There's nothing like on-site reseach

 Each of the Doug Fletcher mysteries is set in a different US National Park. I've enjoyed visiting the future settings of the Fletcher books, and last fall we spent a week in central Kentucky. The setting for "A Bourbon to Die For" is Lincoln's Birthplace National Historic site. I approached the volunteer in the visitor center, handed her on of my business cards, then asked, "Where would you dispose of a dead body?'

Without a moment of hesitation, she replied, "In a pig sty." Seeing my surprise at her quick response, she explained she had been the district attorney for that county and had often reflected on how to dispose of a dead body while prosecuting dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of hapless criminals who'd had the misfortune of having been caught, arrested, and prosecuted for their crimes.

After explaining to her that my crime scene needed to be inside the park, we had a longer discussion of the park, it's layout, and secluded spots suitable for a murder. In the end, we decided my victim should be found in a secluded area of the park beyond the overflow parking. Once off the main trails, very few visitors would stumble onto the crime scene.

The next part of the research was a terrible burden (insert dramatic sigh). With assorted family members, we HAD to visit several distilleries and a cooperage (Barrel making company). While suffering through samples of different bourbons, we were educated in the nuances of aging, and bourbon flavors. Armed with a TON of research material, I started writing. I passed a partial draft to my first proofreader, Deanna Wilson, who responded, "You really 'geeked out' on this one. Cut out about ninety percent of the chemistry and try to focus on THE PLOT!"

Getting that same advice from other beta readers, I deleted pages of information about corn genetics and gas chromatography, focusing on the death of a bourbon maker and who had motive, means, and opportunity. Who would kill a guy who was on the verge of introducing a bourbon he claimed would change the industry. I added a toothless church janitor who knew more about the victim and his distillery than the local police did, some local politics, a discussion of the local social strata, and voila! there's a mystery.

Check out "A Bourbon to Die For" at my publisher's website Bookswelove.net

Authors — BWL Publishing

A young adult ghost story, written with my granddaughter, by Diane Scott Lewis

                                           

NEW RELEASE To purchase this young adult novel, click here

 I wrote this story, released this month, with my granddaughter, Jorja, who is fifteen now; I'm so proud of it. I hope you enjoy the spooky tale. 

Here is the blurb:

Sage, at fourteen, grows up in turmoil in Nahant, Massachusetts. Her changing body, her parents’ rocky marriage. When her cousin Patrick visits for the summer, his parents’ divorce has given him a reckless anger. He insists they explore the creepy mansion in the woods. Nate, Sage’s younger brother, is reluctant to approach the manor where a beloved teacher was found hanged months earlier. The children’s great-great grandmother worked at Lakeluster House in a previous century and was under suspicion of shooting another servant.

Now an old lady and her butler have moved in and the kids bring a welcome cake. Invited inside, Sage encounters a strange little girl who shows her the manor’s dark secrets—sparking Sage’s curiosity. Will the butler—a man with his own mysteries—throw them out for snooping? Who is real and who is a ghost? Was her relative guilty? And what danger lingers in the attic? Sage must gather her courage, risking her life to find out.

My late husband chose the setting for the story: Nahant, Massachusetts, an almost island dangling off the coast.

The gazebo mentioned in the novel

Writing from a younger POV gave me new insights. I'd use words my granddaughter would puzzle over, so I had to change them. Or she'd say "I'd never say that!" I also had to figure out the current teenage slang. Like bougie for fancy. My critique partners said it was their new favorite word.

She is a recipient of literary awards, a girl after my own heart!

An excerpt:

Sage, the fourteen-year-old protagonist, is exploring the manor library, when a child comes up behind her.

“Do you live here?” Sage felt the room go colder, as if someone had opened a window. She rubbed her arms. “Is Miss Dora your aunt or…?”

“My room is upstairs, on the third floor.” Bella cocked her head. “I don’t come down often.”

She had a stilted cadence to her speech, as if she only recited lines written by somebody else. Or she’d repeated them many times before.

“Are you all right?” Sage wondered why she’d ask that. Was this child a prisoner, or a guest? Or just an odd family member? Then Sage remembered the dream she had of a child. A child who resembled this one. How could that be? Her heart twitched. “Do you… like it here?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Bella frowned. “It’s my home now. But the others never liked visitors.”

“The others?” Sage felt for a moment she was being pranked. She shook her head. “Um, okay. There’s a photo album here. Would you like to look at the pictures with me?” Sage turned to the desk and opened the album, at first filled with sepia pictures with posing, glum people: fusty and dusty. Maybe she could get the child to tell her more. A chill crept up the back of her neck and she looked behind her.

Bella was gone.

Sage scanned the room, and it was empty. A lion carving in the fireplace mantel had its eye on her, a live eye that blinked! Sage gasped. The eye returned to plain wood. Big yikes? She stepped over and tentatively touched it, cool and wooden as could be. Then she looked down and cringed.

Bella’s ribbon, still in a bow, lay on the fireplace grate.

To purchase my books, visit my publisher's author page:

https://bwlpublishing.ca/lewis-diane-scott/

Diane lives in Western Pennsylvania with one naughty dachshund.

Do you fancy cold water swimming?...by Sheila Claydon

 

I learn something new every day, and what a joy that is.

We have new nextdoor-but-one neighbours who recently moved to our small corner of North West England from Hampstead in London. As we're a friendly lot around here they have very quickly become part of the neighbourhood and, in the way of all new friendships, questions have been both asked and answered. And because of that I have learned all about Hampstead and Highgate Ponds.

A while ago a documentary was made about them (now on Netflix - The Ponds) and one of our new neighbours was featured. Naturally we were agog to see it and him, and we were so impressed. What did I learn?

Well the first thing I discovered was that just under 4 miles from central London there are many bodies of water, mostly man made reservoirs originally dug out in the 17th and 18th centuries to meet London's growing water demands. Nowadays they are mostly wonderful wetland habitats crowded with birds, insects, fish and wildfowl. In the midst of all this nature, however, are 3 famous swimming ponds. A large single sex pond for men and one for women, both open year round, plus a pond where men and women can swim together, which is open May to September. There is a lifeguard. No child under eight years of age may swim in any of the ponds, and no child between 8-15 without an adult accompanying them because the water is deep and only suitable for competent swimmers. Apart from that there are few rules.

Apparently access was free until 2004 when the City of London Corporation tried close the ponds, saying that they cost too much to maintain and were a health risk to swimmers. Those swimmers who had used them for many, many years challenged the decision in the High Court and won, although there is now a small charge to use them. 

There is more history too. Boudicca's Mound, near the men's bathing pond, is a tumulus where, according to local legend, but probably not true, Queen Boadicea was buried after she and her 10,000 Icini warriors were defeated at Battle Bridge.

What I found more fascinating than any this, however, is the fact that people swim in the ponds every day, all year, some even on Christmas Day. They dive into the depths when the water temperature can be as low as 1 degree, and when they have to take care not to cut themselves on the surface ice that has formed. And if the film is a good judge, they then all clamber out revitalised and sure that they are the better for it. I know couldn't do it, not just because I am a very indifferent swimmer but because I feel the cold too quickly. However, I greatly admire and envy the people who can. 

My new neighbour says the ponds are a great leveller. Shivering in bathing suits in the winter makes for a lot of joking and bonhomie.  Nobody cares who you are or what you do, it's whether you can withstand the temperature that is the test. 

We learned, too, how friendships forged at the ponds have helped people through bereavement, illness, job loss and depression. They even helped someone back from a near death experience. There were some real characters too. So interesting. Another thing became clear as well. However politically incorrect it might be to say it nowadays, those single sex ponds are both appreciated and necessary. Nearly all the swimmers enjoy visiting the mixed pond in the summer where they participate in various races and fun events, but for the rest of the year they appreciate those single-sex spaces where friendships and easy conversations bloom. In the film, female swimmers discussed breast cancer, family problems and ageing, while the men supported one another through illness, bereavement and job loss, but in very different ways. Sometimes we all just need our own special place.

To us the film was an eye opener to a whole different way of life. A place where people find peace and tranquility in the heart of a busy city. And our new neighbours? Well now they are too far away from London to use the ponds, they swim in the sea instead. Our beach is only a 10 minute walk away through field, woods and across sand dunes. It is idyllic. We love it. But we don't swim in the sea, not even in the height of summer - too many people then - and in the winter, when the beach is empty, it's far too cold. Not for our new neighbours though. If they can swim in the Hampstead and Highgate Ponds all year then I'm sure the will manage the choppy, grey Irish Sea whose waves break against our shoreline.

What is it about the Moon? by Nancy M Bell

To see my newest release Night at the Legislature click on the image above.

What is it about the moon that fascinates us so? I could spend hours just watching her swim across the sable ocean of the sky slipping through the constellations on her nightly journey. Songs have been written and poems composed, indeed even novels (although a lot of them are concerned with the affect the full moon has on certain shape shifters). There is something about moonlight that evokes magic in the heart and the imagination. Familiar sights take on new nuances when viewed through the lens of moonlight. 

The very fact that the daily tides in the oceans of the world are ruled by the influence of the moon is pretty darn amazing.  That an object floating in the vastness of space captured in the earth's magnetic pull moves literally tons of salt water is pretty magical to me. I know, I know, there is scientific information that explains this, but why get so bogged down in all that science speak when one can fill one's heart and soul with the sheer magnificence of the reality playing out before you as you sit on the shingle of the beach and watch the water creep up the shore little trickle by little trickle. Slowly filling the spaces between the pebbles while the magic fills your heart. Water is a living spirit, the earth's life blood. I often think how wonderful it would be to included in the unspoken communication between the waters and the moon's power to move it.

When I was a kid I would sit under the maple tree by the dock of our cottage where the warm night was a velvet ebony blanket around me and watch the moon rise turning the still water of the lake to shimmering ice with her light. In the complete darkness and silence that was filled with sound it seemed that anything was possible and that the stars were singing to to the moon as she journeyed. Later as I grew older, I sat on my horse in the Rouge valley and smiled as the moonlight woke ripples of ice on the Rouge River at the shallow Durnford crossing. So many small, but important moments in my life have been lit by moonlight.

The moon has always been female to me, regardless of the Man in the Moon stories, and the sun has always seemed male to me. The warrior as opposed to the healer. Both strong in their own way.   

I'm not sure I'll ever really figure out just what it is about the moon and it's light that inspires me and holds me in awe at the same time.   

Until next month, be well, be happy.   

 

A strawberry in the sky, by J.C. Kavanagh

 

To purchase this award-winning series, click here: 

https://www.bookswelove.net/kavanagh-j-c/

There's blood moons, there's blue moons, and yes, there's strawberry moons. 

Why call it 'strawberry' moon? The name stems from our Indigenous people - traditionally named for the time of year (June) when strawberries are ripe for the picking. Though the moon is not typically reddish in colour during a 'strawberry' moon, it certainly was this year in Ontario, Canada, thanks to the ash particulates in the air from wildfires in Saskatchewan, Alberta and northern Ontario.

Photo credit to Liza Symonenko, June 10, 2025

This year, the strawberry moon coincided with the celestial event referred to as a 'major lunar standstill,' one that occurs every 18.6 years. A major lunar standstill means the moon's orbit will be at the steepest angle in the sky compared to the earth's equator. This phenomenon won't occur again until 2043. A 'minor lunar standstill' occurs every 9.3 years, where the moon's orbit will be at the shallowest angle to the earth's equator. To better describe this phenomenon, I've copied the Wikipedia explanation.

Detailed explanation of a lunar standstill

[EXCERPT AND DIAGRAM FROM WIKIPEDIA]

Apparent paths of the Sun and Moon on the celestial sphere (angles exaggerated for clarity)

A more detailed explanation is best considered in terms of the paths of the Sun and Moon on the celestial sphere, as shown in the first diagram (right). This shows the abstract sphere surrounding the Earth at the center. The Earth is oriented so that its axis is vertical.

The Sun is, by definition, always seen on the ecliptic (the Sun's apparent path across the sky) while Earth is tilted at an angle of e = 23.5° to the plane of that path and completes one orbit around the Sun in 365.25636 days, slightly longer than one year due to precession altering the direction of Earth's inclination.

 The Moon's orbit around Earth (shown dotted) is inclined at an angle of i = 5.14° relative to the ecliptic. The Moon completes one orbit around the Earth in 27.32166 days. The two points at which the Moon crosses the ecliptic are known as its orbital nodes, shown as "N1" and "N2" (ascending node and descending node, respectively), and the line connecting them is known as the line of nodes. Due to precession of the Moon's orbital plane, these crossing points, and the positions of eclipses, gradually shift around the ecliptic in a period of 18.6 years.

Thanks Wikipedia. I think (?) that helped.

In my Twisted Climb series, the full moon plays an integral part in the night-time adventures for the characters in the Dream World and the un-World. There, the moon is always stationary - angled high above - yet the milky white, puffy clouds shift over and around it. There, Connor, Jayden and Max experience moonlit clarity as the moon beams down on them in a shifting frame of brightness. Does that pique your interest? If so, you'll love the adventures, action, suspense and drama in this award-winning series. If you're looking for a summer-time read, The Twisted Climb series is it. And please, leave a review in Amazon or Good Reads or Indigo, or any site that promotes authors and their books. Enjoy!

Stay safe and don't forget to tell the ones you love that you love them :)

J.C. Kavanagh, author of
The Twisted Climb - A Bright Darkness (Book 3) Best YA Book FINALIST at Critters Readers Poll 2022
AND
The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2) voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada
AND
The Twisted Climb,
voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll
Voted Best Local Author, Simcoe County, Ontario, 2021
Novels for teens, young adults and adults young-at-heart
Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh
www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh
Instagram @authorjckavanagh