HISTORICAL MYSTERY AUTHOR D.S. LANG SHARES A FAMILY FAVORITE SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE

D.S. Lang started making up stories to entertain herself as an only child, and she’s still making them up. Her historical mysteries are set in small-town Ohio after the Great War. They feature amateur women sleuths determined to catch the bad guys and gals. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

In The Murdered Matron, the second book in my Doro Banyon Historical Cozy Mystery series, Doro helps plan her hometown’s annual Christmas celebration. A big part of the discussion revolves around refreshments. 

 

When I think of holiday treats, cookies come to mind—especially a family favorite sugar cookie. I do not know the origin of the recipe, but I recently found it handwritten in one of my mom’s old cookbooks. My mouth immediately watered! I have not made this cookie in many years, so I asked a friend who is a superb baker to help me figure how much flour is needed. The recipe, as you will see, calls for “enough to pat cookies out.” My friend has a similar old recipe, and she said about three cups should do the trick. 

 

In the novel, Doro and her best friend bake a batch to share with the town lawmen, who rave about the sweet treat. If you make them, I hope the cookies are just as popular with your family, friends, and neighbors!

 

Family Favorite Soft Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 cup butter

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

3 cups white all-purpose flour

 

Cream together the sugars, butter, and eggs. Add the buttermilk, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, salt, and nutmeg.

 

Add enough flour to spoon cookies into your hand and pat out. This is tricky! Have 

3 cups of white all-purpose flour ready.

 

Bake @375-400 degrees for 10 minutes, watching carefully.

The Murdered Matron

A Roaring Twenties Cozy Historical, Book 2

 

As the fall semester ends, Doro’s hands are full as a professor, librarian, and volunteer. She looks forward to planning and celebrating her hometown’s annual Christmas festivities, but her enthusiasm is tested when the chairwoman’s dictatorial ways create dissension among the committee members. Dissension soon turns to malice, and threats fly among the matron and several others. When she is found dead, unsettling questions arise—and so do longstanding grudges. Who caused the woman’s fatal fall from a ladder? After the chairwoman’s handyman disappears, anxiety escalates among townsfolk. Doro and her best friend, Aggie, along with two local lawmen, work together to investigate. Can they catch the killer in time to save the holiday celebration? Or will others fall victim to the perpetrator?

 

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--DEBUT MYSTERY AUTHOR LIZ BOEGER ON HOW WRITING A MYSTERY IS LIKE BEING A CRAFTER

Crayola's box of 64, 1958. Notice the randomness of the
crayon placement. Still makes me twitch!
(Wikipedia-4 September 2021)

Today we welcome award-nominated debut mystery author Liz Boeger who writes the Moccasin Cove Mysteries. She describes them as mysteries with a cozy edge, a hint of Southern snark, and always a happy ending. Learn more about Liz and her books at her blog.

I don’t remember being a particularly crafty kid, nor was I a wannabee writer, despite reading most of the Nancy Drew series as a preteen. However, I can trace my concrete-sequential origins back to coloring in the lines and to sorting my box of 64 Crayolas into the proper order before I could even consider any doodling. I had the same issue with LEGO. 

Luckily, my artsy side emerged when I was in high school. I was drafted to spray-paint the school’s mascot on the football field before home games. Think of it as a flat mural on grass with thirty cans of spray paint. I still have a couple of watercolor trays from my art classes, both good as new 40+ years later. My artsy interests morphed from painting, to crafting dolls, and stitching needlework in my twenties and during the fraught young parenthood years. That’s also when I discovered the traditional mystery and series that kept me sane. 

 

In retrospect, I think my fabric and books fetishes may be genetic. My maternal grandmother was a single, city girl working in a bookstore before she become a farmer’s wife. During snowy midwestern winter evenings she honed her needlecraft and quilting skills, stitching lovely textiles for her children, and later for her fourteen grandchildren. I still have a few of her unfinished quilt tops and the log cabin quilt she made me for my eighteenth birthday. 

My early experimentation with cross stitch was probably inspired by her pillowcases. But the quilting eventually wiggled its way into my creative corner and by the time I was in my mid-forties, I had a full-blown addiction to fabric and freestyle quilting. I say freestyle, because I am not disciplined enough to perfectly match my corners or make my points pointy. 

 

I also took a happy detour into scrapbooking when the craze hit—what better way to enjoy the gazillion photos of our son and family outings. Many years past my son’s childhood, my current project is a collage quilt featuring a sea turtle I am planning for my future daughter-in-law. The planning stokes my creative muscle between writing stints.

So, what does all this chatter about my artsy-craftsy-quiltsy endeavors have to do with the publication of my first mystery? Crafting and quilting were largely self-taught, like my writing. The creative process gave me the courage and fortitude to experiment. Being a crafter requires risk, and planning, and thinking step by step from start to finish. Just like writing a mystery. The mental and emotional benefits of being a crafter are so tangible, that I’ve instilled some of these talents in my main character Ana Callahan. 

 

Ana is a veteran school principal who spent her entire career moving from one troubled school to another, attempting to turn their failures into success stories. She has a heart for children in impoverished communities, and luckily, her hard work has paid off. But in her demanding career, she’s never had time for relationships nor time to mend her broken heart. Her limited leisure time was devoted to quilting and the occasional dabbling in watercolors. Neither hobby takes up much space and is easily portable for her frequent interstate moves.

 

By the time she makes her way back home to Florida to turn around the troubled school of her childhood, she’s still single. Then, an interesting man captures her heart, just as she finds herself investigating a murder. But as any school principal will tell you, progress does not come easily. Ana is confident she can save the school but solving a murder and mending a broken heart are not in her skillset.

 

As an author I felt badly about layering on Ana’s troubles, but that is my job. So, I thought I’d soften the plot blows I’d inflicted by giving Ana time to build a scrapbook and take out her watercolors to ease her pain. In future books I am certain her quilting will emerge, probably with more skill than mine. Such is the stuff of fiction. I wish you happy crafting and hope you have a chance to get to know Ana and the kind folks of Moccasin Cove.

 

ChainLinked

A Moccasin Cove Mystery, Book 1

 

Principal Ana Callahan knows a thing or two about turning around troubled schools, but she can’t fix the grief constricting her own heart. Now she must do both…while solving a murder.

 

Ana Callahan’s life fell apart, so she went out to save the world, one failing school at a time. Fifteen years later she’s back home in Florida, working her magic on the floundering elementary school of her childhood. But Moccasin Cove is not the sunny, middle-class beach town she left behind. With one eye on her school rescue plan and the other on her exit plan, Ana gets to work and chalks up a few small victories. 

 

Her confidence falters when a school contractor is killed, and a friend is implicated in the murder. An ambitious journalist tries to link Ana’s tragic past to the crime, and a powerful charter school corporation seizes on the political chaos by threatening a takeover of Ana’s school. Adding “investigate murder” to her lengthy to-do list, Ana finds herself paired with the school district’s handsome new security chief. The disturbing secrets they uncover about her friend and the killer’s twisted motives force Ana to admit she has a lot to learn about murder. 

 

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--NEBRASKA WINTERS AND YOGA WITH MYSTERY AND CHILDREN'S BOOK AUTHOR KELLY BRAKENHOFF

Mystery and children’s book author Kelly Brakenhoff is an American Sign Language Interpreter whose motivation for learning ASL began in high school when she wanted to converse with her deaf friends. She writes the Cassandra Sato Mysteries, featuring a sign language interpreter and is also the author of children’s picture books featuring Duke the Deaf Dog, which have quickly become popular with children, parents, and educators for promoting inclusive conversations about children with differences. Learn more about Kelly and her books at her website.

Happy New Year!

 

Here in Nebraska we had a large snowstorm after Christmas, complete with icy, windy conditions. My husband finally got to break in the shiny, new snowblower ignored in our garage since the unseasonably warm winter of 2019. I watched him gleefully clearing the driveway while I sat inside sipping hot cocoa and admiring the glistening tree branches. 

 

The beautiful snowfall reminded me of the beginning chapters of Dead of Winter Break, the latest Cassandra Sato mystery. In the first two books of the series, Cassandra’s predicament as a fish out of water helped readers relate to her difficulties moving from Hawai’i to her new home in Nebraska. 

 

I’ve moved many times, and I’ve noticed that it helps to bring your old routine with you when adjusting to a new home. For Cassandra, one non-negotiable aspect of her daily schedule is waking early and doing a simple stretching and yoga session. It starts her day in a focused mindset and strengthens her body for her challenging job as a college administrator.

 

Cassandra Sato isn’t much like me in real life, although she has some of my snarky humor and experiences. Before Covid, I was an avid yoga enthusiast. I’m not especially bendy or well-balanced, but I love the core strength and meditative aspects. 

 

With all the stress in her life during her first semester at Morton College, Cassandra needed her yoga practice now more than ever. Even if your life isn’t as complicated as hers, you might enjoy trying a yoga session to help you hit your new year’s fitness goals. 

 

My preference is attending in-person yoga classes at my local health club where I can follow along to the instructor’s soothing voice and upbeat music playlist. Now that everyone is mostly working out at home, I follow an old Rodney Yee DVD. He also has a complete library of YouTube videos at different skill levels. Nearly all of them feature him on the beach with ocean waves in the background that make me feel like I’m in tropical Hawai’i instead of arctic Nebraska.

 

Another resource you might try is a website called Do Yoga With Me. You can choose your level, beginner to advanced or choose which part of your body you want to focus on. How much time do you have? There are 600 workouts from 10 minutes to more than an hour available with twenty-seven different instructors. My favorite teachers are David Procyshyn, Fiji McAlphine, and Tracey Noseworthy. Amazingly, this wonderful site is FREE to use. Another great thing about yoga is that you don’t need a bunch of fancy equipment to begin. You can use a belt, towel, and pillow for props in some of the videos.  

 

Like I mentioned, the challenges confronting Cassandra in Dead of Winter Break disrupted her plans for a quiet, restful winter break between semesters. She looked forward to organizing her closet like a Pinterest post, updating her kitchen by stripping the fifty-year-old floral wallpaper, and adding a fresh coat of paint to the walls. 

 

Readers of the first two books knows that life at Morton College hasn’t gone according to Cassandra’s plans all semester. The holiday break is no exception.

 

Winter in the Midwest isn’t for wimps, and Cassandra quickly learns what it feels like to shovel snow off her driveway. She has a new dog, Murphy—her first pet ever—and housebreaking him is not going well. Her boss is dead, and the police are calling it a burglary gone wrong. All of these changes push Cassandra to her limits. 

 

By the end of the holidays, Cassandra has to decide the depths of her commitment to her long-term career goals and balancing those with a healthier home life. Can an orphaned dog worm his way into her heart? 

 

If you, like Cassandra, find yourself looking for rest and relaxation this year, I hope you’ll check out my yoga recommendations. Then treat yourself to a cup of hot cocoa and pick up a good mystery like Dead of Winter Break.

 

Here’s wishing you a safe, happy 2021! 

 

Disclaimer: If you’ve never done yoga or are under the care of a physician, you should check with your doctor before beginning a new exercise program.

 

Dead of Winter Break 

A Cassandra Sato Mystery, Book 3

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like murder . . .

And Cassandra is knee deep in . . .

 

Suspects.

Her boss is dead, and the police are calling it burglary gone wrong. But when the killer comes after her, it’s going to take more than a pair of furry boots to keep the smart, witty Morton College administrator, Cassandra Sato, out of the deep . . .

 

Snow.

Her first Christmas in Nebraska could be her last unless her friends help unravel the mystery and housebreak her dog.

 

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MYSTERY AUTHOR SHARON DAYNARD ON ROCKS, MINERALS & MURDER

Sharon Daynard’s writing runs the gamut from light and quirky to downright dark and troubling. Her debut novel, Murder Points North, puts a humorous spin on murder in a small town. Her short stories include “The Boss of Butler Square” which received Honorable Mention for the Al Blanchard Award and “Widows Peak” which was short-listed for a Derringer Award. She’s been offered the services of a professional hitman, crossed paths with a serial killer, testified before grand juries, and taken lie detector tests. Learn more about Sharon and her various works on Facebook. 

Rock Paper Murder

Looking back, I’d have to say my rock and mineral collection started when I was on a 2nd grade field trip to the Museum of Science in Boston. The only souvenir the gift shop offered in my price range was four very small samples glued to an index card—a piece of granite, a piece of quartz, a piece of obsidian and a piece of sandstone. The next day during show-and-tell, no one, including me, was very impressed with it. The index card was unceremoniously retired to the junk drawer in my parent’s kitchen.

It was another ten years before I gave my “collection” another thought. I needed to pick a major for college. I wanted to study Environmental Sciences, but the college of my choice only offered a B.S. in Environmental Geology. Thinking maybe it was kismet all those years ago when I bought those four rock and mineral samples, I went with my gut and picked it. Worst-case scenario, I’d change majors at the end of my first semester. As it turned out I loved geology. My favorite subject was mineralogy and rock and mineral identification being my favorite lab. 

That rock and mineral collection on an index card has grown into boxes and crates stuffed with rock and mineral field samples neatly wrapped in newspaper and bubble wrap. My favorite rocks and minerals adorn my bookshelves and credenzas. About the only place you won’t find them is in a jewelry box. I think of it along the lines of a veterinarian wearing leather pants and a fur coat—it just doesn’t feel right. 

Fast forward a few years and degrees later and I decided I wanted to write a novel—a mystery novel. As the adage goes, “write what you know.” For me, that meant geology. I knocked around the idea of a female geology professor happening upon crimes and solving murders. I thought it was a great idea, I just didn’t know what geology had to do with murder, let alone playing into solving one until I was teaching a hands-on rock and mineral session to a group of Cubs Scouts. While I was passing around a field sample of my favorite mineral, galena, one of the boys commented that it was small but “super heavy.” I agreed and added, he had to be extra careful with it because even though it was heavy it was fragile. All of a sudden, I had an idea for a mystery novel. I knew who my protagonist was, who the killer was, what the murder weapon was and how the murder would be solved.

When writing Murder Points North, the similarity of IDing a rock or mineral and solving a murder wasn’t lost on me. With a rock or mineral, you start with one sample and a long list of possibilities. You narrow that list down based on hardness, luster, color, streak, specific gravity and cleavage to determine what your sample is. With a murder a detective/amateur sleuth has a long list of suspects and based on motive, means, and opportunity, they systematically narrow that list down to one person—the killer. 

If it wasn’t for that index card with four tiny samples of rocks and mineral in my parent’s junk drawer, I might never have majored in geology, and I certainly never would have written Murder Points North. The next time you come across an interesting rock or mineral while you’re walking along the beach, hiking through the woods, or even planting a flower, take a closer look at and imagine the stories it could tell you…

Murder Points North

With one week until Christmas, picturesque Points North, New Hampshire, hasn’t seen as much as a token flurry and the temperatures are almost as high as local tempers. The lack of snow, however, is the least of Liesl Alan’s worries.

Liesl teaches geology, collects rocks, minerals and ex-husbands—three at last count. On the brink of turning forty, she finds herself living amongst a group of eccentric “innmates” at the Muddled Moose, an inn her family has owned for generations. Hardly in the Christmas spirit, the last thing Liesl’s looking forward to is a night of wearing a too tight, too ruffled, too plaid gown for the village’s annual Home for the Holidays open house celebration.

When the event ends in a fiasco and someone from the Muddled Moose is found murdered, Liesl becomes the prime suspect of everyone from the lead homicide detective to her own mother. Fellow residents at the inn are even offering fashion tips for her inevitable perp walk and mug shot.

Determined to prove her innocence and find the real killer, Liesl teams up with a private eye wannabe. With a list of suspects that might as well include all of Points North, she has her work cut out for her, especially when each new clue points her in a different direction.

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--MYSTERY AUTHOR KELLY BRAKENHOFF'S BIEROCK RECIPE

Debut mystery author Kelly Brakenhoff is an American Sign Language interpreter, scone baker, half-marathon runner, chocolate lover, Hufflepuff, wife & mom, dog petter, and Husker fan. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

When Cassandra Sato, the main character in Death by Dissertation, moves from big city Hawai'i to rural Nebraska, she expects the food to taste foreign. After all, growing up on an island, she was used to fresh seafood, sushi, and Spam— the comfort food in a can. The only fish she's likely to find in Nebraska comes from a stream or the freezer.

One of the first unusual meals she encounters is a German concoction called a Bierock. They're meat and cabbage stuffed in yeast bread hand-pies. Cassandra is surprised to discover there's a Midwest-famous restaurant chain with a devoted fan base of Bierock-loving Nebraskans called Runza. (Definitely stop there if you're ever driving I-80 through Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, or Colorado.) Cassandra's hesitant at first, but soon grows to like them, especially when she realizes one can double as a hand-warmer during chilly fall football Saturdays.

If you're not from the Midwest, likely you've never heard of Bierocks either, but I promise they are delicious. They also freeze well and make for easy picnic or potluck food. No fork required.

When my family didn’t live in Nebraska, our first stop after arriving at the airport was always the Runza restaurant drive-thru for a hometown meal of delicious, hot Runza and Frings (a genius combination of fries and onion rings).

Occasionally, we hosted a football watch party or got a craving for them when we couldn't buy the real thing. Over the years, I’ve tried many different Bierock recipes. This one incorporates whole-wheat flour and Greek yogurt to make a quick, healthy breaded crust for a traditional, Nebraska Bierock. My favorite are the Swiss Mushroom Bierocks, but you can change up the cheese if you want a different twist using American, Provolone & peppers for a Philly Bierock, or Pepperjack for a more southwest flavor.

Quick & Healthy Bierocks (homemade Nebraska Runzas)

Featuring a whole-wheat, no-yeast dough, these Swiss Mushroom Bierocks take less than an hour start to finish. They are great for football tailgate parties, potlucks, or Husker ex-pats who miss eating our beloved Runzas.

Serves 8

Ingredients:

Dough

3 cups whole wheat flour

3 cups plain Greek yogurt

1-1/2 T. baking powder

1-1/2 tsp. salt

Filling

1 lb. ground beef

1 med. onion, chopped

1 bag coleslaw mix

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. seasoned salt

8 slices Swiss cheese (optional)

8 small baby Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare a large baking sheet with foil and cooking spray or parchment paper. (Less clean-up later, you’re welcome.)

Brown the hamburger and onions in the largest frying pan you own. You might need 2 medium pans if you don’t have one large enough. If you decide to add the mushrooms, throw them in with the meat and onions.

In a large mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder and salt, and mix well. Add the yogurt and mix until all of the flour is incorporated into a batter. Knead the dough until it’s dry and elastic (this will take about 1 minute—if it’s super-sticky, you can always add some extra flour). Then, divide the dough into 8 equal size balls. Using your hands or a rolling pin, spread the dough rounds into 6”x4” rectangles. 

Once the meet is browned and the onions and mushrooms are soft, add Worcestershire, oregano, seasoned salt, and pepper to taste. Now add the whole package of cabbage to the skillet. It might not all fit at once, but stir the bottom bits to the top frequently until the whole thing is lightly stir-fried. Do not overcook the cabbage. 

Place one slice of Swiss cheese on each of the rolled dough pieces. Some people like American, Provolone, or Pepper Jack cheese instead. Spoon 2 generous spoonfuls of meat on each dough. Roll up the longer sides of the rectangle and pinch them together, then gather the short sides and pinch together. Flip the pinched seams to the bottom. The finished Bierocks should be fairly large and rectangle shaped. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for about 5 minutes before serving. They are good plain or with ketchup.

Death By Dissertation

Ambitious Cassandra Sato traded her life in Hawai’i for a dream position at Morton College in rural Nebraska. She expected the Midwestern church casseroles, land-locked cornfields, and face-freezing winters would be her biggest challenges, but it’s her job that’s rapidly becoming a nightmare.

A deaf student is dead and the investigation reveals a complicated trail of connections between campus food service, a local farmer’s beef, and the science lab’s cancer research. Together with her few allies, Cassandra must protect the students caught up in the entanglement.

Dealing with homesickness, vandalism, and a stalker, Cassandra is trapped in a public relations disaster that could cost her job, or more. No one said college was easy.

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HEALTHY LIVING--GUEST AUTHOR LESLEY DIEHL & THE CHOCOLATE-FILLED DONUT DIET

photo by Pbj2199

Mystery author Lesley Diehl retired from her life as a professor of psychology and reclaimed her country roots by moving to a small cottage in the Butternut River Valley in upstate New York where a shy ghost serves as her literary muse.  In the winter she migrates to old Florida—cowboys, scrub palmetto, and open fields of grazing cattle, a place where spurs still jingle in the post office, and gators make golf a contact sport.  Learn more about Lesley and her books at her website and blog. 

The Chocolate-Filled Donut Sleuthing Approach to Losing Weight

(This diet won’t kill you!)

Don’t be put off by the protagonist in my newest cozy mystery, Murder Is Academic.  Sure, Laura Murphy, college professor, has a lot of degrees, but at her stage of life, they don’t mean a lot when she spends so much time plunging her head in the freezer to corral her hot flashes. And she notices something else.  She can be described as a short, voluptuous blond whose best asset according to herself is her chest and narrow waist, but a look in the mirror tells her something is going south.  Could it be that a combination of being a woman of a certain age and all those chocolate-filled donuts are catching up with her—  metabolically-speaking?

Here’s Laura’s so-easy, chocolate-filled donut approach to getting back in shape.  You can eliminate any one of the steps, although the results won’t be as radical.

First, try an exercise program.  Oh, sure you say.  Everyone recommends that.  But this one is different.  Laura and Annie, her best friend decide to enter a fifty mile canoeing race, although neither of them had tried the sport before.  The first day on the water they discover the dead body of the college president shoved under a pile of gravel at a bridge construction site.  You may want to just skip this last part.

Next you should extend your exercise program to include a variety of activities, not simply one.  Laura discovers dinner with a hunky biker dude can result in more than messed up hair from the wind.  It can result in messed up hair from a night spent in bed.  This is a highly recommended part of the diet regimen.  Don’t skip it.

On to the next part of the plan in which Laura investigates the murder of her president and gets herself into all kinds of trouble, but all the running around is a kind of exercise (see step two above, variety in your exercise program).  Another unexpected benefit of this is she also creates trouble for others, some of them people at the college she doesn’t really like.  Here is where you give yourself permission to be annoying to others you find annoying.  It doesn’t burn calories per se, but it is satisfying. 

Snooping a la the Laura Murphy approach results in a diminished appetite for donuts while maintaining an excellent appetite for the biker in her life.  If you think this part of the diet is easy, you should be forewarned that too much snooping can make the killer angry and lead to attempts on your life.  Take on this part of the plan only if you’re either a good runner or really smart.  Laura can’t run, but she’s pretty smart, smart enough to outwit a killer.

Once your weight has stabilized at the desired level of maintaining a zealous interest in the biker guy or any man of your choice, and the bad guy has been caught because of some clever, rigorous sleuthing, you may begin the donuts once more.  You didn’t really think you were going to give them up forever, did you?  That’s why it’s called the chocolate-filled donut approach to dieting.  Duh.

A final note: Taking up chocolate-filled donuts again will result in weight gain, so like Laura, you’ll have to find another murder to solve.  Laura does, and it’s called Failure Is Fatal.  In this one, the bad frat guys give her a real run around.  Expect Laura to be positively slim at the end.

Murder is Academic

Laura Murphy, psychology professor, thinks there’s nothing she likes better than coffee and donuts on a summer morning until she says yes to dinner with a Canadian biker and finds herself and her date suspects in the murder of her college’s president. Laura’s friend, the detective assigned the case, asks her to help him find out who on the small upstate New York college campus may be a killer.  The murder appears to be wrapped up in some unsavory happenings on the lake where Laura lives.  A fish kill and raw sewage seeping into the water along with the apparent drowning suicide of a faculty member complicate the hunt for the killer.  And then things become personal.  The killer makes a threatening phone call to Laura. With a tornado bearing down on the area and the killer intent upon silencing her, Laura’s sleuthing work may come too late to save her and her biker from a watery grave.

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HEALTHY LIVING WITH JANICE--WHAT YOUR HANDWRITING SAYS ABOUT YOU WITH GUEST AUTHOR JUDITH MEHL

Judith Mehl incorporates her experience as a member of the American Association of Handwriting Analysts and past editor of the organization's journal in her Kat Everitt Handwriting Analysis Mystery series. Today she shares a little about handwriting analysis and her latest release with us. Learn more about Judith and her books at her website.

A sample of your handwriting might get you off the hook for a murder, or make you a prime suspect, as it does in my Kat Everitt mystery series. Handwriting analysis is also a way to know more about the people around you. If you want to understand your troublesome boss, or assess that new man’s potential for a lasting mate, learn a little handwriting analysis.

Our handwriting reveals our inner selves because it’s a projection of personality. How we write reveals our potential at the time we write. Careful study is required of the hundreds of traits, but some characteristics stand out like a zebra in a lion’s den. Showing a particular trait increases the risk that someone will act on it, but not the certainty. Keeping all that in mind, you can improve the way you deal with people when you know more about them and yourself.

In the 1700s handwriting analysis became popular with such diverse writers as Balzac, Edgar Allen Poe, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Charles Dickens. George Sand and Albert Einstein became known handwriting analysts. Come and join this august group by learning a little about the written word. Here are a few tips to start:

•                A rightward slant is the most natural way of writing and signifies an expressive person. A marked, though not extreme, rightward slant suggests a person who wallows in sentimentality. A strong leftward slant shows caution and a degree of emotional withdrawal.

•                Generally, the bigger the letter “y” lower loop, the bigger the sex drive.

•                How a person crosses the lower case “t” can reveal level of confidence, dominance, and energy. A t-bar that slants down to the right can signify a very dominant and controlling person.

In each book in the Kat Everitt Handwriting Analysis Mystery series, the chapter beginnings highlight one handwriting clue that is expanded on in the chapter—helping readers guess which character is the killer. Readers can also collect these tips to help them learn more about themselves and people around them. Even more tips are available on my website: http://www.judymehl.com under the Tidbits section.

Game, Set, Murder

Amateur sleuth Kat Everitt pinpoints the killer of a tennis tournament manager through handwriting analysis. Readers can follow the written clues to learn more about the suspects, or more about themselves. As the story unfolds, the killer fears discovery and attacks Kat to deter her from pursuit in this mystery on a university campus in the Pocono Mountains. The journey, fraught with tension, takes the readers through the foibles of university life and tennis mania, and introduces new, unforgettable characters.

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