This Week's Ghost is...

The Back Seat Ghost.

One day in 1959 Mrs. Mabel Chinnery went for a trip to the cemetery to visit her mother's grave. It may seem a bit strange but she brought along her camera because she wanted to take pictures of the gravestone. Then she decided to take a picture of her husband while he sat alone in the car. However, when the pictures were developed Mr. Chinnery was not alone in the car. He'd picked up a hitch hiking ghost to sit in the back seat.
Mrs. Chinnery vows the woman in the back seat is the ghost of her mother.

Next time you're out playing photographer in a graveyard be sure to check your back seat he he he.

Introducing ...

Devil May Ride is Book two in the Ghost Dusters Series coming out December 2nd.

I'm having trouble uploading a larger version but what do you think of the cover?

A few months ago my best friend, Tracey, moved to Calgary. This weekend I hopped on a plane and surprised her for her birthday. It was great to see her and fabulous that she was truly surprised!

Although the visit was a hoot, I also managed to get some writing done. It's a strange thing but I actually find airports and airplanes great places to write. Maybe it's because there's so little of anything else to do when travelling. I was able to get a number of pages done and that's always a good thing.

Any surprises for you this weekend? What are your plans for the week?

Shhhh! I'm up to secret stuff this weekend ...

Okay, so I can't tell you EVERYTHING I'm doing this weekend but I can tell you ONE thing :) On Sunday you'll find me HERE being interviewed at the Killer Fiction blog.

Pop on by for a Sunday chat :)

The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

Chances are you've seen this ghostly photo before.
It's one of the most famous ghostly images because it could not be proven a hoax.
Professional photographer, Captain Provand, took the photo in 1936 when taking pictures of the house of Raynham Hall for Country Life magazine.

Before that time there had been many sightings of a womanly apparition in a brown dress wandering the halls and stairs of the old house.

It is said that the Brown Lady is the ghost of Lady Townshend who was married to Charles Townshend, a man known for his temper. Mr.Townshend suspected his dear wife was unfaithful. At one point Lady Townshend supposedly died but even at her funeral many locals believed Lady Townshend still lived. It is believed that Charles imprisoned his wife in a room in Raynham Hall until her true eventual death years later. There was no CSI team around to check for DNA ;-)

Time to Party

This weekend I was writing a scene in Ghost Dusters 3 where Sadie goes to the birthday party of a five year old. I wanted the party to be a tad extravagant and over the top and that brought me to this article about kids' birthday parties.

Now with four kids myself I can tell you that throwing birthday parties can be expensive but spending thousands on a party for little kids is ridiculous! My favorite line in the article is "Some parents, however, worry that expensive parties for children result in mixed-up values..." Um. Gee. You think? It just seems soooo wrong to be so extravagant particularly when really and truly the kids just want to have a good time with their friends.

Anyway, I got so caught up in the article that it lead me to think that Sadie should definitely attend one of these over the top, too lavish affairs. What kind of party games do you think they'd play at this kind of party? Pin the diamond on Paris Hilton? Suggestions?

Are you lost?

I've got a good friend who is directionally challenged. She could truly get lost in a parking lot and the invention of GPS has saved her hours wandering streets aimlessly. We were talking about this article where a dog got lost but found its way across rivers and mountains to get home again. My friend couldn't find her way out of the Walmart parking lot.

Mostly, I don't have an issue with directions. I tried using my husband's navigational system when driving to Seattle last and ended up unplugging the darn thing when it kept sending me on routes that were obviously longer to my destination. However, when I moved to the West Coast from the prairies twenty years ago I did find driving in dark, rainy winter challenging. People told me to just remember the mountains were in the North but that didn't help since you can't even see where the mountains are in the rain! Still, I managed to find my way without ever really becoming lost.

One of my characters though is definitely directionally challenged and writing about her antics in the streets of Seattle has been fun. So is GPS your friend, or do you do navigate your daily journey fine without help?

The windows to the soul

Oh how I love
the smell of
burnt cornea in the morning!
Ha ha ha!

Yes it's true, you can actually smell the burning during the procedure. It smells a lot like burnt hair *ewww*. There was no pain during the procedure only some minor discomfort but it's all over with quickly.

My post-op appointment was this morning and the surgery went well. I appreciate all the private emails and blog comments wishing me good luck!

To celebrate my new vision I'm dedicating this post to eyes:

If you’re all eyes, you’re giving something your attention but if you’re trying to catch someone’s eye you want to get their attention. Then if you give someone the eye you might be admiring them, unless you’re giving them the evil eye and then you’re ticked off. If you’ll only do it in a pig’s eye you won’t do it at all but if you’ll run your eyes over it you’ll gladly give it a look over and if you shut your eyes to what’s going on you really want to ignore things as opposed to keeping your eye on the ball.

Anyone else for eye comments?

It's all the little things

At this time tomorrow I'll be having lasik surgery on my eyes. I'm not at all nervous about the actual procedure. Truthfully, I'm more nervous about preparing my life so that I can have down time after the procedure. How pathetic is it that it takes days to do enough work so that you can take a couple days off?!

Sometimes you just got to get all those little things out of the way to make room for the main thing. Today I plan to do a lot of the stuff I hate early in the day like grocery shopping, advance meal preparation and laundry *shudder* Then I plan to work on my main thing which is to squeeze in a couple days worth of writing into one. I look forward to that part since I've got a scene I'm writing at the moment that is just really fun and it's got a great twist that I only just discovered.

So I'll be away from the blog for a couple days but I'll be back with my green eyes now eagle-eyed, hawk-eyed and you'll all be a sight for sore eyes *snort*

So what kind of little things are you getting out of the way so you can get to the main thing?

Caught in the Act

This weekend I spent an afternoon at my local Surrey library along with a few other local authors. It was a great meet and greet the public setup with panel discussions and author readings.

And what was I doing while everyone was bustling around and I was supposed to be preparing my table?April the librarian snapped this photo of me sitting quietly reading Lisa Gardner's Alone. Proof positive that my love of books can often take precedence over and above any other work I should be doing.

Do you ever curl up with a book when you really, really should be doing something else? Oh and what are you reading right now?

Ideas Are Slippery Things

Yesterday I had a fabulous coffee date with friends and authors Nancy Warren and Mary J. Forbes. There's something so inspiring about talking writing and the writing biz with people who just get it.

One of the things we talked about was hitting a stride. Those days when all the stars seem to be aligned so that the ideas are flowing and translating into pages on the computer screen. I complained that when those days come I feel like I'm desperately trying to hang onto a fist full of sand. I don't want to lose the moment but I can feel it slipping away. My friends said they felt the same way and wisely pointed out that the sand slipping through my fingers was a signal to refill that inspirational well.

What do you do when you want to keep going but the ideas are slipping away? Do you break and recharge, or do you push on?

Crimes & Cocktails

My very first book, Dating Can Be Deadly, was published by Harlequin Red Dress Ink in February 2005. Even though Red Dress is no longer printing copies of the book, it was recently released in France. I think the cover is just great!


I was surprised it had my picture on the back cover as I never rated one on the original Dating Cover to the left.


On the France cover my bio, as near as my grade school French can figure, says something about mixing suspense and comedy into a detonating cocktail LOL.

Anyway, my plans this week are to write, write, write! How about you? Any big plans for the week?

Use it All

So as I'm writing the third book in the series I'm stumbling across an old temptation. The temptation to weed through the ideas that spring to my mind and leave something on the table for another book. In my head I'm going "Oh that's good! Too good. Maybe I'll save it for a different series." It's a bad habit.

Part of writing is faith in the process, in ourselves and in the well of ideas. Many writers want to set something aside, particularly if they're writing a series. "Oh I'll leave that crazy ol' grandma character for another manuscript because I've already got enough good stuff in this book." Yes, it's sooo tempting but don't do it. Don't leave anything behind.

Whether it's writing a story or plugging away at another task have faith in your own ability to refill that well when the time comes. Use up all the good stuff now because there'll be more. Don't hoard it away.

Are you ever tempted to tuck away good bits of your talent for later?

Busy, Busy, Busy

I'm having a great writing week so I'm trying not to spend too much time online. However, if you need to kick off your day with something strange and just plain weird, just click here and read the story about a pregnant man.