This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. What would it have been like to be a mischievous teenager, living in your parents’ mansion in St. Paul, Minnesota, during the roaring twenties? It sounds like I’m talking about an escapist YA novel. The truth is, the 1927 diary of such a girl exists. To my great … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. From where I sit, the view has changed. The windows which once offered views of my neighbors’ houses are now filled with nothing but green. The elms, oaks, and cherry trees have leafed out, giving a false appearance that summer has arrived. However, the temperatures in Maryland are … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. I’ve been thinking about the mystery author Anne Perry, who recently died in Los Angeles at age eighty-four from declining health. Anne wrote roughly 102 books and many short stories and essays over her forty-five-year career. The Times of London named her as one of their 100 Masters of … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. It seems amazing that two weeks ago, I was marveling at springtime in the desert. I’m back home in the Mid-Atlantic or “Delmarva,” a nickname that includes the states of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Washington DC doesn’t appear in the moniker, but it’s the ultimate springtime destination. Springtime … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. I’ve just unpacked from a five-day trip to the Oro Valley near Tucson, Arizona. At a resort in the foothills, about 475 intrepid souls gathered for the Left Coast Crime convention to celebrate the art of the mystery … and also the art of the burrito, the quesadilla, … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. We are emerging from a strange winter in North America. Recent snowfalls have shocked California and Arizona, while there was no virtually no snowfall in Maryland. The temperatures here in Baltimore were so mild that the ground could be dug in early January for the planting of trees. … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. I grew up in a gray house in Minnesota that didn’t get much light. Yet because my mother lined all the windows with plants, it never felt dark. Everywhere, there would be an African violet, or a frilly fern, or leggy begonias. In May, one family chore was … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. A dear niece’s birthday approaches next week. I had a brief moment of panic as I brainstormed a gift that could be easily mailed, and then calmed as I remembered the independent bookstore five minutes away. The Ivy Bookshop has been part of my life—my neighborhood bookstore—since the … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. The greatest joy of writing, for me, is completing a manuscript. But a small dessert arrives sometime later. After the rewrite, cover design, and copy-editing, a call comes from the publisher for any acknowledgments to add to the book. The process should go down like ice cream, but … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Confession: I have been in love with flowers all my life. As a ten-year-old, I lay reading in the common garden area near my house when it filled with spring violets. Seventeen years later, I was a young Navy bride in Japan. The cultural practice to learn was … Read more