Posts Tagged ‘community mystery’
drear November: Project #4 – writing and finishing a mystery story
As you may know, I have finished the final draft of my Kaye Eliot Mystery, Pareidolia. It is now available on Amazon.ca — just click here.
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Pareidolia began as a search for an unusual way people from the past could communicate with people of the present. Each of the Kaye Eliot Mysteries has looked at one of these cross-time communication methods:
| How Her Garden Grew | letters |
| Something the Sundial Said | diary |
| Land Between the Furrows | postcards |
| Stained Glass | stained glass |
| Pareidolia | ? |
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Every day I stare at the tiles in my kitchen and wonder at the images I see. One tile fascinated me in particular. I could see faces, and also horses and dogs, depending on the angle I considered. This made me think that a story or puzzle could be built into the tiles of a building and the idea for Pareidolia was born.
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Have a look at the tile above. Do you see a Siamese fighting fish? a horse’s head viewed from above, a dog, a scary skull with teeth? What do you see in the circle, bottom left? …..
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When I published the book, I wanted some of these tile-images to appear in the book. So as the Eliot family searches for the story in the clues, I show some drawings of some of the images I have seen.
As I say in the Acknowledgements for the book, ‘
‘…the strange little drawings I use to illustrate this book are of the creatures and faces I have seen in those tiles. Please do not think of them as poorly rendered drawings, but as the miraculous drawings of geological processes.’
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Have a look at tiles you see and find a few images of your own. A great activity as you wait for an elevator!
All my best!
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
How Her Garden Grew
Mid-summer and my little garden is doing well. The plants are growing in planters on my deck: three parsley plants, three climbing beans, three snow peas and one cucumber. I have to ‘weed’ every day as the maple keys keep sprouting!
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With a small garden, I have lots of time to read. Right now I am reading the forth in the Lane Winslow Mysteries, set in Canada in British Columbia after WW II here. I love mysteries and now I have one of my own. ‘How Her Garden Grew’ tells the story of a mom and her kids who find a packet of old letters and follow a trail of mayhem and murder to summer’s end. This is the first in a series of three Kaye Eliot Mysteries, set in Nova Scotia in 1995.
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‘How Her Garden Grew‘ is available on-line here. Or at Westminster Books in Fredericton (you should see their new store at 88 York Street!)
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I am spending my summer (when I am not pulling maple sprouts) writing the sequel to ‘How Her Garden Grew’. It will be called ‘Something the Sundial Said’ and take readers on another cozy mystery adventure.
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Enjoy your summer reading!
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All my best,
Jane
nichepoetryandprose 