It's Really Okay to Call Something Stupid

Apologies for crashing into this lovely fall weather with anything sobering (this is not about COVID), but maybe after the hottest summer on record in Maine, we can shake loose our brains for something we can do something about.

I have been on a bit of a mission. Both my novels attempt to seduce readers into a compelling murder mystery, into the magic of woods, and also into what threatens to murder those woods. (One murder mystery inside another murder mystery.)

In Maine, this forest is the last temperate forest of its size and kind in the northern hemisphere. Rich in all kinds of plant and animal diversity and essential water resources, and the last of its kind. Chunking it up with industrial development is, well, just stupid.

There, I’ve said it. Stupid.

And now if you’ll read on . . .

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Flower Riot and Paying Deep, Deep Attention

This week my second novel, Deadly Turn, was finally published. It’s taken years, with a long break for cancer treatment and then more time to revisit and recraft what I wrote years ago.

The novel and its drama take place deep in the Maine woods where wild flowers are often shy (Lady Slippers, Purple Trillium).

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Dreaded June Stuff. But great swamp video . . .

My June topic is the dreaded Synopsis (or plot summary). I suspect many readers cannot get into this type of dread, so I’ve paired the issue with something we can all DREAD: the June onslaught of bugs when every species gangs up on us or staggers their hungry waves so they overlap. (Don’t miss the they’re-still-laughing black fly video… below.)

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Forks in the Road: Chosen and Not Chosen

It’s been a month of choices and transitions, of learning, loss, and loving what might be small and also so very huge.

I will start with the smaller ones. And then get to Rupert.

I’ve made progress learning how to avoid the store by buying three weeks of food at once, letting dry goods “rest” to decontaminate, and (wearing gloves) “processing” the rest at the sink. My plan . . .

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