The mystery is unfolding, chapter-by-chapter. Here’s Chapter 9. If you’ve missed the previous chapters, scroll down and catch up. New installments are posted on Fridays. Waltzing in the Snow Chapter 9: More than Kin and Less than Kind Daniel walked Amanda back to the W after dinner. She was a bit tipsy and very tired. It had been a challenging day and after the gin & tonic they had shared a bottle of wine with dinner. She checked her phone. Elise had sent her a text message: All OK here. Dull day. And she had two voicemail messages from her
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Ghosts and Museums
If you know me at all — even if you only know me through my fiction and blog posts — you’ve probably realized I go to museums in search of inspiration. Sometimes I strike it lucky and come home from a museum or gallery with an entire story. Other times, I’m simply struck by some odd, little tidbit that may, eventually, find its way into my fiction. Last week I went to MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art in New York City) to see the Bill Brandt exhibit. It’s a marvelous show. If you are in NYC and you have
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Waltzing Chapter 8
Chapter 8 of Waltzing in the Snow is loaded with clues to the mystery. Scroll down and catch up on Chapter 1 – 7. Waltzing in the Snow Chapter 8 Chapter 8: Friendship is a Constant, Sometimes Daniel looked good — better in person than he did on TV. The skinny college boy had become a lean and wiry middle-aged man with his thick, gray hair, close-cropped in a style that was neither a fashion statement nor a throwback to the old days. It was just a practical cut for a man unconcerned with being in style. Amanda caught herself
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Cars, Bars and More…
A couple of posts ago, I wrote about how characters are revealed in the details of their lives. I’m not the only writer obsessed with SHOW versus TELL. Anton Chekhov famously said, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” As part of my determination to SHOW more than TELL the reader, I’ve been contemplating cars, bars and other bits & pieces of real life. In my contemporary Candy’s Monsters series, there’s a dance between the solid, factual reality of the here & now, and the monstrous. The fanciful, supernatural, paranormal aspects
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Waltzing — Chapters 6 & 7
Chapter 6 is very short, so here are two chapters of “Waltzing in the Snow” — a serialized mystery novella. If you’ve missed any of the first five chapters, scroll down and catch up with the story. Waltzing in the Snow Chapter 6: Love Altered is Love Amanda sat in the quiet car on the train down to DC. Her phone vibrated in her purse as she settled into her seat so as the train picked up speed she headed to the café car where she could use it without raising the ire of her fellow passengers. “What’s happening Elise?”
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Haunted Game
Some places just feel haunted. Dark corners, creaky doors, windows that rattle with every wind, dodgy floorboards and the way everyday household objects seem to disappear and reappear like magic. For a while there, I half convinced myself that my cat was slipping into and out of a parallel universe. How else could he manage a disappearing act in a 500 square foot studio apartment? But I don’t think my place is haunted — not in the classic sense. It is, however, awfully easy to find a ghost story in any old house — or apartment. The idea of echoes
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Waltzing — Chapter 5
This is Chapter 5, scroll down to catch up and read chapters 1 to 4. Each chapter includes at least one clue to the solution of the mystery! Chapter 5: Cowards Die Many Times… Comedians Die on Stage Amanda booked a one-way trip on the Acela, reserved a room at the W Hotel on Union Square East and packed before she went to bed. She went by the house to see her father before she left for New York. “They found Candy’s body?” her dad asked. He seemed astonished. “After all this time?” “It may not be her, but it
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Monster Appetites
I followed a link on Twitter to a fascinating story about the breakfasts enjoyed by fictional characters and what those meal choices reveal. James Bond, in “From Russia with Love” enjoys two cups of black coffee, no sugar, with a three and a third minute boiled speckled brown egg from a French Marans hen, served with whole wheat toast, a selection of preservers and a pat of deep yellow Jersey butter (see link below). The specificity of the menu is what draws the reader in. It’s not a 3-minute egg, but a 3 & 1/3 minute egg. It’s not a
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Waltzing — Chapter 4
This is chapter 4 of “Waltzing in the the Snow.” To read chapters 1 through 3, scroll down and catch up! The chapters in this serialized mystery are short and new ones will be posted every Friday until the end of the story. Chapter 4: When You Dance, I Wish You a Wave on the River Daniel didn’t sleep at all that night. Although there was nothing expressly exploitive in his novel, he still felt guilty. Maybe he could have waited another twenty years before trying to tell the story? At six he pulled on a pair of sweatpants and
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