Maggie Pill Mysteries

If I were a carpenter, and you were a lady, would you marry me anyway, would you have my baby? Baby, baby, can't you hear my heart beat? We got the beat, we've got the beat, we've got the beat, yeah! She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, and you know that can't be bad. I'm bad, I'm bad, you know it. You know I'm no good. Good, good, good, good vibrations. That's how my mind has been going this morning. Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh no. I got to keep on moving...

I have many, many people in my writing life who help me out. My friends Paul and Debbie, for example, met with me while I was writing Murder in the Boonies and answered lots of questions about reindeer. My friend Connie reads my stuff when it's still half-baked and gives constructive criticism. My sister loves everything I write and provides encouragement. Yay for them! On the other hand are the people who don't help and even get in the way at times. When I was writing one mystery series, I needed information about a park in another state. I wasn't able to go there and look at it, so I wrote to the park management and asked if they'd answer some questions. I stressed that they'd be specific, like "Is the park well-lit at night?" and I offered them a free copy of the book when it came out. At first I got an enthusiastic "We'd be pleased to help." However, when I sent five questions requiring only short answers, I got no reply. I waited tw...

I'm sitting in the left lane, waiting to make a turn, when a car coming from the other way loses control on the snowy, slippery road, does a circle, and crashes head-on into my dependable little Ford Escape (no escape from that!) I am fine. My car is not. It manages to get me to my motel, only a few blocks away, but there it reveals extensive injuries. A few days later, the insurance company totals it out. In the eight days since this happened, I've felt lucky, unlucky, lucky. I'm certainly lucky to come through a head-on collision unscathed. (Well, there is a bruise on my left knee.) No one was seriously injured. I'm lucky my insurance company was so nice about it, waiving the deductible because I was sitting still at the time, minding my own business. Unlucky? Try living without your car for a while, especially when you live in a rural area. I can borrow hubby's truck when necessary, but it isn't the same. I've had my own vehicle since I was sixtee...

First of all, let me admit that certain people of my acquaintance are beyond animal lovers. They're more like animal enablers. Not me, of course. My cat does NOT rule my life, and I NEVER talk to her. Honest.       Anyway, one member of our family tames whatever comes into the yard, and since they live in a city, that's mostly squirrels. If you sit on their porch, the squirrels will come up and glare at you, because you're supposed to know they get a peanut if they do that. They've been known to come inside if the sliding door happens to be open a tiny bit, and the male in the household tends to leave it that way. I mean, we wouldn't want the squirrels to starve because they can't get in to get a peanut.       What's odd is that their cat, who's as big as a lynx and quite the hunter when allowed outside, tolerates the squirrels and vice versa. The other day, I'm told, a squirrel came up for its peanut, and the cat pounced on it, h...