The last time I traveled was to Dallas in late 2019. While I had plans for lots of trips in 2020, we all know what happened to those. I had a list of things I wanted to do and places and people I wanted to visit as soon as it was possible. Now that we're fully vaccinated, I've been checking those items off.  One of the places I longed to return to was Lake Erie and Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA. I had enough points earned for a free night in a hotel. I made my reservations. Plans started looking hinky a week ago when Hubby came down with a cold. I was on the verge of canceling, but by mid-week, he was feeling much better. He wanted to go. So I packed.  Friday, friends we were supposed to meet up with for Saturday dinner got called away on a family emergency.  Still, we went.  The weather was lovely.  There was a Hudson car show in our hotel's parking lot.  I want one.  Another friend had arranged for me to meet an Erie detective and tour the poli...

Yesterday I stood at the edge of the street in Houston , PA and paid my respects to a fallen hero. And to all the living ones who came from near and far to honor him. I never met Scott Bashioum, although considering we lived in the same community, I feel certain we must have crossed paths at some point. Shopped in the same stores. Attended the same functions. I know we shared many of the same friends. On November 10, he made the ultimate sacrifice. Yesterday, thousands of the people he worked to protect sacrificed a little of their day to stand in silence as Officer Bashioum was escorted through the county and towns we shared to his final resting place. A few of observations that can’t be captured in photos: When I first arrived, parking in the same lot I used to use when I taught yoga in this town, families and kids played in the patch of grass between the lot and the street. They laughed and tossed Nerf footballs. It was almost a carnival atmosph...

I confess. This has been a rough week on many levels. First, the election. I know. We’re all sick of hearing about it, so I’ll be brief. It didn’t go the way I’d hoped. Losing an election is nothing new to me. Not my first rodeo. But this is the first time the loss has left me sick and terrified. Beyond that, all I’m going to say right now is I’m working on some ways to do what I can to make this angry world safer for those who now find they have targets on their backs simply because they’re different. Or because we’re women. More on that another time. Secondly, I’ve had my mom admitted to hospice care. While that term sounds scary, I think it’s going to be one of the best moves I’ve ever made. The team is fabulous. I’ve met or spoken with all of them. They’re as determined as I am to keep Mom comfortable and to give her as much quality of life as possible under the circumstances. Still, it’s one of those steps that make me get in my car, sit behind the wheel, and cry. ...

It’s been a roller coaster couple of weeks. As I was pounding toward the deadline for my third Zoe Chambers mystery, my mom, who has been having some health issues, had to be admitted to the hospital. Familiar (to me) terms like atrial tachycardia and atrial fibrillation floated around along with a new one: orthostatic hypotension. Basically this means her heartbeat was fast and irregular…and her blood pressure plummeted when she stood up. In the midst of runs to the hospital and conferences with doctors, I completed and turned in the manuscript—ON TIME. But then there was this little matter of the Writer’s Police Academy , something I’d been looking forward to for a year and had paid for months ago. I seriously contemplated staying home. But my darling hubby earned a boatload of brownie points by cancelling his own “guys’ weekend” and staying home to make sure Mom had a ride home when they discharged her and to keep an eye on her once she was home. My brother stepped up big...

Diversions. Another form of procrastination. And in case anyone didn’t know, I am the Queen of Procrastination. Saturday, I took a day off my revision version of Nano to proctor the written exam for Pittsburgh police recruits. I’d done this a couple of years ago and found it interesting, so I agreed to do it again. I arrived at the convention center at 8:30 in the morning and joined other bleary-eyed proctors setting up the room for the testing. I was assigned to section G and pretty much knew from past experience that my section wouldn’t fill up. But we still had to go through the motions. Label the tablecloth with section-row-seat numbers. Lay out cardstock, answer sheets, test booklets, and pencils. Other important tasks involved stuff like locating the restroom. Always a vital piece of information. We had our orientation at 9:30. And at 10:00, we positioned ourselves by our assigned tables and the doors opened to the recruits. Roughly one thousand aspiring police officers ...

The Dashofy Revision Version of Nanowrimo is going quite well. I only need three more pages to make my first week’s goal. It won’t happen today because I’m spending the morning proctoring the police recruits testing for the city of Pittsburgh . I’ve done this before. It’s an odd combination of interesting and mind-numbing boredom. All the interesting stuff happens in the first hour: setting up the testing area, orientation, watching the shiny-faced eager recruits enter the room and be seated. The rest of the time is spent walking around the same table, making sure no one cheats. That’s the boring part. But it’s a way of giving back for the Citizen’s Police Academy experience. Later, I’m heading to my friend Jessi’s house for a Breeders Cup party. The Breeders Cup, in case you don’t know, is the richest day in horse racing. And it isn’t aired on network TV, which is all I have. So for the second year, I’m hanging out with Jessi and her family and watching it there. It’s fun. I’ve p...

Yes, I’m still up to my eyeballs in revisions, which explains my absence. However, I crawled out of my cave yesterday for some “research.” Sort of. I received an email a few weeks ago, sent to all members of the Pittsburgh Citizen’s Police Academy , seeking volunteers to help out in the first responder training for the new police recruits. I’ve many times taken part in these kinds of things from the other side. When I was in EMT training, we had to practice on pretend patients. And while I worked on the ambulance service we’d have mock disasters and training drills to hone our skills. So this seemed like a chance to give back. I arrived at the police training academy with thoughts of being covered in fake blood, having practiced my agonized moaning and shrieks of pain. Instead, I was assigned the role of a woman with a history of congestive heart failure presenting with shortness of breath. So much for the blood and the screams. Rich, the EMSI observer, gave me a script of sorts. The m...

During this week’s Citizens’ Police Academy class, Trooper Mungo put out a call for volunteers to participate in a training drill for the Pennsylvania State Police. It sounded interesting, so I signed up. The Active Shooting Drill took place this morning. Four of my classmates and I arrived at the assigned room and were given our roles and a sheet of paper telling the scenario we were to act out. It revolved around an employee with 20+ years of service being terminated (“downsized”). He left the building without incident, but returned after retrieving his handgun from his glovebox. He headed for the administrative office looking for the supervisor who fired him. One coworker was leaving the office to go to the restroom, saw him with the gun and ran to the front door. Another coworker in the hall yelled at him and was shot, but managed to crawl into the hallway. Yet another coworker was shot in the head and killed. That left me. I was supposed to be a coworker at my desk who hears the g...

Once again I'm over at Working Stiffs today continuing my reports on Pennsylvania State Police Citizens' Police Academy. I'm a couple of weeks behind since I'm not blogging there every week, so while I completed week #7 last night, I'm blogging about week #5. Honestly, I can't do the classes justice. The officers doing the presenting bring such enthusiasm for their work into the classroom, and I just can't fit all that into a blog post. I'm hoping I can show it in my next novel, though. And to further delve into that world, I've signed up for something that sounds fascinating. This Saturday I'll be a participant in a school shooting training drill for the PSP. The guns will be of the training variety, but I suspect the tension will be very real. I'm not sure what my role will be, but it doesn't matter. I'm sure I'll get a whole new perspective on these horrible events. Ah, the things we do in the name of research!

I'm over at Working Stiffs today with my photo diary of last Thursday's memorial service for Pittsburgh's fallen heroes.

It’s been a hectic week. And I suspect there are several more hectic weeks in my near future. Thirty-four days until my conference coordinator duties are over. I was about to celebrate that fact until I realized what it means. No more putting off the unfinished portion of this week’s to-do list until NEXT week. There are only a very few “next” weeks left. Panic attack! Breathe. Breathe. Okay, I’m better. Here’s a summary of what I’ve been doing. Last Tuesday, my Sisters in Crime chapter gathered at Mystery Lovers Bookshop along with a couple of book clubs to have dinner with author Harley Jane Kozak to celebrate the release of her latest novel, A Date You Can’t Refuse . It was nice to see Nancy Martin there, having climbed out of Deadline Hell. As I mentioned on Wednesday’s Working Stiffs, I spent Thursday in Pittsburgh at the memorial service for the fallen heroes of Zone 5. I’ll post a photo documentation of the day THIS Wednesday on Working Stiffs. Suffice it to say it was exha...

I'm blogging at Working Stiffs today about my personal reflections on the police officers who lost their life Saturday morning in a quiet Pittsburgh neighborhood.

I can’t bring myself to write anything without first acknowledging the horrible events that took place in a quiet Pittsburgh neighborhood Saturday morning. Two police officers responding to a “routine domestic disturbance call” were gunned down as was a third officer coming to their aid. I will post more extensively about the shootings and how they touched me Wednesday on Working Stiffs. For now and for here, let me report on a much more pleasant topic. Friday evening, I battled the traffic (why must they tear up every single stretch of highway I must travel, all at the same time?) to head into Mystery Lovers Bookshop for Laura Lippman’s latest visit. I am a HUGE fan of Laura’s writing. I want to write like her when I grow up. (Okay, okay, so she and I are the same age. Let’s not get picky.) But I confess, I’ve been known to keep a notebook at my side when I’m reading one of her books so I can jot down some of the wonderful word choices she uses. What the Dead Know is one of my top al...

On Saturday, I served as a proctor for the written exam for the Pittsburgh Police recruits. Today, I'm blogging about the experience over at Working Stiffs . Come on over.

I'm over at Working Stiffs today with the second installment of my experience riding along with the Pittsburgh Police...including a link to video of what I ALMOST got to be a part of.

I'm pulling double duty today. Double blog duty, that is. It's Wednesday, so I'm over at Working Stiffs . Today I blog about my ride-along with the Pittsburgh Police last Friday. Also, my friend and critique buddy, Donnell Ann Bell invited me to guest blog on the Five Scribes . Over there, I write about Yoga, Mediation, and Murder and how my two careers converge. Please pop over to both blogs and join the fun.

Monday night was Citizens’ Police Academy night again. And who’d have thought that criminal law could be so interesting. Several of the students brought stories from their neighborhoods of various crimes. Our instructor for the night, Lt. Michael Sippey (Duquesne University Police, retired Pittsburgh PD) shared why the process works the way it does, what the police can and can’t do when called concerning suspicious behavior or vandalism or the such. There was also an extensive discussion about what citizens can or should or shouldn’t do when faced with crime. For instance, shooting into the air is a bad idea. That bullet has to come down somewhere and YOU are responsible for it. Click here for a link to some Pennsylvania crime laws and statutes. Chapter Five was one that everyone found most interesting. Especially the parts about justifiable use of force when protecting yourself , someone else , or your property . Good stuff to know. I’m also blogging today over at Working Stiffs . T...

Divine intervention is a grand thing. Take today for example. It’s Monday. I try to post something here on Mondays. Usually, something happens over the weekend that I can create a post from. I spent this weekend in meetings. Interesting meetings. Interesting to me and to the others in attendance. Probably not interesting to anyone else. So all day, I’ve been looking for inspiration. I watched the birds outside my kitchen window. I listened to the snow melting off the roof and drip, drip, dripping in the downspout. Boring. I’d about given up and decided to hope for a more interesting life tomorrow when divine intervention dropped something in my lap. Okay, my friend, Joyce , isn’t actually divine, but her e-mail stuck joy in my heart on so many levels. She sent me a link to an application for the Pittsburgh Police Department’s Citizen’s Police Academy. Another friend of mine, Donnell Bell , has attended the Citizen’s academy in her own home town and told me wonderful tales about it. And...