ONLY THE SHADOW KNOWS...if Spring is Coming

   

 If you still believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, or that Carolyn Keene (author of the Nancy Drew mysteries) exists, then you might not be ready for the dose of reality I’m about to administer. If you want to flip over to play a game of mahjongg while the rest of us discuss this, that’s OK by me.

     Those of you still with me, you might want to sit down. 

     Is everyone ready?  Then here we go.

JAYNE'S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

I thought I was alone in the world, carrying a deep dark secret. I wouldn’t admit it to anyone, this terrible, unforgivable thing I did. It started when I was a child, and has continued throughout my adult life (and that’s a pretty long time.)

Attending a conference when a well-known author asked if anyone else did this, I raised my hand. Actually raised it for all of the attendees to see! And so did a lot of other people! I wasn’t alone!

What is this terrible secret?

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW! (Or Have at Least Researched)

Credit to Tom Watterson/Calvin and Hobbes

    

 The number one rule writers are taught in the hard-knock school of writing is “write what you know.” Which is all fine and good, unless you are a pushing-social-security-age, rule-following female who writes about murder. I am going to put this out there to all of my past, present and future readers, I HAVE NEVER KILLED ANYONE just to research a book (or for any reason, for that matter). Nor have I ever stumbled across a dead body lying in the garden or sitting in an empty garage or floating in the surf (my husband has, but that’s another story for another day.) The only dead bodies I have seen/touched have been prettified, with hair styled, dressed in their best Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes, lying in a casket.

But I will admit to having done a few things, all in the name of research.