So, here goes!!!

"The reason I started looking at your list was to find an author I had read several months ago about writers living in a planned commune, with the planner and builder living up on a high hill. Most of the characters have cats, one with a very overweight one that keeps getting in the neighbor's kitty door, and some with dogs. If anyone knows this author and the books I am asking about, I would greatly appreciate a reply."

Does anyone out there have any ideas?

Anyway…. her conversation was loud enough to elicit the attention of the people in the line next to mine, including the people exiting the store, as well as the people in the customer service section of the store. I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I am VERY self conscious about my weight. I am not concerned enough to exercise on a regular basis (or if I am truthful… exercise at all!) but I do carry at least thirty pounds more than I should on my frame… and that doesn't mean thirty pounds more than I would if I were anorexic… but thirty pounds more than if I weighed what a "normal" person weighs.

So, much to my chagrin, my "bag-girl" started a conversation AT me, telling me how she doesn't like junk food like Good and Plentys… they are bad for your teeth, they are bad for your health, they are just sugar, she eats healthy snacks like apples, etc. I nodded to her, said she was brought up the right way, and tried to go back to my business… Unfortunately, once I made eye contact… she got even louder… not in a rude way, just a matter-of-fact manner… I was somewhat taken aback, and more than embarrassed… But that's what you get when you try to buy a guilty pleasure like Good and Plentys…

After I paid for my groceries, my cashier (another teenage girl) quietly told me to go enjoy my Good and Plentys… a very sweet gesture, very much appreciated by this "slightly overweight" woman. I have to admit, those Good and Plentys don't look quite so good right now… perhaps the BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION / PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING that I experienced was enough to  curtail my licorice cravings!

Nope! I think not! Next time I have a licorice craving I'm going to just have to cut out the middle man (in this case the "bag-girl) and go to my local drug store to make my illicit purchases! No "bag-girls" there, and hopefully I won't get a chatty cashier!

"Help!  I'm trying to find a series which I have read two books of, and really enjoyed, but can't remember the author's name or the titles! It takes place in a Texas college town.  The main characters are a middle aged man and a younger woman (who is a forensic anthropologist).  They are bird watchers and the man is secretly in love with the woman.  Ring a bell for anyone? Thanks!"

If anyone has any ideas, please post a comment or send me a note… (I sure will be embarrassed if this turns out to be an author I read!)

"I haven't noticed any mention of an excellent mystery author, CLARISSA WATSON. She wrote a series of books featuring painter and art expert Persis Willum. The books are intelligent and fun, so much so that I re-read them about every 5 years! Please give them a try if you like international intrigue and a heroine who loves art. I only wish she had written more of them." AND "Do you have any suggestions on finding another author like Clarissa Watson? She wrote a series of sophisticated, witty mysteries featuring portrait painter and art expert Persis Willum in the 80's. They are great books…"

Unfortunately, I haven't read any novels written by Clarissa Watson, so I really can't begin to suggest authors who are similar to her. I will be adding a page dedicated to her on the site, though.

The reason for this blog::: Are any of you familiar with Clarissa Watson, and if so, do you know of any authors who are similar to her? I would love to hear from you… via comment or letter.

Thanks a lot… I know that we can make this a cozier world if we want…

Getting back to the point… I truly had thought that I could do that… stick with one author>>> even though the authors in my bookshelves beckon me with their brightly-colored book spines. BUT!!!:::>>> The last time I stuck to the read-the-entire-series-all-the-way-through plan, I became somewhat disappointed/disgruntled with the author.

The last author I succeded reading all the way through was E. V. Cunningham. I had read a few of his Masao Masuto books in the past, before the chronological order of a series was that important to me, and had enjoyed his books immensely. But, maybe it was the fact that I was re-reading some of the novels, or maybe it was the fact that the same day I finished one novel in the series I started reading the next… I really don't know what it was, but I started getting mildly annoyed at Masuto! Yes, I actually started feeling annoyance toward a fictitious character!

So, it is with that knowledge that I am now going to say this: The next time I say I am going to read a cozy mystery series from the beginning to the end, with no other reading interruptions… It's not that I am brazenly lying, because I truly am thinking that I will do just that, it is that I won't be able to carry through with that plan. So, right after I blog about that intention, just think of it as a lapse in my judgement, a foolish mistake on my part… It just ain't going to happen!

Of course, I have a few things that I must do before I go…

I need to buy three new outfits that will be fitting of this wonderful occasion… I need to decide whether to go with a gift from her gift registry or a gift of money… I need to reteach my family how to give Sprite (our 13 1/2 year old puppy) her (five different)medications… I need to teach someone how to get Sprite's two injections ready for my husband to give her the shots… I need to (perhaps) write a few blogs about new cozy themes… I need to clean the house so that it isn't a total mess when I get home… I need to be extra nice to my family so that they miss me a whole lot…

And, of course, there are a lot of other things I have to do before going.

But, I did want to say that at the very end of all the preparations, as my husband is driving me to the airport, I will need to do one more thing…

I need to get $15 cash so that I can pay the airline to take my one piece of luggage!!! (Which has to weigh less than 49 pounds…)

Yep!!! You read it right!!! That's what it now takes to fly the friendly skies!

"I have been looking for years for a book I once read in a hospital but never got to finish. I think the author was pretty famous and had written several mysteries, but I can't remember her name. I think the book was called "The White Witch", yet I've found nothing with that title that was the same book. It was a mystery about a woman in England who had an herb garden and people would come to her for healing herbs. The herbs had something to do with the mystery - similar to the Cadfael Chronicles. Does anyone know of this book?"

Do any of you out there have any ideas as to this author's identity?  If so, please comment on the board or send me an e-mail. Thanks!

PS>>> I just found out that this book is at least forty years old… Definitely not Kathy Lynn Emerson!!! Hopefully someone will have a clue as to who the author could be!

Amy Patricia Meade: Meade writes the Marjorie McClelland Mystery Series which is set during the 1930s in Connecticut and features a mystery author. (This series is included on its corresponding Historical Theme page.)

Deanna Raybourn: Raybourn writes the Lady Julia Grey Mystery Series which is a historical mystery series that is set in Victorian England. (I have included this series on its corresponding Historical Theme page.)

T. Dawn Richard: Richard writes the May List Mystery Series which features a woman who leaves her philandering husband after 35 years of marriage and moves to a retirement community… to begin a new life as a sleuth. (I have included this series on its corresponding Senior Sleuth Theme page.)

June Thomson (aka June Valerie Thomson): Thomson writes the Inspector Jack Finch (in Great Britain)/Inspector Jack Rudd (in USA) Mystery Series. (Different names, same series.) She has also written several Sherlock Holmes books which are collections of short stories. (I have listed these Sherlock Holmes books in the Mysteries with (Previously) Famous Fictional Characters Theme.)

Anne White White writes the Lake George Mystery Series which is set in a beautiful resort town on Lake George… (I actually came by Anne White in a rather round-about way… Her daughter, Kate White, was recommended for the site, and while I was compiling my information for Kate's page, I clicked on her mom's page, and once there, I thought that Anne White should definitely be included on the site!)

But, since I haven't started working on these particular authors, let me take the time to tell you about a few new authors who I just posted. All of them were recommended by readers of the site… I haven't been able to try out their books, but they sure do look interesting!

Sharon Dunn: Dunn (who describes herself as a Christian author) writes two series, both of which are set in Montana. The Ruby Taylor Mystery Series features a feed-store employee/sleuth, and the Bargain Hunters Mystery Series features a garage sale junkie. (I have included Dunn's series in the Antiquing Theme, although, technically…)

Kaitlyn Dunnett: A lot of you are familiar with Kaitlyn Dunnett, but just might not be aware of the fact that Dunnett and Kathy Lynn Emerson happen to be the same author… with different series "between them." As Dunnett, she is starting a new series which is quite different from the "Emerson series." It is the Liss MacCrimmon Mystery Series, which features a member of a Scottish Dance Troupe in Maine. As Emerson, she has the very popular Lady Susanna Appleton Mystery Series, which features a 1600s herbalist.  (That series is found in both the Historical Theme page and the Gardening Theme page.) She also writes the Diana Spaulding Mystery Series, which features a descendant of Lady Appleton as an1800s reporter. (Also found on the Historical Theme page.)

Lisa Lutz: Lutz writes the Izzy Spellman Mystery Series, which features a P.I. in San Francisco.  Her first novel was nominated for three prestigious mystery awards: the Anthony, the Barry, and the Macavity Awards.

Hope McIntyre (aka Caroline Upcher):   McIntyre (the pseudonym for her crime fiction) writes about something she knows first-hand… ghostwriting. Having been a ghostwriter (as well as several other professions—including editor) she now writes the Lee Bartholomew Mystery Series featuring a ghostwriter…

It is a bit of a drag to have to scoop out the wax from the original candle container, and then to have to continue to change the wax out of the tin when it loses its scent. But, it just one of those things that I am so used to doing that I don't think anything about it.

I have different candle scents for the different times of year… cinnamon and spice for the autumn, pine and a soft mulberry for the winter months, and I alternate between hazelnut coffee, lemon, and lime during the rest of the year. (I may not be diligent about dusting and polishing, but my house sure smells lemony clean!) Of course, I have tried some scents which none of us like, but I think that I now have our selections down to scents that all of us like… or at least that none of us dislike!

We moved here over fifteen years ago, and I think that the lack of four definite seasons has made me look for ways to create some types of environmental differences which can mimic the seasons… adding the scents of the seasons into our home is just one of those ways.