murder and mystery in your hometown
I’m on my umpteenth rewrite. Getting very close. Set in Grand Bend–Exeter, however ‘The Devil’s Elbow’ starts out in Mexico. The character below isn’t in my book. Still, Howlers have big personalities. This guy was offended that someone occupied this room. Photo credit – Tim Hundey.
Five very pretty women, the year about 1927. On the left end sits my grandmother. Second from the right is my very young aunt. The identities of the rest remain unknown though I suspect Grandma’s sister was sitting beside her. Anyhow, I love the joy in their faces. And there are the questions and mysteries. Are they on an all-girls weekend adventure? Did my aunt meet her future husband (my wonderful Uncle Dan) that weekend? What tomfoolery did they stir up? After all, along with joy, the looks betray a good measure of mischief.
Photographs stir the imagination, right? Some years ago, I used pictures of my father’s WWII Platoon to help me develop a character for my first mystery. For starters I stole the last name of one of his comrades, Beer, and gave it to my protagonist. Then I rounded out Jack Beer’s family background by borrowing from my own family’s history… taking some truths but fabricating most of it.
I know that many readers prefer to actually hold a book in their hands. If that’s you, my mysteries are available at Gregarious Cravings on Main Street, Exeter, The Village Bookshop, Main Street, Bayfield and Fincher’s on the Square in Goderich. Due to Covid the stores are no longer taking on new orders for me. So, go to ‘Contact’ and I’ll make arrangements to get a book to you, if you’d like. Thanks.
Or, if I can swing it, I will deliver your book in person. Just get in touch and we’ll see if that’s possible.
I used to offer a mail service but the costs have risen so high, I found most people took a pass. But, if you insist, contact me and we’ll get ‘er done.
As a Hitchcock fan, I like to think he would have used ‘The Interview’ to create one of his creepier episodes. Go to ‘Buy Now’ if you would like to read this short story (at no cost). I retrieved a Bruce Peninsula memory to draw the farmhouse in which the interview took place.
This pic from the winter edition of Boomers’ Magazine (Huron-Perth). My fellow-traveller (on a 3400 km bicycle ride. Uphill and into the wind all the way) inspired one of my characters from Things Left Behind. By the way, there were no barber shops in Western Canada in the early ‘70s.
Sometimes my writing needs a creative jump-start but for every day inspiration, I look at a forest scene painted by my daughter Beth… like this one, hanging above my computer screen.
Ever make up a bedtime story? You can be silly. You can fly off in all directions. You don’t have to make sense. And kids get into it, throwing in some goofiness of their own.
Going way, way, way back, I wrote down a few of my made-up ditties, including one about the kid who fell headfirst into a bowl of porridge and disappeared. I may resurrect it with the younger grands.
My fifth Jack Beer mystery is coming along. Like the earlier books, this one is set in and around Grand Bend except this time it starts out in an exotic locale. ‘Franklin’ offers up a hint. Or, if you’d rather not guess, I’ll send the prologue. Just let me know. (photo by Tim Hundey)
I recently read a good mystery in which the author made reference to the Niagara Escarpment’s Precambrian Shield geology… the problem being, the Bruce Peninsula’s exposed rock formations are not at all connected to the Precambrian Shield. Come evening I mentioned the book’s misstep to Jane, my wife. She felt I was nitpicking. Then again she wasn’t a geography major.
Same evening, we watched Sam Gamgee free his pack horse before entering the mines of Moria (Lord of the Ring trilogy, movie 1). But wait…. the ‘Fellowship’ had no pack horse on their journey to the mines (unlike the book). This time, Jane and I went to bed agreeing that was indeed a big blunder.
But nothing compares with William Shatner’s cover of ‘Lucy in the Skies with Diamonds.’
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