December News
Dear All,
I hope your Thanksgiving was super, yummy, and one to relish. I was indeed thankful. When I was in the hospital the week before I had visions of being in through Thanksgiving and trying hard to be thankful enough that I could say “no” to the institutional gravy that appeared on all of the hospital food! “Why?” I have to ask is gravy so important that it has to go on everything except the cup of salad.
I expected that I would have time to read. After all, what else is there to do in the hospital? Nope, it never happened. My day was filled with interruption -- more saline, blood pressure, happy ‘how are you doing?,’ tests, and so on. Truthfully, I was busier there than at home! At any rate, I’m ok now, thankful to the nurses and their care, and looking forward to December holidays.
Speaking of December holidays, our next meeting is in between holidays. We meet on the 28th of December at 2:00 pm Pacific time on Zoom. Please join us. The book for the meeting is Ngaio Marsh’s Enter a Murderer. It’s not too long, one of the Golden Age British mysteries, and an example of English writing that is rather theatrical in presentation but still quite realistic. I enjoyed it. We’re also going to discuss the booklist for 2026. It’s a mix of international, British, and American cozies as well as having a couple of authors join us to speak about their novels. Tahlia and I are so grateful to all of you who participated in the survey. We listened to you.
We have a contest for you all -- Come up with the next paragraph to this tempting and colorful beginning of a novel:
“The woman walked round the corner of the house and saw a snake consuming a large Tuscan toad.
The victim was motionless, looking about it only slightly puzzled, blinking, whilst the snake attacked its leg.”
The prize for the best continuation (a paragraph is sufficient, but don’t let us stop you…) is the novel, A Study in Murder by Callie Hutton. It’s the book for February so definitely a great prize. Our contest ends January 20th. Send your entries through the website link called “Contest.” The first two sentences actually come from John Mortimer’s Summer’s Lease.
We can’t wait to see all of you at our December meeting. It’s a happy hour on a Sunday that you deserve. Join us!
Until January,
Karin Diskin