Excerpt: DROP DEAD ON RECALL

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When a top-ranked competitor keels over at a dog obedience trial, photographer Janet MacPhail is swept up in a maelstrom of suspicion, jealousy, cut-throat competition, death threats, pet-napping, and murder. She becomes a “person of interest” to the police, and apparently to major hunk Tom Saunders as well. As if murder and the threat of impending romance aren’t enough to drive her bonkers, Janet has to move her mother into a nursing home, and the old lady isn’t going quietly. Janet finds solace in her Australian Shepherd, Jay, her tabby cat, Leo, and her eccentric neighbor, Goldie Sunshine. Then two other “persons of interest” die, Jay’s life is threatened, Leo disappears, and Janet’s search for the truth threatens to leave her own life underdeveloped – for good.

by Sheila Webster Boneham

Chapter 96

Jay stood on the bed, and it shook every time he let out a booming buroof. I should know by now to listen to my dog, but the shock to my adrenals had brought my headache back with a vengeance, and I took Jay by the collar and hustled him down the hall toward the kitchen. I flipped the switch for the hallway light, but nothing happened. I told you to replace that bulb, whispered the voice from my pompous side.

Jay tried to pull me into the living room, growling and barking, but I hauled him through the dark to the kitchen and out the door. “Go out and pee, and have a look around. Then maybe we can get some sleep!”

I groped for and found the light switch by the door, but it made no difference. No lights. Storm must have knocked out a transformer, I thought, until I noticed that Goldie’s back porch light was on, as it often was all night. My circuit breaker must have tripped.

I turned toward the laundry room, felt my way past the kitchen table and chairs, hoping not to catch a toe on a chair leg, and followed the smooth surface of the wall into the gloom of the windowless laundry room. My fingers hit the cool edge of the dryer, drifted to the right, touched the wall, and ran over the vinyl wallpaper until they found metal. I felt for the pull ring and yanked the breaker box open, then realized that I had no idea which breaker was where. I needed some light.

I backtracked into the kitchen and slowly made my way to the counter. I opened the first drawer to the right of the sink and felt around, trying to remember whether anything sharp lay waiting to stab me. The biggest hazards in the drawer were probably a couple of pens. As my fingers closed over the hard plastic flashlight handle, I thought I heard something behind me.

I stopped, listening into the dark. Must be the wind. I picked up the flashlight and tried it. No go. Note to self: replace flashlight batteries.

Jay

I fumbled in the drawer again, and my fingers closed over a small cardboard box. I pushed it open and felt inside. Two matches. Another note to self. Renew supply of matches.

Jay was raising hell outside the door. It wasn’t his usual “let me in” bark, but more serious, a prolonged medley of deep-throated boofs and high-pitched squeals. “Quiet!” Knowing he didn’t like the wind but puzzled by the panic in his voice, I hollered that I’d be right there.

My fingers fumbled further into the drawer and were rewarded by the feel of a cylinder about four inches long. I pictured its scarred red surface and blackened wick, and was glad I’d kept it though its tabletop days were done. As I’d told Goldie many times, you never know when something may come in handy. I put the candle stub in my pocket and edged back toward the laundry room. I was just starting to pull open the matchbox when a stunning pain knocked all thought out of my mind. 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738733067 paperback

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Try! Even if It Might Not Work Out

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My guest this week is Sheila Webster Boneham, author of several nonfiction books and the first in her mystery series, Drop Dead on Recall.

"I want to write a [novel, memoir, poem, book about...]...." I hear that a lot. I hear it when I teach classes and workshops, and I hear it in coffee shops and at book signings. I think this is partly because the need to create is a fundamental human drive. Have you ever met a healthy child who wasn’t eager to learn and make and do things? I also believe that the creative urge plays out in more ways than we usually think of as "creative" – writing, visual arts, dance, music, and so on. Take dog training.

My new Animals in Focus Mystery series begins with murder at a canine obedience trial in Drop Dead on Recall. For more than a decade I taught obedience classes, mostly to pet owners who wanted to gain some control of their dogs. Many did fine, and emerged at the end of the class with better skills for communicating with their dogs. Some were inspired to continue training, and a few of those eventually went on to compete. At each step up that ladder from "my dog is dragging me down the street" to "my dog just earned an obedience title!" there were dropouts, because I’m here to tell you that as easy as it looks when you see a well-oiled dog-and-owner team perform, it took them a lot of hard work to get there.

So it goes with writing. Many people begin with an urge to write. Some have a specific project in mind, but others just feel they’d like to try writing and find their subject as they go. They take a class or two, or join a writers’ group, or go to a conference. It’s fun at first. Then the fun becomes more complicated. Painful. Not all criticism is "constructive," and even when it is, it’s hard to hear.

When the work is ready to submit to agents or publishers, things get tougher. Rejection is part of the deal, and rejection sucks. So like the doggy-school dropouts who don’t want to spend time teaching the things their dogs don’t learn quickly, a lot of beginning and intermediate writers drop out when the pleasures of writing bump up against disappointments and plain old hard work. And it takes a lot of hard work to be good, much less great (at writing, at anything). Many people quit when this becomes evident.

I’ve heard people say that quitting is sad, but I'm not sure it is. I think we should try something new every so often, even if it doesn’t work out. If you think you want to write, give it a whirl! Even if you’re never published, you will have expanded your view, had some fun, learned something. You might even turn out to be a writer! How will you ever know if you don’t try?

As for the quitting, I think that’s okay too. Because quitting doesn’t mean failure. It means we have successfully identified our lack of interest or skill in a particular activity. It means we can move on to try something else, or we can go back to what we already know and love. It means we tried. And that is success!

ABOUT SHEILA

Award-winning author Sheila Webster Boneham writes fiction and nonfiction, much of it focused on animals, nature, and travel. Although best know for her writing about dogs and cats for the past fifteen years, Sheila also writes fiction, narrative nonfiction, and poetry. Her new Animals in Focus mystery series has just debuted with Drop Dead on Recall, now available from your local bookseller and online. In addition to her next mystery, Sheila is currently working on a series of essays about traveling the U.S. by train, and on a combination memoir and wide-ranging meditation on the human-canine connection. Sheila teaches writing workshops and classes, and is interested in speaking to groups about writing, creativity, and related topics. She lives in Wilmington, NC, and can be found online at http://www.sheilaboneham.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sheilawrites, or find her at Twitter @sheilaboneham.

ABOUT Drop Dead on Recall

When a top-ranked competitor keels over at a dog obedience trial, photographer Janet MacPhail is swept up in a maelstrom of suspicion, jealousy, cut-throat competition, death threats, pet-napping, and murder. She becomes a “person of interest” to the police, and apparently to major hunk Tom Saunders as well. As if murder and the threat of impending romance aren’t enough to drive her bonkers, Janet has to move her mother into a nursing home, and the old lady isn’t going quietly. Janet finds solace in her Australian Shepherd, Jay, her tabby cat, Leo, and her eccentric neighbor, Goldie Sunshine. Then two other “persons of interest” die, Jay’s life is threatened, Leo disappears, and Janet’s search for the truth threatens to leave her own life underdeveloped – for good.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738733067 paperback

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0096DKGGA Kindle