El Segundo Author Fair  

I have been pleased to have my readers give positive feedback on my newest mystery "A Commitment to Murder." They especially like my foil to Lydia, Jackie. If you haven't explored my webpage past the blog there is an excerpt from book two.

Jackie is a character I created from several different people I have encountered in my life. If I could have evil in my life, she would be the one. Rude, impossible to handle, snotty, self-enflated...the complete and total opposite to Lydia's mild mannered character. The best part of Jackie is she brings out a side of Lydia, Lydia didn't even know existed.

So take a chance and read a murder mystery that's different. No guns, sex or overt violence involved, but a good read with fun characters of all ages and a nemesis that you will come to love as well as hate.

Well this post is a tad decieving. I was recently reading a book on a group of quilters and the writer always includes some "family history" type background on each of the characters, especially the main one. I think that's one of the reason why I keep reading it since I am not a quilter. This time she focused on one of the characters and a quilt that she was trying to identify the maker of.

The character gently took the quilt apart and found pieces of paper inside (it was the pattern) which in making a normal quilt would have been removed, but in this case the papers weren't (deliberately) and it led this character to try and identify the maker. Well she narrowed it down to the mother of the family's adopted son. She thought it might be one of the maids or house staff since the person had access to the personal effects and law books of this couple. She elminated the wife since they supposidly had an ideal marriage (according to the town history and a ton of gossips) - I personally would not have discounted that avenue myself!

Either way...I digress...I am reading this and she's grousing because she doesn't know who this person could be. The quilt was constructed in 1900 and the boy was adopted sometime around 1890. So I'm yelling at the book - CENSUS! Check the 1900 census. If the maid or house servant resided in the home (she assumed so since the house had a servants quarters) she would be listed as being in the household!

It's funny because this character in the book visited libraries, court houses and historical societies trying to find information (true it was the 70's), but the census was on microfilm then - it would have been 75 years, and if not, she re-visits the quilt again at the end of the book - a reminicense - and still doesn't consider the census as an avenue to find information, or even the city directory!

So I have come to the conclusion that by using genealogical methods to solve my murder mysteries - whether it be past or present - I am one step ahead of the game!