Going Behind the Scenes

 Doing research for a book is one of my favorite things. This time it is about miniature golf. though when I was a kid and we went to a golf spot in Indiana, we called it tiny golf.  It was a super big treat to go there which makes writing about a miniature golf course out there even more fun..  This time the course is out in the rural area on a former estate that has a lake.  It is based on a real estate that had included a lake which has now been turned into a strip mall with an event venue.

In my telling all those stores and parking lot are open land that has been cleared for the miniature golf course.  I never thought about how you build that kind of golf course until now.  I have looked at lots of pictures of works in progress and finished courses.  I found out that there are even portable ones for use on cruise ships.

I like to draw locations to see how the pieces fit together or in this case what the holes might look like since part of the fun of miniature golf is the theme.  Are there pirate ships, or an under the water theme.  I was thinking of including local scenery in my fictional one that has a light house surrounded by a moat and a replica of the sand dunes.

I actually found a diagram of a floating hole that could be on the small lake on the property.  

The other research I was doing was on Waldorf salad because a lot of the plot centers on apples for the salad which is offered in the tea room.  I was surprised that it started out as just apples and celery with a mayonnaise dressing and grapes and walnuts were added later.  Now I want to make some with an addition of some seasoning to make it more fall like since the book takes place in October. 

Next up will be figuring some fall themed finger sandwiches they can serve.   

Oops!

Oops. Yes, I’m late again. Things in my life have been time-consuming and sometimes confusing.

But here I am, with my first post of October.

And I’m still writing the third book in my current Harlequin Romantic Suspense series, K-9 Crime Solvers. Plus, this week I received a box of my author’s copies for the first in the series, K-9 Evidence, which will be a January 2027 release.

So I’m still here, I’m still going, I’m still blogging. Please feel free to say hi!

Diversions

 Happy October.  Just as it's fall and the days are visibly shorter, the weather heats up here.  When I looked at the forecast, there were a lot of days with 100 as the high.  We're still getting more than usual humidity due to a couple of hurricanes.  They are also pushing something called  Kelvin wave toward California shores which appears to be a bad thing and could raise sea levels.

It's a good time for escaping into something.  This week, my escape of choice has been watching Marble Hall Murders on PBS.  Rather than watching one episode a week on broadcast TV, I am watching one a day on PBS streaming.  I can't imagine holding all the story threads together if I was watching it with a week between episodes. It is a story within a story and the actors in one story line show up in the other one   as different characters.  It took me a while to get it all straight.  It is based on a book and the screenplay was written by the book's author Anthony Horowitz  I can only imagine how confusing the character in both the story and the story with in it must be in the book  without being able to see them.

At the same time I'm reading A Family Affair by Robyn Carr and carrying all the characters and their stories in my mind.  I watched a couple of series based on her books last year and they were good diversions, so I thought I would try one of her books.  So far, it's entertaining.

What do I need all these diversions from?  Just when I thought I had completed the form for the AI company settlement, I got another email from them.  It basically said I have to look at the form I filled out again to make sure there isn't a disagreement between me and the publisher about the split of the money.  If it was like the last time I dealt with one of their forms, it won't be clear.

I just got through with trying to pay a bill online and being told that my user name or password was incorrect even though they were both correct.  I won't go into the run around I went through and then found out there was no balance.  At least that was good news.

Meanwhile days are clicking by to when the next Crochet and Crumpet book is due.  Trying harder doesn't work for writing with me.   I need to relax and let the story tumble out. 

It seems like a good time to go to Malibu and look out at the ocean.  Except, then I'd have to worry about that Kelvin wave coming to get me. 

 

 

 

Odd Time For Posting...Again!

 But it’s for a different reason this time. My internet has been out of service!

I purposely intended to write my Killer Hobbies post later than I usually do, yesterday evening. That would be after I returned from a movie that afternoon.

My husband and I often go to see movies on Tuesday afternoons because of a discount we get.

And yesterday, I really wanted to go see Heart of the Beast, the new movie starring Brad Pitt. And oh, yes, it also stars Odie, also named Odin, a German shepherd. Well, as it turned out, there are several German shepherds in the cast playing Odie.

I wanted to write about it here since my primary topic on Killer Hobbies is animals, especially dogs. And I’m sure those who read any of my stuff here or elsewhere know how much I love, especially, dogs.

Anyway, I’d seen the previews for Heart of the Beast and figured it would be interesting, and a good movie to watch—which it was. It was full of excitement and adventure, and pretty much only had Brad Pitt and Odie in the cast, with a couple of other people showing up briefly at different points.

And I’d gotten the impression, seeing the previews and reading about it online, that it was potentially highly emotional.

Which it was.

I don’t want to say too much about it here, since I’d encourage people reading this to go see it if they like adventurous movies, emotional ones—and seeing a highly smart dog. Maybe it’ll inspire me to write a new story or series of my own, different, of course.

Anyway, as I write this, I hear my husband still trying to get us online, so hopefully this will be posted early enough to be seen here Wednesday morning.