Maggie Pill Mysteries

That's how many days to the Kindle release of MURDER IN THE BOONIES! It's pre-orderable for Kindle right now, and if you're sneaky, you'll find out it's available in print on Amazon already. (They're the big dog and they do as they like.) Ingram is dragging its feet (if a book company can have feet), but it will happen, and then you'll be able to order the book in stores as well as online. Here's Retta's take on the release: Our third adventure, MURDER IN THE BOONIES, is pretty exciting. Not only do we foil the bad guys, I also make headway on my plan to truly become part of my sisters' detective agency. It's no walk in the woods--although there is plenty of walking in the woods involved. You see, the renters who'd been living on our family farm left unexpectedly. It really upset me, but Faye came up with an idea she thought would help out. Barbara got suspicious about the disappearance and started looking for the renters, a guy n...

Boonies, boondocks, down in the boondocks. Who'd have guessed the term has nothing to do with docks? It comes from the Philippines' Tagalog language: bundok , meaning mountain. It was picked up by U.S. military folk and apparently became associated with "way out there where the guerrillas are." When I titled Book #3 MURDER IN THE BOONIES, someone asked if most of America would known the term boonies . I think they do, because of Billy Joe Royal's song, "Down in the Boondocks,"  and an assortment of Vietnam-era movies. In Michigan we use it a lot. Someone lives "way out in the boonies" or we get "lost in the boonies" when our GPS goes crazy. Not sure if/how it's used in other places. (Chime in here!) In Book #3 we learn that Barb, Faye, and Retta were raised in the boonies, ten miles from town. Typically, when they were kids Barb never thought much about where they lived, Faye loved everything about the farm, and Retta felt...

Barb, one of the three protagonists, in THE SLEUTH SISTERS, is into grammar big-time. Some have referred to her as a grammar nazi, but I prefer the term grammar ninja , because Barb doesn't go around ordering people to do as she says. She's pretty athletic too, climbing up to billboards and rooftops to make her corrections.    My editor calls Barb "obnoxious" and "cowardly," because of her anonymous correcting of other people's mistakes. I find it ironic that an editor would say that, but it might be because she isn't allowed to be anonymous. Barb's Correction Events are meant to be funny, since those who recognize the grammatical mistakes of others often have the desire, though probably not the nerve, to fix what's wrong. For most of us, being right about such small things isn't worth the hard feelings it might cause. Barb's method might be the kinder way to go.    Fans have an amusing response to the grammar thread in the books: I...