Fowl Play

by Jennie Bentley

Last time I invited a guest blogger here, she wrote about writing lessons she'd learned from her dogs. Today I invited someone else, and she's giving me chickens and eggs. I see a trend; what about you?

Anyhow, we've got a guest today. Put your hands together for my fellow Berkley Babe and Good Girl - and good buddy of our own Wilfred Bereswill's - Laura Bradford AKA Elizabeth Lynn Casey, who's here to talk to us about fowl.

What Came First? The Chicken or the Egg?

It’s a question that’s been pondered for generations. Heck, it may even have been posed in the form of pictures back in cave days. Yet here we are still scratching our heads and wondering when the answer may finally be revealed.

While I’d like to say I’ve come forth to finally settle the debate, I can’t. I’ve simply come to muddy the waters a bit more (I’m helpful that way).

Thirty years ago, the writing bug bit me. And by bit, I mean B-I-T. Hard. Only back then I preferred children’s books as it gave me a good excuse for writing off my annual 64-count box of Crayola Crayons.

Somewhere along the line, I switched to mysteries. Adult mysteries.

Which sort of implies the chicken came first, don’t you think?

After all, I’d been an avid fan of Mary Higgins Clark for years and her work certainly propelled me toward that genre.

Or did it?

Let me offer Exhibit A in defense of the Egg theory…

A. I’m working in a very small stock room at Borders Books and Music in St. Peters, Missouri a few years ago. My task was to bring some semblance of order to the massive calendar shipment we’d received in preparation for the mall kiosk.

There I was, by myself, moving big heavy boxes and stacking them neatly when I saw a drop of blood. It was small but fresh and quite red. I stared down at the box and noticed another…

And another.

And another.

What did I do? I looked up at the drop ceiling above me…very, very, veerrryyy slowly, certain that someone had stuffed a body in the ceiling tiles above my head.

And then there’s Exhibit B…

A. I’m leaving the Malice Domestic conference this past weekend with my trusty Mapquest directions in tow. They’ve yet to steer me wrong and so I trust them completely.

Now, while I’d like to say they’re the reason I ended up in Georgetown instead of where I was trying to go, I can’t. The fault was all mine.

Either way, though, I found myself pressing the little On-Star button on my ceiling and utilizing my free trial turn-by-turn (GPS help).

The second the operator turned the directions over to the automated system and I heard the voice telling me where to go…and watched its written directions work their way across my radio screen…I started plotting.

Which leads me back to the original question but with a slight twist. Was the mystery writer in me there all along or is it something I chose to seek?

I don’t know about you, but the Egg theory is looking mighty good right about now.

Or is it?

*Cluck.**Cluck.*

Thoughts?

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Elizabeth Lynn Casey is the national best-selling author of the Southern Sewing Circle Mystery Series with Berkley Prime Crime. SEW DEADLY, the first book in the series, debuted in August. DEATH THREADS released this week. When she’s not writing mysteries, she’s tinkering around in the world of romance under her real name, Laura Bradford. For more information, visit her websites: http://www.elizabethlynncasey.com/ and http://www.laurabradford.com/.