And Then It Rained

It looked like everything was going to be done quickly, and then it started raining. We've had two delays on having the concrete poured, and we had another heavy rain today so that will delay it again. This black clay turns to gumbo when it rains, so it will be a while before it will be dry enough for cement trucks to drive on. That pile of brush out front was once a thirty foot tree, a twenty foot tree, a twenty foot Crepe Myrtle, and about fifteen feet of pine tree. We only lost half of that pine tree, maybe. Anyone know a good, fast growing, shade tree that grows well in black clay?

House Update

As you can see, the rebuilding has finally started. The cement for the foundation is supposed to be poured today.

FRANKLY MY DEAR, I'M DEAD

Coming out in hardback November 01, 2008.

No one is surprised when feisty Delilah Dickinson opens her own literary travel agency in Atlanta after her divorce. But during her first group's tour of an old plantation modeled after Tara from Gone With the Wind, she finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery-and everyone knows death is not so good for business. So, with God as her witness, Delilah vows to find the killer.

Things start quietly enough: a visit to the quaint apartment where Margaret Mitchell wrote her great opus, then a stop at the Gone with the Wind Movie Museum, and a hearty Southern luncheon at Mary Mac's Tea Room that will surely guarantee her new clients will never be hungry again. What could possibly go wrong?

Quite a lot, it turns out. During an overnight stay at a lovely recreation of Tara-complete with a full cast of actors-things start to really go south. The actor playing Clark Gable playing Rhett Butler is found dead, apparently the victim of a fatal dose of Southern in-hospitality. Before anyone can even think "Where shall I go? What shall I do?" the police have the place under lockdown, insisting everyone remain at the mansion while they investigate.

Delilah finds herself taking over the investigation when their #1 suspect is her son-in-law Luke-the not-so-bright husband of her daughter, Melissa. But life starts imitating art when the actors begin taking their roles a little too seriously-believing they actually are Ashley Wilkes, Scarlett O'Hara, and Melanie. Next stop: Sunset Boulevard.

With all the drama of Margaret Mitchell's epic story suddenly coming to alarming life, Delilah's only chance to head off a not-so-Civil War is to track down and confront the deranged murderer. But shemust move quickly and very quietly, or risk becoming the next victim of a killer-who frankly doesn't give a damn.

Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
ISBN-13: 9780758225665

THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE KILLER

Christmas comes to Weatherford, Texas, in this delicious new entry in the national bestselling series.

Yuletide is here—and retired teacher cum amateur sleuth Phyllis Newsom looks forward to finishing up this unlucky year. But she won’t be hanging up her apron just yet—because this year’s Christmas bake-off is going to be cutthroat.Phyllis would like to think she’s entering the Christmas cookie contest for the fun of it—but that’s not exactly true. She can’t imagine anyone beating her snowflake-shaped lime sugar cookies. Then, during her annual Christmas cookie exchange, Phyllis heads over to the elderly Mrs. Simmons’s home and finds her dead, in a pile of lime sugar cookies. But with a number of names on Santa’s naughty list, this case may be a hard cookie to crumble.

Publisher: NAL Trade (September 30, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0451225341
ISBN-13: 978-0451225344

House Update

We’ve both been so busy with writing that we really haven’t done as much as we should have on the building front.

We moved into the mobile home at the end of February, one month after the fire. We settled in quickly and set up office spaces. James had the kitchen table and I used a desk in the living room that his brother gave us. Since then we’ve also set up a small table in our bedroom that James uses part of the time. Lately I’ve been using a lapboard and work in a recliner in the living room while we have two printers set up at the desk. The first printer we bought quickly and has a scanner and is wireless. We were never able to get it to work wireless, and the ink is expensive. I bought a used Canon printer that uses cheap cartridges that can be re-inked, and we use this for printing manuscripts. I still miss my old printer, but this Canon is pretty good.

After we moved in we were able to get the water well working and unhooked the hoses from my brother Bruce’s well. The next week our well went dry and we had to hook the hoses back up. Gas wells were going up all around us, including two within a quarter mile that were drilling that week. They use a lot of water. We called a well guy my cousin knew and found out that you can’t just drill a well deeper, you have to drill a new well. We arranged to have a new well dug, and then it started raining. It took weeks before it dried out enough for the trucks to come onto the property to drill. We had them drill this one twice as deep as the old well. Finally we had water again and the water wasn’t as hard as the old water, which meant I could finally use a dishwasher. The only problem was the water stunk horribly. The well guys added a new tank to our old one that fixed the problem. It took months, but we finally had good water.

The clean up also hit a snafu. I had my father’s tractor. It’s a medium-sized tractor with a front end loader. It wasn’t heavy enough to do the work easily. It took much longer than planned and when I finally had the dumpster loaded, I loaded it too much. I ended up having to empty part of it out of the dumpster. I became overheated and ill, and haven’t been able to take the heat since. So, only half of the mess is gone. I plan to leave the slab the garage was on, but the rest of the foundation has to go. We had pier and beam and need it all cleaned up before putting down a slab. We don’t want the new house to smell like smoke.

We have finally found a house plan that we like. I think things will start to move faster now. A builder is supposed to come look over the place in the next few days. It's been a long process.

With all the distractions I’m amazed we’ve written as much as we have. James has been amazing. I can’t believe how much he’s written in the last five months. He writes almost every day and usually all day. I get distracted too easily and find the whole day gone.

Recipe in Murder By The Slice

The case of the missing salt

It has been pointed out by a couple readers that the recipe for the peanut butter cookies is missing how much salt to use. I remember cutting the salt in the original recipe to use less, but the changes didn't make it into the book. It mentions salt in the directions but not the ingredients. If you make the cookies 1/4 teaspoon works great.

Murder By The Slice In Large Print

The second book in the Fresh-baked mystery series came out in large print earlier this year but I failed to post the cover then. I just received author copies and it's a nice hardback book.

Retired schoolteacher Phyllis Newsom's scrumptious baked creations are known throughout Weatherford, Texas, for many things, but being healthy isn't one of them. So this year's contest should be quite a challenge. . . . You catch more flies with honey, but it seems nobody ever told Shannon Dunston, despotic president of the Parent-Teacher Organization. Even though the carnival fare is heart-healthy, it won't help Shannon after someone stabs her in the chest.

I'll be posting more about this series and my new literary mystery series soon.