No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye. ~Elizabeth Bowen
My new book, In the Shadow of the River, came out on May 9th. Some of you even got the book before that date as a few flew out to readers early. Always fun to have a new story out on the shelves to sell and in the hands of people to read. Plus, I promised a new mystery photo game when the book released.
I’ve been slow getting this game started. I was busy writing my next book. But I was looking at this and looking at that to see if I could come up with something that might be a little mysterious. I never know which of my mystery pictures will be harder to figure out than others. Sometimes the ones I think you won’t know, you know right away and the ones I think you’ll guess right away, most of you don’t. I’ve done this several times in the last few years and have had two or maybe three major stumpers that hardly anyone figured out. If I wasn’t the one who was making the mystery photo, I’d be stumped more times than any of you.
I started the mystery games when my first Hidden Springs mystery, Murder at the Courthouse, was published and kept it up through the other two Hidden Springs mysteries, Murder Comes by Mail and Murder Is No Accident. Those books still find readers whenever I do a book signing. Then I just kept going with the game.
Many readers love mysteries. I do too. That’s why I often include a mystery thread in my historical stories. I even had a bit of mystery in a couple of my Shaker books, expecially in The Innocent. You have to admit that’s a great title to suggest a bit of mystery.
I didn’t just include a bit of mystery in In the Shadow of the River. Plenty of mystery shows up in the shadows along the river of that story with some suspense thrown in as well. Will Jacci find the answers she needs before someone hides those answers forever?
But back to our mystery game here that isn’t a dangerous mystery at all. Only a fun one. If you haven’t tried to figure out these pictures in past games, here’s what you do. Before you read any other comments, you add your comment of what you think the picture might be. It’s more fun that way because you might be influenced by someone’s wrong guess or perhaps their right one. 🙂 After you do your comment, reading the other comments to see if you think they are right can be fun.
As always, playing the game gets your name in a giveaway chance to win your choice of one of my books. I’ll try to come up with five mystery photos, counting this one. That’s going to strain my brain! I’ll post a new one in the next four posts here on One Writer’s Journal. Each time you guess on a new mystery puzzle – or maybe it won’t be a guess, it’ll be a know – you get an entry in the giveaway. Deadline to enter is June 5, 2023 at midnight EST. I’ll pick three winners by random on June 6th and notify them via email and announce the winners (first names only) on my post on June 6th. You have to be at least 18 years old to enter, but feel free to let your kids help you figure out the mysteries. Other than the fun of making a guess, nothing is required to enter. The comments you make on the posts are your entries.
Winning isn’t really what this game is about. It’s more about using our imaginations and mystery solving skills and having fun.
So what do you think the picture up top is?
I’m crossing my fingers and hoping I’ll trick a few of you. LOL.
Comments 44
My husband says tater tots, but I think honeycomb!
Author
Fun that your husband joined in the guessing, Karen. The two of you have some very different guesses, but tater tots with a little honey might not be too bad. Wonder if either of you are right? We will find out on Sunday night.
Author
Always great to have a variety of ideas. And some of them are really good. Could even be right. We shall see about that on Sunday.
Mary, love you seeing that corn on the cob cooking in a pan. I do love corn on the cob. So, I might have taken a picture of one.
Donna Jean, I have been known to can some vegetables. Perhaps I canned some carrots to have for my vegetable soup.
Suzanne, I’ve also taken pictures of odd things or perhaps I should say common things in order to find a great mystery photo. Maybe this time it was a couch or a pillow. Maybe. Maybe not.
Author
You all make me smile with all your great guesses. I’m not going to say you are right or that you are wrong. You have to wait until Sunday for me to admit that I did or didn’t succeed in keeping things a mystery.
Birdie, Pamela, Rebecca Nancy, Dana – You all are seeing a honeycomb. That could be. It wasn’t so long ago that I had a whole swarm of bees in my yard and a beekeeper showed up to capture them. Rebecca, since you were a beekeeper once, you might have sometimes done the same. The young man who captured my bees says they are doing fine. He could have shared a picture of a honeycomb with me.
Lavon, Lisa, Bonnie, Kim, Nancy, Marji, Roberta – You all are seeing a flower part. A few of you, Lavon, Marji, Bonnie are even naming the flower. So you could be right or you could be wrong. Sort of like plucking the petals of a daisy and saying he loves me, he loves me not.
Lavon, I’m glad you enjoy my mystery photo games. I’m already worrying about what in the world I’m going to come up with on Sunday!!
Emily, your guess has me smiling. Maybe because you’re right and maybe because I love your imagination.
Tammy, you’re right there with Emily ready to try a Cheeto or two, but you also have that great idea of Chenille bedspread. Those were very popular and I do have one. So you never know.
For some reason it makes me think of a chenille bedspread. Either that or a bag of Cheetos. Lol
I think your photo is a close-up shot of the center of a flower (fuzzy pollen?), but I can’t identify what type of flower it is. The regular hexagonal shapes definitely make it look like something from nature, not man-made.
Looks like a Honeycomb
This looks like the center of a flower….maybe a daisy?
I take Vitamin B-2 every day to help with migraines and it looks like a bunch of them, but I am probably wrong. Love when you do these mystery games, you get all of our minds working! 🙂
I got two of your Shaker books for my birthday from my husband and just finished reading The Seeker and loved it! I have always been fascinated by the Civil War and you had so much history included in it. I live a few hours from Gettysburg and have visited there many times and have thought I would like to live there, but it is sad to think of all of the lives lost there and everywhere else during that time. Thanks for another great read and now on to The Blessed!
Author
So glad you enjoy the mystery photo game, Hope. It’s good to exercise our minds. It exercises mine trying to find something that might be a puzzler. Whether my picture is of Vit B-12 tablets or not, I’m glad you’ve found help for your migraines. My daughter-in-law and one granddaughter struggle with them.
Happy, too, that you are reading a couple of my Shaker books. I enjoyed the Civil War research I did for The Seeker. Since I didn’t want my main male character to be a soldier I had to find a way to get him at the battles without as much danger. A illustrator artist worked out well. And I liked being able to use letters to advance the story in one part. Hope you’ll like reading The Blessed too. It’s about one of the oddest periods in Shaker history.
Corn on the cob in a pot.
Carrots packed in a jar to be preserved for winter eating.
Honeycomb or center of flower.
The center of a flower.
This photo looks to me like a close-up of fabric on upholstery or a pillow cover on a couch, for example.
Center of a daisy
A close-up of mini Cheetos balls?
Capped honeycomb. I used to have hives!
I think it’s honeycomb. Probably not right but that was my first thought. Thanks for the game!
JD thinks it’s some type of flower. I am putting his answer this time , because I can’t think of a better answer.
My first thought was honeycomb, but it doesn’t appear shiny or smooth. I bet it’s definitely something from nature, given your love of nature photography and the cool hexagonal design. So I’m going with the center of a daisy.
I love these games! 🙂
Maybe the inside of a honeycomb.