In the Book

Blogging about life's adventures and books...

Adventures past, present, or future. And my books--then and now. 

Summertime sucks the creativity out of me. I guess I should qualify that statement by adding Arizona summertime. The heat makes it hard for me to think. With the advent of the monsoons spiking the humidity, I'm darn near comatose.

But...the book must go on. Luckily, I have a co-author partner in the midwest who keeps me barreling ahead. When Joyce sends me a chapter, I can't ignore my duty. Truth is, the writing keeps me sane. I can block out the misery of summer when I am fully ensconsed in the lovely, cooler town of Wyatt, Arizona. Not to say I'm not having to scrape up my Muse from a melted puddle on the floor from time to time.

This fourth book in the Chocolate Martini Sisters Mystery books will be Puppies, Yoga, and Murder. We've got puppy snatchers, yoga classes, and of course murder for sisters Em and Nic to handle. Here's a peek. These are the first few sentences of the latest mystery adventure:

Nic glanced at the time in the corner of her computer screen. “Where on earth did this day go?” Springing from her desk chair, she hit send on the travel article she’d written. Then froze. Should she have proofed it one more time? “Gah, don’t be neurotic.”

That doesn't give you much hint into the mayhem and murder to come. Okay, one more peek:

Emma shirked back from the bushes and halted her quizzical aunt’s advance with a raised hand. “Stop.” A shiver raced up her spine. A dead body. Ugh.

That's all the hints I can give. Besides, I'm up for writing chapter five, and I need to get back to it before Joyce catches me.

Although we live nearly 2,000 miles apart, we’re good friends and avid writing partners. We met when we both lived in Minnesota. This writing partnership now spans the Midwest to the West.

The Chocolate Martini Sisters Mystery Series was born in an historical bar in a real-life western town in Arizona. With nothing but a title and a vague storyline, I wanted to venture into the cozy mystery world. I approached Joyce with my idea. That’s all it took. She was off and running. She is my synopsis hero. I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I enjoy writing them with my partner in murder and mayhem.

Life's Adventures

Blogging about life's adventures and books...

Adventures past, present, or future. And my books--then and now. 

Adventure I Could Do Without (part 2) 

To pick up where we left off, after a week, we returned to the RV to gather some needed items. We hadn't packed for more than a couple of days. Seeing, or rather smelling, it was still extremely smokey, we got in and out as quickly as possible. How would we ever get that smell out of there? Add to that problem, our awning was ripped at both ends. We decided to file a claim with our insurance company. We'd never had to in spite of a fire evacuation and two floods in prior years.

Back in Prescott, I started making phone calls. We were assigned an agent. I sent the required via email. She wanted the story and photos. A day or so passed, and we were assigned another agent because the first one didn't handle this type of claim. I sent photos again. But it's not possible to send photos of a smell! Anyway, were were told it would take a few days to go through the system and an adjuster would contact us. When he finally did, FDW jetted off to Tonto to meet him. And it was a joke. He didn't need to have the awning out...he could see it was damaged. He forgot his telecoping stick to take a photo of the roof in case we had fire damage from flying embers. And he was afraid of heights. So he went up a couple of rungs on the ladder, stuck the camera in the air, and took ONE photo from one end. The RV is 42' long with two air conditioners on top. His phone must have some lens on it to get the whole roof. When he came inside, he commented, "Yeah, it stinks." He also told FDW, he wasn't an adjuster, just a photographer.

A few more days, and we got an email that they weren't able to confirm damage. The awning is old so the wind probably didn't do the damage. Denied claim. In order to assess the inside and roof, we needed to take it to Mesa for a tear down. That's an hour and a half away and our rig is set up to travel. We received this on the day we were making the trip to Tonto again to water plants and get more odds and ends like food I was sure was going to go bad.

My anger spiked. No one else on the ranch had to take their unit in. The adjusters came to them and were already settling with what needed to be done. I wrote a couple of scathing emails...for all the good it did.

As it turned out, on this trip we were pleasantly surprised to find the smokey stink practically gone. We'd
left windows open and fans running. The trees were finally not burning. The awning works, even if it looks like trash. FDW wanted to fight, but I couldn't see the sense. The awning is old and even if the wind did some damage, that isn't worth the process of fighting the claim. Life's too short for battles of this kind that I'd get an enormous headache from and probably lose.

So, we spent a couple of more days in Prescott, dreading returning to the cleanup. Ashes were everywhere. We needed to arrange for a total wash and wax of the outside. We needed to find someone to replace the awning. I stripped the inside of all textiles and washed them. It's liveable. The mess outside is still not cleaned up. Too hot! The trees have been cut to the ground, but they haven't finished the removal or leveling of land.

So ends this adventure in living. Hey! Never a dull moment.

A heartwarming side note: FDW's boat covered was ripped to shreds by the tree encounter and the wind. When we came back, we found a brand new boat cover on FDW's boat as well as a motor cover. Our neighbors, the ones whose RV FDW kept the water hose on until the Fire Department arrived, had purchased and brought up and covered it. FDW was moved to tears. They're such good people!

Life's Adventures

Blogging about life's adventures and books...

Adventures past, present, or future. And my books--then and now. 

Adventure I Could Do Without (part one)

The day had been quiet. We were looking forward to driving to Prescott the next morning, Friday, to spend a couple of days with my sister and her husband in celebration of our wedding anniversary...fifty-six years. Friday night we were going to a concert "Beyond the British Invasion" and Saturday out for dinner adding another couple to our celebration. 

I was partially packed. FDW was cooking chicken on the outside burner for a batch of dogfood to take with us. Suddenly, the wind howled. I peeked out the door to see trees bending and clouds overhead. I quickly brought in the awning, with effort, but not before the gusts pulled the corners loose from the metal.

A crack of thunder sounded like it hit right on top of us. FDW charged to his boat to secure it. I looked out the back window to see smoke, but I couldn't tell from where. Then the hundred-plus year old cotton wood split in half, falling over the boat and FDW.

My heart left my chest. I have hardly any memory of ending up next to the tree screaming for my husband. He emerged, dazed. Behind him fire forked from the bottom half of the tree. My memory of the next few minutes are as hazy as the smoke that covered the sky. He came inside. I called 911. I turned around, and he'd disappeared. I found him outside with the hose, spraying down our neighbor's RV that was only feet from the burning tree. They were not there but down in Phoenix. He wouldn't stop until the fire department arrived and made him leave.

Luckily, the boat took the brunt of the tree. His shoulder and back were scraped and bloody and in the next few days, his chest displayed an impressive bruise. When I finally got him to the doctor, he had no permanent damage. 

Our RV took on smoke. We could hardly breathe. Two massive cottonwood trees were burning very close to our unit. Our neighbor rushed up and moved his RV. The fire authorities felt our unit was not in danger from the fire but the smoke was awful. We couldn't stay. We quickly packed the rest of our things and headed to Prescott, tired and stinky.

I contacted the RV Ranch owner the next day. The trees were still burning. The fire department personnel were fighting the fire round the clock. We settled in and enjoyed a weekend of celebrating, trying to ignore what was happening two hours away.

What was supposed to be a two night stay dragged on another week. We made a trip back for more clothes and items. The inside of the RV was so smokey we were in and out as quickly as possible. The trees were still smoldering. We had no choice but to return to Prescott. And call our insurance company.

To be continued...