Summertime and I've got things to do...

Summertime and I’ve got things to do…

Yikes! I just looked at my blog and realized I’ve been incommunicado since late March. I’ve got good excuses – #1: April was the last month of the spring semester and I poured the work on my online students at New Mexico State University, which meant I had tons of papers to read; #2: In May, I graded final papers and then I proofed the final version of the third Birder Murder mystery, which is due out this September, and I also signed books at the Urban Birding Festival in Ramsey County; #3: my middle daughter got married in early June, which meant I was doing mother-of-the-bride busyness on top of excuses #1 and #2; and #4: I forgot to blog.

So now I’m ready to get back to the business of being a writer! Next weekend, I’ll be at Summer in the Garden at the Linnaeus Arboretum in St. Peter, with my books. It’s a new event open to the public to showcase the lovely grounds and resource that the Arboretum provides the region. I’m also beginning to schedule fall book events for the third Birder Murder, titled “A Bobwhite Killing,” while my fourth Birder Murder has already begun to take shape on my trusty laptop. Happy summer!

Tags: A Bobwhite Killing, appearances, Birder Murder, book signing

Trust Me!

I always get a laugh from bloopers – the mistakes people make in using the English language. And, believe me, as a college English teacher, I see plenty of them every term in my students’ papers. Here’s a short collection of them from this past school year for your own reading enjoyment.

Blooper: “Every year on The Day of the Dead, families go to cemeteries to visit their diseased relatives.”

My comment on the student’s paper: I think you mean ‘deceased’ relatives. Typically, ‘diseased’ relatives are either in the hospital, a nursing facility, or at home. Cemetaries are places you bury bodies, not a place to host get-well parties. That would be pretty depressing for the patient, don’t you think? ‘Hey, Uncle Stu, let’s get everyone together at the local graveyard to ...more...

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