#WeWriWa - Numbers Never Lie: Cookies & Jack

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors where authors share an 8 - 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other authors. You can find them here. 

I'm sharing snippets from my WIP, NUMBERS NEVER LIE, a romantic suspense. Maggie and Drew have returned from the camping trip. This snippet continues a few sentences after last week's.

Please ignore the wonky commas.

“I remember your mom making snickerdoodles. She let Jack roll them into one-inch balls, since he was so precise,” Drew laughed. “My job was to roll the balls in cinnamon sugar.”

Maggie remembered, too, and wondered why she never made those cookies, especially since Jack loved them. Since school was out, and she had the time, she would surprise him. Maybe tomorrow, definitely not tonight when it was going to be a monumental task just dragging herself into the shower.

“Speaking of Jack,” Drew said. “He left a message on my voice mail Friday. Out of the blue, he wanted to meet for lunch. I haven’t heard from him in over two months.”

Blurb:

A shocking secret brings danger to Jack Sinclair and his sister Maggie. 

As kids, they were the fearless threesome. As adults, Jack's an accountant; Drew, a lawyer; Maggie, a teacher and camping troop leader. Returning from a weekend camping trip, Maggie receives horrifying news. She refuses to believe her brother’s fatal car crash was an accident. If the police won’t investigate, she’ll do it herself. Convincing Drew Campbell to help is her only recourse.

Drew Campbell was too busy to return his best friend’s phone call. Too busy to attend a camping meeting important to his teen daughter. Too busy to stay in touch with Jack. Logic and reason indicate Jack’s accident was just that--an accident caused by fatigue and fog. Prodded by guilt, he’ll help Maggie even if he thinks she’s wrong.

A break-in at Jack’s condo convinces Maggie she’s right. Then her home is searched. What did Jack leave behind?

Be sure to check out the other WeWriWa authors. 

#WeWriWa - Numbers Never Lie

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors where authors share an 8 - 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other authors. You can find them here. 

Sorry I was so late visiting all of you last weekend. I'll try to do better this week. I'm back to sharing snippets from my WIP, NUMBERS NEVER LIE, a romantic suspense. Maggie and Drew have returned from the camping trip. While his daughter goes off with her friend, Drew cons Maggie into making him dinner (ostensibly because he helped her chaperone). They've just entered her house.

Please excuse the rogue commas.

Maggie hooked her keys on the rack just inside the door from the garage and pulled off her baseball cap, then sailed it into the combination laundry room/lavatory where the cap landed on top of the washer.

“Nice shot,” Drew leaned against the doorframe to the garage to remove his boots—an unexpectedly thoughtful gesture, “You never could sink a basket, though.”

“Didn’t matter,” She untied her bandanna, wadded it up, and tossed it overhand; the ball landed neatly inside the upturned cap, “Baseball was my game.”

“I know—MVP your senior year—you had an arm that put many guys to shame. When you used to fire the ball from the outfield to home, I’d wonder if the catcher’s glove was smoking.”

She laughed, surprised—and pleased—at his memory, “Al Kaline was my hero.”

“You know,” Drew mused, “I’ve seen a side of you this weekend I’ve never seen before.”

While he padded in his socks down the short hall into the kitchen, she asked, “In what way?”

“You were never this mouthy when Jack and I let you tag along with us.”

“Let me tag along?” she snorted, “you guys tried everything you could think of to lose me.”

This is the tentative blurb (suggestions welcome):

A shocking secret brings danger to Jack Sinclair and his sister Maggie. 

As kids, they were the fearless threesome. As adults, Jack's an accountant; Drew, a lawyer; Maggie, a teacher and camping troop leader. Returning from a weekend camping trip, Maggie receives horrifying news. She refuses to believe her brother’s fatal car crash was an accident. If the police won’t investigate, she’ll do it herself. Convincing Drew Campbell to help is her only recourse.

Drew Campbell was too busy to return his best friend’s phone call. Too busy to attend a camping meeting important to his teen daughter. Too busy to stay in touch with Jack. Logic and reason indicate Jack’s accident was just that--an accident caused by fatigue and fog. Prodded by guilt, he’ll help Maggie even if he thinks she’s wrong.

A break-in at Jack’s condo convinces Maggie she’s right. Then her home is searched. What did Jack leave behind?

Be sure to check out the other WeWriWa authors. 

#WeWriWa - NUMBERS NEVER LIE - Father-Daughter Bonding?

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors where authors share an 8 - 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other authors. You can find them here. 

My snippet is from my WIP, a romantic suspense titled NUMBERS NEVER LIE. Drew Campbell is helping to chaperone an overnight camping trip with his daughter, Ellen, and 7 other girls. The group is led by Maggie Sinclair, Drew's best friend's sister. We're still in Drew's POV.

(Please ignore the rogue commas that keep the snippet within the guidelines.)

“Girls, break time is over,” the Drill Sergeant was back—hup, two, three, four.

Groans from the girls met her announcement, and Drew knew exactly how they felt.

His legs ached, a blister—no, make that two blisters—had already formed on both sides of his heels. Worse, he needed to take a leak, he never should have stopped at 7-11 for a Big Gulp of coffee no matter how much caffeine he required to start his engine this morning. He should have listened when Ellen warned him it wasn’t a good idea.

Jack would be laughing his head off if he knew Drew was actually hiking and camping. Both Jack and Maggie had inherited their parents’ enthusiasm for camping, Drew shuddered. After that disastrous Cub Scout campout, Drew vowed never again to venture into the wild.

Still, when Ellen begged him, he thought a little hike through a forest would be the perfect opportunity for some father-daughter bonding. This trip was not turning out the way he anticipated.

This is the tentative blurb (suggestions welcome)

A shocking secret brings danger to Jack Sinclair and his sister Maggie. 

As kids, they were the fearless threesome. As adults, Jack's an accountant; Drew, a lawyer; Maggie, a teacher and camping troop leader. Returning from a weekend camping trip, Maggie receives horrifying news. She refuses to believe her brother’s fatal car crash was an accident. If the police won’t investigate, she’ll do it herself. Convincing Drew Campbell to help is her only recourse.

Drew Campbell was too busy to return his best friend’s phone call. Too busy to attend a camping meeting important to his teen daughter. Too busy to stay in touch with Jack. Logic and reason indicate Jack’s accident was just that--an accident caused by fatigue and fog. Prodded by guilt, he’ll help Maggie even if he thinks she’s wrong.

A break-in at Jack’s condo convinces Maggie she’s right. Then her home is searched. What did Jack leave behind?

Be sure to check out the other WeWriWa authors. 

#WeWriWa - NUMBERS NEVER LIE: Powers of Observation

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors where authors share an 8 - 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other authors. You can find them here. 

Sorry to have missed the past couple of weeks. No energy thanks to pneumonia. Now I'm back with a snippet from my WIP, a romantic suspense titled NUMBERS NEVER LIE. To catch up, Drew Campbell is helping to chaperone an overnight camping trip with his daughter, Ellen, and 7 other girls. The group is led by Maggie Sinclair, Drew's best friend's sister. Ellen is angry at Drew, claiming he never listens to her.

“Ellen? Mad at me?” He affected mock surprise, “Your powers of observation are amazing—are you ever wrong?”

Maggie cupped her elbow in her hand and tapped a finger against her jaw, “Let me see now, I was wrong once, fourteen years ago, when I married Roger-Dodger. Have I been wrong since?” She continued the damn tapping then snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it—I was wrong to let Ellen’s city-soft lawyer daddy help chaperone this trip.”

Drew gave her the smile that prosecutors knew better than to believe, “And here I thought it was because nobody else would.”

 This is the tentative blurb:

A shocking secret brings danger to Jack Sinclair and his sister Maggie. 

As kids, they were the fearless threesome. As adults, Jack's an accountant; Drew, a lawyer; Maggie, a teacher and camping troop leader. Returning from a weekend camping trip, Maggie receives horrifying news. She refuses to believe her brother’s fatal car crash was an accident. If the police won’t investigate, she’ll do it herself. Convincing Drew Campbell to help is her only recourse.

Drew Campbell was too busy to return his best friend’s phone call. Too busy to attend a camping meeting important to his teen daughter. Too busy to stay in touch with Jack. Logic and reason indicate Jack’s accident was just that--an accident caused by fatigue and fog. Prodded by guilt, he’ll help Maggie even if he thinks she’s wrong.

A break-in at Jack’s condo convinces Maggie she’s right. Then her home is searched. What did Jack leave behind?

Be sure to check out the other WeWriWa authors. 

#WeWriWa - NUMBERS NEVER LIE: She's Mad At You

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors where authors share an 8 - 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other authors. You can find them here. 

Thanks for all your comments on last week's snippet from my work-in-progress, a romantic suspense, Numbers Never Lie. I'm in the home stretch for finishing this book. This week, I was laid low by a nasty cough, sore throat, and headache, so I didn't finish today as I planned.

Suggestions are always welcome on the blurb as well as the snippet. 

Today's snippet follows last week's. Drew is on a camping trip with his daughter, Ellen, and seven other girls, organized by Maggie. After telling Drew there are no toilets, Ellen stalks off to be with her friends.

“Hey, come back here, honey, I’m sure this is a little misunderstanding—c’mon, Ellen.” In the year since his wife died, he and Ellen had had a lot of misunderstandings.

“I think she’s mad at you.”

Drew turned toward the quiet voice behind him. There she was, leaning back against a tree, her knee bent and booted foot propped against the trunk—Maggie Sinclair, Director of Camp Hell. He knew Jack’s sister was an outdoor nut, but he didn’t think she was this bad. Pissing in the bushes, for God’s sake.

Maggie was a tall woman, only a few inches shorter than his own six feet, with the tan of a person who spent time outdoors and laugh crinkles around her eyes—still the roughneck tomboy he’d grown up with. Who else would want to spend a summer day backpacking on dusty trails through snagging underbrush instead of out on a perfectly manicured golf course where you only ventured into the rough to retrieve an errant ball?

 This is the tentative blurb:

A shocking secret brings danger to Jack Sinclair and his sister Maggie. 

As kids, they were the fearless threesome. As adults, Jack's an accountant; Drew, a lawyer; Maggie, a teacher and camping troop leader. Returning from a weekend camping trip, Maggie receives horrifying news. She refuses to believe her brother’s fatal car crash was an accident. If the police won’t investigate, she’ll do it herself. Convincing Drew Campbell to help is her only recourse.

Drew Campbell was too busy to return his best friend’s phone call. Too busy to attend a camping meeting important to his teen daughter. Too busy to stay in touch with Jack. Logic and reason indicate Jack’s accident was just that--an accident caused by fatigue and fog. Prodded by guilt, he’ll help Maggie even if he thinks she’s wrong.

A break-in at Jack’s condo convinces Maggie she’s right. Then her home is searched. What did Jack leave behind?

Be sure to check out the other WeWriWa authors. 

Happy Easter to all who celebrate. Since I'll be with my family on Sunday, I'll come around on Monday and Tuesday to read your snippets. 

#WeWriWa - NUMBERS NEVER LIE Sweaty and Dirty

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors where authors share an 8 - 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other authors. You can find them here. 

Thanks for all your comments on last week's snippet from my work-in-progress, a romantic suspense, Numbers Never Lie.

Suggestions are very welcome on the blurb as well as the snippet. 

Today's snippet immediately follows last week's. Drew is on a camping trip with his daughter and seven other girls, organized by Maggie. He pulled his daughter aside to ask where the bathrooms are. Her disgust with him not listening to her ends last week's snippet.

 She didn’t believe him? What happened to the adulation for him that used to be in her eyes? The “Dad is perfect” look.

As he’d done several times in the past three hours, he took out his handkerchief, looked at it in disgust, and tried to find a clean spot. He wiped the sweat off his forehead. It was hot and sticky, more like August in Michigan than June. Drew intensely disliked sweating. Clean sweat—in a gym—was all right. Not this . . . dirt. More than sweaty, he hated being dirty.

This is the tentative blurb:

A shocking secret brings danger to Jack Sinclair and his sister Maggie. 

As kids, they were the fearless threesome. As adults, Jack's an accountant; Drew, a lawyer; Maggie, a teacher and camping troop leader. Returning from a weekend camping trip, Maggie receives horrifying news. She refuses to believe her brother’s fatal car crash was an accident. If the police won’t investigate, she’ll do it herself. Convincing Drew Campbell to help is her only recourse.

Drew Campbell was too busy to return his best friend’s phone call. Too busy to attend a camping meeting important to his teen daughter. Too busy to stay in touch with Jack. Logic and reason indicate Jack’s accident was just that--an accident caused by fatigue and fog. Prodded by guilt, he’ll help Maggie even if he thinks she’s wrong.

A break-in at Jack’s condo convinces Maggie she’s right. Then her home is searched. What did Jack leave behind?

Be sure to check out the other WeWriWa authors. 

#WeWriWa - NUMBERS NEVER LIE: No Toilets?

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors where authors share an 8 - 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other authors. You can find them here. 

Thanks for all your comments on last week's snippet. I'm glad you like the new title for my work-in-progress, a romantic suspense, Numbers Never Lie.

Suggestions are very welcome on the blurb as well as the snippet. Please excuse the rogue commas.

Today's snippet immediately follows last week's, which ended chapter 1; this is the beginning of chapter two.

“What do you mean no toilets?” Drew Campbell stopped on the dusty forest path, hooked his sunglasses on the placket of his golf shirt, and stared at his daughter.

“Dad-dy,” Was Ellen only fourteen? She did exasperation better than his administrative assistant, “I told you we were camping.”

Not for a moment would Drew reveal that camping was not what he remembered her saying a week ago—she said she wanted him to come along on an outing with her little group of friends, and he figured a hike, picnic lunch, then home for supper.

He got a big surprise when he opened the hatch of the Navigator and found five backpacks—five backpacks with bedrolls—and he’d transported four girls. It didn’t take a law degree to figure out who the fifth backpack was for. He was in deep shit, but what could he say in front of Ellen and her friends?

“Of course, sweetie, I knew we were camping,” he lied.

“Yeah, right, Dad.”

Here's the tentative blurb:

A shocking secret brings danger to Jack Sinclair and his sister Maggie. 

As kids, they were the fearless threesome. As adults, Jack's an accountant; Drew, a lawyer; Maggie, a teacher and camping troop leader. Returning from a weekend camping trip, Maggie receives horrifying news. She refuses to believe her brother’s fatal car crash was an accident. If the police won’t investigate, she’ll do it herself. Convincing Drew Campbell to help is her only recourse.

Drew Campbell was too busy to return his best friend’s phone call. Too busy to attend a camping meeting important to his teen daughter. Too busy to stay in touch with Jack. Logic and reason indicate Jack’s accident was just that--an accident caused by fatigue and fog. Prodded by guilt, he’ll help Maggie even if he thinks she’s wrong.

A break-in at Jack’s condo convinces Maggie she’s right. Then her home is searched. What did Jack leave behind?

Be sure to check out the other WeWriWa authors. 

NUMBERS NEVER LIE Character Sketch: Ben

Before I let you know more about one of the characters in my work-in-progress, I need share the brainstorm I got last week. A new (and improved) title. What used to be Unpredictable Nature is now Numbers Never Lie. When I started this story back in 2003, the focus was on camping with the girls. I’m a better writer now than fifteen years ago. (I should hope so.) As I’ve been editing and revising this story, it hit me that Jack’s discoveries while doing an audit is pivotal. Audit, numbers. Number Never Lie. (In fact, I didn’t realize until today that I used that phrase during Jack’s character sketch.)

Back to the character sketches. I’ve already shared Maggie’s, Drew’s, and Jack’s. Now, it’s Ben’s turn. While he’s a secondary character, Ben Voorheis plays a large part in the story.

Here’s a physical description of him from the story:

He enveloped her [Maggie] in a one-armed bear hug. He smelled of cologne—a heavy, exotic scent—and mint. Though about the same height as Maggie, Ben Voorheis was burly and about a year older. His blond-white hair, blue eyes, and ‘apple’ cheeks were a testament to his Dutch ancestors who—like so many—settled in West Michigan.

Ben met Jack at the big-name accounting firm where they first worked after college. They became friends, eventually left the firm, and started their own accounting business. They were a good match. Ben was more of a people person than Jack, while Jack had a stronger drive. They each had their own clients. Though Ben brought in more, he shared. Ben’s best quality is his loyalty to his friends.

Five years ago, when he and Jack began their business partnership, Ben fell for Maggie. When she let him know she wasn’t interested in that type of relationship, he backed off. Sort of. Though he often joked how she’d ruined him for other women, he never lost his romantic interest in her.

A stupid stunt on his motorcycle sidelined Ben for several weeks, Hospital and rehab left him unable to perform his business duties. As they always did when one became overloaded, the other stepped in. Jack took on the audit of one of Ben’s clients, and one of his friends.

Here's the blurb:

A shocking secret brings danger to Jack Sinclair and his sister Maggie. 

As kids, they were the fearless threesome. As adults, Jack's an accountant; Drew, a lawyer; Maggie, a teacher and camping troop leader. Returning from a weekend camping trip, Maggie receives horrifying news. She refuses to believe her brother’s fatal car crash was an accident. If the police won’t investigate, she’ll do it herself. Convincing Drew Campbell to help is her only recourse.

Drew Campbell was too busy to return his best friend’s phone call. Too busy to attend a camping meeting important to his teen daughter. Too busy to stay in touch with Jack. Logic and reason indicate Jack’s accident was just that--an accident caused by fatigue and fog. Prodded by guilt, he’ll help Maggie even if he thinks she’s wrong.

A break-in at Jack’s condo convinces Maggie she’s right. Then her home is searched. What did Jack leave behind?

I’ve been sharing snippets from Numbers Never Lie every weekend since February 3^rd. Stop by every Saturday or Sunday to read something new.

Thanks for stopping by. This is going to be a busy week, blogwise. Tomorrow, I’ll be at Paranormal Romantics, writing about my Muse.

On Friday, it’s my turn over at The Roses of Prose where I’ll talk about my progress this month (compared to my miserable February).

On Saturday, I’ll share another snippet from Numbers Never Lie.

Today, my friend Susan Coryell’s latest mystery, A Murder of Principle, was released. See my review.

On Thursday, Shannon Lawrence visits.

In between all the blogging, I’ll be chugging along on Numbers Never Lie.

Monday Morning Musing: Character Sketch - Jack

For the past three weeks, I've been sharing bits and pieces of my work-in-progress, a romantic suspense tentatively titled Unpredictable Nature. It started with sharing a snippet on Weekend Writing Warriors (WeWriWa). Then on Mondays, I shared a little about the main characters. Last Monday was Drew's turn. Now, it's Jack's, Drew's best friend and Maggie's brother.

With his younger sister, Maggie, Jack Sinclair grew up in a typical Midwestern subdivision. At age 8, Jack and his family relocated to a Grand Rapids (Michigan) suburb because of their father’s job. The first kid Jack met was Drew Campbell who knocked his block off, just to get the point across that he was in charge of the neighborhood. That’s how their lifelong friendship began. The two boys were inseparable, except for camping and Boy Scouts. Whereas Drew bailed out of Cub Scouts after a disastrous first campout, Jack earned every badge and became an Eagle Scout. Of course, he did. Jack always finished what he started.

Jack and Drew were college roommates and only after graduation did they go their separate ways—Drew as a lawyer and Jack, an accountant. Five years ago, Jack left a big accounting firm and with his friend Ben Voorheis formed a partnership. They each had their own clients. But when Ben’s motorcycle accident sidelined him, Jack took over.

Numbers never lie. They were black and white, no in-between. That suited Jack perfectly. He liked when things made sense. Which made his audit of his partner’s client disturbing. Certain things didn’t make sense. If what he feared was true, he and Ben were in big trouble.

Here are a few snippets from Maggie’s point of view that give you a glimpse into Jack’s personality:

His combination Christmas and birthday gift to her a couple of years ago was a sophisticated sound system. After he set it up, he’d left detailed—printed, no less—instructions for its use. That was Jack. Always covering the bases. Heaven forbid, he leave anything to chance. Even his sister’s CD player.

***

She looked around Jack’s perfectly neat living room. She always complained that he’d taken minimalism to new heights. Nothing, not even dust, marred the surface of the lamp table. No knickknacks, no forgotten glass or coffee cup. Magazines neatly stacked on the coffee table. The yellow National Geographic provided a splash of color next to copies of The CPA Journal.

All perfectly normal, perfectly Jack.

***

As she turned to leave, she saw that the pantry door wasn’t firmly shut. Nothing inside appeared to be disturbed. Everything looked the way it always did, cans and jars lined up perfectly straight, an inch from the edge of each shelf. Categorized. Vegetables with vegetables, pasta sauce next to alfredo sauce. She didn’t bother to check the spices. They’d be in alphabetical order. Her OCD brother wouldn’t have it any other way.

Are you intrigued? I hope so. As you can see from the progress meter on the right of this blog, I’m over 2/3 finished with Unpredictable Nature. Come back next Sunday for another snippet from the first chapter. Next Monday, I’ll share a little about Jack’s business partner, Ben. Have a great week.

Monday Morning Musing: Drew

Two weekends ago, I started sharing bits and pieces of my work-in-progress. Besides sharing snippets on the weekends, I'm also sharing a little about the main characters. Last Monday was Maggie's turn. Now, it's Drew's.

Lawyer Andrew (Drew) Campbell grew up with Maggie and her older brother Jack. The boys were best friends and did their best to torment little Maggie or ditch her at the first opportunity. Her persistence to keep up with the boys (and her natural athletic ability) made her an asset on their sandlot baseball games--the only time they let her play with them. Drew and Jack stayed friends into adulthood.

Between Drew's over-cautious mother and his wife's fastidiousness, Drew didn't get down and dirty. He golfed, he swam (in pools). He also flunked out of Cub Scouts. A year after his wife's death, he's trying to make a "normal" life with his fourteen-year-old daughter. Without knowing the details, he agrees to help chaperone her camping group. A perfect bonding time for the two of them. Here's a short excerpt:

“What do you mean no toilets?” Drew Campbell stopped on the dusty forest path, hooked his sunglasses on the placket of his golf shirt, and stared at his daughter.

“Dad-dy,” Ellen said. Was she only fourteen? She did exasperation better than his administrative assistant. “I told you we were camping.”

Not for a moment would Drew reveal that camping was not what he remembered her saying a week ago. She said she wanted him to come along on an outing with her little group of friends. He figured a hike, picnic lunch, and then home for supper.

After taking a call on his cell in the parking lot near the trailhead, he’d gotten his first surprise. That’s when he found out about the “no electronics rule.” No cell phones, no iPods. All were locked in the vehicles. Only the leader carried a cell phone and only for emergencies.

He got his second surprise when he opened the hatch of the Navigator. Five backpacks. Five backpacks with bedrolls. He’d transported four girls. It didn’t take a law degree to figure out who the fifth backpack was for. He was in deep shit. But what could he say in front of Ellen and her friends?

“Of course, sweetie. I knew we were camping,” he lied.

“Yeah, right, Dad.”

She didn’t believe him? What happened to the adulation for him that used to be in her eyes? The “Dad is perfect” look.

As he’d done several times in the past three hours, he took out his handkerchief, looked at it in disgust, and tried to find a clean spot. He wiped the sweat off his forehead. It was hot and sticky, more like August in Michigan than June. Drew intensely disliked sweating. Clean sweat—in a gym—was all right. Not this . . . dirt. More than sweaty, he hated being dirty.

Drew is in for more surprises. This story, tentatively titled Unpredictable Nature, is a romantic suspense. More on that next week.

Enjoy the week. Here in West Michigan, we're finally getting a break from ten straight days of snowfall. And the sun is shining. So rare and welcome.

   

Monday Morning Musing: Maggie

This weekend on Weekend Writing Warriors (WeWriWa), I shared the beginning of my work-in-progress, a romantic suspense. Tentatively titled Unpredictable Nature (previous tentative titles: Maggie's Story and The Camping Trip), I wrote this story several years ago. Then, “life” intruded, and I set it aside. Until now. Being written so long ago, the story needs updating. Technology has changed so much. No more Palm Pilots or flip phones, for example. Still, I’m having fun revisiting an old manuscript. If all goes well, this story should be released in the spring. After this weekend's snowfall, spring can't come soon enough.

Along with sharing snippets each weekend, I thought I’d share the main characters here on Mondays.

First up is Maggie May Sinclair. Named after the Rod Stewart song, she’s in her mid-thirties and divorced. She teaches high school English and coaches the girls’ baseball team. She also volunteers as a Little League coach and PeeWee hockey referee. To say she’s athletic is an understatement. With all those activities, she doesn’t have time to date. Not that she’s interested. As she says, been there, done that, got the scars to prove it.

After their parents’ died, she and her brother inherited the family home. Since Jack had a condo and didn’t want the trouble of home ownership, Maggie lives in the home where she grew up in a Grand Rapids (Michigan) suburb.

An activity Maggie didn’t volunteer for but was dragged into by her best friend is co-leading a camping group of girls, now in their early teens. After four years together, their goal has been a week-long trip to Isle Royale, an island and National Park in Lake Superior. But when her friend’s family is transferred to Colorado, the group’s enthusiasm wanes. They still meet at Maggie’s to talk. Lately, “talk” has been about resuming the trip. They figured if they prepare enough, their former leader will return to make the trip with them.

Maggie and Jack grew up camping with their parents and then with Scouts. Jack earned the rank of Eagle Scout, and Maggie earned Girl Scouts’ highest honor, the Gold Award. While camping is in her blood, taking eight girls on an overnight camping trip is a big responsibility. One she won’t take alone. The only parent who volunteered was Drew Campbell, Jack’s best friend. The guy who, according to Jack, wimped out of Cub Scouts. The same guy who told fifteen-year-old Maggie she kissed like a goldfish.

Next Monday, I’ll share a little about Drew.

Have a great week.

Today, I’m over at Diana Rubino’s blog, sharing a little something about Mothers. Stop by if you get a chance.

Updates: Writing, Reading, Babies, and Movies

Is it just me or are the days flying? We're already beginning the fourth week in January. And a very productive three weeks it's been. As I wrote in my Insecure Writers' Support Group post on January 3rd, my goal for 2018 is to release three full-length novels: a brand new Alex O'Hara mystery (the 4th and as yet untitled), The Spy: An Outer Rim Novel (a science fiction romance), and Unpredictable Nature (a romantic suspense)--the last two had been started but never completed.

As you can see by the little progress widgets (on the right), I've made quite a bit of progress on the Alex O'Hara PI mystery. My intent had been to start with Unpredictable Nature, since it was the farthest along, but the words just flowed for the mystery. In fact, I didn't want to stop. That is such a good feeling. Like when a runner hits her stride. (I have to guess on the feeling, since I've never been a runner.) Then, my free-lance editor offered a bargain (a deal I couldn't refuse). To take advantage, I selected the romantic suspense, again because it was the closest to being done. 

The funny thing about the romantic suspense is that I began that story in 2003. In those days, I saved my work on 3.25 floppy discs. Remember those? Well, that was two desktop computers and three laptops ago. That was the first (and only) story I've ever written out of order. Normally, I write from beginning to end. Not this one. I wrote scenes as they hit me. Never again! Trying to make sense of where the scenes went took a chunk out of last week. But--ta da--I think I found everything and put them in some semblance of order. Now comes the "fun" part. Revising and editing, making transitions, filling in the holes. And . . . adding 32,000 words (about 64 single-spaced pages). That's all. LOL 

The idea for Unpredictable Nature started with a Girl Scout camping trip. I never enjoyed camping, probably because I don't have good memories of family camping trips we took when I was a young teen. Dad thought it would be great fun to drive north past the Soo (Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan) into the wilds of Canada. We tent camped along a deserted lake--sleeping bags, cookstove, the whole shebang. Talk about primitive. In fact, before we could enter the wilderness, Dad had to sign in with the rangers (I assume). Twenty-some years later, I was a Girl Scout leader and had to take my troop camping. Despite my aversion to camping (I really hate bugs and dirt), I learned the basics and ended up enjoying many outdoor experiences. At least, we had pit toilets (outhouses) and cots in platform tents. 

So I thought wouldn't it be fun to write a story about a man who hates the outdoors (except for golf courses and swimming pools) and has to help chaperone his daughter's camping trip. Even worse, primitive camping. I knew exactly how he felt when he learned he had to "go" in the bushes. "What do you mean no toilets?"

Starting in February, I'll start posting snippets from Unpredictable Nature for Weekend Writing Warriors (WeWriWa). That means one last snippet from Romance Rekindled next weekend.

One the homefront: the twins are growing like crazy. Both boys have gained three pounds in three months. Daughter-in-law went back to work after the new year, and we've been helping out by babysitting once a week. I'm not sure how DIL keeps up. You get one baby fed, and the other is demanding his turn. One sleeps, and the other is awake. It's constant. I thought because my two were a year apart it was like having twins. No way! Nothing is like having twins. After a day of taking care of the twins and Toddler Girl, I need a nap. A Rip Van Winkle nap. Almost.

We're trying out Netflix. After a few years of Amazon Prime, I'm ready to switch. It was so disappointing to find shows/movies I wanted to watch only to find out that they're available but at a cost. So, we'll see how Netflix goes. I've already binge-watched Father Brown (love that show) and just discovered Shetland, a Scottish detective series set in the Shetland Islands. I'm fascinated by the scenery and, of course, the twists and surprises in solving mysteries. I consider it research. LOL

Reading: I'm hooked on Anna Hackett's Phoenix series, science fiction romances featuring brothers and cousins named Phoenix. Adventure and Romance. Right up my alley. I read before bed. Too many nights, I've read well into the wee hours.



That's it for this Monday. I hope you have a great week. Tomorrow, I'll be on Connie Bretes' blog sharing a funny incident.