Where Have I Been?

I haven’t been blogging, but I have been WRITING! I’m getting close to the last page of the first draft of a mystery I started writing back on February 21. I know EXACTLY when I started writing it and it is moving along… More later… after it’s DONE!
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Breadcrumbs & Red Herrings?

A mystery narrative is seeded with breadcrumbs—AKA legitimate clues—and Red Herrings—AKA distractions. I’m having a lot of fun giving my narrator/principal character free reign in creating both of these important threads in the storyline of my latest fiction. I’m employing her habit of going down rabbit holes at the slightest provocation. In this aspect, she’s a lot like me. I do a lot of meandering down unpredictable paths in real life and on the Internet, too. I think we all do the Internet rabbit holes right now. It’s a wonderful “time killer” and it can be “educational” in the broadest
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A Light Voice for a Dark Story?

I’m not sure where I’m going right now, but I’m writing a mystery with a dark side from the point-of-view of an upbeat, even sunny, voice. The narrator is simply a breezy person, able to quickly assess the people she encounters and self-conscious enough to monitor her own responses without the mean streak associated with such narrators. She doesn’t seem to have a dark side! The more I write in her voice, the more the darkness tickles at the corners of the story but it does not spring from her, generally happy, lips.             What am I doing? Am I
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The Curse of the Crazy Genius? This is an old trope that resurfaces in various incarnations. It’s the absolute certainty that’s expressed this way: “Of course he’s crazy he’s a genius.” It’s an assumption that high intelligence or extraordinary talent comes with the burden of insanity and sometimes it presupposes superior insights in people coping with mental illness. There’s a difference between causality and convergence and the gap gets papered over in familiar stereotypes. The connection is often made with a lack of facts and a big dollop of: “You can’t have it all. Aren’t you glad you’re normal and
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Follow the Leader?

This is not a post about dancing. It’s about following the character in a story as the story develops. I know I’m the writer so I’m really the leader but right now I’m following the lead of the protagonist as she starts the story and sets up the situation from her point-of-view.             I guess I should backtrack a bit. A writer friend asked me about my process; and I honestly didn’t know what to say to her.  For weeks I’ve been playing with a complicated and serious idea for what I thought might be a novel (but could also
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What will Stick?

So many things have changed since March of 2020. This pandemic adventure has brought a new awareness of how local, national, and international events are all tied together. Everything is personal and everyone is connected—whether we like it or not. Apparently, some people don’t like it at all. They prioritize the personal over community as a default. In the realm of public health this especially difficult.             I’m not going to start a rant here. Rants are so commonplace right now. I’d like to shift to something forward-looking. Let’s see what will stick around when the world is closer to
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What will Stick?

So many things have changed since March of 2020. This pandemic adventure has brought a new awareness of how local, national, and international events are all tied together. Everything is personal and everyone is connected—whether we like it or not. Apparently, some people don’t like it at all. They prioritize the personal over community as a default. In the realm of public health this especially difficult.             I’m not going to start a rant here. Rants are so commonplace right now. I’d like to shift to something forward-looking. Let’s see what will stick around when the world is closer to
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Is There Something WRONG?

Sunday is the Super Bowl and Monday is Valentine’s Day. Alas… no romance for me—at the moment. And I have never been a football fan. No interest in chicken wings & chips when I went food shopping. And I don’t need a holiday to remind me to indulge in chocolate. I usually have a little chocolate every day. But I wonder if there is there something wrong with my internal calendar? I never enjoy the hype about the big game, the “clever” commercials that debut during it, the halftime show, and all the hoopla that goes with it. And this
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