Chesapeake Chuck, Our Southeastern Virginia Cousin of Punxsutawney Phil

   

 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.

     The groundhog who “predicts” if winter will end soon or drag on for another six weeks does NOT come out of his hibernation annually on February 2^nd for that reason.  No, the male emerges from his hidey-hole to mate.  Yup, he’s had a nice long nap and now he’s looking for some fun. It’s that simple.

     So from whence did this vernal misconstrual come?

"Everything You've Always Wanted to Know About Genres, But Were Afraid to Ask..."

ROAD TRIP!  I'm guest blogging over at Deborah Goldstein's spot.  Click here to be whisked away to another great blog by another great mystery writer.

Beach Music

Casa de Ormerod got a new toy last week...the new SONOS wireless sound system.  This in turn exposed us to PANDORA!  I imagine all of you are way ahead of me on this music phenomenon but as usual when it comes to new technology we are the last ones on the bus. But I just gotta say the expansive playlist offered by Pandora is a pleasant relief from the 65 (give or take) tunes that hubby's i-pod played on a never-ending loop. Now I type in a song I like and a whole line-up of similar songs fills the airwaves.  Yesterday an old Beatles tune came on that I have a particular fondness for (I used to play it to summon forth the writing muses...now I just eat chocolate...) and an idea hit me, so I re-worked it just a bit.  So with apologies to the Fab Four, here's my spin on an old classic.  Sung to the tune of "Paperback Writer"

Title: “I’m a Beach Writer”

Song: 

Dear cozy reader, will you read my book? 
It took me years to write, will you take a look?
It's based on a murder along the shore 
And I need a sale so that I can say, “I’m a beach writer.” 
“I’m a beach writer.”

Beach Writers: June Starter Sentence

<<Once again, over at East Beach Writer's Guild we were challenged to write a few paragraphs based on a starter sentence.  The May one was right up my alley!  Here is mine.>>

I was lying in a pool of blood...or some sort of red liquid substance.  Hard to tell by the meager light of the moon filtering through the thick canopy of pine trees.  All I know is that my backside was soaking wet and when I lifted my fingers to see what’s what, blood-red fluid dripped from my pinky. 

Beach Review: VIRGINIA IS FOR MYSTERIES

Stumbled across this review on the Virginia is for Mysteries on the Barnes and Noble page:

"The next time you explore Virginia’s landmarks, you’ll be looking for dead bodies under bushes, on gravestones (not under them), at the beach, even in the trunk of your own car—if you dare to read these mysteries. These stories by fourteen members of Virginia’s chapters of Sisters in Crime speak in a variety of engaging voices. I have to admit to playing favorites—my top three (in the order they appear in the book) are: “Justice Delayed,” by Maria Hudgins, “Death Comes to Hollywood Cemetery,” by Vivian Lawry, and “Best Friends Help You Move the Body,” by Jayne Ormerod. Even if you read only these outstanding stories, you will have gotten more than your money’s worth." ~Anonymous

Beach Life: Something Fun for a Rainy Day

Trivia question:  What TV show premiered December 16, 1972 and featured a not-so-young mystery-writing sleuth?  If you said Murder, She Wrote, you would be off by almost a dozen years. (Jessica Fletcher made her screen debut September 30, 1984.)    

Guess again…

The Nancy Drew Mysteries?  Right decade (1977) but Nancy was a teenager--and not a writer.

Give up?

Beach Writers: February Starter Sentence

My local beach writers group inspires us to write every month by proposing a starter sentence and we finish the thought. It's interesting to see how many different directions one idea can take us.  If you'd like to read my fellow writer's musings, click here. 

”Flight 142 for Cleveland is now boarding…” 

Holy hell. When the stewardess said those words, the Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizza I’d nibbled at 30 minutes earlier turned into a ball of cement in my stomach.  What in the world was I thinking going back to Cleveland?

To a homecoming event, no less?