It's All Blowing on the Wind, for Good or Ill

Happened to grab Nevada Barr's Ill Wind, an

older Anne Pigeon mystery, off my to-read pile. Who knows how long it'd been buried there?. But it's about another Colorado localle, Mesa Verde National Park.The book really coveyed the wind-swept atmosphere of the Southwest plateaus I remember from my visits there. I most remember Mesa Verde for its isolation, in spite of all the other tourists running around the place.

[No. I am not on an intentional Colorado reading kick.]

In this third book in the series, Pigeon has just been transferred to Mesa Verde, so recent an addition to the staff that she must live in a "dorm situation" with uncomfotable roommates until permanent, private housing is available. As she gets to know the people around her, Barr uses the time to plant a number of red herrings among the clues. The result is an intricate mystery with several interesting subplots. Perhaps the most interesting--a fellow rangers dwarf step-daughter who provides one of the up-beat notes in the book.

Was surprised to find myself labeling Ill Wind a cozy even though it doesn't have cutzie stuff connected to it. It's all in the development of the characters. Barr takes her time to describe them and their inter-relationships before she gets down to the serious stuff--solving the murders. The reader gets a real feel for living in an isolated spot, over an hour from towns, and how people can grate on others perople's nerves. Barr makes these characters so real that readers root for them.

Then, there are the settings. You can almost feel the cool night winds as you read. If you're looking for loads of background about the Anazazi, the old ones who built the abandoned southwestern US towns, you'll have to go elsewhere.

Read a sample and more reviews on

Amazon        Barnes & Nobel/Nook        kobo/Rakuten

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Interesting Reading

This blog, When a Pantser Revises, by Chris Marra made me pause. As a writer, I'm a panster trying to reform into an outliner. Marrs's an unapoligic panster, a writer who writes without an outline. Writers can find the blog useful for its revising tips. Readers can get an idea about how the "sausage" is made.

While fictional mysteries like Ill Wind tend to be neat and tidy, the real stuff is often the opposite. The New York Times has been running longer pieces on different topics for some time now. On 15 April 2018, it published an article by N. R. Kleinfield on "Never Solved, a  College Dorm Fire Becomes One Man's Obssession". I think the article demonstrates an interesting, reality-based counterpoint to the standard mystery novel is constructed.

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My Writing Rut

It's happened. I finally turned On the Run over to my copy editor to play with. I went through the manuscript one more time and didn't find many corrections. But I know that she's going to find all sorts of places there should be commas and other places where my commas should be deleted. We won't talk about all the other stuff.

Anyone want to guess how marked up my manuscript is going to be when she returns it?

Here's a short excerpt from Pillar's first day visiting at a school for mages run by unknown relatives:

Gracie [Pillar's mother's great-aunt] smiled broadly at her. “I see someone taught you how to keep your eyes to yerself. But, you really must learn how to stop leaking power.”
"Don't have any power to leak. Didn't you hear Principal Tankin."
"Oh, it's there if you know how to look."

Thinking Gracie felt as comfortable as the bus lady [a host containing a demon pursuing Pillar] should've been, Pillar relaxed, wishing she knew how to ask the questions buzzing around her head. She didn't want another academy person spitting nails at her. Knowing Delia [Pillar's foster mother] would want her to keep a low profile made her more hesitant.

"So, tell me about yerself."

"I'm Maisie's daughter. I come from the Osseran Commune, and I just graduated from high school."

"I know all that. But, who are you?"

Pillar gave her a sharp look but didn’t know how to phrase the thoughts buzzing in her mind. The question blurted out on its own. "Why didn’t you guys come looking for me when Ma died?”

“I thought it best you were where you was.” Gracie shrugged, her gaze flicking to the hall door. “Going to be fun to have a true Beccon living here again.”

“I thought my father’s last name was Beccon?”

“Goodness gracious no, child. Your parents weren’t married. In fact, Maisie never did name your father.”

I’m nameless? The fact hit Pillar like a fist in the gut. No wonder no one came looking for Ma. Her brain throbbed as she tried to absorb the information. Why didn’t Delia say something before?

Character Growth Keeps the Books Running

You gotta admire writers who keep a series going, but one that's 47 books long and still popular? J. D. Robb [aka Nora Roberts] does just that with her Eve Dallas novels. I'm late to the game, but I've just read Secrets in Death. Granted murder mysteries get a kick in the action from the unending ways and reasons to killing someone. The personal development of the sleuth doesn't have to carry the novel, just give it some momentum. A personal crisis can take a couple of books to resolve, but the crime is always solved in one...unless the villain escapes. I doubt many villains get away from Dallas.

Secrets in Death is the first Eve Dallas book I've read. I've read other Nora Roberts novels from time to time, mostly her paranormal ones. Don't know why I bought this one so late in the series, but I did along with another super popular writer of many, many books and series. Started both books at the same time, a couple chapters each. Dallas is the one I kept reading, to the point I stayed up late to "read one more chapter"...and the chapters are on the long side. Sometimes, I read two more chapters.

The mystery was intriguing. An obnoxious gossip columnist is killed in a bar under unusal circumstances. [Yeah, a cliche, but Robb/Roberts adds some interesting twists.] Who the murder victim was was as convoluted as who the killer turned out to be. Watching Dallas march through the procedural caught my interest and kept it. The mystery part provided enough entertainment to make the book worth while.

What makes the book, though, are the characters. As each clue is discovered, Dallas interacts with the suspects and the investigators. Each one is rounded out, some with more detail than others, but none of them are cardboard cut-outs. I'm almost tempted to go back to see how the major characters were developed, but I won't. I'm too lazy.

I've seen many mentions of "Robert's futuristic detective" series. On that note, I think Robb/Roberts falls flat. Serious science fiction readers wouldn't give her world building much of a pass. Everything is too generic, too vague to make the world feel different from our own time. "Airboots" and other "mod" terms just don't cut it.

Many of the reviews of the book complain that Secrets in Death isn't Robb/Robert's best book in the series. But it was more than good enough to amuse me at the end of the day. You can read a sample and other opinions at

Amazon       Barnes & Nobel       kobo/Rakuten

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Other Interesting Reading

Writer? Reader? Both? Found an interesting blog at The Swivet about writers shouldn't write in alone: Writing in a Vacuum: Why Community is Essential to Writers. Basically, it says writers should build networks. It got me thinking that readers should too. Only they're called book groups, meeting once a month to discuss a book over coffee. The blog is old, but the ideas are still good.

Interested in good writing? This list of the best writing blogs is making the rounds. I've seen several links to it, so I thought I'd share it. I really enjoy the Absolute Write blog, and if your're serious about writing, you should check their forums.

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 My Writing Rut

Editing. Editing. And, Editing Some More.

[On the Run]

Maybe Someday I'll Get Around to Writing Something New.

In the meantime, I'm working on the blurb for On the Run:

Orphaned teen travels across the country to discover her mother's secrets, unaware she's pursued by a demon seeking to destroy her.

Pillar Beccon can't remember ever belonging anywhere, especially not in the Freemage commune where she grew up. She's a null, a person without magic, the lowest of the low in Andor. When she gets the chance to learn more about her mother's family, she jumps at the chance.

The teen draws the attention of Grylerrque, a commander from The Demon Wars secretly surviving in Andor, who recognizes what Pillar is and seeks to feed her life force to her clutch. She sends her minions to capture her. Pillar escapes when Thelma Tankin, her mother's cousin rescues her, but the teen soon learns she was pulled out of the frying pan into the fire.

On the Run tells the story of Pillar's journey to find a place to call her own. The book continues the chronicles of Andor where a the mundane world clashes with one of magic and demons from another plane of existence. If you love paranormal stories of discovery and mayhem, this is the story for you.