Monthly Archives: January 2014

Started a New Story




Word Wednesday- January 8, 2014- Quidnunc


This week’s word just sounds fun rolling off the tongue, doesn’t it?

What exactly is a QUIDNUNC you may ask.

Interestingly it comes from two Latin words- Quid meaning “what” and nunc which means “now”, so the literal translation would be “what now?” but it actually means an inquisitive and gossipy person. I guess it comes from the folks in town saying, “What now” whenever the village gossip walked up. Anyway, it’s a fun word, isn’t it?

Getting Better and A New Contract


I was sick for three weeks and have been woefully neglectful of this blog. I will make a better effort in the future. I do have some good news. I have signed a contract with Black Opal Books to publish my murder mystery novel set in 1937 on the Orient Express. It’s called Senior Assassin.

I have a running list of names for stories and sometimes it takes me a while to write the story that goes with an awesome title. The title for Senior Assassin came when my son was a senior in high school (he graduated in 2012). Our school has a tradition with water guns and seniors of playing a game where there are teams of two and each kid pays to play. There’s a master of the game who assigns partners and holds the money. Last person standing gets the pot of money. They hide out and jump from bushes, etc to soak each other with the water from the water guns. I thought it was kind of dangerous myself but my kid played anyway and he was second to last man standing. He was robbed!! LOL!

Anyway, I loved the name Senior Assassin and this book lent itself perfectly to the title. When I told my son that I got a contract on it, he said, “You stole that name from when I was in high school.” I freely admitted it and told him about the premise of the story.

He said, “So, no teenagers and water guns in it?”

My response: “No. Pre World War II spies instead and a Nazi. Same thing, right?”

Him: “That’s pretty much what I had to do when I played, so yeah, everyone was a spy or a Nazi. They all had to die.”

Love that dude’s sense of humor.