I have the best career.  If I’ve had a bad day, I can quietly and efficiently make it better.  Without lifting more than a finger (or ten) I can make certain that somewhere, justice prevails.  I can even, if I’ve had a particularly awful day, make sure that somebody I’ve grown to despise is forced to pay the ultimate price.  How satisfying is that?

At the other extreme, if I’ve had a great day, if small children have offered me flowers, puppies have cavorted at my feet and I’ve glimpsed long-married seniors kissing in the park, I can quietly and efficiently capture that feeling and make sure that people who should fall in love, do. 

When I’m at my computer, the world is mine. 

I’m asked, and often, why I started writing mysteries when my career began in romance and moved into longer relationship novels.  For a more detailed version, you can check out today’s blog at Fresh Fiction, where I’m the guest blogger.  My piece is entitled Why I Became a Serial Killer.  Do take it with a grain of salt. 

Yesterday I finished a synopsis for my newest women’s fiction idea, tentatively called The Treasure of Happiness Key.  We’ll see if my publisher keeps that title.  (Shall we take bets?) Treasure, is a story about friendship, even while it has a strong suspense plot brewing. But while I was typing away, A Lie for a Lie, about murder and the lies we tell to save ourselves, was hitting the shelves.  “Lie” is the fourth in my Ministry is Murder series.  Aggie Sloan-Wilcox is a free-spirited minister’s wife in a small Ohio town.  Murder seems to follow her everywhere. 

Yes, the books revolve around church life; no they are not meant to be inspirational novels, although I like to think that the quiet, confident way Aggie and Ed live their lives is inspiration of a sort.  But you’ll have to pardon me when I say that I find churches to be funny places.  Funny in every sense of the word.  And yes, I’m intimately connected to the institution, being married to a minister myself.  For decades I’ve watched the comings and goings, and I can truthfully say that what happens in churches is a microcosm of the world around us.  Which is why I chose to set my series in one.

Can you tell from the cover what kind of mystery this is?  Indeed you can.  Light on violence, heavy on characters, color and humor.  These are my feel better books, and even when I go to my computer with a heavy heart, it’s lighter by the time Aggie and I have spent some time together.

I hope they do the same for you.

By the way, when you read A Lie for a Lie, pay careful attention to Sister Nora and her honey, Yank.  Then go to my contest page.  If you answer a simple question, you’ll have the chance to win a delightful musical water globe. 

Happy reading.