The SECOND draft is done! Yes, I’ve crawled out of the writing cave yet again. With a Vengeance has been sent off to my beta readers—fresh eyes to read the entire manuscript straight through. In the meantime, I’m taking two weeks off to do other things. Like blog. And begin outlining the next Zoe Chambers mystery. And get out in the sunshine! This weekend, my camera and I hit the bike trail between Ohiopyle and Confluence on a beautiful summer day. I wasn't the only one enjoying the day. This guy was fly fishing at the confluence of the Casselman River, the Youghiogheny River, and Laurel Hill Creek. My hubby was out there on the Yough (pronounced YAWK) somewhere, too, but this wasn't him.  Here's a view of Confluence...both the town and the spot where the Casselman comes in from the upper right, is joined by Laurel Hill Creek on the upper left, and merges with the Yough at the bottom of the frame. Further along the trail, I took a few moments a...

For days, the weathermen had been forecasting “THE FLOOD.” With melting snow pack combined with heavy rains, they were suggesting everyone pack up the women and children and move to high ground. Of course, our writers’ retreat was scheduled to be held at Paddler’s Lane , on the scenic banks of the Youghiogheny River in Confluence. “Confluence.” As in the point where the Yough (pronounced “Yawk”) is joined by the Casselman River and the Laurel Hills Creek. As in the place I spend a large portion of my summer at our camp. I scoffed at the panic mongers. Flood? Heck, it floods every spring. I ain’t afraid of no stinking flood. So off I went. Loaded up the car Friday morning under sunny skies and headed east, with joy in my heart. A whole weekend with my Sisters in Crime in a gorgeous house with lots of food. And writing. Oh, yeah. Lots of writing and—better yet—workshops with Ramona Long . First stop: Panera Bread in Uniontown where I met Sandy Stephen, Susan “ West of Mars ” Gottfried, a...

We spent the weekend at our camp in Confluence, but it wasn’t a vacation. Saturday was the annual Over the Falls Festival at Ohiopyle and I was “on assignment” to cover it for that potential article I mentioned last week. I love this job. We took a ton of pictures. Really. Tons. Okay a couple hundred. At least. Here are two. This one shows how it’s supposed to be done. Pretty cool. In an insane kind of way. And this one shows how it’s NOT supposed to be done. Yes, that kayak is upside down. And, yes, there is a person hanging on, under it. Not the way you’d want to go over an 18 foot waterfall. And, yes, he survived.

By the time you read this, we should be on the road for Presque Isle. Skye has done great with her "training" and now comes the true test. It's also my day at Working Stiffs and I've posted about our day at the Over the Falls Festival at Ohiopyle, complete with pictures. Check it out.

Both hubby and I are back to work today. It took me all morning, but I got caught up on some Pennwriters stuff: submissions for the newsletter and monthly local area news announcements. Tonight, I’m giving a presentation to our local Sisters in Crime chapter. Am I prepared for it? Heck no. I’ll be cramming all afternoon. I had a busy, but pleasant, weekend. Friday night, I attended fellow Sister in Crime Heather Terrell’s launch party for The Map Thief . It sounds intriguing. So much so that it has been bounced to the top of my to-be-read list. That’s my friend, Mike Crawmer, getting Heather to sign his copy. Saturday, we headed to Ohiopyle for a day of bike riding. We also drove over to Confluence to select and reserve our campsite for next year. I see this as my future hideaway for making deadlines. No cell phone service. No Internet service. But there is electricity for the laptop. By the way, you can’t tell from this picture, but I really am having fun. Sunday, our niece was marrie...

Some people have parties for their birthdays. I’ve reached an age where I usually just ignore them. But yesterday, I enjoyed a phenomenal birthday. And it wasn’t that we did something extravagant. We simply did something we do on a regular basis. The gift came from Mother Nature. It didn’t rain. We went to Ohiopyle and rode bikes. Since it was the middle of the week, there were no crowds. The rain we’ve been having almost daily had cleared out and taken the humidity with it. The mountain laurel was in bloom, but storms the previous night had left it looking a little tattered. A chipmunk sat on the edge of the trail and watched us cruise by. Even a deer seemed unimpressed by our passage. I stopped and tried to get some photos, but in the dense woods, it’s difficult to see her in there, looking over her shoulder. After our ride and a picnic, we returned to the car and drove to Confluence, a small town further up the river. Along the way, we stopped to take in this view. See why I love t...

Hubby and I took advantage of the beautiful spring weather to head to Ohiopyle yesterday for a bike ride. I am one of those people who ALWAYS complain about the weather. It’s either too cold or too hot or too something. But I’ve had nothing to complain about this spring. We’ve had some exquisite weather and yesterday was pretty close to perfect for biking on the Great Allegheny Passage . On our way home, we stopped at Panera Bread in Uniontown for a meeting of the newest Pennwriters’ group . It was a nice casual afternoon of chatting with writers in various phases of their careers, from beginners to published and everywhere in between. Which brings me to today. So much for the exquisite spring weather. Today, it’s cold and gray and rainy. Just in time for the Festival of Mystery . I suppose on the upside, it’s good weather to come inside and visit with the authors and buy books. I have a wad of cash saved up for the occasion. Granted, my to-be-read shelf overfloweth already, but one c...

Last night, hubby called from work to say, “Guess what? I’m on vacation tomorrow and Friday.” And sure enough, there is was on the calendar. You know you’re too busy when you forget about having vacation days. We have to turn in hubby’s vacation request form in January. On one hand, it’s nice to dream about vacation days when you’re knee deep in snow. On the other hand, it’s darned hard to be realistic about what you plan on doing eight or nine months down the road. Let’s face it, if I’d have know back then what all was about to transpire in 2007…well, I’m not sure what I’d have done. Crawling under a rock wouldn’t have changed anything. There was just no escaping it. Anyhow, I have no idea what we were thinking about, what plans we imagined when we selected September 13 and 14 as vacation days. As of yesterday, Mom is back at the Washington County Health Center. And as of yesterday, I have a cold. So the idea of a vacation sounds good, but I’m not sure about the reality of it. Perhaps...

Happy Fourth of July! If all goes according to plans, Ray and I will be spending the day at Ohiopyle. We used to go there every July 4th. The last few years, life has gotten in the way, so I hope to revive old traditions today. But while we’re off enjoying the bike trails, I wanted to mention a sad anniversary. Ten years ago today, one of my favorite writers passed away. I first became enamored of Charles Kuralt back in his days of doing On the Road segments for CBS Evening News. And I rarely missed CBS Sunday Morning. Years ago, our television died and in a protest of the lousy programming, I refused to buy a new one. For five weeks, we went TV-free. During that time, I only missed one show. CBS Sunday Morning. That was the only reason we bought a new set. Okay, maybe not the ONLY reason, but it was a big one. I remember lying on a stretcher in the hospital one Sunday morning in 1993, writhing in agony from what turned out to be acute appendicitis. As I lie there waiting to be taken ...

We took yesterday off. After a couple of stressful weeks for me and a couple weeks working overtime for Ray; and after he worked overtime again on Saturday, then mowed yards while I cleaned the house and did a mountain of laundry; after all that, SUNDAY we took off. With the bike rack loaded on the back of the old Saturn, we headed to our favorite one-day vacation spot. Ohiopyle . For those who aren’t familiar with it, Ohiopyle is a small town nestled in the Laurel Highlands through which runs some of the most popular whitewater in this part of the country. It’s also a state park . The Youghiogheny Trail runs through Ohiopyle. People often question the fact that we frequently drive two-hours each way just to ride for little more than an hour. Ray prefers riding there than driving ten minutes to the most local bike trail access. Why? Lots of reasons. First, the drive itself is beautiful. Route 40 is also known as THE NATIONAL PIKE . It was the first national highway and originated back ...