loose crown Tuesday morning. "Are you sure?" I said after I gulped down a mouthful of my heart. "Because I can wait. Honest." But no. They did…