“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” – Neil Armstrong. I had fun reading all your guesses for Sunday’s mystery photo. Seems food ruled the day and actually food was a sort of right guess. But the photo wasn’t pancakes or waffles with blueberries and strawberries, but after reading your guesses, I was ready …
The Edge of a Story Cliff
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop. (Lewis Carroll) How to begin? How do you begin anything that must be done? A long journey – by taking the first step. An unpleasant chore – by grabbing the mop or hammer or paintbrush or whatever tool is necessary to get started. A novel …
Exercise Your Brain with a New Mystery Photo
“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.” — Dr. Seuss And so I can hope my mystery photo game is waking up some brain cells. We all do better with wide awake brains. Well, I guess we do although sometimes we can have pretty interesting dreams. I’ve had people ask me if I dream up story idea while …
A Rose is a Rose & Mystery 2
Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses. ~Alphonse Karr Well, as old Abe Lincoln once said, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all the time or something like that. Let’s just say my first mystery photo was not the most mysterious …
The Mystery Continues with a New Mystery Picture
“Oh how I’ve missed you, Hidden Springs! That warm feeling when you see a friend that you haven’t seen in a while and just know that you’re going to enjoy your time together. That’s how I felt when I found this book in my mailbox. Once again we are transported to the small town of Hidden Springs and the cast …
What if We Have an Old House…?
Often when I’m doing an interview, one of the most popular questions will be how or where do I get my ideas for stories. Sometimes the interviewer is more specific and asks where I got the idea for a particular story. That can be a hard question to answer clearly. That’s because ideas bombard an author from every direction. The …
A Surprising Mystery
The picture I posted on Sunday turned out to be more of a mystery than I thought. I actually believed most of you would guess it. You did make some really neat guesses, but nobody got it right. I’m doing the mystery photo “ha ha, tricked you” dance. LOL. I had to use my imagination to see what your imaginations …
Did You Ever Get a Grab Bag?
January 12, 1966 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. It’s January. Do you like January? Dad says you should like every day. That every day is a gift from the Lord, but somehow January days can feel like grab bag gifts that don’t have anything in them but broken crayons. I got a grab bag like that once. It …
Imagining Life’s Coming Attractions
In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on. (Robert Frost) I love spring. A time when the spring peepers make music so loud that even with the windows closed I can hear them trying to convince some other peepers to be their dates. I like how one week the trees are winter bare …
The Sky is Always There
Leaves or no leaves, the sky is always there. The firs up on top of the Smoky Mountains are being killed by a very small insect. They say it is so small that it’s hard to see, and yet it has destroyed forests of fir trees and denuded the tops of the mountains in places. We sometimes think if we …