Mystery Writer Musings

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

The mind of a mystery writer can be a scary thing. Take, for example, this pit.

pool_hole

This past weekend, we had a very, very, very old in-ground pool pulled out of our backyard. This pool dates back decades before we bought the place. The liner alone was at least 25 years old. So…

imagine where the mind of a mystery writer goes as the little skid steerer yanks out the side walls. For all I know, bones could tumble from the backfill, along with the sand; a dead body could float up from the miry bottom. <shudder>

If that wasn’t bad enough, the latent-mafia side of my mind is thinking, hmm, good place to get rid of some bodies before this gets filled in.

Where do you advertise that kind of service? On Kijiji?

Yup, I warned you it was scary where my mind goes. I’m thinking that I definitely need a vacation. A romantic vacation to nurture the romance side of my novel-plotting mind.

That way I won’t have to know what gets buried under the two or three dump truckloads of dirt. 😕

Your Turn: What did you do this past weekend? 😎

Winners & For Writers

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

Writers, please join me at Seekerville today, where I’m sharing a suspense writer’s technique for adding new layers to your story–whatever genre you write. Of course, everyone is welcome to stop by and leave a comment whether you write or not…there is a giveaway. ~smiling~

Now…before I tell you who won copies of Lynette Eason’s Danger on the Mountain, I want to share a picture from my trip to Niagara Falls.

Isn’t that beautiful? My daughter and I had a fun time doing the tourist things you never seem to do when you live in the area.

Okay…enough dawdling…the winners of Danger on the Mountain are:
Shatara Byrd, Lee Carver, and Aria100…please email me (SandraOrchard (at) ymail (dot) com) your snail mail addresses so we can get your books out to you.

Congratulations to our winners! And a big thank you to everyone who joined the conversation.

Let’s Play Suspense Writer

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

One of the discussion questions at the back of Shades of Truth is: Kim wants to believe the best of everyone…How might that endanger her?

These kinds of questions are a suspense writer’s launching pad to all sorts of mayhem.

Let’s have some fun tossing around ideas. I’ll start.

For simplicity, we’ll pretend “Kim” could be any one of us, single or married.

What if she gets a text from her “hubby” saying he’s at the bank and forgotten the password for their bank card, and would she text it to him. Does she believe him?

Of course. Her husband’s notorious for forgetting passwords and his name came up on the caller ID.  She has the fleeting thought that there are people who tap cell phones. But it’s not as though anyone can “hear” a text message, so she quickly texts him back, and then deletes the message for security.

A few minutes later she gets a call from her hubby asking if he left his cell phone and wallet at home. Oops.

Your Turn: Who might a woman trust or believe, only to have that trust come back to bite her?