Archive for September, 2014

Dairyland Murders:
Book 5
Blonde in the Backwaters

Bernice has to admit, so far, her new job has been fairly cushy. As the governor’s press secretary, she schmoozes with the media and sets up meet-n-greets that are more like high school pep rallies.

But apparently, the cushiness is over. A small engine plane crash in the Wisconsin River Valley reveals a dead female passenger and a missing pilot. The plane belongs to the governor’s father, a decorated war hero and married man.

The governor’s office doesn’t need anymore scandal, and Bernice doesn’t need to spend more time than necessary with Governor Ryan Knutson, a handsome and pesky ghost from Nookies Past.

Bernice’s live-in boyfriend and Wisconsin DCI state investigator has no clue about Bernice’s former relationship with Ryan, and she’d like to keep it that way. Evan Wyatt already has enough reasons to dislike the new governor; first and foremost, because Ryan married Lexi, Evan’s ex-wife, the woman who broke his heart, the woman Evan never really had any closure with.

Not that Agent Wyatt has time to find out Bernice’s secret. He’s too busy tracking down a serial killer who leaves young, tattooed men dead in truck stop showers.

And Bernice doesn’t have time to worry about it. When she recognizes the dead woman in the plane crash, Bernice becomes unwittingly involved in a human trafficking investigation of international proportions.

Trust is running thin all around, between friends, between family, between old and new lovers. Bernice and Evan trust each other unequivocally. But when confronted with relationships they thought were safely behind them, can they trust themselves?

Coming Halloween 2014!

That’s okay, sometimes I don’t get me either.

Creating unlikable people in your head who wreak havoc and cause human suffering is not normal. Asking your sister to stop the car on the side of the road on your way back from vacation so you can work your way down the ditch to get a photo of a swamp with your camera phone is not normal. Having to google how to spell “Dahmer” so you can reference the notorious serial killer in a story line is not normal. Choreographing in your head two people having sex is probably very normal, but writing it down and presenting it to the world is not.

But this is how I am. It’s taken me decades to even come close to accepting that; some days I fall short. But to be honest, I’m not sure I could tolerate not having that active imagination running all the time. What does a person do with a brain that’s quiet and orderly. Is it peaceful, or just boring? What do you fill it with when you are lacking other worlds that need tending to? Lots of schedules and to-do lists? Itineraries and life goals? Important dates? Do you practice what you’re going to say to people with all that free time not spent absorbing their personalities and cherry picking the memorable aspects for future characters?

I too have goals, but most of them are pretty short term. My to-do lists are usually half written and more of a guideline than a hard fast rule. The things most people take for granted to get through life, I have to make room for around the twists and turns of murders, kidnappings, and love-hate relationships that only exist between the electrical impulses of my hard working neurons. I don’t expect you to get it. I just hope you like it.